A manager wrote to us asking,
“What do I say to a direct report
who doesn’t believe they need
training? The person resists
feedback on the subject and seems
to think that professional
development doesn’t apply to
them.” So, how do you help
someone see the value in learning
and growing on the job? We tapped
our audience of people leaders for
their best advice. Here are the
standout responses. (We’ve changed
names for anonymity.)
Have a burning management question you’d like to pose to our community? Send it to
us via email, and we may feature it next time.
- Reframe learning as healthy, positive, and necessary for growth.
“The person might actually be resisting you and the way you frame learning — not
learning itself. So, analyze your approach:
Are you practicing what you preach by improving your own skills? Often,
managers are busy and don’t make time to grow their skills. Ask yourself, How
intentional have I been in modeling this behavior for my team? Then, be more
intentional about talking with your team about your learning, so they’ll get the
sense that the whole team is growing together.
Check in about how you approach skill-building conversations. Are you staying
neutral — rather than coming across as negative or accusatory, making their lack
of training sound like a shortcoming? If not, you might be inviting your direct
report to push back.
Do you set the tone that learning and growth are essential by making them a
priority? One way is to incorporate them into team meetings. For example, if your
team has switched to working from home, at the beginning of a meeting pull up
one of the many articles about working virtually (or send it around beforehand).
Discuss the do’s and don’ts of remote work and how well working from home is
going for your team.” 1/5
— Gabriela, Customer service training manager - Show the person how their inexperience impacts others.
“I coached a senior leader who received strong feedback that he was not decisive
enough. He’s a very data-oriented and collaborative person, so he resisted the feedback
because, in his mind, a slower pace of decision-making allowed him to gather more
complete information and get everyone’s perspective.
When I met with his peers and team, I asked ‘What’s the impact of this leader’s
indecisiveness?’ and it became apparent that his pattern of behavior had a paralyzing
effect. People would often slow down initiatives and wait for him to make a decision.
New opportunities slipped away, and teams lost momentum.
Giving him this feedback made him aware of the full impact of his behavior. He realized
that being decisive was more important than waiting for all the information — and that
he had to accept the risks and trade-offs of making decisions earlier in the process in
order to keep his team engaged. He was already aware of his indecisive behavior, but
until he realized how it was impacting others, he was not motivated to work on his
decision-making process.”
— Tessa, Executive coach - Make training a team effort and expectation.
“I think it’s best to approach skills training in a way that includes several team
members, rather than singling out one person. Some people have a hard time accepting
that they need more training because they perceive that feedback as negative — when
really the manager is trying to increase the skill level of all their team members.
Here are my suggestions:
Approach the additional training as a cross-training opportunity and pair the
direct report with a subject matter expert on your team.
Assign skill development courses to your whole team, and make completing them
a part of performance evaluations.
Create work groups to discuss ways to make skills training more fun and
interesting. This is also a good way to boost camaraderie.
Every quarter, assign a team member to review a specific process and provide
feedback to the rest of the team on how that process could be improved. This
process-improvement project can help the direct report develop their critical
thinking skills and learn to give constructive feedback. This approach can also
help the manager gather feedback from everyone and give team members the
sense that their suggestions really matter.”
— Rachel, Nurse’s aide manager
2/5 - Tap into what drives the person to do their work.
“We have several frontline staff members who’ve been with our department for more
than 20 years. They can be reluctant to change and take on more training. To combat
this issue, we try to tap into their emotional connection to the work — what drives them
to do it.
For example, one person said that he enjoyed helping train new staff members. So, we
gave him a bigger role in new-hire training and added that task to his work plan. In
return, we stressed the importance of making sure he was knowledgeable about best
practices in the field, in order to give new staff the most updated information and the
best possible start at the company. This pushed him to take on additional training to
stay current.”
— Michelle, Learning and development lead - Discuss which skills the person needs to master to move from the
role they have to the role they want.
“I ask the person to read the job description for the position they want, jot down the skill
that accompanies each qualification, and then self-assess where they fall. If they say
they feel proficient or advanced in a skill, I ask them to share specific examples of when
they demonstrated that skill and when they taught it to someone else. Those follow-up
questions typically trigger a light-bulb moment for the person that they might not be at
the level they thought.
Here’s an example: A woman on my team was vying for a promotion to a leadership
role. She applied and was rejected twice before transferring to my team. She was
frustrated and felt that her talents weren’t being recognized. So, during a development
meeting, I asked her to pull up the job description for the position she’d applied for. We
went through the qualifications line by line, and I had her group them into larger
buckets (e.g., managing people, managing projects, recruiting and interviewing, leading
remote teams).
She had experience managing people, but she hadn’t led a remote team. We discussed
how the approach to coaching, delegating, and building connection is different for a
team you see in person versus one you manage remotely. Having her identify her
capabilities in the moment was eye-opening for her. She had to consider, How would I
step into this role, take a strong point of view as a leader, and bring a unique
perspective to challenge the status quo? Based on our conversation, we were able to
align on specific skill gaps and opportunities and incorporate them into her
development plan.”
— Mei, Customer experience manager - Give the person an assignment that requires them to hone a particular
skill — then coach them along the way. 3/5
One of the techniques I use is to assign the team member a task that involves the skill
they need to develop. As they work on the task, the area that needs improvement
eventually rises to the surface — giving me the opportunity to provide support by
coaching and advising them.
For example, some of my team members were very good at producing technical and
analytical reports, but they needed more training in creating executive summaries.
I started the coaching journey by assigning them several executive summaries to work
on and learn from. Together, we focused on how to present key information, rather than
just data points, in the summaries and how to design them to meet management
expectations. The journey took a few months — going back and forth with different
summaries until we reached the desired outcome.
Next, we’ll work on how to design executive summaries to meet the expectations of
people at different management levels. Every day there’s a new lesson for us — and we
keep learning.
—Hasan, Pharmacy inventory manager - Have the person train someone else to show them how much they do
— and don’t — know.
“I’ve had success with asking someone to take the teaching lead on a topic or problem
they know a lot about. In sharing their expertise with others, they start to realize that
they don’t know everything. And if they find themselves dumbfounded, they’re more
likely to seek out advice — which leads to skill development.
The best example of this was when I was the planner for my work area. Another
employee — I’ll call him Phil — had just moved to that area. I had fewer years at the
company but more experience in the work area than Phil, since it had been my primary
assignment for a long time. But Phil was very resistant to learning from anyone in the
new area, since he had ‘been here longer’ and knew — or thought he knew — all there
was to know.
There was an issue with the way Phil repaired one component of our high-speed
equipment, which caused major problems with the equipment. I developed a procedure
and tried to train the whole team in how to do this work correctly, but Phil basically
blew off the training.
We have another type of machinery that I knew very little about, but which Phil was
very good at fixing. So, I asked him to walk me through repairing it and explain the
critical things to look for. At first, he was a little put off by the request, but he walked
me through the process and taught me a lot. Eventually, Phil created a procedure to
codify his process. In doing so, he became more open to learning — including about
how to repair the components of our high-speed equipment. 4/5
This experience built Phil’s confidence, built the team’s confidence, and also humbled
me. I don’t know everything either.”
— Tony, Engineering manager
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5/5
