Leaders need to enhance social capabilities and connections through human development programs that are based on face-to-face learning activities and workshops. These growth experiences help build personal self-awareness and useable skills so leaders can make a difference in organizational effectiveness as well as their team’s contributions.

Growing Future Leadership Competencies

Leadership competency development must undergo accelerated change within all company levels and will need to continue to evolve within the current digital world. Established skills and capabilities such as strategic thinking, persuasion, and complex problem-solving are adapting to meet the need for new levels of agility and innovative leadership styles. Greater cross-functional team collaboration, empowered decision-making, and speed to address changes as well as higher levels of creative thinking, dynamic listening, and the careful management of complex communications are also necessary.

Leadership is a lifelong learning journey. The key is to grow a leader’s organizational influence by building:

• self-awareness and a willingness for self-discovery

• a desire to learn, understand, and grow

• an acceptance that as a leader, one may not know everything

• the ability to actively listen to others and be present

• insights through constant reading about new ideas and creative approaches

• a desire to be coached and mentor others

• an acceptance that not everyone is a leader

• the ability to communicate openly and demonstrate care with authenticity

• the skill to leverage strengths and use others’ capabilities

• the energy into teams and the ability to take personal risks

• inner emotional strength that allows one to act with reality and truth

• ways to drive and enhance team engagement and creativity

• personal self-confidence

• the enthusiasm in workers to drive commitment to their work

• skills and capabilities needed to discover internal persuasive abilities

• the willingness to go out of one’s comfort zone to tackle complex challenges

• the ability to constructively provide and accept feedback.

Bottom line: Leaders must become capable of being intellectual coaches, emotional mentors, team-trusted influencers, and strong social navigators. What’s more, time constraints, revenue limitations, and a lack of senior management support must not stand in the way of building future leaders with new leadership competencies.

Building Better Learning Experiences

To make your leadership learning experiences interactive and engaging, follow a defined four-step process approach:

1. Understand the challenges and the areas for focus to bring about individual and organizational growth. Assess actual needs and identify the requirements for enhancing leadership talent and capabilities.

2. Establish and publicize the short- and long-term goals and objectives for the desired learning outcomes, along with business successes. These targeted objectives need to be realistic and achievable based on a clear purpose and valued direction. The key is to unlock the mind and motivate creativity and curiosity.

3. Carefully assemble and deliver interactive workshops that can be supported by all the available digital technology methodologies. Using engaging learning events and connections can change and drive truly valued results. There can be a growth specific to innovative behaviors along with the uncovering of authentic strengths in people. Again, energizing inner flexibility and learning to address challenges will drive outstanding outcomes.

4. As time evolves, always evaluate program-learning effects and successes that have influenced and built changes to business approaches and processes. Review and examine the strategic lessons that have established outstanding and resilient results via the discovery of the power of effective leadership.

Soft Skills and Social Connections

Social connecting abilities are based on several soft skills that will influence and drive productivity. Face-to-face interactions will develop valued relationships and influence future business successes. General personal proficiencies and competencies can even enhance customer commitments and successes. Consider these ideas for how to increase your leadership skills and learning experiences. Grow your:

• Self-awareness: Use clear values and have a flexible mindset.

• Communication abilities: Use active listening and share ideas and insights.

• Innovative thinking: Use critical thinking and information analysis of changing conditions.

• Connection and collaboration skills: Use supportive systems, build trust, and enhance customer relationships with great solutions.

• Problem-solving abilities based on unique attributes: Use specific processes and establishing objectives by driving a personal brand.

• Integrity and ethics: Use empathy to meet employee and customer needs.

• Professional and personal adaptability as a leader: Use diverse levels of flexibility and openness.

The Leadership Learning Journey

Leaders need to fully understand their skills and abilities to connect, converse, and share from their hearts. They need to be open to providing valuable feedback as well as to receiving transparent input. Critical conversations build relationships and personalized team collaboration achievements. And, leaders must always be able to construct a personal vision for themselves, for their groups, and for the organization.