How to Foster Constant Learning and Growth
“Give light, and people will find the way…” ~ Ella Baker
Keys to Leadership Development
Here are our main keys to leadership development:
- People learn the most by doing (and growing from mistakes). Ask people to take on opportunities to learn/grow (and remember to follow up!).
- Deep practice. Ensure people practice skills until they show consistent success (not just once or twice).
- Create a culture of peer leadership development and coaching (e.g., reflecting on pluses/deltas/key learnings after every meeting/action, peer coaching, etc.).
- Build snowflake leadership structures (i.e., that give opportunities for many people to take on leadership roles and responsibilities).
- Develop leaders instead of just identifying/selecting leaders.
Leadership Development Principles
Overview
At its core, leadership development is about showing your commitment to others to build confidence in themselves and their expression of leadership.
Cesar Chavez noted that people learn leadership skills, they are not born with them. He said leaders develop their ability “on the picket line.” Thus, we have to provide opportunities for new leaders to hone their capabilities.
You Have to Ask!
Sometimes people will not voluntarily sign up for a new leadership role or responsibility. You have to constantly ask people. Ideally, this ask happens in a one-on-one setting where you can help people address any fears or hesitations they have. You have to show you believe in people even if they do not always succeed right away.
Snowflake Leadership Model / Leaderful Team Structures
Instead of a purely top-down model, allow for people at all levels to take on leadership roles and responsibilities (i.e., as in Marshall Ganz’s snowflake model of leadership). Allow for more peer leadership and support. Ella Baker’s quote, “Strong people don’t need strong leaders” highlights this idea that we should rely on a committed changemaker group, instead of just a few individuals.
Develop Leaders Instead of Just Identifying/Selecting Leaders
It may seem easier to recruit someone who already exhibits strong leadership capabilities, but that marginalizes people who have not had as many opportunities and hinders the number of people you can develop long-term.
In Rinku Sen’s book, Stir It Up, she states that instead of just picking out folks who have had the opportunity to express some level of leadership, we need to spend significant time and energy to build activist capacity to fight the “isms” (e.g., sexism, ableism, colonialism).
Prepare for Leadership Rejuvenation
This principle, another one from Rinku Sen’s Stir It Up, advocates for putting procedures in place to reduce burnout (e.g., rotating work schedule, extended breaks, incorporating mental/physical health into the group’s operations).
Focus on Fostering a Culture of Good Habits
In Wooden on Leadership, the authors write that it is essential to build good habits that focus on:
- People’s conditioning (i.e., improvement of skills)
- Fundamentals (i.e., key skills to know well)
- Unity (i.e., working together as a team).
Ensure Leaders are Prepared
Some of the biggest barriers to leadership development are people’s hesitations and self-doubts of their abilities. You need to take the time to help ensure people have the information and self-confidence to feel prepared for success.
Peer Learning and Support
Daniel Coyle in the Talent Code writes about the importance of people teaching each other. Build into your system lots of opportunities for peer support and learning.
Demonstrate High Expectations to Those You’re Working With
People need to know you believe they can improve and succeed. Studies note the idea of the Pygmalion effect which has found people do better when they believe more is expected of them.
It’s a cycle if we believe in them, they will respond well to that belief in general, which gives us even more cause to believe in them. The reverse is also true, if we don’t show true belief in people, they will notice and may not believe in themselves and show limited improvement, which makes us believe in them less.
Initiatives and Practices for Leadership Development
Overview
This section provides an overview of ways you can incorporate leadership development into your group. Leadership development should be a continual process of learning and growth. You are never completely done. It is about creating opportunities for others to develop their skills and creating opportunities for others to succeed.
To create an ecosystem of learning consider adopting these three key ways of developing others:
- Hands-on practice – focus the vast majority of time here.
- Coaching, mentoring, and guidance – focus short and consistent effort here.
- Trainings and workshops – focus the least amount of time here, use these more for confidence building since most people will only retain a small amount.
