Lessons in Leadership Development

Leadership Development is considered the holy grail of organisational development however many organisations never seem to capitalise on the training and development offered.  Organisations all want to grow develop and maximise their resources which includes their people, but there never seems to be a system or process that is undertaken prior to and definitely never after, as to how the training is going to improve the organisation; or the participant; or what value was the organisation able to derive from the money spent.  I have run courses as a consultant and for a number of organisations over the years and it astounds me how little regard is placed on the outcomes of training dollars spent without considering the dollar value of the participant’s time off work.

Here are 3 things to think about when you invest in training in the future:

No follow-up – It is imperative that when someone is given training regardless if it’s on-the-job or outsourced for one day or five days. The line manager must engage the participant and find out what was learnt, what was transferable back into the workplace and what may be considered take home knowledge.  The participant should be held accountable to do a presentation on what was learned from the course, who else may benefit and what they see the benefits are to the organisation. Often the trainer gets a feedback sheet that has all smiley faces on it and nothing else happens. This process of engaging the participant after the training helps reinforce the learning and re-visit the learning outcomes and if the discussion is maintained at monthly meetings there is a good chance that the learning’s will engage into the organisation and changes will appear.  And in the best outcome, become part of the company's culture.

The example of this is - If I went to a golf session once or the gym once or picked up the guitar once nothing is gained.  Except maybe disillusionment when you reflect on the opportunity lost in achieving an outcome.  That is why we have coaches, personal trainers and the like, no different to the trainer or facilitator running the session.

There isn't any - I had a senior executive tell me once he rated the training based on how good the lunches were.  Needless too say he didn’t have a training budget and questioned the capability of employees if training was requested.  Most of the employees were disillusioned and continually job hunting.  The team wanted to be better but there was no vehicle provided for them to get better.  I don’t know how his business is going these day's, but I imagine there would still be a high turnover if things haven't changed!

Training in organisations today is not an option; it must be part of the organisations culture.  In the employment environment today career planning and development are two of the big ticket items in the box when employees decide to join an organisation.  I hear so often “but what if they leave?” these days it not about “but“ it is “when” they leave.  These people believe that they will have to waste time and money all over again and usually in the same conversation I then hear this; “people are so hard to employ these days!”  The last lot of statistics I looked at from the ABS identified that the average employee in Australia received only 16.5 hours of employer paid training each year. The people of the organisation are in fact the organisation, if there is no investment then the business does not grow effectively and then inevitably the people leave and the spiral starts all over again.  So it pays to train and develop because then you engage, retain and encourage loyal and committed happy employees.

Lack of senior management support - remember point one, about the line manager engaging the participants when they are back in the workplace and about the learning outcomes?  The visible support and commitment (or lack of) from senior managers can make or break what level of support line managers further down the corporate hierarchy have toward leadership training.

The senior managers and more importantly the CEO or MD must publicly support training initiatives. When they can, they should say a few words at the beginning of training programs, demand participation so "No Shows” will not be accepted and recognise the achievements of the participants at the end of the training program.  Visibly support and encourage the efforts achieved.  As Billy Connelly says in the adverts for ING “Its your Money“, a very apt statement that applies to risk and corporate governance as it does to the training dollars spent or not spent.  You’re either going places or your not “It’s your money” and any investment in the future of the business is a dollar well spent.