Nothing has ever defined the true potential of technology and digital media better than Social Media. From family to business, social media has touched every single corner of our lives. No wonder a big part of the credit for social media’s popularity goes to the digitals. They have always been the ones to embrace technology as it comes. They don’t just use it for the sake of it; they utilize its true potential to make our lives better in some way and for them social media turned out to be a genie in a bottle. Although digitals are socially driven people, it didn’t take them long to realize how they can use the newly found ‘digital interaction’ to circulate ideas and views around the internet. The digitals incorporated the benefits of social media to help them in managing personal matters and maintaining professional profiles. Consequently, social media was suddenly a powerful tool that allowed businesses to interact with the consumers like never before- A haven for both the digital consumers and the digital producers. Since digitals are the ones who are somehow born with the ability to make the best out of technology, it really pays to follow in their foot steps. Out of a plethora of social media sites, there are few that the digitals prefer the most. Their judgment is not based on speculations, but on their sharp and deep analysis of the features and benefits. Facebook It was not really the first social network of its kind but it certainly had a distinct edge. First of all, it was launched in the time when the internet was becoming a household name. Secondly, its tools and applications were focused on interactive entertainment. The digitals knew it was going to be a perfect combo-addictive and irresistible. The site now has over 900million users and provides a single platform for both businesses and the general public. The digitals or not shy of trying every single application launched on Facebook. Focusing on their main prospects, Facebook is also striving to satisfy the digitals by keeping them engaged through external websites and mobile phones. Twitter Microblogging may not make sense for many social media users, but for digitals it has advantages of its own. Twitter, with 200,000 million users, is a site that offers digitals the best opportunity to socialize on the go. No applications, no extra stuff, just plain old socializing that is both fast and fun. Digitals realize how important it is to have fun while not wasting a lot time and effort on it. Businesses have a better chance of interacting with a user while staying to the point and concise. LinkedIn The digitals believe in using technology to save time and effort. They know how to do it while increasing the efficiency altogether. They won’t usually surf from site to site in order to find what they are looking for. They usually go for specific platforms. LinkedIn is essentially a job search site which offers a single platform to post jobs and find jobs. No more posting resumes and opening envelopes, it is all a few clicks away on LinkedIn. Moreover, it serves as a community for businesses to promote and project themselves in a more efficient way. YouTube The digital understands how two is better than one. What users are looking for on the internet is a place where they can find all kinds of entertainment merged with all sources of information along with the trademark ‘interaction’. YouTube is a social media site which merges the benefits of the internet with the appeal of television. The digitals know that a picture is bound to speak a thousand words and a motion picture adds magic to it. The digitals don’t just use this as a source of finding information, they use it as a source of conveying information. The success is evident in the numbers; 78.3 million videos with 200,000 being uploaded daily. Online Games Gaming is the Holy Grail of the entertainment in the digital age. From arcade games to virtual reality, gaming has always been an addictive form of entertainment. The MMOs have now taken this to a new extreme. The idea of sharing a virtual world with real gamers is extremely fascinating for digital consumers. MMO sites allow like minded digitals to come together and interact while achieving goals, accomplishing missions and learning together. Happy Farm is currently the most popular MMO around with more than 230 million active users. Related Posts:The Rise of the DigitalsHow Digitals Do a Better Job than Others in Completing Their WorkIdeal Job Roles for Digitals - The Person-Technology FitSuccessful Business Digitals - How Do They Do It?LMS Final: The LMS as Social Media

General leadership is always a task that moves an organization forward. But creating and leading a high performance team may increase retention, efficiency, and even profit. In an age when buzz words sometimes get more notice, let’s look at high performance teams and determine how to make that team a reality instead of simply a popular term. First, leaders must define what high performance really is. There are general leadership attributes that can be reached and exceeded by leaders at all levels and in all types of organizations. But the true definition of high performance leadership is going to center on the organization, its needs, and the way it will become a leader in its field. For example, simply providing customer service is not a high performance attribute. But providing 100% customer satisfaction in every