John is a typical upper-level manager. He began work with a large corporate the week he finished university. He thought his training was comprehensive but the real world knew better. It was a further eight weeks before his induction training was complete. John was well versed in the matters of timesheets, stationery requisitions and the firm’s dress code.
For several years John continued to receive the technical and product training necessary for him to do his job. It seemed like every six months there was something else to learn. Eventually John decided that he’d had enough technical work and it was time to become a manager.
A promotion ensued and with it a whole raft of training in business strategy, structure and resource management processes. “This is how you conduct performance reviews”. “This is how you sell work”. Looking at John’s career training expenditure you would think he could rule the world (or at least give the CEO a reason to worry). Why then, did John feel something was missing? He had the training, the power and the authority to act. Why wasn’t everything happening the way it should?
Like most career training paths, John was pushed into a technical, knowledge and skills training stream until he was promoted to management. At that point he began receiving knowledge in business strategy, structure and process. This is the way most formal workplace training occurs. Never did he receive specific training in the quality of communication and workplace relationships. Traditionally seen as a soft skill, communication was only ever raised briefly, akin to a family secret that was never fully acknowledge in public. As for training in workplace relationships? Well, the company policy stated that “relationships with other employees were not to be entered into”.
Communication and workplace relationships are a missed area of learning. There is a formal and substantial methodology that John could have followed. However, he didn’t know about it. His best option was to find a mentor and hope they could explain what was needed. Sadly, he never did.