Self Directed Learning Resources

But what really struck a chord with me was that there was one recurring theme throughout the article. And that is that in order for all of the above to take place, trusting the employees to do their job and do to the best of their potential while supporting others and themselves is still the most important focus to concentrate on. Helping them be the best they can. In other words, achievement is really about what we do ourselves, but leadership is about what we can make others do. Think about it, for a minute. Is this something you do at work?

L&D/HR - click on the link above to read this article

''Those that fail to innovate around processes, systems and working practices are going to face a very bleak future.''

A recent Sydney Morning Herald article on skills shortages across Australia. To bridge these skills gaps fast, learners are going to need to be hungry to improve their performance, for their own personal reward - not 'reward' determined by their employer. They're going to need to find interesting and/or enjoyable ways to learn what they need to learn (again, this is best determined by themselves with the SUPPORT of their employer) and most of all, these people will need to learn how to learn fast and effectively, and translate that learning to action effectively as well as measure the results.

It's all learnable, contact me if you want help with this in your organisation.

I spend much of my time giving talks to companies, trade associations, and professional societies from the worlds of marketing, IT, and human resources. And whenever I talk to an HR audience, there's someone after the event who wants to talk to me about an article we published in Fast Company way back in 2005. The essay, designed to stir up discussion, was titled "Why We Hate HR" — and it's left a mark. To this day, human-resource executives want to praise it, denounce it, dissect it, and debate it. I guess that's a sign the essay succeeded — and that many HR leaders remain frustrated with their roles inside their organizations and determined to do more.

So here's a proposal. As this provocative essay approaches its fifth anniversary, perhaps it's time to change the debate. The real problem, I'd submit, isn't that HR executives aren't financially savvy enough, or too focused on delivering programs rather than enhancing value, or unable to conduct themselves as the equals of the traditional power players in the organization — all points the original essay makes. The real problem is that too many organizations aren't as demanding, as rigorous, as creative about the human element in business as they are about finance, marketing, and R&D. If companies and their CEOs aren't serious about the people side of their organizations, how can we expect HR people in those organizations to play as a serious a role as we (and they) want them to play?

This is a lesson I've learned and relearned from all kinds of companies that are winning big in tough economic circumstances. You can't be special, distinctive, compelling in the marketplace unless you create something special, distinctive, compelling in the workplace. Your strategy is your culture; your culture is your strategy. The most successful companies I know understand that the most important business decisions they make are not what new products they launch or what new markets they enter. What really matters is what new people they let in the door — who they hire — and how they create an environment in which everyone in the organization can share ideas, solve problems, and develop a psychological and emotional stake in the enterprise.

For example, business strategists rave about Cirque du Soleil and the ideas it has embraced to reinvent the circus and invent a whole new genre of entertainment. But Cirque is every bit as serious about the performers themselves as it is about the logic of the performances. It has developed the most creative and rigorous methodology for recruiting and evaluating new talent I have ever seen, and it is obsessed with making sure its talented recruits understand and embrace how Cirque works. It makes an explicit connection between the people it attracts and the product it delivers, between how it does business and who it invites to become part of the business.

Lyn Heward, Cirque's director of creation, explains it this way: "There are no stars here. The show is the star. That's why our evaluation goes deeper than a talent evaluation. We need to learn about the person behind the artist. How many somersaults you can do is not as important as an open-mindedness to our process, the tough-mindedness to get through the job, and what we call a 'fire to perform.' That's what we're looking for."

Or think about Pixar, the Hollywood hit factory. A few years back, when I first got to know Pixar, what struck me was not the power of its animation technology but the power of its culture — specifically, the mission-critical role played by Pixar University, a one-of-a-kind training complex in which all of the company's people, from security guards to programmers to finance executives, rub shoulders and learn together.

"Most companies eventually come around to the idea that people are the most important thing," says Randy Nelson, who spent 12 years as dean of Pixar University. "It's fine to have wildly talented individuals. But the real trick, the higher degree of difficulty, is to get wildly talented people to make productive partnerships." At Pixar, he concludes, the most urgent question is, "How do you do art as a team sport?"

