World Business

World Business -

Providing Management Training for Current Employees Is a Worthwhile Investment

Despite the continuous news stories about high unemployment in the United States, there are some areas where employers are actually seeing a skills shortage in the workplace. Executives across a number of different industries are especially having trouble finding capable leaders. A recent survey asked executives about the biggest human resources problems affecting their industry and 31% said that there is a lack of high-potential leaders working within the organization, while an additional 19% said that there is a high rate of defection among top talent. Organizations can continue to post listings on job sites or try to make large offers to leaders at competing firms, or they can invest in current employees so that lower-level employees will be more capable of stepping into leadership roles and so that higher-level employees will be less likely to defect to another organization. The business can accomplish these goals by providing management training for lower-level employees and leadership development for current leaders.

Leadership development is a process that aims to improve the leadership qualities of current high-level employees within the organization. Companies have many different methods for completing this task, with some identifying talented employees with leadership potential and paying for these individuals to go back to school and acquire a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Other organizations provide management training for these high-potential employees. This training focuses on teaching or growing three skills that all leaders possess. These three skills are experiential learning, self-efficacy, and vision.

Experiential Learning

There are four stages of experiential learning: concrete experience, observation and reflection, forming abstract concepts, and testing in new situations. Individuals must be able to learn from each of these four stages, so management training helps employees become more comfortable with learning stages where they lack experience.

Self-Efficacy

This term is defined as the individual’s belief or trust in his or her own abilities. A confident leader is seen as more authoritative, which makes it easier for others to buy into what he or she is saying. Management training improves employee self-efficacy.

Vision

It sounds obvious, but a leader’s number one job is to lead. When he or she is able to form a vision of how the company should look in the future, the leader can then determine what others need to do in order to make this vision a reality.

If a company is pleased with the leaders that it has in place and wants to keep them from leaving for another firm the second they get an offer, the company should invest in leadership development. Individuals are more loyal to organizations that demonstrate that they care about whether an employee is successful. Employees are in turn more loyal to companies that have invested in their success. Leadership development helps individuals reach their full potential by helping to sharpen leadership skills or think critically.

As baby boomers retire and it becomes even more difficult for companies to find qualified leaders to replace retiring workers, companies should ensure the company continues to be successful in the future by investing in leadership development for current leaders and management training for future leaders.

How Creating Your Yes List Helps To Systemise Your Business

So you might be asking “what is a yes list”. Well a Yes List is a list of everything in your business that you have committed to wholeheartedly doing which is in the best interests of the growth and success of your business. However the things on your Yes List are not ordinary things!

These are things that are high level strategy pieces that only you can do; they are big things, that have high impact and high value to your bottom line.

So how does one go about creating such a list, and what about the things that don’t make it to the Yes List that still need to get done?

First of all you need to take an inventory of everything in your business that you have been doing.

Next, work out which of those things need to be on your Yes List. Go through and mark each item with a “Yes I absolutely must do this because only I can do it” or “No, someone else can do this”. At this point don’t worry having too many “no’s” and who will do them. At this step you just need to focus on what of your existing activities get a great big “YES”. Criteria to keep in mind for your “yes” activities are

It contributes to your overall business strategy
Marketing activities (for now)
Sales activities (for now)
Service delivery activities where the service is based around your skills and expertise
Networking activities

Next, Separate out the two lists into a “Yes” list and a “No” list. For everything that is on your “No” list determine if you have a process for getting it done. Two things will become evident; you have a documented processes for some things on your “No” List, or you don’t have documented processes for the things on your “No” List.

Finally, for things on your “No” list determine if someone else could this if they had a set process to follow. For things that could be done by someone else, you’ll need to get cracking on drafting a process so you can get this thing off you plate for good. For things on your “No” list that, after careful consideration you decide only you can do, you will have to decide if you want it back on your “Yes” list.

How does having your Yes List help you to systemise your business?
Having your Yes List makes you focus on the high value activities that you should be doing as the business owner, instead of on the necessary and repetitive tasks and activities that are required to keep your business ticking over.

So, if it is just you right now in your serviced based business, and you have done up your “Yes” list, you must determine how many of those items on your “No” list are required to keep your business going and whether or not you need to get an assistant to help with some of your day to day operations. If you already have a tem around you, its time to brush up on your delegation skills otherwise those “No” activities will eventually creep back onto your “Yes” list.

The Wrap Up: Letting go of things we have been doing for some time can be a struggle, even when we feel like to keep going and doing everything is sucking the life out of us.

But the true essence of owning a systemised business is that you have standards and controls in place that are managed by others. That is, you have systems and processes that are managed by people you trust, and you become freed up to focus on your “Yes” list, without the threat of your “No” list creeping back onto your plate.

Your Turn: Do you have a “Yes” list of things you do in your business and a “No” list of things that are delegated to your team? What are some of the things on your “Yes” list? If you don’t have your “Yes” list yet, do you think this would be a valuable strategy to adopt?