Train-the-Trainer Tools and Tips

Valuable, Interesting or Just Downright Cool Relevant Stuff We Found Elsewhere

Valuable, Interesting or Just Downright Cool Relevant Stuff We Found ElsewhereBeatle-Mania at Work

In a recent fun and relatable article about teamwork and creativity, author Andrew Sobel bases four principles on the Beatles and their formula for continued success. The four principles are:

1.     Invest in and build face time between team members long before they are ever required to appear together in front of a client.

2.     Evolve your songs and bring the same level of ideas, new perspectives, excitement and enthusiasm to your hundredth meeting with a client that you brought to the first.

3.     Help team members become brands-within-a-brand by giving them “an idea or proposal” that will help them to shine.

4.     Put exceedingly diverse professionals on the same team, mix specialists with generalists, and foster friendly competition to produce the best ideas.

The article is a quick read and worth it. The full contents can be read at www.andrewsobel.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the PDF.

New Management Tunage from Harvard Publishing

Harvard Business School Publishing has free biweekly podcasts available in streaming audio for your desktop, iTunes, My Yahoo! and RSS. The first one took flight on May 2, 2006 with a discussion on avian flu. More recent episodes include Retain Your Best People During Change and Spotlight on Sales. You can also post comments on the site. http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/)

Desperately Seeking Good Leaders

Strong leadership is undeniably the backbone of an organization, yet good leadership can be elusive. In studies conducted from 2003 through 2006, The Ken Blanchard Companies collected input from more than 2,000 respondents who cited developing leadership bench strength as their number one issue. In order to better understand and define the most critical components of effective leadership, Blanchard launched a tailored study where more than 1,400 leaders, managers, and executives shared their views on their most-needed skills and their biggest mistakes.

The top three considerations include good communication skills, effective people management, and a sense of empathy and emotional intelligence.

       43% identified communications skills as the most critical skill set, while 41% said that inappropriate use of communication or listening is the number one mistake leaders make

       27% cited under or over supervising, giving directions, or delegation as a problem when working with others

       15% said that empathy and emotional intelligence are critical to leadership success.

When asked to identify the five things that leaders most often fail to do when working with others, high percentages of the respondents targeted the same handful of issues. Here are the most common mistakes of leaders:

• failing to provide appropriate feedback, praise or redirection: 82%
• failing to listen to or involve others: 81%
• failing to use a leadership style that is appropriate to the person, task and situation, leading to over- or under-supervision: 76%
• failing to set clear goals and objectives: 76%
• failing to train and develop their people: 59%

When All Else Fails, Hang the Boss

New Assets has a new game out, a winner if you need a small diversion in your training cubicle. Get the high score and you can win a free MBA-level education. You can take the intro, but the game doesn’t seem to keep score until you click on Start Random Play and click on save score. It’s rather like hangman with your boss in the noose.

www.newassets.net