Learning is a Contact SportTen Strategies for Boosting Professional Development

Gus PresteraSession 101

February 15, 20168:00 – 9:00 AM

competencies

pipeline

bench streng

thperformance

mentoringlearning

improving the capabilities and performance of leaders and their employees

Gus PresteraConsultant | Instructor | Entrepreneur

• 20 years experience developing workers and their leaders

• MBA and PhD Instructional Systems with Leadership Development focus

• Specialties:– Leadership Development– Professional Development– Organizational Development– Blended Learning

• eMail: gus@presterafx.com

Prestera FXtraining and consulting

Blended online curriculum covering:• Budgeting• Rate structure• Scoping• Costing• Pricing• SOW Writing• Estimation Models• Proposal Writing• Proposal Presentation• Negotiation

Prestera Academyhttp://academy.presterafx.com

Prestera FXhttp://www.presterafx.com

What is professional

development?

Who should get professional development?

Realm ofTeam Development

Realm ofPerformance Management

Realm ofLeadership Development

©2014 Prestera FX, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Three Kingdoms of Talent Management

What professional development looks like

Based on research conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership

from Experience

from Others

from Study

fromExperience

from Others

from Study

How people learn:How we invest:

should

What strategies have the biggest impact?

Formal education, training, resources

Coaching, mentoring, feedback/reflection

On-the-job experiences

from Experience from Others from Study

Workshops eLearning Webinars Degree & certification courses Books & articles Videos Industry Conferences Local seminars Websites, blogs, magazines

Manager coaching After Action Reviews Being mentored Peer mentoring Learning circle Executive sponsor Community of practice SME networks 360 feedback Customer feedback Tracking performance metrics

Special assignment Leading projects Shadowing Job swap Job rotation

10%20%

70%

Action learning Cross training Interim position Benchmarking Being a mentor Committee Being a trainer Increased scope of

responsibilities

Types of Development Actions

70:20:10Refer to: Lombardo, Michael M; Eichinger, Robert W (1996). The Career Architect Development Planner (1st ed.). Minneapolis: Lominger. Morgan McCall: Center for Creative Leadership (www.ccl.org)

What needs to be in the mix?

Hands-on Application

Feedback Loops

Alignment with Organization

People Interaction

Reflection &Introspection

Ten Best Practices for Boosting Development

3.Make it

experiential

1.Make it a

KPI

5.Mix & Mingle

7.Teach

Them to Fish

9.Manager

Guidance & Support

4.Proof of Learning

2.Bake it into

the mix

6.Gung-Ho Mentors

8.Hard Look

in the Mirror

10.Future Selves

Career Fair

Job Shadowing

Job Rotation

Curating a CoP

1:1 Mentoring

Reverse Mentoring

Cross-Functional

Assignments

Co-Teaching

Mentoring Circles

CEO AdvisoryGroup

Cross-Training

Career Fair

Job Shadowing

Job Rotation

Curating a CoP

1:1 Mentoring

Reverse Mentoring

Cross-Functional

Assignments

Co-Teaching

Mentoring Circles

CEO AdvisoryGroup

Cross-Training

1:1 Mentoring

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• Global insurance company created a structured

1:1 mentoring program and applied it to their Women in Leadership executive sponsorship program, among other places.

• Paired female middle managers with senior executives (mostly male), who volunteered to provide career advice and to act as advocates for their mentees.

• Women in the program had significantly higher retention and engagement, and experienced greater advancement.

• Mentoring became a key strategy in promoting greater diversity within the organization, especially within senior leadership ranks.

STRENGTHS:• Gung-Ho Mentors: Great

development for mentors as well as mentees

• Manager Guidance & Support: Mentors can fill gaps left by poor managers

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Mentors who don’t make time

for their mentees

• Poorly-managed mentee expectations

How’s it work?o TD matches trained/certified mentors

with mentees

o TD makes the introductions and helps the mentor-mentee pair establish expectations and ground rules

o Mentorships can be established around any sort of learning need, including technical ones, leadership develop

o Can also be used to form executive sponsorships

1:1

Mentoring

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Career Fair

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• Big Phama manufacturer conducted a career

fair at their global HQ.

• Employees attended workshops on career planning, self development

• Learned what resources the org had available for them to use in their development plans

• Heard case studies highlighting different vertical, lateral, and diagonal paths leaders have taken through the organization

• Afterwards, employees reported feeling inspired and more engaged in their self development.

• Enrollment in other professional development programs increased dramatically.

