Elevating Leadership Effectiveness Through Deliberate Practice
Estimated reading time: 6 - 8 mins
The not-so-secret element of a successful leadership development program is training leaders to become precise communicators.
Regardless of industry, fantastic leadership communication is vital for organizational success. Deliberate practice of these critical communication skills within realistic scenarios tailored to the job role and individual will get leaders to perform better sooner and with measurable results.
Remember the adage “practice makes progress” and keep reading for examples of practice scenarios specific to specialized leader segments, including sales, supply chain and corporate.
This article highlights a tiered approach to leadership communication development: foundational, situational and specialized. Note that these skills apply to various leaders, from managers to senior leaders.
Deliberate practice of critical communication skills within realistic scenarios will get leaders to perform better sooner and with measurable results.
Past strategies won’t serve the pace of the future
You know that the world is moving at a faster pace than ever. Decision-making is demanding a faster response. Agility and iteration are necessary, market conditions evolve rapidly, and people require upskilling almost on demand. In response, we can’t spend the same lead time on traditional leadership development. Years of strategy and planning with expensive and complicated frameworks aren’t helpful. Leaders need to be engaged now, and they need the tools and support to adjust their behavior quickly and with precision. Deliberate practice does that.
Consider this leadership training philosophy
Leaders must excel in foundational and specialized communication skills in an environment where every interaction with staff can influence business outcomes. The ramifications of poor leadership communication are, at a minimum, disengaged staff, suffering productivity, retention and turnover.
At the heart of leadership is communication and fostering a sense of ownership and psychological safety throughout the team.
Deliberate Practice provides a structured method to assess, practice, and enhance these critical skills through real-world scenarios and expertly delivered feedback. Leaders learn by doing in context and will achieve faster speed to value with a training method like deliberate practice.
Foundational, Situational and Specialized Skills
We know from research that these foundational skills: attention - curiosity - empathy - and clarity have a dramatic effect on leader effectiveness. Yes, they’re simple and intuitive. It’s not that leaders can’t comprehend these skills; it’s that they’re not demonstrating them in real-world situations.
These foundational skills should be practiced by all leaders. Asking questions, listening, acknowledging with empathy and probing to gain clarity need to be developed and reinforced from day one as a leader. New leaders need to build these communication muscles, and experienced leaders need to refresh or update throughout their leadership career and receive expert feedback and coaching on their own performance. These skills will become part of a baseline leadership essentials program.
Next, develop fluency with situational skills. Handling difficult conversations with empathy, focusing on inclusion and belonging for all staff, and providing situational feedback is critical for immediate success. Leaders’ training plans should extend to supporting them with difficult conversations in context. Again, deliberate practice is the only way to safely and correctly experience these situational leadership conversations without risk to the leader or organization when things go poorly.
What about leaders in specialized departments?
Specialized skills training and development should be offered to leaders in specific roles. What a sales or supply chain leader needs is different from what a corporate leader needs. The nature of outcomes and measurement of success for specialized leaders demands different scenarios. This figure highlights the nuance for leaders as they find themselves in different departments. Conversations have a different focus and need to be practiced as much as those foundational and situational skills needed to be practiced earlier in the development plan.
Tiers of Leadership Skills
Deliberate Practice Examples
Foundational Skills and Scenarios
Curiosity and Clarity: The catalyst for finding out more about the other person’s situation
Scenario Example: Role-play a leader conducting developmental conversations with team members using the GROW coaching model. Asking open-ended and probing questions
Attention: Combination of active listening and focusing on the other person in the conversation.
Scenario Example: Role-play asking questions, listening, paraphrasing and summarizing what you heard to indicate active listening.
Empathy: Fosters trust and understanding, crucial for team cohesion, well-being and safety
Scenario Example: Acknowledge an employee’s expressed concern for their feeling overwhelmed or stressed due to workplace challenges. Indicate active listening and understanding a diverse perspective by acknowledging the emotion.
Situational Skills and Scenarios
Providing SBI (Situation, Behavior, Impact) Feedback: Essential for continuous improvement and team alignment.
Scenario Example: Leaders practice delivering positive and constructive feedback on outcomes specific to their role.
Overcoming Objections: Critical for navigating challenges and maintaining forward momentum
Scenario Example: Navigate resistance or concern to an organizational change with empathy. Manage a way through and forward.
Inclusion & Belonging: Navigating difficult conversations to ensure the team is managing their unconscious bias and is working collaboratively
Scenario Example: Roleplay a team meeting where one person says or does something that makes another uncomfortable. Learn how to deal with both people in this situation.
Specialized Skills for Specific Leadership Audiences
Sales Leaders Scenario Examples
Strategic Client Management: Conversations that coach a salesperson to successful long-term relationship building and account growth.
Innovative Sales Techniques: Monitoring success while encouraging the adoption of new strategies for market expansion.
Team Sales Performance: Managing performance of team targets and incentives.
Supply Chain Leaders Scenario Examples
Operational Risk Management: Identifying and mitigating risks in supply chain processes, then communicating to team and upper leadership
Process Improvement: Continuously enhancing efficiency and effectiveness through gathering diverse perspectives.
Team Coordination: Ensuring seamless operation through skilled team management.
Corporate Leaders Scenario Examples
Strategic Planning: Guiding a team with a long-term vision and adaptable strategies.
Corporate Governance: Upholding and instilling corporate values and ethics.
Change Management: Leading the team effectively through transitions.
Influencing: Affecting change and getting initiatives done through peer influencing
About Practica Learning
We offer customized scenarios to practice skills most critical for your leaders: foundational, situational and specialized skills and scenarios.
Our learning methodology – deliberate practice – is evidence-based and leads to measurable improvement in performance. We measure participant performance improvement and give you detailed analytics and aggregate reporting.
We are a creative team of learning experts, professional actors, and experienced coaches dedicated to understanding your communication challenges and strategic goals to provide you with the most engaging, immersive, and compelling learning experiences.
Engage with our customized communication training to empower your leaders with the skills they need to excel in today’s leadership environment.
Contact Manja Horner, Learning Consultant & Business Development
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