WHAT I\’VE LEARNED ABOUT EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Success in the new world of work is less defined by checking boxes, and more defined by thinking outside of them.
This shift has inevitably impacted the way we see management: In the industrial economy, management was defined quite literally—managers oversaw employees clocking in and out, completing tasks and adhering to safety regulations. In the knowledge economy, however, the role of management is more nuanced. Managers are not only responsible for overseeing work, but also crafting team culture, teaching hard and soft skills, and helping individual employees flourish.
The bottom line: Modern management is a hard job, and as Steve Dolan, a consultant at 2020 Talent Management, writes, even the most talented employees struggle with it. The solution? If you want great managers (and, subsequently, more engaged employees), you need to invest in teaching great management skills. I recently kicked off a five-month, intensive global management training at Cornerstone, and wanted to share my takeaways thus far on designing a program for real impact.

1) Create Room for Different Perspectives

Management is a multifaceted role. By selecting participants with diverse experiences—whether it\’s across levels, departments, offices, countries or all of the above—you\’ll be able to better prepare people for the multiple personalities and situations they\’ll encounter as managers.
At Cornerstone, our training program includes people from the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, India and more, and the participants include both new and veteran managers. The rich tapestry of experience and perspective they bring to the table is invaluable; in addition to providing a global understanding, the diverse group gives people an opportunity to collaborate with people they wouldn\’t traditionally encounter.
But as we learned in the first few months, you can\’t just bring a group of people together—literally or virtually—and expect magic. You can create a community, but that doesn\’t mean you\’ve created community. Make sure participants have plenty of opportunities to interact with each other—as a whole and in small groups—and, as a moderator, offer up your own vulnerabilities and problems as a manager in order to make the program a safe space for discussion.

2) Consider Scalability

For a long time, we had two main management trainings at Cornerstone: one for brand new managers and one for experienced managers. Both were two-day, in-person trainings, and went well: They were relatively simple to execute and participants enjoyed them. The problem? The programs were far from scalable.
In our latest program, scalability was a huge influence. The pilot program has two \”cohorts\” of 14 people each, but as a company of 1,600 employees, we asked ourselves, \”How can we eventually expand this to anyone who wants to take it?\” The answer was designing the program to be almost entirely online. The new program consists of e-learning courses, TED Talks, an interactive online community, reading assignments and a 45-minute virtual seminar once a month. The only in-person contact is a one-on-one with me three times over the course of the program (which can still be done virtually for international managers).
Additionally, an online program provides more flexibility—we are able to adjust the program prior for each cohort to ensure it\’s relevant.

3) Think Long-Term

Training is often thought of as something to check off the on-boarding list, but in the case of management training, it needs to be ongoing to have the most impact. In part, that\’s why we decided to take the long-term approach to our program, designing it like a college course. Every month, we have a theme: 1) back to the basics, 2) time management, 3) situational leadership and feedback, 4) communication and 5) engagement and motivation.
The benefit of a long-term program is that it offers training in practice: Participants can apply the lessons in real-time. For example, one participant had two talented people on their team applying for one job opportunity. The manager shared that she used the skills from our training to communicate to the employee why they didn\’t get the job in a way that made them feel empowered and inspired to keep improving. The length of the program also provides more opportunity for participants to be “player-coaches.\” Every month, we select a small group of participants to be discussion leaders, bringing their experience, research and thoughts to the group.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that even managers needs management, and mentors need mentorship: Every employee has a myriad of goals, tasks and behaviors—no matter their seniority. Investing in a thoughtful, integrative management training program will bring out the best in your mid- and upper-level employees, which in turn will bring out the best in your company.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHAT I\’VE LEARNED ABOUT EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Success in the new world of work is less defined by checking boxes, and more defined by thinking outside of them.
This shift has inevitably impacted the way we see management: In the industrial economy, management was defined quite literally—managers oversaw employees clocking in and out, completing tasks and adhering to safety regulations. In the knowledge economy, however, the role of management is more nuanced. Managers are not only responsible for overseeing work, but also crafting team culture, teaching hard and soft skills, and helping individual employees flourish.
The bottom line: Modern management is a hard job, and as Steve Dolan, a consultant at 2020 Talent Management, writes, even the most talented employees struggle with it. The solution? If you want great managers (and, subsequently, more engaged employees), you need to invest in teaching great management skills. I recently kicked off a five-month, intensive global management training at Cornerstone, and wanted to share my takeaways thus far on designing a program for real impact.

1) Create Room for Different Perspectives

Management is a multifaceted role. By selecting participants with diverse experiences—whether it\’s across levels, departments, offices, countries or all of the above—you\’ll be able to better prepare people for the multiple personalities and situations they\’ll encounter as managers.
At Cornerstone, our training program includes people from the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, India and more, and the participants include both new and veteran managers. The rich tapestry of experience and perspective they bring to the table is invaluable; in addition to providing a global understanding, the diverse group gives people an opportunity to collaborate with people they wouldn\’t traditionally encounter.
But as we learned in the first few months, you can\’t just bring a group of people together—literally or virtually—and expect magic. You can create a community, but that doesn\’t mean you\’ve created community. Make sure participants have plenty of opportunities to interact with each other—as a whole and in small groups—and, as a moderator, offer up your own vulnerabilities and problems as a manager in order to make the program a safe space for discussion.

2) Consider Scalability

For a long time, we had two main management trainings at Cornerstone: one for brand new managers and one for experienced managers. Both were two-day, in-person trainings, and went well: They were relatively simple to execute and participants enjoyed them. The problem? The programs were far from scalable.
In our latest program, scalability was a huge influence. The pilot program has two \”cohorts\” of 14 people each, but as a company of 1,600 employees, we asked ourselves, \”How can we eventually expand this to anyone who wants to take it?\” The answer was designing the program to be almost entirely online. The new program consists of e-learning courses, TED Talks, an interactive online community, reading assignments and a 45-minute virtual seminar once a month. The only in-person contact is a one-on-one with me three times over the course of the program (which can still be done virtually for international managers).
Additionally, an online program provides more flexibility—we are able to adjust the program prior for each cohort to ensure it\’s relevant.

