The OffBeat #39: Making the Case for Year-Round Leadership Training
For ALL employees, not just people managers
Many organizations are in the midst of 2024 budget planning, so this is prime time to advocate for resources. One line item I’m passionate about: year-round leadership training—not just for people managers, for all employees.
This Fortune piece says it all: a whopping 82% of bosses are “accidental managers,” i.e. have received no formal leadership training. And the poor quality of management has stark consequences:
“[H]alf of the workers surveyed who rated their manager as ineffective are planning to hand in their resignations in the next year. In comparison, less than a quarter of those who rated their managers as effective plan to quit.
What’s more, one in three of the 2,018 workers surveyed have already left a job because of bad management.”
I’ve left three jobs because of poor management. Three jobs where I loved my coworkers, was invested in the work, felt fairly compensated, and learned a lot. Years later, reflecting on each of those experiences and with the benefit of more reps in the metaphorical workplace gym as only time can provide, I might have handled those situations (at least one or two of them) differently. I might have spoken up earlier and more clearly about what I needed; I might have sought counsel from HR or senior leadership. What I definitely would have done is advocate for leadership training in our organization.
One of my biggest takeaways from The Marketing Academy, a fellowship I did in 2018, was that not only is leadership a canyon away from management (leadership = empowerment; management = control); leadership is a way of showing up in the workplace that has nothing to do with the size of your team or whether you have one at all. In other words, to be a leader you don’t actually have to lead people.
This blew my mind. If you’re in a role where you have no direct reports, you can and should still hone your leadership skills. If you manage people who don’t manage people, those folks can and should still craft their leadership skills.
I have three leadership principles: ACE (Accountability, Communication, Empathy). It took me many years to develop this philosophy, in large part shaped by my experiences of being managed, not led. I’ve also worked for fantastic leaders who have their own approaches to leadership that have inspired me.
No matter your personal perspective on leadership, it helps to get ongoing professional guidance. This could look like an executive coach you meet with regularly (hi, Kari!), enrollment in an industry-specific program, a coaching circle of peers led by a professional moderator, and/or resources your workplace provides. Examples of the latter I can personally vouch for: Stagen Integral Leadership Program, WILD (Wilderness Immersion Leadership Development), BetterUp, SYPartners.
To pitch organization-wide leadership training at your company, you’ll need to approach whomever is responsible for professional development— could be your HR or Learning & Development team, or maybe your department’s Chief of Staff—as well as whomever has final approval on your 2024 budget if your team will need to contribute resources. Some tips for these conversations:
Ground your case in business impact; e.g., 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development, and companies that invest in next generation leaders are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets
Propose starting small; beta test with a single cohort of participants who won’t need to dedicate more than a handful of hours per quarter
Make it specific to your company; root your talking points in why training would be relevant and impactful for your particular business at this particular time (e.g. you’re in the midst of ongoing structural change, you have new-to-the-org senior leaders, you’ve been experiencing a lot of turnover, you have aggressive goals for next year)
One angle from which to consider your leadership ability is through how many people you’ve developed. That can happen as a direct manager but also as a dotted-line manager, a peer, or a project leader. Outstanding leaders spend outsized time on not just getting the work done, but growing people. And it takes lots of experience, practice, and teaching to learn how to do that. Imagine the scale of the impact you can make by influencing the ability of your entire organization to learn those skills.
Have a great week,
Allison