"Why train 'em? They'll only leave!"

Those were the very words my department head Lenny, said to me some decades ago when we told him we wanted more training. Can you believe it? Of course you can. You've heard the same thing from bosses yourself.

This was misguided then and it's even more so now.

We're coming out of a very tough period for most companies. Everyone knows that when budget cutting is on the table, training gets the ax first. So what's new?

According to a new study published in the Harvard Business Review and highlighted in the Kansas City Star, high achievers who are 30 and under are abandoning ship in droves with an average stay of 18 months. Why? Simple. Lack of training and mentoring for growth.

Imagine that? Young workers want to grow and develop? Isn't that what every management guru since the beginning of time has been telling would-be managers? "Your job is to grow your people." Didn't managers get the memo? Evidently not.

People who have been following the discussions about the millennial generation (Gen Y) have decried the fact they grew up thinking everything they did deserved a "good job" and they all got a prize. But guess what, the reality is that every employee needs and deserves the chance to grow and develop. This isn't a new phenomenon. We are Homo sapiens -- the thinking ones. These young workers are just acting on what is deep-seeded in everyone. We want to learn and grow.

Although my old boss is long gone, his attitude isn't. Here are a few ideas to reverse the trend.

1. Spend time with all employees finding out what their interests and talents are.
2. Figure out how to develop those interests and talents for mutual benefit.
3. Provide formal and informal training and mentoring.
4. Encourage individual initiative and growth.
5. Be ready to say "goodbye."

The best boss I ever had was Joe Caccavo. He reported to Lenny but he was not going to allow his views to affect our team. Joe developed a team of dedicated people who would have followed him to the ends of the earth. (Note: we were also civil service and unionized. Joe could not give us promotions or raises.) So how did he do it?

1. Joe spent time with each of us just talking. He was genuinely interested in understanding our aspirations and talents and then doing what he could to fostering them.
2. Joe kept looking for ways to give each of us opportunities to develop our talents on the projects we worked on. He allowed us to try different roles and tasks and discover where our real contributions lay.
3. Joe set up "lunch and learn" sessions in the conference room one a week. They were voluntary but we never missed a one. He supplied the pizza and the knowledge. There was no budget but he found some local professors who were willing to come in once a month and give us more advanced training -- roast beef sandwiches on the menu for those sessions!
4. He encouraged us to take additional courses on our own and join professional groups that provided educational programs. He attended those meetings with us and helped us network. He let us know when we made mistakes and inspired us to correct them. He was no "softy" and knew how to deliver tough love when we needed it.
5. No one wanted to leave Joe's team. But Joe knew we needed to move on if we were going to continue to grow and develop. When I went to tell him that after 5 years I was going for a corporate position, Joe was thrilled. Because Joe had supported my development, his team had 5 years of results that benefited the organization. Other teams seldom kept people more than a year (yes even in that protected world.)

So which sort of boss are you? Joe or Lenny? I always tried to follow Joe's example and I still encourage my clients to do the same. If fact, my first advice when times are tough and budgets need to shrink? Increase training! After all, if you want people to do more with less, you need to train and mentor them to do that. Otherwise, they'll hit the road as soon as they can.
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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, president, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Author: Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. (This link takes you to a special page for a special offer not available publicly.)

 

Why does Asia keep eating US lunch?

I've just returned from a wonderful week working in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If you've been there, you know its charms...if not, put it on your bucket list. My trip there was not just to revisit a favorite city or to purchase some lovely batik paintings from 2 artists I met there in 2009 or to eat too much great food or even to enjoy the 100+ bear statues contributed by every country in the world.

No, I was there to work with 14 CIOs and IT executives representing Malaysia's major economic sectors; banking and finance, oil and gas, government. These 5 men and 9 women were there to learn how to initiate and implement successful major changes in their companies. (The vast majority of such initiatives fail primarily because folks focus on technology and not on culture and people.)

These leaders were sent by their companies to make sure they were growing and developing their capabilities. And this is where the lunch eating comes in...Their companies were growing and developing their capabilities.

Meanwhile back in the States and Europe the usual scenario is continuing to play out...tough economy? Training and travel are the first things to go in the corporate budget...after all, they are overhead. Forget all the data about the real ROI for investing in training and professional conferences, just cut them out and save a couple of bucks.

I spent most of November in Korea, China, and Singapore -- economies are booming -- just walk down the street and feel the energy -- and seminars are also full of people eager to learn to enhance their management skills.

Oh, and another thing...in any public seminar or even those conducted for companies on site, people end up not showing at the last minute - busy or boss told them they had to stay and work on a project. In all 4 3-day seminars, only 2 partial absentees. And one more thing, people in the US always leave early, especially the last day. They blow off the last half day. In Asia (where I've been working since 1996) they want you to go beyond the scheduled end time...even on the last day.

The point I'm trying to make is this: Asian companies and governments are investing in their people. They are promoting growth and development. They're bringing in external experts and exposing employees to the best practices in the market place. They understand they must expand their company cultures and embrace change and encourage innovation and creativity. They know if you want people to "do more with less" you must train them and support them to do it.

In the US the opposite is the norm.

When I was first beginning my career, my department head was asked to train us on the latest management practices and technology. His response? "Why train 'em, they'll only leave!" Well, of course people did leave...because they couldn't get any training and couldn't develop.

Lunch anyone?

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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
The founding fathers were all great believers in education...so are today's strategic leaders
Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers