7 Magazines Every Leadership Training Program Should Include

T+D Magazine

As the founder of a global management consulting firm, I personally train over 1,000 managers annually. Additionally, I facilitate several certificate courses for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) on the topics of leadership development, supervision, consulting, and training. As such, it is imperative I stay abreast of the most effective management and leadership practices in use today. Attendees to every Creating Leadership Development Programs certificate course that I teach consistently tell me how valuable it is that I share a vast list of exceptional resources they can use to help them launch and / or enhance their organization’s leadership development training. So I’m going to share some of my favorite, high quality resources with you too, and you might be surprised to learn a few are free of charge.

T+D MAGAZINE

ASTD is the world’s largest association for training professionals with members in over 100 countries. T+D Magazine is the association’s monthly publication, and it is packed with best practices, emerging trends, and summaries of the latest research affecting employee development in the workplace. ASTD’s reach is truly global as is evident by its global networks and the increase in conferences being held beyond the U.S. borders. And with the recent launch of the Communities of Practice model, I genuinely look forward to reading information shared by my dear friends Pat Galagan and Nancy Olson, the co-managers of the Senior Leaders and Executives Community of Practice. By subscribing to T+D (which you receive when becoming a member of ASTD National), you will remain on the cutting edge of the issues affecting Workplace Learning and Performance professionals worldwide.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW MAGAZINE

Required reading for every business school student, the Harvard Business Review Magazine (HBR) is the pinnacle of publications for trends affecting business. It’s been my experience that most training professionals are not reading the magazine, therefore they do not realize the case studies in HBR are fantastic resources for leadership development training programs. The magazine consistently covers change management, competition, innovation, leadership, and strategy. As HBR Publishing states in its online brochure, “Successful people say they never stop learning.” And I’d confidently say successful leadership training programs always include HBR articles and case studies as a critical resource for their curriculum.

Bonus – the Harvard Business Review Blog network also contains high quality content. Check it out at http://blogs.hbr.org/.

CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER MAGAZINE

For insights into the thinking at the executive level, Chief Learning Officer Magazine is an excellent publication. Every issue is packed with great articles covering a variety of topics of interest to the C-suite that affect workplace learning. Articles on technology, branding, leadership development, innovation, human capital, and more provide exceptional tips and strategies that can be implemented immediately. You get all of this and more, and the subscription is completely free.

HR MAGAZINE

HR Magazine is the flagship monthly publication of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). SHRM has over 250,000 members worldwide in over 140 countries, so its reach is wide and diverse. The magazine covers topics across the HR spectrum, and the additional content made available via the SHRM website (including webinars, blog articles, etc.) makes this a must have in your leadership development toolkit.

TALENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE

Targeted at Human Resources (HR) and Business Leaders, the magazine focuses on the six pillars of talent management:

1. Recruitment and retention
2. Assessment and evaluation
3. Compensation and benefits
4. Performance management
5. Learning and development,
6. Succession planning.

With supplemental content on the web and its social media websites, this is another must read publication. It is also free of charge!

DIVERSITY EXECUTIVE MAGAZINE

Even if your organization does not conduct business outside the United States, it is deeply affected by the true globalization of business. As such, the definition of diversity is…well…increasingly diverse. Diversity Executive Magazine is an excellent publication that helps executives keep a pulse on the ever evolving world of diversity. With a focus on organizational culture and emerging markets within the U.S. and abroad, this is a critical component of every manager’s leadership toolkit. It is also free of charge.

SUCCESS MAGAZINE

Achieving success as a leader cannot be accomplished without increasing one’s “success-ability”, and that is why Success Magazine is on my list of top publications for leaders. With regular contributions from thought leaders like John Maxwell, Tory Johnson, and Malcolm Gladwell, each issue is packed with awesome tips and strategies to help a leader improve every aspect of his/her life.

These 7 magazines are great sources of information, and by reading and citing them, you will ensure your leadership training programs remain current, highly relevant, and aligned with the best practices as shared by the thought leaders of today and beyond.

For more tips and strategies on resources that will dramatically enhance your development as a leader, visit my website at www.ictscorp.com, subscribe to this blog, and follow me on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook). By doing so, you will gain access to leading edge research on management and leadership development and have access to daily inspirational and motivational quotes that will drive your success trajectory upward. So don’t delay, follow me and think yourself to success today!

