Upskilling to lead into the future

Upskilling to lead into the future

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Our consulting and research teams at Rialto invest an increasing amount of time upgrading how we can best support business leaders to continually develop and flourish professionally and, perhaps most importantly, retain their zest, enthusiasm, drive and relevance in the face of emerging business and economic trends.

Whether our clients are just starting to realise their next horizon ambitions, looking to diversify their portfolio of executive positions or consolidate and plan for an active semi-retirement, the single most important, fundamental principle at the heart of all of their strategies is this: Progress. Stagnation and, worse, being left behind, are among the greatest fears of the world’s most dynamic and successful leaders and influencers.

Progress keeps things interesting, keeps leadership ahead of the curve, ensures a constant upwards trajectory. Progress means always having an eye on the future and being prepared for wherever it may bring. It means committing to continuous learning and personal growth; to nurturing and expanding networks; identifying, meeting and surpassing the changing requirements in an economic landscape that is evolving at lightning speed, propelled by exponential acceleration of technological disruption.

But how can individuals refine and upgrade their credentials, skills and expertise to be leaders of the future?

Here are three practical steps we support our clients to adopt to gain a competitive edge:

1. Invest in your own digital and technological literacy

Why It Matters:

The Generative AI-led technological revolution is transforming every function within every industry at a dizzying pace. It is no longer good enough to employ people to ‘do’ AI for you. AI, particularly Generative AI, should be reviewed, adopted and scaled regularly by anyone in any leadership capacity to drive innovation and efficiency and to empower workforces to use it safely and effectively.

Key Skills:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning:Understanding AI and its applications can help leaders automate processes, drive growth, performance and efficiency, derive insights from big data and enhance decision-making.
• Cybersecurity:Knowledge of cybersecurity and other risks around AI is crucial to protect organisational data, infrastructure and reputation.
• Data analytics:The ability to analyse and interpret data helps make informed, strategic decisions. Applications such as predictive analytics and simulation software enable low-cost testing and refining of new products, services and innovations.
• Digital transformation strategies: Implementing and managing digital transformation initiatives helps organisations to stay competitive and relevant.
• Blockchain technology: Helps secure complex, cross-border transactions and simplifies logistics solutions.

How to attain them:

We’ve dedicated much of our digital content and training to this for several years now and helped many hundreds of senior leaders from around the world get ahead of this fourth industrial revolution. Now AI is becoming mainstream, there is no hiding from it. It may seem intimidating but it is just like any business language and can be demystified with appropriate support and training. See our recent blog on how to go from AI avoidant/confused to pro. Rialto offers personalised development programmes and organisational analysis for AI implementation plus regular online webinars with specialist tech/change management experts.

Sites such as LinkedIn, Google, and Microsoft also offer free online training to help bridge your knowledge gaps and become proficient and confident in your own digital and technological literacy.

2. Cultivate your emotional intelligence.

Why It Matters:

Emotional intelligence involves the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, as well as recognise, interpret and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. This skill set is essential for effective leadership and has a profound impact on various aspects of business management and organisational success. It enhances decision-making, communication, relationship-building, navigation of internal politics, employee engagement, change management, leadership influence, and conflict resolution. By cultivating emotional intelligence, business leaders can create a more positive and productive workplace and interpret and respond to the changing demands of their marketplace.

In today’s business landscape, leadership needs to be able to connect, communicate effectively with and influence a huge variety of stakeholders across a broad range of media, networks and digital platforms. One day an executive or senior leader might be addressing MPs in a select committee hearing, the next, answering concerns of venture capitalists; later that week delivering difficult news to the workforce in the morning and an interactive webinar to schoolchildren after lunch. Emotional intelligence is an essential skill to tune in to the language, style, culture and expectations of different audiences.

