Leadership teams are no strangers to changes and challenges related to successfully executing strategic objectives. Add in a global pandemic, an almost entirely remote workforce, and challenges tend to multiply. So how can organizations keep engagement levels high while creating alignment with one another over leading priorities?

The key is alignment from within the very body that determines the organization’s direction, the executive team. Sure, many of you are reading that last line, rolling your eyes and sighing, “no kidding.” And sure, it sounds primary and elementary. So was legendary basketball coach John Wooden’s request that his UCLA basketball teams “practice” putting their socks on during the season’s first practice. His reasoning? If you don’t put your socks on correctly, you might develop blisters, which will negatively impact the team.

Back to the leadership teams, trust me. If it were that simple, literally every organization would be operating with high employee engagement levels, maximum efficiency, and profitability that would keep every shareholder and stakeholder ecstatic. A quick glance of the business landscape tells us this is most certainly not the case. So, how can you create this alignment? Through a series of powerful, authentic, robust, and transparent conversations.

The first step in this process is to take a long look at how you arrived at where you currently are. What were the key conversations that took place, and with whom? What were the key decisions you made and didn’t make that helped form your current reality?

Take a close look; where were we, the leadership team, in alignment? Where were we a little bit off and, what was the impact of us not all being on the same page? How did this misalignment affect our communication, our execution? How did this impact the people working with and for us? How did it impact our customers? How can we benefit from that great gift of hindsight to lay the foundation of how we will communicate and align with each other moving forward?

Speaking of moving forward, after aligning on the strategy that you want to execute, who are those key people who will be responsible for putting that strategy into action, and how will you communicate with them to ensure this alignment stays intact? Hearing a consistent message is one thing. Feeling that message is another thing altogether. Endless research shows the difference between “hearing” strategy – this is where we are going and how we will get there – and “feeling” strategy – here is why we are moving in this direction and how what you do is key to all of us succeeding. In other words, to ensure high levels of alignment, engagement, and productivity, the organization, the people who will be doing the work to get us to where we need to be, requires the same level of clarity that the executive team has.

Admittedly, this is nothing new. Countless executive teams struggle with this in the best of times, to say nothing of the complicated world that we’re currently operating in. To offset the economic impact of a global pandemic, much of the focus has been on speed and agility. Yet, the best-laid plans will almost always fall victim to misalignment and a poor understanding of why we are moving in this direction. So, to the executive teams who are reading this, take the time to put your socks on properly. You just might be surprised at how much more effective your organization can be as a result.

 

At Fierce, we know the value of soft skills training, particularly training in the art of communication. Effective communication is crucial for business success.

Equipping employees to meet these challenges requires planning, development and training in both hard and soft skills. Hard skills are tangible, such as the ability to use the needed equipment or perform a particular function. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more elusive and include teamwork, the ability to adapt and communication.

How do soft skills impact the bottom line at your company?

In this Forbes article, Fierce CEO Ed Beltran discusses the significance of soft skills development and how soft skills are crucial for effective collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making among employees and leaders alike.

Read: The Significance Of Soft Skills Development

 

 

At Fierce, we know that the relationships shared between everyone involved in the business, both coworkers and clients, determine its ability to succeed or fail.

As our Founder, Susan Scott, wrote in FIERCE CONVERSATIONS, “Our most valuable currency is not money. Nor is it intelligence, attractiveness, fluency in three-letter acronyms, or the ability to write code or analyze a P&O statement. Our most valuable currency is relationship.”

The virtual workplace only deepens our need to have authentic relationships with the people we work with, especially those we lead.

In this Forbes article, Fierce CEO Ed Beltran discusses one significant mistake remote managers are making and outlines key steps you can take to avoid it.

Read: One Mistake Managers Make When Leading Remote Teams

 

 

2020 has brought many challenges to leaders around the globe. Over the past year, we’ve had to manage change and overcome resistance – the pandemic, political division, economic inequality, and social injustice.

