April 19, 2023
When the leaders and managers in your company are given the resources to succeed, your whole company thrives.
It’s no secret that having effective leaders and managers can make or break a company. When the people in charge approach their responsibilities with confidence, critical thinking, and team-centered focus, everyone working under them benefits.
If you’ve been in business for any amount of time though, you know how time can get away from you. Weeks can turn into months, which turn into quarters without additional leadership training. Furthermore, prioritizing other types of training (like technology usage or safety procedures) can push leadership training to the back burner.
Without purposefully scheduling and planning for leadership training, too many companies never get around to developing their leaders.
Luckily, in the digital age, it has never been easier to access high-quality online leadership and management courses.
This post will outline everything you should look for in online training, why it’s important, and how to select the best online training for your leaders and managers.
By implementing these steps, your leaders and managers will be improving their skills in no time.
At its essence, leadership development is the cultivation of skills, abilities, and qualities that make effective leaders. Leadership development is an ongoing process, that should evolve as the business adapts to changes in your industry.
The goal of leadership development is to create effective leaders who see the business through to its goals, while inspiring and managing their team effectively.
To provide further clarity and results, leadership development can be divided into 4 pillars:
The best part is that all of these leadership pillars are designed to work together in harmony.
A leader who possesses self-awareness is better equipped to identify and leverage their strengths and weaknesses, while a leader who has developed their soft skills is better equipped to manage their team effectively.
When all of these pillars work together, your leadership becomes stronger than ever. Focus on developing one or all of these pillars during your leadership training, prioritizing the ones your company is most lacking in.
As you consider the online training courses you’ll be selecting for your leaders, keep these pillars in mind. All of them should be utilized throughout the calendar year, but it’s up to you to choose the ones that meet the needs of your leadership team.
Alongside leadership training, effective managerial training is one of the best things you can do for your team.
While leadership training focuses on the big picture of developing effective leaders, managerial training helps cultivate people who are exceptional at running teams.
Managerial training will be counted among the soft skills in the leadership development pillars, although some practical and technical aspects will also help your managers be more effective too.
For example, giving specific training to managers on how to run a one-on-one meeting can help every person on your team have productive meetings.
Because one-on-one meetings, such as performance reviews, mentorship meetings, or feedback sessions, can feel high stakes, it’s important that your managers know how to conduct a superb one-on-one meeting.
Managing teams goes a lot deeper than simply assigning tasks. Managers are responsible for the emotional response employees have to their work. They need to understand how to keep the ego in check, while still encouraging productivity and innovation.
Above all, managers need to approach their leadership over a team as a collaboration. They are the best resource their teams have, so they should understand how to provide leadership in the most impactful way possible.
If there’s one highlighted conversation in the business world brought about by the pandemic, it’s the conversation around remote work.
Remote work and digital resources have boomed since the pandemic hit, but many leaders and executives are still hesitant to jump fully on board with online business practices.
The concern many executives have is that online training will not be as effective and engaging as digital resources. The numbers tell a different story.
According to e-student.org, the global corporate e-learning market industry is expected to grow to a $50 billion industry by 2026. That’s about a 15% growth per year.
Online training comes with a host of benefits for employees. They get to keep the flexibility of remote or hybrid work. They have a digital record of the training they’ve completed which can be referred to later. The time it takes to complete training is drastically reduced as well.
That’s not even mentioning the streamlined onboarding or safety training that is easily accessible online, making compliance much easier to follow.
Employers benefit a lot as well when they opt for digital training. Last year, Dow Chemical saved $34 million in its training course costs by utilizing digital training courses. They were able to reduce their training costs from $94 per employee to just $11.
With this kind of flexibility, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, everyone in your company wins when you train online.
Now that you understand the appeal of online leadership and management courses, how do you begin to decide which ones are right for you?
To make it simple for you, here are some of the main characteristics you should look for when considering an online training course:
Does this program or training course have good reviews and referrals from other companies in your industry? Check that their accomplishments are in line with the length of time they’ve been in business.
Although leadership training deals with abstract concepts like leadership theories and soft skills, the training doesn’t need to be overly complicated. A succinct and straightforward approach will help the training stick in the minds of your leaders and managers.
Although there’s definitely room for exploration when talking about leadership styles, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The leadership or management training you select should have a track record of success, without demanding you go to extreme lengths to improve your leaders.
Of course, effective leaders should have a positive attitude toward leading their team. The training you select should mirror that attitude. There’s no room for intimidation and ego in effective leadership, so select training that is encouraging and optimistic.
Now that you have a clear idea of what to look for in online leadership and management training, here are some of the recommended resources you should consider for your team:
This course dives into the five different leadership styles: authoritarian, participative, delegative, transactional, and transformational.
Although each leadership style might have its place, it’s important to understand your unique capabilities as a leader. This can allow you to borrow from other leadership styles when it suits what you’re trying to accomplish.
By the end of this course, you’ll have a better understanding of leadership styles and how they can be used to achieve your goals.
One-on-one meetings can make or break your workplace culture. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to set the tone of these meetings.
This training will help you celebrate successes, positively address areas of concern, and seed ideas for the future growth and development of your employees. The benefits of these quality one-on-one conversations are ones you can’t afford to miss.
As a leader, ignoring your unconscious biases will affect everyone you work with. When we take the time to address and unpack our unconscious biases, we are able to make better decisions and cultivate healthier relationships.
Leaders and managers should take this course so they can set themselves and their subordinates up to successfully overcome their biases.
By implementing effective online training courses for your leaders and managers, your entire company will be reaping the benefits.
As we stated at the beginning of this post, leadership training is often left on the back burner. Without intentionally setting time aside each quarter to develop your leaders, you could be stuck in the same place for years.
Take this opportunity to create a plan to develop the skills of your managers and leaders. Put it on your calendar, send out an invite, and watch your workplace thrive as a result.
