J U LY/A U G U S T 2 0 2 1
Elevating
Leadership Development
IDENTIFYING EMERGING LEADERS | 16 Filling Your Leadership Pipeline
REMOTE LEADERSHIP | 28 Creating a Blueprint that Works
LEADERSHIP FLUENCY | 36 Learning the Language of Leadership
BUSINESS
PERSPECTIVES
ON
MANAGING
WORLD-CLASS
TRAINING
KEN TAYLOR
FROM THE EDITOR
ELEVATING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Developing leaders who drive our companies’ performance may be one of the most strategically important programs that learning leaders manage. The impact of these programs can be profound if well designed, delivered and driven across the organization. To be successful, the programs need to be designed for measurement, aligned to the most senior levels in the organization, and mindful of the new hybrid, multi-modal work environment into which the programs will be introduced. When it comes to measuring the impact of our leadership development programs, we need to think beyond retention and focus on the impact the programs have on the performance of the leaders and the performance of their teams. This may sound like a tall order, but if leadership development is the most important program we support, then I believe it is L&D’s responsibility to do the heavy lifting.
L&D IS THERE TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS WEATHER CHANGE, GROW THEIR WORKFORCES AND LEAD EFFECTIVELY.
In this edition of Training Industry Magazine, we’re taking a look at leadership in all its forms. You’ll find articles that explore the intersection of technology and leadership, with insights on the transformational power of artificial intelligence, how data can help leaders and their teams work more effectively, and a framework for what leadership could look like in our new, hybrid world. As technology advances at an increasing rate, one fact remains the same: L&D is there to help organizations weather change, grow their workforces and lead effectively.
With the next generation of employees exhibiting changing attitudes toward, and expectations of, the modern workplace, L&D leaders are faced with new challenges. L&D leaders are often called upon to help ensure that a business is living up to the changing demands and keeping pace with societal, as well as technological, trends. Also in this edition, we look at the essential role of leadership in the effort to create more diverse and equitable workplaces, as well as strategies for identifying and supporting emerging leaders from within your organization. Leaders can affect far more than just the bottom line; they can model a way forward for their organizations that includes all voices and perspectives, ensuring that organizations stay relevant in the eyes of the public, as well as their team members. Our goal at Training Industry is to provide you with the data and tools you need to excel as learning leaders. This edition should provide you with some ideas on how you can impact leadership development programs — perhaps the most important programs in our quickly changing world. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on the perspectives shared in this edition, as well as any topics you would like us to engage with in the future. Ken Taylor is the president and editor in chief of Training Industry, Inc. Email Ken.
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CO N T E N TS
TA B L E O F VOLUME 14
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I
ISSUE 5
I JULY/AUGUST 2021
Remote Leadership That Works
FEATURES
By
Jim & Wendy Kirkpatrick
16 IDENTIFYING EMERGING LEADERS
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28 REMOTE LEADERSHIP
36 LEADERSHIP FLUENCY
DIP INTO LEADERSHIP: IDENTIFYING EMERGING LEADERS DURING A TIME OF CHANGE By Lisa Hutcherson, CPTM
Emotional intelligence and soft skills can help leaders navigate change.
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GIVE YOUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT A VERTICAL LIFT By Claudia Escribano and James Hadley, Ph.D.
Leaders need the confidence and capacity to lead in today’s complex work environment.
CREATING CONVERSATIONAL LEADERSHIP By John Hovell
Conversational leadership can enhance a leader’s awareness and enable a more equitable workplace.
A BLUEPRINT FOR REMOTE LEADERSHIP THAT WORKS By Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick
Create a training strategy that maximizes program outcomes and minimizes resources.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IS ABOUT CAPACITY, NOT JUST COMPETENCIES By Dr. Joel M. Rothaizer, MCC, and Dr. Sandra L. Hill
Learning leaders must consciously craft opportunities and contexts to support vertical development.
HOW TO CREATE LEADERSHIP FLUENCY: CULTIVATING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE FOR SEASONED AND ASPIRING LEADERS By Rachel Watts and Bryan Harber
Incorporating concepts from language experts into training programs can create leadership fluency.
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LEVERAGING DATA TO INCREASE LEADERSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS IN THE FLOW OF WORK By Andy Stankiewicz
Empowering leaders with the right data and tools can drive effective leadership development.
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IN THIS ISSUE
THOUGHT LEADERS
3
FROM THE EDITOR By Ken Taylor
L&D is there to help organizations weather change, grow their workforces and lead effectively.
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GUEST EDITOR
11
WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH
13
By Barbara Jordan, CPTM
Help leaders prepare for the “new normal” with these key components.
By Stella Lee, Ph.D.
Leaders can utilize data to guide the impact of AI for current and potential employees.
BUILDING LEADERS
By Sam Shriver and Marshall Goldsmith Consider these soundbites for effectively developing leaders and positively impacting productivity.
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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION By Dr. Kristal Walker, CPTM
Leaders who break through barriers will effectively expand diversity, equity and inclusion.
PERFORMANCE MATTERS By Julie Winkle Giulioni
L&D leaders can use simple strategies to help others embrace the power of practice.
SCIENCE OF LEARNING By Srini Pillay, M.D.
Incorporating brain-based tips into leadership development can help leaders find their work purpose.
LEARNER MINDSET
By Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, CPTM
Leaders need new skills and a new mindset to lead in a hybrid work environment.
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TrainingIndustry.com
ABOUT OUR TEAM
STAFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mike Allen mallen@trainingindustry.com
DESIGNER Alyssa Alheid aalheid@trainingindustry.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Amanda Longo alongo@trainingindustry.com
ADVERTISING SALES sales@trainingindustry.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Michelle Eggleston Schwartz meggleston@trainingindustry.com
DESIGNER Mary Lewis mlewis@trainingindustry.com
EDITOR Sarah Gallo sgallo@trainingindustry.com
DESIGNER Kellie Blackburn kblackburn@trainingindustry.com
EDITORIAL BOARD JUDI BADER, CPTM Senior Director of Learning Arby’s Restaurant Group
MATTHEW S. PRAGER, CPTM Executive Training Manager U.S. Government
MICHAEL CANNON, M.ED. Senior Director, Head of Learning & Development Red Hat
MARC RAMOS Global Head of Learning Strategy & Learning Innovation Novartis
MEGAN CASADOS Director of Training DISH
KELLY RIDER Chief Learning Officer PTC
BARBARA JORDAN, CPTM Group Vice President, Global Learning & Development Sims Metal Management
DR. SYDNEY SAVION General Manager, Learning Air New Zealand KERRY TROESTER, CPTM Director, North America Sales Training Lenovo
CATHERINE KELLY, MA, BSN, RN, CPTM Director of Learning Programs Brookdale Senior Living
NATASHA MILLER WILLIAMS Head of Diversity & Inclusion Ferrara
SHIREEN LACKEY, CPTM Talent Management Officer, Office of Business Process Integration Veterans Benefits Administration
KEE MENG YEO Adjunct Professor Grand Valley State University & Davenport University
LAURA MORAROS Global Head of Sales Learning Facebook
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Training Industry Magazine connects learning and development professionals with the resources and solutions needed to more effectively manage the business of learning.
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BARBARA JORDAN, CPTM
GUEST EDITOR
PREPARING LEADERS FOR THE ’NEW NORMAL’
What do leadership programs look like today? The recent crisis in the world has emphasized the need for strong leaders within all levels of an organization. However, during these unprecedented times, many organizations delayed implementing their leadership development plans. Understandable, yes, but at what cost?
THE “NEW NORMAL” HAS THE ABILITY TO DISTORT A CORPORATE CULTURE OR ENHANCE IT TO NEW LEVELS. Times have changed, and companies need to prepare leaders to look at challenges through a different lens. As you look to refresh your leadership development strategies for the “new normal,” here are some key items to consider. MINDFUL EMPATHY It is hard to imagine the volume and variety of change that people have gone through during this time. Whether it is the stress of managing kids while simultaneously running a web meeting, helping a sick family member, processing serious world issues, or worrying about the future – people have a lot on their minds and their plates. In addition, potentially returning to an office after many months of working from home provides a completely new set of anxieties and issues. Addressing the mental health and well-being of
employees is crucial to any leadership development program. Many people have changed – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually – and leadership development efforts need to change as well. Understanding the concept and relevance of empathetic leadership is a necessary skill, and identifying how this affects a leader’s behavior is a capability that can help drive performance. PERPETUAL ELASTICITY Managing a virtual workforce has presented many challenges, but it has also provided many new and innovative opportunities. Many say that communication has actually increased and that virtual meetings have helped them stay focused. Others feel burnt out by the constant need to be “on.” Leaders need to set the tone and determine how to provide an elastic environment that encourages personal responsibility and allows people to be productive, creative and heard. Again, there are skills that all leaders need – such as great communication and active listening – however, identifying how those skills work together to create a flexible environment that encourages innovation is a capability that will serve leaders well and help their organizations perform at a higher level. CULTURE KEEPERS The “new normal” has the ability to distort a corporate culture or enhance it to new levels. The tangible and intangible components of most organizations’
cultures have developed over many years. Keeping employees engaged and committed to the common purpose can be tricky in this environment. Employees want to engage with one another and feel as if they belong – whether virtually or in person. Creating outreach opportunities and programs is a great start, but as we enter this next phase, we need to develop leaders capable of embodying the core values while molding the new corporate culture that organizations need to move forward. There is a lot to think about as we reignite our leadership development programs. Rather than creating standard skill-based programs, we should consider making a subtle shift toward more capabilityfocused programs. Capability-based programs effectively capture the way an individual thinks and/or feels, and then help to identify how that impacts the way leaders behave and make decisions. This focus can drive programs that help build leaders who can create a vision, model behaviors they want to see and motivate others. What will your leadership programs look like as we move forward in the new post-pandemic world? Barbara Jordan is the group vice president of learning and development at Sims Limited, a global leader in the metal and electronics recycling. Barbara has nearly 20 years of experience as a learning leader and serves as a proud member of the Editorial Board for Training Industry Magazine. Email Barbara.
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STELLA LEE, PH.D.
WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH
HOW DOES THE RISE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPACT LEADERSHIP?
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in business applications has radically altered our workplace. More and more, AI is used to automate routine tasks, optimize resources and processes, detect anomalies in infrastructure, and engage with customers and internal staff. This new technology not only shifts the way we work but also requires us to take stock of how we lead in business. AI is good at performing certain tasks that are repetitive and routine, as well as tasks that require an integration and processing of massive amounts of data in a systemic and logical way. For business leaders to remain relevant, the pertinent questions become: How can we leverage AI to shape our organizations for the better, and what roles do leaders play in guiding the impact AI has? DETECTING AND IDENTIFYING PATTERNS By analyzing employees’ learning and performance data from HR systems and learning platforms, AI can be used to detect patterns in how people learn, including the key point people access the systems for performance support (e.g., while they are having trouble interacting with customers?), how they navigate the content (e.g., linearly or by skipping around?), and which time periods have heavy traffic (Monday morning because they are less busy?). Together, these patterns tell a story of what happened and why we need to pay attention. To add this
narrative to the data, leaders need to know how to read the data and how to use it. More importantly, we need to ask ourselves what questions we are trying to answer, or what issues we are trying to solve. MAKING PREDICTIONS Since AI is used to capture patterns in the dataset, the next logical step is to apply this analysis and make predictions on a range of workplace scenarios. For example, AI-enabled candidate selection tools can find correlations between applicants’ prior work experience, personalities, interests and how potentially successful a particular candidate is for the job she applied for. AI shows great promise in reducing unconscious bias by ignoring information such as age, gender and race, but any existing data might already have bias built-in, whether conscious or unconscious, and using an AI system will inadvertently amplify the bias that already exists within the organizations such as a historical preference for hiring men for technical roles. We need to ask AI vendors detailed questions about safeguarding and bias-detection practices and how to audit the systems over time. SUPPORTING DECISION-MAKING As more data is collected, AI can learn to improve its predictions and provide recommendations on the next course of action. For example, internal-facing chatbots are used to interact with employees for coaching and mentoring sessions. When encountering an
interaction that needs escalating or more nuanced discussions, some chatbots can automatically facilitate an anonymous conversation between a human mentor and mentee.
