This latest episode features a conversation between Chief Learning Officer’s managing editor, Liz Loutfi, and Deloitte’s chief learning officer, Eric Dingler.

The following is an excerpt from CLO’s podcast, Voices of CLO. To hear the full conversation, click here.

Liz Loutfi: In your opinion, what skills make a successful chief learning officer?

Eric Dingler: When I think about my journey, to me, there’s five skill sets that have mattered for making me successful.

I think these are actually skillsets that apply generally to anyone in leadership positions. You got to be able to, obviously, adjust them within the context of a knowledge domain you’re working, but they’re not L&D knowledge domain-specific.

The first one, for me, is around communications and skill and sales type of skills. I talked to you previously about how I need to sell the strategy over and over and over. Well, being able to sell what we do in the context of the business and the business strategy and being able to connect what we do directly to the business strategy is really important. And sometimes, I don’t do enough of it. And when I reflect back, sometimes when I get into troubled spots, it’s because I haven’t communicated.

Second skillset, for me, is around being able to listen and be approachable. That’s a good one, right? Because if you’re gonna be able to make strategic choices or provide strategic direction, you need to be able to be to perceive and understand what is critical, and it’s gonna be hard for you to understand what is critical if you can’t really listen to the business, listen to your stakeholders, and have a level of approachability.

The third skill set, I think, is around negotiations, conflict resolution. Call it what you want, but you’ve gotta be able to drive to win-win situations. You’ve got to be able to hold the destination of where we want to go, how we need to transform, but also know that your stakeholders only know what they know, and they may want it a certain way. Being able to have the conversation with stakeholders, I can get you to that outcome on that destination, but maybe we can get there in a different way. How do you create win-win situations?

Fourth skill, for me, has been around operating change and influence type of skills because there’s always new realities. The context is shifting and only increasing. Exponentially with the pace of technology and you have to be able to constantly, navigate those new realities and the matrix and the stakeholders and everything that comes with it. So, if you’re not adept at change and influence, it’s gonna be hard to keep pace.

And last is what I call strategic judgment and strategic prioritization. If you’re going to drive strategy and if you’re going to be able to look around the corner, you’ve got to be able to facilitate decisive choice making, you got to be able to leverage the energy in a system toward the destination you want to go, you’ve got to be able to see the possibilities and you got to be able to bring all those together.