This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Harvard Business Review and explores why women are often labeled "too emotional" in the workplace.Even with gender equality initiatives, women are still underrepresented in most senior leadership positions across corporate America. Women account for less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs, less than 15% of executive officers at those companies, and only 6% of partners in venture capital firms.Why does gender imbalance still exist?It’s partially due to the way women are misinterpreted at work. According to How Women Can Show Passion at Work Without Seeming "Emotional", certain gender biases lead to women being labeled "too emotional" in the workplace. Studies have shown that when women passionately argue against the consensus, their male colleagues view them as "emotional" rather than credible.How do we make sure communication isn’t lost in translation?"Combining passion with logic, specificity, creativity, and experience can be more effective than relying on passion alone. If some colleagues, male or female, don’t respond to passionate appeals, they may respond more favorably to a different tactic. In addition, the versatility signals that you are in control of your emotions and able to switch gears in order to effectively make a point."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: How Women Can Show Passion at Work Without Seeming "Emotional" appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Facilitators make the difference between a mere "boss" and a true leader.

Imagine if every person acted like a lady or gentleman….. Engagement Tip: Ladies and gentlemen are polished in their professional appearance. Depending on your business, "polished" may not be a word you immediately think of. You may think, "I work in a diner," or "I work in an office where no customers ever see me." No matter your work situation, customers and colleagues will always appreciate it when you appear fresh and groomed. Put simply, it’s polite to look put-together. It’s what one might call a "hygiene factor" (literally) in business and employee engagement. When you are polished, you seem prepared to provide excellent work and service for your customers and colleagues. Even if your dress code is shorts and a t-shirt, you can look stylish simply by ensuring your clothes are clean, unwrinkled and appropriate in nature; i.e., nothing offensive and no tears, etc. Like it or not - your customers are judging you. You could provide the finest personal service, but if your appearance is untidy, you will leave your customers with a memory of the wrinkles in your shirt or stains on your pants. Also, your clothing will be the first impression customers have of your organization and your competency. You want your appearance to help establish confidence. At The Ritz-Carlton, our Credo specifies that we provide "a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience." One of the ways this is fulfilled is through our commitment to looking polished, which is articulated through this Service Value: "I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior." ∞ The motto of The Ritz-Carlton is "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen." This motto sets a tone of goodwill and grace for all. The Blog Post Etiquette & Engagement: Polished appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Here at TalentLMS headquarters, building a great LMS platform is not just a business for us — it’s also our passion. Like modern-day craftsmen we take pride in our products and in how well our customers and the market at large has embraced them. And today, we have a special reason to be proud of, as GetApp -the premiere Cloud-based business apps marketplace — has just been named TalentLMS as the #1 LMS solution in its Q3 GetRank listing of the top 25 LMS apps. GetRank is GetApp’s quarterly ranking of the top 25 Cloud-based business apps across different enterprise-focused product categories (CRM, LMS, HR, etc). GetApp uses a variety of publicly available, in-house, and third-party data to calculate each apps GetRank scores, and applies its unique in the industry methodology to weight multiple factors such us user generated reviews, integrations, mobile platforms, media presence, and security. You can read GetApp’s Q3 LMS ranking in full here. We started working on TalentLMS with the aim to build the best and easiest-to-use Cloud-based eLearning platform, and our market success along with GetApp’s ranking us as the #1 Cloud LMS is a vindication of our vision and hard work. That said, we’re also especially happy for the glowing reviews TalentLMS has received all these years from our customers at GetApps’ TalentLMS review page, and elsewhere. Save for our Support team, which will stay put to provide you with the best support this side of the galaxy, the rest of us will now go and celebrate our victory with some champagne and M&Ms. Then, starting again tomorrow, we’ll get back to working on making TalentLMS even better — as we don’t plan on leaving that #1 spot anytime soon. The post #1! TalentLMS tops the GetApp best LMS rankings for Q3 2015! appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Attempting to cover all the integration options offered by TalentLMS is like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Just as soon as you’ve covered a few (like we did here, here and here), several more pop up in some new update release. Never ones to give up easily, in this post we’re gonna have a look at how you can integrate TalentLMS with Zopim. Zopim, in case you didn’t know, is a popular Live Chat service created by Zendesk (the company behind the cloud-based customer service platform of the same name). In other words, Zopim is a Javascript "widget" (programming speak for "a webpage control that you can visually interact with"), that lets you chat with your users. Zendesk intends for Zopim to be primarily used for customer support, so their marketing copy (and help pages) go on about using Zopim to chat with "customers". Don’t be confused by that - in TalentLMS you’ll be using it to communicate with your learners (which, depending on whether you offer paid courses or not, may or may not also be your customers). Installing Zopim So how should you go about integrating Zopim? As is the case with most of TalentLMS’ integration options, it couldn’t be easier. Zopim, is essentially a third-party Javascript, err, script, that TalentLMS needs to load along with its own scripts in order to enable the Chat service. To add it into TalentLMS, you first need to get a code snippet from your Zopim account page. Confused? Don’t be. We’ll break the whole process down for you, step by step: (1) Go to the Zopim website and log in to your Zopim account (if you don’t already have one, you’ll need to sign up first). (2) After you’ve logged in to Zopim, you should be able to get the required snippet by visiting the "Widget" page (its entry appears somewhere near the bottom of the left sidebar). (3) Select it with the mouse and copy the script that you see at point 1 in the image above. Copy that snippet to your clipboard (Control-C or Cmd-C on a Mac), and keep it there, as you’ll need to paste into TalentLMS in the next steps. (4) Log in to your TalentLMS administrative account (you need to be an admin; instructor or student won’t do), and go the Themes tab of the Settings page. (5) On the "Update Theme" dropdown menu, click on the downward arrow at the right and select the "Additional Javascript" option. (6) On the window that pops up, paste the code snipped you copied from Zopim in the third step and click save. And that’s it. A chat window should now immediately appear in the right corner of your panel. If you don’t see it, do a full page reload (Control-R or Cmd-R on the Mac). If it’s still missing, check that you’ve copied correctly the code snippet as provided by Zopim and repeat the process. Now you should be all set to start communicating with your learners using your fancy new Zopim chat from inside TalentLMS. Conclusion In this post we looked into how you can integrate Zendesk’s popular Zopim real-time chat service into TalentLMS. Such a service can be handy not just for offering customer support