Managers as Lifelong Learners How to build a learning organization

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .......................................................................................3

Building Talent in Your Organization .....................................................6

Goal Alignment ..........................................................................7

Skill Development ....................................................................10

Talent Mobility .........................................................................13

FAQ’s Related to Organizational Learning Strategies ...........................16

INTRODUCTION

Practical experience is great, but sometimes formal training and development is still necessary.

In the long run, the only sustainable competitive advantage an organization has is its ability to learn faster than its competition. Effective managers realize that they cannot leave school as “A Manager-in-a-Box” and never

look back. They need to be lifelong learners ready to engage a lifetime of business challenges. Many people will agree that practical experience is a great way to learn. In fact, if you’ve been around the block a time or two, the old adage “experience is the best teacher” is probably anchored in your mindset. When I reflect on my business training and development through practical experience I always find Will Rogers’ perspective insightful, but also at times, troublesome.

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Why troublesome? There is definitely a negative impact on individuals and organizations when continuing education is downplayed or, even worse, when formal training and development is completely discontinued. Let’s face it, formal training and development is often necessary. When you hire employees, it would be convenient if they would be adept at every skill the job requires or will require in the future, but that’s not realistic. Demands change, so businesses have to adapt quickly, which means managers need to take on a growth mindset. Managers with growth mindsets believe that they and their teams can learn, change, and develop new skills as needed. They focus on building talent within their marketing organizations.

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“Old dog, new tricks, no problem!”

Once asked to write a full story in just six words, legend has it that novelist Ernest Hemingway

responded: “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I can express my full personal story in just six

words: “Old dog, new tricks, no problem!” Those six words explain my approach and attitude

toward marketing training and development. If you want to grow your personal brand and

career you’ll serve yourself and company well if you dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.

Marketing is as powerfully impacted by

ongoing technological changes as any field.

Customer Relationship Management, Business

Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, Marketing

Automation, Marketing Resource Management,

Big Data, and Social Media are just the

start. By the way, let’s not forget changes in

consumer behavior which often result in new

regulations like: Do Not Call, CAN SPAM, Do

Not Mail, Do Not Track, Do Not Collect, Do Not

Deliver Directories and Opt Out, Opt In. For this

reason, CMOs must recognize the importance

of ongoing learning – for themselves and their

staff – to keep up with the latest marketing

strategies, technology, and relevant skills.

You don’t need to be in the training and development industry to realize that paying attention

to your own learning path and the learning paths of your staff members will provide a

return on investment. For example, social media works as a means of connecting entire

organizations with the market. That means new social and communication media involves the

broader learning strategy of your entire organization, and that lifelong learning is therefore

central to the success of your company.

BUILDING TALENT IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

Employees need to be prepared and motivated for the next challenge. Organizations need the

human capital infrastructure in place to give their workforce the right skills to work on the right

projects in the right roles. They do this through a focus on three key talent management areas:

goal alignment, skills development and talent mobility.

1. Goal Alignment: Strategy execution fails in large part due to differing goal priorities.

When your best people spend their valuable time doing a fantastic job on all the wrong

stuff, success will be elusive. Getting everyone on the same page is a high-impact

process.

2. Skills Development: You want your employees to do and build great things. But are

you building great employees? Great employees are built by great managers who make

training and development a priority.

3. Talent Mobility: Moving employees from role to role across leadership and functional

areas is common practice among organizations that understand the need to quickly

transform as business needs change. Talent mobility planning must strike a balance

between the needs of the organization (making sure key roles have fully developed

pipelines) and the employee (your best performers will leave if they do not see new

challenges).

These three processes are tightly intertwined. Talent mobility planning without subsequent

development is useless paper-pushing or wishful thinking. Goal alignment without talent

or development planning might mean you don’t have the people equipped with the skills

necessary to get the job done. Development that’s not driven by organizational or career goals

is likely to go unused and be a waste of time. The outputs of these combined processes are

nothing short of higher employee engagement, higher productivity and higher profitability for

the organization.

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Goal alignment

“There’s something wrong here. Something seems to be out of alignment.”

