Fact: People are hired for their technical skills, but fired or stuck in a dead – end career due to their lack of leadership skills.

Solution: Training

Continued professional development education will enhance productivity, boost performance as well as ensure employee retention. As competition for the best employees becomes more intense, the need for both personal and professional leadership skills becomes very valuable to employees and employers alike.

Recent research from the Centre for Creative Leadership shows that people are hired for their technical skills, but fired for their lack of leadership skills. Even worse, if an employee is not fired for their lack of leadership (or soft skills) they can certainly cause tension and roadblocks in an organization’s positive flow of business. I am without a doubt in agreement with these findings.

For example, an employee is hired for their education, experience and ability to perform a particular set of skills in your organization, but their lack of personal leadership skills prevents them from positively interacting with their team-mates, serving customers in a way that will ensure a lasting relationship, or climbing the corporate ladder to maintain a future with the company.

Leadership is about relationships, and credibility is the foundation of all relationships. Personal leadership requires self-knowledge. Education in personal leadership is a type of “unfreezing” which leads to determining what you really care about, setting goals and taking action to improve. If people can “learn how to learn” from their own experiences, as well as their colleagues, mentors and coaches to be their personal best in the workplace and in their personal lives, they become productive and make very effective contributions.

My advice when consulting with an organization to boost performance, productivity and profitability is always some form of education. Let’s face it, the only way to get better than you are, is to become better educated. If managers are apprehensive to spend money training employees that may leave the organization, I indicate to them that even worse than training people and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.

Regardless of the industry, personal skills are the multipliers of performance. You are the vehicle which transports service, and like a car, your vehicle needs regular tune-ups, fuel and proper maintenance for good performance.

I encourage you to make education a priority when motivating your people, and specifically, focus on leadership skills as the foundation of which all other education can be used effectively. For example, a time management program would be best implemented if an employee first has the skills to make and keep commitments. The foundation of personal leadership skills must be present to build a solid technical skill set upon.

What if YOUR organization was made up of people who …

• Make and keep commitments
• Face each day with a positive attitude
• Persist until they succeed
• Capitalize on their strengths
• Manage time to get results
• Master their emotions
• Overcome obstacles and challenges
• Find ways to multiply their value a hundredfold
• See needs and take action
• Seek guidance

More importantly, what can you do to build these skills in yourself and your workplace?

Consider the impact that this learning will have on you, your team, and your organization.

Your partner in education.

Penny Tremblay