AI APPLICATIONS NEED TO WORK IN TANDEM WITH HUMAN INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCES. While AI can potentially enhance decision-making processes, we would be wise in safeguarding employees’ and customers’ privacy as well as flagging other ethical concerns. AI-informed decisions made incorrectly and without human intervention could harm people and foster mistrust. While AI is good at many tasks, its applications need to work in tandem with human intelligence and experiences. To lead in the age of digital transformation, we need to take ownership and familiarize ourselves with the technology, understand its opportunities and limitations, and always question the purpose technology serves and at what cost. Dr. Stella Lee has over 20 years of experience in consulting, planning, designing, implementing and measuring learning initiatives. Her focus is on largescale learning projects including LMS evaluation and implementation, learning analytics, and artificial intelligent applications. Email Stella.
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SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
BUILDING LEADERS
SOUNDBITES FOR CONSIDERATION
Formulating effective strategy requires working your way through any number of complexities and landing on a soundbite that intuitively describes the essence of your pursuit. To the extent that developing future leaders describes your pursuit, here are a couple of soundbites for your consideration. START EARLY AND STICK WITH IT It has long been standard practice to formally initiate organizational leadership development efforts when employees receive their first promotion into management. But why wait? Think about the content new managers typically learn in management orientation: Situational Leadership®; emotional intelligence; DiSC®, social styles, etc. Most, if not all, of these skills can also be leveraged to help frontline employees contract for a leadership style or effectively influence an associate.
WHEN YOU GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT, LEADERSHIP IS A MESS! In this context, many organizations are introducing leadership development strategies that initiate with employee orientation. They determine the content that aligns with their company values, teach it to new hires as soon as they possibly can, then reinforce that learning while building in additional layers of sophistication as careers progress. Another question: Why change? When you get right down to it, how much difference is there between C-suite leadership and frontline leadership? When
CEOs or other high-potential executives receive executive coaching, the focus of those interventions are most often things like listening, delegating, communicating, providing direction, self-awareness, empathy, etc. Net-net, identify and introduce core, common and critical content early, then systematically provide practicing leaders at each level of your organization with timely and specific feedback and feedforward. DIVE HEADFIRST INTO THE “MESS” Leaders are judged. It is a harsh reality that presents a formidable roadblock for many because, when you get right down to it, leadership is a mess! When you sign up for the role of leader today, you are greeted with traditional responsibility for hitting productivity targets, enhancing employee engagement and retaining key talent, with nothing remotely resembling traditional elements of control or stability. With ever-increasing regularity, there is evidence to suggest leaders need to dive headfirst into the mess by implementing a strategy that prioritizes genuine employee engagement. This “trusting plunge” is expertly chronicled in Hubert Joly’s recent best-seller, “The Heart of Business.” Joly documents the resurgence of retail giant Best Buy by way of truly putting people at the center of the business and treating productivity as an outcome, as opposed to a goal. That may sound excessively bold, but we are convinced it is the best advice we can offer to anyone with interest in developing far-reaching leadership capability.
A leadership development strategy that prioritizes employee engagement and makes meaningful progress in “sorting out the mess” targets human dignity. It poses difficult questions, listens to the answers and engages employees in developing the solutions. Consider the work of Sandy Ogg (founder of CEOworks and former CHRO of Unilever) in that regard. This is a survey he and his team sent to every employee at Unilever with the following instructions: If you cannot absolutely say yes to a question, you must say no. • Do you have a job? • Do you know what it takes to be successful in that job? • Has training been made available for you to be successful? • Do you have a career plan that is actionable and being acted upon? • Is there an appropriate level of sensitivity to your personal circumstances? We are guessing a survey like this takes maybe five minutes to complete. But the potential for meaningful, employeecentered discussions of dignity at work are limitless. And the thing we know about leaders initiating those ongoing discussions in a genuine, other-centered manner is that it positively impacts both productivity and retention. Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders get even better. Sam Shriver is the executive vice president at The Center for Leadership Studies. Email the authors.
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STRONG COMPANIES NEED STRONG LEADERS. Make them stronger with Situational Leadership®.
situational.com
DR. KRISTAL WALKER, CPTM
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
LEADERSHIP: THE BOTTLENECK OR THE BREAKTHROUGH FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION? In a post-pandemic culture moving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) forward, it is imperative to ensure leaders possess the skills and characteristics to be effective within their circles of influence, careers and communities. If leaders aren’t using skills like empathy, accessibility and accountability to move DEI forward within their leadership commitments, they may be serving more as a bottleneck – an element that stops a process or activity from progressing – than a partner committed to success. EMPATHY Leaders realize that understanding another’s feelings while helping them overcome challenges is more fulfilling than accomplishing even the most desired goal. Let’s look at the use of empathy from two perspectives. Bottleneck: An employee who happens to be a person of color shares personal struggles with career mobility. Their challenge is not qualification but sponsorship or an equitable shot at navigating the hiring and selection process. That leader should at least try to understand the employee’s experience. They should never use empathy to gain insight into their personal situation, then use it against them. Breakthrough: Imagine the same scenario where this time the leader not only listened but also imagined themselves in that experience and what support they would need to advance their career. This positions both for a breakthrough: The employee gets
support for career advancement they may have been denied or excluded from because of their minority status, and the leader gets to serve as a sponsor and advocate for the employee’s career path. ACCESSIBILITY Are leaders within your company, community or circle of influence really accessible for collaborating on DEI initiatives? Let’s look at accessibility from two perspectives. Bottleneck: Imagine every project, task and decision is consulted through a department leader who can only meet on a weekly basis. How much productivity and engagement is at risk because employees aren’t empowered to do it on their own? This scenario might present further complication(s) when centered around DEI. Breakthrough: When projects, tasks and decisions need to be made, particularly around DEI issues, it is important for the team to see the leader’s visibility, even in the hard things. It is also important to not confuse accessibility with one’s freedom to disconnect personal and professional commitments. If 2020 taught us anything, the great lesson is wellness and self-care. Personal wellbeing is extremely imperative and should be carefully considered when taking on a leadership responsibility. ACCOUNTABILITY What gets measured gets done, and leaders who are accountable to their teams will accomplish the work at
hand. Let’s look at accountability from two perspectives. Bottleneck: Say your organization is genuinely invested in advancing DEI initiatives. Part of its strategy is challenging leadership to craft the business case for diversity to share to their teams, but a few leaders are struggling because of their lack of interest, time, understanding or communication skills. Meanwhile, the few diverse employees within your company understand that the company wants to expand DEI but are clueless to what is happening. Breakthrough: Now imagine if they chose to seek internal or external support to better understand the business case for DEI, how to support it and how to communicate it to their teams to maximize engagement. This speaks volumes about the leaders’ personal accountability and commitment. It could also be the long-awaited answer for those quietly suffering as they work through feelings of exclusion and workrelated insecurities. Breaking through barriers requires courage, tenacity, patience and resilience because the answers or the solutions may not come immediately. However, the most important takeaway is to not allow a lack of empathy, accessibility or accountability serve as a bottleneck to any movement for creating a better, safer and thriving world. Dr. Kristal Walker, CPTM, is the vice president of employee wellbeing at Sweetwater. Kristal is also a facilitator for Training Industry’s Diversity and Inclusion Master Class. Email Kristal.
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into
By Lisa Hutcherson, CPTM
LEADERSHIP: Identifying Emerging Leaders During a Time of Change
Who Knew Retail Stores Could Help Identify Emerging Leaders? In the early 1990s, a retailer launched an ad campaign with “come see the softer side.” The retailer was well known for its hard-line departments, such as hardware and lawn and garden. In an effort to highlight their “softer” lines of business, the apparel and home store ad campaign launched. They realized that the softer sideline of business could generate additional income after the launch of its ad campaign. Evaluating growth from a different perspective provided unexpected performance that changed the overall strategy for the company. Much like the retailer with hard and soft lines of business, emotional intelligence (EI) has both soft and hard competencies. Peak performance is achieved when both sets of competencies are mastered, which makes EI a perfect tool to identify emerging leaders.
Discipline and Commitment When developing a strategy of how to identify emerging leaders, one method is to assess the
individual’s hard-line performance and their soft skills. A balance between hard skills (such as data base management, CRM platforms and analytics) and soft skills (such as decisionmaking, strategic thinking, independence, stress tolerance, empathy, emotional expression, emotional self-awareness and interpersonal relationships) creates the foundation for peak performance. Recently, I was working with an individual who asked why a team would need to get all soft and gushy when they are already a topperforming business line. They confirmed that the approach with their team is: Results, Results, Results. I explained it as an equation: A x E = R (Activity x Effectiveness = Results). If someone is not providing “R,” do they need more activity or to be more effective at the activity to generate more results? Now take the same equation but substitute the “E” for emotion. In EI, emotion is a feeling (not to be confused with being “emotional,” which is defined as taking action on an emotion). Studies find that high-performing employees with strong soft skills actually achieve higher performance results than employees with only
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hard skills. An analogy is hard skills are the tasks done day in and out that create the foundation for a house, and the soft skills are what makes the house a home. When conducting training classes, I frequently correlate exercise to learning. When you exercise, there is resistance, which can be uncomfortable in the moment but increases your strength overtime. The same can be said for learning; if you are not exercising your mind, you are not learning, which means you are not strengthening your knowledge or skills. True introspection can be uncomfortable, but the insights gained to improve your self-happiness and the overall impact on others makes the effort worthwhile. Getting in touch with your softer side can be laborious because identifying and accepting areas that need to be developed are not part of our normal way of being. If the recent health environment has taught us anything it is that we must learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. We need to be true to ourselves and make a commitment to be disciplined, as well as be open to self-introspection and apply honest perspective.
Introspection: You Can Change the Spots on a Leopard Everyone can be an emerging leader, whether your soft skills are strong or being developed. Learning to slightly adjust how you view and approach situations and apply soft skills can be simple. Ever played the game Googly Eyes where you change the lenses in the glasses and try to guess what the image is on the card? Every day we wear perspective glasses but often forget to change the lenses. Perspective is not right or wrong; it is merely different ways of viewing situations. To begin seeing a different perspective, you need to change your lenses. Committing to learning how to see different perspectives will help you approach situations in a new way, improving interpersonal relationships, self-control, social perception and effectiveness, selfregard and self-awareness. In order to
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learn how to see different perspectives you must commit to self-introspection. Being truthful and honest with oneself will help you uncover and recognize the triggers that cause you not to change the lenses in your perspective glasses. Effectively changing the perspective lenses deepens your understanding of where the other person is coming from and what influences or triggers are at the core of your position or response. With this newfound perspective of empathy comes commitment, introspection, and a strengthening of emotional intelligence, resulting in true behavioral change. This is the pinnacle, where people are drawn to you to lead them and help them achieve the highest of goals.
