Getting S'More from Your Leaders

S'mores, Mallomars, Moon Pies ... all have the tasty combination of marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker that millions have grown to love. It's the perfect balance of flavors.

The name s'mores supposedly comes from a melding of the two words --- "some more" --and the idea that people will want more than just one.

When Leaders Are Like S'mores

Good leadership leaves team members craving s'more. And, if they move to another team, they want their new boss to be just as good as the last one.

Effective leadership is the result of well-trained supervisors, team leaders and managers who understand the essentials of management and communication. BLR's National Employee Attitude Survey uses an online survey to measure the feelings of employees in four key areas, which research shows are critical to morale, productivity and retention:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Supervision
• Career opportunity

Other research shows that the potential for supervisors, team leaders and managers to become more successful (when measured by a more productive workforce) can be determined by the extent to which they accomplish the following:

• Provide a free flow of communication to employees, with well-crafted messages
• Provide development opportunities for team members
• Keep employees motivated and engaged in their work and in the company's mission

Other components of good leadership include the ability to lead with a positive rapport and the ability to make quick and effective decisions. Nothing is worse than a team leader who is weak, indecisive and lacking in confidence. These leaders create uncertainty throughout the entire team, and team members become frustrated. They certainly don't want s'more of this leadership style.

Although a team consists of a number of team members and a single team leader, it's true that the team's success or failure rests with the entire team. Nevertheless, the team leader bears the bulk of the accountability.

Winning a Second Helping of Productivity

Effective teams are those that have the talent and skills to foster self-motivation and self-improvement. The key differentiator is the leader, whose support determines whether the team is inspired or lackluster. Leaders who can design and support balanced teams will have productive teams with members who are ready for s'more.

Beyond the essentials of leadership, the best leaders:

• Build trust between team members
• Inspire and motivate teamwork to achieve goals
• Influence valuable changes
• Are open to new ideas from team members
• Establish an open system of discussion for decision-making on projects and consult key members frequently
• Encourage independent thinking
• Recognize exceptional talent, and then hire those employees and work to retain them
• Recognize and value each member's strengths and continue to coach them
• Define objectives and expectations for projects and ensure that each member understands
• Work quickly to resolve workplace problems
• Evaluate results in a timely fashion
• Celebrate both individual and team successes

Getting S'more: Leadership Development and Talent Management

A global custom research company recently released findings of a national survey that indicated that 20 percent of currently employed Americans would change jobs if the opportunity arose. Obviously, this affects employee retention. However, the study points out, 53 percent of respondents would still prefer to stay with their current organizations --- even if they were offered a better job with another company.

The reason is clear: Those who would choose to stay are working for well-trained leaders who have "leadership plus" --- added skills that keep employees engaged and wanting s'more.

Vital Learning's Leadership Development and Talent Management Curriculum offers a combination of courses to take leaders beyond the essentials:

• Leading Successful Projects
• Hiring Winning Talent
• Motivating Team Members
• Solving Workplace Problems
• Retaining Winning Talent
• Developing and Coaching Others (Leadership or Senior Management versions)

Vital Learning will work with you to develop a customized curriculum for your organization, helping you to make your leaders' skills the best they can possibly be.

Thought for the Day

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

---Albert Einstein

Sources:
Leadership Series (2010). Vital Learning Corporation.
Bruce, S. (Aug. 2010). Which of Your Employees is About to Pull a "Steven Slater?" BLR HR Daily Advisor.
Hill, S. What Makes a Good Team Leader? http://ww.zineArticles.com
More Employees Consider Changing Jobs as Economic Optimism Grows, http://www.gfkameria.com

Employees Want to Be the Boss' Apprentice

In last season's TV show "The Apprentice," they took a different twist. It was centered around professionals who have been affected by the economy. Each contestant had lost his or her job and was searching for a new one. When contestants won a project on the show, they received the opportunity to learn from the best in leadership with a leader from one of the show's corporate sponsors.

Apprenticeship is a system of training the next generation of workers. Traditionally, "prentices," also called protégés, enhance their careers from apprenticeships with training conducted on the job by working for an employer who helps them learn a trade or skill.

To put the idea of apprenticeship into perspective for today, consider that the 78 million Millennials, also known as the Net Gen and Generation Y, are nearly as large a group as the baby boomers. This new generation includes those born between 1980 and 1991.

What Do Millennials Want 

The book The Millennials by Dr. Thom Rainer and his son Jess Rainer, details certain factors based on a massive research project led by LifeWay Research, involving 12,000 Millennials. The study concluded four major leadership focuses for "What Millennials want in leaders":

• Mentoring. Millennials want to be led and taught in the workplace. They want to learn from their "heroes."
• Gentle spirit. They are turned off by loud and divisive leaders.
• Transparency. Millennials want to follow "real" or authentic leaders.
• Integrity. They want leaders with standards and who aren't concerned more about their own personal gain than serving others. 

Applying the Idea of Apprenticeship 

Given these findings, organizations need to examine how their own leaders are leading and training managers, supervisors and team leaders to become relevant in the new workplace. Because Millennials want to learn from others, it makes sense to think in terms of apprenticeship in the workplace. 

Today's leaders must be able to operate in an informal learning environment that positions them as mentors and coaches. They need exceptional communication skills, and they should be trained by good leaders in order for others to follow.

Millennials have a "can-do" attitude about tasks and work habits. They look for feedback about how they are doing, and they expect it frequently. They look for structure from older supervisors and team leaders, and they want these leaders to elicit and respect their ideas, as well.

Leaders can help Millennials become more engaged by providing development opportunities; members of this generation want to know where their careers are going and how to move up. They expect to be challenged, and they look for continual challenges on projects and opportunities for networking.

In the absence of the above, Millennials --- who are adept on instant messaging, e-mail, text and social media --- will network themselves into new opportunities outside their current organizations.

Helping All Employees Learn From the Boss

Research reveals that most employees, Millennial or not, look for common things fromwork. First, respect is a fundamental right for all employees. An important element of respect is recognition and feedback so workers know how they are doing. They want to be members engaged in the organization. They also want to learn new skills, develop their potential and grow in their careers. They want to be empowered and have influence on decisions.

And, they want good leadership. They want to learn from the boss.

The following tips can help employees learn from your organization's leaders:

• Listen to their ideas and opinions.
• Delegate challenging tasks that help them become a part of change.
• Encourage networking on projects and teams.
• Discover what really motivates them and elicit their ideas.
• Coach them on-the-job and give them exposure across the organization.
• Provide frequent and meaningful feedback. 

As an example, the Conference Board, a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest, requires leaders to provide two written evaluations per year and strongly encourages managers to deliver informal feedback at least monthly. Researchers indicate that this type of frequent feedback helps Millennials become engaged in their jobs and improves employee retention. 

