Organizational success is dependent on a lot of factors, both internal and external. When it comes to the people in the company, there are three primary components that must be optimized: structure, talent, and behavior. Like a three-legged stool, if any one of these components is lacking, the organization gets less stable and less able to withstand external pressures. However, when all three components are fully developed and in place, the path to organizational success is much easier to navigate.

It’s important not to develop each of these pillars in vacuums. They all depend on each other and should be strengthened equally. Follow these tips to optimize the three components of organizational success for your company.

1. Structure: The Right Roles in the Right Places

No matter how much talent you have in the organization, if the right people aren’t in the right roles or don’t have the authority to execute their roles properly, they won’t be able to fulfill their potential. This is where structure comes in. There is no single structure that is right for every organization. Even similar companies in the same industry might have different approaches, and each of them could be effective. When determining organizational structure, it’s important to consider two criteria: aligning with the strategy and providing the appropriate authority.

Official and Unofficial Hierarchies

The structure of an organization is defined by both official and unofficial hierarchies. Official hierarchies are the relationships between executives, senior leaders, line managers, team leaders, and every individual in the organization. These relationships are critical for conveying the organizational vision, communicating the strategy for achieving it, and providing performance feedback.

Unofficial hierarchies exist in every organization, and the most successful ones recognize this and foster these relationships in a positive way. These are the day-to-day working relationships that allow individuals to learn from others’ expertise, make quick decisions, and operate productively. Because these unofficial hierarchies can play a significant role in performance, it’s important to empower people to build these relationships.

Clear Communication About Structure

Having a clear structure allows organizations to work more effectively toward a common goal. Every organization’s structure is different. Even two companies with the same official structure will have unofficial hierarchies that make each of them unique. The structure must be clearly defined and communicated to everyone in the organization, regardless of the parameters.

Without a clear structure, employees don’t know who to go to for approvals or where they should seek advice. This leads to confusion and potentially a diversion from the vision. It’s also important to remember that structures evolve over time, so continue to communicate as roles change.

Strategic Alignment

When deciding who reports to whom, don’t rely on company history or management theory. Always bring it back to the overall strategy of the organization and ask whether the structure supports it. This approach could result in the formation of new departments, restructuring of teams, changes in reporting relationships, or other decisions that might rock the boat. Don’t be afraid to make a change if your current structure is not supporting organizational goals—remember that this is a critical component of success. As the strategy evolves over time, check to make sure that the structure still supports it. If not, determine what changes need to be made to help you reach your goals.

Authority

Structure without authority does not fully allow individuals to execute strategies. Individuals must know what degree of authority they have and in what areas. However, providing the right amount of authority can be a challenge. Too much can be unwieldy and result in poor decisions; too little can impede progress.

Decide how much authority each role should have based on its goals and objectives and alignment with roles at higher levels. Ensure that the individuals in those roles have the right competencies to handle the level of authority they have, and provide the necessary training to fill in any gaps. It is also important to recognize when individuals are ready to take on more authority so you can maximize your talent pool. Don’t assume that the individuals at higher levels need to take on more and more authority. On the contrary, the more they can release to the rising leaders in the organization, the more time and bandwidth they will have to focus on strategy and the larger organizational vision.

2. Talent: Skilled Individuals in the Right Roles

The perfect structure won’t get you far if you don’t have talented people in each role. It’s also critical that people are in the right roles that allow them to perform at their highest level.

Understanding Talent

The skills and knowledge that each employee brings to the table make up the talent component of organizational success. Although talent can be innate, it can also be taught, shaped, enhanced, and developed. Because it can be improved over time, there is a certain amount of potential talent in any organization that should be accounted for in addition to the current stock of talent. It’s this potential talent that contributes to the longevity of an organization and provides a competitive advantage.

Talent Development

The only way to tap into this potential is to invest in it through training and development programs that enable individuals to continually learn and grow. This investment should extend to leadership training to ensure that executives and managers have the skills and knowledge to effectively harness the talent that is being developed. As individuals move through the organizational hierarchy, it’s critical that they learn the necessary skills for performing their roles; structure needs talent to maintain its integrity. Every organization has a certain amount of current potential talent available. It’s what you do with it that determines how successful the company will be.

