Quotable: Jay Titus
Millennials will account for close to 50 percent of the workforce within the next five years. Corporate learning leaders need to be the champion for making professional development an organizational priority. We need to be taking educational benefits out of the last page of the employee handbook and shining a spotlight on it. In the next five to 10 years it’s going to be a key differentiator for employers who do it well.
Jay Titus, EdAssist
Excerpted from: http://www.clomedia.com/blogs/1-ask-a-gen-y/post/6303-millennials-will-work-for-knowledge
Collective Differences equal Better Learning Outcomes
Research now tells us that what makes a group truly intelligent and innovative is the combination of different ages, skills, disciplines, and working and thinking styles that members bring to the table.
Scott E Page, professor and director of the center of the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan has demonstrated that groups displaying a range of perspectives and skill levels outperform like-minded experts. He concludes that "progress depends as much on our collective differences as it does on our individual IQ scores."
Source: Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Instituted and Scott E Page, "The Difference," published by Princeton Press
Guest Blog: 3 Ideas for Leadership Development Outside the Classroom
By Halelly Azulay, TalentGrow LLC
Your current leader population wants to grow and needs to continue to improve their leadership competencies. You have Baby Boomer leaders set to retire, but many of those 'on the bench' to succeed them are not quite promotion-ready. Millennials are chomping at the bit for ongoing leadership development opportunities.
You need to create 'bench strength' in the form of a pool of ready-to-lead talent .Does this sound familiar? Don't despair. Hope awaits...When we deploy a wide variety of development methods to get our leaders to the next level, everyone benefits. It is not merely a training issue, either. It's bigger than that. Here are three ideas to help you approach leadership development in a broad, and inclusive way that doesn't require developing coursework or having people attend classes!
Rotation/stretch assignments
A job rotation means that the leader is temporarily assigned to a different job, usually laterally, in another role in the same organization, for an agreed-upon period of time. A stretch assignment is a task or project that these leaders perform usually within their current role but beyond their job description that challenges and broadens (stretches) their current skills and capabilities.
In leadership workshops or seminars, leaders are usually isolated and focused on learning outside the context of their workday. But when they are strategically working in a job rotation or stretch assignment with a developmental lens, leaders learn new skills in the context of their daily work experience and apply their lessons immediately, continually.
These kinds of assignments, when coupled with specific development goals, are a rich growth opportunity that yields many benefits to the leader as learner. They are a wonderful platform for leadership development that is readily available and completely scalable to the specifics of the leader, team, and organization.
Volunteering in a leadership role
How can your future and current leaders practice new leadership skills on-the-job without any downside for your organization whatsoever? By practicing on someone else's turf as a volunteer.
Volunteer jobs in leadership positions provide a great opportunity for leaders to 'get their feet wet', try new approaches, and practice skills they haven't yet mastered. And they do this all away from work where their mistakes don't affect your organization directly or cause any hardship.
There are endless leadership positions in non-profit and community-based organizations that need volunteers to serve their constituents. Leaders can craft a development strategy for leveraging a volunteer job for their own learning and growth, then deploy the plan and bring back the newly developed skills back to your organization. It's a win-win-win.
Mentor/protégé
Do your current or high potential future leaders have a mentor? And, are they mentoring someone themselves?
Lots of employers already have, or are considering adding, a mentoring program. Often, we view these opportunities as intended to benefit the newest members of the workforce. Yet, the potential developmental benefits of mentoring and being mentored can be equally valuable to those in leadership positions.
When in the role of protégé (aka mentee), leaders can gain insights from those who are a few steps ahead of them on a similar leadership journey. Even the most experienced and successful executive coaches have an executive coach of their own.
Leaders of all levels should also keep their skills sharp by getting a mentor. These leader mentors create value for their protégés, but don't they also grow their own skills as a result of mentoring others? Yes! For example, they may develop patience or empathy, or gain a new perspective on organizational challenges and trends, or enhance their coaching skills while playing the role of a mentor. These new skills can then be leveraged back on the job. This is leadership development at its best. There is dual-value delivered to the organization as a result of both parties developing.
