Managers control and direct people according to the values that have been established. Leaders set new direction or vision for their group. They also act as the spearhead for that new direction.

Management without leadership

Managers without leadership characteristics serve to control resources to maintain a status quo. They work to ensure that all things are happening according to the already established plans. A good example of a manager is a referee. Referees exist to make sure that all players abide by the rules that are set for a certain sport. However, a referee would not provide any leadership because there is no change or new direction required.

Managers who don’t have effective leadership skills can actually cause losses to your business. By demotivating the people who report to them, it restricts employees’ ability to demonstrate the valuable skillset they were hired for in the first place.

In addition to not being able to motivate employees, some managers have a difficult time placing trust in them. Instead, they prefer to handle the key tasks themselves instead of delegating them. This also causes employees to lose confidence and become disengaged.

What makes a good leader?

It is well-known that good leadership is crucial to the success of any business. But, to become a leader is not a task that can be accomplished overnight. There are many factors that contribute to good leadership. Over time, anyone can become a good leader regardless of whether the person possesses natural leadership traits or not.

Here are three critical components to being a good leader:

1. Effective communication skills—especially about burnout

Communication is the most important element of leadership. With the COVID-19 pandemic came an increase in remote workers. I’m not sure anyone expected this new way of remote management to last as long as it has. Additionally, the concern of employee mental health and well-being became more important as people became more isolated.

Every good leader must learn effective communication skills, but the pandemic has introduced the need to place an extra focus on burnout.

A recent Software Advice article found that burnout is, in fact, the biggest threat to employees’ well-being. A whopping 77% of employees who transitioned to working from home due to the pandemic are experiencing at least some burnout (alarmingly high among younger workers) where 41% said they haven’t discussed mental well-being with their manager lately.

When you are open to communication, you are able to clearly convey your ideas and thoughts to employees so they have better direction. At the same time, you can more effectively listen to your employees’ feedback to find out what problems they may be facing, and how you can address them.

2. Collaboration and teamwork

It goes without saying that two heads are better than one. Teamwork is always something to consider when you are determined to become a good leader. This means providing opportunities for employees to work together and collaborate on projects. But it also means becoming part of the team yourself.

The purpose of teambuilding is to achieve a task that would be difficult or impossible for a single individual to perform in the given conditions. Team members need to be clear on the purpose the team is willing to achieve.

When teamwork and collaboration are effective, productivity and engagement increases.

3. Motivation and engagement

Motivation is another trait that is vital for good leadership. Employees tend to stagnate when their motivation goes down. They start becoming less engaged. The reason for this is the lack of motivation from leaders.

There are still managers who tend to motivate employees with a “do what I say or something bad will happen” mindset. This may get results, but only for a short period.

Leaders, on the other hand, use positive motivation to engage their employees, such as providing opportunities to challenge themselves and grow. This style proves to be more effective over the long term.

To learn more about becoming a better leader or gaining new leadership skills, browse through our course marketplace.

The post Managers as Leaders: Three Critical Components of Good Leadership appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

When employees look at learning and development professionals, they may think of us as superhuman in a way. Perhaps not on the level of Superman, but they may assume L&D professionals have all the answers and don’t make mistakes. This just isn’t true, though.

Learners are not really expecting perfection. Neither are the companies themselves; yet, L&D professionals can fall into the trap of overanalyzing everything they do. All that does is create a tremendous amount of pressure.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, discusses how to be your authentic self as an L&D professional and why it’s okay to not be perfect.

To learn more, keep reading or press play on the podcast below:

The truth about perfection

The truth about perfection is that it’s OK to not be perfect. There are some scenarios in the world where perfection is important, for example, performing surgery, but for the most part, perfection isn’t essential.

In fact, it’s in our imperfections that we really display our humanity. And in our humanity is where we become much more approachable and personable. This is key to developing deep, trusting relationships.

This isn’t just about L&D professionals either. It’s crucial that we help employees feel able to be authentic at work.

To do this, learning and development professionals can show their true colors and show learners and employees that it’s okay to do so. There may, of course, be some restrictions on that. For example, turning your hair blue in a customer-facing role. But there are other ways to work around that and still bring your authentic self to the workplace.

You can do this in a number of ways. It’s all about finding what works for you, but here are some ideas:

1. Bring things you love into the office

The trick here is not to overthink it too much. It could be as simple as bringing in a picture, figurines, or colorful office equipment. If you’re primarily a remote worker, think about placing things in the background that reflect your personality on Zoom calls. This could be pictures on the wall, ornaments, trinkets, etc. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, just small hints of your personality will do.

2. Show off your sense of humor

We could all use a bit more fun and humor in the office. A lot of people, especially in corporate environments, are afraid to show their sense of humor. However, making an effort here can help to reveal the real you.

