It can be so easy, when stuck in the day-to-day firefighting of running a practice, to forget to invest time in our own development, or provide that time to our teams. We know that investing time in ourselves and our people is beneficial to a business long-term, but it's often the first thing we cut, when time is short or funds are low.

Leadership training is an investment in developing both the hard and soft skills necessary to effectively lead a team. At its core, it is about evolving an individual’s capacity to motivate people to achieve bigger goals and understand complex scenarios to make decisions that are in the best interests of the practice.

None of this sounds like a bad idea, right? So why do we then deprioritise it so much?

Retention

One of the biggest perks of offering leadership development is retention. Even if your practice is small and vacancies appear rarely, you might be able to develop talent to work across your PCN, or support other practices in your area. In PWC’s “Report on Millennials at Work”, it was found that millennials are often more interested in learning and development, than any other perk at work. 52% of respondents also claimed to prefer a job with progression opportunities over one with a higher salary. Maybe it’s time to think outside the box with your talent development?

Succession Planning

Many practice staff start work in administration roles and work their way up to management and leadership roles over the years. These employees might know a practice inside and out and are without doubt worth their weight in gold - but it should not be assumed that they automatically will make great managers, without any training. Recognising those employees that have the potential to progress within the practice, and investing in them early, will ensure that when they get their time to shine, they are already equipped with the skills to lead their teams with success, establishing more stability for the practice.

Increased Productivity

Most employees want to feel that their employer cares about them. Of course, there are many ways to try and help employees feel appreciated and valued, but not many have the same impact as a company investing in an employee’s future. By providing training for employees, this shows a commitment to their growth and is usually met by the employee being more engaged and therefore working that little bit harder, or more effectively. Employees are more likely to stay focussed and increase performance levels when working towards a goal.

Confidently Manage Change and Conflict

We all know that working in a practice can be chaotic. From the NHS, directions can change in an instant and in the practice, one difficult patient may derail an entire morning! Having the ability to deal with these changes and challenges, having the flexibility in approach and helping the practice team stay on course, are all important skills from the practice leadership team. Learning how to swiftly resettle a team, or deal with conflict directly, can really boost confidence and ensure that situations are dealt with quickly and discreetly. It is much better to learn these skills in a controlled environment, rather than in real life, where you won’t often have the opportunity to try a situation again.

Overall, according to the Journal of Applied Psychology, leadership training increases job performance by 20%, increases leadership behaviours in an individual by 28% and subordinate performance increases by 8%. It really is beneficial and something we should all make time for - for ourselves and for our people.

Leadership training is putting money back into your practice: take a look at our upcoming Thornfields and ILM courses here.