Investing in Your Biggest Asset

Most experts agree that we can no longer compete on price in North America; countries like India and China have a significantly lower labor costs. If we are going to compete in this global economy, we need to focus our attention on quality of service. Consumers are willing to pay more for the experience.

Who delivers the experience? People! Your human capital will play a key role in providing you with the competitive advantage you need to succeed in this global economy. The old idiom is true; people will do business with people they know and trust.

That’s what most businesses need to capitalize on. Developing a culture and training strategy that empowers their employees to deliver quality service and build long-term relationships with your clients consistently.

For a training strategy to be effective you must make a commitment to creating and following through with the strategy; this will require an investment: investment of your time, effort and money.

Investment of time

From creating a strategy, to developing and executing the training plan… it requires time. You can mitigate this by using off-the shelf training programs, however, one word of caution, off-the-shelf programs rarely meet the need of most organization. For training to be meaningful and effective, take the program and customize it to your company needs. This will allow you to leverage off of existing material and reduce your overall development time. Of course, there is a cost. The downside to this strategy is the cost of purchasing the pre-existing program. So, do a quick time / cost analysis to see how long it will take you to develop it on your own versus the cost of purchasing the program and time required to customize it for your needs.

Investment in Effort

You will either need to come up with a training strategy that uncovers your particular needs, design a training plan, execute and evaluate it. My personal recommendation is to stick to your core business and rely on an expert. You wouldn’t do your own taxes? You would go to an accountant… right? Similarly, I recommend you hire an expert to manage this for you. A Certified Training and Development Professional is like a doctor for your business, he/she will come in and do a business health check and prescribe a customized solution for you. Where do you find a Certified professional? I would recommend going to the certification body like cstd.ca (in Canada) and td.org (in the US) and lookup a certified member near you.

Investment in Money

To develop a training strategy and execute it, you will also require a financial investment. If you have a trainer internally, you will need to factor in things like salary, opportunity cost, cost of developing and administering the training (including facilities & equipment). If you’re hiring an external expert, you will also need to factor in their consulting fees, this could involve time required for the consultant to meet with key stakeholders, understand your business, present a solution and then develop and execute it. Think that costs too much? Exhaustive research by Dr. Laurie Bassi, a human capital analysis specialist, found that training and development has a 300% return on investment. This ROI out-returns many other investment options like R&D, hard or capital opportunities.

Training your employees isn’t easy, but it represents the best investment in your business. A qualified professional can help you retain your employees; increase their productivity and your company’s profitability.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Ravinder Tulsiani is the Author of the #1 BESTSELLER: “Your Leadership Edge”, an innovative step-by-step leadership training program that will help you develop a highly engaged and super-charged workforce... get your copy at http://www.yourleadershipedge.ca.

10 Benefits of enrolling in a communication (speaking) course

One of the greatest fears that a large number of people face in this world is that of public speaking. While it’s not entirely uncommon for us to be in awe of a fistful of those who have a strong command over their verbal artistry, it’s a lot less likely for us to grow this talent without a structured training. This is where a communication course comes into the picture. Besides enabling you to communicate better, these courses stand to benefit you in ways more than one. Here, let’s take a look at the top 10 benefits offered by communication courses. 

1. Boost your confidence  

Communicating the right way can take your confidence quite a few notches higher. In fact, one of the many reasons for a low self-esteem and lack of confidence is the inability to express oneself clearly. Once the fear of speaking is alleviated, you feel more open towards putting across your views and voicing your opinions just like a confident person would do. 

2. Make people listen to you  

The key to making people listen to what you tell them is connecting with them through what you say. Not just words but diction and body language too have a lot to contribute when it comes to communicating in an effective way. Communication courses take these aspects into account and train you accordingly.

3. Enhance your sense of presence

Nothing can make for an impactful presence than a compelling way of speaking. And, what is a compelling way of speaking? A fine balance of the right cadence and an appropriate expression, trained to perfection.

4. Improve teamwork 

For all those aspiring to shine in their professional fronts, communicating right comes across as one of the most important qualities. Working effectively in a team and creating a mutually-cooperative environment are valued in today’s organisations. Therefore, polishing your communication skills can be one of the basic steps to steer your career on the right track.    

5. Be a good listener

A fundamental step to become a good speaker is to listen well. Taking this the other way round, listening is also a skill that needs honing since it improves the interpersonal relationships and creates scope for effective conversations.    

6. Develop writing skills

A communication course also helps one to develop writing abilities. An exercise of thinking faster and articulating your thoughts eventually help you to put on paper exactly what you think in a more lucid way.  

