Leadership Development: A Faster and Smarter Pathway to Building Leadership Capability
Great leaders aren’t just adapting to change—they’re accelerating through it, creating smarter pathways to success that take themselves and their teams further.
Leadership development is more than just a process—it’s the foundation that shapes an organisation’s future. As Peter Drucker wisely said, "The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills. Everything else will become obsolete over time." This is especially true for leadership, where the ability to continuously adapt and evolve is key to navigating today's ever-changing business environment.
Senior leadership who continuously evolve not only enhance their own skills but also set the tone for the entire workplace, influencing everything from culture to performance. Their growth drives productivity, engagement, and long-term success for their teams and the broader organisation.
At GRIST, we embrace this challenge by providing faster and smarter pathways to leadership development. Our approach equips leaders and potential leaders with the skills they need in real time, seamlessly integrated into their daily work. As James Clear aptly puts it, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." That's why we focus on creating systems, like YakTrak, that ensure leadership development is practical, measurable, and immediately applicable—leaders don’t just learn, they adapt, grow, and deliver tangible results.
What is Leadership Development?
Leadership development refers to the processes and programs that build an individual’s capacity to lead others, make strategic decisions, and drive organisational success. It’s about more than just technical skills—it focuses on a wide range of competencies like resilience, strategic thinking, and effective communication.
Modern-Day Leadership Requirements
Where in the past leadership was reserved for top executives and senior leadership focused on stability, today's leaders are expected to navigate constant change, balance technological disruption, and lead diverse, virtual teams, all while driving organisational performance. Modern leadership requires adaptive thinking, inclusive leadership, and the ability to foster psychological safety within teams. As these modern leadership requirements evolve, the impact of strong leadership development programs becomes even more critical in ensuring that organisations remain agile, productive, and competitive.
Real-World Impact of Leadership Development
Leadership development is not just about personal growth—it directly impacts organisational performance and success with effective leaders influencing culture, productivity, and overall morale of teams. According to Harvard Business Review, companies with robust leadership development programs are 2.6 times more likely to outperform their peers financially. Additionally, in environments like contact centres, where turnover can be high, well-developed leadership can dramatically reduce attrition rates and improve customer satisfaction.
At GRIST, we see leadership development as a direct investment in the future of the organisation. Our focus on application-based learning, integrated into daily workflows, ensures that a leadership development program isn’t just theoretical—it’s practical, measurable, and aligned with real-world challenges.
Impact on Employee Engagement and Productivity
An effective leadership development program directly influences employee engagement, retention, and productivity. In Australia, 57% of employees cite poor leadership as a key reason for leaving their jobs, showing how critical effective leadership is for retention. In industries like contact centres, which face higher turnover rates, effective leadership development can play a critical role in improving retention. Well-trained leaders create an engaging work environment where employees feel valued and motivated, leading to better customer service and overall organisational success. Just as leadership development influences engagement, it also has a profound impact on shaping organisational culture—another key area where strong leadership is crucial.
Leaders impact culture
Edgar Schein, possibly the world’s leading expert on factors that influence culture inside organisations, conducted a study to look at the techniques that have the biggest influence on culture. He found leaders have a profound influence on shaping the culture of an organisation—whether intentionally or not. Their behaviours, values, and decisions cascade through every layer of the organisation, affecting how teams interact, make decisions, and measure success.
Edgar Schein, 1985, Organizational Culture and Leadership
In high-pressure environments like contact centres, where decisions need to be made quickly and cohesively, leadership is the driving force behind creating a culture that prioritises both customer satisfaction and employee well-being. At GRIST, we help leaders become intentional about their influence on culture, ensuring that their leadership practices align with broader organisational values and goals. The next era of leadership development will require skills that go beyond what we have traditionally seen.
The Future of Leadership Development: Leadership Skills for a Dynamic Workplace
Leadership development is evolving rapidly to meet the challenges of the modern workplace. With the rise of remote working, hybrid models, and even the 4-day workweek, the role of leadership has changed. Effective leadership now requires agility, emotional intelligence, and the ability to harness technology like AI to adapt to new challenges with speed and confidence.
Agility in Leadership Development
One of the most important elements of leadership development today is the focus on agility. The ability to adapt quickly to new challenges—whether from market disruptions, technological shifts, or global crises—is essential. Agile leadership is about responding in real-time, making swift decisions, and guiding teams through unfamiliar terrain.
At GRIST, we embed agility into our leadership training programs, teaching leaders how to think on their feet and adjust their strategies on the go. This focus on critical skills like agile leadership is particularly important in fast-paced environments, such as contact centres, where leaders must make quick decisions that directly impact customer service and team performance.
EQ and Remote Leadership
As remote work continues to be ingrained as the new norm, leadership development must strengthen efforts on developing emotional intelligence (EQ). Leaders with high EQ can better manage their emotions, build stronger relationships with their teams, and create environments where trust and communication thrive. Research consistently shows that leaders with high emotional intelligence outperform their peers in team engagement, productivity, and overall performance.
For industries like contact centres, often overseeing remote or hybrid teams, leaders with strong EQ create environments where team member feel valued, motivated and maintain cohesion even when teams are physically dispersed.
