Every week, it seems like, a respected leader is caught behaving unethically or illegally, and within seconds the news is broadcast around the globe.

The news is full of leaders who refuse to make leadership a way of life.

There may have been a time when a leader could get away with dictating the actions of employees, all while engaging in bad behavior like cheating on their spouse or mishandling company money. Those days are over. The “genie” of information is far too big to be stuffed back into the “bottle” of kept secrets.

Today more than ever, leadership must be a way of life and not just a job title. And it’s not just because the risk of being caught behaving badly is greater. Leaders who practice integrity and build relationships on trust simply lead better. Compartmentalizing and juggling multiple versions of life may be exciting for a while, but ultimately, it’s exhausting and when things inevitably fail, it hurts both people and business.

“Servant Leadership” and its Consequences

You have probably encountered the term “servant leadership,” which is a form of leadership that puts service before leadership. This approach to leadership makes sense both professionally and personally.

On a personal level, the leader who is genuinely committed to service is less likely to ignore the people and institutions of their non-work life, because they’re better equipped for recognizing others’ needs and fulfilling their responsibilities related to those needs.

Professionally, servant leadership is good business. James Sipe and Don Frick found that over a 10-year period, stock returns from the S&P 500 were 10.8%. But the stocks of servant-led companies got average returns of 24.2%! Moreover, researchers at the University of Illinois found that servant leadership resulted in a 50% increase in employee retention.

Don’t Use Your Title of “Leader” as an Excuse

Using responsibilities as an excuse to neglect other areas of life eventually backfires.

Too many leaders (and non-leaders) are skilled at using one area of their life to make excuses for other areas. In other words, a leader may claim that they’re simply too busy and in-demand to eat healthy, make it to their child’s basketball game, or quit smoking.

Leadership as a way of life demands that you recognize your truest values and priorities. That requires that you either step up and do what you claim is important or stop saying that it’s important. Walking the talk may mean committing to major personal or professional changes, and that can be a hard pill to swallow. But the results include becoming a better leader and a better overall human being.

Courage Applies to All Areas of Life

Courage isn’t just something you use at work, in your capacity as a leader. When you make courage a way of life for your entire life and not just your work life, good things happen. For one thing, you use your courage more, and that strengthens it, just like exercising strengthens muscles.

For another, being courageous enough to accept and deal with problems in all areas of life can prevent those problems from spilling over and affecting other aspects of life. Deal constructively with the misbehaving child at home and you’re less likely to be interrupted at work by a phone call from the principal’s office, for example.

In Work and Life, Stay Open to New Ideas 

Outstanding leaders know that they never “arrive” at a final leadership destination. They remain willing and eager to embrace new ideas and learn new things. They know that looking back at the past or refusing to move forward is paralyzing. Remember the story in Genesis about Lot’s wife looking back and being turned into a pillar of salt? When we look back and refuse to move forward, we too become “pickled” as if in salt. Our businesses and our lives demand that we remain open to change and new ideas, and no job title can force that to happen.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what your job title is when it comes to leadership. Real leaders – formally named or not – know that leadership is a way of life and act accordingly. If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the subject of leadership, I invite you to check out my books. Also, be on the lookout for my new book, The Intelligent Leader, which comes out in October.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines empowerment as the process of gaining freedom and power to control what happens to you.

Empowerment and duty accomplish more than entitlement ever can

It defines entitlement as a feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want, simply because of who you are. Leadership development is (or should be) about empowerment rather than entitlement, because empowerment has substance, while entitlement is ultimately hollow – no matter how emphatically the entitled person tries to convince people otherwise.

Unfortunately, a sense of entitlement is too common among leaders. I say “unfortunately” because entitlement shortchanges leadership and hinders the achievement of lasting success. Intelligent Leadership requires that each of us take a good hard look at ourselves and recognize signs of entitlement. Empowerment is a harder road to travel, but its benefits spread far. Entitlement is all about the self.

