How Companies Can Identify Their Future Leaders

■ Mark Wager is an international leadership expert who regularly runs programmes in Fiji. Mark can be contacted at Mark@Leadership.com.fj

Every organisation needs to have quality leaders in order to succeed, not just at the top Senior Management level but at every level of their business, people who are able to influence and motivate those around them as well as holding people accountable for their performance.

It’s difficult to be lazy in your job when there’s someone next to you that’s working hard and making you aware of the imaoct of your laziness. Any ambitious business needs Leaders, the question then becomes how to identify and them.

I’m often contacted to come and work with organisations to help them train their people, to make them more productive, more proactive, more innovate and in basic terms I turn people into Leaders. There are numerous studies that have demonstrated that organisations who invest in training, in particular future leaders are more productive and achieve better business results.

There are many barriers facing organisations today especially time and money. It’s difficult to invest in everyone so you need to select your special employees, the ones who will provide the biggest return on investment, the members of your team that will be the future leaders of your organisation. So just how do you select these people.

In this article I will share with you the secrets of how to select the future leaders of your organisation and how to make them your star performers.

The first thing to consider is that everyone has the potential to become a leader yet you don’t just want leaders, you want good leaders, the type of people that can inspire and motivate others. The path to become a good leader is easier if you start your journey with some core qualities. It’s these qualities that you identify in your employees.

Teachability

In order to learn new skills a person need to be receptive to learning and this itself is a skill. In order to invest in the right people you need to identify employees who have a track record of being open to learn and change their behaviour. These people will embrace new ideas quicker than other people and will also be more open to adopting new behaviours.

Mental Toughness

When NASA looks to recruit astronauts for their space programme they don’t select people who have experienced nothing but success instead they look for candidates who have faced obstacles and setbacks yet have found a way to overcome them. They know that leaders will face difficult times so the best candidates are prepared to deal with these situations

Courage

Effective leaders have the courage to stand for something and if necessary makes decisions which are unpopular. The best candidates have a history of taking risks, thinking outside the box and even challenging those around them to push themselves and others. They have had the courage to stand up for what they believe is right. These people will make better leaders.

Intelligence

When I personally look for future leaders I don’t look at qualifications or test results instead I look for other indicators of intelligence. Some of the smartest people I know didn’t go to the right schools but they do know how to learn concepts quickly, fit those concepts together and apply them to their work. My advice is to look for problem solvers rather than academics.

Values

Your future leaders are currently working in your workplace and in their own way are already influencing people and leading by example. They are those within your organisation who perhaps don’t just know the company values but are actually living them. It’s the people who are emotionally invested in the organisation and work hard and represent what the organisation stands for.

Loyalty

A big issue when deciding whether to train people is the concern that you spend all this time and money to make them better skilled only for them to then leave for another organisation that gets the benefit of those skills.

This is always a risk which is why you want to prioritise employees who have demonstrated a commitment to build a long term career within the organisation.

Remember loyalty works both ways. I’m always reminded of a quote by Sir Richard Branson: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to”

I have to stress that everyone can become a leader as long as they make a decision to become one yet the time it takes to become an effective leader can be shortened if candidates have the above qualities.

These qualities can be learnt, developed and improved but it’s more difficult to develop these personal qualities than it is to develop qualities like communication, motivation or conflict management skills.

If you are able to identify the next generation of leaders within your organisation and you can commit time and money to develop these people and you will reap rewards far greater than what you invested.

If you want to retain your best performers then contact Mark Wager and he can discuss the option of putting your team through an online Leadership programme that focuses on the specific challenges that Leaders are facing in Fiji

I have to stress that everyone can become a leader as long as they make a decision to become one yet the time it takes to become an effective leader can be shortened if candidates have the above qualities. These qualities can be learnt, developed and improved...