Met up with Kevin Oakes, CEO at the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), yesterday at Gilead in Foster City.

We had the opportunity to discuss how both influence and collaboration can be taught.

As for collaboration, it's important to show how it’s not just about the leader being collaborative, but about the leader providing space and place for the team to be collaborative. Gilead has just developed curriculum on collaboration to deliver to their employees.

As for influence, one global organization that is helping its leaders develop influence skills is W.W. Grainger. Renata Viskanta—Director, Learning & Development and Leadership & Organization Effectiveness—shares an example of how that works within Grainger’s nine-month global leadership development process: "Participants spend 40 to 60 percent of their time in a comprehensive action learning process and must delegate their high-priority responsibilities to others, as well as help stretch those individuals to take on their expanded roles. This alone is great development for the leaders and their teams. The action learning team itself works on an enterprise-wide business challenge and receives intensive focus on developing their leadership capabilities. At year end, the team’s final presentation tells a story, in equal measure, about the strategy and implementation plan they’ve created, as well as their leadership development journey. It’s a high-visibility development opportunity and also a great tool for introducing the Board to upcoming talent."