Four Skills Every Leader Should Master

As AI becomes more prominent and takes over more jobs, the positions that are left require those candidates with outstanding people skills, strategic skills, and technical skills, or a combination of the three. The people with these traits are highly in demand, and Learning and Development (L&D) plays a large role in the development of the three aforementioned skills.

Organizations must prioritize developing these skills within their workforce, which is no small feat. The unfortunate consequences of failing to accomplish this will be seen in the coming years as those companies will either fall behind or be forced to pay significant salaries for the most elite talent – that is, if they can even attract them. On the other hand, the companies that successfully implement these skills will reap long-lasting benefits and L&D will increase in value.

So, what skills do L&D professionals need to develop and practice to remain competitive in the current and future market? Paul Petrone of LinkedIn Learning interviewed four L&D experts to discover exactly that.

Strategy

Requests to L&D departments will continue to increase in the coming years, and this will require employees to learn new skills faster than ever. If your organization doesn’t have a clearly-defined plan, it may become difficult to meet deadlines. That’s why strategy is so important.

The four experts agreed that professionals must be highly strategic in how they spend their time and create a roadmap that outlines the areas they need to focus on the most. Have solutions at the ready for the dozens of one-off asks that are most likely to arrive in your inbox in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed when your workload becomes exceedingly busy.

Learn About Learning

Professional leaders need to get better at learning – not just at becoming more ardent learners themselves, but also at learning more about the different ways other people learn and absorb information. In order to become a true leader, you must be an expert in all forms of learning strategies as well as how to execute them.

Innovation means that new tools and processes are coming out every day. This requires an open mindset for learning and the ability to allow yourself to be seen learning. You may not prefer some of the new formats or learning methods, but you have to adapt if you want to stay relevant and competitive in today’s ever-changing market.

Tech Savvy

In this technology-driven world, leaders must become masters of tech in order to meet the growing needs of their organizations. New tech solutions are released every day with helpful tools to assist with your learning and completion of daily professional tasks. 

Take the time to discover which technologies provide the most value to your position and then take full advantage of them. When you find the learning tools that will have the most impact on your organization, be sure to put your resources behind them in order to experience the greatest return on your investment of time and effort.

Data-Driven

Organizations are becoming increasingly data-driven, and in turn L&D pros must be highly skilled when it comes to tying learning directly to business results. The two most important questions that learning leaders should always be able to answer are: did it work and why or why not? If you, as a leader, take these challenges seriously and prepare for what’s required of your role, you will continue to play an essential part in the success of your organization.

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You can read more about this topic at LinkedIn Learning.