05/31/2022

How to Make Leadership Training Work for Everyone

Proper training is worth the effort

I recently spoke with a leadership coach who recalled the chaotic early months of the pandemic. Much of that disruption is well-known now: lockdowns, an abrupt shift to working at home. But a lot of disruption was happening not just to where and how people were working, but to what roles they had as well. People leaving their jobs created new gaps, and many were thrust into brand-new leadership positions, often for the first time. They needed to learn quickly how to be a leader—in an environment when they would have to do so from a distance.

Back in February, I pointed to research that showed the benefits of leadership training throughout an organization—a key one being that it avoided creating a sense that the office had two tiers, and all the resentment that comes with that. But there’s something to be said for making this training pervasive for more practical reasons: In unsettled times, it’s more likely that more people will be called on to take on those roles.

Preparation for such situations doesn’t have to take the form of an organized training program, though it can. Forbes recently featured an interview with Alyssa Lahar, chief human resources officer at the SaaS company ZoomInfo, who explained how it distributes leadership training at various management levels. “Sometimes that means managers are trained to then deliver training to their employees,” she says. “Other times it means the training impacts how managers interact with their employees.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.