3) Think Long-Term

Training is often thought of as something to check off the on-boarding list, but in the case of management training, it needs to be ongoing to have the most impact. In part, that\’s why we decided to take the long-term approach to our program, designing it like a college course. Every month, we have a theme: 1) back to the basics, 2) time management, 3) situational leadership and feedback, 4) communication and 5) engagement and motivation.
The benefit of a long-term program is that it offers training in practice: Participants can apply the lessons in real-time. For example, one participant had two talented people on their team applying for one job opportunity. The manager shared that she used the skills from our training to communicate to the employee why they didn\’t get the job in a way that made them feel empowered and inspired to keep improving. The length of the program also provides more opportunity for participants to be “player-coaches.\” Every month, we select a small group of participants to be discussion leaders, bringing their experience, research and thoughts to the group.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that even managers needs management, and mentors need mentorship: Every employee has a myriad of goals, tasks and behaviors—no matter their seniority. Investing in a thoughtful, integrative management training program will bring out the best in your mid- and upper-level employees, which in turn will bring out the best in your company.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES ARE OUTSOURCING HR

For eight years, Mickey Swortzel, founder of vehicle control systems start-up New Eagle, watched her employees\’ health-plan costs steadily increase. Then, in 2016, she made the decision to outsource her one-person HR department to ADP, one of the largest companies in the quickly growing market of Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs).
This is not an uncommon story among businesses today. In the last few years, the outsourced HR industry has taken off, bringing in an estimated $165 billion annually and nearly 85 percent of all firms—not just small businesses—now turn to an outside organization for at least some of their HR functions.
What\’s the motivation behind this growing trend?

More Affordable Benefits

For Mickey, like many others, the primary reason behind making the switch to a PEO was to lower healthcare plan costs and the ability to offer employees benefits that were previously unaffordable. \”My number-one reason for outsourcing was to reduce the cost of our health plans, and joining with a PEO allowed better group rates,\” Swortzel says. And the switch paid off: The prices of family plans were cut in half at her company and her employees now save an average of $5,000 annually.
\”Outsourcing gave us benefits that I couldn\’t afford—or even obtain at any cost—on my own,\” she says. By giving her small businesses the opportunity to access ADP\’s Fortune 500-level benefits, she also made the company more competitive when trying to recruit top talent amid a field of much larger competitors.

Sharing Legal Liability for Compliance

The increasingly complex regulatory environment that small businesses have to navigate makes it nearly impossible for a small HR team to stay up to date with compliance issues like the Affordable Care Act, worker\’s compensation, workplace discrimination and much more. HR outsourcing firms often shoulder some or all of the legal liability for maintaining that compliance.
\”There are things companies have to do because it\’s the law,\” says Deanna Arnold, president of Employers Advantage HR Company in North Carolina. \”And small business owners have so many things they need to focus on that when issues come up, they can find themselves unintentionally in trouble. By establishing compliance we protect these companies.\”
\”Between the complexities of payroll, hiring, administration and organizing huge companies, it\’s often better to shift some of the responsibilities to others who are more focused and more qualified,\” explains Pierre Tremblay, HR director for Dupray, a Montreal-based company that sells steam cleaners and irons internationally.

Changing Perceptions and Evolving Services

Of course, outsourcing isn\’t right for all companies. Arnold recommends that once companies have 50 or more employees, they should start bringing some HR functions in-house. The downsides of HR outsourcing are most evident in areas like employee engagement or recruiting, where in-house HR people are in a better position to develop the culture, and reflect the values, of the company.
For Swortzel, the decision to outsource one of her core business functions was a tough one to make. \”I\’m in peer groups of other executives, and they were shocked that I was thinking of using a PEO,\” she says. \”It scared me too. I thought they would tell me how to run my business, who I could hire and fire.\”
Arnold says this is a common misconception about modern HR outsourcing. While outsourcing won\’t necessarily provide the same amount of culture or engagement support as in-house HR, most firms try to embed themselves with the clients as much as possible: \”We actually partner with the employer and employees to create work environments where they thrive.\”
Continuing to foster the human side of HR is vital to the success of both the business and HR as a whole. An important part of the service Arnold\’s company provides is offering her clients\’ employees a friendly face to speak with when they have questions or concerns. \”I have a team of five HR business partners who actually work on-site in some clients\’ offices for a set number of days or hours per week,\” she explains. \”We fully integrate into that organization, and even when we\’re not there, we\’re always reachable if they get injured or have an issue.\”
Swortzel says her experience was the opposite of what she had feared. \”It has been a true partnership. They\’re not interested in running my business, they want us to be successful,\” she says.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

3 QUESTIONS SMALL BUSINESSES SHOULD ASK BEFORE INVESTING IN HR TECH

When we talk about talent strategy, we\’re talking about a responsibility full of moving parts. HR professionals are tasked with finding talent to match a business\’ momentum, which means they are constantly scaling programs up and down, looking back while thinking ahead, and keeping a close eye on the culture and morale of an organization.
For large companies, the challenge of doing \”talent strategy\” well is met by a task force of HR pros. But small businesses don\’t have such a luxury—instead of an entire team of specialists overseeing all of these moving parts, it\’s usually just one or two people handling everything from hiring to payroll to benefits.
Technology (whether it\’s an applicant tracking system or a learning management system) can be a saving grace for these small talent teams. But starting the HR tech journey is also quite daunting. After working in both small businesses and as part of a HR tech company that serves small businesses, I\’ve learned a few lessons about what SMBs need when it comes to talent management software.
From my experience, getting HR tech right as a small businesses—which means making sure the tool has a positive impact on your people—comes down to asking the right questions. Here are three things to think about before investing in a new product or tool.

1) Am I ready to invest in a \”non-revenue generating\” aspect of the business?

