Learning & Development, Talent

3 Tips for Training and Developing Leaders Your Employees Will Respect

Training and retaining effective leaders for your organization is much more important than you might think, especially in a workforce where approximately 70% of employees are actively disengaged. Not convinced? Here are some shocking statistics to consider:leadership

  • Three out of four employees report their boss is the worst and most stressful part of their job.
  • Employees who have managers they didn’t like were 60% more likely to suffer from a heart attack.
  • The average organization is 50% as productive as it should be, thanks to less-than-optimal leadership practices.
  • Sixty-five percent of employees say they’d take a new boss over a pay raise.
  • Eighty-seven percent of companies say they don’t do an excellent job developing leaders at all levels.

(Source: LinkedIn)
Indisputably, it is necessary for your employees’ productivity and health, and the overall effectiveness of your organization, to train and retain leaders your employees will respect.
Here are three tips for training and developing leaders your employees will respect.

1. Train, Develop, and Promote the Right Employees Internally

It’s important to develop your current employees into leaders for your own organization and to implement a successful leadership development program, as this will positively affect your organization’s bottom line.1 And employees will respect those new leaders who are already intimately familiar with your organization and its operations as opposed to an outsider who joins your organization in a leadership role.
Additionally, it’s important to promote the right employees into leadership roles within your organization. While a majority of employees are promoted to management positions because they are high performers (i.e., land more sales or clients), it’s actually better to promote those employees who inspire others to work harder and who make the people around them better at their jobs, too.2

2. Encourage Leaders to Lead by Example and Set the Standard

The most respected leaders set the standard for how they want their employees to perform by setting a good example themselves. They don’t simply bark orders and reprimand their employees who don’t “fall in line” while they do whatever they wish. Instead, they exhibit the behavior, habits, and work ethic they encourage their employees to exhibit, too.

3. Cover and Endorse Servant Leadership at Length

Millennials outnumber all other generations in the workplace and are becoming today’s and tomorrow’s leaders. Current research indicates that elements of servant leadership resonate the most with this generation. And extensive research has also indicated that servant leadership is effective and profitable in the workplace.
Servant leaders practice, exhibit, or endorse:

  • Active listening
  • Empathy
  • Healing
  • Awareness
  • An aptitude for persuading others
  • Conceptualization
  • Foresight
  • Stewardship
  • Commitment to individual growth of their people
  • Building a community

For more details, read “Why Your Leadership Program Should Focus on Servant Leadership.”
If you want your employees to respect the leaders who you’ve worked so hard to train and develop, follow the three tips listed above.

  1. L&D Daily Advisor. “How Your Leadership Development Program Affects Your Bottom Line” (Part 1) and (Part 2). Accessed 4/19/2018.
  2. 10 Shocking Workplace Stats You Need to Know.” Accessed 4/19/2018.

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