to your students, but also as part of your Instructor-Led Training sessions. If you want to know more about TalentLMS and its numerous integration options, why don’t you simply sign up for free and take it for a drive? The post Integrate all the things! Hooking up TalentLMS with Zopim appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Although every organization is striving to deliver perfect customer service, not all of your customer interactions will be home runs. Physician Brian Goldman points out in a TEDx Talk that a good batting average is .300—and that means a baseball player has only hit the ball three out of 10 times. A player who hits the ball four out of 10 times is considered legendary. In customer service, when we swing and miss, it’s important to know how to quickly rectify the situation. One of the most important steps we can take is to set appropriate customer expectations, and this can begin before we even meet our customer. Every interaction with a customer—on a website, over the phone or in person—is an opportunity to set realistic expectations and prevent future disappointments. The following DO’s and DON’Ts share specific ways organizations can better manage customer expectations. DO Value Your Customer’s Trust When your customers are upset, their frustrations extend beyond a specific incident. They’re also upset because you have violated their trust. They may be saying to you, "I’m upset because you promised me a free toaster and instead you gave me a flashlight." However, what they are really thinking is, "You’ve let me down, and I’m worried I won’t be able to continue trusting you." Everyone in your organization must contribute to earning customer loyalty by endeavoring to establish and restore a customer’s faith in your services. One of the Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton states "I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life." Lifelong relationships tend to include an occasional disappointment. However, when relationships are built on a foundation of trust, you have more understanding and goodwill as you work through any difficulties. You want to do everything possible to earn and maintain your customers’ confidence, and managing customer expectations will help preserve trust. DON’T Oversell Your Products or Services Everyone wants to be the best. If you’re a diner, you may want to claim you serve the best waffles in the country—or even on the planet! The problem with claiming to be the best is that you immediately set yourself up for comparisons and disappointments. Your customers may try your waffles, and they may really like them. However, liking them is no longer enough. Your waffles have to be the best waffles in the world! Your customers will be dissatisfied if your waffles aren’t far and above any other waffles they’ve ever eaten. Are you losing customers by setting the bar too high? When you inflate customers’ expectations, you’re making it more difficult for your organization to achieve success. DO Pay Special Attention to Time Frames Organizations often make promises related to time. "Someone will be with you in a moment," "You’ll have the shipment by Thursday," or the ever-so-vague "This won’t take long at all." When time is part of the expectation, you’re in greater danger of losing trust if you get it wrong. If that shipment does not arrive on Thursday, your customer will be understandably upset. Depending on how you handle the situation, you may lose the customer’s trust altogether. If your organization is proactive in their communication, quick to look for solutions and rectify any difficulties and is apologetic, then you have the opportunity to restore faith. However, if your organization fails to communicate with the customer and maintains an indifferent, "win some, lose some" attitude, you will most likely lose future business. The healthcare industry has one of the toughest challenges in regard to setting time frames. Doctors and nurses are in a difficult position because patients—and their families—want to know when they can expect to be well. It’s important to give patients hope; however, because doctors and nurses are also dealing with people when they are the most vulnerable, it’s important not to set expectations too high. If patients think they can expect to be up and waltzing next week, it will be hugely disappointing if they’re still confined to a sickbed. Healthcare professionals risk not only losing the trust of their patients, but also diminishing the spirits of their patients and their families. DON’T Make Impossible Promises Sometimes organizations make promises that seem possible when they’re being concocted in a boardroom with a group of passionate and committed executives. However, your staff—the people who will be fulfilling the promises—must buy-in and agree on the feasibility of the promises as well. At The Ritz-Carlton, one of our Service Values ensures that our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—are "involved in the planning of the work that affects [them.]" Your organization can make promises to your customer—as long as the promises are truly executable.  Back in the 1960s, Avis rental car launched the tagline and brand promise, "We try Harder." They maintained that promise for five decades, and according to AdAge, the "campaign reversed the company’s fortunes, helping it to go from losing $3.2 million to turning a profit of $1.2 million for the first time in 13 years." DO Practice Seamless Communication Customers may contact your organization through email, text, social media, phone or in person, and it is your organization’s responsibility to record and transmit any communications appropriately. Your customer does not realize the complexities of your organization. Your customers want to believe that they can send one communication, and they will be heard. That is their expectation. When there are communication breakdowns, customers often become frustrated. Think about the customer who calls your establishment to make a special request and is told everything is set, but finds out later that the request was never passed along. Or the customer who finds a coupon for your store on the Web, but when the customer arrives at the store, he or she finds out that none of your employees know how to process the coupon. Worst of all is when a customer is handed-off from one employee to another and each employee tells the customer a different story. When customers are forced to sort through confusion and have to fight to be heard, they will lose confidence and faith in your organization. If your customers must be handed-off to another employee or if customers will need to reiterate their needs to another department, be sure to communicate the process to your customers. Good communications can deflate frustration and is a cornerstone of trust. Don’t Forget to Value Your Customers Your customers have more power than ever. They can shop anywhere. Even if you’re the only retail store on an island, you’re still competing with E-tail. If your customers are unhappy with your product or service, they don’t just tell their neighbor or friends. They tell the Internet and share their opinion around the world. Your customers expect to be valued. They expect to be cared for. When they don’t feel appreciated, they can easily carry through on the threat, "I will take my business elsewhere!" If your organization isn’t willing to make extra efforts and show customers that they’re valued, your customers will probably find a competitor who is willing to earn their business. Again, small gestures can make a small impact. Saying "thank you" and "we appreciate your business" are easy, cost-free and express your gratitude. Focusing on Expectations It’s important to meet the expressed and unexpressed needs of your customers, but at the same time, make sure you set realistic expectations. If you’re resolving an issue, be sure you direct your customers through any process and communicate regularly, thanking them for their patience along the way. Building relationships with your customers and managing their expectations takes extra time and effort, but it is rewarded by positive word-of-mouth and customer loyalty.∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post DOs & DON’Ts of Setting Customer Expectations appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Although every organization is striving to deliver perfect customer service, not all of your customer interactions will be home runs. Physician Brian Goldman points out in a TEDx Talk that a good batting average is .300—and that means a baseball player has only hit the ball three out of 10 times. A player who hits the ball four out of 10 times is considered legendary. In customer service, when we swing and miss, it’s important to know how to quickly rectify the situation. One of the most important steps we can take is to set appropriate customer expectations, and this can begin before we even meet our customer. Every interaction with a customer—on a website, over the phone or in person—is an opportunity to set realistic expectations and prevent future disappointments. The following DO’s and DON’Ts share specific ways organizations can better manage customer expectations. DO Value Your Customer’s Trust When your customers are upset, their frustrations extend beyond a specific incident. They’re also upset because you have violated their trust. They may be saying to you, "I’m upset because you promised me a free toaster and instead you gave me a flashlight." However, what they are really thinking is, "You’ve let me down, and I’m worried I won’t be able to continue trusting you." Everyone in your organization must contribute to earning customer loyalty by endeavoring to establish and restore a customer’s faith in your services. One of the Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton states "I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life." Lifelong relationships tend to include an occasional disappointment. However, when relationships are built on a foundation of trust, you have more understanding and goodwill as you work through any difficulties. You want to do everything possible to earn and maintain your customers’ confidence, and managing customer expectations will help preserve trust. DON’T Oversell Your Products or Services Everyone wants to be the best. If you’re a diner, you may want to claim you serve the best waffles in the country—or even on the planet! The problem with claiming to be the best is that you immediately set yourself up for comparisons and disappointments. Your customers may try your waffles, and they may really like them. However, liking them is no longer enough. Your waffles have to be the best waffles in the world! Your customers will be dissatisfied if your waffles aren’t far and above any other waffles they’ve ever eaten. Are you losing customers by setting the bar too high? When you inflate customers’ expectations, you’re making it more difficult for your organization to achieve success. DO Pay Special Attention to Time Frames Organizations often make promises related to time. "Someone will be with you in a moment," "You’ll have the shipment by Thursday," or the ever-so-vague "This won’t take long at all." When time is part of the expectation, you’re in greater danger of losing trust if you get it wrong. If that shipment does not arrive on Thursday, your customer will be understandably upset. Depending on how you handle the situation, you may lose the customer’s trust altogether. If your organization is proactive in their communication, quick to look for solutions and rectify any difficulties and is apologetic, then you have the opportunity to restore faith. However, if your organization fails to communicate with the customer and maintains an indifferent, "win some, lose some" attitude, you will most likely lose future business. The healthcare industry has one of the toughest challenges in regard to setting time frames. Doctors and nurses are in a difficult position because patients—and their families—want to know when they can expect to be well. It’s important to give patients hope; however, because doctors and nurses are also dealing with people when they are the most vulnerable, it’s important not to set expectations too high. If patients think they can expect to be up and waltzing next week, it will be hugely disappointing if they’re still confined to a sickbed. Healthcare professionals risk not only losing the trust of their patients, but also diminishing the spirits of their patients and their families. DON’T Make Impossible Promises Sometimes organizations make promises that seem possible when they’re being concocted in a boardroom with a group of passionate and committed executives. However, your staff—the people who will be fulfilling the promises—must buy-in and agree on the feasibility of the promises as well. At The Ritz-Carlton, one of our Service Values ensures that our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—are "involved in the planning of the work that affects [them.]" Your organization can make promises to your customer—as long as the promises are truly executable.  Back in the 1960s, Avis rental car launched the tagline and brand promise, "We try Harder." They maintained that promise for five decades, and according to AdAge, the "campaign reversed the company’s fortunes, helping it to go from losing $3.2 million to turning a profit of $1.2 million for the first time in 13 years." DO Practice Seamless Communication Customers may contact your organization through email, text, social media, phone or in person, and it is your organization’s responsibility to record and transmit any communications appropriately. Your customer does not realize the complexities of your organization. Your customers want to believe that they can send one communication, and they will be heard. That is their expectation. When there are communication breakdowns, customers often become frustrated. Think about the customer who calls your establishment to make a special request and is told everything is set, but finds out later that the request was never passed along. Or the customer who finds a coupon for your store on the Web, but when the customer arrives at the store, he or she finds out that none of your employees know how to process the coupon. Worst of all is when a customer is handed-off from one employee to another and each employee tells the customer a different story. When customers are forced to sort through confusion and have to fight to be heard, they will lose confidence and faith in your organization. If your customers must be handed-off to another employee or if customers will need to reiterate their needs to another department, be sure to communicate the process to your customers. Good communications can deflate frustration and is a cornerstone of trust. Don’t Forget to Value Your Customers Your customers have more power than ever. They can shop anywhere. Even if you’re the only retail store on an island, you’re still competing with E-tail. If your customers are unhappy with your product or service, they don’t just tell their neighbor or friends. They tell the Internet and share their opinion around the world. Your customers expect to be valued. They expect to be cared for. When they don’t feel appreciated, they can easily carry through on the threat, "I will take my business elsewhere!" If your organization isn’t willing to make extra efforts and show customers that they’re valued, your customers will probably find a competitor who is willing to earn their business. Again, small gestures can make a small impact. Saying "thank you" and "we appreciate your business" are easy, cost-free and express your gratitude. Focusing on Expectations It’s important to meet the expressed and unexpressed needs of your customers, but at the same time, make sure you set realistic expectations. If you’re resolving an issue, be sure you direct your customers through any process and communicate regularly, thanking them for their patience along the way. Building relationships with your customers and managing their expectations takes extra time and effort, but it is rewarded by positive word-of-mouth and customer loyalty.∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post DO’s & DON’Ts of Setting Customer Expectations appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Robotisation is going to demand a lot of change from businesses, not just structurally but emotionally.

