by Judy Rathwell | Sep 26, 2023 | Continuous Learning, Executive Leadership, Influence, Leadership Development, Recognition, Trust
4 Differences between learning and development
HR professionals are under a lot of pressure to prove that leadership development programs have a return on investment. When leaders’ time is precious and financial resources are limited, how do organizations get the most out of their programs? One way is to focus on the difference between learning and development. But what is the difference between learning and development?
Learning is defined as gaining new knowledge. Development is applying that knowledge to drive results and growth. When it comes to leadership, we simply can’t afford to build programs where leaders are learning but not developing.
For starters, if your leaders are learning but not developing, you might see one or more of the following:
1. The organization relies too much on self-directed learning.
It’s common to hear that leaders should own their development. Yes, it’s true that leaders should fully participate in development and try to apply what they’ve learned to get better. What this doesn’t mean is that we should only rely on self-directed learning.
Many organizations invest in huge online libraries of learning content. They promote them to leaders as a “one-stop shop” for building leadership skills on demand. Sounds great, right? As an added bonus, this content is often high quality and presented in a compelling way.
Unfortunately, this “build it and they will come” strategy doesn’t provide the same benefits as a more coordinated leadership development program. But what does a more coordinated program have? Leaders can also practice skills in a safe environment and socialize new behaviors while working with their peers.
Lately, leaders have been asking for more development experiences with a social component. In the era of virtual and hybrid work, leaders feel more isolated from their peers. According to DDI’s recent Global Leadership Forecast, their most desired development experience is instructor-led training. Meanwhile, self-paced digital learning is near the bottom of the list of preferred learning methods.
2. Leaders participate in programs but don’t change and grow.
Learning only becomes development when it’s applied on the job. When leaders go to training programs but don’t change their behavior, they may have learned, but they certainly haven’t developed.
Does this cause a lack of change and growth? It’s often a shortage of self-insight. Resources like 360 feedback tools and simulation-based assessments uncover blind spots. These resources also do a good job of showing leaders why they need to change and how they can do it. In addition, with the data and insights these tools provide, leaders become more committed to making a change.
Leaders also have a hard time changing when they feel their employee development isn’t connected to the organization’s business or cultural priorities. If the same learning programs have been in place for years despite significant changes to the organization, leaders may see the programs as outdated, irrelevant, or a mere formality. But how do top organizations avoid this? Regular leadership needs analyses are a good place to start. It can also be helpful for organizations to align development offerings with the challenges their leaders are facing today.
3. Learning is episodic and lacks “connective tissue.”
When learning is event-based and not part of a bigger development experience, it’s hard to build the momentum for meaningful leadership development. Leaders may have a desire to make the most of leadership development opportunities, but ultimately, they need guidance and direction to do it. As a leadership development professional, your job is to create that structure, accountability, and engagement.
For this reason, many organizations have adopted a learning journey approach. This approach treats development as behavior change that takes place over time. Leaders achieve behavior change through a focused mix of formal learning, one-on-one coaching, assessment, and online reinforcement tools (like job aids, microcourses, chatbots, and practice simulations). In a learning journey, leaders are given a road map for development as well as all the ways they can apply their learning on the job.
DDI research on the impact of learning journeys shows that organizations that adopt this approach are 3.4X more likely to have high-caliber leadership development. These organizations are also 2.9X more likely to have high leadership strength and 2.5X more likely to be financially successful.
4. Learners don’t have support from their leaders.
Learners have the best opportunity to develop when their own leader supports them with coaching. In this environment, learning is the means to better performance, but not the end. For learning to become development, the learner’s leader must challenge them to apply new skills and provide meaningful feedback.
Some well-meaning managers may send struggling leaders to training programs so that “HR can fix them.” While someone struggling with their leadership skills should certainly participate in leadership development, relying on HR to fix performance issues is a sign that the leader’s leader could play a more active role in their development.
“If you cant fly, then run. If you cant run, then walk. And, if you cant walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward”.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Did you know this about disc?
DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication
by Judy Rathwell | Jan 28, 2022 | Continuous Learning, Decision-making, Executive Leadership, Respectful Workplace
What if you’re unintentionally hurting the people you lead?
Here are some ways that may be harmful, even if they seem helpful:
1. Not giving employees a chance to show what they’re capable of. Allow people to show you why they were hired and how much they can do. One of your most important abilities as a leader is to let people shine.
2. Telling people what to do instead of letting them show you what they can do. Telling people what to do isn’t leadership, it’s direction. Leadership means creating a space for others to accomplish their best.
3. Constantly speaking and not allowing others to express their opinion. Listening only to your own voice harms your credibility and disempowers your leadership. Power doesn’t come to those who speak the most but to those who listen best.
4. Providing solutions to problems other people should be solving. You should not be the fixer of all problems.. Allow your people to develop solutions—their abilities will grow and they’ll come up with things you might not have thought of.
5. Complicating simple business processes. Keep things as simple and uncomplicated as possible. People have enough to do without the bother of unnecessary bureaucracy and complicated processes.