The question for small businesses in any investment often comes down to one major trade-off: time versus money. Yes, this applicant tracking system might speed up hiring — but will it be enough to offset the cost?
There\’s no precise formula to answer this question, but you can do a \”gut check.\” Look at the amount of time your team is investing in administrative tasks. Is this time taking away from more impactful parts of the business? What processes could be streamlined with technology? Perhaps you\’re spending half your day sorting through applications and resumes, when you could be engaging with candidates.
HR tech will give you a return. It may not be as immediately tangible as an investment in sales or marketing technology, but it will bring positive benefits to your business—bottom and top line. To answer the \”time versus money\” question, remember that time usually is money. You just need to be in a place where you can set money aside for technology that you know will save your team time—and allow them to be more strategic in the long run.

2) How fast is my company growing?

The next question to ask comes down to your talent trajectory. As companies start to grow, technology can support that growth. To determine what kind of tool and platform you need, think about the skill sets you have as an HR department and the skill sets you want to grow into. Think about your current company culture, how this culture will evolve and who is expected to \”manage\” this culture.
Tap your employees to help inspire ideas. For example, my current role at Cornerstone was created out of an employee engagement survey—seriously. People said they wanted learning and development. We were growing so quickly that leadership hadn\’t had the opportunity to take a step back, take a breath and realize how big the company was becoming.
HR tech can help you move forward and \”catch up\” at the same time. A static company of fifteen people probably doesn\’t need career pathing, but if you want to grow to thirty by the end of the year, you should have already started planning for how those fifteen people will grow alongside your business and who can fill shoes if someone departs.

3) Do I want to know what I might find out?

Last but not least, you need to be prepared for what HR technology will reveal. Analytics and reporting are an integrated part of nearly every talent management software product. Are you ready to not only handle the insights you\’ll gain, but take action on them?
If a brand new performance management system points to the inefficiencies in your review cycle, you\’ll have to be ready to address those challenges. Your team needs to know you\’re taking talent strategy seriously.
You can anticipate some of these tech-driven insights, of course. Read up on Bersin by Deloitte\’s latest reports, keep tabs on the best industry blogs (hint: ReWork), and attend meet-ups and conferences.
By answering these three questions, you\’ll be three steps ahead of your leadership team when it comes to presenting why you want to invest in HR technology and how it can impact your business.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES NEED A NEW APPROACH TO LEARNING

Small businesses often see learning as a nice-to-have, not a must-have. Once you meet the bare minimum of compliance training, why would you waste precious resources and time on learning?
The answer is simple, but may be hard to hear. For small businesses, learning is critical to success: By teaching people to think proactively rather than reactively, a small workforce can grow and scale with a nimbleness and creativity that\’s harder for large organizations to implement. In other words, it\’s easier to pivot a small boat in a storm—but only if the crew can think on their feet.
Implementing learning in a small company presents unique benefits, but, of course, it comes with its own set of challenges. Small businesses often don\’t have the luxury of people (or even one person) solely dedicated to L&D. Instead, they need to find ways to integrate learning into the daily work that they do, and figure out how to build each other up.

Don\’t Limit Learning to Hard Skills

The first question to ask is \”What kind of learning will we offer?\” For most organizations, \”learning\” is still focused on teaching hard skills. This works for large companies who are in a position to hire people with a limited understanding of the job—maybe they have four out of the five skills needed to really get the job done. Large companies can set up intensive training programs and craft ongoing mentorship programs to help employees achieve the last skill.
When it comes to small businesses, though, most companies are looking for people who can already do the job in full force. When I owned a small snowboarding shop, we hired people who knew how to ride a snowboard, how to evaluate the performance of a snowboard, how to fit people, how to tune, etc. We didn\’t really need to teach hard skills—so why did we need training?
We needed soft skills. We needed to move from a mentality of \”this is what you need to know to do your job\” to \”this is what you need to learn in order to grow.\” If you think about learning programs as an opportunity to create a \”developmental mindset\” instead of tune a snowboard, then you\’re headed for success. By teaching our employees to manage people, ask smart questions and represent our brand, we encouraged everyone to bring new knowledge to the company. In the end, this mindset allowed us to grow and open a second shop seamlessly.

Teach Soft Skills

How do you create this \”developmental mindset\”? The first step is to improve communication skills between leadership, managers and employees—and this comes down to two major things: crucial conversations and feedback.
Crucial conversations are discussions in which the results are high-stakes, opinions vary and emotions run strong. Small businesses are ripe with crucial conversations because every decision holds a lot of weight when you\’re a lean operation. By training employees on how to handle crucial conversations, in both listening and speaking, you can ensure that every discussion is civil and productive. Certification programs are affordable, and can even be done online.
The next critical soft skill is about communicating feedback. It\’s not just giving feedback that matters, but how you give feedback. I think of feedback as a three-skill system: giving feedback, receiving feedback and asking for feedback. Feedback starts with setting the right expectations, and giving ownership to the employee: What do they think is going well? What can improve? From there, the manager should respond and expand, and the two can develop a plan together.

Have One-on-Ones

When it comes to putting crucial conversations and feedback skills into practice, implementing an ongoing one-on-one program is critical.
It\’s important to understand the difference between a team meeting and a one-on-one meeting. Team meetings are a data dump: Usually leadership leads the meeting and makes a few announcements, and employees chime in on what they\’re working on and what needs to be done. One-on-one meetings are reflective: The employee should lead the meeting and discuss his goals, concerns and achievements, and the manager should answer with her solutions and feedback.
There are two major benefits to one-on-ones. First, managers receive more in-depth updates about the company\’s operations. As a leader in a small business, it\’s hard to keep on top of everything. And second, they also receive an incredible coaching opportunity.
In the end, learning in a small business is about communication and transparency. If you can teach employees to be their best advocates, and teach managers to be mentors, then you have a strong future ahead of you.e
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

TED TALK TUESDAY | WHY YOU SHOULD DARE TO DISAGREE

This post is part of our monthly TED Talk Tuesday series, spotlighting can\’t-miss TED Talks and their key takeaways. You can learn more about our partnership with TED here.
According to Margaret Heffernan, it\’s only human to want to avoid disagreement and conflict. But the blogger, former CEO and television producer encourages you to do just the opposite in her two books. Heffernan challenges readers to push against their comfort zones for the sake of sparking important conversations and inciting positive change.
In her TED Talk, Heffernan discusses why inviting objection into our work can be a game changer. While we are biologically drawn to people who think like us, Heffernan questions the value of surrounding ourselves with liked-minded peers.
Watch the video below and read on for three key takeaways from her talk.

