Off-the-job training is not just for those at the start of their careers. Recently, the Queen’s School of Business and FEI Canada implemented a program for senior financial executives called the Leadership Beyond Finance Program.
Click here to read about the Leadership Beyond Finance Program.
Even though the program is one that falls into the ‘off-the-job’ training category, it calls upon real-life situations and shared learning taken from ‘on-the-job’ leadership experiences. All too often leaders have to go through very painful and public work related experiences that, if not handled correctly, will lead to disastrous results. We have all seen or heard of organizational leaders who are put to the test in unsafe and unwelcoming waters with little opportunity to go back and fix mistakes made along the way.
This program offers a wonderful opportunity to share those painfully learned lessons through the experiences of others and, hopefully, alter the leadership approach for those leaders in the program to achieve better results.
In our studies about employee training and development, it is evident that the best learning takes place in safe, welcoming environments that provide an opportunity to practice what is learned before it is applied.
Effective leadership is definitely something that requires lots of practice and will continue to offer multiple learning opportunities along the way!
Discussion Questions:
- Identify three traditional off the job training techniques described in the article.
- Why do leaders need to learn to listen?
- How would Human Resources Professionals benefit from this type of leadership program?
- Identify one personal leadership skill that you wish you had an opportunity to practice before having to use it in a workplace setting.