The Importance of Making the Transition to True Leadership

May 26th, 2010 by Skywalk Group Categories: Company Training, Employee Development, Employee Retention, Human Resources Management, Management Development, Skywalk Group, Supervisory Training Tags: Employee Development, leadership, leadership training, manager training

Mindy Seiffert, Training & Development expert for Skywalk Group, lead this month’s HR Roundtable.  Her presentation, “Making the Transition: Navigating the Shift from Individual Contributor to Manager” focused on importance and challenges of developing effective leaders and managers in an organization.

Mindy discussed the career transition from a highly productive, well-performing employee to an organizational leader. This transition is very difficult, as the employee must learn how to contribute through others rather than through his/her own individual contributions.  Navigating through this transition is critical, however, as research shows managers who only make a partial transition contribute less to the organization than a new hire does.

Employees who make the transition become effective leaders, contributing significantly more to the organization through others than they did as an individual.  According to research, effective leaders return a lower than average turnover, higher customer satisfaction, and higher net income for their company than their low-to-mid level counterparts.

If these results can be expected, it is beneficial for an organization to help its managers become effective leaders.  An employer can help this transition by:
•    Placing career development into the hands of the individual.
•    Helping individuals understand the descriptive nature of the four stages and how it translates into expectations.
•    Training and educating new and prospective managers.
•    Holding managers and supervisors accountable for contributing in a stage 3 way.
•    Identifying key leadership competencies and promote accordingly.  Remember – contribution before promotion!

If you or other managers in your organization need to develop or enhance their leadership skills, sign up now for the next Leadership and Development Public Workshop.