ASTD Goes Platinum

Posted on May 17, 2013 by HRDQ

A post from HRDQ President, Brad Glaser

Years before the majority of today’s training professionals were in grade school, 15 men from the petroleum industry gathered for the first meeting of the American Society of Training Directors. It was the beginning of the ASTD we know today. It was 1943 — a time when the world was in the midst of World War II. A time when training was emerging as a formal organizational function, corporate strategy, and necessity of a highly skilled workforce.

From chalkboards and whiteboards to smart boards, e-learning, and virtual classrooms, the face of training has experienced an amazing transformation since that first meeting 70 years ago. And ASTD has been a guiding influence every step of the way. Now the world’s largest association dedicated to the training and development field, ASTD represents every industry — and every sector — across 122 U.S. chapters, 100 countries, and 39,000 members. While its name has since changed to the American Society of Training & Development, its mission remains largely the same: to empower professionals to develop knowledge and skills successfully. ASTD’s goal is to raise the standards of the training profession and it accomplishes that through its publications, forums, education, research, resources, and conferences.

I attended my first ASTD conference when I joined HRDQ fresh out of college. I’ve been there nearly every year since, and I’ll attend the 2013 International Conference & Exposition next week when training professionals from around the world come together in Dallas, Texas. Frankly, there isn’t a better way to catch the latest trends, meet face-to-face with training colleagues, hear from industry leaders — and simply be inspired. Be sure to visit HRDQ in Booth #1053. We look forward to seeing you!

How has ASTD influenced your career? Post a comment and tell us.

HRDQ @ ASTD 2010

Team Emotional and Social Intelligence

Posted on May 15, 2013 by HRDQ

There are many measurable skills that contribute to individual high performance. Furthermore, there are essential soft skills that make possible the delivery of that performance to an organization.

A majority of these soft skills pertain to interpersonal relationships, and so are only visible in team settings. Working as part of a team is much more difficult than working on one’s own – it means having to rely on others, committing to a common set of objectives, and modifying one’s own behaviors to accommodate those of others and move everyone toward shared goals.

There are, however, simple choices that can improve overall team function, and allow individuals to contribute their individual best – unhindered by team discord. These choices amount to team emotional and social intelligence, which, in turn, enables sustainable productivity. Intelligence, here, s used in a non-traditional way – meaning something closer to awareness than ability. For everyone is able to choose “emotionally intelligent” behaviors, but we to be cognizant of their value and how to put them to use.

To develop this awareness, self-assessment couldn’t be more valuable in providing insight into current behaviors and tendencies as juxtaposed with statistically sound, effective behaviors. The Team Emotional and Social Intelligence (TESI) soft-skills training program is the perfect way to develop a practical picture of an entire team’s effectiveness.

Revealing a 360 degree evaluation of a team’s “Collaboration Skills,” the TESI shows common strengths and weaknesses in seven areas of teamwork. Stressing the idea that each member of a team needs a personal association with their team (a reason they have to continue working toward team goals), this program shows participants that it is possible for every team to possess excellent collaboration skills, achieve high performance, and feel emotionally and socially well while acting as part of their team.

An experiential learning program, the TESI will not only allow participants to learn from their self-assessments, but to participate in activities and action planning that will apply directly to their own experience – learning that can take effect immediately, and that will resonate with teams as they work together.

Try TESI today!

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

Posted on May 8, 2013 by HRDQ

Although you may not think of yourself as a negotiator (like, with a capital N), negotiating is something we all do all the time. It’s communication aimed at mutual need satisfaction.

But even though we do it all the time, there’s a lot to negotiating – and by building the right interpersonal skills and modeling our behavior on a sound methodology, we can all reach positive outcomes. The key is knowing which skills are in need of building, and how to put them into practice.

Self-assessment is the first step toward improved performance. In order to progress, we first have to take stock of available resources and make note of deficiencies. By looking closely at our natural tendencies and current behaviors, we can make a plan to move toward more appropriate behaviors that will facilitate more effective negotiations.

The Negotiating Style Profile will frame this picture for you, and set out a model of effective negotiation skills to measure against and work toward. The basis for the Negotiating Style Profile assessment is that, in negotiations, the involved parties should have high concern for two things: the outcome of the discussion, and their relationship with the others involved.

By measuring these levels of concern as expressed by behavioral choices, the Negotiating Style Profile reveals your relative tendencies toward five negotiating styles. A collaborating style is put forth as the most effective approach to produce positive outcomes for all parties involved, and to maintain healthy relationships between them.

