
Why leaders should learn to value the boundary spanners
Entrepreneurial talent who work with other teams often run into trouble with their managers. Here are ways to get the most out of your ‘boundary spanners’...
by Shlomo Ben-Hur Published September 27, 2021 in Brain Circuits • 2 min read
Learning and development is vital, particularly in a digital transformation context, and your L&D team should be helping your employees develop competencies. Unfortunately, many L&D divisions are still playing catch-up. Here is a checklist to make sure yours is on track.
The pace and scale of industry disruption
Does your industry have unaddressed tension points, or areas of customer frustration? If so, it’s ripe for disruption. Does your team know where the fault lines exist in your sector? Are you building competencies to address them with your learning agenda?
Organizational structures for the new business models
Do your people need help developing collaborative competencies and agile decision-making skills?
Technology-driven changes to jobs
Is your L&D starting to create competencies for a digitalized, organizational future?
Workforce diversity
There are distinct characteristics between generations of workers, all with their own strengths and skill sets – is your L&D team considering training to get them collaborating effectively?
Remote working
This isn’t going anywhere, even after COVID-19. How is your L&D team working to keep coworkers and teams cohesive and connected?
The education sector itself is in transformation
Digital tools that embed learning within systems or offer other innovative approaches will become vital to keep skills updated. How is your L&D team preparing to harness these to better serve your teams?
The benefits of building core competencies for a turbulent and uncertain future are manifold. Not only will teams have the skills to work in transformed settings, but they will also be more capable of managing the considerable demands of the redrawn work environment.
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Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor Shlomo Ben-Hur works on the psychological and cultural aspects of leadership, and the strategic and operational elements of talent management and corporate learning. He is the Director of IMD’s Changing Employee Behavior program and IMD’s Organizational Learning in Action, he also co-directs the Organizational Leadership: Driving Culture and Performance program, and is author of the books Talent Intelligence, The Business of Corporate Learning, Changing Employee Behavior: a Practical Guide for Managers and Leadership OS.
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