Warren Bennis, known as the father of leadership, developed the concept of realizing individuals’ true potential to become powerful leaders of tomorrow. He believed that leaders were created and not born. Humans could be motivated with effective leadership development strategies, making them connected leaders who could drive organizational success.
Leaders can make or break a team, so channelizing maximum efforts for developing the skills required to become a connected leader is crucial. In fact, according to a McKinsey report, HR professionals’ top priority is leadership development and succession management.
But who exactly are these connected leaders, and why are organizations so keen on having them?
Connected leadership is essentially based on using emotional intelligence at the workplace to create excellent and high-impact teams. Such leaders are empathetic, aware, and transparent, which enables them to form ideal teams that perform admirably.
Read: How to be a Connected Leader?
Organizations can help individuals with the right set of training and development to take on leadership roles and ascend the ladder of hierarchy. Now, the question arises – how can organizations create a pipeline of such connected leaders to achieve the desired success?
Let us take a look at it closely.
How To Build a Pipeline of Connected Leaders?
Companies frequently struggle to fill top management positions with the right candidates due to cultural misfits and other factors. Often, employees transitioning to senior roles cannot find adequate training, making the transition difficult and their roles super hectic.
According to McKinsey, individuals who successfully transitioned had a 90% chance of meeting their 3-year performance team goals. On the contrary, individuals who did not have a smooth transition faced 20% less engagement as well as unclear expectations.
It is thus critical to invest time and effort in developing a pipeline of connected leaders so that succession planning is efficient and leadership roles can be easily taken over.
Here is a quick roadmap of how organizations can focus their efforts on developing a pipeline of connected leaders:
Identifying the Right Candidate
A connected leader must have excellent communication skills, humility, trustworthiness, and emotional intelligence, among other required qualities. These basic characteristics that individuals exhibit within and outside of the team can be used to identify a potential connected leader of the future. The main idea here should be to find the right candidate who possesses the characteristics of a worthy connected leader, on whom organization can easily place the bet.
Focusing on Succession Planning
Many large corporations use succession planning to find the right candidate for top positions within the organization for the best results. A connected leader must possess a variety of positive traits and skills. Some of these include developing self-awareness, a love of learning, mastering the art of feedback, and cultivating empathy. A well-planned succession planning model can assist organizations in preparing the potential connected leader right from the bottom of the pyramid.
Training and Leadership Development
One of the most important aspects of designing a successful succession planning methodology is providing appropriate training and leadership development opportunities. According to Harvard Business Review, “succession planning and leadership development are natural allies because they share a vital and fundamental goal: getting the right skills in the right place.” Thus, providing the perfect coaching methodology with data-backed programs can significantly aid in the creation of the connected leaders of tomorrow.
Why Are Connected Leaders Key to Organizational Success?
Connected leaders do things differently, such as focusing more on their team, delivering the best work, helping more, criticizing less, transferring skills within the team, and so on. These individuals can form a team that can perform well and achieve above-and-beyond results because they were shown the bigger picture by their leader.
Here are some examples of how connected leaders influence organizational success:
- As connected leaders can bond really well with their teams, they can generate higher employee engagement, resulting in little to no loss of productivity or signs of absenteeism within the team.
- Employees stay with a company if they are well-managed and directed. A connected leader will have a higher employee retention rate because these leaders have a good relationship with their subordinates.
- Connected leaders and their teams are solution-driven, making them valuable assets to the organization.
- They can maintain an excellent corporate culture while considering employees’ overall well-being. This is due to these leaders’ high emotional intelligence and ability to use it at the right time, which helps them in winning their team’s trust.
Leadership development should be prioritized to improve how organizations achieve success. Today’s managers can become the connected leaders of tomorrow by taking advanced courses focused on leadership development. Try 60-day pilot of NumlyEngage™ with us to learn how your organization can transform your managers into connected leaders.
