Leadership trends to look out for in 2022
The pandemic has transformed the leadership landscape for the foreseeable future, so as we enter 2022, it is important to look out for any leadership trends that can support your leadership development or that of your team’s.
Leadership development and training is a ‘continuous’ process and is an important element in the growth of your organisation. With new challenges to face, such as creating a flexible work culture, leaders should be ensuring employees are happy, feel valued and have opportunities for career development, in order to maintain employee retention.
A clearer path to success
Providing clear career paths does not just come in the form of promotion opportunities, training is also incredibly important. As a leader it’s your responsibility to provide training for employees to improve their career prospects. Training is also a great way to benefit your business, as they will learn new skills that can enhance the company.
Offering training opportunities for all staff will also maximise the success of retaining employees. They will feel valued by being given opportunities to develop and progress with their careers. Training, in particular leadership development, should be viewed as win-win ventures, a way for leaders to benefit their employees and the growth of their company.
The rise of eLearning
eLearning has also made leadership training easier to access, allowing people to learn new skills without the logistical challenges of time and travelling. With eLearning being accessible by PC, Laptop, and even mobile devices in some cases, more people are using the opportunity to develop their skills.
We are finding that delegates are responding well to our virtual leadership development programs at the Sir George Buckley Leadership Centre in Huddersfield, however, we do hope to return to a blend of face-to-face and online sessions once restrictions are lifted, so our delegates benefit from both.
Company purpose vs employee purpose
Connecting your business’ purpose to your employees’ is a great way to make them feel fulfilled by their job. Attitudes have changed since the pandemic, with many people feeling a greater sense of purpose. A good leader must acknowledge this and try to match their company’s purpose to that of their employees, focusing on areas like company culture, employee experience and the company’s mission and values.
A recent study by McKinsey around aligning people with purpose highlighted that, “As a company leader, you want to see the organization’s relatively small sphere of influence expand to match the size of the employee’s own sense of purpose from work”.
Shifting to focus on these areas as a business will have an overall positive effect, supporting staff retention as well as morale within the organisation.
Enhancing soft skills
It can be easy to believe that soft skills are just about being a friendly and nice leader. Although those two traits are important, soft skills enable you to be an all-round empathetic leader. Skills vary from interpersonal abilities such as building trust, influencing others, team building, problem-solving, and even critical thinking, with new skills emerging like emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
What the last two years has demonstrated is that empathy is really important as a leader. Having soft skills as part of your leadership repertoire will enable you to better communicate with your team and the wider business.
Are you looking to further your leadership skills or that of your team’s in 2022? The George Buckley Leadership Centre offers both CMI certified Level 5 and Level 7 programs. Contact the team today to find out more about availability for our 2022 programs.