Today’s global business environment demands more from your leaders than ever before. As barriers disappear, hierarchies and borders become more fluid—you need leaders who can inspire anyone to higher performance, anywhere in the world. You need visionary talent that is the right fit at the right time for your organization. And you need your leaders to be authentic and effective in executing their leadership responsibilities. This issue of Performance Matters includes a video with our own employees talking about what they think are the qualities of a great leader, research and best practices on how to lead technical professionals, mentoring women for leadership roles and much more! Read the latest issue here. Please share these articles with your colleagues and friends and follow us on on our social channels to receive information on the latest trends in learning and development.

Just outside our Solar System, the tiny craft, Voyager, goes hurtling on: The first manmade object to leave our realm. A vessel of hope and dreams. Built with 70′s technology, pioneering in scope and reach, with every day it expands our horizons and points to the future where we may leave the earth behind. But why do I care? Because of the power of inspiration: The energies, hopes and efforts of each one of those engineers, politicians, suppliers and mechanics who dared to dream that they could achieve something that would stretch beyond their lifetimes. At a time when we fight fires and react to change, it can be hard to reach out, to reach beyond, and to dream of places afar. We can get caught in the reactionary now instead of the dreams of a better place. We need dreams. We need to be inspired and to strive to inspire others. We need to see the beauty in the world around us so that we can create and innovate in our immediate lives. A little dreamy? Well, give me that once in a while. If people hadn’t dared to dream, we would never have left the planets behind and struck out on a grand adventure that will live beyond our years. We may not see the end, but we’ve witnessed the start. What has inspired you to reach beyond the day-to-day routine and make a bigger impact through the work that you do? Originally published on Julian Stodd’s Learning Blog

Every once in a while in your professional career, you get to witness something new and exciting that could change the landscape of how you will work going forward. It’s happening right now in the emerging Sales Enablement space, and I would like to share what I’m seeing. What’s going on? For the past 3-4 years, companies across many different industries have struggled to cope with the harsh reality that the business environment has completely changed at both macro- and micro-levels. Macro-level: The economy has reset itself. Since 2005, world economic markets have struggled. As a result, companies have had to drive productivity, enter new markets, and create new innovations, while cutting costs at the same time. This sustained do-more-with-less reality is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Micro-level: The world of work has changed. As a result of the sustained do-more-with-less reality that exists, the way work is done has changed. While there are many trends and buzzwords, like "big data," "collaboration," and "social," that support this, the reality is, we’re well into the inflection point between the industrial revolution and the information age, creating the need for higher knowledge-worker productivity and more outputs then ever before. The Challenge? More CEOs have recognized that their growth comes not only from creating new products, rethinking their go-to-market strategy, or driving efficiencies across processes and workflows (an "inside-out" view of the world), but also from the system that aligns to their customers’ buying and problem-solving processes (an distinctly different "outside-in" view of the world). Companies like Accenture have recognized the inefficiencies that exist in working in silos and have pivoted to a more horizontal view of the work they do in order to more effectively communicate, deliver, and create value for their customers. That horizontal view of adding more value uses customers and buyers as the design point—not products and services. The Implication? Instead of going to market in a way that uses products and services as the organizing "design point" for adding value to clients, companies are shifting to using customer problems as that design point. This is a massive shift—it couldn’t be any more different. Buyers know it, and they recognize it (so it’s both different and differentiating in the marketplace). Think about it. Companies like Symantec are beginning to recognize that buyer problems often cut across product and service portfolios, requiring a more configured and coordinated engagement, delivery, and measurement approach to the executives and leaders they sell to. They recognize that in order to grow, product, marketing, and sales teams have to all focus and drive value to those buyers in more relevant ways the cut across the silos that often exist. Not only does that need to happen in these revenue-generating functions, but it also needs to happen in all other customer-facing functions as well. For example, delivery and operations teams that support or deliver on "what gets sold" must also work differently.   This new reality creates a major strain inside of companies because they aren’t tooled, organized, or staffed to add value to their customers in this way. In fact, here’s what Steve Bennett, the new CEO of Symantec, says about this challenge: "On our go-to-market strategy what I would say simply [is that] we had talented people everywhere in the world really working hard, but…our system doesn’t work, or probably better said—we don’t have a system. Our process, our technology, the tools we have, our knowledge management—our salesforce is not empowered and freed up to sell."   Steve Bennett, Symantec President and CEO - January 23, 2013, Q3 Earnings and Strategy Direction Conference Call, Source: morningstar Rising to the challenge For many sales leaders, this challenge is felt every day. Complexity and change inside their company, coupled with complexity and change in their client companies, creates inefficiencies at the point of sale. Overcoming these inefficiencies requires cross-functional leadership and teaming as well as a unified focus on driving sales objectives. To facilitate the cross-functional work required, organizations should: Charter a cross-functional team to streamline the horizontal business processes behind sales conversations. Help that team create standards and a definition of sales enablement to coordinate a common approach across the enterprise. Take a holistic approach to scoping and launching initiatives that align content, skills, and tools that salespeople need to be successful.

