Professional Leadership Training
The world's corporations spend billions on employee education and coaching every year, yet the jury's still out on the effectiveness of professional leadership training. There's no hard evidence supporting the conclusion that managers professionally trained in leadership skills have a positive impact on their companies. Nevertheless, frequent change is a corporate reality and senior executives provide leadership seminars with the hope that they will help managers navigate increasingly uncertain waters.
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The Beginnings of Leadership Coaching
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The idea of formal leadership training began with social science research and interest about the topic. According to Pinetreeweb.com, psychologists in the 1930s determined that leadership is "something people do" rather than an intrinsic quality. The conclusion was that scholars could learn what leadership styles work best, and teach potential leaders how to emulate those methods for best results. A famous study during this time period, for example, broke down the concept of leadership into three distinct styles: laissez-faire, authoritarian and democratic. The democratic style, where all members of the group were given some say in the course of action or outcome, proved the most effective.
What Leadership Courses Teach
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Most professional leadership courses teach skills that help address the critical workplace problem of managing change, including time and resource management skills, listening skills, oral communication and task delegation. For example, WorkLifeBalance.com promises to teach trainees the difference between managing people and things, timely project execution and techniques for improving team communication. According to LeaderSkills Training, there is some debate over whether leadership and management are different things or the same skill. An article from TeamTechnology cited by LeaderSkills Training explains that leadership has more to do with being a courageous visionary and choosing direction, while management involves putting the processes in place and allocating resources to realize a company's chosen path. By this definition, most leadership training programs actually focus on teaching management skills.
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Purported Personal Benefits
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Although most CEOs encourage leadership training for the health of their companies, taking a leadership course can promote personal growth as well. The University of Calgary explains that leadership training helps people to understand their strengths, weaknesses and values, and make more informed professional and personal decisions. Leadership skills also give you the confidence to break out and try new things, helping you to expand your skill set and find your ideal career path.
Business Justifications
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Most managers justify formal leadership training by explaining that great leadership is the difference between project success and failure. In a 2004 study conducted by Gallup and cited by WorkLifeBalance.com, a bad boss is the number one reason employees quit their jobs, and 50 percent of employees would fire their boss if they had the power. Furthermore, poorly-managed teams are 50 percent less productive and 44 percent less profitable. According to WorkLifeBalance.com, these statistics show that poor leadership is a widespread problem. Spending to improve management leadership can save companies the high costs of turnover, workplace malaise and inefficiency.
Arguments Against
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Although statistics say that lack of leadership is a major problem, there aren't any numbers proving that formal leadership training is the solution. Lead Well Institute discusses a Ph.D dissertation by scholar Doris Bowers Collins, who concluded that the benefits of formal leadership training can't be financially estimated. For most companies, training investments are based on beliefs about bottom-line improvement rather than facts.
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References
- Photo Credit leadership business3 image by Andrey Kiselev from Fotolia.com