customer interaction is a high performance standard, especially when that standard is measured and is part of accountability. So to begin creating a high performance team, determine what attributes create high performance at the individual, group, and organizational level. Once you have defined high performance, you must create a structure to achieve it. As we mentioned, high performance goals are not valuable if leaders are not held accountable to them. So the question becomes how to hold leaders accountable. One way to do this is to create a "stretch" environment, where reaching a goal is great but stretching beyond it is high performance. For example, the 100% customer satisfaction measurement may be impossible to achieve. But is 95% customer satisfaction impossible? Given the right situations, effective training, and consistent coaching, it probably isn’t. To stretch this high performance goal, make 95% the point where the team meets the goal, and 96% where the team begins to excel the goal. High performance teams are always looking to excel their previous performance, so by creating this structure you’re paving the way for excellence. In line with stretch goals, leaders must create incentive to reach goals - and excel them. There are numerous ways to create incentive. Obviously bonuses or profit sharing are great ways to draw high performance. But the way the cash incentive program is created will keep the high performance team in stretch mode. For example, pay 1% profit when the team reaches the 95% customer satisfaction goal, 2% at 96%, and so on. Bonus and profit sharing programs create high performance and retain those high performers. But what about non-cash incentives, especially when the organization may be operating in economic uncertainty? One way to avoid up-front cash is to consider making team members eligible for promotion as they achieve various levels of stretch goals. Obviously there will be a cost involved, but salary is typically not going to be an "off the top expense". Also, consider products or services offered by the organization as rewards for achieving stretch goals, or consider reallocating funds for reward. For example, if executives are accustomed to a trip to a seminar or something similar, consider using those funds to reward the top performer. Outside of the realm of incentive comes the sense of spirit you, as a leader, must create. As high performers are identified, bring them together to brainstorm organizational problems and create solutions. Have the groups meet once a month for a network event, especially if the team members aren’t geographically located with one another. Let the high performance teams know that they are the future of the organization, and that it is their responsibility to solve problems and lead others in the organization to their levels. As this type of environment begins to emerge, you’ll see a team spirit begin to take shape amongst the high performers. They will "recruit" other high performers and send the message down the line. Finally, coach, teach, mentor, and hire for high performance. Coaching and training in leadership and advanced operational topics should always exist for high performance teams. This provides yet another incentive for high performers, who are always interested in learning and improvement. Assign coaches or mentors to the high performers as they emerge - this way, you’ll consistently have a support system that ensures the continuance of high performance behavior. If the budget allows, offer leadership training for the high performers at various levels. As they learn and improve, they will begin to create other high performers simply because of their every day behavior. But perhaps the most important aspect of creating and leading high performance teams is to hire for high performance. As you define high performance at individual job levels, you will begin to define ideal candidates for every position in the organization. When this occurs, even entry-level employees are leaders in their own rights. Organizations have the tendency to hire in order to get a "warm body". When this practice is replaced with a search for the person with the high performance attributes, leadership begins at all levels. Creating the high performance team is a process, but follow these basics and you’ll see results quickly. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Leading High Performance TeamsLeading High Performance TeamsLeading High Performance TeamsLeadership AnalyticsLeadership Analytics

Adaptive leadership is a step up from other leadership skills. Typically the term is applied to leadership situations that involve neither technical nor operational issues. Issues that require a form of adaptive leadership are normally problems that do not have the clarity of an operational issue, as well as a lack of clear solutions. How you, as a leader, react to adaptive issues will set the tone for problem solving going forward. Let’s first look at specific qualities of adaptive issues, and then discuss some ways you can lead adaptively. With adaptive issues, you may notice a difference between what the organization would like to see happen and the reality of the situation. This could come about when the organization tries to create its vision, knowing that quite a bit of work is needed to make the vision a reality. Adaptive issues are those that require responses that are outside the norm or