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What Leadership Development Training Should Be?

The best leader is the kind of person that anyone would be happy to follow. What kind of person would you follow? It would be someone that you trust, someone with good character who won't direct you down the wrong path. If you were planning some leadership development training, what would it include?

Good Leadership Traits

Traits are the characteristics of a person, the actions and words that tell you what kind of person he or she is. Traits can't be taught but they can be developed. So the traits included in the ideal leadership development training should include honesty in action and communication to inspire trust. Competency is the skill that is needed for the jobs at hand and for leadership. A leader should have a strong vision and the confidence to carry it through. Intelligence and a respect for learning are important. Fairness and understanding will keep followers following. Courage is inspiring and comforting for those who are taking chances along with the leader. Creativity and imagination will help find the best ways to accomplish goals and get things done.

Goals

There is no need for leadership without goals. They are the target that the leader is leading us toward. Leadership development training has to include goal setting. Goals should be realistic, attainable, and designed to improve the organization. The whole team should be involved in setting the goals and a plan should be made to achieve each goal.

There are six steps to setting goals - as any leadership development training will tell you. Not surprisingly, the first step is vision. Organizational leaders need to develop "the big picture" of where the organization will be. Once that is accomplished, the vision should be conceptualized in general terms for the teams to tackle. Together, teams can break it down into concrete terms and develop the path to achieve them.

The second step is stating the goals. They are still in immeasurable terms but are articulated as "the department needs to establish better communication channels." Developing the goals into objectives, or measurable steps is next. An objective might be "all new sales will be entered into a shared database set up by the beginning of next quarter." Then objectives are further broken down into smaller, achievable tasks. Step five is the establishment of time lines with deadlines and priorities so the first tasks can be accomplished before the tasks dependant on them can begin.

Finally, step six is the follow-up. That's when leadership development training really comes in handy. Every step of every team has to be evaluated and all of the work has to be kept on schedule. Leadership is hard work but necessary.

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