Onboarding New Sales Hires Continues Being Challenging

No amount of effort can transform raw recruits into capable sales reps overnight.

But the clock is ticking. Every extra day reps spend ramping is a day the company loses money. Between long training periods and typically high turnover, reps may have only a few months of peak performance selling. Even if a rep stays on the job long enough to recover the costs of recruiting and training, companies incur significant opportunity costs, while new hires sit idle on the bench – sales are lost and customer relationships suffer because the sales team is not ready to compete at full strength.

A faster and more meaningful onboarding experience would benefit new hires, their managers and coaches, and the company as a whole. But the question remains, why is it so hard to develop, manage and deploy a meaningful onboarding program?

Onboarding experience is disjointed across functions

In many B2B companies, a number of functions or departments are involved in creating and delivering a sales ramping program – sales management, sales operations, learning and development, marketing, product management, HR and the list goes on. Too often, learning is driven more by logistics and the availability of resources to directly engage with the new group of learners. Each department focuses on delivering content relative to their area of expertise, and the hand-offs are weak. Learning agendas focus too heavily on sharing large volumes of information (product features and functions), yet lack the context and skills needed to apply to that information to anticipated selling scenarios or territory development goals. Ultimately, sales reps are left to connect the dots themselves to understand the big picture and knit together the key insights they need to be successful in their new roles.

Onboarding takes too long

A frequent complaint from B2B sales organizations is that onboarding simply takes too long. Sales leaders are starting to recognize that accelerating the ramp time of new sales hires (even by a few weeks) can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line. New sellers tend to spend too much time sitting idle on the learning curve - they either can’t find the answers or resources they need to complete the task at hand or are unsure of what task should be next. In addition, once they acquire the requisite company and product knowledge, reps lose momentum trying to figure out how to adapt or apply that knowledge to their individual territory. 

Managers are ill-equipped to coach or guide

Despite significant advancements in sales enablement technology, many sales onboarding programs are still managed either manually or via an Excel spreadsheet. In these cases, coaches and managers lack visibility into new rep knowledge and skill development. Has a new sales hire completed his or her self-guided learning tasks? Have they been certified at each stage of learning and for each competency? Are they progressing on pace or falling behind? Without this insight, managers don’t know when or how to intervene. At the end of the day, you want your quick learners to advance unencumbered and your slower learners to have the extra support they need to stay the course.

If these are the obstacles, how can we then counter them and help accelerate time-to-value for new sales hires?

Guiding a prescriptive but flexible learning sequence

The best learning programs are a combination of essential curriculum components such as key phases, subject areas, seller tasks, manager coaching and expected learning outcomes. A logical learning sequence is prescribed step-by-step to the seller, but with enough flexibility to complete tasks out-of-sequence as circumstances require – keeping new reps productive with meaningful activity even when key resources aren’t available. This approach is often a combination of prescribed, self-guided learning and more traditional classroom style learning with case studies, role-plays and face-to-face coaching.  Content, information and resources are served up to new reps based on the specifics of their role, responsibilities, learning stage and task. Knowledge is delivered in context, when and where it’s needed. 

Accelerating internal connections and collaboration

Your new sales hires are the ones who will have the most questions, but are the least equipped to find answers or support. One of the key reasons experienced reps are successful is because of the valuable internal support relationships they’ve cultivated and nurtured during their tenure. New reps need to be connected early and often to their internal selling network - they need to be able to quickly understand and navigate the organization, identifying the key relationships to invest in along the way. Providing dedicated collaboration activities and tools enables sellers to easily engage and interact with trainers, managers, product experts and peers – as well as to solicit feedback, find answers, and seek real-time guidance and mentoring. 

Enabling managers and trainers to inspect, coach and measure

Visibility for trainers and managers is critical. They need to understand the progress of new hires as they work through the onboarding program. Are the new reps completing learning tasks in a timely manner and in a logical sequence? What degree of proficiency do they have with new skills? In what areas might they need additional coaching?

Without automated tools that provide real-time insight to understand new rep progress and proficiency, a manager or coach is virtually handicapped to ensure the overall success of the individual or the program.

With the rising costs and competitiveness of attracting and hiring top sales talent, a successful onboarding program can’t be left to chance. Reducing ramp time and improving the effectiveness of sales-specific learning provides the opportunity to improve the bottom line, boost morale and put your new sales hires on an accelerated path to success.

Joellen Sorenson is Director of Solutions Marketing at SAVO.

Written for TrainingIndustry.com

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Don’t Forget the Positive

It’s a well-known fact that managers are the translators of corporate messages. They take the vision and goals set by senior leaders and translate them to the employees for dissemination and achievement.

That being said, it’s not surprising when managers focus on the gaps in performance that could prevent the company’s goals from being met. But in an effort to ensure that all teams are performing at their highest effectiveness and productivity, the identification and reinforcement of positive behaviors that enables high performers to be high performing, sometimes gets forgotten.

Providing positive feedback such as praising a productive employee or rewarding a job well done can be difficult for both new and experienced managers. Perhaps managers who are uncomfortable with this had leaders in the past who were hesitant to offer praise and positive feedback.

But the effects of not giving positive feedback can be detrimental to any team. Good behaviors that are not reinforced, can slowly disappear. In addition, employees who aren’t given that praise or reward for a job well done might replicate that same behavior when they become managers.

Giving good feedback reinforces the fact that good performance and the behavior behind it is being noticed, contributes to the success of the team and should continue.

So how does one give positive feedback? The first thing that any manager should do is observe the team and look for positive behaviors with the same amount of focus that they do with performance gaps. The manager should engage in direct observations, meaning that the employees know and understand they are being observed and for what reason. Indirect observations, in which the employee is not made aware, should also be used and might include using systems tools, reports and employee interactions to gather information. It is important for managers to document these observations, just as they should document them when employees exhibit behaviors that need improvement or should be changed.

The manager should then link the behavior to the specific situation in which it was observed so the employees can visualize themselves in that situation. The impact that this behavior has on the team, the company and the customer should be discussed so that the reason why this behavior should continue is reinforced. The best practice here is for the manager to question the employee about the situation and the effect of the positive behavior so that the manager is creating an environment of self-discovery for the employee.

Finally, the discussion should center on ways that the employee can continue this behavior, not only in the same situation, but in others. Again, this should be done by enabling the employee to self-discover these ways through questioning. By doing all of this, the employee now has a positive reason to continue to exhibit this behavior. If managers adopt this “self-discovery” intent with all their employees, the outcome should be a feedback-rich environment and members who actively, constructively and freely seek and offer feedback.

In this fast-paced world, thought should be given to providing positive feedback as well as the feedback used to correct undesirable behavior. This positive feedback shouldn’t be reserved for one-on-one meetings with employees. Positive feedback should also be given in the moment it is observed. When this happens, managers can be assured that they are balancing their efforts to coach their team to success. This is truly the job of an effective manager.

Darrell Burke is a training manager at Accelerated Business Results. 

View the original article here

Conscious Rejection

Over the past few days, I’ve made a lot of progress in resolving some of the ethical dilemmas I’ve been sharing recently. I’ve felt some significant shifts happening in how I choose to relate to people who support animal cruelty, such as modern factory farming.

In the past, my main way of dealing with such people was to tolerate them as best I could. This included entertaining their desire to debate the topic with me. Engaging in such debates often nauseates me, however. I dislike it when people try to justify cruelty and expect me to treat this as a worthy topic of discussion.

Having been eating a vegan diet for 17+ years, I’ve heard all the pro-cruelty arguments before. I haven’t encountered any genuinely new ones in many years. I’ve seen no valid defenses for the indefensible position of preying on the weak. I can debate these topics endlessly, but I see no point in doing so. Getting sucked into debates on these topics puts me back in the past and slows me down from taking the next steps on my own journey.

I realize that my main issue has been my willingness to tolerate the attitudes of staunchly pro-entitlement people in my life, especially people who feel they’re entitled to participate in forcibly impregnating, torturing, and slaughtering animals for their gustatory amusement.

I’ve been tolerating such people in my life, but I don’t trust them. I can understand how they think because I used to harbor similar attitudes myself, but I left behind that way of being so long ago that I cannot muster any shred of respect for such attitudes anymore.

Consequently, there’s no real potential to have deep, authentic, and purposeful relationships with such people. I always keep them at arm’s length. When I’m with such people, I often pick up a creepy or slimy vibe from them. I sometimes need to excuse myself from their physical presence and slough off that distasteful energy.

I find it much easier to trust people who have a strong sense of ethical guidance and who continue to refine their values over time — people who seek to increase their alignment with compassion and move past cruelty, entitlement, and rationalization.

I’m now finally seeing that tolerating people in my life that I cannot trust isn’t a good idea. It drags me down emotionally and slows me down in terms of pursuing my own path of growth. It keeps me looking backwards to where I’ve been, as opposed to focusing on what I could be exploring next.