outside of the box. If you cannot respond to an issue with the normal "tool box", then the issue may require an adaptive stance. An adaptive issue may also require leadership to make tough decisions or decisions that are not so popular. From the organizational perspective, adaptive issues will lead to new learning and new competencies. When the issue is corrected or implemented, members of the organization will have to learn new ways of doing things and most likely will have to raise the bar on their own competencies and performance. Along with this, an adaptive change must accompany a complete change in mindset for the organization. This is where "the rubber meets the road" and those associates who are not up to the task will begin to self-select. The organization may find, though, that their innovation and experimentation will help them learn - and solve the adaptive issues they face. But how can you practice adaptive leadership? First, when it’s time to identify issues, undertake the task with the stakeholders. Typically the stakeholders in adaptive issues are the ones who have contributed to the problem - and they are also the ones who can help fix it. One way to facilitate issue identification is to put all of the stakeholders in one room. Lead them through a session that identifies and clarifies the issues. Your leadership here is vital because many times stakeholders will choose not to get together on the problem. And they will continue to operate on the status quo. Once the issues have been identified, be sure to clarify the organization’s values, both for your own benefit and that of the stakeholders. When leadership turns adaptive, you must make tough decisions. Some of those decisions must go along with the values of the organization and not with the loyalty that some organizations foster over long periods of time. Along with this, you must remember simply to make decisions. Don’t offload decisions, unless it’s appropriate, and make them no matter how unpopular they may be. Set the goals that surround issues and decisions at a high level. The first purpose for this is to stretch the organization and require its members to think outside of the box. But an added benefit of raising the bar on goals is that the organization will be spurred into innovation and experimentation. Remember that these two states of mind are required to solve adaptive issues - and put all members of the organization in the adaptive leadership mindset. While you’re leading this transformation to innovation, allow for the "skunkworks", which is "off the radar" problem solving and project creation among stakeholders. The "skunkworks" could lead to new innovations. Finally, remember to be a champion as an adaptive leader. First, champion change from the positive perspective. Don’t give in to the feeling that change is too difficult or that it exists "just because". Instead, position the change that occurs with adaptive issues as a new way forward, a way for the organization to adapt and lead its field. In the same vein, champion the learning that must occur at all levels. Whether the learning is official training, on-the-job, or "as you go", talk about learning as the key to change and a new way forward. As members of the organization learn new ways of doing things, they will gain further competency, which will make them more marketable within the organization. Adaptive leadership does not have to be a foreign concept. Learn to identify adaptive issues and react accordingly. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Adaptive LeadershipLeadership Amidst ChaosFinding Leadership Amidst ChaosLeadership Tools for Small BusinessApplying Leadership to Operations Management

Leaders can inspire, champion change, and engage followers who will stop at nothing to watch the vision become a reality. Being in a leadership position enhances your own personal and professional image, as well. But there are risks involved in leadership. Let’s discuss five common leadership risks and how you can avoid them. History will tell you that leaders can become isolated. In an organizational environment, this is sometimes caused by growth. For example, leaders who start out in a small organization that grows in leaps and bounds can suddenly find themselves alone, without a proper support system and sounding boards. Perhaps the other leaders he or she relied on have their own groups to lead. There is also the possibility that the leader got lost in the shuffle - inspiration can cause people to charge ahead without stopping until the vision is complete. How can you avoid becoming isolated? One of the key ways is to maintain constant communication with other leaders and with the organization as a whole. Leaders who conduct "town hall" style meetings, even in bad times, will be able to keep in touch with the organization’s "pulse". Leaders who continually communicate will always hear and be heard. In addition, leaders should not give in to the temptation to surround themselves with people who say only what they want to hear. As a leader, you must be constantly challenged, and one of the best ways to do that is to surround yourself with people who will tell say that you might be wrong. Another leadership risk is a loss of focus on management and operations. Any organization has certain managerial and operational functions at all times. If you’ve led the group effectively, you may not be in touch