Category Archives: Training and Development

Now is the best time to start planning for 2024 leadership training and putting plans into action. To begin, it's important to understand what challenges many organizations are facing and the specific leadership training topics they are most interested in implementing to help empower their leaders to effectively manage today's ever-evolving work environment.

Developing leaders at all levels is a necessity for the successful long-term viability of any organization today. Because of the importance of strong leadership when you look at the impact it has on employee engagement and improved company culture, organizations are tuned into the increasing need for effective leadership development strategies to drive results.

To help you design your organization's best course of action for implementing training and development for your leaders, we'd like to share - in order of popularity - what leadership topics our clients have been requesting based on the current needs of their workforce.

1. Building Accountability

This is currently our most requested leadership training topic, as organizations seek to build a culture of accountability, whether holding employees accountable to their roles, setting performance expectations - or both. This workshop is designed to give individuals at all levels the skills, tools, and strategies they need to strengthen their commitment to accountability.

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2. DiSC Work of Leaders®

Besides the Everything DiSC Workplace® course which introduces participants to DiSC, the Work of Leaders is a popular choice to help organizations introduce their leaders to important concepts around crafting visions, building alignment, and executing strategies. The Everything DiSC® Work of Leaders training combines the power of DiSC® with over three decades of research on leadership. The detailed personal profile helps leaders: 1) better craft a Vision through exploration, boldness, and testing assumptions; 2) build Alignment through clarity, dialogue, and inspiration; and 3) Execute their strategy through momentum, structure, and feedback. Leaders gain insights into how they lead others by raising their awareness about who they are as leaders.

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3. Servant-Leadership

Servant-leaders focus first and foremost on sharing power, developing people, and meeting the needs of others, rather than initially focusing on gaining power, prestige, and material wealth. It also means servant-leaders see others as partners in a transformational process that develops both leader and followers – with the ultimate goal of creating more servant-leaders, who will repeat the process.

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4. Authentic Leadership

This is a popular leadership training topic for organizations looking to hold a "Leadership 101" workshop for their emerging or new leaders. Topics include how management differs from leadership and understanding the most important distinctions to consider for them to be effective in either role, the six different leadership styles, case studies of best leaders/worst leaders, and important traits and behaviors for effective leadership.

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5. Performance Management

For organizations to achieve their goals, managers need to create a work environment that helps employees succeed to the best of their abilities. Managing employees’ performance effectively ensures that the right work gets done in the right way; reduces turnover; increases productivity; improves morale, commitment, and motivation; and minimizes challenges within the organization. Creating a successful performance management approach involves establishing a systematic process that managers can use to support employees most effectively. This process focuses on creating clear expectations for individual performance based on the organization’s goals. Managers learn how to best share performance observations, brainstorm strategies, and gain commitment on actionable ways to improve.

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6. The Emotionally Intelligent Leader

Most people agree that you have to be smart to be successful. However, research strongly indicates that traditional intelligence – as measured by IQ – is not enough. In fact, one’s success often is determined by his or her ability to engage and demonstrate emotionally intelligent (EI) behaviors. The Emotionally Intelligent Leader course helps leaders engage in more effective EI behaviors when dealing with others; apply relevant EI concepts in four critical leadership dimensions: Authenticity, Coaching, Insight, and Innovation; display appropriate EI behaviors during times of conflict; and help develop more effective EI behaviors in their direct reports.

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7. Leadership as a Coach

When it comes to motivating or correcting employee performance or behavior within the workplace, much of what new leaders learn is how to manage employees through a “Carrot-and-Stick” approach or through “Performance Improvement Plans.” However, building a leader’s coaching skills can dramatically shift an employee’s performance and uncover any blocks, issues, or fears that may be caused by an underlying problem that the leader may not be aware of. In the Leadership as a Coach workshop, participants have an opportunity to learn and practice effective coaching skills to help build employee awareness, increase motivation, and improve performance.

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8. Leading Change

Change management has always been one of our most popular training topics. Most change-management experts agree that traditional, executive-led change initiatives are not as effective as those led and implemented by the individuals most affected by the proposed changes. Leading Change can help supervisors, managers, and directors implement workplace change more effectively.

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9. Leading Across Generations

The U.S. workforce is more diverse than at any other time in this nation’s history. And some of the biggest diversity challenges facing leaders are created by different generations working side by side in the workplace. Leading Across Generations is designed to help leaders better understand and manage the different perspectives and behaviors that members of different generations bring to the workplace. Specifically, leaders learn how to increase effective communication, while reducing tension and conflict, with members of each of the four generations in the American workforce (Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, Millennials, and Gen Zs).

