Experience, as they say, is what you get immediately after you need it. No doubt you’ve experienced this unfortunate truth many times in your life; I certainly have. That’s the beauty of training. It allows us to learn from the mistakes of others, rather than having to make our own (not that any teenager in the world is going to believe that).
Fortunately for us both, we live in a world built on knowledge. That makes finding and disseminating information easy, for you and for your team. Your role, then, is more that of a curator. As you acquire knowledge and experience in business, you’ll learn to sort that which is directly relevant from that which is merely interesting. Prioritizing which information is then passed on to the team is one of the fundamental tasks of a leader, to avoid overload or distraction.
You’re also going to have to get a handle on repetition. As you take on new team members, you’ll need to ensure that they get trained, and you’ll also need to keep your existing team’s knowledge fresh and ready. The brain is like any other muscle; the parts you don’t use will atrophy.
Beyond imparting information, however, training also serves a valuable role in team building. By learning new things together, you all learn to solve problems as a team – a good habit to get into. You also foster an environment in which people are used to asking questions, working things out and applying new information to existing problems. And you connect yourself to the team at a fundamental level, helping to ensure that they see you as a member of the team, not just a hot shot chief who tells them what to do. It is that connection that makes all the difference between people who work for you, and people who work with you.
