Leadership of learning aligns individual goals and motivation with organizational strategy

Managing employees’ learning takes place in everyday work and is therefore part of modern supervisory work. It requires supervisors to be actively present and engaged in employees’ daily problem-solving and learning situations. Leading learning combines the supervisor’s role as a coach, consideration of the motivational factors underlying learning, and learning as a process at both the individual and team level. In a recent study (Keronen et al., 2025), we examined supervisors’ conceptions of the practices of leading learning in their own work contexts, in a technology organisation and in a central hospital. Seventeen supervisors participated in the study, and their interviews and diaries formed the basis for analysing their conceptions of leading learning.

The Process of Leading Learning is Based on Coaching Leadership

In recent years, supervisors’ responsibility for supporting employees’ workplace learning has increased. Although employees are expected to take more responsibility for their own learning, supervisors are needed to build pedagogically meaningful practices and processes for everyday work. Leadership has shifted away from hierarchical, top-down management toward development-oriented leadership, with a coaching approach at its core. However, it has been observed that supervisors may struggle to perceive and adopt this new role as supporters of learning.

The aim of coaching leadership is to help employees develop themselves at both the individual and team level. Supervisors in our study described how coaching leadership begins with identifying, articulating, and strengthening individuals’ motivational factors, making everyday learning situations visible, and guiding employees to make use of them also in a self-directed way. When everyday learning situations are recognised, the supervisor’s task is to encourage employees to participate in collective situations where competences and lessons learned can be shared within teams and more broadly across the workplace community. Leading learning was also described as leadership by example and conscious presence, which emphasises the importance of supervisors’ own actions and commitment to learning. This, in itself, can inspire and motivate employees to engage in new learning situations.

From Strengthening Individual Motivation and Learning Processes Towards the Development of the Whole Workplace Community

It was interesting to observe how supervisors themselves understood and defined leading learning as a process and a logically progressing whole, rather than just a set of isolated practices. In both organisations, supervisors considered the starting point of leading learning to be the strengthening of individuals’ motivation, where the supervisor helps employees understand both their existing strengths and, on the other hand, their learning needs and goals. At the same time, supervisors also understood that individual learning must align with the organisation’s strategy and objectives. Supervisors need to be sensitive to individuals’ varying readiness for new learning and their ability to utilise work situations as opportunities for learning. Pedagogical practices that support learning, such as providing opportunities for learning, must be adapted to these different individual and team starting points.

Meaningful connections should be established between the organisation’s strategy and employees’ personal motivational factors, so that the strategy does not remain detached for the staff but is linked to daily practices and individual goals. Supervisors therefore described their task as acting as bridge-builders between employees and senior management, interpreting and articulating the perspectives of both and promoting mutual understanding. In the rush of everyday work, however, this role can be challenging. Problems arise especially when the views of management and employees differ significantly, creating burdensome conflicts for supervisors themselves and complicating their balancing between expectations. Supporting supervisors is therefore critical. They must be provided with sufficient guidance, resources, and training to keep their workload manageable and maintain their ability to support employees. Training should include understanding of adults’ learning processes at work and methods to support learning in everyday situations.

Coaching Leadership Takes Into Account the Psychological Basic Needs Underlying Learning

In everyday work and learning situations, supervisors can support the sense of autonomy and control by explaining to employees the reasons behind actions, for example when implementing strategic goals. By providing learning and development opportunities that are suitably challenging for each competence level, they can strengthen the sense of competence. Creating time and space for interaction and social exchange to build a shared direction in the workplace community supports the sense of relatedness. When coaching leadership is used in supervisory work and the psychological basic needs underlying learning and motivation are taken into account, long-term organisational goals can be achieved sustainably while simultaneously supporting employee commitment and well-being.

The study did not separately examine the role of remote work in leading learning, but it is likely that leading learning remotely is different in nature and requires different pedagogical practices. Particular attention must be paid to the psychological basic needs underlying learning in remote contexts, since these needs are fulfilled in relation to others, through social interaction. Remote interaction may be less frequent compared to face-to-face, which can make it problematic to establish meaningful relationships.

In knowledge-intensive work, which is based on problem-solving and expertise, learning must be actively and purposefully led at the supervisory level. For supervisors, this requires conscious presence, the adoption of pedagogical practices that support learning into everyday work, and personal commitment to continuous learning and development. Leading learning can thus proactively ensure smooth collaboration in the workplace and teams, not only in the present but also in the future.

This text is based on the publication:
Keronen, S., Lemmetty, S. & Collin, K. 2025. Conceptions of the Leading of Learning in Supervisory Work: A Qualitative Study Based on a Finnish Technology Organization and a Central Hospital. International Journal of Training and Development, 1–13. http://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.70009

Sara Keronen, Doctoral Researcher, JATKOT Research Group