As the year comes to an end, we’ve gathered the 3 most popular Fierce blogs to help you start the New Year off right:

#3. 3 POWERFUL WAYS TO BE MORE EFFICIENT WHEN WORKING FROM HOME

Aligning your work-from-home routine with your in-office standards is the key to success for virtual workplaces. As you continue to cultivate an efficient work-from-home routine, be sure to check out these tips for staying well-ordered. Read the blog

#2. HERE’S WHY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES LEAD TO THE BEST IDEAS

Creating space for varying viewpoints to thrive opens up a world of possibility. Take a look at these different ways to put this into action in your workplace. Read the blog

#1. 3 EASY STEPS AS A LEADER TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO

As a leader, you’re always adjusting to meet the needs of your stakeholders. For continued success, you must constantly think about how you can adapt and change. Check out these key steps for shaking things up in the best way. Read the blog

“Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to transform a company, a relationship, or a life, any single conversation can. Speak and listen as if this is the most important conversation you will ever have with this person. It could be. Participate as if it matters. It does.”

― Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

 

I’ve been in the field of leadership development my entire 20-year career. And while the landscape of leadership learning has changed tremendously in that time (virtual, on-demand, simulations, gaming), the need to measure its impact has not.

I learned very early on that the most difficult part of my job was the moment a leader asked me to “show them the return”. They wanted to know will this program benefit the company. And if so, how? Usually, the first thing running through my head after this interaction was “do you not trust my judgment? Do you not trust my expertise? Why do you need proof? I’ve told you this is the right training – it will work!”

I’m not unlike many other L&D or HR professionals in the sense that measuring training programs can seem confusing, overwhelming, and even downright impossible at times. I mean let’s face it, we aren’t measuring how much shrink is being produced, or the percentage of call volume. We are talking about measuring trust in leadership or building managerial courage. These can seem like impossibly intangible things.

And yet, it doesn’t have to be rocket science. To successfully realize the value of leadership development and training organizations must expand their focus and consider both the Smart + Heart of measurement. ROI, the “smart” part of this equation is critical.

For instance, Jane went through the coaching workshop and is saving more than 4 hours a week because she is no longer in the “advice-giving” business. That’s 208 hours a year of additional capacity for Jane! Based on Jane’s salary, that time is equal to $7,000 annually. That is a significant result. So yes, ROI is one piece of the evaluation puzzle.

The other piece, in addition to ROI, is what we call the “heart” or for our purposes today, the ROE (Return on Expectations) This includes compelling stories and anecdotes when the numbers don’t explain the results as well as we’d like.

To take the previous example further “Retention has been an issue on Jane’s team in the past. In the months following the coaching workshop, retention has improved by nearly 33%. When her team was asked what they enjoy about their relationship with their manager, 75% mentioned the newly instituted coaching conversations and they feel their opinions matter and their job expectations are clearer.”

When faced with the challenges of measuring behavior change, ROE is a major idea being explored in today’s world of business. While ROI is still acknowledged as crucial, as Kirkpatrick says, “ROE is now being appreciated for what it is; a relevant, focused, big picture look at results”.

Understanding the ROE of L&D

ROE is not limited to just the monetary numbers. ROE encompasses much more. It can be measured in simpler terms and can even measure intangibles such as employee morale or loyalty.”

Is ROI a sound financial measure? Absolutely. Is it the ONLY measure? No. Consider this, what is the cost to our organizations/our teams when we focus so heavily on a pre-determined formula and exclude the big picture? It’s like implementing cost-cutting measures without considering the impact on employee productivity or customer experience. It’s a very narrow view that could be limiting your returns. In addition to ROI, the smarts of measurement, we need to be considering ROE, the heart of measurement.

Measurable ROI and ROE for leadership development rely on one foundational element: Having Skillful Conversations. Leadership development is not an “event”. It’s not a “one-day, two-day, three-day workshop” or “transaction between trainer and participant.”

We can’t go into training thinking “I’m going to deliver this event and then SUDDENLY everyone will change their behavior and we’ll be good.”  Instead, what if you approached training as a development initiative, a continuous conversation to discuss the who, what, where, when, and why of training with leaders, stakeholders, and participants, that begins before the event even takes place and continues long after the event is over?

How to Ensure ROI of Employee Training

Not all of us sit at the level of the strategic conversation. However, all of us play a part in helping our organizations realize better returns on leadership development initiatives. THAT is a conversation we can all add value to. So what can you do to ensure success? I’ll give you 4 tips.

1. Interrogate Reality

Reality is a moving target, which makes it especially challenging to identify clear expectations for leadership development and training. Not only are there differing perspectives of “what is important” based on what functional area you sit in, each person’s individual perspective isn’t necessarily shared by others, even if they are a part of the same conversation. So how can you set clear expectations for training in advance?

As a leader: Have the “What’s in it for me” conversation with your team members who are participating in the training program.

