Managers today – both senior and middle managers – are, quite simply, overwhelmed. Yet they are under intense pressure to support their team members in this new hybrid world. The factor in that the responsibilities of managers — and the number of workers who report to them — have skyrocketed over the last few years. According to Gartner research, 70% of HR leaders say managers are overwhelmed by their responsibilities.
Off-sites and day-long training sessions take people away from their already busy workdays. Your leaders return to the office, face the deluge and promptly forget what they learned.
Learning in the Flow
For learning to be sustainable, it’s got to be within the flow of their work. Learning needs to balance enough meaty content for aha-moments with bite-sized sessions that allow your people to slot it into their day. (For more on this trend and others, be sure to download our 2023 L&D Trends Report.)
When learning becomes an active part of a work-life routine, it helps bubble new ideas, new behaviours and new skills to the top on a regular basis, something that it is so essential to organizational agility.
Leadership models and theories are great, but people need to connect the dots between what they are learning, their role in the company, and how it plays into the bigger strategy and company culture. When leaders have input into the skills and knowledge they want to develop, it becomes germane to the task at hand.
Understanding how to apply what we’ve learned is a huge eye-opener for line leaders as well as senior execs. Agility as well as the ability to move the needle on organizational objectives depends on making this connection.
Better Results
It’s little wonder one of the biggest trends we are seeing today is “learning in flow” – smaller, snackable bites of professional development, where leaders can get in and get what they need and put it into action right away.
This ability to learn and apply in the moment, in a real-world context helps learning stick, and accelerates new skills and behaviours. A recent Catalyst cohort reported:
- 100% increase in leadership self-awareness
- 100% improved coaching skills
- 100% improved leadership abilities
- 96% added new tools to their leadership approach
Peer group coaching may be just what your organization has been looking to take its employee development efforts to the next level. If you’d like to know more about our group coaching programs, contact us to start a conversation.
