Some leaders don’t train their teams. They leave the training to others.
I am a trainer on many things (certainly not all). I write training programs that I want others to use.
Training is communication.
As author Keith Cunningham has said, “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred.”
I do not want to be training the same things every day – I have many other things to do as a leader.
I think about the half-life of a live training as maybe about 74 minutes. My live audience will only learn a fraction of what I am trying to say, and they will forget half of that in 74 minutes. In another 74 minutes, they will forget more still.
What I am saying is that we have an unlimited capacity to forget – especially things we weren’t so interested in the first place.
So, as a leader, I know that if I have something important to say or train my people on, it will take a lot more than one meeting to get the desired effect.
If I want job security as a teacher, I can talk about the same things to small groups over and over, every day, forever. But teaching is PART of my job, not the whole job for me.
I have to leverage my words. I have to create training materials that other trainers can use to go over it with the team repeatedly.
I need to make books, videos, audio, posters, flow charts, flash cards, an email (reminder) series, meeting materials and more.
If it’s important for a department or team to learn and make it part of their deliverable work to our customers (what is more important than that?), I must create a CULTURE, and that culture must survive my presence.
Culture does not happen when you say it once.
If I am not the one creating the words, as the leader, I need to discern what must be part of the culture and see that the instruments of continual and enduring communication are created by my leaders/team.
It’s funny how certain messages hit harder than others as a function of where you are on your leadership journey. Last year at this time I probably would have agreed with this on an intellectual level, but emotionally it probably would not have hit hard as today. Today this message hit home hard, as it is time to leverage such measures to evolve to a higher level. Thank you, Larry.
I asked Chat what these four men would say about this message in one sentence.
Grant Cardone: “If the message matters, repeat it with enough frequency and intensity that it becomes impossible for the team to ignore.”
John Maxwell: “A leader’s greatest impact is achieved when the culture continues to teach and influence people even when the leader is absent.”
Brian Tracy: “Consistent reinforcement turns important information into productive habits and measurable results.”
Tom Hopkins: “Training isn’t complete when something has been presented—it’s complete when the team can consistently apply it with confidence.”