CORPORATE TRAINING IS A NECESSITY FOR TRANSFORMING PEOPLE

Corporate training companies are preferred by big and small organisations over their internal developmental team. Why? Because, a corporate training company has solid experience and holds a neutral perspective towards the organisation and its employees.

Organisations today have understood the importance of training and development for their employees. They very well know, that for the organisation to grow and move to the next level, it is important that the capability of their people keeps increasing with time. For that, they need to be developed and their capabilities need to be enhanced on regular basis.

For a company to come up with new solutions and upgrade themselves to sustain in this rapidly growing and changing environment, new ideas are a requisite. And for new ideas to be generated, people need to be creative. Trainings help people learn new ways and methods to do things differently and more effectively. And learning even the smallest of things like an excel shortcut, can improves a personal effectiveness which will benefit the person himself and eventually the organisation.

Continuous development is therefore a must. And for that corporate training, a necessity.

Corporate training has proven to be a great way for developing and transforming people for better productivity and personal growth. Exactly, what corporate training companies work on. They help organisations in developing and transforming their people which eventually helps them in transforming the organisation for a better future.

And do you know why corporate training companies are so good at creating the desired change? Because they help you in finding out the exact challenge/s your people are facing and provide you with solutions for the same. And the best part of it is, that it is client specific.  Solutions are tailor made for each organisation to address their specific issues and remove the problem from the root!

Thus corporate training companies help big time in addressing various ground level issues that your people may be facing and are having a difficult time solving.

What are the top 5 soft skills for an ideal leader?

Soft skills training and behavioural skills training need to be on the cards for everyone, be it a leader or an entry level executive. And although it’s one of those skills that can make or break a person’s career at any level, its frankly the most neglected!

So today I’m going to list down the top 5 soft skills that a leader needs to possess. Here goes…

1. Communication Skills – Now that’s definitely a skill you will find in pretty much every soft skills training, but one that tends to get missed out in soft skills training sessions for leaders! Why? Because we often think that communication skills meant for those at the entry level. And that’s why you’ll always find it at multiple places in the training calendar of very organisation especially for lower level employees! However, its also one of those skills that takes time and continuous efforts to master. Which is why you will find many leaders still lacking in it.

Leaders need to be able to listen to their team members. They need to allow their teams to share their opinions in a safe and non-threatening environment. They also need to master the art of handling conflict and saying what they need to assertively, without aggression.

2. Emotional Intelligence – Yes another extremely important skill or should I say intelligence! Managing their own emotions and learning how to manage those of others is of prime importance for leaders especially in such stressful times. And for that, a leader must have a very high level of awareness. He must be able to manage his own reactions, thoughts and emotions and at the same time be empathetic towards others. And that is another skill that can take years if not lifetimes to develop!

3. Time Management – Leaders are always short on time. And as much as they may think that they don’t need soft skills training on how to manage their and their teams time better, they actually do. After all, there’s always a scope to do more in 24 hours, isn’t there?

4. Decision Making – Decisions don’t leave leaders. They follow them around until they take them!  Therefore, being able to take decisions after considering the larger picture and in the interest of the majority is very important. And that’s why leaders should learn the various decision-making tools. It will not only help them take those tough decisions but will also reduce the time they take to take them.

5. Influencing – Last but not the least, comes the skill to influence others around. And that’s an extremely important skill for a leader. People must look up to him and respect him. And for that, he needs to take actions that will earn him the respect rather than having people give respect out of fear.

So those were my top 5. What do you think? Are there any other important soft skills that leaders need to be have and be trained on?

Well that’s all from me today, but I would love to hear what you have to say. And I now better get down to creating the content for another soft skills training session that I need to deliver by the end of the week.

Wish you adieu and Happy learning!

Top 3 Benefits of leadership skills training

I was conducting a leadership skill training last week for a client. It was for a bunch of young leaders who were comparatively new to the role. And therefore, we had to go to the basics. After all, there’s really no sense in going to something very advanced when the basics are where you really need to work on!

I must say, the participants were also very open to learning. They were open to learning more on how they could practically ‘practice’ the basics rather than jumping towards ‘knowing’ the more complex. And so I thought I’d share with you some of the benefits they got from this leadership skills training. It may be of help to you too and give you insights into what you can do to be a better leader.

