“People will go to a lot of trouble to learn French or physics or scuba diving. They have the patience to learn to drive a car, but they won’t bother to learn to drive themselves.”
Newman and Berkowitz
When I first saw this, it struck me how true this was to so many people I encountered within the client organizations where I work. Although the problem is not uniquely British, I have found it to be more true here than in many other countries and cultures where I train. Why is this? Maybe it’s a throwback to memories of school days? Possibly because much of the training is considered “corrective” rather than developmental. Also, many people think that it is up to their employer to arrange any training when necessary.
There is a wide range of views on training, what it is, what it should cover, who is responsible for organizing it, and how often it should occur. That’s understandable. However, ask yourself if you should take more ownership of it. After all, it is your job and your career! It is not mandatory to build your career in terms of promotion or increased responsibility, but you can build your career by improving your own skill base within your role or improving your personal skills. Perhaps he has been promoted and is expected to handle the challenges that come with it through experience, luck, and divine intervention? (Who can remember CJ from Reggie Perrin? “I didn’t get to where I am today through…”) Some kind of training would surely help you?
What are the benefits of having a positive and proactive view of your own training? You gain more control over the areas in which you seek training and development. You can also influence what kind of training you have, be it coaching, courses or e-learning. You’ll approach the training in a more open way, and you’ll almost certainly get more out of it. Even if you are “sent” to some training, your attitude and approach will significantly influence what you will get out of it.
Thinking about your career and what you want out of it, there are two main things where training can help. Basically, it is about “technical” skills and knowledge and “personal” skills. From a career maintenance perspective, you need to ensure that your technical skills are kept up to date in both knowledge and use of technology when necessary. Your organization or practice is probably good at making sure this is available. To build your career, or perhaps your enjoyment of work or other aspects of life, you’d probably look to the other part: “soft” skills.
If you are going to be more proactive about your own training and career advancement, how do you decide which areas to address? There is no right way. Do you know what the competencies are for your position and the position you would like to progress to? Find a set of these and assess yourself against these and identify the key areas to develop. If you have some kind of evaluation system within your practice, listen to the evaluation of how you are performing in the various areas of the job. Ask for help and training in the areas you want to improve. Consider doing a self-assessment. What are the things you feel you could improve? What are the areas you would like to learn more about? What are the additional skills you would like to have?
When you have an idea of the areas you want to develop, you can do something to get the right training or support. Remember, not everything has to be done through “classroom” based courses or events. There are different ways to acquire the knowledge or skills you want. Some of them are:
- Training courses, either in the company for groups of your colleagues or externally with people from a mix of companies.
- e-learning: There is a wide range of topics and approaches that can be used to help you learn to use the computer. These may or may not be web-based. They can be used at the workplace or at home or anywhere you can get access to a computer.
- Coaching or mentoring: having someone (usually within your own organization, although it could be outside) to support you, giving you individual help. The coach will push you to identify your own goals and solutions and work with you to achieve them. The mentor will share insights from his own experience and encourage you to consider how to achieve your goals.
- “Following” someone else: Pick someone with the skills you want to learn and spend time watching them and talking about how they do things.
By becoming more interested in your own career, present and future, you can focus on the areas in which you want to develop. Doing this and reaching out to the people responsible for training within your practice can make your job easier! Tell them what training or development you want, why you want it, and what the benefits will be to the practice and they just might give you what you ask for. That will allow you to develop your knowledge and skills and approach your own training and development in a more positive way, getting more out of it! As a training provider, I would prefer to have more participants because they want to learn and benefit from it.
