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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check Wally's Three Star Leadership Letter

Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.

Find out more about Wally's coaching services.

It doesn't matter if it's gardening or hockey or cooking or riding a bike or leadership, human beings can only learn a little bit from books and classes. Then we've got to get out and try things.

Over the years, I've asked hundreds of leaders how they learned to lead. Some mention challenging assignments. Others point to critical incidents from their youth. Still others tell me about great bosses they worked for or mentors who helped them.

They rarely talk about books or classes or schools. And, when they do, they get right to the ways they applied the idea or skill that they picked up in class.

How leaders learn naturally

That's how leaders develop naturally. They try things and learn from results.

If you want to develop more quality leaders in your organization, you need to develop leaders the natural way. You need to help them make wise choices about what to try. You need to give them the opportunity to learn by doing. And you need to accelerate their development by providing good feedback.

Help them make wise choices

Damon Runyon said, "The race may not always be to the swift, nor victory to the strong, but that's the way to bet." The thinking part of leadership is figuring out how to bet.

Training can help

Training can introduce leaders to basic skills. The best leadership training gives participants an opportunity to try new a limited number of specific techniques in a safe and monitored environment.

In most companies that are known for leadership development, training serves three other functions. If all leaders receive the same basic training in subjects like problem solving they develop a pool of common definitions and assumptions that streamlines many processes.

Training sessions involve leaders from different parts of the company. Leaders develop relationships during training that help them when they're back on the job.

And, perhaps most importantly, in great leadership development companies, training is the carrier of culture. This is where everyone learns the important company values and behavioral norms.

Role models set the example

Role models show the way when there's no one to ask. The most common and potent role models are often a person's first boss.

If you want your new leaders to develop good role models, start by making sure that the "first bosses" in your company are great leaders. Then use training to help new leaders identify and use role models.

Mentors are spirit guides

Many mythologies tell of "spirit guides" who help the hero of the story navigate the Enchanted Forest. Spirit guides tell the hero about trials he or she will encounter and what to do.

Mentors are the spirit guides for their protégés. They describe the forest to developing leaders and help them meet the challenges they will face.

Because the best mentoring relationships develop naturally, assigning mentors is a half-measure at best. Instead reward the leaders who willingly, enthusiastically and effectively assume the mentoring role.

Don't stop there. Teach new leaders how to approach a possible mentor. Teach the mentors how to handle requests.

Help them learn by doing

A developing leader can't learn to do a task by reading a book or going to class. He or she has to get out and try things. The job of the leadership development program is to make that trying effective.

Developmental assignments are the core of leadership development. These can be temporary or permanent.

Deliberate practice is the model. To accelerate learning help the developing leader understand and use a cycle of planning-action-feedback-adjustment. He or she should choose a specific behavior to improve and an easy way to measure performance.

Help them by providing feedback

Feedback really is the breakfast of champions. Just trying something is not enough. Feedback gives you the way to turn experience and practice into improved performance.

Teach developing leaders how to critique their own performance. New leaders should develop the habit of self-critique early in their career.

Provide for peer support and critique. Peer support groups can help the new leader make wise choices. The group can provide wise and experienced feedback, too.

Make helpful feedback part of the job of the boss. This should be a core function of every boss, but in many organizations leaders are not held accountable for how well they develop their people.

Make leadership development part of every boss's job. Tie it to pay and preferment.

Keep it real and effective

The most effective leadership development programs build on the natural way that leaders master their craft. They provide tools and support to help set good habits early and wring the maximum value out of experience.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.