An open letter to a successful learning leader –
Are you tasked with helping the organization achieve big hairy audacious goals in your organization? As a learning leader you have the job of consulting with each business unit to help them achieve their goals. Goals that are only attainable by having solid momentum and performance from their teams. Because as we all know, big goals are achieved with a team of experts that can move the needle in their work within the organization.
When working with each business line, it is important to work proactively AND strategically with them to identify the results or outcomes that are needed for them to reach out goals.
I have worked with many consultants and learning leaders who are just taking in the needs and wants of the group and then moving right into action. This does a disservice to that business team. Yes, you are moving their project forward within the timeline that they are asking for, however without some solid analysis and inquiry, you may be working on the wrong issue. This “get Sh#t done” methodology gets you kudos for being able to get tasks accomplished in the organization but it doesn’t utilize your expertise of being able to add insight and strategy to the business leader who is so involved in their challenge that they can’t see the bigger picture.
5 Ways to Help Your Business Leaders Achieve Their BHAG’s:
- Proactively meet with business leaders before, during and after business planning. Discuss their biggest challenges and pain points and listen to what they feel they need to achieve success in their areas.
- Identify their top goals and plans for the new year and identify how you may be able to support them. Find out specific and measurable targets (hard numbers and metrics that must be achieved- if they don’t know, press – no company goal is made without a specific metric included)
- Determine which goals and plans have a dependency on the team being competent and able to complete their job or learn something new in order to achieve the goal. Then we recommend completing a Curriculum Acceleration Session™ around those results and challenges to truly identify the root cause and the roadmap to create success.
- Create a budget, plan and timeline to work with the business to prepare their teams to achieve the goal. Be a partner in their success and implement appropriate interventions.
- Celebrate their wins!
Your job is to help them achieve success through a strong and capable team. You must provide the roadmap for change, a path for implementation using a solid process and do the heavy lifting that comes with training team members to achieve big goals in the organization. Everyone must be in momentum together and working towards the root cause, not just moving activities or tasks forward.
If you are ready to impact true change in your organization, work to be more strategic with your business partners and ask questions and identify the true root cause as well as results needed instead of just reacting immediately to the task at hand. In our process, we have a 10 question survey we give to each business partner prior to determining a solution. It has changed the game for the learning leaders we work with. Aren’t you ready for a new way to achieve organizational success?
