Encouraging Leadership on All Levels

One of the best things a company can do is to encourage its team members to challenge themselves and step into new roles. Not only is this great for the company culture and employee satisfaction, but this is also a great way to hear new, fresh ideas that can help the company prosper. Senior leaders can encourage employees that are not in a leadership position within the organization step into one. Most people do better work when they feel their responsibility extends beyond themselves. Even if a company is not ready to offer new positions or higher pay, it can be a great idea to reward team members that perform at a high level with a little opportunity to lead from time to time. At CORE Communications, we have an amazing Leadership Training Program, where we encourage everyone on our team to constantly work towards higher and higher levels of leadership. Due to this structure of leadership promotions, we've seen great leadership traits develop from some pretty surprising sources. If your company has more of a closed structure where people can only stick to the exact roles they were hired for, you may be missing out on giving your business the gift of great leadership from people you've never even considered for a management position. Here are a few ways that the management team at CORE Communications has found to foster a culture of leadership:

1. Keep an open mind about employee roles. If you wanted a larger leadership role, you probably wouldn't answer back to a request with "that's not in my job description." As a leader, you should also avoid putting your employees in similar boxes. If you want their help with something, never assume they will feel bothered or like they are owed something if they oblige. Most people are flattered when asked to help with something that goes above their title. If in this situation your team member does answer back with a snippy, "you don't pay me enough to do that," then they are probably not someone you should consider for a leadership role or management position in the future. 

2. Provide small opportunities to lead. You may not have a management position available to officially promote one of your team members into, but look for opportunities to give someone small leadership tasks. You can learn a lot about how well someone handles the role, as well as the added responsibility. Be careful not to think of these opportunities as "tests," because then you will probably just be waiting for a small slip-up to show you that the particular employee would not be a good leader. Even the greatest leaders (even you!) make mistakes, especially if it is a completely new skill set. So, rather than cross them off your list of people with great leadership potential, look for opportunities to teach and guide your team member. Then, you can assess how well they implement your feedback.

3. Allow people to develop their leadership wings over time. If you see leadership qualities in one of your team members, offer them small opportunities to lead at first (as mentioned in #2), but then keep offering them larger and larger opportunities after that. For example, ask them to start out by training your summer intern. In the fall, ask them to oversee one full-time employee. In the spring, ask them to sit in on the interview process for a new employee and give input. By the summer (one year after training that first summer intern), they should be ready to hire, train, and oversee a team of two or three summer interns. And voila! You have a new leader on your hands. Make sure to have open dialogue along the way, and look for opportunities to guide and teach leadership lessons. 

4. Flatten the hierarchy. Visualize this concept as tearing down cubicle walls. The fewer walls or barriers-to-leadership, the more people can see what is going on in the organization beyond just their individual role. One way to do this is by holding meetings weekly or monthly where all team members can feel free to voice their opinions on the biggest areas of improvement within the organization. If you notice people are worried to speak their mind, start with an anonymous survey or suggestion box. You want people to feel that they won't be criticized or condemned for their thoughts. The more you encourage this type of communication, the more it will become a part of your company culture.

At CORE Communications, we feel most people have the desire to lead, and the raw characteristics of leadership within them. Sometimes, people just need a little opportunity and a little guidance to step into a leadership role. 

Copyright 2014 CORE Communications

Sources: www.entrepreneur.com