Good leadership moves a business forward. But how do you find great leaders? You create them.
Globally, there is a need for the next generation of potential leaders to emerge, but there is a shortage of confidence in the current abilities of future leaders.
So, what should business leaders be doing now to prepare their successors?
Mentoring.
Informal and formal mentoring is a cost-effective way to develop emerging leaders while they maintain productivity as they learn. They develop their leadership competencies on the job while keeping up with their regular job responsibilities. Win-win.
Who do I mentor?
Determining who to mentor is about more than employee skill set. Rather, it is about identifying who is a strategic thinker, is results-driven and collaborative, and has the ability to build strong teams. The challenge of current leaders is to identify these employees and then devote time and resources to coach, train, and encourage their growth over time.
Identifying the right person is a task itself. In the day-to-day, it might not be obvious who has these important traits of a great leader if their workload is task heavy. Give them the opportunity to shine in new environments by lessening their task load and providing them with opportunities to be strategic and collaborative in ways their normal responsibilities don’t allow for.
When do I start mentoring?
This might surprise you: It takes an average of a year and a half to develop mid-level managers and more than three years for senior leadership.
Developing leaders is work with the long game in mind. When it is done effectively–both through mentoring and exceptional employer branding that develops employee loyalty–businesses thrive for decades to come.
How do I know what type of leader my business needs?
Behavioral assessments can give insight into the specific leadership skills your business needs to thrive. These assessments can also identify who on your team possesses them, all backed by science. By bringing data into the equation, behavior assessments such as those offered by the Predictive Index, remove the guesswork behind determining which employees hold the highest potential to take your business to the next level.
Amber Hurdle Consulting can take you through this process to develop greatness on your team. We’ll walk you through your team’s data so you can begin mentoring your high-potential employees now. Get a taste of what we do by taking our free 6-minute Predictive Index behavioral assessment, and someone on the AHC team will follow up in 1-2 business days.
Learn more about identifying high-potential talent and future leaders by getting your free copy of the HiPo Drive ebook.
Does your business use mentoring to develop high-potential leaders? Share your experience in the comments.
About Abby
Abby Siegel Hyman is the Marketing + PR Manager at Amber Hurdle Consulting, and is a dual master’s graduate student at Vanderbilt University. She is the proud mom of the goldendoodle Willie–one of the office dog cheerleaders that keeps AHC innovative and engaged. Connect with Abby on LinkedIn.
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Amber Hurdle Consulting is a multi-award-winning talent optimization firm that pioneers using both science and marketing principles to solve these problems by strengthening your brand from the inside out. As a Predictive Index (PI) Certified Partner, we teach you how to generate and use real data in the form of people analytics, and then we sit on your bench as analytics experts, bringing along almost 20 years of branding, marketing and public relations experience. With these tools, we partner with you to design a compelling internal relations strategy featuring three key areas:
#1 We work with your leaders on their personal brands, so they increase self awareness and see and harvest the greatness in others.
#2 We teach you to use a scientific, repeatable method to recruit, retain and inspire top talent, elevating your culture while crafting a world-class employer brand.
#3 We then help you leverage strong leaders and a “best places to work” environment so that happy employees are serving happy customers…ultimately elevating your business brand.