The common misconception is that employee and leadership development occurs in classroom or via e-learning. In fact, the best way to learn is through experience. The recommended ratio in learning is 70% through experience, 20% through coaching and feedback and only 10% through formal training. Given the high percentage for learning through experience, organizations should spend a significant effort making sure that these developmental activities are intentional rather than random.
Employees love to learn and grow, and new challenges are a key driver for employee engagement and retention. Gradually increasing the responsibilities is also the only way to develop new leaders. There is no way to get to the top just by sitting in a class. As organizations identify target leadership positions, they determine what critical experiences are required to be competent in those positions. The talent pool feeding into those positions is then intentionally exposed to those experiences by assignments and career ladders.
Although the sink-or-swim approach may work out in the end, more effective development and better business results can be achieved when a novice in the new assignment gets to test the new skills with the guidance of a more experienced coach. It can be the own manager, an assigned mentor or a more senior peer. At first, there will be a lot of advice and checking in, with less, or different, mentoring when confidence builds.
Apart from open positions to move up talent on the ladder, there are other assignments that work well for developing and challenging the workforce. Assignments can include leadership or membership in a taskforce, acting in the manager’s role in his or her absence, or an individual project such as business process improvement. Shorter job rotations are useful as well, for example, filling in during a leave of absence or job switching.
One obvious benefit of using assignments for development is that they have an acute business alignment. There is little need to justify time or money needed to get them done, a challenge sometimes faced with training. The sense of urgency and the ‘what’s in it for me’ is right there. What’s left is to help the employee draw the lessons learned from the experience before stepping into the next challenge.
###
If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to Forte Consulting RSS Feed. Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved. SVPGMGDX8TEC
Pingback: Assessing performance and potential | Forte Consulting Blog