21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP’S ROLE IN LEADING TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: THE GENERATION CHALLENGE

Most teachers/employees are ‘sleep at the wheel' when attending workplace professional training and development events. The primary reasons for this is the training is usually mandatory and training decisions are made without employee input. What if training and development choices became self-directed? How would factors such as training cost, morale, and workplace goals be affected if such an approach was implemented?

Being competitive in business and academic organizations require leaders to invest in educating their workforce. The ‘traditional method’ for designing or planning the training and development that Workers/Educators receive is based on conversations between top leadership within Human Resource departments and with middle and upper managers. This is a problem for several reasons: Firstly, these leaders are too far removed from what is occurring in the work/classroom setting to know what, if any, performance gap(s) exist(s). Further, they do not know which training/development activities are necessary for bridging performance gaps that may exist (e.g., Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities ‘KSAs'). Finally, these leaders apply a one-size fits all approach to addressing training and development needs and do not account for the employees' differentiated generational learning styles or job-specific needs.

The purpose of this presentation is to spark a discussion that will help 21st-century leaders to use existing and emerging tools that will aid them in better understanding how to lead self-directed employee development programs that are: generationally sensitive and that integrate employee feedback and goals.

These tools can include:
- Designing self-directed annual professional growth plans/contracts that are developed between managers/leaders and the employees that align with the organization's mission and goals.
- Providing an annual stipend that employees can use to obtain the agreed upon training based upon the professional growth plan.
- Allowing a fair number of additional paid work days for independently self-funded training.

Such tools and initiatives will empower 21st-century leaders to make wise and efficient training and development decisions on behalf of their organizations.