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How do YOU communicate with your people? If you need to let your staff know something – the latest pay offer, when the office party is, that their department is being restructured – how do you do it?

If yours is a fair-sized business, chances are that you leave it to the HR department to fire off a memo or an email. And often, that’s just fine. You don’t need a leadership training course on how to organize a party.

But you’re missing opportunities to influence and inspire your staff if you leave ALL your communication to word-processed notes and email messages.

And you’re opening the door to misunderstanding and resistance if the really big changes are not communicated in a very particular way.

Let’s take a step back for a minute. If your day consists of meetings, more meetings, phone conversations, business lunches, staff negotiations, media interviews and board discussions, then you’re doing nothing but talking and listening all day.

Now, yes it’s a cliche, but knowing how to communicate effectively IS the most important task of a successful leader. For a successful leader, talk IS action.

But many managers get communication wrong. For instance, most leaders believe their main role in communicating is to make decisions for everyone else, and then tell everyone about the decisions.

Sorry, but this is a myth. Not only that, it doesn’t work. (How many times have you told everyone what needs to be done in a meeting or an email only to have nothing happen?)

The second myth is that you have to decide EVERYTHING. Managers who believe this create a rod for their own backs.

Why is that? Well, if you decide everything, then no one will ever take any initiative or show the slightest ounce of energy to do anything without your rubber stamping everything. Even the tiniest project will grind to a halt unless you have the final word.

But your time is far more precious than this. You should use your time more wisely than in rubber stamping it.

So how do you know when a decision absolutely has to be made? Well, let me tell you.

The most effective way to find out if there is a real decision to be made is to start a debate. By debating the issue with your peers, your staff and other stakeholders, you can decide whether a particular change is necessary or not.

Now, to start the debate you need to ask your people what they think is going on in a particular situation. And then you can test their answers against your own opinions.

This process helps you significantly in gathering as much intelligence as possible. And it makes it more likely that you will make the right decision for the company. But it also helps all those involved in the change.

Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, explains this well: “Through the process of presenting their own opinions, the participants will refine their own arguments and facts so that they are in much clearer focus. Gradually all parties can cut through the murkiness that surrounds their arguments, clearly understand the issues and each other’s point of view.”

So the successful leader is courageous and encourages widespread debate – even from people who disagree, as well as from supporters. And this helps you make the best decision for the organization.

Not only that, but it will help all those affected by that decision – they will know that they played a part in making the decision.

Do you want the leadership success you deserve? Download FREE articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sonsino, business school professor and author of the Amazon bestseller “The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders”. Click here now http://www.deathofleadership.com

A LMS can no longer rely on it’s effectiveness as a learning medium to deliver, track and monitor training. It now needs to fend for itself and clearly demonstrate how it adds value to a business’s bottom line.

Previously, a traditional LMS has been able to provide sufficient value and worth to an organisation, by delivering and tracking training in a more cost effective and flexible method. However, as technology improves, and new technologies emerge, the humble LMS doesn’t quite cut it any longer.

The new breed of Learning Management Systems, provide organisations with the ability to target the delivery of training to those who require it, driving better business performance through better employee performance.

It is a worn out cliche that people are an organisations best asset. However, they are also an organisation’s greatest expense. That’s why it’s so important to ensure employees are kept up to a level where they’re able to perform to the best of their ability and provide the organisation with the best possible rate of return.

To measure this performance and to ensure skills and knowledge are attained, a level, or standard, must be set on an individual basis, with each employee given a specific set of goals.

This level, or standard, is directly proportion to the specific role or function that the employee has been hired to perform. However to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to fulfil this role, every employee needs to undergo training and further development. It makes sense then, to ensure that there is a specific process surrounding the training and development of the employee. Thus ensuring the employee not only learns the basics and fundamentals of their role, to perform it at an optimal level, but also continues to increase their skills, knowledge and abilities, which ultimately brings further benefit to the organisation.

