Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016 - 19

Why is this important for leaders? Because
these products can give us an objective
measure of the unobservable - those
internal or automatic processes that
affect how we behave and can accelerate
or impede leadership development
(see Leadership Development Beyond
Competencies: Moving to a Holistic
Approach). The devices can show us if we're
stressed, or assess our degree of resiliency
and level of engagement. Having a more
objective lens for leader assessment can
help us understand why we think, feel and
act the way we do in certain situations and
with specific people.
While traditional workplace assessments
like self-reporting and 360-degree
feedback are useful for assessing leader
and organizational challenges at a
high level, the feedback is nonetheless
subjective. We all have biases that
affect how we see ourselves and others.
Our biases are part of what makes us
human, but they can cause us to make
incorrect assumptions about people and
situations. These mistakes in judgment
can lead to poor decision-making and
affect a leader's performance.
By incorporating both subjective and
objective methods in our development
programs, we can help more leaders
identify and manage blind spots in
themselves and others. Using these tools
together also helps us answer these types
of questions with greater accuracy:
* What causes leaders to be stressed?
* What makes leaders resilient?
* How do effective leaders manage
their emotions?
* How do we best engage leaders?
But there are downsides with these new
wearable devices. High-quality products
that provide accurate assessments

are cost-prohibitive for many people
and organizations today. But as more
models are designed and introduced to
the market, we need to be prepared to
use them appropriately for leadership
development. As with social media
content, privacy issues are the primary
concern. We don't have agreed-upon
standards for using these tools in an
organizational setting (see WSJ article),
but allowing organizations to view
individual data is never recommended.
Leaders who wear the devices should
be able to act on the feedback in a
safe environment that allows them to
experiment with new skills.
As practitioners, we have an opportunity
to advance leadership development by
helping organizations better understand
how new assessment and training tools
can be used most effectively. But we can't
do it alone. The skills needed for product
development and training span multiple
disciplines - from neuroscience and
computer programming to game design
and data science. We also need experts
who can create the best possible user
experience - one that generates reliable
feedback leaders can use to achieve
their developmental goals. Because
psychologists have experience studying
and assessing people based on an accepted
code of ethics and research standards, they
too have an important role in deciding how
best to use these new tools.
It is time to join the conversation.
Stephen F. Young, Ph.D., is a research scientist
with the Leadership Insights and Analytics
group at the Center for Creative Leadership.
Phillip W. Braddy, Ph.D., is a senior research
scientist with the Research Horizons group
at the Center for Creative Leadership. John
W. Fleenor, Ph.D., is a senior research faculty
with the Innovation and Commercialization
group at the Center for Creative Leadership.
Email the authors.

T R A I N I N G I N D USTR Y MA G AZ INE - TREN DS201 7 I WWW. TRAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

TAKEAWAYS
How will the digital revolution change the way we
assess and train our leaders?
* We're already seeing how video game
technology is being used to simulate real-world
situations that leaders face on the job.
* Personality profiles, a standard tool used in the
leadership development industry, can now be
derived from the content a person shares on
social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter and blog posts.
* Other entrepreneurs are advancing the
technology used in fitness trackers to monitor
and record more detailed physiological data,
giving wearers instant feedback about their
stress level and emotional state.
Which of these approaches will pass the test
for training effectiveness while also meeting
the leadership development industry's ethical
standards, especially when it comes to privacy?
Stay tuned.

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http://insights.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/LeadershipDevelopmentCompetencies.pdf http://insights.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/LeadershipDevelopmentCompetencies.pdf http://insights.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/LeadershipDevelopmentCompetencies.pdf http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-wearables-in-workplace-spread-so-do-legal-concerns-1457921550 http://www.ccl.org/ http://www.trainingindustry.com/ezine.aspx

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016