by Ashley Andrus

Well, it’s the time of year for “best of” and “Top 10″ lists, so in honor of the brand new 2010, we thought we’d share a run-down of the most popular training topics our clients are planning for this upcoming year:

1. Behavioral Interviewing
There is nothing more important than hiring the right people. Hiring the right person for the right job provides tremendous organizational benefits by increasing employee productivity, reducing training time, and controlling the high cost of employee turnover—not to mention the positive impact on team morale. You’d think, with double-digit unemployment rates across the country, that it would be easy to hire right now…right? Well, maybe. Read the rest of this entry »

by Debra Fine

Stanford University School of Business conducted a study that monitored a group of MBAs 10 years after graduation. What did they learn? That their ability to converse had a huge impact on their success and grade point averages had no bearing whatsoever.

The ability to connect with others through small talk can lead to big things, according to Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk (Hyperion 2005). A former engineer, Fine recalls being so ill at ease at networking events and even the 10 minute coffee break during a meeting that she would hide in the restroom. Now a motivational speaker, Fine believes the ability to develop relationships with people through small talk is an acquired skill.

Fine offers the following tips for starting − and ending conversations: Read the rest of this entry »

by Sarah Michel

Let’s be honest…this time of the year can be very stressful. Shopping, decorating, addressing greeting cards, hosting and attending parties, mailing gifts, studying for school finals, housing out of town family members and winding down your business for 2009 are all stressful activities. The fact that we’re expected to do them all simultaneously forces me into the fetal position, rocking and sucking my thumb!

How did things get so out of control? The intent of this time of year is to stop momentarily and step off the merry-go-round of life and focus on the people and things in your life that you’re thankful for. Actually letting people know how much you appreciate them, is the best gift you can give someone.

I admire people who have walked away from the commercial focus of this season doing away with the traditional gift orgies that leave most of us in debt this time of year. Many of these creative people I have met have chosen to have family “white elephant gift exchanges” where everyone brings a gag gift, tacky Christmas sweaters or an inexpensive theme gift where the focus is on just being together and having fun. Read the rest of this entry »

by K.J. McCorry

Efficiency expert K.J. McCorry, author of Organize Your Work Day In No Time, thinks that the world could be a better place if we’d all cut back on our consumption of paper. With the help of technology, that long-awaited goal might even be manageable.

Today’s employees are inundated with data, finding it more and more difficult to manage this overwhelming amount of data and yet be effective and efficient at their jobs. One of the keys to gaining efficiencies in data management and increasing productivity is to reduce the paper pileup.

Disadvantages of Paper

Although some workers still need, desire, and perhaps even love paper, it comes with some disadvantages:

• It takes up a lot of physical space. In fact, paper costs on average $314 per filing cabinet solely for the real estate it consumes.
• It has limitations, being accessible in only one place, and difficult to move in large quantities.
• It doesn’t offer easy ways to alter or edit its contents, without printing the entire document again.

Frankly, paper doesn’t provide users with advantages other than a physical form. Read the rest of this entry »

by Ashley Andrus

With the “Where the Wild Things Are” movie taking the box office by storm it’s a good time to think about feral learning and the ways in which Training & Development are taking a walk on “the wild side.”

In today’s “Google World” it’s possible to find instructions and information on almost anything you might need.

• Looking for that new BBQ restaurant? Google it.
• Wondering how many Rocky movies are in the series? A few keystrokes, a click, and voila.
• Need to know how to change out the filter in your furnace? You know what to do.

Most of us search online every single day. For 2009, Google reports a little under 300 million searches per day on average—almost 9 billion searches in the month of September alone. Technology has changed—forever—the way we gather information. The question is whether your organization’s training & development model has effectively adapted to that reality. Read the rest of this entry »

by Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic™

Most of us believe we’re good listeners, when in fact, most of us are lousy. (If you don’t believe me, ask your spouse.) Yet listening is a critical skill that we all need to be better at. Listening allows you to relax, compose your thoughts and gather valuable information. And truly effective listening builds rapport, respect and trust.