STRENGTHS:• Future Selves: Helps

employees visualize a future within the organization

• Teach Them to Fish: Employees learn what it takes to succeed, which helps them plan for success

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Big in-person events can be

expensive and disruptive

• One-time event at a single location can leave a lot of people out…find ways to scale and sustain

How’s it work?o Large-scale event where employees

learn about other jobs and pathways within the organization.

o Have leaders to deliver workshops to teach others about what they do in their role and how they got there.

o Help employees see not only vertical paths but also lateral and diagonal paths through the organization.

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Cross-Functional Assignments

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• Consumer healthcare manufacturer formed

cross-functional process optimization teams in the supply chain organization.

• Representatives from different functions came together to map current processes, design new/better ones, and propose improvement ideas to senior leadership.

• Because this assignment was part of each representative’s main duties and the changes discussed impacted their departments, everyone was heavily engaged.

• The initiative yielded improved business outcomes as a result of the process improvements

• Afterwards, many of the top-performing team leaders and sub-team leaders were promoted

STRENGTHS:• Mix & Mingle: Breaks down

silos and enables emerging leaders to engage with other departments

• Bake It into the Mix: Employees do this in-line with their normal duties

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Team members not being

empowered by their bosses to make decisions

• Team members not treating this as a core responsibility

How’s it work?o Managers from different functional

areas come together and identify projects that require cross-functional effort and coordination

o They appoint representatives from their functions to drive that project

o Those representatives collaborate cross-functionally to develop a proposed solution, present it to their managers, and implement it

o Great with innovation, process improvement, and quality initiatives

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Cross-Fu

nctional

Assign

ments

Co-Teaching

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A large public accounting firm required all

third-year associates and above to team-teach more junior audiences.

• For example, a third-year associate might co-teach with a manager for a workshop being delivered to first-year associates.

• The third-year is essentially being mentored through that teaching process by the manager.

• By co-teaching with the third-year, the manager is also refreshing his/her knowledge of that subject matter.

• Student satisfaction and transfer metrics improved, and the instructors reported feeling greater satisfaction and engagement.

STRENGTHS:• Bake It Into the Mix: It’s

essentially mentoring, but inline with work they’re already doing

• Make It Experiential: Both trainers learned/refreshed by needing to teach the content

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• For co-teachers not bringing

unique value to the process

• For individuals not pulling their weight

How’s it work?o High-performing employees paired

up with colleagues in different functions or roles to deliver training

o Ideal for cross-functional process training

o Can be employed with one strong facilitator and a weaker one or with a senior paired with junior role

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CEO Advisory Group

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A hospital president selected several dozen Hi-

Pos to form a special advisory group.

• The group was split into teams of 5-7 and assigned a senior leader to mentor them

• Each group tackled a different hospital priority, including patient safety, quality of care, patient experience, competitiveness, etc.

• With support from their mentors, teams met regularly, collected data, analyzed, brainstormed, and generated a proposal.

• Teams presented their proposals to each other and to senior leadership, revised them, and gained greenlight approval.

• At subsequent quarterly meetings, teams reported on progress as they implemented the initiatives.

STRENGTHS:• Bake It Into the Mix: The teams

are working on real organizational initiatives

• Make It Experiential: Analyzing, weighing alternatives, proposing ideas are all key skills as they move up

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Team mentors not investing

time into their teams

• After all that, many participants will expect promotions…and there may not be enough opportunities

How’s it work?o High performers—and often high

potentials—are selected to form a group that advises senior leadership on enterprise initiatives

o If group is large, it can be broken down into teams, and senior leaders can be assigned to mentor each team

o Teams are assigned imperatives (e.g., market share, service, productivity) and asked to generate proposals, present them to senior leadership and implement them

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CEO AdvisoryGroup

Job Rotation

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• Hospitals do this all the time when they rotate

interns and residents through different specialty areas.

• A large mutual fund broker does this quite a bit also, rotating financial advisors and financial analysts through the various home office functions.

• Employees learn about different parts of the business, gaining a broader view of the organization and developing their business acumen.

• Employees feel the organization is investing in them for the long term.

• They in turn reward the company with high loyalty, retention, and engagement, translating into consistently high business performance.

STRENGTHS:• Make It Experiential: Doesn’t

get more experiential than learning other jobs

• Mix & Mingle: Rotations encourage movement of talent throughout the organization, breaking down silos

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Disruption to the organization

when too many rotations are happening at once…manage timing and overlap

How’s it work?o With a job rotation, employees spend

3 months to a year working in a new role, typically within a different functional area

o They later come back to their primary role and/or rotate to another assignment

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Job R

otation

Job Shadow & Cross Training

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A large retailer cross-trained its tellers,

customer service reps, and merchandisers.

