Why all employees need leadership training

In most companies, leadership training is a preserve for section heads. However, all employees need leadership skills.
According to Moses Engwau, cofounder and managing director of Business Development Centre, leadership training is essential to every worker at office.
He says for business to triumph, the leadership in it has to be very good and everyone in the company can pull this off well if they have been trained.
“As long as there is no leadership in a business, the company may digress or regress depending on how the few leaders can handle crises,” says Engwau.

The gaps
Engwau, who is also a TRAIN initiative coach, says due to lack of a leadership model in some companies, there are scenarios where leaders of the company know where they want to go but the rest of the team has no idea and all they do is follow the others, which makes them lose sight of the future.
“When team members have no leadership skills, they feel less engaged in the company issues and this may make them more dependent on the leaders who are not in position to handle the pressure that comes from each employee,” says Engwau.
TRAIN initiative is a John Maxwell Coaches leadership campaign recently launched in Kampala by Solutions Africa, to train organisations in leadership.

The limits
Engwau, however, says employees should know where that skill should be applied and they should not try to over shadow their boss.
Primrose Kiberu, an Associate Coach at Solutions Africa, says: “Servant leadership starts with leaders who directly work with the people in organisations. It is these team leaders who when they learn the principles of servant leadership, definitely pass them on to the teams.”
She, however, points out the importance of individual personal growth of those not in leadership positions.
“We believe everyone has something unique about them, which when well nurtured, makes them potential leaders. It is, therefore, important to open up space to train employees too.”
Deogratious Okou, senior human resource manager at Educate, Uganda, says when employees are given leadership training, they will see how much their individual efforts are helping the company to grow and also see the growth in themselves basing on output.
He further says when you equip your staff, with time you will not need to bring an external expatriate to train new employees because the old ones are able to train them.

Hidden talent
More to that, he says when everyone has leadership capability, the output produced by the company will be excellent because all the work was done effortlessly without anyone being pushed.
Karen Irene Echelai, an administrator at QG group, says with leadership, great teams are built and these do not only attract talent but also help build community ground around teams.
She says with leadership, there is vision and vision is very powerful but only seen in leaders that have taken their time to help their team see the future and they have engaged them through the trainings.
She says there are moments when you need everyone to be a leader if something is to be accomplished on time but if you have only dependants who are waiting for instructions, it delays work.