Why Self Insight Matters in L&D
How can you create stronger personal development plans? Elevate your workforce? Build your employees’ skills for the future?
Self-insight of course! And this article will reveal all – with Job Toebosch, Head of Test and Insights at GoodHabitz. He was on the Moving Forward podcast and explained why self-insight is an incredibly powerful consideration for the world of learning and development.
The clue is in the word – self. There’s an emphasis on the individual employee.
When an employee goes on a path of discovery for themselves, they feel empowered to understand why their character traits matter – both in professional and personal realms of life.
Job said: “Once you understand what your strengths and weaknesses are, or what your personal preferences are, you can subsequently determine what the best next step in your personal development journey should look like.”
Here’s an example scenario to better understand this idea.
Let’s say an employee takes an assessment or short questionnaire, that reveals they’re not the best at communication. This individual can work with their manager on a plan to help tackle this specific human skill, and it could be as something as simple as:
- Volunteer to lead in the next meeting;
- Or network with 3 new people virtually or in person over the next week.
Assessments, tests, questionnaires – they're all important tools in encouraging the practice of self-insight.
However, there’s the inevitable question of how reliable they can be. Job said it comes down to how the psychometric instrument is framed for the person:
“In an interview scenario, an employee is likely to not be as honest in their answer. It’s socially desirable to lean into saying that they’re good at that particular skill – whether it’s leadership, teamwork, or something else.”
“On the other hand, if you give people access to assessments, but you don’t connect any action to them – such as you will or will not get a raise, then often there’s a lot of honesty. Because people love to find out about themselves.”
Newsflash! Success in a job isn’t just determined by whether you deliver on your core responsibilities.
From the very beginning of an employee’s career journey at a company, laying the foundations for human skills development becomes crucial, as Job explained:
“Using self-assessments during the onboarding process means that people will start to look deeper into themselves. There’ll be a realisation that doing good workdoesn't just come down to whether you do the right things.”
“It’s also understanding who you are as a person, and whether you’re able to collaborate, innovate,etc – qualities that come with pretty much every job nowadays.”
This responsibility is also shared with managers – when it comes to performance or career reviews. Job argued that instead of just looking at whether someone has hit their goals or targets, take moreholisitc approach. It’s about teaching that employee on how they can be a better version of themselves.
There’s a parallel that can be drawn between the tv show Suits, and self-insight. Tune into the clip below to find out more:
The bottom line?
Self-insight enables employees to work on the areas of themselves that are limiting their potential.
Indeed, not only can learning paths become tailored – but they’re productive and driven around producing important results for that employee.
‘What’s in it for me?’
‘How will self-insight L&D activities help employees?’
‘Why should I invest in self-insight?’
These are questions that’ll naturally dance around your head. One of the core struggles is proving the ROI of learning initiatives – but self-insight is incredibly valuable in mitigating this.
It puts the employee at the centre, and they have the power to tailor their own learning path, so they can progress in their role better. Job offered his two-cents into this:
“Typically, what you’ll see is that the access to e-learning is dependent on where the employee is within an organisation.For example, someone very high up might receive 1:2:1 coaching, and others might have class access.”
“But the thing here is that the higher up you go, the more expensive the offering can become. And that’s why it’s not offered to everybody across the company.”
This is where self-insight saves the day (and company’s purse strings), as Job explained: “You’re giving everybody the possibility to learn about themselves, so they can craft their jobs and learning paths better.”
“Employees can make use of their talents because of the findings from assessments like the type of communicator they are, or the role they play in a team. This fosters an environment for happy individuals.”
Self-insight = Employees motivated to leverage their strengths and work on their weaknesses = Productive actions and successes = Increased Work happiness = Better retention