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I'm wondering if any of you do what I do with my team: I hold training sessions every now and then where I give them guidance on being better employees for me and for their managers who report to me.

I have a lot of inverted MT advice that I turn into career management for individual contributors not necessarily headed for management.

I pull them into a room for a day and here are some past topics:

* Slides of my notes from effective executive - review the concepts
* How to do better in your O3's with your boss
* Understanding the DISC model and how you can use it to improve your performance specifically targeting the management audience and your peers
* Reviewing the concept of performance metrics - why management measures, what we measure, and why you want us to measure you
* General advice regarding relationship building "It's all about your relationships!"
* What the heck are the other organizations that we interface with, who runs them, and what politics are in play with them?

I enjoy training, and I take on these topics in particular training sessions. I also take them on in my skip levels.

When I have skip levels - I spend the first hour listening to them, and the second hour I spend responding. My responses:

* Feedback to them about what they could do better for their boss
* Accepting that we need to take another look at how we do things
* Help understanding their boss's perspective... why is he so demanding? Because I'm pressing him hard to deliver things to me.

Does anyone else do this sort of direct training of their directs and skips so that it is clear what kind of person you are and what sort of delivery will be most successful with yourself and your directs?

tlhausmann's picture
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[quote="US41"]I'm wondering if any of you do what I do with my team: I hold training sessions every now and then where I give them guidance on being better employees for me and for their managers who report to me.
[...]

* Understanding the DISC model and how you can use it to improve your performance specifically targeting the management audience and your peers
[...]

Does anyone else do this sort of direct training of their directs and skips so that it is clear what kind of person you are and what sort of delivery will be most successful with yourself and your directs?[/quote]

[i]BLUF: Yes DISC, Feedback, business writing, and other topics.[/i]

When appropriate (such as delivering a new service) I have one of my directs brief the rest with a stand-up during a staff meeting. The goal is to build awareness of team capabilities. When a solution can be applied in new areas/departments the rest of the team knows we can deliver.

I had an outside facilitator put my team go through the DISC model. I anticipated skepticism and push back--my initial reactions. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how they all enjoyed it and immediately began applying their knowledge...exceeding my expectations.

As a general principle I make every effort to invest in training over "new toys" when forced to make the choice. In my experience, superior people trump superior equipment.

I am often asked to reduce training and travel in tight fiscal climates. However, I lobby strongly to find resources and provide training nonetheless.

tlhausmann's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

[quote="US41"]I hold training sessions every now and then where I give them guidance on being better employees for me and for their managers who report to me. [/quote]

As a follow-up, I bring career management topics into the tail end of the O3s as appropriate. Investing in training is never a bad idea.

In William Manchester's book on Douglas MacArthur "American Caesar" the author points out: equipment becomes obsolete but leadership doesn't.

Douglas MacArthur was faced with reduced military funds in the early 1930's and chose to cut funding for additional tanks (hardware) while preserving funds to maintain the full complement of Army officers (12,000 at the time I think). The guiding principle being that good leadership does not become obsolete.

jhack's picture

I've only just begun to do this, and I only have directs. So far, it's been on performance metrics, relationship building, and politics (a necessity, given our recent run of M&A activity).

I love the idea of reviewing the concepts in The Effective Executive.

John

JorrianGelink's picture

I always do that stuff for 2 major reasons. It's exciting to hear others are on the same bandwagon or attempting to get there.

1. I want my people to be as strong or a better manager than me.
2. I love doing it.

It's simple, although it takes work, execution and consistency for anyone who wants to get there.

I work in a retail store, but I explain to all my associates how the organization works, who is who in the districts and regions and what parts they play. I know a lot of retailers usually don't share that info with their directs because they feel they don't care who the boss's boss's boss is but my guys love knowing the roles we all have to play to win.

During my team meetings now, all I do now is make an agenda in advance, e-mail it out, let all the guys bring something to the table with specific times and let them share ideas, thoughts and executables. 90% of the time my meetings are on behaviors being in a sales organization. The only thing I need to do that links to MT is to buy a clock! (The Jorrian Go Time Meeting Clock, this post will remind me to pick one up)

It's engagement really, the more my guys are in tune with my company, the more they rock the house and talk about the business (as opposed to the parties they went to that week...the majority of my staff are in the 18-25 range)