Training Leaders to Adapt 

Most organizations' supervisors, managers and team leaders will likely need more training to adapt to an apprentice-style workplace. Look for programs such as Vital Learning's Leadership Series™, which offers targeted, flexible programs that enable organizations to put leaders in action quickly. Vital Learning's flexible programs are available in online and traditional seminar formats to allow organizations to blend learning quickly with their existing approaches. Recommended titles include the following: 

• Essential Skills of Communicating™
• Essential Skills of Leadership™
• Delegating™
• Developing Performance Goals and Standards™
• Providing Performance Feedback™
• Coaching Job Skills™
• Motivating Employees™

Thought for the Day

"By providing Millennials with meaningful and growing experiences, respecting their contribution, utilizing mentoring, giving feedback and staying flexible, leaders can retain Millennials as followers who will develop into future leaders."  --- David Burkus, Millennial and adjunct professor of business at several universities, executive coach, and a student in the doctor of strategic leadership program at Regent University

Sources:

Leadership Series (2010). Vital Learning. 
Burkus, D. (2010). Developing the Next Generation of Leaders: How to Engage Millennials in the Workplace, Leadership Advance Online-Issue XIX, School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University. 
Heathfield, S. Managing Millennials: Eleven Tips for Managing Millennials. [Accessed Sept. 2010-About.com] 
Rainer, T. What Millennials Want in Leaders [Accessed Sept. 2010-About.com]

The Wired Generation and Their Effect on Training

These are wild times, and the new generations are wired for Learning 2.0, also known as social learning. The rise of social media based on innovative Web 2.0 technologies, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, has created a new paradigm for how we approach learning. Consider the following:

• Total Internet users (PC and phones): 1.8 billion (25.89 percent) of the 6.8 billion people in the world.
• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the size of the U.S. workforce in 2014 will be 162 million. Estimates are that Millennials will make up an impressive 47 percent of the workforce in 2014.
• Seventy-five percent of adults aged 18 to 24 who are online have a profile on a social network, according to a Pew Internet American Life Project survey.
• CEOs and industry leaders of all ages are beginning to use Twitter to open dialogues with employees and customers.   
• According to Forrester, interactions online or through other technology and their effect on e-learning indicates that more than 80 percent of adult learning occurs outside the classroom.

Informal Learning Power

 

Social media and learning consultant Jane Hart said, "Once individuals and groups do realize they have the power, ability and tools to learn for themselves, then they will begin to address their own problems informally and quite spontaneously --- without the supervision or intervention of a teacher." It's called informal learning, and, according to an ASTD study, it takes place "without a conventional instructor and is employee-controlled in terms of breadth, depth and timing. It tends to be individualized, limited in scope and utilized in small chucks." 

The Role of the Training Professional

Research indicates that learning professionals still play an important part in facilitating informal learning through social networking tools. It's something that organizations need to get smart about now.

Jay Cross, an informal learning expert, has indicated that formal training and workshops account for only 10 to 20 percent of what people learn at work. Interestingly, he likened formal learning to passively taking a bus and informal learning to riding a bike. The learner chooses the destination or detour.


Author and researcher Donald Tapscott says that Millennials want the following:

• Customization
• To be managed as individuals
• Integrity and transparency
• Value collaboration through social networking tools
• Entertainment through games and simulation 

In the workplace, performance management and training must reflect these needs.

Karie Willyerd, vice president and chief learning officer for Sun Microsystems, said "That social media presents a huge opportunity for the training profession to create strategies for informal learning." According to Willyerd, if the learning organization doesn't use social media, it will become "irrelevant and left behind." This heralds a call to action to become involved, and Willyerd said that it's an exciting place to be.

Getting On Board

In the April 2009 report, "Get Serious about Informal Learning," Claire Schooley of Forrester Research discusses steps to getting on board with Learning 2.0: 

• Examine how you conduct employee training.
• Collaborate with business units to develop effective strategies.
• Use employee performance results to measure successful learning experiences.
• Keep track of how people rate informal and formal content.
   

The many benefits of social learning include the use of online training capabilities that you may already have through providers with comprehensive online training platforms, such as Vital Learning's, which includes online coaching and the ability to link to other content and giving participants the opportunity to share their stories and keep learners engaged. Other benefits include the following: 

• Find and reach new students through Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Promote your own training.
• Create enhanced and timely presentations.
• Stay on top of trends, competitors, market changes through social mining.
• Increase opportunities for participant feedback and create solutions for a deeper experience.

Lessons from Leaders

Consider the following ways these top companies engage their employees:

 

IBM links participants before and after a formal training event. The company uses its intranet-based "Blue Pages" to help employees connect around business issues.

Sun Microsystems adds to formalized learning and harvests knowledge. The company's open learning exchange called Sun Learning eXchange (SLX) takes advantage of the expertise within the community to gather knowledge.

 
Southwest Airlines uses social media to foster professional networks. The company uses Twitter to foster communication among employees and customers.

John Deere use communities of practice (CoPs) to drive innovation, efficiency and lifelong learning. Since 2002, the company has facilitated connections among knowledge workers with a network of 300 communities that cover topics from Six Sigma to mergers.

Get Going. Get Wired. Get Social.

Researchers agree that integrating social learning into formal learning strategies represents a major change, but it will not replace all formal learning. Learning professions will still need to create, deliver and manage the learning function. The change means that organizations will be adding to what they already have and moving the infrastructure to support exchanges.

Formalizing informal communication can make employees more efficient and productive, reduce costs, improve sales and increase retention. The best part is that implementing social media is relatively inexpensive.

Social media and its uses are growing and show no signs of stopping. Joining those who are already wired in social media is an essential part of the job of learning professionals today.   

Thought for the Day
"A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations ... the groundswell trend is not a flash in the pan. This is an important, irreversible, completely different way for people to relate to companies and to each other."

--- Charlen Li and Josh Bernoff, Groundswell

Sources:

Vital Learning (2010). Online training seminars

Fyfe, K. (June 2010). Groundbreaking Book Explains the Power of Social Learning for Organizations, ASTD.

Jarche, H. (April 2008). Skills 2.0, T+D.

Lorens, J. (2010). Learning 2.0, The Best of Social & Informal Learning 2007-2009, T+D.

Meister, J. and Willyerd, K. (2010). The 2020 Workplace, HaperCollins Publishers, NY.

Millenials, Portrait of Generation Next: Confident, Connected and Open to Change, Pew Research Center

Nancherla, A. (May 2009). Knowledge Delivered in Any Other Form Is Perhaps Sweeter, T+D.

Paridise, A. (July 2009). Informal Learning: Overlooked or Overhyped? T+D.

Sauve, E. (March 2007). Informal Knowledge Transfer, T+D.

Schramm, J. (June 2010). At Work in a Virtual World, HR Magazine.

Wilkins, D. (April 2009). Learning 2.0 and Workplace Communities, T+D,

Woodill, G. (April 2010). Worldwide Mobile Learning Trends 2010, Brandon Hall Research. 

The Ugly Truth About Performance Management

What's Ugly

"Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of their employment, and no age or income group is immune."

That is according to a Conference Board survey of 5,000 households. Those under age 25 had the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group. The report shows that dissatisfaction negatively affects employee behavior and retention, and that affects any company's success.

The state of performance management is bleak: A Towers Watson survey of 200 executives at mid- and large-size U.S. companies revealed that only 23 percent have a formal process for talent management. Only 14 percent use metrics to analyze and track their internal talent pools and connect that information with performance data.

Another study by the Corporate Executive Board's Learning and Development round table analyzed survey responses from nearly 20,000 employees and managers. Only 30 to 40 percent of employees said that their managers communicate performance standards and provide fair and accurate feedback in order to help them better do their jobs.

Are Motivation and Satisfaction Really Tied to Performance Management and Development Standards?

Yes. Studies show that managers who improve their effectiveness in employee development by only 20 percent can increase employee performance by about 5 percent. It translates this way: A company with a sales force of 2,000 employees who each average $1 million in annual sales can increase company-wide annual sales by about $100 million.

The widespread realization is that driving better performance depends on effective deployment, development and engagement of a range of people across an organization.

