Good Leaders Can Still be Made

Effective Leadership Training and Some Coaching Can Help

Mar 19, 2009

Good leadership training is most effective when broken down into three levels with each level building new communications skills.

There has been an abundance of bad news reported about business leaders taking astronomical bonuses for poor performance. And, reports about major corporate leaders asking for government bailout money with their left hand while continuing to spend money with the right hand.

Vince Lombardi’s statement that, "Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile” holds true even in today’s uncertain business environment.

Author Suzanne Bates recommends to “promote skills, not dependency” when helping leaders develop. In her book, Motivate Like a CEO Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! (McGraw Hill, 2009), Bates wrote about three levels of communications training for leaders – basic, mid-level and senior-level.

Basic Leadership Communications Training

To encourage leaders to continue to develop their communication skills and talents, Bates suggests that a company think of communications training on multiple levels. Each level should offer training that focuses on more challenging skill sets.

The basic training level for new or fairly new leaders would focus on basic presentation skills. Bates wrote, “This is when you need to encourage them to develop skills, not dependency. What I mean by this is that they need to know how to do things for themselves and take responsibility for the success of their presentations and what it really takes to be good.”

New leaders would also benefit from workshops on storytelling for business or leading effective meetings.

Mid-Level Leadership Communications Training

The next level of communication training is mid-level and offers more tactical skills. Those leaders that have mastered the presentation skills learned in the basic level will further develop their communication skills with more advanced topics.

When leaders master the skill sets provide by the basic and mid-level training workshops, the next level is the senior level. This level includes training for:

According to Bates, it is common for many executives to feel they only need the first level of training and development. Those leaders who are most successful at speaking know the kind of investment in training it really takes.

Ways to Learn Leadership Communication Skills

The Making of True Leaders

There are still many opportunities for true leaders to make a difference - just as there are still many opportunities for companies to make true leaders.

Using the ‘hard effort’ Vince Lombardi spoke of and developing communications skills that Bates suggested, tomorrow’s new leaders can start working today.

The copyright of the article Good Leaders Can Still be Made in Business Management is owned by Patricia Faulhaber. Permission to republish Good Leaders Can Still be Made in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.