Top 10 for 2010: The Most Requested Training Topics

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.

In fact, the sheer size of the pool of available candidates tends to make hiring decisions even more difficult than in lean times. It's fairly straightforward to identify individuals who possess the technical and tangible skills the job requires—what's harder is identifying and selecting the candidate who is the best fit for both the team and the organization as a whole.

Behavioral interviewing is one approach to ensuring the hiring match is a good one for both parties. When done correctly, behavioral interviewing is appropriate for all types of job positions, from individual contributors to the highest levels of the organization. Implementing behavioral interviewing as a competency-based approach to hiring can ensure consistency and help your hiring managers make the right decision—the first time, every time. (more info)

2. Business Writing
Many experts estimate that as much as 90% of human communication comes from non-verbal clues such as voice inflection and body language. In business writing, however, you have only the words to get your meaning across, so the way the writer uses those words becomes more important. On-the-job writing matters—to your company, to your readers, and to you as a writer. From sales proposals to client emails to internal communications, your employees represent your organization every time they write an email or craft a document.

Ineffective writing carries a host of inefficiencies such as time spent proofreading and re-writing along with risks such as conflict and misunderstandings, unhappy clients, lost opportunities, even legal liability. Whether an employee's written communication duties are primarily internal or primarily external, the desired end results are documents that are clear, well-organized, and effective.

Some of your employees may need assistance organizing a document prior to writing. Others may need to brush up on grammar, punctuation, and common errors. Technical staff and Project Managers may need help translating language into layman's terms, while Customer Service Reps or Salespeople may focus more on crafting readable, to-the-point emails for clients. Different situations call for different skill sets, but the ability to produce clear, concise business communications will set your employees and your organization apart. (more info)

3. Coaching/Mentoring
Coaching can help managers and supervisors provide a structure for enabling their employees to achieve high performance. But the bewildering array of both available resources and management duties can complicate the process. What situations call for coaching vs. counseling? What's the difference in coaching and performance management? How exactly do you give constructive feedback?

An integral part of a manager's job is to help his/her employees succeed at their jobs. But leadership is not a simple task, and there's no one "right way" to manage and motivate all employees, no single way to provide feedback for both star performers and struggling team members. Understanding and utilizing the elements and skills of the coaching process is vital to enabling staff to succeed.

It's also important for managers and supervisors to understand the different forms coaching may take—some situations may call for ongoing coaching with the manager; others may benefit from periodic objective feedback from an external party. Some job functions are exceedingly well crafted for a mentor-protégé-type relationship, while in other environments peer mentoring has proven to be especially effective at allowing employees to share their knowledge on an as-needed basis, rather than in a traditional top-down, formally-structured setting. Regardless of the circumstances your organization faces, knowledge transfer and performance enhancement are critical for organizational success and coaching/mentoring can directly address these issues. (more info)

4. DiSC
There are, of course, many different assessment tools that rate behavior, preference, attitudes, etc. and provide a framework for understanding the way in which you see the world and the differing ways in which others may approach the same set of facts or circumstances. Myers-Briggs/MBTI, Emergenetics, Lominger, Insights and many others remain popular, but the most common tool we see clients utilizing is the DiSC.

The DiSC Personal Profile System made the leap from academia into the corporate environment more than 35 years ago, and today more than 1 million people each year take some version of the DiSC. By focusing on four primary dimensions (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) the assessment helps participants understand their own preferred style for interacting with others and identify ways in which they can more effectively interact with others whose style differs from their own.

The DiSC is a flexible, cost-effective instrument that can be used with an individual work team or on an enterprise-wide basis. The assessment doesn't take very long to complete, can be done in-class or pre-program, and can be completed online or on paper. Understanding the behavioral styles of a team can help individuals identify why they may have been struggling in some areas and allow them to communicate and work together more effectively. (more info)

5. Emotional Intelligence/EQ
All managers can relate horror stories about employees or team members who were clearly intelligent, technically capable, and able to perform the duties their job demanded...and who wreaked havoc on their teams because their social skills or self-management capability was lacking. When it comes to individual and team success, IQ is not enough; in fact, the skill set known as Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has consistently proven to be a better indicator of workplace success.

Drawing upon more than 30 years of research, the Center for Creative Leadership has determined that the skill set known as "Emotional Intelligence" is related to each of the specific behaviors associated with leadership effectiveness, including items such as participative management, the capacity to generate buy-in from team members, self-awareness and composure, the ability to build and mend relationships, resiliency to change and stress, and the ability to work effectively with those of different styles. A variety of other research has correlated from 25%-50% of individual workplace success directly to these specific skills.

Knowing the EQ makeup of your team members can go a long way towards identifying (and avoiding) potential problems and providing development opportunities to ensure all team members achieve individual success and contribute productively. (more info)

6. Facilitation Skills
Most of us feel like we spend too much time in meetings. Meetings that are too long. Meetings that have too many participants. Meetings that don't have clear objectives. Meetings that get sidetracked by off-topic discussions. Meetings can be a waste of time...but with an effective facilitator, that doesn't have to be the case.