1. Self-Awareness: Most of us our so lost in our thoughts that we are unaware of all that is happening within us. Therefore, having a finger on our thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions is of utmost important. Not only does it help us in staying in the present moment, it also helps us in becoming emotionally more intelligent. We can manage our emotions as well as the reactions that we tend to succumb to so often! And although most leadership skills trainings do not focus on this aspect, if you ask me, its absolutely essential.

2. Interpersonal Communication: A leader needs to be a good communicator; whether it be with his subordinates, peers or even with the top management. He must be able to say what he wants clearly and receive appropriate responses from those he communicates with. However, many leaders fall back on communication, especially due to their personality styles. Learning how to overcome such barriers for smoothening communication is therefore essential. It adds great value to the leader as well as the leadership skills training, he is attending!

3. Managing Tasks: Most of the times, leaders get overwhelmed by the number of tasks they need to complete. It’s difficult as they have to manage not only their own tasks but those of the teams they look after too. Therefore, delegation is a skill that forms an integral part of a leadership skills training. Leaders need to understand the best way to delegate to their subordinates, taking individual skill sets and their commitment into consideration. This can make completion of tasks a lot easier for them and their subordinates and also help them get more done in their day.

These were just some of skills that we sharpened during this leadership skills training. I would love to hear your experiences on the same. Do let us know what valuable skills you picked up from a leadership skills session you may have attended…

Top 3 qualities of an excellent supervisor

We attended a meeting with a client last week. He was complaining that his supervisors were not up to the mark. It was a very typical complaint that we seem to be hearing more and more. The client representative was getting frustrated with the casual attitude of his supervisors and wanted them to attend a supervisory skills training to fix the same.

Now these were millennial supervisors that we were talking about. As time goes by, more and more millennials are entering into the workspace. They are getting promoted and taking up supervisory and managerial roles. However, their perspective towards life and ways of working are a little different. And this can get difficult for their co-workers to understand and manage.

I am therefore going to tell you the top three qualities that a supervisor needs to have. These are qualities that all supervisors need to have although am writing keeping the millennials more in mind!

So here goes…

1.       Ownership and Accountability – This is of prime importance for supervisors and one of the points that we ensure that we start every supervisory skills training session with. Every supervisor needs to ensure that he takes up his tasks wholly, which means being completely responsible for them. They really can’t afford to be lax as that puts a bad impression on their juniors who start displaying the same behaviour!

A supervisor needs to own the task that he has on hand and ensure that it gets completed in the best possible way. He also needs to own the mistakes and failures that happen during the completion of the same rather than blaming those below him for it.

2.       Good Communication – Being able to say what we need to, is necessary. If we lack the communication skills to do that; it will lead to a lot of confusion, conflict and rework. This is turn affects quality and the time taken to complete a task. And we are all well aware of how that affects customer satisfaction and the profitability of our organisation.

Therefore, communication skills form a very important part of every supervisory skills training and a skill that every supervisory really needs to work on. After all, a supervisor is no longer an individual contributor. He has moved up the chain and now has to get work done from others. He therefore needs to ensure that his communication is in place to get the same done smoothly.

3.       Emotional Intelligence – This is an area that many of us would prefer keeping our hands out of! However, its also one that needs to be looked into to get many of the other areas in place. Many supervisory skills trainings do not focus on this aspect. However, if you ask me, its one that they really can’t afford to leave out!

Supervisors are subject to many difficult situations on a daily basis. Having to handle their workers, bosses, clients and in some cases difficult working environmental conditions apart from personal problems. These can affect the emotional well being of the person and cause him to react to situations rather than respond to them. This affects not only those around him, but also his own inner landscape. It becomes difficult for him to handle his emotions and handling others becomes almost impossible! That’s why being able to manage one’s emotions is very important. It helps in keeping a calm demeanour and makes it easier to handle any situation that comes along during the day.

Do write in and tell us what other qualities you think a supervisor should have. We would love to hear it. And you never know, we might just include it in our next supervisory skills training!

3 major differences in the impact of Slang Communication & Business Communication

I’m sure you all know what slang communication is, right? I may still have had to explain it a few years back. But with the advent of so many means of communication, I’m sure everyone understands it even if they are unfamiliar with the term. And believe me, it’s one reason why organisations are having to conduct more and more communication skills trainings for their employees!

