Throughout my career – both in HR and now in consulting, I spent (and still spend) time training managers and supervisors to learn new ways to be effective. Interestingly, a regular comment from people in these classes is that they wish their supervisor would take the same class: meaning there is often a disconnect between the new skills being learned and their supervisor’s knowledge or use of those same skills. My take on those comments is that the leader of a department should always review the materials their subordinates are learning in the classes they take, follow up by asking them questions to determine if they fully understand and use them when supervising their employees, give them assignments so they can practice what they’ve recently learned, coach them to make sure they are using those new skills as intended and expected, and generally support them and their newly learned skills. And in their regular meetings, they should discuss how that material and those skills affect the overall productivity and efficiency of their department. After all, a leader’s role is to make sure their employees are effectively using all of their tools and skills. Make sure you’re aligned and in synch with the things your subordinates are learning and doing today.
Henry Jackson van Dyke Jr. (1852 – 1933): American author, educator, diplomat, and clergyman
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