Leadership is an adventure, a continuous journey of growth, learning, and empowerment. I'm thrilled to share my latest exploration into one of the most impactful frameworks in leadership development: "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership" by Kouzes and Posner.

Many organizations are seeking ways to continuously improve as a differentiating competitive advantage. They are focusing on continuous professional development and process improvement activities to assist them in reaching their next level of competitiveness. In the Learning Organization culture, there is a core value around each employee finding better ways to do his/her job(s).

Times they are a changin’. And, without a clear approach on developing our talent, our talent will not develop technical and interpersonal/soft/relationship skills needed for optimal results. We are going through so many unprecedented changes: technological advancements; employee exodus/resignations; social awareness and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI); remote work, masked work; political divisiveness; physical and mental stressors and more. This is a time for upskilling, for reskilling, and for career conversations.

Effective leadership is about head and heart, mind, and emotion; it’s about cognitive and affective processing; it’s about learning and changing. Effective leaders are self-aware, and this motivates, engages, and empowers others. 

It may seem like a daunting task to manage people from afar, let alone supporting people with so many additional stresses. But, as many successful global organizations have found, and some smaller organizations who were flexible in their response to COVID-19 requirements, it does not have to be difficult; just different.

A leaders’ primary responsibility is to bring a group of individuals together, inspire them to work together in the pursuit of a shared vision so that together they deliver results that meet or exceed expectations.