How to improve your effectiveness in building leadership is the sort of question every person in an authority position should be constantly asking themselves. There is certainly no shortage of resources out there that claim to be able to help you lead your organisation better, and undoubtedly some should be trusted more than others.

This short guide is based on our extensive experience working with thousands of individuals in leadership positions. Through our experience, we have identified a number of crucial methods for growing leadership within organisations.

Identify Potential Early

Keeping an eye on employees from day one allows you to properly analyse their strengths and weaknesses, while also assessing how they cope with new responsibilities and pressure. This can make future decisions regarding promotion easier to judge. Furthermore, by making clear from the start what the requirements and demands are to employees, they are better able to assess their own likelihood of pursuing a leadership path.

Encourage Cooperation with Current Leaders

A number of high-profile companies recognise this as one of the most effective ways to build leadership. Allowing employees to shadow current leaders can help foster a better understanding of the responsibilities and abilities needed in these roles. The best-equipped employees will not only watch to see how leaders deal with situations, but will begin formulating their own strategies, and even offer insights when needed.

Avoid Broken Promises

While promising promotion into leadership positions may seem like a solid motivating tactic for CEOs and managers to employ, they run the danger that they will lose faith in their employee’s abilities somewhere along the line, and be forced to recruit leaders from outside. This not only disappoints the employee whose trust you have broken. Others may also see this as reason to be worried and begin looking to other companies to advance their careers.

Challenge them with Power

It is important to see how potential leaders handle responsibility and power when it comes their way, for both the benefit of managers in assessing suitability, but also for the employee to discover what such a role may entail in the future. Similarly, assigning them unfamiliar tasks within their current role is an effective way to push themselves and develop new skills.