This week, Krisztina Lorinczi and Richard Doust demonstrate how to deal with a disengaged employee. Ever find it hard to work with a direct report who appears disengaged? How can you get them to speak the truth and be an active listener? Check out the videos below:

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Answer Poll on Linkedin.

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Video Series

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Our last article talked about what factors lead to leadership training falling short of expectations. Today, we will look at a recent case study conducted by a client to measure the success of their leadership training using the LPA method.

The LPA method incorporates all the critical factors needed to ensure that companies can enjoy the long-term benefits of our leadership training. They include:

A recent client compared the efficiency of their leadership competencies before, during, and after conducting the LPA journey. The assessment asks, do you believe the person who received feedback has become more or less effective in the following areas?

• Very Much Effective?

• Much Effective?

• No Change

Being a role model?

• Very Much Effective? 31%
• Much Effective? 48%
• No Change 21%

79% Increase in performance being a role model

Partnership Thinking?

• Very Much Effective? 12%
• Much Effective? 70%
• No Change 18%

82% Increase in performance demonstrating partnership thinking.

And, there were more results to show. How successful have leadership programs been? Have you experienced similar results?

If you would like to explore the possibilities, contact us at 317-643-2572. 

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Leadership Training alone can not fix a company’s organizational and leadership problems. Yet, companies have been willing to pay for the chance to impact change through training. Globally, in 2015, companies were spending $356 billion on training programs. Did they achieve a good return on their investment? What are the keys to implementing effective change in any organization?

Here are some simple ideas to consider when exploring Leadership Training in your organization:

Are training that your company is buying created for your organization based on your company values and core leadership competencies or is it basically an off-the-shelf program?

Senior management drives change based on a clear set of business objectives. Those objectives need to be driven by a clear set of company values. Senior managers need good information to make decisions. And, their people need to be comfortable sharing data no matter how bad it may be. Employees need to receive guidance and opportunities to practice in a safe environment how to give and receive feedback.

Is the company open to honest feedback from employees?

Politics plays a role in most companies. Employee gamesmanship and positioning are detrimental to senior management and the company. They tend to provide information senior management wants and not necessarily what they need to hear. Companies need candid feedback about impediments to efficacy and execution, including senior management’s conduct. Even if it sounds strange, a lot of participants that are sent to training do not see the connection between the workshop they are attending and their daily work.

Is the training relevant to the business?

Company setup needs to reflect the openness to the changes made to move forward. The content and direction of the training need to be relevant to the industry. Don’t use training companies that offer off-the-shelf content that does not even use your industry terminology. And it requires a combination of workshops, coaching, and assessment of skills.

What happens after the training? Does the company offer ongoing coaching and training consulting to achieve positive change?

The problem with most leadership programs is that they end. Employees go back to their everyday lives, and old habits creep back into the day-to-day operation. Successful programs provide ongoing support and training to help managers apply what they learned to their daily routine. Change happens over time.

Can you measure the impact of your training on the organization?

As a continued follow-up to your leadership journey, can you measure the progress? Is it positive, negative, or static? A positive leadership journey will take time to impact change. Leadership and culture must be in it for the long haul and commit to creating a safe environment, a culture of openness, and leadership for all business units.

At LPA, we can help your organization reach these strategic objectives with our Leadership Potential Accelerator Program, addressing the pitfalls most companies find themselves with leadership training. And you will be able to track the improvement of your leadership skills.

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What are some parallels between coaching, time management, and saying no?

Does the expression “To-do list” ring a bell? Have you ever created one? Have you ever been frustrated for not being able to finish your tasks? Or have you ever attended a training after which you thought, “It was so interesting, and there was so much great content in it!” And what happened after a few days and weeks? If someone had asked you what your takeaway was, what would you have said? Would you have been able to articulate the main area of focus clearly? It is not hard to believe that research shows that an average human being remembers only 10% of what you hear after 24 hours. 

How to focus

That is why the most significant responsibility of every trainer is to make sure that it is clear what the participating potential or existing leader should remember. What determines what should be in focus? It depends on a lot of different factors. What are the critical leadership competencies of the organization? What are the key values reflected in the behavior of the leader? What are his current strengths and areas of development? On a scale of 1-10, how motivated is the leader to work on the given area? After putting all those questions in a blender, the right focus area will emerge. 

Through a straightforward process of designing and facilitating the LPA journey, the participant receives feedback, a combination of the observation of all participants and the trainer. Out of this 5-6 pages document, the participant decides one and only one area of focus. It is tempting to list several items. Evidence shows that leaders tend to define many activities not just for themselves but also for their team members. 

