A healthy company culture should offer continuing education and development for employees.

Providing professional growth opportunities – ranging from training programs to mentorship and tuition reimbursement – shows the company invests in its people, yielding a wealth of benefits that include employee job satisfaction, increased productivity, employee retention, career advancement, competitive advantage, skills transfer and positive morale.

I have some strategies for creating a culture of learning and development within your organization. I call them the three-legged stool of leadership development.

First leg: On-the-job training

People tend to support what they help co-create. Anytime you include the trainee in designing the process, there’s a better chance of full engagement.

One way to do this is by offering a job shadow. Take employees with you everywhere you go to let them see and experience what you do. Afterward, debrief with them and get their perceptions.   

You can also offer smaller job shadowing opportunities, such as letting them lead portions of a meeting. In this case, remember to say as little as possible. Have them lead the meeting or a leadership minute, where they share about something they’ve been reading, for example. They could also helm a quick team-building activity or ask an ice-breaker question.

Have them step up to lead taskforces or committees. As soon as a problem surfaces, assign someone as the chair of such a group. Teach them how to run a task force and mold their group into a team. These tasks could include hiring team players, establishing the purpose of a team, creating processes that develop teamwork or conducting periodic critiques.

Have them offer input on problems to solve in the organization. They most likely hear others discuss problems in the hallways. Now allow them to have a voice. Leaders are known for the problems they solve.

Empower them to act on your behalf. Make them your delegate. When you are unavailable, give them authority to make some decisions.

Offer opportunities to be involved in several areas of leadership, such as managing line items in the budget, attending department meetings not directly influencing their job, participating in hiring committees or processing your inbox alongside you.

Second leg: Continuing education

Make sure to get your employees in front of great leaders. Saratoga Institute says the No. 1 factor that would make U.S. workers more likely to remain with their current employers is training and mentoring.

Share the history of the organization and where it’s going. You want them to understand the “why” – and the difference your organization is making. Help them connect with the vision so it becomes automatic in their conversations with their direct reports and colleagues.

Walk them through every line item of the budget. What are the company goals that determine those numbers?

Send them to conferences or local seminars. Usually, these are trade specific. Use conferences for education, networking, meeting experts, fresh perspective, new ideas and a break from routine. Be sure you both agree on the outcomes you want to see from the conference before they go. They should present takeaways to you and the team.  

Provide your own in-house professional development. Bring in guest spearkers and trainers or offer video or online training. Assessments and book clubs are other possible offerings.

Encourage your employees to take part in networking events so they can make connections, learn and grow. They’ll also be able to pick up ways to make the business relevant to the community and learn the community’s perception of the company.

Sponsor them in a leadership development program such as Leadership Tri-Cities.

Third leg: Mentoring, coaching

Coaching improves, extends, refines or re-directs behavior where a person already has some knowledge and skill.

Ask employees key questions in one-on-one sessions with you. Meeting once a week is not too much if you’re in intense leadership-development mode. One-on-one questions could revolve around discovering what motivates employees, celebrating wins, identifying upcoming priorities, discussing current obstacles or sharing a goal update.   

Share situations you’ve experienced and see how they’d respond. Ask “why?” a lot to pick their brains and examine their thinking.

Offer consistent feedback. Every employee wants to know how they’re doing. And everyone we run into is encouragement deprived. We all need more tank-filling than tank-draining.

Observe employees with their constituents. This will help you figure out who needs to be managed more closely, who needs more responsibility, who needs performance coaching, who has a great attitude or who needs an attitude adjustment and who requires special commendations and rewards.

In a world that’s always changing, the commitment to continuous growth is a secret weapon. It’s our direct line to the center of the bullseye. It’s not just about getting better at our jobs, it’s about unlocking new opportunities. Cultivate a culture where your employees say, “I’m grateful for the opportunities provided by this company to expand my skills and knowledge.”

Remember, every step of learning is a step toward success.

Paul D. Casey lives in the Tri-Cities and is the owner of Growing Forward Services, which aims to equip and coach leaders and teams to spark breakthrough success. He also is the executive director of Leadership Tri-Cities.