Episode 119: The Role of Learning and Development in Driving Business Outcomes, with Sarah Stone

In Episode 119 of The Business Habitat podcast, Sam is joined by Executive General Manager of Ab2 Institute of Accounting, Sarah Stone, to talk about the impact of education in the workplace and how the right training framework can boost business performance and attract the best talent to your organisation. 

With close to twenty years’ experience in the education industry, Sarah draws on her background in the tourism and media sectors, where she worked for the likes of Foxtel and Austar in the learning and development space. This involvement stirred Sarah’s interest in understanding the role of education in setting employees apart from the rest. In this podcast she shares her fascination with producing and delivering superior business outcomes through people performance. 

Sarah and Sam delve into the difference between education in the corporate sector compared to the professional services environment and why the necessity for CPD hours creates a focus on technical skills at the expense of broader business knowledge. Sarah explains the importance of a company’s learning and development culture in attracting and retaining great talent, and how that perspective is driven from the top.  

Often referred to as “soft skills’, Sarah talks to the need for training in the right “success skills” and why organisations are increasingly driven to seek out leaders with demonstrated ability to bring people along for the journey and inspire and motivate them.  Sam reminds us that as we move towards heart-centred businesses with an emphasis on aligned goals and values, the importance of people focused skills becomes even more important, whether it’s dealing with staff, colleagues or clients. 

By drawing on their own real life experiences and sharing their perspectives on ongoing learning and personal and professional development, Sam and Sarah deliver a compelling episode filled with practical examples and even some book references to further the conversation. As a critical component of continual improvement, the role of education and learning in business success cannot be denied. This conversation will help you reflect on where that focus is best placed. 

Listen to an excerpt

What we cover in this episode 

• Education and how it links to business development and performance 

• Learning in corporate vs professional services environments 

• Training the right success skills 

• The importance of soft skills in supporting technical training 

• The number one reason people want to join an organisation 

• Understanding your own purpose and your why 

• The difference between leading and managing 

• What are the success metrics of you investing in learning 

Quotes 

“The training has been so technical, which we need, and that's why we are professional services people, but…my passion in the world is to put the other skills around this so we can actually take our technical ability and make great businesses” - Sam

“Particularly in the talent market that we're in, how do they attract the best people possible, well let me show you how. We are going to educate you and invest in you” - Sarah

“How do you become more resilient? How do you lead your teams really effectively and how can you pull down those goals of ‘what my business is wanting to achieve’ and how do you bring people along for the journey? How do you really inspire and motivate them?” - Sarah

“Is our product our knowledge, or is it the ability to disseminate it to other people?“ - Sam

“86% of businesses don't really have a really clear vision or goals. 75% of that don't actually understand their numbers either” - Sam

“If you don't keep that true north of knowing who you are as a leader and why you show up then it's hard for people that you lead to buy into the purpose of what you're trying to do or what you're trying to achieve” - Sarah

“That's the whole purpose of professional services models, is actually to build the capability not the capacity, the capability within our teams” - Sam  

“I drill down at an organisation into what capabilities would we want to see in a leader and we focus our leadership training around that” - Sarah

Links mentioned 

• Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

• "Gung Ho" by Ken Blanchard

• "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott

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