Thomas Bradley Cox is the President of Oliver Group.




getty




There is an increasingly pervasive narrative that I am hearing from colleagues who work in the talent development and human resources space: Leaders just don’t have time for training and development. Better stated, leaders won’t make time. There is also a rising level of requests related to digitalized learning, micro-learning and a host of modern terminology that has become popular over the last few years, as if to suggest that meaningful development can be faster, digitalized or more compact.

The question I pose to them is, “How many vacation weeks, on average, do your leaders take each year?” Typically, the answer is between three to four weeks, depending on tenure with the company. Then, I press further: “So, when those leaders are out of the office for those three to four weeks, does the business shut down? Do they complain they cannot break away from work to take those three to four weeks, or do they leave anticipating some life-enhancing experience that will make them a better employee when they return rested and mentally refreshed?” 


Many employees do not feel they can break away for time off even though it has been proven that time away results in more engaged, more productive employees. Project: Time Off was started by the U.S. Travel Association. In its 2018 study “State of American Vacation”, the employees surveyed gave a number of reasons as to why vacation time may not be used. They talked about their fears of looking replaceable, an excessive workload, lack of coverage and a host of other barriers. As a result, Americans forfeited 212 million days, which is equivalent to $62.2 billion in lost benefits. Anecdotally, my colleagues extol the needs and benefits of employees taking vacation time, even as they offer excuses for their own reluctance to do so. The fact is we all feel better and are better versions of ourselves at work when we take those intentional breaks. After a year of staying at home, Americans seem to agree. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that 79% of professionals planned to use more vacation days in 2021, and 46% said they would take a longer vacation than in past years.


So, what’s the connection between vacation time and development time? If people will make time for vacation because they know it’s good for them, then why won’t they make time for development? And why are our human resource business partners willing to accept the “I don’t have time” argument?


The issue is one of value. Most development programs are seen as either a waste of time or of such low impact that it makes sense that leaders do not want to take time. If there is no intrinsic value in the outcomes the leaders will experience, then they will de-prioritize the effort and begin to ask for bite-sized e-learning that they can do at their computers. In a Harvard Business Review article, “Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do About It,” the authors shed light on a key factor that drives a lack of faith in and attention toward people development: the lack of consistent, cultural reinforcement and a return to business as usual.


Throughout my career, I can recall hearing from leaders the cynical phrase, “It’s another flavor of the month training,” exposing a reality rooted in a history of failure. And their cynicism then served as another barrier beyond the changes the training intended. In her book, Leaders Deserve Better, Jennifer Mackin shares that one of the four drivers for successful leadership development is a culture of reinforcement. For change to take effect, any training or development must be part of the cultural fabric and expectations of an organization. Mind you, this is not an indictment of our hard-working and well-intentioned human resource partners. In fact, it’s an opportunity for them and operational leaders to come together and discuss what can make the learning time valuable.

To have a culture that values and reinforces the concepts that are taught, new behaviors must be applied on a daily basis. And there need to be regular conversations about the underlying principles and expectations that support the behaviors. Things like competency models, performance management systems and guidance on how to have difficult conversations are important, but if they lack context and the motivating drive for change, they stand alone and simply become compliance-based or one-off activities rather than tools that support a greater mission of leadership and the development of people. In other words, they become “have tos,” rather than “need tos.”

The primary purpose of leadership — and any development toward that end — is to develop one’s people. After all, a leader’s performance is their peoples’ performance. If leaders really understand this point, and if the organizations embrace the importance of this point, time spent on development will have a similar reward to taking vacation time and will become a “want to” versus a “have to.”


Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

Source: Forbes

Powered by NewsAPI.org