Or consider the experience of DaVita, the kidney-dialysis provider. This company's remarkable business turnaround was driven almost exclusively by a transformation of how it approached the people side of the business. Under CEO Kent Thiry, one of the core themes of the culture is that "Everything Speaks." That is, even the most trivial issues — what its treatment facilities look like, how colleagues communicate with one another, small gestures of individual kindness or selfishness — send huge signals about the health of the entire organization. Another theme is "No Brag, Just Fact." Thiry and his colleagues know that plenty of companies with toxic workplaces talk a good game about the level of commitment among their people. But the only thing that matters at DaVita are the day-to-day realities of the quality of care it is delivering and the quality of the culture that delivers the care.

"Unless you figure out, together, how people should behave at work, and create the kind of language and rituals and systems you need to reinforce that behavior, you never get there," Thiry told me. "At DaVita, we do a lot to remind people that despite the crushing realities of their day-to-day professional lives, we want to treat each other differently. We want to care about each other with the same intensity that we care for our patients. "

So the next time you, as an employee, get frustrated with HR, or you, as an HR executive, get frustrated with your role inside the company, stop sweating the small stuff and start asking the big questions: Why would great people want to be part of your organization in the first place? Do you know a great person when you see one? Are you great at teaching people how your organizations works and wins? Does your organization work as distinctively as it competes?

If your company and its leaders can answer those questions, then you'll have an organization that is capable of winning — and an HR organization that everyone can love.

"Dickson said that because young people have access to so much information at their fingertips, if they want to know something they no longer have to go to authority to get it. Workplaces are therefore going to have to realise this and be engaged with this new kind of intellectual rigour. Employers will need to encourage bringing new information to the organisation and teach employees how to filter what is relevant and what’s not."

From the article 'The Great HR Debate'

Often we as sales trainers are asked to justify why a business should pay for our services. In this article I will provide 20 compelling reasons why sales training is not simply a cost that your company should carry but rather an investment that all ambitious companies and organisations should seriously consider to help them achieve both their strategic and tactical goals. This applies equally to SME’S with just an owner/founder salesperson right up to large integrated sale-forces teams.

Sales training reason #1 “Increase your sales figures.”

This is self evident. All training courses worth their salt should pay for themselves. After attending a sales training course results should be manifest in increased ongoing sales. The incremental margin easily paying for the sales training investment.

Sales training reason #2 “Increase your skillset”

Sales training courses should leave the recipient(s) of the training with a heightened skillset and a willingness to try new things. Knowledge is power and the more sales knowledge that you can develop the more sales you will make.

Sales training reason #3 “Increase your ideas base”

Very often a good sales training course will act as a kind of internal brainstorm. New ideas relevant to the company will flow from new thinking introduced during the course. New ideas drive results and new innovations drive sales,service and delivery.

Sales training reason #4 “Increase your confidence”

Confidence is key in selling and an increase in confidence stemming from the learning and development from sales training will have powerful results for your sales team. If a new idea is correctly introduced, correctly taught and correctly assimilated the results will be quickly evident on your bottom line.

Sales training reason #5 “Increase motivation”

A motivated sales force is vital for any company. The sales process flows when the employee is engaged and motivated. The twin benefits of investing in employee knowledge as well as giving increased opportunity for commission will ensure a more motivated sales team. Increased motivation also reduces sickness and absenteeism levels and guarantees your team are spending more and better quality time selling.

Sales training reason #6 “Increased retention of staff”

Losing employees, especially good ones is a massive drain on any business. The cost of losing embedded knowledge and recruiting new employees often dwarfs sales training costs.Results show that a well trained employee is more like to be loyal to the company and hence more likely to continue to show up and perform. If you invest in your people they will invest more of their time in your business.

Sales training reason #7 “Increased competitive edge”

Are your competitors training their sales team? If they are, you are at a disadvantage. New thinking, new methods and new techniques resulting from sales training will give whoever is selling on behalf of your company an edge that your competitors may not have. Competitive advantage is tough to achieve at the best of times, sales training is a fantastic and low cost way of forging ahead.