The Gallup Organization initiated a multi-year research project to try to define a workplace where employees were satisfied with their jobs. Using data from 200,000 employees and 36 organizations in 21 industries, five themes emerged: retention, productivity, profitability, customer loyalty and safety.

The study also measured employee desire for learning and growth; understanding the mission and purpose of the company; and leader encouragement for development. Among the elements cited as a key to retaining employees:

• Clarify expectations to employees.
• Give employees opportunities to focus on their talents and do what they do best.
• Provide opportunities for employees to learn and grow.

Jim Trinka, Ph.D. and chief learning officer for the FBI, conducted a study of manager-employee surveys. Focusing on development of others and communication competencies, managers can increase their overall leadership effectiveness by up to 60 percent. Furthermore, of 250 managerial activities, 10 have the most potential for delivering high employee performance. Among these: managers who set clear performance standards.

Trinka's findings show that managers who become more knowledgeable about employee performance and provide fair and accurate feedback on performance strengths can significantly improve individual performance. Discussing weaknesses is also important --- but with the focus on specific suggestions for improvement or development, which improves team member performance.

From the Ugly Duckling to the Beautiful Swan

The following are ways in which organizations can improve performance management.

1. Upper management can set the tone for evolving a culture of development. These members of the organization are good role models. Rather than viewing performance management and development as an expense, consider it an investment that returns dividends in the form of employees who are more committed to the organization and willing to expend the effort necessary to do the job.

2. Create an environment that involves continuous coaching and performance dialogue within work teams. Vital Learning teaches that managers should use positive performance feedback to encourage self-motivation among team members. Another skill for leaders to develop is to encourage and obtain team member participation. Manager-employee relationships improves, day-to-day productivity increases, and individuals and teams offer ideas that result in groundbreaking improvements.

3. Involve employees in a higher purpose. Employees need to understand the organization's mission and vision and clearly comprehend their roles in achieving these. They must see how their work on the job contributes to their performance management. This makes work more meaningful and satisfying.

4. Hold people accountable by establishing clear performance expectations with the goal for employees to contribute to the organization. Another Vital Learning technique teaches leaders to work with employees by developing performance standards that are S.M.A.R.T.-based:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Results-Oriented
• Time-Framed

Employees feel motivated and satisfied if they are delivering on their work promises to the team, the manager and all company stakeholders.

5. Align the performance culture with engagement strategies, job design and reward systems to maximize motivation. Sonoco created a pay-for-performance system that establishes clear links between performance and rewards based on individual and group measurements. Employee satisfaction and engagement improved markedly. In 2005, Sonoco was named by Hewitt Associates as one of the top 20 talent management organizations in the United States.

Final Thoughts

Developing performance management and setting employee development standards may not be completely ugly in your organization. However, even if your skills are good, it is critical to your organization's success that you continually improve whenever possible. With a well-defined approach in these areas, employees will become more committed, engaged and satisfied --- and this results in less stress and greater productivity for everyone.

Thought for the Day

"The secret to high performance and satisfaction --- at work, at school, and at home --- is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world."

--- Daniel H. Pink, Author of

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Sources:

Barrington, L., Franco, L (Jan. 2010). Conference Board report on engagement.
Coffman, C. (2000). Is Your Company Bleeding Talent? The Gallup Organization.
Developing Performance Standards (2010). Vital Learning
Fairlie, P. (2010). 10 Ways to Make Work More Meaningful, Workforce Management.
Lockwood, N. et. al (2010). Motivation in Today's Workplace: The Link to Performance, Research Quarterly, SHRM.Schade, J. (2010).
Providing Performance Feedback (2010). Vital Learning.
Towers Watson (Oct. 2009). Managing Talent in Tough Times. A Tipping Point for Talent Management
Trinka, J. (2010). Action Plan to Achieve Breakthrough Improvement in Employee Productivity and Leadership Effectiveness, GovLeaders.org.
Trinka, J. (2009) What's a Manager to Do? GovLeaders.org

Keeping the Talent Pipeline Full

The quest for finding top talent is not just an American phenomenon. Organizations around the globe are seeking top talent in order to remain competitive. This begs the question: Does your organization work to keep fresh talent in its pipeline?

Managing the Talent Pipeline

Despite global economic conditions, the search for talent worldwide is predicted to intensify in the upcoming years. In developed countries, organizations are finding it difficult to recruit and retain skilled workers.

Several factors complicate talent acquisition: aging populations, younger workers who lack skills and experience, the gap between education and the skills organizations need, lack of investment in training, and societal and generational changes in how people want to work are just a few.

A study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit indicates that companies are implementing talent management strategies to address the following:

• Globally, sourcing talent is more competitive in attracting talent.
• Organizations expect to experience difficulty in finding talent with the success-driven skills necessary to manage change, think strategically, communicate effectively, and analyze and solve problems.
• Talent management should be integrated with business strategy, implemented by business units and supported by HR.
• Nontraditional approaches to recruitment will be needed.
• Organizations will need to work more collaboratively with educational institutions to develop training programs to develop the skills they need.

Other studies identify an issue with younger generations and their high expectations for on-the-job development. This creates a problem because these workers are more likely to consider leaving if their talents are not developed.

Underscoring the need for talent management is identification of the skills needed in a complex work environment:

• Acceptance and management of change
• Strategic thinking
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Analytic and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work in teams collaboratively and virtually
• Project management skills
• Management skills
• Industry knowledge

Is Your Talent Preparing to Leave?

In June 2010, the U.S. government reported that the number of people who quit their jobs for positions at other companies rose to nearly 2 million in April. This signals that many who clung to their jobs out of fear now feel more confident about the job market --- in fact, they feel more confident than they have in a year.

David Adams, vice president of training at Adecco, said, "The hangover is kind of over."This could signal a mass exodus of talent in the post-recession.

Results of a May 2010 Harvard Business Reviewsurvey questioned 20,000 workers identified by their employers as "high-potential." About 25 percent of companies' top performers indicated that they plan to leave their current jobs within a year.

The loss of talented employees can have a damaging effect on organizations because these workers usually possess key skills and knowledge. Moreover, covering a departed employee's work and finding a replacement is expensive.

Leaders and supervisors affect employee retention by influencing factors that lead to an employee's disengagement and disenchantment with the organization. In order to retain winning talent, organizations must leverage both a talent management system and train high-potential leaders to actively work with their best employees.

High-Potential Leadership's Effect on Talent

Teaching leaders effective talent management strategies is one of the most important elements of the approach itself. Organizations must train high-potential leaders to recognize potential in others. The Center for Creative Leadership has found that high-potential employees expect their leaders to recognize their potential, discuss it with them and develop them accordingly. The study states that high-potential employees expect the following:

• Visibility and access
• Special assignments
• Training
• Greater responsibility
• Promotion and rewards
• More opportunities in general
• Freedom and flexibility

Leaders should be trained to communicate clearly with high-potential employees about their career paths. Training leaders to coach and delegate appropriately in order to provide talented team members with decision-making autonomy is also key to obtaining and maintaining employee commitment and engagement.

Recent studies have examined the ways in which employees become not only engaged but also embedded in their jobs. High-potential leaders can help high-potential talent by supporting them in community involvement, as well as in professional and community life. These leaders build a more positive team culture and provide more challenging jobs with well-defined career paths. They make team members feel more valued --- and leaving their positions is more difficult when employees have reasons to stay.