6. Saying things like “I know best.” Even if you know you’re right, it’s far more effective to guide people into the answer through dialogue and communication. People want to know they’re contributing, not just following orders.
7. Giving rewards where there hasn’t been effort. In many companies where I coach, it’s common practice to give bonuses regardless of the effort people put in. This approach only creates a culture of mediocrity.
8. Playing favorites with your team. For any leader, fairness builds trust and trust is everything. Treat everyone with the same respect and be equitable in providing opportunities.
9. Saying you’re going to do something but you don’t. Any time you don’t keep your word, your leadership loses respect and credibility.
10. Shaming, criticizing or blaming others publicly in meetings. As the saying goes, appreciate in public and criticize in private.
Lead from within: Most leaders have good intentions, but those intentions sometimes lead to bad results. Try to keep your eye on the consequences of everything you do as a leader and ask yourself whether it’s helping or hurting.
Source: Lolly Daskal
by Judy Rathwell | Oct 19, 2021 | Continuous Learning, Performance Development, Trust
Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director for the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, famously said, “Failure is not an option!” And indeed, in that case, with the lives of three astronauts on the line, he was right. But for the rest of us, failure is not only an option; it is inevitable if we are pushing the boundaries of our performance and driving hard for results.
The Difference Between Average and Achieving
In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you will deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve? When you consider the people on your team, is the fear of failure or a fear of your response to failure holding them back?
Which Way are You Failing?
Obstacles and challenges are a part of high-performance leadership. They are going to happen, and you will have times when you won’t get it right. The question you need to consider is, are you failing forward or backward? When the people on your team have setbacks, which way do they lean?
When someone fails backward, they will blame others or portray themselves as the victim. When someone fails forward, they will take responsibility for what happened and look for ways to ensure it doesn’t happen again. When my kids were teenagers, a motto we lived by was, “make all new mistakes today.” People who fail forward learn from each mistake, so it doesn’t happen again.
I failed, but I Am Not a Failure
Another characteristic of someone who fails backward is the relationship they have with the failed effort. Instead of viewing the setback as an event, they consider it as defining who they are. Failure is an event; it does not define who you are. People who fail forward view failure as feedback. The failure does not define them; they just learned something that doesn’t work. It was reported that when Thomas Edison was asked how he persisted through so many failures of the light bulb that he said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” People who fail forward persist.
What are You Communicating to Your Team?
How you view your failures, mistakes, and setbacks communicates a lot to those around you. If you want people (at work or home) to grow and develop and become the best they can be, they must have the freedom to fail. Then they must take the learning from those setbacks and put them to work as feedback on how to do it better next time. Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, once called an executive leader to his office after the failure of a new product that had cost the company millions. The executive was sure he was to be fired and had prepared himself for that certainty. When the executive arrived in Mr. Watson’s office, he commented, ” I guess you are going to fire me.” Watson’s response is priceless and a great reminder for us all. Mr. Watson responded, “Fire you!! I just spent millions educating you, now don’t let it happen again!”
All failure is feedback and education about what does not work. Encourage those you serve to stretch and try new things, and when they come up short, encourage them to fail forward, take the learning and try again. Don’t waste the investment you are making in their personal development.
Source: Perry Holley via John Maxwell’s blog
by Judy Rathwell | Jun 15, 2021 | Continuous Learning, Executive Leadership, Habits, Newsletter, Stress Management
To perform their best, leaders must nurture their minds and bodies.
Twenty years ago, the sudden
emergence of ESPN’s daily poker broadcasting sparked global debate. How does
card playing merit coverage, given the absence of spherical objects and sweaty
high-fives? The emerging consensus that cards, chess, and spelling all qualify
made sense to me only when I returned to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster
defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises… requiring
physical strength, agility, or stamina.” Like chess, leading change requires
stamina and takes a toll physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Leadership’s daily demands create a
high-stress work environment. In a December survey, 76% of workers
reported burnout. These challenges are especially
prominent among leaders, and even pre-date the pandemic: school principals, for
example, are nearly twice as likely
to experience stress symptoms
than the general population. Managing change daily on tight timelines requires
nonstop communication, often with overstretched team members and stakeholders.
The work requires the pace of a sprint for the duration of a marathon.
For both athletes and leaders,
sustaining performance throughout an intense season requires careful planning
and consistent execution. For their part, leaders need good mental acuity and
energy to support decision-making. Leaders benefit from a comprehensive plan
that parallels the holistic benefits of an athlete’s support system.
These 8 strategies create the
foundation for optimal leadership performance:
1. Be clear on your priorities.
Fulfilling a leadership role
requires clear vision not only for the organization but also for yourself. What
is most important in your life? What do you want to drive toward, and why? How
do these priorities compare with your role’s goals? Alignment between what your
personal mission and your daily professional experiences is essential for
fulfillment and for preventing or mitigating burnout.