Research has shown us that for sustainable change to occur, insights must be generated from within. Developing a competency or skill just because someone else wants you to do it will never be enough motivation for the change to become lasting. Instead, the more personal the commitment to the learning goals, the more likely the success – If you want to make the learning “stick”, individual ownership is necessary.

As an organization: Before the training is even defined, have the conversations with stakeholders about what skills are required.

A McKinsey & Company report said, “Too many training initiatives we come across rest on the assumption that one size fits all and that the same group of skills or style of leadership is appropriate regardless of strategy, organizational culture or CEO mandate.”

Senior leaders must determine the specific leadership skills and behaviors needed to successfully execute the company’s strategy. Whether your organization is planning a merger, entering new global markets, ramping up sales operations, or creating a flatter corporate structure, it’s important to first think about what skills are needed to successfully execute the initiative.

2. Provoke Learning

As a leader: Provoke your own learning. As a, are you taking an active approach in the learning process, or are you hanging out on the sidelines? If you want to direct an orchestra, you have to learn at least the basics of every kind of instrument. You can’t tell the string musicians how to make a sound you want if you don’t have a firm understanding of how that instrument works. You won’t build trust that way, in fact, you’ll likely get booted off the stage by your own musicians. It’s the same in business. Are you willing to learn the same skills you are asking others to build?

As an organization: Ask yourself, have we created the optimal learning environment? In an inciting HBR article, “Why leadership training fails” when researchers looked at a corporate training program aimed at improving problem solving and communication between managers and subordinates, they discovered that success varied across the company. Improvements were greater in units that had already developed a “psychologically safe” climate in which subordinates felt free to speak up and practice new skills. 

3. Tackle Tough Challenges

As a leader: Focus on the doing rather than the learning.

So often, leaders will follow up on the learning experience with participants by asking “what did you learn?” Being asked the question “what have you learned?” is very difficult for even the individual to answer in an actionable/tangible way. I heard someone say the other day,

“If we consider that learning is a process that we go through to be able to do something new, different or better, shouldn’t we be focusing on measuring the ‘doing’ rather than the ‘learning’?” Brilliant! And YES!!

As a leader you can help support behavior change by actively participating in the doing vs passively asking about the learning. How do you do that? Give Feedback – even when it’s difficult to hear. Building a feedback-rich culture supports behavior change and improved performance.

As an organization: Steer clear of “flavor of the month training”. “Flavor of the month” is what happens when we just keep throwing new training solutions at our perceived skill gaps but nothing sticks – the behaviors never change. Instead of pausing and asking ourselves and the learners, what is happening? Have we missed the real need? What is getting in our way? We just keep finding new training solutions to throw at the problem. The result? There is none. It is the very definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

To avoid the flavor of the month, keep the conversation open by asking questions. Explore this initiative from every angle – How often will you survey participants? How will you gather the data? What will success look like?

4. Enrich Relationships

Often forgotten or overlooked, this is where respect and engagement truly occur as a result of more authentic and transparent conversations.

As a leader:  Reinforce behavior– consistently. Consider this: how important has it been in your career to receive praise/positive feedback on your behavior? A recent Gallup poll found that 65% of US workers receive no praise at all in a given year. A similar survey of 4 million people found that people who received regular praise increased productivity and engagement.  Reinforcing behavior is an essential ingredient to high levels of performance and behavior change.

As an organization: Tie learning to the business and invite the conversation. When it comes to leadership development, it only makes sense that senior leaders and the department responsible for creating and executing training programs come together to determine what is the real skill that is needed for employees to succeed.

To do that successfully you must determine what the need of the business is first. And that requires conversation. Yet so often that conversation doesn’t take place. The lack of real, authentic conversation between L&D and senior leaders is having a direct impact on the value of L&D and the quality of the learning that is produced. I am certain this is not the result that the organization is looking for. If you know a conversation needs to take place, it is you who must invite it.

Bottom line? Skillful conversation is the only way to successfully measure the impact of training on the business and improve the learning culture in your organization. So invite the conversation, with your team, your learners, your leaders, your learning professionals. Consider the benefits when you do.

“When you are in the middle of a story, it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind… ” – Margaret Atwood

Life feels a little like this right now, yes? Confusion. Shattered glass and splintered wood. A whirlwind, to be sure. What do we most need at such times? Well, many things, to be sure; but chief among them is the training department, training leaders, trainers themselves.