We must learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Perspective Competencies to Identify Emerging Leaders It takes discipline, introspection and practice to develop our own soft skills. It is at this point that you can then see soft and hard skill talents in others to identify those who will be great leaders. Look for those who have the capacity, commitment and capability for the following: • Express emotions appropriately and consistently and think before they act. • There are three power bases that are most critical to leaders’ ability to influence others: expert, legitimate and referent power. Emerging leaders can quickly develop the sense of who possesses power in the relationship, an understanding of how the power dynamic influences feelings and behaviors, and the ability to use base powers in combination and interchangeably based on the person(s) and the situation. Influence is the perception of being able to identify and flex these power bases:
• Expert power: Look for those who can pinpoint their purpose, be patient in waiting for results, and have mastered the soft skill competency to become a trusted expert. • Legitimate power: Look for those who rise to the challenge of leadership tasks and master the use of other base powers to develop their ability to influence. • Referent power: Earns respect and trust of others. Look for those who are trailblazers and lead the change. • An understanding of the different types of empathy and how to use them: • Emotional empathy: Ability to understand another person’s emotions and respond appropriately. Look for those who are active (not passive) listeners. Can they tune into the person’s feelings and not be afraid to listen and really hear what the other person is saying? • Cognitive empathy: Ability to understand the emotions of others. Look for those who are good mediators, calm under pressure, see others’ perspective(s) in a logical way, are not afraid of confrontation, and use logic to outline their perspective. • Recognize, understand and appreciate how other people feel, and respect their perspectives and feelings. • Understand and control triggers that can impact EI skill capabilities and interpersonal relationships. Look for those who understand what sets them off and are able to control their response. For example, a trigger could be being afraid to fail. • Recognize, own and control their emotions. Individuals who can identify their “Happy Place” are able to refocus, stay in control of emotions, provide appropriate situational responses and remain centered. • Understand, accept and capitalize on strengths and take action to consistently improve weaknesses.
Every day we wear perspective glasses but often forget to change the lenses.
deal with change, a company that was financially stable and strongly rooted in the community, had a strong culture, and offered good benefits and training. Most importantly, employees were looking for flexibility, empathy and an understanding of their psychological safety concerns regarding returning back to the office. In response, emotional intelligence concepts and resources were discussed with the senior and executive management team. Managers and supervisors were provided with a variety of leadership trainings to foster conversations supporting flexibility, psychological safety as well as how to manage a remote and in-person staff fairly.
• Seek continual improvement, which includes not being afraid to ask for help or ask questions to facilitate self-discovery.
Discipline, Introspection and Perspective (DIP) and Change Looking back over the past year with a different perspective of how the pandemic impacted work, I asked myself, “Did we do a good job supporting workers?” Our teams were faced with adjusting to working remotely as well as juggling home schooling, taking care of elderly family members, facing their own health concerns and even family member’s loss of employment. Did we have a contingency plan to support them emotionally? Did we have strong soft skills necessary to lead them and help them cope? Did we have an understanding of our workplace demographics and how different generations would be impacted by or respond to the challenges we faced?
What could we do to prepare for the uncertainty we endured for over a year and how could a new normal be established faster to provide a sound foundation for employees to lower their anxieties about the future?
We continued to experience an increase in the number of employees shifting to remote work, coupled with increased workloads brought on by government programs and fewer on-site employees to help manage in-office tasks, and the result was that a pool of courageous leaders emerged from the shadows and became the champions of change impacting remote and in-office staff ability to stay connected. While the needs of all employees during a time of incredible change were not the same, our ability to be open to and act on the survey feedback in an honest and transparent manner provided a foundation of courage for others to carry the torch.
In response, senior and executive management acknowledged they needed to better understand what team members were concerned with and feeling to begin strategic work to identify support resources. In an effort to provide answers to these questions, we engaged in two work environment surveys. The first survey scoped how concerned employees were with the virus, loss of employment, financial stability, food resources and child care. The second survey focused on availability of resources, communication, benefits, diversity and inclusion, empowerment, accountability, culture and leadership.
Identifying the next generation of leaders and developing their emotional intelligence soft skills now will not only help current leaders develop but will prepare our future leaders for managing both daily work and crises they may encounter. Developing emerging leaders’ soft skills will create a pool of talent that is less likely to be negatively impacted by the presence of stressors. The future of work is here; navigating the unknown challenges will be easier to manage in a positive, productive and emotionally healthy way if we take time to develop the next generation of soft-skilled, emotionally intelligent leaders, today.
It was clear that employees were looking for a senior and executive management team who could quickly
Lisa Hutcherson, CPTM, is the SVP Director of Human Capital Strategies at First Federal Bank. Email Lisa.
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GIVE YOUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT A VERTICAL LIFT
Vertical development is the advancement of a person’s ability to think in complex, strategic and interdependent ways. stages of development having a more dependent mindset, those in the middle with an independent mindset and those at later stages taking an interdependent perspective. While these leaders may have learned the same change management strategies, their priorities in the change process will be different.
A PROCESS FOR INTEGRATING VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT INTO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS By understanding these developmental stages, leadership development professionals can create experiences to help leaders grow and elevate their thinking. Here’s a four-step process that you can apply to integrate vertical development in both new and existing leadership development programs:
BY CLAUDIA ESCRIBANO AND JAMES HADLEY, Ph.D.
Ben has just taken his first leadership position. As a top performer, he was promoted to a supervisory role. He quickly realizes that the rules and expectations are entirely different. As a technical expert, he felt confident. As a people leader, he feels inadequate. Ben goes to a leadership development program, where he learns models and tools for effective decision-making, team building, communication and trust-building. He applies these tools on the job and finds some useful, but when it comes to the tough realities — the stress, the interpersonal problems, the impossible demands from senior leadership — there’s a disconnect between what he learns in the safety of the classroom and the challenges he faces daily. Ben can build his leadership competencies, but – until he develops the capacity to manage the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment in which he works – he will
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always be roiled by chaos. What Ben needs now is vertical development.
WHAT IS VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT? Vertical development is the advancement of a person’s ability to think in complex, strategic and interdependent ways. Whereas typical leadership development programs address building leaders’ knowledge and skills, vertical development addresses growing their attributes, abilities and characteristics. Building on a large body of research into the developmental stages of children and adults, David Rooke and William Torbert identified seven stages that represent how leaders are likely to interpret and respond to situations, as summarized in Figure 1 on page 21. Leaders at different stages react differently to the same demands for change – with leaders in earlier
STEP 1: Determine the vertical stage needed for the organizational environment. As you define the leadership competencies to be developed, consider the stages at which those competencies will be applied. What stage of development is required to succeed in the organization’s current environment? STEP 2. Know your audience and their level of development. Next, understand your audience and their current stage of development. Apply an assessment for determining developmental stage, such as the vertical maturity indicator or the leadership circle profile. Any group of leaders will represent different stages of development. William Torbert’s research shows that most leaders in today’s organizations are at the achiever or redefining stages.
FIGURE 1.
Alchemist
DEPENDENT
Description Integrates the material and the spiritual to renew and recreate themselves and their organizations in historically significant ways.
Strategist/ Transforming
Creates shared visions across stages; encourages both personal and organizational transformation.
Individualist (Redefining)
Recognizes that the stages are constructs that can be changed; reframes complex dilemmas to achieve results.
INDEPENDENT
INTERDEPENDENT
Stage
• Includes the proper support to get through the experience.
Achiever
Creates an environment focused on reaching near- and long-term goals. Connect individual work to larger efforts.
Expert
Exercises control by perfecting their knowledge and presenting hard facts and logic to gain buy-in to their proposals.
Diplomat
Seeks to please higher-status colleagues while avoiding conflict.
Opportunist
Focuses on personal wins and sees the world and other people as opportunities to be exploited.
Note: People must progress through all of the stages in sequence. A leader at the diplomat stage cannot jump straight to the achiever stage any easier than a toddler watching TV can suddenly understand symbolism in Shakespeare. While it can take years for leaders to advance to their next stage, an important first step for development is awareness of their current stage and how to get to the next stage. STEP 3. Create experiences to fill the gap between the leaders’ stage and the requirements of the organizational environment. Once you understand the gap between the organizational environment and the leaders’ current stage of development, identify strategies to close that gap (see sidebar). Consider the key competencies to be developed, and identify the vertical elements of those competencies. For example, delegation requires building trust, and communication requires
Before we go too far, let’s get input from those who will be affected.
In order to achieve our goals, we’ll need to...
We’ll wait for direction from the CEO.
building empathy. Then, create the conditions for vertical development. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) identifies three primary conditions for creating experiences that accelerate vertical development. 1. Heat experience: A complex situation that disrupts and disorients leaders’ habitual ways of seeing the world; by breaking leaders’ existing mental models, these conditions help expand their thinking. Examples include simulations and other experiential learning modalities. According to Nick Petrie of CCL, an effective heat experience has the following characteristics: • Presents new experience for the leader. • Includes chances of success and failure. • Induces feelings of discomfort and unfamiliarity.
2. Colliding perspectives: Exposure to people and data that shift leaders’ existing mental models and expand the ways in which they see the world, providing more strategies to address disruption and complexity. Examples include presentations or seminars from guest experts at more advanced stages of development and collaboration with other leaders at various stages of development. 3. Elevated sensemaking: A process in which leaders examine previously held mindsets from an elevated perspective to make intentional changes, aided by coaches, journaling and mindful meditation. Examples include selfreflection, in-depth debriefs and action planning. While encouraging growth to the next stage of development, help leaders recognize key characteristics of previous stages, so they can understand and communicate effectively with others at those stages. For example, while a transforming leader may frame goals in terms of benefit to employees and community, they need to emphasize the tactical goals and objectives for revenue or cost reduction for leaders in an achieving mindset. STEP 4. Incorporate vertical development into ongoing learning. Ongoing learning allows for individualized support and development. The work environment itself offers opportunities for heat experiences via stretch assignments; colliding perspectives via communities of practice, benchmarking and thought leaders; and elevated sensemaking via coaching and mentoring. Leaders can also add activities to their daily operations to encourage vertical development in their people.
FIGURE 2.
Intro
Topic Teach
Activity/ Knowledge Check
Topic Teach
Activity/ Knowledge Check
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Etc.
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EXAMPLE Applying this process to Ben and his struggles, it became clear that Ben is operating in a transformational culture that requires him to lead differently. The competency-based leadership development program that Ben has already taken looked like Figure 2 on page 21. To integrate vertical development, the program was redesigned to leverage more heat experiences, colliding perspectives and opportunities for reflection. The experience begins with an orientation simulation that replicates the complex work environment where leaders are struggling to prioritize and meet ever-changing demands. During the debrief, Ben discovers that fellow participants feel overwhelmed, too. They share ideas for how to cope. Ben hears from his peers at his stage of development and learns from those at later stages.
As today’s organizations face greater complexity and change, leaders need more than training on policies, procedures and leadership strategies to be effective.
The rest of the learning follows a pattern of feedback and replanning, teaching limited to solely relevant to application:
experience application, with formal information
• Quick introduction to key concepts. • Immersion into simulations that present increasingly difficult situations. • Quick follow-up on additional key concepts. • Team discussion and debrief. After several days of simulations, Ben goes into the organization to watch an experienced leader at work. This leader is at a higher stage of development than Ben,
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so she helps Ben expand his perspectives while learning new strategies. At the end of the learning experience, Ben completes a capstone activity that integrates all the competencies and perspectives he’s learned. Ben and his team react to a scenario in another simulated environment, get feedback from each other and the instructor, reflect on their insights, and plan how to apply those insights and continue to develop. Ben shares his reflections and action plan with his manager, and they plan ongoing activities for Ben’s continuous development.
