Managers, directors and team leaders are in the unique position of having the authority to influence how their team operates. This includes the opportunity to create an environment where people grow professionally both individually and as a team. Whether you make this part of your job description will depend on yourself, your work load, your resources and your organisation.
It does, however, make business sense to identify the development of teams and individuals as a core business objective, as it will affect the organisation’s performance. Learning can happen at the same time as your objectives are being met. Monitoring a project together can help team members to gain an insight into areas they are not directly responsible for, therefore gaining a greater understanding of the team’s aims and organisation’s strategy; delegating part of the induction process of a new team member to an existing one will help both team-building and develop communication skills; inviting a promising team member to a meeting with a tricky client and debriefing the meeting afterwards, might help you see ongoing issues from a different point of view as well as giving your team member an insight into the advocacy role of the leader.
Time and resources are scarce at the moment – but the learning opportunities are definitely out there. We just have to exercise our creativity and keep up with this rapid changing environment.
I totally agree. Learning and teaching can be included into people’s roles and doesn’t necessarily have to mean a day or two out of the office dedicated exclusively to self development. However, I think that for this to be totally effective you have to have already created a culture of learning and self-improvement in the company. It is easy for people to shadow their mentors permanently and not find their own wings. I think training on the job as well as out of it is critical to increase employees’ confidence, motivation, interest and hence productivity in the job. It still amazes me that in many organisations training is seen as an expense and a misuse of time rather than an investment.
Thanks Nerea, for reiterating the need to see learning as ongoing and not just a short training experience.
You are so right that the challenge is twofold (at least!): creating a learning culture and then identifying the learning opportunities. I also agree that when using a mentoring approach (or similar), there needs to be a very clear point by which the “mentee” flies off, to avoid dependency.