 

Sales training reason #8 “Increase in technical competencies”

Some people are naturally fantastic vendors of your product. Others have to learn this skill and work at it. By employing the use of a sales trainer you increase the technical competencies of the team. This has an effect of raising the bar at the top level but also by raising the lowest common denominator at the bottom. Increase in technical competency may only give rise to a 5% improvement to your top people but it can give a 20/30% boost to your lower performers and close the competency gap.

Sales training reason #9 “Decrease in costs”

Moving away from the increases for a moment and focus on an area that all companies would like to decrease. Costs. Good sales training will create a structure where inefficiencies are ironed out. By training your team to sell better and all that’s associated with that you decrease costs in terms of time costs, output costs, salary to commission ratio cost, opportunity costs and even consumption costs.

Sales training reason #10 “Increase in team strength”

Team dynamic is vital in an organisation that sells. Engaging in a sales training program makes the team bond stronger and makes the flow of information within the team better. It also allows the team to learn and grow together and builds commonalities allowing deeper absorption of the training with the organisation. The team that trains together wins together.

Sales training reason #11 “Increase in professionalism”

Sales is the key skill within the new post recession economy. Nothing else can happen for the company unless it’s selling. Thus sales must be treated as a professional occupation rather than the problem child of the firm as it so often is. Good sales training is a big step towards fostering that professionalism. Good sales training on one level makes the recipient feel more professional about his or her role and on another level sends a message to the trainees that selling is something to be taken very seriously and to be worked on constantly.

Sales training reason #12 “Increase in efficiency”

Sometimes the simplest ideas produce the greatest results. I have often seen sales training where the greatest win is not an introduction of new ideas but rather a change in, or a discarding of old inefficient ideas. A good sales trainer will be able to identify this and tailor the course accordingly.

Sales training reason #13 “Increase in customer satisfaction”

Good sales training produces instant behavioural results, great sales training see a long term ingraining of these results in the everyday behaviour of your sales people. Without customers there can be no company, without more customers there can be no growth. Sales training when delivered correctly fosters heightened levels of customer delight. When sales people view customers as not merely commission drivers but rather as their assets to be nurtured and developed the long term win for the company is huge.

Sales training reason #14 “Increased structural benefits”

Whilst I would never advocate a rigid uniformity within a sales team I do champion the benefits of a structural consistency within the sales team. The sales team must learn to sell within defined parameters and must not be undermining the company offering by “going off the reservation”. This is especially beneficial when a new joiner comes onto the team. Good sales training will give an outline structure that allows visibly and consistency within the team making the process easier to manage.

Sales training reason #15 “Increased ambition”

Often before undergoing a sales training course the sales person is unaware of their potential and handicapped by their beliefs. Properly delivered a sales training course will sow seeds of ambition and raise the ceiling of what can be achieved. Belief is a key component in sales success, increased realistic beliefs will raise the ambition levels of your people and push them to achieve more for themselves and deliver more for the company.

Sales training reason #16 “Increased responsibility”

Sales managers frequently tell me that they need their staff to take more responsibility for their performance. If you decide to employ the services of a sales trainer you get this responsibility instantly. By training staff and giving them new tool and skill-sets to achieve you remove performance excuses. Sales training also shows the team that you are serious about growing both them and the business and ensures that they take more responsibility for their actions and performance.

Sales training reason #17 “Increased understanding and buy in”

By investing in a sales team the company also buys the right to ask more of them. If an organisation needs increased sales figures in the next quarter for example it’s easier to ask the team to perform at the higher level if you have invested in them. Asking for 20% uplift with nothing to back it up can be a hard demand for management to make. If the team have been recently, or are about to be trained, their understand of managements needs and their buy in will be greater. Decreasing the resistance that change often demands can be overcome by a small investment in sales training. We wouldn’t ask our troops to go to war without weapons and so it is with sales people. If you are planning a campaign, arm them appropriately.