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES TO HELP LEADERS LEVEL-UP Alchemical Activities: • Challenge long-standing beliefs and customs.
• Solve problems using metaphors
from unrelated industries or systems.
Transforming Activities:
RESULTS
• Solve problems with polarity and
When applied to a leadership development program for manufacturing leaders at a large aerospace company, participants indicated that this approach to learning was more engaging, giving them both transformational insights and increased confidence. Though this program was just the beginning of their development, it better prepared them to manage the complexities of their job and develop the mindsets necessary to excel in their roles.
• Develop a broad, open network
CONCLUSION As today’s organizations face greater complexity and change, leaders need more than training on policies, procedures and leadership strategies to be effective. They need confidence and the capacity to lead in their unique environments. By integrating vertical development into leadership development programs, leaders can develop both the capabilities and the capacity to lead through disruption in complex work environments. Claudia Escribano is the director of creative learning solutions at C2 Technologies, Inc., a leader in human performance improvement. The concepts in this article were developed on a project with PMG Learning, Inc. James Hadley, PhD, is owner of Simthing New, a leadership development company that leverages simulation-based learning. He has designed leadership and technical training programs for a wide variety of industries. Email the authors.
systems thinking. of experts.
• Strategic planning with an eye on
bettering communities or industries.
Redefining Activities: • Reassess how goals contribute to work-life balance.
• Align personal talents and
aspirations to work assignments.
• Mentor and develop others.
Achiever Activities: • Measure productivity, efficiency and ROI.
• Map how individual contributions
benefit the organizational objectives.
Expert Activities: • Make decisions based on facts and data.
• Peer and expert evaluation of work. • Look at industry trends, benchmarking and best practices.
Diplomat Activities: • Emphasis on teamwork, respect and collaboration.
• Define a group identity (names, logos, mantras, clothing).
Opportunist
Progress is impossible without change. Our psychological, mindset and emotional reaction to change demands leadership attention. As Architects of Change, we know that understanding the transition between the past and the new future is critical in setting yourself and your teams up for success. Is your organization or team going through change? Discover how you can support them with the right mindset solution at the right time.
Learn more at www.arcadiaconsulting.com and listen to our new podcast on your normal podcast platform. Get in touch! hello@arcadiaconsulting.com
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THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DELIVERING EFFECTIVE, ENGAGING, AND MEMORABLE VIRTUAL TRAINING With Virtual Instructor-Led Training, you can train more people in less time with a higher return on training investments than physical classroom training. In Virtual Training, bestselling author and internationally acclaimed trainer Jeb Blount demonstrates exactly how to deliver legendary virtual learning experiences.
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OUR SHARED SITUATION FROM A CONVERSATIONAL PERSPECTIVE The industrial age is becoming the knowledge age. What separates
the knowledge age from the industrial age is a fundamental shift in constraints. The top constraints in the industrial age were land, labor and capital. Whereas, the top constraints in the knowledge age are time, attention and priority. Furthermore, there is a fundamental shift occurring
from “jobs and occupations” to “connecting collective capability in moments of need.” The world has always been complex and interconnected, but the awareness and understanding of that complexity has recently increased. There is an enhanced
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understanding of interdependent tensions, as well as an increased ability to recognize polarities and manage them. Polarization and divisiveness appear to be seen, felt and experienced more keenly these days. For example, organizations continue to work on balancing centralization versus decentralization and must simultaneously manage the polarities of “growth and reduction,” “individual and collective,” and “structure and flexibility.” Organizations are also working on the seemingly divided nature of politics, race, gender and beliefs. However, these polarities provide an opportunity to rethink the shared situation that we find ourselves in. Organizations can now look at the combination of their challenges as a collection of ongoing tensions between groups, priorities, tasks, projects and individuals. Currently, we have an opportunity to “check-in” with how we’ve been thinking, acting and evolving as individuals and collective groups. Our opposable thumbs and ability to express our thoughts and feelings through language are what set humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, and this is the essence of relationships and conversation. It is the tensions between our long-held beliefs, the illusion of knowledge, flawed reasoning, individual and collective biases, and irrational judgments that generate energy for noteworthy progress. The multitude of tensions presents an opportunity for conversations and healthy, equitable, collective changes.
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Conversations are the most underutilized technology. Conversations provide an avenue for making ethical, comprehensive and equitable decisions. Conversations can cause harm, as well as bring positive change. Therefore, conversations are our primary hope for collective improvement in a world that is desperate for a renewed and sustained form of human connection and progress.
WHAT IS CONVERSATION? Recognizing conversation is fairly easy. Conversation is typically defined as an oral exchange between two or more people. However, it is time to expand that definition. Conversation is an interaction of senses across time and space. Conversation is more than a verbal exchange; it is possible to have a conversation through text or sign language. Conversations can be held using our senses of touch, smell, taste, sound, vision and even intuition. Without making the notion of conversation too complex, it is possible to have a conversation with yourself. It is possible to have a conversation through a piece of music; it is possible to have a conversation through a shared hug. It is also possible to have a conversation across extended periods of time, where interactions span days, weeks, months or even years. This expanded definition of conversation provides a tremendous opportunity for improving our interactions, words, beliefs, actions, decisions and relationships.
IS LEADERSHIP AN INDIVIDUAL OR COLLECTIVE PRACTICE? Stephen Covey said, “Leadership in the industrial age was a position, but leadership in the knowledge age is a choice.” Leadership is a practice; it is beyond a role or title. It is not bestowed as an assumed privilege. Unfortunately, there is a traditional, implicitly shared definition of leadership that often brings to mind authoritarian, commandand-control, and divide-and-conquer mannerisms. While there are moments and situations where that approach can be effective, we are now more aware that a broader concept of leadership is needed in the majority of situations.
CONVERSATIONS PROVIDE AN AVENUE FOR MAKING ETHICAL, COMPREHENSIVE AND EQUITABLE DECISIONS. WHAT IS CONVERSATIONAL LEADERSHIP? Conversational leadership – as defined by one of its emerging founders, David Gurteen – is “appreciating the extraordinary but underutilized power of conversation, recognizing that we can all practice leadership and adopt a conversational approach to the way
in which we live and work together.” It is not only about having better conversations, although there is a portion of conversational leadership that concerns itself with expanding the range and depth of conversations. It is also about gauging where we are with our conversational skills at this point in time, what brought us to the present moment individually and collectively, and what highly skilled interactions will look like in the future.
LEADERSHIP IS A PRACTICE; IT IS BEYOND A ROLE OR TITLE. Conversational leadership intends to increase our awareness during conversations. For example, we often engage in “parallel monologues,” opposed to two-way conversations. Katherine Woods, leadership thought leader and author, often asks, “Are we in a meeting, or are we being met?” Conversations provide opportunities to gain deeper understanding, to converge and diverge, to uproot deep-seated biases, to make improved collective decisions. Conversations were here long before and will long outlast technology. Funny enough, it is the skill and depth of our conversations that will enable us to advance and progress more equitably and sustainably in the future. There are many perspectives and scholars emerging in the conversational leadership space – with Dr. Juanita Brown and David Isaacs adopting a world café approach; Nancy Dixon representing the conversational architect perspective; and Donita Volkwijn championing the diversity, equity and inclusion perspective. There are many other perspectives of conversational leadership that are also arising, such as conversational analysis – an approach to quantifying and identifying mathematical “movements” and patterns in conversation. Conversational leadership is a growing and thriving discipline. The outer circle of the conversational leadership framework (Figure 1
on page 26) depicts four areas and inquiry-based approaches to conversational leadership. Each of the four areas intends to shine a light on the conversations being held in the moment, as well as offers questions to inspire deeper dialogue. Conversational leadership is not so much about leading conversations as it is about listening, guiding and contributing to conversations as they emerge. In conversational leadership, there are many levels of observation and interaction, requiring us to assess and understand our intent and impact in conversations. In the center of the conversational leadership framework, notice “self” and “communityship.” The concept of self, also known as “self as an instrument,” stems most notably from Gestalt psychotherapy. Dr. Mee Yan Cheung Judge and Dr. David Jamieson – active researchers and practitioners in the “use of self” – define use of self as “the conscious use of one’s whole being in the intentional execution of one’s roles for effectiveness in whatever the current situation is presenting. The purpose is to be able to execute a role effectively, for others and the system they’re in, with full awareness of personal interference (e.g., bias, blindness, avoidance, and agendas) to have clear intentions and choice.” In conversational leadership, we often refer to intent and impact. A focus on the self in conversational leadership asks us to be curious about and aware of our intent and impact in our conversations. Communityship is a relatively new word invented by Henry Mintzberg. Oversimplified, communityship is defined as “shared leadership,” but Mr. Mintzberg offers that it is more than shared leadership. Instead, it is, “Something you recognize when you see it and feel it.” Michael Jones – leadership educator and author – comments that communityship could be defined as seeing the gift in the other, creating a sense of place, embracing the spirit of festival, crafting a language of life and welcoming the stranger. Conversational leadership offers that communityship enables us to rethink our notions of leadership from an individual position to a collective responsibility.
These six areas of context, purpose, design, enablement, self and communityship combine to be greater than the sum of their parts. Conversations are complex, and complexity can’t be mapped very well. Kurt Lewin receives credit for saying, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” The intent of this conversational leadership framework is to motivate and shift us to challenge our assumptions about conversation and what enables healthy, successful and equitable conversations.
WELCOME TO CONVERSATIONAL LEADERSHIP Approaches to leadership are evolving and expanding. Numerous examples of leadership models and frameworks exist – such as servant leadership, authoritarian leadership, transactional leadership, strategic leadership, change leadership, agile leadership, authentic leadership and so many more. Similar to leadership, approaches to conversation are evolving and expanding as well. Numerous examples of conversational models and frameworks exist, such as crucial conversations, non-violent communications, healing conversations, difficult conversations, conversational intelligence, conversational analysis and so many more. Conversational leadership is a growing community of practitioners looking to expand their conversational and leadership capabilities – leveraging all of these models and frameworks, creating and experimenting with new models and frameworks, and applying those practices to their teams’ and organizations’ needs. This shared practice has hopes of enabling a more equitable future for individuals and collective communities. John Hovell is the creator of Conversation Groups, also known as C-groups. C-groups are one fundamental way to learn and practice conversational leadership. John also works at the convergence of knowledge management, organizational development, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Email John.
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A
Blueprint for
Remote Leadership That Works By
Jim & Wendy Kirkpatrick
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PROGRAM PLAN CHANGES ARE TO BE EXPECTED;
THEY ARE NOT SIGNS OF FAILURE.
According to Forbes in 2019, leadership development funding is estimated at $166 billion annually in the U.S., but does it produce results? Typically, no. Now, let’s also assume leadership development must be performed remotely. Sounds difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Here is a formula for in-person and remote leadership training that works. An effective development program goes beyond creating engaged, motivated and competent employees. When executed correctly, the program produces maximum workplace performance and organizational results. Whether you are a training professional tasked with designing a remote leadership development program, an executive looking for an effective solution or a vendor hoping to provide training, the Kirkpatrick Model provides a framework for programs that measurably increase performance and produce business results.
