Effective Training Methods for Leadership and Management - Essay Example

Effective training methods for leadership and management Introduction Leadership training constitutes a core part of development opportunities in themodern workplace. In fact, over three quarters of companies in the United Kingdom and more than 85% of those in the United States conduct training programs for their employees in the area of leadership and management. Training leaders for tomorrow is a popular approach within the corporate world due to a number of reasons. Firstly, it is no secret that the generation of the ‘Baby-boomers’, is fast approaching the phase of retirement in the coming decade and their departure is bound to create a vacuum in experienced leadership and managerial expertise. In addition, the core emphasis on today’s work methodologies emphasizes team work and coordination given the highly complex nature of today’s tasks. Teams engage constructively to evolve a common strategy towards fulfilling organizational responsibilities. In an age when organizations look towards improving the team work amongst employees, the need to coordinate and lead such teams becomes an investible necessity. Moreover, organizations and business cultures are driven by change where there is a constant effort towards improvement and the thrust towards better techniques of management. The advent of globalization and the subsequent rise is competition for limited resources is further forcing individuals to develop skills to resolve conflicts and evolve skills that can resolve any discrepancies in a qualitative manner (Kenneth Clark, 1996). All these aspects are traits of successful leadership. There are several methods to foster and nurture leadership and managerial skills within a work culture. Some organizations look towards developing leadership as an inclusive and internal process. In fact, it is often believed that the key factor to win in a competitive market it to enable the creation of able leaders. Organizations that span across countries and cultures cannot thrive without developing leaders within their organization, which is achieved by providing the qualified ones with the right opportunities to develop such management skills that can take on added responsibility, make them feel pride in facing new challenges and providing them the requisite resources that can help them overcome all such challenges in a satisfactory manner (Martin Simons, 2003). However, in the midst of this struggle within organizations to find the best fit for developing their next generation of leaders, a number of questions need to be answered. Companies are interested in understanding the effectiveness of training programs in developing leadership and improving the quality of management. Is on-the-job training better suited or is it better to use external experts to undertake such initiatives? What are the long term effects of training programs on professionals? Is it necessary to develop different leadership programs for people with different educational and professional backgrounds? These are some of the questions which will be answered as part of the current paper, which aims to study the effectiveness of numerous leadership and management programs for their effectiveness along several fronts. It must be made clear that the purpose of this paper is not to discuss about specific methods, but to critically assess the approach taken by different approaches towards understanding and applying leadership across companies and individuals. Methods for developing leadership While it is easy to define or explain the term leadership in numerous ways, it is equally difficult to understand and practice leadership let alone try to teach it or develop the trait in an individual. The simplest definition of leadership is associated with behavior first, skills next. People admire and follow a good leader primarily because of the respect and trust in him rather than due to their individual expertise. Further, leadership and management are worlds apart. While management deals with the ‘what’ and ‘when’ of an issue, leadership is focused upon determining the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of tackling an issue and charting a strategy. Management is based on planning and relies on effective communication and organization. Of course, leadership does rely on management skills, but requires the individual to possess additional skills such as integrity, wisdom, sincerity and commitment. Therefore, developing leadership is all about developing a charisma (Lois Hart, 2005). Most leadership methods, despite knowing these basic requirements, go about mindlessly instructing individuals on the qualities of leadership without making additional efforts at allowing people to practically experience leadership and develop their personal characteristics accordingly. Many organizations, for instance, are often not equipped with qualitative senior personnel who can identify a potential leader who is more naturally places to develop leadership than others. Further, many people do not aspire to become leaders and take the initiative. The need for modern training methods is to generate confidence among people that leadership is not a virtue that can only come by birth. People can learn from experience in a leadership role and evolve to become qualified leaders (Bjorn Bjerke, 1999). Training methods must also take time out to groom leaders according to a style that best fits the individual. This stems from the fact that leadership can be delivered using various styles. People who are used to