Prescient Consulting founder Jeff Nock underscores the importance of individual leader development and explains how the process differs from more general leadership development.
Individual leadership development, or leader development, as opposed to general leadership development, is, according to business consultant Jeff Nock, vital for senior members of staff and executives within companies of all sizes. With benefits ranging from improved intrapersonal skills to greater self-realization, Nock, who’s based in Iowa City, Iowa, shares more about the leader development process and its place in business.
“Distinct from general leadership development which focuses on the overall leadership of an organization, individual leadership development, or leader development, focuses on enabling individuals to reach their full leadership potential, however” explains Nock, a successful management consultant and founder of Prescient Consulting, LLC, based in Iowa City, Iowa, the county seat of Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa, and located at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area.
While leadership development entails fostering a group’s capacity to achieve results, leader development, according to Jeff Nock, focuses on the ability of one individual’s capacity to achieve results through strengthened leadership processes. “It’s about individual skills, knowledge, and abilities,” suggests the Iowa-based business consultant.
Individual leader development, he says, is about human capital, whereas general leadership development is about social capital. “Leadership development for individual leaders in a company is an exercise in human capital,” Nock explains, “while general leadership development focuses on building relationships among individuals within a company or organization, which is considered social capital.”
A popular approach to leader development involves a two-part model, illustrating assessment, challenge, and support, before turning to a range of developmental experiences. “The first aspect illustrates how assessment, challenge, and support combine to make a leader and their team stronger,” explains Nock, “while the second part demonstrates how developmental experiences increase the ability of both leaders and their teams to learn.”
Benefits of individual leader development—or an investment in human capital—include, according to the business consultant, improved intrapersonal skills, improved self-awareness, and improved self-motivation. “Leader development,” he adds, “also pushes interpersonal skills, as well as intrapersonal skills, to better an individual’s societal awareness and, thus, their social skills.”
One of the primary goals of successful leader development, Nock points out, further to the above benefits, is improved self-regulation. “Sound self-regulation, coupled with solid intrapersonal and interpersonal capabilities, I believe, serve together to form one of the key foundations for true competence in business, particularly for senior executives and other leaders within a company, which is why leader development for individuals is, to me, vital for success,” he adds, wrapping up.
Founder and CEO of Prescient Consulting, LLC, based in Iowa City, Iowa, Jeff Nock boasts a demonstrated history of growing startups, established companies and nonprofit organizations, alike. Skilled in business and strategic planning, sales, marketing, and presentation development, now-established Iowa resident Nock also holds a master’s degree in management from Colorado’s Regis University and is a specialist in management development. To learn more, visit https://prescient.us/.