Yes, I’m biased, given that I work for a training company. Still, my 2+ year chronology with Fierce, not to mention decades of previous experience, has proven this again and again.

I’ve heard our clients name the costs of training that have been less-than-viable or nonexistent. I’ve had the honor of training our content myself (and witnessing its subsequent results). And I’ve talked with countless individuals in training departments who know and long for the difference that strong, relevant training makes…now, more than ever before.

And as a training leader, because this is what’s most needed, I feel the responsibility to make sure that this is what’s being provided.

Why Training Matters Now More Than Ever

Today, as so many businesses are scrambling to make sense of COVID-19 and its impact on their bottom line, the skill, competency, and confidence of employees matter more than ever before.

The capacity to have conversations and communicate effectively matters more than ever before. And correct me if I’m wrong, but that is exactly what trainers, training departments, and training leaders are all about!

Multiple times over the past few weeks I’ve heard Fierce’s president, name that any and every issue that existed within companies before the coronavirus hit – dysfunction, silos, lack of collaboration and accountability, relationship issues, avoided conversations – is now exacerbated exponentially.

When we are under stress, managing rapid change, and spinning more plates than we know what to do with, those pesky problems we may have been willing to let sit on the back burner are now taking center stage. And generating heat!

Training is of critical value right now. You are!

This is an opportune (NOT opportunistic) time for training professionals to step up and lead. Your front-line understanding of where and how employees are struggling is information and context that senior leadership urgently needs to be made aware of.

Your pulse on what is happening (and not happening) right now could be what makes the difference between success, barely holding on, or far less-than in the weeks and months to come. I do not say any of this to be depressing, but rather, to encourage!

Now, more than ever before, your perspective, opinion, and expertise as a training professional matters. Your proven ability to read between the lines, understand organizational gaps and fill them with viable, relevant, and meaningful learning has measurable strategic impact.

How to Understand the ROI of Training

Let’s look at your ROI, specifically.

A recent post on The HR Exchange Network said that according to LinkedIn, nearly a quarter of Millennials and Generation Z workers name learning as the top item that contributes to their work happiness and more than a quarter of them would leave their job if they did not see a chance to learn and develop (and all this before COVID-19 and working remotely)!

The article went on to list seven more pieces of data that “prove” the ROI of training. All are worth reading, but these three seem particularly relevant, especially today:

• 24 percent higher profit margins can be the result of companies who invest in training according to the Huffington Post. Though countless companies are struggling with how to avoid layoffs, retention is just as critical. Who can afford to lose good people ever, especially now? Valuable, relevant training mitigates this risk.
• Gallup says only 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged. How much more true might this be now that work-remote is a new mandate for so many? And for those who remain on the front lines in “essential personnel” categories, they deserve any and every from of support available.
• Rapt Media says more than $500 billion is lost every year due to employee disengagement. Disengagement is a cost that none of us can absorb in today’s business climate. And when the need for retention and engagement are more critical than even weeks ago, it’s the training department and the amazing professionals within such, who offer the expertise to address these issues and create an environment that not only survives but thrives.

How to Prove the Value of Training

So, what are some ways in which you, as a training professional, can maximize your voice, “presence,” and yes, your value, during this time? A few thoughts:

1. Trust yourself!

At Fierce, one of our guiding principles is Obey your Instincts©. Listen to your gut, your heart, your brilliant mind. Then seek an audience with those who need to hear what you have to say (whether they know it, or not).

2. Lean into what you’ve already trained.

What have you implemented successfully up to this point? Which aspect of your employee onboarding or high-potential leadership program would be most applicable for your people right now? Re-package and re-purpose that content. Send out encouraging emails. Remind people of what they already know, but might just forget in the stress of current days.

3. Take a risk by investing even more.

Though it feels tenuous to consider spending dollars on more training right now, it’s exactly the time to do it, IF you choose content that will speak to exactly where and how your people are struggling. Make the business case. Anticipate what it will “cost” if you don’t invest. Then go back to my first thought above and have the conversation(s) needed.

Despite the understandable inclination to play it safe during such times, this is NOT that time. This is the time to step up, speak up, and innovate in ways that are brave and strong and consistent with who you always have been. I’m sure of it!

Let me finish up where we started – with words from author Margaret Atwood, by way of Dr. Brene Brown in Daring Greatly (which, if it weren’t for the fact that this is her book, would be the title of this blog post):

“When you are in the middle of a story, it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard are powerless to stop it. It’s only afterward that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.”

