Learning and Development Archives - Page 33 of 36

How To Empower Your Team Members

As a Team Leader what can you do to empower your team members? Let’s take a look at some ideas as to how you can approach this and get the most from your team.

Maybe you’ve seen them; the employee who is doing extremely well at their job. What can you do to continue to develop them? Are they perhaps ready to take on more responsibility? Or perhaps they need help with discovering and developing their strengths further so that they become more confident. The latter is where you come in as the team leader.

You will most likely be the one to encourage them to build their strengths and gain more confidence in themselves. By helping your team members grow within the company you are empowering them to take on more responsibility and to make better decisions.

How Do You Empower Them?

Begin by helping them learn and develop their skills. If they feel like their skills are being under-utilised, they may begin to wonder about moving on or in the worst case may even start to doubt their abilities. Help them improve their abilities and learn new skills so they can play a stronger role when contributing to projects. Give them access to courses and training. Allow them time to undertake a project in an area that they are passionate about and would like to develop in.

Think about how you can delegate specific tasks which will help them grow in areas they are interested in pursuing. Don’t leave them to their own devices in unfamiliar territory. Instead agree with them that you will be available for support until you and they agree that they no longer need your guidance. Gradually give them more responsibilities.

Continue empowering your team members’ confidence by being supportive of them. Build a strong foundation by connecting one-on-one with individuals. Really listen to their concerns and show them how much they are already contributing.

As the team leader you will have influence over who does what projects. Use this to help build someone’s confidence, giving them work they are good at and will be interested in. Their confidence and motivation will bloom when they have a chance to use their skills.

Setting Expectations

Let them know what your expectations are from the beginning. They need to know what the end goal is for a project for them to feel truly empowered. Be sure to clearly share what the short-term and long-term plans are for the company and for each project they are asked to do.

Give objective feedback regularly. Let your team members know how they are doing and what they can do to improve.
Create an environment that encourages your team members to grow and learn new skills.
Provide your team with all the information they need for any project you ask them to do that they normally don’t do.
Give your advice when it’s needed or asked for. Be available for your team members by making it easy for them to ask questions or get your feedback on something. Always let them know you are happy to answer their questions.

As a successful team leader you need to learn how to empower your team members to discover and develop their strengths and feel more confident in their abilities on the job. Help them make confident decisions, learn new skills and take on new projects with confidence.

Let Your Inner Leader Out – Leadership Isn’t Complicated

When we talk about Leaders and Leadership we tend to focus on the big names, the giants of business and politics don’t we? If I asked you to name leaders who come instantly to mind I would imagine that the names you will think of would generally be household names. We tend to think of leaders in terms of those who have achieved great things and often on a national or indeed global scale.

But for me there are many more leaders operating all around us than we might believe. People who are going about their daily lives, they are doing things that they are passionate about, involving others in their work and activities and delivering results. But these unsung or unlikely leaders may not even recognise it for themselves because all too often “Leadership” is elevated to the level of a mysterious set of skills and characteristics. Leadership and what it is has become an incredibly complex subject. You only have to look at the multitude of books on the art of leadership to recognise that it is a subject which many people have devoted tens of thousands of pages to.

Leadership isn’t or shouldn’t be a complex subject. It is happening all around us, people are demonstrating their leadership skills in so many different roles and in so many different ways. You don’t even have to have a team in order to be a Leader as I explain in a post here.

Those who have read other posts on this blog and anyone who knows me will be aware that I am a great believer in not over-complicating things. Which is why a few years ago I was so drawn to Steve Radcliffe’s book Leadership – Plain and Simple. As I mentioned in the post I had reason to re-read the book recently. Having done so I thought it was time to write a review. I cannot recommend this book highly enough because whether you are leading a team, job seeking or just want to approach your work from a different perspective this book has something to offer.

