Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink

20 - Strategizing Professional Development

• Leah Fink • Season 1 • Episode 20

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Could the key to bolstering your team's growth lie in the way you allocate professional development funds? In this episode, we unravel the threads of individual ambition and collective efficiency in the fabric of professional growth. This exploration isn't just about finding a sweet spot for your team's development budget; it's about forging a strategy to ensure these choices resonate with your team's goals and values, propelling everyone towards transformative success.

Is your budget and time being used in the best way to maximize individual and team outcomes?

If you are looking for a way to chart a course to a more empowered and harmonious workplace, join us for this episode.

To have your questions answered on the show, submit your story here: https://allthrive.ca/share-your-story

Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink is live every week at 5:00pm MST.  Please join us to get answers to your leadership questions! https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-fink-all-thrive/

Speaker 1:

Every action you take as a leader has a ripple effect, starting with your team, going out to the organization and even out into people's personal lives. Here we offer you the chance to learn from real life stories of leadership so you can gain a deeper understanding and level up your own skills From communication to culture, to power and equity, to feedback, to resolving conflict and more. Join us and make sure you're creating the ripples you want. Welcome to Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink. I'm so glad you could join us. Today. We're going to be talking a little bit about what learning and development, professional development, looks like for your team and really where to spend that budget. Where are you putting your money and time and effort to try to learn and grow, and is it having the kind of impact? Is it being as effective as you want it to be? So Dee Dee writes in with her question. She says I have a healthy budget for professional development for my team. It's one of the benefits that draws a lot of people to the company, including myself.

Speaker 2:

Now that I'm on the leadership side of things, though, I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with how it's used. A lot of my staff use it to go to conferences. They do trainings. We've done some workshops, we've done retreats. We've tried a lot of different things. The problem is, I don't think a lot of the things we do change much about our day to day work. Once in a while we'll do something really fun or interesting, and people will talk about it for a while. Then it will be mostly forgotten. I'm starting to look at the money spent on some of these things as wasted, when I could be using it for other things the team needs. How do I make this not feel wasteful? Thank you for sharing that, dee Dee, and this is not the first time I've heard about this, and I even remember both being an employee and a leader and trying to figure out both what I would potentially want to do for professional development or how I want to allocate funds for my team and it can be complicated. So, as we talk about this today, really, this core question that's going to come up is for your team and your needs.

Speaker 2:

As I go through some of these ideas, what do you really want and need? Let's just start by thinking back on what you said drew you to your company, this opportunity that you had to do more learning and development to develop yourself and your professional world, and you said you were keen on that. That was one of the reasons. So I'm curious, dee Dee. First of all, how did you use that money? What were you able to do? Did you go to conferences? Did you get technical training? Did you do workshops and retreats, like you're providing for your team? And, beyond that, what actually changed any of your practice and improved things, and what still stands out for you. What do you remember and why?

Speaker 2:

I would say that's a really great starting point as you start to think about this, because when I've talked to employees and leaders before, I've heard so many perspectives about professional development or learning and development and I'll say employees often have a very different idea about it than leaders. Some really love it, some hate it on both sides leaders and employees and I've heard a whole range of why things were impactful or not impactful. And if you look at it from the employee side, usually when employees talk about enjoying professional development, they focus more on that personal growth, career advancement, with that networking, the enjoyment that they get from these opportunities, and that's because of their role in the company. That's the view that they have. They're looking potentially to benefit from this, of course, personally, which might mean opportunities for career advancement, opportunities for other positions and other organizations. So when you look at that you might think, oh well, a conference is an opportunity not just to get away from the office, maybe travel, have a little bit of fun, but also make some networking connections that might lead to future career opportunities, to develop an understanding of the field that might help them advance in their current role. They have these different intentions and hopes that they're going in with. So you first want to acknowledge that.

