A colleague in an HR/Training role was bemoaning his new assignment. He had been “asked” to assist with competency development for the personnel within his company. He had the audacity to suggest that it was all a big waste of time – “wouldn’t it just be easier and more effective to assign our folks a coach, give them good feedback, and skip the competency definition and evaluation altogether?” he asked.
Skip the competencies? Almost heretical … and a great idea! Looking at competencies from the HR point-of-view, there’s a risk that all we do is to develop a long list of competencies with an even longer list of behavioral anchors. Does this sometimes get in the way of developing our people? Are we developing people or lists?
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Quick Test Question: if you attend church, what did your Pastor preach about last Sunday?
[Timer ticking ... Jeopardy music playing ... BUZZ!]
So, how did you do? If you are like most, you vaguely remembered the gist of the sermon. For those in the pulpit, that’s just one of the hazards of the job. People don’t remember much that they have been told less that one day later.
It’s true for workplace learning too …
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What to Look For, What to Look Out For, How to Add To
I received notice from another nationally recognized training company yesterday inviting me to their one day seminar for “transitioning into leadership.” As best I can tell, it is designed for front line employees who have recently been promoted to a supervisory role. A “Supervisory Skills 101.”
In terms of topics covered, there were some of the usual suspects: leadership vs. management (I’ve expressed thoughts before on the usefulness of the leadership vs. management discussion … moving right along …), communication, delegation, conflict resolution, building your team, and four or five other “people skills.”
Two general observations, without knowing anything further about the course.
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