Although it’s important to zoom out and look at the big picture of having the right people in the right roles, the only way to ensure that people are ready to step into those roles is to focus on individual talent. For each individual, look at their strengths and identify the areas that most need to be developed. These might be functional, interpersonal, or leadership skills. Set standards for each of these areas and assess how each individual performs relative to those standards. This helps you identify the competency gaps that need to be filled. Create individual development plans with goals and milestones to help individuals get to the next level. When they have done this, start over with new assessments and create a new plan that addresses the next set of goals.

3. Behavior: Effective Interactions Between Individuals, Teams, and Leaders

Having a solid structure in place with the right people in the right roles is still not enough to consistently achieve organizational success. The final piece of the puzzle is behavior. How those people interact with each other and perform in their individual roles will inform how the organization performs overall.

Even with the most talented individuals in the right roles, an organization will not reach its full potential if the behaviors of individuals do not promote success. Some of the success factors that heavily rely on individual behaviors include an organization’s ability to innovate, interactions between teams, and continuously improving processes. Some of the behaviors that promote or discourage success include the way employees interact with each other and leaders, the way leaders respond to employees, and the manner in which colleagues from different teams communicate.

Cultivating and Changing Behaviors

The goal is to have individual and team behaviors in alignment with the company culture and the vision of the organization. Every individual in the organization must understand the behaviors that are expected of them, and in many cases, training must be provided to teach new behaviors. Leaders must also model and coach the desired behaviors. Without these examples, it’s unrealistic to expect individual employees to make a change.

Finding the Right Balance

Organizational culture can range from one in which everybody is fully empowered to make decisions to one in which the leaders make all of the decisions. Where an organization falls on this spectrum informs the way people behave. Regardless of where your company is on the spectrum, make sure individuals have the necessary tools to operate in that environment. For example, in an empowered culture, employees must have the necessary skill set to consider and understand the consequences of their actions. The bottom line is, when an organization expects certain behaviors, it must provide the training necessary to enable individuals to meet those expectations.

Conclusion

The three components of organizational success—structure, talent, and behavior—cannot stand alone and must be in balance with each other. Take a holistic view when focusing on any one of these elements to ensure one area does not become disproportionately stronger than the others. Implement a training and development program to support each of these three critical elements to harness the full potential of every individual in the organization. Do this consistently over time, and you have the formula for organizational success.

All leaders, regardless of their origins, agree that certain leadership skills must be learned thus all leaders can benefit from leadership training. However, not all leadership training programs will deliver the long-term results you desire. When choosing a program to train your leaders, make sure it includes the following vital skill sets.

1. Empowering Others

A leader’s ability to empower will have a significant impact on driving business results. The best leader knows how to make staff shine, by delegating responsibilities according to each staff member’s strengths and weaknesses. An effective delegation model exists and can be taught. Other aspects of delegation can be taught during training as well, including how to:

• Empower with clarity
• Define span of freedom and responsibility in executing tasks for direct reports
• Ensure staff take personal ownership for delivering on commitments

The key takeaway from this leadership training topic is that leaders will know how to best nudge their staff to get results.

2. Leading Meetings

This may seem like a superficial skill to focus on, but leading effective and productive meetings is one of the most important skills a leader needs to have. Consider how many meetings are run daily in an organization – almost all meetings will be run by someone in a leadership role. You need to step back and consider how effectively organized those meetings are and look at the productive outcome. Training on how to lead meetings include skills building in:

• Getting everyone involved and participating in the meeting topic
• Managing meetings effectively, so each member is heard
• Getting to the main meeting points quickly
• Staying on time and on task
• Focusing on core objectives and limiting distractions
• Generating actionable results

3. Managing People

Managing people is part of leadership, but it’s a part that may not come naturally to leaders. In almost every job, people skills are every bit as important as technical, or hard skills. Luckily, people management is another skill that can be taught. The first step is being open to training itself. The next is to practice what is learned. Through training, leaders learn to:

• Manage and overcome interpersonal conflict
• Help staff with their own goal setting, time management, and collaboration challenges
• Encourage staff to diagnose their own performance
• Garner a culture of accountability for their team

4. Soft Skills

While we spend large portions of our careers learning the hard skills required to completing tasks and doing our jobs, it is essential that leaders also have training in “soft skill” areas. When seeking leadership training, ensure the curriculum has components targeted specifically to personal and soft skills building for leaders. While technical skills are important, soft skills are crucial to career success as a leader. Soft skills building for leadership training should cover:

• Building effective relationships
• Communicating clearly
• Listening actively
• Thinking creatively

5. Specific Skills Training for the Needs of Your Organization

While you can’t know exactly what the future will bring, there is one thing you can train leaders to face: Change. Even seasoned leaders can benefit from training for change management. Even if you’re not undergoing a complete culture transformation, leading through change is still important even for smaller initiatives like changes to software and systems.  Training here will include:

• Best ways to educate others about a change
• How to choose whether to try a different change tactic
• How to assess your own impact toward change
• Methods for providing constructive feedback

Leadership training topics and programs vary; make sure your leaders are receiving the best leadership skills training by looking at the training topics included within the curriculum.

Measuring a company’s culture can be a challenging undertaking. While some parameters are clearly definable, others are more difficult to pin down. However, when your objective is to shift a company’s culture, it’s important to measure progress to determine if your efforts are resulting in your desired outcomes.

When you consider that a company culture is the sum of individual behaviors, it becomes easier to identify measurement techniques. Making the transition from one culture to another requires behavioral change on an individual level, which is more difficult than you might expect. Even after an inspiring training event, it’s easy to slip back into old habits, especially when employees are faced with the daily pressures of their jobs. However, when individuals collectively make changes over time, the cycle is repeated, new norms are created, and the result is a new culture.

Let’s take a look at the seven measurement techniques that can be used throughout a successful culture transformation.

1. Pulse Checks

Before even starting a culture transformation initiative, it’s important to know the current state of the organization. A pulse check is a short questionnaire used to first capture the baseline culture and then measure change over defined periods of time. For example, you might ask employees to do a pulse check once every quarter to measure changes in responses to questions about how well the leadership models behavior that embodies the company culture.

2. Key Milestones

An important component of culture change is clearly articulating the expected standard and identifying what must be done to achieve it. Creating key milestones over a period of 18 to 36 months gives employees and managers benchmarks to work toward. These milestones also help sustain the momentum of culture change over time. Many culture shifts start with a big push but can fizzle after a few months as employees revert to their old habits. Keeping these key milestones at the forefront as a measurement tool can help sustain the energy as people work to incorporate new behaviors into their daily jobs.

3. Knowledge Testing

In the early stages of a culture transformation, it’s important to know if the new information being delivered during training is understood by participants. If the training didn’t resonate, you can’t reasonably expect changes in behavior. Knowledge testing in the days and weeks after training will confirm that employees learned the desired skills or will provide evidence that further training is required.

4. Mobile Boost Learning

After confirmation that the training was effective, fight the effects of learning decay with a tool like mobile boost learning. Meant to reinforce (not reteach) knowledge already acquired, boost learning can help keep new concepts and behaviors top of mind. Mobile tools can deliver short messages to reinforce behaviors that lead to better quality, efficiency, productivity, or whatever your defined culture change goals are.

5. Self-Assessments

As time progresses during a culture change, employees reach a point where they understand what is expected of them, have the tools to make the desired changes, and are making a genuine effort to apply new skills and change their own behavior. During this stage, self-assessments are valuable tools that allow employees to test these new behaviors in a safe environment. Working with a manager who is able to set clear goals for specific tasks ensures that employees are able to try a new behavior, make corrections, and generate feedback that contributes to lasting change.

6. Multi-Rater Assessments

The next stage in a culture transformation is when employees are not just testing new behaviors, but fully deploying them. At this point, multi-rater assessments that gather feedback from managers, customers, and direct reports can help refine these behaviors even further and optimize the culture. This level of measurement is not necessarily appropriate for every organization going through a culture transformation, as it demands more resources and a level of rigor that not every company needs. However, for organizations that want to achieve a certain level of performance, multi-rater assessments can be a valuable tool.

7. Culture Impact Scorecard

All of the results from the above assessment tools can be combined into a culture impact scorecard or digital dashboard that allows you to centrally manage and communicate the importance of the culture in the organization. Having all of the data in a single location enables you to correlate all of the phases in adopting a new company culture.

• Training
• Knowledge
• Application
• Behavior change
• Culture transformation
• Business impact

Can each of these culture transformation tools be used independently? Of course, but if you want to get the most from your training investment and measure how much of an impact your culture transformation program have on organizational goals, it’s important to employ measurement tools during each phase and tie them all together into a snapshot view. Measuring a company culture is not as simple as taking an occasional survey, but with a smart strategy and the right tools, you can measure transformation in action.

