Develop Employees and Future Leaders for Success | LBMC

Blog / 4 Ways to Develop Employees and Future Leaders for Success

Among the most worthwhile things you can do for your company is developing staff members. Not only does it present chances for personal and professional development for them, but it also is crucial for the general expansion of Your Company. If your employees are not learning and growing, neither is your business. The best way to prepare your business for the future is to identify and develop future leaders in your organization.

Creating an intentional strategy for developing employees is one of the most important things you can do as a leader to impact the culture of your organization. This is especially true for those you would categorize as future leaders.

In fact, it might be the most important factor in preventing them from leaving your organization. Employees who leave their job within two years often cite being unhappy with how their leadership skills were being developed as the primary reason. At the same time, those intending to stay with their organization for more than five years are twice as likely to be part of an intentional process for personal development.

However, many business leaders don’t know where to start when it comes to developing employees for future success. They recognize the importance of investing in employees but don’t often have a formal plan in place. In most cases, developing employees is left up to each individual manager—and there’s no systematic process.

4 Ways to Develop Employees for Personal & Professional Future Success

So, how do you develop employees for future success? These techniques will help you in any industry:

1. Help employees set professional development goals.

A excellent approach to grow staff members is helping your team create professional development goals alongside the work-related ones. Urge them to think about their five-year desired location and create particular objectives to guide them there.

We’ve found that it’s best to limit these goals to three per review period. Doing so allows employees to concentrate on their specific objectives and attain more measurable success.

2. Intentionally invest in continuing education programs for your employees.

Some businesses provide incentives or stipends for employees pursuing higher degrees of education. Still, there are other ways you may support your staff members’ continuous learning and development. It might be anything as basic as building a professional development budget for staff members to use for book purchases or industry conference attendance, therefore enabling their leadership development.

3. Encourage employees to participate in professional organizations.

Attending local, regional, national, or international conferences or workshops hosted by a professional organization is another great way to invest in the growth of your employees.

Getting them connected to a network offers a way to get additional support, advice, and information on how to grow professionally and personally. It also gives the organization another ambassador for the business.

4. Delegate responsibility as a way to help employees grow.

Every leader knows that delegation is important to free up the time to do what you do best. But, delegation is also beneficial for your employees. For some employees, being asked to take on additional work is highly-motivating, as they feel you trust them and care enough to help them continue their professional development.

How to Identify Future Leaders in Your Organization

While there are some obvious traits leaders possess (i.e. taking initiative, working hard, good with people, etc.), here are a few specific traits you can look for:

1. Future leaders naturally attract followers.

Good leadership is addictive. Look for the individual everyone loves being around if you wish to name a potential leader for your team. If people respect this person now, they’ll have an easier time respecting his or her leadership.

2. Future leaders are easy to spot in meetings.

This doesn’t mean they’re always the ones sharing their ideas. Instead, potential leaders are the ones asking the right questions, leaning in to learn more, and even challenging the status quo.

3. Future leaders can solve problems.

Good leaders are problem-solvers. If you want to identify a potential future leader in your organization, find out if he or she is gifted in solving problems and being proactive about creating solutions.

4. Future leaders bring valuable ideas to your team.

Good leaders feed off the ideas and thoughts of others. If you think a person might have the ability to become a key leader in your organization, bring him or her in on a higher-level meeting and see how the interaction goes. Does he provide value? Is she honest in her ideas and opinions? If so, that person is displaying what it takes to champion great ideas.

5. Future leaders can handle pressure.

Pressure is the catalyst for turning a piece of coal into a diamond. If you want to identify and develop leaders within your organization, give them a task or an assignment that pushes them out of their comfort zone. You’ll be able to see how they handle a glimpse of the pressure that comes with any leadership role.

Depending on the size of your company, you could have two to three or twenty to thirty people with qualities of developing into leaders. Helping them to grow comes next.

How Can Your Company Create Future Leaders?

Here are some ideas to help you be deliberate in raising future leaders in your company:

1. Create a mentorship program.

Developing leaders takes intentionality. It doesn’t happen without having systems and processes in place to support it. This doesn’t have to be complicated. It could be as simple as hosting a brown bag lunch once a month or allowing older generation employees to leave a couple hours early to take a younger generation employee out for coffee after work.

2. Highlight to leaders from older generations the need to invest in younger generation leaders.

As mentors and role models to your younger executives, inspire your top management. This will enable upcoming leaders to pick up their skills faster and develop decent habits by guiding others.

3. Empower future leaders with responsibility even if it means they might fail.

Young leaders who are enabled start to take great responsibility for the authority bestowed upon them. Many young leaders, however, are reluctant to embrace chances that might lead to failure.

Will You Embrace the Need to Develop Future Leaders?

The concept of developing future leaders (or lack thereof) is just the latest iteration of the truth that “people leave managers, not companies.” However, creating a system for developing leaders isn’t just about improving employee retention in the short run. There’s something bigger to it: It enables you to create a lifelong impact on the people you lead.

What’s the Right Employee Development Program for Your Business?

Every business is made up of unique individuals with a variety of passions, interests, and talents. If you’re unsure about how to create the best employee development plan for your team, we at LBMC Employment Partners can help. Connect with us today to see how we can help you set up a professional development plan for your employees. Our team can work with you to collaborate on the ideas and challenges you have when it comes to developing future leaders within your organization.

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