It happens overnight. One day you aren’t and the next day you are. What am I talking about? Leadership. Maybe you’ve experienced this personally or maybe you’re a leader who has fallen victim to this well-intended practice.
Consider the case of Joe Doe – He’s a highly motivated and extremely talented sales representative at XYZ Company. He meets or exceeds every quota set for him. He actively expands his customer base, while still maintaining the highest retention rate of clients on his team. John exemplifies XYZ Company’s core values and is highly favored by his peers and his supervisor. As matter of fact, he’s so favored that his superiors see him as a candidate for management, and very quickly, Joe is offered a promotion to Sales Manager. This position comes with higher compensation, more influence and an elevated title. “Sir Joe” is officially “knighted” into leadership. Happy ending, right? Unfortunately, no.
Joe’s performance begins to slip. His team, who once were his peers, are filled with some resentment. Overall his sales team performs at a subpar level, often falling short of their quotas. They are slowly losing market share and existing customers are beginning to question their value. Joe is under a lot of pressure, both from his superiors and his team. He begins to dread Sundays because he knows Monday is coming and even finds himself drifting into career search engines to find a way out.
What happened? Something that happens far too often. When looking to fill management roles, senior leaders typically gravitate towards the “Joes” in their firm. We assume high performers, who have seemed to master their current role, are the perfect choice for leadership. Good workers don’t always make great managers. We grant our “best of the best” new titles while neglecting to provide them the tools to be strong leaders.
Professional training and leadership development is costly. However, the return that can be reaped, as well as, the consequence of not making the investment, is much greater. Providing leadership and management training is not only a way to reward high performers, encourage loyalty, and increase morale, but also has the potential to increase effectiveness, productivity and competency. How can you turn your role leaders, like Joe, into strong leaders? Invest in them.
Here are a couple local partners that provide leadership training:
StrongLead (stronglead.org)- Specializing in helping companies find new levels of success by developing the strongest leaders, the healthiest culture, and the highest performing teams possible.
Management, Supervisory, and Leadership Training is available at CVCC’s Corporate Development Center for all levels of leadership – first-line supervision, management, and executives. (www.cvcc.edu)
As one of our strategic priorities, your Chamber provides high-quality local leadership development opportunities throughout the year. Contact us directly or visit www.catawbachamber.org.
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