The Negative Consequences of the Entitlement Mindset

Short-term, the leader with entitled (or even narcissistic) tendencies may seem to get good results, especially when followers are uncertain or lack confidence. Entitlement can be great for uniting people around a common goal. Unfortunately, with an entitled leader, that common goal is typically glorification of the leader him- or herself.

Entitlement also tends to hinder productive collaboration. If followers are mostly there to prop up their leader’s ego, that doesn’t leave much time for productivity and progress. And while a strong sense of entitlement may unite a group of unconfident, unsure followers, followers who are confident tend to see straight through entitlement and set their sights on leaving for greener pastures.

The Positive Consequences of the Empowerment Mindset

Empowerment, on the other hand, is almost the opposite of entitlement. Empowerment is confident, but not selfish. A genuinely empowered leader wants followers to be empowered too, and that’s good for productivity and innovation.

Empowerment wants the best from and for others, not just oneself.

Empowerment is also practical in many ways. The empowered leader is typically both trusted and trusting and has no need to micromanage team members. When team members know their leader trusts their ability to get things done and get them done right, far less time is wasted. Team members develop confidence, and their good results reflect on themselves, the rest of the team, and their leader.

Developing a Mindset of Duty Rather Than Entitlement

Empowerment and duty are closely linked, whereas entitlement is divorced from the concept of duty. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having confidence in oneself. But sometimes even deservedly confident people can let entitlement creep in around the edges. And this tends to happen during times of adversity or challenge, which is precisely the wrong time for entitlement to rear its head.

In my newest book The Intelligent Leader, I lay out the seven dimensions of Intelligent Leadership. The third dimension, after “Thinking Big, Thinking Differently,” and “The Vulnerability Decision” is “Having a Mindset of Entitlement versus a Mindset of Duty.” Though I go into more detail in the book, cultivating the mindset of duty requires that a person:

• Take stock of successes, including the people who helped them get there
• Work on becoming both more trustworthy and more trusting
• Take genuine pride in others, giving them credit where it is due

No matter how much we accomplish, it’s essential that we regularly remind ourselves that, as Bernard of Chartres said in the 12^th century, “We are like dwarfs standing [or sitting] upon the shoulders of giants, and so able to see more and see farther than the ancients.”

The fact is, it is the hard work of earlier generations that laid the foundation for the prosperity we enjoy today. When leaders are out of touch with that foundation, they unwittingly inhibit their own and their teams’ ability to meet challenges and make real progress. “Good” leaders may be charismatic and magnetic, but the greatest leaders are the ones who dispense with entitlement and know the value of empowerment. They may forego glory right now, but ultimately, they’re the ones that history remembers.

If you’d like to learn more about Intelligent Leadership, I encourage you to check out my books. And I hope you’ll be watching for my latest book, The Intelligent Leader, which comes out in October.

It’s easy to let the concepts of management and leadership blur and blend into one another. While there are similarities between the two, the terms are not interchangeable, and neither is “better” than the other.

Leaders and managers aren’t the same, and one is not superior or inferior to the other. 

Great organizations have both great leadership and great management. And while some of the qualities of great leaders and great managers coincide, the two roles are different. Understanding these differences can help leaders, managers, their organizations, and their teams perform at peak potential.

What Great Leaders Do

Leaders orient and lead people toward a common goal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it perfectly when he said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.” It only makes sense that communication is the number one skill of a great leader. If you can’t communicate the vision, the goal, and the path, how can you expect everyone to get there?

Leaders motivate and inspire. They don’t coerce people into doing what they want. Rather, they help people see for themselves what the right thing to do is. Leaders must be creative, and they must be willing to take reasonable risks because sometimes forward progress demands it. They must know how to assemble the right team, unite them toward common goals, and when necessary, help with conflict resolution.

What Great Managers Do

Managers get things done, measure results, and put those measurements to work improving performance. As Peter Drucker said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” Like great leaders, great managers communicate, motivate, and inspire. Getting things done requires communicating expectations, motivating people, and inspiring them to give their best efforts.

