How do I use my Learning & Development budget?

It’s that time of the year: pumpkin spice fills the air, the Christmas commercials are making their debuts, and a Leader’s mind turns to the annual planning cycle.

At some point, you take a look at the Learning & Development budget, and you see that it’s not been fully spent - and aside from a few conferences and training courses, you can’t remember what it was spent on. Nor are you sure of the value realised from it. There’s got to be a better way.

Actually, there is. The answer is to create a learning culture.

As a Product Leader, this is something you likely could do yourself. It’s something you think you should be doing. But the reality is that the needs of the moment often come first. Your 1:1s with the team should be about development, but often end up focusing on operational issues. (Yes, we all know better. And no, you’re not alone in having this happen.) 

So you try and delegate the responsibility to others in your team, or hire another level of manager to address the issue. But that rarely works - not everyone has the skills to coach and develop their teams; more levels of management come with their own issues; and any new people hired in end up concentrating on urgent operational issues, despite your best intentions.

There is an answer: bring in someone with the right background and coaching skills with a mission to upskill the team with the capabilities that you need now, and to stimulate the culture to continue to grow. This can be done on a long-term, part-time retainer basis - making it a lot more affordable and flexible than expanding the team. That’s  something your CFO will appreciate.

These are my favourite type of engagements: I get to know the team -  the realities of their situation from multiple angles, the politics and challenges, the processes and strategy, and get to work with them in a way that both frees up leadership and results in tangible results. 

There are additional benefits for the team: they have access to my expertise as a facilitator, allowing them to design and participate in workshops with their teams, partners & stakeholders - changing the dynamic, and giving them the ability to create better relationships. 

Want to learn more? Book a chat with Randy now.