There is no trivial comment for leaders. I would also argue: for anyone. How you show up and what you say have impact.Your actions and conversations are monitored at all times by those you work with. The upside of that is you have great ability to influence change and your culture.Nobody is perfect, and your co-workers shouldn’t expect you to be. However, not fully owning your conversations will quickly produce an environment of low morale and engagement.If you’re having a bad day and you show up at a meeting with a bad attitude, that will be noticed, talked about, and internalized by those around you. Have multiple bad days in a row, and you can watch people quickly disengage from you.Below are three steps you can take to help you more fully own your conversations.Step 1: Obey your Instincts Want to build emotional capital with people really quickly? Then obey your instincts. Take the example above. If you leave the meeting knowing you just showed up in a way that you would never tolerate from someone else on your team, contact those who were there and apologize. It’s that simple, and there is no need to go into detail about why.If your attitude was because you were unhappy with your team, take this opportunity to address the issue head on and reschedule another meeting to discuss what was bothering you.Step 2: Master the Courage to Interrogate Reality Is communication not something you feel totally comfortable with? Many don’t. Maybe you need to continue to develop your communication skills. Reach out to others within your organization and see what training your company is offering, or spearhead bringing training in yourself if it’s not available.Leaders in companies, regardless of titles, recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and set out to help improve them. Make your job easier by paying attention to how effective your conversations are, and if you need help, do something about it.Step 3: Take Responsibility for Your Emotional Wake Part of being a leader is developing your emotional intelligence. One of the ways you do that is to take responsibility for your emotional wake. Dr. Albert Mehrabian’s pioneering research on human communication tells us that only 7% of how we communicate is the words we say, 38% is tone of  voice and 55% of communication is non-verbal.Meaning, even when you’re not speaking, you’re conveying something. Being aware that you are doing this can be a challenge. When you do take notice, it doesn’t stop there. To make sure you aren’t infecting your culture with a lingering wake, check in with people. Also, when you catch yourself putting something out there that isn’t productive, address it right away.How do you take responsibility with your conversations?The post How to Take Responsibility for Your Conversations appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

