But what happens when you discover responsibilities at work that you didn’t know you had? Or your role evolves to cover responsibilities you hadn’t signed up for?

Managers Are Learning Champions

Managers are responsible for delivering value to the business. One of the most effective ways to do this is to support employees to get the best out of them. This means that managers are responsible for the professional development of other people. They’re not fully responsible, by any stretch, but their role is an important one.

I’m part of Mind Tools’ Insights team, and in our research, we found that employees rely on managers – more than anyone or anything else – to find out about new learning opportunities. They expect managers to have such a solid understanding of the goals of the business, and the skills, knowledge and capabilities that are required to achieve them, that they trust them to identify opportunities worth taking.

If you’re reading this as a manager yourself, I wonder if you know about this part of the job. And, importantly, if you feel equipped to do it.

Today, according to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, just 35 percent of employees say that their managers encourage them to learn at work. But that’s not because managers don’t care about learning.

Managers want to do right by their people. We know this because in the same study, “supporting employee career development” was listed as a top three priority training topic for managers this year.

Despite managers having the right intentions, Mind Tools’ research shows that more than two thirds of managers (69 percent) say that they don’t have the time to develop their own skills. They’re not putting their “oxygen masks” on first – so to speak – so they’re struggling to support their people in the right ways.

Time and Collaboration

“Time” is a commonly reported challenge for managers. Managers are overstretched and employee development is time consuming. In a recent report by McKinsey, it was shown that managers give less than one third of their time to their people – which covers all responsibilities including performance appraisals, recruitment and coaching.

Part of the reason managers don’t give more time is because of pressures to keep up with expectations. According to McKinsey, managers believe that organizations value individual contributor work more than other kinds – so that’s where they spend most of their time.

But people in their teams don’t want to work in isolation. They value collaboration, especially when they’re trying to solve problems at work. In our research, we found that three quarters of employees rely on support from their managers when they’re dealing with work-related challenges.

If you manage a team, you’re a learning champion in your business, whether you asked for the title or not. You have a sphere of influence that employees recognize. They trust you to recommend the right kinds of learning opportunities and to help find solutions to problems. So how can you properly fulfill this role?

Supporting Managers to Support Employees

Learning and Development, or “L&D,” can be something of a buzzword. But in essence, it’s all about how employees are supported by their organizations to develop new skills, knowledge and competencies through learning.

Often, organizations have a function or person within the business that is responsible for L&D. These people care about learning on an organizational level, which means that they try to meet the business’s diverse needs by focusing on the current and future skills requirements of its employees.

L&D professionals don’t have a relationship with employees in the same way managers do, but they do have the expertise to support managers to tailor learning to individual needs. This means that L&D pros and managers each bring something different to the table. And when they work together, organizations are two to three times more likely to report a reduction in employee turnover, an increase in productivity, and an increase in revenue.

If you don’t know who your L&D lead is, now is a good time to find out. Being a learning champion isn’t a solo gig, and L&D pros are there to help you reach your potential. Knock on their door. Start a conversation.

You might not have signed up for being a learning champion, but you’re not alone in meeting that challenge either.

Tip of the Week

Managing Emotions on Your Team

By Melanie Bell, Mind Tools Writer and Editor

A lot of distressing events are happening in the world right now. (When is that not the case?) And if you’re managing a team, this big picture is likely impacting people’s emotions.

It’s easy to think that professionalism means setting our feelings aside when we step into the office or log on to our work computer for the day. But that isn’t necessarily possible – or even desirable.

Along with managing our team’s professional development, another responsibility that managers don’t always think about is supporting emotional wellbeing and harmony among team members.

It starts with you – acknowledging your own emotions, setting healthy boundaries, and working to create a culture of psychological safety. Trusting and feeling comfortable with one another improves collaboration between colleagues. And it allows team members to express their views and disagree without taking things personally.

When hiring, it might be tempting to pick the candidate we click with – but set those feelings aside. They likely mean that the candidate is simply similar to us. Think instead about who’s the best fit for the job.

Learn more about managing feelings at work in our Book Insight on “No Hard Feelings” and “Big Feelings,” two volumes of insightful and gently humorous cartoons and advice from Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy.

Pain Points Podcast

Distractions. From Candy Crush to washing the dishes, there are so many things demanding our attention that it can be easy to get... well, distracted.

But how can you stop distractions from getting in the way at work? Join the Pain Points team this week as they try to stay focused and discuss distractions – how to master your attention and why maybe distractions aren’t always a bad thing.

Check your inbox for your personal link to the Pain Points podcast, sent every Tuesday to Mind Tools members. You can listen online or subscribe in your podcast app by following the links in the email.

News Roundup

This Week's Global Workplace Insights

What to Wear to Work?

Gone are the days of business suits and stiff office shoes. As the work world is changing, is it time for our office wardrobes to get an update?

As Glossy reports, the rules on what we had to wear to work were temporarily thrown out the window with the COVID-19 pandemic – you were lucky if everyone in your meeting had bothered to change out of their pajamas!

But now people are being called back to the office and are rethinking their work wardrobes. So much so that now only 3 percent of the U.S. workforce report wearing "professional business attire" while 41 percent wear business casual dress and 30 percent opt for casual street clothes.

Traditionalists say that your outfit sends a message to your coworkers and customers. They argue that professional business attire communicates strength, poise and professionalism while casual workwear suggests a lack of effort and drive.

But the naysayers – particularly younger workers – say that you are what you wear. They believe that flexible dress codes enable people to present their authentic selves at work. And that's what we all want... right?

The Mind Tools team have their say on this topic in our latest podcast episode. Tune in to this week’s episode of Pain Points to find out what they think!

Workers Strike Over Gender Pay Gap

On Tuesday, October 24, NPR reports that women and nonbinary people in Iceland went on strike to protest the gender pay gap. Thousands gathered in Reykjavík, with additional protests held across the country.

According to the strike’s organizers, women in the country earn about 21 percent less than men – just one instance of a salary disparity that’s felt around the world. The gap disproportionately impacts immigrants, disabled and elderly people, women with children, and women working in sanitation.

Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir joined the strike, refraining from work and encouraging other women to do the same.

This was Iceland’s seventh women’s strike and the first full-day strike since 1975, when over 90 percent of the country’s women refrained from working. That strike helped to chart a course for the election of Iceland’s first female president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.

Sometimes, as our graphic designer suggests, gender-based disparities in the professional world feel like we’re stuck in the 1950s! See Mind Tools’ Striking the Right Gender Balance Infographic for more information on gender imbalance in the workplace and the business case for better gender balance.

See you next week for more member-exclusive content and insight from the Mind Tools team!