Steve Jobs, Sheryl Sandberg, Warren Buffet, Colin Powell, and dozens of other successful business leaders have had mentors help them hurdle challenges and knock out their goals. You may have benefited from having a mentor yourself. And if you’re thinking you might make a great mentor for another young professional, you’ve chosen a worthy path. But mentoring isn’t for everyone. Before you get started, take an honest look at how well your natural abilities and interests align with your … [Read more...]
3 Keys to Building a Culture of Accountability: Video
Organizations with a culture of accountability have higher performance, employee engagement, and creative innovation than their competitors. Most executives recognize these benefits. In a 2015 survey of HR and business leaders, 73% selected personal accountability in leadership as the top human capital priority for the coming year. But few organizations are able to achieve true accountability based on trust and ownership. If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming about having employees you … [Read more...]
Effective Employee Training in 6 Key Steps [Infographic]
![Effective Employee Training in 6 Key Steps [Infographic]](https://pract.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/steps-202x300.jpg)
Employee learning has less to do with slide presentations, flip charts, and quizzes than clear business objectives. If you want people to build the skills that make a difference to your success, start by defining that success. Here are 6 essential steps for any effective training program Click here to see the infographic in full size. Classroom not required. You’ll notice that the 6 steps don’t include classroom advice. That’s because the heart of effective training is in the action. And … [Read more...]
Will You Be Ready for Employee Training in the Next Century?
It’s always fun to explore how life might change over the next century. Some people, like Google futurist Ray Kurzweil, make a living out of it. Most people dwell on how technology will change, whether we’ll be living in space stations, or whether we’ll finally get those flying cars. But I find it most intriguing to imagine how learning and work will change in 100 years. After all, we spend a third of our lives learning and working. What will be different in 2117? Work, jobs, and … [Read more...]
The Key Ingredient for Good Soft Skills: Experience
These days when robots and computers can handle more and more technical jobs, our competitive edge as humans increasingly depends on non-technical soft skills. According to a research overview by the National Soft Skills Association, 85% of job success comes from “well-developed soft and people skills” while only 15% comes from technical knowledge. And Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking, writes for Training Magazine that “Nine times out 10, an unsuccessful hire fails due to soft skills, … [Read more...]
No-Nonsense Employee Training: The Best Articles of This Week
Every week, I read dozens of articles about management, human resources, and employee development. I look for advice grounded in reality that small and large companies can easily use to help people engage, perform, and improve. I've pulled the best ones from this week so you can get right to the good stuff. How to Deal with Participants from Hell We’ve all been there. Sometimes you have people in your courses who seem determined to undermine your every effort. Before you lead another … [Read more...]
Video: How to Create Training Your Boss Loves
When budgets tighten training is often the first program to get axed. But what if you could create a program that clearly and demonstrably improves business results? Here's a short slideshow video that outlines the principles and process of creating training your boss will love and keeping your curriculm off the chopping block. … [Read more...]
Proven Strategies to Help Your Employees Embrace Change
If you want to improve your team’s performance, react to changing market demands or gain a competitive edge, you will at some point have to introduce change to your organization. You’ll need to ask people to adopt new procedures, learn additional skills, or take on unfamiliar technology. And if your organization is like most others, you’ll probably have a hard time with it. According to 2013 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Survey, a little more than half of companies who introduce … [Read more...]
Why Leaders and Managers Shouldn’t Have All the Answers
As a leader, you feel pressure to have an answer to every question, to know what to do in every situation. You feel that your team won’t respect your leadership if you aren’t the smartest and most experienced. But be honest. You don’t have an answer to every question, and in truth, the know-it-all boss does more damage than good. In fact, when your employees understand that you don’t have all the answers, you give them authority and responsibility for growing together as a team. That’s real … [Read more...]
Video: 9 Proven Ways to Foster Collaboration
Employees who work together bring in higher revenue and lower costs. Helping your team collaborate could be the most profitable thing you do this year. Learn how with these 9 proven steps. … [Read more...]