I also dislike that when I connect with such people, I start feeling more helpless and hopeless. I lose hope in humanity. I start feeling increasingly disappointed with the world. I begin to socially withdraw from the world instead of fully engaging with it. I don’t feel as inspired to share and contribute. This is disempowering. It’s not my path. It’s not me.

I’ve been exploring different options for how to relate to such people, as you already know if you’ve read my last few articles, but it’s been difficult to find an approach that seemed rational, intuitively correct, and emotionally satisfying.

Yesterday, however, I began to explore an option that fulfilled these criteria: conscious rejection.

In the past I’ve been reluctant to dismiss pro-cruelty people. So I’ve tolerated them instead. This is like a man who tolerates misogyny from his male friends. He may justify his tolerance by noting that the other guys aren’t hurting him; they’re only hurting women. That’s what I’ve been doing with animals. I’ve been letting it be semi-okay for friends of mine to justify cruelty. I’ve allowed myself to succumb to the human-animal relations equivalent of the expression bros before hos. That isn’t aligned with the man I desire to be.

I now see how foolish it is to live like that. I can’t pretend that it makes sense to act like it’s okay for someone to hurt and kill animals with impunity. That type of behavior is wrong, regardless of how popular it may be.

So I’m no longer willing to tolerate this staunchly pro-cruelty attitude in my social circle.

In terms of communicating conscious rejection, I’m still working on that. Perhaps something like this would be a decent place to start:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. Given what you’ve shared, I feel that it would be unwise for me to maintain a relationship with you beyond this point. My mantra for social relationships is: mutual respect, or disconnect. I can still respect your freedom of choice, but I find that I’m unable to respect your specific choices here, so I consciously choose to disconnect.

If your values and preferences in this area later change to the point where you feel we’ve become more aligned, please feel free to get back in touch and let me know about the shifts you’ve experienced, and we’ll see if it’s possible for us to reach a place of mutual respect and to reconnect. I would be open to that.

Until then I would prefer that we go our separate ways and do not communicate any further. If you wish me to respect your freedom to choose, then please respect my freedom to choose as well.

If you’d like a more detailed explanation of why I prefer to disconnect, please see my article on Conscious Rejection.

I hope you understand.

Were my initial rejections this tactful? Heck no! I had too much reactiveness mixed into them. For those who felt I was overly harsh, I’m genuinely sorry about that. That was my fault — I allowed my vibe to sink too low. Now it’s trending back up again, so I’m more capable of choosing a more thoughtful response.

Beyond being an ethical vegan, my commitment to conscious growth runs much deeper. This includes my willingness to respect other people’s freedom to choose their own paths, even when they choose options that I consider cruel or unethical. That said, when others choose to pursue such paths, I may also exercise my freedom not to tolerate behaviors which I consider abusive. To do otherwise slows me down and causes me to stagnate. I want to keep growing.

I’ve begun to explore this conscious rejection option to see how it feels to me. Last night when people would try to defend their pro-cruelty behaviors on my social media pages, I stopped tolerating them. I let them know that I considered their behavior unacceptable, without ambiguity. Then I consciously rejected them, first by telling them, then by blocking their accounts from accessing my pages again. Basically I dismissed them from my social circle.

I did this a few times as I felt the situation warranted. Each time I felt relieved. I felt lighter. I felt safer. I felt like I could breathe easier.

Some would interpret this to mean that I just got triggered and reacted impulsively. My experience wasn’t like that. I know what it feels like to be triggered. Being triggered is an unconscious reaction. This, however, was a conscious choice. I didn’t impulsively or unconsciously reject anyone. I opted to do it very consciously and deliberately. I simply said, “No more.”

I’ll admit there was some reactiveness mixed in, but that aspect seemed to fade a bit more each time. Looking back, I feel like these were deliberate choices, not knee-jerk reactions. I have, after all, been consciously considering how to handle such situations for a while now, including publicly writing about it.

I understand and accept that some people may consider this approach a bad idea. I’m going to explore it anyway and see where it leads. I like that it’s giving me a feeling of relief so far, helping me to feel lighter. The more I consider it, the more I feel at peace with it.

What about love and oneness? For me this is the most love- and oneness-aligned path I can see right now. I’m doing the equivalent of filtering out the cacophonous noise in my reality, so I can finally hear the quieter and more beautiful music behind it. I’m dropping the disharmonious elements, so I can tune into the harmonious ones. This makes more sense than continuing to tolerate the noise and getting a headache for the effort, while missing out on the inspired music.

This puts a decision upon the committed pro-cruelty people in my social circles.

They can speak up and defend their attitudes to me, which of course they’re free to do. If their attitudes feel creepy, slimy, or nauseating to me, I’ll drop them from my social circle. I’ll trust my intuition on a case by case basis.

Or they can consciously reject me first. I’m fine with that.

Or they can keep quiet and do their best to tolerate me in their lives, maybe giving further thought to how they wish to relate to me, if at all. This is how I previously dealt with them.

Or they can try to bobble around in the middle gray area. If and when they cross the line with me, they’ll know.

Does this mean that I’m rejecting all meat eaters out of my life? Not at all. Let me ‘splain…

To those meat eaters who genuinely desire to work on improving their alignment with compassion and reducing their contribution to cruelty over time, I’m happy to continue having them in my life, including as friends. I don’t feel I’m merely tolerating such people. I’m able to respect and appreciate them as they are. I’m able to trust in their commitment to grow into more compassionate and loving people over time. I see no need to push such people out of my life.

I don’t expect perfection from anyone, myself included. But I’m not willing to tolerate those who seek to stubbornly defend and rationalize indefensible acts of cruelty.

If people are willing to keep growing in this area of their lives, regardless of how fast they’re changing or where they end up, I can see enough of a basis there for trust, connection, and mutual respect. I can respect such people, regardless of their starting point. I can respect them even if they end up taking a different trajectory than mine.

I’m not, however, able to respect justification and rationalization of cruelty. That’s too far out of alignment with the principles by which I live. I neither trust nor respect those who stoop to this level, especially their proclaimed right to commit brutal acts of violence against animals, just because they can. I have no desire to invest more energy in tolerating such people. I would rather consciously release them.

I believe I’ve been using tolerance to slow myself down in terms of the refinement of my own sense of ethics. That’s probably because there are more aspects that I’m not sure how to handle yet and don’t necessarily feel ready to face, and so it’s easier to look backwards to decisions where I already have the comfort of knowing that I’ve made sensible choices. Getting wrapped up in the ethical stagnation of others was a symptom of my own. It’s time to move on.

These realizations have also given me much clarity about the challenges I recently shared regarding some of my relationship explorations with women. I now see that the issue there is that I’ve been attracting women who’ve been tolerating abuse just as I was doing. These women felt a desire to connect, but they were skittish about letting go and trusting, which made it hard for us to connect very deeply. I realize now that I’ve been doing the same thing. And how else can it be? Like attracts like.

By tolerating the presence of people I perceive as violent, cruel, and abusive in my social circle, I’ve been dragging down my vibe. This has made it harder for me to trust people in general. When I meet new people, I often feel suspicious of their motives. That’s a side effect of tolerating too much unacceptable behavior in my life.

I’ve been wanting to connect with more people who find it easy to trust. I believed I was one of them and should be able to attract such people without much difficulty. I was confused because the flow wasn’t as strong as I expected. Of course there was a hidden block, which I can finally see now.

Until now I didn’t see that I was putting myself in a position that made it harder for me to trust other people. I wasn’t actually as trusting as I thought I was. I’ve been tolerating the presence of too many people that I consider untrustworthy. This needs to stop. It seems much more sensible to stop tolerating and to start consciously releasing such people. It takes me beyond ambivalence and gives me great relief to know that I’m not obligated to tolerate such abuse.

Based on my experience of undergoing many other shifts, I expect that this is going to change the types of people I attract into my life, as well as transform some existing connections. By consciously releasing the people and behaviors I find truly repulsive, I can move past the stuckness of partial matches and more congruently attract and connect with like-minded people who are willing to reject violence and cruelty. I feel especially attracted to people who speak their truths while surrendering to the inevitable social consequences of their unabashed honesty. I have a lot of respect and admiration for such people. Now it’s time for me to do a better job of becoming worthy of their expanding presence in my life.

A common piece of feedback I receive is that while people can be quite vocal in disagreeing with some of the decisions I’ve made or the attitudes I’ve adopted, they still respect my honesty. They like that I value truth ahead of reputation, ahead of income, and ahead of opportunism. I realize that this is a quality I very much admire and appreciate in others too, even when they say things I make dislike.