Key skills:

• Self-awareness: Poor leaders are the last in the room to recognise their own shortcomings, whether it is a bad temper or failure to trust and delegate. Leaders who are self-aware can correct mistakes, apologise when needed and adjust their leadership style. They are more likely to continue to grow professionally and be more aware of the dynamics of their interactions with others, helping them to foster stronger, more productive relationships with colleagues, employees, stakeholders and customers.
• Self-regulation and rationality: No matter how skilled and experienced a leader may be, no organisation wants to take on the liability of an individual who can not control their emotions in today’s commercially sensitive and litigious world. Being able to regulate emotions and respond rationally even in the most arduous or stressful situations is a skill highly prized and valued in the modern business world. Staying focused and rational also helps ensure clearer decision making based on data, evidence and expertise, not temporal and unreliable feelings.
• Empathy: Leaders who show empathy and genuine concern and compassion for their employees’ well-being are more likely to gain their trust and loyalty. Empathy means appreciating that each member of your workforce is a human being with feelings, fluctuating mental and physical health needs, emotional needs and commitments outside of work. Empathetic leaders are attuned to their markets and respond quickly and appropriately to changing cultural dynamics and influential external events.
• Conflict management: Wherever there are people there is conflict. In a well-managed environment, conflict can be a positive energising force, driving original thought, innovation and passion. Get it wrong, and teams can disintegrate into bitter power struggles, simmering resentment and a vacuum of creative collaboration. Effective conflict management and resolution fosters strong teams and constructive outcomes.
• Building trust and rapport: Senior leaders and executives in an effective people-centred organisation know they have hired the right people, feel a natural rapport with them and trust them to do their jobs within the accepted parameters. That mutual trust is rewarded with loyalty and productivity. Such leaders inspire confidence and reassurance during times of uncertainty, helping to maintain morale and focus.

How to attain them:  

Taking the time to step back and reflect on successes and failures, whether relational or business decisions and outcomes, helps develop emotional intelligence and raise self-awareness.  Engaging in EI training and working with executive coaches can significantly enhance these skills. Seek a mentor or coach to act as a sounding board and mirror. Ask them to help you reflect on and learn from your emotional responses when dealing with others or making decisions. Are you able to understand the emotions you feel? How might your opinions and communication impact others? What expectations might there be on how you behave in difficult situations? Are there certain triggers that cause a more emotional response, for example?

Once you remove or account for these factors, you can analyse more clearly your emotional responses and look to balance them with logic and reason.

The best leaders find ways to manage stress levels, through positive actions such as seeking mentoring and coaching, a healthy exercise, diet and sleeping regime, hobbies and other cultural distractions and interests and spending quality time with friends and family.

In work, they treat their employees as individuals, not a hive or cogs in a machine. Pre-empt their needs, look after their health and wellbeing, practise active listening and responding with emotional clarity.

Good leadership takes the time to address the emotional dynamics behind disagreements and brings rational judgement to de-escalate and resolve conflict. Reasons behind any decisions should be communicated clearly and effectively to avoid any sense of injustice and help all parties learn from the experience. See our blog on leadership lessons from the tech titans to see how Apple CEO Tim Cook employs empathy and inclusion to motivate his devoted workforce and turn customers into worshippers.

3. Embrace lifelong learning

Why it matters:

The foundation of effective leadership into the future lies in a commitment to lifelong learning and in this category we include skills and expertise and experiential learning. Once, a quality degree, perhaps an MA in your specialist subject plus ongoing on-the-job training were considered enough. That was during the decades between World War Two and the late 1980s, when the economic landscape changed at a pace that was positively glacial compared to today’s dynamic, fast-evolving environment.

Technology and globalisation have combined to create a constant state of flux rocked by frequent shocks such as the internet and digital revolution of the 90s, the advent of AI and especially launch of ChatGPT’s open Generative AI interface in 2022, and the Covid pandemic.

