Do you know why setting and consistent pursuit of fulfillment the right goals of leadership development is so important? What really distinguishes great leaders from those who are doomed to eternal turmoil and tedious overcoming everyday difficulties?

Why do leaders with similar experience and education achieve completely different results in the same organization? The answer is that simple: right goals of leadership development.

That is why today I want to teach you what these goals are and how, in my experience, they should be defined and implemented.

However, before I start, I would like to tell you an interesting thing that I learned about ten years ago. After a long break, I wanted to go back to taking part in chess tournaments and my friend, a grandmaster since 2017, recommended me a few books to help me develop my skills.

In one of them I found something that moved me and that applies to all aspects of development as a leader. In each chess game played by grandmasters, i.e. people with the highest chess skills, both players, practically the entire game, played sometimes for five or six hours, estimate a given position.

By estimating position, it should be understood that each of them looks at the chessboard as a whole. They consider the good and bad sides of a given situation for several hours. And their goal in the next move is to minimally and constantly improve their position in relation to the opponent until they achieve a clear advantage.

Why is this so important? Why did I tell you what I learned while developing my chess skills? Because this positional chess game accurately reflects how you should strive to fulfill your leadership development. I arranged the leadership development goals in order according to which I would like you to focus on the very beginning of the work.

This does not mean, of course, that you should not do anything at the bottom of the list at all. However, I would like you to shift your focus to them later, when you feel comfortable with the preceding goals from the top of the list.

First, focus on the quality of your work. That means exactly: do one thing at a time. I can’t imagine a worse scenario than putting out several fires at the same time. Put in all your energy and resources to solve them step by step. Only then will you avoid just touching the topics instead of providing a solid and reliable solution.

I know from practice that there are situations when it is difficult to apply this method of work. Therefore, point number two is the organization of work. I want you to understand that not all problems require your direct involvement. The situation in which only your side is initiating any activity within your team is very unfavorable for you but also for the whole team.

As a result, you will be extremely burdened and individual members of your team cannot develop their full potential and capabilities while coordinating smaller tasks. You also lose the opportunity to somehow appreciate the potential of individual employees if you do not entrust them with responsibility along with the competence to solve these smaller problems. Their motivation, commitment and confidence will also decrease.

So the next point, number three, is mentoring each member of your team. It is not only your duty as a supervisor but a very profitable investment in people. It will require attention, time and dedication from you. However, if you start working correctly in the previous sections, you will have time and opportunities to develop your employees. Believe me, it is a very comfortable feeling after some time, when you know that you have professionals and leaders on your side who can and want to support you.

To develop people efficiently, you need to focus your attention on active listening. And especially those who are in a lower position than you. It’s number four. One thing in particular has always motivated me. Curiosity about the other person. Listening to my employee, there are always many questions in my head, such as: why does he tell me something, why does he have a different point of view than me or my team, what really made him come to me? What does his body language tell me? And many similar.

Another, fifth point that will help you achieve your leadership development goals is consistency in action. Without consistency in action, you will not be able to go through individual steps and develop any of your skill. If you can make it a habit, your path to full success goes in the right direction. Maybe it will be longer, maybe shorter but the direction will be right and it really counts. A leader is by definition a person who not only shows the direction and inspires people to follow him. He must be with them along the entire length of this road until everyone reaches their common destination.

Number six. Create a far-reaching vision but act smart. You can read the topic about creating a vision to understand why I created a far-reaching vision for my new team and why it was so important. Setting smart goals helps you achieve small success so important every day.

Step number seven. [bctt tweet=” Bet on the development of emotional intelligence and develop your empathy. By entering higher skill levels in your leadership development, self-awareness and the ability to manage your emotions and the emotions of other people will become increasingly important. “]Bet on the development of emotional intelligence and develop your empathy. By entering higher skill levels in your leadership development, self-awareness and the ability to manage your emotions and the emotions of other people will become increasingly important.

Empathy will allow you to predict how your decision or your actions may affect the recipients and strategize accordingly. Like the practice of self-awareness, empathy based on prioritization will also allow you to separate more important information from less important.

And number last one, number eight. Business thinking. Start looking, especially at key topics in a broader perspective. Use helicopter view. Involve your team to analyze each possible scenario together. This is the moment when the business approach comes into play. At this point, practically a large part of energy must already focus on predicting what will happen, studying trends and the market. Especially now, when variability and unpredictability in business is the only constant.