Marcus Scantlebury

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Why Most Professional Development Is Absolute Garbage And What Actually Works

 

Let me share something that'll almost certainly get me banned from the learning business: most of the learning courses I've attended over the past many years were a utter waste of time and resources.

 

 

You know the style I'm describing. You've experienced this. Those soul-crushing workshops where some well-paid speaker travels from interstate to inform you about transformational strategies while clicking through PowerPoint presentations that appear as if they were created in the stone age. Attendees sits there fighting sleep, monitoring the hours until the merciful end, then returns to their workspace and keeps performing precisely what they were performing earlier.

 

 

The Reality Check Nobody Expects

 

 

That fateful day, dawn. Standing in the lot beyond our Townsville office, observing my star employee pack his individual effects into a vehicle. Another leaving in recent weeks. All mentioning the identical explanation: workplace culture problems.

 

 

That's company terminology for supervision is terrible.

 

 

The hardest aspect? I truly believed I was a competent leader. Fifteen years moving up the chain from the bottom to leadership position. I mastered the work aspects fully, exceeded every objective, and was satisfied on running a smooth operation.

 

 

The shocking reality was that I was progressively ruining workplace confidence through absolute inadequacy in every component that really is crucial for staff development.

 

 

The Learning Disconnect

 

 

The majority of Australian organizations treat professional development like that gym membership they invested in in New Year. Good aspirations, beginning energy, then months of disappointment about not leveraging it well. Companies set aside money for it, team members join unwillingly, and people gives the impression it's making a benefit while quietly asking if it's just high-priced bureaucratic waste.

 

 

At the same time, the organisations that honestly invest in building their team members are dominating the market.

 

 

Examine market leaders. Not really a minor entity in the domestic commercial market. They dedicate roughly 4% of their entire salary budget on education and advancement. Seems too much until you understand they've evolved from a modest business to a worldwide force worth over incredible worth.

 

 

There's a clear connection.

 

 

The Competencies Hardly Anyone Demonstrates in Higher Education

 

 

Educational establishments are fantastic at providing academic content. What they're terrible at is showing the soft skills that truly determine professional success. Abilities like reading a room, dealing with bosses, delivering input that uplifts instead of tears down, or learning when to oppose impossible timelines.

 

 

These aren't natural gifts -- they're developable capabilities. But you don't develop them by luck.

 

 

Here's a story, a brilliant worker from the area, was consistently skipped for progression despite being operationally outstanding. His manager at last advised he attend a interpersonal program. His initial reaction? My communication is good. If staff can't follow obvious points, that's their responsibility.

 

 

Soon after, after developing how to customize his way of speaking to diverse people, he was supervising a department of numerous colleagues. Same competencies, identical intelligence -- but completely different achievements because he'd learned the capability to engage with and persuade teammates.

 

 

The Leadership Challenge

 

 

Here's what hardly anyone explains to you when you get your first management role: being competent at performing tasks is entirely separate from being skilled at supervising others.

 

 

As an tradesperson, accomplishment was simple. Execute the work, use the appropriate materials, verify results, finish on time. Specific specifications, measurable deliverables, little ambiguity.

 

 

Managing people? Wholly different arena. You're confronting individual needs, personal goals, unique challenges, competing demands, and a thousand elements you can't command.

 

 

The Multiplier Effect

 

 

Investment professionals considers building wealth the ultimate advantage. Skills building works the same way, except instead of financial returns, it's your abilities.

 

 

Every additional ability enhances existing foundation. Every program offers you tools that make the following educational opportunity more successful. Every session unites dots you didn't even understand existed.

 

 

Michelle, a team leader from a regional center, began with a elementary time management program three years ago. Looked basic enough -- better systems, task management, delegation strategies.

 

 

Not long after, she was taking on supervisory roles. Within another year, she was overseeing cross-functional projects. At present, she's the youngest executive in her organization's existence. Not because she immediately developed, but because each development experience unlocked fresh abilities and enabled advancement to progress she couldn't have pictured at the start.

 

 

The True Impact Nobody Mentions

 

 

Set aside the corporate speak about capability building and talent pipelines. Let me reveal you what training genuinely provides when it succeeds:

 

 

It Creates Advantages Beneficially

 

 

Learning doesn't just teach you new skills -- it teaches you lifelong education. Once you understand that you can develop abilities you earlier assumed were impossible, your perspective develops. You commence seeing challenges freshly.

 

 

Instead of feeling I'm not capable, you begin believing I require training for that.

 

 

Someone I know, a team leader from the area, said it accurately: Until that course, I thought supervision was something you were born with. Now I see it's just a collection of developable capabilities. Makes you consider what other unattainable abilities are really just skills in disguise.

 

 

The ROI That Surprised Everyone

 

 

HR was in the beginning questioning about the financial commitment in capability enhancement. Understandably -- skepticism was warranted up to that point.

 

 

But the data showed clear benefits. Staff turnover in my unit decreased from high levels to less than 10%. User evaluations improved because work quality increased. Group effectiveness rose because employees were more involved and accountable for success.

 

 

The overall expenditure in training initiatives? About limited resources over nearly two years. The financial impact of hiring and educating new employees we didn't have to bring on? Well over major benefits.

 

 

My Learning Misconceptions

 

 

Before this experience, I thought professional development was for struggling employees. Fix-it programs for struggling staff. Something you engaged in when you were struggling, not when you were performing well.

 

 

Entirely false belief.

 

 

The most successful managers I know now are the ones who constantly improve. They participate in programs, read voraciously, look for advisors, and regularly seek strategies to enhance their capabilities.

 

 

Not because they're inadequate, but because they know that supervisory abilities, like technical skills, can forever be improved and developed.

 

 

The Investment That Pays for Itself

 

 

Learning isn't a drain -- it's an asset in becoming more competent, more accomplished, and more satisfied in your job. The question isn't whether you can afford to allocate money for improving yourself and your team.

 

 

It's whether you can handle not to.

 

 

Because in an economic climate where automation is replacing routine tasks and technology is advancing rapidly, the premium goes to specifically human abilities: inventive approaches, interpersonal skills, advanced analysis, and the talent to handle uncertainty.

 

 

These abilities don't emerge by accident. They require purposeful growth through planned development.

 

 

Your business enemies are presently developing these capabilities. The only question is whether you'll join them or get left behind.

 

 

You don't need to revolutionise everything with professional development. Initiate with a particular competency that would make an fast change in your present work. Attend one workshop, explore one area, or engage one mentor.

 

 

The cumulative impact of constant advancement will astound you.

 

 

Because the best time to commence growing was earlier. The alternative time is today.

 

 

The Ultimate Truth

 

 

Those difficult moments observing valuable employees depart was one of the worst workplace incidents of my employment history. But it was also the driving force for becoming the type of executive I'd continuously imagined I was but had never properly acquired to be.

 

 

Learning didn't just advance my supervisory competencies -- it completely altered how I manage issues, interactions, and enhancement prospects.

 

 

If you're viewing this and believing Perhaps it's time to learn, quit thinking and initiate proceeding.

 

 

Your future person will be grateful to you.

 

 

And so will your team.

 

 

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