DOCUMENT
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE For any training request, start by asking what Level 4 results the program will support. What high-level organizational outcomes will the training positively influence? For example, will better remote leadership reduce employee turnover, increase productivity and customer satisfaction, or reduce waste? Get clear on the high-level outcomes the training should deliver to be considered a success. Ideally, these outcomes are discussed and defined in a two-way conversation between the training provider and the stakeholders.
INVEST IN A
COMPREHENSIVE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Organizations are usually clear on the outcomes that are most important to them, but less clear on how to achieve them. They expect training magic: Send your people to a one-day program, and achieve the desired results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. And simply converting in-person training to virtual training is not the answer either.
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CONNECT LEARNING, PERFORMANCE AND RESULTS
TO TELL YOUR SUCCESS STORY.
The most critical part of any training program, remote leadership development included, is a well-defined Level 3 implementation plan. There is strong agreement that formal training on its own yields only a fraction of desired outcomes. On-the-job experiences are the biggest source of learning for employees. Therefore, on-the-job environment and organizational culture significantly impact how employees perform, regardless of their knowledge. Decentralized teams and remote leadership add an additional layer of importance to the Level 3 plan. Training and the business should work together to define what needs to change or occur reliably in the on-the-job environment and employee performance to yield desired results. Then, they should create a support and accountability package to help employees and their managers succeed. Training budgets are often cut, because data connecting learning to organizational outcomes is missing, due to lacking a Level 3 implementation plan. Therefore, creating a plan and defining roles and responsibilities early in the planning phase is critical not only for the success of a remote leadership program but for the continued existence of the training function as we know it today.
DEFINE
CRITICAL BEHAVIORS The first step in creating a Level 3 plan is to define the critical behaviors that future remote leaders need to develop and exhibit in observable, measurable terms. For example, critical behaviors for remote leaders could be:
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[ Publish organizational, departmental and personal goals to all direct reports. [ Conduct daily team meetings and weekly employee touch-bases via video conference. [ Review weekly status reports and provide feedback for each direct report. Critical behaviors often influence organizational processes and systems due to underpinned assumptions. In this case, the organization has a goal-setting process and a culture that employees must complete and submit weekly status reports. The more structure and accountability that exists organizationally, the easier it is to build a Level 3 plan.
CREATE A SUPPORT AND
ACCOUNTABILITY PACKAGE Human nature dictates that, even when people know what they are supposed to do, many factors influence their behavior. For example, leaders know that spending time with their direct reports is important, but sometimes deadlines and workload influence them to delay or cancel oneon-one time with their team members. In remote working situations, there could be environmental influences such as children and pets that make video calls inconvenient. Effective remote leadership requires a Level 3 plan, including a variety of methods and tools to support leaders in performing their critical behaviors and hold them accountable. Providing support is usually enjoyable. Look for ways to help your busy remote leaders
do the right thing – such as providing templates, checklists, small rewards and reminders. If resources are available for formal coaching and mentoring, these can be very effective tools. Holding remote leaders accountable is less enjoyable, but it is necessary for remote leadership to produce expected results. Begin with existing accountability tools and techniques, and see if there are gaps that should be filled. Possible examples include: [ Time tracking software. [ Weekly reports. [ Dashboards. [ Performance tracking systems. The key is to ensure that you track not only the results but the steady performance and adoption of critical behaviors by managers. Monitoring performance takes time and resources. During remote leadership program development, discuss posttraining roles and responsibilities and obtain buy-in for a plan. If resources are tight, look at methods of self-monitoring, reporting and peer mentoring as viable alternatives. Remote leaders can also have regularly scheduled meetings to discuss their successes and challenges in adopting critical behaviors and support each other. The Level 3 plan is the most important part of your remote leadership program. The quality and execution of your plan are the biggest contributors to the success of your remote leaders. Define post-training support and accountability as part of the training package, and build it at the same time as formal training materials. Broadening your definition of training better positions your program for success.
DEFINE
SPECIFIC METRICS Training is often evaluated cumulatively when the program is complete. Refocus most of your analysis on formative evaluation – data collected during training
and implementation – so you can correct issues and maximize performance and results along the way. Before training, find out what metrics are important to the stakeholders, the managers of learners, the learners themselves and the leadership development cohort. Make sure you have metrics for both performance and outcomes. Determine who will gather and report the data and in what format. Decide which data will be reported throughout the initiative to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
CONNECT
THE DOTS Prior to and during training, let learners know what they are expected to do after training, what support is available to them, how their performance outcomes will be tracked and how they contribute to organizational success. Making the connection between training, performance and high-level outcomes has many benefits. Participants come to training with a higher level of interest and are more engaged. Therefore, they learn more, and – when applying their new learnings on the job is difficult – support is available to them.
Perhaps the most critical time for creating training success is when training graduates return to the job. Ensure there are regular checkpoints to verify that support and accountability actions occur. Use technology to set automated reminders for yourself, supervisors, stakeholders and the training graduates.
There are always multiple factors that influence results. A simple way to collect this data is to survey the remote leaders and their supervisors on what factors contributed to their success. Ensure respondents can provide openended responses, so you capture their stories.
Most programs are not instantly successful. Expect to have setbacks, and be prepared with a remediation plan. This is the reason that continual monitoring and reinforcement is required for success in most programs. Program plan changes are to be expected; they are not signs of failure.
Remote leaders would likely say their success is due to a combination of things, such as training, technology tools, support from their peers, supervisory guidance, personal initiative and regular progress checkpoints. With a reasonable investment of resources, you can show the relative contribution of these factors at Kirkpatrick Levels 2, 3 and 4.
REPORT
MEANINGFUL DATA Powerful program data are a combination of numbers and supporting metrics on performance and results. Connect learning, performance and results to tell your success story. If you attempt to report results with no on-the-job Levelprogram 1: performance data, expect objection that Reaction some other factor created or influenced the outcomes. If you provide numeric data and no supporting stories or evidence, it is also difficult to make the connection.
The kirkpatrick model Level 4:
results
Level 3:
behavior
Level 2:
learning
Level 1:
Reaction
The degree to which targeted outcomes occur as a result of the training and support and accountability package. The degree to which participants apply what they learned during training when they are back on the job. The degree to which participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence and commitment based on their participation in the training. The degree to which participants find the training favorable, engaging and relevant to their jobs.
The blended data shows the value that training brings to the company and highlights other important factors in company success, giving credit where credit is due and contributing to a teambased approach to success.
GET
STARTED Do not be intimidated if you have never created a training plan including performance support and accountability. Select one important initiative with executive sponsorship and support to use as a pilot. Create a committee to work with you. Focus more resources on the post-training plan than on the training itself. The time you dedicate to the pilot is an investment that will make subsequent programs faster and easier. Before you know it, you will be building and implementing Level 3 plans for all important company initiatives and successfully connecting training, performance and results. More importantly, you will be maximizing program outcomes and minimizing resources invested. And, that’s a blueprint for training that works. Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick are coauthors of “Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation.” Learn more at kirkpatrickpartners.com. Email Jim and Wendy.
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We are bringing light to a distinction between leadership competencies and leadership capacity that is absolutely critical in the leadership development field, because not understanding this distinction severely limits equipping leaders to handle today’s challenges.
effective during times of increasing VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) and rapid change. Increasing leadership capacity (rather than just teaching competencies) is known as vertical development.
Training and development professionals are often tasked with making lists of leadership competencies, which are generally presented as leadership behaviors and skills that, when developed, can contribute to superior performance. We can use the example of “collaboration.” Collaborative leaders clearly drive higher engagement and generate better and more sustainable results.
What is the difference between competencies and capacity?
Leadership capacity is the ability to think and then act in ways that are more
Think of competencies as software on a computer, which become increasingly
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In our work, we use a map of adult development applied to leadership, Levels of Development-in-Action (see Figure 1). Just as children keep changing “operating systems” throughout their young lives, as adults we keep developing at later-stage “operating systems.”
more effective using more advanced operating systems. Leadership capacity is about the structure of our thinking – not what we think about but rather how we think about it. What is different for leaders at later stages of adult development? ⊲ Leaders are more reflective. They think more about what they are doing and how to do it better. ⊲ They are better able to take perspectives (putting themselves in others’ shoes) and to seek perspectives (asking questions to understand how others see things). ⊲ They are better able to integrate multiple factors, and thus make decisions that incorporate the perspectives of different
stakeholders (employees, customers, etc.), multiple timelines (short-term, long-term), and more.
get their buy-in to what he has already decided, but others know better than to question him.
those competencies using a sufficiently advanced “operating system” to actually embody them.
⊲ They are likely to have greater selfawareness, and allow themselves to be more vulnerable, acknowledging that they do not have all the answers and need the perspectives of others to optimize results. This allows them to be better at developing others and creating contexts imbued with safety and trust that then generate better solutions to complex problems.
Another leader knows that complex situations require the integration of multiple perspectives, has no problem exhibiting vulnerability by saying and believing they don’t know all the answers, and provides a context that makes it clear that all perspectives are valued and welcomed. There is no fear that ideas will be dismissed or discounted or ridiculed. Imagine how rich the collaboration will be and how much more effective in driving sustainable organizational results.
And most training and development professionals do not know how to assist leaders in upgrading their overall operations systems or capacity. They can present trainings on their lists of competencies but much of that energy is wasted. Leaders, no matter how wellintentioned, cannot “will” themselves to a later-stage level of development.
Leaders who think at earlier stages of development will over-simplify complex problems. They will look for “one right answer” or “who is to blame.” Their approaches to these complex problems are inherently limited and likely will not know it. For example, imagine a group of leaders attend a workshop about collaboration. One leader tends to see things only in terms of his own perspective. He assumes he knows the “right” way to do things, believes there is “one right answer,” has low self-awareness, and has difficulty admitting when he is not sure of something. Imagine how limited his collaboration will be. He may ask others superficial questions, mostly to
The Basic Problem in the Field of Leadership Development More than half of all leaders think like the first leader we described above, and those leaders have little choice to think at a more advanced level in the moment. Only about 10 percent think like the second leader. Can you understand the problem? Having talent development professionals create a list of competencies does not mean that most leaders have the capacity to “run”
Levels of Development PreConventional
Post-Conventional
Conventional
Alchemist Co-Creator
Catalyst
Achiever Expert
Conformer Opportunist
Fitting in
New perspectives
Flow
Systems and principles
Increase in: Awareness and Reflection System/Context Both/And
Results
Perspective Taking
Standing out
45%
Perspective Seeking
Own needs
Complexity and Integration
35%
Multiple Factors Stakeholders Higher Principles
8%
5%
2% Win/Lose
Win/Win
4%
1%
Transformative Dialogue © 2017 Clear Impact Consulting Group
Healthy Ownership Agility/Versatility
The other problem with lists of competencies is that all leaders already have a day job and have very little bandwidth for integrating new ideas. As we wrote in a previous article for Training Industry, Awareness ≠ Change. Change is hard and takes repeated cycles of action and reflection throughout the day. Even with the most sophisticated approaches we know, integrating advanced in neuroscience, one or two areas of change are all we can handle.
Capability is Also Important It is important to note that the ability for a leader to actually do something depends on more than their internal competency and capacity. There is also capability. For example, it also depends on the context in which that leader is leading: What resources are available? What behaviors are allowed and/or rewarded in that organization? What are the competencies and capacities of his or her team? Imagine two leaders identical in their competencies and capacity. One is in a situation with very limited resources,
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a hiring and spending freeze, and has legacy employees who were promoted for tenure rather than ability. The other has a large budget and the ability to have the right people in the right roles. Their current capability to take effective action will be different.
Increasing Vertical Development It is very important to understand that the level at which a leader functions is not “fixed.” Leaders can and do make leaps in their overall capacity. What does that take? It helps when they have leaders around them who function at a laterstage level, when they see limitations or gaps in their own leadership thinking and action, and when they are motivated to stretch themselves and grow. But even with all these factors, they also need to be provided the right opportunity, exposure to capacity-building curriculum, and a learning context that is based on an understanding of Levels of Developmentin-Action, where they are presented tools and models that “stretch their brains.” Our brains change slowly over time with regular ongoing cycles of action and reflection. They do not change through attending a single workshop, no matter how well the material is presented. Willing participants need to be coupled with skilled trainers who function at a later-stage level and understand how to build capacity (rather than just teach competencies). And then they need to be given the time and support to grow, where they can be provided a safe environment to try new ways of thinking and acting. If training and development professionals do not function at a sufficiently later-
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stage level of development, they will be unable to assist leaders in increasing capacity. This is one problem with many train-the-trainer approaches. Unfortunately, in our experience, the field of training and development is largely unaware of levels of development and does not know how to promote actual capacity building. Unless you have specifically been introduced to levels of adult development, these models will be new to you. If you try to map them onto other ideas or models, you will lose the point. This is not about IQ. Two people with the same IQ can function at very different Levels of Development-in-Action, and therefore, capacity. This also has nothing to do with personality models, styles of leadership, experience, age-related maturity, or one’s management level. It has a lot to do with what learning approaches and environments someone has been exposed to, and their motivation coupled with having the right opportunities. In order to assist leaders in moving to later-stage levels of development,
whether we’re in the role of leader, consultant, trainer, coach, human resources, talent management or human capital professionals, we have to first be functioning at later-stage levels of development than those leaders. If you are drawn to what we have shared, then please take the time to understand the difference between competencies and capacity to build your own capacity so you can assist others to do the same. We hope this article has stimulated some new thinking, and that we have made a compelling case for why it is imperative to consciously craft opportunities and contexts that support vertical development in order for our leaders to deal more effectively with complex problems. Dr. Joel M. Rothaizer, MCC, and Dr. Sandra L. Hill are organizational effectiveness consultants, executive coaches and leadership development specialists at Clear Impact Consulting Group. Email the authors.
Takeaways ⊲ Leadership competencies are leadership behaviors and skills. ⊲ Leaders function at different levels of development, and all competencies are understood and expressed more effectively at later-stage levels. ⊲ Vertical development focuses on increasing the capacity to use any competencies more effectively, and thus the capacity to lead more effectively during times of increasing VUCA and rapid change. ⊲ Some competencies, like coaching and collaboration, are not viable until a leader reaches a certain stage of development. ⊲ Depending on how a competency is defined, there may be a “capacity gap” for a particular leader to be able to embody that competency at a minimally effective level, no matter how much they are rewarded, encouraged, punished externally, or motivated internally. ⊲ Whatever the competency, it will always be expressed more effectively by leaders thinking at a later-stage capacity level. ⊲ Focusing solely on leadership competencies is inherently limited. It is like adding new software programs without upgrading the overall operating system.
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How do we help learning concepts flow through our organizations to ensure that its leaders are speaking and practicing a “leadership language”? Leadership language and practices should reinforce the organization’s guiding principles, such as values, mission, vision and competencies. It takes more than a one-and-done training class approach to create sustainable, effective leadership development. Instead, it takes a learning and development (L&D) strategy of providing multi-touchpoint learning experiences to develop current leaders while simultaneously creating a leadership pipeline of emerging and aspiring leaders. This article highlights practices for connecting current leadership development programs with other learning offerings, such as regularly scheduled training sessions, microlearning and selfdirected learning. Another key component is creating learning communities of practice within the organization to allow leaders to share and explore latest ideas and skills, as well as to become fluent in the leadership language and practices that express the organization’s guiding principles.
Leadership Fluency Fluency is the state of being fluent, or rather the ability to express oneself smoothly, easily or readily. Being fluent is usually associated with the ability to speak, write or read a language “accurately and with facility.” It is also being able to comprehend and apply ideas appropriately. Looking deeper into
the definition, however, being fluent also applies to movement, style or practice that is smooth and graceful, and the ability to “flow freely” or be “fluid.”
• Stay committed daily
Applying all aspects of fluency to leadership development comes in handy for L&D professionals. As pointed out in “Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing Leaders,” an HBR article, leaders in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment need to be intuitive, fluid and more collaborative. Developing leaders who are fluent not only helps ensure that all levels and areas of leadership are congruent with each other but also with the changing needs of others and the organization. Leaders who are fluent possess an awareness – of self and others – enabling them to comprehend different and sometimes ambiguous situations, and they are able to adapt their style to meet those needs while still maintaining the organization’s guiding principles.
• Push themselves out of their comfort zone
So how do we as L&D professionals and designers create the conditions for this to happen and open up opportunities for all leaders? Looking at some tips of how people become fluent is helpful.
How to Become Fluent Numerous studies from language experts have shown that to become fluent in a language, the learner should: • Immerse themselves • Practice using the language
• Engage with local literature, films, music, etc.
• Find a language learning partner or group As L&D professionals, we know that mastering any type of skill involves a process. It also involves intentional practice and exposure to the new learning through different touchpoints and interacting with people of various skill levels.
6-point Learning Approach to Creating Leadership Fluency L&D professionals can apply similar concepts from the language experts to leadership development. For example, focusing on design to allow for both formal and informal learning touchpoints generates opportunities for immersion and can encourage learners to stay committed to practicing skills. Taking a more comprehensive approach to the learning design of leadership development also makes certain that leadership language aligns in the various offerings. There are many benefits to this approach, such as addressing learning retention, or the forgetting curve, one of the biggest challenges for L&D professionals. L&D
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professionals can reinforce learning in myriad forms and have participants build on learning concepts gained from previous sessions. This approach also leverages the model of spaced learning delivery, where content is reintroduced over specified intervals. Here are approaches we have found successful in our leadership development design that draw from the method language experts use to help learners gain fluency. Leaders can learn:
From Those Already Performing the Skill. Both seasoned and emerging leaders can benefit from this learning touchpoint. It gives emerging leaders an occasion to learn directly from seasoned leaders. Additionally, when leaders are the recipient of cross-training, working in a different area of the organization can help break down silos and promote better awareness of others. Some best practices include job shadowing, crosstraining, and job sharing or rotation. Incorporating job shadowing, for example, into a leadership development program creates experiential learning for the participants. Learners can encounter in-real-time problems or situations and take part in real-life, in-action solutions.
By Taking on Additional Responsibilities. This approach can push participants outside of their comfort zones by placing them into unfamiliar situations where they can learn and grow. It gives them a chance to stretch their talents beyond their current expertise and to perform at higher levels. Some examples include stretch assignments, special projects and committee work. Adding stretch assignments or special projects into your leadership development program provides an opportunity for practicing new skills. It also allows participants to prove their capabilities.
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Through Formal and Informal Training. Formal learning tends to be the bread-and-butter of most L&D training programs; however, it’s often not enough or even the right fit for some learners. Incorporating resources that point current and potential participants to other learning opportunities that align with your offerings can ensure leadership fluency continues. Some examples include external training and professional development courses, certifications or badges, and degreeseeking programs. Most external training and professional development from vendors such as LinkedIn Learning and Coursera allow L&D practitioners to create custom learning paths. Integrating learning paths through these external vendors with existing internal programs is a great way to have participants engage with leading experts in other organizations while discussing and analyzing learned concepts with others.
By Group Participation. Group participation is almost a given in most training sessions. However, forming semi-structured groups outside of formal offerings, or in addition to programs can provide more support and space to help participants gain leadership fluency. Some examples include communities of practice, service or volunteering, and online forums and social learning. Leveraging Microsoft Teams or Slack is a great way to build social learning and communities of practice. For instance, you can create a channel specifically for a leadership development course where participants can reach out to others with questions or to share resources.
With Guidance from Others. There are many proven benefits of learners seeking guidance from others as a component of their professional
6-point Checklist Use these approaches as a checklist when designing your leadership development experiences to ensure leadership fluency. Make sure participants learn: From those already performing the skill. By taking on additional responsibilities. Through formal and informal training. By group participation. With guidance from others. From self-study.
development. For instance, when added to a formal learning experience, it can promote a learning culture and help build connections between participants, as well as growth. Some examples of these types of learning experiences include coaching, mentoring and mastermind groups.
Adding coaching and/or mentoring programs into your leadership development design produces one of the biggest opportunities for integrating different leadership development programs and cultivating leadership fluency. You can add a component to your executive leadership program where leaders must coach participants
for an aspiring leaders’ program, for example. This design simultaneously teaches executive leaders some needed coaching skills while allowing aspiring leaders to receive the benefit of their coach’s experience.
From Self-study. One main benefit of including self-study opportunities in leadership development design is that it encourages learners to develop self-directed learning skills. This approach can also help to promote a learning culture within the organization. Some examples include books, articles and blogs, videos, and podcasts and interviews. Including a list of other learning resources as a “next steps in your learning” can enhance the learning experience. For example, you can develop a “Read, Watch, Listen” series as a way to interconnect and reinforce learning offerings. This approach also reinforces and expands learning concepts for past participants.
Your Call to Action Now it is time to assess your leadership development design and approach. To help you promote leadership fluency in your programs, we suggest these steps:
1 | Assess Your Approach: • What are your organization’s guiding principles? • What are your current leadership development offerings? • How do your current leadership development offerings reinforce the language and practice of your guiding principles?
2 | Apply New Strategies: • How will you adapt your current learning offerings and programs based on the six-point learning approach? • What other learning opportunities
will you put in place to continue the learning conversation? • What new ideas will you take away and continue to explore within your organization?
3 | Build Your Own Community of Practice: • Who can you connect with to share learning resources, best practices and ideas to try? • Who else within your organization or network is performing similar work you can partner with? • How can you ensure sustainability for your group? Rachel Watts and Bryan Harber are training generalists at Georgia Institute of Technology who focus on leadership development, onboarding and communication skills. Together, they bring over 20 years of L&D experience to their roles. Email the authors.
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Leveraging Data TO INCREASE
Leadership & Team Effectiveness IN THE FLOW OF WORK By Andy Stankiewicz
Major business, societal and technological disruptions – punctuated by the global pandemic – have been characterized as a “time machine to the future.” By April 2020, global companies, such as IBM, were reporting that nearly 100 percent of their severalhundred-thousand-strong workforces were remote. Across numerous industries, companies accelerated multiyear digital transformation initiatives within the span of a few weeks. And hierarchal management models increasingly shifted to more agile teambased structures to sufficiently respond to events on the ground, thereby increasing the demand for leaders. Organizations have always needed effective leaders to inspire action and manage change. To thrive in this
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new world of work, however, we’re challenged to develop higher-quality, more agile and more diverse leadership – at all organizational levels.
Data-driven Approaches in Leadership Development
Likewise, high-performing teams have always mattered. Today, however, our teams are the epicenter of innovation, engagement and inclusivity (or the reverse) – requiring new capabilities, data and tools to support decisionmaking and collaboration.