So how do we do this without hiring a team of HR consultants who will want to change your entire organisational culture and put more fish tanks around the office?

Say hello to the new breed of Learning Management Systems — all inclusive solutions that provide the identification, mapping, training and tracking of employee skills and knowledge.

Such solutions (like Aframe’s Skills Optimiser) allow for the creation of role profiles that are matched against each individual employee. These role profiles consist of individual skills, skill sets and knowledge components that are specific to the role and then customised for the individual employee. Once an employee begins their training, a training needs analysis is conducted. This matches the employee’s current skills and knowledge against the created role profile, identifying training gaps, thus producing the employee’s development plan.

These Learning Management Systems are then able to schedule the appropriate training to the employee, whether it be online training through the LMS, instructor led training which is planned, scheduled and managed by the LMS or a combination of both.

The end result is a system that helps businesses ensure their staff are provided with training that is specific, relevant and timely.

On top of this, is the reporting and analytical benefits provided by such a system. With uniform role profiles, skills and skill sets already defined and mapped to training, Learning and Development Managers now have the ability to dive deeper into the skill and knowledge attributes of those employees who outperform their peers. It also allows HR to search for employees who may fit certain skill and knowledge criteria for job roles, allowing more comprehensive internal recruitment and screening capability.

Effectively trained and better skilled staff will benefit any organisation in striving to become a better performing business, however the method, efficiency and speed at which it can be done, has been changed forever.

Aframe provides comprehensive eLearning and corporate training solutions across Asia Pacific. More information is available at http://www.aframe.com.au/

In the wider commercial and government world eLearning, or online training, is often represented by an abundance of glorified Power Point presentations. Back and next buttons rule supreme, and while this type of training can provide some visually interesting content it doesn’t necessarily engage learners for long. However, if you’re prepared to spend more on eLearning a whole new teaching and learning opportunity is uncovered.

NBFS was a term I coined recently. Well it was a term I’d never heard before so I’ll stand by that claim albeit tentatively. It stands for Next Button Fatigue Syndrome and although at the time it was a joke I realised it did articulate a large concern related to eLearning.

In the wider commercial and government world online training is often represented by an abundance of glorified Power Point presentations. Back and next buttons rule supreme, and while this type of eLearning can provide some visually interesting content it doesn’t necessarily engage learners for long. Now, without demonising this further, I do agree that it has an important place in certain forms of online training. It is particularly useful for rapid eLearning where budgets are limited or content is restrictive in its capacity for instructional design. However, if you’re prepared to spend more a whole new teaching and learning opportunity is uncovered.

So what can be gained from increasing an eLearning budget? Perhaps the best way to expand on this is to look at the rise, and rise, and rise of computer gaming.

Computer gaming has captured a huge portion of the entertainment market by creating stories and environments that immerse the user, allowing them to freely explore, engage and choose their own fortunes. Unlike movies where the narrative is controlled and the exposure limited, computer gaming is far more absorbing for far longer.

If you take this concept of using stories, environments and user-control to immerse learners- or immersive eLearning as we refer to it- you’re somewhat closer to understanding where a more expansive budget can lead.

Take, for example, a large business that operates a syndicated gambling game throughout clubs and pubs. If we imagine that each staff member within each establishment is required to operate and understand a ticketing console that facilitates this syndicated game — and the associated customer service — it wouldn’t be stretching reality to suggest the learner population would be massive and very widely spread.

In this example, the learner base is 30,000 people spread across a region the size of France. Prior to considering online induction and online systems training, the business would spend time and money sending trainers to the far corners of the region. The cost for one such ‘training mission’ could quite literally translate into thousands of dollars of travel and accommodation costs — and even then not every trainee would necessarily be available for training at that particular time. Spread the cost, say $2000, over forty employees and you’re spending $50 on training per individual. Calculate that cost over an estimated 30,000 learners and it rises to an astronomical $1.5 million per annum.