with these functions on a day-to-day basis, which is fine. But don’t lose touch with those functions. Understand what’s going on, what has changed, and how the organization fits into those changes. Be sure to maintain your grip on when to step out of the leader’s role and step into the manager’s role - and ensure that your leadership team maintains this focus, as well. In simple terms, don’t lose focus with the day-to-day "how" of your organization. If you feel it slipping, get out there and re-acquaint yourself. We’ve all heard the rule to "under promise and over deliver". Popular sentiment can sometimes carry leaders away by popular sentiment and the exaltation brought on by winning battle after battle. When that happens, the leader may begin to "over promise and under deliver". To avoid falling prey to this risk, you should always stay rooted in reality. The temptation to over promise is great, especially when the organization is inspired and things are moving along smoothly. If things start to take a turn for the worse, examine the situation and adjust your reality. There’s no shame in telling the group that you’re proud of their inspiration but that things may get a little rough. The key here, aside from truth and honesty, is to let the organization know that you are there with them at all times, even when things are tough. Leaders can also become too visible and too approachable. This is a fine line but it can happen. For example, the leader that is carried away on the tide of good feeling may let his or her guard down in order to keep the good feeling. Or he or she may forget to manage even though the situation calls for it. Having an "open door" is a great idea, as long as there is an invisible wall that others cannot get through. Being a populist leader is a great way to get things done, but don’t go too far. Lead when it’s necessary and manage when you have to. Make unpopular choices and explain that the decision was made on behalf of the organization and not certain people. This is a way that leaders can maintain respect while still being populists. One of the final risks of leadership comes from selecting team members around you. Some leaders, again as they become comfortable, may start making decisions based on a feeling or a sense of leadership from the candidate. These are good places to start when selecting a team, but don’t allow that leadership focus to be the sole focus in hiring. Remember to look at the position you’re trying to fill and how the person’s knowledge and skills fit it. Simply being a good leader is not enough when there is also a job to do and a division or group to manage. Look for leadership and job related skills when you’re selecting a team, and you’ll end up with a person who knows how to lead and manage. And you won’t have to explain what could be a "sticky" situation when that person just doesn’t work out. Leadership is not without its risks. As long as you strive to avoid the risks, your leadership will continue to be effective, even in good or bad times. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Risks of LeadershipLeadership Amidst ChaosFinding Leadership Amidst ChaosLeadership Tools for Small BusinessLeadership Tools for Small Business

Maintaining the leadership pool is a challenging task for an organization and its top leaders. There are a number of activities, as well as developmental exercises, that can be undertaken to grow leadership at every level within the organization. But how can organizational leaders measure leadership? And, more importantly, what analytics can be used to ensure that leadership talent is used efficiently and appropriately? Let’s look at some broad categories of leadership analytics. First, behavioral profiling is an excellent analytical tool. There are two ways to approach behavioral analytics for leaders. First, you can identify behavioral characteristics of well-known leaders, either in the world at large or within the organization itself. These general characteristics can be used as a "yardstick" for leadership development and leadership measurement. There are many sources of popular leadership profiles, but how can you profile within the organization? Myers-Briggs type indicators are one example. A certified Myers-Briggs consultant can assess leaders, name their "types", and help the organization build profiles, communication plans, and job-specific characteristics - and use these items as leadership analytics. Along with behavioral profiling, the organization can make use of leadership assessment from the "other end". What makes people within the organization successful? If this cannot be defined, those "high performers" can be profiled with their own characteristics. For example, if your organization has not used leadership analytics in the past, identify people at every level who seem to excel at their jobs, have a "following", and who have consistently proven their worth to the organization and its vision. Take the time to interview these people to determine how they’ve accomplished a successful rise. The data you gather can be used to measure individuals and also to measure what characteristics tend to work within the organization itself. Analysis of teams is also an excellent analytical tool. There are a couple of ways to go with teams, as well. If your organization is already in the process of formal leadership development, consider bringing the pool together