HOW DOES INDUCTION TRAINING HELP EMPLOYEES?

After a fortnight, we are going to be delivering an induction training. I’m quite excited about it. Why? Because its going to be for a set of engineering graduates, my favourite. And also because we’re going to have the leisure of conducting the session over a period of 3 days, the most I’ve ever had. And I’m going to completely pour my heart out to those kids!

This session is going to be a campus to corporate induction training. We are going to help these young graduates who will be joining their first jobs in getting acclimatised to the corporate world and its ways. After all, getting aware of what you are jumping into is always better than getting a shock after you enter!

Some of the ways in which this induction training will help these employees will be:

• Comfort – We all remember the feeling we got at our first day of school. Well it’s a similar feeling that an employee goes through when entering a new organisation. Induction trainings help ease an employee’s nerves by making them comfortable. They break the ice and give an understanding of the organisation, its people and its policies. All of these help the employee fit in faster and better. And when you are joining a good company with a great track record, then induction trainings can also give you a sense of pride!

• Knowledge – I remember the induction training I had in one of my previous organisations. We were a set of engineering graduates joining one of the countries largest banks. And ss we had no knowledge in this field, we were all taken through a one month banking training. This was then followed by a one week process induction training, where we taught about the processes we were going to be put into in the bank.

• The softer aspects – This is an aspect many companies are now adding to their induction trainings. They have realised that along with hard skills, soft skills are a must. It’s really no good being the best at what you do if you can’t present it properly! Various topics like personality development and attitude, communication, time management, stress management, goal setting, conflict management, etc. are now being added to the induction trainings of various companies.

And that’s where we come in. In fact, these are precisely the topics that we will be covering in our 3-day induction training too. Sounds good doesn’t it. We’re all set to make these kids corporate ready. Ready to face any challenge that they may face in their career. And by the way, if you’re a fresh graduate and are interested then you can join too. The more the merrier

HOW SOFT SKILLS STILL REMAINS THE KEY TO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

I had another experience yesterday which proved to me how important soft skills training is.

Let me tell you what happened…

I accompanied my Mom to the market to complete a few odd jobs in the evening. She was having trouble with a slipper and decided to go to cobbler for the same. The cobbler told us to wait while he repaired the slipper, so we went to another shop to pass the waiting time.

This shop was one of my favourite shops. I simply love their quality of clothes and had been wearing them since a long time now. Somehow I just knew that they understood the value of soft skills training as their service was always exceptional.  Although their prices were on the higher side, I could afford them when there was a sale on! And to our luck there was a sale on some of their products yesterday. In fact, it was on a product that my Mom had been looking for since a year now.

Whenever I had been to this shop, I always had an amazing experience. The sales executives greet you with a warm smile as soon as you enter and are so helpful. They always go out of their way to fulfil your littlest needs. In fact I was even joking with one of them sometime back saying that it felt like they had just walked out of a soft skills training session! I was always in awe of how they did it.

However yesterday I had a different kind of experience. Leave alone anyone being there to greet you, the sales people were not even interested in helping. In fact it felt like you were forcing them to even talk! We were horrified at this attitude of their an that’s why sales effectiveness training is also important.

Mom tried on the piece she had been looking for. However she felt like it wasn’t looking very fresh and asked for another one. After asking many times, she was told that all that they had was displayed. Mom even asked if they would be getting more stocks, to which the answer was a stern “No.”

Am sure had the sales women looked into the softer aspects of their skills, they would have had a sale there. Mom had been desperate to buy this product for a year now and seeing the discount she was getting would have definitely gone for even a ‘not so fresh’ piece.

However now she refused. She was very clear that she did not want to buy from a shop where the sales girls behaved the way they did.

The shop had great quality and a good brand name. We had been loyal customers since a very long time. In fact we were even motivated to buy the product. It was the perfect combination for a sure shot sale. But it still did not go through. Why? Because of the lack of appropriate behaviour and customer service training.

And that is precisely why soft skills training is so important. We all go through technical training and think that it’s enough. We work for great brands selling great products. But we forget that if our soft skills training is not in place, we will lose out. After all, humans want the human touch!

