Nowadays, there is so much talk about training leadership. You can find online courses, seminars, business courses, conferences and more options that promise you to teach leadership. The truth is that they just feature a lot of content that is simply boring. The modern business client changed and leadership is drastically different than what we had in the past. German Trujillo Manrique highlights that what worked during the eighties is not something relevant today.
Leaders no longer lead through directing people. While there are companies where this is definitely the case, we are faced with a clear change. Businesses need to adapt and go over this as fast as they can or they might be faced with bankruptcy.
The modern employee is not interested in staying at a company for long periods of time. In fact, an average employee wants to work for a company until there is a better deal available. Loyalty is something that is becoming rarer. To put things as simple as possible, company culture is changing. Leadership training offered through online courses and even college classes is simply outdated. This is why the employees that are fresh off the school do not actually know much about modern leadership.
What can be done?
Employees have to be trained on the job and more. They have to be ready to take over when the supervisor is no longer available. Such training has to appear when the employee is as proficient as needed at the job.
As a very simple example, when someone is hired as receptionist, there is a pretty good possibility the individual is not interested at doing the job for tens of years. He/she will want to climb the career ladder. In most situations the reason why the job was taken was a need for money as a better job is on the horizon. What you could do as an employer is to start training that person for the better job. This means you get an employee that is motivated and that might stay with your company for a longer time.
The individual that you train might eventually end up helping a supervisor with a minor task. He/she learns new things and understands what the supervisor does. Eventually, the culture of the company becomes imprinted and that receptionist that wanted to live might end up becoming a really good supervisor back up.
In this example, if the company does not actively train employees to eventually step in and take on the supervisor job, there is a huge problem that could appear in the event the supervisor leaves.
At its basis, what is really important is to focus on creating an environment that nurtures growth and high morale. You do not direct individuals to do their job. You actually train them to do their business. Practically, you are preparing people to replace those in higher positions that might leave.
If you take a look at most large corporations it is obvious that they heavily invest in their employees. This is what can be done at any level of the company.
