Discover the key components and benefits of leadership training in this comprehensive guide.
A ll leaders, to a certain degree, perform the same essential function. Whether you’re referring to an executive, manager, sports coach, or schoolteacher, leadership entails guiding and influencing outcomes, enabling groups of individuals to collaborate and achieve more collectively than they could individually. In this regard, leadership is an action, not merely an inherent trait. Some individuals in formal leadership positions prove to be ineffective leaders, while many who exhibit leadership qualities have no formal authority. It is through their actions, rather than their words, that they inspire trust and foster enthusiasm.
Moreover, leadership is not an innate quality; it is a skill that can be acquired and honed. At its core, leadership involves adopting mindsets that are manifested through observable behaviors, which ultimately lead to measurable outcomes. Effective communication and active listening, for example, are behavioral indicators of a leader. Focusing on behaviors allows for a more objective evaluation of leadership effectiveness. The key to initiating behavioral changes lies in focusing on mindsets, cultivating awareness of our thoughts and beliefs, and embodying integrity as our true and authentic selves.
Leadership is practiced in various contexts and forms. According to McKinsey's analysis of academic literature and a survey encompassing nearly 200,000 individuals in 81 organizations worldwide, four behavior types account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness:
Effective leaders recognize that what works in one situation may not be effective in every scenario. Leadership strategies must be tailored to fit the specific context and stage of an organization's development. One valuable perspective to consider is organizational health, which encompasses a holistic set of factors that enable organizations to thrive and succeed over time. A situational approach allows leaders to prioritize behaviors that are most relevant as an organization becomes healthier.
Senior leaders must cultivate a diverse skill set to effectively guide organizations. Ten timeless topics are crucial for leading nearly any organization, ranging from attracting and retaining talent to leveraging culture as a competitive advantage. McKinsey's book, "Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths" (Bloomsbury, 2017), delves deep into each aspect.
In the past, leadership was often synonymous with "management," emphasizing technical expertise and providing direction. The traditional command-and-control organizational structure prevailed in the industrial economy, where leaders primarily focused on maximizing shareholder value. In these organizations, leaders assumed three roles: planners (developing strategies and translating them into actionable steps), directors (assigning responsibilities), and controllers (ensuring adherence to plans and assigned tasks). Today, leaders are adapting to new paradigms and approaches that focus on agility, human-centeredness, and digital transformation.
In the 21st century, leaders are recognizing the limitations of traditional management styles and shifting towards a more effective and inclusive approach. They are moving away from simply providing direction and control, and instead, emphasizing collaboration, empathy, and servant leadership. This emerging approach recognizes that leaders should be in service to the people they lead, fostering a supportive and empowering environment where individuals can thrive.
Moreover, the evolution of leadership encompasses a broader understanding of organizational success. Leaders now recognize the importance of creating value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, rather than solely focusing on maximizing shareholder value. This shift towards a more holistic and purpose-driven approach is driving leaders to rethink traditional practices and explore innovative ways to achieve sustainable growth and societal impact.
Traditional management was revolutionary and highly effective in building large-scale global enterprises that significantly improved people's lives over the past two centuries. However, as we enter the 21st century, this approach is reaching its limitations.
Firstly, traditional management does not guarantee a satisfying or loyal work environment for managers or employees. Surveys indicate that 56 percent of American workers perceive their bosses as moderately or highly toxic, while 75 percent claim that dealing with their managers is the most stressful part of their workday.
For organizations operating in today's complex business landscape, a fundamentally new and more effective approach to leadership is emerging. Leaders are increasingly focused on building agile, human-centered, and digitally enabled organizations that can thrive in the current unprecedented environment and cater to a broader range of stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, in addition to investors.
This emerging approach to leadership is often referred to as "servant leadership." Although there may be criticisms of the terminology, the concept is straightforward: rather than being managers who direct and control their subordinates, leaders adopt a more effective approach by serving the people they lead. The emphasis is on how leaders can make their team members' lives easier physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Research suggests that this mindset can enhance both team performance and satisfaction.
In this new approach, leaders practice empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, self-awareness, and self-care. They provide appreciation and support, creating a psychologically safe environment where employees can collaborate, innovate, and raise concerns. This includes celebrating small milestones on the path to achieving significant goals and promoting well-being by fostering meaningful human connections. These conditions have been proven to foster a team's optimal performance.