DO YOU KNOW WHY TOP COMPANIES START OFF THE NEW YEAR WITH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

It’s that time of the year again. Time for celebration, fun and enjoyment. A refreshment from the daily routine and one that will get us energised to get back to work in 2019 with a big bang. It’s also one of the reasons why top companies kick of the year with corporate training programs for their employees. Confused? Let me explain it to you.

Ask yourself…When do you normally create New Year’s resolutions? I know it’s a bit of a silly question considering the answer is in the question itself! But have you ever thought of why you create them at this time of the year only? Hmmm…

It’s because that’s when your feeling fresh and all charged up. Ready to get up and do something new with organisation development. Ready to create a change in your life. It’s the time when you feel you have enough energy and motivation to do anything that you put your mind to. And it’s this energy that the top corporates make it a point to use in the best possible way.

What do you think will happen if you attend a corporate training program with the New Year kind of energy?

Frankly it will be extremely enjoyable for you and the trainer. Why? Because the effectiveness and retention of the training program will be the highest. Why? Because you will be motivated to give your fullest to the session and will also be excited to try out all the new things that you learn in the session. In fact, you will actually make the best use of the corporate training program and make it an instrument for the change that you want to bring in your life.

And you know the best part about it? The best part is that you will have someone to support you on this journey.

Creating change can be difficult, especially if it’s a big change. And we often fall back on our change journeys due to a lack of support.

We start off with a good resolution. We put in all the energy and effort required to bring about the change. But as time progresses, our motivation starts dwindling. The effort and time we put in also starts reducing. We tend to make excuses and find passing through obstacles that we meet on the way more and more difficult. And finally, another New Year’s resolution goes down the drain! And as we have commonly seen, year after year this story repeats.

So how can a corporate training program help you in fulfilling your resolution? Firstly it teaches you various tricks of the trade. A good trainer would have been through his own ups and downs in life. He can share his experience with you during the training session and help you avoid the potholes you may face along the way. He can also be the support and motivation that you need to continue with the journey. The one that keeps you going until you finish what you started off…

Have you come up with your New Year’s resolution and arranged for a Corporate training program to help you fulfil it?

WHAT IS CHANGE MANAGEMENT TRAINING?

Change Management Training is a very essential kind of training. Why? Because handling change or changing yourself is, believe me, one of the toughest things in the world! And certainly not something that most of us are ready to or equipped to do. Which is why we need help with it.

You must have heard of the phrase ‘change in the only constant in the world.’ So true it is. Its seen in various forms and at various instances in our lives. And yet its one of those things that we are most resistant to. Which is why the need for Change Management Training comes about.

Let me give you a simple example to make it clearer.

Last month we were training a bunch of executives. They were hellbent on the fact that their managers were at fault and they were the one’s that needed to change for the betterment of the organisation. All their issues were purely and simply because of their managers and if the managers training could change, all would be fine.

Well the intervention started off as something else but pretty much landed up being a Change Management Training! We realised that before we could teach these participants the skill sets we had set out to teach, we had to make them realise some important things about change and change management training:

• Change is important – They had understood that very well. They were completely convinced on how their Managers needed to change and hence were well aware about the importance of change. Which takes me to the next important point

• Change is difficult – Yes, it’s easier said than done! We all have our conditioning of the past so many years. This is instrumental in forming our personality and also shaping our behaviour. In fact, our behaviour has become a habit for us. And we all know how difficult it is to change our habits! Try losing the 5kgs of weight that you promise yourself every New Year’s Eve and you’ll know what I’m talking about!

• Change starts with ourselves – Asking others to change can be quite a ‘not convincing’ task, given how difficult we find it to change ourselves. And as we realise in every change management training, practising the change you preach is essential. Once you do that, convincing becomes a cake walk. In fact, you don’t need to convince anyone. They get convinced pretty much on their own. All you have to do is ’Be the Change yourself.’ Soon you’ll realise that people are getting influenced by you and motivated to start changing themselves. And that’s truly the aim of any change management training intervention. Creating an organisation of people who are aware that they need to change with time management and gracefully accepting and acting on change rather than blaming others and expecting them to change. Just as they say, the world is a reflection of who you are!

