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How to find and unlock leadership potential
Learn how to identify and develop potential top leaders — whether you're looking to hire a great candidate or promote from within.
Skills of successful leaders
Hiring and promoting for certain skills can create a solid foundation to build a stellar leader, resulting in stronger, more satisfied teams. But don't forget, these skills can be developed.
Finding a leader with skills like empathy, clear communication, and humility can lead to higher retention rates at your organization.
Soft skills of stellar leaders:
Good leaders are focused on finding solutions and delegating effectively.
Hiring skilled leaders
Nurturing great leaders once they're hired is one thing, but how do you find them?
The most compelling leaders aren’t actively looking for new positions, but are open to the right opportunity if it’s put in front of them.
Our approach to hiring effective leaders can not only help you discover great leaders, but also retain them.
At its simplest, I define leadership as the ability to figure out the best way to solve a problem, and then executing on that solution.
Lou Adler
CEO / Performance-Based
Hiring Learning Systems
Source
Discover what leaders want.
Most leaders are intrigued by the possibility of a more challenging or interesting role.
Use profiles of top performers in your organization to guide your search by focusing on specific skills, backgrounds, and experiences.
Leverage the LinkedIn Recruiter “Find more people like...” feature.
Attract
Grab leaders’ attention.
Think about what makes your organization especially attractive to managers.
Is your culture relaxed? Do you invest heavily in leadership training and development? Whatever it is, highlight it in your job descriptions.
Be specific and target people moving up, not sideways.
Screen
Ask the right questions.
Assess their critical thinking and planning skills by asking the candidate:
1) Describe your biggest accomplishment. This can help you predict job performance.
2) Solve a realistic job-related problem. Listen closely to their process.
Discover the best interview questions to ask in our resource library.
Building winning teams
Some say that employees leave managers, not companies. Strong leaders encourage, support, and trust their teams.
Using the following examples, learn to engage the great leaders you already have so they can continue to build, nurture, and retain winning teams.
If we were able to] reallocate the amount of time spent talking about employees and make more of an effort talking to employees…the outcome would be much better.
Kevin Delaney
VP, Learning and
Development, LinkedIn
Enthusiasm is contagious. Employees are motivated to do their best work when a leader is passionate.
Developing leaders internally
Show employees that you’re invested in their growth and development. This isn’t just an effective way to encourage upskilling — it’s also a useful way to spot leadership potential.
The employees who take the time to pursue leadership training likely have the drive and passion to spur them toward greater things.
Success starts with clear expectations.
Let employees know what resources are available to them, and what’s expected of them.
Can they spend time training during work hours, or is it something they should do in their spare time? Will their training efforts be reflected in promotion decisions? And who can they turn to if they have questions?
With over 13,000 on-demand courses, LinkedIn Learning can supplement your existing training resources.
Find the right leader for your workplace
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