A Leadership Training Template to Develop Your Next Generation of Leaders

Great leaders make a massive difference in the fortunes of an organization. They'll inspire high performance, creativity, and a positive, hard-working culture.

In the demanding world of organizational management, leadership isn't a mysterious talent that some people either have or don't have. Instead, it's a teachable skill.

Leadership should not be a hazy concept that some people are just lucky to possess, but a well-defined set of skills and competencies that elevate managers to leaders of people.

Exactly how you define 'leadership' in your company is up to you. But nurturing it must always start with a plan.

But you should not put employees through useless training courses that are out of touch with the realities of their jobs. 

Plus, employees have busy schedules. So any minute away from productive work is a waste for the company, primarily when they don't invest time in getting better at their jobs.

So you must implement strategic training programs that make a difference in how employees do their jobs. Our free leadership training template will make creating a teaching plan for leadership roles fast and easy.

💪 What is a leadership training template?

A leadership training template is an interactive document that helps you plan your organization's training for transforming people into leaders.

It's something you can use for individuals, groups, or teams. 

Using a leadership training template helps you plan the leadership skills you want to teach and understand what it might cost in terms of resources.

❓ Why use a leadership training template?

So you've got an employee who received a promotion to a management position. They might have the technical skills to perform many of the tasks for their role. 

But can you really say they're a leader? 

Will they be able to: 

• inspire their team to perform better, 
• resolve conflicts between employees, 
• trust their subordinates enough to delegate critical work to them?

Rather than figure out an entire curriculum for training leaders, use a template! 

It will massively speed up the process, giving you an asset to use each time you plan someone's step up to leadership.

Being able to customize it is another bonus. 

Rather than making a whole new plan for each employee or group, you can copy the template and remove the parts that aren't relevant to them.

📝 Free template to create a leadership training plan

This leadership training template will help you organize any training program, from the big to the small. 

You can make a copy for each person who starts a leadership position (or wants to begin their journey toward leadership).

It will guide them through the complete leadership education process according to your organizational values and strategies. 

It'll also guide you as a manager through their progress, helping you understand how they're doing, how much of their time it'll take, and the approximate cost.

This free leadership template is flexible so you can customize it for your organization.

You can also scale it up. By adding columns representing team members or even departments, you can understand how your teams are developing their leadership skills instead of tracking a single person.

💡 Best practices for using the leadership training template

While we've added some leadership training topics to the template to get started, you'll want to customize it depending on your goals, company organization, and resource availability.

Here are our tips for getting the very best out of your leadership training program.

1. Choose which leadership attributes you want to nurture

We recommend using a leadership competency model. You'll break down your training categories by which skill or attribute they'll improve for learners. 

Using a competency model standardizes what it means to be an effective leader in your organization. Hence, everyone ends up on the same page.

We've written more about this in the guide linked above. Still, it involves taking some time to define what's essential for your internal leaders and mapping them out in a framework document. It doesn't have to be huge – it can end up as a simple illustration using only a few words.

The template includes a column for you to note each competency and the program that targets it.

2. Figure out what type of training your organization needs

So you've identified the types of leaders you want to develop. Now it's time to define the skill gaps in your organization.

We recommend using a training needs assessment for this.

It will identify needs on the organizational level, the operational level (task-based technical skills), and the individual level.

It's one of the best ways to figure out where you should allocate resources to get the best out of your people.

Using a systemic approach like this is much more effective than guessing.

You can combine a training needs assessment survey with open-ended discussions about your company goals to see which ones might bring the most benefit.

You could also perform a 360-degree leadership assessment. This is a form of peer review where you seek employee feedback through short questionnaires to identify potential leaders in the workforce. 

It also helps to highlight skill gaps where you need to nurture leaders to their highest potential.

3. Choose the topics you'll train people on

The results of your investigations above can then inform the training topics you want to deliver. 

For example, suppose you've found that your remote-working employees aren't performing well and feel disconnected from their team. In that case, it's an excellent opportunity to increase training in remote management skills or certain types of communication.

Rather than inventing topics from scratch, you could plan out as many training ideas as possible, then filter them down into what you need at this time or for this employee. So, start with a broad base of topics for the best results.

Let's consider some of the leadership training topics you might choose to include:

• Delegation: One of the most critical leadership skills is selecting the right people for the right task. Sometimes that means being humble and handing over the reins to a trusted team member. But it's not just a 'people' skill - it's a technical process that you can learn to do better.
• Conflict resolution: Diplomacy is not particularly easy when things get heated, but managers can do it with a toolkit of social and psychological techniques. This training topic should teach leaders how to step in, calm things down, and find an optimal solution for all parties.
• Ownership: Taking responsibility is a crucial leadership skill. Taking ownership of the losses and wins marks out the best leaders. Accountability and being a role model are the key attributes to build on.
• Time management: Effective leadership doesn't happen if your calendar's a mess. Poor timekeeping, or a tightly-packed schedule falling apart when things get busy, can impact anyone's ability to manage and inspire. Time management training should cover methods for maintaining focus and discipline when things get hectic.

There are plenty more, of course. 

From communication skills to team engagement, negotiation, or giving constructive feedback, a wide range of aptitudes can benefit your organization to differing extents. 

Use the template as you see fit to upskill people on what your organization needs.

4. Identify the resources you have available

You can have a super ambitious program that'll turn anyone into a strong and competent leader – but if there's nobody to deliver it, how will it get done?

All training has a resource cost, so it's essential to answer these questions before finalizing your plan:

• Can you offer the training in-house?
• Do you have qualified, willing, and available people to deliver the training?
• Do you have the equipment and facilities to provide the training?
• Do you have a list of reliable external training partners, and does your budget allow you to use them?

5. Consider how you'll combine it with practical experience

Combining theoretical, i.e., lesson-based learning with practical, on-the-job experience is important. An integrated approach will allow employees to get the most out of their training.

Learning in the flow of work is an alternative to formal training that's easier to fit into the everyday challenges of a busy workplace. As part of your plan, you could list this type of training under the 'format' column as 'informal.'

💡 If you want to experience leadership training in the flow of work, now it's your time. We have created a ready-to-use leadership training course based on the microlearning technique.

Coaching and mentoring are two similar 'on-the-job' methods for leadership training. They can sometimes be better than instructional training in areas like interpersonal communication due to their one-on-one nature. 

Mentors can inspire and educate in real situations, especially if a trainee is shadowing them or helping them with specific tasks. 

But they have a high resource cost, meaning the cost of periodically taking one of your high performers out of the workforce to do this.

👀 To see this philosophy in action, check out our Freeletics case study. We have helped them build a fantastic set of unique methods for turning managers into leaders.

6. Get feedback from key stakeholders

Once your training plan is complete, we recommend sharing the draft with anyone involved in leadership. 

From HR to management to instructors, anyone with a stake in how leaders perform in your company should be able to give helpful feedback. 

Tip: Focus on how realistic and appropriate it is for the company to run a specific leadership training plan.

After that, you'll be good to go – it's time to create a new generation of leaders.

🌱 Develop your next generation of leaders with Zavvy

Training people in leadership skills is crucial for enabling them to do their best work in their roles.

Getting leaders up to speed with what's needed will be much easier with a solid plan, which the above template should help you with.

But don't stop at a few training courses. 

Training should complement employee development. 

Your leaders will improve their skills and knowledge through training, leading to higher productivity, more satisfied customers, and better business results.

You'll want to look at building leadership development plans for your leaders. 

Zavvy will help you enable your leaders and develop their careers, continuing their progress through a customized, goal-based plan.