These were the highlights of the session that day.

So remember always, ‘be the change you want to be.’ Let it start with you and the world will follow.

TIME MANAGEMENT TRAINING OR MIND TRAINING?

Is Time Management Training really a thing? Or should I say is time really a thing that can be managed and that’s something that we can train you on?

Time is a very peculiar commodity. It is constant yet it changes! We all have 24 hours in a day, so in that sense it is constant. Yet at the same time it is variable too. It varies from people to people and even amongst the same person! Weird isn’t it? The number of hours in a day for the Prime Minister would probably seem like less than 24 whereas those for a retired man would seem like a lot more. You can see it in an individual too. Time seems to be flying by when we are watching a good movie and 2 hours really feel like an hour whereas when we are studying a subject we are not exceptionally fond off, even 30 minutes can feel like 2 hours!

How does this happen? It’s actually all to do with our minds. Frankly there is no change in the actual time available or spent; the only difference is in the way we perceive it. Why the difference in perception? It’s due to our mind.

Now let me tell you a secret. There is actually no time. It’s just something that has been created by us to give ourselves a platform to measure events against; something relative, created to keep everyone on the same page. This can be understood by when we connect to the present moment or should I say the direct neural network in our nervous systems.

There are 3 aspects that an event can be broken down into. The past, present and future. The past is what has happened previously and is over. The present is what is happening at this very instant. The future is what will happen after this present moment has passed. So each moment is a future moment, then becomes a present moment and then becomes the past, all in 3 superfast moments! Confused? It’s a bit of a funny concept as we have not really spent much time dwelling on it although it is continuously happening.

In fact I can see it clearly while I am writing this article. I frankly have no clue as to what I am writing (I know I wasn’t supposed to tell you that!), it’s just flowing through me. I have not really thought about what I am writing or what I am going to write, it’s just that something is coming to me and I am writing it down. So I really don’t have a clue of the future moments as I have no idea of what I am going to write, I am writing what is coming to me in the present moment and as soon as I write it it becomes the past! Since I am so ‘in the present moment’, I have no sense of time and do not even have the urge to measure it! All I know is that I am thoroughly enjoying writing this article and am feeling very fulfilled in doing the same.

This is the direct neural network I was talking about. When you connect to this network, time loses its meaning. Am sure you will ask me how then can I manage time while being connected to this network as I have lost complete sense of time?

It’s quite unbelievable until you actually do it. What happens in the present moment is that you don’t waste time thinking as such. Yes your working mind is working, or the conscious mind as you may call it. That is the minimal amount of mind needed to perform a task, like me typing in this case. I need my mind to instruct my fingers which keys to press for typing. The rest of my mind is not really on. I know that sounds absurd but it’s true. I am currently not making use of my subconscious mind which is actually the one that takes up a lot of our time. When we are just connected to the conscious mind, it feels like things are happening through you and you cease to get tired even though frankly you are working at a superfast speed without feeling the strain of it. When you work through the subconscious mind, there is a lot of processing that goes into it which wastes a lot of energy and time which we conserve if we just stick to the conscious mind.

The next question will be then how do we do this, right? How do we switch from our normal tendency of staying in the past and the future, (which is staying in the subconscious mind or as we call it operating from the default network) to operating from the conscious mind or the direct network. It’s done by simply staying in the present moment. Well it’s not that simply frankly because we have lost all practice of it. We knew how to do it as kids but have slowly forgotten the art. Whenever you realise you are going into the past or future, you gently bring your mind back to the present and then starts the magic. You will never have to ever manage your time once you get the hang of it.

To relearn this beautiful technique, you can definitely attend one of our Time Management Training sessions and we would be happy to assist you get back what was once yours!

So that’s me signing off and as I look at the time I have really written this article in superb time:)

Visit us at https://www.theyellowspot.com to learn more about us.

ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY WITH PROPER TIME MANAGEMENT TRAINING

This morning I was reading an article from a newspaper. It was about a famous personality in India who is currently on his death bed. He had gained a huge amount of popularity in his lifetime. However, now, when time was running out, he had come to realise how it was all useless. He realised that everything that he had ever worked for would be taken away from him soon. And that he should have spent more time on things that actually mattered at the end of the day. And that’s where today’s topic fits in, time management training.

Its amazing how we wait for something to go wrong in our lives to realise that we need to change our path. How we blindly follow what others are doing and never stop to actually think what we want. And the worst part about it is its like a herd mentality with everyone doing it. Which makes chances of knocking out of it even tougher. Very rarely does someone get up and stand for what really matters to them. And this is exactly what time management training moves you towards.

One of the aspects of time management training is finding out what you want in life and then ensuring you have time to fulfill it. Let me give you an example so that you understand what I mean.

I once had a participant in one of my sessions who wanted to be a singer. What was he doing instead? Working in a financial firm with nothing close to singing!

We did a goal setting exercise during the time management training that he was attending. Initially he was a little defensive and said he didn’t have time to pursue his dream. He was only working in this firm as it paid him well. But once he realised the importance of time and how its one of those resources that you really can’t get back, he was more open to exploring. He realised that if he didn’t start working on his dream from now, he might just be left with regret all his life. Yes he needed money which the firm was giving him. But that did not mean he could not pull out time to practice singing. During the exercise, he actually came up with many instances where he could practice on a daily basis like while in the washroom, while getting ready for work, while travelling, etc.  And you know what that did? It actually motivated him to do the rest of his work faster so that he could take out time to do what he loved!

We met him a few months back. And he thanked us profusely for showing him the way during the time management training that he had attended.

So my question to you is this…Are you spending time on what you love? Are you headed in the direction that matters to you at the end of the day? Ask yourself…

INVITING CORPORATE TRAINERS FOR BUSINESS PARTNER PROGRAM

I have been talking to a large number of soft skills trainers as of late. Actually soft skills trainers would be an incorrect tag, corporate trainers would be better. We have recently launched a Business Partner program wherein we work with trainers from different leagues of life across the globe, to give clients the best possible experience. Sounds interesting? The trainers we have spoken to found it tooJ

So let me tell you a little about the program to give you a better idea. You know how we have been working with various expert vendors to provide our clients with a wider range of offerings in fields like E-Learning, Organisational Development, Executive Coaching, Project Management, Risk Management, IT, Computers, Finance, etc. Well we thought since this model is working so well, let’s come up with a model for Freelance Trainers where we tie up with them and further broaden our offerings.

Now you must be wondering how this really works and how it benefits everybody. Let me explain.

How it Works: The corporate trainers that we tie up with go out into the market and represent us as Business Partners. So they get business in our name and we get it delivered. Simple isn’t it?

Benefits to Clients:

1. They get greater variety in terms of offerings

2. They get the most skilled trainers delivering their sessions

3. They get to converse with trainers right from the start who understand their needs better and can offer them better solutions than Business Development Executives

4. They can have their needs fulfilled at any location across the globe

5. They can have a single company executing their PAN India assignments, giving them consistency and standardisation at all locations

6. They know they will receive the best as far as quality, integrity and transparency goes as The Yellow Spot ensures these values are maintained even by its Business Partners

7. They don’t need to worry about issues they may face with Freelancers like them falling sick and not turning up for the session as The Yellow Spot has around 80 to 100 consultants across the country and can easily arrange for a back-up

Benefits to Business Partners:

1. They find it easy to get business as they have the backing of an 8 year old company with more than a 150 clients

2. They can offer the client a session even if it is not something they are experts in or it is a PAN India assignment which they cannot deliver on their own

3. They get preference for delivering sessions in which they have expertise and have brought business in
4. They get support in business development and in content development, wherever required

5. They get the experience of being an entrepreneur with the support of an established organisation and the motivation of being part of a large team

6. They earn greater remuneration as they get a Business Development fee for every business they bring in and a Training Delivery fee for every session they deliver, besides being able to get a higher ticket value than they would have got as a freelancer

