4 Key Elements To Embrace In ‘Best-In-Class’ Leadership Programs In 2021

How to develop future leaders capable of leading the organization to future growth

In this article, we explore the key areas learning and development (L&D) teams must focus on to reinvigorate leadership training in 2021 and beyond. 

Our world of work is growing more complex and increasingly competitive going into 2021, given the significant transformations and disruptions that have rocked the global business landscape. 

Future-looking organizations, the ones that have embraced agility and innovation in the face of uncertainty, are already reaping the benefits of digital readiness and first-mover advantage to gain that competitive edge, while late adopters reel from the lack of strategy and approach. 

While we are still emerging, albeit not entirely unscathed, from the impact of Covid, there is one thing that all successful organizations prioritize the most regardless of market conditions - leadership development. 

Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that companies that focus on leadership development are the ones who are ‘actually’ able to develop future leaders capable of leading the organization to future growth. 

However, when it comes to any kind of training, including leadership development, L&D teams often struggle to create programs that truly result in business impact. And, one of the key reasons is the lack of ‘best-in-class’ programs that get results.

According to Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, companies focused on providing best-in-class leadership development training witness a major increase in the company’s finances as well as competitive edge.

Although we’re well into the Fourth Industrial Revolution per se, reports suggest that leadership development across companies has more or less remained stagnant over the last decade. But, going into the new year 2021, and the new decade, it is critical for L&D teams to start focusing on leadership development as a priority and anchor organizational learning and training to the leadership pillar.

However, optimizing leadership development means recalibrating the approach and process to several traditional training methods and embracing transformations and innovations in each aspect of learning and development. And, if the latest trends tell us anything, it’s that leadership development will be a key differentiator in how companies align themselves in the years to come.

Here are some of the key elements to embrace for leadership development going into 2021- 

Leadership development is in many ways is a long-term problem-solving initiative that focuses on the core business problems that leadership teams need to tackle. This process must start with determining the unique challenges companies face and planning and strategizing skilling initiatives to develop the capabilities of leaders based on short as well as long-term needs. 

However, in order to ensure that leadership programs deliver the desired impact, companies must measure the performance against business results, and one trusted way for this is to design ‘business impact projects’ that strictly focus on learning design and learning models that will bring measurable impact to the business.

A ballpark figure in leadership development investment estimates at just over $300 billion across the globe, while CLO’s Business Intelligence Board data suggests that 94% of organizations will increase (or sustain) their investment in leadership programs.

Given the strength of these investments, it is only fair to analyze the gap between learning and applying. If Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve is to be trusted, the investment hinges desperately on the learners’ ability to apply their knowledge in real-world environments. That’s why it’s critical for L&D to focus on helping learners sustain knowledge and learned behaviors. 

Communication and accountability are the cornerstones of effective leaders. The former helps engage effectively with one’s teams, while the latter ensures the team performs as per the leader’s expectations. While communication, as a skill, is not something that leaders learn on a whim, it is ongoing learning, unlearning and practice that happens every day, and needs to be optimized for the digital world of work. 

As leaders are far more than individual contributors, with varying roles and responsibilities that span entire departments and business functions, they are responsible for the teams they oversee and are likely to take most accountability for results, either good or bad. By helping leaders understand and define accountability, L&D can not only ensure effective leadership but also imbibe these qualities in the employees, some of whom might be potential leaders in the future. 

With the world increasingly adopting digital solutions for the digital age, leadership programs will also be ‘digital-ready’ and need to reflect avenues where future leaders are present. Today, the average age of a millennial (first-time) manager is 30 years, while over 30% of millennials are on managerial-levels, which goes to show that learning delivery is a critical piece of the puzzle going into 2021. 

According to several surveys, millennial managers tend to value L&D more than their predecessors and will embrace learning if delivered in a way that suits their learning styles, which includes formats like mobile-first learning, just-in-time learning, bite-sized learning and blended learning, as well as personalized learning assisted by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to recommend relevant and in-demand learning. 

As we venture into 2021, it is abundantly clear that leaders are tasked with more roles and responsibilities that entail overseeing almost overarching transformations of the entire business, making it all the more critical for leaders to develop the qualities and skills needed to cope with future demands, and calling on L&D teams to access and deliver effective and best-in-class leadership programs to maximize business growth and competitive advantage.