3. Tap into empathy and compassion

When delivering learning sessions, try to make an effort to emphasize the content you’re delivering with things like personal anecdotes and humor to really lighten the conversation.

For example, if you’re going through slides, don’t be afraid to inject a little personality, color, jokes, or even memes to keep people engaged and also show your learners that you’re human too.

4. Be an open book

When sharing anecdotes and stories, don’t be afraid to talk about the not-so-glamorous stories. Mention the mistakes and failures as well as the successes. This highlights that you’re not perfect, and no one else is either.  This can really open up the topic and help people feel understood and supported.

Don’t wait for perfection

A lot of us put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect, but this can cause problems. A common example of this is not asking for help when we really should because we don’t want to appear incapable. This causes all sorts of problems down the line when you end up really needing help later.

If you’d have opened the conversation earlier, got some help, some feedback, or support, things may have been different.

Remember, it’s okay to invite people into the process when you’re still mixing the cake. It doesn’t have to be fully baked. In fact, involving others helps to foster a sense of inclusion in your workplace. It gives others a chance to share their opinion and feel heard and valued for their contributions.

Accept that no one has all the answers

The final thing to think about here is the fact that neither you nor anyone else has all the answers. It can be especially difficult for L&D professionals to accept this because of their position as the person delivering the learning. However, L&D professionals are people too, people who are still learning and growing.

Acknowledge that and emphasize it to your learners because the learning never truly stops. Instead of trying to present yourself as perfect, why not use this opportunity to inspire and motivate your learners to reach their potential.

Demonstrate that you are a real person. You have pains, struggles, successes, failures, and you are not afraid to continue learning. This will help you connect with your learners and foster a more productive, collaborative environment.

The post Perfection: How L&D Pros Can Let Go of It and Simply Be Themselves appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

How does your organization focus on or identify those high-performing employees? Do you focus solely on them, and if so, does that mean there is an imbalance in the organization?

It might seem like a no-brainer to spend more time and effort on high-performing workers. Many companies will have programs specifically in place to help elevate these people to senior positions. For example, there are often programs to take managers to director level.

However, a common mistake that organizations make is putting their whole focus on their high-performing workers. This means that most of the workforce is left without the support they need to succeed in their roles.

That’s what Matthew Brown talks about in this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast. Matthew, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, shares his thoughts on supporting lower-performing members of staff to help them become more engaged.

Listen to the podcast below or keep reading.

The problem with focusing only on high performers

Focusing only on high-performing employees, those who surpass expectations, comes with some problems attached. For one, you’re not getting the most out of a big majority of your workforce. These people are known as the “steady contributors.”

Steady contributors are people who get the job done but perhaps don’t wow the managers. They may not have your attention as much as the high performers, but they make up around 70-80% of your workforce. Ignoring them could mean you miss out on the opportunity to turn them into high performers.

On top of that, you may have around 10% of the workforce you consider low performers. It’s important to assess why people may not be performing as well as expected or hoped. Some may be disengaged from the job, unhappy, or have other personal issues going on. Any good leader will want to get to the bottom of why people are underperforming. The worst thing you can do is simply ignore them.

In a lot of cases, underperforming staff are simply lacking support. This leads people to mentally “check out” of a job. So, what can you do? Every person matters in an organization. Everyone needs development, focus, and support to help them perform the job to the best of their ability.

What we can do to help low-performing employees

There are a few things you can do to better support employees. The main thing that needs to improve is communication, which goes for almost every organization out there.

You could design a program for the whole organization that allows people to share their career goals and aspirations. However, implementing a program isn’t the only thing you should do. You also need to create a safe working environment where people feel comfortable to express their opinions.

Many employees do not feel safe or free to talk because they fear the consequences or the perception of others.

They may wonder, “what happens if I tell them how I really feel? Will I look weak? Will I get fired?”

Giving people a safe space to talk about their own aspirations and goals could help them feel much more engaged. By working closely with the steady contributors and low performers, you can start turning them into higher-performing and happier employees.

How do you identify high performers?

What makes someone high-performing? How do you identify them?

Take some time to sit down and think carefully. Is it a gut feeling, their job role, skillset, or managerial style? Are they simply more efficient or experienced than others? Try to pinpoint the specifics.

Often, when organizations identify high performers, it’s rarely done in a data-driven way. It is sometimes a gut feeling or because they get along so well with the managers.

The problem with not being specific is that it’s not scalable. In other words, it’s harder to apply a method or winning formula to other workers. Without a clear way to identify high performers, it’s hard to know what steps to take to bring everyone up to the same level.

