Leadership development requires 12 key competencies. These managerial skills are increasingly important in companies to help them develop their resiliencepromote the hybridization of skillsand better prepare for the future.
Why develop your leadership skills?
If you're reading this article, you've probably already answered this question. Leadership development has become a key issue in companies faced with the major transformations in the workplace in recent years. The following reasons can be given for encouraging leadership development in all employees.
- Hybridization of skills
- Telecommuting and remote management
- Resilience
- Digital transformation
- New modes of governance
- ...
Indeed, the future of work is shaking up management codes. That's why management must also undergo a Copernican revolution, with a rethought approach to the employee experience and the workplace.
Key skills for leadership development
This list of leadership development skills is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it a list of boxes to be ticked. On the contrary, these are skills that need to be developed over time, according to the personality of each manager. Some skills are "innate" or mastered, while others need to be developed. Whatever the case, they help to refine the profile of today's and tomorrow's corporate manager.
Strategic thinking
To keep up with the pace of change, managers need to train their brains to think strategically. Adopting a strategic mindset means being able to question one's own choices and orientations.
In fact, according to Ian Bremmera renowned American political scientist, strategic thinking is defined as "a reasoning process that supports goal-oriented decision-making by using curiosity, information synthesis and pattern recognition to generate solutions and update one's worldview".
Being agile
Today's managers need the ability to adapt quickly to new challenges and opportunities. Developing this skill begins with learning the specific leadership practices that foster agility.
- be optimistic
- the will to move forward
- know how to be reassuring
- know how to stop projects and take strong decisions
- adapting resources to the situation
- learn from failures and encourage feedback in all situations.
Managing change
When it comes to transformation, change, resilience and agility, "change management" is necessarily the central skill for all these issues.
Nevertheless, we can distinguish 3 main approaches to characterizing change management.
- The agitator: raise awareness of the challenge(s) and commit to finding a solution
- The innovator: creating a solution and a plan to implement the necessary change
- The conductor: gathering and coordinating resources to execute the plan
Building confidence
At a time when change seems to be the only constant, managers are required to make quick decisions, and employees who trust their leaders are more likely to respect those decisions.
Managers need to learn that transparency and consistency are essential to win the trust of their teams.
They must :
- have the humility toadmit their own mistakes
- communicate bad news to their team before it spreads
Mastering digital
Managers don't need to be digital experts, but they do need to be skilled enough to integrate digital into their strategy. Whether as a sales or relationship channel, whether for tools, digital is everywhere.
Indeed, when we talk about digital transformation we're also talking about the digitization of all businesses, processes and tools.
Mastering digital means seeing the opportunities offered by digital tools and new technologies, rather than seeing them as threats.
Fostering innovation
Organizations in unstable environments can't survive without innovative people who think outside the box.
- At iQo, we have chosen to train all our consultants in the challenges of innovation and design. Because, over and above methodologies, it's a different mindset that needs to be adopted. It's about knowing how to question yourself, and seeing opportunities before difficulties when faced with a problem.
- What's more, innovation increasingly requires the ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams. Fostering innovation means learning to detect and bring together talents to tackle a problem, a market or an opportunity with new, innovative solutions.
- Finally, it means not being afraid of failure and valuing risk-taking internally.
Crisis management
- In times of crisis, managers must learn to be in continuous risk assessment mode, and be able to make decisions quickly on the basis of limited data.
- When circumstances change from hour to hour, managers also need to be able to draw on the people closest to the triggering event to provide information that helps them prioritize.
- Whether the crisis is a large-scale disaster, a malicious cyber-attack or a supply chain disruption, communication is vital if executives are to prevent or contain the damage caused to the organization.
Being empathetic
Probably the most central and sought-after skill today, empathy. But not everyone is born with empathy, and we can all learn to become more empathetic.
When we talk about empathy, we're not talking about listening (which is too often a shortcut), but about putting yourself in another person's shoes.
Understand the way he thinks that led him to make (or not make) this or that decision.
Faced with remote workingThis skill will continue to be demanded of managers in the face of new challenges such as distance working, cultural and generational diversity, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Being empathetic enables you to adapt your management, decisions and communication to the people and situations you are dealing with.
Being resilient
Resilience is an essential quality for managers in complex and uncertain environments.
Resilient leaders are needed to develop resilient teams. To develop this skill, leaders can learn to practice
- gratitude
- mindfulness
- optimism.
- finding purpose and meaning in daily work
Mastering data
- Like digital skills, mastering data means knowing how to make data-driven decisions. More and more people are talking about "Data Driven Strategy". At Google, one of the phrases that every employee needs to embrace is "Data beats opinion".
- At iQo, as in the case of innovation and change, data is a core competency in the hybridization of skills. hybridization of skills of our consultants.
Managing remote work for your teams
Teleworking is shaking up organizations... and corporate culture. In addition to processes and tools, management needs to adapt to new ways of working. Motivating, training, coaching, raising awareness and managing teams do not require the same codes and attitudes at a distance as in the office.
In the age of hybrid work and multiple communication tools, you need to know how to choose the right ones to get the right messages across.
Cultivating difference
Behind all these skills, there's no need to look for a single model or the perfect portrait of tomorrow's manager.
Every employee and every manager is different. If there are different management methods, it's also because they adapt more or less well to different teams and managers. Cultivating your difference means finding your own way and making the most of your strengths.
Further information
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