L and D Manager Roles and In-Demand Skills

The following quote by Bill Gates can inspire many aspirants who are planning to start a career in Learning and Development. 

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

And if we connect the above quote to today’s situation, L&D managers are the leaders whose primary role is to head the organization in the direction of learning and expansion. 

Since the job role of an L&D manager demands upskilling others, it is very essential to understand the skills which you as a professional require to grow in this career path.

But first things first!

What are some of the most important L&D Manager Roles and Skills? 

For an L&D specialist, the primary role revolves around the following tasks:

• Identify the training objectives of employees
• Create or bring in the latest training programs keeping in mind the organisational goals and needs
• Collaborate with the various business leaders to fill the skill gaps
• Get involved in planning and tracking budgets 
• Regularly negotiate contracts with vendors to ensure cost optimization
• Work to maintain relationships with HRs, business leaders, course providers, third-party vendors, event organizers, and other stakeholders
• Procuring the required training material
• Hiring and training L&D associates 

How to Become an L&D Manager and prepare for L&D Manager Roles and Skills?

If you are just planning to be an L&D Manager, you must at least have a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree in specialisations like HR, psychology, or any other related field. Apart from this, you can also move into this role if you are currently working in any different human resource management role. Of course, you need to be passionate about helping other people grow to the best of their potential. 

Now, let’s unbox how you can advance your growth and prove yourself a promising L&D manager.

Which are the Most Sought After L&D Manager Skills?

The role of L&D managers demands tasks like streamlining the training process to make a dedicated learning and development strategy. But for this, it is very essential to keep yourself updated and gain the following learning development and training skills:

5 Prominent L&D Skills You Must Acquire and Include in your Resume:

#1. Project Management

Organising, managing, and controlling training and learning sessions are among the normal day-to-day tasks of every L&D manager. Hence, you must excel in handling multiple training sessions. 

For this, a lot of professionals go for project management courses and certifications. These certifications allow an L&D manager to adapt new changes quickly and at the same time, help in successfully executing small, mid-size, and large training projects. 

#2. Communication Skills

From email communications to public speaking, as a training and development manager, your job role will demand excellent command over communication skills. 

That’s why most of the professionals working in the learning and development department must master the art of communication and if required, opt for professional business communication courses. Having the skill of clear and concise communication helps in making difficult conversations easy, conducting successful negotiations, coordinating people, tasks, and work effectively.

#3. Change Management and Leadership Skills

The basic concept of conducting training and development sessions is to bring change and bridge the skill gap. Hence, as an L&D professional, you must be compatible with matching the organizational needs and introducing new training and development methods.

You must also know how to work with others and bring them to the same page. Further, having excellent leadership skills also accounts for promoting major changes. To improve this skill, you can work closely with skilled change management teams and also plan to take leadership and management courses. 

#4. Data-Driven Approach

From identifying the need from training to analyzing the results, the dependency of data has drastically increased in the current L&D process. Thus, an L&D manager must be equipped with collecting, handling, and managing data. 

To master the art and science of data, you can opt for some of the basic level data analysis courses and gain proficiency in using MS office, data visualization tools, and other analytics and statistical tools. 

Further, if you are involved in several cross-functional HR roles, going for a certified HR Analytic course can also help you gain the right exposure. Through this, you can gain confidence in consulting different stakeholders, effectively working on HR data, analyzing HR metrics, and data cleaning. 

#5. People management and Organizational Behavior

Being into the L&D department, it is very important for you to understand your organization and people. Working on this skill will help you in improving business processes, handling people, and managing organizational behaviour. 

This skill despite being very diverse has a direct relation with the L&D department. The better you understand about the people you plan to equip, the greater you will be able to limit the skill gap. 

To advance in this skill, you can take up online organizational behaviour courses which will help you develop approaches by which you can positively influence the behaviour of employees at work.

All The Best!

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