When something is out of alignment – like your car, your back or a door-jam – you can feel

it. And in most cases you probably seek immediate treatment because the wear and tear

on things that remain out of alignment can be physically, emotionally or financially painful.

The same is true for goal alignment in a company. When goals are not aligned between

employees and managers or among managers, you can be sure the wear and tear on strategic

organizational initiatives will be damaging.

Here’s a classic misalignment story between sales and marketing: A company is trying to

attract more new customers. Although everyone in the company agrees that new customers

would be a good thing, they differ on how to make that happen. Employees in the sales

department want a strategy that will uncover a “qualified, ready-to-buy right now” sales lead.

The marketing department too is interested in generating more leads for the sales department,

but the marketing department’s managers are focused on preliminary steps such as what will

attract more viewers to the company website and what will engage more of those viewers to

download information from the company website or call and inquire about the services the

company offers. The marketing department’s efforts will not bear fruit overnight, but in time,

the department expects that the cultivation of prospects will generate higher quality sales

leads with faster sales cycles.

It won’t take long before those misaligned goals and strategies start to create internal

friction. You see, the sales department has a monthly quota to obtain and doesn’t appreciate

the longer-term lead strategy. Time and resources spent on nurturing people who visit the

company online seems like overkill to them. As a result, they might not be willing to support

other communication channels that serve the marketing department’s engagement strategy.

In other words, Twitter and Facebook may seem like a waste of time to the sales department.

Marketing therefore ends up working without the support of sales, which cripples the

company’s efforts to lure more customers. Had the sales and marketing departments been

working in sync, they would have been attracting far more customers in the short and

long term.

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It’s fairly common for employees and entire departments to be out of sync. If you’re trying to

get a company’s employees to be aligned on its strategic goals, consider the following:

• Solicit input from all levels.

In setting goals, an organization benefits from

gaining the perspective of its employees; not

just hearing their ideas, but giving those ideas

respectful consideration. A company that solicits

ideas, wherever they arise, is a company where

creative achievers want to work. Why not trust the

employee who’s answering a customer’s call, that

he or she may know an effective way of improving

customer loyalty? To be sure, not all ideas are

worth putting into place. Some are unrealistic or

too expensive, but some could prove to be useful.

• Consider the company’s culture.

Whether a company’s goals are accomplished

hinges a lot

on the culture

of the company. An adaptive culture will be able to make

changes and grow in the desired direction. A company

with a culture that’s resistant to change might pay lip

service to the goal but in actuality ignore it. The culture of

an organization can evolve, but it takes a lot of time and in

some cases, the arrival of new staff members. In creating

company goals it’s crucial to think about the dynamics of

the organization. Leaders can have a lot of influence in

creating a workplace culture that motivates, and that in

turn, leads the company to realizing its goals.

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• Make sure everyone knows how he or she can contribute.

If you want employees to be focused and motivated, they need a clear understanding of how

their efforts serve the company’s short- and long-term goals. Those goals should be tied into

the objectives for individual performance. Employees want to love their jobs. If they feel they

are contributing to a goal that is meaningful to them, the chances of them loving their job are

far greater. They work hardest when they believe in what they’re working toward. If only a

cadre of top managers is fully versed in and believes in the company’s goals, the rest of the

staff may have little motivation to meet them. The staff may even resent what seem like edicts

from the top.

• Create clear and objective benchmarks for measuring progress.

If there are no concrete measures of progress, it’s tough to inspire employees to meet the

company’s goals. If the goal is to improve customer service, for example, the company needs

some specific measures of whether customers are more satisfied. Sales are one measure but

another might be how long customers are put on hold or how many times they’re transferred.

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Whatever goals an organization sets, they need to arise from the company’s core values,

and those values should be well defined and promoted throughout the organization. So if a

company values integrity, ambition, or respect, the goals they establish need to be in sync

with those ideals. The core values in a company aren’t simply the promises written on the

company website or posted on employee cork boards, they’re the qualities modeled day to day

in interactions between managers and employees and between employees and customers.

An organization’s leaders can have a lot of influence in creating a workplace culture that

motivates, and that in turn, leads the company to realizing its goals.

