by Leslie Rohonczy, Executive Coach, IMC, PCC | ©2024 | www.leslierohonczy.com
Imagine that we lived in a world where traditional leadership skills are obsolete; replaced by a need for constant innovation, adaptability, and lifelong learning. In this scenario, the old playbook for leaders is no longer sufficient. Clearly, what got you here, won’t get you – and your organization – where you need to go.
The question isn't whether you're keeping up with the latest trends—it's whether you're anticipating the future and preparing for it today. Tomorrow’s effective leaders aren't just competent; they're curious, agile, emotionally intelligent, and relentlessly focused on personal and organizational growth.
Let’s explore some of the innovative leadership development methods that can help you ‘future-proof’ your skills and cultivate a culture of continuous learning within your organization.
Experiential Learning Beyond the Classroom
Experiential learning isn't just the latest leadership buzzword. It's a proven, innovative, and dynamic approach that puts leaders in real-world scenarios, enabling them to develop their leadership skills through direct experience.
Unlike traditional classroom settings that focus on downloading theory and information to students, experiential learning helps leaders learn by doing. Think of it as the difference between reading about the physics of balance required to ride a bike without falling, versus actually hopping on a two-wheeler and learning by feeling it for yourself. Sure, you can read all you want about balance, but until you can experience the physical sensation of it, with all the subtle adjustments and awareness required, it’s just theoretical, and not yet ‘in your bones’.
For example, imagine taking part in a simulation where you’re leading a complex project launch. In this scenario, you must guide your cross-functional team through the entire project lifecycle, from initial planning to execution and post-launch evaluation. Team members come from different departments, each with their own priorities, challenges, methodologies, and processes. Your role as the leader is to navigate these dynamics, align the team's efforts, and ensure clear communication and decision-making for a successful project delivery.
Scenarios like these are powerful learning opportunities that let leaders experience delegation, conflict resolution, and motivational skills in real-time, and help embed nuanced learning and insights about managing diverse teams. Putting theory into practice in this way improves learning retention, raises self-awareness and skill levels, and is a great opportunity to evaluate your strengths and gaps.
Another example involves a "leadership rotation" where leaders switch roles with their peers, to lead a different division or function. Over a set period, they must lead their temporary teams to address specific challenges, like managing a product recall or launching a new customer loyalty program. This rotation not only provides a holistic view of the business, which helps grow these leaders to be ready for the next level of leadership but also challenges them to adapt their leadership style to different team dynamics and operational demands.
Coaching, Mentoring, and a Hybrid Model: The Best of Both Worlds
Coaching focuses on the "inner game" of leadership. Working with a coach, or holding peer coaching circles, can help leaders identify and overcome limiting beliefs, improve self-awareness, develop emotional intelligence and awareness of others’ ‘wiring’, adapt their style to different communication preferences, set boundaries, and hold others accountable.
Mentoring brings in practical, hands-on experience. Mentors are typically further down the road that the mentee is traveling. They share their experiences, providing real-world examples of what works and what doesn't, valuable insights about specific challenges, and advice and strategies based on their personal experiences. Sometimes mentors are less experienced, as in the case of ‘reverse mentoring’, where young employees mentor senior leaders about emerging culture and industry trends, and first-hand customer experience challenges.
Bring these two powerful concepts together, and you have a hybrid coaching and mentoring program that pairs a new executive with an experienced coach to work on growing their leadership EQ (emotional intelligence) while also having access to a mentor who has led similar projects and is willing to share their guidance. The beauty of this model is its versatility—it can be tailored to the specific needs of the leader, whether they require more focus on personal growth or practical business acumen (which may fluctuate over time).
Resilience and Agility: Thriving in Uncertainty
We hear a lot about ‘resilience’ and ‘agility’ in leadership books and articles, often in the context of coping with an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world. Think of this dynamic duo of skills as your leadership compass that helps you navigate the complexities of your business. Resilient leaders can withstand setbacks and adapt to new challenges, while agile leaders are quick to pivot and embrace change.
But resilience isn't just about bouncing back from adversity; it's about thriving while you’re knee-deep in challenge. It involves cultivating a positive mindset, practicing self-care, and maintaining a sense of purpose. A resilient leader views a ‘failed’ project not as a defeat but as a learning opportunity. She prefers to reframe the outcomes as ‘unintended results’ and explores all aspects of the engagement with curiosity, specifically to grow and improve her leadership skills, improve the process, and empower her team.
