As the cost of finding new talent increases, training in-house employees to take up more advanced roles is becoming a norm among corporates. While this is a great thing, management training doesn’t always pay off.

Sure, there are unique challenges for organisations that engage in such training, poor results may persist even after applying an enterprise training program that addresses said challenges. 

Once you have eliminated all shortcomings of your training program, where else can you optimise the process of developing new leaders? 

An area of leadership training that is often overlooked in selecting the right employees for the training program.

In this blog, we will walk you through the process of selecting the right individuals for your leadership development program. 

Without further delay, let’s jump right into it:

Look For Leaders, Not Performers

It is natural to see future leaders in the top performers of your team. While in many cases, top performers do turn out to be great managers, there are considerable exceptions to that rule.

In some cases, employees with great performance numbers may just be content with their jobs, which makes them unfit for a leadership role. On the other hand, employees with average performance numbers but a more evident zeal to grow, along with a high aptitude may turn out to be superb managers.

The point here is, while performance can be an indicator of potential, you shouldn’t base your selection of potential future leaders on performance numbers alone. 

It is important to remember that for most roles within an organisation, great performance is only an indicator of an employee’s ability to do a specific set of tasks with efficiency.

Look For Those Who Take Initiative

A true leader is someone who makes things happen. In your team, look for the individuals that don’t wait for a manager’s approval to do things that lead projects to a positive conclusion.

This quality essentially translates into being a catalyst to organisational growth.

Similarly, pay attention to the team members that always have suggestions to improve processes. Another great quality of an employee that takes initiative is someone who doesn’t work by the clock but works to get things done and delivered on time.

If an employee displays self-generated ownership towards the tasks assigned to them, they will possibly inspire the same behaviour in others, when they start leading them.

Look For Stellar Communication Skills

Strong communication skills are perhaps the most important set of skills for any manager. While many only think of efficient ways of giving a brief or putting an idea into words when it comes to efficient communication, there is more to it.

For instance, a good manager should know how to talk to a team member about below-average performance without making the conversation sound like a threat. Similarly, a good manager should know which parts of information they should and should not communicate with their team.

In other words, efficient communication involves effectively communicating ideas and at the same time, having the ability to have difficult conversations without creating additional problems.

Conclusion

If you are able to identify someone with the above-mentioned qualities, it is time to put them through a test. Try experimenting by giving them a few additional responsibilities. 

Leaders are required to manage teams, and still perform their own tasks every day. While multitasking is not an efficient way to work, you can still judge them on their ability to switch between and efficiently complete multiple tasks in a given window of time.

If you know of any other qualities that you look for in future leaders at your organisation, do share them in the comment