Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2024 - 41

be fulfilled at all. Being deliberate and
prioritizing requests may allow those
things to resolve themselves without
your intervention, while addressing
both lack of time and prioritization
challenges that you may be facing
otherwise. That said, be judicious
when you say " no, " communicate
clearly on the " why " and actively
participate in finding alternatives.
but more importantly, be clear when
expectations are not likely to be met.
If you are transparent, you are more
likely to have resources offered
before you need them most and your
extended team will be able to better
capitalize on your success.
5. Give Yourself Permission to Fail:
If you don't allow yourself to fail,
that means you're not trying hard
enough or you're not trying to do
enough things. In fact, research has
shown that the optimum failure rate
for learning is 15%. It is at this point
where the act of pushing yourself
can generate the best rewards.
Some things won't work, but that's
where you can get the most learning
and growth.
The L&D
function cannot
exist in a
vacuum if it is
to achieve the
goals of the
organization.
4. Resist the Urge to Say " Yes " to
Everything, or Risk Failing Everyone:
Your insight and expertise are highly
valued, but not every request needs
to be fulfilled by solely you. In fact, if
the request is not strategically aligned
to the business, it perhaps should not
6. Mentorship Matters: Mentorship
allows you to grow and learn from
others, and it builds relationships
with people that would otherwise not
develop. You can't get anything done
without relationships, especially as an
L&D professional. The extra benefit
of mentorship is that it goes both
ways. The mentee and the mentor
grow in the process. By reaching out
for or giving guidance, you can open
yourself up to a host of insights that
can reshape your approach.
Building Your Extended
Team: The Secret Sauce for
Engaging Others
It can be difficult to gain buy-in for your
training programs, let alone keep those
in other departments actively engaged
and eagerly volunteering to contribute to
your programs. Enabling and encouraging
targeted workstreams will allow you to
accomplish specific mission objectives.
In his book, " Leading Without Authority, "
Keith Ferrazzi introduces the idea of coelevating
with those that you add to your
team. To do that, you will need six secret
ingredients to engage your extended
team members outside of L&D:
1. Look at the moments you spend
working with other people as
opportunities to be a part of their
success story. If you look at it that
way, you approach working with
others differently.
2. Share why each initiative is uniquely
enriched by that individual and how
they're uniquely positioned to push
a project forward. Success or failure,
they are involved.
3. Organize opportunities for
collaboration and connection with
people outside of the L&D space
and enable strategic relationships
across the business. Ensure they
have a regular cadence, allow for
sharing personal insights and inspire
a collaborative partnership that is
mutually beneficial.
4. Be cognizant of the pain points
of others and find ways to help
alleviate them.
5. Encourage and enable stakeholders
and team members to be successful.
6. Create positive energy and inspire
others to participate.
Concluding Thoughts
Remember, you are not actually an
" army of one, " nor should you be. As
a solo L&D leader, you have a duty
to leverage the business to help you
serve its most pressing challenges. If
you focus your mission on influencing
others to help deliver results, you will
discover an extended internal team
that will bring in diversity, expertise
and resources needed to accomplish
your mission.
Robert Johnson, CPTM, PMP, is the global
senior manager of project manager
training at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.
Email Robert.
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