Turn your team into continuous learners!

To ensure the people you manage are your “Most Valuable Players” (MVP), you must encourage a culture of continuous learning.

“When you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were given the responsibility to bring out the best in others.” ― Jack Welch

To maintain an elite team capable of adapting to all of the constant change in business, lifelong learning must be a manager’s priority. Supporting your team in transforming curiosities into skills ensures your employees are well-equipped to adapt in times of change.

Developing a culture of learning

As a manager, developing a culture of learning within your team has several benefits. First, demonstrating to your team that you have respect for their interests and passions can help foster trust in the employee-manager relationship. By taking a personal interest in your employees ideas and curiosity, you demonstrate a level of care and compassion to your team and colleagues.

Second, by better understanding your team’s interests, you can also glean insight into strengths you might not have previously identified. Could a team member who paints outside of work provide art direction and design skills to a newly developed email campaign?

Third, emphasizing the value of learning in the workplace has pointed to less employee turnover due to higher worker satisfaction. In a 2018 Consumer Technology Association study, research found non-salary benefits such as technical and high-skills training, and programs to hone soft skills are very important in employee retention. This means less time and money wasted on finding and onboarding new talent. This also means your reputation will be one of a caring cultivator in a company that supports its workforce. With such a reputation, your applicant pool is also likely to become more competitive.

Strategies for developing a culture of learning

As a manager, you cannot outsource learning. Of course, there are facilitators and vendors you can hire to lead corporate training sessions, but other effective learning methods, such as peer teaching can be even more efficient. Below are a few suggestions for how to develop a culture of learning within your team, without the use of external resources:

• Lead by example by opening up about your own weaknesses. As a manger, demonstrating that you are not afraid to be vulnerable could encourage your team to also share the skills they’d like to build.
• Ask your team to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses, both professional and personal. Have team members share their reflections with you during one on one check-ins. It might be easier for team members to be vulnerable in private rather than in front of the full team – at least to start. The added bonus? Identifying learning opportunities early on could prevent a future time-consuming challenge.
• Once you’ve identified your team’s strengths and weaknesses, determine whether there are team members who can support each other’s learning. If one person’s strength is another’s weakness, pair these individuals to engage in peer teaching. Peer teaching is a strategy in which one student teaches another concepts on which the first is an expert and the second is a novice. Some of the benefits of peer teaching in a corporate context include: peer teachers reinforce their own learning in the process of instructing the novices; learners feel more comfortable interacting with a coworker than a facilitator due to the preexisting relationship (not to mention the financial benefit of avoiding an outside hire; coworkers share a similar vernacular and understanding of how skills might apply in the corporate environment, making the content more relatable

With a cooperative enough company, perhaps peer learning can be extended across departments. Could an account director wishing to learn basic coding connect with a software developer for mentorship and guidance?

Other cost-effective ways your team could learn new skills include:

• Khan Academy
• Codecademy
• LinkedIn Learning
• Open university courses from Yale, Harvard, and others
• EdX
• Big Think
• Class Central
• Adobe Creative Cloud Learn & Support
• Microsoft Office Training Center
• TED

Encourage your team to take responsibility for their learning

In the following example, we have suggested a three-month timeframe for teams to meet a learning goal.

Once each team member has identified their learning goal for the quarter, ask your team to divide the goal into achievable benchmarks that can be met in two-week increments. Bi-weekly check-ins to review learning progress means learners are accountable for meeting their goals. Twice each month, team members will present their learning goal, what benchmark they set out to meet, the progress they made, and how the accomplishment contributes to meeting their learning goal. Taking the time to recognize small victories encourages learners to continue to push through moments of frustration. Also, by sharing obstacles with others, team members can provide guidance, feedback, and encouragement.

Lastly, carve out time during the workday for employees to hone their new skills. Ideally, this would be first thing in the morning before meetings and emails have a chance to interrupt learning. This is perhaps the most difficult part of the process, but it is crucial. By carving out time during the workday for employees to work on their projects, it shows you truly value their time and their professional development goals.

To cement the value you place on learning, managers should celebrate their teams’ accomplishments. At the end of the quarter, put on a showcase with a catered lunch to celebrate your team. Provide certificates of achievements, maybe even play graduation music for fun. Small gestures like these demonstrate that you truly value the time the employee spent developing new skills and will encourage your team to continue building on their momentum.

Andrew Gagen is the Founder & Lead Recruiter at MVP Recruiters. His recruiting practice has an exclusive focus on the Public Relations & Corporate Communications function. Andrew works nationwide with corporate clients helping them to identify and hire fabulous communications talent. He is an expert in recruiting individuals who have the essential planning, critical thinking and creative skills required to drive a business forward – individuals with gravitas and business acumen who know how to think strategically, digitally and globally.