Two emerging L&D trends high-growth businesses follow to thrive during social distancing

Nick Goddard

Words and phrases like ‘resilience’, ‘wellbeing’ and ‘adapting to change’ have been thrown around offices and boardrooms for years, but they really got a run for their money in 2020. When ABSTRACT was deployed by our clients during worldwide lockdown, it was often these three things that employers were looking to focus on.

After all, ask any MD at a high-growth company, and they’ll tell you the same thing: No matter what challenges your business faces, being able to ‘grow from within’ and continually developing your team’s skills and talents is key to sustaining success.

However, a lot has changed since the start of lockdown in March, and as we emerge into an uncertain period of ‘new normal’ with the prospect of social distancing measures extending into 2021, the trend is beginning to shift from short term adjustment to longer term planning.

So, what are we seeing from business leaders when it comes to upskilling their staff for the post-pandemic era?

A renewed focus on developing strong and considerate leadership

With the advent of longer-term remote working practices, high-growth businesses are looking at how they can maintain their edge, and this means equipping their people as effective leaders, managers and team builders in a virtual environment. Skills such as critical thinking, an ability to make the right decisions at the right time, while displaying empathy, compassion, and supportiveness are all key to this.

How ABSTRACT can help develop your leaders:

Our ‘You as a Leader’ programme is designed to equip current and future leaders with modern leadership skills. It’s about creating strong and considerate leaders who can use strategy, compassion and coaching to inspire and motivate their teams.

Diversity and equality are firmly on the agenda

The BLM movement has inspired a lot of discussion about inclusive cultures in the workplace, the make-up of company boards and senior leadership teams. At the same time, businesses are trying to ensure progress on gender equality in the workplace is not negatively impacted by the pandemic although this may be an unintended consequence.

This goes hand in hand with the desire that many high-growth businesses have to embrace the potential that developing inclusive diverse thinking at a leadership level has for their future success.

How ABSTRACT can help you embed diversity and inclusion in your organisation:

Our ‘AMBITION’ and ‘ACCELERATE’ programmes are designed to develop people, from rising talent to aspiring board members, to build self-awareness and take personal responsibility and ownership of their career. If not you, who?

Learning and Development is a key investment for any high-growth business

While uncertainty about the impact of social distancing measures looks set to persist in the short term, we feel certain that those businesses that invest in their most important assets – their people – will see a return on their investment. This will come from improved skills, better retention, increased engagement and the desire and confidence of individuals to push further.

In the long term, being able to draw on a skilled, engaged, confident and resilient team, who are capable of making the right decisions under pressure, will improve your outlook at all levels. In these challenging times, that can make all the difference between floundering and thriving.

Contact us for a consultation today.

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