\”It\’s a fantastic model of collaboration — thinking partners who aren\’t echo chambers.\”

Collaborators who challenge us and find the flaws in our methodology are crucial to doing good work. These are the working relationships that allow us and our work to grow and strengthen, but all too often we seek out people who we know will agree with us.
Organizations are even worse culprits of \”group think\” than individuals. When is the last time you were recruiting for a role, and actively sought out candidates who might not \”fit the mold\” of the job they were applying for? Bringing diversity of thought into an organization is the first step to creating a company culture where people are comfortable speaking up when they have a new different idea or see a flaw in an existing system or product.

\”We have to be prepared to change our minds.\”

Part of seeking out opposition is being open to accepting it. Growth stems from listening to conflicting viewpoints and the flaws that they may highlight in our own arguments.
The biggest catastrophes that we\’ve witnessed rarely come from information that is secret or hidden, Heffernan explains. In situations that go horribly wrong, we often have already been told the information we needed to to stop the problem, but we remained what she calls \”willfully blind\” to it all because we don\’t want to create conflict.

\”Open information is fantastic, open networks are essential.\”

Our common fear of conflict also impacts speaking up in the workplace when something is wrong.
\”In surveys of European and American executives, fully 85 percent of them acknowledge that they had issues or concerns at work that they were afraid to raise,\” Heffernan cites. People who have worked to find the best talent for their organizations will have difficulty engaging or retaining them if they don\’t question suspicious issues.
Creating an open network of communication that welcomes opposition makes for a functional and efficient work environment. Heffernan explains that this all takes practice to develop these skills—access to information alone isn\’t enough, it needs to be shared, accepted and discussed.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

TED TALK TUESDAY| THE POWER OF BIG DATA

This post is part of our monthly TED Talk Tuesday series, spotlighting can\’t-miss TED Talks and their key takeaways. You can learn more about our partnership with TED here.
The more data, the better. That\’s according to Kenneth Cukier, data analyst for The Economist and co-author of the award-winning book, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform how We Live, Work and Think.
In his TED Talk, \”Big Data Is Better Data,\” Cukier explains that more data doesn\’t simply allow us to see more of what\’s in front of us, it also allows us to observe our environment in new ways. He argues that big data is our hope for the future—the tool we\’ll use to solve some of the world\’s biggest challenges, because we\’re fundamentally able to do things we simply couldn\’t with smaller data sets, such as machine learning.
Watch the video below and read on for three key takeaways from his talk.

\”Data has gone from a stock to a flow, from something that is stationary and static to something that is fluid and dynamic.\”

The term \”big data\” is now ubiquitous, almost to the point where you\’re probably tired of hearing about it. But Cukier emphasizes that it\’s important to understand why we call it big data, and why the \”big\” part is important. A lot of it comes down to how we store and access data in general. In the past, data lived in clunky physical objects like a stone tablet, or file boxes in the basement of a government building. Today, pages and pages of data can be condensed and transported using a single thumb drive.
Cukier refers to this ease of storing more data as its \”liquidity.\” We literally have access to bigger amounts of data in smaller forms, which means it\’s easier for people like human resources professionals to analyze trends, identify inefficiencies and correct them.

\”You have more information. You can do things that you couldn\’t do before. \”

Now that we have access to all this data, what can we do with it? The answer is just about anything. For HR teams, the way we can apply big data to artificial intelligence and machine learning is especially relevant.
The more data computers collect, the smarter and smarter they get. As computers learn more, they\’ll become more efficient at accomplishing redundant tasks, like payroll. Automating time-consuming processes, like payroll, not only eliminates human error, but also allows HR pros to focus their time on more strategic tasks.

\”Big data and algorithms are going to challenge white-collar, professional knowledge work in the 21st century in the same way that factory automation and the assembly line challenged blue-collar labor in the 20th century.\”

Cukier is no doubt an advocate for big data, but he also understands the downside. In theory, a computer that collects data and learns to do simple tasks better than humans makes life and work easier. However, it\’s also true that automation will make some roles obsolete—which is something the field of HR needs to prepare for in particular. How can HR professionals shape the future of their respective companies\’ industries to account for automation?
Cukier emphasizes that we need to remember big data is a tool. \”We\’re going to need to be careful and take big data and adjust it for our needs, our very human needs,\” he says. \”We have to be the master of this technology, not its servant.\”
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MANAGING PEOPLE I LEARNED AS A MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER

When I walked into an office for my first-ever corporate job, I was already 25 years into the workforce. For my entire career, my “office” had been a classroom. Now, after more than two decades as an educator, I was dubbed “director of learning” at an international company — and, truth be told, I had no idea what to expect.
At the time, because I’d never worked in a corporate environment, I didn’t realize quite how high a “director” was in an organization. I was the head of an entire department. I had a team of six direct reports, 30 indirect field-based training managers and an international franchise community. I was in charge of helping them lead their teams. And I had zero management experience.
Thankfully, my career in education had prepared me for management more than I knew. My first team meeting immediately reminded me of a first day at school, and it didn’t take long before I began to notice other parallels between managing a middle school classroom and managing a team of employees.
When it came to delegating, team-building or giving feedback, my reference points were the same guiding lights I used as a teacher: Understand personalities and build effective processes for all personalities to succeed. Now, as a senior director of corporate learning, I still rely on those middle school lessons when it comes to managing my department.
Here are some of the lessons I learned.