Simply understanding negotiation as a collaborative form of communication can be a major shift for a lot of people. And this shift can affect more than just negotiations. The set of skills needed to negotiate collaboratively can be extended to all aspects of worklife – improving performance and employee well-being.

Get started today with the Negotiating Style Profile today!

Renaissance Training

Posted on May 1, 2013 by HRDQ

It’s May Day! A day to celebrate rebirth and embrace new beginnings. With a parting nod to the difficulties of winter, we can begin sowing the seeds of our next harvest. And, since we’re not in the farming business (not full time, anyway), we’re thinking about renaissance training. A new kind of training that moves with you – through any topic, and into the future.

The Reproducible Training Library is more than a comprehensive bank of renewable resources. It’s something that can grow and develop with you and your organization. Making a place for the RTL in your organization is a guarantee of improved performance and life-long learning for every member.

Available as a set of editable MS Word and PowerPoint files, each title in the library is a full soft-skills training program, developed by subject-matter experts and formatted to allow for customization. All RTL materials can be reimagined, combined, edited, and implemented to the trainer’s specifications – becoming an extension of the trainer – an aid and an advantage. Because RTL materials are a one-time purchase that can be printed as needed, the trainer becomes the centerpiece of learning in their organization.

When you’re training for soft skills, it makes a huge difference for your audience to have a human resource to help them learn and grow. You can make learning a conversation – something that happens within and between people – something that benefits everyone. The RTL is your foundation for that conversation. Each of the 75 programs, covering everything from time management and team building to leadership and communication, is a beginning for your organization – starting new, starting better, every time.

Celebrate a new season with better training from the Reproducible Training Library!

What’s My Time Style?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by HRDQ

Personality Style affects all aspects of our work life – especially time management. Just as with social situations involving different groups of people, we approach time management differently depending on what we’re doing.

When thinking about time management, it’s important to consider not just the nature of the task, but the other people involved. Team members, managers, and other stakeholders may have very different methods of time management than we do. And while we cannot control the behaviors of others, and most often can’t choose who we work with, we can make our time-management style align more closely for a more harmonious group effort.

This is especially important when fitting our own tasks into a schedule developed by someone else. We need to choose an appropriate time-management style for the task at hand, but also make sure that our style is appropriate for the people we are working with.

So, how do we classify time-management style?

We all observe behaviors in ourselves and in others, and can sense when we are compatible (or not). There’s a simple and effective way to decipher these behaviors and understand why they result in compatible or incompatible relationships. It’s the HRDQ Style Model.

Classifying observable behaviors into four distinct personality styles (Direct, Spirited, Systematic, and Considerate), the HRDQ Style Model helps us create a plan for capitalizing on our own natural strengths, and relating to others more effectively. The HRDQ Style Series is comprised of eight style assessments that deal with specific aspects of work life and provide personal development training. What’s My Time Style? deals directly with time management.

Built on a foundation of behavioral tendencies, arrived at by self-assessment, What’s My Time Style reports an individual’s “style” and provides enough interpretive information and time managemet training to chart a course toward better performance, better relationships, and smoother sailing all around.

Learning about personality style can improve all aspects of our home and work lives, and help us build the skills and relationships we need to maintain high performance, feel fulfilled in our interactions, and help others succeed with us.

Let the HRDQ Style Series help you!

FREE Webinar! Breakthrough Creativity

Posted on April 15, 2013 by HRDQ

Breakthrough Creativity:

How to Use Your Talents to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Hosted by HRDQ

Presented by Lynne Levesque

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

2 – 3pm (Eastern Time)

Organizations that integrate creativity into their DNA achieve significant benefits, including better team performance, increased flexibility, greater retention rates, creative problem solving, and strategic decision making. Some say it’s the “secret sauce” that’s needed to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Lynne Levesque is the Author of the Breakthough Creativity Profile – a combination self-assessment and classroom workshop, that helps individuals and teams to leverage their creative strengths, improve their problem-solving skills, increase productivity, and achieve their creative best.

But creativity isn’t limited to artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs. The fact is everyone is creative. Just as there are multiple styles of intelligence, there are multiple styles of creativity that produce different yet equally valuable results. Variations in how individuals look at the world, gather information, and respond to challenges all have an impact on creative contributions. And the first step in realizing creative potential in individuals and teams is self-discovery.

Join creativity and leadership development expert Dr. Lynne Levesque for an hour-long exploration of creativity in the workplace. She’ll discuss how creative talents impact organizational performance, introduce eight creative talents, and offer a practical framework you can use to accelerate the growth of creative strengths in individuals, teams, and leaders.

