Growing as a Leader Amidst Chaos: What’s the Secret?

Tell us a bit about yourself, about your journey so far and your current mission!

Hey there, I'm Alison, an Organizational Psychologist, Leadership Coach, and Co-Founder of Urchin Insights. At Urchin, we harness AI to make practical leadership development affordable. My journey began by crafting global programs for healthcare giants. Then, I dove into the startup world, where my first leadership role plunged me into the startup whirlwind of constant change and high stakes. Long story short, I burnout by throwing myself at repeatedly shifting goal posts. Burnout taught me empathy for startup leaders, inspiring me to create time-efficient leadership development solutions that are focused and personalized.

Having spent quite some time in leadership development, how do you see the landscape has changed in the last 5 years? 

A lot has stayed the same, but there have been some key changes. Before, I used to draw distinctions between enterprises and startups/SMEs, but those lines are getting fuzzier. Nowadays, enterprises are also caught up in constant change, always pressured to cut costs and do more with less. This means leadership development across the board has a mandate to support leaders to cope with relentless change, performance pressure and minimal resources. You can translate this into the buzzwords of today: lead with resilience, navigate uncertainty and embrace innovation. This expectation has cascaded down into individual contributors who are being asked to “act as leaders”, step up, take charge, and drive results in the face of uncertainty. Therefore we are seeing more requests to develop these skills in individuals. With all this pressure, concepts like psychological safety, inclusion, and mental health are gaining traction as crucial support systems for teams. On a brighter note, technology, particularly AI and data analytics, has the potential to be a game-changer in the personalization of leadership development. Which is extremely helpful for busy leaders that cannot afford to waste time being trained on things that they don’t need, or already know. 

At what point in the career of the leaders do you see their own growth and development becomes more critical?

I believe in the power of compound interest. Just like a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering more snow as it goes, leadership development operates on a similar principle. For a new leader who learns how to grow and evolve in their role, each lesson becomes a building block. With time and loads of experiments, they can add layers of knowledge and understanding, which will enrich all their skills and perspectives. That said, it’s never too late to start. Just like it’s never too late to begin saving. However, starting later in the journey may mean that there is more inertia and the need to unlearn some deeply ingrained behaviors.

What are the most common obstacles that keep leaders from learning and growing?

In my experience, there are two obstacles that if removed, makes a world of difference. The first revolves around carving out time for reflection. Consider this: 70% of learning occurs on the job. While individual contributors often receive direct feedback on task performance, the criteria for effective leadership isn't always clearly outlined. Therefore, leaders can't solely rely on feedback from their teams, if they're even fortunate enough to receive it. To truly learn and develop, leaders must proactively make time to reflect. They need to think about what they've done well and identify areas for improvement. The leaders who rush from one meeting or task to another without pausing for reflection often find their growth hindered. The second obstacle relates to goal setting. Leaders are inherently driven by goals and performance metrics—it's what got them to where they are today. If leadership development isn't perceived as contributing to their goals or if good leadership isn't a priority in their performance evaluations, then there isn’t much motivation for them to learn and grow as a leader. However, when leadership development is emphasized as a target, given equal weight to business objectives, you'll see leaders enthusiastically engaging in their own growth and development.

Where do you see technology having the biggest impact on the leaders' ways of learning and learning experiences?

Given the plethora of technologies readily available on the market today, it's a pretty big question to tackle. But here's how I see it: all these different technologies share a common thread—they're making learning more accessible and effective for leaders everywhere. What was once seen as a costly investment reserved for a select few leaders can now be easily provided to every single leader or individual contributor. Just think about the potential if we can empower everyone to communicate and collaborate effectively—our workplaces would be truly amazing! We've already discussed how AI and data analytics can help us keep track of progress, pinpoint areas for improvement, and offer personalized learning experiences and feedback. I’ve seen powerful applications of it in decision making and risk analysis training. VR and AR are also making waves. These immersive technologies create safe spaces where leaders can confront emotionally charged situations and learn how to handle them. I've seen some incredible applications of these tools, especially in areas like diversity, inclusion, and harassment training.

Imagine you are a Chief Learning Officer in a 500 employee company, how would you design the development journey for your leaders in the organization?

Another super big question! To avoid writing a 2 page essay I am going to endeavor to stay on a higher level with this one. I would design very different programs depending on whether senior leadership buys into the value of effective leadership. But for this question, let’s take the assumption that they do.

Step 1: Start with defining your organization's North Star. What does your business need to do to thrive in the next 5 years? What kind of culture will support that i.e. how do you want your people to think and act?

Step 2: Next, dissect what this means for leaders across various tiers in terms of their mindsets, skills, and behaviors. A competency framework like this lays the groundwork for a shared understanding of excellence. This is normally a huge task, but Gen AI makes it drastically simpler. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn for the prompts I use.

Step 3: Enter the realm of data. Whether it's through 360-degree assessments or other sources, evaluate each leader against your defined standards of excellence. Identify where they meet the criteria, and where they don’t.

Step 4: Craft leadership resources and learning paths tailored to each tier within your organization. With AI integration in many Learning Management Systems (LMS), customization has never been easier. Here's a crucial tip: less is more. Even if leaders need to master multiple skills, cramming them all in isn't feasible. Can you truly become a top-notch project manager, conquer conflict avoidance, master delegation, and understand diverse motivational strategies in just four months? It's a tall order. Break it down, promote focus, and set your leaders up for success. You could consider setting it up like “legos”, based on their scores in the assessments in step 3, each leader chooses 3 blocks to make up their development journey. 

Step 5: Support your leaders, and they and their teams will be better off for it. For companies with the means, offering a pool of individual coaching hours can be invaluable. Alternatively, internal or external mentorship programs can be just as beneficial. For a lower cost alternative, consider exploring AI-driven coaching and well-being solutions as well.

Step 6: Finally, embrace iteration. Every six months, convene review sessions with stakeholders across different levels, gathering feedback to refine and improve the program continuously.

Any expert tips & tricks on how to design your own personal learning and growth path as a leader?  

Focus is key. Many of us here have struggled with and respect how difficult it is to eat healthy, go to the gym regularly or quit smoking. These goals demand focus and often require us to make systemic changes in our environments to succeed. 

As a leader, your learning goals require the same level of persistence, the occasional stumble, and the determination to get back on track. That’s why I always recommend designing development journeys in blocks of 3 to 6 months with only one or two objectives in a block. Focus and dedicate yourself to them until they become ingrained habits, then you can confidently move on to the next objective. 

For those who really want to build new behaviors, I highly recommend a combination of two books. First read Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success by Patterson et al., and then read Atomic Habits by James Clear. 

For more insights on growing as a leader - follow Alison on Linkedin and check out Urchin Insights!          

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The original post was published on HRnuggets.io.