The Top Five Areas of Focus for Enterprise Leaders

If the pandemic has taught us anything over the last 20 months, it’s the need to be resilient. The ability to quickly pivot while keeping composure is the sign of an excellent leader. It’s clear some changes we’ve made during this crisis are here to stay while others will continue to shift based on the circumstances. Here are some powerful resolutions to take with you into 2022 to help you continue to navigate the ever-changing landscape.

5 Areas of Focus for Enterprise Leaders

1. Perfect your virtual presence. If you are or were working from home, it’s likely you’ve experienced “Zoom fatigue.” Despite these virtual meetings being the norm for the better part of two years, it can still feel exhausting as the only way to communicate. Whether it’s bad internet connection or not being able to make appropriate eye contact, we’ve powered on. By focusing on your virtual persona, you’ll be able to strengthen your virtual communication. Three areas to consider: immediacy, receptivity, and composure.

2. Master your delegation skills. One major benefit in delegating is the demonstration of trust you have in your employees. By empowering them through delegation you help them develop into leaders. You’re able to provide them with autonomy which increases their innovation, communication, and creativity. This process also allows you to focus on your most pressing tasks. Make sure you understand your need for delegating, so you’re able to communicate the needs and expectations and take time to appropriately match the task to the proper person.

3. Encourage your employees in their development endeavors. Research has shown the primary predictor of leadership development program success is based on how much support employees receive from their bosses. Here are a few ways you can support yours:

1. Discuss their goals with them — which areas they should focus on to get the most out of every opportunity.
2. Allow them to give the training their full focus by granting them the ability to fully disengage from normal responsibilities.
3. Talk to them about the support they’ll need after finishing their program.
4. Follow up with them after the training and meet with them to review what they learned, their plan to apply it, and how you can continue to support them.

4. Be a more strategic leader. If you struggle with balancing short- and long-term priorities, you’re not alone. Many managers and executives have the same struggles. To effectively make sustainable change organization-wide, you need leadership that is:

1. Broad in scope: You’re aware the organization has many moving parts and one action for one team can have a domino effect on another.
2. Future-focused. Thinking in the long-term doesn’t mean you negate the short-term but rather use the short-term to propel you to the long-term focus.
3. Change-oriented. To make real differences, you’ll need to drive organizational change. A strategic leader will ask important questions such as: What are the driving forces where we should invest our time, energy, and resources?

5. Nurture innovation. Innovation is important for businesses, but it can be difficult because it’s different from leading ongoing business operations. Those responsible for innovation need additional emotional support to take the risks and give their efforts all their knowledge, skill, and energy. To support and encourage innovation, leaders should practice these three behaviors:

1. Trust your innovators so they feel empowered.
2. Motivate, inspire, and focus innovators by assuring the purpose of it is front-and-center.
3. Collaborate with innovators so the risk is shared.

Each time we transition into a new year, it’s helpful to reflect on what went well and how we can adapt and make changes in the next one. It’s also a great idea to have business resolutions in addition to personal ones. Keeping a list of goals or resolutions is an excellent way to ensure you’re always moving forward.

Interested in learning about enterprise leaders? Curious about how leadership development can help your organization reach its full potential? Get in touch now.

Vayability is a leadership development platform built from the ground up to accelerate the development and business impact of emerging talent. Combining more than 20 years of executive learning, Vayability focuses on impactful leadership skills, personalized learning, live coaching, and measurable growth. Find out how top companies embrace success at vayability.net.

Written by Rachel Strysik