One thing I love about Rachelle is that she doesn’t tolerate abuse in her life. She doesn’t tolerate misogyny. She’s never allowed herself to succumb to an abusive relationship. She treats men well and says “no, thanks” or “goodbye” when she feels the compatibility isn’t strong enough for her. She doesn’t mess with people. When I first started connecting with her, she gave me the most unambiguous yes that I’ve ever received from a woman. I’d love to connect with more women who have similar high standards for their communication… not to mention high self esteem and a passion for exploration and growth — and cuddling!

I think it’s also time for me to stop saying yes (or maybe) to connections from women that I can predict are going to be weak matches for me in terms of their ability to trust. In the past few years, these connections helped to serve as a mirror for me, even though it took me a while to see that. I also think this was a way of sticking to my comfort zone. I’m very comfortable connecting with women who have a great deal of abuse in their past; I find it easy to relate to them. But these aren’t really growth connections for me. They just anchor me to similar attitudes of distrust.

Many of my personal growth shifts have social consequences, changing the types of people that I attract into my life. My social life is a rich source of feedback for me, not so much from what people say but from who they are. What kinds of people are showing up and why?

The feeling of relief is a good sign. More validation will come as I begin to attract new relationship matches. One thing I appreciate about being in an open relationship is that I can experience a lot more feedback this way. I don’t have to rely on deciphering the meaning of just one primary partner. I’m able to see how I’m creating my experiences from multiple angles. Each connection that shows up is a new piece to the puzzle, a different snapshot of the tapestry.

Many people are resistant to doling out rejection, finding it overly harsh. They figure it’s best to be as tolerant as they can. When they encounter a situation that doesn’t feel right to them, they may keep quiet or drop a few ambiguous hints instead of being honest and direct. But then the other person doesn’t receive quality feedback, and so when mistakes are made, there’s little or no stimulation to grow and improve. Tolerating cruelty and abuse only perpetuates it. Even if we can’t prevent it, we can at least consciously say no to it. We can let people know how we genuinely feel, which empowers them to make wiser decisions for themselves.

Is rejection necessarily unkind? When done consciously I think it can be one of the kindest approaches out there. To share one’s thoughts and feelings honestly and to call out behaviors we consider unethical may yield some harsh reactions initially, but in the long run this could potentially help all of us live more consciously.

I also suspect that harsh reactions are much more likely at the beginning of this path, where there’s still some lingering resistance to doling out rejection. This makes the rejection less congruent. Calibration will improve over time, however, and I suspect that when we become truly accepting and appreciative of the value of conscious rejection, we can dole it out more authentically and therefore receive thankful responses in return.

Incidentally, I understand that the word rejection may have negative associations for some people. If you don’t like that word, feel free to use a different phrase, such as conscious opt-out, conscious dismissal, or simply conscious no. The idea is what matters, and the idea is to move beyond tolerance and into a place of greater harmony.

This approach is producing some rather unexpected feedback as well. Since I started blogging about this topic, I’ve received several messages from people telling me that reading this little series is creating some emotional shifts within them. Some of them are already changing their diets or kicking off new trials, specifically to see if they can reduce their cruelty footprints. I was not actually trying to convince any of them to do that; my intention for the past week or so has been to work on my own transformation in terms of my relationships with others. So that is very interesting — when we transform ourselves and share our journeys, we may invite and inspire others to join us. I think that’s because we’re each able to recognize parts of our own journeys reflected in someone else’s.

Regardless of what you think about me or what I’ve shared, I encourage you to tune into your own heart and connect with your spirit. Who are you? Does your true self really desire to continue to support factory farming, or do you want to move past this if you can find a way to make it realistic and practical? How can you increase your alignment with the part of you that feels the most whole… the most sacred… the most genuine? Where is your path with a heart?

One piece of advice that has worked very well for me is to apply the principles of Truth, Love, and Power separately when I feel stuck. First, I do my best to admit the truth to myself, whether or not I feel capable of acting on it. How do I truly feel? What am I afraid of? What am I resisting? Often times this means admitting that there’s a change I feel I should make, but I don’t feel strong enough to make it right now. Maybe I just can’t see the solution yet. Then I can consciously intend for the love and power alignment that I need to change. I ask for more compassion. I ask for more strength. I give myself permission to feel weak at first. Many of the biggest shifts in my life started when I admitted to myself that I wanted them but that I was too weak to make them happen. This type of honesty is very effective at kicking off some powerful personal transformations.

You may recognize that this is the approach I’ve been using to work on my own transformation for the past week or so. I started by trying to align myself with truth. I didn’t know where it would lead. I couldn’t see a solution when I started. I worked first on delving deeper into my thoughts and feelings, even when they seemed to be leading me to a pretty dark place. This gave me more clarity about what I wanted to experience instead (love alignment). And soon I began feeling enough clarity to summon the power to start making different decisions and taking different actions. I so love engaging with these principles consciously because they never let me down. They’re the most powerful growth accelerators I know of.

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True Loyalty

Do you have anyone in your life who (occasionally or frequently) loves to vent their frustrations in your direction?

Are you often the provider of a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on?

At times these can be valuable roles to play. I think it’s well and good to be sympathetic and understanding when you can — if you’re truly helping the other person.

It’s nice to have people to turn to that can bring us back up when we feel beat up by circumstances. Being able to share our sorrows and frustrations helps us process them, learn from them, and release them. We may even see the humor in such situations and laugh at them.

On the other hand, some people get so stuck in negative thinking that venting becomes much more than a temporary steam valve. Instead it becomes their default strategy for connecting and getting attention.

Do you know anyone like that? If so, why are you maintaining that relationship? Why are you allowing such negativity in your life?

Is your investment in this relationship actually helping? Is the other person showing good progress along a positive path — and appreciative of your help? Are you being an effective mentor in helping this person move beyond their temporary period of funk? Can you point out all the positive signs of progress you’ve made together in your relationship during the past quarter? Would an objective third-party observer report, “I can see that your help and assistance are really paying off”?

If you’re not really helping, what are you doing? Why are you on the receiving end of repeated venting from someone who isn’t taking responsibility to improve their situation? Why are you wasting your precious time with someone who’d rather whine than grow and improve?

Isn’t it reasonable to conclude that you’re using this relationship as an excuse to slow yourself down and hold yourself back from working on your own big, scary goals?

After all, wasting time and energy on someone who isn’t really committed to a path of growth isn’t actually going to produce meaningful results, will it? You could surely find better investments elsewhere. Learn some new skills. Write that book you’ve always been wanting to write. Branch out and meet new people. Start a new business. Go travel for a while.

But of course, many of those things are scary. They’ll stretch you beyond your comfort zone. It’s so much easier to deal with the familiarity of a negative-minded person. It almost feels good to hear them whine at you, doesn’t it? Their problems are probably simple and easily solvable. You see the solutions even if they don’t. But you love clinging to their intractability because it helps you stay in pause mode.

By keeping this person in your life, you also fill up some of your social space — space that might otherwise be occupied by people who’d actually encourage, support, and push you to grow. Negative-minded people will never push you to grow. If you became more growth oriented and began speeding up, they’d regard it as a threat. What are you trying to do? Leave them behind?

Such relationships will indeed slow you down. If you have some ambitious goals in your life, and you fear working on them, a great way to procrastinate is to cling to a relationship that’s incompatible with your greater vision.

The most fearful and disempowered people I encounter almost always have a constant source of negativity in their lives. Usually this is a close relative or a close friend. Additionally, these people wrap themselves in a belief system that says they have to value that relationship more than their own sanity, growth, happiness, and fulfillment.

Putting your relationships first makes sense if your relationships are healthy, supportive, and empowering. It’s foolish to be stubborn and clingy with unhealthy relationships though.

While your negative-minded friend may reward you for engaging in a clingy dependency relationship, what you may not realize is that others are punishing you for this behavior. The most growth-oriented people in your life are surely losing respect for you. They’re losing interest in you because you don’t look like a growth oriented person yourself; you look like you’re standing still, making feeble excuses, and succumbing to complacency. You look like someone who’s more interested in delusions than real growth. Most likely they won’t tell you any of this because they have better things to do. You don’t seem particularly investment worthy.

Positive relationships are growing relationships.

A positive relationship is a delicate balance of someone who accepts you as you are yet also recognizes your potential to keep growing. A positive relationship makes it hard for you to settle. It lets you feel loved and accepted, but it makes it difficult for you to be too complacent. When you stagnate, you can feel the strain it creates in your positive relationships, but your negative relationships have no trouble with your stagnation.

Positive relationships are available and abundant. They’re yours to enjoy. Commit yourself to a path of growth, and take action on it each day. Push yourself, and don’t settle. Positive people will recognize you as a kindred spirit and befriend you. Negative people will push you away because you’re a threat to their stagnation.

You don’t even have to deliberately cut ties with negative people. Just be unwaveringly committed to your own path of growth, and hold them fully responsible for their own results in life. When they vent excessively at you, call them out for it; hold them responsible and tell them to stop whining so much. You will disgust them in short order, and they’ll very likely feel compelled to dump you in short order.

