As a premier business coach and consultant, the development of people is a topic near and dear to Dr. Janson’s heart in an area of expertise developed over 25+ years working with global organizations. Being mindful of the way adults learn is essential to facilitate successful professional development opportunities.
Best practices for top-tier organizational leadership include prioritizing professional development for employees at all levels. Under the direction of forward-thinking senior leaders, employees should be on a continuous growth track. Without an ambitious growth plan, the organization loses their human assets by degrees – if not literally (by resignation), through the loss of enthusiasm, optimism, and drive that begins to wane when an organization fails to employ their full potential.
Understanding how adults learn is mission-critical for organizations that are developing employees. With a desire to get the inside scoop on how to best arm organizations with the information needed to offer ideal learning opportunities to employees, I consulted Dr. Kimberly Janson, CEO and President of Janson Associates.
In addition to having a Ph.D. in Business, an MA in Teaching, an MS in Organizational Development, and authoring books on leadership development and talent management, Dr. Janson has worked on the ground in more than 40 countries. The fact is – learning is her life. She is an expert in optimizing C-Suite teams and the employees they lead. She views talent development as a duty of high-performing managers, but even more, as one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership responsibility.
Dr. Janson shared a wealth of information in response to my questions about best practices for leaders as they plan for and provide professional development for their employees:
For organizations that need to up their game re. professional development, where and why should they start?
“For organizations to thrive, leaders must develop themselves as teachers. Lack of development is often one of the top three reasons people leave organizations. We are a little bit crazy in organizations in the ways in which we expect people to be competent in areas that they haven’t learned or practiced. We wouldn’t put someone in the driver’s seat of a car without instruction. Yet, time and time again, we throw people into situations in organizations for which they are not prepared. We need to be better.”
In your graduate and doctoral work, did you encounter some theories, studies, or science that influence your recommendations re. professional development?
“There is a powerful set of principles, known as adult learning theory, identified by Malcolm Knowles in the 1960s that shaped our thinking and action in terms of how adults learn. I subscribe to these because they absolutely hold true. Adopting a “teaching mindset” will enable more efficient knowledge transfer, facilitate people practicing more and in better ways – with practice being a critical component of learning, and ultimately better application and performance. To do this well, leaders need to understand some fundamentals in terms of how adults learn.”
Can you summarize these fundamentals?
“First and foremost, it is critical to know that adults differ from children in that they are not blank slates. They have a choice. To encourage that choice, the process of learning should be positive. We have enough grief and challenge in other areas of work and life that we should make the learning event inviting. To encourage adults to choose to engage in a learning situation, they have to be clear on the “why.” We are pulled in so many directions that it frankly has to be worth their time.
To make it worth their time, after they buy into the “why,” they need for the learning to be practical. Adults need to be highly engaged in their learning – often referred to as “experiential learning” – and the content must be something they can apply right away. In other words, the subject matter has to have practice and immediate application for them. Using their own experiences and real-world application to make the learning stick is a strong idea. Fundamentally, adults want the learnings to help solve problems they are facing.
We adults are fickle. We want control. We are responsible for lives, jobs, mortgages, families, and much more. Therefore, we expect to have a say in our learning and to drive the content and the pace. We also expect all of this to happen in a moment that is useful for us because otherwise, we won’t engage properly, and frankly, it is wasted effort.
One more thing to keep in mind that is true for all learners – adults and children – we have preferences in the modes in which we learn best. Some of us retain more if we hear it, some when we see it, and others when we tactically engage with it. Combining these modes of learning increases the amount of information we retain.”
Through your work with C-Suite, executives, and HR, can you offer leaders hope that they can have their own transformation stories with regard to meaningful and successful professional development?
“Absolutely. Because…once a leader understands the ways in which adults acquire skills and knowledge and they commit to the fact that they are tremendously responsible for increasing the value and capabilities of their team members, they can craft powerful experiences that allow their teams to be even more effective. When done, the overall organization can go faster and do more when more people have more skills. The idea of leaders as teachers is a tremendous difference-maker in highly successful organizations.”
To enlighten you on Dr. Janson’s qualifications and the caliber of the players on her client list, her work history includes executive-level positions with H. J. Heinz, Bank of America, Hasbro, and Bank of Boston before establishing Janson Associates. With 25 years of experience offering premier executive coaching, leadership consulting, assistance with merger and acquisition, cultural transformation, strategic planning, team optimization, and organizational development to top tier leaders in organizations with varied backgrounds, professional development is frequently a topic of discussion with her clients.
Dr. Janson shares content regularly on Instagram, where she has more than 200 thousand followers. She is one to follow to stay current with provocative thought leadership regarding executive, individual, team, and organizational effectiveness.
The photo represents Dr. Janson’s love for her family horse business, Legacy Farms, and her Grand Prix level show jumpers.
Janson Associates represents her passion for her life’s work in business. Her book, Demystifying Talent Management, is a resource every professional should have, and her new book, Determining Leadership Potential, is another essential, now available for pre-sale.
To learn more about booking Dr. Janson as a consultant, coach, or keynote speaker, you can reach her at Janson Associates.