Middle leaders as a cornerstone of upskilling

Middle leaders are an essential part of organisation upskilling.
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The best middle leaders drive workplace performance by helping improve how things are done.
One area where they  have impact is developing the culture of being a learning organisation. This is increasingly important.

Gianpiero Petriglieri makes this very clear in MIT Sloan Management Review (Winter 2020) where he says that learning is an imperative and without it "companies fail and careers derail". He cites the 2016 Gallup report 'How Millennials Want to Work and Live' where nearly 60% of job seekers from that demographic identify 'opportunities to learn and grow' as a significant reason for wanting  join. It's in the top five, along with having a good manager. That's you!

But what really makes this significant is how important learning and development is for retention of your best people. LinkedIn's  Workplace Learning Report states that in places where employees have had a chance to learn whilst on the job, the retention rate is 7% higher (after 3 years) than places where this doesn't happen.

All very easy? No.

Often we encounter senior executives who are not on board. And often you can see why - cost.
This is why middle leaders need to have a plan to get their team the training they need, want and deserve .

Some things to try
⚠️ Make sure that any training you suggest is in line with your organisations development plan.
⚠️ Make the benefits crystal clear and remind senior managers of the pain-points caused by lack of specific skills.
⚠️ Encourage the cost to be seen as an investment.
⚠️ Provide specific evidence of the impact of the training by looking for successes.
⚠️ Look for cost-effective approaches such as internal developmental opportunities.
Job shadowing is an example, or the chance to work in a different department for a while.
Structured mentoring works well too.