in order to break them into teams and give them "real" organizational problems to solve. Observe how the teams work together, as well as how each individual contributes to the solution or the project. You’ll be able to create an analytical profile of team success at the organization from your observations. If you’re not conducting formal development, consider observing project teams specifically for the purpose of identifying leadership characteristics. What personal and team characteristics tend to propel the team forward, and what characteristics tend to mire the team down? As you record your data, you’ll also see a profile developing. From the human resources standpoint, benchmarking individual roles for leadership characteristics is also an effective analysis tool. Examine individual jobs within the organization and first determine which incumbents have been "successful" at the job and which ones have had less than stellar performances. From that determination, you can look at individual behaviors that contribute to success within a particular job or role. Conduct this type of analysis at every level of the organization and measure incumbents and job candidates using the metrics you’ve discovered in your initial analysis. This type of role analytics can help the organization create individual leadership profiles for each job and for the organization as a whole. Leadership training and development in itself can be used as an analytical tool. The program you develop will help you identify high potential and high performing leaders at every level. But along with this comes the ability to identify the organizational players that have the potential to develop - and those who simply do not. Using this analytic, you can begin to develop the "middle road" or "B" organizational players into top-level leaders. And you can begin to exit those non-performers or "C" level players at the same time. All of the analytics we’ve discussed can be part of your leadership development program. For example, you can conduct analysis of behaviors, leadership characteristics, team performance, and even roles within the context of the leadership development program. Each broad area of analysis leads you to a set of measurements or analytics that can be used to measure existing leadership and to create a leadership goal within the organization. Not only this, these broad areas of analysis can also create a leadership profile by which you measure job candidates at every level, both internally and externally. Take the time to determine which analytics will work for you organization and begin to measure your leadership talent. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Leadership AnalyticsMeasuring Leadership EffectivenessMeasuring Leadership EffectivenessSales AnalyticsLeading High Performance Teams

It’s easy to get caught up in leadership skills and development. Plus, when things are going well, it’s even easier to ignore any measurements that tell you how effective the leadership really is in your organization. There are numerous ways to measure effectiveness, but all of these analytics occur in four broad categories. Let’s examine each category of leadership measurement. The first category of leadership measurement is in the subjective realm. When subjective measurements are mentioned, people have the tendency to dismiss them. But can the subjective measurements of your organization tell you how effective the leadership is? Absolutely. First, and in general, you must take an honest look at the overall morale of the organization. Is it deflating or non-existent? Or is morale high, even in the face of new challenges and obstacles? Low morale is a good indicator that leadership is not effective. What about participation and attendance? For example, if you begin to offer "town hall" style meetings or "brown bag" lunch sessions, are you hard pressed to find anyone who is interested? If you have to beg people to communicate or improve, that’s another subjective measurement of leadership. Is innovation a part of every day life at your organization? What about continuous process improvement? Do people feel comfortable speaking out when they see inefficiency better ways to do things? If not, this is a definite sign that leadership needs to step up. From the subjective, you can move into numbers-based metrics. Often, the numbers of the organization can tell you if leadership is effective. For example, what does productivity look like now as opposed to last year? Is a temporary "dip" occurring, or is the trend headed down? Other areas of measurement for leaders can be efficiency and mistakes. Are employees making fewer or more mistakes now? Are the errors being corrected in a timely manner, or are they being left to languish? How are sales? Are numbers up or steady, even when times are bad? Take a close look at your customer service, both internally and externally. Are there numerous complaints making it to your level, or are they being resolved at lower levels? You can look at the metrics that are used to determine the health of the organization and make a link back to leadership, especially on those metrics that are not linked to pay or bonuses. Remember that poor organizational performance can be related to many issues, such as market forces, poor positioning, or just bad economics. But also keep in mind that by taking a serious look at these metrics, you can adjust leadership