Key Development Areas for Leaders

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” - John F. Kennedy

The fascinating aspect of leadership is that just when you think you have mastered it, the rug is pulled from under your feet, and there are new development areas for leaders to plunge into. Leadership is dynamic and real, as the pandemic taught us. Leaders need to continuously relook at their leadership acumen and identify new development areas. This will create positivity and make the team more effective.

Let us look at non-negotiable areas of development for leaders:

Self-Mastery: Self-awareness involves a deep understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses and the impact one’s actions and decisions have on others. Self-aware leaders learn to recognize their emotions, biases, and attitudes, thereby learning to manage them. This helps them make sound decisions and create a positive environment.

Inclusive Leadership: Inclusive leadership allows employees/customers to feel valued for what and who they are, how they think and say. For leaders to have an inclusive mindset, they need to develop a bias-free mind, have the courage to break norms, and be open and curious to new ideas and views. The new generations are not excited to work with leaders who do not live inclusivity.

High Emotional Quotient: While most leaders are aware of what EI is, this continues to be a major area of development for new and seasoned leaders. All around, we see leaders unable to manage their emotions or recognize the feelings of others in times of crisis.

Thinking on Your Feet: We have seen leaders able to avert major business errors only through their ability to make corrective decisions by agile/quick thinking in the moment.

Communication Mastery: Verbal fluency through language skills is not communication mastery. It is a known secret that many leaders lack good communication skills and refuse to acknowledge that as a development area. The most critical skill for leaders to develop is “LISTENING TO UNDERSTAND AND NOT SOLVE.”

Develop the Ability to Manage Change: Making strategies for managing change and being able to communicate the same effectively to the team are critical growth areas. Often leaders can make strategies, but because of their inability to inspire and engage their teams to buy the need for change, action gets marginalized.

Being Inspirational Leaders: Leaders often forget that they have transcended the managerial role of tactical occupancy, and now they need to develop inspirational leadership qualities, e.g., role models, values alignment, big picture, etc. In the absence of these qualities, the team sees attrition, disengagement, and low productivity.

Ability to Build High-Performing Teams: Teams do not happen by putting a bunch of people together – a leader must spend time/focus/energy to see a group’s metamorphosis into a team. This is a key development area for leaders, who must learn to: 

• Select the right people

• Create opportunities for learning and development

• Coach and mentor

• Create alignment between personal and organizational goals

• Foster collaboration

Leadership development is a continuous journey that aims to develop holistic leaders who can be whole and think wholeness for the well-being of the whole.