{"id":28566,"date":"2019-04-08T15:46:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/?p=28566"},"modified":"2025-09-19T12:19:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:19:49","slug":"employee-leadership-development-from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/employee-leadership-development-from-the-ground-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee Leadership Development from the Ground Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the United States, the Social Security Act passed in 1935 declared the age of retirement to be 65. It was also during this time that the average life expectancy was 61 years.1<\/sup> By the year 2040, this number is expected to grow to 79.8 years, with numbers as high as 85.7 in Japan and 85.8 in Spain.2<\/sup> For the current young workforce, retirement is evolving and perhaps won\u2019t be the current version of saying goodbye to work at 60+ years in order to travel, play Bingo or spend hours of time on the golf course. The main reason for this expected change? People are living longer.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If people are living longer, then as a natural consequence, they\u2019ll need to work longer<\/a>, which requires continual career growth.4<\/sup> The old rules of retirement were written toward an economy where most of the work being done was manual labour, and reaching the age of 65 was viewed as being liberated from the intensive daily grind.5<\/sup> However, as disruptive technologies<\/a> emerge and change the business environment, working professionals are being tasked with having to upskill continually, which presents new opportunities to grow and develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As more businesses increasingly identify the need for employees with leadership skills<\/a>, they\u2019ll soon discover, growing current employees is a lot more cost effective and impactful, than hiring new ones.6<\/sup> Hiring a new employee instead of training an existing one can cost employers between 50-66% of the existing employee’s annual salary.7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

The most successful companies don\u2019t recruit leaders, they grow their own employees from the ground up.8<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although employees with leadership skills are in high demand, companies aren\u2019t confident when it comes to training their existing staff. Only 13% of companies from a LinkedIn Learning report believe they are effective in developing leaders<\/a> at all levels.9<\/sup> Research has also shown working professionals are moving from one company to the next due to poor management performance, with employees being four times more likely to leave a company if they rate their manager as having poor performance.10<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Younger employees or millennials are citing a lack of opportunities for their reason for leaving their jobs. Millennials are in agreement that the opportunity for leadership development is the number one reason to remain at a company,11<\/sup> but managers and executives report being concerned when looking at their potential leadership pipeline. In fact, 85% of them feel this way.12<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

\n \n \n \n \"\"\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

This issue is a training gap, not a skills gap.13<\/sup> Companies may not be planning effectively when it comes to the development of leadership skills, and this applies to both the entry-level employees and those with more experience. The following five strategies below will guide employers in implementing leadership development from the ground up for all employees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. First, identify your company\u2019s leadership skills gap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s important to provide every employee with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills, a cost-effective strategy for your company is to identify which leadership positions need to be filled immediately, so you can start providing training as soon as possible. Alexsys Thompson MLC, Author, Executive Coach, and Member of the Forbes Coach Council, says there are a number of assessment tools that allow employers or managers to identify current and possible leadership skills gaps within your company, such as the Leadership Culture Survey by The Leadership Circle group, a litmus test for companies that reveals valuable data on current leadership versus desired leadership.14<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another technique is to send out an anonymous leadership survey to all employees to gain a greater understanding of their career goals, where they feel leadership needs to be improved, and what types of training they are drawn towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Teach your employees to build relationships<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Networking has nothing to do with the number of friends someone has on their social media accounts, but rather how they are connecting with people in their network. Start out small by organising social events so employees can learn how to interact and network internally, before encouraging them to branch outside of the company at media events or conferences. Inform your team networking is an easy way to build relationships and gain access to helpful information and resources.15<\/sup> If you\u2019re concerned your employees will turn this into a competition of who can get their hands on the most business cards, provide them with these four pieces of advice:16<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n