When you add up the various forms a "meeting" can take (team meetings, project updates, weekly status meetings, management meetings, committee meetings, task force sessions, etc.) you realize just how much time your employees spend working in a group setting. Recognizing that employees are being asked to participate in an ever-increasing number of meetings, many organizations are providing facilitation skills training to their employees to ensure internal meetings are run as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Some organizations maintain a cadre of facilitators who can be tasked to attend meetings as an objective third-party to help plan the agenda and keep the discussion moving; others encourage each team to have one or more members who can serve as an internal facilitator. Regardless of the model utilized, the bottom line is that trained facilitators help make meetings more effective—they can define the purpose, plan the agenda, manage the logistics, generate consensus about required decisions, and help create action plans for post-meeting results. (more info)

7. Harassment Prevention/Respectful Work Environment
Even when training budgets are tight, harassment prevention and awareness remains a topic of interest to many organizations due to the legal liability issues that can be involved. Ensuring that both individual contributors and managers understand the policies/procedures and responsibilities of the organization is essential, but may not be enough.

Employees need to have a clear understanding of what may constitute workplace harassment as well as the procedures they are to follow. Managers and supervisors must understand the policies and procedures as well, along with understanding the liability issues that may be faced by both the individual and the organization. But the issue of creating a respectful work culture goes beyond legal liability and can cover many collateral topics such as the definition of a hostile work environment, the encouragement of diversity in the workplace (across a variety of criteria), awareness and avoidance of violence in the workplace, and more.

Many organizations strive to operate as an "employer of choice" and a culture in which all employees feel welcome and diverse talents are brought to bear is an important component of this type of environment. Offering both compliance-type sessions along with more proactive, interactive-style programs ensures you are addressing both sides of the equation. (more info)

8. Networking Skills
Networking...it isn't just for salespeople! Although for many people the word "networking" conjures up a cringe-inducing image of a pushy salesperson shoving a business card into every hand she can find, the reality is that networking is about serving as a resource—about giving, not taking—and it's essential for both individual and organizational success.

In large organizations, being able to give a 30-second overview about what you do is as important internally as externally. Developing relationships with internal champions or sponsors can help determine whether a project succeeds or fails. Being able to identify resources within your department, your organization, and your industry positions you for success as an individual and as a team member.

You don't have to ban email, Facebook, or LinkedIn...and on the flip side, you don't have to require your employees to be social media mavens. You do, however, want to ensure the available tools are being used appropriately. Forward-looking organizations understand that the world is getting smaller, that technology is providing unprecedented opportunities for connection, and that giving their employees the tools and outlook they need to make those productive connections is a benefit to all parties involved. (more info)

9. Project Management
In past years, much of the project management training offered by organizations was geared towards those employees who were planning to become a Project Management Professional (PMP) and whose job title or function specifically encompassed a formal project management role. Today, however, we see organizations recognizing that many employees manage projects (albeit on a less formal basis) and recognizing the benefits of a project management overview.

Rather than provide week-long classes with the required contact hours and content needed to pass the PMP certification exam, more organizations are choosing instead to offer shorter workshops that focus primarily on an overview of Project Management. What is the difference in Project Management versus managing a process? Who are the players involved and how do you handle the "human side" of a project? What vocabulary is utilized in thinking and planning a project? What tools are available to assist? How do you set goals and milestones and timelines?

By providing frontline employees and managers with a greater understanding of Project Management, organizations enable those individuals to more effectively manage their areas of responsibility, whether that involves coordinating with external customers, vendors/suppliers, internal departments, formal or informal project teams, or all of the above. (more info)

10. Work-Life Balance/Stress Management
It goes without saying that the state of the economy, mass layoffs, and ever-increasing demands on our employees' time create a perfect storm of stress. The negative impacts of stress can range from the physical to the mental and can have devastating impacts on both individuals and teams. Organizations are exploring a variety of resources they can offer to help weather the storm.

Many organizations are implementing (or re-vitalizing) their corporate wellness programs and benefits. Some are focusing on time management programs with the expectation that helping employees manage their overflowing inboxes and hectic work schedules will translate into reduced levels of stress and rising levels of control. Others are implementing enterprise-wide electronic organization and efficiency initiatives.

Whatever approach your organization takes, the key component is helping employees to understand that they can't have it all, and they can't do it all...at least not all at once. Work-life balance and stress management require the ability to identify the tasks competing for their time and energy, prioritize those tasks, budget time realistically, make choices accordingly, and then stick to the resulting action plan. It isn't easy, and it takes practice, but it can be done.

Want to request more info about any of the above topics for your organization? Send us an email through this form and let us know which ones you're interested in:

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