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Training has value only when it leads to improved behavior and better business results. Effective leadership training is a process, not an event. That training must be aligned with your company’s strategic business initiatives. It should also be designed to give the trainees new ideas about ways to improve the business. Great leadership training will create long-term change in both behavior and results.
The training must be designed around business outcomes. If the goal is to increase warehouse productivity, the training must lead toward this goal. If it is to reduce employee turnover, the same applies. Therefore, as you design the training, start with listing the goals. The training should be delivered in digestible bites over time. You won’t learn to lead by attending a one day workshop. – and maybe not even a two day workshop!
The training program should combine learning with practice, reflection and feedback. Since the feedback usually comes from the direct supervisor, the training content must go beyond the material given to the trainee.
Because training generates new ideas, it is essential to welcome new insights and help trainees take the next step in implementing change.
Leadership training should include learning how to provide guidance for development of your direct reports.
If you could help your direct reports build just one skill this year, what skill would that be? This question was the primary opening of an anonymous survey. It is worth sharing because the answers pass the test of common sense.
Here are the results, in descending order:
- Interpersonal skills – 28.92%
- Leadership skills – 23.38%
- Resilience skills – 23.38%
- Technical skills – 11.32%
- Management skills – 8.43%
- The remainder identified something else.
It is sad that altogether too many corporate leaders and HR executives place a priority on management and technical talents, instead of the soft skills that nearly always mark the difference between success and failure in the workplace.
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