Are you a British Library or an "access all areas" leader?
Yesterday, I made the mistake of popping into the British Library as I wanted to do a bit of quick research. I say mistake as after going through security, then registering membership, then finding out I would have to wait up to 6 hours for the research material....I decided not to bother! Now I understand totally the world we live in and do not in anyway argue against security checks it made me think long and hard about accessibility. Here are some questions it raised in my head...
- Do we as leaders put blocks in the way to people learning...people developing?
- Do we give access to learning materials or is there a bureaucratic process that makes it difficult?
- Do we control the development process too much, after all many want to seek the development themselves.....we just need to give them the ability to do it
- Do we build rules for the minority in our companies or trust in the good of the majority and deal with the people who break the rules? By building the rules around the minority we suck so much energy from the motivated people.
- Do we give access freely to mentors, to coaching or do we build processes that turn people away? Do we put real effort into making time for that access or continually change diaries that makes it difficult?
Development is a MAJOR part of engagement, a MAJOR part of motivation.....we may accept that the British Library needs to put up barriers for people to learn but as leaders of people do we put up the same barriers not realising it or even needing to?