What You Will Learn

What it means to be creative at work and why it’s critical to performance
Discover the different ways people can be creative
How to apply creativity to inventive problem solving, strategic decision making, and resilient change management
Understand the impact of different creative talents on teamwork
Identify steps for building creative competency in individuals, teams, and leaders

Who Should Attend

Trainers
Managers and Team Leaders
Human Resources Managers
OD Professionals
Consultants

About the Presenter

Lynne C. Levesque, Ed. D. is an expert in the field of creativity and leadership with over 20 years of experience consulting, training, and researching. She is the author of Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents (Davies-Black: June, 2001), as well as numerous articles and Harvard Business School cases for the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. Lynne holds an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an Ed.D. in Creativity from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Click here to register!

The Right Stuff

Posted on April 10, 2013 by HRDQ

Our planet has a specific set of resources. Independently, they’re just a group of things. But, under the right conditions, when they interact with one another and begin processes in which they are interdependent, they have the ability to synthesize into a thing that has greater capabilities. (Liquid water and biogenic elements come together and begin processes facilitated by energy from the sun. With adequate protection and stability, they become life.)

In the same way, a specific group of people can work together interdependently and communicate with each other to accomplish common goals. They can be a team. These conditions, however, do need to be met in order to create a synergistic team:

Interdependence

A group is not a team until its members’ actions depend on each other. Knowing that someone depends on you is a great motivator to regulate and maintain quality, time management, and interpersonal relationships. Everyone learns from everyone else and applies that new knowledge to their own tasks. And with acknowledgement of interdependence comes the open communication of needs – of and between individuals and of the team as a whole.

Communication/Information Flow

A team requires an accurate and constant flow of information – reinforcing goals, needs, and main points. This serves, also, to make transitions smooth, prevent individual departures down unexpected paths, and generate a continuous exchange of ideas – turning over new stones and polishing existing ones. It confirms and reminds of shared assets, shared processes, and shared goals.

Common Goals

Communication and Interdependence only make a team if, rather than maintaining the mindset of perfecting their own tasks, individuals are focused on how best to achieve team goals. Each member needs to understand why everyone is doing what they’re doing, and how they can help to move things forward. The acceptance of and alignment to common goals will structure and strengthen a group – determining the actions and methods of its members, and uniting them as a team.

Bring the concept of team-membership to life through experiential learning in a team building game. Mars Surface Rover will show the members of your organization how to recognize and capitalize on the benefits of being part of a team – highlighting the need for the three conditions above, and writing the formula for success. Illustrated by a fun and memorable activity, the model presented by Mars Surface Rover incorporates soft skills training beyond team building to communication, time management, problem solving, and more.

Get started with this HRDQ customer favorite today, and watch your teams flourish!

Marco…

Posted on April 3, 2013 by HRDQ

Managing employees is a true feat of soft skills. Communication, personality style, leadership, and project and performance management are all put to the test on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the employees you manage might seem like they’re on another planet, even when they’re sitting right in front of you. So, what if they’re in another building? Another city? Another country? Actually ON another planet? It happens.

When employees are discreetly distributed, the manager’s position becomes more important and requires a broader skill set. The manager may be the only link between employees – the one to set schedules, allocate resources, and synthesize production. But he also needs to be the one to ensure alignment – making sure his employees are all aware of and working toward organizational goals.

Although it’s such a basic thing, the loss of face-to-face communication can have a huge impact on how things get done. Written communication and phone skills become invaluable, and relationships need to be built more deliberately without the luxury of casual interactions. Managers who are great face-to-face may find themselves struggling in this new system of information transfer.

They need help filling in the gaps left by the demands of a discreet organizational system. So help them! Managing Offsite Employees is a new title from the Reproducible Training Library. A complete, half-day program, it assesses and builds skills in all areas needed by managers of remote teams.

You can even make your training session into an example of efficient communication and teamwork across distances. Have your managers print out their own participant materials and try an alternative means of meeting – like a webinar or phone or video conference.

Providing the appropriate supervision training is instrumental to a strong team – wherever they are. Settling for resources in a convenient location is a thing of the past. Build your team on a global scale – because you want the best; because it’s possible; because your supervisors know how to manage offsite employees.

Where Winners Live: Sell More, Earn More, Achieve More Through Personal Accountability

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Penny Purcell

A guest post from Linda Galindo, consultant, author, speaker and educator

Back in my days as a radio news personality a station consultant charged with improving our ratings told the morning team to produce our shows with “health, heart, and pocketbook” in mind. Health, heart and pocketbook were, according to the consultants, what gets and keeps listeners engaged. Their rationale: If you don’t have your health, not much else matters. Appealing to the “heart” with human interest stories that uplifted and informed would be talked about around the water cooler. And, pocketbook referred to money; one’s wealth and what may or may not be impacting it from bank failures to hot stocks and everything in between.

