EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM: What Are the Best Ways to Design It?

EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM: What Are the Best to Design It?
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The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) is designed to help staff members and young mentees prepare for leadership roles by building their skills. The objective is to equip participants with the approaches, useful tools, and problem-solving abilities necessary to improve as leaders and achieve the highest level of team effectiveness.

What Is An Emerging Leader?

Emerging leaders are those who already possess (or are eager to acquire) the abilities and expertise necessary to hold a position of leadership within an organization. They will consistently perform well in their jobs, setting themselves apart as potential leaders in the future.

An emerging leaders program identifies individual contributors who have demonstrated leadership competencies and provides them with development opportunities such as training, mentoring, coaching, job shadowing, cross-functional projects, and stretch assignments. Additionally, it allows an organization to cultivate talent from within, creating a pipeline of capable leaders ready to succeed in higher-level roles.

Why Are Emerging Leaders Important?

Emerging leaders are important because they appear organically in the workforce as high-potential employees, influencing peers and leading strategic change without an official leadership title. They can drive productivity and increase value for the organization.

Instead of letting your workforce stagnate and fall behind as leaders leave, you can invest time in cultivating your emerging leaders’ leadership mindsets and trying to prepare them for future senior management. Not only is it essential for setting up your business in the years to come, but your up-and-coming leaders will also appreciate the chance for professional advancement.

Why Participate in an Emerging Leaders Program? 

The following are some of the main justifications for choosing to take part in an Emerging Leaders Program:

#1. Skill development: 

The mentorship development opportunities offered by Emerging Leaders Programs frequently enable participants to develop the abilities necessary for effective leadership, including decision-making, problem-solving, communication, and problem-solving strategies.

#2. Networking: 

Building a strong network of contacts and networking opportunities can be facilitated by taking part in an emerging leader program. Therefore, this can help you exchange ideas with others, learn from others, and advance your career.

#3. Exposure to fresh concepts 

Young Leaders Programs frequently involve exposure to fresh concepts, viewpoints, and modes of thought. Therefore, this can help you advance personally and professionally and gain a deeper understanding of the field or industry in which you work.

#4. Career growth: 

Participating in an emerging leader program can be viewed as a commitment to both professional and personal growth, which can be appealing to employers and help establish people as leaders within their organizations.

#5. Mentors are available: 

Participating in an Emerging Leaders Program can be a valuable investment in personal and professional growth, providing opportunities to build skills, expand networks, and advance careers. Furthermore, mentors can offer support, encouragement, and advice.

What Do You Gain From the Emerging Leaders Program? 

The “leadership gap” is a gap between the leadership skills needed to thrive in an increasingly complex workforce and those available. Additionally, it can also include a gap in leaders’ mindsets, such as confidence, adaptability, innovation, and foresight. Organizations often promote employees who lack the necessary skills and then fail to provide training or support to help them improve. 

An emerging leaders program helps employees develop their skills and prepares them to drive the organization’s strategy and meet its objectives.

Additionally, organizations can reduce costs by hiring leaders in-house, allowing them to optimize succession planning and fill high-level roles without disrupting business operations, improving their competitive advantage.

How To Design An Emerging Leaders Program?

Here are five guidelines for creating an effective program for emerging leaders:

#1. Align the goals of the program with those of the organization:

The desired outcomes must be made clear when creating an emerging leader program. What broad skills is the program designed to foster? Which skills are particular to each role? For participants to fully understand the needs of the organization and be prepared to meet them, the responses to these inquiries should be related to its strategic goals. 

#2. Select the right participants:

The ideal participant for an emerging leaders program is anyone who has the potential to become an effective leader, performs highly and represents the company’s culture and values. Note that they should come from all backgrounds.

The precise selection procedure may change. Examples include having employees self-select participation in one organization, working with managers to find ideal candidates in another, and focusing on a subset of top performers in a third. However, having a diverse pool of talent should always be the goal.

#3. Encourage engagements:

Participants should be made aware of the value of the program and how it will benefit them to increase buy-in and accountability. This will help them become more engaged and motivated to participate.

Obtaining leadership buy-in is another method of gaining support from participants. Senior leadership involvement lends credibility to these programs and offers accessible mentoring and guidance to participants.   

#4. Provide early and frequent support:

Emerging leader programs should be delivered on an annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis, depending on the organization’s needs and development opportunities. Additionally, the rule is to provide programs early enough to allow leaders ample opportunity to grow and often enough to maintain a pipeline of potential leaders.

