Modern Leadership Development In a Changing World
Global business is arguably on the cusp of the greatest period of transformation since the First Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s and early 1800s. “Industry 4.0” is presenting many challenges and opportunities. Organizations with the relevant leadership development will thrive and emerge as leading players in their sectors.
According to a study carried out by Grant Thornton in 2019, respondents identified three major sources of disruptors. One: 42% of respondents suggested the rise of a digitally connected world; two: 40% cited artificial intelligence and big data; three: 35% predicted major disruption as a result of an increasing use of automation and robotics.
To be relevant for the next decade, directors of leadership development have to embrace transformations in every area of training and executive education. Business will be changing and leadership development needs to change with it. In a survey of CEO’s by Fortune magazine, only 7 percent said that they believe their companies were building effective global leaders and only 10% believed that their leadership development initiatives had a clear business impact.
To better prepare leaders for the future we must teach them new leadership behaviors such as resilience, leading change, agility, virtual leadership, and cognitive flexibility among others.
Here are eight areas to distinguish leadership development today from that in the past:
Focus on Applying and Sustaining Behaviors:
For too long leadership development has been approached as a one-and-done experience. Many programs take new managers, push them through an organization’s “academy,” and then send them out into the world. These recently trained managers receive very sporadic supervision, perhaps with a 360 or engagement survey. But that is not enough to sustaining knowledge in the long-term. A culture of continuous learning, on-going coaching or mentoring will help reinforce new skills and behaviors.
Mobile Learning for Millennial Managers:
Nearly 30% of millennials hold managerial-level roles. Surveys show that millennial managers value learning and growth experiences more than previous generations. Yet, they want training and development delivered in a new way. They expect mobile access to learning opportunities, anytime, anywhere. Leadership development professionals need to tailor programs to this group of managers and offer more flexible online programs. According to the Korn Ferry Institute, millennials learn more through online development than time spent in the classroom.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a leadership development enabler:
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been hyped for the last several years. Yet in the new decade, AI will become the norm, an assumed part of leadership development experiences. With AI, leadership development content will be “personalized” based on the manager’s personality, competencies and objectives. Companies can now leverage AI-powered coach bots and highly personalized nudges from companies like LEADx, Butterfly.ai, Qstream and others
Democratization of Leadership Development:
Ensuring sufficient reach across the organization is a pre-requisite for a successful leadership development program. More employees are assuming leadership responsibilities without a formal “leader” title. Therefore, organizations must strive to develop as many individuals as possible. Fortunately, e-learning technology enables more cost-effective, faster and more flexible learning on digital platforms prompting new and potential leaders to work on specific, targeted behaviors.
Create and empower the Team Context:
It is critical for today’s leaders to create an environment of “managed empowerment” rather than detailed decision making. This can be achieved by creating a culture of commitment, collaboration, accelerated decision-making, shared purpose, experimentation, empowerment and trust.
The new C&C is not like the old one:
Today’s leadership model is based on “connect and collaborate” as opposed to “command and control”. Today’s leaders guide and influence rather than dictate. They serve as a “conduit” for diverse ideas and champion collaboration. They are role models among their peers and collaborators.
It is about Mindsets, not Skillsets:
Leadership development in the past focused primarily on skill building and not necessarily on mindset building. However, leadership takes place between people in complex and ever changing relationships. New leadership development has to enable the modern leaders to better respond to the complexities of ever-changing and ambiguous conditions in the business environment.
A successful leadership development program should build positive mindsets around agility, customer-centricity, creativity, accountability, resilience and other forward-thinking qualities to better succeed in the future.
Ambidextrous Innovation:
The modern business context is fast-paced, non-linear, technology-enabled and ever changing. In the Fortune CEO survey, 72% of CEO’s cited the rapid pace of technological innovation as their greatest challenge to succeed in the future. Customers’ expectations continue to rise, so companies will face significant pressure to launch new products and services at an accelerated pace.
So far, leadership development focused on execution. In the “Industry 4.0” era an additional core competency will be innovation. Modern leaders must develop skills to maximize existing organizational capabilities and at the same time innovate by developing new capabilities. They must become “ambidextrous”: capable of managing existing businesses and pursuing new opportunities through experimentation and innovation. Skills such as “ideation” and “design thinking” will become part of their new leadership “tool box”.
Please refer to the sources below for further ideas on modern leadership development.
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/07/modern-leadership-style-being-not-doing
https://trainingindustry.com/articles/leadership/6-truisms-of-modern-leadership-development/
https://online.jwu.edu/blog/7-leadership-trends-2020-s
https://www.business.com/articles/leadership-styles-millennials
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-6-important-leadership-trends-to-watch-in-2020/
https://www.inc.com/rhett-power/4-newtrends-in-leadership-to-watch-in-2020.html
https://careynieuwhof.com/5-disruptive-leadership-trends-that-will-rule-2020/
https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2020/leadership-post-covid-19