Contents

• Teamwork and Collaboration
• Ethics and Integrity
• Adaptability
• Innovation and Continuous Learning
• Communication
• Emotional Intelligence
• Leadership

Introduction

Today’s business challenges compel organizations to identify new, more creative ways to enhance shareholder value and the customer experience. As a member of the C-suite, you bear considerable responsibility for building a productive workforce and high-performance culture. Moreover, you want that accountability to go beyond the C-suite and filter through the rest of the organization. In the PWC 2017 CEO Survey on Global Talent, 77 percent of CEOs expressed concern about the availability of core competencies such as creativity and innovation among their workforces. You don’t have to be among them. A focus on the development of seven core competencies can ensure you are building a workforce that possesses the skills you need for short- and long-term success.

1. Teamwork and Collaboration

You probably already recognize that collaboration among employees yields high idea generation and more efficient problem-solving. Tools such as Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology provide more seamless ways for employees to collaborate and leverage each other’s strengths. Other solutions that will drive productive teamwork throughout your organization and go beyond technology include training initiatives that help you identify and duplicate the qualities of your existing high-performance teams. Furthermore, you can support employee teamwork and collaboration by building a culture that not only places value on effective teamwork, but also trains employees to be better problem-solvers and communicators within a team environment.

2. Ethics and Integrity

A recent study of ethical trends among CEOs noted increased public scrutiny of C-suite executives and their ethical (or not) behavior. You want your employees and your customers to know that you are committed to doing the right thing, whether it’s in how you approach new business opportunities or how you treat employees. Therefore, ethics and integrity should be woven into your culture and reinforced with coaching and training that helps every individual understand your commitment to ethical behavior.

3.  Adaptability

In today’s ever-changing business landscape, individuals who can shift their behaviors and mindset to align with changes in work culture and environment are more valuable than ever. As your organization grows, your systems and processes will advance in complexity as well. You need your workforce to not only adapt to those changes but in some cases lead the change. As new technologies such as big data, AI, and robotics continue to change the way people work and interact, your workforce will benefit from tailored employee development experiences that will strengthen their change management capabilities and provide the tools needed to adapt to shifts in their work environment.

4. Innovation and Continuous Learning

Organizational growth is the outcome of innovation and a commitment to doing things faster, more efficiently, and with greater value to the customer. When a business challenge requires an innovative solution, you expect employees to consider new processes or technology and be willing to step into the unfamiliar. But can innovation and creative thinking be taught? The answer is yes—with the right tools and environment, you can transform your workforce into a powerful hub for innovation.

5. Communication

The perennial employee development challenge is how to help managers and employees communicate better, with greater clarity, honesty, and effectiveness. Individuals can become better performers if they know how to actively listen to understand colleagues and customers better. Also, people managers need to develop strong communication skills in order to convey performance expectations and solicit and deliver feedback effectively. As a leadership team, you can make communication skills training a key component of your employee development efforts.

6. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 co-author Travis Bradberry found that 90 percent of high performers exhibit high emotional intelligence. You may have seen within your own workforce how individuals with a high EQ (emotional quotient) are able to overcome difficult personalities, and seem to effortlessly guide the behavior of others without ruffling feathers or aggravating egos. These are the types of behaviors that employees can learn to emulate as they engage in activities that challenge them to practice empathy and patience with coworkers.

7. Leadership

You are likely already aware that perhaps the single most important employee development area that supports organizational capability is effective leadership. Strong leaders empower others to be effective collaborators, communicators, and decision-makers, which will, in turn, provide you with a competitive advantage in times of growth and change. When you partner with HR and a trusted leadership development partner, you can provide leadership development experiences and training that will help to build strong leaders at every level of the organization.

Use Experiential Learning to Address Key Areas of Employee Development

These seven employee development areas can be targeted through a practical competency framework, and aligned with an experiential training program that will help individuals learn by doing. Strong leaders aren’t created by accident but through relevant experiences delivered in a context that encourages learning and further development. With experiential training, your employees engage in employee development that drives lasting behavior change and sets the organization on a course for success and further growth.

