According to a Gartner survey, human resources leaders’ top priority for the third year in a row is developing their organizational leaders and managers. This response indicates the need for current and aspiring leaders to build greater leadership effectiveness.
Some employers offer leadership programs, but there are also independent leadership professional development opportunities you can pursue to grow your leadership skills proactively.
Keep reading to learn about the importance of leadership development and five approaches to amplify your influence, regardless of your industry or role.
Why Is Professional Development Important for Current and Aspiring Leaders?
Leaders must be prepared to lead effectively now and in the future. Engaging in leadership professional development activities will prepare you to achieve precisely that.
Today’s leaders face extraordinary changes stemming from globalization, technological advancement and worldwide health challenges. Effective organizational leadership involves anticipating and adapting to these disruptions. Yet, according to the Gartner survey, 69% of human resources leaders said their organizational leaders and managers are not equipped to lead change.
Advanced leadership skills can be learned on the job and through leadership professional development. Professional development aims to challenge your current psychological and emotional conditioning so that you can lead effectively regardless of organizational or market conditions.
What Skills Are Important in Leadership Development?
Effective leadership is rooted in hard skills and soft skills. For example, a leader must be able to analyze data to make strategic decisions and communicate a clear vision that motivates others.
Developing the following technical proficiencies and interpersonal abilities will allow you to drive meaningful change in your organization and community.
1. Curiosity
Effective leaders are scholarly. They appreciate knowledge acquisition and demonstrate continuous academic improvement. Leadership development allows you to build a growth mindset to lead amid rapid change.
2. Critical Thinking
Seeking diverse viewpoints and solving problems effectively are two of the four behaviors that account for 89% of leadership effectiveness. You can tackle increasingly complex challenges when you grow your ability to think critically and strategically.
3. Innovation
Today’s leaders, especially senior leaders, create sustainable change by shifting paradigms. Leadership development will help you think creatively, apply new perspectives, and continually innovate.
4. Communication
Clear communication is central to leadership, including articulating a vision, inspiring others and making informed decisions. Leaders must develop their ability to communicate effectively in verbal, written and non-verbal contexts, especially in this remote and hybrid work era.
5. Ethics
Research shows that ethical leadership improves employee readiness to change. This may be because ethical leaders foster trust and integrity. By engaging in leadership development, you can grow your capacity to exhibit and promote honest, civic-minded and justice-oriented reasoning and behavior.
6. Self-Awareness
Through leadership development, you will grow your self-awareness, enhancing your ability to reflect on, understand and edit your presentation and behavior. This skill lends itself to a greater sense of trust and continuous improvement within organizational cultures.
7. Empathy
Leadership effectiveness hinges on making others feel seen, heard and valued. You can grow your empathy through leadership development by listening to and assuming the perspectives of mentors and industry leaders.
8. Discernment
Effective leaders exhibit humility and flexibility while acting decisively. They must also carefully evaluate information and use critical thinking and judgment to choose the best course forward.
9. Collaboration
Effective leaders set the tone for collaboration. Harvard Business Review research showed that collaboration failures are mainly due to silos, leaders who lack collaborative vision and senior managers who don’t want to relinquish control. That’s why leaders must develop their ability to work cooperatively.
10. Conscientiousness
Leadership development reinforces conscientiousness as a core trait of effective leaders. Steadfast and trustworthy leaders inspire team confidence, foster cultures of accountability and make informed, ethical decisions.
What Are Different Leadership Professional Development Opportunities?
You can develop your leadership in many ways, depending on your current skill set and career aspirations. Generally, Gartner suggests two kinds of leadership professional development—formal education and peer connections.
Formal education encompasses ad hoc courses, professional certifications and graduate-level leadership programs. Peer connections refer to finding or becoming a mentor and staying abreast of thought leadership from professionals in your field.
1. Online Leadership Development Courses
Online courses in leadership development provide a convenient, self-paced approach to grow your leadership effectiveness. You can take individual courses about countless leadership skills online.
One resource is LinkedIn Learning, which offers over 23,000 courses to help professionals grow their careers. The top LinkedIn Learning courses of 2024 included:
- “What Is Generative AI?”
- “Time Management Fundamentals”
- “Communication Foundations”
- “Data Literacy: Exploring and Describing Data”
- “Problem-Solving Techniques"
Udemy is another resource with over 200,000 courses on a wide range of subjects. Trending Udemy leadership courses include:
- “Active Listening”
- “Communicating with Empathy”
- “Management Skills Training for New & Experienced Managers”
- “Leadership: Leading When You Are Not In Charge”
- “Communicating with Confidence”
Online leadership development courses allow you to learn from anywhere and around your current schedule so you can immediately apply learning to your job.