Understand Employees as Individuals

When the rubber hits the road, managers are really just people managers. As a teacher, I always invested time in getting to know what made my students tick and how I could motivate them to not only pursue their natural interests, but also succeed in areas they were less than thrilled about. I tried to instill a growth mindset in my students, considering every moment as an opportunity to improve and further define the intersection of their interests and skills. Now, I take a similar approach when it comes to managing my team and helping them plan their career paths.
This person-first approach isn’t just for niceties — it can benefit your company when it comes to retention and engagement. A study by my company, Cornerstone OnDemand, found that nearly 90 percent of American employees would consider a lateral career move with no financial incentive if it meant finding satisfaction and fulfillment in their careers. But employers often have “career ladder” blinders on: Only 32 percent of respondents said their employers encourage working in different departments.
Instead, managers should embrace personalized career mobility by talking to team members and trying to align their skills with their interests. This might be as simple as creating a custom title. A study published in Academy of Management Journal found that 85 percent of employees said a new title helped them cope with the emotional exhaustion of their job.

Build a Supportive (and Flexible) Environment

Recognizing employees (or students) as individuals isn’t enough; you also need to understand how the individuals operate as a group and individually within that group. As a teacher, my role was to make sure everyone felt seen and heard in their own way.
This started with a seemingly simply choice: a seating chart. If you have the class clown sitting next to the quietest kid in class, the latter likely won’t speak up. If you think the same principle doesn’t apply in the workplace, think again: A report from Cornerstone and Harvard Business School found that placing the right type of workers in close proximity to each other generated up to a 15 percent increase in organizational performance.
At a higher level, making people feel heard requires creating an environment where it’s okay to be wrong. I believe a lot of our work habits are established in middle school, and our consistent fear of raising our hand with the wrong idea is one of the most pervasive ones. As a teacher, I always encouraged my students to guess even if they weren’t sure of the answer, and always asked to hear their explanation rather than shutting them down on the spot.
I use the same discussion method in team meetings and management trainings, and it actually helps everyone remember the “right” response. In fact, according to Bersin by Deloitte, learners retain only five percent of what they hear and 10 percent of what they read, but they remember more than 50 percent of what they learn through discussion and interaction.
By creating an environment not only conducive to individual growth but positive collaboration, you’re creating a true learning culture. And I firmly believe, from both my years in the classroom and in an office, that’s the key to successful management.
I’ll leave you with two questions: Do you have the best interest of your people at heart? And, more important, are you empowering them to get to where they need to be?
If the answer is yes and yes, you’re well on your way to a bright future.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

3 LESSONS ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION FROM MY DAYS AS A SCHOOL TEACHER

This article was originally published under Jeff Miller’s column “The Science of Workplace Motivation” on Inc.com.
Twenty-five years ago, I stepped into my first classroom in South Central Los Angeles. The school was known as one of the worst schools in Los Angeles Unified School District at the time, but I was up for the challenge—eager and ready to make a positive impact on my middle school students. Of course, as I soon realized, teaching is not a one-way street. As much as I helped shape the course of my students\’ lives, they shaped the course of mine.  
I taught for nearly eight years in LA, followed by a few years at a community college in Santa Monica and an associate professorship at Cal State. Eventually, I started my own business to help struggling urban schools. But then the financial crisis of 2008 hit, and I was faced with a harsh reality: Schools simply didn\’t have the funds to hire me anymore.
As an expert in education, I was at a loss. When a friend recommended a job in corporate learning and development, I applied thinking it might just be a temporary break from my \”real\” career path. But it wasn\’t long before I realized just how much the classroom had prepared me for the corporate world. My employees’ need for guidance, support, and encouragement was not so different from my middle schoolers. In fact, when it comes to helping people fulfill their potential, there’s a lot the corporate world could learn from the classroom.

Focus on Learning, Not Teaching

When it comes to professional development, people at companies are very similar to students at school. Now, before you take offense, hear me out. Think back to your company’s last training session. Were your employees excited to go? If I had to guess, I\’d say they were probably as psyched about management training as you were about algebra homework in seventh grade.
If you want to excite someone about what you\’re sharing, you need to switch the mentality from \”teaching\” to \”learning.\” It\’s a minor word difference, but it has massive implications.
Talent development is about thinking bottom-up, instead of top-down. When I was a teacher, I always tried to find a way to tie the curriculum to my students\’ lives. If they were interested in music, I would find great musicians to tie into our history class. As a company leader, get to know a little bit about your employees outside of work. Listen to them and figure out what challenges they enjoy, or topics they relish. If you come to them with an opportunity to expand their skillset while exploring their interests, instead of a requirement to attend a mandatory management training, you\’ll have a much more engaged audience.

Encourage Failing Forward

I believe a lot of our work habits are established in middle school. The most common habit I\’ve observed? Our consistent fear of being wrong.
Think back to your school days: Who raised their hand in class? The student who had the right answer. You didn\’t want to raise your hand only to be corrected on the spot and then shown up by your neighbor.
Today, employees perpetuate the same behavior. If you ask, \”Does that make sense?\” and the rest of the team nods, the one or two people who are lost aren\’t likely to speak up. This fear of being wrong prevents employees from exploring why they didn\’t have the right answer, and therefore often prevents them from taking risks and stretching themselves.
Company leaders should focus their energy on fostering a culture that sees failure not as a disaster, but as a growth opportunity. By encouraging people to raise their hands, ask questions, share ideas and eventually land on an answer, you\’ll combat the fear of being wrong and actually encourage more innovation in your company. Employees should know that the goal isn\’t always success—it\’s growth.

