I’ve been travelling all over Australia the past couple of months, delivering leadership workshops for clients.

(As much as I’ve missed travelling during the past two years, I am very glad to be back home.)

The travel was tiring, but the workshops themselves were so INVIGORATING. Being with leaders, witnessing their lightbulb moments in real time…nothing quite like it.

I asked the workshop participants to evaluate their experience and I was just looking over the feedback the other day. I was delighted that it was overwhelmingly positive.

But something else stood out even more.

Now that tells me two things:

1. Participants were happy with my delivery and content, which is great!
2. The second, maybe more interesting thing I took out of this, is that there is a huge appetite for leadership development in the workplace.

Let me unpack that a little bit.

Maybe you’ve participated in leadership development in one form or another in your career. And let’s be honest, sometimes people come because they are told to, and they do so begrudgingly:

‘I have so much work to do. I don’t have time for this! When can I get on with it?’

Or

‘Is this going to be another waste of my time?’

I’m seeing this attitude changing.

Whether it’s the multitude of challenges the past two years presented…

…whether it’s the fact that people are craving to be engaged with the work they do…

…or simply an ongoing shift in how we work and how we integrate work in our lives…leaders are HUNGRY to do the work.

• They want different skills, they are curious about expanding their understanding and application of how they work
• They want better work relationships
• And they are really engaging with learning that helps them understand their working and leadership style better

And that is fantastic news, particularly for small businesses.

Yes, we are hearing it everywhere – there is an exodus of employees leaving jobs, even careers, for better pastures.

And contrary to popular belief, they’re not necessarily leaving for more money $$$.

They are leaving because their curiosity, their hunger, their absolute need to be engaged and growing is not satisfied. This is my on-the-ground observation, but it’s also well documented in a Gallup Poll that you can check out here.

Have you noticed that too?

And if you have, what is your plan to tackle it?

A good starting point, and where I always start with my clients is with a profiling tool – it addresses that hunger for self-development directly and prepares the slate for further development. The one I like to use is the Team Management Profile – you can check it out here.

And remember, start small, but start now.