7. They can work at their own pace as The Yellow Spot believes in proactiveness and taking initiative rather than imposing targets

8. They can maintain their freedom as they can continue freelancing or running their own business

Benefits to The Yellow Spot:

1. We have a large motivated team reaching out to more and more clients

2. Our sales team has a good understanding of delivery and hence brings home a better understanding of the requirement

3. We have more expertise on our team and can offer our clients more

4. We get to help trainers who are really interested in learning more

5. We get to learn more through sharing

6. We can reach out and help more participants through the quality and passion that we offer

Well those are the points that I can currently think of, am sure there must be more that you can think of. I’m hoping you must have got an idea about this program and why we keen to promote it. It’s really a Win-Win-Win solution for the Client, Business Partner and Us. Isn’t that just great!

Visit us at https://www.theyellowspot.com/ to know more or call us on +91 9769733305. See you soon:)

HOW TO SPOT STRESS AND FIX IT?

Stress Management training definitely helps you with handling and managing your stress. But does it also help you in identifying whether if you are stressed? Well, it certainly does.

Most of us don’t get through the first step of managing stress. And the first step is ‘getting aware that you are stressed’.

Getting aware of something happening with us or inside us is the most difficult thing of all. If you get aware what you are going through, most of the work is done there. This is because now you know what is it that needs to be worked on. You obviously cannot work on something you don’t know about.

Now the question is, how do you get aware?

There are some symptoms that you can notice. If you want to check if you are stressed, you can see if you are showing any of these symptoms.

Some of the behavioural and physical signs of being stressed are;

• Inability to sleep
• Fatigue
• Inability to manage time
• Lack of confidence
• Increased consumption of alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes, etc.
• Anger outbursts
• Relationship issues
• Disinterest
• Social withdrawal
• Sudden weight loss/gain
• Mood swings
• irritation
• Aches/pains
• Heart issues

These are just few of the behavioural & physical changes hampering work life balance that you may experience if you are stressed. There are many more. If you are stressed, you will observe similar changes in the way you operate in your regular life.

You have to very careful in observing them. Most of the time we think it is no big deal. You believe it is very common to be tired or being aggressive at time. Well, sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s not. While some of these can be common and not so big in nature, some of them can be life threatening. Hence, you cannot afford to ignore them. You must be very conscious about this.

Stress can be life threatening and also a roadblock to manage performance. There is a limit to which your body and your mind can take in. if you ignore it for far too long, it can get very difficult for your body and mind to take it any further and it will give up.

Identifying and managing stress is the need of the hour. With the rapidly changing environment that we live in to chase each other in a rat race, stress is a crucial part of our lives. It cannot be taken lightly.

Considering the current situation, stress management trainings are booming big time. Stress management training will not just give you tools to manage stress, it will help you identify your stress level first. A good stress management training starts with an assessment which will give you an idea of how stressed you are. That is supposed to be the basis to work upon.

So, start with the first step, check if you are stressed. If you are, stress management training is the key. If you are not, still, stress management is something that everyone should opt for. Right!

HOW BASIC EXCEL TRAINING CAN MULTIPLY YOUR BUSINESS

Excel training is one of the technical trainings that I would recommend for everyone. In fact, in today’s world I don’t think you can survive without it!

Consider our case. A training company with huge amounts of data. We have been in business since the past 10.5 years and have had more than 150 clients. The number of training sessions we would have done would be far beyond that figure, as we have luckily had plenty of repeat business from most of our clients. So you can just imagine the amount of training material we have with us!

One fine day, me and my colleague decided that managing the data was getting too difficult. We had a huge pile of activities sheets, game sheets, etc. collected over the past 10 years. Some of these had their soft copies while some were stand alone. We also had multiple documents with their various versions for each of the sessions. In short, we didn’t know where to start from!

Guess what helped us sort this huge mess out? The excel training that we had taken sometime back. It helped us in sorting everything and then putting all the data in a single sheet. We added all the files to one sheet; mentioning all the outlines, proposals, presentations, activities, videos and handouts that we had for the respective session.

