Choosing a training and development provider is not easy …                           and that’s why I have decided to go public with my Consumer Awareness Guide.

Recently a friend was telling me about the many tens of thousands of dollars his employer had recently wasted on a “motivation expert” who claimed to be able to “motivate” the senior management and sales team to better performance.

Several months down the track nothing has changed - the staff are not more motivated, the sales team is not performing any better, and business results are at the same level.

How do you ever expect to find a qualified, competent, professional training and development company?

You start by reading this Consumer’s Awareness Guide. ..

In this fact-filled booklet, you will discover:

• How to avoid “cookie cutter” training and development rip-offs,
• Three deadly sins of omission in training and professional development
• Five mistakes to avoid when choosing a professional development provider
• Three methods to find the training professional who offers what you want
• The importance of value versus price
• Why 99% of the professional development programs used by most companies are a waste of time and money
• Why you want a professional development provider who will work with you each step of the way, plus much more …

The goal of small business training and development

We wrote this guide to help you better understand training and development, the goal of which is to make changes that maximize your professional performance and accelerate the results of the people you manage. Change is an inside-out process and can only be triggered by inner motivation, motivation that is fueled by your values, not by another person’s “rah rah” tactics.

You can make your own informed, intelligent decision.

Grab your copy of “The Consumers Awareness Guide To Engaging a Training and Professional Development Provider” now and when you’ve read and digested the valuable and sometimes controversial  information enclosed in the report’s 21 pages, post your response on this blog.

Is Recognition More Important as a Driver of Employee Engagement to Gen Y Than to Baby Boomers?

The Melcrum Blog just published the results of a poll over whether “recoginition [is] like heroin, where you need more and more to get the same effect”. Here’s my personal response …

Recognition as a driver of employee engagement

Yes, recognition has been shown to be one of the drivers of employee engagement, so your poll results certainly are interesting. I’m a baby Boomer (upper end) and I have to confess that I do like recognition ONLY IF it is private and personal – please don’t call me out front and make a public fuss!

Recognition is a basic human need, and my observation across 40 years of working life is that there are generational preferences AND individual preferences within generations regarding HOW recognition is received – public or private, verbal or written, email or letter, formal or informal, encouraging words or a gift/monetary token and so on …

Employee recognition must be authentic

One word of caution about giving recognition – it has to be sincere and deserved. Fake praise has been shown to be more damaging to employee engagement than no recognition at all.

If you think of recognition simply as an encouraging expression of appreciation for a job well done, why would you NOT give recognition where it’s due? After all, research shows that GIVING recognition when it is deserved boosts the production of “feel good” chemicals for the GIVER as well as the RECEIVER!

More ways to drive employee engagement

As a representative of the training and professional development industry I have written a connsumer’s guide that demonstrates why increasing employee engagement must be the number one focus of small business owners who want to be maximized managers and accelerate the performance of the people they manage. You can request your complementary copy of “The Consumer’s Guide To Engaging a Training and Professional Development Provider” here.

Is Recognition More Important as a Driver of Employee Engagement to Gen Y Than to Baby Boomers?

Have your say. Post your observations in the comments box below …

Win at work with best practice training and development …

G’day from Sydney,

Here’s your last chance to have your say in shaping the next round of LeaderCoach training and development workshops, teleseminars and online courses.

Four short questions and you’re done!

Many thanks if you have already contributed in the last month … I appreciate your responses and have taken your needs and suggestions on board.

I trust you got some benefit from the audio gift I made available to you. (Let me know at valuescoach@gmail.com if your gift hasn’t reached you yet).

Who should participate in the survey?

1. Small business owners looking for world class small business training and development to impact their bottom line
2. Managers in corporate and not-for-profit organizations who want to accelerate the performance of the people they manage, without burning them out
3. Individuals who want to crack their unique Peak Performance Code™ and maximize their professional potential.

Both surveys close at midnight on Thursday, 25th September, so click on the links now while the win at work survey is on your mind.

