Cascading Leadership Series – Stayin’ Sharp

Let’s jump right in where we left off—like I said last week, we keep our people sharp with regular training, and we keep our training sharp with regular updates. We dedicate time to review a training module every week at our operations meeting; relevant suggestions are made, modules are updated, and then we move on. Keepin’ our edge sharp! 

Clock ’em in!

Don’t forget: Training must be on-the-job to be paid, including the module reviews. Employees must be clocked in when reviewing this to avoid a department of labor conflict. For promotion, employees must review our modules, take quizzes to show proficiency and be evaluated on their ability to perform necessary skills physically. (I should mention we spend considerable time teaching our leaders to train and assess.) All of this must take place on the clock.

Know-Show-Do-Review

We use a practical, four-step on-the-job training (OJT) technique called Know-Show-Do-Review, and it goes like this: 

Know: The instructor discusses the training module with the learner and tells the student apprentice what they know about the topic. 

Show: The instructor demonstrates the skill and shows them how to do it.

Do: The apprentice will perform or do the skill.

Review: They review the whole process from start to finish together. Know-Show-Do-Review. With this method, knowledge and skill cascade through the company!

You can use a similar process to ensure that skills and leadership competencies cascade through your whole company, too!

Good People Skills are Caught and Taught

We have broken our Leadership Competencies training curriculum into customer management, job management, and employee management. 

These modules teach leadership skills such as emotional intelligence, developing individual employees, and building a team. We give out training guidelines that instruct our leaders on communicating with employees and providing feedback. 

We have many discussions about best practices, so nothing is left open for individual interpretation—this empowers our leaders to handle both good and bad situations. We also want them to practice what they preach. Impressions are everything. Good habits and emotional intelligence are a must. 

Our leaders are not clones, but their approach to handling situations is consistent, reflecting our company’s practiced methods and core values. This is how good people skills cascade through the ranks.

Train your people, empower your leaders—and build muscle. See you next week!