The Future of Executive Roles: How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in a Changing Landscape was originally published on Ivy Exec.
In modern businesses, an executive’s role significantly differs from 20 or even 10 years ago.
For one, most successful leaders today involve their colleagues in making decisions rather than leading from the top down. They also require more creative skills that can help them think through the swiftly-shifting post-pandemic landscape.
Unfortunately, more than 50 percent of senior leaders surveyed by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas in Harvard Business Review said the talent development programs at their companies didn’t provide future executives with the critical thinking and organizational skills they would need to be successful.
“‘Lifelong learning’ has been a buzzword in corporate and university circles for decades, but it is still far from a reality. Traditional executive education is simply too episodic, exclusive, and expensive to achieve that goal,” write the authors.
So, how can you make sure you’re staying relevant and competitive as an executive? Here are a few ideas.
Decide what skills you need to improve and find a benchmark for achievement.
When you’re pursuing self-improvement, you usually have a sense of what you’d like to do better about yourself.
Perhaps many professionals in your industry know how to use a software program, but you’ve never learned. Maybe you’ve received evaluative feedback about a quality you’d like to develop.
Then, you can start researching the training, professional development opportunities, or coaching programs that can help you get where you want to go.
However, one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of skill – and quality development is success benchmarks. What would it look like if you “improved” the quality you cared about? What does “mastery” of a new program mean for you?
“What would increased proactivity in identifying and solving problems look like in practice? How will you know if you’re making progress?… You’ll also monitor your own internal state and how you interact with team members, looking for reduced frustration in yourself and greater enthusiasm and ownership from team members. Finally, you’ll seek feedback from your direct reports,” said executive coach Monique Valcour.
Expand your right brain’s capacity.
If you’re working on self-development, one priority should be your right-brain thinking.
While some modern executives are right-brain thinkers already, many were hired for their left-brain skills, which, though still necessary, are “no longer sufficient in an age where organizations are required to be far more holistic and conceptual,” according to Forbes Coaches Council member Ana Reed.
She shares a survey in which 60 percent of 1,500 CEOs said creativity was the most important leadership skill (followed by 52 percent who chose integrity).
“It is up to CEOs to ensure they create a learning organization that enables employees to grow and harness these right-brain skills and to also develop them in themselves,” said Reed.
Explore skills and new ideas you can immediately use in your corporate role.
One of the reasons the Harvard Business Review found that talent development programs (and even some MBAs) weren’t as effective as they could be was because of something called “near transfer.” In education, a “near transfer” means that individuals can put their learning into practice almost immediately after they explore the concept. The “nearer” the transfer, the more valuable the learning.
This is where some executive education programs stumble, say Moldoveanu and Narayandas.
“Research by cognitive, educational, and applied psychologists dating back a century, along with more recent work in the neuroscience of learning, reveals that the distance between where a skill is learned (the locus of acquisition) and where it is applied (the locus of application) greatly influences the probability that a student will put that skill into practice,” they note.
So, aim to apply the skills you’re learning in your development training immediately into practice.
Seek feedback on your skill-development initiatives.
Back when you were making your skill-improvement plan, you came up with a plan for assessing success.
One important component, then, must be seeking feedback from a mentor, your peers, and your team, who you trust to tell you the truth.
For instance, you and your mentor could devise a series of benchmarks you could use as standards for success and then meet to discuss them every month or so.
You could also create anonymous surveys to see if your team believes you’re improving in your area of intended growth.
“Tell your team members that you’re working to support their proactive problem-solving and that you need their feedback to help you improve. Ask them to let you know whenever you do something that either hurts or helps,” suggests Valcour.
Staying Relevant and Competitive as an Executive
The role of the executive has and will continue to shift in today’s business world. Indeed, you need to have specific skills to be a successful executive now, but you’ll likely need additional qualifications to ensure success a few years from now.
That’s why it’s so important to commit to regular and sustained professional development. If you’re up-to-date with leadership trends, you’ll discover how much easier it is to stay relevant and competitive as an executive. To continue growing, identify what you want to learn, immediately put it into practice, identify benchmarks from success, and find peers and mentors who will tell you the truth.
One effective way to stay current with trends in your industry is by taking Ivy Exec’s online classes. With multiple classes a week and an extensive archive, you can develop the skills you want to learn along with industry experts.