Ask \”How Are You?\” and Mean It

When I was a middle school teacher, I gave an important exam every Friday. And every week, I told my students that if I passed them in the hallway and I asked, \”How are you?\” and they simply said \”Fine,\” I would dock 10 minutes off of their exam time.
Now, these were sixth graders — 10 minutes weren\’t going to ruin their educational careers, but it was enough to encourage them to open up. If they were having a bad day, I wanted to stop and talk to them for a few minutes to figure out what was happening. Once they realized they were actually being listened to — that someone cared about their answers — they shared things that were both disturbingly and wonderfully impressive. These small hallway conversations built trust on a personal level, which translated to trust in the classroom.
At work, a similar cause-and-effect applies: If a manager asks, \”How are you?\” the answer shouldn\’t always be \”Things are fine, I have everything under control.\” Sometimes the answer is, \”Actually I\’m struggling with this issue. Do you have any advice?\” But this level of trust doesn’t always happen organically. It’s important for managers to establish enough trust with an employee that they feel comfortable opening up and asking for help. At the end of the day, encouraging people to do their best work — whether it\’s in the classroom or the corporation — starts with trust.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Resume Writing 101: Resume Help for Today’s Job Search

The first step in any job search is writing a resume. While some of us have experience doing this, there are many people entering or returning to the workforce who might need resume help. Regardless of if you have written a resume in the past, it isn’t a bad idea to brush up on some basics.
resume and penAt the Employability Summit, hosted by Bryant & Stratton College Online, a panel of HR and hiring experts touched on some fundamentals that can help you prepare your resume.
Types of Resumes
The three most common types of resumes are chronological, functional and hybrid. Chronological resumes present job history and education in reverse chronological order. Functional resumes don’t focus as much on job experience, but rather the relevant skills you possess. Those who have gaps in job history or may be changing careers most often use this type of resume. The final type of resume is a hybrid – as the name suggests – of both a chronological and functional resume. The hybrid resume allows you to be more creative in presenting your job experience and skills. Before you decide on a resume type, keep in mind the industry you are job searching in and how to best showcase your relevant skills and experience.
Keywords
Many companies now use recruiting management software, which means that the hiring manager may not review your resume unless it has been identified as a good match by the software filters. Using keywords can increase your chances of having your resume reviewed by the hiring manager. Scan job postings to find which keywords to include in your resume. “You want to make sure that you’re synching up their terminology with your terminology,” said Heather Tinguely, program manager of Global Talent Labs at Microsoft. “Mirror your resume to that of the job description. If you had a similar job title in your history, make sure that you’re mirroring that information so that you’re better found.”
Jessica Lee, director of digital talent for Marriott International, echoed Tinguely by stressing the importance of keywords in today’s job market. She also suggests looking at job postings and descriptions to see how employers phrase particular duties, responsibilities and employability skills they are seeking so that you can mimic that language.
Proofread
Nothing can land your resume in the “no” pile faster than typos. With autocorrect and spell check most people neglect to carefully proofread their resumes but Jessica Lee says that typos are still common even with today’s advanced technology. “It still happens. Everyone always laughs, but the reality is, it happens, and that speaks to someone’s lack of attention to detail,” she says.
Bryant & Stratton College is dedicated to helping students improve their employability skills and become job ready. Through outcomes-based education and career training, Bryant & Stratton College helps students learn the technical skills as well as the soft skills they’ll need to be successful in a career. If you are interested in learning more about the online degree programs at Bryant & Stratton College, please call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative.

Gaining a New Perspective after Traveling to Nepal

By Victoria Zito
The chance to hear politicians debate or discuss the environment is infrequent. It was rare to converse about the environment with my friends or peers in any daily context, other than small talk about the weather. My self-imposed goal was to deliberately find ways to be mindful about the environment, whether while walking through the woods or staying indoors.
When I traveled outside the suburb I grew up in, there were differences in how the environment appeared, as well as how it was treated by its residents. There was always a mystery of whether or not humans have as much impact on the environment as the environment does on humans. My initial conclusion: a dynamic and cooperative relationship between people and environment exists, evolves, and adapts.
Buddhist philosophy embraces change, regarding it as a successive series of different moments, joining together to appear as one continuous flow. In the context of the environment, to which degree is change in climate, habitat, or water supply natural and condonable? Are humans forced to adapt to new circumstances? And are these circumstances created by human impact?

Embarking on a Journey

Prior to my journey halfway across the world, I informed acquaintances of both my apprehension and excitement about immersing myself into the Himalayan culture, and they replied, “So you’ll be in South America?” This reinforced the geographic isolation and perception of Nepal, despite its being between two large advancing nations: China and India.
While flying out of JFK, the city looked like a concrete jungle. Eventually, mental images of beige office buildings and soaring skyscrapers in New York City dissolved. I painted an imaginary portrait of Nepal: mostly rural, and preserved by both tradition and modernization. Hour after hour, new brushstrokes painted more expectations. Since this time of year was more unpredictable, I added more colors to my canvas as I imagined rivers, gorges, mud-brick walls, and hopes of seeing a yak. (I later learned yaks only live above 12,000 feet.)

A Resourceful People

In Kathmandu, people travelled in groups; children sat shoulder-to-shoulder in the backseats of buses, poking their heads out the window. Some traveled alone by motorcycle. Kathmandu appeared primitive with piles of bricks along sidewalks for structures or a plaster-like mixture in wall cracks. Buildings, jeeps, and fruit stands were randomly placed with no established direction. It felt like navigating a labyrinth.
On the way to Lo, the rivers ran so dry they were only indents in the ground. However, on the way back, after change of seasons, the swelling rivers were so overbearing that we had to carefully maneuver around them.
The Nepalese relied on and asked for very little, but were very giving. In a country relying on natural resources, including poplar trees used as roof thatching, juniper trees for burning as incense during religious ceremonies, and the fur from herds of goats used for pashmina scarves.

Exploring Higher Terrains

traveling-to-nepal

Nothing compares to traveling to Nepal for the first time.
As we trekked and climbed higher toward Lo Manthang, it grew hotter and I experienced a greater closeness to God from a religious/spiritual perspective. There was silence versus complaints often heard by Americans either being, “The sun is too strong,” or “Rainy day after rainy day” or “When will the sun finally come out?”
I even forgot for a moment that America and Nepal revolved around the same sun. In Nepal, where there was less adherence and emphasis on time, the sun was the closest to what people could work like a clock. Waking up at sunrise, and sleeping at sundown, while watching many people in villages do the same was a routine. Seeing an ancient sundial at Syumbath, Kathmandu was interesting to me, and I wondered if they were in use in other parts of the country.
Higher altitudes presented less variety. More monochrome and less vegetation. The variation of climate, from tropical humidity to head-to-toe chills on mountaintops, makes it easy to forget you are in the same country.

