HIGH VALUE LEADERSHIP AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The role of leadership and indeed management is changing, but what does it mean for purpose led brands wanting to create continuous learning environments.

It means a wholesale shift in how we define the true value of leadership across our organizations. This means changing our mindset and attitude to how we see Leaders and the day to day role we expect them to play in our organization.

And then building the skill and knowledge capability needed to make continuous learning a normal part of how we experience work.

In this article I focus on

-??????? High Value Leadership and what it means in a contemporary workplace.

?-?????? The traits and talents that make a high value Leader.

?-??????? How to begin to identify and leverage these traits and talents.

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT HIGH VALUE LEADERSHIP WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

In a continuous learning environment it means three key things:

1.?Being across the changes in how people work, what they value and what they see purpose in.

?2.?Crafting personalized L & D experiences for people while being respectful and considerate of the generational and cultural changes in our workplaces.

?For the first time we have four generations in the workplace at the same time in Australia ( https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-27/four-generations-working-together-success-challenges-opportunity/103741556)

?This means no more generic “training” or trying to shoehorn people into irrelevant L & D “opportunities.

?3.?Being able to balance this with the commercial objectives of the business and the expectations of the client/customer.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT TEAM STRENGTHS

While acknowledging and leveraging employee strengths matter, high value Leadership requires you to step into a different space that you may not be familiar or comfortable with.

To look beyond your strengths and that of your team so you can create the conditions for growth.

?This requires a commitment to

?1. Identifying and addressing the skills, knowledge and mindset gaps amongst your team and also yourself.

?2.?Addressing challenges and roadblocks from a team/function perspective. Co-creating a plan of action to deliver solutions.

?I refer to Leaders now being the “Facilitator of Ideas” from teams – but more on that later.

?3. Identify threats and risks to people delivering on their role and their overall wellbeing.

Remember your strengths are not going to solve every challenge or problem you encounter as a team or organization.

High value Leaders de-risk the risk to the people and the organization by making discussing and fulfilling skill gaps, threats and risks a normal part of work.

Not when the crisis or fall out has arrived on the door of the organization.

Talking about skill/knowledge gaps is essential to the world in which we live and work. And high value Leaders take the stigma out of it.

In time it makes such discussions amongst teams as normal and not something to be feared.

KEY TRAITS AND TALENTS OF HIGH VALUE LEADERS

Traits and talents associated with High Value Leaders will be shaped by the environments in which we work in and how we work.

Recently I was interviewed regarding what themes I was seeing in work locally, nationally and internationally and I wanted to share these as it relates to the concept of High Value Leadership.

Here are some of key themes that we are seeing that will be worthwhile taking note of if you want to be seen as a High Value Leader. Now and into the future.

?1.?We see a growing expectation from organizations that its teams need to learn new skills/knowledge/mindsets and apply it much faster than before.

?Outcome?

This puts increased stress and pressure on people to achieve this in reduced times – unless the support, conditions and capability are there to help deliver on expectations.

High value Leaders set fair and reasonable expectations amongst the inspiration.

?2. If we are expecting people to learn quicker we are going to have to get much more comfortable with our teams making mistakes.

Responsible efficiency is a term I’ve coined for Leaders rather than “quick wins” we are often asked to deliver in the organizational and learning and development space.

Sure expect efficient learning and subsequent outcomes but only if have the support, resources and conditions in place to make it a reality.

High value Leaders create space for continuous learning, taking mistakes and doing some different/transformative with it.

IDENTIFYING THE GAPS BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND REALITY

They are also extremely aware of their expectations and the workplace reality of their team and the gaps that may exist between the two.

Leadership Expectations? VS Team Reality. ?

High value Leaders are able to work with their team to not only identify these gaps but close these gaps working in partnership with others.

?3.?High Value Leaders Make Continuous Learning a Part of Everyone’s Work.

This means creating the processes, capability, conditions and environments to embed continuous learning into everyday project delivery.

Rather than see it as a separate, siloed function that you “send your team off to do”. And you’re not really sure what outcomes and impacts where achieved.

Training and L & D has often been very segmented traditionally from the daily delivery of roles and projects.

High Value Leaders Act as Advocates for L & D as part of a continuous approach regardless of role/team/function.

?4. What we perceive to be high value skills /knowledge is and will continue to change at all levels.

It’s now about entrepreneurial, creative and critical thinking to take challenges and turn these into opportunities. And to be honest it's been this way since working in the space since 2006.