More than a Strategy

In today's complex environment, creating a talent management strategy can be tricky. A study in The Harvard Business Reviewindicated that most companies actualize only 63 percent of their strategy value because of lack of planning and execution. This is another indicator of the importance of well-trained leadership with a commitment to the talent plan.

When the recession is over, will your talent pipeline be ready and full? Talk to your Vital Learning training provider today about your strategy and Vital Learning's Hiring Winning Talent™ and Retaining Winning Talent™ programs, two valuable seminars that can help your organization prepare for the days after the recession.

Thought for the Day

"It is not just talent alone that is important...Talent without teamwork is not sufficient."

---Dave Ulrich, Author and Professor of Business Administration

Sources:

Allen, D. (2008). Retaining Talent, SHRM Foundation
Campbell, M. and Smith, R. (2010). High Potential Talent A View from Inside the Leadership Pipeline, Center for Creative Leadership
Hiring Winning Talent (2010). Vital Learning Corporation
Leonard, C and Rugber C. (June 2010). MSNBC.com
Murray, S. (May 2008). Talent wars: The struggle for tomorrow's workforce, The Economist Intelligence Unit
Murray, S. (May 2008). People for growth.The talent challenge inemerging markets
Retaining Winning Talent (2010). Vital Learning Corporation

Eight Strategies for Effective Meetings

We've all been to "those" meetings --- the ones where it seems like nothing is accomplished or where the same old topics are discussed with no resolution. The most productive, effective and engaging meetings require clear objectives, open communication and strong leaders who understand the essentials of communication:

• Design clear and concise messages.
• Pay attention to nonverbal cues.
• Listen to feedback.
• Overcome barriers to understanding.

The way in which meetings are conducted to some extent determines an organization's culture. Beneficial meetings are productive, timely, useful and relevant, and they are the result of good leadership.

Case Study: UPS

UPS holds daily pre-work communications meetings at the beginning of every shift. This practice has been part of the company's culture at all of its centers worldwide since 1924. These highly structured meetings last only three minutes, and managers are responsible for delivering important information before drivers start the day.

UPS's meetings help reinforce the company's values on a daily basis, as well as provide relevant information, such as updates about weather and road conditions, safety reminders, and customer service tips. Employee anniversaries are also mentioned during these meetings. UPS has found a formula that works to provide timely information to and elicit feedback from a large workforce.

To Meet or Not to Meet, That Is the Question

Many organizations exhaust and overwhelm employees with meetings. Thanks to e-mail, everyone has at their fingertips the power to invite people to meetings. The problem is that nowadays meetings are often called when informal communication would work better and save everyone time.

According to one university professor, the best way to determine whether a meeting is appropriate and necessary is to find out whether the communication is one-way or if feedback and consensus are needed.

Consensus-building works best face-to-face; thus, a meeting is a good idea in these situations. If, however, feedback and consensus are not required, then an informative e-mail can work just as well.

Strategies for Effective Meeting

1. Plan the Meeting Objectives. If you are leading the meeting, you must know why you are calling it. Clearly write down 10 to 30 words about the purpose and objective of the meeting prior to completing your agenda. Preparing this at least an hour or so before sending the meeting invitation is helpful because you can set it aside and revisit it before you actually send the invitation. By reviewing the information, you perform a "gut check" to determine whether everything still seems necessary and relevant.

Along with the invitation, you should craft an agenda that provides a framework for the meeting length necessary to accomplish the objective. If you hold a regular weekly meeting, then a standard meeting format is also useful.

2.Invite the Right Participants. Invite only those team members who really need to attend to contribute, carry out action plans or make decisions. Including superfluous attendees may slow progress, or they may resent being invited to a meeting that they don't really need to attend.

3. Notify Invitees if They Need to Prepare. Meeting leaders and facilitators should ensure that that participants are informed about any advance preparation required of them or anything they need to bring to the meeting, e.g., reports, records, etc.

4. Start and End on Time. Always respect attendees' time commitments, especially those who are coming from previous meetings or who need to move on to the next meeting. End your meeting a few minutes early, if possible.

5. Preserve Order and Focus. Your organization should have established standard meeting practices or ground rules for meetings, as well as expectations to be followed. Always designate someone to be responsible for taking accurate notes and reviewing minutes with the meeting leader before sending them to meeting participants. Creating a standard format for meeting notes will also prove helpful.
Although conflicts and heated discussions sometimes occur, good leaders keep meeting participants focused on the agenda, give everyone a chance to be heard and redirect topics that need further discussion as action items to be resolved during a separate meeting.

6. Assign Tasks and Obtain Participant Agreement. As soon as consensus is reached on a subject, assign an action item to the person(s) who will be responsible and accountable for it, and be sure to set a deadline for the action item. Then, obtain participants' agreement that they understand and accept what is required of them.

Be aware of nonverbal cues given by participants during consensus, assignments and agreements. Probe and clarify directions so that participants understand what is expected of them and commit to the task. Recap during the last few minutes of the meeting and verify that everyone has the same understanding.

7. Follow up and Check Action-Item Status. Leaders should follow up with participants after the meeting minutes are sent in order to help smooth out any misunderstandings that may have occurred during the meeting. Status checks ensure that action items are on track, questions are answered, unanticipated roadblocks are discovered and better decisions can be made.

8. Keep on Track. Good leaders recognize issues or problems early on, and they attempt to correct such situations, e.g., participant conflict, task completion breakdown, lack of collaboration, etc. Failure to stay on course impedes progress, costs money, and affects delivery and quality.

Attendees and team members often perceive poorly run meetings as a waste of time. Meetings do have a place, and conducting a productive meeting requires that you invite the right people to the right place at the right time to collaborate, make decisions, and set the course for action items and project fulfillment.

Thought for the Day

"It gives them a guide to where you're going. It has a point of view and an action step. You're influencing them toward something, not just informing them."

---Bert Decker, Communications Consultant on Meeting Agendas

Sources:

Essential Skills of Communication, Vital Learning (2010)
Define Goals and Distribute an Agenda, B-NET
Kalvar, S.T. (May 2006). 10 Things You Can Do to Organize and Lead Effective Meetings, Tech Republic Project Management Newsletter.
Let's Be Careful Out There (Case Study), B-NET
Make Every Meeting Matter-or Don't Meet At All, B-NET
Mochal, T. (Jan. 2006). Use Time Wisely With Effective Meeting Management, Tech Republic Project Management Newsletter.

Keeping Cool When Things Go Wrong

"He dozes off after lunch for 15 minutes in his cubicle."
"Her tattoos are distracting me."
"He rolls his eyes every time I speak."
"It's not fair that she takes all the credit for the team project."

You may hear complaints like these frequently in your workplace. According to a 2009 CareerBuilder national survey of 2,667 hiring managers, unusual complaints are commonplace.

In everyday life, communication breaks down and misunderstandings occur even more frequently in a diverse workplace. The varying perspectives about how to get a job done or directives from the top can become a breeding ground for complaints and conflict.

Effective leaders make it clear to all team members that they want to hear their complaints. Then the leaders deal with the complaints in an even-handed way to resolve the underlying problems. Constructive working relationships are maintained. The workplace remains productive.

Managers and supervisors must deal with three areas in order to keep the workplace cool: managing complaints, mediating conflicts and using discipline effectively. Without training in these areas, leaders are unequipped to handle these situations. Everyday issues become problematic and can explode like a powder keg.