What happens in a lot of cases? Only a fraction of the activities listed on the to-do list is accomplished, which causes frustration and lack of motivation. In the worst case for some perfectionists, this results in burn-out because they will do more than they can. As a leader, it is the critical responsibility to say no in two ways: 

1. One is to themselves. When the manager thinks about what they want to accomplish, they have to say no to most tasks. They should be able to delegate and restructure the jobs. One of the easiest ways is to say no to meetings that are not entirely relevant to them. Back-to-back meetings are not just exhausting but also have the potential of finding time for what is essential. 
2. The other “no” is when they define what their expectations are for their team members. They have to help them to see what is essential and what is not. What is the one key area that will work to move the team member towards their goal and towards the results expected by the organization? Every single member of the value chain should be clear about the one Key Area of Focus. 

That is also what we teach and use in our development program by helping the leader see his/her Key Area of Focus in the leader’s development journey. Because if Everything is important, nothing is important.

Contact Us to learn how Leadership Potential Accelerators’ leadership journey can help you.

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The impact on engagement and commitment of participants of Covid19 was fascinating. And it told me a lot about how leaders have to adapt their leadership style to their given working environment. Even though most of us used virtual platforms before Covid, making the change to 100% virtual had its consequences.

Participant Preparation

A lot of time, I have experienced that participants sent to training received a limited explanation for the activity by HR or L&D. Trainers spent their initial time trying to get buy-in from their attendees due to a perceived lack of value in training.

What I have been missing most of the time was the briefing of managers to let their direct reports know why they should attend a training and what their immediate benefit will be from it. A short announcement delivered by the superior would have directly impacted the level of engagement and commitment of their direct reports.

Purpose and Outcome

As a trainer and coach, I see that managers are looking for sophisticated tools to become better leaders; meanwhile, easy, fast, and free ones would make their life, the life of their team members, so much easier.By sharing the purpose of training and a few details about why the company chose, it would immediately impact the buy-in. Through that, participants would feel that their managers CARE about them, understand their needs, and support them. During the three main phases of Covid related to participants’ level of attention and confidence (medium, high, very low), direct reports would have needed a completely different communication delivered by their supervisors/managers.

What are you considering when sending your team members to trainings? What do you do if global HR sends your people to workshops that you don’t have influence on? What tools do you use to get the buy-in of your direct reports to be engaged and committed to a behavioural change in the world of training?  

Need help building out a Learning Journey for your Managers? Contact Us

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How can a leader show agility the quickest way in interactions with team members?

Many times, training participants ask me what they can do to make an impact in their team? In other words, what is the quickest way to act in an agile manner?

Without going deep into the theory about agility at this point, I would like to share my point of view about how to act in an agile way related to people’s skills.

People Agility

My suggestion takes into consideration the definition of what leadership agility or more specific, People Agility means “The degree to which you are open-minded toward others, enjoy interacting with a diversity of people, understand their unique strengths, interests, and limitations, and use them effectively to accomplish organizational goals.”

My recommendation to you comes from my observations in training and shadow coaching. And it is not rocket science, but to be able to do that, you have to fight with a basic instinct. Usually, the default behavior of leaders is talking, giving advice, and telling team members what to do. Why? The explanation is also easy. Because they think they know the answer, they want to keep the way to the end, to the solution quick and “simple.” And because most of them have been in the job role of the team members. So they think the best is if they “help” them with their clear advice.

Add More to The Toolbox

Advice is one of the tools in the toolbox of every leader. There is a reason why the Swiss army knife does not consist of one tool only. Give advice when time is short, and you are 100% sure that it is appropriate. But include asking questions much more. In spontaneous conversations, in meetings, in your negotiations, in your presentations. With your colleagues, family members, and everywhere where human interaction is happening.

When I observe leaders, I hear them asking a lot of closed-ended and or leading questions. A lot of them think that they have involved their team members. Meanwhile, they shared their expectations in the form of “questions.” I am sure you are a Master of Asking Questions, so this chapter is relevant for those NOT reading this book.

Ask the right questions

My clear suggestion is that when you prepare for a conversation, write down 5-7 open-ended questions to make sure you are interested in the other person’s opinion. You show that you care about their solution. It does not cost anything to include more questions, but it lifts your team’s level of motivation and commitment. Some of my favorite questions are:

Classical open-ended questions: “How are you making sure that you focus on your key task?” “What do you need to be ready for the presentation?”

Comparative: “Would you rather choose A or B?” “What would be the advantages of option A?” “For you and the others involved?”

Hypothetical: “What if we postponed this question to next week, and you would think about 2-3 more alternatives?”

Scaling: “On a scale from 1-10, how well prepared are you?”

Playful: “What would you do if you had a magic wand?”

Provocative: “Are you ready for the next challenge?”

Priority questions: “What are your three most critical priorities?” “your most important goal..”, “your least important concern….”

Past: What worked best in the past in such a situation?

If you don’t have time to prepare or the conversation is happening spontaneously, you can still write them down meanwhile the conversation is happening. There is nothing wrong with taking notes either on paper or on your laptop/Mac during a conversation. If you want, you can even share with your counterpart that you are taking notes to focus on what matters.

Have questions about People Agility or Leadership agility? Contact Us to learn more.

Ask Questions

Most manager’s go-to tool is giving direct reports advice. Asking questions and listening are important tools too.

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