Developing Your People Beyond Their Current Role Through Leadership Development and Management Training

Business owners often get it wrong when it comes to their approach to hiring talent. They focus too much on filling the current position and not enough attention to the long-term potential and growth of their new hire. Looking forward is an important part of the hiring process. Does your business offer training, development, and other career advancement opportunities for high-growth-potential job candidates?

If a great hire is the starting point, it is important to consider how you, as the business owner, are going to nurture and develop that talent into a successful, long-term contributor who continues to grow alongside the company.

Leadership Development and Management Training Is Essential

To maintain an edge in an increasingly competitive market, it is important that you invest in training your people. Strong employee development opportunities increase individual and overall business performance, improve retention, and bolster an innovative company culture.

According to recent industry surveys:

• Companies investing in training see 24% higher profit margins (WiFi Talents).

• 91% of companies report increased revenue from training programs (ZipDo).

• Organizations that are strong in both people and performance see up to 30% higher revenue growth (McKinsey & Company).

Investing in employee development and management training has a dual effect on your business. It both strengthens the organization as a whole and elevates the capabilities of your team. When you create opportunities for the professional growth of your people, you are also helping to secure the future performance of the business. It’s a win-win.

Three Strategic Ways to Invest in Your People

1. The Power of Mentorship

Mentorship programs are high-yield, low-cost development opportunities that help build internal networks, improve learning curves, and extend the knowledge and capabilities of your current team. 

Early-career professionals tend to actively seek employment with organizations that offer skill and leadership advancement programs and professional growth mentorship opportunities. By matching up new professionals with their more seasoned counterparts, you provide them skill transfer and knowledge acquisition, as well as exposure to a more refined, advanced, and mature business perspective and modeling. 

2. Stretch Opportunities & Skill-Based Development

According to Shortlister, 70% of professional learning happens on the job and through others, meaning development occurs from both instruction and hands-on experience. Even if your business doesn’t currently have a formal training program, consider assigning your employees tasks and activities that gently expand their capabilities. When doing so, make it clear on what success looks like, build in those metrics, and be sure to create a safe-to-fail environment in which your team feels comfortable pushing their current personal limits. 

By simply challenging your team to expand beyond their comfort zone, you create a culture of adaptability and problem-solving. This will also help you to identify future leaders early on and organically start to fill your leadership bench.

Challenge your people to grow, then watch as your business grows with them.

3. Manager Training Advances People and Overall Business Performance

Implementing a strong management training program is one of the most effective was to elevate individual performance, enhance communication, and increase overall business results. Shockingly, management teams are the most under-trained employees in companies today, but not for the lack of desire.

• 60% of millennials want leadership training (Deloitte, 2023).

• 94% of employees say that learning opportunities are a major reason to stay in a job.

• 9 hours is the total amount of training time received by nearly half of managers with over 10 years of experience.

Well-trained managers are more than just employee monitors and rule enforcers. They coach, align, and develop their teams with intention. Management training programs define and establish clearer expectations, stronger accountability, and more consistent execution across the organization. 

As managers improve, so does employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Trained managers become vision and alignment multipliers. They reinforce cultural expectations and model company values. They are the bridge between leadership strategy and day-to-day performance. 

Interested in implementing effective management training in your business? Check out TAB’s High Impact Manager Accelerator Program (HI-MAP). HI-MAP equips management teams with the concrete and soft skills they need to lead their teams confidently. 

Remember, the true value of a great hire is not just what they can provide your organization today, but their development into lasting contributors to your company’s success for years to come.