Skill Development

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” ~Henry Ford

When I tweet the quote below it’s not unusual for that tweet to get retweeted and favorited

several times.

It’s obvious that this statement by Henry Ford resonates with a lot of people. Employees really

do represent an organizations greatest asset and it’s important to keep those assets up-to-

date with proper training. The pace of technological change calls for constant expansion of

our knowledge base and the skills we bring to everyday work assignments. Facebook and

Twitter, which weren’t even around a decade ago, are now such critical tools for marketing

departments worldwide that if the employees in the company’s marketing division aren’t

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savvy about how to Tweet or how to build their Twitter site, the company is severely limited

in its ability to lure new customers. Companies whose employees are tied to older processes

and technology are missing the ability to mine information through faster and easier means.

Employees who don’t keep up on the latest applications are holding themselves back as they

watch their more competitive counterparts pass them by.

In a lot of professions, such as law and health care, continuing education is required to keep

practicing in the field. In the business world, it’s an unstated rule that employees keep their

skills current. But the challenge to keep up can seem overwhelming. There’s so much to do as

it is and so many deadlines to meet, how can a company and its individual employees make

time for learning and development? Fortunately, learning can take place on a lot of fronts:

• Conferences/Classes: Employees can take classes or go to conferences and then share

what they learned by hosting a round table discussion.

• Blogs/Articles: Employees should be encouraged to read relevant blogs and articles and

keep professional contacts and associations. New tools and methods pop up constantly and

need to be evaluated.

• Mentoring: Employees can be paired up with mentors within the organization – people who

know more about a particular skill than they do.

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• Cross-training: Cross-training or job rotation immerses an employee in new roles or

projects that can dramatically expand their horizons. Stretch assignments are a great way to

challenge an employee to reach out for new abilities in previously unexplored areas.

These kinds of individual and collaborative learning exercises tend to happen routinely when

you put processes in place and make relevant learning resources available to a workforce.

Training opportunities are often what motivates employees to stay at a company and attracts

new staff members. Most people want to work for a company that’s using cutting-edge

technology and is willing to invest the time and money necessary to ensure employees are up

to speed even as technology changes.

Training does not always have to be expensive. Even with limited budgets, companies can

make learning opportunities widely available. Cross-training and mentoring come at little to no

cost and yet can prove to be incredibly valuable because much of what people learn happens

on the job, not in a classroom or at a

conference.

Learning doesn’t simply allow staff

members to enhance their abilities. It

opens their minds to possibilities they

didn’t previously see. It may even give

them renewed enthusiasm for their

job. And a company that goes out of

its way to keep its employees trained

is sending a powerful message that it

wants all of its employees to grow and

believes in their ability to do so.

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Talent Mobility

Cross-training for business survival

When I was much younger, I worked as a roughneck in the West Texas oil fields. The guys I

worked with dubbed me “college boy’’ because they knew I’d be heading back to school in the

fall. As you might guess I got to do the manual back-breaking jobs because I wasn’t trained

to operate any of the equipment on the job site. At the time, I thought they had the easy jobs

and I admired their skill, their ability to jump from the driver’s seat of one piece of machinery

to another and operate it with equal skill and ease. That got me thinking as I stood under the

Texas sun about the ability to perform different jobs at the same worksite, how it made their

day go by faster, and probably made them more valuable employees because of their ability to

quickly adapt in a fast moving and often dangerous environment.

Indeed, when Charles Darwin was referring to the “survival of the fittest,’’ he didn’t mean the

strongest or the fastest, but the most adaptable. The species that could adapt would thrive. In

organizations you could argue that the “fittest” employees – the most adaptable – are those

that are cross-trained. In most cases, cross-training is not only good for the employee, but also

for the employer. Cross-training employees is like having a disaster recovery plan in place: You

probably aren’t planning your daily schedules to have employees jump around among jobs,

but caught in a pinch, some employees would be capable and available to fill in the gaps. In a

small business, having cross trained employees could make the difference between shutting

down due to absent employees or staying open. The employee who’s filling in may also offer

insights on ways to improve on how the job is being done.

