The 1st in our series of short articles identifying the six keys to unlocking the potential in your people and adding value to the business.
- Is your training and development need aligned to your businesses values and core competencies?
Before you engage the services of an external training company or your in house learning and development team, have you stepped back to consider what is important to the sustainable success of your business?
What is it that makes your company unique and will give you a competitive edge? What are the competencies that your team need to excel at to leverage those values and what skills, tools, knowledge and behaviours are they currently lacking?
Without a comprehensive and robust understanding of the competencies your people need to outshine your competitors, training is often ill-targeted and badly aligned to what your business is lacking. Negotiation training may sound like a must have for a commercial team, yet if their role is in reality one of selling and relationship building then a different set of tools and knowledge is required to succeed.
Being clear on your values and core competencies allows you to assess performance against key criteria and build a plan to develop the skills and behaviours your team need to win and win in the right way. It becomes your training and development plan and not one that could be applied generically to any commercial organisation.
It also allows you to personalise and prioritise, developing individual training programmes and focusing on the areas that will provide the quickest, or biggest areas of improvement.
Your core competencies need to be S.M.A.R.T and tailored to the levels of performance across the team. We all continue to grow and improve and can be anywhere in the process from Developing a competency to demonstrating Expertise. Ability isn’t linked to seniority and the required skill set of a senior manager will not simply be an improvement in the skills required by less experienced members of the team. Competencies allow you to identify the skills and behaviours required to do your current role and the future steps in your career.
They provide the roadmap for your own and your team’s development.
If you don’t know your priorities for training you’re shooting in the dark.
Download our complete guide and assess your approach to training & development: SmithCarey’s 6 Keys to Training Success