Furthermore, developing this new approach to leadership involves making five key shifts that build upon and extend beyond traditional methods:
These shifts enable leaders to expand their repertoire and create new value for stakeholders within their organizations. The final shift is particularly significant, as it involves developing a higher level of consciousness and awareness of our inner state. Leaders who engage in introspection and embark on a journey of genuine self-discovery experience profound personal transformations, enabling them to contribute more effectively to their organizations. This process entails developing "profile awareness," which encompasses an individual's patterns of thought, emotions, hopes, and behaviors in different circumstances, as well as "state awareness," which involves recognizing the driving forces behind one's actions. By combining individual introspection with outward-facing actions, leaders can drive lasting change.
Leaders must learn to make these five shifts at three levels: transforming and evolving their personal mindsets and behaviors, transforming teams to adopt new ways of working, and transforming the broader organization by integrating agility, human-centeredness, and value creation into its design and culture.
An illustrative example of this new approach to leadership during the COVID-19 era is evident in the actions of Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. In pursuit of a breakthrough vaccine, Bancel increased the frequency of executive meetings from once a month to twice a week. The company implemented a decentralized model that empowered teams to work independently and achieve the ambitious goal of providing 100 million vaccine doses within 12 months. Bancel described the pace of progress as unprecedented.
This new approach to leadership has proven to be significantly more effective. While the dynamics are intricate, numerous studies demonstrate a direct correlation between effective leadership, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.
Surprisingly, empowering employees often requires leaders to adopt a more hands-on leadership approach. Organizations in which leaders successfully empower others through coaching are nearly four times more likely to make prompt, sound decisions and outperform other companies. However, this coaching style may not come naturally to leaders who have a more controlling or autocratic disposition.
If you are a leader looking to empower others, here are five tips to get started:
Effective communication is a hallmark of good leadership. Fundamental tools for effective communication include:
In times of uncertainty, effective crisis communication entails:
A leader's role may differ slightly in remote or hybrid workplace settings. Instead of physically moving around a site, leaders in these settings may model hybrid work arrangements or organize work based on tasks, interactions, or purpose. Effective communication and radiating positivity can have a significant impact. Leaders need to find alternative ways to be present and accessible, such as through virtual drop-in sessions, regular company podcasts, or virtual town halls. Leaders in hybrid settings may also need to explore new avenues for receiving authentic feedback, such as pulse surveys or asking thoughtful follow-up questions to gain valuable management insights.
It is also important to ensure that in-person work and togetherness have a clear purpose. Maintaining inclusivity in hybrid work is crucial. Leaders should actively listen to employees' desires and consider their lived experiences to ensure success in these settings. Additionally, focusing on output, outcomes, results, and impact instead of rigid norms related to office presence may be a necessary adaptation in the hybrid era.
CEOs, like leaders in general, must adopt a different approach to thrive in today's environment. Research indicates that one-third to one-half of new CEOs fail within 18 months.
To identify the CEOs who have achieved extraordinary success, McKinsey conducted extensive research, analyzing data spanning 20 years and covering 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries. The result is the McKinsey book "CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest" (Scribner, March 2022). Watch an interview with the authors to gain insights into what sets the best CEOs apart from others.
Leaders are not born; they learn to lead over time. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to form new pathways and connections through exposure to novel and unfamiliar experiences. This allows adults to adapt, grow, and learn new practices throughout their lives.
Within organizations, this process is often referred to as leadership development. Numerous programs, books, and courses on leadership development exist, but the results can vary.
Leadership development efforts can fail for various reasons. Some programs overlook the context, and a simple question like "What is the precise purpose of this program?" can help address this oversight. Other programs separate leadership reflections from real work, underestimate the importance of adjusting leaders' mindsets, emotions, assumptions, and beliefs, or fail to measure results.
So, what does successful leadership development require? Generally, it involves creating contexts that offer sufficient psychological safety while incorporating novelty and unfamiliarity to cultivate new leadership practices in response to various stimuli. Successful leadership programs are often built around "placescapes," which are novel experiences such as exploring wilderness trails, engaging in performing arts, or writing poetry.
When designing a leadership development program, it is essential to incorporate six key ingredients to achieve true organizational impact:
A well-designed and executed leadership development program can help organizations enhance leaders' capabilities at scale. These programs can incorporate coaching, mentoring, and real-time application of skills to solve challenging problems, enabling individuals to learn by doing.
Mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship can also be integral parts of leadership development efforts. These concepts involve:
These approaches can not only develop leaders but also enable companies to quickly upskill or reskill employees at scale.
