Mind 19

CORPORATE TRAINING ARE MANAGERS BORN OR MADE? Millions of dollars and thousands of hours are spent each year trying teach leaders and managers how to coach their employees and give them effective feedback Yet much of this training is ineffective, and many leaders and managers remain poor coaches. Is that because this can't be trained? No, that's not the reason. Research sheds light on why corporate training oflen fails Studies by Peter Heslin, Don Vande Walle, and Gary Latham show that many managers do not believe in personal change These fixed-mindse managers simply look for existing talent-they judge employees a competent or incompetent at the start and that's that. They do relatively little developmental coaching and when employees do improve, they may fail to take notice, remaining stuck in their initial impression. What's more (like managers at Enron), they are far less likely to seek or accept critical feedback from their employees Why bother to coach employees if they can't change and why get feedback from them if you can't change? Managers with a growth mindset think it's nice to have talent, but that's just the starting point. These managers are more committed to their employees' development, and to their own. They give a great deal more developmental coaching, they notice improvement in employees performance, and they welcome critiques from their employees Most exciting, the growth mindset can be taught to managers. Heshim and his colleagues conducted a brief workshop based on well-established psychological principles (By the way, with a few changes, it could just as casily be used to promote a growth mindset in teachers or coaches) The workshop starts off with a video and a scientific article about how the brain changes with learning. As with our "Brainology" workshop (described in chapter 8), it's always compelling for people to understand how dynamic the brain is and how it changes with learning The article goes on to talk about how change is possible throughout life and how people can develop ther abilities at most tasks with coaching and practice. Although managers, of course, want to find the right person for a job, the exactly right person doesn't always come along. However, training and experience can often draw out and develop the qualities required for successful performance.