One of the things that you are going to appreciate about Steve Radcliffe’s book, Leadership: Plain and Simple, is that it really does delivers on what he promises in the title. The bottom line is that if you read, consider and then implement the strategies he outlines, you will find it relatively easy to start using them and then see positive results. The approach Steve outlines do not contain any elaborate or complicated formulas that frustrate or confuse readers who are looking for practical answers. The book provides you with real world examples in simple language and the tools needed to develop your leadership skills regardless of the current role that you hold.

The reason that Leadership: Plain and Simple is so engaging with readers is because Steve Radcliffe uses a unique FED approach to getting his message across. Within the 170 pages of this book, he clearly lays out his Future, Engage, and Deliver approach. Steve breaks down leadership into three clear stages:

Future – The Leader needs to have a clear vision that they can articulate about where the organisation is going. Or to put it another way they are “up to something” that they really care passionately about.
Engage – The Leader needs to be able to engage others, bring them onboard and get them moving towards that future vision.
Deliver – The Leader needs to be able to make things happen.

The approach he lays out in Leadership: Plain and Simple can be implemented as soon as the book has been completed. Through a very precise set of questioning, Steve will help you to understand exactly what your strengths already are, and where you need improvement in your leadership skills. Once you identify the areas that you are weak, the book is designed to help you to improve those areas through different scenarios that make you think about why you are lacking in those areas. The first chapters of the book go into specific detail in each of the three components of leadership, Future, Engage, and Deliver. There is one chapter dedicated to each of these practices, giving you the ability to create a strong foundation on which you build upon as you continue reading later chapters.

Once you begin reading these chapters, you will soon realize how important it is to understand what you care about and why is it so important for you to lead. Then you will learn about developing the skills needed for connecting and impacting those around you. Then once you learn to develop leadership skills, you will see how delivering through others will give you the ability to both deliver more today and in the future.

I am sure that as you read will quickly start to realise, like me, that a misconception that has been circulating for decades. There is no reason for leadership to be complicated, regardless of a persons IQ level or their job title, the natural human activity of leadership is within us all just waiting to be let out and developed. If you can create a compelling enough future, you have the ability to become an effective and powerful leader. This book will show you that if your future is compelling and you can get emotionally connected to it, you have the greatest chances of becoming a very strong leader.

As I said earlier, this is probably the best book on Leadership that I have ever read and I have read a few over the years! It’s Leadership – Plain and Simple and it’s an opportunity that’s waiting for you to grasp it.

You can buy Steve Radcliffe’s book here:

In the UK: Leadership – Plain and Simple
In the US: Leadership – Plain and Simple

When Did Learning & Development Become So Complex?

I read a lot of articles, papers and indeed books about Learning and Development as you might expect. It’s good to keep abreast of the latest thinking, hear about people exploring new ideas and approaches and testing out what works and doesn’t work.

However, sometimes I do wonder if we as Learning & Development Professionals have a tendency to over-complicate things. One of my passions throughout the time that I have been involved in L&D is to make learning accessible and to communicate with people in a way which makes sense to them. Of course it’s right and proper that we as professionals in our field stretch ourselves, reflect on our learning and share things with others. But do we always need to dress it up in seemingly obtuse language or come up with some clever description for it?

I was discussing this the other day with a fellow L&D Professional and one of the comments that they made was that they thought that sometimes we do it in order to express our uniqueness as a profession. They pondered whether, in a world where many organisations still bundle L&D responsibilities into the remit of an HR. Generalist, we might feel the need to carve out a very distinct identity for Learning & Development.

That set me thinking about what L&D is ultimately about and why having spent some time throughout my career with HR. Generalist responsibilities I chose to specialise in L&D. I can well remember one of the first events that I attended which opened my eyes to the impact that Learning & Development could have. Having participated in a number of “Train The Trainer” events since I first started to drift into the L&D area I was a little sceptical about this event, assuming that it would be more of the same. However, it was to be a revelation. The trainer was enthused about their topic and they conveyed that enthusiasm to the group.

