Beyond Training

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Identifying and using the individual talents of the people who make up your team is perhaps the most important job of any manager or supervisor. As a manager or supervisor, you should aim to build a high level of competence across your entire team. You need to train your people in as many skills as possible; however, this is just the starting point. Developing their capability to increase their competence over time is critical to your teams success in the area of continuous improvement.

All improvement programs run out of steam unless you renew the teams dedication and commitment to the process. When you help people achieve their potential and reach new levels of competence, you build commitment and dedication.

Need For Effective Training and Development

Top quality training programs are vital to all organizations. It has been said that all companies have training programs whether they budget for one or not. You can train someone through formal training or by neglect. You are training either way.

Training only builds initial competence which is quite limited in positive impact on the organization. Managers and supervisors must define higher levels of competence based on the strategic goals and tactical objectives of the organization and the team. Defining these levels of competence is only the first step in the performance improvement process, how do you get your people to that level?

Mentoring and coaching are required to take them to each successive level of competence. This requires the understanding of human nature and needs, the application of highly effective interpersonal skills, and continuous communication and feedback.

Building Competence

Many organizations define the tasks required to perform a job and consider that they have defined competencies - they have not! Competencies are tasks with standards of performance included in the description. It is important to remember that competencies exist on several levels. You would not expect a newly trained individual to perform at the same level as a person who had been on the job for a year or more. Competence builds over time through experience and coaching.

All managers and supervisors coach. They tell people what they are doing right or wrong on the job, train them, assess them, and counsel them.

Coaching

Once the training has been completed, the supervisors job of coaching begins. The start of the coaching process typically produces a decline in motivation as the individuals awareness of their level of skills becomes clear. It is at this point that the supervisor applies effective interpersonal skills in order to help the employee recognize their strengths and see the possibility of achieving the desired level of competence.

As people gain experience in their job, they see ways of doing it better. Your job is to promote this type of development through encouraging your people to come forward with improvement ideas and build upon their experiences to date. You have to make your people responsible for their attainment of each level of competence.

Final thought When people feel that their own success and that of the company are linked the will be motivated to give their personal best and will achieve the desired levels of competency. A word of caution here; it takes time to achieve performance, many managers and supervisors give up too soon. A common mistake is to abandon performance improvement initiatives before they have a chance to succeed. For more information on how to apply these concepts, check out MENTORING FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE - How to Build Greater Performance In New Employees by Brice Alvord available at the ALERA Publishing book store at: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=40068 or www.aleragroup.com

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Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture //

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