Ask yourself, what makes them so good at their job? Is it a particular skillset? Great, training might be the way forward for the organization. Alternatively, it could be a combination of skills or experience that you can work on.

Homing in on the specifics will empower you to make better choices for your team overall. Once you understand how people perform differently, especially in the same role, you can implement real changes to benefit everyone. With more focus, understanding, and support, you can improve your team’s morale, productivity, and performance across the board.

The post Why It’s Important to Focus on Both High and Low-Performing Employees appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

Innovation is so important for organizations to continue growing. But are you openly encouraging it within your own team? Are you creating a space where employees at all levels feel comfortable sharing their ideas?

That’s what Matthew Brown discusses in this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast. Matthew (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) shares his six tips for encouraging innovation in your team. He says that being more open to trying new things and encouraging everyone to speak up can empower your organization.

Listen to the podcast below or keep reading.

1. Realize that innovation is everyone’s job

A common issue in organizations is to assume that innovation is someone else’s job to figure out. Surely coming up with new ideas is for the creative team/the managers, no one else?

The reality is that no matter where you are in the organization, everyone has ideas. Everyone can, and should, share their unique perspective to help the organization grow and improve.

Getting into the mindset that innovation is everyone’s job can take some adjustment. But by encouraging everyone to contribute and valuing everyone’s ideas equally, you can learn so much from your team.

2. Encourage trial and error

Employees often feel like they need to be perfect. Sometimes they can be terrified of making mistakes. The problem here is that this fear can close off any innovative ideas or creative problem-solving.

If employees believe they have to do everything the same way each time, how will you ever challenge the status quo? How will you improve your processes?

By encouraging trial-and-error thinking, you’re saying that mistakes are okay. They are part of the process. Only by trying lots of things can you uncover something great.

What employees need to know is that their ideas are valued and welcome. They need you to provide a safe space for them to feel comfortable sharing ideas.

3. Encourage people to tell stories

On a similar note, mistakes are part of the process. They are the foundations of any great business or invention.

The products you see at the store, the technology you use every day, was almost certainly not the original idea someone had initially.

It’s hard to imagine all the mistakes people made along the way when you see the finished product. As a leader, you can encourage people to share stories of how mistakes turned into successes.

Tell employees about your own processes or ideas that were far from perfect in the beginning. Let them know that any idea can be built on.

4. Look at creative solutions

A common issue that organizations have is subscribing to a “not invented here” mindset.

By that, we mean when we use a tool or service that has issues. Rather than trying to create a solution, we brush off the problems as out of our control. It’s not our software. It’s not our service.

This mindset makes it harder to come up with creative solutions and ways around the problems. If we live in that fixed mindset, we never bring our best ideas to the table.

Instead, we should encourage creative solutions and problem-solving. Ask your team what the issues are, and if they have ideas they would like to try out.

5. Broaden your idea of what innovation means

When it comes to the subject of innovation, we all have ideas about what it means. In an organization, it could mean something different for each member of the team.

One assumption that people have is that innovation is one person’s or department’s responsibility. New ideas and processes are for X department to worry about. However, innovation is a group effort, or as we mentioned earlier, it’s everyone’s job.

Innovation is not just a business process. Everyone has a voice and an opinion worth sharing, and this should be encouraged.

Innovation comes from discussion and experimentation, but everyone needs to be on board with what it means for your team. Spend some time outlining what you want innovation to mean in your team. Discuss it with colleagues and employees and get their feedback.

6. Accept that no idea is a bad idea

Lastly, one of the most important things you can do is realize that no idea is a bad idea. Even ideas that are not practical or are nonsensical can still have value – but only if they’re spoken about.

If you have an open working environment where everyone shares ideas, the chances are you’re going to find some that just don’t work.

There’s nothing wrong with that, and those sharing shouldn’t feel discouraged.

By openly discussing these ideas, it can spark new ones for other people. It can generate new ideas from different perspectives. Soon enough, you will have tons of brand-new ideas, like a snowball effect.

That’s where true innovation comes in. By gather different perspectives, ideas, and creative solutions, you can build on them and factor real change into your organization.

As a business leader, innovation is not your burden alone. By sharing and encouraging others to share their thoughts and solutions, you can progress and move forward in your business.

For more insights, visit our podcast, The Learning Xchange, on your favorite podcast app.

The post 6 Tips on How to Encourage Innovation in Your Team appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

In times of change or crisis, many of us make the mistake of keeping those priorities and plans the same. However, if the world/the business/your life has changed, shouldn’t those priorities change as well?

That’s the topic of discussion in this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast. Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) talks about the importance of setting priorities – but also reassessing them.

