Karen Powell and I recently shared our thoughts on developing first level leaders in a webinar for members of the Human Capital Institute. The presentation generated a lot of questions and chat that we didn’t have time to answer during the session, so we’re sharing our thoughts here.
Q - What is the right time in a new leader's tenure to offer this kind of training?
A – First level leaders need support at multiple points in their development. This training is most critical in the first 9-12 months a first level of leader is in the role as he or she develops her personal leadership style and experiences the challenges and pitfalls of the first level leader role. Having said that, development experiences before putting an employee in a new role can accelerate their ramp-up and may help them avoid early pitfalls, particularly around developing and leading their own teams of people. And, at the other end of the spectrum, more experienced first level leaders find this type of training equally valuable but for a different reason: they have adopted an initial leadership style and now need an experience and coaching to help them broaden their perspective and expand their skills beyond their initial understanding.
Q - How do companies successfully reinforce training like this back on the job?
A-The most effective organizations teach and adopt approaches to problem solving, coaching, collaboration and strategic thinking at multiple levels, so that the tools that are taught and practiced in a simulation or development program are regularly used as tools in the working environment. A simulation can create a new vocabulary and mindset for a first level leader—it will be reinforced if their boss and others in the organization utilize the same approaches…if they speak the same language.
Q - Is it necessary to do the simulation in person or could this be done through something like we're doing today like a webinar, or synchronous online learning?
A – These experiences can be done in person or virtually, so long as there is direct interaction involved. First level leaders can learn concepts from individual online learning, but they only build skills by interactive practice and application. Simulations and other group based learning experiences focus attention and enable first level leaders to learn from and challenge each other. It’s a powerful way to move ideas from the conceptual to the actionable.
Q - How do companies measure the impact of training like this on their first level leaders?
A – Certainly business metrics as a result of frontline employee interactions are a strong indication of the performance of first level leaders. Customer Satisfaction, Net Promoter Scores and Employee Engagement can all provide trend data over time. At the individual performer level, companies gather immediate and time delayed self-reported feedback about the value of the tools and ideas in practice.
Q - Does this training have to be specific to the first level leader role for it to be effective?
A – The simulations Insight Experience shared during the webinar focus on building leadership skills in the four domains of First Level leadership. You can see our model of best practices. These skills are universal whether a first level leader is managing a team in the call center; a team in a research lab or a logistics team delivering service in the field. This training can be coupled with technical skill training if needed, but often first level leaders have role model technical skills…it’s their leadership that needs attention and support.
First level leaders have high business impact. In some organizations, they manage over 60% of the workforce. They are the leader frontline performers trust, and the first decision maker for many customer issues. Accelerating first level leaders time to experience is a way to accelerate your time to business results.
Amanda Young Hickman is co-founder of Insight Experience, a Boston-based firm delivering contextually rich, immersive business simulations and learning experiences to accelerate and integrate leadership, business acumen and strategy execution.