accordingly. Another method of measuring leadership effectiveness is the implementation of a leadership index. An index is a targeted measurement tool that associates complete regarding their managers or leaders. Essentially, it’s an evaluation of the leader using the skills, behaviors, and attitudes that are found to be appropriate for the organization. In simple terms, you may see questions such as, the person "treats me with respect" and "helps me work on continuous improvement". The evaluator is asked to give anonymous, confidential answers about the leader. The leader gets to see his or her results and can work on a development plan from those results. There are numerous systems that can create the leadership index for the organization, or you can do it on your own. The main thing to remember is that using generic leadership behaviors, skills, and attitudes will not give you the best picture of effectiveness. The organization must determine what skills and behaviors are most appropriate to its leaders. One of the final methods of measuring leadership effectiveness is related to the leadership index. You can also measure leadership potential. Using a similar index, the organization can measure how leaders are being groomed and encouraged at lower levels. A large number of potential leaders tells you that leadership is effective at the organization - and that it is catching on at all levels. The fact that a leadership pool is developing on its own tells you that your leaders are indeed leading effectively. These are broad-based areas of measuring leadership effectiveness. Take the time to look at your organization, its size, and its leadership requirements in order to determine what measurements are appropriate. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Measuring Leadership EffectivenessSales AnalyticsLeadership AnalyticsLeadership AnalyticsTraining Analytics

Leadership is a concept that is sometimes identified only with large organizations, but don’t be fooled by this assumption. Leaders are present in every organization, at every level, and this includes small business. As a small business leader, you are probably more visible and more accessible than leaders in a large company or organization, so your skills are being watched and emulated more closely. Leadership tools and actions span quite a bit of distance, but here are five important leadership tools for the small business. First, try "planning proactively". In small business, it’s easy to become reactive. After all, the ups and downs of small business can be much more tumultuous and emotional since they come on quickly and affect a smaller population. But that it is no reason to avoid making plans and being proactive about problem solving. Be honest with yourself and your team about what issues could be ahead. With this, you should know the pitfalls of small business and be aware of how you can solve some of the problems you might encounter. Involve your team in problem solving at every opportunity. This will give them a "stake" in your business and the chance to participate in planning sessions. Next, create a vision for the business. You probably have a personal vision and had one when you started the business. Does that vision still work for the business? Have you achieved the original vision? If so, it’s time to think of what the future vision is. Along with a vision, what is the mission and goal of the business? Think about these important details, write them down, and visualize them. You can make your vision part of your everyday life - and remember that a vision does not have to be reserved for the largest organizations. Here’s the biggest benefit of this exercise: leaders are visionary thinkers. When you focus on that vision every day, you’ll start to think like the visionary you are. With vision, comes leadership. Third, you must share your vision with your family, friends, and most of all, your small business team. This is the hard part. As a small business owner, entrepreneur, and leader, the vision is probably a part of you. With large organizations, the vision is usually a shared one to begin with. But your small business was your idea - it’s your "baby" and a vision that concerns it could be personal. And that is difficult to put out there for everyone to see. But you’ll notice that by sharing that vision, you are letting your team become a part of it and live it every day just as you are. Post the vision around the workspace and keep your pride in ownership. By sharing the vision, you’ll truly become a visionary leader. You’ll find yourself making decisions based on the vision, and leading the team to do the same thing. Fourth, be sure to manage and lead - and know the difference between the two. Small business leaders are usually in the position of wearing two hats, that of the manager or supervisor, and that of the leader. Management is the day-to-day, short-term direction that you provide. Your management may include dealing with customer and employee issues, vendors, orders, and even front line work. You may find yourself scheduling, managing projects, and hiring employees. But don’t forget to go above these things. Provide direction through your vision. Take time to coach employees on their performance. Cheer them on for good work and gently correct them for not-so-good-work. Show your team that you can manage but that you are also a leader who will take them