How Leadership Training Can Help You Transform Your Organization

In today's constantly changing business environment, your organization must adapt to keep up with industry trends.

“The context around an organization is always shifting,” says Harvard Business School Professor Joshua Margolis in the online course Organizational Leadership, “sometimes gradually; sometimes radically. These shifts can fundamentally influence prospects and opportunities. It’s imperative for leaders to understand the shifting terrain around them to ensure the ongoing relevance and sustainability of their organizations.”

Despite this, many organizations don't prepare and equip their leaders for long-term success. According to recruitment services company Zippia, only five percent of businesses implement leadership training at all levels. This statistic can be concerning if you’re a current or prospective leader who needs additional training to advance your career.

If you want to further your professional development and transform your organization, here’s an overview of leadership training and how to choose a program that can help you make an impact.

What Is Leadership Training?

According to the International Institute for Management Development, leadership training is a structured experience designed to help develop and enhance your leadership skills and abilities.

Leadership training takes many forms, including:

• Internal development programs: Programs that help you develop the knowledge and skills your organization’s leaders need
• Mentorships: Opportunities to shadow and learn from organizational leaders
• Leadership courses: Educational programs offered in person and online that help develop leadership skills to thrive at any organization

The most effective leadership training benefits you no matter where you are in your leadership journey. If you’re a prospective leader, training can provide foundational skills, such as effective communication, decision-making, and problem-solving. If you’re at the senior level, training can help you learn how to adapt to industry trends and define your company’s vision.

How to Choose a Leadership Training Program

No matter where you are in your career, leadership training can enable you to boost your professional development and take a more active role in your organization.

Finding the right leadership training program depends on several factors. Here are three to consider.

1. Personal and Professional Goals

Becoming an effective leader requires evaluating your skills and how to improve them. It involves becoming self-aware of your professional needs, strengths, and weaknesses—especially if you’re just beginning leadership training.

While your goals are likely specific to your role and organization, a leadership course can provide the tools to assess and accomplish them. Organizational Leadership, for example, encourages you to use the double helix of leadership—the process of executing organizational leadership's responsibilities while developing the capabilities to perform them. This methodology is particularly valuable because it prompts you to focus on personal and professional development during your training.

For example, micromanaging is a common detriment to companies and prospective leaders. According to professional staffing firm Accountemps, 68 percent of employees who’ve dealt with micromanagement noticed a decrease in morale, and 55 percent claimed it hurt productivity. If you want to avoid micromanaging your employees, using leadership training tools—like the double helix of leadership—can help.

2. Training Format Options

Leadership training and development programs come in various formats. It’s essential to research the options available through your organization.

According to Forbes, 86 percent of organizations offer leadership development programs, but only 57 percent assess leadership strengths and needs for development.

If you’re serious about honing your leadership skills, take initiative by:

• Asking your human resources department about internal professional development programs
• Signing up for leadership training webinars
• Researching graduate business degrees and online certificate programs

While internal training programs can help you work toward a leadership role within your company, obtaining a leadership certificate can provide the context and tools to succeed at any company.

3. Return on Investment

Affordability is always important when pursuing leadership training. No matter what format works best for you, a program’s return on investment is an essential question for you and your employer.

Despite internal development programs’ affordability, pursuing education outside your organization can greatly benefit your earning potential.

According to a survey of HBS Online learners conducted by City Square Associates, 42 percent said their compensation increased by an average of $17,000 after earning their certificate. In addition, 16 percent received a bonus, with an average increase of $14,000.

In addition to getting a raise, pursuing a leadership certificate can enhance your career opportunities outside your organization. Developing your skills can not only make your resume stand out but also provide the confidence to negotiate your salary.

Leadership training provides value to your company, too. According to research by consulting firm Gallup, effective leadership directly influences profitability, productivity, and employee retention, which are crucial to your organization’s bottom line.

3 Ways Leadership Training Can Help You Transform Your Organization

Leadership training programs take time but are often worth the investment. By developing your leadership skills, you can uplift your company and help it progress toward its goals—this often entails navigating organizational change.

According to Organizational Leadership, change initiatives require assuming a leader as catalyst role, in which you create opportunities to drive innovation.

If you want to leverage leadership training to become a catalyst for change and transform your organization, here are three ways to do so.

1. Manage Change

Effectively managing change can make a huge difference when convincing people to support your initiatives. It involves strategic planning and executing the change process with little to no operational friction.

This is where the leader as catalyst leadership style can be beneficial.

“The leader as catalyst of change must move their organizations through the change process to repair and renovate existing operations,” says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in Organizational Leadership, “so the organization can function at the top of its existing potential. At the same time, the leader as catalyst of innovation must reimagine the organization's future, doing the hard work of introducing new capabilities to create value for customers in new ways.”

Leadership training programs outline techniques you can use to navigate organizational change and create a culture of innovation, such as:

• Analyzing the forces of change
• Developing a business strategy
• Communicating with your team
• Preparing for potential roadblocks

Since organizational change management is a multi-tiered process, it requires comprehensive leadership training to ensure transitions are as smooth as possible.

2. Handle Resistance

The real challenges of organizational change don’t always stem from technical or logistical issues but from people resisting it. Research by the Institute for Public Relations shows that an estimated 70 percent of organizational change efforts fail because of employee resistance. As a result, it’s vital to become an organizational leader who can handle challenging workplace dynamics.

Dealing with resistance to change requires identifying and addressing its cause. You can achieve this using techniques you develop through leadership training, such as:

• Encouraging feedback from stakeholders
• Actively listening to team members’ concerns
• Collaborating on strategy iterations

Resistance is inevitable in organizational change. Don’t underestimate the value of these techniques when transforming your organization.

3. Cultivate Stakeholder Buy-In

Cultivating buy-in for an initiative requires proving its value to stakeholders. Your value creation proposition isn’t going to be the same for each.

For example, your team members will probably value changes to organizational culture that positively impact their work; external stakeholders will likely support changes that increase profits.

However you gain buy-in, pay close attention to internal stakeholders because they’ll directly participate in the change process.

Many leadership training programs account for this dynamic and offer methods to help ensure your team supports your strategy, such as:

• Celebrating small- and large-scale successes
• Recognizing and rewarding innovative behavior that supports your initiative
• Empowering colleagues to take ownership of their work and improve the organization

Prioritize finding programs with learning models that include case studies or real-world examples to ensure you use these methods effectively.

Leadership Training Can Help You Make an Organizational Impact

As an organizational leader, you can transform your business. While the change initiatives you pursue can vary, the process and requirements for their success are largely the same.

By advancing your education through leadership training, you can better understand the demands of managing organizational change. Taking a certificate course, such as Organizational Leadership, can enable you to prepare for the responsibilities of navigating change and develop essential leadership skills, like emotional intelligence.

No matter the stage of your leadership journey, education can provide tools to make a real, long-term impact on your organization.

Do you want to learn more about how to transform your organization? Enroll in our online certificate course Organizational Leadership—one of our online leadership and management courses—to gain the skills to drive change effectively. If you aren’t sure which course is right for you, download our free flowchart to explore your options.