Today, executives and senior leaders need to be agile, adaptable and proactive, not reactive. While nobody can really predict exactly when and where the shocks will come and what their impact will be, leaders can ensure they are ahead of any cultural and technological curves by building on-going learning into their professional routine. We have covered the need for constant upskilling and learning in digital and disruptive technologies above. Other areas for focus could include these key skills:

• Responsive leadership: You may think you have this leadership thing licked, but even if you are CEO of a FTSE-100 or Nasdaq-listed multi-national, the world of business continues to change around you and you must continue to change your leadership style with it to stay relevant. What worked in 2020, during the pandemic, may be less effective today, post ChatGPT. Laws and expectations around inclusivity, equality, mental health and work culture are changing constantly. Covid saw the move towards remote working and all the technologies that came with it. We’re moving through hybrid working and increasingly coming back into the workplace as we rediscover the benefits of physical proximity, close collaboration and emotional connection. How leaders dress has even changed as well as how we network and how we speak to each other, all so much less formal. A new book or blog by an influential leader can shift the dial almost overnight. Key/evolving topics to study might include strategic leadership, change management, team dynamics, decision-making processes, conflict resolution and organisational behaviour.
• Global Business and Economics: Globalisation requires executives and senior leaders to have a keen understanding of international markets, economies, and cultural nuances. They need to know what is expected of them in different environments, cultures and countries as their organisations expand into new regions. Cultural sensitivity is key to international leadership but equally important on the domestic front where stakeholders and staff will increasingly represent different nationalities and cultures. Gaffes can be costly in terms of reputation, productivity, contracts and partnership relations while sensitivity and awareness can help any organisation navigate new territory with success. Topics for learning might include cross-cultural management, global supply chain management, emerging markets, economic Trends and forecasting and international regulations and compliance.
• Marketing and customer experience: Understanding market dynamics and customer behaviour helps executives drive growth and create value for customers. In today’s volatile, globally competitive and fickle markets, customers have access to choice as never before which means leadership in all functions need to be finely attuned to their demands and relationships to the brands or services they are offering. Optimum CX and customer engagement/loyalty is fundamental to commercial success and therefore should be a consideration in every strategic decision. Key topics for study might include: digital marketing, consumer behaviour, brand management, customer relationship management, market research and analysis and user experience (UX) design.

How to attain them:

If you’re seeking a formal qualification, enjoy academia and have the time and capacity, you may wish to explore formal education options like the Open University or studying for a diploma to develop your expertise in your professional field. Some organisations will finance further study for employees and offer sabbaticals.

There is a myriad of less formal options available to help keep your broad business credentials polished and relevant for executive transition or progression. A burgeoning industry of professional learning has emerged in response to demand during this most testing of times for senior leadership. Personal recommendations are the best way to go or try using a Gen AI tool such as ChatGPT for suggestions.

Perhaps your company offers opportunities such as in-house training or mentoring schemes. Or you might wish to set up your own mentoring scheme or internship. Taking on PhD students or specialists or buddying up with younger recruits can serve both parties extremely well with reciprocal learning. As an experienced leader, you have much to give, while the process of mentoring can help build social skills, communication, self-awareness and intergenerational connectedness.

And of course there are many free online resources, such as webinars and courses produced by companies trying to promote their products or digital platforms such as LinkedIn, Coursera and edX. You can also watch TedTalks, tune into podcasts or follow blogs. Here’s a Forbes list of books and blogs for leaders to read in 2024 to get you started.

The Rialto website also has a library of resources.

If you require a more personalised Leadership benchmarking and understanding of your skill set, gaps that need addressing or expertise that needs updating, you may wish to engage a professional executive career coach.

What is crucial to all leaders who want to stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant, valued and influential, is the right mindset. Being open to new ideas, new technologies, new cultural dynamics; staying on top of trends, being aware of what is happening in the news, in politics, in the law, in global relations. This will help provide an external framework of contextual understanding of where the economy is headed in order to make strategic decisions and navigate your own career through an ever-changing climate on to a horizon which might look different every time you stop and peer out.

But it is equally important to look inwards – to have a meaningful understanding of your own capabilities and limitations; to work to develop an emotional maturity that allows you to tap into those feelings and intuitions and compassion when required, and other times, step back and think with logic and reason.

Rialto are global Executive Career Transition & Internal Mobility specialists who can support executives or senior leaders facing challenges in making progress within today/s more competitive and rapidly changing executive marketplace.