We know professional development is important - for performance and engagement. But when time and budgets are tight, how can we make it happen? Stick around and find out.
We know professional development is important - for performance and engagement. But when time and budgets are tight, how can we make it happen? Stick around and find out.
Modern Mentor is hosted by Rachel Cooke. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise, where we help leaders activate performance and engagement—without burning out. Whether it’s bootcamps, keynotes, or Pulse Checks, we design solutions that create meaningful change. If your organization is experiencing major change or could stand to amplify its performance and engagement? Shoot me a note. I’d love to be your partner.
So I recently wrapped another cohort of my Activation Bootcamp. What I love most about these is that I get to help leaders shift perspective, take action, and build a new sense of confidence while also driving meaningful change with their teams.
And that perspective shift really is the key. Because leaders see their teams struggling - maybe with overwhelm or burnout or lack of clear priorities or collaboration challenges. Whatever it may be. And leaders, by and large, want to help but don’t know how. It’s incredibly disempowering.
So we start - in every bootcamp - by taking a step back and reframing the challenge. Asking ourselves - not what are our teams telling us they need, but what do they actually need?
And professional development is a great example of this. So in this most recent cohort, teams were clamoring for more development. And leaders felt hampered because budgets had been spent and programming already designed.
“So how,” they were asking, “do we give our teams the development they need and want?”
Here’s where the shift - the reframe - comes in.
Because while our teams may be asking for formal learning and coaching programs - what really is development? Programs are a vehicle, but development is fundamentally opportunities to build skills, to demonstrate competence, to be challenged to think bigger, to be more innovative and creative in how we deliver impact.
So we asked ourselves - where are the informal, hidden opportunities to drive more development? And here are some of the ideas the group came up with.Anything resonate with you?
One insight these leaders had during our program is that we tend to focus so intently on the routine of executing, we lose sight of the chance to think differently about what will best serve the customer.
The customer, by the way, may be the external end-user of the product or service, or it may be a team within the company. For HR, Legal, Finance - often the customers are internal. But still, thinking about products and services through the lens of how they’ll be served? It’s a huge chance to develop and grow.
So leaders started challenging themselves to change the conversations in meetings. Instead of just asking team members things like “are we on track to deliver on time?” or “do we know which decisions need to be approved by whom?” they started asking more expansive questions like…
Because these bootcamps are designed for leaders to generate ideas, then go out and test them, and then come back together to talk about how it went? I get to see real progress and reflection.
By asking some of these questions of their teams, leaders in the cohort reported more hints of innovation and more signs of engagement. Their thinking was challenged and stretched.
And of course, they were all intentional in labeling these moments as “development.” Actually saying to their teams things like “I love how we’re able to develop each other - to really push the envelope on our creativity in these conversations by focusing on our customer.”
Another insight was the power of delegating things with intention.
One leader in the cohort runs a Finance team. A lot of their work involves crunching data in really detailed spreadsheets and tables. And he confessed he often hesitates to delegate this work because “it’s a real soul sucker.”
But when we pulled back and looked at the bigger picture, he realized that one member of his team is hoping for a promotion into a leadership role with a big analytic component. And doing this work would actually help her effectively prepare for that promotion.
He realized that delegating this work to her - and helping her see how it can play a role in furthering her own career goals - is a meaningful opportunity for them both.
It’s all about that mindset shift.
We also had a lot of conversation about how “official” development programs get time on the calendar. But informal time? Not so much.
So we opted to play with that.
Because we all know that what gets scheduled gets done.
So leaders just started putting blocks on the calendar - for themselves and their teams. An hour a week to start. Some bumping up to two or more. But the point being - this is time to focus just on learning. Whether we choose to do it alone or together, this is a window for consuming information, reflecting on insights, and committing to actions we’ll take as a result.
During this course of this bootcamp I watched one team start to experiment meaningfully with incorporating AI into their workflows, saw another intentionally boost their presentation skills through group discussion and coaching, and a third do a deep dive into customer data to seek out insights to inform their work forward.
Development can look however we need it to. Formal or not, it needs time and space to come alive.
When I asked these leaders to really reflect on what helped them to gain confidence in leading, you know what they said? “Just doing it.”
So much of what we need to learn, we learn not by learning but by doing.
And so these leaders agreed that an amazing development opportunity they could offer their teams was just the chance to lead. In small, contained situations.
Leaders started choosing team meetings to invite one team member at a time to plan and run. They started choosing projects a team member might be ready to lead. And the impacts showed up pretty quickly.
And of course, they were mindful to label these things “development.”
We had lots of other ideas arise as well. But the broader point here is this. Whatever challenge your team is facing - there are always things within your locus of control you can implement to create positive change.
If you’d like to explore an Activation Bootcamp in your workplace - if your leaders could use a boost of insight, tools, confidence and camaraderie? Hit me up at rachel@leadabovenoise.com to book a chat.
For now, I hope one of these ideas resonated and you’ll see how your own team responds.
Join me next week for another great episode of Modern Mentor. Until then, visit my website at leadabovenoise.com if your workplace could use an Activation boost—whether it’s a bootcamp, a keynote, or a Pulse Check. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.Thanks so much for listening, and have a successful week!
Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It’s audio-engineered by Dan Feirabend. Our Director of Podcasts is Brannan Goetschius. Our Podcast and Advertising Operations Specialist is Morgan Christianson. Our Digital Operations Specialist is Holly Hutchings. Our Marketing and Publicity Associate is Davina Tomlin. And our Marketing Contractor is Nathaniel Hoopes.