The Ultimate Checklist: How to Always Deliver Highly Engaging Training Programs

Engaging and Interactive Training is Effective in All Cultures

Since launching Infinity Consulting and Training Solutions in January 2007, I’ve facilitated leadership courses in over 20 countries enhancing the knowledge and skills of over 5,000 managers and leaders at all levels. At a time when leaders have limited time and increasing pressure to deliver results, they often come to leadership training distracted, disengaged, and disinterested. We’ve consistently been able to turn their dread into delight. What’s our secret? Our programs specifically target our clients’ biggest challenges and every program is highly engaging and very interactive. We developed the ultimate facilitation checklist, and you can use the items below that are from our checklist to ensure you exceed your client’s expectations every time.

Use Content that is Engaging

Too often, training content includes cartoonish clip art. Boring. And honestly, it’s still shocking to see PowerPoint slides packed with lots of text and very little white space. There are a variety of ways to make content engaging, some of which we will mention below. The point is, adults require engagement as part of their learning experience so be sure to make the content interactive with compelling calls to action to apply what has been taught.

Tip: Use high quality images to stimulate your audiences. Fotolia is an excellent source of images, and Flickr’s Creative Commons section offers high quality images for free as long as proper attribution is cited.

Use Experiential Exercises

The head of global training at a Fortune 5 company we work with recently stated that he wishes his trainers could engage audiences the way we do. The hallmark of every one of our programs is the “games” we use to expose skills gaps and provide solutions to those gaps. It’s not about the game. It’s all about the experience created by our facilitators because anybody can play games but it takes an expert to create an experience that causes people to actually commit to fixing the undesirable behavior that was just exposed.

Tip: The questions asked during the experiential exercises are the key to success. We teach trainers and speakers how to effectively facilitate experientials for any size audience. Visit our website to see me in action.

Use Interactive Stories

Think of your favorite movie. It tapped your emotions by stimulating a variety of your senses. I still tear up at the end of Charlotte’s Web. I digress. Stories are the foundation of an organization’s culture, and well told stories that engage training participants automatically make training programs memorable. I could cite statistics about workplace safety or I could tell you the story of my dad’s accident that left him emotionally broken and physically disabled when I was only 3 years old. Grown men have been known to cry after hearing my dad’s story because they identify with him while thinking of their own kids. They become part of the story, which is the reason I tell it.

Tip: Great storytellers always do 3 things, and you should do them too. 1) Tell stories that everyone in your audience can relate to. 2) Make sure to vary the senses that are stimulated throughout the story. 3) Have a call to action at the end.

Ask Open Ended Questions

How can you tell the difference between a trainer and a facilitator? By the questions asked. Trainers lecture and ask mostly closed ended questions. Great facilitators create discovery and learning by expertly asking mostly open-ended questions. Ask the right questions, improve your results. It’s really that simple.

Tip: Asking closed ended questions is destroying profitability. Read this article to find out how and what to do to stop the destruction.

Facilitate, Don’t Lecture

Too many training professionals lecture because their focus is on content and not on creating learning by connecting the content to the attendees past work and life experiences. The telltale sign of lecturing: Talking for more than 2 minutes without asking a provocative or evocative question. When you see someone lecturing, stop them because they are boring the hell out of the participants and causing huge levels of disengagement in the class.

Tip: People rise to the expectations that are set. Set the expectation that all training and speaking events will be interactive, and one measure of interactivity is the evidence of ongoing dialogue.

Use Appropriate Humor

Whether it comes out naturally from your facilitators or if it is manufactured using funny videos, make it a point to use humor. An expert facilitator knows how to work a crowd and create an engaging environment while doing it. I’ve seen some experts use humor as often as every 4 – 7 minutes. Whatever you do, include humor as part of your facilitation and course design. Your participants will reward you for it with positive referrals and recommendations.

Tip: Email me for tips on using humor. Use Twitter to follow people who post humorous tweets. Find funny videos on YouTube. Ask your local chapters of the National Speaker’s Association or American Society for Training and Development for resources on humor. There are tons of resources available if you know where to look.