Modern leadership requires new approaches to the way leaders and their teams navigate this rapidly evolving, often ambiguous landscape. This includes new data-driven approaches to leadership development and elevating the role leaders play in shaping culture by leveraging technology, data and tools in the flow of work.
Finally, human-centered leadership has always been valued. Developing empathetic leaders with high emotional, relational and team intelligence is a strategic imperative, particularly as issues such as employee well-being, resilience, psychological safety and belonging take center stage.
Not surprisingly, traditional approaches to leadership development – i.e., disproportionately focused on executive leaders, high-touch, instructor-led, offsite, content-driven programs – are increasingly less effective or simply not scalable in the current environment. Participants often struggle to transfer
compared his psychometric “portrait” with that of his colleague and discovered that both their conflict management styles were characterized as strongly “competing,” rather than collaborating. Naturally, this contributed to their vigorous debates and disagreements on a wide-range of initiatives.
A relatively low percentage of organizations measure workforce experience more than once a year.
The physician leader shared his diagnosis and insights with his executive coach. Together, they identified ways to enhance communication with the direct report. According to the coach, “The leader used psychometric data to better understand the underlying dynamics of the relationship with his direct report. As a result, we could focus our time together on prescriptive solutions around communication, feedback and collaboration rather than diagnosis. Ultimately, we accelerated a breakthrough, and the leader greatly improved his relationship with the direct report.” these experiences into more effective leadership behaviors on the front lines. Research also continues to show that behaviors acquired in off-site settings are easily forgotten once leaders return to their natural work environments. Deloitte Consulting correctly suggests that the predominant shift in leadership development programs today will be moving from a traditional content-driven approach to a more dynamic contextdriven approach: “Context-based approaches use the real-life problems of the organization as the ‘living case study.’ They operate in the real and relevant context of the business, erasing the claim that learning and ‘work’ are separate. Therefore, as the business changes,
so do the leadership experiences. Context-based development prioritizes the ‘learn as you work, work as you learn’ philosophy, always striving to solve actual problems as leaders simultaneously grow their capabilities. The potential benefit of this type of methodology is that you can create a simultaneous and effective impact—solving the challenges of the business while learning at the same time.” A recent example from health care supports this shift of delivering development opportunities in the flow of work. A physician leader at a large hospital was struggling with a noncompliant direct report. Communication was breaking down around an important project. The leader
A senior human resources (HR) professional adds: “Psychometric data is powerful because it is multifaceted. We’re not just looking at one dimension of a human being; we’re looking at the whole person – everything from how you show up, to what motivates you, to how you react under pressure. These are important dimensions for leaders to understand not only about themselves but about the impact that has on others.”
What the Right Data Set Can Do for Your Team Psychometric data is equally applicable to teams. For example, a 30-year industry veteran observes: “If I have psychometric data, I can go to a team and immediately have conversations about
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the makeup of that team, including the team’s strengths and blind spots, how balanced or unbalanced that team is and how to optimize that team’s composition for performance.” He adds, “When I was a practicing clinical psychologist, I would do the inkblot test and that would accelerate my understanding of somebody by about six months. Similarly, by examining psychometric data, I accelerate my understanding of that team – and the root causes of certain dynamics – significantly.” Furthermore, a medical research company used aggregate psychometric data to design a more effective curriculum for scientists who likely would assume positional leadership roles as future heads of its research labs. The organization identified the cohort’s top attributes, blind spots and development needs and created a year-long program comprised of curated microlearning and macrolearning content. This data-driven approach to developing leaders at scale – with the ability to access just-in-time, just-in-need micro content and tools in the flow of work through a platform – supports a continuous learning culture.
Relational intelligence is emotional intelligence turned outward. Relational intelligence speaks to our ability to be aware about how we affect others and how their emotional states might be affecting us. This enables us to act with empathy, to interact with and resolve conflict, and motivate and persuade others in ways that have impact.
Team intelligence enables leaders to facilitate psychological safety.
generate prescriptive recommendations for each manager around enhancing relational skills, strengthening one-onone relationships with team members and developing desired behaviors.
In addition to psychometrics, a comprehensive understanding of workforce experience is another critical data set for leaders. Recent disruptions demonstrate how quickly the experience of employees can shift, yet a relatively low percentage of organizations measure workforce experience more than once a year. Deloitte Consulting observes, “Whatever workforce measures might have indicated prior to these [2020] disruptions, they have most likely changed. As a result, we recommend increased frequency of workforce experience measurement…to maintain an accurate, up-to-date picture of your workforce experience.”
Emotional, Relational and Team Intelligence
A manufacturing company recently surveyed its entire global workforce across multiple indices. The organization scored high around the quality of its leadership but low around coaching and managerial skills. Leaders were great at communicating vision, but employees sought a greater one-on-one connection with their immediate managers. Survey results were further correlated with leaders’ psychometric assessments to
Most of us are familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence (EI). One of the foundational aspects of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. This includes an awareness of our own emotional states, an understanding of how those emotional states impact others and the ability to manage our emotions. With this self-knowledge, we can connect more meaningfully and deeply in relationships.
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In an environment where leaders and managers have a responsibility to support employee well-being, psychological safety and belonging, developing these essential capabilities around emotional, relational and team intelligence is more important than ever. And focusing on a small number of leadership behaviors necessary for success results in better outcomes, research shows.
Team intelligence is emotional intelligence applied in a team setting. Having good team intelligence includes the ability to assess and manage the emotional states of the team. This allows a leader to anticipate roadblocks to communication, resolve conflict and recognize and honor team members’ unique contributions. Team intelligence also helps colleagues nurture and support one another so they can reach their full potential. Having team intelligence enables leaders to facilitate psychological safety, the hallmark of high-performing teams.
Empower Leaders with Data When McKinsey & Company amassed systematic data on the interventions that drove effective leadership development programs, two sets of interventions were most impactful, statistically speaking, namely (1) focusing on the leadership behaviors most critical to performance, based on context and (2) ensuring leadership development interventions reached all organizational levels. If our current and future leaders are to succeed as stewards of culture, engagement, innovation and inclusion, we need to provide highly personalized development opportunities in the flow of work that simultaneously address real problems and high-priority organizational needs. Increasingly, this requires that we empower leaders at all organizational levels with access to data, resources and tools and help them develop those essential capabilities that drive sustained impact in our new world of work. Andy Stankiewicz is an EVP at SurePeople, a next-gen platform that optimizes leadership development, team performance and talent strategies for the new world of work. Email Andy.
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JULIE WINKLE GIULIONI
PERFORMANCE MATTERS
THE POWER OF PRACTICE
How many times when you were growing up did you hear, “Practice makes perfect”? For me, it was a lot. When I entered the training industry, I was introduced to an updated perspective on this sentiment with Vince Lombardi’s quote, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” But today, it’s Les Brown’s take on the topic that resonates: “Everything we do is practice for something greater than where we currently are. Practice only makes for improvement.”
EVERY MOMENT PRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE FOR “SOMETHING GREATER.” Much of my learning and development (L&D) career has focused on the “intake” dimension of learning – the workshops, eLearning modules, videos and other vehicles that dispensed the how-tos associated with a given skill. Yet, even in the days when instructor-led options were the default, no course was complete without a trio skills practice (i.e., role-play). While practice has reached new heights with sophisticated systems, simulations and virtual or augmented reality in some environments, many training professionals struggle to find ways to create meaningful rehearsal when learning occurs virtually or via on-demand platforms. But Les Brown’s outlook extends far beyond formal learning initiatives. Every moment presents an opportunity to practice for “something greater” and work toward improvement. This
perspective offers liberation because everything we do is just practice. It also highlights the importance of being deliberate in that practice. Imagine what could be possible if we brought conscious attention to ordinary occurrences. If we treated our dayto-day activities as a lab for learning. If we embraced life’s ups and downs as “practice for something greater.” Employees could grow in any role independent of promotions or pathways. Greater mindfulness and skillfulness would permeate organizational cultures. People – and businesses – would thrive. Learning professionals and functional leaders can help others leverage the power of practice into their professional development. Consider these simple yet powerful strategies. INTRODUCE INTENTION Life is constant practice. The question is: Are we practicing what serves us well and will allow us to improve? When the answer is “no,” the reason is generally a lack of awareness. So, draw attention to what and how others are practicing. Help them recognize patterns and habits that are helpful and not. Encourage them to set an intention for what and how they want to practice in their daily activities and how it will lead to improvement. SPOTLIGHT STRENGTHS According to research conducted by Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman, it’s easier to take a strength to the next level than it is to improve a weakness. So, help others establish success and momentum by
identifying current strengths to amplify through practice. Giving greater attention to what one does well can enhance the skill and find new, different opportunities to use it as well. EXPLORE EXPERIENCES Life moves pretty fast for most of us. And if you don’t pay attention, a lot of insights and learning can pass you by. So, facilitate conversations that help others pause and connect the dots between their practice and the outcomes. Debrief experiences in a way that allows people to recognize how their efforts might be moving them in the direction of improvement. PROMOTE PRACTICE PARTNERS Sometimes the practice of skills, behaviors and intentions can become more effective when supported by rehearsal. Improvement can be a team sport, so volunteer – or encourage them to find peers – to role-play and offer them meaningful feedback. Let them work through the kinks in a safe environment so that their real-time practice might be even more productive. Life is constant practice. Recognizing this and taking full advantage of the moment-by-moment opportunities to improve and prepare for “something greater” is a powerful (and costeffective) learning strategy that we all might want to start practicing. Julie Winkle Giulioni has 25 years of experience working with organizations worldwide to improve performance through learning. Email Julie.
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C E R T I F I C AT I O N AGILE CERTIFICATION FOR HR AND L&D
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SRINI PIL LAY, M.D.
SCIENCE OF LEARNING
BRAIN-BASED LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU SCALING?
Can leaders be developed or is leading a genetic trait? While the tendency to lead does have a heritable component, the capacity to lead can be nurtured. Chief learning officers are recognizing that leadership development strategies need to be comprehensive, and not exclusively for their senior-most leaders, but scalable throughout the organization. Granted, different leadership functions require different forms of support, but there are dimensions of leadership crucial to the function that are frequently ignored.
organization. If you focus on senior leaders only, deeply self-connected leaders will be trying to get work out of people who are barely present. Performance enhancement requires a similar strategy – a controlled way in which you can shift the entire culture of your organization. In most work environments, to maintain your high performance, you have to intelligently build un-focus into your day to refuel your brain. This needs to be more than instruction. It needs to be embedded in the culture.
