- The types of skills companies are looking for in leaders are evolving quickly.
- As working from home becomes more normalized, the way leaders will be trained will also look different.
- Here’s how to use that to your advantage, according to NovoEd’s Chief Learning Strategist.
- This article is part of a series called “IQ to EQ,” which explores the management styles of inspiring business leaders. Check here for similar stories.
The traits that people seek out in their leaders are quickly evolving, which also means the way companies develop effective leaders will have to change.
Recent events from the coronavirus pandemic, to the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd last summer, and the insurrection of the United States Capitol building have all called on leaders to take a stand for their values and place more emphasis on new types of skills, like empathy and inclusion.
“We’re not returning to what was a classic leadership model – a kind of command-and-control, or ‘I’m the fearless leader, get behind me and follow me’ model,” Todd Moran, chief learning strategist at online learning platform NovoEd, told Insider. “The nature of what a leader looks like is radically different today than it has been in the past decade.”
Before NovoEd, Moran spent nearly two decades working in research and development and digital transformation for Fortune 500 companies. During his time at companies like Schneider Electric and Telvent, he ran internal learning and development teams.
Given all the change occurring in the world right now, Moran believes the way leaders are created will also have to change.
Training at scale
Gone are the days of limiting leadership training to a select few individuals within a company, Moran said. Now, companies are beginning to see the merits of training people at all levels of leadership with development courses.
"The idea of sending people through a legacy leadership program of 10-20 people in an instructor-led model of years past simply doesn't work anymore," Moran said.
That means they'll also have to find ways to deliver their training programs at scale so that as many people as possible can access them.
As remote work continues for many companies, it will be important to make training programs accessible, and to distribute training programs across different regions and timezones, he added.
"If your goal is to serve transformational change and leadership development across the organization, you have to do that at scale," Moran said. "That means having technology platforms and capabilities that bring people together in large cohorts."
New types of skills
Every individual organization will have its own set of skills and leadership traits that it will seek to build out depending on the specific needs of the organization.
But that doesn't mean there aren't consistent leadership themes that companies should be looking for. In the near future, companies should be looking beyond the basic leadership skills like communication and delegation, but instead, teach skills that will help them navigate their teams through the pandemic: emotional intelligence, adaptability, and inclusion.
"These are the new emerging skills that have become so important for leaders to retain talent and drive the business forward," Moran said.
Purpose and collaboration
Virtual leadership training has some immediate benefits. It is a lot easier to bring large groups of people together across geographic regions, but tech glitches and virtual faux pas - like not having your mic muted in a large group - can also make it harder for participants to thoroughly engage with programming.
Moran offers two solutions: re-centering the training around a sense of purpose and encouraging interaction.
"It's not just about slapping a set of skills into a course and posting those online," Moran said. "I think it's about having a purposeful model about how you're trying to cascade a set of skills across all parts of the organization."
That's why, even before implementing a training session, it's important to clarify and emphasize the importance of building leadership skills.
"Why do I want to think about becoming a more developed leader? It can't just be for a product's sake or for your own personal progression in the firm," Moran said. "There needs to be a tie to a bigger purpose."
It's also important to focus on the collaborative side of training, especially since a virtual format can make it difficult to feel immersed in the program. Adding coaching, mentoring, and peer feedback to training sessions can allow participants to reflect on what they're learning.
"It's not just this idea of a sage on the stage where we serve broadcast a set of lectures," Moran said, but rather "bringing people together with opportunities for reflection and practice."