Prioritising other people’s growth is second nature to HR and L&D professionals. Course plans, one-to-ones, succession plans, wellbeing initiatives – you’re across all of it. But when did you last put that same care into your own development?
That question was at the heart of our latest Dolphin Forum, our quarterly online masterclass for Staff Skills academy+ clients. This time, we handed the session over to Jo Cook, editor of Training Journal, and a well-known name in UK L&D.
The session was called Who’s got you? How L&D leaders can be good role models, and it did exactly what it promised: it asked a room full of professionals to stop thinking about everyone else for an hour and start thinking about themselves instead.
Here’s a flavour of what came out of it.
Who’s got you?
Jo opened with a clip from the original Superman film, when Superman rescues Lois Lane from a falling helicopter. It ended with the line, “You’ve got me. Who’s got you?”
This is a good question for anyone in a people role. We spend our working lives making sure other people are supported, developed and looked after. At a certain level of seniority or busyness (or both), it’s easy to become the person who’s always holding everyone else up, and to stop noticing that you need holding up too.
Start prioritising your own development
Overflowing inboxes, back-to-back meetings, one urgent request after another. It’s a familiar picture for anyone in HR or L&D. In these environments, something always gets pushed to the bottom of the list, and it’s often your own development.
This needs to change.
To be clear, this isn’t about adding more ‘must-dos’ to an already long list. That would only lead to overwhelm, and possibly burnout. The first step is noticing the pattern – the things you’re deprioritising for yourself are usually the same things you’d tell a colleague not to skip.
If you’d like to see how Staff Skills academy+ could help you prioritise not just your own, but your team’s development too, why not start a no-obligation 14-day free trial?
Lead by example
One of the main reframes from the session was this: your team doesn’t learn from what you tell them. They learn from what they watch you doing.
If you say your door’s always open but your calendar has no gaps, people won’t question it. They also won’t feel they can disturb you – impacting anything from productivity to wellbeing.
If you tell your team to take proper breaks but they only ever see you working through lunch, they’ll assume that’s the expected behaviour. Again, this’ll have a knock-on impact on their wellbeing.
Whatever you model, consciously or not, is what tends to get copied.
As Jo asked: if the people around you copied your behaviour for the next few months, what would you be pleased to see? And – perhaps more importantly – what would worry you?
There’s more to life than work
One key theme running throughout the masterclass was synthesis: the idea that some of your best insights come from connecting concepts across different areas – not just within L&D. Jo gave examples of how her love of reading, podcasts, board games and even her 3D printer all feed back into how she thinks about her work.
This isn’t about taking up a new hobby for the sake of it; it’s about recognising that time spent on other pursuits isn’t wasted time. On the contrary, this is often when your best ideas come to you.
Three small things you can do today
To put all this into practice, Jo asked everyone to commit to doing three small actions:
- Stop: what’s one thing you could stop modelling, from today?
- Start: what’s one thing you could start doing more often?
- Explore: what’s one new thing you could start exploring – to help widen your thinking?
Ultimately, what could you do to support your own development – and have a knock-on impact on everyone else’s wellbeing too?
Keen to hear more?
This is just a flavour of what was an enjoyable and practical hour with Jo. The full session, along with the recording, will be shared with Staff Skills academy+ clients.
And if you’d like to find out more about Jo Cook’s work or sign up for the weekly TJ newsletter, please visit lightbulbmoment.info or trainingjournal.com.
