UPSKILLING LEADERSHIP FOR BUSINESS GROWTH

Posted by: Pooja Arora, Head of Marketing and Media

Leadership structures have long evolved from a simple ‘command and execute’ form where a strict top-bottom approach of decision making was enough to remain productive as businesses. While this sufficed in a world less prone to disruptions, today business leaders face a different challenge. Many are faced with a new business world; one that is marred with digitalization, automation, and in recent times a pandemic induced shift in nature of work. For these, business leaders require the right skills to anticipate threats and lead their teams towards newer avenues of growth. 

The rise of hybrid work and a business need to remain productive in face of on-going business disruption has put the onus on CEOs and business leaders to maintain strong performance while ensuring they manage uncertainty and keep employees safe and engaged.

Traits and competencies

A multitude of traits and competencies go into making CEOs and business leaders impactful in the new world of work. Behavioural traits like curiosity, risk-taking, adaptability, and tolerance to ambiguity when combined with competencies like the ability to innovate, strategic vision, can engage and inspire make for a good business leader today. 

The challenge however is that many of these traits and competencies are scarce among top executives. It is unlikely to find leaders with the right combination. Often, they have to be built. 

Businesses need to develop leadership talent within the org who can translate the organization’s vision into action from a strategic point of view. To be impactful in leading their companies in the new world of business, leaders today require the right mixture of skills and traits. And learning technology helps them bridge that gap.

Leveraging digital technology

A tailored learning platform can enable leaders to continuously learn the right skills to make them successful. From being agile decision-makers to understanding the nuances of engaging employees successfully, leaders have shown to be greatly benefited by a robust learning platform. In addition, a digital-first approach to learning helps make learning simplified and accessible to business leaders who might not have the time to go for traditional learning pathways. 

Personalization is another great advantage that digital learning tech brings to the table. Not all business leaders need the same training to become better at leading teams. Some require more soft skills like empathy and creativity, two key skills in a hybrid work environment, while others might require to learn skills on the other end of the spectrum. CEOs and business leaders have different time commitments and are often required to squeeze in learning new skills in a tight schedule. The ability of digital learning tech to allow for bite-sized, personalised and accessible learning programs designed chiefly to address key pitfalls in leadership structures makes it a good bet to build leaders for a new world of business. 

A robust learning platform can not only help companies’ future-proof their employee skill needs but also ensure business leaders remain equipped to lead their companies effectively.