There is no doubt that the marketplace continues to get more complex and uncertain. The pace of innovation continues to accelerate along with the ongoing rise in globalization that brings competitive threats from every corner of the world. In addition to the human capital that brings pressure to the marketplace, the rapid adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence is reducing cost and time at amazing rates across all industries.

As senior executives and the top talent on their teams strive to be more effective in their roles to lead their teams and drive growth in the business, they need to be intentional about their efforts to learn and grow. Maintaining a consistent effort to draw clear learnings from experience and rapidly apply those learnings to be more effective in the future is critical for leaders to remain relevant in the marketplace.

Much of today’s documented learnings in business that are accumulated inside senior executive teams and boardrooms are around applying new technologies to be more efficient, emerging competitive threats, and innovative service offering to expand impact in the market. The continual learning in these areas are all important to the near-term and long-term health of the business.

However, what is not always well documented and discussed inside senior executive teams is the personal leadership learnings that would demonstrate individuals are increasing their leadership effectiveness to keep pace with the demands of the environment. As senior executives and the top talent are their teams strive to improve their leadership effectiveness, here are a few areas worth reflecting on to ensure they are continuing to learn and grow to remain relevant:

1. Difficult Conversations: What have I learned about my ability to raise the difficult issues quickly, clearly, and effectively in order to drive action? How am I applying those learnings to my next set of challenges?
2. Talent Management: What have I learned about my ability to place and assess talent in the most critical functions of the business? Am I sharing those learnings with others?
3. Risk Taking: What have I learned about my willingness and ability to assess risks and to take risks in the business and our people?
4. Communications: What have I learned about my ability to effectively communicate to stakeholders around critical aspects of the business such as mission, goals, behaviors, recognition, etc.? How have I applied those learnings to be more effective going forward?  

Many times, leaders focus discussion on the shared learnings around process and technologies to demonstrate they are building “learning organizations.” These types of learnings are important to the business. However, leaders need to create the space to think about their own personal leadership learnings in order to ensure they maintain their effectiveness in a constantly changing environment. Leadership effectiveness is the differentiator for companies to drive growth in a complex and uncertain future.

What if I were to ask you, “What is the most difficult leadership challenge you are facing today?” What would you say?

Here are a few resources to help:

1. Download FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com
2. Contact me. Email: david@harvesttimepartners.com (M) 269-370-9275

David Esposito