This is the time we’re going to look at how to help people utilize new skills as a leader, especially at this time of the year when a lot of leaders are thinking about people utilizing skills, because it’s a performance review time in most organizations and in fact in many organizations leaders are starting to get to the end of having written and delivered performance reviews but that does not mean, by any means, it’s over.

New year is coming and that’s going to mean new performance reviews, new goals, new opportunities in the new year and the opportunity to really start off well.

And that’s probably one of the most important parts of the performance review and coaching and development process. Because it’s not so much how you finish. It’s how you start and what you’re doing along the way. And so today we are going to walk through a 4R model to use when you are trying to help other people utilize new skills that they’re learning. 4Rs is about four key things, that will help you remember what you can do as a leader to increase the buy-in into trainign programs and subsequent utilization of the new skills.

Let’s start with problem stetement. I’ve heard leaders say that they’re hesitant to spend a lot of time investing in people because they would just leave after they become more skilled. And I think that’s really a problem for a couple of reasons.

1. First of all, everyone is going to leave your organization or your team at some point. By all means as leaders we want to do whatever we can, to keep people engaged, if it doesnt work for any reason, we want to take our precautions to prevent business interruption or adverse effect on quality , e.g. initiate succession planning first of all. Neverhteless, people are going to leave regardless, It’s just a matter of time. What is important is what type of contribution they’re going to make to the organization while they are still with us.
2. The second reason I think that it’s a wrong strategy for a person who’s been fortunate enough in whatever capacity, the privilege to lead others, to not spend much time and resources in developing people. Let me put it this way, It’s your job as a leader to develop and coach them. That’s inherent in the job. I love the quote from Lawrence Bossidy from Alliedsignal, in the book Execution, which is a great management book, he said he spent 30 to 40% of his time in some weeks coaching and developing people. So even at the highest levels of leadership at the CEO of Fortune 500 company, leaders are spending a tremendous amount of time investing in people, coaching people, giving people feedback. That’s your job as a leader. Yes, there are other things that go along with leadership too, but that’s a key part of your job.
   So when leaders try to justify of why they don’t want to spend too much resources developing someone, I usually ask what else are they doing, what are they spending their time on? And if you’re not spending your time there, I don’t know what you would be spending your time on as a leader that would be more important than that. Certainly there are things that are as important, budgeting, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and many of the other things leaders do. But that’s a key competency. And so it should be a, if not the most important thing you’re doing, at least one of the top three or four things that you’re doing as a leader.
3. And then probably third, the reason I think must coach is because when we help other people succeed, we get rewarded ourselves. And we get rewarded not just personally, but often professionally too. Because we’re seen as someone who can develop other people. And that’s a key skill, regardless of what industry you’re in or what your specific job is, being able to develop other people is a key competency. So it’s really a win-win situation. When you help others succeed, you succeed too.

So spend that time and energy investing in other people and you’re going to get the return on investment. And you’re going to get the satisfaction out of helping other people succeed. And that’s going to carry over into your own success as well. So today we’re going to look at four key things that you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills. And we’re going to use four Rs to ease the remembering.

The first thing you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills is to explain the rationale for why those skills are important.

When we’re learning new skills, it’s helpful to know why we’re learning them. What are we ultimately trying to accomplish by learning these new skills? And so as a leader, you want to be able to articulate that. You want to be able to explain to your team member or to your employee or to your colleague, whoever it is that you’re working with, why is it that we’re investing the time and energy to help you develop these new skills. What are we ultimately trying to accomplish. Here’s why it’s important to the team. Here’s why it’s important to the organization. And when you can do that, when you can explain the rationale, that helps motivate people.

The second thing you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills is to provide them with the resources they need to be successful. And so as you’re working with your team members or your employees or your colleagues, whoever it is that you’re working with, take the time to provide them with the resources they need to be successful. Whether that’s training or development or support, whatever it is that they need, make sure they have what they need to be successful. Important for a couple of reasons.

1. First of all, when people are learning new skills, it’s helpful to have the right tools and the right resources to help them learn those skills effectively. And so as a leader, you want to be able to provide those resources, including training and the development and the support that people need to be successful in learning those new skills.
2. The second reason why this is important is because it helps people feel supported. It helps people feel like they’re not alone. It helps people feel like they have what they need to be successful, and when they get it from the organization or leader it definitely affects their performance in positive manner. And that’s motivating.

The third thing you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills is to role model those skills yourself.

When people see their leaders role modeling the skills that they’re trying to learn, it helps reinforce the importance of those skills. This is something that we value as a team or organization.

It also helps to show that these skills are attainable. They’re not just something that’s out there that’s theoretical with a hard-time real-life application. They’re something that’s achievable. They’re something that’s realistic.

That helps encourage people. And that helps them understand, okay, this is something that I can do too. This is something that I can achieve too. This is something that I can be successful at too. So that’s the third R.

The fourth thing you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills is to provide them with real-time feedback on how they’re doing.

When people are learning new skills, it’s helpful to know how they’re doing along the way. It’s helpful to know, whether they are on the right track. Am I making progress? Am I doing this right? And so as a leader, you want to be able to provide that feedback. You want to be able to let people know, how they’re doing. Here’s what you’re doing well. Here’s what you could improve on. Here’s how you can get better.

It helps people correct the course along the way. It helps people make adjustments in real time.

So those are the four Rs. Those are four key things that you can do as a leader to help people utilize new skills. And just to recap, the first R is rationale. The second R is resources. The third R is role model. And the fourth R is real-time feedback.

And so as you’re working with your team members or whoever it is that you’re working with, take the time to implement these four Rs. Take the time to explain the rationale for why those skills are important. Take the time to provide them with the resources they need to be successful. Take the time to role model those skills yourself. And take the time to provide them with real-time feedback on how they’re doing.

And when you can do that, when you can implement these four Rs, that’s going to help people utilize new skills more effectively. That’s going to help them be more successful in learning those new skills. And that’s ultimately going to help your team and your organization be more successful too.