• Cross-trained employees received bonuses upon getting certified in each of the new roles and slight pay increases.

• Cross-trained employees reported higher job satisfaction due to the variety of work and the feeling of being “more important to the company.”

• Having more cross-trained employees on the floor improved customer satisfaction and employee retention.

• It reduced costs (fewer headcount needed to cover breaks and volume fluctuations).

STRENGTHS:• Future Selves: Employees gain

a broader understanding of business, roles, and possible paths

• Mix & Mingle: Shadowing and cross-training breaks down silos

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Fit…not everyone capable of

crossing over into other roles, so screen candidates

• Disruption…manage shadowing or cross-training schedule to avoid overload

How’s it work?o With job shadowing, employees

might spend 1 to 5 days shadowing an employee in a different role and/or function

o With cross-training, employees get fully trained/certified in other roles, and so are able to move back and forth between roles to meet organizational needs

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Job Shadowing

Cross-Training

Curating a CoP & Process Ownership

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A chemical manufacturer established several

“quality circles,” which acted like communities of practice around different facets of R&D, new product development, and operations.

• Volunteers from different functions and levels within company were represented on each CoP team.

• The CoPs took responsibility for gathering and organizing all documentation, standardizing practices across different plants/sites, and developing training and certification programs.

• Curators consistently experienced higher job satisfaction, engagement levels, retention, and productivity…they felt they had “a stake in the success of the company.”

STRENGTHS:• Make It Experiential: Through

curating, they are learning at great depth and breadth

• Mix & Mingle: Working with other team members on enterprise needs provide broader perspective and develops business acumen

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Disruption…if CoP groups are

not facilitated, they can devolve and become unproductive

How’s it work?o Employees volunteer to curate one or

more communities of practice

o Curating involves gathering documentation, best practices, tools, standards, and other subject matter related to a domain

o Then organizing, evaluating it, and presenting it back to the organization in a cohesive, effective way

o Those involved in curating develop deep expertise and get immersed in the details

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Curating a

CoP

Reverse Mentoring

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A consulting firm paired tech-savvy millennial

programmers with senior executives (boomers).

• Pairs were asked to co-lead innovation initiatives.

• Programmers learned business and financial acumen as well as “navigating the politics” of org change from their co-leads.

• Senior executives learned a great deal about new and emerging technologies and developed a greater comfort interacting with them.

• Innovation initiatives experienced fewer hiccups, and co-leads reported higher satisfaction and engagement as a result of the experience.

STRENGTHS:• Make It a KPI: Linking

mentoring to KPI innovation initiatives created relevance and urgency

• Mix & Mingle: Breaks down generational boundaries and stereotypes

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Cross-generational rivalries

(e.g., Gen-Xers feeling threatened by Millennials)

• Resistance…neither party feeling they can learn much from each other…relevance and urgency needed

How’s it work?o Two individuals are paired in a

mentoring relationship with the intent that they will reciprocally mentor each other

o Often involves pairing tech-savvy millennials with business-savvy baby boomers

o I recommend linking these mentoring relationships to high-priority business projects or else the participants may find it to be too forced and contrivedD

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Reverse Mentoring

Mentoring Circles

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE• A global insurance company established dozens

of mentoring circles, each with 8 mentees and 2 mentors, in different regions, some meeting in-person and others virtually.

• Each member attended training first, then attended a kickoff with their circle.

• Each circle set its own goals, ground rules, and schedule based on the needs of the members.

• Members reported higher engagement and appreciated most that it enabled them to meet people from other offices and functions and gain a better appreciation for the company as a whole.

• Mentors especially expanded their facilitation and coaching skills.

STRENGTHS:• Mix & Mingle: Circles can bring

together a wide variety of people, helping break down silos and misconceptions

• Teach Them to Fish: Members learn how to work together to support each others’ learning

WATCH-OUT-FOR:• Poor chemistry among

members

• Poor facilitation can allow circle to get derailed by early challenges

How’s it work?o TD forms groups of 5-7 mentees to

engage with each other around different developmental needs for 6-12 months

o TD assigns 1-2 mentors to facilitate the group meetings and manage the interpersonal dynamics

o Each circle of 6-10 people sets its own goals and schedule

o Meets regularly to discuss topics of importance to themD

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Circles