Therefore, participants should receive timely feedback from facilitators, mentors, coaches, and peers, as well as post-program support such as access to materials, availability of facilitators, coaches, and mentors, and autonomy to practice new leadership skills.

#5. Evaluate success:

Organizations should evaluate their emerging leader’s program regularly to assess how it has met objectives and consider areas for improvement. Note that surveys and assessments can measure learner reaction and retention, and assessments can measure learning retention and skill acquisition.

Furthermore, the impact of an emerging leaders program can be analyzed by reviewing metrics such as performance scores, employee engagement ratings, and retention rates. Additionally, organizations should follow up with managers and obtain feedback to determine the effectiveness of the program. A structured curriculum designed to develop key leadership competencies should include the following.

What Is the OTC Emerging Leaders Program? 

One young professional is recognized and honored by the OTC Emerging Leaders Award Program from each of the OTC sponsorship, promotion, and support organizations.

Additionally, these early career professionals are passionate about their line of work, committed to serving the industry, and intensely focused on workplace safety. They have less than 10 years of experience working in the offshore energy sector. 

Who attends OTC?

The goal of OTC 2023 is to draw decision-makers from businesses, organizations, and governments who are involved in different facets of the offshore energy sector, such as project management, engineering, drilling, exploration, and production.

What Is the Emerging Leaders Program at Harvard Business Publishing? 

The Emerging Leaders Program at Harvard Business Publishing is designed in three parts: skill building, integrated communications, and policy analysis. An interactive simulation will challenge peers to confront and diagnose a crisis, and faculty will focus on advancing skills in negotiation, persuasion, coalition building, ethics, and leveraging internet technologies.

Furthermore, lectures will address how countries grow and develop in the global economy, the infrastructure of modern government, political power in a cyber world, and non-military global crisis management.

Why Should I Attend a Leadership Conference? 

Attending Emerging Leaders will provide you with:

  • Strategic messaging plans, effective leadership, and communication and negotiation strategies.
  • Tools for establishing strong, dependable institutions at the national, regional, and local levels, despite corruption and poor governance obstacles.
  • Real-time action skills, knowledge mobilization for social change, and internet and social media power exploitation.
  • The ability to build relationships of trust, negotiate wisely, and work effectively with others in a political setting.
  • The capacity to decide based on evidence in an uncertain environment.
  • Knowledge of important policy issues affecting the welfare of your nation and community.
  • The ability to lead morally in your organization and create an environment that supports moral decision-making.

What Is an Emerging Leader Award? 

The Emerging Leader Award honors an individual who has already made a significant contribution to the community and has shown promise as a leader and in further service.

What Is the Emerging Leader in the American Program? 

The Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP) offers graduate-level study or research opportunities at Canadian post-secondary institutions to students from post-secondary institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

What is Alphasights Emerging Leaders Program?

The annual AlphaSights Emerging Leaders Program was created to give students the chance to learn more about our company, culture, and people.

What is the Right Way To Design Your Emerging Leaders Program?

Each step explains the most typical errors and pitfalls that leadership development professionals fall into.

#1. The Selection Process:

Three effective ways to handle the selection process are to:

  • Have managers select, but don’t eliminate. 
  • Have employees self-select.
  • Select the top 10% or more of talent.

Note that all of these methods seek to let more people in, and instead of spending the budget on selection, spend it on development. However, stay aware of how selection may interfere with diversity.

#2. Build a Curriculum:

The most common mistake when building a curriculum for emerging leaders is to focus on skills specific to leaders, such as new manager training and vague leadership topics. Instead, a strong curriculum should be built around the types of skills and topics that individual contributors can practice on the job immediately. Note that the two powerful types of curriculum for emerging leaders are “leading self” competencies and key personality-related behaviors.

#3. Delivery:

The most important details to consider when planning out a program’s delivery are how to deliver training in the flow of work. Long retreats and intensives take up too much time and place more value on the initial moment of learning than follow-up and practice. Instead, organizations are beginning to use micro-learning and personalized nudges to enable employees to practice on the job, pull up learnings and key concepts on demand, and encourage behavior change.

What is the Harvard Emerging Leaders Program?

The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) is a mentoring program for young people that matches sophomores from nearby high schools with current Harvard undergraduates.

What is the Emerging Leaders Program at Yale?

A diverse group of gifted young leaders in clean energy and climate change from developing nations comes together for the six-month Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship.

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References:

Harvard.

Big Think

Forbes

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