Commit to no longer using relationships with negative people to slow yourself down. This behavior is beneath you. You have better things to do with your life.

If you cocoon yourself in a bubble of denial, your negative relationships will surely permit it. But you’re only making yourself look ridiculous to the positive people in your life — if there are any left.

Being loyal to negative relationships is being disloyal to courage. Disloyal to growth. Disloyal to your path with a heart.

Drop the ridiculous belief that you’re somehow being a loyal friend when you serve as someone’s go-to outlet for whining. That isn’t loyalty. It’s disloyalty to that which genuinely deserves your enduring faithfulness and steadfastness.

Be loyal to courage. Be loyal to the greatness within you. Be loyal to your path of growth. Challenge and invite your once negative relationships to join you in this exciting adventure.

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Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website - Save $100 on SBI through Dec 26th with their holiday special
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

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Leadership & Learning Executive

Leadership & Learning Executive London

Championing innovative approaches to leadership learning, you’ll help to ensure the future for British Airways is stronger than ever. Your remit will have a truly global scope. As one of the leading brands in aviation, we have 44,000 staff based in a range of countries. Their specialties range from customer service to IT and commerce. We’ll look to you to ensure everyone’s leaders benefit from excellent learning and development provision, so we can all fulfil our promise ‘To Fly. To Serve.’

You will work with closely with a wide range of people – from HR and Finance Business Partners, to subject matter experts and, of course, leadership and management learning delegates. Taking care to find out what our business needs, you will scope, design and deliver business-wide learning solutions. Building leadership capability and behaviours, you will help to power high performance worldwide. You’ll also enjoy the opportunity to help Global Learning Academy colleagues create brand new leadership initiatives. Benchmarking trends and supplier knowledge, you’ll make sure everything you do is cutting edge.

To join us, you’ll need to demonstrate a track record of managing end-to-end learning and development with proven ROI. Your expertise spans everything from partnering and consulting, through to design, delivery and evaluation. Ideally, you will be accredited and experienced in the use of psychometrics such as MBTI, SDI and Hogan’s. You’ll certainly be an innovative thinker and a creative problem solver, with impressive influencing and coaching skills and a naturally collaborative approach.

To apply, please click on the apply link to visit our website.

LocationLondonSalaryCompetitive salaryReferenceUKWTS572Contact NameRecruitment

Championing innovative approaches to leadership learning, you’ll help to ensure the future for British Airways is stronger than ever. Your remit will have a truly global scope. As one of the leading brands in aviation, we have 44,000 staff based in a range of countries. Their specialties range from customer service to IT and commerce. We’ll look to you to ensure everyone’s leaders benefit from excellent learning and development provision, so we can all fulfil our promise ‘To Fly. To Serve.’

You will work with closely with a wide range of people – from HR and Finance Business Partners, to subject matter experts and, of course, leadership and management learning delegates. Taking care to find out what our business needs, you will scope, design and deliver business-wide learning solutions. Building leadership capability and behaviours, you will help to power high performance worldwide. You’ll also enjoy the opportunity to help Global Learning Academy colleagues create brand new leadership initiatives. Benchmarking trends and supplier knowledge, you’ll make sure everything you do is cutting edge.

To join us, you’ll need to demonstrate a track record of managing end-to-end learning and development with proven ROI. Your expertise spans everything from partnering and consulting, through to design, delivery and evaluation. Ideally, you will be accredited and experienced in the use of psychometrics such as MBTI, SDI and Hogan’s. You’ll certainly be an innovative thinker and a creative problem solver, with impressive influencing and coaching skills and a naturally collaborative approach.

To apply, please click on the apply link to visit our website.

Apply now

View the original article here

Performing Under Pressure

A fire erupted when Jim Prokopanko worked as a mid-level manager at the Cargill fertilizer storage facility in Maysville, KY. Just as the story was broadcasted on CNN, Prokopanko received a call for Cargill’s CEO.

“Are you aware of the fire?” asked his CEO. “I need you to go down to Kentucky. I need you to take care of the people and the reputation of the company.”

Prolopanko instantly found himself responsible for the 2,500 residents who were being evacuated from the area and the reputation of Cargill, an organization founded in 1865.

There was a moment of panic. He knew the chemicals in the storage facility could include ammonium nitrate which, if ignited, could cause an explosion. He also knew there were other chemicals that would require managing if the pressure situation resolved successfully: his brain chemicals.

To perform under pressure in any domain, there is a need to enter a fear-based situation and take action. The neurochemical profile of leaders who are better able to do this typically have high testosterone and low cortisol, both of which can be altered with training.

Re­search has found that testosterone crucially helps leaders take risks that are normally constrained by fear. It does this by acting on the amygdala (the emotional part of the brain that codes for fear), dampening down the fear response and increasing access to cognitive resources to think more clearly.

Testosterone can predict which chess player will play better under pressure, as well as the performance of elite surgeons. In each case, these performers need to be able to take the necessary risks to be effective even when they feel a level of fear. The research points out that testosterone does not lead to taking “stupid risks,” rather testosterone keeps emotions from interfering with our cognitive processing, allow­ing a leader to think and behave more, not less, rationally. While its true women have 7-8 times less testosterone than men, it is irrelevant as it is the relative amount of testosterone in the body compared to other chemicals that matters, not the absolute amount.

At the same time, individuals who perform better under pres­sure also have low cortisol, meaning they are less anxious when it comes to managing pressure. They are able to stay the course even when things aren’t going smoothly and are better able to be non-de­fensive when getting feedback.

A leader’s brain is constantly fluctuating in its neurochemical levels and these hormones affect their levels of confidence and the type of behavior they choose to engage in, especially when it comes to pressure situations. What most people miss is that they have a choice in their neurochemistry — they do not need to leave it to chance. There are a number of small things leaders can do prior to entering a high-pressure moment that will increase testosterone and decrease cortisol (successfully used with Olympic athletes and leaders from organizations as diverse as the US Navy and Intel).

Prior to a pressure situation, stand in an ‘open and expansive’ body position (shoulders back, head up, standing or sitting tall) for 90 seconds and visualize yourself at your best. To do this, think back to a time when you have performed well under pressure. Picture yourself thinking clearly, connecting deeply and being decisive while standing in this ‘power pose.’ Researchers from Harvard have found that when people are trained to do this, testosterone increases by 30 percent and cortisol decreases by about the same amount.

Here are a few additional strategies to help manage high-pressure situations:

Expect the unexpected: This protects you from a pressure surge. When you are prepared, you are less startled by the unexpected. Instead of your heart rate zooming and your actions becoming impulsive, you are able to maintain your composure and continue your task to the best of your capability.See the situation as a challenge not a crisis: When you do, your brain operates differently and you are better able to think, access memory and be at ease – even in high-pressure moments.Ten minutes before pressure, write! Research has found that when you write you’re your worries and thoughts prior to a performance, you free up working memory and are better able to think clearly.So how did Prokopanko manage his pressure moment?

“I realized it's not the event that causes pressure — you cause it in yourself,” said Prokopanko. “It's your physical and mental reaction to the situation. The key was to put our team in a good place to make good decisions, and that started with me.”

Prokopanko managed his brain first and was able to help his team make effective decisions under pressure. By all accounts, they succeeded.

You have a choice in building your capacity to manage pressure. If you can take charge of your neurochemistry, you will be able to think clearly, manage more effectively and perform closer to your capacity in the moments that matters most.

Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, an internationally renowned expert, trainer, and speaker at the Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP).

View the original article here

This is. Middle School Camp.

People matter. Period. They matter to God. They matter to me. You're a people - you matter, too. 

Here I'll share tips on all things related to the worth and value of human life: guest services - in and out of the local church; volunteering best practices, thoughts on multisite church campuses, ramblings about leadership, my heart on family and relationships, and some insight to my relationship with Jesus ... and questions about all of this.  

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment, observation or question. 

And thanks for stopping by.

View the original article here

Engaging the Workforce via Knowledge and Application

Workforce development has evolved from quick verbal conversations wedged between production downtimes into mature programs over the last several decades. These programs incorporate custom, industry-specific content, adult learning sciences and interactive technology to engage the learners. Comprehension is measured and documented in ways that meet the criteria of customers, auditors and regulators alike. 

Today’s robust training programs include the identification of training objectives, development of content, delivery of content and trending of data for continuous improvement. 

New hires and temporary employees are trained prior to their first day on the manufacturing floor to help ingrain expectations and requirements keeping employees safe on the job while they produce products that continually conform to specification. Refresher training is prevalent and conducted at regular intervals and/or in response to a nonconformity or workplace incident.  All of these improvements in onboarding and continuous education of front line employees should result in productive, efficient and engaged workforces. 

However, a 2013 Gallup poll reports that 70 percent of the U.S. workforce is not engaged or actively disengaged directly resulting in more workplace accidents, more quality defects and decreased productivity. 

