Weekly Thought – April 11, 2017
Fred developed ideas, strategies, and people. He loved seeing growth and progress. He also appreciated the value of measures and metrics. Wanting to know if the process worked led him to define criteria for the effectiveness of training.
Thank you for your consistent, prayerful support of the Breakfast With Fred Leadership Institute. Our next event is April 18, 19, 2017 at Greenville College in Greenville, IL. Please pray for the team members who will be traveling to campus to “stretch and bless the next generation of leaders… to the glory of God.”
Training Touchstones
The development of others is a strategic element in good leadership. Bringing others along to grow the organization is part of the mission. As training moves along, here are five ways to measure progress:
1) Is this person’s job fitting well with his or her talents? If not, I never be successful in fully developing the potential. It is my responsibility to assess the long range outcome and make sure the job and the talent match.
2) How much willingness to do the job am I seeing? I want to see if the person is enthusiastic about the opportunity to grow. Training has to be more than just an interesting way to pass time. And if I suspect the trainee is thinking, “Well, I’ll do it if you want me to, but I’m not really keen on it” I already know not to expect much.
3) How consistent is the person’s effort? Long-term, not sporadic engagement is what I want. It is the day in, day out effort that benefits both the organization and the employee. A friend once told me, “The amateur performs well when he feels like it. The pro performs well whether he feels like it or not.”
4) What are the objective results? I find many people want to tell me about activity, carry on conversations, give me excuses but produce little or nothing. I like to measure what has actually been done. Some people get by for years talking a good game but doing little. In our family we have a saying “Show me the baby, don’t tell me about the labor pains.”
5) Is this person willing to be evaluated? I am not going to spend time developing someone who resists having his results measured. In the same way, I do not want to attempt to train someone who will never ask for help. If a person knew all the answers, they would not need the training. I see too many whose egos won’t allow them to learn from others.
This week carefully consider: 1) How can I use these questions in my development of others? 2) What do I use as the measurement of personal progress? 3) When do I do my most effective training?
Words of Wisdom: “The development of others is a strategic element in good leadership.”
Wisdom from the Word: “A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40 NET Bible)