Training and Workshops
Whether you are putting on your training or going to a different organization’s workshop, there are many ways to identify new skills. Here are some ways to incorporate trainings/workshops with your group:
- Find existing trainings/workshops
- Create your own trainings/workshops on the skills/knowledge your group has learned over time.
Coaching, Guiding, and Mentoring
Sometimes people need more specific support on how to improve that targets their current strengths and areas of growth. Here are some ways to implement coaching/guiding/mentoring with your group:
- Connect with an internal or external coach. Having one-on-one, peer coaching, or group coaching sessions can be huge to help improve skills.
- Create a culture of peer-to-peer leadership development (e.g., reflecting on pluses/deltas/key learnings after every meeting/action, peer coaching, etc.)
- Work with a mentor. This can be a formal or informal process, but ideally, you are working to learn from someone with more experience. This can be as simple as grabbing coffee with the person every few months.
Hands-On Practice
Deborah Rowland writes in the Harvard Business Review for leadership development to be effective, we need to “Make it experiential.” Here are some ways to implement hands-on practice with your group:
- Ask someone to take on a leadership role that is just above their current skill level (after getting their commitment during a one-on-one meeting). Or have them become a co-coordinator with an experienced person.
- Rotate facilitators for your meetings. Have the main coordinator prepare the new facilitators in advance by helping them create an agenda, co-facilitating with them the first time, or letting them facilitate a section or two.
- Ask every team member (or most) to take on a task every meeting.
Leadership Development Within Programs
Overview
Whether you are hosting a 1-day workshop or a 1-year initiative, here are the key things to remember.
Focus on Fewer Skills and Really Getting Them Right
One of the hardest things for trainers to do is to limit the content. We all have so many things we want others to learn, but it’s ineffective to do too much at once. At the end of the day do you want people to hear about many skills they can’t do or learn 2-3 that they can do excellently?
Deep Practice. Focus on Getting Things Right, Instead of Almost Right
Daniel Coyle writes in The Talent Code that we need to make mistakes and “struggle” to learn. Mistakes on “the edge of our comfort zone” should be celebrated. However, this means you need to actively work to address those mistakes and engage in “deep practice” (i.e., targeted practice to work to improve).
This connects to a lesson from the NeuroLeadership Institute which writes, “The reality is that to be effective, learning needs to be effortful…The key here is desirable difficulty. The same way you feel a muscle ‘burn’ when it’s being strengthened, the brain needs to feel some discomfort when it’s learning.”
Give Immediate Feedback, Don’t Wait
Doug Lemov in Practice Perfect notes feedback right after someone practices a skill is much more important than the best feedback later on. The reason is people will better remember what they did in the moment after, rather than trying to recollect later on.
Check for Understanding
It is key to check for understanding of material (e.g., by a demonstration, verbal discussion, action steps to take, etc.) so have people practice each skill right then.
Also, it’s important to build a habit of giving exit tickets at the end of each session (i.e., short 2-5 question quizzes to check for understanding of material).
Isolate Skill Development / Break Learning Into Chunks
Instead of focusing on all skills, all the time, make sure to specifically work on one skill at a time. Identify ways to break down complex skills into smaller pieces (e.g., instead of teaching just how to do an effective one-on-one meeting, break it down into multiple parts such as telling their story, asking questions, listening, and making the ask).
Make the Practice and Development Program Hands-On
Hands-on means practicing real-life work and actually developing skills in a real-world setting. So always, always make the leadership development approach applied to real life and work. Think of leadership development as trying to build a real life workshop of the skills you are focused on.
Model the Skill
It’s important for folks to see the skill in action, even if not perfect. Ideally you model a good skill and model taking feedback on areas for improvement. Model videos are also a really good tool.
Give the Skill a Sticky Name
Doug Lemov in Practice Perfect writes about the idea to build a shared language and understanding of key skills so it’s easier to refer back to again and again.
Make Practice Fun
Doug Lemov in Practice Perfect notes that it is important for people to find the joy in practicing. To do so make it about camaraderie, clear connection to the objective, small competitions (i.e., since some people enjoy those), and cheers!