Why Your Sales Training Will Fail
Improving the performance of a sales team is a key objective for many businesses and, as a result, a huge amount of money is invested into sales coaching. In fact, according to figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, total global spending on this type of training has now exceeded the $1 trillion […]
Onboarding: How to succeed with your remote team
We’ve already seen how hiring a remote candidate can pose unique issues owing to the location of your new hire. You need to search for dedicated and motivated workers (preferably with prior experience working remotely) who seem like a good fit for your culture. Whilst this is certainly true, all of these hiring checks will be […]
Improving Your Decision-Making Strategies – 5 Tips
In 1979, Bill Gates was 23 years old and looking for someone to invest in Microsoft for about $30 million. Ross Perot turned it down as “unreasonable.” Obviously, years later, Perot told The Seattle Times, “It was the worst decision I ever made.” Other poor decisions have been made by “big boys” in the corporate […]
Ignore managers at your peril! Your L&D strategy won’t work without them
Managers are a crucial link between the business and employees but how many organisations focus in on them when designing or deploying learning strategies? In this article Stephanie Morgan of Bray Leino Learning looks at how L&D can leverage the relationship with managers to develop more impactful interventions. If you're interested in getting to grips […]
Managing Creative Talent – Training Exercise Needed
I am running some leadership development sessions for a marketing agency. One of their problems is managing really creative people. They have a high turnover of staff and often lose talented people to competitors, clients or other agencies. Most of the executive team have good delivery or creative skills but not so good man management […]
Three reasons why building from within builds customer service heroes
Business growth creates new staffing opportunities but it can also bring recruitment challenges. Think about the lengthy notice and inductions periods, for a start. Strong succession planning provides a more seamless process and ensures a bank of motivated individuals who are ready to step up when needed. They are immediately up to speed and in […]
Survey Shows Importance of Management Training
A recent survey by our company shows how important it is that businesses offer training to managers. The survey, which you can find in full here, asked around 1,000 office workers in the UK a few questions about their feelings towards their manager at work. The first question asked whether or not the survey participant […]
Is an LMS or CRM better suited to a training business?
There are hundreds of business systems and technologies that may assist in training. This blog focuses on the differences between an LMS and a CRM system. Today, technology is essential Expanding a training business without the aid of technology can be almost impossible. Competition is fierce and the internet provides fast access for prospective clients to […]
Why you should never call a high potential a high potential
You rarely see them: job advertisements looking for incapable consultants or salespeople. Most companies are looking for talent, which makes sense. There is a downside to this focus however, as was shown by Californian psychologist Carol Dweck. After the Enron-scandal in 2001, Dweck was wondering how successful companies discern themselves from others. After lots of […]
Coffee briefing: Empowerment, accountability and developing “machine intelligence”
We've spent the past week consuming as many blogs, thought pieces and newletters as we can to bring you some of the more interesting articles out there. Here is this week's pick of L&D news & opinion – let us know what you think in the comments below, or tell us what you've enjoyed reading this week! […]
Working With Employees To Set SMART Goals
People who are in management know the value of setting goals. They are an important part of motivating employees. It is also an important part of establishing a work environment where employees can succeed. Many managers utilize the 10/90 rule when it comes to SMART goal setting. This rule states the initial 10 percent of […]
How to get the best value from apprenticeships
Employers increasingly view apprenticeships as a rich source of future talent; securing the right candidate gives an organisation young learners who they can nurture into keen and loyal staff, eager to learn new skills from day one. In fact, the value of an apprentice’s lifetime contribution to a company has been placed at £105,000 by researchers at […]
Motivation is the ‘root cause’ of culture and performance
Until now, companies have never been able to define what really makes their employees tick, or to measure how motivated they or their teams are. But what actually is motivation and how can it really drive us as people? Combining the results of research in 2015 from Gallup, Blessing White and Towers Watson, an average […]
How do you manage change within your organisation?
Change is inevitable within any organisation. In this blog series we have outlined why employees shouldn't be afraid of changes within their organisation and ways to achieve successful change management: Don't Fear Organisational Change! How To Successfully Lead Employees In Times Of Organisational Change It would be great to hear any other tips or experiences of managing change […]
Bring on the intrapreneurs
The performance is about to start. It’s taken about 40 minutes to attract and engage a crowd that is willing to pay a couple of dollars each. Various members of the troupe have sung, danced, and performed acrobatics, teasing passers-by, gently cajoling young couples, and creating balloon animals for fascinated children. It’s hard work, but […]
Getting ready for your elearning project
Hurray! Your project has been approved. The content is ready to go, project team ready, supplier ready. You feel like you’ve been developing the project for weeks already! There can be a rush to get things done. You might be under pressure to ‘get me a screen’ or ‘get a script’. You've not started but […]
The Nine Box Grid: What’s the impact on employee engagement?
Whilst the Nine Box Grid has become a popular way of trying to identifying an organisation’s future talent, the impact of this on employee engagement is a relatively underexplored question. When managers are asked to rate their staff on the Nine Box Grid, the majority tend to place their staff in the top right of […]
The Nine Box Grid: The problem with identifying ‘potential’
Use of the Nine Box Grid, or variations of it, is widespread in organisations and is commonly used to identify talent within the organisation, particularly those with high potential. Despite its widespread use, views appear mixed on its utility; if anecdotal conversations with HR folk are anything to go by. How open should you be with employees […]
Those Conversations We’d Much Rather Not Have
I once hired a colleague's husband to wallpaper and paint our hallway and staircase. The trouble is, he turned out to be an awful decorator. Really, really awful. Which was awkward. I knew I needed to have a conversation with him, which would result in either an improvement, or, more likely, him leaving and never […]
The mismeasurement of talent must stop
The measurement of talent is a rapidly expanding field, often devoted to measuring aspects of an individual’s personality, identifying their strengths, their preferences, or their type. All of these approaches characterise different dimensions of the human condition, however the measurement often fails because it doesn’t help individuals to develop their capabilities; it just pigeon holes […]
