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With the economy bordering on a recession, every company is looking for ways to increase revenues while decreasing costs. Some companies believe one of the easiest ways to do this is to cut their employee training budget. However, businesses interested in long-term viability recognize that to be successful they must continually develop their people, especially their leaders.

According to recent research by the American Society of Training and Development companies with regular employee training consistently outperform companies who do not train their people. In a recent survey we conducted of HR Directors at small, Chicago-based, start-up companies leadership development was reported as their number one professional challenge.

There are many books, seminars and prepackaged programs that claim to help you do this more effectively and efficiently. Most have varying success because they are not customized to meet your company's specific needs. Canned approaches have little lasting effect.

Leadership development is not about reading a book or attending a seminar. Sustained leadership development is a process. It must be tailored to meet your company's specific needs and goals to be successful. Our research indicates there are some common criteria among successful leadership development programs. The best ones promote leadership in three phases:

Plan for Leadership Development.
The first part of planning a leadership program is to examine what you currently have in place.
In order to gauge your efforts, answer the following five questions:
Does your company have a comprehensive plan for developing people?
• What are the benefits you would receive from having an effective leadership development program?
• What are the estimated costs in turnover, lower productivity, and lower morale to not having one now?
• What would a successful leadership development program look like for your company?
• How much time, energy, and money are you willing to invest to develop one? The next planning step is to begin identifying characteristics of people who are already successful leaders in your company. Every company has a unique corporate structure and culture that rewards particular characteristics. The key to building a successful program begins with looking at successful people. Think about the people who are or have been most successful at your company and ask:
• What kind of training experiences have they had?
• What kind of educational background do your most successful people have?
• How many years of experience in your line of work do they have?
• How do they fit in with your corporate culture?
• How would you describe their personality style?
What best motivates them?
Practice Leadership Development.
Once you have formed an outline of how you want to develop your leaders and what "success" looks like, you must start implementing the program. Start small, with one or two people. This will allow you to work out the bugs inconspicuously. There are different ways to begin the program, but nearly all successful ones have at least two clear parts: specific leadership training and coaching/mentoring. The training can include elements of: • Effective business communication
• Conflict resolution skills
• Team building
• Relating to different personality styles
• Time management
• Delegation skills
• Goal setting
• Critical coaching skills
• Other areas specific to your business

The second part is coaching or mentoring. All of the top professional and Olympic athletes recognize the importance of a personal coach to help them reach peak performance. A mentor or coach can provide your leaders with the one-on-one attention needed to help take them to the next level quickly.

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