Many well-meaning leaders and organizations that lack self-awareness have high hopes for soft skills training and are perplexed when it fails. This phenomenon happens because they think three hours of soft skills training can change their entire workplace. They optimistically hire someone to facilitate a workshop or two and expect their leaders and employees will behave differently overnight. The missing ingredients are time and commitment.
People who lack self-awareness forget that it takes considerable time and effort for soft skills (such as team building, effective communication, leadership or diversity) to take root in an organization. Think of how long it took you to learn the behaviors you currently practice. It takes time to teach people new skills and many leaders and organizations overlook the following concepts for training success:
- Decide that this training is as important as any other part of your operation and commit to a long-term program.
- Designate a set time and place for the training.
- Implement your training from the top down, involve the highest level of leadership from the very beginning.
- Focus on training that helps people learn positive workplace behaviors.
- Pay a professional to develop and facilitate a training program based on your specific workplace.
- Attendance isn’t optional and is part of people’s work duties.
- Give employees the time and support needed to learn and practice new skills in the classroom and on the job.
- Make the training an integral part of your company culture.
- Measure the impact of the training as you move forward and make adjustments as needed.
- Train people so they can train others in the organization.
Try these ideas and you’ll find your training yields better results. The success of soft skills training depends on how committed an organization’s leadership is to making it happen. What will you do to develop self-awareness and help your soft skills training succeed?
Cheers,
Guy