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Employee training is a process versus a one hit wonder you check of your list. Here are three reasons “get ‘er done” doesn’t develop skills.
The true value of employee training is in HOW it gets done and not about just GETTING it done. What is the process? What are your desired outcomes? How will you follow up and stay involved, even if you’re not in the class? If you want the team to do better this year and meet those stretch goals, read these three reasons and find out how you the leader can check training off your list, but also be satisfied with the results on which you have every right to insist.
Training is not a “One Hit Wonder”
Effective leaders understand that training is a process not a one day program. With new managers for example, they need development in many areas and a one day course is a springboard to their development, not the final solution. One day is not long enough to development habits you want to have last longer. Involve the team in a process. Begin with a class that addresses the need, lay the groundwork for the speed with which you expect them to apply the skills, teach them about themselves and their own tendencies, gather data and build on the training process.
Habits Can Be Hard to Break
Dr. Stephen Covey told us habits take twenty one days to make and to break. Then why do some leaders think that a lifetime of communication, leadership, or confidence habits can be changed in one shot. It’s so easy to be tempted by the list effect, or in other words “Get training for the team. Schedule one class. Okay, check!” yet far more effective to be driven by the expected training impact. If you’re changing habits, build in more than a drive by training event. You may not need twenty one training days, but a program that includes more than one event and spans at least that period of time with regular follow ups will have enormous value.
A Well Engrained Culture Can Be Hard to Shake
If the employees you lead are used to going to class and going back to what they’ve always done, you may need repetitious reinforcement of a different message. If your organization is all about ‘getting stuff done’ and not about the people who do it, you may have to swing that pendulum pretty far into the “people focused” camp in order for employees to get the message. Making the 1st quarter heavily focused on training and getting them what they really need to succeed would be one way to begin to make headway in changing a “do what we’ve always done” culture.
In working with companies worldwide to develop training plans for their teams and leaders, we find that consistency rules. What you do for employees on a regular and frequent basis is what they perceive to be important. If improving their skills is important to you and seeing the results of their efforts even more so, training needs to be a focus over time versus a checked off task.
For more information on leadership development and training provided by Contagious Companies, go to ContagiousCompanies.com.
I’m Monica Wofford, and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great Monday, an even better week and of course, stay contagious!
