Leadership development programs – Seeing sea changes

Leadership development programs - Seeing sea changes

I believe, and as so many experts have shared, “Technology has drastically altered everything and thus the way organizations functions are changing at a very high rate.”

No more do companies follow the traditional hierarchical model; rather they now work with a flatter structure. And so, when speaking of leadership, companies need leaders at every position more than ever before. It’s no more about just one or two people driving the entire organization; rather it’s more about the entire workforce being leaders at their own positions. Keeping these changes in mind even the structure of the traditional leadership development programs needs to update accordingly. Today’s companies need employees at every level who can be leaders in their own positions.

So, there are certain leadership skills, earlier expected only from the top bosses, which are currently critical for any employee today. Majority of the companies offering leadership training in Bangalore does address these areas and would have adapted to the current needs but it’s better to be sure. So what leadership trends must be added?

Delegation & communication: An article at inc.com states that soft skills would be very much critical when compared to the technical skills in the coming years. Having technical skills is essential from the point of view of doing just the core technical tasks, which is often not the case with any employee. Every employee today needs much more than technical skill – skills also called as soft skills.  

The same article further talks of the fact that just a little less than half of the total number of existing managers received no training at all when they first held a new position. And this often puts those managers in difficulties as these past individual contributors definitely need delegation skill and communication skill for Knowledge Transfer.

Collaborative leaders: Where leadership has always been more about a HERO face nowadays we need a transformation – we need leaders who can work and act along with other leaders. It means we need more of leaders who can let everyone lead and take responsibility for their action.

Cross-functional leadership: Organizations today are looking for leaders who not only specialize in their own industry and function but those who essentially have knowledge across functions. Also they are able to use this knowledge to adapt to highly ambiguous situations and align everyone together towards organizations’ success.

Provide for higher order needs: If we look back at one of the most reputed psychological theories used in management, the Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory, most employees are looking for higher order needs and every organization must satisfy those through their initiatives. Physiological needs and security needs applicable only in a few cases. And majority employees are looking for their esteem needs and self-actualization needs to be met.

Whatever is your motive for a running a leadership development program in your organization, current demands of every organization would not be totally different from that of your corporation. It will be essentially almost the same. However, any high quality institute offering leadership training in Bangalore or elsewhere will also try to address the needs specific to your organization.

What do you feel about current ways of leadership in organizations and the changes required in leadership training programs?

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