Never stop learning

I once made the catastrophic error of telling someone the training idea they'd suggested wasn't necessary.

This was someone I managed.

I said no because I thought they were good enough to not need that training, which shows a critical failure in understanding the main purpose of learning and development.

(I do know better, this was a blip!)

Not my smartest moment.

Why should I be the one who stops them from learning something new?

Fortunately, I realised that mistake after a few days – which was longer than it should have taken me.

Frankly, I should never have said it in the first place.

Every sort of training and development is valuable, particularly when it offers someone the chance to learn something new or see things from an alternative perspective.

It should never stop.

To be your best, you need to keep learning.

To stay on top of key trends and initiatives, you need to keep learning.

To learn, you need to seek new opinions and try new experiences. Repeatedly.

Training is a sign of a company that values you

Something very evident in my first month back at Tank is how much the senior team is investing in internal training – from strategy and insights discovery to learning more about neurodiversity at work.

And more!

Every idea is welcome... as it should be.

From a company's point of view, the whole point of training is to upskill and develop its team to improve output, customer satisfaction and turnover.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Investing in training and people boosts morale, increases employee engagement and improves retention.

In the same way that it's more expensive to recruit new customers versus keeping existing ones, it's far more effective to retain and develop talent, than to constantly repeat the recruitment process.

All of this affects the balance sheet, but it also shows how much a company values you.

Companies also need to develop supportive and inclusive cultures that live their values, while making their employees believe in their mission and vision, otherwise they will just leave .

As Richard Branson famously said: "Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to."

Helping them develop is one way of doing that.

Clearly, training isn't the only way, but it is critical.

And anywhere that pays attention to your training needs by giving you the budget to book training courses/events yourself AND introduces companywide sessions, is somewhere that really values its team.

Can you say that where you work?