SKILLS

Why we need a ‘new normal’ when we talk about leadership skills, and how apprenticeships can help.

Rosi Lister, Chief Executive Officer of Leeds-based training provider and not-for-profit IVE, explores how leadership skills must be re-evaluated in our changing times. As we emerge wide-eyed and blinking into a post Coronavirus world it is time to think about what our companies need in order to get back in the saddle and be ready to ride the next storm. Because like it or not, we now live in a world of uncertainty. Business leaders across the world now talk openly about the need for ‘future skills’ and about the merits of being adaptive rather than role specific in the way we work. They talk about the importance of recruiting staff with the right attitude rather than a more limited aptitude in a certain career discipline. Future skills are those that allow you to think on your feet and pro-actively adapt to changing circumstances, they are about being resilient if things don’t go right the first time and they are about knowing how to find solutions to problems not yet imagined. In short, future skills are about being creative; the number one skill that LinkedIn have determined most companies need most. LinkedIn’s findings go on to say that “there is no stretch to say creativity is the singlemost important skill in the world for all business professionals today to master”. LinkedIn aren’t the only ones to proffer these ideas, similar findings have come from the World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs’ study and IBM’s global survey of 1500 CEO’s asking what they thought was the most crucial factor for future business success in recent years. This represents a paradigm shift in business management and leadership, and how better to begin that process than by up-skilling our future business leaders? Higher level

SKILLS

leadership apprenticeships are a great way to do this. The real time, solutionfocused context of work-based learning supported by relevant on and off the job methods of assessment is a powerful way to learn and a good investment for businesses of all sizes. Dispel the expectation that leadership training is about essays on management theory and instead introduce reflective logs and peer critiques which record and analyse how specific problems are solved in real time. Developing our senior, middle and emerging managers now, will ensure the process of developing creative thinking, problem solving and innovating teams across organisations can begin right away, just when we need it most. IVE have been training people for creative thinking for more than two decades, and we have worked in extremely diverse and often risk averse sectors including the military, so we have put that experience to good use. Our Level 3 Team Leader/Supervisor and Level 5 Operations/Departmental Apprenticeship standards provide reassurance because they map across to the equivalent tried and tested CMI leadership diploma framework we are all familiar with, but what makes them unique is how we have successfully woven a golden thread of ‘Future Skills’ development through them. Alongside traditional modules on things like financial, project and staff management we introduce apprentices to: • Creative leadership and the creative process; • Embedding an innovation culture • Managing organisational change • Managing stakeholder relationships for innovative collaborations • Creative problem solving and innovation catalysts • Developing ‘Future Ready’ operational plans Our programmes are ideal for emerging or established managers, as they develop the skills needed to foster an innovation culture, and to manage organisational change and stakeholder relationships. The quality of the programmes we’ve designed come down to our close relationships with employers, and having an understanding of what is needed by them at this time, so we’re glad to see the need for creativity stated in the forward by the Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP in the recent ‘Skills for Jobs’ white paper. We feel that endorses something we have always known.” If you’re ready to talk about nurturing a new breed of leaders we’d love to hear from you. Please drop me a line at rosi@weareive.org, or go to WeAreIVE.org/Apprenticeships to find out more.