Some parents (mistakenly) take the view that a school bears the sole responsibility for educating their children. They go to work, they put food on the table and they try to keep their kids safe and healthy, but when it comes to educating them, they leave that to the school. That is what it is there for, right?
Now, I am sure that any parents out there would be horrified to hear this suggestion and would strongly disagree. How could any parent not want to get involved with the education of their children? It is a contentious suggestion, but I have raised it to make a point.
Too many managers leave the “learning” experiences of their people to the HR department.
When a department is called “Learning and Development” it is not a flight of fantasy to expect them to take on the lion’s share of responsibility for the development of employees, but the better managers also view themselves as teachers. When you are working closely with someone on an ongoing basis, there are unlimited opportunities to further their knowledge.
In our recent survey “Overcoming the Challenges for L&D in 2018” we found that 82% of employees learnt through on the job training. I am surprised that this is not higher, but what was more interesting was that 49% of their managers took the initiative to source external training directly for them without involving L&D.
While a coordinated approach is generally best, this shows me that a significant number of managers are not only invested in giving their time towards their employees’ development, half of them are prepared to spend time and money bringing in external expertise.
As a company that sources training, we find ourselves talking with a large amount of managers, and it is heartwarming to hear how invested they are in their people.
They don’t think that learning and education is the preserve of the L&D department.
True, they might not be aware of the best practices and they almost always need guiding through the process, but that is what we are here for. L&Ddepartmentss do a great job, but they only have so many resources, so sometimes a training budget can be best spent by getting an external expert to take you through the options (especially in specialist areas such as IT).
Feeling that you are taking ownership for the education of your people is one of the most motivatory aspects of managing others. If you own the outcomes rather than hand them over to L&D, your people will feel that you care. They will probably try that little bit harder to get the most out of any training and learning opportunity you provide them.
When their manager is their educational stakeholder, they will automatically step up.
The best managers are teachers and enablers. Can we help you to explore the education of your team?
