5 Insights Into Leadership Development Future (Part 3)

By Linda Fisher Thornton

This is the third installment in a series “5 Insights Into Leadership Development Future” Each post in this series will address a trend in leadership development and offer tangible actions for helping leaders. In case you missed them, here are the previous posts:

Part 1 on Global Trends

Part 2 on Wholeness

This third post in the series is about the trend toward growth and human development – that includes growth in leadership and growth toward becoming a better person.

We are talking more about the benefits of growth, and there is an awareness that people become better leaders through experience, travel, challenge and struggle. Here’s the bottom line –

There is a vast difference between a leader who KNOWS and a leader who GROWS.

The leader who grows is:

More self-aware
More humble
More willing to adapt
More open to learning
More supportive when others make mistakes as they are learning
Better equipped to support others as they grow
More likely to attract and keep great performers

Today’s leadership development must move away from “infusing people with knowledge” and focus on “helping them grow.”

5 Actions to Take Now

How do we apply the growth trend to the way we develop leaders?

Give them a sense of what human growth looks like, what it requires and the rewards of taking the journey.
Let leaders know that the goal is improvement, not perfection, and that they will make mistakes while they are learning (that is part of the learning journey).
Give them clear values to aim for – this helps them orient their growth toward a higher purpose.
Give leaders activities that cause them to stretch and struggle to make sense out of things – take them outside of their comfort zones – prepare them to handle complex leadership challenges.
Create experiences that expand their understanding of the world and help them understand the struggles of others (this is easier than it used to be – you can travel the world via YouTube).

More to Come: I will be continuing this series with more important trends in leadership development and actions you can take to help your leaders adapt. Stay tuned for Part 4!