While there may be pressure to get things done quickly, making connections with the people you are training will lead to better results.MTStock Studio/Getty Images
Content from The Globe’s weekly Women and Work newsletter, part of The Globe’s Women’s Collective. To subscribe, click here.
Ask Women and Work
Question: One of the responsibilities of my new job involves training new team members. I’m enjoying this challenge, but teaching is not a skill that comes naturally to me. How can I train my team effectively?
We asked Annie Ohana, a secondary school teacher based in Surrey, B.C., and a finalist for the 2023 Global Teacher Prize, to tackle this one:
This question really resonated with me because I think it’s a reality that many of us face. Even as an educator, I have to train other educators. I wear a lot of hats. So I feel for you. It’s perfectly normal to be anxious and wonder, ‘How am I going to do this?’ Training or teaching is always challenging.
There’s not really a right way or a wrong way to train someone, but there are some specific strategies that could be helpful and lessen the anxiety you may be feeling.
First of all, get to know your people. I look at this through an Indigenous lens. I’m not Indigenous myself, to be clear, but with Indigenous ways of knowing, we talk about building relationships and relational learning. Who are these new team members? Find out more about them and try to go beyond the superficial. I can imagine there’s pressure to get things done quickly, but the connections you make with them are crucial and the time you take will be worth it. Not having those relationships can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings.
Secondly, be mindful of what we call differentiated instruction. Everybody will learn differently, so it’s important to find different ways to help them understand. Don’t PowerPoint them to death. Don’t assume that sending them the training video and expecting perfection is going to work. Take time to touch base with them and ask for feedback. ‘How are things going? What are you finding difficult? What could we do better?’ Don’t fear constructive criticism. They might have some interesting insights that you haven’t thought of and that will make you a better, more effective trainer.
From a justice, equity and diversity lens, consider what kind of workplaces they may have been part of before. Be mindful that people come in with those lived experiences. If someone is struggling, they may think, ‘Something’s wrong with me. I don’t want to lose this job,’ and they may be reluctant to tell you about their past experiences. Let them know, ‘I’m not just going to throw you in the deep end.’ Take the time to make it an environment that’s inclusive and that will create less fear.
Remember that teaching is a two-way street. Just because you’re the teacher or the trainer, it doesn’t mean you know everything. Always be open to saying, ‘I’m not sure about that. Let me get back to you.’ That says, we’re both on the same team. I might be the lead trainer, but I’m not the be all and end all. That shows them, we’re all in this together.
I also want to add that sometimes you have to throw away your playbook. I always say: Plan it out, but be flexible. If you establish those relationships and there’s trust, they will give you that flexibility, and they will be thankful for it because it’ll probably lead to a better result in the long run.
Submit your own questions to Ask Women and Work by e-mailing us at GWC@globeandmail.com.
This week’s must-read stories on women and work
Younger workers are speaking up more, but what if their values don’t align with their company’s?
“We’re not [doing] any work that is unrelated to the Middle East crisis,” said Farah Salam-Hottle. “It’s all we’re focused on right now.”
Ms. Salam-Hottle is the founder and president of Origins Consulting Group, based in Glen Allen, Va., just north of Richmond, which helps private and non-profit sector clients to improve their equity, diversity and inclusion.
These days, she is being hired by companies to hold roundtable discussions and one-on-one interviews with management and workers to “strengthen [their] ability to communicate across divides” when it comes to issues around the Israel-Hamas war. She said workers are expressing concerns over the way their employers are responding – or not responding – to the turmoil and tensions are rising.
“We have [workers] who are very vocal about their stance. … They’re not afraid to say that they disagree with the way that their leadership has responded,” Ms. Salam-Hottle said.
Read how younger workers are ushering in a shift toward social justice activism at work.
Don’t like your return-to-office policy? Best to keep it to yourself at work
Most managers consider it a red flag when an employee expresses a passionate dislike for in-office work, according to a recent survey of 3,000 American workers and managers by Checkr, an employee background check software provider. While 38 per cent of employees believe it’s a “major red flag” to enthusiastically complain about in-office work requirements, according to the survey, that number jumps to 56 per cent among managers.
“Employees are really having a hard time letting go of the flexibility, the freedom, the work-life balance, all the associative perks and positive upsides to remote work,” says Tricia Williams, the director of research and evaluation with the Toronto-based Future Skills Centre. “Employers, meanwhile, feel like they kind of got dragged into this remote work thing – there was a period where they were experimenting with it, and now we’re really seeing the retrenchment – so it’s an increasingly polarizing trend line.”
Read why complaining to colleagues about the return to office could have lasting reputational effects.
Canadian stylist Karla Welch on how she survives the Hollywood awards show circuit
Karla Welch has spent the past 20 years building up her reputation as one of Hollywood’s most prolific stylists. The British Columbia-born fashion magnate – who recently launched a series on personal style for MasterClass, an online learning portal featuring mentors such as Anna Wintour and Margaret Atwood – is known for dressing the boldest of bold-faced names in film, fashion, music and beyond. Her client list, which includes Anita Hill, Justin Bieber, Busy Philipps, Gal Gadot, Ruth Negga and Matt Damon, have all experienced the power of Welch’s viral red-carpet moments.
In the thick of 2024′s sweeping awards season, Welch took a break between fittings to open up about her wide range of inspirations, her frustration with fashion’s status quo and her constellation of clients.
Read Karla Welch’s insights in Off Duty, a series of lively conversations with influential people, from CEOs to celebrities, on life, work and the art of taking time off.
In case you missed it
It’s less lonely than it used to be for women entering the trades
Carpenter Barbara James is working their dream job: helping to build their community’s long-awaited bighouse, a 11,500-square-foot, cedar-constructed place for ceremony for the Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw Nations, in northern Vancouver Island.
The federal government promised a new bighouse when it forcibly relocated and amalgamated the Gwa’sala and ‘Nakwaxda’xw nations in the 1960s. To be part of the project as it is finally happening is “definitely a highlight of my career,” says James, 36, who identifies as two-spirit.
But getting to this stage was not without challenges, they say.
When James started a trades discovery course for women at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in 2005, they hardly ever saw other Indigenous people on campus, let alone Indigenous women or gender-diverse people. It was the same when they started working.
“I used to be the only woman on site,” says James, whose ancestral name is Ma̲lidzas.
Read the full article.
From the archives
How to handle conflict in the workplace
Early in her career, newly hired at a top consulting firm with a freshly minted PhD under her belt, Beatrix Dart was introduced to a client who promptly asked her to bring coffee for the entire group.
“I didn’t know how to react. While I did go and get coffee for everybody, it didn’t feel right. As I came back I casually said, ‘Did I give you my business card?’ and handed it to him,” says Dr. Dart, now professor of strategy and executive director of the Initiative for Women in Business at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. “Luckily it had my Dr. title on it and that changed the entire conversation and his behaviour toward me.”
In this instance, Dr. Dart relied on humour to make her point and de-escalated a workplace conflict without coming across as overly aggressive. In other cases, directness works much more efficiently, she says, recalling a time several years later when another client insisted on grabbing lunch at notorious eatery Hooters together.
Read the full article.
The Globe and Mail
Interested in more perspectives about women in the workplace? Find all stories on The Globe Women’s Collective hub here, and subscribe to the new Women and Work newsletter here. Have feedback? E-mail us at GWC@globeandmail.com.