In our last article, we talked about training and development, the key components to performance, and how they benefit both employees and employers alike. We also noted different ways to administer training in your workforce to accommodate your individual needs. In this commentary, we will go into a little more detail, giving examples of the types of popular training and development solutions that are out there: Teambuilding, Leadership Development, Efficiency Coaching (time-management, prioritization, delegating, etc.), Career coaching, Office Culture, Accountability coaching, Executive coaching, Supervisory training and Transition coaching (maternity leave plans, succession plans, onboarding new employees, etc.).
Popular Training
We have included action steps after each example for those considering the solution highlighted:
Team Building
Team building is arguably the most popular training found in the workplace. Teams are made up of people with different strengths and skills. They succeed and function seamlessly when they maximize their strengths. A structured team building process will need the following five steps for success:
- Meet and analyze: Members of the teams meet and understand the work role, expectations, and challenges. They set individual responsibilities, as well as team guidelines.
- Express: At this point, the members of the team begin to express their opinions and there might be a few clashes. An external facilitator or a team leader can guide the group into making certain ground decisions and emphasize on collaboration and patience.
- Work culture: The team begins to define its work culture keeping in mind the organization’s culture, values, and mindset. Trust, motivation, and an open communication should be the driving force of the team.
- Working Together: In this stage, you should begin to see the group coming together and collaborating with each other. The planning and strategies are now facilitated by the group members and the team leader is only there to assist with any challenges faced.
- Celebrations: Finally, each member will recognize and appreciate what the team has achieved by working together. This reflection and celebration is an important part when giving a purpose to teamwork as well as motivating the members toward the goal.
ACTION STEP: As a manager, you may explore ways to improve your team-building skills or provide a training tool, program or activity for the team directly.
Leadership Training
Your team is ready, but what happens next? Who takes the driver’s seat? You need the right person to set the vision and goals with the team, motivate and maintain the excitement while ensuring that everyone is accountable for their responsibilities.
This popular training for leadership needs the following steps:
- Start by deciding the leadership style that will suit your team. This you will have to do by understanding and getting to know them better as well as the culture of working in the team.
- Internal search for talent is usually the best approach and it also reduces your cost and effort. Therefore search for leadership potential within the organization first.
- Assess the individual on their potential and willingness to becoming a leader. The readiness of the team to accept a leader is also very vital.
- Succession planning and preparation for the transition is important as changes disrupt the normal flow of the work. Therefore succession should be conducted as smoothly as possible through preparation.
- Help your leaders plan out their career to be able to commit on a long-term basis with your organization.
- After identifying the potential leaders, you will need to structure the process for the team to follow.
ACTION STEP: Identify emerging leaders in your organization and create a training plan to develop their skill set.
Efficiency Coaching
Work smarter not harder. Improving the efficiency of the team will assist you in cutting costs, errors, and waste. Map your objectives with your goals and the skills to be able to improve the efficiency of the organization. Self-reflection is a good starting point to evaluate the efficiency a person as well as determine the next steps. Although efficiency coaching is not known for being a popular training, we included it because it is a necessary one.
ACTION STEP: Get help. If this is you, it is time to talk to someone about what you are doing on a day to day basis and delegate the low hanging fruit: things that are repeatable, scalable tasks that others can do with minimal training. Your resource can help you put a plan in place for becoming more efficient in the long haul.
Career coaching
If your organizational goals and the goals of the employee do not match, it will become difficult to retain them. A clear roadmap of climbing the hierarchy to experience career growth will help them to envision their path within your organization. Career coaching is becoming a more popular training as millennials enter the workforce.
ACTION STEP: Consider the career pathways within your organization and make sure they are clearly defined for your employees. Offer mentoring opportunities and partner less experienced employees with more senior staff for learning opportunities on both sides.
Office Culture
The company’s vision, goals, values, and culture are important to employees. A positive, vibrant work culture is necessary to attract new and keep existing talent within the organization.
ACTION STEP: Explore training exercises available to help you identify initiatives to set the desired environment in the office, maintain it for a productive workforce and lead the team to a successful outcome.
Accountability coaching
Integrity and ownership are very important to the success of a team. A no-excuses, positive environment where everyone is working toward a common goal is the ideal way of functioning. A fierce accountability model, which motivates members to keep themselves accountable for what is expected from them as well as working towards a bigger goal.
ACTION STEP: Identify areas that lack checks and balances and consider implementing accountability measures. This will increase individual ownership and keep the employees focused.
In this competitive environment, businesses must retain valuable employees and motivate them to work toward company goals. This can be a daunting task so it is important to consider individual employee aspirations, office culture, accountability parameters, and efficiency objectives. All of these contribute to the underlying work culture, which plays an important foundational role in the organization’s long-term success.