a specific style of receiving instructions cannot stay for long under a leader who guides them in a different fashion. Such an issue arises despite the fact that many leaders are capable enough to adapt depending on the situation and target population and use different approaches to deal with every such instance. A common issue amongst companies incorporating leadership programs is that they involve people new to leadership roles into responsibilities that make them reel under pressure ad feel dominated at all times. Consider the case of President Obama, a relatively inexperienced administrator on the national scale. At the time of his ascent to the White House, the United States economy was in utter shambles. The health sector was calling for a major redressal and people were losing their homes everywhere. With a falling job market, President Obama had much to score in a very short time and had to justify the faith the people had placed by electing him (William Pride, 2009). As such, by taking a few stringent decisions such as tighter controls on Wall Street and major reforms in healthcare, President Obama has clearly demonstrated that the pressure on a relatively new leader often comes from above. Another common issue faced by companies consisting of leadership programs is the development of an overly dominant personality among new leaders. People who are selected to be part of a leadership program often deem themselves as being above others in the company and develop a superiority complex over time. Upon completion of the training procedure, such dominant attitude gets reflected upon the team working under the new leader, which leads to friction within the group. Resistance from team members, constant quarrels and degrading performance become notable aspects of such a troubled group (John Antonakis, 2004). Leadership programs must take not of this fallout among leaders and try to educate potential ones that leadership is about serving rather than leading. Allowing team members to feel a sense of ownership and control is all that is required to overcome such issues. Another aspect that is gaining prominence in the past few years is the concept of ethical leadership. The world is more dynamic and transparent that ever before where every single attribute of organizations is closely followed and scrutinized by the media and the public. Rising awareness and interest within the general public is another issue that must be taken into consideration when designing any leadership programs for the future. In fact, remaining transparent and projecting a clean image is increasingly becoming a rallying point for companies as part of their corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives. It is important that the modern leader understand these contentious issues appropriately (Mick Marchington, 2005). A recent survey by the BBC Radio in 2006 showed that the understanding of leadership had changed over time. A generation ago, such a survey would not have evoked any substantial response from the public. However, the modern public is not only interested, but is involved and associated with several leadership methods in one way or the other. Involvement at work, at the community level, at a religious venue, and within the family have all led to the development of emotional strength and stronger sensitivity among modern leaders thus trespassing all established boundaries of traditional leadership styles (William Pride, 2009). Moreover, autocratic styles of leadership are no longer tolerated. Effective management training The preceding section has discussed about the pros of cons of modern training methods aimed at developing leadership and has also elaborated on the need for constantly upgrading such programs to fit our modern dynamic world. In the same context, the role of a manager is equally challenging and comprises the ability to possess requisite organizational and communication skills. The importance of a manager is based upon their impact on the prospects and performance of the department or the firm in general. The ability to guide and manage a group of people along a specific course can determine the financial impact on the firm. Training programs aimed at developing managerial skills focus on a number of aspects such as financial planning, cost of capital, human resource management, talent retention, and legal aspects etc. In fact, the vastness of the responsibilities handled by a manager often requires such potential individuals to obtain specialized education in the form of an MBA (Masters in Business Administration). In many other cases, companies devise various training programs to constantly upgrade specific areas of the managerial skills of their personnel (Tripathi, 2006). The basic difference between a leader and a manager stems from the point that a manager uses established metrics to constantly measure the performance and effectiveness of an implemented strategy and look at ways to improve upon them. Thus, the basic responsibility of a manager involves handling and responding to day-to-day situations while a leader charts the overall strategy for the long term. One of the positive aspect of management programs is that they understand the importance of risk that can impact the firm in several ways. For instance, the vulnerability in the stock market can have an adverse impact on the financial health of the company if no adequate mechanism is in place to inject additional liquidity when required. Likewise, it is important for a company to remain vigilant about unforeseen situations in the market such as