Having a culture of collaboration helps organizations maximize employee knowledge and capabilities. Ideas and information spread more easily when employees communicate and collaborate across functional and departmental lines, which can have a positive impact on company performance. A study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that companies with a collaborative culture are 5.5 times more likely to be high-performing than companies that don’t have one.

Creating a culture of collaboration can be a struggle for companies because of unclear expectations, lack of follow-through, or employees that may not have the skill or desire to collaborate. Here are five strategies that can help to overcome those challenges and learn how to transform your culture to be more collaborative:

1. Communicate a Clear Vision

Collaboration can look different from company to company, so it makes sense to establish your desired behaviors and attributes and what the organization will look like once a collaborative culture has taken hold. The vision for a collaborative culture needs to be communicated broadly to employees and constantly reinforced so that it doesn’t become just a “flavor of the month.” A clear vision that cascades from senior leadership helps employees see a line of sight to the end goal, allowing them to build commitment as the organization moves closer to realizing the vision.

2. Hire and Develop Collaborative Leaders

Like any important company objective, building a collaborative culture requires the buy-in and support of company leaders. Without leaders to carry the company vision, efforts to build a culture of collaboration are likely to suffer. Some ways to gain leadership support include:

• Attracting and hiring leaders who have a collaborative management style, a strong commitment to teamwork and resource-sharing, and the ability to encourage collaboration in their teams.
• Implementing a leadership training and development program that teaches them how to communicate expectations, model collaborative behavior through their example, and coach others to improve.
• Recognizing and rewarding leaders who demonstrate a strong commitment to the company’s vision for a collaborative work culture.

3. Create Opportunities for Collaboration

Collaboration can’t happen if employees aren’t in situations where they need to reach across team lines to accomplish their goals. Joint team projects, cross-functional focus groups, and company chat rooms built around a common company objective are examples of ways to bring teams together so they can build shared experiences and benefit from each other’s ideas and capabilities. Experiential learning, where employees learn by doing, can also help individuals learn and practice the behaviors they can use on a daily basis to be more collaborative. Not everyone will be comfortable collaborating at first, so it might be necessary to provide training that encourages them to do so and equips them with the skills they need to succeed in the new culture.

4. Leverage Social Collaboration Tools

In the digital age, internal social networks and cloud-based tools can be instrumental in helping employees collaborate. Collaboration is no longer limited to a group of people in a conference room or on a conference call. A survey of business professionals found that 83 percent said they depend on technology to collaborate, while 82 percent said the loss of collaboration technology would negatively impact them. Collaboration tools can also help to bring teams together that work in different geographies and time zones, breaking down barriers that might previously have prevented individuals from communicating frequently.

5. Reinforce and Revisit

Creating a culture of collaboration, like any important company initiative, doesn’t happen overnight, especially if the organization has historically been divided into silos and is not used to working collaboratively. Continuous monitoring and reinforcement are necessary to ensure sustained behavior change and prevent employees from falling back into their old behaviors. Reinforcement activities can be most effective when employees have the tools they need to be effective and leaders are equipped to answer questions, problem-solve, and provide ongoing employee feedback. Examples of reinforcement tools and activities include:

• Team building activities that encourage individuals to practice their skills, build trust, and reinforce supportive relationships. These can include a major company event off-site or smaller-scale daily activities.
• Surveys that gauge employees’ views of the company’s culture and how it impacts their behavior.
• Assessments and content boosts that reinforce what employees have already learned in earlier training.

Conclusion: Creating a Culture of Collaboration Is Possible!

Companies sometimes struggle to foster a culture of collaboration, but it’s not always for lack of trying. Any kind of culture shift is no small undertaking and takes time, patience, and regular reinforcement. With a clear vision, strong leaders, and tools and experiences that support collaborative behaviors, a culture of collaboration is possible.

Being a good leader requires more than being a high performer yourself. You must also be able to motivate others to achieve their greatest potential by empowering them and holding them accountable for their responsibilities.

Gallup’s Re-Engineering Performance Management report indicates that employees in the U.S. who are either not engaged or are actively disengaged cost companies between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion per year, demonstrating that a lack of motivation among employees means money lost for your organization. The report also says that only two out of every ten employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. This is a strong indicator that leaders need to do better. Additionally, only 21 percent of employees strongly agree that their pay and incentives motivate them to achieve their goals. Increasing pay is a quick answer, not a long-term solution.

