In a recent article I asked the question, "Do business skills training courses work?" In order to help the reader fully appreciate the concepts and principles raised in that article I thought it would be useful to consider a case study of a staff member attending a presentation skills course. Let's call her Paula and her manager, Jane, both working in the finance department of a medium sized manufacturing company.
Jane has identified that Paula needs to become a more effective presenter as her evolving role will necessitate presenting management accounts to senior managers. Having seen Paula present only once previously, Jane has identified that Paula is not a natural presenter. This is hardly surprising given that Paula was hired mainly for her excellent analytical skills rather than her communication and interpersonal skills.
So Paula arranges for Jane to attend a presentation skills training course and lets her know by booking this in her diary along with an accompanying note to the effect that it is part of her overall training and development plan. Prior to attending the training course, Paula is very nervous and she even considered avoiding the course by calling in sick on the day it was due to run.
In the event, Paula attended the training course, kept her head down and made an adequate presentation at the end, relieved that it was all over at last. On her return to work, Jane asked how the course went and told Paula that now she had been trained in presentation skills she would be required to present the management accounts at the next monthly board meeting.
This ranges some key questions. How effective will Paula be when she makes this presentation? How will this reflect on Jane? If the presentation does not go well, how will this affect Paula's confidence? But the most important question is, what should Jane have done differently in order to aid Paula's development in this key business skill?
My reflection on those questions would be as follows.
Firstly, it is highly unlikely that Paula will make an effective presentation. This will reflect badly on Jane and perhaps do irrevocable damage to Paula's confidence.
As to how Jane could have handled this differently I would suggest a series of simple interventions. She should have explained to Paula why she was attending the presentation skills training course and the key aspects of making a presentation she should focus on. On returning from the course, Jane should have arranged a meeting with Paula to discuss the level of learning that had taken place and which aspects of making a presentation she felt confident about and which aspects she needed to work on further. Jane should then have arranged a series of low risk presentations for Paula such as within team meetings or cross departmental discussion groups. Jane should have attended these presentations and provided Paula with constructive feedback to aid her development and build her confidence.
Jane should then have invited Paula to co-present with her at a board meeting, maybe providing here with a small segment to deliver. Perhaps for the next board meeting she could then ask Paula to make an extended presentation with Jane being on hand in case she fell into any difficulty. Eventually, both Paula and Jane would become confident of Paula's ability to make an effective presentation.
The lessons to derive from this short case study are that all too often managers send their staff on training courses expecting the learning to be completed upon their return to work. In fact, the real learning for any business skill tends to occur after the training course. The learning is likely to be more effective and more rapid if the manager takes an active role in supporting their staff throughout this process.