How Can a Junior Employee Successfully Train Senior Staff in Management Skills?

Training Junior Employees to Train Senior Staff

I am seeking your valuable advice on how a junior employee, albeit competent, can impart training to those who are senior both in age and experience. We have identified a training requirement for a group of staff members in our company who occupy crucial positions. However, they need to be equipped with basic management skills.

The designated trainer is quite apprehensive about addressing the senior employees, and I too have concerns regarding how seriously the seniors will regard her. Given their age and experience, I am unsure about their receptivity to instructions from a junior employee. I would appreciate suggestions on how to deliver this training so that its impact is evident in their work.

Best Regards,
Deepika

You have mentioned your problem broadly. Please confirm the following:

a) Which training program would you like to conduct and why?

b) What skills are expected to be built by conducting this training program?

c) How has the junior trainer developed these skills? Has the trainer implemented these skills in practice, or will it be just training without personal experience?

Yes, the age of the trainer or faculty plays an important role. However, the 21st century is different. One cannot view things from the perspective of "Guru-Shishya parampara." Today's Guru need not be grey-haired. Technology is changing fast, and everybody cannot master everything. Knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds, and it is essential to gain knowledge even from someone junior.

However, much depends on the culture of the company as well. In IT companies, the trainer could be a junior one, and it is considered the norm. However, if this is not the case in your company, then let the MD call all the participants and address their need for the training and the importance of learning from someone younger in age. Importance should be given to who knows what rather than who is older/younger.

Regarding the trainer, tell her to handle the session as she normally does. Encourage her to use all the practices of adult learning.

Caveat: Since the training is on "Basic Management Skills," the trainer should be mature enough to handle the problems posed by the participants. Sometimes seniors may present tricky problems. In case the trainer fails to provide the right or convincing solution, it could lead to problems.

My Experience: I have trained seniors many times. At the end of the training, my participants tell me, "If I had taken this training 20-25 years ago, I would have been a far different person today." The success of the training will depend on whether the participants carry this feeling back home!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Thank you for your response. It's really valuable. I was talking about a Behavioral Skill Development training program and imparting a few sessions on the basics of management. Most of the managers are non-MBA, and management feels that as the business needs have changed, we need to change our methods of doing things (or getting things done). We need to keep pace with these changes and upgrade ourselves according to the business requirements. For example, the needs and motivators for Gen-Y are different compared to Gen-X.

We are facing some coordination issues and have also filled some key positions from outside to address the skill gaps. Due to this, there is some resentment in the internal team. Our responsibility is to ensure a smooth work environment and upgrade the internal managers' team so that we can promote them further. Their loyalty towards the company is our biggest strength, and we want to reward that but after giving some basic inputs on the subjects mentioned above.

Regards, Deepika.

Dear Deepika,

Challenges in Managerial Skill Development

These types of people exist in many companies, not just yours. While many of them have excellent functional expertise, they lack interest in mastering managerial skills on their own. This makes them good managers but poor HODs as they struggle with getting work done by their juniors, an art that they lack.

In many companies, managers are groomed from the non-managerial stage. They are clearly informed about the required managerial competencies and are taught how to develop themselves to become future managers. As mentioned in a previous post, I have conducted training for such companies and participants multiple times. I have created the exclusive program "Leadership and Motivation" for individuals in such situations. You can find more details about this training by clicking on the hyperlink.

Last Word on Loyalty

You mentioned that "Their loyalty towards the company is our biggest strength." Loyalty is sometimes mistaken for long service duration. Individuals are often rewarded for not leaving rather than for their competence. Consider this, if your managers or HODs lack managerial skills, it can negatively impact the organization's and department's performance. Have you evaluated the cost of underperformance? Loyalty comes with a cost that cannot be ignored. Imagine if you had highly skilled managers who left, and new ones with similar high skills joined without the cost of underperformance. Loyalty can be deceptive and may also pose a liability instead of strength.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Deepika,

Such senior people may not take a junior seriously and might find it offensive to be trained by someone younger, as it could imply that management feels they are not competent enough. Additionally, your trainer is also nervous.

In light of the complete situation and considering the organizational perspective, it is advisable to hire an external trainer who can effectively manage these senior individuals and convey the intended message. Our senior trainers are experts in such assignments and have delivered excellent results in terms of learning outcomes for senior-level employees, similar to your case. We can design and deliver such training sessions for your organization if you wish to proceed with independent external trainers who have prior experience in handling such matters.

Please feel free to connect to discuss the matter and the way to handle the situation.

Thanks & Regards,
Avika

On the basis of what you have told us, I personally do not think this is going to work. Sadly, in my experience, "senior" managers do not respond readily to anyone, let alone a "junior" telling them how to do their job. I would ask how these managers got their jobs without basic management skills in the first place. Time to look at the Recruitment and Selection policies, methinks.

In most training groups, participants can "smell" fear, and they will use it to try and sabotage the training session. Training seniors in basic skills will require a strong personality up front, someone who is confident, someone who can engage the trainees, and someone who can cut through the BS that will inevitably occur. It would appear that you are dealing with a cohort who most definitely will NOT want to attend this training, and compelling them is going to cause resentment.

Management skills are an area where a trainer who has been a manager in a previous life will be more successful. They can empathize and relate real-life experiences. A junior trainer simply does not have the life experience.

Going forward, you should be putting in place a training program for juniors that you have identified as potential future managers. Building their skill set before they are promoted means that they will hit the ground running with the basic skills they need for planning, leading, and managing staff, and getting the best out of their team. I was lucky enough to be given this opportunity early in my career before I was promoted to my first supervisory position. It is a scheme I have promoted in every organization I have worked for and has met with great success.

Hi John, I may agree to a certain point of your argument. We have grown old doing what needs to be done. Mostly, a trainer's experience does not count; his learning can come at any age. The question is, how do you take them into confidence so that they are ready to accept learning from you? My best bet is to go into coaching mode, relate to studies of other organizations. If a young trainer is good in behavioral training, he can also use psychometrics to associate with them, bring them to a comfortably acceptable level, and then facilitate.

I remember a session that I had taken a decade ago with very senior people, all above the age of 55 and going up to 70 years! The initial mindset was, "What will we learn from you at this age?" When I started, there were 12 people attending the management session; by the end, I had 27 senior leaders attending the same! And post the session, acknowledging that yes, I had given some insights into management to them! I had just started with a small personality assessment test, which I was well-versed in, and that impacted and drew them to attend the entire session. So, breaking the ice, if you are proficient in that, age will not matter. Don't get discouraged, Deepika; go ahead and confidently take the session!

Regards, Kultaran