Unresolved complaints and grievances cost an organization time and money. The flip side of this is that well-trained leaders know that complaints, conflicts and effective discipline provide an opportunity for open communication, produce better solutions and keep the workplace productive.

Intervening to Keep the Cool

Whether you work in a large corporation or for a small nonprofit organization, the potential exists for growth and development as a result of a complaints, conflict or discipline. There are four areas of interaction in which a leader may intervene:

• Individual or between individuals
• Team or groups
• Inter-group
• Throughout the organization

First, it is important to understand the style differences of individuals. People don't communicate in the same way, and this influences how they react to each other in the workplace. When leaders understand their own styles, they can better understand and value the differences of others. This is a self-awareness practice that leaders can use to articulate clear business goals and keep individuals and teams focused.

According to a global study, "Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness it to Thrive," 54 percent of U.S. workers, report a better understanding of others after conflict, versus 42 percent of workers globally. Furthermore, forty percent of U.S. workers find that conflict leads to better solutions to workplace problems, comparedwith 31 percent globally.

Leadership training for conflict resolution should focus on four key objectives:

• Accept conflict as an inevitable part of all work situations and deal with it in order to maintain individual and team focus and productivity.
• Recognize positive and negative impacts of conflicts so that they may be leveraged for all involved.
• Recognize the sources of conflict so that they can be resolved fairly, effectively, respectfully and amicably.
• Establish a cooperative atmosphere to resolve conflict as they arise.

When Discipline Is Necessary

When team members perform their jobs while keeping with the established standards, they do so out of a sense of self-discipline. Occasionally an employee may lapse, but a reminder from the team leader usually puts the entire team back on track. If a team leader overlooks the situation, then the issue may continue and the team member may not realize that a certain behavior is unacceptable. When the team leader fails to respond altogether, the situation can deteriorate. Co-workers may be watching a bad situation unfold. If it persists, then morale suffers.

The effective team leader approaches the team member on a mature level, presenting the disciplinary matter as a problem to be solved by the team member. Using this communication strategy elicits an adult response and a solution to the problem. The team leader obtains the team member's agreement to solve the problem, evaluate possible solutions and select the best course of action. This works because the team member is committed to, and has responsibility for, maintaining appropriate behavior.

Mediation as a Cool Strategy

Mediation is a strategy to use when issues have progressed without resolution through other means. Mediation involves the voluntary agreement of conflicting parties to consult a neutral third party to help them reach a resolution. Even if no resolution is achieved through the mediation itself, employers can demonstrate that solid steps were taken to investigate and evaluate the problem.

Mediation generally results in a quicker resolution, reduces costs and preserves relationships. Disagreeing parties often are able to resolve the dispute better than a third party issuing a decision. Mediation is particularly useful in addressing the underlying cause of a disagreement so that a resolution can be found and damaged relationships can be healed.

Some Final Tips

Keeping the workplace cool is not always easy. But, it is possible to encourage more harmony in a culture that values issue management. First, train supervisors to communicate more effectively. Train them in conflict-resolution, managing complaints and effective discipline skills. These should be treated as core competencies for leaders. Leaders should also be able to set clear expectations for their teams. Leaders also should have an open door for listening to concerns, and they should know when to intervene.

Contact your Vital Learning representative to learn how to create a training system for your leaders in the area of conflicts, complaints and discipline.

Thought for the Day

"Working relationships are less likely to be damaged when the individuals in dispute listen to each other, share opinions and feelings, and determine their solutions."
--- Jim Hanley, Adjunct professor and Mediator

Sources:
Effective Discipline (2010). Vital Learning
Managing Complaints (2010). Vital Learning
Resolving Conflicts (2010. Vital Learning
Gurchiek, K. (Aug. 2009). Big Hair, Magnetic Personality Among Oddball Co-worker Complaints, SHRM.
Hanley, J. (April 2010). Transformative Mediation, HR Magazine.
Mooney, J. (Jan. 2009). Coaching Can Help Counter Personality Clashes, SHRM.
Wolfinger, P. (Dec. 2008). Workplace Conflicts Differ by Persona and Locale. SHRM

Transforming Your Organization's Culture

Using training to give your organization's culture a boost for current and prospective employees is imperative for 2010 and the upcoming decade. To remain competitive and increase productivity, businesses must hire and retain high-achieving employees. That's difficult to achieve if your culture has a negative reputation and does not engage employees.

The Disengaged and Dissatisfied

Disengaged employees create a culture of absenteeism, conflicts, turnover, declining work quality, loss of productivity and reduced customer satisfaction. This affects an organization's bottom line with loss of customers, diminished revenue and reduced market share.

In the Conference Board's annual job satisfaction survey, 22 percent of respondents said that they don't expect to be in their current job in a year. John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services, said, "The data throws up a big red flag because the increasing dissatisfaction is not just a 'survivor syndrome' artifact of having coworkers and neighbors laid off in the recession."

Although many leaders consider recruitment and employee retention critical to business, few are actually prepared to address the issues with the appropriate training. A Towers Perrin study of 650,000 employees found that fewer than two out of three believe that management provides a clear business road, down from 1 out of 100 in 2008.

Communication Training: Road Map for a Better Culture

Training leaders for enhanced communication skills improves their ability to provide a clearer picture of what is expected from employees. Providing a roadmap for engagement boosts morale and helps transform the business culture for the better.

Studies show that improving employee morale creates an effective workplace culture regardless of organization size or industry. A Sears study, in conjunction with the University of Michigan Business School, linked employee satisfaction with customer retention. It found that as employee satisfaction improves, so does customer satisfaction, and this can increase quarterly revenue by about 1.6 percent.

So what does improving an organization's culture accomplish? Effective and productive cultures have the following characteristics:

• Effective workplace practices
• Opportunities for two-way communication and feedback about what is and is not working
• Flexibility in the workplace
• Supervisors and managers who treat employees with respect and dignity
• Effective problem-solving and conflict management skills
• Demonstrated value of employees
• Supervisor and co-worker support for employees
• Employee input into management decision-making
• Collaboration between management and employees in deciding schedules, developing customer service protocols and designing solutions for efficient business operations
• Managers who seek to bring out the best in workers by providing training and enrichment opportunities

According to a National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) conducted by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), organizations that adopt effective workplace principles have employees who are more loyal, engaged and productive:

• Eighty-three percent of employees express high levels of job engagement and commitment.
• Eighty-one percent express high levels of job satisfaction.

Preparing Leadership

Driving the imperative for transforming a culture is a multigenerational and highly complicated workforce challenge. Stephen Parker, chief commercial officer of Healthy Companies, said, "Our research indicates widespread uncertanity about the future. Many CEOs will be severly tested in the decade ahead. CEO's are struggling to build trust with their employees."

Research is indicating that mid-level and first-level leaders are lacking in readiness to fulfill workforce challenges. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) conducted a study called "Understanding the Leadership Gap." Among the competencies identified were the following:

• Building and mending relationships
• Compassion and sensitivity in showing understanding to human needs
• Acting resolutely when dealing with problems
• Being culturally adaptable
• Coaching and encouraging employees to develop their careers
• Inspiring commitment by recognizing and rewarding employees' achievements
• Leading people by directing and motivating them
• Managing change effectively
• Respecting individual differences

By training leaders in these areas, organizations can take the first step in achieving a better culture.