Sometimes leaders manage and managers lead. But the two roles have key differences, and those differences make both managers and leaders necessary.

Managers must also be experts at planning, delegating, and making optimum use of team resources. The great manager knows how to optimize operations, review the output and ensure that quality meets or exceeds expectations. The following table shows some of the essential skills required of leaders and managers. Some of them overlap because they are fundamental to ensuring organizations accomplish goals.

Why Businesses Need Both Leaders and Managers

There’s no point in providing a clear vision of leadership if a team can’t complete the tasks necessary to achieve goals. Likewise, there’s little to be gained in working hard to complete tasks that ultimately don’t result in advancement toward some overarching goal. Therefore, both leaders and managers are necessary for organizations to perform at their maximum potential. If leadership is a rowboat, management is the paddle. Without both, making directed progress is impossible.

Leadership coaching programs aren’t just for those who are destined for the C-Suite. Team leaders, managers, department chiefs – all people in positions of leadership within an organization – benefit from leadership development. And while leadership coaching is usually reserved for those at the top of the organizational chart, it can benefit both top leaders and top managers alike, as long as they are willing to honestly assess themselves, set personal goals, work toward them, and measure their progress.

The principles of leadership apply to anyone who is determined to achieve excellence, regardless of their job title. If you would like to explore the topic further, I encourage you to check out my books . And I also hope you’ll be on the lookout for my latest book, The Intelligent Leader, which comes out in October.

Challenging times are part of doing business. Some challenges can be foreseen, while others happen unexpectedly.

Every team occasionally faces crises.

It is these challenging times that are the true test of leadership. Leadership that falls apart at the first sign of trouble isn’t really leadership at all. Some organizations invest in executive coaching to help top leaders learn how to lead effectively during times of trouble. Here are eight of the most important leadership qualities that elevate teams to meet challenges.

1. Knowing How to Assess Situations Rationally

Strong leaders know how to assess problems and scenarios rationally, neither minimizing their importance nor blowing them out of proportion. To do this, leaders must draw upon their own experience, look at problems from multiple angles, and make an honest evaluation of how serious problems are. This gives them and their teams the best foundation from which to tackle problems.

2. Being Approachable

When things go awry, it is not the time to hide away behind a locked door or take a vacation. Leaders must be available and approachable. Often, team members have outstanding ideas for dealing with difficulties. They need their leaders to be available and open to their ideas. Unapproachable leaders can paralyze teams with indecision and fear, making problems and challenges worse than they should be.

3. Being Transparent

Transparency is always important in leadership, but perhaps it is never more important than during challenging times. When teams believe their leader is keeping things from them, not only are they less motivated to tackle problems, they’re more likely to fall prey to rumors and gossip. And if you want to make problems worse, gossip and rumors are two of the best ways to do that.

4. Encouraging and Listening to Feedback

Great leaders give constructive feedback. They accept feedback too. When teams deal with difficulties, they may need to deliver important information to their leader and deliver it now rather than later. Leaders who demonstrate that they’re open to feedback instantly relax tensions and encourage collaboration. And collaboration is often the key to surmounting big obstacles.

5. Accepting Occasional Failure (without Accepting Incompetence)

Taking calculated risks, doing our best, and sometimes failing is acceptable. It’s incompetence that is unacceptable.

Sometimes things fail. People may give their best efforts and have every reason to believe they will succeed, but for whatever reason, things just fall apart. Outstanding leaders accept that failure is occasionally inevitable. But they must make it clear that while occasional failure is part of doing business and moving forward, incompetence is not acceptable. Everyone on the team must be willing to know their strengths and gifts and use them appropriately.

6. Avoidance of Micromanaging

Sometimes it’s easier to micromanage than to empower. And during difficult times, the temptation to micromanage can be great. A leader may think, “I’ll manage every step, just until this storm passes.” But giving in to the temptation to micromanage can set teams back and damage morale. The best leaders know how to empower people to solve problems and know that the end results are better than when they dictate every step.

