Adaptive Leadership and Cultures

Vertical development is becoming more well-known and talked about within leadership development. I’ve heard various people talking about the wonders and benefits and others talking about all the risks and dangers. Which is true? After using vertical development tools and models for 10 years, I thought I'd share the 7 most important things I’ve learned.

Most company leadership development programmes are outdated, analogue, and
not fit for the digital workplace. They might use fancy LMS systems and
incorporate all kinds of excellent experiential learning methods. They
might also incorporate some famous academics (apart from company ego, I
still don't understand this) and have a social/peer learning element. But
in essence they are the same old programmes that we're seen for the past
two or three decades. And - guess what? - nothing changes.

To be a leader you've got to be:

* Authentic - check.
* Situational - OK.
* Accountable - yep, got that.
* Transparent - well, I'll try.
* Good at simplifying - yes, well, that's not going to happen at XCo..
* A good listener - now, I don't have time for that too.
* And whatever our company believes is important too - I'm tired.

And when you're finish the programme, you head back to work and try to be a
better leader. But then the work gets in the way,  the reward and promotion
processes act as disencentives, and only some of it sticks...maybe.

ROI? Well, the industry is worth billions to providers. But I'm not sure
about value to those paying for either external solutions or in-house
development. 

There are two problems I see every day:

First: leadership development does not incorporate actual work. It is side
of the desk stuff. The people delivering the programmes usually have no
experience in the business. They have an intrerest in leadership and are
experts in the theories (or at least folk tales of leadership).

But second and most important: leadership development programmes don't use
the tools a company already has for work. It adds more tools - sometimes
really fancy ones. But it doesn't, for example, show you how to collaborate
on a document with your team, to hold open meetings on a video call, or to
build your value networks using social media.

It's the second problem that I see as most critical. The new digital tools
that are arriving in the workplace require the behaviours I listed earlier.
Then, they can scale the behaviours to a wide audience. I can't emphasise
enough that the tech itself does nothing and changes nothing. It can only
scale what we already do.

I truly believe that helping a manager get comfortable and successful using
digital tools would be far more effective than most leadership programmes.
For example, working with their team using Skype, Yammer and O365. Or
Google Docs and Hangouts. Or see my previous post on how an ESN is a great
social media practice ground for execs. In all situations, collaborative
behaviours and skills are best learned by collaborating.

If we want our companies to be innovative, creative, and agile (or the
buzzword of the week) this is what needs to happen. This is the new change
"management". It's also scalable and more able to adapt to circumstance.
Get potential leaders using the tools, acting in a way that makes them
effective, and delivering measurable value. Or, even better, coach those
who are already using the tools effectively because they are your real
future leaders. After all, no analogue leadership programme deals with
#DigitalCultureShock.

I've been interesting in digital leadership ever since I used to sit in an
office, writing "leadership programmes". I was excited to learn about the
research and methods to develop "leaders" but was disappointed to feel that
the programmes didn't bring the value I was expecting. I believe was
because they were not tied to the immediate work people needed to actually
do or the systems they used to do it.

There have been a lot of interesting pieces on Digital Leadership skills
recently - like this one. Or anything written by Harold Jarche. Writers on
the new wave of leadership talk about people adept at human skills and
bringing the best out in others - using digital tools to expand their
influence (in a positive way) and opening new spaces for others to excel.
Current leadership development does nothing of the sort.

 

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