Earlier this month Forbes Coaches Council laid out more than a dozen skills next-gen leaders need today that weren’t essential a decade ago. Influences like globalization and the rise of digital technology have deepened the complexity of today’s business environment, revealed areas of opportunity for industry disruptors, challenged traditional business models and transformed how work gets done. To respond to those realities, the modern leader must constantly update their skills.
Here are three skills worth strengthening:
Culture management: Toxic cultures don’t spring up out of nowhere. They’re often a by-product of how business leaders manage and express their priorities and behavior, and promote values like collaboration, continuous learning, risk taking, transparency and trust. Modern leaders have to be able to create culture, maintain it and grow it, said Mary-Anne Gillespie, president and founder of Red Apple Coaching.
Collaboration: With more interconnectivity and cross-functional collaboration in organizations, leaders have to be prepared to navigate and facilitate these types of engagements. The council’s Maureen Metcalf, also founder and CEO for the leadership consulting firm Metcalf & Associates Inc., said that means leaders must be clear communicators and have strong interpersonal skills to work with diverse groups of people with differing agendas and perspectives.
Co-creative leadership: As organizations move away from a top-down leadership structure, Pyxis Technologies’ Steffan Surdek, an Agile trainer and consultant, said leaders who want to empower team members will work to create change with them as opposed to for them. Co-creative leaders get engaged teams and better results, he said.
Bravetta Hassell is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. Comment below or email editor@CLOmedia.com.