For an employee too, there are benefits to being able to fill in on a coworker’s job. He or

she knows more, can do more, and becomes potentially better positioned for a promotion

or a lateral move. In fact, knowing another person’s job could make the employee better at

performing his or her regular duties. I worked in sales for years before moving into marketing.

Now as head of marketing, I look at marketing campaigns through the lens of a sales person.

When I’m thinking of a marketing campaign I’m not only thinking about our brand, but how the

campaign will translate to more sales leads for our account executives.

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It doesn’t sound like there

is any downside; why not

just cross train everyone?

Not so fast. It does cost

money to implement a

well-rounded cross-training

program. And there is less

productivity while training

occurs. In addition, a poorly

implemented program

can have unpleasant

consequences, such as:

• Decreased morale-if employees feel that they are in jeopardy of losing their jobs.

• Resentment-if employees feel that they are assuming more responsibility for the same pay.

• Confusion-if employees lose sight of their primary responsibilities.

• Loss of specialized knowledge-if employees spend all of their time learning a little about

everything.

A poorly managed program can also result in dissatisfied customers and possibly even

costly mistakes. Cross-training is not a successful strategy for every business. But for those

businesses where it seems to work the following steps are helpful:

1. Identify the tasks performed for various jobs and designate which ones could be

successfully performed by other employees.

2. Identify who is interested in participating in the program. It may be counterproductive to

force someone to participate. Decide how to deal with this situation.

3. Cross-train members of the same team. My summer job in the oil fields demonstrates

how efficient teams become when they can step in to do significant pieces of one

another’s work. Also, it’s a natural learning process for one team member to pick up skills

from another.

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4. Identify who has the competencies to perform the tasks designated as cross-trainable

in step 1. Specialized skills in some professionals (engineers, scientists, programmers,

lawyers, accountants) may be less available for cross-training than others. Determine what

proportion of team members’ job can be reasonably shared with others.

5. Apply coaching skills to the process. Cross-training is at the challenging end of the learning

curve, involving major portions of employees’ jobs rather than a task or two. Those who

do the training – whether it is a fellow employee or the manager – need to understand the

appropriate coaching behaviors to apply at each stage in the process.

6. Reduce workload during training and while tasks are being performed. Otherwise, the

people involved may feel resentful about the process.

7. Recognize and reward employees that have new skills and/or responsibilities.

8. Incorporate the cross-training process into an overall development plan for the employee.

The decision to move forward with

a cross-training program is entirely

your own, but it’s an option that

should be considered nonetheless.

You know your business and you

know your management team. Ask

them how they think their people

would respond to the program and

weigh your options from there.

There’s certainly risk with cross-

training, but the rewards can be

substantial.

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Question 1: Many on our senior team are resisting learning about social media. How can I convince them to get onboard?

Most people will agree that practical experience is a good thing. In fact, if you’ve been around

the block a time or two, the old adage “experience is the best teacher” is probably

anchored in your mindset. When I reflect on my lessons learned through practical experience I

always find Will Rogers’ perspective insightful, but also at times, troublesome:

FAQ RELATED TO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING STRATEGIES

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Why troublesome? After all, at one point or another we all start out as greenhorns. And let’s

face it; there are situations we occasionally experience that are really not possible to prepare

for. What I find troublesome is the negative impact on organizations when key executives

continue to scoff at the lessons offered, or worse, they refuse to acknowledge they were even

handed an exam.

Are senior executives in your organization still scoffing at social media? In today’s environment

your customer’s are testing your organizations ability to interact with them on social platforms

in the same way you communicate with them through email and over the phone. In fact, you

may have seen the following factoids in recent presentations:

• 72% of all internet users are now active on social media

• 18-29 year olds have an 89% usage

• The 30-49 bracket sits at 72%

• 60 percent of 50 to 60 year olds are active on social media

• In the 65 plus bracket, 43% are using social media

And yet some of your peers are still hesitant, or openly against implementing social media

strategies in your organization. I suspect some are hesitant because they are not personally

using social media, and if the truth were known, they’re still not concerned with learning. Even

so, it’s time to let go of the notion that social media is just for kids and has no business value.

In short, you don’t want the adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” to begin to

be associated with your personal brand. Here are some brief observations to share with your

leadership peers that might motivate them to sign up for a lesson or two.