This year, a team of GP Strategies employees , together with their families and friends, participated in their third 24 Hours of Booty race, a 24-hour bike ride that is aimed to increase public awareness, funds, and support for LIVESTRONG and local cancer organizations such as the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. We started our team three years ago to support our colleague, Mike Taudt, who was diagnosed with leukemia. The team continues to participate annually in honor of him, as well as family and friends who have been touched by this disease. Some of the proceeds from this event stay locally in Maryland, which was another driver for this particular fundraiser. This year we had 19 members on the team and raised more than $11,600 coming in third place for overall fundraising. We were able to leverage fundraising opportunities with local restaurants, and our team captain, Katie Wirth, raised quite a bit through her annual charity garage sale. Chris Kaplan, Senior Multimedia Developer at GP Strategies, designed our shirts this year, and GP Strategies purchased them for the team. This year, the weather was perfect, spirits were high, and everyone was excited to participate in such an amazing event. The bike ride was challenging, but the charity was motivation for us to reach our individual goals. Several on our team rode more than 100 miles over the course of two days! We already have our 2014 team set up and have a few members signed up. Next year, we hope to raise even more money for this important cause and recruit a few more to join our team to fight cancer and continue to make an impact.

As a global performance improvement company, we have the honor and privilege of partnering with leading organizations to help them accomplish their missions. We are passionate about helping our customers solve their business challenges to produce measurable results.  The following video demonstrates our passion by showcasing examples of what drives us as a company. As the video states, at GP Strategies: We’re at our best, when helping our clients achieve their best. Together, we’re making a meaningful impact on the world. Here are links that illustrate how GP Strategies can help you and your organization reach its highest potential: Create leaders that drive performance Sell more Deliver efficient and sustainable energy Ensure safe products Develop effective practices…and work environments Prepare communities and organizations to mitigate risks Achieve results in complex regulatory arenas

Dear Millennials: You’re Doing It Wrong! If you’ve spent any time in social media in the past year, you’ve noticed that hashtags have become extremely commonplace in almost every single post you come across. Applications like Twitter incorporated hashtag functionality in 2009, and other social applications, like Facebook (2013), Instagram (2011), and LinkedIn (2013), have finally come onboard with these features as well. A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. It is a form of metadata tag. The primary purpose, and the real business value of using hashtags, is for grouping and aggregating online content. Of course, this can be used outside of social media applications as well. Enterprise applications like SharePoint and Yammer are perfect examples of how users might use hashtags for business purposes. Using #Sales or #ProjectManagement allows me to tag any content that is Sales or Project Management related. They also provide a means of grouping such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it. Simple concept, indeed, even if you are new to the concept. However, we have a major hashtag crisis on our hands, and I’m not even sure everyone recognizes it. Millennials in particular have devalued the meaningfulness of the hashtag by using it as a separate language entirely. It seems there is now an unspoken contest on how many hashtags one can place within a post/picture, etc. or, even worse, how creative one’s own custom hashtag can be. Case in point: Attached is an actual picture from Lebron James’ Instagram account taken during a recent Cowboys game. The last hashtag in the picture is exactly what I’m referring to. Users that clicked on this hashtag will notice there is only one picture on all of Instagram using it. That defeats the entire purpose. I’m not entirely confident any of this behavior will change, but it should be addressed. In fact, I predict hiring managers will start seeing hashtags on résumés in the next five years. In the meantime, this is what people sound like when they don’t use hashtags correctly.

Enterprises continue to become more spread out as the result of globalization and the proliferation of new communications technology. Many businesses have had to adjust employment strategies to ensure that all staff members, regardless of their backgrounds, are actively productive in their positions. This series will help to illustrate the diverse range of satisfaction drivers from different regions around the globe, focusing on many countries that have become economically intertwined over the past several years. Why does job satisfaction matter? It is a critical ingredient in creating a fully engaged workforce. High engagement can yield advantages including better productivity, customer ratings, profitability and retention. On the other hand, disengagement costs businesses an estimated $350 billion each year. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.

