Supervisor Training Effectiveness: Best and Worst Practices
Managers and supervisors are promoted or hired in to lead. There is still a myth prevalent in the work world that placing someone in a leadership role makes them a leader. Truth is that much like playing the piano or a sport, excellence at supervision requires training, coaching, practice and feedback.

 

When your company invests in the time, talent and resources to conduct supervisor training it needs to be evaluated for effectiveness.

Best Practices

• Involve all stakeholders (training designers, a few of the candidates for the training, executives, participants’ managers, HR, external providers). The job of the stakeholders is to clarifying who is responsible for training effectiveness. That would be all the stakeholders. The trainer owns design and delivery of the training. Who is the responsible party for the effectiveness of the training? The answer is simple. The stakeholders.
• With the stakeholders, establish before the training is designed or conducted how success will be measured.
• Make certain all stakeholders have shared and created a clear picture on expected outcomes.
• Designate a resource to collect, track, analyze, and communicate findings to build the business case for the value of the training, or build the case for modifications to the training.

Worst Practices

• Provide supervisor training based on the expectations of only a few. Involvement and input must require accountability with all stakeholders, not just the trainer or the learners.
• Expect training to be a sole solution. Training is not like a vaccine or baptism.
• Determine evaluation strategies after the training has been completed.
• Select outcomes that cannot be measured.
• Use evaluation data to cast blame and point fingers versus to modify and improve the training content and approach.
• Share evaluation results and data with a limited few key parties and not with executive management.
• Most companies, banks and credit unions for example, track everything that matters in their business. Are they, are you tracking training? 

 

Still learning,

Honey

 

Writing Like A Pro

 

Avoid Technicalese
Technicalese is the overblown style that makes writing sound as if it were written by a robot. Sometimes it’s tempting to use technicalese as a way to emphasize our knowledge of the topic. However, loading up your writings with jargon, clichés, antiquated phrases, and passive sentences only makes your text more complex than it needs to be. Make your writing more direct and vigorous by using the active voice to overcome this habit.
For example:
Passive: Security of a credit card is provided by the four digit pin code.
Active: The four digit pin code provides credit card security.

Lengthy Sentences
Lengthy sentences tire your readers. A survey by Harvard professor D. H. Menzel indicates that a sentence becomes difficult to understand when it exceeded 34 words.  Test how readable your writing is at www.readability-score.com

KISS - Keep it Simply Simple
Don’t use overblown expressions such as “it is a well-known fact that” or “it is the purpose of this writing to”. These take up space but add little meaning and clarity. Use simple words instead of wordy phrases.

Attention all Trainers!
Make this Your New Year’s Resolution
Train the Trainer Boot Camp
 

Be on the Lookout

Always be on the lookout when you are reading for excellent writing.  When you find it consider the writer’s style, sentence structure, succinct directions and descriptions.

 

 

Still learning,
Honey