Despite ongoing research into quantitative and qualitative leadership, there is still no agreement on its definition. However, there is a general consensus on its relevance and significance.
Most of the research is tailored to corporate settings, with less attention given to the leadership patterns and issues of High Growth Startup businesses. There are peculiarities with High Growth Startup setting that suggest that leadership development should be seen differently from that of the corporate world. A typical example is the separation of responsibilities between leadership and managerial positions.
High Growth Startup leaders are less likely to provide development training for employees, and this is due to a number of reasons that revolves around time, costs or both. They generally underestimate the benefits of leadership development to the business, the workforce and other managers. They also have a perception that Leadership Training Programmes’ costs are significantly higher than the resources the business can provide.
While data suggests that leadership development policies in corporate organisations have specific benefits, it would seem the situation is different for High Growth Startups, especially because of the low engagement in development training, and this difference widens as businesses decrease in size.
As a High Growth Startup owner, you should understand that leadership development training is the most prevailing driver to improve the competencies of your employees and assist in increasing business growth and profitability. Also, empowering your employees through training leads to less employee turnover, increased productivity and higher financial performance.
Here are 8 other reasons why leadership training programme benefits your High Growth Startup business;
How Leadership Training Programme Benefits Your High Growth Startup Business
Helps Employees to Engage with your Identity and Interests (Clarify your Vision)
As a High Growth Startup owner, learning is purposeful when there’s alignment with your business visions. It is important for your employees to understand the current state of affairs and how it came about. Every High Growth Startup owner has a story of who they are, their journey and, possibly, what they are trying to achieve.
Foster a Productive Workplace
Leadership development training can help your employees better understand how to utilise each of their unique work habits and personality qualities to get more done in less time. As a High Growth Startup leader or owner, you need to be at the top of your game, streamline work practices and tap into everyone’s strengths.
Leadership development training in High Growth Startups can also foster productivity by building empathy in you and your employees. It is vital to be able to understand your team from “their point of view”, put yourself in their shoes and recognise when workloads may be too stressful or overload. You must know how to inspire them, bring out their best qualities and consciously address team weaknesses and other challenges head-on.
Successful development training means more productive teams because it ensures employees have direction, guidance and support.
Enhance Better Decision Making
An attribute that generally makes leaders great is decisiveness; they often have to make challenging decisions like ‘the direction to move the business’ and ‘whether to keep an employee or let them go’. So, your leaders cannot appear uncertain or unclear when making these decisions.
Leaders cannot afford to make bad decisions; you must consider the wider implications of the decisions or face profound moral, legal, financial or other risks. You must also be able to quickly arrive at these decisions and clearly communicate them to your team.
Leadership training helps High Growth Startup leaders to understand how to balance emotions with reason, function at a high level of emotional intelligence and make decisions that positively impact their businesses, employees and customers.
Develop an Effective Leadership Style
Personality, values and principles naturally shape leadership style, but it’s not always effective. Leadership training helps you to understand the different strengths and weaknesses of leadership styles relative to human connection and engagement. You will be able to identify your leadership style, determine which style is suitable for different members of your team, and adapt your approach accordingly.
They also help you to come up with new ways to improve your work processes and drive success. That means you can more easily provide your employees with requirements to feel fulfilled at their jobs.
Recognise Leadership Talents
High Growth Startup owners often look for employees they can trust to supervise operations of the business at certain periods. Quite often, these individuals are those best suited for leadership and through their confidence level, responsibilities they charged with, and initiatives shown in developing potential solutions, leadership training offers this set of employees the chance to be recognised.
Leadership opportunities like these also foster a sense of loyalty and engagement among your team and, at the same time, improves the efficiency of the business.
Improve Employee Retention
A Gallup research has shown that 3 in every 4 employees quit their jobs because of their bosses rather than the work; this is an example of how poor leadership can affect a business.
Leadership development is essential for enhancing organisation loyalty. Your employees will more likely remain with your organisation when they feel valued and supported.
Another research by Accounting Principals and Ajilon found that 54% of employees reveal “their top reason for not quitting their job is the loyalty they feel to their boss, team or organisation.”
Leadership training gives you the insight and knowledge to build your employees’ trust and make you a better leader in ensuring everyone is valued. Ultimately, this will save your business from the issues that come with employee turnover.
Enhance Strategy Execution
An effective leadership training not only helps you identify business goals and priorities for leaders to use as their guide but also helps to establish which approach helps your team understand the business strategy and provides them with the right tools to be better at their jobs and create a decision-making pattern that leads to a successful business strategy.
Boost the Success of Your Business
High Growth Startup owners hinder their business growth by not connecting with their staff, predominantly due to neglect of leadership training programmes.
Leadership training helps to readily improve processes, streamline workflows and ensure your employees stay engaged, motivated and healthy. It is one way to boost revenue and at the same time achieve employee satisfaction.
As a High Growth Startup leader, it is essential for you to be able to inspire and provide clear direction to your employees. Businesses generally need strong leadership, but it is especially important for High Growth Startups. Your decisions, strategies and leadership practices will determine the growth of your business. Therefore, it is essential to understand the role that a leadership training programme will play in its success.
Reach out to us for more information on our Leadership Development Programmes and other Leadership solutions. Please send an email here; hello@workforcegroup.com.
Olasunkanmi Adenuga
Director, Workforce Learning