084: Developing Emerging Leaders, Part 1

For many of my clients, I create and facilitate what's called an Emerging Leaders program. It's designed to prepare emerging leaders for their first management positions. Participants learn and apply foundational leadership skills throughout a multi-phased experiential journey.

At the core of the program is the use of internal managers to serve as coaches and mentors. These are seasoned leaders, hand selected by the organization to help coach their assigned participant throughout the entire duration of the program.

As a two-part recording, joining me today are Scott Dumler, Josh Key, Brian Fagan, and Elizabeth Martin, who went through my program as participants and are now leading people. You'll get to hear leadership development from a learner's perspective, and what a participant is going through during their leadership development journey, their ‘aha’ moments, etc.

In the next episode, you'll hear from the coaches who helped shepherd the participants to gain their perspective on mentoring these emerging leaders during the program.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Adapt to different styles when communicating. The same conversation with two different people has a dramatic impact if you’re not meeting their style and what they’re looking to get from the conversation
• Utilize your peer set and other leaders to gather insight and advice. No one person as all the answers
• It’s ok to say, “I don’t know”. You can always figure out how to get the best answers for your people
• Consider developing people by giving them exposure to other teams, functions; people who are not in the same role. This makes the practice of leadership the common denominator
• Self-awareness is key