Leaders these days are expected to be more empathetic, to keep employees engaged, and to deliver results more quickly, often while working on remote teams and trying to manage their own work. A pressure for leaders to develop people and their collective teams has emerged to the forefront, and it is crucial for L&D professionals to serve as close partners to support leaders in how they develop others. This isn’t just about formal training or having a leader serve as a coach or a mentor; it is about the leader understanding their role in the complex learning ecosystem of their organization in which they are a cocreator of the learning culture.
In a ConnectSpark presentation to ATD Forum members on September 21, 2022, Catherine Lombardozzi, founder of Learning 4 Learning Professionals and author of Learning Environments by Design, encouraged leaders to take a broader view of what development encompasses. Using the metaphor of a rock wall—the top of the rock wall representing fulfillment of specific learning goals for each individual to help them reach their peak performance—Catherine described six strategic categories from her Leader’s Guide to Developing People that can support each learner as they climb the rock wall in their own unique journey to the top.
1. Clarify. Define goals and desired capabilities. Clarify moves may involve having one-on-one career conversations, completing assessment instruments, or identifying development goals. Catherine suggests doing forecasting before conversations to find out more about the strategy of the organization and department, as well as predict what skills may be necessary for the future.
2. Coach. Introduce knowledge and skill. Coach moves might include teaching a process, providing context, asking provocative questions, and giving feedback.
3. Challenge. Provide context for learning through work. Examples of challenge moves include stretch assignments and following-up on reflection from stretch activities. This includes fostering a psychologically safe environment for the learner to function at a slower development pace and learn from mistakes along the way.
4. Connect. Match people with others that can support their growth. The connect move entails introducing employees to others in support of their development needs, whether those connections might be mentors, role models, subject matter experts, or other peers.
5. Curate. Make specific recommendation for learning materials. Many of us probably take on the curate move more often than we realize, both inside and outside of work. Be intentional with sharing recommendations for articles, books, videos, and training programs that are relevant to an employee’s development goals. Don’t forget to follow-up with a conversation to understand how the resources were received and are being applied.
6. Customize. Address individual needs of employees related to their professional development. The customize category of move underlies and accompanies all the other moves. It is about treating each person as an individual, making sure that how they are investing their time aligns to their individual goals, and removing any obstacles of their learning.
Executing these moves, however, can be complicated. Catherine outlines five complications leaders may come up against when taking the path of the rock wall:
1. Differing Interests in Development—Sometimes development interests do align, but often they do not. The leader’s point of view may be more strategic and long-term, ensuring the capability of the team and the goals of the organization, improving the collective performance of the team, retaining employees, and limiting activities that impact productivity. On the other hand, an employee may be focused on improving their current and future performance, establishing and maintaining a professional image (perhaps becoming a subject matter expert), preparing for a career move (known or unknown to the leader), or simply satisfying a personal interest.
2. Joint Ownership of Development—This is about the shared commitment between the learner and the developer in which the actions of both parties are dependent on one another for the development to take place. For example, a leader can try to teach something, but the development may not occur if the learner isn’t taking good notes and putting that knowledge into action.
3. Contexts of Development—Some leaders think of development purely as the formal process of individual development planning or quarterly check-ins. Others recognize their role in development is about spontaneous interactions, such as presentation feedback, sharing relevant articles, or realigning at tasks to the strengths of the team members. Smaller development actions between formal processes can be just as powerful, especially in a busy environment. In addition, planned leader-led development—onboarding new people, upskilling, and succession planning—that is more targeted and short-term without both the formal and spontaneous interactions can fall short of its intended purpose.
4. Needed Skills and Characteristics—Not all leaders may have strategic thinking skills or know how to build trusting relationships to carry out the moves outlined above. If a leader is not sure how to manage their own self-directed learning, it’s difficult for them to help others learn to do the same.
5. Nuances in How People Learn—There are so many factors that contribute to how someone learns through experience. Most leaders are not experts in how people learn, and may need support in setting-up, monitoring, and following-up.
Despite these challenges, there are many learning methods that can be used to help leaders develop others, such as rotational programs, coaching, networking events, simulations, high-potential programs, book groups, and lunch & learns to name a few. What you decide to do will need to be customized to your organization and your leaders’ needs, and it should ideally encompass all six of the moves described above. To set yourself up for success, there are three common things that you can do in any organization:
- Advocate for a good learning culture. Learning must be a valued activity, learners must feel psychologically safe, and it must be understood by all in the organization that a good learning culture is cocreated. Be an example yourself as a leader with your own learning. Model the way.
- Teach leaders about learning processes. Don’t just tell leaders how often they need to meet with employees or give them a form to fill out to assess their employees. Partner with leaders and describe how to have effective conversations, provide feedback, and support employees in the creation of their individual development plans. Ask them what they need to strengthen their abilities to support these processes.
- Allocate time. Time is often the biggest pain point for everyone—how do we find the time for development? Don’t separate learning from work; allocate time in the flow of work. Development does not depend on time for formal training. Build in time for reflection during meetings. Figure out which less valuable activities can be deprioritized in order to make room for valuable learning moves.
In the spirit of this blog post, consider other leaders you want to share it with who may benefit from the content. Reflect on what you just read and encourage others to as well by answering some of these questions (taken from Chapter 12 of Leading the Learning Function by Alissa Weiher and MJ Hall). These are questions that need to be returned to throughout the year to continue cocreating a culture of learning.
- What actions have you taken to align your team’s development to the organization’s strategy?
- How and when are you serving as a catalyst to build and share your network and make new connections for members on your team?
- What local opportunities or communities of practice exist for you and your team to actively participate in? How might you encourage engagement?
Remember to support your leaders as they help their employees climb their rock walls on their own unique journey to the top.
