What does a Learning Leader look like? What traits should one have to be an effective leader in L&D? Here are four traits that every Learning Leader must have:
- Be Influential. You often bounce in between what a client demands and what a learner needs. Is your instructional intervention coming from the top down? Moreover, how do you prove that your intervention aligns with the proposed training need? Do you measure? Is there an ROI? Are you guessing? There's a lot of variables and factors that go into the design. What is of value? What's junk? Who makes those decisions? If it's not you in there somewhere, you can get steamrolled.
- Be Learner-centered. Is what management thinks is the need really what the learner needs? Have you ever met the learner? Do you conduct a site-visit to observe the work environment? What questions do you pose to management and learners? When you design your intervention, do you serve the client or the learner? What tone do you use when you present learning material across? Are learners engaged? What does success look like to both the client and learner? Don't just assume the client knows. It's your job to ask and find out.
- Be Flexible. Change is hard. You design more than just training. You are shifting a culture. You are introducing new information or explaining new processes. Both the client and the learner are passengers in your car. You decide the journey, end destination, and everything before, during, and after the ride. Yield when necessary and adhere to the the speed limits along the way.
- Be Creative. Not just in writing and design, be creative to explore new or unchartered learning realms. Maybe one deployed training isn't enough. Maybe you need to make a drip learning experience every few months for learning to sink in, have meaning, and take impact. Or, maybe management needs to level up as well. What would training look like for them? You can't ever expect learning to begin and end with base-level employees. Real change comes when the environment supports it. You aren't finished until everyone is learning and growing together.
