"You can't train once and for all any more than you can eat once and for all." - James Newton
Businesses tend to budget for the have-to's. To make a million widgets, we have to purchase the hard materials, labor and overhead to do so. Make another million? Multiply by two.
What about the softer skills needed to complete the order? New people, new demands, product changes, promotions and resignations all mean the workplace is forever changing. Your ability to deliver is always changing. It is a mistake to ignore soft-skills learning or to view it as a one-and-done process.
Everyone knows an operator must know how to run a machine, adjust it, solve its quirks and coax it into maximum output/minimum waste. Do business leaders also value softer skills such as a manager's ability to resolve problems fairly, communicate well, inspire best efforts, set and attain goals and retain the best employees?
Yes, business leaders probably value the skills of good managers. But the lack of budgeting and planning for regularly improving managerial soft skills tells a different story. More than half the employers we surveyed had no budget for managerial training! They may in fact do some here and there, but the lack of a comprehensive plan to raise and maintain solid soft skills among the very people expected to manage others to do their best is shocking.
We hear HR leaders complain about poor behaviors of their managers and the lack of financial support from top management. They say owners and CEOs like to talk about and fund "sexier" projects. What is sexier than success? Can you get and keep the best employees and produce the best products and services without skilled managers? Worse yet, what if your managers actually show destructive behaviors?
Let me try to make a point. If you could have only a workforce trained in their technical/work skills or managers and leaders that know how to manage and lead for best behaviors and results, which would you choose?
Technical skills in most businesses are a baseline necessity and a ticket to compete. Every competitor has the same baseline skills. Companies with good technical skills alone stand at a disadvantage against those that possess both a workforce with technical skills and managers who know how to create the work skills needed to succeed.
No one suggests soft skills will cure all ills or make a bad product into a good one. I do suggest that employers (and managers) who ignore or defer growth in fundamental soft skills will find it difficult to succeed against competitors who do invest.
There is no single best method for your managers to learn. A combination of teaching, practicing, making mistakes, peer learning, preventing repeat mistakes and solid mentorship is a good start. Time and money for ways to work on management skills together (rather than just solve daily brushfires) is another.
Learning is a one-time event only if you have low expectations. Give your managers and employees the tools they need to succeed.
Bruce Clarke, J.D., is president and CEO of CAI, a human resource management firm with locations in Raleigh and Greensboro.