Creating an engaging and interactive training experience requires strong facilitation skills, a high degree of understanding of the client, and a commitment to excellence. By using this checklist, you can ensure your facilitators are creating an experience that exceeds your customers’ expectations every time.

Want more tips and strategies on creating very engaging training experiences? We  teach facilitation techniques to people who have to deliver presentations, and we’ve coached trainers at Chevron and Intertek Consulting and Training among others. Contact us today for more information on bringing us in to work with your staff. And you can always find great tips by visiting our website at www.ictscorp.com, subscribing to this blog, and following me on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook).

How to Create an Irresistible Value Proposition

Get Investment Using Irresistible Value Propositions

According to a 2011 Robert Half Management Resources study, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) indicate Human Resources (HR) ranked second only to Operations in requiring their involvement. Their high level of interest in HR means there is a high degree of justification needed to obtain approval for investing in human capital. Whenever I facilitate two very popular American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) certificate programs (Creating Leadership Development Programs and Consulting Skills for Trainers), creating an effective value proposition for training programs and initiatives is consistently the most challenging task for training and HR professionals. So how do you develop an irresistible value proposition that compels CFOs and decision makers to invest in your initiatives? You can do so by following a simple, four step process.

Start with Identifying the Key Business Drivers

Every organization measures progress against critical drivers of the business, so the first step in creating an irresistible value proposition is to identify these. They are discussed and reviewed frequently in various reports such as balanced scorecards and operational and sales reports. During the first day of ASTD’s Creating Leadership Development Programs certificate course, I spend a great deal of time helping attendees identify the key drivers in their organization. Once identified, you’ve overcome the first obstacle in formulating an effective value proposition.

Target the Gap(s) Between the Status Quo and Desired State of Performance

Where there is performance gap compared to goal, there is an opportunity to create an irresistible value proposition. In the Robert Half Management survey of CFOs, staff morale and motivation was ranked as the third greatest concern behind healthcare costs and controlling spending and improving profitability. The larger the gap in actual vs. desired performance in critical drivers or metrics, the greater the chance to compel movement from the status quo. In the current economy, gaps in key metrics such as sales, revenue, recruiting, retention, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency are easy to spot. The key is to tie your programs and initiatives to one of the key metrics that you can help improve.

Sell the Movement

People will not invest in change unless you create a significantly better future than the status quo. This also means people will continue to accept the pains associated with the current state if they feel your programs or initiatives will add complexity and / or more work to their already overflowing plates. You must effectively sell the movement, and to do that, simply use an action verb. Tony Bingham, CEO of ASTD, always says training should do one of two things and preferably both – it should help to increase revenue and / or decrease cost. Using action verbs such as increase, decrease, maximize, minimize, cut, save,etc. are great ways to sell the movement.

Answer Two Key Questions

The final step to creating an irresistible value proposition is composed of answering these two critical questions: By how much? By when? It can be uncomfortable to predict the amount of change and the time it will take to achieve it, but by answering these two questions, you significantly strengthen your value proposition.

The Irresistible Value Proposition Formula

The process I’ve described above can be succinctly shown in a formula. I’ve modified the excellent formula Jill Konrath presented in her best-selling book SNAP Selling by adding the timeline component.

Value Proposition = Business Driver + Movement + Metric + Timeline

Here is an example of the components that we will use to develop a value proposition:

Business Driver: Employee Retention

Performance Gap: Budgeted Voluntary Turnover = 10%, Actual Voluntary Turnover = 20%

Movement: Decrease

Metric: By how much? 25%

Timeline:  By when? Within 6 months

Example of the Value Proposition: By investing in our employee engagement sustainability process, your organization will be able to decrease voluntary turnover by 25% in the first six months. This will create a savings of $X (plug in the number for X).

Crafting great value propositions is easy if you can offer solutions to the organization’s most critical areas of performance that are not meeting expectations. Use these four steps to craft solutions that will compel decision makers to take action towards the future, desired state of performance.

If you are a manager seeking to significantly improve your team’s ability to connect your management and leadership development initiatives to critical organizational drivers, email me today at info@ictscorp.com. Also register and plan to attend one of the excellent ASTD certificate programs that I facilitate as I will share with you solid techniques for turning your training program into a major contributor to organizational success.