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Corporate Culture: Training

© Lincoln Bittner

Wil Rogers once said, "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." The best of supportive cultures offers the employee the opportunity to continually learn and grow. I have always attempted to practice the idea that you give people clearly defined goals with proper direction, consistent training, and the tools to do the job, and then get out of the way and let them do it. Everybody will stumble and make some mistakes along the way, and the truly supportive manager will allow this to happen, provided that the mistake will not break any OSHA laws, or create an unaceptable liability to the business. This allows the employee to learn. But does the process stop when the employee has mastered the tasks required to do their job? In many companies, this is the case, but some companies are discovering that to properly grow their organization, they need people who can perform tasks in many different areas of the company. Cross training in these companies has become the driving force behind their success.

Clearly Defined Goals

As you learn to create the proper environment to grow your organization, you will find that defining goals so that those you manage can understand them is quite a daunting task. This will require you to think about the state of your current area of responsibility, and what you want to accomplish over a given period of time. Part of this defining process is to create a timeline that you intend to follow to reach your goals. Remember that this timeline is a living model. It must flex and flow with the changing environment, and you must also remain flexible to these changes to be truly affective as a trainer. Many managers that I have worked for have said that they never really reach the end of the timeline, but rather reached milestones along the way.

The creation of these goals must include meetings with all of the employees to ensure that they feel a part of the process. Communication with your staff and the participation of the employees in the process will be vital to success. Remember that you cannot reach goals by yourself. As a manager, you reach goals through others; however, do not allow all of the things you hear about teamwork fool you into thinking that employees can come up with all of the answers. As the manager, you must steer the discussion. As the facilitator, you must moderate the process. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." Both qualities make up a good manager, and following this advice will create a positive, nurturing culture. Always remember that employees want someone to lead them, but that leader must be able to both instruct and listen equally.