What takes place in a leadership development program?  The act of facilitation is taught.  This is where a trainee takes an active role in acquiring the skills in making a learning process easier for everyone who reports to them.  It gives the participant ownership of their own progress and training.  In addition to this is overall fairness of the leader.  It really matters to people how they are treated.  Is there a standard equality within the office, or is it clearly like being in high school where there are cliques and if you don’t fit in, you won’t get involved.

The art of being faithful to the company’s beliefs and goals are essential to the success of your team.  If you practice this, it is sure to be noticed and promoted.  How can you be faithful?  Well, opportunities for us to cheat are present all the time.  If you have a chance to lie on your time card, if you bad mouth upper management because you don’t trust their decisions…all of this comes into play.

Have a passion for the job you are doing.  If you can not be exited and motivating about your job, then the fire you have today, could be smoked out tomorrow if you don’t hold on to why you were so exited about it in the first place.  Many employees lose that spark when they get passed up time and time again for a promotion or fail to take their team performance to a new level.  You should enjoy what you do, if you do not, maybe its time for a change. 

By taking a leadership development program, you can pinpoint what you need to work on.

  Management development plays a large role in organizational development.  It envelops a process of examining a company’s infrastructure and putting a positive spin of change within.  A series of techniques can be used to achieve this.  One favorite is personality testing.  The idea behind this is to answer approximately 45 questions, gather up the numbers that correspond to the letter of the question answered and you would fit in to a “type” of manager.  From this point it will describe what your management style is, what are your weaknesses, strengths, opportunities for improvement and the opposite personality type that will best compliment your traits.

Another common misconception is the use of the Golden rule.  You know the one you were probably taught from your toddler years “treat others as you wish to be treated”.  What if that was incorrect in the corporate atmosphere?  Well, it can be incorrect in all areas of life.  For instance, what if you prefer in a tough situation for someone to give you constructive feedback in a soft and encouraging way and you now had an employee to give constructive feedback to?  You approach the employee displaying the encouraging demeanor you would prefer.  However, they want the information quick and to the point so that they can work on change.  What was the outcome?  They think that you were patronizing them and babying them.  BUT- if you took the platinum rule approach things may turn out differently.  The platinum rule states “treat others as they wish to be treated”.  By personality testing or personality identification, you would have shared the specifics with the employee and sent them on their way.  Now they maintain their dignity and trust.  Management development can be difficult but essential.