No matter your role, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day job functions and focus only on the urgent and immediate tasks—but, as a leader, you can’t forget about planning for the future. Developing leadership capacity should be a focus area of every company. But we know that when you’re running hard, it’s difficult to devote limited time and resources to a forward-thinking task. That’s why fostering a coaching culture is vital to your organization’s overall impact as it’ll give you the clarity needed to see your people as a top priority.

In this article, we’ll cover the five core areas of leadership capacity to help your organization intentionally develop its leaders and best position itself for future opportunities—while fulfilling its vision along the way.  

 5 Key Areas of Leadership Capacity

• Talent Management. Some organizations have entire departments built around recruitment and retention, but some smaller organizations dedicate very little time and attention to this organizational function. The first step in growing your talent management efforts is to implement a system—some sort of Human Resources or applicant tracking software to bring order to your talent process. Not only will a system provide a foundation for growth but it will also provide documentation needed for legal requirements in recruiting and hiring. To ready your organization for growth, you should be actively sourcing candidates and conducting informational calls with inquiries. Talent management is a key component of leadership capacity and will allow leaders to seize new opportunities.

• Leadership Development. At Building Champions, we have a proven framework for leadership development that includes self-leadership, team effectiveness and organizational impact—all three areas working together. And as you’ve probably heard us say before, self-leadership always precedes team leadership. So, for a team to be performing effectively and positively impacting their organization, self-leadership needs to be prioritized. So, as a leader, are you leading yourself well? And are you encouraging your teammates to do the same? In doing so, you’ll find a team of engaged and thriving people who are not only doing their best work, but also growing in their capacity to lead. Self-leadership can’t be neglected as it’s key for healthy leadership.

• Coaching Culture. Research shows that 74% of leaders in the United States and 83% of global leaders in senior-level roles say they felt unprepared for the challenges they faced. And some of that may be unpreventable because leadership (and life) can be unpredictable (as life often throws unprecedented curveballs faster than we think we can catch). But some of those challenges may very well have been preventable—and that’s where training and development comes into play. If you leave the old management models behind and work on becoming a coaching leader, you’ll engage your employees as whole people. Not only will this coaching style of management foster authenticity and connectedness but it will also attract and retain your top talent. Building a coaching culture is a worthwhile effort because the return on your investment of time will be great—and you’ll develop your future leaders in the process.  

• Succession Planning. Data from a global survey by Harvard Business Review revealed that 53% of organizations do not have a succession plan for their CEO and 41% don’t even have regular discussions about CEO succession. This is a major problem. If a CEO leaves the organization (for whatever reason), there should be an internal employee equipped to either step into the role or stand in the gap while a new CEO search is conducted. You should always have a contingency plan. If you’re looking for more information on succession planning, check out our recent blog for Your Guide to Leadership Succession Planning. 

• Limiting Organizational Bias. The sad truth is that everyone has a bias—but that doesn’t mean that we have to live and lead with that bias. You can work toward uprooting organizational bias in many ways. When it’s time to make an important decision, seek varying and differing perspectives from a wide variety of sources. To help limit bias, you’ll need to ask people from many different departments and many different roles—and, when appropriate, seek insight from people outside of your organization. They can help you discern blind spots so that you can make the most informed decision you can. An effort toward lifelong learning is another way to limit organizational bias. Education is integral to a widened perspective. Another area to focus on when combatting bias is visibility. Don’t silo data points. Transparency is important because it naturally invites questions—and healthy dialogue.

We believe the number one lever you can pull to improve employee engagement and increase retention efforts is to transform your managers into coaching leaders. By coaching the whole person, you’ll engage your employees and develop a dynamic culture that attracts and retains top talent. We’d be happy to walk with you through one of our many coaching journeys to help you develop leadership capacity in your organization and create a coaching culture on your team. But another great option toward learning about coaching leadership is through our Becoming a Coaching Leader digital course. It’s a great investment in yourself and in your teammates.