Training – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Rethinking Gen Z and Millennials in the Workplace

April 27, 2020/0 Comments/in Books, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Millennials and Gen Z workers are passionate and searching for meaning in their work. It’s time to ditch the lazy and entitled cliches society attributes to these generations.

Today’s post is by Heidi Ganahl, author of SheFactor (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

News flash: the promising new grad you just hired is already looking for her next job.

The numbers don’t lie – Generation Z and Millennial women are only staying at their jobs for an average of 18 months. In comparison, the national average for salaried employees is 4.6 years, according to an Economic News Release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The American workforce has changed dramatically since Millennials came on the scene. This phenomenon has left many of us wondering why the ways we engage, reward, and retain employees have not changed with it.

Today, especially with a historically low national unemployment rate, companies cannot afford to lose their ambitious new talent. The costs of turnover and training can add up in ways that go beyond the measure of profit margins. Reputation, recruitment, and employee turnover can add up to about half of an employee’s annual salary. Let that sink in for a moment.

If you want to retain Millennials, your organization’s leadership must give them better reasons to stay.

Becoming a Net Exporter of Talent

April 8, 2020/0 Comments/in Books, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Developing your team so well that they begin being poached by others and letting them go to those other teams is exactly how to develop your organization.

Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS

Want to build your team? Get rid of the people who are on it. I don’t mean go about firing people in a flurry. Become what I call a “net exporter of talent.”

You need to develop your people to the point that they’re ready for new challenges. Build their skills. Make them more valuable to the organization. Grow them and build upon their responsibilities. And once you can stand back and admire the fruits of your labor, send them somewhere else to work. Actually, if you’ve done a good enough job developing them, others will be trying to poach them from your team.

Madness you say? Don’t be too quick to judge. The benefits of becoming a net exporter of talent are many. Before we get into them, let me elaborate on how to become said exporter. First, recognize almost everyone on your team wants to grow. Your obligation as a leader is to provide those opportunities and help people succeed in them. Once you’ve expanded the skills and scope of your team members, you’re ready to begin.

What portion of your team’s work is done remotely?

October 10, 2019/0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: What portion of your team’s work is done remotely?

Over 90%. My team is all over and we use calls/virtual tools for almost everything: 12%
60-90%. We do a substantial amount of work remotely: 10%
40-60%. Around half of what we do is done remotely: 12%
20-40%. We don’t do a lot remotely. Most work is face to face: 18%
Less than 20%. We are almost always working together in person: 48%

Remote work is substantial. While two-thirds of you still do most or all of your work face-to-face, it’s hard to ignore how much work has shifted to being remote. While the nature of your business obviously dictates how large or small the opportunity is to work remotely, ask yourself if you’re actively pursuing those opportunities. Remote work can improve productivity (e.g., it eliminates commuting, improves morale, etc.) and cut costs. Given the quality of tools available for video conferencing, document sharing and collaboration, and workflow management, moving some of your work to remote channels is an opportunity you can’t ignore. Take a moment to review your business processes and see which ones can be changed and supported by remote work. Run a pilot. Monitor results. You might be very pleased with what happens.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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When budgets get cut, how do you handle investing in your people?

October 3, 2019/0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When budgets get cut, how do you handle investing in your people?

All training and development is the first thing we cut: 15%
We cut some training and development but leave critical stuff in place: 28%
We cut some “nice to have” training but really protect the core offerings: 40%
We cut elsewhere because people are truly our most important resource: 16%

Continue investing in people. It’s encouraging to see a strong commitment to training even in the face of economic challenges. Your people always need to grow and develop. You made a commitment to help them do that on the day you hired them. They see it when you take those things away and it enters their decision-making process as to where they want to work the next day. Understand there is a huge cost to pulling back on their development. Their performance will eventually suffer. That will spill over into your business’ performance. That will lead to worse economic performance and more budget cuts. The downward cycle is obvious. Do all you can to protect your investments in your people. Your competitors are. They’re also telling your people to come join them in an organization that continues to invest in development. Investing in people is one of the wisest decisions you can make.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

What’s your approach to onboarding new managers?

June 20, 2019/0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: What’s your approach to onboarding new managers?

We have a rigorous, comprehensive onboarding program: 15%
We provide some initial onboarding then leave it up to that manager: 42%
We provide bare-bones onboarding: 23%
We throw them in the deep end and let them fend for themselves: 20%

Setting them up for failure. It’s distressing to see 43% of your organizations do little to no onboarding of your managers and expect them to succeed in their roles. If your front line associates get more training than managers and executives you’re bringing on, that’s a major problem. You’re not setting these people up to succeed if you don’t get them acclimated to the culture, set expectations, and teach them critical things they need to know. While you might say “I’m too busy for that and they’re smart enough to figure it out on their own,” ask yourself how much busier you’ll be when they quit or get fired and you have to hire a replacement and pick up the slack in the interim. Make the time to get your people properly onboarded. They’ll be happier and more successful when you do.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Breaking the Four-Minute Mile In Business

June 3, 2019/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Ryan Shaw

You may not be the next Roger Bannister, but you can be the person who coaches him or her. Here’s how.

Today’s post is by Steve Farber, founder of The Extreme Leadership Institute.

Do you ever fantasize about being the first person on Mars or the next Steve Jobs? How about something more in the athletic realm, like the runner Roger Bannister, who famously broke the four-minute mile in 1954? He went the distance faster than anyone had done before him and achieved something once thought impossible. Surely you know him and his story well.

But have you ever heard of Franz Stampfl? He’s the unsung hero of track and field, an Austrian coach who mentored many of the athletes who gained fame for beating that record in the years since Bannister.

I recently read an archived profile of Stampfl in Sports Illustrated and was very impressed, but not by his aggressive approach or his specific coaching techniques. What struck me is that he transmitted love to those he was mentoring. You wouldn’t think that would be the important ingredient in getting people to run faster, but it was. One of the athletes, British two-time Olympian Brian Hewson, was quoted as saying: “I never realized it was possible to work so hard in training and love every minute of it until I was coached by Franz. He makes running appear like an expression of beauty instead of a tough grind.”