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Three Tips for a Productive Virtual Breakout Room
In Part 2 of this series, we discussed how you can adapt your training to improve the virtual learning experience …
Today, between 0% and 20% of workers are considered high-performers. The median is 8%. High-performing employees do more than meet goals. They’re curious, collaborative and adaptive. They’ve already proven they can deliver results as an individual contributor. Organizations can capitalize on this potential and empower these high performers to level up even further by preparing them for leadership roles. This first step to turning high-performers into future-ready leaders, however, needs to be shifting their mindset to focus less on their own wins and more on lifting up the entire team.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rewriting job descriptions in real time, so it’s more imperative than ever that organizations stay agile. To meet evolving needs, leaders must give their employees the right resources to learn new skills and train for completely different jobs.
Now’s the time to invest in developing a strong leadership pipeline. Identifying, developing and preparing high-performance employees to move into a future leadership role ensures a consistent supply of flexible, motivated leaders who can carry your company through disruption, like AI. To choose the right people, evaluate these characteristics:
High-performing employees typically focus on ”hard skills”, or the skills that enable them to accomplish a task effectively. After developing a clear vision of a desired outcome, they often take action and focus on the objectives.
While useful in individual performers, these execution traits don’t always translate to leadership. To become a truly effective leader, high-performing employees need to shift their mindset from individual performance to team success, and that starts with developing their soft skills.
By focusing on honing their soft skills, or “people skills,” such as active listening or relationship building, high-performing employees can become more team-oriented. As they learn how to build trust, share ownership and develop others, their responsibility is naturally redistributed, and the spotlight moves away from them as an individual and more toward the team as a whole. This shift is key to setting them up for a smooth transition into leadership once the time is right..
To get your high-performers leadership ready, start by developing these four core soft skills.
Organizations continuously need to adapt to meet market demands and outperform their competition. To teach adaptability, leaders must lead by example with a resilient, growth mindset. This approach involves embracing challenges and seeing setbacks as learning opportunities.
Encourage high performers to step outside their comfort zones. Assign tasks or responsibilities outside their usual duties to build flexibility and resilience. Offer guidance to help them identify potential issues, consider multiple approaches and strategize solutions.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence can recognize, understand and manage their emotions and the emotions of others. To help high performers build this skill, encourage self-awareness. When individuals take the time to self-reflect, they can identify their feelings and notice patterns of how they react in stressful or unfamiliar situations.
Share the importance of pausing and reflecting before reacting. Ask: What does a person’s tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures suggest? By understanding someone else’s feelings and considering their perspective, high performers can learn to build trust and deepen relationships. These communication skills are essential for motivating others and managing conflict.
Employees need a psychologically safe space to feel comfortable speaking without fear of judgment or consequences. Leaders can demonstrate open, honest and empathetic communication to build trustworthiness with their team.
Emphasize the importance of active listening, which involves focusing and repeating what you hear to clarify ideas or process information. Allow future leaders to lead presentations, group meetings or important conversations in a supportive environment where open dialogue and insightful questions are valued.
Provide opportunities for high-performing employees to step back from daily operations, pursue continuous learning and engage in strategic thinking. Foster a big-picture mindset to connect how individual tasks contribute to an organization’s goals.
Ask “why,” “how” and “what if” questions to stimulate deeper thinking and promote innovative ideas. When a process doesn’t go as planned, use a collaborative approach to evaluate the situation and create actionable solutions.
Your organization’s future depends on the leaders you invest in today. Your high performers need the proper support to evolve. You can provide an effective learning journey with leadership development courses.
The Center for Leadership Studies (CLS) is committed to helping you optimize your company’s next generation of leaders. We offer a Situational Leadership® Essentials course that teaches how to communicate effectively, build trust with a team and use a humanistic approach to meet individual needs.
Ready to turn high-performing employees into future-ready leaders? Contact our team to learn more and get started.
