I recently took up mountain biking or at least I bought a mountain bike and attempted to navigate beginner trails. I found myself having great difficulty handling the bike on the trails and was quite fearful of falling and getting injured. My cycling experience was with road cycling, but those skills did not transfer to the mountain bike.

I quickly realized that I needed help, or my bike would be sitting idle in the garage. I signed up for private lesson and that allowed me to get more comfortable with the bike and learn some essential skills to better control my ride. The result was an immediate difference in my ability to handle the bike on the trails, less fear and more enjoyment.

This made me think of how important training and development is for skills development and improved performance.

Training and development is not just for new employees or to address changes in work procedures or technology. Training and development should be ongoing for all employees as everyone can continue to learn and improve their skills.

Training and development can help employees:

• Stay current and relevant
• Reduce fear of change
• Improve skills
• Improve work performance
• Enjoy work more
• Take on new challenges

One suggestion is to have a highly skilled employee with a specific skill set train other employee to have them also improve their skills. This will provide recognition to the trainer and keep the costs of training low.

You can refer to my article and video on the Seven Steps for Training and Coaching Employees for more about this.