4 Differences Between Learning and Development

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.

Source: DDI, 2023

“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

Your Colleagues

  • In the Your Colleagues section in Catalyst, users can:

    • Learn their colleagues’ strengths, when to pull them into a project, and what stresses them out
    • Compare preferences and tendencies across a range of workplace behaviors using the DiSC model
    • Gain access to tips that help them work better together in a variety of situations

    Many Catalyst users review this section before heading into a meeting or kicking off a new project with a coworker.

10 Characteristics of a Good Leader

10 Characteristics of a good leader 

No matter how much or how quickly the world changes — how automated or disrupted work and life become — one fact remains: outstanding leaders create a positive path forward for us all. But what does good leadership really look like?


Based upon our decades of research and experience in the field, we’ve found that good leaders consistently possess certain essential qualities. Read on to learn what they are, and how to begin cultivating these 10 characteristics of a good leader within yourself, on your team, and at your organization.

  1. Integrity

Integrity is an essential leadership trait for the individual and the organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research shows that integrity may actually be a potential blind spot for organizations. Make sure your organization reinforces the importance of honesty and integrity to leaders at various levels.

  1. Delegation

Delegating is one of the core responsibilities of a leader, but it can be tricky to delegate effectively. The goal isn’t just to free yourself up — it’s also to enable your direct reports to grow, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy, and lead to better decision-making. The best leaders build trust on their teams through effective delegation.

  1. Communication

The best leaders are skilled communicators who are able to communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information to inspiring others to coaching direct reports. And you must be able to listen to, and communicate with, a wide range of people across roles, geographies, social identities, and more.

  1. Self awareness

While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, increasing your self-awareness, the more effective you can be as a leader.

  1. Gratitude

Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and better sleep. Gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet few people regularly say “thank you” in work settings, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The best leaders know how to demonstrate sincere gratitude in the workplace.

  1. Learning agility

Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do.
If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster learning agility through practice, experience, and effort.

  1. Influence

For some people, “influence” feels like a dirty word. But being able to convince people through logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically.

  1. Empathy

If you show more inclusive leadership and empathetic behaviors towards your direct reports, our research shows you’re more likely to be viewed as a better performer by your boss. Plus, empathy and inclusion are imperatives for improving workplace conditions for those around you.

  1. Courage

It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key trait of good leaders. Rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester, courage enables truth-telling so leaders can step up and move things in the right direction.

  1. Respect

Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important things a leader can do. It will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and improve effectiveness. Respect is about more than the absence of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways, but often starts with being a good listener.

Source: Center for creative leadership

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”. 
– Warren Bennis

Did you know this about disc?

DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication

DiSC Quadrants

Although the DiSC dimensions form four distinct styles, it is probably more useful to think of the DiSC circle in continuous terms. Consider that each of the four styles blend into their neighboring styles much the same way that colors blend into one another on the color wheel. Red and yellow are distinct colors, but they both blend to form a new color, orange. In the same way, the D and i styles are distinct, but the space between them on the circle represents an equally distinct set of traits. 

5 Benefits of Doing Nothing

5 Benefits of doing nOthing 

In the spirit of walking our talk we are taking a 5 day company holiday! July 3 -7

In 1370 AD, the first public clock tower was erected in Cologne, Germany, and from that day forward, the clock has been running our lives.

And I know that when I read stats like these, they make me crazy:

  • According to Arwen Curry, before Edison invented the light bulb, the average person slept eleven hours a night. 
  • A Senate subcommittee in 1967 was told that by 1985, the average American would work only twenty-two hours a week for twenty-seven weeks a year. (Technology and Social Trends, Kerby Anderson)
  • By 2007, the average American worked nearly four more weeks per year than in 1979. (“Vast Majority of Wage Earners are Working Harder,” Lawrence Mishel)

 

There’s no a complete solution to our overly time-conscious lives, but scheduling a day to DO NOTHING productive is a great starting point.

