Essential Skills for Today's Leaders

Unlock the secrets to thriving in leadership amidst rapid change with me, Lois Burton. Ever wondered how today's leaders balance integrating cutting-edge AI while keeping their teams motivated? This episode promises to unravel that mystery by exploring adaptive intelligence as the linchpin for navigating such complexities. We'll delve into real-world examples of leaders who excel by pairing this with emotional intelligence, achieving compassionate clarity, and effectively addressing team anxieties. Plus, discover the art of strategic communication and learn why setting expectations is critical when facing an ever-shifting landscape.

As we journey further, we'll see why resilience is the bedrock upon which all other leadership skills rest. I'll share insights into how collaborative problem-solving and digital leadership are now intertwined, particularly in hybrid work cultures. And to bring it all home, I offer practical steps to develop these interconnected skills, including the transformative power of journaling. Share your reflections and challenges using #leadershiphorizons on LinkedIn—I’m eager to hear your thoughts and experiences. Don’t miss out on the chance to equip yourself with the skills reshaping leadership today.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

I'm Lois Burton, and in last week's episode, we explored two key trends reshaping leadership today the growing demand for values-led leadership and the increasing need to manage complex, often contradictory, challenges. Today, we're going to dive deeper into the specific skills leaders need to navigate these trends successfully. In my years of coaching senior leaders, I've observed how these skills interconnect, and I want to share some examples of that with you today, as well as giving you some tips and practical exercises to try out. Let's first of all explore how these essential skills work together. Let's start with adaptive intelligence, which I believe is the foundation for all of the leadership capabilities in today's environment. As I said last week, the ability to adapt and be flexible has always been part of the suite of skills required of senior leaders. A few years ago, we were talking about agility and agile leadership, and this still applies. However, the need for this has greatly increased in recent years, and the most successful leaders now are those who can adapt quickly to rapidly changing circumstances and enable the people they lead to do the same. Remember those complex demands we discussed last week the leadership team grappling with hybrid working, productivity challenges and cost savings. Their success ultimately came down to their ability to develop and deploy adaptive intelligence.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Let me share a recent example. A senior leader I am currently working with is facing exactly the kind of contradictory challenges we discussed last week the need to implement AI technology while maintaining team morale and trust. Her success came from combining adaptive intelligence with enhanced emotional intelligence. She used her pattern recognition skills to identify emerging concerns before they became real problems, while her enhanced emotional intelligence helped her read the unspoken anxieties in her team. This combination allowed her to maintain compassionate clarity. What I mean by that is that she was able to be clear about the direction while deeply understanding and addressing her team's emotional journey and their anxieties. It wasn't a silver bullet. It didn't solve the whole problem of the anxiety, but it certainly helped, and it started to bring people with her on the journey.

Speaker 1: 2:35

This brings us to strategic communication. One of the most powerful examples I've seen recently was a leader who needed to communicate complex change initiatives across multiple stakeholder groups. Again, they used adaptive intelligence first, and we discussed this extensively in their coaching how they needed to adapt their message for different audiences while maintaining consistency in core principles, because the other key challenge comes back to the fact that factors in the external environment are constantly and rapidly changing and, as a leader, you will have to structure your communication to reflect this. I was with a group of leaders a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about the challenge of communicating constantly changing messages. They felt that the fact that they could not always be consistent undermined their credibility with their teams and they were really struggling with this. We talked about the need to set expectations in initial communication and prepare people for the likelihood of situational change. It is a challenge because always, teams and staff want certainty and leaders have to get used to now setting people up for the fact that what is true today may not be true tomorrow because of those situational changes. We also talked about the fact that, again, enhanced emotional intelligence was necessary to help others understand and adapt quickly. I'll go into more depth on how to do this in future episodes, but essentially it is about being prepared to take the time to understand the concerns rather than wanting to rush quickly on without helping people to come with you.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Two of the other skills we talked about last week were collaborative problem solving and digital leadership, and these have become inseparable in today's environment. Remember the discussion last week about hybrid working challenges. Success in this area requires both the ability to bring diverse perspectives together, collaborative problem solving and the skill to leverage technology effectively. But underlying all of these capabilities and all the skills is what I consider the critical foundation exceptional resilience. Without it, none of the other skills can be sustained under pressure, and developing that exceptional resilience has become a primary need of today's successful leaders. So which of those skills resonates most with your current challenges? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn using hashtag leadership horizons. I'll be posting my blog that's drawn from this podcast there as well and, and, as I say, I'd love to get your feedback.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Let me offer three immediate actions you can take to start developing these interconnected skills. First of all, start journaling if you don't already I don't know how many of you use journaling. I find it incredibly useful. It doesn't have to be a chore. Some days, you may only jot down a few sentences, but including in your journal how you're using these different skills together in your daily leadership will enable you to see your own progress and identify the gaps and where you need to really pay attention to your development. Secondly, conduct a resilience audit. Secondly, conduct a resilience audit. You can conduct this for your whole team and you can download a template to help you with this at wwwloisburtononlinecom. Thirdly, start a communication experiment. Try one new approach to strategic communication each week and note the results. So three tips, three things that you could start doing straight away to help with the development of these skills, and I've got one more practical exercise I want to share with you before we wrap up. Here's how it works Choose one significant challenge your team is currently facing Over the next two weeks.

Speaker 1: 6:42

You'll approach it using what I call the radar framework. Radar stands for recognize patterns, adapt your approach, deepen understanding, articulate progress, review and reflect. I'll say a little bit more about each stage. So recognize patterns. Spend 15 minutes each day noting patterns in your team, how your team is discussing and approaching this challenge, what concerns keep recurring, what solutions keep getting proposed getting proposed. Then adapt your approach Based on the patterns that you identify. Make one small adjustment to your approach every day. This builds your adaptive intelligence muscle. Then deepen your understanding. Schedule three different types of conversations about the challenge A one-on-one with your most vocal team member, a one-on-one with your quietest team member and a small group discussion with everyone in the team to gather all the diverse perspectives. Explain to your team that at this stage, you're gathering information, so they don't expect you to provide immediate responses and solutions. Provide immediate responses and solutions.

Speaker 1: 8:00

The next day in radar is articulate progress. Practice communicating about the challenge in three different ways A brief written update, a visual representation and a verbal presentation. Then finally review and reflect, and so, at the end of each week, spend some time reflecting on what patterns emerged. How did your understanding evolve, what communication methods were the most effective and where did you feel most resilient or least resilient? What makes this exercise particularly powerful is it develops multiple skills simultaneously your adaptive intelligence, your emotional intelligence, strategic communication and resilience, while producing practical insights for your current challenge. I'd love to hear how this exercise works for you. Share your experiences on LinkedIn using hashtag leadership horizons and I'll feature some insights in our upcoming episodes. Next week, we'll explore some more case studies of leaders who have successfully used these skills and share some more practical strategies. Remember, developing these skills isn't about perfection. It's about progress and practice. As we discussed last week, the complexity of modern leadership demands continuous learning and adaptation. I'm Lois Burton and this is Leadership Horizons helping you lead beyond boundaries. Thank you.