Offer a Pragmatic Solution – comes from the Free Guide – ‘Are You Annoyed by How Little Line Managers Support the Skills Training of Their Teams?’
Line Managers are busy and they want a simple and practical solution to a problem. Therefore, offering a pragmatic solution will certainly show that you understand their pressures. Of course, this is better than asking for something that you both know they’ll default on, which will decrease the trust between you both (The trust formula is based on 4 elements).
Most Line Managers will have team meetings. Then, ask the Line Manager to add a 10-minute ‘Training’ slot to their team meeting agenda. Meanwhile, share with them that the key question to ask the team is, ‘Who is going to achieve their learning objectives?’ Learners may respond with, ‘What learning objectives?’, or ‘I just haven’t got time’. In fact, by asking this question, the Line Manager will realise the status of the team’s learning and from there, can offer appropriate encouragement to the team members.
Credibility: ‘He knows his stuff’.
Reliability: ‘He always delivers on time’.
Intimacy: ‘We know a bit about each other’.
Self-Orientation: ‘I want to know more about you’.
Think about someone who you don’t trust – I bet you can identify one element from the trust equation that they fail to deliver.
Action
Offer the Line Manager a practical solution that fits with an opportunity already in their diary. In particular, it should only take 10 minutes to execute, such as an agenda point at their next team meeting. By introducing this agenda point at the meeting, learning will become a key point of discussion. The 4 elements of the trust model.