Yes, you read that right. Schedule a day to DO NOTHING productive. No work. No grocery shopping. No checking “have-to’s” off your list.  

Many societies throughout history have baked this practice into a weekly rhythm called the Sabbath. Many of you remember a time when stores were closed on Sundays. 

After all, DOING NOTHING has several benefits:

    1. Relaxation: Doing nothing allows you to recharge your batteries.
    2. Creativity: Doing nothing allows your mind to wander and can lead to increased problem-solving skills.
    3. Increased productivity: Doing nothing can increase your productivity in the long run. It allows you to return to tasks with renewed energy and focus.
    4. Improved decision-making: Doing nothing allows you to reflect on your choices and consider different options.
    5. Improved relationships: Doing nothing can also allow you to connect with others and strengthen your connections, which research shows is THE key to long-term success.  

Source: Brian Rutherford, leadercast

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer”. 
– William S. Burroughs

Did you know this about disc?

DiSC is an assessment that aids with effective communication

Level of activity

  •  Top – tend to be fast-paced and are often described as assertive, dynamic, and bold.
    • They tend to exert effort to change their circumstances.
  • Bottom – tend to be more moderate paced and are often described as calm, methodical, and careful.
    •  They are more inclined to adapt to existing circumstances.

Level of acceptance

  • Left – naturally more skeptical in nature and are often described as logic-focused, objective, and challenging.
    • They instinctively withhold trust from people and ideas until those outside elements can be thoroughly vetted.
  • Right – naturally more receptive in nature and are often described as people-focused, empathizing, and agreeable.
    • They are biased to see the people and ideas around them as favorable and are thus inclined to trust them.

Don’t Miss Out on the Power of Failing Forward

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

Gratitude is Important in Difficult Times

Many things this year have been different than we’ve expected. It’s been a year of constant stressors, changes, and adjustments we never thought we’d have to make. I think we can all agree—it’s been a really difficult year.

And it’s okay for gratitude to look a bit different this year too. Although expressing gratitude is something we know we should do, being thankful in difficult seasons is easier said than done. One place we can start is by calling out the disappointment. It’s okay to be upset that this holiday season doesn’t look like we thought it would. It’s okay to feel the weight of the changes we’ve been through this year. From validating and acknowledging what exists inside us, we can begin to expand our minds to see the good.

  • What are some positive unexpected things that have come out of this year?
  • In what ways did you grow, adapt, or change for the better?
  • What blessings have you experienced?

I am incredibly blessed and thankful for all of you. Thank you all for being with us during a difficult year. For your willingness to learn and your openness to new ideas and training. Thank you for sharing yourselves and your passionate stories. Thank you for challenging us to grow with you. We have learned so much from your strength and watching you lead others through this unexpected time.

Thank you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Robyn Marcotte, Founder and CEO, Aha! Leadership

Why Advice Doesn’t Work

Michael Bungay Stanier, the author of The Advice Trap, writes why it’s important for leaders to silence their “Advice Monsters”, start listening and get curious. Michael states that the “Advice Trap” is the pattern of behavior where we give out answers more than we listen. He says advice doesn’t really work anymore for 3 reasons:

1. What you think is the problem isn’t the real problem. People talk about the problems that are on the forefront of their minds. It’s their ‘best guess’ at what the real problem is. Challenges arise when we try to give advice for the symptom, rather than the real problem.

2. Our advice isn’t as good as we think it is. And is usually based on our experience.  We have a cognitive bias. Advice is our best guess; however, we think we are better at giving advice then we actually are.

3. Giving advice is not the best form of leadership. Think through your intent for giving advice.  Is it more important for you to be right and have the best idea?  Or to provide someone else with the opportunity to come up with their own idea and take ownership of it?

Michael challenges leaders to resist giving the answer as long as possible until it is the right moment. There is a right moment to give advice – it is best to take pause and determine when that is…and why you are giving it.

Repurposed from marshallgoldsmith.com