7. Get better at delivering presentations

Armed with good communication skills, you can only get better at delivering presentations that make a point and do so with absolute confidence. In this way, speaking courses pack an extra punch to your professional skills.   

8. Strengthen your leadership abilities

This benefit actually goes without saying since communication courses address some of the most pertinent qualities essential for playing an effective leadership role - speaking well and listening better.    

9. Discover the pleasures of communicating

Communicating is the best form of understanding and making a connection with someone. As such courses that help you in communicating better also encourage you to make friends, strike relationships and create lasting impressions.      

10. Tackle real life situations

Better communication skills also translate into a better way of dealing with real life situations. With no fear or inhibitions attached, you are more at ease with your verbal power and can use it to stand up for a cause or to make your voice heard.   

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ravinder Tulsiani, is a renowned Leadership Expert, Author and Speaker. He has appeared in several major media outlets including Bloomberg, CNN and Wall Street Journal and is the author of numerous quality, business and self-help resources. See http://www.ravindertulsiani.net

Ravinder Tulsiani: How Can Leaders Increase Employee Engagement?

This article has been selected to be printed by ASTD Press. As per their requirement, I am removing it from this site. Once ASTD features it on their site, I will update here with the link.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: How to Align Your Training Initiatives With Organizational Strategy

What is the first thing that comes to your head when you hear people use the term ‘corporate culture’? Most people describe it basically as the way ‘things get done around here’. This is not exactly far from the truth. But there is a whole lot more that goes towards influencing or determining behaviour in the workplace. In other words, this definition barely scratches the surface. #business
Corporate culture becomes a focal point for attention during organizational transition periods. It becomes apparent during takeovers, mergers or alliances. It becomes crucial during period for organizations to embark on #training initiatives to redefine their strategies and chart new courses of change. #HR
It is a period where pre-existing culture becomes irrelevant and an impediment to progress. It becomes imperative to fashion out procedures that would boost morale and ward off cultural conflict. It is important to find a means of aligning training initiatives with organizational thrusts for success and increased output. If you do not do this, then corporate harmony would remain elusive.
Sustainability for the future is built on training programs that tilt towards leadership and talent. These programs harp on the diversity of strength but still find a local means of pooling resources together that meet urgent needs without fulfilling unnecessary protocol. This starts from the board or management team that ensures it trickles down to the people that work under them. They are the ones that will encourage training and provide the required drive or support.
A lack of alignment with the #management and the rest of the workforce is the reason why businesses do not make needed impact. It is in this vein that it is safe to assert that alignment from the leadership to the initiative team and spreading it down to the organization is critical to success.
The intent must be established and understood before training can follow. If this is not done, teams would be unable to come under one cause and move forward. Once an agreement is reached these teams must find a means to make the strategy work via effective training. This is what commits them to the cause and ensures that they dedicate their energy towards its success.
Strategy is the heartbeat of any business. If you do not strategize properly, your training initiatives would suffer. It does not matter how ingenious it might be or how much time it took to ponder over it. So when next you come up with a strategy and want to come up with training sessions that can drum It into the mind’s eye of your workforce, make certain that it meets organization objectives. In addition, make sure it is people-friendly and readily adapts to change and rewards learning as a mandatory ingredient for expansion.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: Your Leadership EDGE

'Your Leadership EDGE' training program will help you to develop the core competencies needed to become an exceptional leader to enable you to engage and develop your employees so that you can drive massive growth to your organization.

The book is not about making you aware of leadership competencies; awareness is only the first step to mastering anything. This is exactly what most books and programs on leadership do; and that’s why they fail.

In fact, we have had no noticeable improvement in employee attitude over the past decade. Surveys in 2000 and 2012 suggests that there has been no major shift in employee engagement attitude, 70% of all employees continue to be disengaged from their employer interest. In fact, 30% of employee are actively disengaged, that is, they intentionally work against the company’s overall core objectives.

How much more productive would your company be if you could reduce the number of disengaged employees? What would that do to the overall company morale?

The source of the problem is not employees. Numerous exit interview studies have found that employees don’t leave companies, they leave their managers. Yet, most companies focus on carrot and stick approach to effect employee behaviour and engagement levels.

Logically, if 70% of employees are disengaged in the workforce and most report leaving as a result of their experience with their managers - isn’t it time that we look at what the manager’s could do differently to improve employee disengagement situation?

So, is it the manager’s fault? No. Most manager’s became managers because they were good employees and were rewarded with a promotion. But, once promoted, very few organizations train their manager’s to manage properly. These managers rely on their past experience as employees themselves to manage their subordinates without any leadership training.