I call it an “event” but in reality it was more of an informal discussion with a group of us sat comfortably around the room and a flipchart set to one side. No high-powered laptops, PowerPoint presentations or other fancy gadgets and distractions. It was a discussion about “How do people learn?” The Trainer/Discussion Facilitator acted as a guide as we explored all the usual suspects (courses, books etc.) and then explored what we didn’t know that we knew. He opened my eyes to the wealth of learning opportunities that we don’t even realise we are experiencing as we go about our daily lives. He skilfully helped us to consider how we could reflect on that learning, apply that learning to our work based challenges and keep on learning.

I remember his closing sentiments to this day which were along the lines of “Our job as L&D people is to help others learn how to learn and to provide them with the tools, resources and opportunities to learn. We need to enthuse people with a passion for learning; to enable them to see that learning is easy; learning isn’t about the when, where, or the how it’s about the what; the ability to learn is a lifelong skill and like a passion for reading it’s a gift which we can awaken in others.”

For me that has been a guiding approach ever since. Whatever the latest fad is, be it eLearning, mobile learning, blended learning, social learning, unstructured learning, is largely irrelevant. Whatever deep and meaningful ponderings we come up with to explain our latest approach are all irrelevant.

What matters is that we as Learning & Development Professionals are encouraging a real passion for learning and once we awaken that passion in others we are making a real difference. I will close with a comment I made on Twitter earlier today:

L&D’s mission, if they choose to accept it, to help people to learn how to learn & then provide the tools to feed their desire to learn.

Are you ready to accept your mission?

Do You Use A Reflective Journal?

I have written about the need to reflect on our learning a number of times of late. It’s something which I have found invaluable and try to build into my activity on a regular basis. Indeed, I commented recently when I started this blog that in many ways it was a form of reflective writing for me as much as a way of helping others.

However, I am aware that keeping a reflective journal and writing in it on a daily or even weekly basis can be a challenge if you are not familiar with the approach. Reflecting on that reminded me of The Reflective Journal, which was written by Barbara Bassot.

It is designed to help readers critically assess their academic or professional progress and is as suitable for working professionals in any fieled as it is for students studying a variety of disciplines.

Have you completed Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s learning styles questionnaire or indeed any questionnaire that looks at learning styles? If you have and you have identified that you have any reflector traits, then Bassot’s reflective journal can help you reflect on your career progress or on the information you’ve learned as part of a formal training course. If you have completed any type of learning styles inventory and have identified that you need to develop more skills around reflection then I would suggest that it’s ideal.

As well as giving you ample free space to record new information and observations, The Reflective Journal also contains a variety of useful techniques to help you become a critical reflective writer. If you haven’t had any prior experience writing in a reflective journal, then The Reflective Journal, is an ideal first reflective journal, as the process of writing in a reflective journal differs from writing in a traditional journal. To get the best out of the whole exercise, which will be an ongoing one, then learning how to properly utilise a relfective journal, in order to get the most out of your reflective exercises is very worthwhile.

The key to writing in a reflective journal, is to write in such a way that you can pin point the areas in which your knowledge is sufficient and the areas of your study or career, in which you need to invest a little more time. If you’re unsure of how to write journal entries which will give you an indication of your strengths, your weaknesses and potential opportunities to further your successes, The Reflective Journal, will guide you through each step of the reflective writing process.

One of the advantages of The Reflective Journal, is that is an easy read and isn’t too wordy or verbose (which with my passion for plain language gives it a big tick!) Unlike some of the other reflective journals being sold which contain lengthy text and few practical activities, The Reflective Journal has been carefully written so that readers spend more time practising reflective writing and less time reading. Each chapter, teaches readers how to build upon their reflective writing skills and offers a few practical exercises, for readers to put their new knowledge to the test. After all, the best way to retain knowledge and to improve your writing skills is to practice writing.

