Leading Trends in Leadership for 2023

Every year, we work with tens of thousands of managers, and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be able to see the inner workings and activities of hundreds of learning and development departments throughout the world. 

The issue of leadership training is always popular. Your aim should be to both equip your leaders with the management abilities they currently lack and get them ready for the difficulties that are going to come ahead.

There is no magic wand when it comes to the most recent trends and techniques in leadership. But there are several subjects that many organisations are prioritising in their learning and development strategies.

Here, we’ve put up a list of subjects related to leadership that we have seen other organisations use in leadership training.

1. Empathy

We are surprised by how little empathy managers possess despite knowing that empathy is a superpower. The ability to empathise has to be developed if you want to be a successful leader.

Empathy involves knowing your team’s viewpoint and correctly identifying with it. It demonstrates your concern.

Here, we are not just talking about saying the right things to your team. The ability to listen, both vocally and nonverbally, is one of the most crucial aspects of genuinely caring for others. Work is never idle. We risk losing people’s attention to the work that we are constantly doing. We occasionally lose sight of the fact that each person must deal with their unique concerns and issues, particularly those related to wellness and mental health.

Today’s leaders can distinguish their followers’ emotions and struggles. They can then assist them. We address this subject in our leadership training.

2. Hybrid Leadership

Since COVID hit, leaders have been required everywhere. Working from home was first. When teams work from home, how can a manager effectively lead them? And right now, many people are working from home seamlessly. Some prefer to work full-time from their offices, while others use hybrid or split models.

In addition to being fair and managing performance well, leaders must be able to deal with different kinds of working situations. Because it is so difficult, especially if the manager is managing in a hybrid capacity themselves, learning and development departments must offer tools for assisting with hybrid leadership in all management development programmes.

3. Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is a method developed by Dr. Carol Dweck to assist you in overcoming challenges and developing. It’s about having confidence in your skills, knowledge, and abilities.

It’s common to hear about people who have fixed mindsets as opposed to growth mindsets. You will probably recognise such people quickly!

People with a growth mindset tend to:

• View obstacles as opportunities to grow and learn.
• Have the mindset that practise makes perfect.
• Appreciate all input
• believe that they can improve and get better
• continue to attempt and state that they can’t accomplish

4. Servant leadership

Since servant leadership has been practised for a while, why did I include it in this list of seven trends?

When the Queen died, much was said about her sense of responsibility and her model of servant leadership.

She believed that, rather than others being there for her, it was the other way around. “Duty comes first, self comes second,” she added, summarising what it meant to be queen. And how well did she succeed in her mission? She did it quite well.

This leadership approach has a lot to teach leaders. It involves showing your team that you are there for them.

5. Neurodiversity

Equality, diversity, and inclusion training is typically provided for leaders. Few individuals receive training in neurodiversity, which focuses on how people perceive and engage with the working environment. It all depends on how they behave, think, and learn.

There is no right or wrong answer in this situation. It’s just the way people are, and as leaders, we must accept, embrace, comprehend, and encourage this.

Examples of neurodiversity include:

• Tourette’s Syndrome
• Autism 
• ADHD 
• Dyslexia 
• Dyspraxia 
• Dyscalculia

If you are not already doing so, you need to raise awareness about each of them and ensure that you have a thorough grasp of each.

Here we conclude the list of top leadership trends for 2023 to generate good leadership and efficiently run your team.