?Across all roles as part of the broader approach to solving problems, experimenting with new knowledge and taking the lessons to do something different – even exponentially different.

?5.?The role of High Value Leaders incorporates a combination of L & D approaches.

?-? Being a Trainer/ acting as the sharer of knowledge, lessons and insights across teams – building ongoing capability within teams.

?-??Acting as the Mentor at times – 1:1 sounding board/ personalized guidance and support

?-?Being the Facilitator of new ideas from their teams – sets up the space, connections and conditions to make it happen.

?6.???? High value Leaders have the capability to create environments/conditions ( organizational cultures) that can achieve:

?-?Re-skilling

-??Up-skilling

-??Continuous Learning that is nurtured and managed (this is not about the acquisition of learning) but the application of skills/knowledge and experiences ongoing and in real time.

?7.?And finally, High Value Leaders create agile learning environments for their teams that links into the broader organizational purpose/plan.

THE ROLE OF MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS AND HOW TO CRAFT THESE WITH YOUR PEOPLE

High Value Leaders create safe and creative spaces to not only gain new skills and knowledge but to experiment. Ongoing.

And create the processes to unpack when it doesn’t go to plan and how to do different next time. Both individually and as a team.

So how do you make the link between high value Leadership traits and a continuous learning environment?

Trait/Talent 1

Flexibility

How?

Showing adaptability to new situations, proposing novel ideas, and remaining open to new ways of doing things

Trait/Talent 2

How?

Speed

Being quick to assess how well an action benefits an organization, acting on new ideas, and moving on from failure

Trait/ Talent 3

Experimenting

How?

Showing eagerness to try different ways of working and able to manage the risk against the cost VS benefit.

Trait/Talent 4

Interpersonal risk-taking

How? ?Learning from others, readily admitting mistakes, and overcoming difficulties

Trait/Talent 5

Reflecting

How?

Slowing down and evaluating past performance, failures, and successes to help adjust processes and approaches

HOW TO IDENTIFY AND LEVERAGE THESE TRAITS AND TALENTS IN YOUR OWN PRACTICE?

First you need to know where your talent lies but more importantly where your knowledge and skill gaps are.

Only then can you start to plan how you’ll use these learnings and insights.

Know where you are launching from and therefore I’d strongly encourage you to do the following three key actions.

Action 1 Undertake a Leadership Stocktake

From these insights how many do you identify in your own workplace practice?

Think about real workplace examples/evidence that best show this.

Also be honest where are your own skill gaps and what would be your top two or three areas of development moving forward.

Action 2 Review Your Team Meeting approach – if you have a team

Do you use these are idea/debrief sessions to build knowledge and capability in your teams or is it rinse and repeat. Flip the experience and make it a space for continuous learning and for you to express what I call “respectful curiosity”.

Ask your teams regularly

-??????? What has worked well this week and why?

-??????? What hasn’t gone to plan and why do you think?

-??????? Lessons learnt from this experience?

-??????? What would you do different now you’ve got this insight?

-??????? What can the team and organization learn from you moving forward?

Action 3

Cast a Critical Eye on Your Current Employee Review Experience/ Process

I have delivered an exponentially different experience through four key elements always being present in the employee review.

Element 1

Leads to the design of personalized learning and development plans that deliver measurable outcomes and impact to both individuals and the organization.

Element 2

Opens up space and time for genuine dialogue that leads to insights and ideas that create opportunities to innovate.

From both a commercial and people perspective.

Element 3

Reviews the relevance and impact of the role and identify skill gaps, threats and risk to how it is delivered – and the role the organization needs to play.

Element 4

Creates space for the Leader and their teams to re-design the role as needed based on future challenges, opportunity and human potential.

High Value Leaders see the performance review is a creative, strategic and visionary discussion around what the future can look like and how to get there.

Together. Personalized.

Go back and review your own process against these four elements – how many currently exist and where are the opportunities to create a different learning and growth experience?

The future is high value leadership if we want to create organizations where continuous learning and experimentation is a normal and expected part of how we work.

So next time don’t just think about leadership but instead focus on defining and delivering high value leadership.

You’ll create an exponentially different workplace experience with outcomes and impacts the team will own.

Written by Ali Uren – Founder of Kiikstart? Creating Continuous Learning for Purpose Led Brands where teams own the outcomes - not the experts.

I also create original OD and L &D content to share and save for later. Please follow or connect with Ali Uren to keep up to date with a practical, truthful take on lessons and insights from the frontline.

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