At a recent business forum I was part of an encouraging debate on leadership development. Whilst the business leaders present all identified the need to take time to develop themselves, many were unsure of the best way to do so. I introduced a simple perspective on leadership training and development for managers that I will share below.

In large organisations there are often many managers, team leaders or supervisors so their effect will be felt throughout every level of the business. This makes it important that their leadership and management skills are developed sufficiently to have a positive overall effect. Here even a small positive step for all the management team will lead to widespread business improvement. In this case leadership and management training packages are often an efficient and cost effective way of getting everyone up to the same benchmark standard, from which further development can be achieved. This training still needs to be tailored to meet the company mission statement and core values, then follow up is also essential to ensure behavioural change has a positive and lasting effect on the business. 

For medium sized businesses that may only have a handful of managers it is obvious that each will have a very significant impact on the business. It therefore makes sense that every manager has ongoing leadership development to get the most from their teams and to ensure the business keeps moving forwards. In this case the preferred approach may be to have bespoke leadership development that is tailored to their development needs and those of the business.

For small businesses, possibly with a single Owner, Director or MD or perhaps just a couple of managers, good leadership becomes even more intrinsic to team performance and company success. Leadership skills will be seen by and influence all within the company. Of course it may be that the key owner or manager cannot take too much time away from the business and probably doesn’t have a team that will all benefit from the same development. In this case it may be more appropriate to have private coaching sessions at a time and place of your choosing.

So in summary, leadership development is fit for all, however consideration should be given on how best it can be applied to individuals and the business.