What is critical thinking? Critical thinking is a process of objective evaluation of facts and the consideration of possible solutions to problems. According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking, the concept dates back to early methods of questioning to achieve knowledge practiced by the Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. Today, organizations value critical thinking as a means to greater innovation and improved problem-solving. In fact, the skill is deemed so important that a survey of leading chief human resource officers conducted by the World Economic Forum found that critical thinking will be the second most important skill in the workplace by 2020, second only to complex problem-solving skills.

Critical thinking is important because it helps individuals and teams more effectively diagnose problems and identify possible solutions that aren’t entirely obvious at first. In addition, critical thinking can help resolve conflicts in the workplace. When individuals consider a range of possible approaches to solving a problem rather than relying on bias or snap judgments, they are more likely to arrive at a better solution.

Ways to Promote Critical Thinking in the Workplace

Some ways you can promote critical thinking in the workplace involve making changes in your workplace culture; others involve training. Here are five ways to encourage critical thinking in your organization.

1. Hire and Promote Critical Thinkers

An important first step to building organizational strength in critical thinking is to hire individuals who are already strong in that area. Behavioral interviewing is an effective way to gauge a candidate’s strengths in critical evaluation and analysis. In addition, when you make critical thinking a desired competency for leadership and promotion, you begin to build a pipeline of talented critical thinkers.

2. Build a Culture of Learning

It’s critical to create an environment where the behaviors related to critical thinking are a natural part of your company culture. Some of the ways you can build and support  a culture that stimulates critical, objective analysis include:

• Incorporating “lessons learned” discussions after the conclusion of important projects, during which employees have the opportunity to look back on areas where more critical thinking might have been helpful in improving a project’s outcome
• Creating an environment where tough questions are welcomed and employees are encouraged to talk through alternatives openly
• Developing a routine or protocol for decision-making that encourages critical-thinking behaviors such as exploring possible solutions to a problem, exploring bias, and considering the consequences of different proposed solutions

3. Avoid Jumping to Conclusions

Another way to promote critical thinking in the workplace is to avoid jumping to conclusions. Instead, approach a problem by first developing a common understanding of the challenges it presents. According to a recent helpful article, these are a few ways to accomplish this:

• Ask questions about the origin of a problem and how it evolved
• Define the desired outcome before settling on a solution to the problem
• Avoid overthinking possible solutions, which can slow down the problem-solving process and undermine disciplined thinking

4. Create Internal Forums

Sometimes the simple act of talking things out can help to spur the critical, objective analysis of problems. When individuals have a forum for addressing and discussing one big problem or a series of related problems, they generate new ideas, share pros and cons of certain solutions, and take advantage of opportunities to collaborate with coworkers on creative solutions to workplace problems.

5. Teach and Train

Leadership development and teamwork-skills training can help build employees’ critical thinking strengths by encouraging a mind-set and skill-set change. As individuals learn new behaviors, they begin to see broader problems and solutions that exist beyond their individual roles and consider the larger picture when looking at a problem.

Experiential learning  works particularly well in promoting critical thinking because learning by doing encourages a critical skill set. The immersive nature of an experiential approach keeps employees fully engaged so that they continually use their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

Build Critical Thinking in the Whole Organization

Critical thinking is more than a desirable soft skill; it’s a valuable competency that is the basis for innovation and problem-solving. When properly cultivated in the workplace, critical thinking can help individuals and teams overcome challenges and meet business goals. Although there’s no magic bullet that will increase critical thinking in the workplace, a variety of activities in combination can effectively promote it. When you build a culture that promotes and values critical thinking, your organization as a whole will see greater results and outcomes.

Leaders are responsible not just for managing and leading talent, but also for helping individuals develop and grow so that they can perform to their potential. Though most leaders would agree that developing talent is important, training alone is not enough. Leadership requires not only setting expectations and providing feedback, but also positioning employees for success and providing an environment that encourages continuous learning and performance improvement. Here are four things leaders can do to develop organizational talent that reaches their full potential:

Delegate

Leaders can make considerable progress in developing talent by delegating tasks that challenge these individuals to try something new. Delegation doesn’t mean just handing off a task to someone, but going through a process of discussion, explanation, and coaching to help the person learn and perform at a higher level. Leaders can identify which responsibilities to delegate (and whom to delegate them to) by communicating expectations, providing regular feedback, and then trusting individuals so that they can take accountability for the outcome of the delegated task. As individuals take on more newly delegated responsibilities, they will grow more confident in their ability to perform at a consistently higher level.