2. Fuel your mind and body.
What you eat directly impacts the
quality of your thinking. Intentionality here is especially important, as high
stress levels can lead to cortisol hormone spikes, which increase appetite and
emotional eating behaviors. As a school leader, I often skipped meals due to a
busy schedule and forgot to drink water; on other days, I chose to eat
something on the go. Processed foods are low in nutrient density; consuming
foods dense with nutrients — such as seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits, and
vegetables — and sufficient water is essential for brain activity. Slowing
down lets your body absorb the nutrients in your food. If you make time to sit,
connect with other humans in a relaxed environment, and chew your food fully,
your brain serves you better.
3. Exercise sustainably.
Athletes must move their bodies to
promote recovery and strong performance. Leaders typically fall short in one of
two ways. Many don’t move enough; twenty minutes of light exercise can trigger
the release of serotonin, which makes you feel more focused, emotionally
stable, happier, and calmer. The movement need not be extreme: walking helps you
think, improves your mood, and helps you
sleep better.
If you have developed an exercise
habit, evaluate whether it is supporting your goals. When an intense fitness
class leaves you nauseous, exhausted, or injured, how does that help you? High
intensity work, in fact, can promote brain fog. Is that actually what you want to do before your strategic
planning session? The ideal is somewhere in the middle. A balance of
resistance training and aerobic work appropriate for your capacity and skills
will best support you. Strength training has been found to improve sleep and
cognition and to alleviate anxiety and
depression.
4. Sleep.
For all humans, sleep is one of the
most important things you can do, yet most Americans don’t get enough. Being
underslept correlates with poorer decision-making and health. The really hard part is that, when you’re sleep
deprived, your brain does not realize how sleep deprived it is. Take steps to
ensure you are getting the sleep you need. Wind-down routines leading to a
dark, cool bedroom help you bring your best self the next day.
5. Balance work and rest.
It’s important to think about
balancing work with rest and recovery, both in the short and long term: day,
week, month, year. Most people enter unsustainable professional stretches,
whether driven by a new project, understaffing, or significant disruption to
work conditions. The rate of work at these times must be balanced by rest in
order to avoid burnout. Periodic pushes may be unavoidable, but they must be
balanced with rest and recovery. Don’t throw yourself out as the starting pitcher
every day all year. Build a full bullpen by empowering your team around you.
There’s a reason why leagues track player minutes and throw counts precisely.
You have to periodize to avoid overuse and burnout. Conventional schedules
allocate time for you to rest: use your nights, weekends, and vacations to
unplug and recover.
6. Regulate your emotions.
Athletes are able to regulate their
emotions to bring out their best performance. Emotional stability brings out
the best performance in you and your team. Practicing mindfulness, noticing
your emotions in the moment, breathing, and building awareness of specific
emotions all support your ability to lead. After practicing these strategies
for your own emotional health, consider creating pathways to support your team
in doing the same. Cultivating a space in which people feel safe to continually
improve starts with you.
7. Learn.
Elite athletes stay on top only by
getting better each day. Modern teams have improved in recent years by drawing
upon new sources of information, such as video and data analytics. Leaders,
too, must intentionally seek out ways to learn. Dedicate time to reflect daily
on what went well and what didn’t. Actively solicit feedback from your coach
and your colleagues, and show your team how you have incorporated their
opinions. Creating a culture in which your team learns starts with you.
8. Build habits and routines.
40% of our behaviors are habitual. Busy schedules do not allow for daily
conscious choices in prioritization, rest, nutrition, movement, learning, and
emotional regulation. Building consistent routines in each of these domains is
essential to bringing your best each day. In the long run, consistency
outperforms short, intensive bursts.
We receive and internalize complex messages about our bodies and our work. Optimizing for leadership performance requires aligning professional and personal visions with habits. As with professional sports, leading change requires discipline around the clock to maximize your results.
Source: Leading Well, Leaders as Athletes
by Judy Rathwell | Sep 29, 2020 | Continuous Learning, Leadership Aha!, Newsletter
September offers a clean slate, a new start, and represents a new beginning. Although this September is unlike others before, it is still a change in season with different challenges and opportunities. Due to the disruption of the pandemic, more than ever we have resolutions and habits we want to start. While January is the start of a new year, September/Fall often feels like a good time to make some much-needed changes.
Gretchen Rubin, author of Better Than
Before, shares strategies of how to make and break habits. One helpful
strategy is the “Strategy of the Clean Slate”. The pandemic has afforded us
more time to evaluate our habits and behaviors and determine which ones are
working for us and which ones may be holding us back. During times of big
transition, old habits may be wiped away and we may be able to form new habits
more easily. A change in personal relationships, surroundings such as moving to
a new city, a life change like a new job or even minor changes like working in
a new room can all offer a “clean slate” to develop new effective habits.
A previous research study has shown that 36%
of people who were successful in making significant life changes in their
career, education, or health behaviors, associated this success with a move to
a new location. We want to take advantage of the start of a new season and
take actionable steps toward change.
Take some time to consider: What new habits do I want to adopt this season? What old habits or behaviors could be holding me back from reaching my goals?
What
one small, actionable step can I take this week to change or adopt a new habit?
Now is the time to make the changes we need
the most.
Sourced from Gretchenrubin.com
