Training employees or team players in any organisation is one of the most neglected aspects.
By JONAH NYONI
As a leader, you might fear that when you train an individual, they may be snatched by another organisation.
Some employees I have interviewed have never been trained by their organisation.
Some leaders cite the unavailability of finances as a reason not to train their employees.
When was the last time your organisation took employees out for a seminar?
Or when last did you bring in an expert to train your employees?
Why is it important to train leaders and their employees?
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Who should be trained?
What content should employees and leaders be given?
Training as a change strategy
When an organisation is envisaging or planning change, employees must be atoned mentally to accept change.
As long as the thinking has not changed, nothing changes.
The vision, goals and objectives for change must be clearly spelt out to everyone.
Every cog must align and feed properly into other departments.
The Harvard Review (2016) in an article titled Why Leadership Training Fails, points to common barriers to change.
It said: “Companies consistently struggle with (1) unclear direction on strategy and values, which often leads to conflicting priorities; (2) senior executives, who don’t work as a team and haven’t committed to a new direction or acknowledged necessary changes in their own behaviour; (3) a top-down or laissez-faire style by the leader, which prevents honest conversation about problems; (4) a lack of coordination across businesses, functions, or regions due to poor organisational design; (5) inadequate leadership time and attention given to talent issues; and (6) employees’ fear of telling the senior team about obstacles to the organisation’s effectiveness.”
Companies should train to avoid those change barriers.
Training front liners
The first people we see or meet when we visit any organisation are the people we usually look down upon.
These are: security guards, grounds people, cleaners and receptionists.
What training is there for this group of people?
They could be trained in customer relations management (CRM), grooming and etiquette and telephone etiquette.
These are the people that are constantly in touch with customers.
To grow your brand, you need to train the front liners
Management training
Leaders or managers are the engine that drives the organisation.
Managers must find time to hone their skills, especially using external experts.
John C Maxwell always says everything rises and falls on leadership.
Effective leadership and management is premised on training and constant learning.
Motivated people inspire others or inspired people inspire others.
As such, leaders must be incentivised to keep them in good spirits.
Leaders should be coaches not commanders.
The purpose of a leader is to influence others to be effective.
Leaders must carry the vision, values and the direction of the organisation, and it’s incumbent upon them not to tell employees what to do, but coach the employee and have the employee work towards the goals.
Organisational change comes from individual behavioural change, that change is possible through coaching.
Learn the right things
As change is coming swift or fast, they could be a temptation to be always learning.
This might be very dangerous, as it could lead to information overload.
Secondly, we must learn right and relevant information.
Customised learning
Companies give generalised information to everyone and this is not a problem.
It is incumbent upon the employee also to look for specific individualised trainings.
It is up to the employee to educate themselves.
This is important, in seeking self-education, we usually learn in line with our passion and innate purpose.
Double-loop learning
An organisation has it rituals or processes, which are at times must be unlearned.
These might have been effective in the past, but they might not be relevant now.
So double-loop learning is a way to break employees or team from the way things are always done.
In other terms, this learning questions things and encourages deeper creative and inventive thinking.
Preach it and live it!
Leaders must learn to practice what they preach.
Organisational trust is based on whether the leaders or managers can be trusted.
Are you transparent as a leader?
Can you be trusted?
The leader should be open enough to tell the employee how they climbed up the ropes.
An insecure leader is usually secretive on how they made it in life.
The more you are open, the more you are trusted and the more you are trusted, the easier it becomes to teach others.
lJonah Nyoni is an author, success coach and certified leadership/business trainer. He is the author of Inspiration for Success and Success Within Reach. Contact details: Tel: 0772 581 918. Email: [email protected]. Twitter@jonahnyoni.
