The Changing Landscape of Leadership Development

We have all heard employees talk about the flavour of the month. These comments are an indicator that contributors don’t see, or feel, the long-term benefits of training initiatives and programs. Leadership development, by far, can have the single most important impact on an organization if it has all the right elements and is approached as a life changing initiative. It should be life changing for the individual leader, team and organization overall. The impacts should be visible to all and felt throughout the organization.

We teach people from a very early age to do what they are told, follow the rules and life will be easier, consider colleagues above ourselves and to do what our teacher or boss tells us to do and you won’t get into trouble. The question that needs to be asked is, does this old energy approach produce great results? Does this produce high performing individuals, and workgroups? Does it create a culture of creativity, gratitude, abundance, happiness at work and an overall sense of going above and beyond, that discretionary effort we are all looking for.

The usual response is NO. This mentality actually goes against what we already know, through research, about the human being. Individuals want to have the freedom to be themselves at work. They want to belong to a community, while still having control over their own day. This is the important dichotomy between personal power and collective energy. In today’s work environment this is truer then ever before with employees wanting more engagement and more autonomy. Employees want to be connected to something meaningful for themselves and the greater community.  Very few people today simply want a job. The old social norms and past conditioning, that includes a myriad of rules and structure, reduces creativity and often creates a sense of victimhood, where others are responsible for how I feel and the results I get.

Our shifting environment requires a new kind of leader, a leader that understands how to interact in this changing environment. Today’s leadership development must tackle the changing needs of our contributors if we want to get clear and definable ROI. Leadership development that taps into the raw nature of what it is to be human, and how human behaviour links directly to productivity is critical.

Understanding positive psychology at work and how to Create Positive Energy™ is at the core of great leadership.

Successful leadership programming guides the leader slowly and strategically towards a personal understanding of self-responsibility, self-reliance, self-leadership and personal empowerment. This can all be done while maintaining alignment with the organization’s values and guiding principles.

It all begins with the leader. It is actually very simple, leaders who focus on leading themselves first and foremost; ultimately get better results because they become great role models, creating an organic influence that is unstoppable. However, when a leader views a poor performer as someone who needs to be fixed, improved upon, they take that energy into every meeting and the employee senses it. They have an underlying belief that, “if only this employee would improve, my job would be easier”. The question is, does the leader have control over the behaviour of another person? Old energy organizations believe they do. It is, in fact, this belief that produces poor behaviour. We ask the leader to consider, if you are not getting the results you want, you need to do something different”. Remove the victim mentality at all levels and you begin to create, responsible self-management. But it all begins with the leader.

Great leadership programming must be viewed as a long-term commitment, which focuses on the individual leader, their gifts and liabilities and their impact on individuals, teams and the overall workplace. Imagine getting the very best out of each and every contributor, being able to be honest when things are not going well and able to ask all the right questions in order to assist the employee in seeking great answers for themselves. Imagine individual contributors feeling safe enough to declare their lack of alignment or fit and seeking assistance in transition; a much different result than our usual performance management process. Leaders need to ask themselves “am I an intentional and deliberate leader or am I on autopilot”? These are important questions in leadership development. Powerful questioning creates a space for the leader to decide who they want to be and how they want to interact with others. It can be a game changer. Life changing leadership is absolutely worth the investment but it takes courage and commitment that will result in a culture shift that includes self-responsibility, personal problem solving, heightened engagement, empowerment and a significant reduction in the victim mentality that can exist in today’s workplace.

Yvonne Thompson, MA CHRP

Lead Facilitator of the New World Leadership Series

President and CEO of Change Innovators Inc.

Public Speaker and Author: Spiritually Aligned Leadership: Becoming SELF Centered released November 2014 and New World Leadership, The Organic Approach to Employee Engagement, 2012

Changeinnovators.com