Strong leadership skills are necessary to get to the top of any career field. Even if you consider yourself to be a natural-born leader, you can still sharpen your skills and become an even better leader with the right education. Whether you want to head a business, an educational institution or a nonprofit organization, getting a formal education in leadership may help you move to the top faster.
An education in leadership can help you develop the following skills that are needed to become a successful leader.
Decision-making
CEOs, managers and other people who work in leadership positions must learn how to make the best decisions possible for employees, stakeholders, clients and other individuals who will be affected by these choices.
Leaders who are formally educated in leadership are better versed at weighing the short- and long-term advantages and disadvantages of each decision. By looking to the future, a leader can try to predict what problems could develop from a particular decision and may take additional measures to try to prevent any foreseeable issues.
Well-educated leaders also make the habit of looking to the past. By looking at past situations and the decisions that were made about them, leaders can examine the outcomes of these decisions and whether or not they were the best choices in the long run.
To make the best decisions possible, leadership education programs emphasize the importance of consulting with the right people to hear different perspectives on a particular issue. Even though a leader may hear suggestions, criticisms and other important pieces of information from other people, they must still be willing to accept responsibility for the final decision.
Along with making decisions that are intended to benefit the company or organization the most, solid leaders practice good ethics in the process. The most reputable leadership education programs always emphasize the importance of making decisions that are both moral and legal. By learning how to make the most ethical decisions, you can protect the integrity of your workplace and develop more honest and positive relationships with staff members and other affiliates.
Team development
Good leaders always want the best people working for them, and you can draw upon your leadership education to build the best workforce possible if you’re also in charge of hiring people.
The leadership skills that an education program can help you develop can be used to screen potential new hires better. You may also employ a hiring manager to assist you with interviewing job applicants and making decisions in regard to hiring.
You may also need to build teams within your network so that groups of staff members can work on specific projects. By learning how to build the best teams possible, the people who work for you will be able to use their specific strengths to handle certain tasks so that the entire operation can function more efficiently.
Recruiting a board of directors is another responsibility that you might have as a leader if you work for a company with this structure. A board of directors often consists of people who work for the company and also outsiders who can offer their input on certain topics. With a formal education, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about who you’ll select for the board and what value each potential candidate might bring to the table.
Additionally, leaders must often go through the difficult task of letting people go from their teams. You may need to terminate certain employees or reassign staff members who aren’t performing well to different teams or assignments, and the skills that you learn from your leadership education program can help you manage these processes more effectively.
The Ed.D Organizational Leadership program at Rockhurst University teaches future leaders to develop teams that are intended to keep all members engaged and focused on their assigned tasks. You can also learn ways to foster an innovative culture among a team if you choose to enroll in this program.
Problem-solving
Problems arise in every business and organization, and the right education can teach you how to resolve issues in the most intelligent and responsible ways.
Certain problems could affect how your company or organization operates. These problems may also have serious financial consequences and negatively affect the bottom line if you’re a leader in a for-profit business.
Problems might also arise among staff members and affect professional relationships between them. You may need to help resolve these issues to try to maintain harmony among your staff members. These problems could range from mild conflicts among employees to more serious issues, such as harassment or discrimination, and you should be ready to deal with any problems that are brought to your attention.
The most educated leaders are usually better at solving problems quickly and making fast decisions to prevent the problems from getting worse. However, it’s also important to avoid making rash decisions just to try to resolve an issue quickly, as this could result in more negative consequences.
During your leadership education, you can also learn an approach to problem-solving known as systems thinking. In addition to the problem at hand, systems thinking can teach you to look at the bigger picture and how everything connects, rather than how each separate entity functions on its own. With systems thinking skills, you can get to the root causes of problems more effectively to find solutions that will likely work better in the long term.
Conclusion
Every business or organization needs a competent leader to succeed, and you can fill the role of a leader better if you have the most in-depth knowledge of how to manage things. The effort that you put into getting the proper education in leadership can help you take your career to new heights.
