Leadership training programs can prepare employees to take on leadership roles, or help current leaders strengthen or enhance their skills. But what happens after employees graduate from these leadership training classes? Will they continue to apply what they've learned? Will they have the support they need to maintain their new status as leaders?

Making the most of leadership training requires providing ongoing support, and opportunities for your company's leadership staff to thrive. Ways to supplement a corporate leadership training seminar include:

1. Combining training leadership with building strong teams.
2. Encouraging employees to join leadership organizations.
3. Staying current on new strategies for leadership by reading leadership publications.

Action Steps
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Combine professional leadership training and team building with an executive retreat

For your company's leaders to manage the business effectively, they need healthy relationships with their subordinates and with fellow leaders. By sending your management team to a professional leadership course conducted in the form of a retreat, you provide them time to build strong relationships with each other, and learn more about developing collaborative relationships with others in the company.

I recommend: Advanced Team Concepts hosts leadership retreats that cover everything from vision planning to interviewing to negotiation. ImprovEdge offers retreats and long-term leadership development.

After their leadership training, encourage employees to join leadership organizations

Even after their leadership training, employees may have questions about how to run an organization, or they may want to learn from fellow leaders with more experience. Consider paying for all or part of the membership fee for employees--you'll likely see a significant return on that investment, because through these organizations, company leaders can network with leaders at other companies, and obtain guidance relevant to their specific industry or organization.

I recommend: Many leadership organizations focus on a specific industry or a specific type of leader, such as women, Hispanics or other minority groups, or leaders within a certain geographic region. The Hispanic Leadership Organization of Fort Worth, for example, focuses on promoting leadership among Hispanics in public administration. And Catalyst is an organization dedicated to promoting leadership among women. The Public Health Leadership Organization provides support and continuing leadership education for graduates of public health leadership institutes.

Encourage ongoing communication and leadership training through leadership publications

Being a strong leader requires more than just a single leadership training course; it also entails a daily commitment to developing and enhancing leadership skills. By reading leadership publications, employees can learn about new methods and strategies for leading, and read about the successes or setbacks of leaders at other organizations.

I recommend: Sign up for Leading Effectively, a free monthly newsletter from the Center for Creative Leadership. IELeadership Connections is a free, bimonthly newsletter from the Institute for Educational Leadership.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  One of the best ways to get the most out of leadership training seminars is to ask employees what they thought of the training after they complete it. This way, you can make changes if needed, or enlist other employees to participate in the same program if it was a success.

"The leader leads, and the boss drives" —Theodore Roosevelt. Those telling words describe the complex traits it takes to be a good leader. The goal is personifying your values so that you can lead through example. Motivating and guiding employees is your main job. And the journey never ends as you grow and learn.

Leadership qualities to nurture include:

1. Integrity
2. Understanding and compassion
3. Keeping your word
4. Harnessing your strengths
5. Accentuating the positive

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Know the difference between managing and leading

Many managers and owners confuse the tasks of managing with leading. Leadership is more than implementing tactics, planning schedules and handing out assignments. Leadership includes inspiring team members, sharing a vision with employees and nurturing staff.

I recommend: Do the "Leading or Managing" team exercise to determine how well you and your employees understand the difference.

Determine your leadership aptitude

Not everyone is a born leader. However, even if leadership doesn't come naturally to you, it can be developed. To improve your leadership skills, you must be motivated to become an effective leader and you must make it a priority.

I recommend: Take the Leadership Motivation Assessment from MindTools.com to determine how motivated you are to develop your leadership skills. Receive feedback on a comprehensive list of leadership competencies from 360-Degree Feedback.

Uncover your convictions

Start by listing your values, beliefs and ethics. For more clarity, talk to customers and suppliers. Or tape record yourself during staff meetings to hear how you present yourself.

I recommend: Discover your leadership style type with the Myers Briggs personality type assessment at PersonalityPathways.com. Get a well-rounded view of the skills it takes to become a good leader at Inc.com or Entrepreneur.com.

Create goals and timelines

See where you're willing to change your behavior. Set a do-able timeline with specific goals by starting at the end of your life and working backwards to today. Next, create an action plan that outlines where you want to be in a set number of years. Don't forget to include improving communication skills, the bedrock trait of great leaders.

I recommend: Take the goal-setting tutorial at AboutGoalSetting.com to improve your ability to set goals and timelines. Find a host of resources and tools to hone your communication skills at MindTools.com.

Ask for input from employees

Note how your beliefs are woven into your company. See where they fit and where they're disconnected. Open the lines of communication by talking to employees, holding weekly staff meetings or holding recognition contests. The upshot: building a collaborative culture.

I recommend: Refresh your storehouse of management knowledge. One place to start is a core skill: motivating employees.

Seek assistance

Don't hesitate to hire a coach or mentor if you need ongoing support. Your coach can help you assess your skills and set achievable benchmarks. Leadership learning programs are another useful tool. Don't be afraid to go through the leadership goal-creating and achieving process several times. Include regular check-ins to assess how you're doing.