1. Your words and actions are magnified by your position. Most of your actions will

seem more important to your employees than you intend; merely teasing about the use or

value of social media on your part may become dangerously distorted by your workers. It’s

time for you to provide executive level support for this engagement channel. Keep this in

mind; it’s not about you, it’s about your customers. If your customers want to communicate

through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook who are you to stop them?

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2. No need to boil the ocean. There are scores of social media related platforms and

applications, so don’t be afraid to narrow your focus during your initial learning process.

It’s too early to declare with authority the platforms that will remain standing, those that

will be absorbed, or the ones that will fade away. For senior executives I would recommend

focusing on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, in that order. Sidebar applications

that help with efficiency and effectiveness (for example, TweetDeck or various mobile

applications) can wait.

3. You can’t learn to swim without getting wet, so jump in. If nothing else, just commit

to spending 15 – 20 minutes per day learning the ins and outs of a single platform. Once

you develop a comfort level move to the next platform or application. If you have a trusted

friend or colleague who is already social media savvy consider asking them to breakfast

or out for a beer. Use the opportunity to pick their mind on the platforms they like to use,

and how they strategically leverage those applications. If all else fails, hire someone to help

you with your social media education. Based on my teaching and consulting background I

obviously like that approach! However, you may want to start by making an author happy

and simply purchasing one of the many social media related publications on the market.

4. The clock is ticking. We’ve moved from a time of mass communications to one of

masses of communicators; your customers are sharing their experiences through Twitter,

Facebook, YouTube and other platforms at

a rate that will continue to accelerate. As a

result, social media should become a part

of every organizations risk management

and customer engagement strategy. That

means the entire leadership team (CEO, CIO,

CFO, CMO, Sales, Legal and HR) will feel

the impact. You know from experience that

it always takes more time than expected to

secure cross functional support. So, it’s time

to start building bridges.

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Question 2: How do you improve learning motivation and participation within an organization?

Enabling employees to succeed in a fast-changing business environment should be central to

every organization’s strategy. After all, when employees are properly equipped with the right

set of skills, they’re best positioned to add maximum value to both the organization and its

customer base. Are education, training, and lifelong learning for your workforce important to

your company? Or do I really need to ask if your workforce is truly motivated and engaged as

learners?

In a typical company, learning nuggets are accessed in clumps in various places, with all sorts

of gaps in between. One or more people in a work group will take advantage of opportunities

and information will be shared with others in the group. Some managers inform their teams

and encourage participation, while others don’t. With the typical hit-and-miss approach, many

employees at various levels never find out about opportunities to sharpen their skills that would

otherwise be available to them. With rapid changes in technology and business processes,

new training can be a matter of someone keeping a job or being left behind. However, it’s

interesting that when employees hear that they need new training, their first response can

often be a yawn or a grumble. People don’t always see training as an opportunity. Instead,

training can feel like a hassle, like one more thing added to a mounting list of responsibilities.

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In order to improve learning participation and motivation try some of the following:

• Have each employee complete a survey regarding his or her learning needs and interests.

• Route the results through the employee’s manager to add items the manager feels are

important either for current or future projects.

• Assign learning resources based on the personalized needs of each employee.

• Provide time on the schedule to complete training, shadowing, mentoring, or other learning

activities.

• Track usage and completion of learning tasks.

• Allow employees to update their learning profiles on an ongoing basis to reflect their

progress and changing needs.

Companies that take the above steps dramatically broaden employee growth and development

across the organization. Usage of one resource – elearning – has been reported by

corporations as the second most valuable training method that they use. This is no surprise,

given that e-Learning saves businesses at least 50% when they replace traditional instructor-

based training with e-Learning.

Question 3: How do you conduct a powerful and effective performance review?