And although workforce development has made some great strides, there’s more to employee engagement than just training programs. Training employees on the how and the why is critical in driving knowledge comprehension, safe behaviors and employee engagement. 

However, training and education in and of itself is not the only driver of organizational culture. People are creatures of habit and effective employee training and education must include additional elements to encourage the application of that knowledge through the formation of new workplace habits and behaviors.

Remember the last time you reorganized your desk? How many times did you go to the wrong drawer after you moved the paper clips? You knew where you moved them but it took a while to break the old habit and form a new one. Understanding that aspect of human nature demonstrates that current training practices (knowledge exchange) are not enough. The learner must also being encouraged and then required to put into practice (change behavior) what has been taught. 

Building an effective training and education platform

The first is an awareness campaign immediately following or in conjunction with training content delivery to keep the topics top of mind.

The use of posters, short videos, messaging for meetings, continuous feed videos in the employee break room to reiterate and highlight the training message, are just a few examples of how to use visual prompts and reminders. This sets and reinforces the expectation that front line employees need to convert what has been learned into actual practice. 

Supervisors and managers provide an additional and important part of this campaign through verbal communication and messaging when conducting huddle meetings, shift hand-off meetings and in daily interactions with front line workers. They provide the conduit that again reinforces the expectation by talking-the-talk and walking-the-walk. Management that does not practice what they teach will certainly negate all of the hard work that has been put into any thorough training and education program. 

The second step (molding employee behavior) consists of observation and reinforcement. The adage, “it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks,” is true in many ways. Old habits become ingrained, especially if “we’ve always done it this way”. Managers, supervisors and department heads can help to break those old habits by observing employees at work and providing constructive feedback. 

The operative word here is constructive. It’s important that feedback be delivered so it feels like a gift not a punishment. Recognizing those that are applying what they have been taught is as important as providing correction for those that have regressed into old habits. Effective feedback recognizes the current behavior (good or bad) and explains the consequence of that behavior. Remember that “stop” or, “don’t do that,” do not effectively provide feedback. Also, “please” and “thank you,” while showing good manners, are also not effective. 

Praise or correction must call out the behavior and explain the positive or negative consequence. Remembering that people just want to feel good about what they do every day will help to keep those corrective conversations constructive. The graph shown below is from a 2013 study detailing how important observation and corrective feedback is to the learning and adoption of new practices. 

Training is a key driver in employee engagement and by adding awareness and corrective observations to existing training and education programs employee behaviors can be modified driving consistency, safety, productivity and standardization across an organization. 

It’s time for training professionals to take it to the next level by not just creating and delivering content. But, rather keeping content top of mind through awareness. Coaching employees using observations and constructive feedback is key, as well as, recognizing and praising good behaviors. 

Helping your employees feel good about the work they perform each day through knowledge and application will payback handsomely in engaging a workforce, increasing productivity, decreasing quality issues, reducing turnover and creating a safe working environment for all.

Holly Mockus is a Project Manager at Alchemy Systems.

View the original article here

Management Consultants - Culture and Leadership

Management Consultants within GE Healthcare Finnamore actively develop their consultancy skills whilst building upon their own experience in OD, HR and line management within the NHS.   They take responsibility for designing and delivering complex and sensitive programmes that meet or exceed the expectations of both internal and external clients.

As part of our team, the role of Consultant will play to your strengths in:

•Working as part of (or managing) a team to deliver complex and sometimes sensitive assignments, which achieve or surpass client expectations.

•Striving to be the best you can be whilst sharing learning and training colleagues to build skills across the company.

•Driving assignment success by delivering valued content and insights.

•Actively growing your market knowledge to help develop and continuously improve our client offerings.

•Forging and maintaining outstanding client relationships and networks.

•Identifying opportunities and contributing to bids.

Desired Skills and Experience

You have gained experience and skills in a wide range of assessment and development techniques, through a career in consulting, health care, social care and public services.

You confidently exhibit and demonstrate a high level of competence in:

•Employee engagement

•Performance management

•Talent management and succession planning

•Coaching

•Working with organisations to effect culture change

•Board development

•Line management

•Team effectiveness diagnostics (e.g. MTBI)

•Project management 

Even if you consider yourself to have more to learn, you exhibit confidently the experience of someone who has worked closely with senior management in a health and social care setting.

You have personally had a strong impact on culture change, and are regarded as someone who gets matters organised and makes things happen.  

Your clients are assured by your skills in OD, HR, coaching and use of diagnostic tools and interventions, and the way in which you apply your skills and experience to any assignment.

In addition, the way in which you have contributed innovatively and creatively to the presentation and handover of work you have undertaken has ensured the effective and sustainable transfer of skills to your clients.

It is highly likely that you have gained qualifications to degree level in, for example and not limited to psychology, science or management.  You may have also gained further qualifications in OD, HR or Health.

About this company

GE Healthcare Finnamore is a leading specialist health and social care consultancy dedicated to improving people's health and wellbeing through the clients that we serve.  We formed following the acquisition of Finnamore Ltd by GE Healthcare in January 2014, bringing us together with GEHC Performance  Solutions UK (part of the global GEHC Partners business).  Our team of over seventy health and social care specialists combines the agility, independent-thinking and responsiveness of Finnamore, a consultancy of 21 years' standing, with GE's scale, world class leadership, and technology base and the health transformation track record of GEHC Performance Solutions UK.  We do the hard stuff, from strategy to implementation, getting alongside our clients to deliver lasting outcomes together.  We are committed to achieving change and transferring skills for the long term and our results speak for themselves.

Substantial contract wins during 2014 have created opportunities for suitably qualified candidates to apply to join the GE Healthcare Finnamore team.  Interested candidates should submit their CVs to The Shilston Partnership by Monday 2 June 2014. All shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a numerical and verbal reasoning test as well as attending an assessment centre on 23 June 2014 in London.

Apply now

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Build Successful Corporate ELearning Programs

Explore online training trends and the features, benefits and results of engaging video-based instruction.

Find out how successful e-learning supports:

Professional developmentLeadership trainingClosing skill gapsSuccession planning and onboardingAnd more

View the original article here

E-Learning Will Never Be the Same Again

Sure, there are new approaches to learning and new learning technologies that promise great things for the future of e-learning. But, do we really understand the change that is taking place right now? In this report, we look at e-learning in the context of increased mobility, an evolving economy, and the cultural impact of generational change.

Read full article

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Inspiration

Ask yourself, “What is the inspiration of this moment? What am I inspired to do now? What is the next wave of energy?”

Pause and listen for a moment, but not with your ears. Listen like a radio antenna listens for a radio signal. When you catch the edge of the signal, tune into its frequency. Let it become stronger, louder, clearer, just as you might manually tune an analog radio dial.

Recognize that you’re an analog being too. You don’t simply press a button and lock into inspiration immediately. You have to tune into the signal.

You may perceive multiple signals vying for your attention. Feel free to float the dial to listen to one for a bit, then another. Pick your favorite just as you’d pick a radio station. You may like several different stations, but it only makes sense to listen to one at a time. Setting your dial between two different stations would only give you static. You can always listen to different stations later.

As you begin to sense a stronger lock, let the signal’s energy flow through you. Let it create oscillations in your mind, your heart, your body. Let it infect you completely. Enjoy the feeling. Recognize how easy it is.

Then when you feel the energy is strong enough, let that signal animate you. Let it flow into easy, effortless, energized action.

Ride the inspiration like a surfer rides a wave. There’s no need to paddle. The wave will carry you all the way to the shore.

You may find yourself flowing into action for many hours at a stretch. Time will pass, but you’ll scarcely be aware of its passing. You’ll be too mesmerized by timelessness to notice the clock. Stay with the signal as long as you can, till your batteries run low and you must disconnect to recharge.

These signals are always broadcasting 24/7. Perhaps they come from the collective consciousness of humanity. Perhaps they come from somewhere else.

If you learn to tune into these signals and ride their waves of energy, you’ll never run out of inspiration. You’ll never be at a loss for what to do next. You’ll never suffer from writer’s block.

Unless you forget how to use your radio, that is.

But who forgets a thing like that?

This article was yet another of those transmissions. I was making breakfast when I heard the signal. I paused, let myself lock onto it, and allowed my body to translate its energy into words on a screen. But the words don’t matter. The words are not the signal, so don’t get too wrapped up in them. Let the words remind you of the energy that gave rise to them. Feel that energy, even if it seems to contradict the words.

Remember that you can tune into these signals whenever you desire inspiration and flow in your life. You are surrounded by constant transmissions of inspiration. They are flowing right through your body at all times, just like radio waves. Tune in and listen.

And now it’s time for me to go eat a cold breakfast.

Steve Recommends
Here are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. This is a short list since it only includes my top picks.

Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

If you've found Steve's work helpful, please donate to show your support.
Get Steve's Free Newsletter to stay in touch and receive the newest updates

View the original article here

Putting Money Where Your Mouth Is

It’s tough to get much return on investment these days. Margins are tight and competition is tough. So the recommendation to invest in customer service, is often met with, “Yes, I know we should, but…” And then there are the excuses, “It’s too expensive,” or “It’s not in the budget.” With customer service, it’s also difficult to quantify or to attribute a definitive ROI.

By definition, “invest” means to put valuable resources into something you expect will give a personal or financial gain; to spend or devote for future advantage or benefit. In order to realize the benefits of investing in customer service, it helps to understand the true value of a best-in-class customer service organization.

Your service team is the “mouth” of your organization. No matter what your branding and marketing departments present to the world, organizational advisor McKinsey and Company reports that 70 percent of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. That feeling comes from contact points with your company—the storefront, call center, live chat, email and social media exchanges. This presents an incredible opportunity to impress customers with attentive, professional service. Sadly, it’s also the point at which, as the result of poor service, many customers never return.

So let’s look at how and why an investment in your customer and technical service team can pay off.

New Trends Demand Training Updates

The customer service landscape is changing rapidly, and employees will benefit by review as well training that addresses new methodologies, tools, processes and trends. By keeping staff up-to-date and effective, they will not only be more adept at satisfying customers, they’ll be happier on the job and more loyal to your company.

Here are just a few reasons to bring out those training manuals:

24/7 Service. Multi-channel communication allows consumers to get help day or night—at home or on the go—with the choice of email, SMS, live chat, online FAQs or phone. However someone able to handle phone inquiries may not be skilled at email or live chats, and visa versa. Bring all staff up to speed.Going Mobile. Thanks to the pervasive use of smart phones and tablets, consumers are used to doing business wherever and whenever they want. They expect real-time interaction, social media interface, timely resolution, and minimal or no wait times. Managing customer issues in a social environment—where everyone can witness the exchange—takes an entirely new set of skills and awareness.Soft Skills. In the not-too-distant past, a minimal average handle time (AHT) was considered key to a healthy call center and staff was measured on how quickly they could move on to the next caller. Today, best-in-class customer service organizations are those where staff is well versed in the skills of listening, respect, communication, creativity and the ability to ask the questions that get to the heart of the customer inquiry. It may take a bit longer, but a smiling customer is worth every minute.Common Sense. Think about it. Training is cheaper than putting out fires. Satisfied customers are loyal customers. When customers brag about you—word-of-mouth or on social media—it’s the best advertising you can (or can’t!) buy.

Your Customer Service Organization Speaks VOLUMES!

Customers want to do business with a company that “gets it right” and provides consistently good service. Your service staff is truly the mouthpiece of your organization and consumers know if they’ve been treated well. If you’re still not convinced, think of it this way. According to global management consulting firm Bain & Company, a 10 percent increase in customer retention levels can result in a 30 percent increase in the value of the company.

Not a bad return on investment!

Joanna Jones is the product marketing manager at MHI Global.  

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Leadership and Talent Manager

Leadership and Talent Manager London

Summary

Working with colleagues in the L&D function, the Leadership and Talent Manager will work with senior colleagues to shape, influence and deliver the talent management and leadership strategy.

Client Details

My client are a leading high street retailer looking for a Leadership and Talent Manager to join their Human Resources and Personnel team in their London office.

Description

The Leadership and Talent Manager will:

Shape and influence the talent management and leadership development strategy
Develop talented colleagues through a variety of means
Design, launch and manage leadership development programmes
Work with senior stakeholders to effectively support the development of leaders within the company
Undertake designated project management where required

Profile

The successful candidate will have the following attributes:

Level A and B BPS qualification
Experience of conducting senior leadership assessments
Experience of running talent management processes in a blue chip organisation
Leadership and management development experience
Project and stakeholder management expertise - up to senior management
Experience of working in a consumer-led environment
Experience of working with external partners

Job Offer

£55000-£65000

25 days holiday

Pension

Employee discount

LocationLondonSalary£55000 - £65000 per annumDuration12 monthsReference13424113/001Contact NameTara Davis

Summary

Working with colleagues in the L&D function, the Leadership and Talent Manager will work with senior colleagues to shape, influence and deliver the talent management and leadership strategy.

Client Details

My client are a leading high street retailer looking for a Leadership and Talent Manager to join their Human Resources and Personnel team in their London office.

Description

The Leadership and Talent Manager will:

Shape and influence the talent management and leadership development strategy
Develop talented colleagues through a variety of means
Design, launch and manage leadership development programmes
Work with senior stakeholders to effectively support the development of leaders within the company
Undertake designated project management where required

Profile

The successful candidate will have the following attributes:

Level A and B BPS qualification
Experience of conducting senior leadership assessments
Experience of running talent management processes in a blue chip organisation
Leadership and management development experience
Project and stakeholder management expertise - up to senior management
Experience of working in a consumer-led environment
Experience of working with external partners

Job Offer

£55000-£65000

25 days holiday

Pension

Employee discount

Apply now

View the original article here

Leadership and Talent Manager

Leadership and Talent Manager London

Summary

Working with colleagues in the L&D function, the Leadership and Talent Manager will work with senior colleagues to shape, influence and deliver the talent management and leadership strategy.

Client Details

My client are a leading high street retailer looking for a Leadership and Talent Manager to join their Human Resources and Personnel team in their London office.

Description

The Leadership and Talent Manager will:

Shape and influence the talent management and leadership development strategy
Develop talented colleagues through a variety of means
Design, launch and manage leadership development programmes
Work with senior stakeholders to effectively support the development of leaders within the company
Undertake designated project management where required

Profile

The successful candidate will have the following attributes:

Level A and B BPS qualification
Experience of conducting senior leadership assessments
Experience of running talent management processes in a blue chip organisation
Leadership and management development experience
Project and stakeholder management expertise - up to senior management
Experience of working in a consumer-led environment
Experience of working with external partners

Job Offer

£55000-£65000

25 days holiday

Pension

Employee discount

LocationLondonSalary£55000 - £65000 per annumDuration12 monthsReference13424113/001Contact NameTara Davis

Summary

Working with colleagues in the L&D function, the Leadership and Talent Manager will work with senior colleagues to shape, influence and deliver the talent management and leadership strategy.

Client Details

My client are a leading high street retailer looking for a Leadership and Talent Manager to join their Human Resources and Personnel team in their London office.

Description

The Leadership and Talent Manager will:

Shape and influence the talent management and leadership development strategy
Develop talented colleagues through a variety of means
Design, launch and manage leadership development programmes
Work with senior stakeholders to effectively support the development of leaders within the company
Undertake designated project management where required

Profile

The successful candidate will have the following attributes:

Level A and B BPS qualification
Experience of conducting senior leadership assessments
Experience of running talent management processes in a blue chip organisation
Leadership and management development experience
Project and stakeholder management expertise - up to senior management
Experience of working in a consumer-led environment
Experience of working with external partners

Job Offer

£55000-£65000

25 days holiday

Pension

Employee discount

Apply now

View the original article here

Trainee Development Adviser

Trainee Development Adviser London - City

Client -
My client is an international leading law firm, looking for a Trainee Development Advisor on a permanent basis.

Role -
As the specialist Graduate Development Adviser you will be the main point of contact for trainees throughout their training contract within the firm. This will involve managing seat changes, organising inductions, ensuring the smooth running of their delivery, monitoring trainees performance, managing any secondment coordination, working with Partners and Law Schools, overseeing appraisals and managing the Trainee Development Assistant.

You -
Experience of working in Trainee Development and on projects is essential. The candidate will have preferably worked within a law firm and be a team player.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

It is Career Legal’s policy, as a matter of courtesy to respond to all applications within three working days. However because of the volume of applications, we are sometimes unable to respond to individual candidates. If we have not contacted you within three working days your application has been unsuccessful and your details have not been retained. Please apply for any other position that you may see in the future. Career Legal is a Recruitment Agency and is advertising this permanent vacancy on behalf of one of its Clients. Thank you

LocationLondon - CitySalary£30,000 - £40,000ReferenceSS105413Contact NameSam Stafford

Client -
My client is an international leading law firm, looking for a Trainee Development Advisor on a permanent basis.

Role -
As the specialist Graduate Development Adviser you will be the main point of contact for trainees throughout their training contract within the firm. This will involve managing seat changes, organising inductions, ensuring the smooth running of their delivery, monitoring trainees performance, managing any secondment coordination, working with Partners and Law Schools, overseeing appraisals and managing the Trainee Development Assistant.

You -
Experience of working in Trainee Development and on projects is essential. The candidate will have preferably worked within a law firm and be a team player.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

It is Career Legal’s policy, as a matter of courtesy to respond to all applications within three working days. However because of the volume of applications, we are sometimes unable to respond to individual candidates. If we have not contacted you within three working days your application has been unsuccessful and your details have not been retained. Please apply for any other position that you may see in the future. Career Legal is a Recruitment Agency and is advertising this permanent vacancy on behalf of one of its Clients. Thank you

Apply now

View the original article here

What Is Your Greatest Achievement?

