Harvard Business Publishing Identifies Characteristics of Successful Learning Programs for Midlevel Leaders
BOSTON (PRWEB) February 12, 2018 -- Harvard Business Publishing, developer of world-class leadership development solutions for global companies and organizations, has identified how companies can design and deliver development programs that meet midlevel leaders’ needs and address the challenges they face.
Midlevel leaders play an important role at the juncture of strategy and execution in today’s fast-paced business environment. These leaders are the key to facilitating communication, collaboration and coordination within an organization as well as outside of it with customers and partners. Organizations that recognize the significance of the midlevel leadership role are increasing their investment in these leaders. And yet, there can be significant challenges to designing and delivering effective programs for them, including identifying common development needs across the diverse role of a midlevel manager, geographic constraints which make organization-wide training difficult, and carving out time within the busy work day for managers to build the capabilities needed to succeed today and tomorrow.
Based on years of experience in designing impactful leadership development programs for managers at all levels, Harvard Business Publishing has identified three attributes that are vital in creating meaningful development programs for midlevel leaders. In a new four-part blog series, Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning’s Louise Axon, director of content strategy and development, and Jennifer Long, senior manager of programs, uncover the elements that need to be in place for programs to be successful and allow managers to excel in their roles.
- Learning that’s relevant: When the content is focused on the specific responsibilities and challenges of midlevel leaders, they can see how they and their organization will benefit by acquiring particular skills or knowledge—so the time invested seems worthwhile to them. Learning is also relevant if it’s anchored in an organization’s current context—including how its business landscape is changing. In recent Harvard Business Publishing research, 61 percent of respondents indicated “linking development to company strategy and values” as a defining feature of effective development programs.
- Learning that’s immediately actionable: Managers integrate learning with real work—by grasping the new skills or knowledge offered in the program through short, quick bursts of learning, and by applying them repeatedly in their job. In research from Harvard Business Publishing, 73 percent of L&D respondents cited “application to real work” as an important characteristic of midlevel leadership-development programs.
- Learning that meets leaders where they are: Development programs that make savvy use of technology can further meet leaders where they are—physically—by enabling them to access content formats from anywhere and at any time when it’s convenient for them. Integrating technology into the learning process embeds learning more deeply into managers’ day-to-day work by providing short bursts of learning, delivered over time. Learning over time creates a lasting, more meaningful learning experience.
As midlevel leaders hold the difficult task of managing up and down within the company, being both teachers and learners, they need a broad view of the organization and deep understanding of how things operate beyond their own role. To do this effectively, organizations need to make midlevel leadership development a priority. Within the four-part blog series, Harvard Business Publishing takes a deeper dive into why each of these program attributes is important and how organizations can integrate them into their plans for midlevel leader development.
Also on the Leading the Way blog:
As today’s learners want to be in control of what and when they learn, learner-driven experiences (LDE) and microlearning are key themes consistently talked about right now in the world of L&D. To learn about how Harvard Business Publishing’s partner, Vanguard, shifted its leadership development approach to put a greater emphasis on LDE, read the blog How To Drive The Learner-Driven Experience.
About Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners with clients to create world-class leadership development solutions for managers at all levels. We leverage the management insight, thought leadership, and expertise of Harvard Business School faculty and authors from Harvard Business Review to create tailored leadership development solutions. With more than 20 years of practical experience, our innovative, technology-enabled solutions drive meaningful and lasting results. For more information, visit http://www.harvardbusiness.org. Follow us on Twitter @HBPCorpLearning and connect with other talent development leaders on LinkedIn through the Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning Group.
Susan Rozmanith, Harvard Business Publishing, http://www.harvardbusiness.org, +1 (781) 771-7211, [email protected]
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