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CHICAGO — For companies that want to retain employees, which is becoming increasingly difficult in a challenging labor market, they must make team members feel like they are learning, progressing and growing.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently hosted a webinar on ways companies can develop leadership skills in their employees. The discussion “Two Paths: Developing Effective Managers and Potential Leaders” was moderated by Sharlyn Lauby, President of ITM Group, a training and human resources consulting company that focuses on helping companies retain and attract talent. It is also the “HR Bartender” Letter from the author of a book.
In Part 1 of this series, we defined the differences between management and leadership, why they are both important, and the seven powers that come with leadership. Today, we’ll explore how companies can integrate leadership training into the employee experience.
Everyone is (or can become) a leader
“I recently saw an article on LinkedIn Learning that organizations with strong leadership programs outperformed their competitors by more than nine times,” Lauby said. “Employees who participate in leadership development programs are seven times more likely to stay. So when an organization does invest in leadership training, it has benefits for both the bottom line and employee retention.”
Lauby believes leadership training should be thought of in the context of the entire employee experience.
“If you don’t currently offer a new hire buddy program, this might be a great opportunity to start developing connecting capabilities during the onboarding process,” she says. “Onboard Buddy programs allow new hires to meet new people. Typically, a Buddy’s role is to introduce the new employee to different people in the organization and start building connections. So consider this in your onboarding plan. Are there opportunities to develop more connecting abilities?”
As well as considering employees’ talents, interests and aspirations, companies should also consider what employees need to build their future.
“Think about the expertise you want to develop within your organization from a knowledge, skills and abilities perspective,” she says. “Skills-based recruitment and skills-based training are opportunities to develop specialist capabilities.”
“When we think about building skills within an organization, we think about several other areas,” Lauby said. “When solving problems, a lot of times employees may identify some problems – let’s put them in a position where they can solve some problems and maybe even suggest some solutions to the organization. There are some problems that organizations have been working on. Some of them are very Small, some big, but solving problems is an opportunity to create the power of information.”
Conflict management is also a valuable area of training.
“We always have situations where we disagree with someone,” Lauby said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t respect each other, and it doesn’t mean we can’t resolve our differences. But conflict management training can be a great opportunity to develop reference power.”
Learn throughout the employee experience
While leadership skills can be developed starting during the onboarding process, high-performing companies can develop team members’ skills at any time during their employment, and Lauby believes they should.
“We can do learning in one-on-one meetings between the manager and the employee,” she said, “We can enhance her on-the-job training program, and we can also look at things like coaching and mentoring.”
Lauby said coaching and mentoring programs are particularly helpful in developing leadership skills because they provide employees with the opportunity to deal with some challenges on their own.
“I like to think of coaching from a coach’s perspective, helping employees come to their own conclusions,” she says. “If you want to provide someone with some guidance or advice, a coaching program can be really great.”
Lauby said these plans are particularly useful in the case of internal transfers or internal promotions.
“Someone was part of the team and now all of a sudden they’re leading the team,” she said. “A mentoring relationship can be a good place to have that conversation — to give them someone to work with through the transition.”
Check back on Tuesday for the conclusion of this series, where we look at the role of training in employee development.Part 1 of this series, please click here.
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