Coach and Mentor

Coaching isn’t limited to a one-on-one relationship established only for that purpose. In fact, leaders have opportunities to coach their people on a daily basis, and can often provide useful in-the-moment coaching that helps to accelerate employee development. Coaching is more than giving advice and suggestions for improvement. It requires first making a connection and showing employees that you care about their development and aspirations for growth, and then providing opportunities for them to learn and grow. Managers can coach and mentor by regularly asking employees about their career aspirations, discussing options for training, and identifying assignments and other opportunities to learn. Once leaders have established a connection with individuals, they can more effectively provide coaching that includes observing employee behavior and communicating helpful strategies for skill building and development.

Set an Example

The behavior of leaders can have a major influence on employee behavior. One survey found that 42 percent of new managers developed their management style by observing a previous manager. Leaders can find success in developing talent by focusing on continuous improvement and showing others through their own example the importance of developing leadership strengths. Leaders who demonstrate a desire to become better through leadership development and building their skills in other areas show through their example the value of expanding and growing as a professional. When employees see leaders sharpening their own skills, they are more likely to follow that behavior and seek out development opportunities for themselves.

Identify Targeted Training

Training that targets a specific area, such as communication, teamwork, or leadership development, can give employees the necessary building blocks to consistently perform at a higher level. However, training delivered in a vacuum won’t produce much in the way of results. Training activities should mimic the real world in order to offer maximum value to employees and teams. Experiential learning is an ideal choice for developing talent because it allows employees to learn by doing and includes exercises that parallel real challenges employees face at work. When employees can see a strong connection between what they learn and practice in training and what they experience at work, they’re more likely to use newly learned skills on the job.

Talent development is a necessary component of ensuring your workforce possesses the skills and knowledge required for future growth. Helping employees learn and grow requires a combination of targeted training and support from leaders to help employees achieve their aspirations and perform to their potential.

It’s no secret that employee engagement is a key concern for organizations; studies show that an engaged workforce supports growth through a range of benefits, including higher productivity and profitability, lower turnover, and more satisfied customers. However, despite the value of an engaged workforce, only one in three US employees is engaged, according to Gallup surveys.

Organizations that focus on learning and development (L&D) can make important strides in supporting both higher employee engagement and company growth. Providing employees with key learning and development opportunities not only builds capable, confident employees, but research shows that learning and development is a key driver of engagement. For example, In one study, 80 percent of surveyed employees said that learning and development opportunities would help them feel more engaged at work. Here are four reasons why learning and development drive employee engagement and growth.

L&D Improves Employee Retention

Investing in employee learning and development shows employees they are valued. When people feel valued, they are less likely to leave the organization. According to the LinkedIn 2018 Workplace Learning Report, 94 percent of employees said that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. As a company invests in the growth of its people, employees see that they can accomplish their personal growth goals within the organization, and they subsequently grow in their commitment to the company and its goals. Some examples of learning and development initiatives that support employee retention include:

• Training opportunities at various stages along specific career paths
• Skill development courses that appeal to a range of employee interests and learning styles
• Promotional opportunities that are linked to mastery of key competencies

L&D Ensures a Strong Leadership Pipeline

For an organization to grow and achieve its succession planning goals, there must be a strong pipeline of leaders ready to fill key positions. Learning and development ensures that new and existing leaders possess the knowledge and skills required to lead others. Training and development opportunities that build leadership competency include:

• Leadership development that teaches individuals how to lead themselves and lead others
• Training in soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork
• Stretch assignments and rotational opportunities that expose individuals to new processes and people

L&D Helps Prepare an Organization for Change

Change is inevitable for any organization, but having employees who are equipped to navigate the waters of change increases the likelihood of success. By providing employees with learning experiences that help them embrace shifts in strategy or revised work processes, the organization won’t be crippled by change, but will instead be able to effectively leverage change in order to grow. In addition, learning and development programs give leaders the tools to prepare their team for change and help all employees approach change with confidence and a positive attitude.