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, let me give you an example to make it clear. For example, consider the term ‘FOMO.’ Have any of you heard it before? I happened to hear it for the first time in a session that I was conducting a few months back. And only I know how I was looked at with wide eyes when I said I had never heard of it! I was very sternly told by my participants that it meant ‘Fear of Missing Out!’ It seems that’s what the youngsters use nowadays to explain their incessant need of following the pack, or else they feel left out!

So, what do you think could be the differences in the impact that slang communication has versus business communication back at the workplace? And with the advent of Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. why are more companies opting for communication skills trainings?

As you may have concluded from my example, slang communication is the communication used typically by a group of people. In my case, the entire younger generation, as I was told! So, what do you think are some of the dangers of using slangs over business communication?

·         Not understanding it – And that’s exactly what happened with me! I could not understand what the term meant until the group using is took the effort to explain it to me. And this is something that commonly happens especially when we travel. Local people use local terms that are beyond our understanding. And this causes huge gaps in understanding. Gaps that large, that even communication skills trainings can’t repair! And some terms can even cause misunderstandings. For example, the term ‘trainers.’ To a person from the learning and development sphere, it means someone who gives training to others. On the other hand, for some youngsters, it means sports shoes!

·         Wasting Time – Yup, this one’s pretty understandable too. If you use such terms that others don’t understand or may be confused with the meaning of, you’re going to waste your as well as their time in re-explaining what you mean. Now don’t you think its better to use a commonly used term in the first place!

·         Groupism – Now this is one I realised when I was in the training room that day. Not knowing the term, when everybody else was aware of it, actually made me feel like an outsider to the group. In fact, my self esteem took a hit and I for a minute actually felt like I must be really dumb to not know the word!

The solution to all these issues…Simply sticking to business communication at the workplace. I know we tend to use slangs all the time at home and especially with our friends. But let’s make an effort to be more aware of the words we use to ensure that it makes communication easy for us and the people around us.

And if you’re having difficulty with that, you can attend a communication skills training. It will help you get aware of what you speak and replace those words with more commonly understandable terms. We are so used to using some slang terms that we don’t realise we are using them. And getting aware of it, is the first step to changing the habit.

FEATURES OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Organisational Development has been around since quite some time now. Some 70 odd years to be more precise. But it’s still to pick up pace. At least in India. Somehow Indian companies are just not ready for it. Rather, I should say that they are not yet open to it. They feel it takes too much effort and time. And you know how we all are. Always looking for a quick fix!

Let’s face it, the market place is growing at a supersonic rate. Newer technologies are constantly outrunning the older ones and customer expectations are ever on the rise. Which means that all the organisations are perpetually on their toes, always aiming to get better so that they can give better.

So when organisations say that organisational development is not for them, I find it difficult to believe. After all, organisations are run by humans and humans are pretty complex beings. So we can start with team building training. Understanding them to help them be more productive can get really difficult at times. And that’s where organisational development fits in.

Let’s have a look at some of the features of Organisational Development and what their consultants do to give us a better understanding of the same:

• Behavioural Expertise – Organisational Development consultants are behavioural experts. They understand the human species very well and how their minds works and what they want. This makes it easy for organisations to create policies and structures which employees will relate to well, in turn increasing their productivity, commitment towards work And also improve performance of employees.             

• Change Agents – Change is something that can get difficult to manage, especially when its met with resistance. Organisational Development Consultants understand this very well and hence create interventions which help include the parties who are going to undergo the change in the change process. This improves the acceptance of the change and the process becomes smooth and a lot easier to manage

• Independency – How often have you been to a specialist and realised that you tend to get hooked to them because they know their stuff well and its not something you can do? Happens all the time, doesn’t it. But is it that desirable? Doesn’t it create dependencies? Organisational Development consultants and organisational culture workshops, believe that it does. They therefore ensure that they equip their clients to handle and solve their own problems before completing the intervention and exiting the organisation

• More than just a Doctor – Just like a Doctor, Organisational Development consultants help you diagnose problems. However, I must stress on the word help. They ‘help’ the organisation in figuring out what’s wrong, then together work to correct it and then re-evaluate the results and see what further actions need to be taken. They can well do it for you, but believe in empowering their clients and make them ready to face what the future holds for them.

If you feel you need to create some kind of change in your organisation or have some issue but are unsure how to go about solving them, Organisational Development is the way. It will help you move forward smoothly with long term effects that are sure to benefit you, your customers and your employees.

