Understanding the environment in which your organisation operates enables you to hear about new ways of working, innovations and trends in your particular sector or industry. The environment is complex and the many interrelated factors will have a different impact on every organisation. PESTLE analysis is a helpful way of identifying the factors and considering what their impact is likely to be.
PESTLE is a tool that can help you monitor the areas that will be important to your organisation, and to categorise likely changes into six main types. These are:
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Sociocultural factors
- Technological factors
- Legal factors
- Environmental factors
How do you use PESTLE?
PESTLE is a tool for looking at your current situation and future trends, rather than the past. For purposes of illustration, imagine that five years ago, you wanted to look at your business environment and ask what its influence on future professional development might be. What might you have concluded?
Here are some of the trends you might have forecast and their consequences for your development:
Meeting people from the same sector or profession is another great way of developing your leadership knowledge and capability and this is where developing networking skills is vital.
The Networking Process
The process of networking yields great benefits, although it takes time, effort and perseverance. It has three parts (Nadi et al, 2000).
To succeed at networking you need to:
- Make a plan and commit to it
- Devote enough time and effort to make it work
- Execute your plan; learn and practice networking skills; build and maintain your network
- Reap the benefits
To gain the most benefit from your network, Baker (2012) recommends four steps:
