How To: Use Emergenetics to Strengthen Leadership Development Programs
What are your top training priorities?
If you’re like the Learning & Development professionals surveyed in this year’s LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, leadership skills probably rank high on your list. In fact, leadership and management was reported as the #2 area of focus for training in 2021, following only upskilling and reskilling.
As you consider how you can strengthen leadership effectiveness in your organization, Emergenetics® is here to help!
Boost Six Core Leadership Skills with Emergenetics Solutions
While there are many talents you may hope to develop in your leaders, most organizations prioritize a few common characteristics. Considering priorities from the Society of Human Resource Management, Training Industry and the Center for Creative Leadership, some of the most relevant skills include:
- Self-awareness
- Relationship building
- Communication
- Influence
- Problem solving
- Change management
As you help individuals build these capabilities, you can use a number of tools and resources that come with an Emergenetics Profile to improve your programming. Emergenetics Associates, take note of our bonus tips to supercharge your work!
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is foundational to leadership development. Psychometric assessments like the Emergenetics Profile can help individuals recognize their strengths and identify blind spots. Leaning on the information in our Profile and Narrative Report, your program participants learn what energizes them and recognize what may drive differences between themselves and others.
Invite participants to review their Narrative Report to identify the thought processes and behaviors that inspire their leadership style. I also recommend using our latest reflection guide to encourage individuals to consider how their preferences show up in their approach.
Emergenetics Associates: Use the Most Preferred Attribute activities from the Meeting of the Minds workshop and the 3-2-1 Worksheet to bring awareness to individual strengths.
Relationship Building
Before leaders can effectively motivate employees, they need to build rapport and trust with their staff. To help your program participants create positive relationships, try incorporating the Interaction Tips from the Emergenetics+ portal or mobile app into your training. Through Emergenetics+, leaders can connect with colleagues and team members and get customized tips to improve the way they communicate and collaborate to strengthen rapport.
Emergenetics Associates: For groups of nine or fewer, host a Team Dynamics for Small Groups session with leaders and their teams so staff gain an understanding of one another’s Thinking and Behavioral preferences. Take time to discuss each person’s preferred working style and partner with the manager to identify strategies to build rapport and improve collaboration.
Communication
Leaders spend a lot of time conveying and receiving information, so communication skills are instrumental to their success. Using the Emergenetics Profile, you can help individuals learn about the various ways that people prefer to be communicated with based on their preferences. By incorporating the Emergenetics+ mobile app into your training, you can also offer hands-on strategies to help your participants deliver more effective and meaningful messages.
Emergenetics Associates: Use the Least Preferred Attribute activities from the Meeting of the Minds workshop to provide leaders with an opportunity to practice communicating with people who may prefer to think and behave differently. You can also ask individuals to complete the Most Preferred Attribute activities through the lens of their Least Preferred Attribute to get more practice.
Influence
When individuals can positively impact others, they can affect behaviors, attitudes, motivation and performance. To build influence, provide your leaders with the tools to recognize what matters most to their audience and build skill in listening and gaining buy-in. Emergenetics Profile holders can use the Attributes in Action Guides in Emergenetics+ to become more influential by using the strategies in the resources to give meaningful feedback, navigate conflict, provide recognition and more.
Emergenetics Associates: Share the i2i Worksheet available in the Post-Meeting of the Minds Activities resource in your Emergenetics+ library to help leadership program participants consider the needs of their team members. By taking time to reflect on the preferences of their employees, they can tailor their approach to better motivate and encourage them.
Problem Solving
On any given day, leaders face many opportunities and challenges, and they need to be equipped to problem solve effectively. Emergenetics can empower them to use cognitive diversity to arrive at better decisions. Through the Emergenetics template, individuals can understand the interests and priorities of each Attribute. With this information, your participants can practice approaching challenges through the lens of each preference and arrive at a conclusion that considers all angles.
Emergenetics Associates: Use the WEteam report in Emergenetics+ to help leaders build cognitively diverse groups. If a group lacks diversity of thought, coach individuals on how to use WEapproach to consider the Attributes.
Change Management
Navigating and implementing change have always been important skills, and the past year amplified their relevance. Individuals who understand Emergenetics have a leg up because they can use the Attributes to anticipate questions and design a process that speaks to the ways their staff members prefer to experience change. You may also consider integrating the Emergenetics template with other popular frameworks like Kotter’s 8-Step Process.
Emergenetics Associates: Partner with leaders to reveal how their employees typically react to change by discussing the Flexibility spectrum. Using staff Profile reports, you can build on these insights and share some of the questions and concerns team members may have based on their most preferred Attributes.
While every company will have a certain set of skills that they want their people to develop, the Emergenetics applications I’ve shared can provide a strong foundation to support the essential components of your leadership program.
As one final tip, I encourage anyone with an Emergenetics Profile to visit Emergenetics+ to reference our Attributes in Action Guides. The resources offer specific tips to help individuals deliver a powerful presentation, run an efficient meeting, navigate conflict and more – all of which can be useful to first-time or seasoned leaders in your organization.
Want to learn more about how our tools can support leadership development for your company? Visit our website or fill out the form below to speak with a team member today!
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