SME Management | Set clear goals for getting the most out of leadership training

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SME owners rarely undergo leadership training. Do they think they have arrived now that they have made several crores of value for themselves? Or, are they thinking there is not much anyone can teach them?

Every business owner, no matter how successful, needs to learn new skills to survive in the turbulent market businesses are competing in. Most in-house corporate learning systems have limited success rate or use because these are made for the past level of business growth. The speed at which businesses are competing today requires new learning systems. The turbulences caused by demonetisation and the pandemic have proven that beyond doubt. Without new skills or leadership behaviours, survival itself will be in question.

Leadership training is thousands of crores of business in India but most of these programmes add no benefit to the recipients. SMEs routinely seek outside help to train their employees at different levels. To get noticed for a promotion, you should show some leadership traits in your current role. So, taking a good leadership-training programme is the first step to find out what skills you have now, and what you will require.

SME managers will require skills needed to motivate and manage their teams, which are normally not taught well in business schools. Discover your unique leadership style to effectively align with the enterprise to manage leaders who have varied leadership styles. The pandemic has brought up some new aspects of leadership that were not prominent till then: empathy, psychological safety and well-being.

Whatever leadership training you undertake, here are a few things you need to learn from it. First, find out your leadership style (if you already know that, learn what to add to it). What defines you as a leader? According to experts, there are 13 leadership styles: autocratic or authoritative, affiliative, bureaucratic, coaching, democratic or facilitative, delegative, emergent, pace-setting, servant, strategic, transactional, transformational and visionary. Where do you fit in? Remember that there is no single style that will guarantee success in isolation. Depending on your business, teams and situation, different leadership styles will find the desired results. Within the same enterprise, leadership team members will have very different styles. Different styles will be needed for specific situations. Getting to know your leadership style early will help in many ways.

Next, learn how one can manage uncomfortable situations. From firing someone to confronting someone highly political within the enterprise, SME leaders have many such challenges. Such situations are hard mainly because there is conflict or some sort of misalignment. Ignoring such situations will normally backfire later. A training session should help you with the right resources to address this critical situation. Whether it is to have a rational conversation, nurture empathy, use critical thinking or manage emotions, do learn what all are possible, and how.

Research says that around 25 percent of a manager’s time is spent on managing conflicts. Learning how to manage this is a critical need for leaders, then. Any area of business can cause a conflict that can disrupt normal work – and it is not just confined to office. Learn to identify the conflict and have the foresight to resolve it early. The training programme should teach how to do this well. Especially when as many as 75 percent of SME managers have never received adequate training in this area.

Building relationships within teams is another critical learning you must get from training. Many SME owners feel they don’t need the love of their employees, but great teams need an engaging leader who has the ability to build working relationships amongst team members. Teams with good employee engagement have 45 percent fewer quality defects and 38 percent less absenteeism – both critical for SMEs. Learn how to share more self-anecdotes, relevant or contextual, during meetings. Learn also how to express gratitude and hold team-building workshops.

The fifth goal should be something the pandemic has brought to sharp focus: agility and adaptability. If there is one critical skill SME leaders need for managing the uncertain future, it is the ability to quickly manage change. As we have witnessed, how very few SMEs had quickly mitigated the harsh effects of lockdowns! Roughly right and quick to market, instead of precise but slow, is the new rule. Learn from the training how to request for resources, how to go out of your comfort zone and take quick decisions, how to take responsibility for change and how you can walk the talk on agility.

I can narrate many more skills that can be the goals for a leadership training programme, but I will limit to one last goal that is critical in today’s workplaces where wellbeing is a major demand by the new-age workforce. Building psychological safety is a skill every SME leader must have.  Eliminating or minimising toxic management practices at workplaces and building a positive and safe environment for all team members are essential for success.  Start building an environment for individuals to thrive, learn, contribute and challenge leaders in a positive manner.