Past studies have estimated that Millennials will make up one-half of the US workforce by the year 2020. However, new information suggests that Millennials will now make up 75% of the workforce by 2025. Why does this matter? A recent Forbes article by Josh Bersin indicates that Millennials have the opportunity and desire to take on leadership positions, but they don’t feel ready for it. This is a problem. As a business leader tasked with paving the way for the future success of your organization, it’s your job to address this! The good news is I’ve developed 10 tips/areas to help you get started now: Support Mentoring/Coaching - Mentoring and reverse mentoring make up a key element to any Millennial Talent Management program. I’m shocked at how many organizations completely ignore the value of mentoring and executive coaching altogether. This is an easy one to implement and carries minimal costs. Just do it! The most self-aware Millennials will actually seek outside mentoring to ensure support in this area if it’s not offered within the organization. Implement Technology & Social Media - This is part of the Millennial Talent Management program previously discussed. As a business leader, if you don’t play a role in implementing these fundamentals now, you’ll risk losing key talent and eventually be forced to adopt and fall into the late majority and laggards categories while Millennials run all over you (technologically speaking). Understand Project vs. Career Differences - Are you a business leader that suggests a new project every time a Millennial asks you about the next step in their career path? If so, stop it. There’s a big difference. Career path changes usually come with more responsibility, additional functional work assignments and the chance to work with more team members. Additional projects are usually just more of the same work. Ensure Quality of Life - There’s been a lot of research conducted on how important quality of life is to this generation as perceived to other generations. No doubt, that’s certainly true. However, I firmly believe that Millennials are the best at maximizing consumption and maximizing quality of life. Embrace this as a business leader, but make sure consumption/production goals are always met. Be Authentic - Millennials are interested in authenticity, open collaboration and constant feedback (yes, even negative feedback). They are not interested in business leaders posturing, behaving unethically or communicating ineffectively because of office politics. Be careful here. You will lose credibility very quickly if you’re not authentic. Invest in Them - Give them opportunities to advance within the organization. Millennials have no issues making their career growth expectations clear. It’s your job to provide a leadership development plan to get them there. Fully understand #3 before you develop a plan for this one. Accept That Millennials Often Have Diverse Job Experience Over Short Amounts of Time - I remember when I entered the workforce over 15 years ago, it was frowned upon for an individual to have "jumped around" to multiple jobs in a short period of time. The perception was always "Can we count on this person long term?" This is no longer the case, and hiring managers and business leaders alike need to accept this if they’re looking at attracting top millennial talent. Provide Opportunities for Rapid Career Growth - Millennials expect they’ll have to work hard, but they also expect rapid career growth. Possibly more importantly, they expect to be put in a position to succeed at their work assignments so that their skills are widely recognized and rewarded. Rewards may not be in the form of a traditional promotion but a new, unique and exciting work assignment in a completely unrelated area of the organization. Provide Fair Performance-Based Appraisals - Taken from the Bersin article reference above, I believe this is spot on. How many times have you seen a performance-based appraisal for a HiPo (high potential) Millennial rated just "average" or "meets all criteria" when it’s clear they’re a top performer in the organization? On the other side, what about tenured employees that seemingly have no perceived positive impact to the organization or no direct accountability for results, yet are continually rated just as well because of their length of experience? Don’t Treat Them All the Same - Older Millennials are more like Gen X: Not all Millennials are created equal, and as a business leader it’s important to understand that you may need to tailor your leadership approach accordingly. For example, older Millennials may care more about career progression, whereas younger Millennials desire more interesting and varied career paths. There are obviously more than 10 tips to effectively develop millennial talent. To effectively lead Millennials to become successful business leaders, you need to ask, "What matters to you and why?" Interested to see how Millennial you are? For fun, I decided to take the Pew Research Center’s Millennial Quiz and my Millennial score was 69: exactly where I expected to be, as an older Millennial.

Part two of this series illustrates the diverse range of satisfaction drivers from different regions around the globe. In the United States, compensation and relationships with superiors, especially when it comes to strong communications among employees and management, appear to be the biggest drivers of satisfaction.  This is similar in India, where employees look for strong compensation, as well as reasonable workloads and unique organizational cultures. The European workforce seems to be especially interested in positive corporate cultures, as well as the opportunity to test and advance their skills during their employment. Likely the most common preference among workers from a variety of nations and regions is corporate culture, which managers and executives need to fine tune to sustain engagement. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.  

A happy workforce will often yield better productivity, customer ratings, profitability and retention, among other advantages. On the other hand, disengaged workers, which make up a high rate of the American workforce, cost businesses an estimated $350 billion each year. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.