Getting the Most out of Professional Development

Regardless of industry, to remain competitive, your talent needs to update their skills constantly. Understanding what new skills team members need to be most effective is part of leadership’s job, as well as delivering training that will impart these new skills successfully. To best leverage professional development training, start by conducting a needs assessment. Figuring out your training needs is essential to delivering what your organization requires and not wasting time and resources on training that will be ineffective or redundant. Then, develop a learning plan connected to performance evaluation. Start with goals and desired outcomes, and follow up to understand how successful the training was. For larger teams, building out cohorts can be helpful. Grouping employees with similar needs can help personalize training and improve teamwork. Select training that emphasizes conversations as much as content. One-way content delivery isn’t very effective, and collaborative training sessions are more valuable.