Prescription for Transformation
Vital Learning offers training programs and tools to help organizations get started in building a more positive culture:

• Start with the Leadership Skills Assessment™ to pinpoint the individual training needs of managers and supervisors. This assessment is linked to Vital Learning's Leadership Series™ programs that address critical leadership competencies
• Consider Essential Skills of Leadership™ and Essential Skills of Communicating™ as foundational training.
• Leadership mini-series packages are available to incorporate into training plans.
• Flexibility of both classroom-based and online training formats provides opportunity for creative learning opportunities, such as collaboration and coaching

Moving Beyond the Babble to a Climate of Open Communication

Leaders are role models, trendsetters, visionaries and voices for change within their organizations. Change is everywhere, and today, there is constant babble about what should be done to improve an organization. But the message is unclear. Employees often don't know why a change is being implemented and how their jobs contribute to the intended result.

Employees want to know the answer to the question, "Why should I care?" They want to know from leaders what the plan is and what the outcome will be.

Most employees rarely learn the reasons for major change initiatives from the top of the organization, and they are not often asked for their input or involvement. Thus, major change becomes disruptive.

The culture becomes cold and unproductive.

Managers should share the organizational vision and explain each employee's role in the company's future. If leaders don't communicate, it shows employees that they don't care about them and that the employees are not a priority. In addition, many leaders are only interested in communicating operational or financial information to employees. Employees become frustrated with leaders who don't listen to them.

At this point, leaders lose their credibility.

Fostering an Engaged Culture With Communication

Curt Coffman, co-author of First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently and Follow This Path: How the World's Greatest Organizations Drive Growth by Unleashing Human Potential, said that when an employee first joins a company they are highly engaged. The first year with an organization is often their best.

Too many times, the jubilation doesn't last. Employees can become unengaged (wait-and-see attitudes, which are neither positive nor negative) or actively disengaged (against everything and sharing unhappiness with others every day). Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees --- the least productive --- cost the American economy up to $350 billion a year in lost productivity.

Engaged employees consistently perform at high levels, and these are the employees organizations need to keep. To retain this winning talent, organizations must have strong managers capable of building relationships and able to construct clear communication. Furthermore, organizations must be clear about what they expect and ensure that managers or supervisors care about their employees.

How They Do It: Communication Lessons From Leaders

Former U.S. Secretary Colin Powell said, "Optimism is a force multiplier." Leaders should communicate to employees that things can change with outstanding results and that the company will be the best in class.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes coffee, of course, but he's also passionate about creating a workplace that treats people with dignity and respect.

Microsoft's leaders created a forum for sharing internal and external communication plans across the business to build a "one-company" approach that preserves the integrity of individual division plans where they are relevant to separate audiences but also enables employees to identify connection points between plans. Through the use of its communication technologies, Microsoft uses a "storytelling" framework that cuts through babble and clutter. Company leaders practice constructing messages that are respectful, essential, professional and unambiguous.

Cisco doesn't describe itself in technical terms; instead, leaders communicate the company as one that changes the way people live, work, play and learn. Employees want to become part of the bigger picture by contributing to the company. Cisco's leaders craft and deliver the company's vision in messages that are concise and specific and that draw on emotions.

One leader at Google holds office hours where anyone can sign up for time to provide feedback on topics or projects.

The Ritz-Carlton holds daily staff meetings where leaders share stories of employees' outstanding service. This is motivational for employees, and creates a positive attitude throughout the workplace.

Delivering on the Communication Promise

Employees are motivated indirectly through leadership and communication. However, research shows that less than half of employees are typically satisfied with communication from senior leaders.

"Leaders strategically use communication to produce enthusiasm and foster an atmosphere of open exchange and support," said James A. Trinka, Ph.D., chief learning officer at the FBI. "They are adept at energizing people to see pathways that get to goals-despite challenging conditions."

Leaders must learn skills to present themselves as principals who communicate well. The following are characteristics of leaders who communicate and deliver effectively:

• Communicate with transparency to show employees they are valued. When you communicate with open lines of dialogue, employees know they are appreciated.
• Deliver praise and provide feedback.
• Be honest. Talk straight. If something is critical, like quality, then say it.
• Be respectful. Don't talk down to employees. Treat them like adults.
• Listen to employee feedback without being reactive.
• Be open. Even during times of crisis, tell employees what they need to know.
• Be timely. Employees shouldn't be the last to know about a change or major company issue or announcement.

Harvard professor John Kottner, said, "First, help the group establish some sensible direction. ... Second, great leaders are all good at getting relevant partners align with, buying into, and believing in the direction they have set. ... Third, is the ability to create conditions that energize and inspire people to get off their fannies."

Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Communicating™ can help organizations build a successful culture, ensuring that managers understand the two-way communication process. During this program, leaders learn the following:

• Design clear, concise and interesting messages
• Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the message
• Listen actively to employees
• Create a climate of open communication for greater employee motivation and engagement

Leadership in Action: Become an Undercover Boss

The new television show "Undercover Boss" allows the audience to ride along as CEOs pose as frontline employees to find out what things are really like in their own companies. Through the magic of television editing, we see good people working hard for their companies, although sometimes a procedure breaks down here and there. The real story in organizations, however, could prove to be much different.

A new Towers Perrin Global Workforce study, "Closing the Engagement Gap: A Road Map for Driving Superior Business Performance," shows the complex nature of what actually goes on in most organizations.

The study reveals that employees do care about their work, and they want to learn and grow. They also want stability and security, and with the right opportunities and resources, they'll commit to a company. Although these are positive, there is a downside: The global workforce is not as engaged as they must be in order to drive results.

The Current State of the Workplace

The Towers Perrin study shows that four out of 10 employees surveyed said they were either "disenchanted" or "disengaged" --- which means they are not working to their true potential because they don't have any motivational connections to the organization.

Gallup polls spanning 1989 to 2009 show that 85 to 94 percent of respondents said they were completely or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. The Conference Board reports workers' job satisfaction dropped sharply from 1987 to 2009:

• Interest in their work decreased 18.9 percent.
• Job security decreased 16.5 percent.
• Interest in the people at work decreased 11.6 percent.
• Satisfaction with supervisors decreased 9.5 percent.

These results further define the underlying problem growing in the workplace: The growing disconnection for employees and their employer is exacerbated by layoffs, budget cuts and continued uncertainty. Employee confidence in long-term career opportunities has dwindled.

The Towers Perrin study defines engagement as "employees' willingness and ability to contribute to company success" and measures employee engagement based on three dimensions:

• Rational: How well employees understand their roles and responsibilities
• Emotional: How much passion and energy employees bring to their work
• Motivational: How well employees perform in their roles
The engagement gap is the difference between employee effort and the organization's ability to garner this effort from the bulk of the workforce.

Disengaged leaders stand in the way and are unable to recognize the changes needed to align with emerging workforce circumstances. Turning leadership into action requires focused training of an organization's leaders, so they can develop a culture that cares about the employees while understanding the importance of performance.

Author Michael Beer, in his book High Commitment, High Performance Management, indicates six leadership barriers:

• Unclear strategy, priorities and values
• Leaders who have a hands-off leadership style
• Ineffective leadership team that doesn't spend time on strategic and people issues
• Poor coordination and collaboration for value-creating activities, preventing effective execution
• Inadequate leadership development
• Closed vertical communication with employees about values strategies and priorities

Improving the State of Your Organization

Essentially, strong leaders can make a difference in motivating and engaging the workforce. This requires them to go "undercover" to really understand employee's needs, values and motivation, ensuring that they are performing the right tasks in the correct way for the proper business outcomes.