Developing leaders is an ongoing challenge many organizations face, and by expanding the idea of "development" to include non-training-related methods, we can all benefit richly. Whether by completing a stretch or rotational assignment, volunteering in a leadership capacity, mentoring or being mentored, current and future leaders can grow their skills, stretch outside their comfort zone, and bring the benefits of their expanded skillsets to their organization without ever stepping foot in a leadership development workshop.
Look for these and many more non-training employee development ideas in Halelly's book, Employee Development on a Shoestring published by ATD Press.
About Halelly Azulay, TalentGrow LLC
Halelly Azulay is an author, speaker, facilitator, and leadership development strategist, as well as an expert in communication skills and emotional intelligence. She is the founder of TalentGrow LLC.a consulting company that develops leaders and teams experiencing explosive growth. TalentGrow specializes in people leadership skills, which include communication skills, teambuilding, coaching and emotional intelligence. TalentGrow works with all organizational levels, including C-level leaders, frontline managers and individuals.
Halelly is the author of two books, Employee Development on a Shoestring and Strengths Can Help You Lead a MoreFulfilling Life .She also hosts The TalentGrow Show, a leadership development podcast. She brings 20 years of professional experience in workplace learning and leadership development to her work with corporate, government, nonprofit, and academic organizations.
You May Go Out of Business in the Next Five Years....
There is no lack of chatter in business and human resource journal's these days regarding the imminent brain drain as the Baby Boomers retire at a rate of 6,000 to 10,000 per day, depending on the source of your information. By 2030 all of the Baby Boomers will be over age 65. This means that the next generation(s) need to be ready willing and able and to fill critical roles. The problem is-they are not ready.
Your lack of a skilled workforce may cause you to go out of business in the next 5 to 10 years. What are your options?
Plan A - Hire skilled workers
While the younger generation cohort (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) is actually the largest cohort in history, they've had a tough time securing employment while the Baby Boomers have been in place. Therefore, while there are a lot of them, they often lack skills.
Plan B - Promote from within
Many employee satisfaction surveys over the years have revealed that the most frequent cause of an employee leaving his current employer is because they see a lack of career advancement. This is often coupled with a lack of training which would enable that career advancement. Therefore, without a concerted plan to develop incumbent workers (see plan D), this is not a realistic option for most organizations.
Plan C - Hire from the competition
While this a somewhat logical short-term solution, the reality is you're simply exchanging the current talent pool. At some point in their tenure with you, an employee will leave for your competition because they don't see career advancement with you.
Plan D - Grow your own
College graduates may demonstrate an ability to learn but have few-to-zero skills. While this might seem like a challenge, it is actually a wonderful opportunity for you to be the first employer to shape the way in which they work. Since they will not have preconceived notions about how work is done or their roles and responsibilities, you can " design" the ideal employee with the future in mind. If you have a well thought out career / curriculum path, you not only will "build" the perfect employee but they will stay with you for many years to come as well.
Employee's aren't so satisfied with their career advancement opportunities
This year marks the greatest increase in the number of employees satisfied with their current job since SHRM began administering the Employee Job Satisfaction Survey in 2002.
However, they appear to be least satisfied with their ability to advance in their careers. The satisfaction levels that relate to training and development include:
Organization's commitment to professional development - 23%
Job specific training - 22%
Career development opportunities - 21%
Company paid general training - 24%
Training in Decision Making Crucial to Business Success
According to a survey of 562 US based senior-level business, human resources, and management professionals, conducted by AMA Enterprise (a division of the American Management Association International) - a fear of failure or making a mistake often causes employees to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
The solution? According to 46% of respondents: Training in decision-making and problem-solving which will, in turn, lead to more confidence in taking responsibility.
Does "Social Media" Limit our Ability to think Independently?
The word "social" has shifted its meaning and has been redefined within the last five years. Today, it often defines social networks, media and marketing. The bubblization of society poses great opportunities to segment people by interests and other characteristics, which in turn, can over-expose people to like-minded peers and distance them from those who think and operate differently. - ManpowerGroup
Need to prioritize training needs? #1 - Critical Thinking!
For organizations trying to prioritize training needs, one of the largest and most pivotal gaps is in the area of critical thinking.
Critical thinking is the raw material that supports the ability to plan, organize, solve problems, make decisions, and innovate, and right now, organizational demand far outweighs employee supply.
Judy Chartrand, Ph.D. in A New Level of Thinking; Training Magazine Nov/ Dec 2013