Right Development for the Right Moment of Leadership
Up to this point, we have shared many practical tips and concepts to enhance and maximize your approach to leadership development. But what really matters is how these tactics come together to meet leaders’ needs in key moments of leadership.
In this section, we will explore a few examples of these moments of leadership, and how you can design leadership experiences for individual moments. To bring these to life in a concrete way, we’ll use real examples of how you can use DDI content to meet these needs.
Macro vs. Micro Moments: The Known and the Unknown
What are macro moments? Earlier in this guide we highlighted that macro moments often occur at predictable times in a leader’s career. For example, we know that leaders may be challenged in new roles, such as their very first leadership job or a transition from operational leader to strategic senior leader.
Other macro moments might occur when there’s a major shift in the business. For example, leaders may need to learn new core skills, mindsets, and behaviors after a merger or as a new CEO shapes a new leadership culture in the organization. The business drivers we introduced earlier in this guide represent common macro moments that leaders may face as companies pivot from one priority to another.
The type of development experience that best supports macro moments is typically formal and structured. These experiences also tend to include more opportunities for insight, practice, feedback, and learning (both with groups and individually).
What are micro moments? Micro moments are the leadership challenges leaders face in their day-to-day roles. While they may be less visible than macro moments, they are the essence of how a leader performs. And in fact, these single interactions can often have a profound effect on others. As these moments are often less predictable than macro moments, leaders need help quickly.
Some of these moments may be common challenges all leaders face, such as having difficult conversations or resolving a conflict. In other cases, leaders may need to react to a sudden change or unexpected crisis.
By their nature, micro moments are more unpredictable and randomly occurring. So it’s important to provide leaders with access to just-in-time learning tools and resources that support them in their moment of need.
Exploring Moments of Leadership
In this section, we’ll highlight examples of macro and micro moments. We’ll also suggest ways to apply the concepts covered in this guide to address those needs. Additionally, you can use this section as a blueprint for other types of moments your leaders might face.
We’ll take a deeper dive into these moments:
Macro Moments
Micro Moments
- Just-in-Time Support: Having a Challenging Conversation
- React to Crisis: Switching to Hybrid or Remote Work