Furthermore, a highly trained and engaged leadership team can shape the work environment and culture aligned with business strategies, goals and priorities. This is what you will find as you close the gap: a better performing organization. Become the undercover boss and train your leaders. Put them in action and close the engagement gap with courses from Vital Learning.

Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Leadership™ online seminar, along with coaching, can help build strong, actionable leaders. Leaders learn to maintain team member self-esteem while managing, evaluating performance, improving work habits and resolving issues. They also learn to listen to employees and involve team members in decision-making and problem-solving to motivate employees.

Essential Communication Leads to Employee Engagement

If you were to create a formula for productivity it might look something like this:

ESC + EE = P

Or in more elaborate terms:

Essential Skills of Communicating + Employee Engagement = Productivity

A new study from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) on the subject of corporate productivity and engagement indicates that higher-performing companies are more likely to involve employees in the process of cost-cutting measures. In these uncertain economic times, it is more important than ever to keep employees involved in critical company issues. Communication plus talent management programs supports forward focus and engagement for the future.

The same study showed that 91 percent of higher-performing companies point to communication at the top as a way to reduce turnover.

One way to define employee engagement is to consider an employee's connection to the work, the organization, the leaders, the customers, performance and results. Engaged employees stay with their employers, have higher levels of job satisfaction and make significant contributions. Employee engagement is not a "nice-to-have"; it's an essential requirement to achieve organizational results.

A Glimpse at the Disengaged

Roger is a midlevel manager at a software sales organization. He heads up a team of salespeople and spends his day communicating with his staff by e-mail, even though they are only a few steps outside his door. Roger's main focus is sales, which are down. In addition, the company is suffering financially. Roger has been told that budget cuts, including staff, are likely. He is worried about his own job and is wholly focused on crunching the numbers and figuring out who he might let go to make his numbers look better.

Roger's team spends the day wondering why he isn't telling them what is going on. They've talked among themselves and have some ideas about customer focus groups to help re-energize their sales territories. Two people have scheduled time with Roger this week to share their ideas, but, for the second week in a row, Roger has cancelled because he doesn't have enough time. The team is deflated. They are worried, too, but at this point, they are not sure that talking to Roger will do any good.

What Could Have Been

If Roger had only come out of his office to talk to his team, he might have prevented the members from becoming disengaged. The fact is, employees are better able to deal with company downturns if they know what is going on.

Poor managers fail to communicate. They fail to involve employees in solutions. And because they aren't communicating well, they aren't listening to employees' needs, concerns or ideas.

Good managers share clear strategy and vision. They engage their team in discovering solutions, so employees feel as though they have a stake in making things better. Good managers have a relationship with their bosses, and they want to go the extra mile. They care about their bosses and the organization, and they are armed with the belief that they can make a difference.

Numerous studies indicate that engaged employees work harder to achieve within the organization, and they speak positively about their companies. In the process, they also please customers and are more productive.

One of the Most Important Steps You Can Take

If you are considering where and how to focus your training programs, you should know that choosing to develop managers and supervisors in the area of communication is one of the most crucial steps you can take.

Many managers have never developed skills to deliver clear, concise messages focused on the needs and interests of the listener. These are skills that improve their relationships with individual team members.

In addition to constructing clear messages, Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Communicating teaches managers and team leaders to the following essential skills:

• Communicate with a two-way process.
• Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the intent of the messages.
• Listen actively.
• Create a climate of open communication, which increases team members' motivation and commitment.

The foundation of good communication in organizations rests in managers and supervisors who are open and support an environment that encourages the free exchange of transparent, honest communication. Such managers are able to reflect, probe, support and advise their employees. In return, your employees will respond and become more engaged, happy and productive. Get your managers involved in the essential skills.

Good Leader, Bad Leader

Like the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch of the North in L. Frank Baum's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , written in 1900, good bosses and bad bosses represent two ends of the spectrum in personality and deed. Some things never change.

It is possible, however, for people to hone their skills and become better leaders through self-understanding and training. One of management's roles is to provide opportunity for employees to learn from others who lead by example, thereby preparing themselves for professional growth. Good leaders create high-performing and high-producing teams. They also create safe and congenial work environments.

The Bad Leader

Poor leadership is prevalent in both the private and public sectors. In her book, Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters, Barbara Kellerman defines seven types of bad leaders:

• Incompetent
• Rigid
• Intemperate
• Callous
• Corrupt
• Insular
• Evil

The paramount nature of poor leadership, Kellerman points out, is compounded by poor followers. These are people who fall into a pattern of bad habits, which they model from their bosses. Thus, disharmony erupts in the organization, eventually leading to financial and productivity challenges as well as public scrutiny.

Poor leadership is ultimately expensive. It diminishes employee morale, and employees feel less commitment to the organization and its mission. They disengage from the business - and then they leave.

It has always been difficult for me to understand why poor leaders can't see that bullying, constant criticism and lack of praise for the team does not motivate anyone to do anything extra. Why would anyone feel eager to work harder under such leadership?

According to a 2000 study, reported in the Harvard Business Review, leadership affects six key indicators of the organization's working environment:

• Flexibility and freedom to innovate
• Sense of responsibility
• Level of standards
• Sense of accuracy about performance feedback and rewards
• Clarity of employee mission and values
• Degree of commitment to a common purpose
Considering these indicators, you can understand the effect that poor leaders have on employees and the business.

The Good Leader

In searching for the qualities of a good leader, we could discuss many qualities and topics. Leadership is a hot issue on millions of Web sites that currently include the keyword "leadership."

Many managers w ill never develop into good leaders. Others will. Good leaders are often prominent within the organization; others are quietly on the fringe but are, nonetheless, great leaders.

Harvard Business School professor Joe Badaracco said, "There are lots of people who look and act like managers, who have excellent managerial skills, and who don't make a lot of noise. Nobody is writing cover stories about them. But after they have been in an organization for a period of time, things are significantly better."

Former GE CEO, Jack Welch identified eight characteristics of good leadership:

• Leaders relentlessly upgrade their teams, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence.
• Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, but they also live and breathe it.
• Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
• Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency and credit.
• Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
• Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
• Leaders inspire risk-taking and learning by setting the example.
• Leaders celebrate.

Making the most of leadership requires that you put the right people in the right place at the right time. It also means evaluating whether an employee has the right qualities and skills for leadership.

Organizations need to learn to measure the qualities and skills of their leaders. In addition, they must build an environment that encourages and develops good leadership skills through training.
The Right Training Tools

Vital Learning offers tools for leadership assessment that allow you to pinpoint individual training needs. One leader might be great in coaching but may have only a cursory understanding of overall leadership. Identifying these needs helps you pinpoint training and tailor it to your employees, so it is focused and relevant.

Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Leadership, for example, teaches participants the following skills:

• Maintain team member self-esteem
• Focus on behavior
• Encourage team member participation
• Listen to motivate
• Good leaders are who you need to drive and support your organization. Helping to develop their skills is essential.

Leadership Training: Not the Same Old Highway

Your leadership talent is critical to your organization's success. During tough economic times, reaching goals and outpacing the competition is especially crucial. In 2010, the essential move for training divisions is to transform and change in order to keep up with the times. It's not the same old highway.

Investing wisely in new and existing supervisors requires focus on what is happening on the frontline and on the individual needs of that talent. According to Training + Development Magazine, three essential components for training in the New Year include organizational, analytical and interpersonal focus.