We also created a separate sheet which listed all the activities that we generally use in our training sessions. We added possible outcomes of each of those activities along with a description of the same. We also used the drop down box feature of excel to add which activity could be used to target which outcome. And I must say, it has made life a lot easier!

Many of the functions taught during an excel training are very useful and can really help you improve on your time management and effort. For example, consider the function feature they teach you in excel training. Ones like sum, average, etc. They are extremely useful and we use them all the time in our accounting as well as the trainer reports that we create and send to the client.

Filters are also a very useful feature. Sometimes we get huge amounts of data with multiple columns. To pull out what you exactly want can be quite a harrowing task. However, if you use the filter function, you can get it in a jiffy! Pivot tables can also prove to be a very useful function. And that’s something you must insist on learning in an excel training.

In this way excel provides a wide range of features that can make life a lot simpler not just in our professional life but also in our personal life. It can help us do what we need to quickly and with minimal effort, giving us the scope to focus on more important coaching skills training. And the best part about it is it eliminates the human error, something which can crop up multiple times when you are handling large amounts of data manually.

Three cheers for excel training

ADVANTAGES OF BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE TRAINING

Business etiquette training mind sound very offensive to some people if tell them they need it. But it is not. Believe me.

Most of time people judge you just by looking at how to behave and carry yourself. You don’t even have to say a word. Maintaining a decorum in a professional space is considered very important. How well mannered are you, is something that can decide your success.

Your good behaviour will always work in your favour. If you are well behaved, people seem to like you and feel comfortable being around you. Your etiquette makes people see you as a nice person and their respect for you will always increase.

If you are in a company of senior people, be ready to be judged for every action of yours. Well, I am not being judgemental here. Trust me. But this is just something that we all know. Senior people always like when you are well mannered and well behaved. Be it in a professional or personal environment.

I know it can be very difficult to remember the dos and don’ts every single time. It definitely is a tedious job to keep all of it in mind. Not just when you are in the physical presence of someone but also when you are talking to someone on the phone or writing a professional email to them.

Learning the appropriate meeting & greeting etiquette and also the telephone and email etiquette is very important. Now, how do make sure you know all of these. This is when the business etiquette training workshops comes in the picture.

Taking a formal business etiquette training will help you understand the dos and don’ts. The next step is to start practising them. It can be little difficult initially to remember all of these as we said before. But, after some time you will get the hang of it.

It might be lot of work to learn these things and actually use them. But, trust me the advantages of it that I told you about through out my article are totally worth it. In terms of personality and organisational development it will definitely work in your favour.

The objective of this article was to tell you about the advantages of business etiquette in your professional life, according to me. I am sure there are many more advantages apart from the few that I mentioned. Look out for a business etiquette training workshop and let me know how it benefited you.

The Yellow Spot Announces an Open Workshop - "Walk The Change"

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” - Socrates

Do you agree with Socrates? We do! Just a small addition from our end – It’s not about fighting the old, ‘but partnering with it’, for building the new. For its only after befriending the old, can you let go of it and make way for the new.

So what’s the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ we are talking about?

The old is the strong conditioned beliefs, values, notions, assumptions and habits that we have, hidden deep in our subconscious that pulls us back and prevent us from having our wishes fulfilled. So sometimes no matter how hard we try to create a change and move forward in life they impede our growth and all our efforts are left in vain. It’s pretty much why it’s so difficult living up to New Year Resolutions or acting on feedback given by others!

 So what do we do? Weed them out and march forward towards embracing new opportunities. There are many waiting for you…

'Walk The Change' Course Outline

Who can attend???

Individuals, Executives, Managers, HR/L&D Heads, Change Agents, etc…

Session Details:

Venue: Andheri, Mumbai

Dates: 29th & 30th June, 2018

Investment: Rs. 12,500/- + GST

(Incl. of tea, snacks, lunch, facilitation & handouts)

***Early bird offer: Rs. 10,000/- + GST on booking before 30th April, 2018***

Contact:

Nandini Tandon

E: nandini.tandon@theyellowspot.com

Sayali Sawant

E: sayali.sawant@theyellowspot.com

Visit us at www.theyellowspot.com