October is women’s small business month. As a women-owned business, Fierce wants to thank all of the women-owned businesses that make an impact in our community - from Seattle to around the globe. I want to shout out to Blink UX, WiRL, Communique PR, and PACE Staffing as some of our women-owned business partners, who grow their businesses with brilliance and strength.In the United States, there is a surge of women-owned businesses. According to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Business Report, there are nearly 9.1 million women-owned enterprises, employing nearly 7.9 million workers and generating over $1.4 trillion in revenues. Between 1997 and 2014, the number of women-owned firms grew at 1 ½ times the national average.So I ask you: Do you have women entrepreneurs in your life? What have you learned from them? This week’s tip is to celebrate a woman in your life. Find a time to talk with someone who has been critical to your success. If possible, schedule a lunch date. If not, pick up the phone and spend some dedicated time together.How will you celebrate? The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Celebrate a Woman in Your Life appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Second of a two-part series on ACA and the finance industry In Part I of our ACA series, we discussed the significant impact that firms with 51-99 full-time employees will experience when they are... Visit site for full story...

Guest post by Pomello Making great hires usually involves evaluating a candidate’s hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills, of course, usually take priority when assessing a potential employee’s... Visit site for full story...

This post is part of the TriNet ongoing series about the Affordable Care Act and its effects on small business. Many employers who have struggled to provide affordable health benefits to their... Visit site for full story...

"Content is King". If that holds true and we believe it, then graphic design is the Queen! That’s right folks. You may have the best text and the best course materials, but your graphic design (typography, colors and images) will be the first features that will attract and retain your learner. It’s very easy to lose track of your course structure in terms of graphic design, especially if it is not your main forte. Before you hire a dedicated graphic artist to flesh up your course text, have faith. You can create a complete course - text and graphic design with the aid of these time-proven best practices. Read on to find out how many you can check off! Typography Tips Use font that is clear and device independent. A font that looks elegant on the tablet may not look as good on a smartphone. You would lose your mobile learners automatically. The Arial font is a safer choice, as it shows well on all devices. There is nothing more unfortunate in an eLearning course than the content "lost in devices"! Another advice is not to use more than two different fonts. One type to emphasize the headings and the other for the main content. Try using only two font sizes to avoid as well confusion. Color Caution If there is one element of a course that creates effective changes in the learner, it is the color. Use color with extreme care to evoke the desired emotions in your learner. For example, use the blue color for font describing material for an exam to avoid stress and anxiety. Here are a few more eLearning color points you’ll want to consider: Stick with a color scheme that involves 2 to 3 colors, any more than that and your design can start to look like a mess. Try to stick with one color for fonts for the main body of the text throughout your eLearning course. Similarly, choose one color of the heading and another for the sub-heading to make them stand out. Pair contrasting colors on the color wheel. For example, combine a light green font with a dark blue one to create a sense of drama and appeal to your eLearning course. Layout Ideas Your eLearning course layout has a direct influence on the way your learners perceive, comprehend and retain information. When learners log into an eLearning course, they scan the page from top to bottom and left to right. To make the most of this habit, place the most important information, such as main information near the top and the right-hand side of the screen. Another good practice is to place similar objects or concepts next to one another to emphasize their connection. Use different colors to highlight different groups of information. Important information through links and images should be prominent. Draw the learner’s eye to key concepts by using symbols and arrows (and be consistent with their use throughout the course) making them the central point of the page. Cohesive Visuals Visuals, such as image, icons, and graphics, enhance engagement and create a sense of suspense and excitement in the course. They also help draw attention to the core concepts of the course. As a professional practice, always integrate royalty free and high quality graphics and images. There is nothing more annoying than a blurry image in an eLearning course! Use images that are relevant to the subject matter. Images used for their "coolness" serve very little purpose. In fact, they divert learners away from the learning goals and objectives. Also, try to localize the text and graphics for your audience so that they are able to relate to the content easily. The White Space Issue Have you heard about cognitive overload? Think about the overwhelming feeling you may have had when looking at a document with lines and lines of text and figures. Your brain feels confused and you do not feel like scanning the entire page. Avoid filling the entire page with text and graphics. A bit of white space on each page helps avoid cognitive overload in learners. Leaving blank spaces on your pages encourages the learner to look at the desired information automatically. Absorbing and retaining knowledge is easier this way. Do you know your audience? The best thing about eLearning design is that you can modify it to benefit the learner. It is mandatory to understand as much as you can about your audience. Every image, block of text, and color you choose for your eLearning course must offer some benefit to your audience. Each feature in your course must serve a learning need or inspire your unique group in some way. It should redirect their attention whenever necessary. A good sense and practice of integrating graphic design is essential for an effective course. Use the power of the graphics to create a cohesive look - a unique theme that follows the course content closely. Using these six best practices, you can design an eLearning environment that is beneficial to your learners. The post 6 Best Practices in Graphic Designing for eLearners appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

An estimated $41 billion is lost by U.S. companies each year following a bad customer experience. (source) Advice from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Businesses of all types want to provide excellent customer service, but very few can master the "art" and "science" of service. The first challenge many organizations face is selecting "warm bodies" to deliver excellent customer service instead of selecting the person with the "right fit." Organizations need to hire people with an understanding of service as an "art" that is personalized and anticipatory, as well as an understanding of service as a "science," that is comprised of steps towards consistently excellent service delivery. The second challenge organizations face is lack of training. Great customer-centric organizations will train and re-train their employees on how to deliver excellent customer service. Employees must first understand the fundamentals of customer service—etiquette and respect. As Emily Post noted, "Good manners reflect something from inside—an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self." Basic social skills are the foundation for the more refined skills of empathy, genuine caring and graceful problem solving. At The Ritz-Carlton, our Employee Promise pledges to "nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company." Organizations can avoid losses due to bad customer experiences by taking the time to hire the best candidates and invest in training. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium on November 12th. The day includes a Ritz-Carlton executive panel with Herve Humler, president & chief operations officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. The Blog Post Significant Stat: Deliver Excellent Customer Service appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

