Letting Learners Set Development Goals

Learning facilitators or instructors are typically the ones who make the decisions regarding the goals of any given development program, such as who learns what, how, and when. EZRA’s latest white paper examines the idea of giving the learners themselves more freedom and autonomy, allowing them to choose and direct their own development.

EZRA’s coaching app platform lets organizations pick from a range of 33 researched competencies as their coaching development goals. They can either pick from a pre-populated archetype program or pick 12 competencies to make their own mix. Individual learners then choose 3 of these selected competencies as their personal goals.

This approach has several advantages to understanding how a coaching program will be utilized.

• Are there patterns in the competencies that organizations select for their leaders?

• Are there patterns in the competencies that individual coachees select, and are these different?

• Are there patterns in how coaches and their line managers rate coachee competence?

Of the top picked competencies, 6/10 appear in the top ten picks for both individuals and organizations, while 9/10 appear the same for individuals and their direct line managers,

This means that

• We can trust learners to prioritize similar topics to those that their organizations would prioritize for them

• Leading Change, along with topics focused on delivering lasting change, are critically important to all parties

• There are several significant cases of divergence between organizational and individual prioritization, depending on the individual’s own perceived areas of weakness

The “greatest hits” – competencies selected by most of EZRA’s individual learners – are influence, communication, leading change, and shaping the strategy. However building a one-size-fits-all program based around these topics would still mean that 56-56% of those in your organization would be uninterested in this leadership coaching program.

Let the learners choose. It drives change much more efficiently and sustainably, and gives a much better output for both the individual and the organization.