So, is the answer leadership training. Yes - in part. I firmly believe that training is rarely the silver bullet, however, a solid foundation is a prerequisite to leadership mastery. ‘Your Leadership EDGE’ will give you the foundation necessary to be an effective leader.

Using the step-by-step program outlined in each of the chapters in this book you will not only become more aware of the core leadership competencies; you will acquire the necessary leadership skills foundation that will enable you to develop and support a highly engaged and productive workforce.

Pre-order upcoming book 'Your Leadership EDGE' for these exclusive bonuses including free audiobook, ebook, online training, virtual training, live workshop and more...

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Ravinder Tulsiani: Benefits of corporate training on leadership skills

The main idea behind corporate trainings is that organizations are all about people and the way they respond to each other. Yes, businesses have a technical side to them too but the fact remains that in a typical organization people-related issues outnumber technical snags any day. This is a common occurrence since people in a particular organization have myriad backgrounds, different dispositions and come from different walks of life. #corporatetraining

The aim, therefore, is to pool in the resources for the mutual benefit of the company and the workforce, and resolving any issues that might arise in the course. This is where the leadership skills come to play their part. Effective #leadership is an inherent part of any organization and much of how the company looks and feels to an outsider depends on it. It can even be said that the health of an organization is a direct reflection of the kind of leadership it has. An attempt to sum up the largely diverse roles of an effective leader would look like this:

An out and out motivatorSomeone who practices what (s)he preachesSomeone who co-operates and inspires others to follow the suitA sound advisor for the #managementSomeone who lends his shoulders to push the wheels out of the mud

Corporate training focuses on the fabric structure of an organization and the various aspects associated with it, among which the leadership skills feature right at the top. As such corporate trainings have been widely identified and acknowledged as a medium for encouraging key leadership qualities and providing practical guidance towards putting those qualities to optimum use. In this respect, the virtues of corporate trainings are hard to miss. Some of the obvious benefits of corporate training in developing leadership skills are:

They empower you with a clearer vision as to where exactly you want to direct your actions. This is important as an elementary step to understand your goals.These programs help you to distinguish a realistic goal from one that you think will take you to the moon on a paper-plane. #HRThese programs teach you to remain focused and to stay positive when you are at it.An undeniable fact is: you have to have followers to become a leader. These programs help you to chisel those leadership traits that would make people want to follow you. #businessYou need to constantly grow and enhance your skills while playing your part as a management leader and these programs show you the way.

It must be remembered that in a corporate environment, leadership is seldom an innate talent and corporate trainings are a great way to find out the hidden gems of leadership in sources unexpected.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: If I were 22, I would open my arms to new knowledge

#IfIWere22 Many young people don’t know what they want to be “when they grow up.” They go to college and take a wide variety of classes, hoping something will “click” and that they will find a career in these four years of “higher education.”

I could never understand how people could not know what they wanted to do. Entering high school I knew that I would make a career as a lawyer, and so I focused on all classes and extra-curricular activities that would help me become the best lawyer I could be. I ignored subjects like science and math, because I thought to myself, when would I ever need math as a lawyer? (I’d hire an accountant to handle that part of my business!)

I still intended to be a lawyer when I graduated from university with a B.A. in law...but at that point I knew there was something missing from my life...after three years and that degree under my belt I then became curious about other fields, and helping people in other ways. All of a sudden the door to becoming a financial advisor opened up to me. Had I paid more attention to math in school, the path to my new career would not have been quite as rocky as it was, as I had a lot of catching up to do. But I was good with the principles, found I had a natural aptitude for it, and enjoyed it much more than being a lawyer.

The moral of this story is just because you know with certainty, at the age of 18, what you want to do with the rest of your life, don’t close yourself off to other knowledge and skills which can help you to expand your horizons, without having to take remedial classes to get where you need to be! #IfIWere22

Am I where I thought I’d be?

I am where I thought I’d be – working in a career field that I enjoy and doing what I love – but I achieved this goal in a different way than I expected.

I am an educator, a corporate leader, an author and an entrepreneur. I have the knowledge, now, that lets me stand out in each of those fields. My passion is showing other people how they can achieve the same success – I love to Educate – educate personnel on their current job, Develop – develop them for their next role, Guide – provide coaching, guidance, and correction along the way, and finally Empower – set a good example and then get out of their way to see what they can achieve. #IfIWere22

Advice for today and tomorrow

Many people think that school is over once they graduate with their degree. When they get a job there’ll be training specific to that job, of course, but overall they think their education is over. They get rid of their textbooks and don’t intend to open a non-fiction book again.

Learning should be – must be - a lifelong process. Embrace the opportunities to learn everything you can, it will help you in your chosen field and it can help in any other field that might come your way. #IfIWere22

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