Every Vehicle Has a Driver
The 1964 Aston Martin has James Bond. The DeLorean had Doc and Marty McFly. The 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am known as KITT had the Knight Rider. High-performance cars leave big impressions on the audience through whom they drive!
These are references with no subtlety whatsoever. Drive. Performance. Quality. This heavy-handed image is poignant, though, when learning and development (L&D) leadership becomes part of an organization’s strategy for growth and performance. After all, there would be no Aston Martin if a tuxedo-clad, spy gadget-savvy James Bond did not suavely step from behind the steering wheel after a high-speed chase. The DeLorean would be a weird, concept car if it could not push past 88 mph at the behest of a genius and his guitar-shredding sidekick. This is what good, foundational L&D leadership does for performance: it drives the vehicle for maximum performance.
This cannot be overstated:
L&D leadership drives performance and makes an organization look alluring while doing so.
Every Driver Must Be Well-Trained
The tenets of leadership are too often relegated to managers, team leaders, CEOs, and other roles that top department rosters within an organization chart. We think of the same qualities in good leadership any time we plan for success. Every good leader:
- Cultivates organization values and a culture that supports those values
- Builds and strengthens organization branding
- Motivates and engages team members
- Inspires vision, innovates practices, and perpetually learns
- Has an eye for recruiting and maintaining talent
- Keeps organizational goals and missions both in focus and as a priority
- Communicates efficiently and effectively
- Keeps an ear to the ground for new markets and technologies
What other qualities belong on this list? While this list is by no means exclusive, it is, by all means, essential in order to drive organizational performance. There is one thing for certain: whatever qualities one may add to the list, each quality demonstrates unmistakable care and nurturing of team members and their roles within organizational accomplishment and output.
Solid leadership is the necessary doorway between the team and the team’s accomplishment and output.
Every Driver Trains for Performance
It is a no-brainer that this list of qualities is part of the perfect description of the character that is necessary to lead an organization or any team/department within an organization. Why would an organization’s stakeholders not expect the exact same qualities in those to whom learning and development have been entrusted? Solid learning and development leadership will use such qualities to define L&D goals, implement effective learning, and customize all of this in consideration of organizational culture.
Learning and development leadership is the leadership within the leadership that nurtures team members and the culture in which performance and growth will strive.
When L&D is given proper attention and structure, it will have leadership that takes on the mantle of mission, culture, talent, and communication. This leader will know how to distill what is available both in resources and potential and communicate them efficiently and effectively to both the leadership and team of an organization.
If the above list of leadership qualities is restated with an L&D leader in mind, then the list looks like a recipe for both L&D and organizational success.
A learning and development leader:
- Develops training that cultivates organization values and a culture that supports those values
- Builds and strengthens organization branding when analyzing where gaps in L&D are closed
- Motivates and engages team members with customized learning and development
- Inspires vision, innovates practices, and perpetually learns while keeping in mind available talent, available resources, and newest practices/technologies
- Has an eye for recruiting and maintaining talent through skill development and providing a culture of learning that broadens and enhances skill sets
- Uses L&D to keep organizational goals and missions both in focus and as a priority
- Acts as a hub that distills data and processes in order to communicate efficiently and effectively
- Keeps an ear to the ground and uses new markets and technologies in order to keep an organization abreast of industry standards
Smooth Performance, Handles Well on the Curves
It is no secret that learning, training, education, development, and any process that provides knowledge and growth comes at a cost. Here are a few of the “dead man’s curves” that will stagnate and cripple performance, costing valuable resources in the process:
- time
- money
- distraction from a team member or members’ intended role
- wasted resources used in trial and error
- loss of morale
- risk of leaving some talent undertrained while exasperating other talents with useless training
- unclear educational and training goals
- learning processes are unclear or have not been customized in consideration of available talent
What other pitfalls can be added to the list? Regardless of what could be added, it takes a skilled driver to know these potential hazardous curves and make the most of the drive ahead. With such great cost in the balance, skilled L&D leadership is a necessity…but how can an L&D leader do this without disruption to daily workflow?
This is where innovation plays a key role in providing solutions. Hybrid and remote leadership is perhaps one of the largest untapped resources in the industry. Organizations often express that the best possible scenario would be one where training, education, development, and learning happen seamlessly and with only those who need it. As technology and platforms have advanced, this “best possible scenario” has become a reality by using a managed learning services provider such as VisionCor.
Innovative, forward-looking practices such as hybrid and remote models place businesses well ahead of the curve if the process is placed in the skilled hands of a professional.
An L&D leader from VisionCor offers fresh, objective eyes on the processes and culture of an organization in order to streamline L&D so that cost is decreased to an amount that can be predicted, planned, and customized by organizational needs. A VisionCor professional would cost the same (or less considering the time and resources saved when eliminating trial and error from the process) as the cost spent on an already-existing team member AND the work missed from the team member who was pulled away to develop learning will not have to be made up or given to other team members. Most importantly, a VisionCor L&D professional works seamlessly into the process and determines to make learning and development just as seamless for the entire organization.
A VisionCor L&D leader guarantees:
- less time and money due to proper analysis and seamless L&D
- no current talent pulled away from intended hired roles
- no loss due to trial and error
- boosted morale
- customized training based on strengths and weaknesses of available talent
- clarity in goals and procedure
Strong Performance, Strong Finish
When VisionCor sends a driver to an organization, we send them to deliver an amazing, road-worthy performance because of the curves, not despite the curves. We know that an organization has processes that deserve uninterrupted attention. VisionCor’s goal is to provide seamless integration with little to no distraction from those processes. We intend for the drive to be high-speed and adventurous as we customize L&D solutions in consideration of these processes.
VisionCor would serve as a catalyst for an organization’s purposed and intended outcomes. Analyzing L&D needs and developing solutions is tantamount to serving the mission of an organization. However, we do intend that our hybrid model provides L&D and staffing solutions in one major way: We intend to step from behind the steering wheel after an incredible performance, adjust the lapel of our tuxedo, and toss the keys of an unscratched vehicle to corporate leadership as we saunter toward the next project that they have in mind. We aim to make an organization look like these processes are not difficult at all, save the day when it comes to time, money, and resources, and to give an organization an attractive, inviting profile.
Consulting with a managed learning services professional is a click or call away. Let VisionCor open possibilities for higher organizational performance by contacting us Consulting with a managed learning services professional is a click or call away. Let VisionCor open possibilities for higher organizational performance by contacting us solutions@visioncor.com.
