Effective leadership is critical to the success of any organisation, regardless of its size or industry. Leadership training is the process of developing and enhancing the skills, knowledge, and abilities of leaders to help them become more effective in their roles.
Investing in leadership training can help organisations develop a strong leadership pipeline, increase employee engagement and retention, and drive business growth and innovation. By providing leaders with the tools and resources they need to succeed, organisations can improve their overall performance and achieve their strategic goals. In this section, we will explore what leadership training is, why it is important, and the benefits it can offer to both leaders and organisations.
Whether you are looking to enhance leadership skills or develop aspiring leaders to build a strong foundation, we will provide you with the insights and information you need to succeed in your leadership journey.
Before embarking on a leadership training program, it is important to assess your current leadership skills and identify the areas that need improvement. This assessment can take many forms, including self-assessments, 360-degree feedback, and performance reviews.
By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your leaders, we can create a customised leadership development plan that focuses on the skills and competencies that are most relevant to roles and your organisation’s needs.
Self-awareness is essential in understanding your own strengths, weaknesses, and limitations, leading to better decision-making and improved communication. Knowing work preferences, leadership style, and communication style enables leaders to tailor their approach to different situations and team members, fostering positive relationships and building trust. Understanding what makes them unique helps leaders identify their unique value proposition and leverage it effectively in the workplace.
Reflective practice drives continuous improvement by enabling leaders to identify areas for growth and learn from past experiences. Building resilience is essential to cope with stressful situations and overcome challenges. Our blended learning programmes can provide leaders with the tools and techniques necessary to develop these skills, enhancing their leadership abilities and helping them drive success for their teams and organisations.
Leaders who understand the nature of high-performing teams and how to model specific behaviours that promote teamwork, as well as those who can communicate effectively and inclusively, foster a culture of belonging and trust.
Coaching teams through constructive feedback and collaborating to solve problems leads to continuous improvement and improved performance. Through an Alchemist blended learning programme, leaders can gain the tools and techniques necessary to develop these skills, enhance their leadership abilities, and drive success for their teams and organisations.
Demonstrating strategic thinking and knowing which levers to pull to create value is essential for driving success. Leveraging data and evidence to inform decisions is critical to making choices and achieving better outcomes. Encouraging psychological safety in the workplace by sustaining a supportive culture and work environment helps to promote a healthy and engaged workforce.
Leaders who can lead change throughout the organisation are better equipped to drive innovation and stay ahead of the competition. Alchemist offers blended learning programmes that can provide leaders with the tools and techniques necessary to develop these skills, enhancing their leadership abilities and helping them drive success for their teams and organisations.
When our Practice Director Nicky Stirling spoke at the Management Today Leadership Lessons conference, he strongly outlined his passion for leadership development and how he
Leone, P. (2014). Was It Worth It?. In: Measuring and Maximizing Training Impact. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137410481_6
Part of our mission is to facilitate raising self-awareness and offer more tools & options to assist the leader in growing confidence in their abilities. Being a great leader means finding the right approach to free your team to do the best work.
Leading a large team through difficult situations requires mental agility, self-assurance and a highly capable leader. The concept of leadership to us needs to be de-mystified in order for anyone to understand it. This makes it easier to develop the necessary skills & traits.
Our knowledge in this field includes helping people lead themselves, others, and enterprises, as well as the full spectrum of management and leadership development concerns.
Alchemist provides support to organisations that require leadership development at all levels, from executive teams and junior leadership teams through more seasoned leaders. See our Leadership Collection to learn how we can help.
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This era was the era of developing and looking closer into management theories. The theory of Great Man was developed. A lot of research was taking place focusing on identifying the personality traits and other qualities of effective leaders.
During 1880, Frederick Taylor (a scientist) conducted an experiment that looked at the system of management rather than the person as an employee. He believed that employees were seen as specialised and were replaceable components.
Scientific Management was still a large focus for those conducting experiments around management. Many people started completing their own management theories and methods, making scientific management largely obsolete by the 1930’s. In this decade, an experiment took place where 4 rules were put into place in a few work spaces.
These rules were designed to scientifically select, train and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves, provide detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker’s discrete task and divide work nearly equally between managers and workers.
Professor Elton Mayo conducted some studies and became the first person to question the behavioural assumptions of scientific management. These studies concluded that human factors were often more important than physical attributes in motivating employees to greater productivity.
For example, Mayo compared how efficient factory workers were at their jobs with no light to when they had artificial lighting. The results showed that they worked better in artificial lighting.
Scientific Management had a large impact of fact findings, theories and experiments. In 1946, a social scientist launches a research centre for Group Dynamics. The research taken place there discovered that learning is best facilitated when there is conflict between immediate concrete experience and detached analysis within the individual.
In 1949, a group of researchers studied a coal mine and their findings lead to the development of the sociotechnical systems theory, which considers both the special and the technical aspects when designing jobs.
During this year, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was created. This theory shows the needs of employees. The five levels each being;
Many people started to question the Safety of Employees, Human Resources and the Psychology of Minds.
Theory X and Theory Y was created. The principles of these theories were to influence the design and implementation of personnel policies. Another adaptation is the invention of the management grid. This grid was designed to conceptualise management styles and relations.
The grid uses two axis: “concern for people” & “concern for task”. The idea that two dimensions can describe managerial behaviour has the attraction of simplicity.
During this decade ‘Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance’ was published by Tom Gilbert and it describes the behavioural engineering model that became the bible of performance technology.
He wrote that accomplishments are the best starting points for improving performance standards. In addition, accomplishments are the best tools for the development of performance-based job descriptions. They allow management to define the measurements specific to the position that are important to the organisation.
Information technology (and psychological theories) likely had the greatest impact on middle and top management. Many people believed that the middle-management level will become highly structured.
Much more of the work will be programmed, i.e., covered by sets of operating rules governing the day-to-day decisions that are made. A neuroscientist made an assumption that the problem is the traditional approach fires up a threat state in the brain and limits a person’s ability to hear messages.
Businesses in this decade were focussed on competitive advantages. A theory was developed about the national competitive advantage and this theory stated that competitiveness in the industry depends on the capacity of the business to try to innovate and upgrade your company.
The four determinants linking to the theory and they were local market resources and capabilities, local market demand conditions, local suppliers and complementary industries and local firm characteristics.
In the 2000’s, technology became a large part of the main strategy to help with growth and value creation. Trying to help the existing market space and eventually drove to concepts such as Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation.
A book was published, ‘Drive’, and it talks about the traditional motivational theories that support the idea that extrinsic factors, high pay and good benefits, motivate people.
Many believe that leaders of the future, and how they handle things, will likely be personable and proactive, with clear ethics and values. Managers will be motivational and strive to empower their staff – if they’re not it’s possible they won’t have any staff at all.
Apex and Interact, our heritage brands have come together to create something new and exciting.
Our new website is the perfect place to explore what we have to offer.
Alchemist- one team, one culture, and one pool of associates, all with unlimited potential.
Apex and Interact, our heritage brands have come together to create something new and exciting.
Our new website is the perfect place to explore what we have to offer.
Alchemist- one team, one culture, and one pool of associates, all with unlimited potential.
