By Teresa Moravek

One of the greatest challenges small business owners face is creating an organization beyond their own strengths and limitations. As a company expands, it's likely that the size and abilities of the team will need to grow as well. Repeated studies show that organizations that invest in the development of their leaders consistently outperform those that do not. How can the human capital of a small business be leveraged to build a team of leaders necessary to take the organization to the next level?

Define Your Needs
It is important in the early stages of any business to define and agree on the type of leadership required for the specific mission of the company. There are core leadership competencies that all business leaders need, such as communication, strategic thinking and team building. In addition to a set of core competencies, there are certain characteristics that correlate to the uniqueness of an organization's needs. Many variables affect leadership needs, including the stage of business and growth rate, as well as industry and market opportunities and threats.

Assessing and Aligning Talent
Talent alignment is a necessary step in determining the gaps between what is needed for organizational expansion and what is already in place. Depending on the current size and structure of the business, the process might begin with the owner. Ownership mentality can be a potential handicap. It can make control freaks out of the best and worst leaders. The natural tendency, particularly inherent to start-ups, is: "We created the baby, and we want to maintain control of it." That attitude can be debilitating to the growth and effectiveness of the business.

All owners should look candidly at how to best position their strengths. For some, it's retaining the entrepreneurial bent, while for others, it's leading people, business development or operations. Leadership competency assessment tools, including a 360-degree profile, can show strengths, as well as needed areas of improvement.

Begin by looking at optimal performers within the company. What are their backgrounds, experiences and educational levels? What do they behaviorally and cognitively do that makes them successful? Looking at common denominators makes it easier to further refine the organizational competencies and to identify and develop specific competencies for each position. Once the organization understands what it needs from its leaders to be most effective, talent can be discovered and developed.

Leadership Development
Business owners have two options: hire talent or develop it. The ideal approach includes both. Here's the conundrum: If a company's staffing budget is tight, hiring top talent may not be feasible. If the employee development budget is limited, pouring resources into training, development and coaching may be equally challenging.

After identifying the organizational and positional competencies, as well as the leadership strengths and gaps, the team can launch a development program with two to five top leaders. This approach is more economical and it allows the process to be worked out incrementally. These leaders can champion the process to the remainder of the organization. With the help of a professional, they can be used to coach and also to train other internal coaches.

The program and results can be used as a competitive recruitment and retention tactic. It can be touted to attract talent that might otherwise be attracted to larger organizations. The information should be published and proclaimed externally to the media and prospective employees, as well as promoted internally.

Owners should demonstrate to the emerging leaders and all internal stakeholders that they are building leadership talent for the organization, as well as enhancing the future career resiliency of those leaders.

Leadership Training
Where does it begin? Identify those performers with both the desire and ability to lead. Look at their leadership strengths and areas of improvement. Create a professional leadership development plan to capitalize on and enhance those areas. Plug the leaders into growth opportunities and projects within the organization that will allow them to use their identified strengths and development areas. Depending on the bench talent of the organization, they might be paired with another leader who can be a mentor or sounding board during the project.

If funds are available, secure a development professional who can take an objective look at each emerging leader's areas of development and assist with growth through behavioral and cognitive activities that can be worked on and measured over several months. Creating leaders usually doesn't happen by accident. It involves a structured process that even small businesses can leverage today to create tomorrow's leaders.

Teresa Moravek is the owner and president of Performance Partners Inc., a professional development and coaching organization that assists business owners, leaders and high performers with career and organizational strategies. She can be reached at (913) 488-3619 or .