Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021 - 13

SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

BUILDING
LEADERS

VIRTUALLY ALL OF THEM!

Consider 2020 through the lens of
leadership development. One year
ago today, learning leaders around
the world seeking to invest in the
development of their leadership
teams were in the process of locking
in funding and travel plans to attend
conferences, gain certification in
credentialing programs or glean
cutting-edge insights from highprofile thought leaders on the future
of building great leaders. Then,
leadership development took an
exceedingly disruptive, and decidedly
digital, detour.

point, executing the event presented a
challenge. If CEO.works could conduct
the training virtually, the show would
go on.

It took a couple of weeks from the
onset, but - by mid-March - live
events everywhere were postponed
indefinitely or canceled altogether.
Everybody was in a scramble. People
who previously thought Zoom was
something that happened when you
stepped on the accelerator in your car
were suddenly introduced to a video
conferencing tool by the same name.
Almost immediately, learning leaders
started passing the controls back and
forth as they conducted workshops,
meetings and a variety of other virtual
get-togethers.

LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT TOOK
AN EXCEEDINGLY
DISRUPTIVE, AND
DECIDEDLY DIGITAL,
DETOUR.

The best example of that early agility
and resilience we came across was
seen from CEO.works - an executive
advisory and capability building
company - as they delivered a Value
Coaching™ program to a team of
global pharmaceutical leaders. The
workshop was originally scheduled as
an instructor-led session until travel
bans were instituted worldwide. At that

On March 25, Shefali Salwan from
CEO.works greeted a class with
attendees from around the world. She
acknowledged that participants were
about to experience the first-ever
virtual delivery of the Value coaching™
program. She offered, " I really feel like
we are creating history today... "

The reality of that sentiment is that
they were, and they were by no means
alone. Another global leadership
development organization we have
ties to reported that 70% of their sales
in June of 2020 came from virtual
products and offerings they did not
have in April!
Digital literacy enables this kind
of resilience and the results that
accompany it. In response to the
unpredictable change few of us had
ever experienced, digital learning
demonstrated the capacity and

capability to effectively enhance
what leaders learn, how they learn it,
and, most importantly, how they stay
connected and leverage that learning
to create measurable impact. Those
capabilities were already available,
but it took an unexpected and drastic
shift in our environment to usher in an
era where we gained an opportunity to
actualize that potential.
Regardless of what the " new normal "
of leadership development turns out
to be moving forward, today we have
vast and direct experience with the
benefits of digital design and learning
transfer. That experience applies not
only to training delivery but also to
the way it involves key stakeholders
and sustains behavior change and
desired learning outcomes. If nothing
else, we are far more comfortable
with the functionality, operation and
format of virtual interaction. When you
think about it, many of us probably
logged more screen time in 2020 than
Ryan Seacrest!
So, which elements of traditional
leadership development will be
impacted by digital capabilities in
the future?
As far as we can tell, virtually all
of them!
Marshall Goldsmith is the world
authority in helping successful leaders
get even better. Sam Shriver is the
executive vice president at The Center
for Leadership Studies. Email Marshall
and Sam.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MAGAZ INE - VIRTUAL LEARNING I W WW. T RAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

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Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021