The human drive to continually improve and become more skillful is exceedingly strong for the most talented team members. These overachievers have a powerful internal need to attain mastery over the tasks critical to their high performance.
Leaders who are attuned to which team members are unusually driven to improve possess a secret weapon for motivating them. They simply need to invest in their learning journey and skill development.
The best leaders maintain an ongoing program of activities and challenges for those most motivated by learning. With a continual stream of learning investments feeding their insatiable appetite to get better, leaders motivate these unique team members to reach their highest potential.
And here’s the good news: Although not everyone on the team is driven to improve and learn, getting better is a universal human need. So, providing the entire team with outlets for skill enhancement will be viewed positively by everyone.
The learning activities and challenges that assist skill enhancement come in many forms, some obvious and some less so. In the obvious category, good leaders consider investments in formal training programs, after-action reviews following projects, online courses, peer coaching, job rotation, formal mentorship programs, and situation clinics, where peers discuss approaches to common problems. Any experience that challenges the current skill level of team members can be highly motivational.
Investments that are less obvious could include:
- Access to external experts
- Skill competitions
- Benchmarking excursions
- Time-based challenges
- Structured dialogue or engagement with world-class performers
- Monthly skill assessments
As the most talented team members make progress through these investments, they crave more. Asking them to design and debrief the team about their own personalized learning programs will often highlight new ideas and avenues that can be formally incorporated into the larger team program. Leaders who get creative with new learning resources and activities are rewarded with a highly motivated team with a fixation on becoming better.
True mastery is a journey that never ends. The same is true with investing in that mastery. Leaders who only occasionally support a training program or provide the resources for a learning experience miss the point. For leaders who want to motivate the team to do their best work, the learning investments never stop.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