At GRIST, our leadership development programs focus on building EQ to help leaders manage conflict, inspire their teams, and drive both personal and organisational success. Emotional intelligence isn't just about managing relationships—it's about understanding what drives people at their core. That's where self-determination theory comes in. Leaders who can foster autonomy, relatedness, and competence in their teams are better equipped to lead in remote or hybrid environments, where building trust and motivation is essential.
Fostering Intrinsic Motivation: Self-Determination Theory
A critical component of modern leadership development is building environments that foster intrinsic motivation. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a psychological theory of human motivation and self-actualisation. It breaks down healthy psychology to three universal, innate needs:
Autonomy (I have control over my choices and decisions and how I action my tasks)
Relatedness (I feel like I belong and am cared for, and that what I do connects to my values and aligns to what I feel is important)
Competence (I am effective, successful and I can grow and get better the more I work at it)
Leaders who understand how to empower their teams in these areas create workplaces where employees are more engaged, motivated, and productive.
At GRIST, we apply self-determination theory principles in our leadership development programs, helping leaders foster a culture of ownership and continuous improvement. By developing leaders who encourage autonomy and support team members’ growth, we ensure that leadership is about inspiring long-term success, not just managing short-term performance.
Experience to results diagram
Leadership development plans that integrates SDT ensures that leaders are equipped to create environments where employees feel valued, motivated, and capable of contributing at their highest level.
Technology and AI in Leadership Development
Incorporating technology and AI into leadership development is no longer optional—it’s essential for staying competitive. AI-driven tools allow organisations and leaders to personalise their solid leadership development plan, offering tailored feedback and data-driven insights to help leaders improve in real time.
AI in contact centres can track performance, identify leadership gaps, and offer customised recommendations for improvement. This makes leadership development more targeted, efficient, and scalable.
At GRIST, we integrate SaaS tools like YakTrak and BON into our leadership development programs. YakTrak tracks leadership activities in real time, providing leaders with actionable data that helps them adjust their approach and measure team member progress. This level of insight transforms a leadership development program from a theoretical exercise into a measurable, visible, accountable, system.
Current Gaps and Challenges in Leadership Development
Despite the growing recognition of the importance of leadership development, many organisations still face significant challenges in implementing programs that deliver lasting, meaningful results. Traditional approaches often fall short in environments where flexibility and adaptability are crucial.
Rigid Competency Frameworks
One common criticism of traditional leadership development programs is their reliance on rigid competency frameworks. While these frameworks help outline necessary skills—such as strategic thinking or decision-making—they often lack the flexibility needed for modern leadership. In industries like contact centres, where new challenges can arise unexpectedly, leaders must pivot quickly. Traditional frameworks often don’t account for this level of adaptability.
At GRIST, we understand that today’s leaders need more than just a list of competencies. They need the ability to navigate uncertainty, adjust to new information, and inspire their teams in real-time. Our approach focuses on practical, real-world application, using behavioural frameworks that help leaders adapt their actions and strategies in response to evolving conditions.
Lack of Real-Time Feedback
Traditional programs often lack timely, real-time feedback. Many programs rely on periodic reviews or annual assessments, which don’t provide the immediate insights leaders need to make meaningful changes resulting in missed opportunities to refine their approach and improve their performance on a day-to-day basis.
At GRIST, we incorporate SaaS tools like YakTrak into our leadership development programs to ensure leaders get the regular feedback they need in real time, not after the fact. This continuous loop allows leaders to grow and evolve rapidly, staying aligned with both organisational goals and the needs of their teams.
Measurement Challenges
One of the most persistent challenges in leadership development is the difficulty of measuring leadership effectiveness. Unlike technical skills, leadership behaviours can be harder to quantify. This makes it challenging for organisations to assess progress and demonstrate the value of their leadership development initiatives.
At GRIST, we address this challenge by focusing on the practical application of leadership competencies in the workplace. Using deliberate practice and real-time feedback, leaders can track their development through observable behaviours. This allows organisations to measure not just what leaders know, but how they apply that knowledge in real situations. We also place emphasis on mastery goals—focusing not just on short-term performance but on building long-term leadership capability. Mastery goals help leaders develop skills that allow them to improve continuously, even beyond immediate results. By tracking long-term improvements in leadership behaviour, organisations gain a clearer picture of their progress and the tangible impact of their leadership development initiatives.
GRIST’s Approach: Learning in the Flow of Work
At GRIST, we believe that leadership development should be a part of everyday work, not something that happens in isolated training sessions. Our application-based model integrates leadership development into the flow of work, ensuring that leaders can apply new leadership competencies immediately.
This style of integration is the foundation of our approach, enabling leaders and future leaders to continuously evolve through practical, hands-on learning. We focus on creating meaningful leadership experiences that challenge leaders in the moment, helping them develop the skills necessary to drive success in high-pressure environments like contact centres.
Deliberate Practice: Building Leadership Mastery
Psychologist Anders Ericsson states “The key to success in any field, including leadership, is deliberate practice. It’s not enough to simply work hard; one must engage in activities designed to improve specific aspects of performance.”
