Why do our businesses offer or require training for our employees? It’s because training helps employees to develop the skills they need to be more effective at their jobs. Being effective allows employees to perform better, which benefits them and our businesses in so many ways.
Of the utmost importance, trained employees can efficiently produce quality work so our organizations can meet their business objectives.
Trained employees are much more confident and self-sufficient. They'll have the critical thinking and problem solving skills, among others, to own their roles and responsibilities in our organizations. These trained employees will explore creative and innovative ideas more readily, which is a key element of business growth.They'll be more comfortable embracing collaboration and working as a contributing member of a team, not to mention that they’re more adaptable to keep their skills relevant to rapidly changing methods and technologies.
Attracting and retaining the best talent.
Employee training is a factor in attracting and retaining the best talent. Attracting great people to our companies means we need to provide an environment where they can thrive and continuously improve. Personal development will prepare them for positions of greater responsibility and increase their value.
People want to be where they can contribute, grow, feel appreciated and be respected. When you offer training and development opportunities, you're also building a positive reputation as a business that cares about its people and strives to employ only the best.
More than a paycheck.
Let's face it; people want more than just earning a paycheck these days. They want their workplace to be challenging, to offer opportunities for professional growth; they want to be a contributing factor. Trained people are more apt to take pride and always try to perform to the very best of their abilities.
Learning the true value of trained employees should really not come as a surprise to anyone that owns and/or runs a business. Employee training is standard practice for most successful companies and just plain old common sense. Now, shouldn't that apply to everyone in our businesses, especially for the people with the most critical leadership roles in any given organization? One would certainly think so, but sadly it's not always the case. All too often, when entrepreneurs jump into our businesses with both feet, we focus on training for everyone except ourselves.
The most important asset.
We, the leaders of our businesses, are at the top of the asset list in terms of value and importance. We perform some of the most critical roles and probably carry the greatest amount of responsibilities. We have other employees, customers, partners, and a variety of stakeholders counting on us to be effective at our job. No question about it, there's a lot of people and processes dependent on our skills.
Watch for correlations between what an employee "will do" and their job performance.
What may often go unrecognized is the correlation between our own job performance and what our employees can and are willing to do. If we can effectively carry out our leadership role with skills and precision, our employees will have clarity of and motivation towards what's expected of them.
On the other hand, if we are fumbling our way along due to ineffective skills of business, we shouldn't expect our team to care, much less act, beyond a minimum amount of effort. We must also be aware that our performance and effectiveness set an example for the level of excellence that is to be represented in our entire business model.
Where do coaching skills come from?
Training other employees often occurs through the transfer and coaching of skills from us, the business leaders. With the training of management level skills, this is particularly critical. It's often applicable to the training of unique technical skills an entrepreneur may have in their toolbox too. It only makes sense that we must possess the skills ourselves that we wish to transfer to others.
Our own skills of business must be at an effective level if we want to be capable of coaching others on our team successfully, too. It’s also worth mentioning as a side note that training and coaching others are themselves powerful skills.
As we build and grow our businesses, the scope of effective skills we need evolves. We're not all that much different than any other employee that takes on positions of greater responsibility. As our roles change, so does the type of skills of business we need in our arsenal, but there is an illogical reality my research and observations have revealed.
Many entrepreneurs tend to neglect, avoid, or forget about training and developing our own skills of business when we ascend to a leadership position. There are plenty of reasons for this behavior, but none of them are really acceptable.
Don't flip your switch off.
I've seen plenty of cases where entrepreneurs simply turn off the switch of personal development when we become business owners and leaders. In most of these cases, entrepreneurs are so busy running on the treadmill that is our business that we don't have the capacity to think about transforming ourselves to meet the demand of our role. It’s certainly not in our own best interest, but it happens regularly.
On occasion, entrepreneurs can become obsessed with the power of our position or enriching ourselves from our business, and we lose sight of staying on top of self-improvement. It can be a major strategy error that can come back and bite us somewhere along our journey.
No matter what we believe about our own asset value and the impact of our skills of business, here is what every entrepreneur needs to understand: the potential growth and prosperity of any business are limited by the skill level of its leaders.
I want to clarify the point I'm trying to make. Make the study, practice, and honing your own skills of business one of your top priorities. Develop awareness; get the education you need; put a training plan in place to make your skills effective; and measure your improvement. Elevating your skills will remove the limits of your leadership ability and business potential.
Don't hesitate to lean on your coach, peers, and even your team help you develop your skills and shape you into a dynamic leader. Your skills of business will become a powerful asset that increases your personal value and will carry forward throughout your entire career. It's worth the investing in yourself.