My 25-year high school reunion is next month. I’ll probably go. My best friend from high school intends to go (we’ve been friends for almost 30 years now), and it will be fun to catch up with other old friends.

There can be some amusement at a high school reunion as you see that everyone has grown fatter, balder, and more married. The jock is now an insurance salesperson with two kids. The star of the school play now manages a restaurant. That sort of thing…

When I reflect back on what I’ve learned in the past 25 years since graduating high school, I ask myself what accomplishments I appreciate most. I’m not interested in showing off to my peers. I simply wonder how I’d answer this for myself.

My high school self was a straight-A student, graduating with top honors, excited about going to college, and following the path that society had laid out for him. I was expected to continue along that path. I excelled in school partly because my goals aligned with other people’s expectations. I had little social resistance and plenty of social support for most of what I wanted to do. Nobody tried to talk me out of pursuing a computer science degree.

The real tests came when I wanted to do something that other people didn’t agree with, such as starting my own business or going vegetarian. For whatever reason, those types of tests came up often for me.

Because of the path I followed since high school, I strengthened my independent will. Today I’m able to follow my conscience and make decisions based on my character, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings on a matter, and not be overly dissuaded from my course even if many people around me disagree. I’m capable of following my path with a heart in ways that would surprise my high school self.

Back in high school, it was a big deal for me to share with a few close friends that I didn’t believe in the whole Christian god story anymore. Now I find it much easier to share my thoughts and feelings openly regardless of how people may react. Religion is spiritual immaturity, the fool’s path of growth. If people feel a need to go kittywompus when they hear me say that, I let them go kittywompus.

Today I take better advantage of my freedom than my high school self ever did. He felt very constrained, but he still honored most of the constraints that other people placed around him. I’ve since lost respect for externally imposed constraints. I do value constraints, but only if they align with my values. If I don’t agree with other people’s rules or conventions, I largely ignore them. I still consider predictable consequences, but I don’t follow rules merely for the sake of following rules. I think for myself and make decisions based on what I think is right, regardless of what the standard procedure is supposed to be.

If I hadn’t been able to develop my independent will, I wouldn’t have been able to go vegan. I wouldn’t have been able to leave an unfulfilling marriage. I wouldn’t have started two businesses. I wouldn’t be blogging or speaking publicly. I wouldn’t have given away the copyrights to my work.

Often when I talk to people my own age, I find it hard to relate to them. So many of my peers seem overly scared… so fearful of taking risks. They’re afraid to lose what they have, but the irony is that they don’t even appreciate what they have. Most of the time their fear isn’t about taking on risks for themselves. Quite often they’re willing and able to do that. Their greater fear is dealing with people’s judgments of them, especially if they fail to achieve their goals quickly.

What if I fail and my family thinks I’m a loser?

So they’ll think you’re a loser. That doesn’t even matter. You have no obligation to impress them. Follow your path. Let them do the same. If you fail, then fail with style, and take pride in that. Then get up and try again. Stop making failure into this big scary beast. It’s just a road bump. There will be lots of road bumps in your life if you want to do anything remotely interesting.

What if I fail and my spouse leaves me?

Then s/he wasn’t much of a spouse to begin with. This will be a good test to see if you chose someone who can handle you being you. If not, good riddance. You’ll find a better match afterwards. If you want to develop your courage, and you marry someone who’s afraid of that, don’t expect that marriage to last.

What if I lose all my money?

Then you’ll have no money. You can start fresh and earn more. The game doesn’t end just because your gold gets low. The point of the game is to grow, not to acquire gold. If you get on an interesting path of growth, you may very well lose all your money, perhaps multiple times. You may as well get used to it.

These are the kinds of fears that hold people back so much in life.

I’m relieved that I didn’t turn out that way, that I embraced a path of experimentation and failure — and that I find pleasure and meaning in decisions that don’t always turn out well.

I feel good about how far I’ve come since high school, but that feeling isn’t due to external accomplishments that might impress anyone else. I feel good about becoming a man who can act in alignment with his conscience, even when everyone else disagrees.

I don’t eat animal products. I consider it unethical.

I don’t have a regular job. Doing repetitive work for pay seems like a waste of life. It’s not worth the reduction in freedom.

I give away most of my creative work for free (and uncopyrighted), so anyone can share it easily. That feels good to me.

My thoughts, feelings, and behaviors aren’t that unusual. Many people feel the same as I do about these subjects. They agree that it would be more ethical to drop animal products. They’d rather not spend years of their life working for someone else. And they like the idea of expressing their creativity and contributing. The difference is that they let their fears about other people’s reactions stop them from making a bigger push in those directions.

I feel very fortunate that something inside me popped and said, “Nope, can’t live like that.”

In reflecting back on the past 25 years, the achievement I’m most proud of was to become a man who finds it unnecessary to satisfy others’ expectations of him. That gave me the freedom to create a life that I enjoy and appreciate.

I also look forward to the possibility that another 25 years from now, my future self may look back once again and reflect upon how much he’s grown. I cannot know what he’ll be like, but I can predict that his path would surprise me. I like that.

What’s your greatest life achievement thus far? What accomplishments do you appreciate the most? Would you name one of your public wins? Or one of your private victories?

Steve Recommends
Here are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. This is a short list since it only includes my top picks.

Spring Forest Healingfest (Free) - Learn to heal yourself with qi gong
Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

If you've found Steve's work helpful, please donate to show your support.
Get Steve's Free Newsletter to stay in touch and receive the newest updates

View the original article here

Operational Trainer - Central Region

Operational Trainer - Central Region Birmingham

Anchor has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Operational Trainer to join their team. Their main role will to be deliver effective learning & development interventions that drives and supports a competent and capable workforce.

The successful candidate will be expected to manage the regional training centre, to ensure events are planned, in line with demand, to maximum occupancy and that drives or maintains statutory and mandatory training targets.

Location: Central Region

Key Responsibilities:

• Training delivery
• Daily running of the regional training centre
• Planning interventions based on demand identified in the regional / national plans
• Adapting training materials or techniques to meet the needs of the audience
• Revision of training materials based on feedback and evaluation

Required Knowledge & Experience:

Qualifications

• Certificate in training practice, NVQ or equivalent experience
• Part of fully qualified membership of CIPD
• PTTLLS or working towards PTTLLS
• Specific care or health & safety qualifications, would be advantageous

Experience Required:

• Experience of the full learning cycle (training needs analysis, design, delivery and evaluation)
Having worked in a person centred/customer focused environment.
• Experience of training delivery to a diverse and multi skilled workforce
• Proven track record in implementing blended learning techniques

Required Skills:

• Up to date knowledge of industry best practice and standards as well as developments in the L&D arena
• Blended learning techniques
• Appropriate development interventions, suitable for learners in a customer facing environment

Closing Date: 02/03/2015

LocationBirminghamSalary£30k to £34k depending on experienceReference011922Contact NameCintia Santoianni

Anchor has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Operational Trainer to join their team. Their main role will to be deliver effective learning & development interventions that drives and supports a competent and capable workforce.

The successful candidate will be expected to manage the regional training centre, to ensure events are planned, in line with demand, to maximum occupancy and that drives or maintains statutory and mandatory training targets.

Location: Central Region

Key Responsibilities:

• Training delivery
• Daily running of the regional training centre
• Planning interventions based on demand identified in the regional / national plans
• Adapting training materials or techniques to meet the needs of the audience
• Revision of training materials based on feedback and evaluation

Required Knowledge & Experience:

Qualifications

• Certificate in training practice, NVQ or equivalent experience
• Part of fully qualified membership of CIPD
• PTTLLS or working towards PTTLLS
• Specific care or health & safety qualifications, would be advantageous

Experience Required:

• Experience of the full learning cycle (training needs analysis, design, delivery and evaluation)
Having worked in a person centred/customer focused environment.
• Experience of training delivery to a diverse and multi skilled workforce
• Proven track record in implementing blended learning techniques

Required Skills:

• Up to date knowledge of industry best practice and standards as well as developments in the L&D arena
• Blended learning techniques
• Appropriate development interventions, suitable for learners in a customer facing environment

Closing Date: 02/03/2015

Apply now

View the original article here

Why You Must Be Patient With Self-Conditioning

When you use the priming effect or any other daily reinforcement technique to condition yourself for success, abundance, or other positive changes, patience is key.

During the first week or two, it will usually seem like your efforts are having little or no effect. But if the technique is effective, then usually within several weeks after you begin, you’ll start seeing significant shifts in your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors. At some point you’ll observe that you seem to be making huge leaps forward every week.

Let me give you a simple explanation of why daily conditioning seems to be ineffective at first and then quickly picks up steam and often leads to a tipping point, whereby you eventually find yourself in a whole new reality.

