I often come across Chief Executives and Business Leaders who are prepared to spend great amounts of money to maintain the technological advantage over competitors but do not feel able to commit the same amount to the development of their people. All too often the cry is ” Our people are our greatest asset” and yet everything that happens within an organisation goes against that mantra. Scant rewards, little engagement, no recognition eventually leads to someone moving on with a view to improving their lot. Well that’s a years wages down the pan to recruit train and develop a successor according to Price Waterhouse Coopers. That is without looking at the competitive positives that come with that employee in the new organisation.

Loyalty is a word that springs to mind. Loyal customers are vital and loyal employees bring similar rewards. They don’t require initial training, they spot opportunities, they understand the business, they know how to service customer needs and they know each other and all those benefits come without a bill!

Now should one of them leave and join a competitor what will go with them? Their knowledge of the organisation and the way it works will disappear, their experience and their training even perhaps their customers will all go! The gaining organisation wins hands down by investing in them and their future contemporaries.

Now lets invest some time with employees meeting  and matching their needs, engaging with them, leading them properly, empowering them to greater productivity and rewarding them appropriately with well thought out rewards. Suddenly people will enjoy work. They will strive for future organisational success and  ignore that other offer. With a little bit of investment staff will be content and happy to work with a caring and progressive organisation. When you work for one of those organisations you don’t want to work for anybody else.

I am frequently asked and often challenged by being asked “Can leadership really be learned?” In response to my reply that it can be learned I am usually then asked “What about natural leaders then?” In reply I usually ask “What about natural sportsmen and sportswomen?” Given we state quite clearly our definition of leadership is ”the ability to influence and motivate others to perform successfully and achieve” then we are considering leadership as an ability which, in turn, implies understanding, knowledge and skill are required to be able to exercise the ability to full effect. Even the most talented and skilled sports people, speakers, artisans, practitioners of whatever kind undergo some level of training and development, no matter what degree of innate talent they posses. Similarly, all who participate in such activities at whatever level usually require teaching and or training to some extent. The one thing I do caveat my reply to the initial question is simply this; a potential leader needs to want to be a leader. Try teaching someone who doesn’t want to play football the skills of the game – it doesn’t work well at all and they tend to avoid playing the game by fair means or foul (no pun intended). The same is true for leadership. The surest route to poor leadership and the harm it does is to promote people to leadership positions they don’t want , the problems this causes can be multiplied significantly by not training them appropriately. My question to many of the HR directors, MDs, CEOs and business owners of this world is simply “Why do you do it?”. In anticipation, I would add; the desire for more income is not the same thing as the desire to lead. Leadership can be learned and it is easiest learned and best applied by those who do want to lead.