As we turn our thoughts to 2024’s leadership training programme, (where did that year go?) the key themes that we are seeing time and again centre around adaptability, emotional intelligence, having the ‘tough’ conversations and inclusive collaboration.  

So, without falling foul to another episode of buzzword bingo, we wanted to delve into what, practically, should be on your leadership and management training agenda in the new year to ensure it packs a punch.  

Focus on Emotional Intelligence: 

Training programmes that emphasise the importance of self-awareness, empathy and interpersonal skills will always create effective leaders. It’s an over-used quote but don’t underestimate “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Try using a colour insights team connectivity session to allow your leaders to understand their teams and the way they work on a deeper level. Or use 360-degree feedback (designed in line with your values), to support your leaders in building practical, relevant and focused development plans.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Training: 

In response to the growing awareness and investment in creating diverse and inclusive workplaces, make sure your leadership programmes have a heavy focus on inclusion. This might include addressing unconscious biases, wilful blindness as well as equipping your leaders with the feedback skills they need to have challenging conversations.  

Adaptive Leadership:

World knows the employee relations landscape is one that changes often, and fast. You can address this in your leadership training programme by giving your teams tools and techniques to make quick decisions, navigate uncertainty and support teams through change. We like to use:

• David Rock’s SCARF model: a framework that helps managers practically explore and understand what specific concerns their people may have regarding change, to then be able to build practical supporting strategies
• Lencioni’s 5 dysfunctions of teams: a framework that assists managers, leaders, and teams in honestly assessing what behaviours or actions may be missing that are hindering team performance. This can be really helpful to be able to then put practical actions in place to improve performance
• Kubler Ross’ Change Curve: you’ll have heard of this one already, one of the most renowned change models in leadership and management, which highlights the journey that people typically go through during change, enabling them to understand the personal implications and how to best work through these

Health & Wellness:

By this, we mean encourage your leaders to support employees as people. Make a point of helping your leaders to understand things like positive mental health and wellbeing and creating a psychologically safe environment.

Why? It will go a long way to employees viewing leadership as trusted ‘allies’ rather than ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Help your Teams Transition from ‘Mate to Manager’

It’s a fine line, but if you have colleagues pushing a promotion in the new year that might be crossing this line soon, we see all too often that they are left to navigate these tricky waters without support.

Try setting them up for success by using tools such as 360 Self Awareness, personal branding, team pacing and Action Centered Leadership – ‘Adair’ focus – which is a tried and tested model to help managers and leaders form a structured and balanced approach to leading others, enabling them to better delegate and develop others along the way too.

As we integrate these strategies into our organisations – remember that this is the long game, so embrace the inevitable challenges and celebrate the little wins too.

We’ll be releasing a new leadership eBook in the new year that will share with you some of our best tips and tricks to achieve all of the above. Keep an eye out for it in 2024 and we’ll see you in the new year!