7. Recognition of Excellence

Perhaps no times benefit more from enthusiastic recognition of excellence than challenging times. The need to call out solid accomplishments and breakthroughs can easily slip by the wayside when a team is enduring hard times. But great leaders know that recognition of excellence is often just the thing to breathe life back into a team that is struggling in the short term.

8. Modeling of Good Behavior

Leaders should always model moral and ethical behavior. But in particular, they should demonstrate personal excellence during times of crisis. Teams look to their leaders for inspiration and for the tone they set, and they need to see a model of excellence when they face difficulties. Cutting corners or leaving a struggling team behind on a sunny afternoon to go play golf can quash initiative and motivation in an instant.

Many of my leadership coaching clients have these leadership qualities in great abundance. But they may not realize just how critical it is that they demonstrate them during challenging times. Leading during a crisis is hard. But leaders who manage to do so with skill, commitment, and optimism are the leaders who are destined for greatness. If you are interested in exploring excellence in leadership, I encourage you to find out more about my leadership coaching services.

Many leadership development programs discuss the careful balancing act that is often required for leaders. Leaders have power, but they also have responsibilities.

Leadership is in many ways a balancing act.

Leaders also have authority, which is both something that is designated by those higher up and a personal quality based on influence and personal relationships. How they use power and authority has great bearing on their success as leaders. I have worked with leadership coaching clients who confuse power and authority and as a result, lead less effectively. I believe that understanding the differences between the two can help in understanding the roles and responsibilities of leaders.

How Power and Authority Differ

In a strictly physical sense, power is a rate of transferring energy over a set period of time, like the electrical power you use to make your computer work. In terms of human relationships, it is an ability to force someone to do what you want, even if they don’t want to, because of your (real or perceived) might. Power can get things done, as any historical account of warfare will attest. It is necessary for roles of leadership, but it must be used judiciously and not abused.

Authority, on the other hand, is more analogous to the electrical cables that get the power to your office. Those cables are “authorized” to bring power to your home for you to use as you see fit. In terms of leadership, authority is the glue that holds together the many promises of leadership. It has several key attributes:

• It is decisive
• It is accomplishment-oriented
• It is influential
• It is courageous
• It inspires

Leaders Need Both Power and Authority

Power is something simple and basic. It is often more effective in the shorter term. In World War II, for example, the Allies had the power to liberate Paris by forcing the Germans out. Sometimes power is necessary and right. Most of us would use our physical power to pull a child out of the path of an oncoming car, for example.

There’s no question that sometimes the exercise of power is necessary.

Authority is also necessary for leadership. Because of their decisiveness, accomplishment track record, influence, courage, and inspiration, great leaders are able to help their teams accomplish great things. Great leaders may have power, but they are more likely to hold it in reserve and rely on authority to lead. But outstanding leaders know when circumstances necessitate the use of power. Such a leader, for example, won’t hesitate to fire someone for egregious misbehavior.

Excellent Leadership Qualities Reduce Need for Use of Sheer Power

Strong leadership development programs help leaders develop qualities that will minimize their need to rely on sheer power to get things done. Rather, they help emerging leaders develop qualities that inspire others to do the right thing, work hard, and engage with their tasks. Authority is ultimately a more efficient and effective manifestation of leadership than raw power is.

While the exercise of power is sometimes necessary, the leader who relies on power to get things done ultimately strains relationships and may drive good people away. Authority that is used in accordance with strong leadership qualities strengthens relationships and helps team members develop the confidence to do their work better.

Earned leadership can be a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, there will always be leaders who use their position to abuse power, and while they may make things happen in the short term, they lose out over the long term.

Leadership development programs that teach leaders the qualities of meaningful authority are likelier to turn out leaders who recognize the value of accomplishments, inspiration, example, and other effective leadership skills. These leaders, who recognize when power must be used and when it should be held in reserve, are the ones that stand to accomplish the most over the long term.

In considering the workplace of 2020 and beyond, it’s easy to focus on technology.

