Fostering a leadership mindset at tb.lx
Leadership as a way forward
Companies can approach and think about leadership in a number of different ways. Leadership is a word used to describe a skill or trait, to distinguish a person within their place of work, and can also be viewed as an aspirational growth point, for more junior professionals.
From our perspective, leadership is something that anyone can adopt or learn, and it goes beyond just managing a team or being a C-suite executive. It is about becoming a subject matter expert on a topic that is challenging and motivating and sharing that journey with others. It is about taking on new insights from a key learning or challenge and implementing it into day-to-day work for more informed decision making. Most of all, it is based on continuous learning and guiding each member of our team into becoming the version of themselves they want to be in the future.
To make this happen, we have created diverse programs and initiatives to support leadership development at tb.lx, as well as offering our colleagues access to a variety of resources to evolve into the leader they will become. For more insights into how we approach leadership and growth and development in a hands-on way, keep reading!
Creating a framework, culture, and mindset to develop leadership skills
To understand how we support our tblxers on their leadership and growth journeys, and what exactly is a part of the framework we have implemented for this purpose, we sat down with one of our Talent Development Experts, Pámela Rodrigues, to explore the vision and strategy behind our approach.
Question: How would you define the term “leadership” as a tblxer?
PR: Even though leadership is often seen as a formal responsibility, that is associated with specific roles and leading responsibilities, at tb.lx we also believe in informal leadership. We encourage our team to adopt a leadership mindset that empowers them to be subject matter experts and leaders, within their day-to-day environments.
I would describe a leadership mindset as having the ability to connect people around a vision and showing the way through to anyone in need of a creative solution, by providing formal or informal guidance and direction. It means acting as a role model and setting an example to follow, by truly living out our tb.lx values and principles.
Question: What kind of leadership development programs does tb.lx have available for employees to use/grow their skillset?
PR: We have a leadership development program for tblxers who are interested in embarking on a journey into a leadership role. This program is mainly focused on helping develop future People Managers and looks to help them to surf through day-to-day challenges within their teams, fostering more engaged, motivated, growing, and productive teams and people.
The program starts with a more structured onboarding approach for new leads in training. We focus a lot on developing and promoting our leads from the inside up, which requires close support, coaching, and attention to learning needs that our newer leads may have.
Our program provides its participants with the opportunity to progressively embrace the full experience of being a manager, where we start with establishing a mandate. This means aligning on expectations about the role, its responsibilities, and creating a plan for progression in areas where we foresee more coaching and guidance will be needed.
To support all of our leads (whether in training or not), we:
-Hold regular 1:1 meetings with the individual’s People Partner and with their manager, to provide coaching and support on the day-to-day challenges they will face. We also provide onboarding training sessions about the new responsibilities and processes they will be involved in.
-Provide documentation for reference, that helps our tblxers develop their leadership mindset, based on practical tools, or leadership models in the field. These are designed to help them adapt to new team dynamics, within their leadership role. Examples include, “How to have meaningful 1:1s” or “Situational Leadership”.
-Offer access to a Leadership Learning Path, that is composed of learning materials such as articles, videos, and training, for self-learning, that each person can take at their own pace.
-Host quarterly Leadership Meetups where we address specific leadership topics, provide training around processes, and foster a sense of community amongst leaders.
At the end of this experience, we have a conversation with our leaders-in-training, to see if there is a match between them and the role. If there is a yes on both sides, we can move forward. If there is a no or disconnect between the person and the role, we do not move forward. As this is not always what is best for the tblxer or their team. The goal of approaching leadership development like this, is that each person is in a role that matches their motivation and goals, and if people management is not an ideal fit for them, that they can explore other roles that may be a better fit and more interesting for them.
Question: Beyond leadership development programs, what kinds of tools, training, and/or mentoring does the company offer its employees?
PR: We offer a variety of learning and development resources to our tblxers.
We provide a training budget for formal training, that allows them to seek out resources aligned with their development goals. These include but are not limited to certifications, courses (online or in-person), books, and attending conferences.
We also have an internal Mentorship Program, with an intentional framework where we train mentors, and pair them up with mentees, who want to learn specific new skills or explore a new area, that the mentor has expertise in. For more on how this program was set up and how we approach mentorship, check out our article on Medium.
Knowledge Sharing is also a key part of our culture. We encourage knowledge sharing, through holding knowledge sharing talks where anyone can spontaneously share knowledge, they think could be interesting for others. We also encourage tblxers to host formal knowledge sharing sessions about a topic they are passionate about and could help others on their growth journeys. We encourage tblxers to share and exchange with others on what they have learned through a formal training or from attending a conference. The goal of these sessions is to break silos and let the knowledge flow through others.
Putting it all together
There will always be conversations happening about leadership. It is a topic that helps push individuals out of their comfort zones, and drives productivity, growth, and strength both inside and outside of the workplace.
Leadership is a continuous learning opportunity for us here at tb.lx, and as we grow and learn, our approach and mindset with it will grow and evolve as well.
For more on how our tblxers view and live leadership in their day-to-day work, check out our leadership deep dive article on Medium.
This article was a collaboration between Pámela Rodrigues, People Partner and Talent Development Expert at tb.lx and our Employer Branding team. 🚛🌿