We are very excited to be sponsoring the webinar about the Top 10 Association LMS Features that John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, LLC, will run on Wednesday, October 7 at 11am EST.   If you work in member training or professional education for an association, institute or other member organization, you are going to want to join John Leh and Mike Bourassa, of WBT Systems, as they share best-practices learned from decades of association learning technology experience. They will dig into the key differentiators of an Association LMS, show you examples, discuss case studies and share best practices.   What do you mean by Association LMS features? Educating members, selling content, providing continuing education credit and managing trade-show activities are all challenges that associations and institutes face but not typical corporations. As a result, Association LMS’s need an enhanced feature set to support and they are tough to find. In this fast paced and detailed session, they will cover the following: Why associations are using LMS technology AMS vs. LMS Top association training challenges Top 10 association LMS features needed Tips for selecting the right association LMS Case studies, mini-demos and polling throughout   Want to learn more? Please register even if you can’t attend and we will send you a link to the session recording. Hope to see you there! The post Top 10 Association LMS Features appeared first on WBT Systems.

A Millennial Outlook on "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" As a Millennial leader it often feels as though only two roads to career advancement exist: Be reminded of how young we are and that we need to wait our turn if we want to be in senior management or Ready, set, here’s the deep end - hope you can swim. Both leave us in the lurch, feeling neglected, and our talent wasted. But there is another option. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" by Devon Scheef and Diane Thielfoldt is a breath of fresh air. They have not only taken the time to research but to understand the Millennial generation, mapping out strategic ways to harness our talents and get us off the bench (…finally!). They find the balance of articulating the value and potential we hold with practical steps that employers can take to move our careers to the next level. It is not a secret that we (in general) often forsake company loyalty in the effort to achieve our desired career goals - but it doesn’t have to be us vs them, my way or the highway. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" exposes the reader to our desperate need to excel and then details the little (and big) things that can be done before we are ready for the role of senior management. We all know that we may not be ready to be CEO on day one (although don’t put it past us to have that ambition) but we do have creative vision that can push our company ahead of it’s competitors and are eager to work for a company willing to embrace us, coach us, and (when we are ready for it) let us lead. "The Accelerated Millennial Manager" shows you how to do precisely that. Every company looking forward to the future needs to read this and learn how to prepare a new generation for leadership success. The Accelerated Millennial Manager The Accelerated Millennial Manager

Training 2015 Conference and Expo - February 6 - 11, 2015 February 7th 9AM - 4PM - Performance Consulting & Measuring ROI Certificate Program with Jack & Patti Phillips February 8th 9AM - 4PM - Performance Consulting & Measuring ROI Certificate Program with Jack & Patti Phillips February 9th 8AM - 9AM - Instructional Design and Performance Consulting in One Model - It’s About Time

TalentLMS is a great platform for enterprises, businesses and organisations doing employee training, but it’s an equally capable eLearning weapon for those of you selling online courses. That’s not only because of its built-in ecommerce capabilities, but also because of its integration with external platforms such as Shopify and soon Salesforce (and hundreds more through Zapier). The new version of our TalentLMS WP plugin introduces another integration option that lots of our users have been asking for a while: WooCommerce. Those already familiar with WooCommerce are probably already getting excited and can skip directly to the "Integrating WooCommerce with TalentLMS" section. For the rest of you, WooCommerce is a popular open source plugin that sits upon the leading CMS/blogging platform WordPress and gives it full ecommerce capabilities. If you’re starting your eLearning website from scratch, or if you’re already using WordPress for your public web presence and are interested in expanding into ecommerce, the WordPress / WooCommerce combo is one of the most established and popular options. Especially now that you can hook it up to your TalentLMS installation and get even more mileage out of both. Integrating WooCommerce with TalentLMS As with most things TalentLMS, integrating WooCommerce is an easy process. No IT department required. 1. First, WooCommerce must be installed and be active in your WP site in order for the integration to take place. 2. Clicking the "Integrate" button [1] hooks up your TalentLMS content with WooCommerce. That’s it. There’s no step three. And even step one is kind of obvious (like telling you "your PC must be plugged-in in order to work"). Once you’ve clicked to integrate TalentLMS-WP plugin and WooCommerce, all your TalentLMS courses available for sale will populate you WooCommerce products list, with your TalentLMS course categories populating the WooCommerce product categories. There’s only a small caveat you have to keep in mind: because the TalentLMS-WP plugin caches your courses to achieve better performance, if you ever add any new TalentLMS courses after you’ve integrated with WooCommerce, you’ll need to to clear the TalentLMS-WP plugin cache and sync again. Sale away The newly added WooCommerce integration lets you sell your TalentLMS courses while using the hugely popular WordPress CMS as a front-end. If you already use WordPress for your website, it’s a no-brainer to add WooCommerce into the mix. But, even if you don’t, the WordPress/WooCommerce/TalentLMS package is a very powerful (and easy to use) combination. What other integration options would you like to see in future TalentLMS releases? Drop us a line and you just might get it. Until then, stay tuned to this blog for more announcements, news, tutorials and advice. The post Woo your customers with the new TalentLMS WooCommerce integration appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

