Development is a Road Map to your Success

Throughout my career I have always been someone who looks to learn and grow. No matter if it was within my current role or something I aspired to be, I searched for opportunities to become a better person and leader.

As I progressed and experienced new roles, new responsibilities, and new organizations spanning various businesses I found that there was a constant in the ways most companies approach learning and development. Often organizations develop programs and training models that focus on early, defined trainings that new hires or newly promoted team members must complete to maintain compliance and cover the required basics of the company values and role responsibilities.

When looking at this from a visual perspective, the programs and progress are linear. They have clear start and end points with additional modules added in when necessary.

WHAT WE USED TO DO

In my career in adventure travel, working to develop engaging and compelling programs, I realized that the path to a great trip could be mirrored in a modified approach to planning and executing a people centric learning and development model that is built off a system-based approach that identifies what is most critical for the team member and the organization.

In this system-based approach engagement between the employee and their supervisor is critical and can increase the engagement and empowerment of employees significantly and create a shared career development for current and future roles.

As illustrated in the image below there are four simple, yet critical, steps to put this into action.

Step one: Stock the shelves of your L&D Library! Prior to a new team member joining your workforce, or accepting a promotion to a new role, the hiring manager needs to identify development and training topics/modules that should be included in a L&D Library.

Step two: These topics, or books, are then prioritized by immediacy “needs” and “wants” and immediate needs are categorized into one of the segments of the employee journey (New hire, new role, on-going, and promotion preparation) and placed on the journey’s path. At this point, the initial pathway can be shared with the team member to set them up for initial success.

Step three: Review the mid-and long-term development items in the library and place them in the on-going training cycle with clearly defined timelines. Once this is complete, you are ready to share the map.

Step four: This is where collaboration and employee engagement kicks it up a notch! Working with your team member, collectively Share the planned journey with your team member & review regularly – editing and adding items to meet personal and organizational career development needs.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO A TRAINING ROADMAP

In the illustration of this model, you will see that this approach is not linear, it is cyclical. There still are start and end points (Hire and Separation) but the key differences are the circular on-going quarterly and annual career development section and the off-shoot when one receives a new role that brings the team member back to a point where they are ready and able to take on new responsibilities.

Career development requires active participation of all parties involved. Development opportunities are not simply handed out to staff, they are opportunities that both leaders and team members need to pursue. In my personal experience, without regular conversations about development the opportunities seem to dwindle and at times become non-existent. When this happens, morale, engagement, and satisfaction decrease and can become a strain on the working environment. My solution to avoid this is to make sure you are taking the time to invest in your team members! Are your reports worth an hour of your time each week? If not, you have a problem. As a minimum standard, leaders should dedicate a minimum of 1 hour/week to connect, personally and professionally, with their reports. These sessions should focus on the well-being and connection you have with that individual, helping them succeed in their current role through mentorship. Try not to let your connections devolve into a pedantic and basic checklist of projects and deliverables. Make your time together meaningful with a focus on shared career development objectives.

Taking on a L&D model like this is one that requires dedication and time from all parties. This is the key differentiation between this model and most others used in the workplace. If you are looking to build the best team possible, and celebrate and showcase their successes, it requires your investment of time and effort. You simply cannot have highly performing individuals and teams without your dedicated focus and commitment to them and yourself as a leader.

Learning & Development (aka Career Development) is present throughout the Employee’s Journey. It is a combined effort of the employee and their leader to fill in spaces to keep progress going. Career Development is not handed out, it is earned, it is each of our responsibilities and should be sought after!