From “Don’t know how to…” to “Can do!”

I lead a small team (anywhere between six to 10 people, depending on the time of year). Over the past six weeks, we’ve brought on five new employees. I enjoy the process of adding new members to our organization. It’s a time for us to reconnect with our vision and values, articulate the tenets of our culture, own our personal and team goals and state with clarity how our work contributes to the greater team.

And, as any of you who have hired folks, onboarding can also be exhausting. The aspirations I have for the new team member are quickly met with the reality that, although they are more than capable of doing the job, it will take a bit to learn names, get acquainted with systems and process, learn the informal rules of operation with our structure and identify the best sources for acquiring information when they have questions.

I was revisiting an article on adult learning theory [1] a few evenings ago on the Staged Self-Directed Learning Model and reflecting on the concepts that might be applied to onboarding.

The author draws a large part of his comments on creating self-directed learners from the “Situational Leadership Theory” posed by Hersey and Blanchard in 1979 [2]. In a nutshell, the basic concept of situational leadership is that leaders must consider the situation and their follower as they set out to meet a goal – meaning, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. The author suggested that, to build self-directed learners, the educator should adjust their educational strategy over the course of the relationship – progressing from an instructive and hands-on approach to one focused on delegation.  See Figure 1 on page 5 of the study for a chart that illustrates the model. Perhaps it will help you understand further and lead to you making adjustments in your own work life.

So what does this mean for trainers, leaders or managers? The next time you’re bringing on a new person or forming a new group, consider the following:

Idea #1: Schedule frequent check-in meetings with your new team member – once every few days for 10 minutes or so – to answer questions and gauge their readiness to take on new tasks. In those sessions, offer clear feedback to direct continued growth.

Idea #2: Be willing to adjust your management style as your team becomes more capable and confident. As your employee builds an understanding of their role and scope of work, begin to ask more questions and solicit their opinion on next steps, rather than clearly dictating the path. You may be surprised at how quickly you can delegate larger tasks!

[1] Grow, G. O. (1991). Teaching Learners to Be Self-Directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41, 3, 125-49.

[2] Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. H., & Natemeyer, W. E. (1979). Situational Leadership, Perception, and the Impact of Power. Group & Organization Studies, 4, 4, 418-428.