Speaker 2:

So, for employees, usually they're looking at those personal opportunities that'll benefit them. Now, of course, leaders are looking at the same thing. They're looking for what will benefit them, but they have a different scope. We have a different view because you understand more about the organization. You're now responsible for different outcomes. So the things that will make your life and job easier are generally going to be some slightly bigger picture things. You're going to be looking at your team how efficient they are, how well they communicate, how well they work together. These are pieces more around culture, right? These bigger picture concepts of how your team operates. So that might mean you're looking at things that will increase people's technical skills so they can do a more efficient job, things that influence their interpersonal skills that are improving team outcomes, maybe making people more efficient, all of those components. And so when you're a leader looking at professional development compared to an employee looking at it, both are looking to what will make their life easier and better, but those, of course, are different things in those different roles and from what I'm hearing from you, dd, maybe it sounds like some of your needs in a leadership role aren't being met as well, and maybe they weren't an employee role, maybe because you got to do these conferences and these activities which served you personally. So let's talk a little bit about how we can balance this and maybe some things that you can use to make these kinds of decisions, and I'll talk about the advantages and challenges of a couple of different options. I'm going to use the four that you suggested. Of course, there are more categories, there's so many options for this out there, but let's keep it a little bit contained.

Speaker 2:

Today, just looking at skill development, technical training and this is generally one of the easier options to understand and to be able to track impact A lot of jobs obviously require technical skills. It may even be a requirement for the role to do certain trainings and, of course, there's lots of opportunities to upgrade skills that will make an employee better at the technical parts of their role. So when you look at that type of training specifically, you should have a pretty good sense of where your employees are, what training they might need, what skills would best serve them, would best serve the group. These might be proposed to, of course, buy an employee or you may see a gap or a space where you want them to improve, and so you want to invest the money that way, and employees may like these kinds of opportunities because it makes them understand their job better, so that might make their job easier. It increases their ability for promotions, potentially, or for other roles, because they now have more qualifications behind them and they might enjoy these kinds of learning. Right, they might be in this field because they really like this topic and so they're happy to learn more about it.

Speaker 2:

And, as a leader, you might like these because, well, if there are requirements, you need to have them, but this might mean your employees make less mistakes, they work quicker, they work more efficiently, they understand each other better, and so there is really a lot of advantage, obviously, to having technical training. People need to know their role and you need to support them in that. These do work best when you are really clear about the individual goals they serve, the team goals they serve, and if they're not aligned with those goals, if you don't have a really clear sense of why this person is doing their training and what you expect from it, they're probably not going to have the most impact. They're much more powerful when you make sure this kind of learning is what is going to support either that individual or your team. So let's move on from that.

Speaker 2:

We'll go to conferences. Now. Conferences can be a really great space to network, for example. They can present new ideas, they'll teach about changes in industry, they'll provide sometimes inspiration and of course they can be fun because they might have some travel or an enjoyment component with that networking or with the way that they're structured. Now staff often see them as maybe providing a bigger picture view of the industry. That once again serves them. It opens up future opportunities and leaders might like them because when staff go they might get these new ideas, they may bring back some inspiration or some innovation, they might have new connections that serve the whole team and so those future pieces, that big picture piece, might be appreciated by both of those groups obviously.

Speaker 2:

Now conferences, on the other hand, aren't the best at in-depth skill development or creating any sort of team or cultural change, because obviously there are shorter timeframe usually, so that learning that you're getting, if it's new, it's generally at a pretty introductory level, and so that means you'll have to probably more time or money into learning more, continuing to develop that skill, and because often you're not sending your whole team, or if your whole team goes, they're not always in the same workshop or talk. It's hard to get a shared sense of learning. So if a couple team members or one team member learn something, now they're responsible for trying to share this great new idea with the whole team and they might not have enough information for that, or mix something up, something that's lost in translation. It can be complicated. So a lot of people, when they go to conferences, have a great time, get excited about what they learn, but it's really hard to have that translate into long lasting impact and change for the organization and for the team. Now, these do work best when you have a really clear objective from your staff and a plan of how that will be followed up and integrated with whatever they learn, how you're actually going to apply it.

Speaker 2:

Next let's move on to retreats or experiences, and this could include any activity that has a component that doesn't directly relate to your work. So this could be anything from taking your employees away to a tropical location for a week to doing team building activities in the office that aren't directly related to your technical skill, and obviously, anything in between. Now, of course, these are great because they are usually the most fun. They're this fantastic opportunity for social connection, and employees may enjoy this because it's a break from their usual work. It might be a new experience, a different way to connect with their coworkers. Maybe there's some sort of challenge and mastery component that gives this great sense of self satisfaction or accomplishment, and leaders might like it for similar reasons. Right, this powerful way to bond the team.

