204: What Learning Leaders Working as Strategic Business Partners Do Differently

Many L&D leaders desire to do their work as strategic partners to the business, as opposed to reactive order takers, but they feel stuck.

Working differently means thinking differently and shifting the narrative and culture around L&D in their individual organizations. Our teams might be doing excellent work and receiving outstanding feedback, but it doesn't matter if we don't move the needle on the biggest strategic talent challenges in partnership with the business. Now there is research to suggest that those L&D leaders who are able to work as strategic business partners do their work differently.

This session will share the top four behaviors, as defined by an in-depth qualitative research study, utilized daily by those L&D leaders who work as strategic partners to their businesses. The session will reveal how these leaders act like the rest of the business, work proactively, add value like crazy, and collaborate across the business for maximum impact. After each behavior is shared, we will engage in an activity and/or discussion to further define both opportunities for improvement as well as successes to date as they relate to that behavior. Opportunities for improvement will be turned into action items at the end of the session. Successes will be shared with others so that the full content of the session comes from more than the individual who shared. Becoming a strategic business partner is a journey, and each person is at a different point in that journey.

In this session, you will learn:

• The top four ways that learning leaders who work as strategic business partners do their work differently
• The areas of biggest opportunity for you, personally, to improve your work as a strategic business partner in your organization
• At least one personal action item that you can use immediately to start moving your approach to that of a more strategic business partner in your organization