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Leadership vs. Management
Effective talent development strategies support growth in leadership and management skills very differently. Developing leadership skills occurs over time and through varied experiences. For instance, applying mentoring and spot coaching on top of real work scenarios is common within leadership development.
Managers, in addition to leadership training, need practical, on-demand resources to get them up to speed quickly regarding company systems, procedures, new technology implementations, etc. This kind of content requires information to be accessible from anywhere, designed in easy-to-digest formats, and at best, personalized to their role or task at hand.
The design of the content, delivery mechanisms, and overall learning experiences should feel very different for individuals engaging in training, depending on whether they are wearing the “managers hat” or the “leaders hat” in that moment. The key is to design the right objectives, training formats (modalities), delivery frequency, and data-gathering mechanisms that are mapped to the employee within their context.
Reactive, responsive, or proactive. Reactive solutions can still be strategic. Although they often feel disorganized, they can get the job done quickly. The best responsive solutions, driven from program evaluations or employee survey data, for instance, are connected to the overall business strategy or talent management goals. On the proactive side, as the business will need to grow and adapt, talent development strategies can help drive necessary change as well as lessen the impact of important disruption. Below is a selection of responsive and proactive solutions I’ve worked on that address both leadership and manager training.
Selected Projects
1. Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)
Summary: Learning experience for sales executives covering best practices for mitigating one’s own unconscious biases (UB) in order to improve self awareness, decision making, and increase job performance
My Role: L&D Lead
Target audience: Commercial managers
Modality: Blended (ILT, video, online, mobile app)
Business Issue: People leaders lacked self-awareness and techniques for mitigating their own unconscious biases, risking employee/team engagement and business outcomes.
Objectives
Increase self awareness and impact of UB via new learning modalities
Introduce new language into the workplace that defines D&I along with its associated behaviors
Results: 100% adoption of post-program pull-through training solutions; reinforced on-demand online resources, included custom learning paths and microlearning assets.
Skills Used: Program design, SME collaboration
2. Coaching for Direct Reports
Summary: Course for leaders who want to be more effective in coaching others for sustainable performance during organization changes
My Role: Course Designer
Target audience: Managers
Modality: Blended (ILT, video, chat bot, coaching circles, webinars)
Business Issue: Leaders lacked skills in properly recognizing employees, and acting as coaches for employee development.
Objectives
Help managers make a positive difference in the work lives of direct reports
Help develop an employee towards their full potential
Introduce blended technology to aid learning
Results: Revised an outdated program, 150% increasing annual enrollment, introduced pull-through learning, demonstrated Level 2 evaluation (new knowledge gained), introduced new technology to support pull-through learning. Addressed new KPI’s to measure alumni cohort participation.
Skills Used: Program design, vendor selection/management, facilitator training
3. Management Fundamentals
Summary: Professional development resource for emerging and front-line people leaders, utilizing techniques for managing individuals vs. leading teams
My Role: Lead Program Designer
Target audience: Emerging leaders
Modality: Blended (ILT, video, virtual reality)
Business Issue: Employees were being promoted into supervisor roles without formal leadership or manager training which created inconsistencies in team management, recognition of employees, and performance management practices.
Objectives
Refine the role of the manager and the key transitions needed to move from individual contributor to manager
Apply critical building block skills for managing individual and team success
Create pull-through e-learning and cohort-based online networking
Results: ~ 200 annual attendees. Updated delivery format from traditional ILT, adding online social learning, and Immersive (VR) Learning. Level 1 eval: 4.7 average.
Skills Used: Program design, writing, facilitator trainer, training operations strategy, vendor management