SCALING SELF-DEVELOPMENT We frequently hear leaders being encouraged to “bring your whole self to work.” Warren Bennis emphasized this when he said, “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” You cannot be a leader if you are not deeply self-connected. And as Bennis points out, this is no walk in the park. While finding a sense of purpose is important, you cannot find your “why” if you are not connected to your “I.” In the brain, the “self” circuit overlaps with a circuit that is turned on when you are not focused. If you spend your day pecking away at your computer, sitting on Zoom calls and staring at your computer, your “self” will be elusive. Some organizations have constructed a scalable program for building selfawareness that is semi-self-paced and connected to “un-focus” experiences that can be scaled throughout your
YOU CANNOT FIND YOUR “WHY” IF YOU ARE NOT CONNECTED TO YOUR “I.” Uncontrolled stressors do not generally develop leaders, they actually kill them. Chronic stress accelerates aging, and work-related stress can cause gene changes associated with diseases like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Flexible working conditions make life better and take less of a toll on your brain. Organizations that ignore this may pay in the costs of turnover. Forty percent of workers are considering quitting their jobs, and hybrid work is on the horizon. In this context, many organizations are trying to do their best to show that they care. Leadership development needs to help people authentically focus on a promising future, so that the possibility of a better life is something they can
commit to. In an uncertain world, having existential confidence is essential, and it is important to scale this capability throughout the organization. IN CONCLUSION Develop a program focused on selfconnection in tandem with a program that inspires finding one’s purpose through work. Add in a program on possibility thinking and existential confidence, and use technology so that open enrollment programs exist in addition to focused cohorts. Also, rather than hiring a variety of people, be circumspect and have some consistency and trust in the thought leaders and facilitators you work with (imagine seeing a different therapist every week). Depth is essential, so avoid platitude talk (e.g., you must sleep, eat and have energy), and instead, provide brainbased tips that can be implemented for one’s self and scaled throughout the organization. When you focus on the seriousness of what leadership development is, that you are actually in charge of helping someone craft a life and purpose, it will take on an entirely different tone and be infinitely more effective. Dr. Srini Pillay is the CEO of NeuroBusiness Group. He is a Harvard trained psychiatrist and neuroscientist, on the Consortium for Learning Innovation at McKinsey & Company, and author of “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try.” Srini is also cofounder, chief medical officer and chief learning officer of Reulay. Email Srini.
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MICHELLE EGGLESTON SCHWARTZ, CPTM
LEARNER MINDSET
LEADING A HYBRID TEAM
The role of the leader continues to evolve to keep pace with the needs of the business – from perfecting the efficiency of the assembly line during the industrial revolution to ethically leveraging the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict consumer behaviors in the 21st century. As the work environment changes, so must our approach to leadership. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations shifted to remote workforces. Now, as employees begin to migrate back to the office, companies are adapting to a hybrid workplace. With some employees located in the office and others working remotely, this presents challenges for many leaders. Learning and development (L&D) has an opportunity to guide their organizations’ leaders through these transitions to bring stability to the organization as they find their feet in this uncertain economic climate. HYBRID LEADERSHIP SKILLS There has been a multitude of changes and disruptions in business over the last 18 months. As employees were sent home, leaders needed to quickly learn how to manage in a remote environment. Just as leaders gained confidence in their remote leadership skills, however, some employees began returning to the office – requiring hybrid leadership skills. Leaders are facing new challenges as they enter this new world of work – from sustaining the company culture to maintaining clear communication and expectations regardless of location.
Leaders must unify a dispersed workforce and align the team around shared goals and objectives. To support employees in a hybrid work environment, here are few things for leaders to consider: SETTING EXPECTATIONS This new world of work requires new processes and procedures. Teams should discuss how and when they’re going to communicate, who needs to attend meetings, who has access to information and where to turn for guidance. Managers should also discuss with employees how they will structure their day, ensuring both remote and in-office employees have access to the same tools, resources and flexibility to meet goals. MAINTAINING FLEXIBILITY The onset of the pandemic may be in the rearview mirror, but employees are still navigating uncertainty. Flexibility has become a critical skill for leaders and employees as they navigate a new world of work. A flexible mindset will enable leaders to adjust goals as needed. Prioritizing tasks and projects can help the team focus on what matters most if plans need to shift. OPEN COMMUNICATION Communication has always been a critical leadership skill, but hybrid work requires clear communication for success. Leaders must structure individual and team meetings to ensure participation by all employees,
regardless of location. Leaders should ask for feedback from their employees on the format of meetings, challenges of a hybrid team and how the team can improve processes and procedures.
THE WORLD OF WORK IS EVOLVING – AND SO IS LEADERSHIP. REDEFINING COMPANY CULTURE The pandemic required many leaders to essentially tear up their plans and start from scratch. Business models shifted in response to the changing market – altering processes and procedures, eliminating outdated products and adding new offerings to the business portfolio. We’re at a turning point in business to redefine our company’s culture. This is an opportunity for leaders to tune in to what employees need and create a culture that nurtures and supports talent so that the company can achieve its short- and long-term goals. MOVING FORWARD The world of work is evolving – and so is leadership. As hybrid work environments continue to gain traction, leaders need to be prepared with new skills and a new mindset. Leaders must work to unify their dispersed team and create a shared vision for success. Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, CPTM, is the editorial director at Training Industry, Inc. Email Michelle.
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CLOSING DEALS RECENT ACQUISITIONS POSITION ELEARNING BROTHERS AS A ONE-STOP-SHOP SOLUTION BY SARAH GALLO, CPTM
eLearning Brothers has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a learning templates startup that two brothers, co-founders Shawn and Andrew Scivally, were running out of a basement in 2009. After acquiring eLearning software provider Trivantis and eLearning provider Edulence in April 2020, eLearning Brothers acquired game-based learning provider The Game Agency in March 2021, positioning the company as a front-runner in the learning technologies market, says Stephen Baer, chief creative officer at The Game Agency. EVERYTHING YOU NEED, ALL IN ONE PLACE From games and arcades to virtual reality (VR) to authoring tools and eLearning Brothers’ learning management offering, The Rockstar Learning Platform, eLearning Brothers isn’t giving its customers any reason to look elsewhere for its digital learning needs. Acquiring Trivantis, Edulence and The Game Agency was a “full integration” of people, processes and finances that transformed eLearning Brothers into a learning technology product business, says Andrew Scivally. Their goal? To create a business that “can do everything [its customers] need to get their learning online,” from content creation to tracking and measuring learning analytics. By creating, managing and delivering digital learning solutions all in one place, customers can fulfill their digital learning needs through a single vendor, which especially benefits middle-market
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companies who may not have large training departments and are looking for turn-key solutions. eLearning Brothers’ offerings “will find a home in the middle market,” says Ken Taylor, Training Industry’s president and editor-in-chief. Its suite of learning technologies and abilities is putting the tools to build and deliver digital learning in the hands of companies previously unable to access it. PARTNERING UP There’s plenty of assimilation happening in the digital learning space, says John Blackmon, chief technical officer at eLearning Brothers and previous chief executive officer at Trivantis. “We’re seeing a lot of dance partners getting together. That seems to be going on more and more in the industry.” After acquiring Trivantis and, with it, leading eLearning authoring tool Lectora and VR course-builder CenarioVR, along with Edulence’s learning management system (LMS), Knowledgelink, Andrew Scivally wanted to bring yet another offering into its current lineup: games. “We wanted gaming because it’s super hot right now; it’s growing like crazy. It’s effective, and everyone loves [them],” he says. Bringing The Game Agency into the eLearning Brothers family “was a natural fit.” These recent acquisitions reflect “what’s in the pipeline to come” for eLearning Brothers, Baer says, ultimately, the company is “hyper-focused” on acquiring technology solutions that will position it as a key player in the learning technologies market.
ON-TREND Learning technologies are constantly evolving, and eLearning Brothers’ acquisitions are helping it keep pace. While learner engagement has always been a priority for training providers, it has taken on a new level of importance with the rise of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrew Scivally says. Acquiring The Game Agency offered eLearning Brothers a way to create engaging learning solutions through the power of play. After all, he says, “Learners might play a game four times, but no one’s going to complete a compliance course four times.” Instead, they’re likely clicking “Next” as “fast as humanly possible.” eLearning Brothers also knows that VR is here to stay. “It’s definitely the future of the learning space,” Andrew Scivally says. Today’s learners are looking for training on demand, on whatever device they have. By simply putting on a headset, VR can transport learners into a simulated environment in which they can safely practice both soft and hard skills. As eLearning Brothers continues to expand, Taylor says it will be interesting to see how the different systems and platforms interact with each other. Blackmon agrees, noting that better, tighter integrations are on the way. As digital learning continues to advance, eLearning Brothers has proven it’s a provider both training managers and suppliers should keep on their radar. Sarah Gallo, CPTM, is an editor at Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of “The Business of Learning,” the Training Industry podcast. Email Sarah.
COMPANY NEWS
ACQUISITIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS QA acquired Circus Street, an online training solution providing commercial digital skills. This allows QA to play an even greater role in driving digital transformation by using Circus Street to build digital and data capabilities across their entire enterprise and Cloud Academy – another QA acquisition – to systematically assess, build and validate the skills of their tech teams to deliver it. Skillsoft Corp. acquired Pluma, Inc., a digital professional development and executive-quality coaching platform. The acquisition deepens Skillsoft’s Leadership Development portfolio, adds a new modality to its blended learning model and marks its entry into individualized coaching. Pluma will be integrated into Skillsoft’s AI-driven, immersive Percipio platform, and their customers will gain access to Pluma’s skilled coaches and their expertise.
MRCC celebrated the coming together of the firmly grounded design and delivery systems of G-Cube, an eLearning solutions provider, with the years of cumulative expertise in transformative solutions that MRCC offers to meet the ever-evolving business needs of its customers globally. G-Cube’s expertise lies in corporate training for diverse industries and multiple business verticals.
TrueLearn, a platform in healthcare education blending data analytics with cognition science to optimize learning outcomes for the medical community, has expanded its capabilities by acquiring Picmonic, an audiovisual learning platform. This will enable TrueLearn to deepen its presence in the classroom, while providing educators key insights about their learners to ensure their success and optimize program outcomes.
Learnosity, a provider of assessment infrastructure for the learning industry, has acquired Questionmark, an end-toend assessments, proctoring, badging and reporting solutions provider. There has been a decisive swing to online for education and workplace assessments and the newly enlarged group now has the scale, geographic spread, and capabilities to help shape the future of online assessments.
Pluralsight, Inc., a technology workforce development company, will acquire A Cloud Guru (ACG), a cloud skills development platform, later this year, and follows Vista Equity Partners‘ recent acquisition of Pluralsight. By combining A Cloud Guru with the existing library of Pluralsight Skills, the joint organization will now be better positioned to meet the market demand for cloud skill development.
INDUSTRY NEWS A DATA ANALYTICS BOOTCAMP
Fullstack Academy, a national tech education provider, will bring its data analytics bootcamp program to the West Coast through a collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU). Launching in Winter 2022, the bootcamps will train professionals of any tech skill level in just 26 weeks for jobs in the rapidly growing data analytics sector, where skilled talent is in high demand. The data analytics bootcamp does not require OSU enrollment or prior technical experience. ATTRACTING, DEVELOPING AND GROWING TALENT FOR THE FUTURE
Oracle announced a new solution to help organizations better understand, manage and grow the skills of their workforce. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI),
the Oracle Dynamic Skills – part of Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) – gives the insights needed to ensure businesses have the right talent both now and in the future. GLOBAL COLLABORATION TO SERVE UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS
IBM plans to collaborate with 30 global organizations in 12 countries to help underserved populations improve their skills and employability. The organizations will leverage the online learning program IBM SkillsBuild with their members, mostly underserved populations such as veterans, women, minorities, refugees, and unemployed young adults. The program is designed to empower job seekers with professional workplace readiness and
technical skills, which includes earning badges and credentials recognized by the market and mentoring. A PROGRAM AND SCHOLARSHIP TO HELP FILL THE TECHNICAL SALES SKILLS GAP
In an ongoing effort to further develop technology career pathways for students and help the region’s employers fill the surging technical sales skills gap, UMBC Training Centers has expanded its Technology Sales Program with Virtanza Career Pathways to include monthly starts of its 13-week, synchronous, experiential course, as well as a Tech Sales Scholarship program jointly funded by Virtanza and UMBC Training Centers and earmarked for investment in tech sales leaders of the future.
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