Change Management Training and Tomorrowland?

Guess which movie I saw yesterday? Tomorrowland. Seen it? It’s one of those movies which has a deep meaning to it but the meaning can get lost in the Sci-fi action that is shown. Now you must be wondering what this movie has to do with change management training right? Well let me explain.

Movies are a great way of learning. They give you a visual experience and some of them have enough juice in them to allow you to mull over them for hours and sometimes even days together! I still remember when I first saw the Matrix. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for so many days!

Well this movie, Tomorrowland seems to have had a similar effect on me! I saw it last night and am somehow still under its influence! So what was so special about this movie? The foundation of it. For most of the movie, it was rockets flying around and people roaming around in flying machines in a visually appealing location filled with high risers and flyovers. In fact I spent a major portion of time actually wondering what the movie was trying to show and whether it was really going to go anywhere or not!

The Tomorrowland Movie

It was the end of the movie which had its soul, a dialogue given by the 'so-called' villain which explained exactly why he was doing what he was doing. This in turn was followed by some other good dialogues on human behaviour. The whole message was very beautiful and it really struck me as it was so true.

What the movie talked about was as I said human behaviour. It spoke about the feedback loop and how we tend to get stuck in it. So in the movie they had this large monitor which was sending out signals of doom to the people on earth. The villain had intended that these signals would actually scare people and they would wake up and do something about the doom that the earth was heading towards. However, instead of taking action on it, people latched on to the negative thought. Instead of fighting against the negative, they now fed into the negative, creating a negative feedback loop which created more negativity. In this manner the negativity just continued and nobody made the effort of breaking out of it! This was until there were some people who were aware of the negativity and still had hope rose up. They realized that feeding negativity would lead to more negativity as what you feed grows. They stood up and fought to save the world with all their positivity and hope. This in turn inspired others and earth was saved.

The Wolf Story from Tomorrowland

This story is actually the story of our minds. What we focus on grows. If we focus on the negative, the negative grows. Of we focus on the positive, positive grows. Its up to us what we want to focus on. The world is going to keep throwing negative on us as it is what is currently there in the collective consciousness. However if we can stay focused on our path and bring ourselves back to the positive even when we stray, then we will turn out to be the winners.

Another interesting aspect that I found here was the negative monitor which throws negativity. The monitor is definitely out there in the world. The politics, famine, murders, hate and resentment being proof of it. However there is a monitor in our minds too. It’s the tape that keep running in our minds and telling us how pathetic we are. Even if we do something good, this tape tells us that it’s not good enough and makes us feel like losers. It somehow always tells us that we are not good enough no matter what we do!

 It is actually this tape that is responsible for stopping our progress. If we can learn to question the tape and only listen to those things that are true, we can actually make the changes that we want to make in life.

Seeing the link now, the link between this movie and change management training?

So this brings me back to my most favourite model, the model of change.

The Change Model

This model has the following three steps:

1. Awareness
2. Acceptance
3. Action

So what do we have to do to  change? Go step by step. If you directly jump to the third step action then you could be setting yourself up for failure. Why? Haven’t you seen when you try to exercise to lose weight what happens. Most of us are motivated for about a fortnight and then it slowly wanes off! So why does this happen? It is because of the little tape in our minds. It says things to us which make us lode the motivation that we need to go on. It actually resists the forward movement, a sort of anti gravity I would say! So the more you try to move forward the more your mind will pull you back. This makes your chances of being successful at your endeavor very bleak.

So what should you do? Go step by step. First get aware of what your tape is saying. If it’s telling you that you are a lazy person and you will never be able to lose weight then be aware of it. After you have heard it out now accept that it is saying that. What happens with most of us is that we start an internal conflict as soon as we get aware of things. We start fighting with our minds and all our energy gets wasted in fighting rather than moving to the next step. So what we have to do here is to accept what our mind is saying. Tell it that yes we have been lazy in the past but let’s see what happens this time. This will create a certain kind of peace inside which will give you enough energy, clarity and direction to move to the next step of action. Then you can finally take the third step and create the change that you want in your life.

Getting aware of and accepting our minds can be quite a task and takes a lot of practice and motivation. If you want to create a change in your life and need some help with it, we’re always there to assist you. Join us in our change management training where we help in mastering our change management model. Do also visit our website http://www.theyellowspot.com/ to have a look at the areas where you would want to create a change in your life.