HR Mistake No. 8

HR Mistake No. 8 is… Training for training sake.  We don’t start out with that premise; it just seems to happen that way.

We folks in Human Resources have great intentions.  One of them is: “They” (the managers) just don’t know.  If we just teach them, “they” will be better managers, better supervisors, better leaders, better coaches and be better at hiring, compensating, and employee relations.

So, we buy them books and send them to school and they still come back and do the same things they always did. Oh, maybe for a couple of days, they give it a try, but then it fades off after that.  Isn’t that the way for most of us?  Many times, I remember reading a self-help book and getting all excited about the new Ron to-be and then slipping back into my old habits again.  Haven’t you gone to that Tony Robbins kind of seminar and done the same thing?

American industry spends millions of dollars on management training and development every year and there is not much to show for it.  So, what is the answer?

Training has to be one part of an overall system.  If your managers go to your leadership workshop, the boss has to have the buy-in and be willing to stroke the new behavior.  The new leadership competencies should be included in your Management Performance Appraisals.  Follow-up needs to be done with the managers and the boss by HR.  The CEO should be coached on walking the new walk and talking the talk.  Constant reinforcement needs to be made.

We also need to be careful not to encourage outside seminars without previewing them ourselves.  I’ve seen managers go off to workshops that didn’t fit our culture or our style of management.  The result was even more counterproductive because the manager was punished if and when she exhibited the learned behaviors from the seminar.

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