Suppose that your initial goal starts out as just an idea in your head. Perhaps it’s a thought, like a new income goal or the idea for a new habit you’d like to adopt. But since it’s just an idea at first, it’s not integrated throughout your whole brain yet. It may be nice to think about it, but that mere thought hasn’t yet weaved itself in your other thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors.

Now for the sake of argument, suppose that this minor mental pattern in your brain — this idea — involves only 10,000 neurons. It’s an isolated pattern, so it has little influence on your vast neural network of 100,000,000,000 neurons.

Then suppose that to make this minor thought pattern into a major pattern that powerfully influences your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors, you’d need to build it up to 10,000,000 neurons in its network of influence — a thousandfold increase. And suppose that if you achieve that 1000x increase, the pattern will be well integrated into your whole being. So if the pattern is an income goal, you’ll find yourself doing whatever it takes to achieve it. If it’s a new habit, you’ll find that the habit is successfully installed, and it’s congruently integrated with your other habits.

To get a 1000x increase in a neural pattern in a timespan of only 10 days, you’d have to double the size of the pattern every day for 10 days straight (2^10 = 1024), which would probably be completely unrealistic.

But to get a 1000x increase over a more lengthy interval, the neural pattern can expand at a slower, more sustainable rate. For instance, to increase by a factor of 1000 over 90 days, the neural pattern only has to extend its influence by about 8% per day. That may be doable.

Note that with an 8% increase per day, on Day 1 you’ll only add 800 neurons to the pattern (8% of 10,000). That’s a puny gain, so you may not notice much effect. The results aren’t coming through yet. Your behavior seems unaffected.

On Day 30, you’ll add 7,454 neurons to this pattern, for a total of 100,627 neurons. That’s a 10x increase from when you started, but it’s still only 1% of the way to your goal of a 1000x increase. Imagine doing daily conditioning for 30 days straight and only seeing 1% of your desired results thus far. You’re going to need some patience to continue.

On Day 60, you’ll add 75,005 neurons to the pattern’s still-expanding network, for a total of 1,012,571 neurons involved. Even after 60 days, you’re still only 10% of the way to your goal. What if you were to give up now and proclaim that the technique you’re using doesn’t work well enough? You’d be giving up right before a massive tipping point.

By the end of that 90-day time period, you’ll be adding 754,752 neurons to this pattern in one day, finally passing 10 million neurons total for the pattern. Note that 90% of the pattern’s growth happened in those last 30 days, with the first 60 days only getting you to 10% of your goal. The gains you’ll be seeing in those final 30 days will be staggering relative to what you saw during the first 30 days.

I’ve been seeing effects like this with a variety of daily conditioning methods, such as listening to positive audio programs every day or reviewing my goals every morning. At first it seems like there’s little or no effect. But with enough persistence over a period of months, it’s quite possible to suddenly tip into a whole new level of experience. Eventually that little pattern that was once just an idea becomes dominant enough to start influencing thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behavior congruently.

This was the #1 strategy I used to earn two college degrees in three semesters. I listened to motivational and time management audio programs for about two hours per day. I kept up that conditioning throughout all three semesters. I noticed that whenever I slacked off, other people’s limiting beliefs began to influence me, as did my own past programming, and I’d start feeling more stressed and have doubts about what I was doing. But when I returned to my conditioning regimen, mainly by listening as I walked from class to class and to and from school each day, I strengthened the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that aligned with my goal. I seriously doubt I’d have been able to achieve that goal without that daily conditioning.

Usually when I do this type of daily conditioning, I notice only very subtle or negligible changes during the first week or two. I may notice that I’m thinking about the ideas a little more, but that’s about it. My behavior seems unaffected.

But after about 2-4 weeks, I start noticing some small shifts. I may take a few small actions that align with the conditioning, but they’re very subtle. That’s a good sign, but these shifts are still too trivial to make much difference by themselves.

Then after 4-6 weeks, the shifts start to pick up steam, with observable changes happening every week. It’s very rewarding to watch this play out over time.

Finally after 10+ weeks, at some point I notice that whatever I was conditioning now seems like no big deal. I’m already doing it. I often don’t notice the shift when it’s happening, but when I’m past that point and looking back, I realize: Oh yeah… I guess I achieved that goal somehow. Interesting…

Sometimes the conditioning produces a series of incremental changes only. Other times it leads to a sharper tipping point. Several weeks ago I had an epiphany. I up and decided to close and delete all my social media accounts. It was very clear that I needed to do that. But just a few days earlier, that decision wasn’t clear at all. However, I was doing months of almost daily conditioning leading up to this decision (in the form of video priming), and quitting social media aligned closely with the conditioning I was doing. It took a while, but eventually that conditioning became strong enough that new thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors became dominant, and those patterns made it very clear that it was time for me to move on from social media.

Since I’ve continued to condition similar patterns after dropping social media, now the new patterns are even more dominant, and the decision to drop social media seems even more obvious in retrospect. I wonder why I didn’t do this years ago.

It’s fascinating how daily conditioning can reprogram our minds and how the effects seem to grow exponentially over time. On any given day, such conditioning looks like it’s having no effect. But when you look back several weeks, you’ll often see some obvious and profound effects.

Even after achieving a new goal or installing a new habit, I often find it necessary to continue with some form of the mental conditioning that got me there in the first place. When I don’t do this, I find myself backsliding.

There are so many societal influences that encourage us to feel negative, to fear experiences that aren’t actually dangerous, to obsess over trivialities, and to settle for less than our potential. In the absense of powerful, conscious, self-conditioning, these societal influences too often become the dominant patterns within our own brains.

All experience is mental programming. Whatever you experience through your senses is still actively programming your brain. It’s up to you to take control of this programming. If you don’t like it, you can change it.

If your experiences are largely negative, you’re programming your brain to get better, stronger, and faster at running negative patterns. You’re allowing yourself to be programmed for increased negativity. That’s a very bad idea. Please never do that to yourself. If you see this happening to you, run!

Taking in daily positive input is wonderful. Definitely do that! But it’s imperative that you also stop allowing negative patterns to continue programming you. If you’re noticing those patterns at all, they’re definitely programming you. Telling yourself “I’m not being programmed” or “I can rise above this” doesn’t actually work. If your eyes see it or your ears hear it, then those patterns have already gotten into your brain. While you cannot delete old patterns — unless you get yourself surgically lobotomized — you can overpower them with positive patterns. But you need to turn off the negative input first.

Just as with positive programming, you won’t usually notice the effects of negative programming except when you look back to a time when the negative programming wasn’t there. Then you see the cumulative effects, such as the loss of friends, remembering that you used to be happier, seeing your health decline, seeing how much stress you have now, etc.

People sometimes ask me how I deal with negative-minded or critical friends or family members. I respond truthfully that I don’t deal with such people at all. If we can’t relate to each other on the basis of mutual respect and mutual support, then I don’t have such people in my life, regardless of whether they’re blood relatives or were once close friends. I understand that everyone has a bad day now and then, and that’s completely forgivable, but if they opt to wallow in negativity as their default pattern and try to relate to me on that basis, they’re out. To do otherwise would mean deliberately subjecting myself to ongoing negative programming, and that seems like a very foolish thing to do. I have better and more interesting things to do with my life.

Fighting internally with your own brain doesn’t seem like such a bright idea, unless you’re a masochist and love struggling with self-sabotage. I think it makes more sense to regard your brain as your best ally. Give your brain quality input (i.e. quality programming), and you’ll discover that your brain can be a very powerful and supportive ally.

If you find yourself feeling stuck dealing with negative-minded people, let me remind you that you’re saying yes to that. Silent approval is still approval. You have better options than to let people negatively program your brain. Positive conditioning doesn’t take root in poisoned soil.

Opt out of the negative conditioning you notice in your life first. If you have to fire a bunch of people, make it so. Then start conditioning yourself with positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that align with your desired path.

And most of all, be patient. The numbers I shared above are just made up for the sake of example. The important observation I want to stress is that daily personal conditioning requires consistent and patient practice to create change. You’ll often see little or no effect at first, but if you’re taking in positive input, rest assured that it’s already affecting your brain. If your eyes are seeing it (or your ears hearing it), then your visual (or auditory) cortex is processing it, and your neural network is changing. It will take time for these changes to become consciously observable. Eventually this daily conditioning can produce some truly powerful results, which often resemble patterns of exponential growth.

Steve Recommends
Here are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. This is a short list since it only includes my top picks.

Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
Site Build It! - Use SBI to start your own money-making website
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
Sedona Method (FREE audios) - Release your blocks in a few minutes
Life on Purpose - A step-by-step process to discover your life purpose

If you've found Steve's work helpful, please donate to show your support.
Get Steve's Free Newsletter to stay in touch and receive the newest updates

View the original article here