Fast forward 20 years and it would appear not much has changed except the way in which personal accountability for health, heart and pocket book have shifted. The specific shift my work as an accountability expert and author of The Accountability Experience has identified is this – not being personally accountable for one’s health, well-being and financial situation is rewarded more than being personally accountable for one’s results in these three areas. Time after time business leaders nod in agreement and disgust when I point this out. Leaders wish their work force was more personally accountable for selling more, earning more and achieving more so that all the” babysitting” managers have to do would go away. Managers blame it on the work ethic of the younger generation or government regulation or the pace of change and new technology. What these business people fail to see is the real source of the problem, themselves. Rescue, fixing and saving under-performance because “it is just easier to do it myself” is running rampant in organizations, at the highest levels! Personal accountability at the top is too often mandated not demonstrated. My newest book with co-author Dave Porter, Where Winners Live will show you over and over again that mandating accountability doesn’t work, demonstrating it does.

You would think in sales organizations that focus on financial services or insurance, personal accountability would be ingrained. Commission-based “eat what you kill” environments make personal accountability a given. Think again. More than ever, sustaining a thriving organization in the financial services and insurance industries requires everyone to personally own and be accountable for the results. Top producers must rely heavily on others to meet customer needs in today’s complex product offering, instant information world. Internal corporate relationships have to fire on all cylinders all the time to produce flawless customer service and realize the investment in corporate brand. The best and brightest really do have to be attracted and retained but more importantly developed.

Personal accountability at the top is too often mandated not demonstrated.

Sales organizations have an opportunity to utilize a power hiding in plain sight and pull far, far away from their competition if their up to the rigor of what is in this book. Leaders, you would do well to heed the call to transform your view of personal accountability and its impact on the results you claim you want. Individual contributors, this will arm you with a powerful lens from which to scope out the best working environment for you to sell more, earn more and achieve more. For the consumer, you are being handed the inside scoop on how to select the best provider for the financial and insurance services you need that align with your willingness to be totally personally accountable for your health, heart and pocketbook. Read Where Winners Live and enjoy your journey as you sell more, earn more and achieve more through personal accountability.

Read more from Linda Galindo on her blog lindagalindo.com/blog/

Bridging the Leadership Divide

Posted on March 20, 2013 by HRDQ

The last thing leadership relationships should do is stand in the way of productivity.

At HRDQ, we often make the assertion that leadership is pretty straightforward – it’s a specific set of skills that can be learned by anyone. (And we’re right.) But that doesn’t mean that every leader behaves the same way, or is regarded in the same way.

And when differing behaviors are perceived by others, they may come across as “incorrect” or non-beneficial. They may be dismissed altogether. Often, these differing behaviors are displayed by leaders of different generations – forming a rift in leadership teams.

With this in mind, it’s important to find ways of capitalizing on legacy strengths from incumbent leaders and new potential from emerging leaders without compromising one for the sake of the other.

It is possible to have the best of both worlds – it just takes effort from both sides.

Bridging the Leadership Divide is a self-assessment and soft-skills training program that addresses generational differences in leadership style to improve leadership practices within an organization. It offers two models for addressing leadership skills in a multi-generational workplace.

One model is about change (and transformation). Improvement doesn’t happen without change, and this model shows leaders how to make positive changes in themselves, between individuals, and as members of an organization. Transformation needs to occur within and between individuals to create new leaders – individuals need to “become” leaders and they need to establish leadership relationships with others. This three-part model helps leaders choose a stance (a set of behaviors to practice) and reach across the divide (acknowledge and accept the leadership of others).

The second model illustrates six patterns of problem behavior between incumbent and emerging leaders and offers an approach to managing each. With these problem patterns highlighted, leaders of any generation are able to recognize them in action, and replace them with productive behaviors – improving relationships between leaders and making strides in the overall quality of leadership in their organization.

Using one or both of the models presented by Bridging the Leadership Divide to create awareness of leadership behavior through experiential learning will place your leaders on level, common ground, and start them off on the best foot for leading – no matter how long they’ve been doing it. You’ll improve performance, relationships, and culture in your organization while helping each individual participant better their work-life.

Get started with Bridging the Leadership Divide today!

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Tag Archives: careers

ASTD Goes Platinum

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

Renaissance Training

What’s My Time Style?