Management July 30, 2010, 3:03PM EST

Put Leadership Training on the Front Burner

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One company, Costco, found that developing the skills and talent of its employees helped recruitment and improved the long-term quality of management.

Managers must include interpersonal intelligence in their leadership tool kit. They must demonstrate that they are trustworthy and transparent. In numerous studies conducted by our own firm, the "trust gap" between the boss and employee is clearly evident. But the trust gap can be reset.

You can initiate the charge for leadership training in your company. Components of such a program may include the following:

• Connecting with staff. Managers need good communication and emotional-intelligence skills—sensitivity to people's feelings and the ability to work through those feelings. Whereas many managers will do anything to avoid conflict, emotionally intelligent ones thrive on confronting situations and resolving them.

• Making managers better coaches and mentors. Leaders should be trained by senior management and HR on how to guide employees in their career development. Managers should carefully review policy manuals and uphold expected "good character" standards and serve as role models for other employees. That also means being open to suggestions and genuinely appreciating diverse opinions.

• Listening and giving feedback. When designing a training program, solicit managerial input as much as possible. Ask frontline employees for their insights on what kind of corporate learning would make the company more competitive, for example. Customer-facing employees possess a treasure trove of data that is rarely mined sufficiently. If a client expresses interest in a modification to a product or service—but your representative feels like a cog in a wheel who is too junior to act on such "high level" input—it can mean lost revenue opportunities. In one study our firm commissioned, 93 percent of employees said that job satisfaction improves when managers are receptive to new ideas and approaches.

• Having a clear vision. Make sure leaders understand the corporate vision and can enlighten employees about it. If the company wants to focus on its hometown roots instead of its global capabilities, for example, leadership training should outline that plan. If the company's mission is stated clearly and often, it will help guide employees in their thinking and create a sense of purpose.

• Understanding how parts make up the whole. Leaders need to learn how to communicate the company's big ideas and objectives to workers and to commend individuals for their contributions toward goals. For example, a manager might say, "Your data mining project is really helping to increase sales, because we can now target users with advertising better than ever before." By keeping employees in the loop, leaders constantly uplift and engage staff.

Companies that weed out bad practices and nourish new leaders will see renewed growth, yielding a flourishing landscape of profits.

Lynn Taylor, CEO of Lynn Taylor Consulting, is a nationally recognized workplace expert and author. Her newly released book, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job (John Wiley & Sons), advises employees and senior management on how to mitigate difficult boss and office behaviors for increased productivity. Taylor's online community forums and blogs are at: www.LynnTaylorConsulting.com and www.TameYourTOT.com.