Introduction
Leadership that promotes learning and change, is more important than ever in today’s business. Everyone in a company or an organisation needs to develop to become better at learning new things and develop for the company to be successful. But to succeed, it is necessary for managers to have a leadership style that promotes learning and change in both companies and employees.
Companies whose employees are constantly improving their work and increasing their performance have great advantages. With a leadership that encourages, supports, and drives employees will learn how to develop themselves and their work. That means that they will become more used to and therefore more positive about changes. Then companies will also succeed in their development needs and achieve their change goals.
Reasons for managers' lack of competence in leadership
Picture 1 – Legacy of industrialism, 2 – Inefficient way of working, 3 – Management is concrete – development is abstract
Most managers, except in the creative professions, product development etc., are too good at management. There are several reasons for managers’ ‘over-competence’ in leadership and ‘under-competence’ in leadership. There needs to be a balance between leadership and management depending on which phase the company is in.
Here are three reasons why managers use too much of management today and why leadership that promotes learning and change often falls by the wayside:
1 Legacy of industrialism
At the beginning of the 20th century with the advent of assembly lines, managers thought that employees should obey and execute orders. Management and leadership were the best fit then.
2 Inefficient way of working
For managers to manage both operational and strategic tasks, they must be good at managing themselves – time management. Managers whose work is unstructured and ad hoc are constantly creating emergency fires. Therefore, no time to find the cause of these fires, the cycle is constantly repeated. There is always a lack of time to improve today’s recurring problems. At the same time, these ineffective management methods spread throughout the workplace. The consequences will be that everyone works equally ineffectively and ad hoc.
2 Management is concrete – development is abstract.
Management (leadership) means that you produce what you have to every day, every week, every year. Development (leadership) is the efforts that develop the area of responsibility and work towards a clear vision. Therefore, management is experienced concretely, because you work with what is now and development becomes more abstract. There is something diffuse about the future.
Train managers in leadership that promotes learning and change
When employees have been in a position for a couple of years, they probably have in-depth knowledge of their tasks. This means that they have the knowledge of how they could improve it. But for employees to develop themselves and their work, they need to know and understand that they can bring about changes themselves. They need to learn to see the possibilities, what employees can improve, and develop the measures that make the changes a reality. The purpose of the development is to make the work more efficient, and the goal is to free up time for other, new tasks. As a result, employees increase their productivity, reduce any stress, and become more independent.
For employees to succeed in learning, improving, and wanting to increase their performance, the employees need to get good conditions. This requires leadership that encourages, supports, drives, and provides feedback on the employee’s development process.
To deal with today’s problems at work, companies must reward a corporate culture where learning and change are a natural part of everyone’s work. One way for companies to succeed is to develop managers in coaching leadership. First, a little about coaching.
“Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.”
Bill Bradley
What is coaching in a work context?
Coaching focus on future opportunities – not past mistake. It means coaching an employee to change from today’s current situation to a desired state with a deadline for their goals. It is not about judging and complaining about the employee’s past performance, but about acknowledging the problem, agreeing on it. Then focusing on coaching the employee to find solutions to the problem in the first place.
Coaching means helping an individual or a group to change by the person/group themselves figuring out what the individual/group wants to do to succeed. It may sound vague, but thanks to the manager and employees setting goals and deadlines together, the result of the development becomes clear. Examples of changes for individuals at work can be the employee’s way of working (increased efficiency, higher quality, meeting deadlines) or skills/attitude (more positive, on time, clearer communication). Examples of changes for a group can be increased meeting quality, increased engagement, better team spirit.
When manager and coworker has agreed to the goals and deadlines, it is important that the coworker is responsible for taking the actions that lead to the development goal. This means that the employee first figures out what he/she needs to do to achieve the goal and is. Second is to be responsible to do the activities that lead to the desired change.
Read more Ten advantages of coaching as a development method
Coaching Leadership that promote learning and change
Coaching leadership means addressing problems/needs by talking to each employee or a team. Together, you will decide what the employee/team needs to change and/or learn to solve the problem/need. Then decide the date for solving the problem and a dialogue about what the employee/team wants to do to solve the problem.
Picture 1 – Annual performance appraisal with development goals, picture 2 – Employees and manager in 8-10 regular 1-1 meetings for follow-up, feedback and encouragement, picture 3 – New annual employee meeting to ensure the results of the development goals and set new annual goals.
Coach coworkers
In practice, this means that the manager and coworker agree on clear development goals with deadlines. A useful tool for annual goals is the annual performance appraisal (picture 1 above). After that conversation, there is a structure where the manager and employees meet regularly (picture 2 above). The manager meets with the employee regularly (for example, once every two weeks or one time/month) to drive the employee’s development process. It’s important the manager is supportive, gives feedback and follow up on the results. At each meeting, the employee sets milestones for the next meeting. Alternatively, the employee can develop an action plan for all measures/activities that he/she needs to achieve each development goal.
By structuring 1-1 meetings and by using a certain part of the meeting time (50%) to discuss tasks and more and part of the meeting time to follow up on how things are going with employees’ development goals. Thanks to the fact that the employee sets milestones for the next 1-1 meeting, the result will be that learning, and change become a natural part of the employee’s work.
At the next annual performance appraisal, the employee’s development goals will be achieved Thanks to your regular 1-1 meetings, the annual meeting will feel much easier and more constructive (picture 3). This is a good example of a leadership that promotes learning and change
When each employee is constantly developing their way of working and skills, you will achieve even better results. Employees increase their self-motivation, motivation, and performance. As a manager, you will have more time for long-term tasks as daily operational problems/issues will decrease.
