Leaders are leaders because they are talented, skilled, and experienced individuals with a set of natural and learned abilities that make our companies better.
Part of their job is to make sure that the staff they lead have the space and capacity to grow and develop.
But what about our leaders themselves? How do we make sure that they’re developing, too?
The first and most essential part of this process is making sure that they feel safe to learn and grow. We don’t want our leaders to feel as though they must pretend, they know everything. We need them to know that they can be vulnerable and admit when they need help and support, and we need to give them the time to discover and express their unique needs for growth.
Unhappy workers are around 10% less productive than happy workers. Leaders can have a sizeable impact on the happiness of their team. Foregoing time to deliberately promote your company’s leader’s learning and development can easily ripple through your staff and have serious consequences.
Your leaders are always going to make mistakes
This simple truth can be easy to overlook your leaders are humans, and they are going to make mistakes sometimes no matter how hard they work, no matter how much stress they put themselves under. That is human nature. Nobody, not even the world’s most successful businesspeople, have a mistake-free career. Just look at Richard Branson, who even to this day makes fun of his failed attempt at ‘Virgin Cola’.
Making your leaders feel like they cannot make mistakes will only exacerbate their growth in the long term. Such pressure creates stress around the inevitable.
It is a much better idea, instead, to reframe mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow in a safe, supportive environment.
Learning from mistakes
Forbes says that great leaders learn from their mistakes, and we must agree. We’re not asking you to encourage mistake-making as part of your organizational culture, but employees, including leaders, should feel safe to make them, because they’re going to regardless. And an encouraging environment can be the difference between repeat mistakes or improved performance.
Mistakes clearly depict where there are issues and skill/knowledge gaps you need to address. Without this learning, the same or similar mistakes made further down the line could have much worse consequences.
Mistakes are great for personal growth. Encouraging leaders to tune in to areas they need to develop promotes a valuable level of self-awareness that will serve them well in their homelife as well as at work. Since people who rate themselves as happy overall are approximately 12% more productive in the workplace, anything we can do to help our leaders across all aspects of their lives is going to help them perform better at work.
How to make leaders feel safe to learn and grow
To give your leaders the space to learn and grow:
- Promote psychological safety: We’ve talked about this a lot, but that’s because it is very important. Your leaders must know that you accept that they will sometimes fail and that you expect them to learn from those failings.
- Build trust: Stay true to your word. It is no use telling your leaders they are safe to fail and then making them feel guilty or upset when something goes wrong.
- Foster gratitude: Instead of chastising your leaders when they fail, make sure your leaders know you appreciate them and think they are doing a good job. It is especially beneficial to highlight moments of excellent performance. This is something that should be promoted amongst staff members at all levels. It makes employees feel appreciated, and 81% of employees say they work harder when they feel appreciated.
- Invest in upskilling: Giving your employees the time and resources they need to upskill will not only benefit your staff, but your organization. Training helps foster a feeling of commitment between employees and their organization. Train your leaders and treat them right, and you’ll reap the rewards of the things they have learned for many years to come.
- Encourage networking with peers: This is especially important for leaders. Give your leaders time to talk with and learn from other leaders. They can ask for advice, swap skills, and they’ll feel safe talking to people who are in the same position they are.
Finding a safe space in the LeaderBridge platform to learn and grow
The LeaderBridge platform enables validated leaders to anonymously connect to ask questions, share answers, broaden perspectives, and uncover unique solutions.
Dr John Behr, executive coach with 25 years of experience in coaching says: “Senior executives at major companies have a particularly hard time finding external safe-sounding boards. LeaderBridge offers the opportunity for leaders at all levels and from any region, to find a safe space to learn and grow through this simple Q&A platform. The potential benefits of using a peer-matching platform, such as LeaderBridge are substantial. Regardless of whether an effective solution or new course of action surfaces, just talking through issues with someone in a similar position helps clarify leaders’ options and allows them to move ahead with more confidence.”
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