Virtual Development Options for your Leaders
We’ve been adapting quite a bit this year and so have our leaders. How we develop leaders – without even potentially being in a room together – has been an exciting challenge. Our leaders need and deserve development even more now to help them cope with the challenges of remote management and leading through change, ambiguity, and complexity.
We have some suggestions for how you can help leaders refocus on the essentials of leadership whether they experienced The Leadership Challenge® Workshop or took an LPI 360 a few months ago or even a few years ago. The foundation of The Five Practices® hasn’t changed, but the context surrounding us has amplified the need for a stable foundation of proven leadership.
Kouzes and Posner’s Turning Adversity into Opportunity holds examples for leaders seeking to foster resilience and engagement during the uncertain times we’re in, reminding them that now is the time to commit to the most important things. Times of challenge are when we must rely on our why and lead with more conviction, more purpose, to help those we lead.
SUPPORT LEADERS FACING THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE OF THEIR CAREERS
It takes time for leaders to implement new behaviors and to start to see different results, but when the workplace and world around us is rife with uncertainty, it’s tempting to rely on old habits or fall back into routines. We know that for many of our leaders, they are facing the greatest leadership challenge of their careers. The good news is that The Five Practices® can help them face those challenges head on. Here are a few suggestions to build up your leaders so they can more effectively lead through the ambiguity and challenge.
- Re-administer the LPI®
A reassessment of the LPI® has been found to be critically important to sustained leader development. We often recommend a re-take within an 18-month period, but now is a helpful time to allow them to get feedback on how they are leading now, with our dramatically different context from when they originally took the LPI®. Leaders receive both a second report and a comparison report between the original feedback and reassessment feedback to benchmark and understand their progress. Additional feedback from constituents allows leaders to understand what behaviors might be even more important now – perhaps they need to focus more on Encouraging the Heart, to engage team members who are struggling, or Modeling the Way, to help set a clear direction amidst the confusion of change and uncertainty.
- Individual coaching with leaders' LPI®
Not only is coaching an incredibly flexible development method, it’s great in the virtual environment as leaders take on new challenges and flex new leadership muscles. Individual coaching based on a leader’s LPI® helps them revisit their development plans and the behaviors they committed to practicing – perhaps giving them a sounding board for thinking through how things may have changed on their team or within their work environment. Coaches have specific expertise helping leaders leverage the information in their LPI® report to identify areas for improvement, increase the frequency of targeted behaviors, and push past barriers. Between coaching sessions, leaders can complete challenging and practical exercises directly related to their personal leadership development goals, perfect for an action-oriented follow-up to continue translating their learning into impact for those around them.
- Group coaching
Group coaching is a great way to help leaders reconnect with The Five Practices® and tackle their individual challenges, while also learning from their peers. With leaders hungering for connection more than ever, group coaching provides a natural support system and is easily done virtually. Group members can leverage the experience and insights of others to solve problems both during coaching and well beyond.
Whether you are looking for a next step for leaders, more return on investment, or a reassessment strategy, we can help. Let us know if you'd like to hear how we're helping our clients implement reassessment or other strategies to reengage with The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® and The Leadership Challenge®.
Photo by Reinis Birznieks on Unsplash