Whether you’re looking to get an A on your next university exam, start your own business or get a new role or a promotion, The Reflective Journal will help you get the most out of your reflecting writing, so that you’ll be able to reach your academic or professional goals. If it is something that interests you then I can highly recommend Barbara Bassot’s The Reflective Journal

Being Open to Informal Learning Experiences

It’s all too easy for us as adults to tend to think that learning ends as soon as we finish our formal qualifications or training. We may recognise that we are still learning when we participate in classroom or even online learning events related to our work but beyond that I wonder how often we consider that we are learning? If we don’t think that we are learning then there is little chance that we will stop and reflect on the learning we have experienced, evaluate the outcomes and even validate what we have learnt.

The reality is that the little thing called “life” has many ways of keeping the learning process alive and kicking. The problem is that we don’t necessarily see these informal learning experiences for what they are. Instead we view them as occurrences which can either result in something good or bad. We never really consider how we grow from them.

More importantly, we don’t always recognise the opportunities they present. There is a lot of truth in the saying “You are never too old to learn”. As someone who is genuinely passionate about encouraging awareness of continuous learning and development I wanted to take a look at some of the opportunities that we may miss for experiencing learning.

In the Workplace

One of the best examples when it comes to the workplace has to be the decisions you have to make. When the odds are stacked against you to finish a project or simply to perform your normal duties, when you have to respond to suggestions in meetings, when your boss suddenly asks you to do something different in a rush the likeliehood is that you will may need to find methods you hadn’t previously used. It may be that you use an approach that you have observed someone else use effectively or you may come up with a completely different approach. Whichever it, I would encourage you to take a few minutes towards the end of each working day or perhaps at home to think about “What did I learn today?”

What did you do differently? What new skills did you develop? Did you use any different approaches than what you would normally use? You may well be astounded to know how many new things you learn on a daily basis if you just pay attention.

In Public

What lessons can you possibly learn from being out in public? First of all, keep in mind that learning experiences don’t necessarily have to happen to you. Just observing the actions of others can be tremendously informative. . How many times have you found yourself just observing your environment? More often than not you will see or hear something you didn’t know or realise before.

Inside Family and Personal Circles

Relationships are probably the most valuable situations for learning something new. It opens up different points of view you never even considered. It might teach you how to become more patient or daring. It can also teach you to be more compassionate. These interactions will greatly affect how you interact with other people. Communication skills are developed with every conversation, especially if you don’t know the person already. Your friends and family provides a safe platform for trying new jokes and topics. By using this safe platform you learn what to say and when to say it.

Home Alone

Yes, even being alone can be a learning experience. Taking the time to reflect on your life opens the door to finding new things you didn’t know about yourself. For instance, 10 years ago you used to love gossip and telling stories. Now all of a sudden you don’t really care for rumours that much. Many elements or habits that you had fade away without you really noticing. In turn you discover that you’re actually good with something that used to be a weakness. All of this informal learning so often takes place without us even realising it’s happening.

Social Media

Let’s not forget one of my favourite places for informal learning experiences which is social media. News and opinions are available at the blink of an eye. Even better are the opportunities social media provides. Finding a nice job or getting your music video in public view is now easier than ever. It is also a place where we don’t really notice how much we learn. We find ourselves reading a blog post about learning and development or whatever is our own field of work, whilst a few minutes earlier we were looking at the obligatory cat or dog pictures. Endless information resides at our fingertips and we don’t necessarily consider the impact it has.

Just like every action leads to a reaction, so does waking up in the morning and allowing ourselves to be open to learning something. The human brain truly acts like a sponge and in the end you decide to use what has been soaked up; most of the time you won’t even notice that you are learning something. What makes these experiences so valuable? Why do you need to become more conscious about what you learn every hour?

The main reason is opportunity. All these situations usually result in some kind of opportunity. Job promotions are given to those who think further than the rest. More specifically, those who pay attention to the new skills they develop and use them at the correct time are going to reap the rewards. Ultimately it is up to us to see these opportunities when they occur, because these informal learning experiences prepared us for it.

Just about everything you do can be turned into an informal learning experience and whilst it might be a little bit too much to analyse everything, do try to reflect a little bit more on things you would normally see as insignificant. Chances are your opportunities in life will increase dramatically if you are open to and aware of the informal learning experiences that are all around you.