Motivating Development Through Employee Enrichment

Problem

I manage a junior engineer who I noticed was having some trouble understanding some of the work that we were doing that involved class diagrams in Unified Modeling Language. When I identified this obstacle, I directed her to an educational resource that would help her to investigate the topic in order to gain a better grasp on the knowledge required to succeed. Soon, she was demonstrating proficiency in all of the areas where she was struggling before, sharing with me what she has learned in our one-on-ones.  

Depending on the level of the employee and the problem that they seem to be having, you need to identify the root cause in order to present a good solution. There is always a learning area that can help an employee overcome an obstacle.

Actions taken

There are many platforms that offer enrichment programs for professionals in our industry. There is Linkedin and Udemy, among others, and if our employees want to take a deep dive into education in some area, we always suggest some learning sessions for them. Many of these third-party services are integrated, allowing your reports to choose the position that they hold and the areas that they want to focus on; the program then suggests training courses relevant to what they do.  

As a group, after taking these courses, we all make presentations and express what we’ve all learned in a knowledge-sharing session with the entire team. One person learns about something and then conveys the lesson to the rest of our group, along with some of our goals. If another team member sees that they can help with the goals of another, they can suggest different types of training or topics to study. After learning, everybody comes back together again, and everybody ends up benefiting equally. It is very motivating.  

If there is nothing specific that we can all be training in, these gatherings become knowledge-sharing sessions in general. I’m sharing what I know, about people management, about books that I’ve read recently, something new that I’ve tried, anything at all. They do the same for me, as well. It’s not a formal meeting. It’s very friendly and fun. We do this bi-weekly when possible, and once a month at the very least.

Lessons learned

• We keep a list so that anybody who wants to share or to learn about something can document the need or the desire. This helps us keep an agenda of how we would like to spend this time with one another.
• Productivity improves as a result of these sessions. The team becomes more motivated and enthusiastic.
• Always share what you’ve learned with the people who you manage. This will inspire people to learn more themselves. They look forward to having something to share in the next meeting.