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10. Facilitating Effective Meetings

On an average day, there are 17 million meetings in the U.S. Yet, an estimated 63 percent of meetings don’t have prepared agendas. Not to mention, only 53 percent of meeting time is spent actually discussing agenda items, while the rest of the time goes to unproductive, unplanned issues. Based on these statistics, it’s easy to see why meetings have a bad reputation. Poorly run meetings take too long, involve too many people, and never seem to result in any concrete action. Despite this, meetings are necessary and can be extremely effective. Meetings that are planned and facilitated well give participants a sense of accomplishment and a sense that their time was well spent.

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View All Our Leadership Training Topics

 

Clients frequently ask us for help in justifying budget allocations for professional development training. Decision-makers specifically want to know what the Return on Investment (ROI) data looks like for training expenditures and if metrics can be utilized that demonstrate what kind of ROI they can expect to see.

Ironically, the reality is that it can be a major and sometimes costly undertaking in itself to come up with tangible numbers that indicate the level of success of training programs and the cost savings that were achieved.

We never forget it's a considerable cash commitment for smaller organizations to invest in their employees' training, especially any kind of ongoing comprehensive training series. And it's a decision that isn't taken lightly, either, or decided upon in a matter of days or even weeks. Planning for a long-term training and development undertaking usually requires justification of the training budget, and it's no surprise we hear concerns arise during the initial phase of implementation. We understand the high level of risk they feel they are taking with something intangible yet costly like training.

Human Capital Expenditures

We've also seen talent survey results that show a good number of employees express desire to work within organizations that offer professional development opportunities. Once implemented, organizations can eventually realize that by making such an investment, they have paved the way for improved employee retention, engagement, and productivity over the long term, resulting in improved bottom lines, even during down economic cycles.

Thinking about training in the same way that businesses categorize capital expenditure and new product development isn’t a traditional view, but the return on the investment for those efforts can be well worth the paradigm shift. Not only can the increased performance and efficiency serve their customers better, but they develop an internal culture that will help them grow their talent from the inside–and keep those star players, no matter the state of the economy.

Benefits of Initiating Long-Term Training Programs

While we're not aware of organizations that provide ongoing research and established metrics on ROI for the training industry, we've found a couple of insightful reports that emphasize the benefits and cost savings of initiating employee training programs.

Measuring the ROI of Training, Upskilling, and Reskilling Employees.  This report highlights two ways that training can save a company money and therefore a positive return on their investment: 1) Cost savings driven by employee training; and 2) Revenue growth driven by employee training.

Was It Worth It? Measuring the Impact and ROI of Leadership Training. In this study from 2019, an ROI consultant at Verizon found that running first-time managers through a leadership development program offered a 29% ROI in the first 3 months and a 415% annualized ROI. This means that the business made $4.15 for every $1 spent on training.

How to Measure Your Own Organization's Training Effectiveness

With the assistance of your training and development experts, one of the best ways a company can gather feedback and assess a training program's impact is by implementing one or more of the various levels of the Kirkpatrick Model. It specifically defines four levels for measuring training and development outcomes. Which ones you implement depends on the depth of insight you are looking to attain and your budget and resources for such efforts. The first two levels are the most useful to small and mid-sized organizations.

Level 1 - REACTION. This can take the form of an after-class one-page evaluation form. This level of assessment asks questions such as:

• What was the most useful aspect(s) of this program?


• What might you do differently on the job as a result of this program?


• What could be done in the work environment to encourage the use of the skills learned?

It also asks the participants to rate the quality of the instructor and the course content.

Level 2 - LEARNING. This can take the form of pre- and post-assessment quizzes which measure the level of knowledge of related topics before and after the program. It's a helpful tool to ensure the participants acquired the intended knowledge and skills during the program. One example of this level of assessment asks the participants to rate their knowledge of topics on a scale of 1-4, with 1 equal to no knowledge and 4 equal to mastery of knowledge. Another example of this type of assessment can include multiple-choice questions related to the topics discussed in class.

Level 3 - BEHAVIOR and Level 4 - RESULTS. At these levels, companies carry out costly and time-consuming tasks: 1) proving desired behavioral changes have taken effect, and 2) calculating the cost savings to justify training costs and their return on investment. Because these last two levels are difficult and resource-consuming, companies rely more readily on the results gleaned from executing the first two levels to gather sufficient indicators of improvement.

The bottom line is that investing in training and development consistently provides growth opportunities for organizations that work proactively to align their employee development strategies with their organizational performance objectives.  You can build employee skills and increase engagement at the same time, which is a win for you, your employees, and your customers.

 

The findings from the annual Training Magazine’s Training & Development Industry Report, issued November 2020, reflect inevitable changes to industry trends due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s effect on the workplace.

Are you looking to make your organization’s work environment more productive? Offering fringe benefits or implementing new processes aren’t always the best solutions.