7 Responses to the Future of Leadership Development
Leadership
October 30, 2011
Mike Henry
Operations and IT Consultant
Topics
Credibility, future, future leaders, ideas, individualization, Leadership Development, Respect, share, trends, TrustWe recently wrote about 3 changing trends and 3 continuing trends in leadership development in a post titled 6 Future Trends of Leadership Development. In light of those trends, I’d now like to suggest several actions we should take (or stop taking) in light of these trends.
Personal and Individual
Trends 1 and 2 were that leadership development will become more personal and internal. Individuals will control the topics, pace and budget of leadership development. How should we as developers respond?
7 Responses
- Credibility and trust are keys. We must do things to build credibility and make it easy for individuals to trust us.
- Old-style “push” self-promotion won’t work. Neither will interruption marketing. Our reputation and our certifications may have given us credibility with organizations. They won’t impress nearly as much with individuals. We must engage and connect.
- Our credibility must be open and personal. We may engage and connect easier than ever online. But once we begin to do that, we must “be there” regularly and be interested in something larger than just our own content and our own “stuff.”
- We must share ideas to build credibility. Sharing is the new advertising.
- Your ideas must be good. Check out this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod.
- Practical is the new “white.” If nothing else, make your ideas practical. Like a white shirt, practical ideas “go” with anything.
- Do, Evaluate, Adjust, Repeat. Iterative learning increases the speed of growth. The faster you Do, Evaluate, Adjust, Repeat, the faster you grow.
In our next post, we’ll discuss how to make your credibility more practical and applicable in your local community. It’s rare to develop leaders you have never met. Because of the ways we spend our time, local credibility is key to maximizing impact. There are several new responses to this individual, personal, practical approach to leadership development that apply in your local calling area that we can discuss in our next post.
Open Discussion
For today, how else can you respond as a leadership developer in this age of individual, personal, practical leadership development? Do you have other ideas you can share with the community? Let’s see if we can share 50 other ideas of how to build credibility and trust in the comments below? Care to share with us?
Photo © milphoto - Fotolia.com
Mike,
I like the flow of these posts on this topic. I’d add one more as a twist on #1. We can build or strengthen our credibility by repairing trust when broken. It won’t do any good for anyone involved or remotely impacted if broken trust is left alone. Rebuilding trust can be as valuable, if not more, in developing leaders. It teaches how to navigate complicated, confrontational interactions. It teaches humility. It teaches the importance of rising above destructive or dysfunctional behavior in ways that support the business’s success and people’s too.
Nice list.
Thanks Shawn.
I agree there is probably a post series on restoring credibility too. Nothing beats being believable and trustworthy over time. We’ve got to be actively trustworthy even when misunderstood. We can’t let people begin to doubt us and fail to work to restore that trust.
Thanks for the great addition. Mike…
[…] 7 Responses to the Future of Leadership Development – Lead Change Group Future trends in leadership development include a move to more personal and individual methods. How should leaders respond to these trends? Source: leadchangegroup.com […]
Along the lines of being oractical – be pragmatic rather than theoretical. I love theory and abstraction, but it is those of us who can help people to quickly translate the theory and context of leadership into action that is successful and satisfying that will be in demand.
I’ll add that I see technology, specifically tablet technology, as a real game changer in how we deliver great content that connects people to us and facilitates their engagement with what we share and teach. It goes beyond social to a connection far more personal. The iPad was a game changer and I think we have only just scratched the surface on just how much of a game changer it will be for those in our profession. That’s why I am now part of Polymash – this is exactly the kind of thing we are now doing.
Thanks for the great addition. I too, think the tablet technologies are going to be big enablers in making content individual and personal and in shortening the DEAR loop. Thanks. Mike…
“The article is great! I thank Shawn Murphy for his comment. Being humble is a key attitude in a leader, especially because it shows that one can make a mistake and it does not diminish its leadership.
I would like to emphasize the need to build credibility in every environment we are involved; that leaders must try to be coherent in what they feel, think and do, everywhere they are: family, communities, organizations… In this interconnected world leaders are visible and their actions are observed by many; when one is a leader, the responsability to model behavior is very important in every environment and to many people.”
Internet already offers a lot of content. As a professional, It is appropriate for us to bring concise summary of contents and opinions on certain issues. I may be old school, but I remain confident that the contacts face to face with the people we support can not really be replaced by online exchanges on blogs, twitter, or groups on linkedin in terms of impact and effectiveness. In this line of thought, targeting an audience from our respective local communities is an excellent strategy.
To establish our credibility online, I sincerely believe that “quality” rather than “quantity” is a guarantee of success. However, the content must be sufficiently concrete and address specific problems to receive a proper level of audience.
One way I am thinking in the creation of my own blog is the following. What would you think about the idea to write case studies on real problem situations faced by our customers. These would be short, describing the problems faced by a manager-type and would include some background of the environment and would be grouped by theme. They would have the advantage of being very concrete.
From these, we would first share together on our common understanding of problems and proposed solutions.Subsequently, we could transfer our learning and our sharings within each of our virtual communities.
This obviously requires time and engagement from us.