In the modern workplace, leadership development is a key area that many businesses are willing to invest in. Whether it be workshops, seminars, or training videos, organizations of all sizes are investing in their current and future leaders with the hopes of inspiring new skills and capabilities.
Technology is playing a major role in preparing these future leaders for success. In fact, it’s a contributing factor to many of today’s successful leadership programs. Using a blended approach that incorporates both technical and face-to-face training expands the opportunities for development. With just 17% of leaders feeling confident that they have the leadership capabilities to fully deliver on strategic priorities, it’s necessary to create effective leadership development programs that utilize technology.
Here are three benefits of using technology in the process of preparing future leaders.
Establish effective skill development programs for future leaders
Integrating technology into both your professional and personal leadership training doesn’t mean that in-person workshops and trainings should be ignored. Instead, the two methods can work hand-in-hand in order to create comprehensive learning and development programs. Try using one of the following tech-fueled tactics to complement in-person training:
- Online Instructional Tools: These software tools are designed to share high-level content with a targeted end-user, with modules and training available in an online location that’s accessible to leaders anytime.
- Webinars and Media-Sharing Platforms: Platforms like YouTube may not immediately come to mind when thinking of high-quality leadership training, but surveys show that 59% of executives agree that if both video and text are available on one topic, they’re more likely to choose the video-based content. Video-based learning allows quick sharing of high-quality content, that often is simpler to retain and understand than text- or lecture-based methods.
- Podcasts: Podcasts are incredibly popular amongst today’s millennial generation, and there are plenty that are specifically geared toward leadership or business-type topics. Podcast-based leadership learning also means that business leaders can access training content on-the-go. Trainings and presentations can be recorded and shared on an accessible platform, so that leaders can listen while commuting, on the bus, or during a quiet part of the workday.
Build powerful interpersonal skills
Many people may assume that social media platforms are the antithesis of establishing and growing interpersonal skills. However, social media isn’t just a vehicle to connect with others on a personal level; it’s also a tool to find professional connections and gather valuable knowledge.
By maintaining an active presence on these online communities, such as LinkedIn for example, future leaders can participate in online training events, listen in on leadership webinars, share their knowledge with like-minded and future-forward leaders, and catch up on the latest industry-related articles.
Enhance the mental well-being of future leaders
In order to be a successful leader, it’s important to not only hone mental skills and qualities, but physical ones too. In fact, studies show that increasing physical fitness contributes to one’s mental well-being as well as providing other valuable cognitive benefits such as enhanced creativity, faster learning, a sharper memory, prolonged mental stamina, and lower stress levels— all of which are critical to consider when becoming an effective leader.
Wearable devices, like smartwatches Fit Bits, or other health-monitoring apps, allow future leaders to monitor the aspects of their health that can contribute to their leadership capabilities and overall mental well-being. This may include heart rate, daily steps, and even the amount of time spent on their feet.
Those looking to become leaders in their organization or industry must learn to level-up their skills and capabilities with the proper utilization of technology throughout the day. The many tech tools available today can help to build the necessary skills critical to leadership and make the leadership development process simpler and manageable to achieve.
Care to dig deeper into this topic of preparing future leaders?
- Leadership Development: CEO’s Strategic Powerhouse
- 27 Video Stats for 2017
- TIGERS 6 Principles Leadership Training
- TIGERS Micro-Training
Copyright TIGERS Success Series Inc. by Marie Johnson, Contributing Author at Enlightened Digital.
Marie Johnson is a contributor to Enlightened Digital, UX Designer and technology writer from New York City. If she’s not writing her latest blog post in her kitchen, you’ll likely find her strolling through Central Park, cappuccino in hand.
About TIGERS Success Series, Inc.
Instead of scattering your training effectiveness, TIGERS® Success Series provides a comprehensive, multi-pronged and robust system for improving both your work environment, profitability and team leadership success.
We specialize in training your managers in group leadership skills that build workforce cooperation and high performance project team outcomes . Scaled to grow as your organization and leadership performance grows, our proprietary TIGERS Workforce Behavior Profile, Micro-Training technology that compliments your TIGERS Workforce Behavioral Profile(TM) results for high performance change management results, Management and Project Team Leadership training workshops, and elite consultant/project manager licensing is based on the TIGERS 6 Principles(TM) that our extensive research found to be the high performance mix to make this happen. Schedule a consultation to learn more.