to the next level. Finally, be willing and able to change. Small business leaders have pride in ownership. The business you created is close to your heart - and it can be difficult to change. But be aware that change will come whether you want it to or not. Don’t get stuck by not changing to meet new employee, customer, and market needs. Examine your systems and operations and make the determination if they are really working or not. Most of all, accept suggestions for change from your team. Open the floor to new ways of doing business. After all, your team may become more intimately familiar with your business, operations, and customers than you are. By being willing to change and open to suggestion, you are proving your leadership. If your small business needs a "shot in the arm" or if you are just starting out, keep these five leadership tools in mind at all times. Employ them every day and watch your organization grow. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Leadership Tools for Small BusinessRisks of LeadershipRisks of LeadershipTraining Vision 3: What Are Your Best Customers Planning?Leadership Amidst Chaos

It seems that the economic news gets worse each day. Many organizations are faced with constant challenges ranging from job cuts to budget cuts to major changes in structure and delivery. Training and talent management can fall to the bottom of the list in these times, so maintaining the leadership pool you’ve built is extremely difficult. What can talent managers and training organizations do to challenge leaders, keep them motivated and focused, and to minimize the fear of losing their jobs? One of the best things you can do to maintain the leadership pool in tough times is to use them above and beyond their current responsibilities. Staffs may be smaller, but the organization’s problems and issues will continue. To that end, keep a list of organizational issues that are "bubbled up" and turn them into special projects or assignments for the leadership pool. Leaders, especially those who have never been through an economic crisis, should be aware that their responsibilities may grow even if their positions and salaries do not. If the leadership pool is challenged with solving problems, especially with low or no budget, their training will continue. The bargaining chip for this type of project is that the organization benefits from high professional and high potential leaders working together to solve problems. On simpler terms, talent managers should keep the leadership pool on a schedule of meetings or gatherings. Some organizations tend to have the leadership pool together for special training or annual meetings, and these events are more likely to happen when budgets are flush and the economy is booming. Get the talent pool together on a regular basis to discuss their issues and solve problems. Even if the pool is geographically diverse, get them on tele- or videoconferences to keep them communicating. If you want to formalize the process, create an action log or action plan from which your special projects can grow. You can also use the meetings for brainstorming; as money shrinks, creativity grows, so use your leaders to solve issues creatively. Budget cuts are no reason to cut meetings between the organization’s current and future leaders. Some organizations try to outsource leadership development and training, as well. While times are good this is a great thing because leaders get an outside view on their organization and their skills. But if there is no budget for outsourcing, there is still no excuse for creating training. Experiment with "home grown" training programs, both for and by the leadership pool. Employ the organization’s training department to create leadership seminars or courses that take up less time than an outsourced piece. You can even consider having members of the leadership pool deliver "brown bag" lunch sessions in their individual areas of expertise. In addition, don’t forget about leadership development at lower levels. Remember that the lower levels of the organization often suffer the most from training budget cuts, so why not have the leadership pool conduct leadership programs or even send out informative leadership emails to the rest of the organization? With this type of training in place, you’re saving the training budget but continuing to develop leaders at all levels. Another way to challenge the leadership pool is to create a benchmarking program specifically geared toward the economic downturn. Have your leaders find out what other organizations both inside and outside your industry are doing to weather the economic storm. In leadership meetings, discuss how those benchmarks can be applied within your organization. Even if the information cannot be deployed, it is still worth discussion. Finally, look for free events through Chief Learning Officer, Talent Management Magazine, and other trade publications. Online seminars and events, while low in cost, are sometimes high in learning. Use these seminars as opportunities for the leadership pool to come together for discussion and implementation of new ideas and techniques. The creativity, usefulness, and challenge of these ideas will retain your leadership pool, keep them thinking, and reemphasize their importance to the organization. The organization will win with new ideas and problems solved, and the leaders in the pool will be able to focus anxiety and fear on progress and learning. Copyright 2011 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Related Posts:Global Leadership Development (GLD): DistanceGLD 3: Creating a Global BenchCoaching as a Training ResourceLeadership AnalyticsLeadership Analytics

