When working on improving leadership skills, leaders are quick to seek training courses and books. However incorporating on-the-job learning strategies is not only efficient and effective, it yields other valuable benefits.
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Jaya had recently been promoted and moved to a new part of her organisation. Having previously completed a 360 assessment, in consultation with her supervisor, she had chosen strategic thinking as one of her key leadership skills to work on.
As her executive coach, I verified that this was relevant to her role and also something that she was personally interested in, before asking her to draft a learning plan that would help close her gaps.
When we met again to review her plan, Jaya had compiled a list of books and online courses and wanted me to recommend any relevant seminars or workshops that would help her.
The No 1 Mistake Leaders Make When Creating Learning Plans
Now, while I’m a big fan of books and online learning, I did not think they were the most effective and efficient ways for learning in her context. Neither would attending a conference or seminar provide what she specifically needed. Jaya had made the mistake that most leaders and professionals make when formulating their learning plans - they almost exclusively focus on training and conferences as means of learning.
Besides the fact that such training only contributes about 10% of what we learn as adults, there were a few other problems with her learning plan:
- Books, online courses and most seminars/conferences approach the subject generically. It is very rare to find something that addresses your specific work context
- Most such training forces you to start from scratch - ignoring much of what you already know and are probably good at
- This type of learning happens in isolation. Learning is best served if it acknowledges and leverages the collaborative and interdependent reality of the leader’s work
On-The-Job (In Role) Learning for Improving Leadership Skills
Incorporate on-the-job learning strategies to improve leadership skills more efficiently and effectively
An efficient and effective learning plan is based on the realisation that the major part (roughly estimated at 70% per some studies) of learning happens on job. We learn more by doing and our learning is more effective when it is set in the context of our jobs.
While on-the-job training approaches are extensively used for entry level positions and imparting hard skills, there are ways in which to structure learning on job (or ‘in role’) for improving leadership skills as well. While there are virtually countless ways of facilitating learning on job, the ones that we have found most relevant and effective for experienced professionals and leaders include
Shadowing
Here the learner pairs up with someone who is performing the job for a period of time. This is typically used in planned transitions, by providing a period of overlap for new leader and outgoing leader. It can also be useful for the new leader to shadow some of his key direct reports to learn nuts and bolts of his new job.
Simulation
This is a case study like approach, but more immersive - where the learner tries to recreate work previously done, in a “non-production” environment. This allows the learner to gain a rich and nuanced understanding of the requirements, make assumptions, discover interdependencies and contingencies, arrive at decisions and take action - all without creating a “mess” in real world. The scope of the simulation can be managed to provide the most relevant learning without imposing unreasonable demands on the leader’s time and those of others involved.
Reviews
Participating in a structured and detailed Lessons Learnt Review or After Action Review, where participants conduct a post-mortem of a completed project/program (successful or otherwise) with a view to learning from it, is an excellent way of furthering individual and organisational learning goals simultaneously.
Based on our discussion, Jaya went back and reformulated her learning plan and began implementing it. Jaya did not eschew books and online leadership skills courses altogether - but made these a part of a much richer and broader learning plan that acknowledged and leveraged her organisational context in the development of her leadership skills.
Benefits Of In Role Learning for Leaders
A few weeks later, when reviewing progress, my client mentioned that she was further ahead on her learning journey than she had expected. Besides a better grasp of what strategic thinking meant specifically in her role, she also saw other benefits:
- Shadowing and debriefing/learning discussions with key team members helped her increase connect with them and build stronger relationships
- Working with strategies, plans and other work product from her own organisation provided her a deeper understanding of the organisation’s business, priorities and strategies
- Learning on the job meant much of her learning was now happening at the office, and hence not encroaching much on her personal time which reading and online courses would have required
- Involving stakeholders in her learning (validating assumptions, testing understanding, asking very relevant questions) not only improved her grasp of the issues, her growth was also clearly visible to them
Besides improving her leadership skills, this accelerated learning and being better connected also helped Jaya pursue a few quick wins, manage internal politics better, introduce new initiatives and increase her overall impact as a leader.
We learn more by doing and our learning is more effective when it is set in the context of our jobs
