Leaders as Learners
Today’s global business environment has a high demand for talented leaders with a wide range of rather complex leadership skills and abilities. To make organizations leadership-ready and capable of being business agile, organizations need to be proactive in developing their organization’s leadership ability and their potential leaders to readily meet these strategic needs when they present themselves or are needed. So, organization can no longer rely on next-in-line promotions but must create an environment that promotes and rewards ongoing leadership development across many levels as part of a learning organization initiative. Building outstanding leadership talent requires a coordinated, collaborative strategy throughout the organization.
Respond by Day 5 to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:
- Ask a probing question.
- Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings.
- Offer and support an opinion.
- Validate an idea with your own experience.
- Make a suggestion.
- Expand on your colleagues’ postings.
- APA Format
Classmate 1: (Clarke)
“Effective Leadership Development
In order for an organization to be able to achieve success it must count on its leadership capabilities. An establishments culture defines itself by the collective leadership actions both informal and formal that work together in order to achieve the company’s mission, vision and goals. This includes understanding about what qualities are needed to support the culture and the team leadership skills that are needed to collaboratively and effectively solve problems, implement strategies while also making sustainable decisions that can adapt to change, and address opportunities and threats. In my current position as a receptionist a couple strategies that could be put in place to better the employees are mentoring and coaching techniques. .
The Method
Retention is major when it comes to the development efforts of organizations. Employers need to be able to keep employees for large amounts of time to develop leaders that will understand the company’s processes and culture. Being able to create a well-developed coaching program that improves the retention by giving employees the support and guidance they need to form their experience and talents into the establishment. When readiness is high, the coach will be able to move more quickly to goal setting and implementation (Silzer & Dowell, 2010). When coaches and mentors are able to provide notes and feedback on the progress of employees is when they gain insight into the leadership and development potential.
Sometimes strategic leadership involves leading through vision, navigating situations where the goal is clear but the path forward is still evolving.”
Classmate 2: (Barbie)
“Leaders as Learners
Organizations globally continue to remain competitive to become the best of a specific industry. Noted by Silzer and Dowell, “When an organization has highly talented individuals in strategically critical positions this talent becomes a source of competitive advantage…” (p. 401, para. 1, 2010). . Hiring the best talent may be a start, however, retaining the best talent and empowering them to become leaders within the organization involves a process of strategy and commitment within the organization to remain competitive and leaders of the specific industry.
Creating an Effective Leadership Development
In order to begin the process of an effective leadership development plan, line managers and HR must communicate on the specific needs of the department for future success and who are the potential leaders. The potential leaders may have expressed an interest of growth and development or the candidate may exhibit the talent necessary to fill the needs of future leadership beyond the current level. However, if the line management is not committed towards developing the leaders or if HR is not supporting the process, the development plan will not be successful. (Silzer and Dowell, 2010). The talent participating in the leadership development may either be frustrated or not trained correctly if both the line manager and HR are not committed on developing the plan effectively for the future leader to develop to full potential. The development plan should consist of a coaching method for the talent to become a strategic and critical thinker. To elaborate, as I train a supervisor within my department, too often the supervisor will inform me of a situation and ask what they should do. Instead of me, as the coach, providing the answer, I simply ask, “What would you do?” This helps empower the candidate in leadership development to become a critical and strategic thinker while gaining confidence in the role in leadership development. As the candidate is within the leadership development program, it is crucial for both the assigned coach and leader candidate to develop a trust during the process. The trust develops as the coach actively observes and listens while providing constructive feedback. The leader in training must feel safe within the leadership development environment to make mistakes and realize this is a learning process.
Different Levels of Leaders in Development
Strategies would apply to different levels with slight differences between each level of leadership. Silzer and Dowell state, “The more highly positioned the leader is in the organization, the more that intelligence can help his ability to learn and change.” (p. 369, para. 2, 2010). However, just because a talent in leadership development is not at the upper most level within the organization, does not necessarily mean the intelligence is not in existence. The talent has just not had the opportunity to grow until being placed within a leadership development program of high level at that point. With this being said, each individual talent within a leadership development must be differentiated to the needs and understanding of which the talent currently possess in understanding of the department and/or organization. Different skills are required for each level of leadership as noted by Silzer and Dowell (p.378, 2010). For example, a leader who is currently managing others may already have the conceptual understanding and practice of strategic thinking but not of coaching of development and managing managers. Therefore, each leader’s development plan must be aligned with the current knowledge or skill.
Mental Around Leadership
Leadership development involves the initiative of the individual to want to take on the responsibility in a leadership capacity. Silzer and Dowell state, “Clearly there is a widespread belief that leadership can be taught, the emerging leaders can learn, and that organizations can develop individual leaders.” (p. 349, para. 1, 2010). However, the leader in development can only change if the line managers, HR and coaches understand the desire of the talent within the leadership development of the specific drives, desires, as well as acquired skills which will motivate the leader in training to become successful throughout the leadership training process. It is through knowing the behavior, cognitive thinking, desire, and motivation which must be identified in order for the line manager, HR, and coach to know the correct approach for a successful learning development in leadership. The developmental plan of leadership needs to be curtailed and understood to the styles of the talent within the leadership program. For example, if the learner is not skilled in strategic thinking within the cognitive behavior, in order to develop this thinking, the development plan must focus more practice and coaching on developing this skill.
Conclusion
In order for an organization to prosper and to retain the talent within the organization and remain competitive in the global market through growth and development, a strategic plan must be in place with thorough collaboration with the line managers, HR, and coaches in order for all to succeed. After identify and listening to the talent to want to develop, a thorough development of trust must be developed while understanding the level of learning to develop as well as the thought of how to make the talent and organization grow into the future. If strategically managed, taught and coached, the leaders taught may become the pipeline of trainers and coaches for future leaders within the organization. “