However, in a more ambiguous and uncertain world, meeting such moments requires strong communication and leadership skills to unlock potential and deliver successful outcomes. So, what are the moments that matter, and how can HR professionals help prepare leaders to meet them?
Driving change
One of the most challenging yet critical moments for any leader is driving change in their organisation and people. Whether responding to global events, regulatory shifts, or an evolving market or business, leaders must stay agile and forward-thinking to ensure the organisation keeps pace with the outside world.
They must also drive change in their people. Employees that stop evolving become less relevant over time, and their performance suffers.
Such change may not come from a desire to improve a bad situation. Even where the business and its employees are performing, evolution is essential to maintaining a competitive advantage.
Read more: Effective communication can change everything
Managing difficult conversations
Handling difficult conversations with clarity and precision is a vital leadership moment. Leaders must use clear language and structured sequences to ensure constructive conversations, whether addressing high-performance issues or poor behaviour.
Effective communication in these moments resolves immediate issues and sets the tone for future interactions.
Supporting career development
Leaders must keep employees engaged to retain top talent and foster a productive culture. Career conversations should focus not just on employees’ roles but on the energy and value these employees contribute to the organisation.
Employees are most valuable in roles that motivate them the most. Finding this sweet spot helps create momentum for all employees – whether star performers or those who need further encouragement – to grow and unlock their potential. For people who need encouragement, leaders must find something that fuels their curiosity. Once those people start growing, the focus can change to more business-related skills.
Leaders should ask questions that help employees explore their passions and consider lateral moves within the business. They can keep employees motivated and connected to the organisation by emphasising firm-wide engagement and opportunities.
Clarifying business purpose
Lastly, leaders must create clarity of purpose and enable growth.
Employees disengage when the organisation’s strategy is unclear. Instead, leaders must align business and employee objectives and ensure everyone has the opportunity for personal and professional development in line with business growth.
Regular check ins and strategic conversations can help bridge this gap, making employees feel valued and invested in the company’s future.
Read more: How to communicate with a team in times of rapid change
Maximising moments
From critical conversations around employee’s behaviour to engendering a feeling of purpose through sharing business goals, the key to unlocking these moments is communication.
However, when leaders are under pressure, they can often revert to type. For instance, driven leaders may shut down conversations, challenge employees or fail to respond or react in a conversation.
By doing this and neglecting other crucial elements of communication, leaders fail to make the most of the moments that matter. They will not be as engaging and impactful. The quality of the solution will suffer.
To help leaders make the most of these moments, HR professionals can look at four categories:
1. Initiating: how do leaders structure conversations and introduce new ideas?
2. Reacting: how do leaders engage or react in conversations? Do they support or attack?
3. Clarifying: how do leaders test and refine understanding?
4. Controlling: do leaders shut out others, or help bring them in?
We know through observation that leaders can make the most of the moments that matter by adopting just two or three verbal behaviours they are missing. For instance, if a driven leader brings people into a conversation, supports another’s point, and tests understanding alongside their usual verbal behaviours, they are seen as more emotionally intelligent and will ultimately secure better outcomes.
So, HR professionals can use these tools to understand a leader’s verbal behaviour and inform what attributes they are neglecting and may need to include. The approach can help shine a light on the shadow cast by a leader’s usual style.
Overall, it helps leaders to become better at communicating, engaging, building presence, developing relationships and getting the best out of their people – all essential for making the most of the moments that matter.
Kevin Johnson is CEO of learning and development consultancy OnTrack International