Agility, on the other hand, is about being flexible and open to new ideas. It's the ability to shift gears quickly in response to changing circumstances. Agile leaders are not bogged down by rigid plans; instead, they are comfortable with ambiguity and willing to experiment. This helps you quickly adapt to new technologies, crises, shifting business strategies, or emerging opportunities.
Leaders can cultivate these skills through practical exercises like scenario planning and resilience training workshops, peer coaching, and executive coaching. Scenario planning involves imagining various future scenarios and developing strategies for each. This exercise helps leaders think on their feet and prepare for the unexpected. Resilience training might include mindfulness practices, stress management techniques, and workshops on fixed and growth mindsets, and positive psychology.
Empathy and Virtual Presence: Leading from Afar
Empathy and virtual presence have become critical in the age of remote work. With teams often spread across different locations, leaders who find new ways to connect and communicate create engaged, successful teams. And that means empathy is more important than ever. The ability to understand and share the feelings of others helps leaders build trust, foster collaboration, and support teams' well-being.
In a virtual environment, empathy is expressed through active listening, open communication, and genuine interest in team members' experiences. For example, during video calls, leaders can ask about their team's well-being, show appreciation for their work, and acknowledge their challenges. This practice not only strengthens relationships; it also fosters a supportive and inclusive culture.
Practicing empathy also involves actively seeking feedback from team members and taking the time to understand their unique perspectives and concerns. This feedback loop is essential for continuously improving virtual leadership and ensuring the team feels heard and valued.
Being "present" even when not physically co-located is not only possible, it’s a core skill for leaders in the future. There are several ways to develop your leader presence and influence through digital platforms:
Set the tone for digital engagement by mastering and proficiently using collaboration platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Slack yourself. When you embrace and model using these collaboration tools, and a myriad of others that surely will follow, you’ll streamline communication and improve engagement for your organization. It will also make you more accessible to your employees, a key factor in employee engagement.
And speaking on engagement, set clear expectations about engagement, communication, and transparency. Have a team discussion about how and when you expect team members to engage, define the service level agreements for responding to emails or messages, identify the preferred channels for urgent issues versus casual updates, and the level of transparency expected in communications.
Host virtual town halls regularly to communicate important updates, share organizational news, and connect with the team. These meetings provide a platform to address your entire organization, answer questions, and offer insights into the company's direction. They also allow employees to voice concerns, ask questions, and feel heard. Regular town halls help maintain transparency and keep everyone informed, reinforcing a sense of community and shared purpose.
Video updates from leaders can be a powerful way to communicate key messages, especially when they require a more personal touch, such as a briefing on company performance, reassurance during crisis management, key departure information, emerging opportunities, and new initiatives announcements. Leaders can use video to explain the reasoning behind certain decisions, with nuanced context that written communications might lack. This transparency in decision-making helps build trust, as employees can see the thought process and considerations that contributed to your decisions.
Spontaneous check-ins (I call them ‘J5’ meetings: ‘just five minutes’) are similar to the random encounters in hallways or lunchrooms when we’re in person. Try instant messaging an employee with a quick thank you for sending you an interesting article. Ping someone a birthday wish. Ask a question to help a colleague discover a new perspective. These casual, informal connections go a long way to building team engagement and cohesion.
Encouraging Lifelong Learning: Never Stop Growing
Leaders who commit to lifelong learning not only enhance their own capabilities but also set a powerful example for their teams. Start by creating a culture where it’s safe to be curious and experiment. Being transparent about your own learning journey means that you share links to great articles, insights from the books you’re reading, and takeaways from workshops, webinars, and online courses you enjoyed. This simple leadership move not only demystifies the learning process but also inspires others to invest in their development. And employees who attend industry conferences, participate in cross-departmental projects and pursue further skills development help to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
In the future, employees will look for ample learning opportunities as part of their employee experience, beyond the standard mandatory training programs. One effective approach is to provide access to online learning platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or Udemy, where employees can explore courses on a wide range of topics at their own pace. This flexibility allows them to tailor their learning to specific interests and career goals. You might even arrange internal workshops and training led by industry experts or in-house career development and learning specialists.
And, while you’re establishing a learning culture in your organization, build in the expectation for employees and leaders to ‘teach back’ what they learned while attending seminars, workshops, conferences, or courses. Encouraging employees to share their expertise through lunch-and-learn sessions, blogs, or peer coaching builds the foundation for a knowledge-sharing culture, helps disseminate knowledge across the organization, and empowers employees to take ownership of their learning journey.
If you’re looking for innovative, diverse learning opportunities to help grow your leadership into the future, reach out to explore Executive Coaching and Leadership Development, at www.leslierohonczy.com.
