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 …

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 …

G’day from Sydney,

An Invitation to Maximized Managers … do you want to accelerate the performance of the people you manage without burning them out?

Do you want to be part of the Win at Work Book?

My “Win at Work” Book Will be Published by a New York Publisher!

You can contribute to the usefulness of the book with your response to a 4 question survey …

But first here’s a short overview of the contents of the book, which has the working title “Win at Work - How to Crack Your Unique Peak Performance Code for Exceptional Professional Achievement AND stay true to your values”:

Basically the book will be filled with practical case studies which reveal how workers and managers in a variety of corporate, professional and small business roles have achieved exceptional professional results by:

• Cracking their unique Peak Performance Code™.

• Applying the proprietary P.E.A.R.L.S.™ system used exclusively by LeaderCoach clients

At the moment the book is in workshop format so I need to rewrite it into a format suitable for publishing, refining it as I go to make it as useful as possible for my readers.

This is where you have an opportunity to become involved …

I would really value your feedback through some surveys I will be conducting to make sure that I answer as many of my readers’ training and development or professional development needs as I can in the book. Your situation may become case study to be included in the Win at Work Book.

Here’s your 4 question survey - fast and simple

Just post your responses in the Comments Box immediately below this post:

1. What is your biggest question about how to get the right training and development to maximize the results of the people you manage?
2. Rate that question on a scale of 1 to 4 (with 4 being the most important), in terms of its importance to you
3. What is one experience that drove you to consider getting more education to help you maximize results of the people you manage?
4. What is the one question about getting the right professional training and development for your people that you think has no answer (but if it did have an answer you would jump for joy)?

Feel free to pass the survey on to 3 or 4 of your friends and colleagues

Register for updates

To make sure you receive every survey and follow the progress of the Win at Work Book you need to register for the Win At Work Book updates at http://winatworkzone.com/Win-at-Work-Book.php
You can claim some gifts there, including sneak previews of the book as they are released and a scholarship for my basic eCourse, Hidden Value - Discover What Really Motivates You, valued at $97

I really appreciate your involvement in this project and look forward to your contribution.

Hoping our paths cross soon …

Until then,

Value your life, live your values …

Your ValuesCoach, Karyn Clarke