Building Leadership Development Around Role Expecations
Selecting and adapting a learning solution to support leaders, employee experience, and retention
Leadership Development
Business Need
First time leaders with new supervisory experiences
Business Need
Improve the employee experience to increase retention.
My Role
Competency mapping, vendor selection, curriculum customization, program management & facilitation
The need behind the request
1
During four years of rapid growth, the organization expanded from fewer than 200 employees to nearly 600. Many employees were promoted from individual contributor positions into their first leadership roles. Leaders joining from outside the organization also wanted opportunities for continued development. Additionally, the Senior Leadership set a goal of improving the employee experience in order to maintain and increase the retention of the entire workforce.
The organization needed a structured way to prepare leaders for their responsibilities and demonstrate an investment in their growth.
Translate Expectations into Learning Paths
2
The leadership team provided documents defining the expectations for three groups: People Managers, Project Managers, and Process Leaders.
I used those documents as the basis for customizing each group’s program. I considered the leadership requirements of each position and selected content to support those expectations.
This created a direct connection between what the organization expected people to do and what their development experience addressed.
The learning paths share relevant leadership concepts while reflecting differences in responsibility. The leadership team defined the expectations; I translated them into structured development experiences.
Evaluate Vendor offerings and Select the Best Fit
3
The vendor needed a library that fit the required expectations of each role. The ability to customize was also a must.
Capability of the Assets
The content of the course materials needed to adapt easily to the Company’s Core Values in order to drive connection to culture.
Culture Fit
Instruction Modality
The content delivery modality was constrained to virtual instructor led training and eLearning modules.
Cost
The value of the content for the cost should be within budget and a good value for the cost.
The vendor selected was DDI; I became a DDI certified facilitator as a result of this project.
Integrate with tools that already fit our culture and the work
4
As a Certified Predictive Index Practitioner, I adapt some of the content to connect the leadership skills with Predictive Index information already used by the organization.
Example: PI Management Skills Reports support reflection on leadership strengths, cautions, and how to adjust your approach.
Build Peer Connections While Learning
5
The program is run in cohorts to support the initiative of improving the employee experience. since the company is a remote-first workplace, many new supervisors and other leaders benefit from opportunities to build working relationships outside of the people they interact with on a regular basis. It allows for them to gain peer relationships, and gives them a resource to ask questions and get advice from others who may be dealing with the same challenges.
Keeping the Business Goals Visible
As of this writing this program outcomes are still being collected and evaluated.
Planned capstone: Participants will describe a challenge or growth opportunity where they could leverage what they discussed in the courses. They will present what their actions were and what they learned - even if they were not successful in the attempt.
Needs analysis
Vendor evaluation
Role based curriculum design
Certified facilitation
Thoughtful Predictive Index Integration
Ongoing Program Managment