Organizations spend enormous effort selecting top facilitators, designing sleek materials and building modern learning platforms. Research consistently shows, however, that the single most powerful variable in whether learning actually changes behavior on the job is someone much closer to home: the participant’s direct manager.
Many companies underestimate this critical link. “You can send an employee on the most inspiring leadership journey in the world,” says Camiel Gielkens, CEO of Relevance. “But if they return to an environment where their direct manager shows no interest, ignores new behaviors or demands immediate output over development, the learning evaporates instantly.”
Direct managers control the daily environment. They decide whether participants are granted protected time to complete assignments, experimentation is encouraged and new leadership skills are recognized or dismissed.
When managers treat a program as a box to check, participants will often do the same. But when managers act as coaches, participants will be far more likely to use what they have learned.
To maximize the impact of any leadership initiative, manager involvement needs to be structured across three distinct phases:
If you want managers to actively support learning, you need to make it easy and explicit for them:
By positioning direct managers as active partners rather than passive bystanders, you’re ensuring that training investments translate into lasting operational results.
Download our full whitepaper Personal at Scale for practical tools on engaging managers throughout the learning journey.
Relevance is the in company training partner of Schouten Company and has been a specialist in leadership and talent development for over forty years. With an international network of more than nine hundred facilitators and over one hundred thousand participants each year, Relevance helps organizations make leadership tangible, applicable, and future-ready. Always personal, always adaptive, and always evidence-based.