Cooperative Alliances

The pattern seen along less-populated villages were apple orchards bordered by willow trees, followed by buckwheat/barley. One crop could produce several dishes, such as barley in porridge (tsampa), bread, cereal and soup. There was a strong reliance on fewer varieties of crops, strengthening the bond among the people working, all working together within the environment.
I soon became more aware of the complications of water systems. In Nepal, water was delivered by underground pipelines. Aside from agriculture, water was used for the women to wash clothes in public. Unfortunately, an on/off option was not active in the villages as a means of conserving water. Women would dip their hair under the water to cool off, then proceed with their laundry. Ubiquitous woven baskets were seen carried on their backs for transporting materials, such as clothing to be worn and washed.

Environment: Key to Nepal Living

As with their religion, the environment is so deeply imbedded in their culture that it almost went unnoticed in the beginning of the trip. Once I felt fully immersed in the culture, I began to notice the population’s strong connection to their environment. From a young age, Nepalese learn to provide for themselves and their families.
Nepal’s determination to cultivate their environment was my gateway to all other aspects of the Nepalese culture. I realized the binding connection between the environment and religion, philosophy, education, politics, and health. Living in Nepal, even temporarily, led to a greater understanding of their cultural traditions and practices, augmented by the population’s amazingly close relationship with the environment, most often in areas that with less modernized technology.
In Nepal, I grew conscious of how methods of bathing, eating, and traveling affects the environment. As a keen observer, traveler, and student, I can perceive, explore, study, and comprehend the environment in ways others haven’t. In Nepal, I saw houses and monasteries made from trees, branches and mud. I saw men boil water to cook with, and women use cool water for the back of their necks. Stupas were made of rocks and the paint in some old monasteries was made from leaves. As prayer flags blew in the wind, I imagined them being taken by windhorse as wished by those who made them.

Coming Home from Traveling to Nepal

As our plane landed back in New York, the area looked much greener than I had remembered it. Did I envision less green before leaving it, or did I see more green only when I returned? My exposure to a different culture and environment may have altered my previous perceptions on several levels. So many things to think about

5 Strategies to Improve Work Performance

It’s easy to let work-related stress take over your life. Looking at successful business people, however, it’s clear that leaders practice behaviors in the workplace that allow them to stand out and achieve more. It’s one thing to work – it’s another to work effectively. With these 5 practices, you’ll find yourself achieving more through your work and leaving the office with a sense of accomplishment.
Set a goal for your day and a plan for how to achieve it. Be proactive and direct work flows. Do you spend the whole morning responding to incoming emails or do you send out emails to direct projects that are within your goals for the day? Your daily activities should align with your specific project goals.
Prioritize your tasks. What are your immediate and long range needs? What groundwork needs to be laid in order to check the tasks off your list? Imagine your inbox as a hospital triage center. What inquiries or projects deserve your attention? Which items can wait? Prioritize the issues that are both important and urgent. Address your tasks strategically with your daily goal and project vision in mind.
Delegate. Figure out what you can do well and what others can do better for you. There may be people in your workplace that are personally interested in a topic or looking to take on more responsibility. You don’t have to champion your project list alone. Effective leaders build supportive teams and look to protégés to develop into a successful next generation of leaders.
Just Say No. Decide which projects are non-essential and draw the line on what you can commit to successfully completing. Your time is your most valuable asset and you cannot get it back. As you communicate how projects fit within your goals and action plans, colleagues will respect your work and your time more. You’ll have more time to manage your projects with a goal-oriented vision, and by doing so, you’ll achieve more through your work.
“Chunk” your projects. You know the saying, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” It applies to your work as well as table manners. Avoid looking sloppy in your work. Break your projects into manageable tasks. For projects that you loathe, start with just 10 minutes a day and you’ll be surprised at how much you can achieve. You might even find yourself working through to finish it.
You may feel like you’re juggling multiple priorities in the workplace because with the current demands on business professionals, it’s likely that you are. By practicing these strategic behaviors and re-evaluating your current approach to work, you’ll achieve more and leave the office feel more satisfied with your professional accomplishments.
Practicing these five steps will empower you in your current work and help you to plan and direct future work projects so you can manage your time better, reduce your work-related stress, and increase your work performance

Bryant & Stratton College On Campus Childcare is a Gamechanger for Students

Tamara Porter was stuck.
She had moved to a new city with her 3-year-old son. There was no family nearby who could help watch him while she went back to school. Her son had speech impediments and needed to be in a daycare she could trust to work with his special needs.
And, there was little extra money to pay for daycare while she worked and attended classes.
Childrens Center wall of coat hangers
When she applied to Bryant & Stratton College in Hampton, Va., the flexible schedule and personal service were not the only perk. Her campus also offered on campus childcare.
“My son loves it. He really loves it,” she said. “I can be at home and tell him to get ready and he won’t move. Then I say we are going to class and he jumps up.”
Porter earned her counseling associate degree and is now working at the child care center on campus helping other working parents achieve their goals.
“People come in the middle of the semester when their other childcare plans fall through,” she said. “People come and say, ‘if this wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to go to class. It’s a lifesaver.’”
It is a sentiment that the staff at the children centers on several Bryant & Stratton College campuses hear on a daily basis.
“I’ve heard quite a few of my parents say, ‘Thank God we have children’s college. We have nowhere for our children to go. This is a lifesaving place for a lot of people,” said Denisetrica Lankford, Children’s Center Coordinator at the Richmond, Va. campus.
The centers are not curriculum-based preschools but are more than simple babysitting. Lankford said children who attend in the morning do follow a schedule and work on pre-kindergarten skills. Children who attend in the afterschool and evening hours receive homework help and can play educational games on the center’s computers.
Many of the centers are open as late as 10:30 p.m. After dinner, children are treated to a movie and given time to wind down while they wait for their parents to finish class. The majority of the centers are open five days a week and available to part-time and full-time students. The stipulation is that parents must remain on campus while their child is in the center.
Cost is roughly $4 an hour, depending on the location; students can use their financial aid dollars to pay should they qualify. To find out more about using financial aid for childcare, visit your campus financial aid office or childcare center.
Lankford said she loves working at the center and making a better life possible for working parents and their children.
“They are learning and growing, that is the best part,” she said. “You know you made a difference in a child’s life.”
Want to go back to college but are struggling with how to manage daycare? Check out the degrees available at colleges with daycare like Bryant & Stratton College.

