This blog shares six practical ways to help you develop leadership skills in your teams, especially when you’re promoting capable people into leadership roles for the first time.
In many businesses, owners like yourself tend to promote people into leadership roles because they’re good at the job.
They understand the work. They know the systems. They deliver consistent results. They probably also have a good attitude and generally act as the kind of person your company wants to reward.
However, strong technical skills don’t always translate into good leadership. In fact, in many cases, a newly promoted team leader may have little to no managerial understanding at all. Managing people is, after all, quite a leap from a position where someone hasn’t had that kind of responsibility before.
So, it makes sense that people who are new to leadership often struggle with communication, confidence or overseeing other people’s work alongside their own. Without support, both the individual and the team can feel the pressure.
Developing their leadership skills will help bridge that gap and support a smoother transition into their new role. Below are six practical ways to help you develop leadership skills in your teams, especially when you’re promoting capable people into leadership roles for the first time.
#1 Set clear, early expectations
Developing your team’s leadership skills starts with clarity. Your people need to understand what leadership looks like, especially in the context of your business, before they can work towards it.
That means being clear about responsibilities, behaviours and boundaries. If someone is stepping into a supervisory or team leader role, explain what’s expected of them beyond their technical work.
Not defining expectations means leaving someone to try to understand what leadership looks like for themselves. Immediately, you risk them straying from your business policies and goals.
#2 Give people actual responsibility, not just a title
Look for opportunities to let people take ownership. This could involve leading a small project, mentoring a new starter or acting as a point of contact for a task or area. These experiences allow individuals to practice leadership in manageable steps.
If someone is called the team leader, but their role isn’t actually any different to the team members they manage, they may feel unmotivated or underappreciated, while the rest of their team may feel some tension towards them. That’s a recipe for an unhealthy workplace.
#3 Encourage open communication
Good leadership depends on communication. So, encourage your emerging leaders to speak openly with their teams, ask questions when they’re unsure, and seek feedback on how they’re doing.
You can support this by creating regular opportunities for two-way conversations. Check-ins, team debriefs or even informal catch-ups can all help build their confidence in communicating. Make it normal to talk about what’s going well and what could improve.
If your new leaders feel they can’t speak up or ask for help, they’re more likely to make avoidable mistakes or quietly struggle on their own. Neither of those outcomes is helpful for them or your business.
#4 Provide regular feedback and support
Respectful and constructive feedback is the fastest way to shape someone into the kind of leader your business needs. Recognising what someone does well is just as important as addressing areas for improvement. So, make time to discuss specific situations they’ve handled.
What went well? What could they have approached differently?
This kind of targeted feedback is far more valuable than generic praise or criticism.
Remember, feedback works both ways. Ask them how they’re finding the role and what support they need from you. Sometimes new leaders struggle but don’t feel comfortable saying so. Creating space for honest dialogue shows you’re invested in their success and helps you identify areas where they might need additional training or mentoring.
#5 Allow room for mistakes and learning
Leadership skills develop through experience. It often includes making mistakes.
Creating a nurturing environment where learning is encouraged will help your people grow into leadership roles in a more organic way.
When something doesn’t go to plan, treat it as a learning opportunity rather than a failure. Discuss what happened, what they could do differently, and what they can take forward for next time.
This isn’t to say that mistakes should be encouraged, of course. But all too often, many leaders worry that making just one mistake could put their job under threat. As such, they become too afraid to make decisions, which can harm the productivity and morale of their team.
#6 Lead consistently from the top
Leadership development works best when your senior staff model the behaviours they expect to see. When your directors and senior-level managers communicate clearly, act fairly and take responsibility, others follow suit. So, you and your team, at the top of your business, should form a stable foundation that lays the standard for everyone else.
How can HWGTA help?
Developing leadership skills within your team takes time and structure. Day-to-day experience plays a big role, but structured learning brings consistency and confidence to that process.
At HWGTA, leadership development forms part of our wider commitment to improving skills across Herefordshire and Worcestershire. We work with employers to support leadership development through structured training, including ILM-accredited leadership and management courses.
If you want to develop your team’s leadership skills, ILM training from HWGTA can reinforce what already happens in your workplace. Get in touch with our specialist team to explore how our ILM training and apprenticeships can support your team’s leadership development, both now and into the future.