Harvard Business School professor and author Michael Beer says that CEOs who recognize the need to achieve "sustained high commitment from all stakeholders," recognize the value of high commitment, high performance (HCHP), and their organizations will stand out among others because of long periods of excellence. Beer points to firms like Southwest, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard and Toyota as leaders in excellence. Achieving commitment and performance is attainable in any industry; however, most companies haven't reached the HCHP club.

The differentiator, Beer says, is that these companies sustain performance because they achieve three goals:

• Performance Alignment: Organizational design, business processes, goals and measures, and capabilities targeted for a winning strategy.
• Psychological Alignment: Leadership toward a higher purpose, challenging work and making a difference. Human resource management policies and practices geared toward leadership "managing with heart."
• Capacity for Learning and Change: Honest communication at all levels about anything that is a roadblock for meeting goals. Creating a performing organization that equally values a strong learning system and a strong culture.

A Case for Changing What Highway Your Supervisors Are On

Consider this scenario: Ron works for a pharmaceutical company in Indiana. He's been with the company for five years as a sales representative. Six months ago, Ron was promoted to sales manager and relocated to the home office in New York. Upper management's rationale was that his success in the field would make him a top manager who would increase the productivity of three other regional teams.

It hasn't taken long for upper management to realize that Ron isn't the manager they'd hoped for. It took Ron's staff only a few months to come to the same conclusion. What went wrong?

Success depends on leaders who can create common purpose, identify opportunities and new markets, and motivate and engage their teams.

Ron is a great salesperson, but he is not a great communicator. He failed to articulate his vision to the regional teams and to involve them in the process. He managed by fear, setting unrealistic goals without input from his team. He sent a message in a memo, "If you don't like the goals, then consider looking elsewhere for a job."

It doesn't take long, either, for today's diverse employees to recognize a poor manager. Some of the company's top salespeople have already left the organization. Ron's heavy hand was his own style and did not reflect the values of the organization. As a result, the regional teams have missed their sales goals two quarters in a row. Ron has blamed the teams for poor performance, and he raised goals again without team input.

Innovation for a New Highway

Upper management at the pharmaceutical company is looking to replace Ron, but the damage is done. Having a great person from the field doesn't always translate to great leadership. The truth is that this situation is not only Ron's fault. This has been a pattern in this company for over a year.

The company has stalled along the highway. Due to the economy the company chose to drop its leadership training program and suspended other training programs, citing a lack of time and resources.

What the company should be doing is practicing innovation and transformation to boost its training division. Ron, and others like him, could have become a better leader if assessment and training had been in place to pinpoint needs for the following:

• Fundamental management and communication skills
• Goal-setting and performance standards skills
• Motivation for productivity skills
• Coaching skills

Time and resources need not be the fallback issues anymore. Today's technology provides innovative training options with blended learning with online training. In addition, asking seasoned leaders or team members to mentor junior leaders and staff through collaborative communication spaces, such as online portals, e-mail, webinars and online corporate communities, can give employees the precise training they need, when they need it.

These solutions can be transformational and cost effective, turning lackluster performance into leadership and teams focused on business processes. Realistic and relevant goals and measures as well as capabilities targeted for a winning strategy are within reach.

According to a study by Jim Trinka, Ph.D. and chief learning officer for the FBI, focusing on developing others and their communication competencies can increase overall leadership effectiveness by 50 to 60 percent.

Study evidence supports the establishment of a performance-managed organizational culture - not from a command and control perspective but rather one that involves a coaching environment and conscious attempts at continuous dialogue within work teams to achieve a balance between driving for results and interpersonal skills.

Transforming Training in 2010

Vital Learning's innovative training tools can put your organization's training on the new highway to optimize learning and maximize your return-on-investment (ROI). Armed with assessment, online programs and training strategies through its affiliate network of professionals, Vital Learning can help you transform your organization with sustainable leadership.

Boosting Business With Communication

Social media is rapidly changing, challenging the way the world communicates. In corporations, we are seeing many more team and project collaborations, which alters the expectations of employees and customers as the new culture of social media entwines with traditional business communication. Books like The Conversational Corporation: How Social Media Is Changing the Enterprise provide insight into the social media phenomenon.

While keeping pace with the evolution of social media, many organizations have also spent time teaching their employees about the communication dynamics of a diverse workforce. Management is taught to recognize that no two workers are alike. Companies that practice one-on-one management are discovering the value of learning about the communication styles of their team members to understand what motivates them. For many employees, this effort by supervisors helps them become more productive.

The bottom line is this: Communication, which is constantly evolving, is crucial to businesses.

Over the decades, researchers have consistently cited communication as one of the most critical skills for managers to possess. Some studies indicate that managers spend 75 to 80 percent of their time engaged in written and verbal communication. Add to that today's engagement with social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and you see more emphasis on traditional "soft" skills that provide new and core links in business functions.

The Importance of Communication

Communication is important for three major reasons:

First, ineffective communication becomes expensive. Messages that have no clear objective lead to confusion or missing the mark, failing to win understanding on the part of the listener or reader. This lack of understanding of or sensitivity to how the message will be received can lead to poor reception of the message. Time is wasted and projects can fail. Customers may not receive proper customer service.

Second, today's business environment is increasingly complex, which makes communication that much more important. Diverse and participatory workforces require managers to build trust, promote understanding, remove barriers and encourage feedback. Furthermore, flatter organizations mean that supervisors are communicating with many people over whom they have no formal control. This requires you to break down complexities through effective listening: You must learn to probe, reflect, support and advise in order to communicate effectively.

Finally, the world's economy is increasingly global and competitive, and currently sluggish. Business is even more challenged, stretched and stressed. Every customer touch point, every negotiation, every purchase and sale, joint venture, adaptation, and product delivery involves communication. Thus, messages should be well designed, clear and concise. They should also avoid complex or pompous language, be logically organized and be directed at the receiver's interests. This breaks down barriers to understanding.

A key element to today's communication is building a base of hope and trust among employees. Supervisors who are trained properly build the kind of culture that facilitates productivity and reflects good communication. In turn, employees interact more effectively with internal and external customers.

The following list of "Leadership Tenets of Hope and Trust" presents the fundamentals of what businesses need and what employees expect today:

• Respect and honor others
• Be aware of what you say and how you say it.
• Practice what you preach, and do what you say you're going to do.
• Be true to yourself. Be authentic. Don't hop the fence for popularity.
• Listen and appreciate another person's point of view.
• Avoid using put-downs and zingers.
• Look for the good and reward the positive.
• Appreciate others' uniqueness. Embrace diversity and cultural differences.
• Acknowledge that hope and trust go two ways.
• Don't be afraid to show your human side and acknowledge your mistakes.

This sounds pretty simple, but if your supervisors aren't communicating effectively, then your workforce could be suffering at a time when it needs to be soaring.

Uncover the Essential Skills of Communicating

Vital Learning has debuted a new cover for its Essential Skills of Communicating program, and the redesigned cover reflects today's business environment. This program has been taught to millions of supervisors worldwide, and it is a staple of training for many organizations. The program is available in classroom, online and blended (online and classroom) formats, and it teaches managers the following:

• How to design clear, concise messages
• How to look for nonverbal clues
• How to listen to communicate
• How to overcome barriers to understanding

Only you and your training professionals can improve the skills of your supervisors, managers and team leaders. This program is easily customizable with current communication scenarios typical in your organization. The Essential Skills of Communicating can give your organization real communication skills for real-life business issues. Give your employees what they need now and re-energize your workforce with communication that is trusted, appreciated and authentic.