2. Professional Certifications
Earning professional certifications is another way to grow your leadership effectiveness. A professional certification is a credential awarded by a recognized organization that verifies your expertise and knowledge in a specific skill set, profession or industry.
Examples of professional certifications are:
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Society for Human Resource Management-Certified Professional (SHRM-CP)
- Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
Depending on your leadership and career goals, you can earn multiple certifications to demonstrate your competency in different areas.
3. Thought Leadership
Thought leadership is a leadership development opportunity that positions leaders as credible, influential experts in their field. It is about more than keeping up with the news. Thought leaders stay informed, share their unique insights and help shape conversations that inform and inspire others.
Here are ideas for sharing your thought leadership and tapping into that of others:
- Industry Insights: Subscribe to leadership or trade magazines, read industry reports and white papers and monitor the market to stay current with emerging trends, new technologies and best practices.
- Professional Networks: Immerse yourself in professional networks for peer-to-peer sharing. Become a member of industry or leadership organizations, participate in LinkedIn groups and attend and speak at industry conferences.
- Influencers: Follow influential figures in your industry to gain new perspectives. Listen to their podcasts, follow them on social media and read their articles and books.
4. Mentorship
Whether seeking advice from a mentor or offering your insights to others, mentorship can enhance your leadership effectiveness. By giving and receiving constructive feedback, you can refine your leadership skills and accelerate your progress toward achieving professional goals.
McKinsey suggests these tips for making the most of your mentoring relationships:
- Background: Seek a mentoring relationship with someone you have similarities with but not a wholly shared identity. Different perspectives will push you outside of your comfort zone.
- Focus: Contact a potential mentor or mentee with a specific question or problem you’re trying to solve. Clear, focused interactions can lead to better outcomes.
- Reciprocity: Offer to help your mentor or mentee with something they’re working on so the mentoring relationship is reciprocal and relevant to real-world challenges.
- Objective: Set yourself up to track progress and celebrate success by setting actionable, measurable goals for your mentoring relationship.
- Consistency: Nurture your mentoring relationship regularly to maintain meaningful engagement.
When you embrace mentorship, you will gain valuable guidance and practical skills to strengthen your leadership effectiveness.
5. Doctoral Leadership Education
Doctoral leadership education is a comprehensive and transformative approach to leadership development. It is ideal for professionals seeking to improve their leadership skills, drive meaningful change and influence practice and policy in their field.
One option is earning a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Leadership, a prestigious academic credential providing the highest level of practical leadership development. As a result, the EdD in Leadership opens doors to roles where you can create sustainable change in organizations and communities.
Dr. Andre L. Tompkins, a graduate of Spalding University’s accredited online EdD in Leadership program, said the degree was an investment in his future that paid off almost immediately.
“When I graduated with my EdD from Spalding University, I never imagined how quickly my career would accelerate,” Dr. Tompkins said. “Within months, I was promoted to serve as the Manpower Branch Chief for the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.”
Unlike Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs, which focus on contributing to theoretical research, EdD in Leadership programs prepare candidates to apply leadership theory and research to address practical challenges.
Spalding’s online EdD in Leadership is designed for working professionals across all industries and roles. Guided by expert faculty, candidates grow to stand out as:
- Exemplary practitioners of ethical organizational leadership.
- Extraordinary team builders.
- Systems thinkers and drivers of change and innovation in a global economy.
If you want to grow your leadership within an interdisciplinary community, earning an EdD in Leadership from Spalding is where your journey could begin. You can complete your terminal degree and apply your learning while continuing to work full-time.
Amplify Your Influence through Spalding University’s Online EdD in Leadership Program
There are countless leadership professional development opportunities for those who want to advance their leadership skills and careers, from online courses to mentorship. If you are dedicated to inspiring change in your workplace and community, getting your EdD in Leadership from Spalding can help you become a transformative leader.
As a student in Spalding’s online EdD in Leadership program, you will gain a comprehensive, personalized approach to mentorship, doctoral-level writing experience and engaging coursework so that you can confidently finish the program in under two years.
Amplify your influence across all industries and roles with our online EdD in Leadership. Connect with an enrollment advisor to get started.
