In 1999, I was heading up the Learning and Development team for NAB’s technology department. A job title full of acronyms – HO L&D: NAB, IT! It was the year where everyone’s focus was on ensuring they were ready for the potential threat of the Y2K software bug.

My focus was to continue the professional development of the technology leaders to ensure they were prepared for any challenges. That year I designed a leadership program called, ‘Is Your Leadership Y2K Ready?’. By the way I was pretty pleased with that course title.

New Era, Different Challenges

20 years later, my focus on developing the capability of leaders remains, but not just for technology leaders. This is because the challenges business leaders face will continue to evolve over time.

In the Harvard Business Review white paper, IT Talent Strategy: New Tactics for a New Era, the authors identified the critical skills for 2020 and beyond. The report highlighted three types of skills:

• digital skills,
• hard skills that they now prefer to call technical skills,
• and soft skills that they now refer to as core skills.

All the leaders interviewed for the report spoke of the need to be more effective at the core skill of communication. To my delight, there was a specific reference to mastering the art of storytelling.

“This communication requirement means being able to present in front of IT and business colleagues, to be capable of pitching ideas and influencing people’s thinking, and to master storytelling.”

Improving Communication Skills

It’s not just technology specialists that need to improve their communication skills. I am seeing a growing number of other specialist industries (such as finance, pharmaceutical, and academia) approaching me to teach their leaders how to communicate more effectively through storytelling.

If this is an important skill for you and your team, check out my public workshops or contact us about an in-house session.

SYDNEY 5th March

CANBERRA 10^th March

MELBOURNE 18^th March

LONDON 13^th May