Why Leadership Development is Critical for Onboarding in a Remote World

In a world where companies are readjusting and re-evaluating how to lead remotely as well as maintain their company’s culture from a distance, the need to provide leadership development training as part of an employee’s onboarding could mean the difference between their success and failure.

 

A 2015 MRI Network, Recruiter Sentiment Survey, suggested that employees are ten times more likely to leave a company in year one than in year five. The reasons for an employee leaving within the first year are often the result of the employee not feeling a connection to the culture of the organization or dissatisfaction with what they expected to be doing and what they were actually doing.

 

There is a simple and often overlooked solution to address early turnover and reduce the high costs that are incurred in replacing lost employees. It involves introducing various leadership training as part of the onboarding process.

 

It is often said that leadership does not reside in a title. Yet, If this has become such a widely accepted observation, why is it that most organizations wait until an individual has acquired a title before they begin to develop them as a leader?

 

On the subject of leadership, Dolly Parton once said, “if your actions inspire someone to do more, to dream more, to learn more, or to become more, you are a leader”.  If organizations were to adopt this definition of leadership, it would make sense to develop an onboarding system that identified and developed leadership behaviors for new hires.

 

You may be reading this and saying to yourself, “that sounds great but how can it be accomplished?” The answer is to identify a set of behaviors that can be identified and developed at the time the employee is brought onboard.

 

This is not to be confused with presenting the company’s mission, vision or value statements to employees. This is more foundational and actually provides the opportunity for employees to fully embrace whatever mission, vision and values are stated for the organization.

To make it easier for new hires to identify and develop a set of effective leadership behaviors, the organization could start with an acronym called CABLES: Congruence, Appreciation, Being for Others, Listening, Empathy and Specifics.  New hires could be instructed that each one of these behaviors was intended to help them develop a stronger relationship bridge with their new counterparts, one cable at a time. They could be outlined as follows:

• Congruence– The first behavior to introduce would be the impact of congruence and consistency on developing trust and engagement. Employees would discuss the importance of ensuring that one’s words and actions remain in alignment. Introducing this behavior would hopefully demonstrate the organization’s commitment to what its stated mission, vision, and values are and encourage new hires to make sure individuals at all levels of the organization were in alignment.

 

• Appreciation- The next behavior would stress the importance of appreciating diversity as well as appreciating other’s contributions. First employees would be exposed to the negative impact unconscious biases have on relationships and performance of fellow employees.  New hires would be presented with situations that showed how, oftentimes, how they perceive someone is not often accurate and can negatively impact the performance and the relationship with those employees when not understood.  The second part of appreciation would involve helping new hires recognize the impact that recognition of performance has on future performance.  Just because “that’s what someone is paid to do” doesn’t mean that there is not a need to be recognized for that effort.  Recognizing people’s accomplishments remotely and on calls still holds tremendous value.

 

• Be for others- The third behavior involves contribution and connection. When new hires are exposed to the impact that contribution has on the relationships of those they work with as well as the health of the organization, motivation and engagement are enhanced.  A strategy that is often mentioned by Gary Vaynerchuck of Vayner Media, is the 51% rule, which encourages an individual to approach any interaction with the intention of providing 51% of the value.  When that happens, you are always giving a little more than you receive.  As part of this behavior, the ability of a leader to create an environment of belongingness is critical.  We essentially are pack animals.  As such we need each other for survival.  This becomes even more important in a remote working environment.

 

• Listening- The fourth behavior is around listening and its impact on healthy relationships and team engagement. Helping new hires identify effective ways to listen and be aware of others’ verbal and non-verbal signals, helps build trusting relationships. Lack of genuine listening makes for an unstable relationship bridge. In a remote setting, listening takes on greater importance. Helping people develop this skill right at the beginning will create an environment of greater communication.

 

• Empathy- Helping new hires identify and understand the impact that empathy provides to the individual and team effectiveness is vital. The ability to demonstrate that you are sincerely attempting to see things from another person’s perspective creates an engineering highpoint in the construction of a strong relationship bridge. Great distances can be spanned when we use empathy in building a stronger connection. Many people are dealing with grief that has often been unaddressed. The loss of autonomy, milestone events, and the elimination of social outlets all have an impact on our wellbeing and need to be recognized. Helping individuals develop empathy will help teams support each other as the environment continues to change.

 

• Specifics- Helping new hires understand the importance of setting clear expectations is important if an organization is trying to improve communication. When employees are able to identify and develop procedures for establishing clear expectations, for themselves and others, they are able to communicate on a higher level.  Helping new hires understand the impact and ability they have to set and request clear direction from others will help to increase collaboration and a team’s effectiveness.

 

Your new hires are the engineers, architects, and builders of the relationships they will develop within the organization. When they are provided with the opportunity to identify and develop leadership behaviors, like CABLES, the entire organization benefits.  Employees that are introduced to these types of behaviors, in the beginning, are better equipped to navigate the different personalities and communications that they will face down the road.

What kind of bridge has your organization built to bring people onboard?

Patrick Veroneau is the CEO of Emery Leadership Group and the host of the podcast Learning from Leaders.  He is the creator of the CABLES Leadership development model that has impacted thousands of individuals, by helping them identify the behaviors that will inspire, empower, and compel others to follow their lead.  He is obsessed with finding better ways to help those around him to rise above their best.  He can be reached at Patrick  or you can schedule an exploratory call with him here.