Leadership, Skills, and Onboarding: Why are they so Important?

This is such a relevant topic in today’s corporate environment, that I want to share a few insights with you all today.

First, leadership is the ability of an individual (or a group of individuals) to influence one another, and their teams, as well as guide other members, followers and clients of a business. If an individual (or a group of individuals) lack leadership, they actually lack leadership skills. And so, this leads us to a basic question I always get:

What are leadership skills, and how to develop them?
Leadership skills are strengths and abilities individuals have, that help them achieve goals. They can all be practiced at any level, and at any given time (in-person, on-line or in a hybrid environment), once the individual (or a group of individuals) decide to. They sure can be developed in various ways, and especially with the help of a licensed coach, a designated mentor or a leader-coach, for that matter. The 2 basic leadership skills I encourage you to focus when developing yourself within a corporate environment are: self-development skills and team development skills.

Regardless of the title you currently hold, a good leader should practice communicate well, support his/her team, get them engaged into daily meaningful work, and share common values, expectations and goals in a positive set, helping the organization, as a whole, to flourish – while the leader himself/herself, as one, thrive professionally and personally as well. The fact is that is all interconnected, and I have recently written about the power of systems thinking and leadership skills, if you want to go a bit further into this topic.

Now, you might ask me: What do you really understand by leadership skills, and why you think they are so important in a corporate scenario?

To me, bottom line, it is all about the power of H2H (human-to-human) connection, caring and accommodating ourselves into more humanized relationships. If you ever watched me on a group coaching session, you probably remember me saying:
When the topic is about leadership skills, I go by 2 basic rules:
1) Never assume: always ask questions – even if it feels awkward; and
2) Do for others what you would like to receive from them. Remember: it is always a two-way road.

I am talking here about the power of thoughts, words, human relationships and interconnected actions, which ultimately shape our daily habits, and our leadership persona. Leaders can be very positive influencers, but they can likewise spread negative behaviors into an organization. This is why leadership, leadership skills and onboarding leadership training should always walk hand in hand in any business that is eager to meet success.

After all, business is made of people and focused ultimately on and for people; and people are the ones who truly make business happen. Do you agree?
Now, let’s dive into the importance of having an Onboarding Leadership Training at any organization, and why it is so crucial for your business success:

Any organization is shaped by leadership behavior, and when toxic leaders’ negative behaviors happen, and it is all tolerated in that environment, it can significantly affect an organization’s culture and its people ability to help reach higher levels of success, because poor behavior can not only decrease collaboration between sectors and team-members, and affect negatively how clients, investors and peers are treated, but also it can influence the levels of engagement, diminishing them (especially new hires’s engagement level), and worst yet – it can move your organization away from the most talented individual(s).

The truth is that we should consider a time-line as well, as onboarding leadership can take from 3 months to 1 year, and it is not always a simple process. Although orientation for new hires by human resources (HR) such as: a)new hires’s paperwork and b) IT guidance, for instance, are also critical in any company, but be sure this is not what I am talking about here. Onboarding Leadership programs are designed with a career plan and talent retention of an organization in mind; desired leadership skills and organization values; team building and leadership satisfaction, as well as better individuals and teams’ engagement. It is truly an integrative process that should be lead by a Coach-Mentor (ideally one who knows and understands the field of such business and possess skillfully training professional-personal skills), so as to guide new leaders into the new department and/or organization, addressing also, when necessary, soft social-relational skills that may arise along the path of this new onboarding workplace.

To me, honestly speaking, there is no better win-win situation than working together with an organization through a Leadership Skills Onboarding Program so that new – and current – leaders (and leaders-to-be) will be able to join common interests, expectations, and goals on a faster lane, also fine-tuning behavioral adjustments and leadership skills for the success of all involved.