As soon as I bit that piece of candy I knew it was trouble. Yes, I chipped a tooth and that meant

a trip to the dentist. The process of getting a crown wasn’t that bad though. Then again, I used

noise cancellation headphones to drown out the sound of the drill. I also asked the dentist to

use both Novocaine and Nitrous Oxide. In short, you could say that I really didn’t want to be

there. So where does the phrase “I’d rather go to the dentist than [you fill in the blank]” come

from? What type of task or obligation is so hideous that you’d rather subject yourself to a root

canal than deal with the event? A simple search uncovered a few examples:

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• According to research from an insurance company 39% of women would rather go to the

dentist than talk to their spouse about their daily finances.

• According to a travel survey 54% would rather go to the dentist than sit in the middle seat

on an airplane.

• 40% of Americans think filling out income tax forms is worse than going to the dentist.

• According to a technology company survey 40% said they would rather go to the dentist

than deal with poor customer service.

Where do you stand on the following statement?

“I’d rather go to the dentist than do a performance review.”

For many people this

statement rings true. And

it’s often the case for both

the giver and receiver of the

review! The performance

review is a high-stakes

conversation for both parties.

The risk of frustration,

disappointment and even

anger is possible if not

approached correctly. How

do you conduct a powerful

and effective performance

evaluation? How do

you approach your own

evaluation? Here are my approach considerations for both sides of the evaluation desk:

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Giving1. An effective boss will not save his constructive criticism for the annual evaluation, but will be

offering feedback throughout the year. Reduce the stress by making your reviews a process

rather than once-yearly events. Nothing in the evaluation should be a complete surprise

to the employee, so if you check-in via brief meetings on a quarterly basis you can inspire

small incremental changes along the way when needed.

2. Talk about goals and talent development as part of your appraisal. These topics introduce

positive feelings and the sense of working together to develop skills and align tasks. In

addition, find at least one or two aspects of their job performance that are good and start

there. We all need validation. That enables you to come across as fair and helps the person

being reviewed to be receptive to hearing about the areas that he or she needs to improve

on.

3. Tie your performance reviews in with career planning, succession planning, and leadership

development. The review can become a fountain of opportunities, in many cases, that will

prompt employees to participate enthusiastically. But remember, criticism, even legitimate

criticism, is hard to take, so be as diplomatic as possible in how you word the person’s

weaknesses. Make it “you can improve this” rather than “here’s where you messed up.”

4. Make sure to ask the employees how they feel about their own performance and ways you

could be a better boss to them. A humble boss is a boss people want to work for and work

hard for.

Receiving1. Recognize the difference between feedback and criticism. Your manager is probably trying

to help you improve for the coming year rather than penalizing you for the past. And that’s

something you want to do, right? So, even if you have been excelling, try not to go into the

evaluation expecting only to be showered with praise.

2. Listen first and try not to react immediately after hearing criticism. Take a day or two to

absorb it and then get back to your boss with a response if you feel the need to. Time will

allow you to respond rather than react.

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3. Look past the critical language to see the basis of the criticism, and strive to understand

it. Try to develop empathy for your boss who has the tough job of trying to assess your

performance. Empathy goes a long way toward helping you be receptive to what he or she

is saying.

4. Use “I” statements to keep things more objective. “What I hear from your feedback is that

I sometimes invite too many people to my meetings.” Couple this kind of sentence with

another “I” statement that suggests specific things you can do differently. “What I could do

is invite fewer people and then provide a summary of the meeting to my team.”

5. Take advantage of opportunities for setting clearer goals and developing your skills. One

approach is to sit down after your meeting, consider the constructive feedback, and come

up with a few ideas for developing your skills in those areas. You can then bring those up

with your manager.

Criticism is both hard to give and hard to take. We want people to like us. We want to succeed.

So it can be difficult to tell an employee something he or she may be disappointed to hear and

it’s equally difficult to be on the receiving end of that criticism. But disappointment,

even frustration, can teach and can help motivate change. So be brave and know that,

at least evaluations (unlike a trip to the dentist) should not leave you with the fear of leaving

with a fat lip!

Question 4: How do you build a learning organization?

Only small amounts of the learning people do in their jobs takes place in a classroom. In fact,

the 70/20/10 Learning and Development Model based on research by Michael Lombardo and

Robert Eichinger for the Center for Creative Leadership suggests the following ratios:

• 70% of learning occurs through experience.

• 20% of learning occurs through others.

• 10% of learning occurs through formal training.

