Why Leadership Development Is Key to Employee Retention

As a leader, you have a direct and personal influence on employee retention. It starts with creating a culture that fosters trust, accountability, and authenticity – where it’s clear to employees that they are valued as people and not just workers. When employees feel seen and supported, they’re more likely to stay.

One of the important keys to retention is when employees feel engaged with their work, coworkers, and organization. 

How to improve employee engagement

What keeps employees engaged? Feeling valued, recognized, and respected. Having clear paths for growth. And being trusted with flexibility and work-life balance. Here are some ways to foster engagement.

• Establish regular check-ins where employees can get feedback, share insights, and talk about their career goals.
• Recognize wins and achievements, whether it’s a shout-out in a team meeting, a handwritten note, or a company award. 
• Support growth by offering funding courses, training, or professional development. 
• Promote cross-functional collaboration to expand employees’ knowledge base and expose them to new opportunities within the organization.
• Encourage well-being through scheduling flexibility, mental health days, or peer support.

What makes a good manager?

There’s a popular belief that leadership is an innate quality – you’ve either got it, or you don’t. But that doesn’t align with the latest thinking among HR professionals. 

“Leadership is much more broad than we ever imagined. Anybody can lead if they learn how to tap into their unique authentic strengths.”

- Victoria Tankersley, global director of learning and development, at Strategic Education, Inc

Her colleague Sammy Duff, vice president of talent development at Strategic Education, agrees: “Certainly there are folks who are more naturally good at it. But if you have the will and the desire and the right coaching and support, I think you can learn a lot of the most important leadership skills.”

Key leadership skills for better employee retention

What are the most valuable leadership skills that managers need to develop? Or, to put it another way, what are the qualities of a good manager? Crucial leadership skills include:

• Setting clear expectations
• Decision-making
• Accountability
• Delegation
• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Strategic thinking
• Motivation
• Consistent communication

All of those are important to effective leadership and can be implemented by leaders with differing leadership styles. Experts Tankersley and Duff highlighted some lesser-known skills that may be just as impactful: 

Situational leadership. “A leader’s success is extremely dependent on their local context – what that team needs and what their strengths are,” Tankersley explains. When leaders are ineffective, it’s often because of an inability to adapt to the specific circumstances and people involved.  

This includes recognizing what each individual employee needs from their leader. “Part of it is just getting to know people as humans and understand what makes them tick vs. taking a blanket approach,” says Duff. “It also gets at things that people don't often think about, like how recognition, praise, and attention can be more important than feedback,” Tankersley adds.

Being focused on others. “A self-orientation holds a lot of leaders back,” remarks Tankersley. Duff adds: “A lot of leaders get confused that it's about them vs. about the team. When you have that kind of mindset, you think ‘I gotta fix them or fix this situation’ instead of listening, asking questions, and empowering people to solve their own problems.” 

Tankersley adds: “I think it all starts with trust and psychological safety. You need to be credible, reliable, and not have your ego in the mix.”

Emotional intelligence. In business and leadership circles, there’s a growing appreciation for the ability to understand and manage emotions. It involves self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation, and social skills. And it is crucial to leadership qualities such as communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, and decision-making. 

“Leadership is often less about what you do and more about who you are,” says Tankersley. “If you can't manage your own triggers; if you can't manage your own assumptions about people; if you haven’t worked through your own stuff... you’re never going to be able to lead people effectively.” 

How to develop leadership skills 

Building leadership skills takes a multifaceted approach. Tankersley highlights the importance of mentorship: “It's finding someone who is a good leader, who you trust enough to be vulnerable with and who is willing to coach and challenge and develop you.”

“Like any other skill, you learn by doing. You can learn from others through coaching, mentoring, listening to great leaders as teachers, and of course leadership programs – I think leadership programs have a big role in it.”

-Sammy Duff, vice president of talent development at Strategic Education

Education programs for leaders

In your quest for continued growth as a manager, leadership development programs can play an important role. In addition to formalized instruction, the most effective leadership training for managers includes the elements we’ve already mentioned – mentoring, coaching, peer support, and more. 

There are many examples of high-quality programs, but Tankersley singles out one program in particular: “I cannot overstate the value of the Jack Welch Management Institute MBA. That's where I came across situational leadership as a concept. It has a network of peers to be able to talk about people in other industries, how they're applying things.”

“The self-reflection piece is huge,” agrees Duff. “The Jack Welch program has that built into it.”

Finding the right leadership development program for you

With different leadership styles comes many types of programs, skills, and leadership training courses – including an impressive range of options available through Workforce Edge. But how do you know which one is right for you and your professional development goals? 

“Have conversations with your network about what you want, what you are trying to achieve,” recommends Duff. “Whenever I engage my network, I always learn something new.”

“From a learning design standpoint,” says Tankersley, “I’d suggest a program that has embedded a significant amount of practice and application. A program that's not just theory.”

What type of leader are you? What type of leader do you want to be?

Whether you’re already a skilled manager who inspires and motivates your team, or you’re feeling less-than-confident about your ability to keep employees engaged, there’s good news: you can always improve. You might not think your role has an effect on employee retention, but in reality, a dynamic leader is priceless.

With leadership development programs available through Workforce Edge, you have multiple pathways to becoming the leader you want to be. If you’re ready to explore leadership programs and degree options, contact us to learn more.