CREATING TOMORROW’S LEADERS
Owing to the ever-evolving consumer finance environment, the program has seen many changes over the years as it has evolved to meet the needs of the business and trainees. The success of the program speaks for itself: Some 90 percent of the candidates graduate the program, with 98 percent of these graduates going into a branch manager role, while the other 2 percent select different areas of the company to move to. Since this program has been in practice, more than 13 percent of graduates have assumed senior leadership roles such as area vice president.
Mariner Finance faced and solved a plethora of obstacles while developing this program; we’d like to share some of our experiences that can help other organizations develop a successful leadership program.
1. Craft a program incorporating a blended learning approach. To speed the acquisition, development, and retention of knowledge, Mariner Finance selected a blended learning design approach. Blended learning, especially with guided social learning aspects, provides an additional modality that contributes to the development of foundational skills. Utilizing a blended learning approach empowers and engages learners AND their mentor/guide. This design approach, though initially appearing complicated from a design perspective, will keep learners constantly engaged and excited for what’s next.
A blended learning approach also enables you to accommodate different learning preferences. Plus, diversifying content delivery methods provides learners with more exposure to different learning styles—they may discover other education methods that may be more efficient for them or a different style they enjoy more.
Mariner Finance continually re-evaluates its Manager Development Program to ensure each learning style is encompassed. Program components include:
- Social learning
- Sim ulation-based e-learning
- Wiki/online collaborations
- Ongoing leadership meetings
Our training team constantly looks at changing combinations to allow all learners to play to their strengths.
2. Select a distribution platform(s). First and foremost, it’s important to identify how the program is going to be tracked. To do this, you need to identify what platform you are going to use. Will this be tracked manually (easy to do on a small scale) or tracked electronically via a learning management system (LMS)? Will the design incorporate non-LM S platform s such as a proprietary intranet? Will this be moderated, learner driven, or a blend of both? Identifying your platform (s) is also necessary to understand how content is going to be distributed and/or laid out. This will allow you to capture both variety and depth of potential metrics available.
The branch manager program at Mariner Finance started out small and utilized a basic directed academic design that was easily disseminated, captured, and tracked manually. As the curriculum and the modalities used to distribute the curriculum evolved, the decision was made to acquire an LMS that would allow everything to be disbursed and tracked effortlessly, which informed the next program updates/build.
3. Establish measurement metrics. A core element of the design and keeping in sync with business strategies is the establishment of key metrics, their capture, and their report to business leadership.
While listed as the third core component of the design, it is a fundamental element in each of the first two listed steps and should be among the first things determined when designing a program. Some questions you need to ask yourself—and most importantly, your client/business— include: What is the goal of the program and how can it be captured by metrics? Additionally, ask how the metrics paint the picture for senior management, thus capturing the effectiveness of the program and creating a common language and leadership buy-in up front. We have found this to be a key element. Maintaining a common language eliminates an additional barrier to the solution and aids in the acceptance of the program.
Agreeing on the metrics establishes a baseline of performance results. You need to ensure at the start that the metrics tell where the program has been, where it may be heading, whether or not something is working, and when it’s producing the desired results. Over time, capturing trends will allow your organization to identify what may need to be updated due to a dip in desired key performance indicators (KPIs)—including potential peripheral causes or unintended consequences outside the scope or reach of the intervention. Metrics shouldn’t remain stagnant over the life of the program—they should be evaluated consistently to ensure changes are made as the company’s needs/strategies change.
When Mariner Finance started working on the branch manager program, Learning and Development first established what data it was going to collect both pre-and post-graduation. Once this was identified, the program was created. Metrics from operations were closely linked and evaluated against completion rates and participation while in the program. Measures such as graduation rates, time in program, and post-graduation performance are a few of the areas measured. Through these metrics, Learning and Development was able to identify whether or not various components of the training curriculum were delivering the desired or envisioned results and if curriculum updates were warranted. Updates to the program are most commonly metric driven on the back end, while other changes are driven on the front end via climate surveys. The aim of setting metrics is to improve the program and to ensure that value is being achieved and communicated to the business/client.
Lessons Learned
Overall, fine-tuning a leadership program is a continuous process. Linking your program to your business strategy, establishing a common language with the client, and providing the tools to develop the skills and attributes the learner must have requires many resources and a laser focus at each step in the planning, implementation, and reporting phases. The characteristics discussed here outline the foundational components needed to be evaluated and vetted for a successful leadership program to be created and maintained. As John F. Kennedy once said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