Be the calm in this storm — a quiet center in the midst of the “dark roaring.” Stand strong in your value, expertise, and smart+heart as a training professional – and all of this on behalf of your employees’ ongoing learning and support. Where and how can you step forward and lead – always and especially now? How can you lean into both your competency and your confidence to provide what is most needed right now? What IS the story you will yet tell?

The problem – All that noise.

I grew up one of four children, all of whom were born on the same day at approximately the same time. I am a quadruplet.

Now, as cool as that sounds (and it was a blast growing up) if you think about it, I have been competing for “position” in this family since I was in the womb. I had three other people who all wanted to literally get out ahead of me, before we ever took our first breath.

Fast forward to when we were 7, and I was still competing — not for birth order, but for a voice. I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be heard and recognized as an individual, not just one of four.

And boy, did I work for it — I grew into quite the little entertainer. I sang, I put on shows in the living room, anything I could do to stand out and get my voice heard. It worked for a while.

Saying “No” To the Noise

Over the years, it seemed the decibel level in the family just kept increasing. With four growing kids, someone was always trying to get out ahead, have a bigger voice, gain more recognition from Mom and Dad. And with the increased noise in the system, it meant I had to be louder too. (sigh)

It was around the age of 10 that I started to retreat on a regular basis to my bedroom and shut the door.

I remember my Mom asking me, “Are you feeling okay? You are awfully quiet.” She grew concerned. Granted, it was a shift from the “norm” in our family. Quiet was something we didn’t do very well.

Clearly, from my Mom’s reaction, quiet meant something was wrong. In reality, I had just made a simple decision to say “no” to all of the noise. I shut out the need to compete and made space to focus on my own thoughts, process my day, and get to know my inner voice. I made space to breathe!

This need for silence and solitude is something I have held onto into my adulthood and I have brought it into my day-to-day business life. While it is incredibly important to me, I have not found the same value of silence being echoed in the greater business community.

The Damage of Missing Silence in Business

As a culture, we don’t do very well with silence. We are taught to literally “speak up!” — those people that do, actually brought their brains to work. Those who are quiet, must have checked out for the day.

We are taught to keep up with the noise of email, IMs, texts, phone calls — the busier we are the harder we must be working…(it is never ending). Our days are interrupted (frequently) by rings, buzzes, and dings notifying us that someone or something needs our attention NOW.

So what’s the big deal? Isn’t all that noise beneficial, isn’t it helping us get the work done? Not really…

When I was a kid and didn’t get my precious quiet time, I can tell you — I got cranky! I was less productive, more agitated, easier to trigger, and usually got into some sort of trouble. I was louder in a not-so-helpful way. I wasn’t “me”.

Research has proven that I am not alone. It has been determined that too much noise raises cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure. It can contribute to memory loss and insomnia. It raises our collective anxiety levels. It depletes our creativity, impedes productivity, and hinders good decision-making.

To make matters worse, research also shows that too much “technology noise” (emails, texts, general screen time) can lead to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, a decrease in communication skills, and other health ramifications such as insomnia and back, neck and eye strain.

Whether the noise we are dealing with is literal sound or it is coming at us from our laptops or handheld devices, that noise is hurting us! Something needs to change.

So, what would happen if you built more silence into your day? What if you stopped talking long enough to actually hear yourself think? Or turned off the cell phone, shut the laptop, and marinated in your own thoughts for a while?

For some of you, the permission of unplugging for minutes or hours feels like a gift — a mini-vacation from the day. For others, I can almost hear you running away from this blog post. But don’t give up on me just yet.

Consider this: studies have shown that silence can regenerate brain cells. In fact, even a few minutes a day of quiet can help regulate your cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure.

In addition to your physical well-being, there has been some fascinating research around the importance of silence to learning, to our performance, and even what solitude does for the mind and creativity.

To take it even further, there are plenty of leaders who have talked about the power of “white space” in their own lives/careers. By his own estimate, Warren Buffet has spent 80 percent of his career reading and thinking. He made it a priority to clear his calendar and spend the majority of his time in thought…in a way, you could say silence built the Warren Buffet we know today. Powerful stuff, right?

At this point I have several of you thinking, “Okay, so silence is important. But I have no time for that!”

(Ahh, but can you really afford not to?)

How to build Silence into Your Workday

For those of you wanting to know how you can build silence into your day-to-day, and still keep up the pace that is demanded of you, here are a few tips that may help:

1. Block out time in your calendar to reflect.

It works for Warren Buffet! Our calendars are not just for meetings with other people. I once had a leader say to me “you shouldn’t use your outlook calendar to block out working or thinking time.”

Hog wash! That is precisely how I use my calendar. To organize all of my time, prioritize what needs to get done, and create the space within which to do it. And it works.

This doesn’t mean block off days or weeks on end of “no meetings”. But I am giving you permission to place a 30 minute, 1 hour, 2 hour “HOLD – DO NOT SCHEDULE OVER” block of time in your schedule per week. (My hope is you work this into a daily practice, but we can start small.) Schedule it into your calendar and don’t compromise this time.

2. Enjoy a conversation with yourself.

During that lovely block of time that you have no meetings, sit with your own thoughts (and absolutely no agenda). Meditate, talk a long walk, plan a personal retreat. Journal or “flush your thinking.”

My cousin calls it “cleaning out the basement,” I love that. What are those deep, collective gems of thought that you haven’t allowed to surface? Put them on paper, see where they go. What brilliant idea is waiting to make an appearance?

3. Let silence do the heavy lifting.

Even in the middle of a conversation. You don’t need your schedule to be void of meetings and interactions to leverage silence. What might happen in your meetings or one-on-one conversations if you said less, listened more, and provided time to think about what has — and has not  — been said?

Insight occurs in the space between words. Important conversations require moments of silence during which we can reflect on what someone has said, and consider our responses, before opening our mouths.

This does not mean we adopt the silence of non-participation, of avoiding topics that are uncomfortable. It means that when a question is asked, we give ourselves and others time to reflect and respond.

How do you do this? Practice the 10 second rule  — When you ask for input or ask a question, count to 10 (slowly) before jumping in with your own thoughts and ideas or to answer your own question, giving others time to process.

Take notice of how this feels the first few times you do it  — how strong is your need to continue talking? What is the impact of creating more space/silence in your conversations?

Noise can be deafening and detrimental to our health, our relationships and our productivity. So pay attention to your own behavior. Are you speaking just to hear yourself speak? Are you getting sucked into the addiction of all of that technology?

Where can you leverage more silence in your day, so the next thing out of your mouth (or typed onto the screen) is truly meaningful?

Over the past 12 months, our Fierce Conversations blog has offered a vast array of leadership development tips and tricks (and the occasional hard truth) for leaders around the globe, people like you, who come here curious to learn how they can start seeing better business results.

To celebrate 2019, we’ve gathered the 10 most popular Fierce blogs to help you start the New Year off right:

#10. 3 Ways to Avoid Being Crushed by Rapid Business Growth

Is your organization rapidly growing? That’s great! Make sure you don’t fall into these pitfalls…and if you do, we’ve got some tips to get your team back on track. Read the blog

 

#9. 4 Tips for Fearless & Successful Confrontation

Avoiding confrontation, no matter how much you hate it, is incredibly costly to productivity and relationships…not to mention your state of mind. Read the blog

 

#8. What Every Manager Needs to Know About Accountability

Are you struggling with missed deadlines, unclear priorities or ineffective execution? You may have an accountability problem. Read the blog

 

#7. Why Being Nice is Hurting Business Results

We’re constantly told that being nice will build trust, being nice will build team camaraderie, and being nice will keep people happy and engaged.  But is all of this really true? Read the blog

 

#6. Actionable Tips to Make Learning Stick

You’ve invested in leadership training, but how do you make sure your organization sees real, long-lasting behavior change? We’ve got 4 easy ways you can guarantee it. Read the blog

 

#5. Here’s Why Different Perspectives Lead to the Best Ideas

You’re probably missing out on some really great and ingenious ideas from employees and you don’t even know it. Start creating a more inclusive environment that fosters innovation with these three steps. Read the blog

 

#4. 4 Tips to Align Values & Behaviors for a Healthier Workplace Culture

Intention can be a tricky concept, especially when it comes to characterizing and promoting values in the workplace. So, you can imagine how difficult it can be for organizations to create values for their employees to exemplify in order to create a happy, healthy inclusive culture at the office. Read the blog

 

#3. 3 Easy Steps as a Leader to Challenge the Status Quo

Does the idea of “shaking things up” intimate you? All great leaders know they have to embrace change in order to succeed, and yet 72 percent of leaders say they never (or rarely) challenge their organization’s status quo. Read the blog

 

#2. 3 Important Conversations to Eliminate a Fear-Based Work Culture

Is fear being used as a “motivation” driver in your workplace? If so, it most certainly is negatively affecting your time, money, relationships, and psychological well-being. Read the blog

 

#1. How to Keep Stress from Sabotaging Workplace Culture & Productivity

High levels of workplace stress are leading to increased absenteeism, health problems, job dissatisfaction, and big losses in revenue. So, what can leaders do to course-correct and start building a healthier company culture? Read the blog

 

“When you come out from behind yourself into a conversation and make it real, whatever happens from there will happen. It could go well or it could be bumpy, but at least you will have taken the plunge.” – Susan Scott, Fierce CEO & Founder.

I have a confession to make: I am a remote employee. I work 3,000 miles and 3 time zones away from my company’s home office in Washington.

Let’s stop and think about that for a moment – 3,000 miles!

Twenty or 30 years ago, that would have been nearly impossible. But here I am, 7 a.m., writing this blog from a small town in New Hampshire while the rest of my team is in Seattle fast asleep in their beds. I am getting my work done, I am adding value, and I am doing it from someplace else.

And I am not alone.

A study released in 2018 by Zug, Switzerland-based serviced office provider IWG found that 70 percent of professionals work remotely at least one day a week, while 53 percent work remotely for at least half of the week.  And these numbers are only going up.

With a growing number of organizations expanding their remote workforce, and more people using technology as their primary source of communication, as a learning leader I am compelled to ask the question, how do people learn in a remote world?

Clearly, I am not hopping on a plane every time I need to learn a new skill. In fact, long gone are the days of solely relying on in-person training to meet our learning needs.

Our budgets aren’t big enough to fly every team member to the same location or take our teams out of the field for days on end. Instead, organizations are beginning to think smarter about the way they execute learning.  Enter virtual training.

Why Virtual Training?

The virtual classroom has and continues to gain momentum as a highly effective learning solution that is poised to take us and our teams into the future. 

In addition to the compelling statistics about the growing remote workforce, we must recognize the simple fact that we live in a digital world.

Younger generations of leaders are and will be expecting their learning to blend seamlessly into their world of tablets, smartphones social media and the internet.  And with a new way of “getting business done” already underway, there is a new gap emerging – how to lead remotely.

Education of our teams, therefore, needs to reflect the experience of today’s learner by combining traditional teaching strategies with accessible technology.

If you have a remote workforce, are a remote worker yourself, or are trying to reach a remote group of learners, here are a few tips to ensure you get the most from your virtual training initiative(s):

1. Ease into the world of virtual. 

I have seen many organizations fail with their virtual learning strategies simply because they tried to do too much too fast.

They went from all classroom instruction to all virtual instruction and didn’t consider the impact on their learners. Virtual learning takes some getting used to it. Allow your learners to warm up to it, to understand the benefits, and take care not to let a new approach to learning overshadow the learning itself.

If you are new to virtual learning, but still want to incorporate it into your learning strategy in the new year, try taking a blended approach.  It is a good way to slowly acclimate your team to a new way of learning while providing a familiar learning environment for your team to come back to.

Blended learning combines virtual learning components with in-person classroom training. This approach has been proven to be effective because it includes multiple learning methodologies and instructional design perspectives.

Content will resonate with more learners, no matter their learning style, because of the variety in the instructional approach. Plus, you won’t give your employees whiplash in the process.

2. Consider the physical environment of your learner.

When launching any form of virtual training, the same scrutiny that you place on the physical classroom should also be applied to the virtual “classroom”.

Ensure your learners are set up for success. If you are launching a course that requires them to engage verbally, to have conversations with other learners over a phone or through their computers, take into account where they will be sitting. Will each learner have a quiet room or space to sit in, or are they in the middle of a boisterous office surrounded by a lot of noise and chatter?

Are learners on laptops?  Desktops? If learners are on laptops they can easily relocate to make their learning environment more suitable for their learning needs. If they are on a desktop (and in the middle of a noisy office space) the learning could be compromised, or challenging at best.

3. Test, test, test…technology.

When I train virtually, my first ask of the client is to test the technology before entering the classroom on the day of training.  That said, I have still had countless instances of internal firewalls preventing access to the classroom, or overloaded phone systems (yes, it happens) that can’t support 20 or 30 employees calling into the same location at once.

Do your due diligence and test the technology in advance. Do your research to see what kind of “load” the systems in your building can handle, or what firewalls may be in place that would prevent you and your learners from successfully connecting to the virtual classroom.

Thirty minutes of time upfront can save you from countless headaches the day of the event.

How to Make Virtual Training Successful

Virtual training can be an incredibly powerful tool when done correctly. Not only will you see better training outcomes (not to mention improved business results), your remote employees will receive a better, more engaging learning experience.

And please, please don’t forget to check your tech before your next virtual training!

It’s no secret that the business world has experienced rapid change and increased pressure to accelerate innovation this year. In response, organizations began laying the foundation for plenty of new initiatives (digital transformation, anyone?), programs and processes in 2019.

While these steps will prove successful for many companies in the coming years, we predict a major player will be at the forefront in 2020 as company leaders continue reacting to the changing marketplace: the employee experience.

As we head into the New Year, leaders across the globe will be unwilling to settle for the status quo — out of excitement, necessity, or both. Based on what we hear from the clients we work with day in and day out, it’s clear that leaders are striving to push the envelope and redefine what it means to provide a better employee experience through all means necessary — especially technology.

From our press release, we predict the following workplace trends will take top priority in the New Year:

1. Remote work will no longer be treated as a perk, but rather a necessity for employee retention. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not only has remote working increased by 115 percent since 2005 with no signs of slowing down, more than 16 percent of the entire American workforce now say they work remotely at least part of the time.

These rising numbers have turned this perk into a vital benefit for organizations in which remote work is possible, hoping to attract and maintain their top employees.

In 2020, organizations will focus on the full working experience of remote employees. They’ll take steps to ensure these employees truly feel that they are an integral part of the company and its culture and that they are not siloed from employees who physically work together.

Organizations will focus on events, training and redefining expectations to ensure these efforts are successful.

2. Leading through rapid change will be a critical skill to master. 

The speed of technology advancement has created a marketplace that demands constant workplace evolution in order to succeed.

According to the International Data Corporation, organizations will spend $1.7 trillion on digital transformation over the next two years. With this rapid growth comes change, and if leaders want their organizations to keep up within their industries, they must fully understand and excel at change management.

In 2020, leaders will focus on training their employees of all levels to embrace the benefits of change and how to properly tackle it using a mix of change management technology, frameworks and team building.

A key aspect of this will be to focus on conversation skills and optimizing performance management. In order for change to be successful, it must first and foremost be people-led versus technology-led.

3. Inclusion will be at the forefront of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) efforts. 

While efforts to diversify organizations will remain a priority, this alone will no longer be enough to remain competitive in the marketplace. Rather, fostering inclusion will be recognized as a separate initiative from diversifying an organization.

In the New Year, creating an inclusive company culture that empowers employees to feel that they can show up to work and be themselves will become more vital as the line between work and life continues to blend together.

Fostering inclusion creates a strong and healthy culture that reduces hostility, not to mention lawsuits. With the 2020 election fast approaching, opinions and tempers will be at an all-time high when it comes to not only the presidential race but local politics as well.

Organizations will work to ensure every employee — regardless of sex, gender identity, religion and beliefs — feel welcome and respected during these divisive times.

4. Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to improve HR outcomes. 

While each employee is critical to an organization, it can be difficult for HR leaders to see the bigger picture and identify trends when focused on individuals.  The ability to use data and artificial intelligence to better understand employees and historical precedent will be an incredibly powerful tool used by leaders.

In the New Year, human resource departments will hire more data analysts than ever.

These teams will increasingly take advantage of predictive technology to determine key data points such as top talent most at risk of attrition, best-fit application candidates, when to invest in employee career paths and areas of HR process improvement.

5. Virtual Reality (VR) technology will become more prevalent in leadership training programs. 

Most leadership and development trainings fail because they are unable to tap into emotions and personal experience for employees to successfully absorb what they learn.

VR simulation will start to transform trainings into experiences that can control what an individual sees, hears and feels throughout their learning. This behavior can also be collected for data to maximize the benefits of the training.

In 2020, VR will become a greater part of the conversation for organizations to deliver quality, immersive training for their employees.

It’s important to remember, as we head into not only a new year but a new decade, that the way HR professionals once approached trends in the workplace is no longer cutting it, and is something organizations are slowly coming to terms with.

It’s an exciting time for company leaders as the opportunities are vast to advance the work we do and the people we do it with in truly transformative ways. It is more important than ever to be focused on the individuals inside of your companies.