This begs the question “what’s the eLearning alternative” for a business case like this? Well firstly, we considered the model that face-to-face training would have employed — lectures, training around the ticketing console and actual on the job training. Secondly, we considered the fact that face to face training was a limited resource that relies upon learners digesting content within a fixed time frame. Thirdly, we knew that eLearning training would be consistent and standardised across all learners, something that would be difficult to achieve under a face-to-face model.

The answer — enter the animated and interactive world of a fictitious club, full of helpful staff, trainers and eager customers wanting to play variations of the syndicated game and all with different questions, spending options and problems. Add to this a computer generated version of the ticketing console and the learner has the ability to actually partake in a fully functioning, yet fictitious, version of the club and game with multiple customer scenarios unfolding before them.

Sounds expensive? Well it is true effective eLearning doesn’t come cheaply. But let’s compare it to the original training costs. In this example the total cost of this project was in the vicinity of $250,000 — one sixth of the original face to face training costs. Furthermore, when we consider that this training will be suitable for at least three years the cost differential is even greater. Bundle this eLearning with an LMS, a Learning Management System, and every one of the 30,000 learners can be tracked and assessed on an equal footing.

While training of this calibre may not always be an organisation’s first thought, it’s certainly worth calculating the costs between differing training models. So don’t be afraid to consider spending in eLearning. If you choose the right provider, with demonstrated creative abilities, you may just find you’ve solved your training needs and helped to change the perception of eLearning.

Aframe provides comprehensive eLearning and corporate training solutions across Asia Pacific. More information is available at http://www.aframe.com.au/

eLearning offers a range of educational outcome and cost reduction benefits for contact centre training delivery. These include reductions in training delivery time, increased agent skill sets, continuity in training delivery and greater content engagement. Through the use of eLearning technologies, agent skill sets can be greatly enhanced by allowing the trainee to learn at their own pace, and in their own style.

Today’s contact centre agents are expected to know more and more products and services than ever before, all in the name of first call resolution. It is a difficult task to expect contact centre agents to understand all of the features and benefits of your entire product range or the services you can provide.

The majority of contact centre agents will have access to an extensive knowledge database which will house all of the information they need to provide to their customers. For today’s Gen Y contact centre agent who has grown up in the age of Google and Wikipedia, and is accustomed to having information at their finger tips, these knowledge databases can be a very empowering tool.

Much of the new contact centre eLearning being developed focuses on these agent knowledge database tools, providing agents with the tools to find the information they need to help service your customers while avoiding the sort of information overload that often overwhelms new recruits.

The focus of this style of training is to familiarise new agents with the tools they will be using once they are on the phones. However, another key component of this training is to give an understanding of the products and services of your company.

It is important that the agent is not in the realm of ‘they don’t know what they don’t know’ (unconscious incompetence) and that they are in the sphere of ‘they know they don’t know’ (conscience incompetence). Meaning that the agent will know that they don’t know all of the details of an offering and will know to use the knowledgebase before attempting to assist your customer. Or ‘they know they know’ (conscience competence) where the agent will be able to respond to your customer enquiry and effectively use the knowledgebase to further their understanding of the topic.

The benefit of this approach is that the agent is conditioned through their training to use the knowledgebase tool as a first point of contact. Rather than placing the customer on hold and seeking assistance from a team leader or other resource, increasing their average handling time, and lessening the customer experience. A further outcome from this is that the team leader is freed from constant questioning and call escalations and better able to provide mentoring and coaching to support agent development.

In a recent implementation of eLearning to replace the entire induction training for a contact centre, Aframe was able to cut the time taken to deliver the training in half, delivering massive cost savings to this contact centre. In comparison to the previous Instructor Led Training (ILT) these agents were emerging from the training showing a significant improvement in their assessment results (71% ILT vs. 91% eLearn). Not only did the agents undertaking the eLearning complete the training in half the time, with greater assessment outcomes, their on-phone performance and speed to competency was greatly enhanced.