Technology is only part of what is changing leadership development needs. 

The fact is, we can do things we couldn’t do before, and there will be things we can do in 2020 and in out-years that we can’t do now. There’s no question that technology has transformed work and non-work life in profound ways.

Additionally, there have been plenty of headlines about automation eliminating jobs, and the idea can be profoundly disconcerting to the average employee. Yet there’s a flip side: with automation taking care of mundane tasks, could people be empowered to do more creative, innovative things?

But almost as a counterweight to all the technology has emerged an emphasis on the most human of human qualities, particularly emotional intelligence. The corporation run by the “invisible and omnipotent” leader is already an anachronism, and the workplace of the next decade will by necessity be run by leaders with outstanding “people skills” and emotional intelligence.

It’s not just a feel-good proposition, either. The employee workforce is evolving too. We no longer live in a world where identically dressed, married white men trek to identical offices every day to be led by a slightly older man just like them. Talent comes in the widest possible variety of people, and the companies that recognize, embrace, and understand this are the ones that succeed. There’s no reason to believe that will change after 2020. Here’s more of what leadership will mean as we enter the 2020s.

Fundamentals of Good Leadership Won’t Change

Honesty, transparency, and accountability will forever be qualities expected of outstanding leaders. They’re considered non-negotiable because they can so fundamentally and extensively affect not only the success of the company but also the employee experience.

Employees are more aware and informed than ever, and most of them simply won’t associate with companies and leaders who are dishonest, who hide what’s really going on, and who aren’t held accountable for their actions.

Leadership development programs must emphasize the most fundamental qualities of outstanding leaders because without them, all the skill development in the world can be meaningless. What is the value of a leader who trumpets impressive numbers every quarter if those numbers are fudged, or are based on shaky assumptions?

Likewise, how meaningful is a successful product line if the CEO is caught in a scandal, or is repeatedly let off the hook for unethical behavior? Hiding indiscretions and unethical behavior is harder than ever in our connected world, and as important as honesty, transparency, and accountability have always been, they will be even more important moving forward.

Leadership development programs and leadership coaching both must always circle back to these qualities because other leadership skills built on an honest, forthcoming foundation are more effective and get greater results over the long term.

Emotional Intelligence Will Become More Important

A large proportion of success in leadership is attributed to emotional intelligence (sometimes referred to as EQ – emotional quotient). This doesn’t mean that traditional intelligence matters less. But it does indicate that skills and intelligence cannot do great things if they are wielded by someone who has no self-awareness, or who doesn’t know how to relate to people.

Emotional intelligence isn’t as easy to measure as standard intelligence, but it is every bit as important to those in leadership positions.

Emotional intelligence depends on abilities like:

• Identifying and understanding emotions
• Being able to understand how others feel (empathy)
• Controlling one’s own emotions
• Being able to “read a room” or accurately perceive others’ emotions
• Using emotion not to manipulate, but to facilitate communication

And it’s not just an obscure topic for academic journals, either. In fact, you can now buy toys for children that purportedly help them develop emotional intelligence. Whereas IQ used to be seen as the main determinant of success, experts now realize that high intelligence alone does not guarantee success.

Companies have discovered for themselves that, for example, sales agents with lower emotional intelligence make fewer and smaller sales than those with strong emotional intelligence. The bottom line is that people want to deal with people they trust and like. It only makes sense that people will go the extra mile for leaders they perceive as empathetic and compassionate. You’ve probably heard the cliché, “People don’t quit jobs, they quit managers.” It’s a cliché for a reason.

Innovation, Technology, and Leadership

Leadership, innovation, and technology are already intertwined to some degree, but there’s no room in future leadership for the frozen-in-time leader who refuses to acknowledge or use technology. Not only does using technology help people do their jobs better (from the mailroom to the board room), embracing technology makes it easier to embrace innovation. And innovation is no longer optional, even in the most traditional businesses.

