Top 4 Core Areas of Leadership and Development to Close the Skills Gap

Promoting leadership and professional development has been on the back burner long enough. 77% of corporations experienced leadership gaps in 2019 and only 5% of businesses have implemented leadership development at all levels. United Training is heavily invested in the leadership and professional development arena, so we thought it appropriate to shed some light on this huge issue impacting companies today. According to DDI, one poorly trained leader costs a company more than $126,000 over the course of a year.

Let's discuss the 4 core areas of leadership and development and the importance of each.

Essential Personal and Workplace Skills

There are numerous skills that can be classified as personal or workplace leadership and development skills, as these skills are understood to be an introduction to business life. Skills such as time management, business etiquette, personal productivity, and advanced business writing are all included in this category. According to Stanford Research Center, 85% of job success comes from excellent soft skills and people skills. This category is ideal for those looking to build a solid foundation in a new role or for those looking to solidify basic workplace skills such as those mentioned above. Creating a culture of continual learning and professional development is important to the overall success of any organization. Developing essential personal and workplace skills is a great way to support that change in culture.

Communication Skills for the Modern Workplace

3 in 4 employees want their leaders to have effective, transparent communication so it is safe to say that having effective communication skills is a critical part of leadership. Helping employees through conflicts or issues with productivity easily boils down to how you choose your words. Communication skills might not come easy for some, but those employees can improve those skills through training and constructive feedback from previous supervisors and team members. Remember communication is not a one-dimensional skill, being a great listener is also a large part of effectively communicating and being proficient. This category is great for anyone and everyone to continue to build their communication skills.

Analytical Skills for the Modern Workplace

In this category we placed different types of analytical skills including critical thinking, negotiating, and facilitating. This category is here to help leaders problem solve, manage teams effectively, and develop/grow critical thinking skills. Only 19% of organizations say they are "very effective" at developing leaders, which means even for the most tenured leaders, all employees should be exposed to these skills. Being able to hire from within is a huge advantage and what better way to set your company up for success than to train your current employees and develop them for future leadership roles.

Leadership for Successful Change and Performance

In our final category, we discuss all the aspects of successfully managing your teams. Coaching, mentoring, and motivating team members are crucial skills for anyone in a leadership or management role. At least 70% of the team's engagement can be explained by having good quality leaders. Managing team productivity through engagement is a large part of being a leader and understanding how to effectively manage this portion of your role can make a huge difference. These leadership and development courses will help even the most experienced leaders understand new ways to motivate their teams.

Takeaways

Strengthening your team with leadership and professional development training and fostering a culture of continual improvement is a winning strategy. Using our 4 core categories of leadership and professional development training you can easily pinpoint the courses that most align with the needs of your team. These courses are great for employees of all levels and it's time to put this area of improvement at the forefront of your company's budget.

Stay tuned! We will be breaking down the Top 3 Most Important Reasons of Learning and Development for Your Company in our next 3 Blogs!

Interested in training your team? Visit our Leadership and Development Page for all of our available courses.