I just read "The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World" by Pedro Domingos. Fair warning: it’s not for the faint-hearted. Domingos is a leading researcher in the area of machine learning and he’s a zealot for his subject. It’s pretty technical so the book is kind of heavy going. On the other hand it’s probably the state of the art, at least for a layman like me. But the book raises some interesting issues such as, when will we achieve the Singularity popularized by Ray Kurzweil - when will computers overtake humans in intelligence? What are the techniques we will use? How much are we already using them already in everyday life? With self-driving cars on the horizon it’s a timely question. I’ve already tackled one aspect of this issue in a previous post "Can Siri Become a Great Leader? - The Coming Out of Synthetic Psychology". My thesis was that there is no reason why you couldn’t create a synthetic leader based on the approach of reverse engineering leadership and personality assessments into a virtual agent. But on reflection I wasn’t thinking of the more difficult questions of leadership, just the garden-variety leadership issues that all leaders in the business and the military face. I wasn’t really thinking of political leaders though. With the next election inexorably drawing nearer the natural question is, could we replace a president by an AI - artificial intelligence - aka a Master Algorithm? Most people would regard this as being silly or even facile but here’s a question to some of them. Would many Democrats feel that GW Bush and previous conservative presidents did such a bad job that a machine could have done better? Probably I would guess. And if you asked the same question of Republicans about Obama, I would wager that most of them would say yes too. There you have it; it’s a question that’s at least worth considering. Let’s start off with the problem. Naturally most of the problems that politicians have to address are intrinsically insoluble. They all know that and so do we so we both play a game in which we pretend they are soluble and then we all dance round the subject which is why our levels of political discourse are so egregiously infantile. So it should be easy to replicate this low level of discourse. In principle all you have to do is to feed into the AI the main tropes used by each side and then the anti-tropes used to counter them. That’s certainly not difficult. So in general all you have to do to get an AI President is to match every situation to his side of the political spectrum and then pull up the appropriate trope. No problems there. How about making the politician look human? Well there are lots of politicians that have problems with authenticity starting with Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush so the bar isn’t too high. We have a history of competitions for the best AI program to win the Turing Test (in which a human judge must correctly judge which responses are from a computer or a human) and the state of the art is progressing steadily. Just layer on top of that a reverse-engineered narcissist - we are overwhelmed with that sort of knowledge - and you get a politician. Piece of cake. But a politician has to meet and greet people and kiss babies. How good would an AI be at recognizing faces and responding to them? Uh oh, this is bad news for the humanists out there. It’s now widely accepted that computers outperform humans at facial recognition. So an automated politician can recognize more people than you or me, and it never forgets a name. Once it knows the name it also knows more than you or me and can utter the correct pleasing but anodyne responses. That would make them better on the hustings than many a real person. So score another one for the Master Algorithm here. How about developing strategies to counter the sort of sticky situations that arise every day, like Syria, crossing gender lines, income inequality, government spending and personal email servers? Again all you have to do is pick the category, feed in the party line, add the trope and then the policy. Foreign, social, health, tax, redistribution etc. Policies and strategies can all be easily classified in this way. And guess what? The resulting policies and strategies might even beat the current ones and probably couldn’t get worse anyway. Even if your AI’s policies don’t work, that’s actually just what happens in real life so your AI will be right on the money! There’s a relatively trivial question of what machine learning techniques you use. Read Domingo’s book to crib up on that and hire some of the developers from IBM’s Watson and Deep Blue (winner of Jeopardy you might recall). Voila, you’ve actually got far more material than you need and certainly more knowledge than Donald Trump (OK I know that’s an unrealistically low bar)) or the other Presidential candidates. According to the third of Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Even 5 years ago, a self-driving car would have been firmly placed in the magic column. Three years ago, editing the human genome in real-time would have been viewed as playing God. Now they are already here; we’re whizzing past them so quickly that they are already disappearing in the rear-vision mirror of our Teslas and the high res photos of GoPro-equipped drones. Our politicians haven’t earned their keep. It looks like it’s a systemic issue. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, just like we are doing now. It’s time for a radical change. Maybe a Master Algorithm is a good place to start over.         Can politicians be automated?          Read More

My name is Simon and I’m the user researcher on the Digital Personal Independence Payment Claim. We’re developing the new service, researching and testing with users as we go.    I’m writing this blog to try to reach as many people as I can who may want to volunteer to test the digital service for us.   We want to give people the opportunity to test the digital service in their own time, on their own computer and in their own way. This way we can make sure that what we are building is going to really work for people.     We’ll send anyone who volunteers an email with the web address of the test digital service. You will not be able to use the test digital service to make a claim for PIP.    We’ll use the feedback you provide to make the service better.   The testing will be anonymous - we won’t ask you for any of your personal details. You’ll be able to save your claim as you go along, and you won’t have to do it all in one go. If you get stuck during the testing, we’ll be able to help you via telephone, text or email. It won’t impact any benefits you may claim in any way.   After completing the testing we’ll ask you to fill in a short survey about how you found using the digital service.   If you’d like to volunteer to take part in this research please email us at pip.onlineclaim@dwp.gsi.gov.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.    