Innovating processes, products, and business models has become so important that many companies have established fully-fledged Innovation Departments. These are not your traditional R&D departments that are sometimes walled off from everyone else. Innovation departments are about crossing departmental boundaries, tearing down silos of knowledge, and even reaching outside of corporate walls to work with partner companies, universities, and sometimes even the general public.

Two things the internet age has made clear is that there is no shortage of great ideas in our world and that these ideas may come from anywhere. Innovation requires more than just generating ideas. It requires evaluating, prioritizing, and developing those ideas to where the best ones are made into reality.

Innovation requires acceptance of both risk and failure, and that can be difficult for many leaders. Leadership development programs and leadership coaching in 2020 demands that leaders understand acceptable risk, and what it means (and doesn’t mean) to accept failure. A certain amount of failure is part of any innovation initiative, and allowing for acceptable failures and learning from them is going to be a more prominent expectation of leadership.

We can’t just snap our fingers and bring innovation to life. We have to dedicate time, resources, and the right attitude to get results.

Preparing for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet

If you’re a Baby Boomer or a member of Generation X, the idea of, say, blogging being a profession didn’t occur to you when you were coming of age. One of the most wonderful and fascinating aspects of the future is that there will be jobs 20 years from now that we can’t even envision at this point. While it’s difficult to generate clear predictions, there’s general agreement that a significant proportion of the jobs that today’s children will have don’t yet exist.

How can leaders possibly prepare for such a future? One thing they must do is learn to rethink what fundamental skills are. In generations past, people went to college to train for a career that they would likely stay in until retirement. Today, however, a fluid and evolving skillset is becoming more mainstream.

Blending experiential and academic learning is becoming more mainstream as well, and this is affecting corporate training programs. While businesses can’t teach skills we don’t yet know of, they can adopt a culture of lifelong learning and invest in high-quality training for their employees.

Mostly, however, leaders have to learn to think differently. Employees who learn skills directly related to their work as well as “adjacent” skills add more value to the company. Leaders who support interdisciplinary learning not only end up with more well-rounded, flexible employees, they indirectly support innovation and collaboration – two practices that are gaining importance in the business world.

Generation Z and the Multigenerational Workforce

An astounding five generations are represented in today’s corporate world:

• Traditionalists – born before 1945
• Baby Boomers – born from 1946 to 1964
• Generation X – born from 1965 to 1980
• Millennials (Generation Y) – born from 1981 to 1996
• Generation Z – born since 1997

Over the past 20 years, we’ve gone from mostly a three-generation workforce to a five-generation workforce, and that is a big change for many leaders. Some of the challenges are smaller and quickly resolved (like having texts returned much faster than phone calls by Millennial employees). Others are larger and more challenging.

Every generation has its own characteristics (though there are always exceptions to the rule). Traditionalists tend to be more cautious and formal, while Boomers are self-focused and competitive. Gen X workers tend to be independent and a tad skeptical, while Millennials are more group-oriented and tech-dependent. Generation Z is remarkably diverse and technologically advanced. Imagine running a meeting with representatives from all these generations!

Leaders have no choice but to understand generational differences. Embracing these differences, and the qualities that each generation brings to the workplace is far more productive than insisting, for example, that your Millennials use phone calls rather than instant messaging. Leaders must at the same time, avoid making assumptions: there are tech-savvy Traditionalists as well as Gen Z employees who are happy to meet in person rather than via FaceTime.

And leaders must be clear on what their expectations are. This is especially essential in situations where older employees work for younger bosses. Clear communication, asking questions, and really listening to answers can stave off many misunderstandings and keep work moving forward.

The Workplace and Workday of the Future

Compare today’s workplace with that of your parents. The differences are striking, and require new ways of thinking.

Jobs don’t always mesh well with five eight-hour days in a row. And not every business fares best with a setup featuring endless rows of identical cubicles. Moreover, many more professional duties can be completed off-site, and telecommuting has become a part of many jobs.

Sometimes, keeping employees engaged with their work requires giving them flexibility in how they accomplish it. Working from home or working four 10-hour days per week may make sense for some employees, while others may do just fine with eight hours per day, Monday through Friday.

