We’re about halfway through 2024, and upskilling remains a steadfast priority among business leaders and learning and development executives who are in tune with the organizational goals.
Upskilling programs offer organizations the opportunity to stay agile as new technologies arrive on the market and amid the ongoing skills evolution.
Employee growth from upskilling is happening at a glacial pace, and the workload stress is causing managers to consider quitting. Simultaneously, executives are also worrying about training being enough to keep the pace with advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence.
As a leader capable of driving cultural change in your organization, you can advocate for upskilling by investing in your own personal development.
A robust leader understands that in addition to having a core set of skills that make a good leader—such as agility, emotional intelligence, problem-solving—that they also need to be ready to refine these skills or learn new ones at any time.
Many L&D leaders or chief learning officers I speak with on a regular basis are also coaches, trainers, session facilitators or instructors. But how many of you participate in your own programs as a learner?
Like Rihanna using her own Fenty products, I would love to hear from the L&D leaders who engage with their own programs. Not only are these leaders strengthening their own skills and becoming more in tune with what their learners are seeing, but they also have the opportunity to look at the inner workings of a program and make important changes or improvements.
The authentic nature of curiosity is what I love about L&D. Learners who see their leaders actively embracing continuous learning and skills development will be more passionate about it themselves. CLOs who participate in e-learning programs, workshops, training sessions, coaching, or executive education courses or certifications should strive to be open and regularly share their progress with their learners and teams.
It’s simply learning by example, and CLOs are perfectly positioned to do this. Every single L&D practitioner I know is hungry for learning and always looking for ways to expand their minds and horizons.
The “skills gap” or “talent gap” we’ve been talking about may be daunting. But history shows us that there has always been some sort of gap in skills or knowledge facing the global workforce. Leaders and learners alike have adapted to many, many changes in the workplace over the past few hundred years. We are currently in our fourth industrial revolution. Fourth.
So, let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’ve successfully done this before. We’ve got this.