 

Sales training reason #18 “Increase in the vibrancy of company culture”

One of the key metrics for a successful sales team is the potency of the company culture within which they work. A strong defined culture generally allows sales to thrive. A weak or negative culture can be a sales inhibitor. A good sales trainer will enquire about the company’s culture in advance of training and tailor the course accordingly. By investing in training for your sales team you build the culture and you strengthen the belief system within the organisation.

Sales training reason #19” Increase the alignment of company and employee goals”

Oftentimes management are so involved within the organisation that they miss the little things that an external sales trainer will pick up on quickly. I have seen management’s frustration with sales teams that are not pulling in the same direction as that of the organisation. Sales training brings the two together. By agreeing an objective with management and then by delivering training accordingly the sale trainer can align the goals of both parties. Sending people on sales training sends a message, delivery of the training makes this message concrete in the minds of the team so that all parties are working towards common goals and all parties understand their roles to achieve this.

 

Sales training reason #20 “Increase the joined up thinking within the organisation”

Too often the people who are selling are left out of the decision making process and this creates an entrenched attitude. Too often the people selling have preconceived ideas about other areas of the business that does not allow a smooth flow within the company. A good sales trainer will investigate the frustrations of the stakeholder departments as well as the sales team before designing a training course. For example one of the biggest hurdles I see when training is that the sales team believe that marketing or I.T. etc are holding them back. On speaking to these departments often the belief is a mutual one. Sales training when done right removes excuses and encourages solutions, the benefits of which on their own are huge to any organisation.

I hope that reading this has been a useful exercise. As a corporate trainer I obviously have a vested interest in selling my product but the above 20 reasons are not simply a sales pitch. Having worked on both sides of the fence, as a manager running a large sales force who had to maximise return on training investment and now as a trainer working to deliver maximum return for my clients training investment I understand the decision making process.

Sales training is essential for all of the reasons outlined above and should never be viewed as cost but rather as an investment. Return on investment is easily achieved when the training is well prepared, well delivered and well followed up. My absolute belief is not how can we afford to pay for sales training but rather how can we afford not to?

Just take a small recap of the above 20 points? If you were asked if you would pay, say £50, to achieve just one of the above points with just one of your people any manager would consider it money well spent. Achieving all 20 of the above benefits is a huge win and it is possible with the right training and the right trainer. Next time you consider the cost of training divide the sum involved by 20 (for each of the points above) and then by the number of people attending the training and you will see exactly how small an uplift is needed in order to guarantee return on your investment.

Simon Kenny is Director Sales and Leadership of Skills4Sale.com

 

A new generation of workers is among us, but how can L&D ensure that its training interventions will make a difference to these digital natives? David Chan explains.

 

The millennial generation is broadly defined as those individuals born after 1985, who have grown up with the web and mobile communications. The impact of technology is not limited to their virtual habits however; it has fundamentally altered the outlook and behaviours of these 'digital natives' in the real world too.

Millennials are used to finding information and socialising online. As such, they tend to choose self-selected teams and crowd-sourced information in everyday life, rather than relying on traditional management hierarchies or authority figures. They also pride themselves on being liberal, diverse and individual, so are more likely to seek out their own unique and entrepreneurial career paths, rather than following the pack.

"Offering training will help to lock-in Millennials for a number of years."

The full impact of 'Generation Y' is yet to be fully felt in the workplace, with the recession reducing the availability of graduate and entry-level roles. But, as the economy picks up, the process of recruiting and training Millennials should become a priority for public and private sector organisations.

Recruitment

With a recent poll from the Association of Graduate Recruiters suggesting that there are currently 70 applicants for every job, many employers will consider the current climate to be a 'buyers' market'. But how do you ensure that you're attracting the best and brightest candidates?

Millennials will scour the web for information on prospective employers, so it's vital to check that your online reputation is as polished as it can be. They'll also be looking out for customisable roles to suit their individual skills mix. As such, presenting graduate schemes as one-size-fits-all commodities won't wash anymore. Finally, will Millennials find your corporate culture appealing? They'll be looking for opportunities to be autonomous, show initiative, and use the tools that they're accustomed to, so how do you ensure that your organisation appears progressive and inclusive?