In this sales based contact centre, agents completing the eLearning experienced a whopping 9% reduction in their AHT on their first week on the phone. These agents also saw an astronomical 11.1% improvement in the sales conversion during the same period. With reductions in training time, greater knowledge retention, and more efficient and effective conversations this contact centre saw a remarkable return on their eLearning investment.

Salmat SalesForce, winner of the Hewitt Best Employer Award for three consecutive years, recognises the importance of performance managing, training and optimising the skills of their staff. Salmat SalesForce founder Kevin Panozza is convinced that staff training is crucial, stating that “well trained — and empowered — people can identify and resolve issues and so eliminate time-consuming call escalation that frustrates and irritates customers. The bottom line is you can’t train customers — so you have to train staff.”

Aframe provides comprehensive eLearning and corporate training solutions across Asia Pacific. More information is available at http://www.aframe.com.au/

Many businesses still rely on old fashioned communication methods such as fax machines, phone calls and regular mail delivery services. While these methods can certainly facilitate completion of a task, they are not always the most cost effective and efficient method to leverage. Many business owners discover that by learning and utilizing newer forms of technology that their communication speed and costs are reduced allowing for their business overall to run more smoothly.

One of my clients is an agricultural consulting firm that has been mentoring agricultural clients on a monthly basis over the telephone.

Their clients who were predominantly farmers would provide information to the consulting firm so that they could analyze and prepare feedback for their monthly business development calls. The farmers were entering their information into the consulting firms software program in order to produce a variety of financial reports, including:
Stocking rates
Paddock records
Budgets
Financial information
Pasture management

Before their scheduled monthly mentoring sessions, the farmer would print out each of these reports to fax to the consulting firm. The consulting firm and the farmer would then review and discuss these reports during their scheduled call time.

While this system produced some results for the farmer, there were several assumptions being made that may have hindered the full effects that the farmer was gaining from their mentoring time. One of the assumptions that was being made was that both individuals were looking at the same materials while communicating. And, that the communication with regards to these materials was fully understood. The information being discussed and the changes that were being proposed during these scheduled calls was the basis for the farmers ability to improve their business. The consulting firm was also relying on the implementation efforts of the farmer once the call had been concluded.

As an alternative option, the agricultural consulting firm began to utilize an online meeting room instead of a scheduled call to communicate directly with their clients.

One of the immediate values that both parties noticed was the ability to view documents and the proposed changes live instead of each party being responsible for their own note taking and follow up following the mentoring calls. For examples budgets were changed and the impact immediately seen!

Overall, switching the method of communication from the telephone to an online meeting room has enabled the process of mentoring to be more collaborative and more efficient, ultimately leading to an increase in the desired results on the part of the farmer.

Leanne Isaacson has been specialising in E Business Development/Online Learning for the past 5 yrs, Adult Education and Agriculture for past 20 years.
Leanne can inspiring your business to grow using online meeting rooms! Visit Inspiring Growth website http://www.inspiringgrowth.com.au

With so much competition in the workforce today, it seems ambition is inflating and the ratio of jobs to jobseekers is dramatically unbalanced. This is advantageous to employers as they are offered a wider selection of talented employees to recruit and harder for jobseekers to get their foot in the door. Saying this, how easy is it to keep those employees feet in the door once they have been hired?

Employee training is an excellent way to not only boost morale in the workforce but also ensure staffs are highly trained to achieve the best possible results for your company. With this awareness, it seems enrolling at centres for executive education (CEE) to help develop the skills of employees at both ends of the company ladder, is becoming advisable practice.

Many institutions around the world today feature centres for executive education (CEE). These centres offer a wide range of programmes for senior management, focussing on the growing impact of global forces and emerging markets on the world of business and the interest of many global organisations in emerging markets.

Modules vary from course to course but generally include subjects such as strategic planning and execution, financial management, innovation, information management, innovation and creative, risk management, change leadership, team building, measures of performance, knowledge management, communication, alignment and negotiation.