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Based on the numbers above it appears that on-the-job training is at the head of the class.

However, as a manager you can foster organizational growth and help your direct reports with

career development when you do the following:

1. Do not take a “one size fits all” approach to training. Instead, you need to take the time to

understand what each individual needs, so that you can provide the right training for the

right people.

2. Work with your direct reports to set development goals, and match appropriate mentoring,

job rotation, coaching, and other activities to the goals you set together.

3. Tie development goals to the business goals of your work group, department, or company.

Development is more likely to be taken seriously when clear connections are made to the

goals of your business.

4. Cultivate a culture of learning and development. When managers support development

and follow through with their employees, the benefits quickly become apparent and other

managers and employees follow suit.

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5. Look beyond the skills an employee currently has. Many skills are transferable. The job an

employee is currently performing may not be the only fit or the best fit for that employee.

6. As employees learn new skills, modify the levels of direction and collaboration you provide.

New skills and tasks tend to require a lot of manager involvement. However, when the

employee achieves proficiency and becomes confident, he or she typically wants a

commensurate level of autonomy and responsibility. Confidence grows with successful

adoption of an autonomous role.

If you don’t want your employees to stagnate, it’s important to ensure that they stay on a

learning curve of some kind. Giving them chances for training on a regular basis will enable

them to feel like they’re growing and that could discourage them from looking for opportunities

outside the company.

Question 5: Do mentoring programs work?

In a fast changing business environment do “I remember when” or “when I was your age” stories have value? My twenty something year old children listen to my stories –

sometimes. My twenty something year old direct reports listen. Of course I also do their

performance reviews, so they might feel compelled to do so. Do you think these less senior

people are occasionally tempted to roll their eyes during some of those stories? Actually, I’d

be surprised if they weren’t because I know I was when I was their age.

I’m not put off by an occasional eye roll.

For me it signals that the message has

been received, and in truth I probably

told that story knowing that would be

the reaction. Besides, time goes by fast,

meaning it won’t be long before today’s

less senior people have eyes rolling at

them. That’s the way it’s supposed to

work when you’re mentoring the next

in line.

26 cmotemps.biz

If you have direct reports what are you doing to mentor them? Mentoring is one of the

oldest and most powerful training methods, and is an essential leadership skill. In addition

to managing and coaching people, it’s important that you can help others learn, grow and

become more effective during their professional development. Here’s what I loved about some

of my past mentors:

1. They didn’t provide all the answers. They listened first, and then asked questions while

weaving in stories to help me see options without choosing one for me. Yes, sometimes I

was tempted to roll my eyes because I just wanted the right answers now and didn’t want

to figure out the moral of the story.

2. They weren’t afraid to let me learn through failure. I can still remember hearing

“Alan, sometimes you just have to let people do stupid stuff.” Now don’t get me wrong. I

know for a fact that my mentor carefully examined the pros and cons of certain failure. And

he wasn’t really calling me stupid. He took stock of the risk and was OK with letting me

learn through failure. And learn I did.

3. Coach + Mentor equal an added bonus. Work often has two dimensions. The task

at hand (how the job should be performed) for which coaching was just fine. But there

can be political elements (how to work with people and functional areas impacted by an

assignment) as well. My coach/mentor’s insight on interpersonal dimensions was extra

valuable.

4. They were lifelong learners and inspirational individuals because they led by example. They had a passion for learning and sharing knowledge and their attitude of “the

more you give the more you get” was infectious.

My hat is off to our next leaders, and to their mentors. Now, let the story telling and eye

rolling begin.

Website www.cmotemps.biz/

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alan See Principal and Chief Marketing Officer

Alan See is Principal and Chief Marketing Officer of CMO

Temps, LLC. He is recognized by Forbes as a Top 50 CMO

Ranked by Social Media Influence. Alan is an active blogger

and frequent presenter on topics that help organizations

develop marketing strategies and sales initiatives to power

profitable growth. He has performed for and interacts with

some of the world’s most respected brands including; IBM,

Cap Gemini, Teradata, SAS Institute, and AT&T. Alan holds

BBA and MBA degrees from Abilene Christian University.