8/8/2019 Action Plan to Achieve Breakthrough Improvement in
Employee Productivity and Leadership Effectiveness
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Action Plan to Achieve Breakthrough Improvement in
EmployeeProductivity and Leadership Effectiveness
By James A. Trinka, Ph.D., Chief Learning Officer, FBI
Plan:1. Role Model Development. Senior leaders set the tone in
enabling a culture ofdevelopment. They are good role models for
developing employees, they believe thatdevelopment is important,
and they make development a priority. The best leaders seelearning
not as an expense, but an investment that returns dividends of a
workforce morecommitted to the organization and more willing to
expend their discretionary effort to getthe job done. When you stop
learning, you stop leading!
2. Clearly Communicate Expectations. Leaders strategically use
communication toproduce enthusiasm and foster an atmosphere of open
exchange and support. They areadept at energizing people to see
pathways that get to goals despite challenging conditions.Leaders
establish clear performance expectations and hold people
accountable to deliver on
their work promises to their team, boss, and stakeholders.
3. Ensure Work Provides Learning. The vast majority of employees
seek to learn andgrow while performing day-to-day work and crave a
learning environment in that context.Many managers lament that time
constraints or competing priorities limit the time theydevote to
employee development. The good news is that great leaders
incorporate learningas an essential part of their normal job
responsibilities and blur the line between learningand work. They
create learning environments so that, on each work assignment, they
canhelp employees creatively anticipate and find solutions to
specific challenges.
Execute:1. Encourage Development. Great leaders know that their
most important job is to
develop their successors and maintain a legacy of leadership.
The leaders who are mosteffective at developing their successors
have employees who are more likely to stay, moresatisfied with
their job, more committed to the organization, and more productive.
Choosethose you believe have the values you wish to promulgate and
the talent to learn theleadership behaviors you believe are
important to the future of your organization and thengive them
personal developmental attention. Yes, it takes time. However,
remember yourleadership mission: legacy.
2. Help Apply New Skills/Knowledge. Great leaders provide
one-on-one coaching andmentoring opportunities to apply new
technical skills or knowledge on regular work or newprojects and
relate these teachable moments back to the overall organizational
vision orstrategy. The appreciative support of helping others grow
contributes to a distributed senseof leadership at all levels.
Transformational leaders believe in distributed leadership and
are
often seen mentoring, coaching, and ensuring the development of
others.
3. Relate Interpersonally. Leaders set a vibrant high
performance organizational culturethrough effective interpersonal
relations, indicated by real dialogue, lots of input,
andtransparency. Dialogue implies deeper conversations rather than
information handoffs.Dialogue involves demonstrating a true concern
for the perspective of others andcommitting to listening rather
than trying to convince. Appreciative exploration givesdialogue its
power; people see you care and are willing to invest in hearing
them out. Whenpeople see that you are committed to them, they will
commit to you.