The aim predominantly is to train senior executives and their staff to better understand emerging strategic and policy issues and practices and to enhance their business operations. While it has predominantly been top end executives enrolled on these courses, employers are starting to recognise the benefits and reap the rewards, of also training up their junior staff, after acknowledging that it is often these employees who are first to leave a company.

If there is little scope to expand within an organisation and no opportunity to grow, employees are much more likely to leave and take on a higher level position elsewhere. By showing employees their skills are appreciated and by rewarding them with an opportunity to expand on these skills, employees are much more likely to remain loyal to their current employer.

Another excellent reason why more and more employees are being sent on training courses through a CEE is to develop their skills in new areas. Someone may be an expert in their field however their services may be required in different areas of the business and in this case, extra training will likely be required. It is always beneficial to possess a variety of different of different skills. Similarly if an employee is looking for a promotion, training is an excellent way to develop their knowledge of the underlying structure of how a company works, such as strategy and planning as well as managerial or financial skills.

There are a large number of these centres for executive education around the world, all offering variations of different programmes. Quantity and content of modules will vary as well as costs of programmes and time scales. The key is to discover one that fits all your training requirements and how it best fits with your employees. If the employer is satisfied for employees to commit to a day a week out of the office while studying, then a shorter more intense course may be applicable. However if this doesn’t fit their schedule, then perhaps a longer course, where study is completed in the employees personal time, such as weekends and evenings, may be more manageable.

Education and work experience are equally important in the world of business and to get the best out of your team, a combination of the two can often produce the best results. Studying at a CEE will provide employees with an excellent level of educational knowledge as well as the experience of applying this knowledge to various business scenarios, to allow them to be prepared for dealing with situations when they arise.

Dominic Donaldson is an expert in Business Development
Find out more about CEE at http://www.isb.edu/cee/AboutCEE.Shtml

Nominating yourself for the role of Fire Safety Warden at your new job may have seemed like an easy way to score brownie points with your new employer, but it’s important to realise the responsibility you need to take on in your new role. Of course all companies will be slightly different and numbers of employees will vary dramatically but effectively, you are responsible for the lives of your colleagues and will be the first point of call before the fire brigade arrive. Upon nomination, you will need to be put through some fire safety training by your company and so it’s essential you realise what is involved and what will be expected of you during your training programme.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order of 2005 was a statutory instrument, placing the onus on individuals to carry out risk assessments on certain types of property and submit them to their local fire authority. Under this order, fire safety training was made a legal requirement for staff members meaning fire marshals must learn certain skills in order to perform their role effectively. The focus will be on a wide range of procedures such as the chemistry of fire and how fires spreads, common causes of fire, safety features within buildings and what your action should be on discovering a fire. Fire Safety training will take you through the moment you need to call the fire service, how to spot and reduce hazards, evacuation procedures, liaising with the fire service, daily and weekly fire checks, record keeping and perhaps if appropriate to your particular company, you may look at dealing with bomb threats. All people learning to be a fire warden will most definitely learn the theory and practise behind using a fire extinguisher.

The purpose of this training will be to allow employees to fully assume the duties of Fire Marshals or Fire Wardens at their place of work and allow them to feel confident should their duties be required in an emergency.

While it sounds like a lot to learn, many fire safety training courses are able to cover all these key pointers within half a day, so you can easily squeeze it in to a normal working day. Upon completion, those who take part in the fire safety training will receive an IFE approved certificate of attendance (Institute of Fire Engineers). The IFE is at the heart of the fire community, and a recognised qualification from the institute will ensure you are well prepared in the heat of the moment.

Having the skills that will help you deal with a fire is also incredibly useful out of the workplace. Like learning how to do first aid, having the option to do fire safety training is incredibly rewarding. It’s strongly advisable to listen and learn and take on board all the fire services teach you. It could help to save a life.

Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the Health & Safety industry.
Find out more about Fire Safety Training at http://www.ukfiretraining.com