I recommend: The Center for Creative Leadership and FindYourCoach.com provide a number of leadership coaching solutions. Consider leadership training Webinars and seminars from LeadershipIQ.com, or improve your skills with leadership training software from SimuLearn.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Be receptive to critical self-assessment.
• •  Learn from successes and failures.
• •  Constantly work on your communication skills, which means improving listening and speaking acumen.
• •  Motivate others to see their own greatness, which energizes your company.

Some employees seem to be natural born leaders, but others may need communication and leadership training to help them live up to their personal and professional potential. Professional leadership training extends far beyond basic management principles. It also emphasizes everything from decision-making to diplomacy to stress management—essentially, the skills needed to create a well-rounded and adaptable leader.

Options for training leadership staff within your company include:

1. Assessing your employees' leadership skills and potential.
2. Sending employees to a professional leadership course.
3. Signing up for online business leadership courses.
4. Hiring a consultant or coach to conduct on-site leadership training classes.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Before implementing leadership training programs, evaluate your employees' skills

Maybe only a few of your employees need additional training, or maybe they all need radically different training. By starting with a thorough evaluation of your employees' leadership skills, you can ensure you're investing only in leadership training programs that benefit your employees and your company.

I recommend: Brainbench offers online testing in over 600 areas, including management and leadership, in addition to custom test development. The Assessment Team also offers online employee assessments and evaluations.

Send company management to a corporate leadership training seminar

Seminars are sometimes expensive, and they require giving employees time off from work, but they also allow participants to focus completely on the training, instead of on that pile of paperwork on their desk or all those phone calls waiting to be returned. Many last two or three days, offering a short-term but intensive training experience.

I recommend: The American Management Association offers leadership training seminars for employees at all levels, from administrative assistants to executives. Leadership Bootcamp, offered by Academy Leadership, is an intensive three-day seminar designed to help managers become better leaders.

Hire a coach to conduct on-site leadership training seminars

By hiring a coach to come to your workplace, you save the time and expense of sending employees to training, and you can train more employees at once. Many coaches and consultants also offer assessment and evaluation services as part of their training process

I recommend: The Leaders Institute offers its "High Impact Leaders" seminar in cities across the United States, or on-site at your workplace. The consulting firm Management Concepts also offers on-site leadership and management training.

Sign employees up for online leadership courses, or purchase leadership training software

You can do nearly anything over the Internet these days--including helping employees learn to become more effective leaders. Online leadership courses cover everything an in-person class does, but provides more flexibility, because employees can study at their own pace, both at work and at home.

I recommend: The University of Notre Dame offers online leadership courses, and Business Training Experts offers "The Leadership Journey" online and on DVD, CD-ROM and VHS.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Before implementing any leadership training programs, make sure the employees you include really want to be leaders. Even if they have great leadership potential, if they don't want to be in a position of authority, no amount of training or coaching can make them as effective as someone who enjoys leading their team.

Leaders are required to make decisions daily that impact the success of the business and its bottom line. Understanding leadership training key terms can offer insight into core values and principles associated with leading people. Leadership training prepares leaders to recognize a variety of leadership styles prevalent in many organizations, the significance of communication, team building and establishing a vision. The following key terms are important to building foundational skills in leadership training.

Action Steps
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Leadership style

Leadership style is the process of exploring the method leaders use to approach guiding human capital in the workplace or on organized projects. It can encompass persuasive presentation skills that inspires trust, integrity, character, positive role modeling and other behaviors useful when working towards a goal.

I recommend: Visit Work 911 and Syque's website, Changing Minds.org, to view an overview of common leadership styles and the individual characteristics of each style.

Vision, vision planning

According to leadership experts, a vision is an idealized picture or snapshot of the future, and vision planning is the ability to communicate core values and articulate a sense of direction by implementing a plan as it pertains to this vision. Organizational vision encompasses a strategic plan that generates motivational impact and leads employees to a specific outcome or shared desired goal.

I recommend: David Dolak Marketing offer detailed information about vision as a leadership training term.

Team building

Team building is the method a leader chooses to empower a group of people using motivational strategies and guidance to accomplish a specific task. Effective team building must encompass an understanding of organizational culture and the dynamics of team work in order to exceed shared goals and objectives.

I recommend: For a basic definition of team building visit Team-wise. Mind Tools provides a common team building theory used in many organizations. Briefly review the benefits of team building at Fun Team Building.com.

Communication

Communication is the ability to impart and exchange information through the process of listening, writing and speaking. Successful leaders understand that enhancing communication skills not only makes them more effective as leaders, but boosts the company's success as well.

I recommend: WORDpower provides seven keys to effective communication within the context of leadership training.

Performance evaluation

An important aspect of leadership training is determining whether the steps taken towards a goal are working. One of the many roles of a successful leader is to appraise or assess the effectiveness of both individual and collective workplace skills and strategies to achieve stated goals.

I recommend: Review Donald Kilpatrick's training evaluation model posted by Businessballs.

Decision making

The term decision making is the process of choosing from several ideas or choices. It's the practice of targeted determinations that can offer creative problem solving solutions. This is a vital skill in developing potential leaders, it strengthens the use of critical thinking and resourcefulness to make choices on behalf of the company.

I recommend: NWLink is a leadership glossary that provides a definition on decision making and other key terms in alphabetical order.