Halloween is nearly here, the nights are drawing in, the bats are in the air but do not fear…

You are not alone…in business at least there is someone in the dark with you!

Leading a business, department or a team can sometimes be quite a lonely position yet research shows that many senior executives often put themselves last when seeking support or developing their own skills. A QED Consulting client survey showed that 5 out of 7 organisations assign the smallest portion of their training budget to senior management. Some also say they are far too busy doing their job to spend time on the enhancement of their own business and people skills.

So, senior leaders want development that doesn’t take lots of time, is very effective and gives them real practical help with their business issues. Working with our peers - other leaders – can provide real value to senior executive development. Peer group learning in the form of Action Learning Sets is a highly effective and proven method of identifying and addressing the multitude of challenges faced in the workplace.

Action Leaning Sets (ALS) involve a group of like-minded executives meeting regularly (usually once a month) and sharing business problems and experiences together with proposed solutions for their resolution. It really is one of the most effective and rewarding ways to encourage leaders either within an organisation or across a number of very different organisations to learn from each other through shared experiences in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding. The members of the ALS have nothing to prove to each other and yet everything to learn through what, in our experience, are amazingly generous insights and experiences.

Here are some comments from past ALS members

‘My wide exposure to broader issues than those in my current international operations role is really valuable in helping to build my wider business understanding and experience’

‘A uniquely informal and enlightening chance for me to stand back from operational issues and learn from others.’

‘Time is a scarce and very precious resource. After each ALS meeting I always return to my own organisation with valuable new insights, invigorated and motivated to achieve more.’

The issues which are addressed within such Action Learning Sets are inevitably incredibly diverse as they are prompted by the current real-life challenges that members of the group face. Recently tackled topics include:

• How can I best extract higher performance from all my staff? This prompted members to explore ideas such as internal mentoring and coaching, investigating further individuals’ objectives, motivators, non-financial rewards and even team competitions - and using deep listening to understand the possible root causes of less than optimum performance.
• How does an organisation that may be highly dependent upon secure, repeat business, appeal to and encourage innovation from all its employees?
• How do you harness and enhance all employees’ commitment to their organisation, especially when, for 30% of employees, this is their very first job?
• How do you spread ‘best practice’, especially across more than one site and potentially different cultures?

So if as Halloween approaches you are feeling spooked by your business problems, there are horrors lurking behind your office door and you are afraid to look in your e-mail in-box, remember there are others facing the same challenges which together you can face with support and confidence.