Speaker 2:

I've lived in this world of experiential learning for a long, long time and the kind of impact you can have from doing these activities together is much different than you might have from your general day to day communication with someone learning about someone in an office. When these aren't done well, employees and managers may also see these as wasting time, making people away from work and having this meaningless fund that doesn't really amount to anything, and this usually happens when people are creating these experiences. That just picked a random experience that doesn't have to do with team values, doesn't have to do with the goals that you're working towards and has no component that connects the kind of bonding you're doing or the experience you're having with what's meaningful to your team and the direction you're moving in. So what you really want to do is make sure that this is well laid out, very intentional and integrated with some of this learning so it has a long lasting impact. It can be amazingly fun and connected and also have this real impact on the team moving forward. And then, finally, we have workshops, and I'll include, like any sort of team learning here, and I found through my experiences, are generally the best way to create long lasting change, especially an interpersonal and cultural change, because when you are co-learning, it means that everyone in the group has shared language. You get this shared understanding of this new skill or this new way that you're working towards and that makes it easier to create shifts that everyone is on board with. It gives a better ability to problem solve when you're together like that.

Speaker 2:

Staff might like these because they gain information that they can use for their professional lives, maybe for their personal lives as well. It might make their work easier or improve their relationship with co-workers, make things a little bit smoother that way, which can be a real benefit. Now, these opportunities should really be built with the specific team and their specific challenges in mind, so you can really leverage those skills and learn new pieces or advance to new pieces together. These don't work well when they're really general, when they're maybe at the wrong level for the team, based on everyone's skill level, if they're not alignment with goals or if they're not built to actually be followed up on, not just a one off experience, because of course, then staff can be frustrated. If you're doing a workshop every couple months, you learn something interesting, everyone learns it, and then nothing said about it again, that can be really frustrating and staff have. I've heard this lots from staff oh, we did this thing and we never talked about it again.

Speaker 2:

So you want that sense of continuity, that staff can continue learning what they're doing and that it gets integrated into their day to day lives so it actually makes a change in the workplace and so they work best. When they're created for the team, they need to be intentional and they need to have the sense that everyone can buy into them and it would make a difference. With all of this in mind, you have some things to consider as you plan for how you might use your budget and how you might use your time. So if you've been listening to previous episodes, you've probably got a sense. We really encourage great communication, making decisions based on your values, having these communications about what's important to people and also how to be responsive as a leader to your staff team's individual needs. Hopefully you have been having some of those discussions with your team and what you have from those are some individual and team goals and this direction of where you're trying to go.

Speaker 2:

Now, of course, this is what you want to base your decision on. You now have this information and some different ways you might consider the benefits and maybe weaknesses of different options. So what are you looking for from your team? If you're looking at some of the staff's individual goals, that might be more towards conferences and skill development, where they see that benefit of immediate pieces that they can use to apply to their work that they'll enjoy more. That look at opportunities for advancement. And if you look at the team goals and development, you may be looking more towards those experiences or workshops, because they're more about that culture, that cohesion, how we work together and DD is a leader you may find yourself leaning more towards that, and maybe that's the piece that you're missing a little bit. More is how are we as a team doing things that serve me as a leader to make sure that we're getting the outcomes that I'm responsible for.

Speaker 2:

So if you are in a similar situation to DD, maybe you're feeling like you're not getting that sustained change, that your goals aren't in alignment, that there's kind of all this random training and learning happening that's not really doing anything. Take some time to consider what is best for your group, because I ultimately can't tell you that. I've had years to practice this. I have a perspective based on making workshops and experiences that have this long lasting impact, based on this alignment, this intentionality, and you need to be responsible for understanding your team, your challenges, strengths, weaknesses and what you're really needing in the moment. And if you have questions about that, if you disagree with anything I've said today, of course, please do reach out. I would be happy to help you talk through any of this and, of course, dd, I will be following up with you specifically to say thank you for contributing your idea to the show and to make sure your question is fully answered.

Speaker 2:

And if you want to submit your story or question to the show, I would love to hear from you. You can find the link for that in the description below. And if you want to join us live so you can comment and ask your questions. We would love to have you. The link for that is in the description below. Now, if you've been enjoying the show, I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a review or a comment or a rating on our podcast app. That is so helpful to us and I would really appreciate it. I want to thank you so much for taking part in this discussion. I really hope that all you're learning and development money is going the right direction for your team, so you're actually kind of creating the kind of change that you're looking for. So thank you for listening. Have a great week.

Speaker 1:

We hope you enjoyed the episode. Make sure to subscribe, comment and connect with Leah at meetleahca.