Induction

Socialising new recruits into today's workplace is difficult at any level – many organisations have an increasingly mobile workforce, which encompasses remote, global teams, communicating largely through e-mail. Whilst Millennials may be happier jumping into this environment than older counterparts, the challenge is to define the authoritative sources of information within these dissipated organisational structures – whether people or procedures.

"With the right training and guidance, Millennials will bring a fresh approach to the workplace potentially revolutionising traditional organisations and bring tangible business benefits."

Millennials will be used to working in their own way, so outlining their freedoms versus the constraints of the organisation will be a vital part of induction training. Do they know when it's appropriate to self-organise or when they should consult their line managers? Are you enabling them to choose their own online tools to get things done, or enforcing standard software across your organisation? And if it's the former, are there policies in place on how they should be used?

Ongoing training

In the age of social media, employees are increasingly becoming brand ambassadors and customer service representatives, regardless of their actual role within an organisation. With Generation Y likely to be the ongoing early adopters of the 'next big thing', they will become increasingly influential in how an organisation is portrayed on the web.

With this in mind, continuous updates to procedures and training will be crucial. Do Millennials know which tools they can use and how to get the best out of them? Do they know what is acceptable to say on social networks? And are information security policies in place to protect your organisation’s data and intellectual property?

 

Appraisal

The entrepreneurial spirit of Millennials makes them far less likely to aspire to a 'job for life' than their predecessors, so continuous professional development is more important than ever. Organisations should ask themselves whether they are doing everything that they can to retain their best young employees.

"Millennials will be used to working in their own way, so outlining their freedoms versus the constraints of the organisation will be a vital part of induction training."

Performance appraisals should be split from development appraisals, to ensure that employee dissatisfaction can be identified early. It's also important for Generation Y's feedback to be taken seriously. Do they have a new approach backed by a business case that could make operations more efficient or profitable?

Finally, offering training will help to lock-in Millennials for a number of years. Going outside of your organisation to external suppliers is a good idea too – Generation Y will be attracted to portfolio careers, encompassing a number of different areas, so offering the opportunity for them to add another string to their bow that can help your organisation will be highly beneficial.

Embracing the opportunity

There is no doubt that Millennials are fundamentally different to their predecessors, posing a variety of managerial and technological challenges for organisations. It should be remembered, however, that with the right training and guidance, Generation Y will bring a fresh approach to the workplace – one that has the potential to revolutionise many traditional organisations and bring tangible benefits to businesses.

David Chan is the director of City University London's interdisciplinary Centre for Information Leadership. He recently co-authored "Responding to the Millennial Generation" – a whitepaper outlining the impact of 'digital natives' on the workplace. For further information, please visit: www.city.ac.uk/informationleadership.

Great article. An important word of warning to large companies. The technological tools of the trade are out there for the Millenials, they're adept at using them, they love using them, so which organisations are not only going to let them use them, but also teach them how to use them to add value in their work?

The organisations who don't, will lose people to those who do.

If you want people to do a better job, give them a better job to do

Interesting article questioning the value of targets, rewards, incentives etc. Worth thinking about. I've quoted the above as it stood out to me. If organisations stopped treating people like 'cogs' in the machine, and instead inspired them to learn and develop and then shared the tools and know-how to self-direct their performance and add value to the business in ways that are beyond their 'cog' role, the organisation would benefit.

The workforce would become better problem solvers, better innovators, understand the business better and perhaps most importantly understand how to align the business needs with their own personal needs, for a joint (and powerful) win:win.

Organisations, HR, L&D and individual employees need to think about this. It's naturally happening anyway, as Gen Y'ers particularly are driving their learning forwards through social networking (however not necessarily in a purposeful strategic direction). In my opinion, organisations need to embrace this ("the easiest way to ride a horse is in the direction it's going") and also teach their employees to create a powerful win:win.