Ten Great Career Options for Business Degree Graduates

If you enjoy working with people, an online business degree will provide the education and skills you need to work in a variety of professional environments. From human resources and office management positions to factories, restaurants, or banks, your degree will prepare you for a job in virtually any field of interest.
What Jobs can I get with a Business Degree?
For anyone who has ever wondered about business degree career options, here are ten great career options. All job growth statistics are provided by O*Net Online.
  1. General/Operations Manager: General and Operational managers oversee the operations of both public and private sector industries. They create policies, manage employees, and control the day-to-day operations.
  2. Office Manager Office managers are responsible for creating schedules and tracking employee performance for regular reviews. They serve as the liaison between upper management and staff, and their responsibilities include creating/managing budgets, scheduling, and ordering supplies.
  3. Assistant Manager You will work under your department’s manager to facilitate customer relations while ensuring your retail department is organized and employees are working efficiently.
  4. Administrative Assistant  An administrative assistant works directly under the office manager, or a direct supervisor, to keep the office running efficiently. This includes answering phones and typing tasks, to supply ordering, making copies, and managing electronic filing systems.
  5. Office Clerk As an office clerk, you will work under your administrative assistant to facilitate its daily operations. You will greet clients, answer phones, make copies, and procure whatever items your supervisors’ request.
  6. Human Resources Specialist Your online business degree is the ideal starting point for a career in human resources (HR). As an HR specialist, you will assist in the employee hiring process, and you will work actively to maintain the well-being of the company’s current employee and management relations. The job growth for HR specialists is faster than average.
  7. First Line Supervisors for Food Preparation You will be responsible for the food preparation line, as well as the satisfaction of your establishment’s guests. You create schedules, oversee inventory, and ensure food preparation staff is working in accordance with current safety standards. The projected job growth is average.
  8. Sales Representatives While you may have a particular area of interest, your greatest asset is your ability to learn about any product or service, and leverage your online business degree program training to show others how your company’s products/services provide a solution. The job growth projections are average.
  9. Retail Sales In retail sales, you greet customers, listen to their concerns or needs, and educate them about how particular products or goods will meet those needs. Your customer service skills must be impeccable. The job growth outlook is average.
  10. Bank Teller As a bank teller, your job is to accurately conduct monetary transactions for all levels of bank clientele, from large corporations and merchants to personal banking customers. It is the starting ground for many who go on to work in higher-level finance and loan officer positions.
Interested in beginning a successful business career? Contact the Admissions office at Bryant & Stratton College to learn more:: https://www.bryantstratton.edu/admissions
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHY A LITTLE PESSIMISM CAN BENEFIT YOU AS AN HR MANAGER

Seeing the silver lining can make your life easier in many ways. However, there are benefits of pessimism in the workplace. As an HR manager, having a little pessimism can go a long way in preventing workplace problems from getting out of hand.
No, you shouldn\’t be purposefully negative at work. But, a substantial part of any HR manager\’s job is to reduce a company\’s risk of lawsuits, government fines and excessive turnover. You\’ll be more successful in these areas if you anticipate how things can go wrong, rather than assuming they will always go right.
Take a look at two scenarios where a little pessimism leads to a more positive outcome.

The Sexual Harassment Complaint

Consider what an optimist and a pessimist would say if a female employee, Jane, came in and said, \”Bob told me my dress was nice. That\’s sexual harassment!\”
The Optimist: \”Jane, I\’m sure he didn\’t mean anything by it. It is a very nice dress.\” This could be the right call—if this is the first complaint you\’ve ever received about Bob, it\’s doubtful that this is a serious offense. One comment certainly doesn\’t rise to the level of pervasive or severe harassment. But consider the alternative.
The Pessimist: \”Jane, can you tell me a little bit more? Is there anything else that Bob has said or done that makes you feel uncomfortable?\” You may find out that Jane was overreacting and Bob didn\’t mean anything by his comment. But, you may instead find out that Bob has a habit of focusing on his female co-workers\’ looks rather than their performance, and several women in the department feel uncomfortable with it. You\’re lucky Jane came forward when she did, because now you can address this with Bob, keep a close eye on him and prevent this from becoming a lawsuit.
The Takeaway: Never let a complaint about something serious and/or illegal go with out investigation. This not only protects the company against lawsuits, but also assures your employees that you listen to their concerns and that the company doesn\’t tolerate bad behavior.

The Salary Discrepancy

Imagine you\’re looking at salary reports and notice that Helen and Heath have the same job title, but Heath\’s salary is $5000 higher. The Optimist: \”HR reviews and approves every salary offer, so I\’m sure there is a logical explanation for this difference.\”The pessimist: \”Even though HR reviews and approves every salary offer, this is a really large difference. I better find out what\’s going on here.\” This type of pessimism doesn\’t mean launching a full-fledged investigation into salary policies. After all, you know that salaries are scrutinized carefully before job offers are made. Still, this situation calls for some scrutiny.
The Takeaway: Do some digging into both employees\’ professional background. If you find out that Heath has a master\’s degree and five years of experience, while Helen has a bachelor\’s degree and three years of experience, then case closed. There\’s a logical and legal reason. Although, you may wish to change titles to reflect the differences in experience and education.
If, on the other hand, you find out that Helen has a master\’s degree and five years of experience, while Heath has less education and less years on the job or you determine that their experience and educational background are equal, you\’ve caught a problem before it can turn into a lawsuit.
Whatever you\’re dealing with, looking at the worst case scenario can help you identify potential problems before they explode into something serious. Pessimism can catch issues when they are small, while optimism encourages you to ignore them until they explode.
So, try to be an optimist who believes most people are good, but investigate like a pessimist. Every time.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1