Chief Learning Officer - January 2009 - (Page 50) CASE STUDY: J.H. COHN LLP Investing in Enabling Skills BY CHUCK KOVACH In the midst of economic turbulence, it might seem like soft skills training would be a tough sell. However, at accounting firm J.H. Cohn, these capabilities are viewed as the organization’s competitive advantage. Companies are realizing that one way to differentiate themselves from others in the marketplace is to build a team of well-rounded employees with both hard technical skills and soft enabling skills. They know that with the same technical training material available to most businesses in an industry, a team with strong enabling skills is a competitive advantage. They also realize that enabling skills help increase productivity internally and enhance employee and customer satisfaction. J.H. Cohn, an accounting and consulting firm that operates in the northeastern United States, believes that strengthening enabling skills is a critical performance and career development tool. The company’s learning department offers long-term learning paths and resource materials for technical knowledge, such as audit work process. Yet, the organization also has placed a strong emphasis on the interpersonal skills that support technical performance. Technical expertise remains the core of its learning initiatives, but supplementing these courses with enabling-skills development gives its employees the tools to become better equipped and, as a result, more valuable to the firm and its clients. Enabling-Skills Development in Practice As with technical skills, J.H. Cohn’s approach to enabling-skills development is multifaceted and includes job assignments, coaching and formal training. The most critical enabling skills the company focuses on include both oral and written communication, relationship building, team performance and leading and managing people. The organization believes a strong approach should include courses that are in-depth and go beyond the standard “101” versions of these skills. For example, instead of “how to 50 Chief Learning Officer • January 2009 • www.clomedia.com write,” communication courses concentrate on helping employees develop the skills they need to articulate thoughts convincingly, both verbally and on paper. Relationship development is relevant to both internal interactions among colleagues and external contact with clients. When it comes to business development, courses should focus on developing the role of a trusted adviser. A teamwork program establishes how the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, how to share knowledge and how to offer positive and constructive feedback to team members. Approaches also vary by employee level. For example, the learning track for managers emphasizes topics such as how to encourage people to grow and how to set goals and provide feedback, whereas the learning track for staff professionals emphasizes the communication skills described above. In addition to formal training, J.H. Cohn uses action learning to help move development out of the classroom. The company’s partner academy — which offers managerial and career development training to high-potential, manager-level employees — is one area in which action learning assignments are employed. The up-and-coming professionals participating in the program are presented with a real-world issue facing the firm. They are asked to work together to develop solutions, which encourages teamwork and strategic thinking, as well as the development of technical knowledge on the assigned topic. The project lasts three months, and built-in mechanisms debrief participants on what they have learned about working as a team and the ways they have addressed the issue at hand. In addition, employees get an opportunity to strengthen their enabling skills by serving as instructors for internal training programs. Managers and senior managers present courses on technical topics. Through http://www.clomedia.com
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