Dr Naveen Nishchal Chairman – Voice of Healthcare Co-Founder – Meddo, Co-Founder – Cygnus Hospitals

All successful companies in the world have one common thing – they are helmed by visionary leaders. Ironically, the education system of India does not teach about the importance and ways to inculcate Leadership Skills. Beyond academics, we get bound to reach out looking for directions, help and handholding to gradually get into the nitty-gritty of leadership that is required to reach the top level of organizational hierarchy within our company.

What Leaders must possess Few major attributing factors that leader must have are-ensuring the growth of team members along with the growth of the organization, dig out the hidden talents of colleagues and provide a platform for further growth and to always lead by an example. The leader should posses the ability to understand the team dynamics and ensure an equal representation of ideas from all hierarchical strata of an organization or start-up, in any decision making process. The concept of inclusivity of all is fundamental in keeping team members motivated to their full potential and ensure that efficiency is
always at its peak. Leadership is not about followers- it is about working with others so they may choose to become who they were created to be and to know they can be more than they were just the day before. Leaders are essential for all lines of business in an organisation, especially since leadership and management go hand in hand. When employees in a firm aim to assume leadership roles, they might not be sure about the appropriate course of action. This is where leadership development programmes become important. Candidates who showcase leadership qualities can have an edge over their contemporaries. As the importance and need for suitable leaders are growing, institutes have come forward with courses to help them hone their leadership qualities.

The culture of Incubating leaders
The importance of identifying, recognising, nurturing and finally developing a leader within the organization has greater value as good leaders are critical to the long-term success of the organization. In the market of cut-throat competition, rival and competitive companies adopt an easy way out to hire great leader by the method of poaching. So all of a sudden there may be an unexpected flurry of the exodus of good leaders. It is more so in the healthcare industry whereby a team of Doctors or team of marketing personnel leave the hospital at a time while many of them hold the top positions. So this mass exodus usually causes many difficulties for those who cannot create a strong pipeline of leadership talent. Since leadership has an important roleplay and put a large impact on the entirety of a hospital, having another downline or alternate option to fil into the shoes is essential. Thus, the importance of leadership development is the utmost for human resources leaders. The one important factor which stands between victory and defeat is Good Leadership Skills. So who wouldn’t wish to create a culture within an organization that promotes leadership, rather than hiring a leader from outside, thereby open doors to success. In fact, this should be the top priority of any leader of a company.

5 Reasons why Leadership Development is important

Recognition
In a study conducted by Quantumlearn, 88% of people responded by saying that recognition is equally important as financial rewards. It clearly indicates that topline leaders that value and incubate positive culture bring remarkable long term benefit for the organization.

Driver of Productivity and Job satisfaction-
Employees at work thrive for effective leadership as the second top reason behind job satisfaction. Thus it is the responsibility of the company promoters to place a well-trained leader who can drive happiness while increasing productivity.

Driver of Focus and agility-
In the US, more than half of the downline employees are disengaged and confused at work. It is always the duty and responsibility of the leader to inculcate a sense of purpose and recognition and keep them engaged. There are practical results to show that this reflects the overall company performance and visible profitable returns. Display to stable profit in periodic P & L statement is an obvious goal for any company, so this point further emphasizes the magnitude of leadership development.

Culture of Innovation-
How frequently do we evaluate and try to make alignment between the Culture of Innovation and leadership initiative for the same in our organization? There are studies to show that leadership development has a huge impact on organization success routed through innovative culture.

Drive strategy execution.
Effective leadership development isn’t development for its own sake. Organizations need a leadership strategy that closely connects with the business strategy and equips employees with the leadership skills needed to implement it. Leadership the development allows organizations to shape the culture and strategy of the business. In the words of The Conference Board: “Leadership development has enormous power in both shaping
and changing the culture and strategy of business.”

Role of executive education program
We all have some leadership quality within ourselves, but it remains dormant due to many factors like inhibition, fear to lead, lack of sense of ownership, past failure record and the like. An Executive development programme includes the actions by which executives learn to develop their behaviour and the level of working. Development means not to provide the basic knowledge to the employees of the work but to provide the necessary conditions and environment for their improvement to evolve as a leader. Sometimes as leader, you are taking some decisions on the basis of your experience but you also don’t know whether these decisions are right or wrong but when you attend a program where you learn the rationale, yes- I took the right decision on a particular moment and sometimes you are taking wrong ones. These programs are designed to tell you what is right and what is wrong.
You not only learn from faculty but your peer group also helps you in shaping as a leader and helps in growing your network as well. A strong leader is characterized by constant evolvement by developing newer skills and self-awareness to influence and inspire those around him. And in today’s increasingly international business environment, you also need to adapt your skills and self-awareness to lead across cultures and borders. An amalgamation of mixed-country delegates and faculty exactly serves this purpose to its core.
You get an environment of like-minded persons and a chance to explore complex issues and learn skills to build a coalition of the willing, attract talent, and lead others to greatness. And at the end of the programme, when you return to your organization, you are a different person altogether- beaming with the knowledge and skills to mobilize your team around a shared vision