As a manager or business owner, you’ll know how important good leadership is, but when a gap opens for a senior role and there’s no one to step up, you might be wondering how to develop leadership skills in employees.
As a leading apprenticeship provider, the team here at Damar Training know that leadership development can be challenging. However, we also know how to improve leadership skills and why apprenticeships can be an effective solution for building strong leaders.
What are leadership skills?
It’s important to understand what leadership skills are – a set of behavioural tools that are used to influence other employees towards a specific goal. It includes things like teamwork, collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills, and typically involves a focus on people and vision.
Leadership skills go above and beyond practical or administrative aspects, such as following policies or tracking attendance and performance. Instead, great leaders combine strategic thinking with a deep understanding of learning culture, and work collaboratively with colleagues to reach organisational objectives.
Leadership skills remain undervalued in many organisations. Companies often promote high performers into management positions based solely on their technical proficiency, without appreciating that leading a team demands an entirely different skill set to excelling in a contributing role. Often referred to as ‘accidental managers’, these individuals struggle to transition into leadership positions without proper training and support.
Why are leadership skills important?
There are many reasons why leadership skills are critical to organisations of all sizes and industries, including:
- Organisational performance: Effective leaders align team efforts with strategic business goals
- Team productivity: Strong leadership creates clarity, removes obstacles and enables employees to perform at their best
- Employee engagement and retention: Leaders who communicate effectively and invest in their team’s development create a positive workplace culture
- Decision-making: Leaders with strategic thinking skills make informed, timely decisions that benefit the organisation
- Innovation and collaboration: Good leaders encourage open communication, teamwork and creative problem-solving
- Future talent: Leaders who prioritise learning culture create a pipeline of skilled professionals
- Sustainable business growth: Leaders with strategic vision build resilient teams that can adapt to change and support the organisation long-term.
How do you develop leaders?
Now that you understand what leadership skills look like, how can you develop your leaders? Here are some ways in which organisations can develop leadership skills within their teams:
Formal training
Deliver structured workshops or courses on key leadership competencies such as communication, decision-making, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. If you’re not able to deliver the content in-house, see what online or in-person courses you could make available. Enabling staff to attend conferences and webinars could also be an option.
Mentoring and coaching
Pair potential leaders with mentors either within your organisation or via an external network. Mentors can provide advice and guidance and support new managers through complex challenges. You could also consider ‘reverse mentorship’, where younger, less experienced colleagues give their feedback and suggestions to more experienced members of staff.
On-the-job coaching
Leadership skills naturally grow the more experience an individual can get. Allow team members to shadow senior colleagues and gain first-hand experience of daily leadership challenges and opportunities.
Regular feedback
Feedback is essential in helping a leader to grow and recognise their areas for development. Where possible, set up feedback loops from colleagues, clients and senior team members to encourage continuous learning. In addition, the new leader should participate in more structured performance reviews with their line manager.
Whatever methods you choose, it’s important to ensure that the development opportunities you offer are not overly theoretical – the emphasis should be on how any new learning can be directly applied in the workplace.
But there is, of course, another highly effective tool for developing your leaders… apprenticeships!
Why you should consider apprenticeships
Whilst each of the development methods above have merit, management apprenticeships offer an integrated approach that combines all of these elements into a structured programme with minimum financial costs for the employer.
With Damar, individuals on our team leader and operations manager apprenticeships benefit from:
- Practical application: Apprentices gain knowledge and skills which they can apply in real time to organisational challenges
- Accountability: Clear expectations, milestones and assessments ensure measurable outcomes
- Mentorship: Coaching and workshops from experienced leaders provide ongoing guidance throughout the programme
- Recognition: Apprentices gain a recognised qualification, which enhances motivation and loyalty
- Organisational alignment: With the apprenticeships designed around your organisation, leaders develop skills directly relevant to your culture and objectives.
Instead of juggling separate training programmes and learning opportunities, apprenticeships bring everything together in one place. This means no gaps in development, quicker ROI and a pipeline of managers and leaders that can support your organisational goals now and into the future.
James Boot completed an operations manager apprenticeship as part of his role at Heathrow Airport. He told us:
“As a manager and leader at Heathrow, the more tools I have in my locker, the better. Now I know you can do your day job and still develop yourself over a sustained period, I will be able to help my team to look for similar opportunities to develop themselves. The leadership and management techniques I have learned I will be able to use and revisit whenever I need them and that is so valuable.”
Ready to build stronger leadership in your team?
It’s clear that investing in leadership development is critical for any organisation. Management apprenticeships offer a cost effective and proven solution to develop confident, capable leaders that can drive real results.
If you’d like to find out more about how management apprenticeships could grow your leadership pipeline and unlock your team’s potential, get in touch with our specialist team.