How can leaders inspire and motivate sustained development, growth and learning?

Leadership is less of a position and more of an action. When one is in a mid manager/senior position
they are given a list of actions/goals which they have to achieve during the year. A prominent one
being motivating and encouraging staff to learn and develop their skills.

Most of the time the staff is asked to enroll in a L&D program and given some time off for it. This is it,
end of the story! From my personal experience, this never motivated me. It was a task I had to do, to
meet the training hours.

My career is my responsibility and leaders didn’t bother much but wanted to retain me in the
organization. Employees stay at organizations because they are motivated and inspired by the
leadership, the problem they are solving and frankly after a point its less about the paycheck and
more about the impact.

A Leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way- John Maxwell

One really important aspect of it is to lead by example. You are a role model for your employees,
they imitate what you do and say, if you spend 8 hours a week learning new technologies,
approaches and skills they would be inspired to do that too.

You gotta walk the talk. One example that comes to mind is Steve Jobs, he did not create the
computer himself, he was not a techie, he was a learner, imaginator and an inspirer. He spent hours
learning about both related and non related to his line of work.

Shadowing and Mentoring

Often one question that is normally asked to leaders is what does your work day look like, growth
happens when an employee broadens his/her/their ambition. While everyone doesn't want to/dream
to be a CEO, shadowing them for a day can lead to cross learning and better relationships. Mentoring
a group and coaching managers to be mentors will improve learning, both sides.

Become a part of their lives

As a leader or manager, you can schedule out time to understand your employees, highlight their
strengths and weaknesses that need improvement and present them with opportunities and create a
development plan for them. Their success is your success. Become a part of their growth trajectory.
Get involved.

In Indira Nooyi’s book “My life is full’ she speaks about how she used to send out letters to her
employees parents, thanking them for letting her employees devote their lives to PEPSI and
celebrating them.

Small acts go a long way!

Create an environment that fosters peer learnings
When in doubt, I always used to take advice from my peers and colleagues, be it about an excel hack
or some new technique, usually the person sitting next to me would teach me a thing or two.
Learnings do not necessarily have to be taught by a coach or an expert but sessions of peer
learnings can lead to amazing trade offs.

Open communication, less hierarchy driven culture, and a learning environment can inspire and
motivate staff. A weekly peer to peer session can work wonders!

Make it Customized

Usually when upskill learning course material is selected company wide and mandated to be
completed, there is often no interest to pursue them.

Give freedom to every employee to choose their own courses and skills, the level could be of a
beginner or an expert, taking up MBA, financing their higher education, giving freedom especially in
online courses, it can be related or not related to work. It can be about following passion, a side
hustle or anything that interests them or advances their career.

If it becomes personal, It will drive motivation and sustained learnings.

Reward that makes sense

Carrot and stick policy isn’t the best idea, we are trying to imbibe motivation here. Giving them
certificates that hold good credit value, appreciating their efforts publicly or via mails, hyping them up
on their skill upgrade on linkedin etc.

Promotions and awards can also be a good way to appreciate their hard work and enhance their
growth. Rotations in different teams will give them all round perspective and bring more excitement.

Rewards are good motivating tools but they can’t and shouldn’t be the only reason employees focus
on learning. That won’t serve the purpose.

Actually ask for feedback

In L&D programs-

If you have attended any training session especially on communication and team building, after the
training they give a rating form, a one with 5 stars and one box to put out feedback. Honestly, I am
never honest and I don’t feel my opinion matters. There should be a proper feedback taking
mechanism maybe on one on one basis with the manager or the trainer.

In leaders growth-

At the end of the day it is about relationship building, asking for feedback opens up great
communication opportunities, they review your input in their life and It can be a good improvement
tool
Free child care, creche services and financial aid

For growth it is important that the family and kid’s life is healthy and hassle free. Both parents are
usually working and to ensure there is overall stability services like this can be a miniscule cost of
organizations but can break or make careers, marriages and mental health.

Allow them to fail and try again

You grow the most when you make mistakes, fear of failure is real and here it involves somebody
else's time, money and efforts. Managers and leaders should openly encourage employees to fail
and try again. New projects, new ideas should be given open spaces to fly. That's real growth as a
leader.

To conclude, a crucial role of a leader is to help employees reach the highlight of their careers and
lives. They indirectly control when employees get higher education, get married, get pregnant and
even when they retire. How they spend the weekends and how they grow up the ladder. They have
an obligation to their growth and success and they should take it seriously. Make it more than a part
of your yearly to do list.