Feel free to answer just one or both …

Here are the survey links

1. Fast 4 Question Survey - Your Professional Development Needs

2. Fast 4 Question Survey - Your Team’s Professional Development Needs

Thank you for your contribution to setting the standard for best practice training and development, and you can expect to receive a small downloadable audio gift from me as a token of my appreciation for your time.

PS

I’m getting really excited about the next Win At Work 101 live one day workshop to be held on Saturday 4th October in Sydney.

Call our office on +61.2 8850.6834 to see if you are a good fit to be one of the 10 participants.

Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #1  - not focusing on increasing employee engagement.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement has become a buzzword that is tossed around frequently and carelessly in small business training and development and in corporate learning and development circles.

Attempts at defining employee engagement have been made by some training and development providers, often involving very complex explanations, but the fact is employee engagement it a simple concept.

Employee engagement happens when a worker is engaging his key natural talents in tasks that are appropriately challenging – not too easy and leading to boredom, not too difficult and leading to frustration.

If you are considering small business training and development for yourself and the people you manage, you may be shocked by the statistics that I reveal in this video into taking immediate action.

Employee engagement has a direct impact on customer service and therefore impacts customer satisfaction, customer engagement and customer retention.

Don’t you think it’s time for small business owners to protect their investment with the right employee training and development?

You want to work with a training and development provider who offers a clearly identified process for identifying the key natural talents of individual workers and who adds value to your small business training and development with a plan to help your employees activate their Talent Code™ for the best possible level of engagement for themselves, your customer satisfaction levels and for your business results.

Look out for my next post and video when I reveal Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #2

Can You Win at Work with Cookie Cutter Training and Development?

Recent research has revealed some dismaying trends in the Professional Development and Training and Development industry.

As a member of this industry it disturbs me to discover that quality programs and providers are being overlooked in favour of promises of “quick fixes” that are delivered “cookie cutter” style, with little or no regard for the ROI of the employer or the long term engagement and development of the worker. The surveys show that many organisations, managers and Training and Development Managers are either taking expensive shortcuts in their attempts to develop their people, or are completely misinformed about what really takes to activate peak performance.

Survey results

A. Here’s what people who want to win at work, who want to maximize their professional performance said in the surveys about the value of the training and development courses and programs their managers arranged for them:

• Not related to overall career development plan of participant
• No choice for participants - one size fits all very common
• T & D not related to current role
• Not matched with talents, strengths and interests
• No ongoing support to integrate the new development into existing work practices
• No time allocated to integrate the new learning into existing work practices
• Training added to time pressures, rather than creating efficiencies
• Information overload from courses added to fear of burning out

What has been your experience of professional development courses and programs as a worker? Contribute your private comments to the survey here.

B. Here’s what managers who are seeking Training and Development Providers for their people stated these unmet needs:

• How to keep their workers motivated and on task
• How to communicate so their people get the message
• How to manage information overload for themselves and their team
• How to be certain the the training provider will deliver “best practice”
• How to get best value for their dollars invested in T and D
• How to ensure the T & D will have a positive impact on business results

What has been your experience of professional development courses and programs as a manager? Contribute your private comments to the survey

Can cookie cutters create real stars?

Managers and business owners want their people to be motivated, to give the best of themselves at work. At the same time, the great majority of workers want to release their talents and achieve their professional potential. Both groups share a similar goal … yet neither is getting what they want on a consistent basis.

What’s the solution?

I believe that managers who aspire to become Maximized Managers need education in how to:

• Start matching the learning needs of their workers, as a group AND as individuals, with the organisation’s goals
• Start Identifying the characteristics of “best practice” adult education programs
• Start Integrating new learning into existing management plans and work practices
• Stop treating the people on the teams as clones

So I am in the process of writing a short, practical and readable report, “The Managers’ Guide to Choosing a Professional Development Provider.” I’ll let you know when it’s available for download.

“The Managers’ Guide to Selecting a Best Practice Professional Development Provider”

This unique document will be available soon … in the meantime, you can contribute by making your private comments in the surveys below:

Fast 4 Question Professional Development Survey for Peak Performance Zone Workers

Fast 4 Question Professional Development Survey for Maximized Managers

Thank you for your contribution to the surveys and I hope our paths cross soon …