I was asked by my son, who is a recent graduate from Syracuse University, what is the message of my blogs. I did not know how to initially answer him. Finally, the answer arrived. My personal message is Optimism. Optimism for individuals, families, communities, companies, the nation and for the people of the world. All of my messages are optimistic but not an unrealistic assessment of the future is that we can develop a limited and sustainable vision of Leadership and Learning. Related Posts:Corporate University: Buy In and MarketingWhen Training Is or Is Not the AnswerGLD 5: Budgets and WorkforcesCorporate University: Avoiding the "Ivory Tower"Corporate University: Effective Staffing

To begin our examination of engaging training participants, it’s necessary to look at the overall keys to engaging the adult learner. Regardless of where your training takes you or your participants, it’s a good idea to keep your eyes on these keys at all times. In addition, if you can use the keys to engagement as a litmus test on training, materials, and training marketing, you will find that it’s easier to keep them in mind. The first key to engaging participants is relevance. Adults tend to learn when they have an experience to "pair" with the knowledge. Although it’s difficult to do this with abstract topics or for subjects with which the participants have little experience, it’s still possible to make learning relevant. For example, if customer service training dives into a technical or "behind the scenes" explanation of a product or service, it’s easier for them to tune out the knowledge. But if you link the learning to their jobs, making it relevant, they will be more likely to retain the information. The secret is learning how to make a job linkage relevant. It could be that they need to understand the technical explanation in case a customer asks. Or, it could be that the customer service person needs to understand what happens behind the scenes in order to understand the process of helping the customer fix his or her problem. In other words, relevance is all about the benefit to the learner. What does he or she stand to gain by staying tuned in? Next, applicability is very important. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a great thing, but not necessarily in the organizational or corporate sense. There are some things that adult learners, your training participants, really don’t need to know in order to do their jobs. And the key here is that applicability usually means, "in order to do their jobs." If knowledge does not apply directly to a job function, such as the above explanations of a technical process, then it may be a good idea to leave it out of training altogether. Another way to check for applicability is to go back to your stakeholders’ descriptions of what the participants need to be able to do once they have completed training. In addition, the objectives or outcomes of your learning interventions can test the applicability of the subject matter and its corresponding materials. The third key to engagement is accessibility. Training should be accessible in a way that is appropriate to its audience. If you have salespeople onsite for a week long seminar, classroom interventions with high interaction will be the most accessible to the participants. On the other hand, if your audience consists of remote technicians who deal with complex applications, the most accessible path may be online or social-media style interventions. In some cases, accessibility means making a program available depending on a learner’s style. For example, a general course can be offered in the classroom, online with audio, and online without audio in order to be accessible to all learning styles. Plus, having learning opportunities available via a Learning Management System is another way to make training accessible. The fourth key to engagement is manageability. However you deliver training or make it accessible, it must be manageable for the learner, and this depends on the subject and the audience. You may have heard training professionals talk about "chunking" material - this is the same thing as making it manageable. Content should be broken down into the most "digestible" segments possible to maximize engagement and retention. Even if you are providing a multiple week "boot camp" style training, breaks for learners should come every 60 to 70 minutes. Finally, content should be interchangeable. This simply means that the "digestible chunks" we’ve just discussed should be written in a way that makes them useful to other audiences and in other delivery modes. For example, general knowledge content that is provided by a live instructor can be modified to go into an online tutorial or a self-directed learning intervention. Now that we’ve examined the keys of engagement, let’s move on to pre-training engagement in the form of marketing and advertising. Related Posts:Engaging Participants 4: Virtual EngagementEngaging Participants 5: Training MaterialsEngaging Participants 7: Evaluating for EngagementEngaging Participants 2: Pre-Training EngagementEngaging Participants 3: Classroom Engagement