strikes or political turmoil which can lead to disruptions in the supply chain. Although training programs identify many such risks and go a good job at categorizing them, there is no specific way to measure them and individual programs utilize different approaches to quantify and assess risk (John Antonakis, 2004). For instance, in the case of the stock price of a firm, some programs teach managers to assess the future expected returns of the stock index based on historical values using complex statistical approaches. Other approaches use simpler techniques in an attempt to assess the same. Lack of common understanding at quantifying such risk poses a serious problem as different individuals and companies may arrive at a different validation for the risk and the steps they undertake to mitigate such risks may well be dependent upon the precision of the method adopted at pinpointing the extent and influence of the underlying risk. With the advent of the Internet, a variety of companies specializing in management training have sprung up and offer cost effective methods of training employees. Companies are often seen flocking to such programs given the affordability and online accessibility of such programs. However, companies do not realize that many of these programs are often generalized and do no contribute to any value addition in the long run. Identifying the right providers and customizing the programs offered to fit the company’s culture and requirements is the best way forward if the employees are to benefit in any constructive manner. Also, the increasing preference among companies for live training allowing for an in-class instructor to demonstrate the appropriate management technique is an adequate way to allow future managers to grasp the necessary concepts in an instant manner (Samanta, 1993). This eliminates the need for them to spend additional time trying to understand the practical application of a theory learnt during a training session. This not only saves time and money during training, but can lead to better managers who can achieve magnificent cost savings in the future. Another notable trend among companies opting for management training programs is the rise in the number of takers for ethics and compliance training. As noted in the case of leadership programs, much of this training is increasingly being mandated by law and is in consistence with corporate commitment that works towards promoting ethical practices in business operations. As such, much of today’s management devotes considerable time and effort over compliance and ethics. Many of these management training programs also contain modules on employment and labor laws. In such courses, managers are educated about various rules governing employment, discrimination, discipline and termination procedures as well as the appropriate legislation for the use of electronic resources at the workplace. In fact, many managers who once considered their actions and practices to be conforming to such laws have been surprised to learn the extent to which their common sense went against standard legal requirements (Lester Bittel, 1992). The prominence of investing in training programs is therefore validated appropriately in this respect. Conclusion The preceding sections have discussed elaborately on the existing advantages and disadvantages that current training programs have got to offer within the context of leadership and management. No program ever makes the mistake of combining the two distinct qualities of leadership and management and does a splendid of identifying specific responsibilities within each domain. However, the real issue revolves around the effectiveness of specific programs towards achieving their objective at improving the capabilities of leaders and managers. Companies are often incapable at identifying the appropriate program and do a clumsy job at selecting a program or provider that does not match with their internal culture or objectives. Moreover, training programs that continue to be offered increasingly through the online medium are beginning to attain a generalist image, which puts the company at a disadvantage unless the latter makes a special effort at securing a customized program. There is also a further need to create a standardization among various training programs and associated providers to being in a uniformity into their methods of instruction so that companies can derive the optimum benefit through such programs. Nevertheless, it is definitely true that training programs are necessary to nurture managerial skills and develop the leaders of tomorrow. References 1. Kenneth Clark (1996), Choosing to lead. Center for Creative Leadership. 2. Martin Simons (2003), Production management: control of men, material, and machines. University of Wisconsin. 3. Lois Hart (2005), The leadership training activity book: 50 exercises for building effective leaders. AMACOM. 4. Bjorn Bjerke (1999), Business leadership and culture: national management styles in the global economy. London: Edward Elgar. 5. John Antonakis (2004), The nature of leadership. London: SAGE. 6. Samanta (1993), Training Methods for Management and Development. Delhi: M. D. Publications. 7. Lester Bittel (1992), What every supervisor should know: the complete guide to supervisory management. New York: McGraw Hill. 8. Mick Marchington (2005), Human resource management at work: people management and development. Chicago: CIPD Publishing. 9. William Pride (2009), Business. New York: Cengage. 10. Tripathi (2006), Principles Of Management. Delhi: McGraw Hill. Read More