Many business employees are great negotiators. However, even the best negotiators often hesitate to use their skills to get a raise. They fear asking for a raise will make them look like money-grubbers. If you fit into this category, your feelings are natural but you needn’t let fear cheat you out of an opportunity. If you have done your job well and haven’t had a salary increase in awhile, you are within your rights to ask for one and there are good ways to do so. Research First: Business experts recommend you understand benchmarking before negotiating a salary increase. In other words, you need to know if a company is willing to pay what you are worth. Research starting salaries at competing companies, as well as how long it usually takes for their employees to get raises. Compare and contrast this with average pay for people in your field with your experience or particular skill set. Additionally, compare and contrast local companies’ salaries with those of other companies in your area. If you can show that wages and increases are similar across the board, you’re more likely to get the raise. Don’t Bring Up Money First Thing: An old adage says the first person to bring up money loses, and that’s especially true in the business world. If you walk into a supervisor’s office and immediately ask to talk about money, he or she will be surprised, shocked, and worst-case scenario, irritated. Instead, make an appointment first. Begin with appropriate small talk, or mention something you’ve enjoyed doing this week. Then casually bring up your research or ask if your supervisor has time to negotiate now. Remember the Entire Package: Salary negotiations are not only about your paycheck. They may involve negotiations for sick leave, maternity leave, vacation time, or other compensations. Again, if comparable compensation does not match what you get at your workplace, bring it up as cordially as possible. If there is a particular perk or type of compensation you want, such as vacation time, ask about that first. Finally, if there is a pressing reason to ask about non-cash perks - for instance, you just found out you’re pregnant - don’t wait too long to mention it. Otherwise, negotiations might be harder to complete. Discuss, Don’t Demand: Since the economy is still sluggish, many people feel strongly about raises and paychecks. This is understandable, but don’t let your concerns or emotions turn negotiation into confrontation. Remember that most employers want their workers to succeed. Go in with a positive attitude - it will make a better impression.

Compromise is an essential element in any interaction. In business specifically, compromise is critical to ensuring the needs of all parties are met and that healthy and prosperous relationships are fostered and maintained. Leave the Emotions Out of It In some business situations, emotions can be helpful. Compromising is not one of these situations. When either side shows emotion, it can convey weakness, which the other party will use to their advantage. A compromise is when both parties come to a mutual agreement that is beneficial to everyone. To leave emotions out of the process, you must remain solution oriented. Address facts and problems, and work together to solve them. If you start to show anger towards the other party, it becomes personal. The desire to make a compromise will be squelched. Keep it rational, and ignore your personal differences. Be Honest Being honest with yourself and others is one of the most effective ways to reach a compromise. If you establish your goals up front, there’s no need to beat around the bush and waste time. Communicate with the other parties why these goals are important, and they will be more likely to understand and work with you. Likewise, be honest with yourself and your own responses. Identify the traits within yourself that may negatively affect your ability to compromise, and manage them before they become a problem. Explore All Your Options Prior to negotiating, come up with all possible outcomes and their alternatives. Carefully weigh the pros and cons of each for both sides. Addressing multiple solutions to a problem demonstrates your willingness to meet in the middle. If you communicate effectively and intelligently, it shows the other side that compromise works for everyone. You will end the negotiation on a positive note and leave them with a feeling that they’ve "won" something, too.  Above All, Stay Positive In all situations, a positive attitude greatly affects the outcome. Staying positive reflects confidence and a genuine regard for others. Others will be much more willing to compromise their needs and meet yours if you maintain a persistently positive attitude throughout the meeting. Think about it: why are successful salespeople good at their jobs? They’re warm and welcoming, and they make customers feel like their needs matter. It’s much easier to reach a compromise with a pleasant and genuine person, and it allows both sides to feel like they’ve come out on top.   Sources: https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Sites/Ombuds/files/NegotiationConflictStyles.pdf http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/jul/31/startups-negotiation-compromise-credibility http://blog.dalecarnegie.com/leadership/12-tips-for-negotiating-and-compromising-with-difficult-people/

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on TrainingIndustry.com and outlines three tips for developing more leaders within your organization.Organizations need more leaders and less bosses. What do we mean by that? Well an organization’s culture either creates more bosses or more leaders, and this choice has a huge impact on an organization’s bottom line. While bosses just want to get things done, leaders will constantly push themselves to improve. When confronted with an obstacle, a leader will explore avenues outside of the set process to solve the problem at hand.The question simply put is: How do we create more innovators and less followers?Three Ways to Build Employees into Leaders urges organizations to stop coaching and start challenging your employees. If you never challenge a team member, they will never have a reason to tap into their leadership potential.Are you holding your team accountable?"Increase the capability of your staff through more challenges as opposed to coaching. Being coached is easy to ignore. Striving to accomplish a new challenge is difficult. By encouraging people to think, you may be surprised at the solutions they come up with."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: Three Ways to Build Employees into Leaders appeared first on Fierce, Inc..