Studies strongly indicate that businesses that offer some form of flexible work arrangement demonstrate higher levels of employee work satisfaction. Additionally, employees say that with flexible working arrangements, they are more productive. A Zenefits survey found that employees value flexibility as much as they do benefits and pay.

Will there be people who take advantage of flexible work arrangements? Of course. But they make up a comparable proportion to those who find ways to take advantage in traditional work arrangements. The key to solving the problem in these occasional instances is the same: address the issue quickly and unequivocally.

One tremendously important aspect of flexibility in the workplace of the future (that is already being borne out) is that the vast majority of people with flexible work arrangements say the flexibility has a positive effect on work-life balance. This fact alone can play a major role in companies attracting and retaining the highest quality employees.

Social Responsibility and Leadership

People care more about corporate social responsibility than they used to. They’re more skeptical of companies whose place in the community begins and ends with “providing jobs.” Seventy percent of Americans believe that companies should stand up for important social issues, and they reward companies that do so. In other words, corporate social responsibility is simply good business.

But corporate social responsibility can be a fine line to tread, too. Most of the public believes that businesses should take an active role in driving positive social and environmental change. At the same time, however, companies that are too loud with their public advocacy or rhetoric can turn people off. Leaders must learn how to engage in dialogue on important issues without inflaming passions. It’s not easy!

Leadership also has a role to play in ensuring adequate training throughout the workforce. Combating sexual harassment, promoting sustainability, and ensuring everyone behaves ethically will require training. And not just once, but regularly. In fact, some executive education courses specifically emphasize corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Leadership development programs cannot shy away from such issues.

Modern leadership development programs must include training on corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

Conclusion

Leadership development and leadership coaching will look different in 2020 and beyond. In most cases, the demands are greater, rather than lesser, because the workforce and the workplace are both evolving rapidly.

In a world where remote work, multinational work teams, and a multigenerational workforce are all standard (or becoming that way), employees simply won’t accept leadership practices that are solely based on “how we’ve always done it.” What’s more, consumers won’t support companies that are firmly stuck in the past.

The leader of tomorrow must not only have an impressive skill set, but also strong emotional intelligence, appreciation for technology, the ability to manage a more diverse workforce than ever, and commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Which means that high-quality leadership development programs are more important than ever to long-term corporate success.

Leadership coaching will also play a role, helping new leaders develop and put their talents to use, and helping established leaders develop the agility they will need to lead companies with a lot of moving parts. Not only are employees and expectations changing, but products, processes, and business models are also too, as competitors continually strive to innovate so they can fulfill their missions better and more efficiently. Leaders developing new communication and technology skills won’t be optional in such a world.

One thing will never change, however, and that is the importance of the most fundamental of leadership skills. Honesty is more important than ever in a world where wrongdoing can go from being a secret to being all over social media at the speed of light. Transparency is more important because employees and consumers want to know what goes on behind the scenes. Accountability is mandatory because neither employees nor consumers put up with leadership that gets away with wrongdoing without consequence.

If you would like to learn more, I encourage you to check out my books. And be on the lookout for my new book, The Intelligent Leader, which will be available in October.

Glossary of Terms

Accountability – willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions and be forthright about mistakes

Corporate social responsibility – a company’s sense of obligation to and responsibility for its community and it’s social and environmental well-being

Emotional intelligence – the ability to be aware of, manage, and express one’s emotions and handle interpersonal relationships with empathy and judiciousness

Flexible work arrangements – work arrangements that allow options such as working from home or working non-standard schedules

Innovation – development of ideas for new tangible products or for new ways of doing things that solve problems and add value

Leadership coaching – a one-on-one business partnership that helps leaders build their capability for achieving both short- and long-term goals

Leadership development program – training programs that cover leadership qualities like communication, motivating others, resolving conflicts and delegating effectively

Transparency – honesty and candor, or acting in such a way that others can see what is really going on