The ability to create genuine leaders within your workforce is something that will add considerable value to your business, both now and in the future. Strong leadership is critical to business development, at times being the essential difference between your business and those of your competitors. Leadership ensures clarity of focus and direction where your business needs it most, and you might also find that true leadership can flourish in the most unlikely of places. Below are some tips on how to find and develop the leaders within your company.

Nature or nurture?
For centuries, it has been fairly common practice to suggest that effective leaders were born rather than progressively developed. Much of the thinking that informed this view was challenged in the 60’s, not just by the business community, but also within other institutions, such as the Officer Training Programme at Sandhurst. People began to wake up to the fact that it was experience, and the different ways that people processed this experience that marked them out as a leader, rather than any inherent abilities from birth. It is important to bear this in mind, because it effectively means that, given the right conditions, anyone can be an effective leader.

Interviews and assessments
If you are serious about finding and developing leaders within your organisation, then this process must start at the very point of recruitment and continue throughout the duration of the employee’s time with you. If you use an effective recruitment consultancy, preferably one that specialises in your industry, they should be able to guide you in this respect, informing you of whether candidates have shown previous leadership potential and their prospects for the future.

Leadership is for everyone
One of the most common and expensive errors committed by businesses is to focus leadership development solely on more senior management personnel. In taking this approach, a purely ‘trickle down’ concept of leadership may emerge, and many valuable individuals may be overlooked. Managers can ignore team leaders, for example, and any others within the organization that may respond well to fresh responsibilities.

Leadership is a state of mind that combines initiative, responsibility and experience, and is not necessarily correlated directly to the people presently in positions of authority, so look carefully amongst your teams and encourage it wherever you find it.

Develop a strategy
Unless you are very fortunate, much of the leadership potential that lies within your team members may be undeveloped, and it is often helpful to develop a strategy to bring these qualities to fruition. This is not a short term fix, but rather more a philosophy that permeates many of the UK’s most innovative companies, and the institution of a strategy today will certainly have a positive impact on the team members of tomorrow. Your strategy must be clear on the distinction between leaders and managers, as both have a role to play, but must also contain a coherent plan to develop and nurture the leaders amongst you.

Training
Any strategy that aims to develop leadership qualities within individuals and teams should include a programme of internal and/or external training. All training costs your company both time and money, so try and ensure that your leadership training courses are well focused and fit in with your company’s overall strategy and ethos. The training should have a practical focus, and allow its students the ability to flag up and deal with any leadership challenges that they have experienced.

Career development
Essential training elements aside, leaders can only truly develop by gaining actual experience of leading itself, as there is no substitute for first hand knowledge. As a company, the most you can do in this respect is give individuals the opportunity to lead and see how they perform. These opportunities must be realistic, yet challenging enough for the individual concerned to feel stretched by the experience. Give an individual the right opportunities to lead within your company at the right time, and you will reap the benefits.

Each one teach one
It is true to say that virtually all great leaders in any field are also great teachers, as the two skills are often closely aligned. It is therefore a good idea to try and engage proven leaders within your company within a process of training, teaching or mentoring, as this will help spread the influence of current leaders, in addition to creating new ones. A virtuous cycle can be created where individuals begin to take positive new initiative regarding their own performance, guided by more experienced practitioners.

Cultural conquests
Good leadership is not just about taking bold steps towards a brighter commercial future: it is also about humility, hard work and respect. At Sandhurst, the officer’s motto is ‘Serve To Lead’, indicating that all individuals are responsible, regardless of seniority, for the collective progress of the group. Without respect from their peers, the ideas of leaders are nothing. Infuse a culture of finding and developing leaders at your business, and you may find that the overall impact on company culture, morale and performance can be striking.