What if Your Development Program Feels Like a Threat?
When teams and organizations bring us in to design and lead professional development opportunities, we often have a hurdle to overcome: the leaders on the receiving end of these opportunities are reluctant and sometimes skeptical. Worse, there's a chance they feel threatened by the opportunity.
The leaders presented with the development opportunity may simply be reluctant, thinking, "I have so much regular work that I can barely keep up with, I really don't want to take time away from that."
Or, the leaders are skeptical, thinking, "I doubt this will be worth my time or teach me anything I don't already know."
Worse yet, they could actually have fear about the training, "Does this mean something is wrong with me? What are they really trying to tell me about my performance?"
Leaders might feel threatened by the professional development opportunities that you offer for a few reasons.
1. Not Holding Paradox. Any time there's an opportunity for improvement, there is also a natural gap between current and future skills. It requires real intentionality to celebrate where you are now and keep striving for what could be better. Not every leader holds this paradox well.
2. Victim Mentality. They don't feel like they have a choice. And that's sometimes the reality. Providing context and reasoning is huge for minimizing this factor.
3. Fear of Being Broken. They worry this "opportunity" is here to "fix" them because they did something "wrong." It's best to explicitly debunk this perception with your team members. We recommend that teams who want to be high performing learn feedback and dialogue skills to learn from mistakes, rather than just sending team members off to skill-build.
What can you do to minimize a threat response when you require professional development opportunities?
The best way to minimize team members feeling threatened by a professional development off is to be transparent:
Clarify how the opportunity fits into the larger strategy
Explain why the opportunity is here now
Name the natural tendency for folks to wonder if this is about fixing something, and explicitly debunk it
Be clear with your team members and your leadership development consultant about the results you want and expect
Learning is one of life's greatest joys. It's sad when your intention is positive – to provide learning opportunities to your team members, and they have a negative response.
Treating the introduction of the opportunity with care, transparency, and dedication to results will go a long way in your team members accepting the investment you're making in them, as beautiful humans.