L&D Supports Better Teamwork and Collaboration

When people come together as a team, there’s no guarantee they will communicate, share information and resources, or remain committed to team goals. However, learning and development initiatives increase the likelihood of effective team functioning. These initiatives teach individuals how to communicate, resolve conflicts, and support one another, helping them contribute more effectively to organizational growth. Moreover, when team relationships are more positive, employees are also more engaged. In a SHRM report, 77 percent of surveyed employees named relationships with coworkers as an important driver of their engagement. With the knowledge and skills to be productive members of a team, individuals can better support the success of the organization as a whole.

By investing in the growth of employees, you fuel company growth. Learning and development opportunities provide employees with the experiences and skills necessary to support organizational goals. By improving employee retention, engagement, and the effectiveness of leaders, learning and development programs ensure a workforce that is capable of supporting the organization into the future.

Meetings are an important way to keep your team in sync and your initiatives running smoothly. Whether you need to share information, gather feedback, or make decisions, there are a plethora of positive effects of having weekly staff meetings.

So, what makes a meeting effective? According to a leadership lesson presented by the Association of American Medical Colleges, “Effective meetings allow for open conversation that draws upon each members’ knowledge, skills, and perspectives to solve problems and to support one another in achieving the collective goals.” This may seem like a simple definition, but it takes skill to consistently run meetings that fit that description. The better your leaders are at running effective meetings, the more you will witness the following four benefits within your organization.

1. Increased Engagement and Collaboration

When led well, meetings offer each person the opportunity to participate and provide input. To engage each individual, effective facilitators focus on asking questions and guiding the conversation so that everyone understands that their perspectives and ideas are valued. These discussions can even spark collaborative brainstorming sessions that produce new ideas and creative solutions.

Practical Tip

When preparing for a meeting, create a list of questions that will help stimulate discussion. If there are particular people who don’t regularly speak up, ask them to share their input with the group.  

2. Increased Accountability

A good meeting leader is skilled at creating an environment in which everybody feels that their contribution is valued. This helps make participants feel more comfortable taking on assignments and makes it clear that every task has an impact on the project as a whole. Committing to a task in a meeting often has more weight than doing so in a one-on-one situation or via email. When saying “yes” to an assignment in a meeting, individuals feel more accountable to the group and are more motivated to complete their piece of the project. Capturing action items and responsibilities in the meeting also increases personal accountability because the team will be able to review the task assignments in the meeting notes.

Practical Tip

Conclude every meeting by summarizing the list of action items, including who is responsible for them and when the tasks are due. After the meeting, follow up via email or your project management tool to reinforce the commitments that were made.

3. A Shared Sense of Purpose

Clearly stating the purpose of the meeting and providing an agenda in advance ensures that everybody is on the same page about why it is being held and what they need to do to come prepared. A skilled leader then uses the agenda to keep the discussion moving in the direction of the team’s goals. Sharing the agenda and goals with the team provides a shared sense of purpose because everyone understands the importance of the meeting and why they have been included. This shared purpose is motivating both during the meeting and after, when the team disperses to work on their individual action items.

Practical Tip

When inviting people to a meeting, provide an agenda within the invite that clearly defines the meeting objectives. During the meeting, if the conversation starts to wander, circle back to those objectives to keep the meeting on track.

4. Opportunities for Personal Growth

A truly effective meeting creates opportunities for each person to develop important skills. The facilitator is refining their leadership skills by practicing effective communication techniques and motivating the group to be accountable for their commitments. Participants are able to witness the benefits of a well-run meeting and adopt the skills and behaviors modeled by the leader. An effective meeting also enables participants to challenge themselves and try something new. When tasks are being discussed and assigned, participants can volunteer to take on the work that interests them most. Even if they have limited knowledge or experience, they can join a group that will allow them to learn and develop their skills in that area.

Practical Tip

To help individuals learn new skills, pair newer employees up with more experienced team members and give them a challenging task to complete as a team. This enables the less experienced individuals to learn from the expertise of their partners and gain new skills in a supportive and productive way.

Conclusion

While this is not an exhaustive list of all the positive effects of having weekly staff meetings, it does give you a clear indication there are many. In addition to keeping everyone on the same page, well-run meetings also help increase engagement, collaboration, accountability, and personal development. However, not all leaders possess the necessary skill set to run an effective meeting. Fortunately, this can be taught and honed through training and practice. To learn more about planning and running meetings in your organization, download our free guide, A Guide to Running Effective Meetings.