GRIST's method is grounded in the Psychology of Performance. By focusing on deliberate practice, we enable leaders to repeatedly engage in specific, high-impact behaviours and receive structured feedback to improve continuously. Leadership is about more than learning; it’s about embedding habits and actions into daily routines. This ensures a continuous learning culture, especially in fast-paced environments like contact centres, where leaders must make quick decisions, handle difficult customer situations, and keep teams aligned.
Purposeful Experimentation: Innovation in Leadership
Embracing a purposeful experimentation approach to learning builds your engine for change. Knowing how to test, to analyse and adapt an approach is a fundamental leadership skill that will allow your leaders to grow exponentially. Safety to fail means that your people will be willing to try new things and innovate. It's the cornerstone of a continuous learning culture.
At GRIST, we integrate purposeful experimentation into leadership development to ensure that leaders are not only reacting to challenges but also proactively seeking new ways to enhance their teams’ performance. This is particularly crucial in contact centres, where evolving customer demands, and technological disruptions require leaders to adapt swiftly and continuously.
Case Studies: Leadership Development in Action
GRIST’s leadership development programs have helped a wide range of organisations navigate complex challenges, improve leadership effectiveness, and achieve tangible results. The following case studies illustrate how our tailored approach has transformed leadership within these organisations.
Case Study 1:
nib – Building Leadership Agility in a Fast-Paced Environment
Challenge: nib, a leading health insurance provider, operates in a dynamic and highly regulated industry. Their leadership team faced the challenge of rapidly evolving customer expectations and the need to maintain agility while driving continuous improvement. nib’s leaders required development in real-time decision-making, coaching effectiveness, and fostering a culture of adaptability.
Process: GRIST partnered with nib to design a customised leadership development program integrated into the everyday work of their leaders. We introduced deliberate practice and purposeful experimentation through YakTrak, allowing leaders to receive real-time feedback on their coaching and leadership behaviours. Key behaviours like providing timely feedback, driving team performance, and adapting to change were tracked and measured.
Outcomes: The program resulted in significant improvements in leadership agility and team engagement. By embedding leadership development into their work environment, nib’s leaders were able to immediately apply new skills, leading to faster decision-making and improved team productivity. Leadership effectiveness increased by 15% within six months, and team turnover rates dropped by 12%, demonstrating the long-term impact of leadership growth.
Case Study 2:
VicRoads – How to get buy-in for your leader development program
Challenge: VicRoads wanted a leader program that would help them get a baseline of leader capability in the organisation.
Process: GRIST ran a leadership program where each leader identified a problem in their business unit to use as a project, allowing them to develop their coaching skills and solve the issue during the program. Each was working on something different, but building the same set of skills. The only parameters set, how do we serve our customers better?
Outcomes: What was most important about this process was it made the leader development journey relevant and immediately applicable to all leaders. They tackled real challenges that directly impacted their jobs, resulting in strong buy-in and engagement. That strong buy-in equated to strong participation rates, strong completion rates when we gave them extra learning to do and clear evidence at the end of change in capability when compared to the baseline at the start.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is leadership development?
Leadership development refers to the processes and programs that build an individual’s capacity to lead others, make strategic decisions, and drive organisational success.
Why is leadership development important?
Leadership development is critical for fostering innovation, guiding teams through change, and maintaining high levels of employee engagement. Effective leadership influences organisational culture, improves retention, and enhances business performance. In fact, well-developed leaders are essential for navigating uncertainty and ensuring long-term business success.
How is GRIST’s approach to leadership development different from traditional methods?
GRIST’s approach is centered on application-based learning, meaning leaders develop their leadership competencies directly in the flow of work. Unlike traditional, theory-heavy methods, we focus on real-time practice and measurement through SaaS tools like YakTrak. This allows for deliberate practice and purposeful experimentation, ensuring that new leadership skills are immediately applied and continuously refined.
How does GRIST measure the success of leadership programs?
With YakTrak, we offer real-time tracking of leadership behaviours and coaching effectiveness. This data-driven approach enables leaders to monitor their progress, adjust their strategies, and receive immediate feedback, ensuring continuous improvement. Success is also measured by improved team dynamics, decision-making, and business outcomes such as increased productivity and engagement.
What are common challenges in leadership development, and how does GRIST address them?
Common challenges include rigid competency frameworks, lack of real-time feedback, and difficulties in measuring long-term behavioural change. GRIST tackles these challenges by integrating real-time feedback, behavioural tracking, and leadership development that’s embedded into everyday work. This ensures leadership growth is not only measurable but also immediately impactful.
Conclusion: Leadership Development with GRIST
At GRIST, we believe that leadership development is not just a process—it's the foundation for future organisational success. Our approach is designed to be faster, smarter, and more practical, ensuring that leadership growth happens directly in the flow of work. GRIST's leadership development programs are designed to equip leaders with the skills they need to thrive in dynamic, fast-changing environments.
Are you ready to take your leadership development to the next level?
Contact us to explore how our innovative programs can transform your leadership team and help your organisation succeed.