Whether you’re networking, selling, negotiating or simply having a casual conversation, keep these principles in mind:

See Eye to Eye

When someone is speaking to you it is imperative that you maintain good eye contact with them. Looking at something else sends the non-verbal message that whatever you are looking at is more important than the speaker is. An additional benefit for you is that by looking at the speaker, you can pick up on their non-verbal signals, which will help you better understand what they really are (and are not) saying. Read the rest of this entry »

by D.J. Vanas

I was flying home after a visit with the wonderful people of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe in Kansas and settled into my seat next to the window. Boarding last, and very reluctantly, was a young woman who meekly climbed into the middle seat. My nose was buried in a book but I noticed the strange hand motions, as if trying to push away bad dreams, from my seatmate and looked up at her in curiosity. Her eyes were squeezed shut and leaking tears, her upper lip was pulled up and trembling as a painful grimace spread across her face. It was the face of abject fear.

We made eye contact and I gave her a reassuring smile. Seconds later she tapped me on the shoulder and I took off my headphones. She could barely get the words out. “I-I-I don’t mean to bother you. B-b-but can you please talk to me?” I put my book down and found out she was on her way to Colorado to get married up in the mountains in forty-eight hours. Due to a severe fear of flying, her doctor had prescribed Xanax. In her rush to get the flight, she had forgotten to take it until she boarded so it hadn’t kicked in yet. With each bump (and there were many on the flight) she clenched her face and fists in terror. I tried to joke with her, but it’s hard to laugh when you feel like you might die – plus, I wasn’t that funny anyway.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Anna Conrad

“Making change part of the organization’s internal dialogue is critical to successful firm management.”

Fear, anxiety, and resistance can quickly take over an organization during tough times, causing employee productivity, morale, and engagement to plummet. When change occurs — or is simply rumored to occur — stress can take over and cause serious disruption to firm operations.

A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management showed that gossip and rumor-spreading among employees has increased 54 percent since the recession began. Such practices may seem harmless, but they can quickly hijack emotions and productivity among your firm’s attorneys and staff alike. If talk around the water cooler goes unchecked, an innocent closed-door meeting to discuss travel limitations could turn into (in the minds of the uniformed) a massive layoff plan. Consider the following strategies to keep this from happening at your firm. Read the rest of this entry »

by Julie Miller

The blessing and the curse of the digital revolution! Between e-mail, instant and text messaging, cell phones, Blackberries and the Internet, we are drowning in data overload. Moreover, the constant interruptions are costing the U. S. economy an estimated $558 billion annually. This staggering number does not add in the cost of poorly written e-mails that land companies and employees in hot legal trouble, destroy long-term client relationships, and ruin reputations—just review Mike Brown’s e-mails (former FEMA chief) as Hurricane Katrina raged and you will understand. Add to this mix a lack of civility and common sense and you have an explosive brew.What to do? For starters, treat e-mail writing as writing not as casual conversation. Whether words are written in the sky, sent by carrier pigeon or via the Web, words must connect with the reader. Good writing allows this to happen; poor writing does not. Currently, writing online is still, as author Patricia O’Conner writes, in its Wild West stage a free-for-all with everybody shooting from the hip and no sheriff in sight.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Mike Faber

Choosing to work from home as an entrepreneur in the coaching and professional speaking business has been the single most freeing, and terrifying decision of my work career. At first, the “flight from cubicle” life seemed idyllic: I could wake up when I wanted to, pursue exactly what made me happy, and move from the office to home in a matter of seconds. No more battling traffic on the freeway at rush-hour! Reality started to hit as time passed, along with the first and third of every month. Instead of a comforting pay-stub in the mail, all I saw were bills. The cubicle seemed like a prison when I worked at my last company, now it beckoned like a siren’s call. I had to make a choice — get active and engaged in my new career, or start looking for another six-by-eight cube to call home.
Read the rest of this entry »