Train, Teach, or Develop?

Buzzwords upon buzzwords upon buzzwords - Developmental planning strategies are littered with them. It's confusing and frustrating to navigate as a leader, so you can imagine how our staff feel! I remember sitting in one of my annual reviews thinking "just tell me what course I should be taking!". What I've learned since is that we focus so much of our development on "learning" when often times we could, or should, be looking elsewhere. This is where the idea of training, learning, and developing comes in focus: specifically knowing the difference, and why it matters.

At the core, they seem relatively the same thing, but there is a really deep difference that can be found when we understand employee growth through the lens of accountability. For example, you're preparing your annual developmental conversations for your team and start identifying a key work related skill that is lacking (for example Excel). Who is accountable? Well....that deficit, in my opinion, is a training issue and the accountability lies with the leader and the organization (it may imply something is missing during the onboarding process). This changes the conversation and allows ownership to lie with the organization to provide the right training.

Direct work related skill = Training = Organizational Ownership

Next, think about those complimentary skills that maybe aren't core to someone's work, but are really firmly in the nice-to-have category. These additional competencies can either be "hard" type (like replacing a computer monitor) or "soft" type (like customer service or interpersonal). It's likely in the process of observation you've identified a few key competencies, equally, your staff has likely done the same! These growth areas have shared accountability between the employee and the leader and can be supported through applied learning (teaching included). This could include a component of formal learning, but will be complimented with a stretch assignment and coaching from a leader.

Complimentary Skill or Competency = Applied Learning = Shared Accountability

And then there's the subject of "development". Although learning and training fit within the umbrella of professional development, I'm going to take a step back further and look at development as career development as a whole; which includes your employee's personal goals. From our lens of accountability this is where your employees hold a large piece of the accountability pie. In the end, it's their career and goals, we are there to help them along the way!

Career building = Development = Employee Accountability

When you've identified a gap in yourself or your staff, how are you filling it? At the end of the day, the language doesn't matter it's the intention and accountability behind it. This matters as it can helps us change the conversation of development for the better. As leaders, we can own the accountability for training, share the responsibility for applied learning, and support career development in a way that is centered around what our employee needs.

As leaders, we need to match the right opportunity, at the right time, with the right person. At the end of the day, our employees will not necessarily remember what development we provided them, but they will remember how we supported their career journey.

Avery Acheson lives in Red Deer, Ab with his wife Charlotte MacFarlane and their family. Avery is a leadership development specialist, organizational design and effectiveness consultant, and a lifelong advocate for the charitable sector. Thank you for reading and feel free to reach out here on LinkedIn or at avery@syslead.ca.