Blog Series - Embedding new leadership skills and delivering real value from training - Tip #2

Today's focus is on tip #2 - Visualising your new leadership skills in the actual work setting. If you missed tip #1, you can find the first article by scrolling below. 

Tip #2 Visualise your new skills in the actual work setting

If you read tip #1 you would know that ideally you would immediately practice your new skills in your actual workplace in real situations. But if your circumstance limits this opportunity, visualisation is a terrific technique to bridge this gap.

Visualisation has long been used as a way to prepare your mind for achievement. It's used extensively in athletics and other sports for example. It is also touted in self-help books as a way to gain that promotion or make yourself inexplicably wealthy. In business we spend lots of time working on company visions in order to inspire and unite our teams.

There is one thing that the self-help books won't usually tell you, it is crucial to know HOW to visualise in order to actually succeed. In fact this has been researched with a clear conclusion that you need to visualise the process rather than the outcome. In other words, it's not going to do you any good to visualise yourself gleefully throwing millions of dollars up in the air, what is far more useful is visualising the PROCESS that you will go through in order to get those riches. The research (Pham and Taylor, 1999) demonstrated that those who visualised the process had an improved ability to plan, were more able to manage anxiety relating to the task and had significantly better outcomes than those who focused on the outcome only.

If you think about this it makes sense. After all, visualising the process will help you identify potential obstacles, look for efficiencies and mentally/emotionally prepare for scenarios. Focusing on the outcome will potentially create a more blaze attitude and certainly does nothing to create a plan.

So what should you do in relation to your precious leadership skills training (or any training for that matter) to visualise success? 

Ideally you will visualise real work situations whilst still in the training. A decent training program should leave some spaces to do this, but if not, spend just a few minutes in your coffee/lunch break or at the end of the day applying the learned skills to any challenges you are facing in the workplace. 

For example, you might have just learnt about effective communication. So in your break you might draft an email that you know has to go out to your team that leverages the new techniques. Then imagine yourself delivering a talk to your team about something coming up. How do they respond? What do you look and sound like when you are talking. What could you do differently to improve the outcome?

Or you might have learnt about the best leadership styles to apply in different situations, so you could apply this to someone in your team that hasn't been performing to expectations. Make notes on how you might adapt your style to better meet their needs. Envision actually having the conversation with them, take note of their possible reactions and how you would respond. Create the whole journey in your head leading to the best possible outcome.

So go ahead and start visualising your journey to fulfilling your hopes and dreams (and your leadership success too :)).

Caroline Edwards-Chantry is the founder and principal of MindCraft Leadership and is passionate about providing proven and practical leadership performance training, coaching and consultancy that actually returns value. You can contact Caroline for a free, confidential chat by emailing [email protected], or use the contact form by clicking here.