Be prepared to pivot: Develop agility to stay ahead of change
Your business is changing. It is now a matter of when - not if - and how quickly. The position you are in today may not be around ten years from now. What are you doing to stay ahead of the curve?
The people who will survive and thrive in this environment are continuously expanding their skills and practicing what they learn in and out of the classroom. They engage with others to broaden their perspectives. And, they are comfortable with ambiguity.
Even when there is not an immediate need for a new skill, high potential leaders must diversify their skill sets and interests beyond their current scope of work. The business world is short on leaders who can speak the many languages of business to understand the decisions, so that the organization, and your own career, can shift on a dime.
Develop a quiver of arrows
Carrie Buchwald, vice president of corporate learning solutions at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, explains, "The idea of leadership agility is having many techniques and skills like arrows in your leadership quiver. You pull out the arrow or the skill as you need it and develop an understanding of when and how to launch your arrows."
There are traditional and innovative ways to add arrows to your quiver. The exercise can start by simply subscribing to a newsletter or seeking out just-in-time learning opportunities, such as online webinars or short courses.
Leadership development programs, degrees, and certifications are the next step to train your brain and exercise your newly developed skills. These classroom environments are a safe place to communicate with experts and other learners to perfect skills you can then bring into your career and business.
Degrees and certifications remain an essential differentiator. Pursuing these opportunities is a clear indication to organizational leadership that an employee is committed to self-improvement and preparing for bigger, broader responsibilities.
Connect effectively
Developing agility also depends on reaching out to others. By building a network within an organization, high potential leaders become well known and respected - an incredibly important asset when pursuing leadership positions or a career change.
Use a new interest to connect with someone in a different department. Sit down with a colleague you do not work with regularly.
The practice of building new relationships provides time to reflect on your level of self-awareness and how you communicate with others. Increasingly, organizations are employing self-awareness tools like the Hogan Personality Inventory to help employees discover personality traits and challenges they are not otherwise attuned to.
Practice innovation
Having skills to approach a situation differently is only part of the battle. Tomorrow's leaders will be poised to seize the next opportunity because they are inquisitive learners attracted to and comfortable with uncertainty.
An innovative spirit is key to developing agility. Everyone tells you to be comfortable with change. Take that a step further and begin actively experimenting to produce small scale improvements that positively impact the customer. Through this practice, rising leaders become recognized as innovators and begin building teams who trust their stewardship through uncertainty.
Be prepared to pivot
Independent learning and specialized degrees can prepare you for a job. Broader graduate level learning, like the Master of Business Administration, and leadership development, prepare you to weather ambiguity and flex your leadership agility into new roles and business opportunities.
• Bryan J. Watkins, Ed.D., VP and Chief Academic Officer, and Neil L. Holman, Ph.D., Dean, Educational Programs and Development, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.