Talent management experts often compare companies to complex, living organisms. Green thumb or not, most individuals can understand that in order to grow, a seed must find a home in solid soil, be watered regularly, and be nurtured. They must adapt and weather storms and defend themselves against predators. With enough care and devotion, those plants will flourish and become an important part of a colorful, diverse garden. Continuing with the garden metaphor, I find the Marigold Effect is a powerful way to illustrate the impact each individual has on the organization’s culture.
Getting a Training & Development Diagnosis
At least once a week, I receive the following phone call: “Hi there, we need to do some training in our organization, can you help with that?” The request seems like the start of a great conversation, but then it derails rapidly when I ask follow-up questions like “why” and “what kind of challenges would you like to address?” These shouldn’t be tough questions, but sadly, they often catch the prospective client by surprise. If medical doctors received the same kinds of requests leadership and team development coaches receive, it might look something like this:
Five Qualities More Important than a Degree
If you Google the phrase “a Bachelor’s Degree is…” the first two autocomplete options are “…is worthless” and “…is not enough.” While these two choices seem mutually exclusive, the truth is they’re not. And they’re both accurate. I worked my way through grad school as a recruiter and experienced first hand how often hiring managers overemphasize the need for a Bachelor’s Degree. More often than not, there were no work tasks that required any higher education whatsoever, let alone completion of the degree. When I pushed back on the requirement, what I often heard was that managers were looking for … Read More
Investing with a Guaranteed Return
Fourth quarter is well underway and as you prepare for annual reviews, budget setting, and forecasts, it’s also time to reflect on where you spent time this year. How much of your time did you spend putting out fires and chasing solutions to problems? How much time did you spend making strategic moves that will pay dividends for years to come? How often did you devote time to mindfulness and reflection? Lastly, how much of your time did you spend building new skills? Training and coaching for leaders is often overlooked when most of a company’s development budget is spent … Read More
Beware the Golden Handcuffs
Successful, profitable organizations are able to offer competitive pay, flexible hours, and attractive benefits. It is much easier for those organizations to attract, recruit, and secure top talent than it is for organizations that offer average or below average compensation packages. Naturally, organizations that offer competitive salaries are also able to retain their employees longer and experience lower turnover. But is that always a good thing? When it comes to compensation, too much of a good thing is possible.
Numbers Don’t Lie: Making the Case for Employee Development
Does this scenario sound familiar? You identify a common skills gap within your team and express your concerns to HR/Leadership. They agree and say they’ve seen a similar issue. You ask for support/funding to train your team. You know they need it, and HR knows they need it, but senior leadership is reluctant to allocate the necessary budget. After all, they just spent tens of thousands on an updated virtual video library for their LMS. Often, identifying the skills gap and the training/coaching solution is far easier than getting budget to fix the issue. Additionally, using a basic ROI equation … Read More