Are you making the most of your learning technology to help you identify the future leaders of your organisation, or are you relying solely on guesswork?

As attendees of the Learning Technologies Conference, you won’t need any convincing about the positive impact learning platforms and learning management systems can make on your business. You’re most likely already using these tools to train and upskill your employees – but in this blog, we’ll explore how you can take it one step further.

What if your learning technology could not only help train your staff, but also identify future leaders from day one?

Let’s dive into how learning platform analytics can help you recognise and nurture leadership within your workforce.
 

What’s the data really telling you?

Another thing we won’t need to convince you of: It’s essential to listen to the data when making decisions.

Leadership development is no different.

By listening to the story your data is trying to tell you, you can not only identify who within your organisation could be a leader – but actually help them get there. Learning platform analytics (i.e. the details of how and when people are using your learning platform) are crucial to this strategy… but not all analytics are created equal.

 

What’s the difference between traditional and embedded analytics?

Maybe you’re already using analytics to track learner behaviour and adapt your learning programmes accordingly, and that’s incredibly valuable. This is what we’d consider ‘traditional’ learning platform analytics – but embedded analytics remove some steps by (you guessed it) embedding into your platform and making the data instantly accessible to you.

There will always be an element of manual work and interpretation when it comes to creating a compelling story with your data, but with embedded analytics, you can access that data instantly. In a practical sense, this means you can make informed decisions quicker and easier than ever before.

The fewer barriers that exist between you and the data, the easier it is for you to tap into the information that will help you develop the leaders in your workforce.

By making use of embedded analytics, you can track metrics like employee engagement, skill progression, and course completions – all in real time.
 

How to identify future leaders

Once you use embedded analytics to tap into learner behaviour within your platform, you’ll be on track to nurturing future leaders. The next step is deciding the specific metrics you’ll use to distinguish leaders amongst the data.

We’ve identified three main metrics to track:

• Engagement levels: How engaged are your potential leaders with their learning? For example, you can track which content they’ve viewed and how long they viewed it for, as well as their likes, comments, and shares.  
• Progress: Tracking assigned learning, course completions, their progress with skills and goals, submitting evidence of embedding their learning, and whether or not they’re engaging with Continuous Professional Development all lets you see what sort of progress they’re making with their learning – and how it’s demonstrated.
• Influence: Are they actively engaging with, and influencing, their colleagues? Leaders don’t just have a clear vision; they have the ability to translate that vision to others. Your potential leaders might demonstrate influence by connecting with peers within the platform, providing feedback, answering – and asking – questions, and creating their own learning content.

 

Translating data into success

Tracking data is all well and good, but actually translating numbers on a screen into tangible, three-dimensional impact should be your next step.

Personalised and adaptive learning is a key component of this. Once you’ve identified potential leaders (although, this will of course be an ongoing process) you can continue to use your learning platform to tailor their learning experiences accordingly, and nurture them to reach their full potential. 

 

The power of adaptive learning

Adaptive learning personalises training materials based on the individual user’s strengths and weaknesses. Building on this, competency-based progressions then allow learners to advance within a learning pathway only once they’ve grasped the key concepts of each module.

Making use of this means that your future leaders get the right challenges at exactly the right time for them.

 

Goal setting

Ambition is another oft-cited quality of great leaders. From the smallest win to the biggest stretch goal, a strong leader will set and achieve targets and learn from any setbacks along the way. It follows, then, that they should be able to do this within their learning platform.

It starts with structured, linear learning pathways that your future leaders can work through, with a clear goal at the end. And by tracking these goal setting behaviours and the consequent skill progression, you can ensure that they’re on the right track.

 

AI’s role

AI is not the be-all, end-all, but it can play a small role in helping develop leadership. AI gives you the ability to tailor your users’ learning specifically to them, with content tailored to their role, location and experience.

 

The future of data-driven talent development

Predictive analytics are changing the way organisations develop talent. Could you be one of them?

By tracking key learning behaviours and prioritising personalised training, you’ll always be one step ahead – and you can develop future leaders with data-backed confidence.

What are you waiting for? Start using your platform’s analytics today to build the leaders of tomorrow.

 

Alex Mullen 

Web Content Writer at Thrive