Managers:


Resource allocation Plan development


Employee management Implementation and execution “Hard” skills


Leaders: Creating a vision


Developing followers Creating discomfort


Promoting and demanding innovation


“Soft” skills


Te greatest immediate content needs surround expanding leadership skills and decision making in uncertain situations. Our focus on developing excellent managers often leads us to forget that we also need to develop leaders. Our industry is overrun with uncertainty, and this fact calls for women and men who can quickly adapt and respond to the changing demands of both parents and educators. All too often we put individuals in charge of some or all of an organization without ever helping them understand what it means to lead rather than to manage. Warren Bennis’ On Becoming a Leader provides a useful comparison of the different skills we must teach to grow both managers and leaders. Creating innovative content to teach these skills can and should also be supported by expanding the use of innovative delivery platforms. Te growth of iTunesU, MOOCs (massive open online course) and online learning platforms have greatly expanded the availability of high quality content across a huge range of topics that will be useful to emerging leaders. Te no cost/low cost and always available characteristics of these services should allow for the development of customized learning plans for every type of leader in all types of organizations. Te most important innovation is in these distribution methods. Te growth of learning management systems (LMS) has provided organizations with capabilities to provide training services that are well beyond the traditional strategies used. Te ability to deliver on demand content accessible from anywhere coupled with the ability to integrate content from multiple providers revolutionizes both formal and informal learning opportunities. Organizations like SafeSchools, an industry leading provider of LMS content, have demonstrated that a web-based platform can be a highly effective tool to provide a full range of content related to skills development, risk management, and compliance. Teir delivery of school bus safety training allows for content delivery and compliance monitoring in a way that traditional manual systems cannot compete with. Te ability to incorporate custom developed content extends the usefulness of these systems and allows existing material to be delivered in a consistent format. Te challenges of being a transportation manager will continue to increase in both scope and complexity. Ensuring that the next generation of managers can meet these challenges will require a broader array of skills and expertise. Developing the content and platforms that will support tomorrow’s managers will be the challenge of the current generation of transportation managers. Te challenges of leading complex organizations; the implications of ever presence social media applications; addressing personnel management challenges like finding bus drivers and technicians; and the ever increasing presence of technology will create challenges that cannot be conceptualized now. Expanding the use of technology to increase the range of topics available will be a crucial component to ensuring that industry leaders can continue address these concerns and continue delivering the safe, reliable, and cost effective services that is expected of our industry. ●


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