Matthew says that while planning for the future is essential in business, things rarely stay exactly the same. When things change, it’s important to be flexible and revisit priorities. He also discusses the importance of talking to your team about goals, tasks and being honest. If there’s too much on your plate and you need help, talking to others can help you better prioritize tasks together.

Listen to the podcast below or keep reading.

When was the last time your reassessed your priorities?

We all have priorities for our business and personal lives, but when was the last time you really sat down and looked at your priorities? Even the most organized people may struggle to remember the last time they reassessed their priorities.

Most of us will set goals at the start of the year, but it’s important to ask ourselves – is our business the same a month later? Plans and priorities set on January 1 may no longer be relevant on February 1.

We saw this happen during 2020 and still in 2021. If your business was affected by COVID or, more recently, the extreme weather in Texas, you might be forced to reassess your priorities.

The truth is, in times of change and crisis, our priorities naturally change. The world we set our goals in on January 1 may not be the same world today, so should your plans and priorities change?

There’s nothing wrong with changing your priorities. Failing to reassess at all is the problem.

What happens when your plate is full?

One of the dangers of not redefining your priorities is that you can end up with a full plate of work and responsibilities. You may have the capacity to take on that one extra task, but what happens when three more people come up with important tasks to heap onto your plate?

Something has to give. That’s when saying no to things becomes essential, but first, you need to recognize the difference between what’s important versus what’s urgent.

Talk about it to receive ideas on how to reassess your priorities

What can you do when there’s too much on your plate, you’re stressed, and nothing seems to get done? The first step is taking a step back and reassessing the situation. The next step is to talk.

Talk with your stakeholders, talk with colleagues, or your mentor. You will find that in most cases, people are willing to discuss and collaborate to find a solution. But to do this, they need to know the problem is there.

Once you talk it through, you get a second pair of eyes to help you revaluate the situation. With help, you can reassess priorities more effectively.

How to use the Eisenhower Matrix to reassess your priorities

For those unfamiliar with the Eisenhower Matrix, it’s a simple method for prioritizing tasks by urgency and importance.

To use it, you sort tasks into four quadrants:

1. Important and urgent – Do first.

These tasks are ones to do first. Don’t put them off!

2. Less important and urgent – Delegate.

These tasks may be urgent but can be delegated. Look at them as urgent, but not necessarily for you.

3. Important and less urgent – Schedule.

Schedule these tasks for a later date while you work on ‘Do first’ tasks.

4. Less important and less urgent – Don’t do.

These tasks aren’t urgent or important, so you can decide not to do them at all. Take them off your plate entirely to free up headspace.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and are struggling to prioritize, the Eisenhower Matrix is a simple yet effective way to break everything down.

Define what is important and urgent

For the Eisenhower Matrix, or whatever method you choose, to work, you need to sit down and define what is considered important versus what is urgent.

Having a clear picture of what falls under these two labels will help you prioritize in the future. It can act as a filter for you to put each task through. That way, you know exactly what your next step is, whether it’s Do first, Delegate, Schedule, or Don’t do.

The benefits of reassessing priorities

Taking some time to really reassess your priorities and plans for the future has several benefits.

First of all, you will feel better prepared to work on your goals because you’ll have a clearer idea of what to do first.

Another benefit is that you can start to take a lot of tasks off your plate that are currently just taking up headspace.

If you spend some time talking it all through with others, you will also benefit from someone else’s advice and assistance. Two heads are better than one, and the same goes for prioritizing tasks and operations on a business level.

Prioritizing your goals and tasks is such a simple exercise that many of us overlook. We hope this advice has helped you get started on reassessing your priorities. Doing so will help to clear a lot of stress and will boost your productivity levels as a result.

The post How to Reassess Your Priorities During Constant Change appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

Setting clear expectations is a simple yet effective way to keep everyone on the same page. If you’re having trouble with employee engagement or even turnover, perhaps it’s time to rethink team expectations. How expectations are communicated can make a massive difference in productivity for all team members.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown discusses the importance of setting clear expectations. Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success highlights just how important it is that each team member knows exactly what’s expected of them. He draws on his personal experience of what happens when expectations are not clearly defined. 

Listen to this episode of The Learning Xchange below, or keep reading to learn more about the importance of clear expectations.

Why clear expectations are so important

Setting clear expectations in the workplace is vital for several reasons. The first is that it ensures everyone is on the same page. Everyone knows what to do, when, and how. This can reduce a great deal of confusion, miscommunication, and frustration.

Clearly defined job roles, responsibilities, processes, and goals are crucial to helping anyone achieve the best in their job role.

Another reason why clear expectations are important is that it improves employee engagement. Employees who aren’t sure what to do or why they’re doing it won’t feel as engaged or motivated as they could be.

A further reason why clear expectations are so important is that they foster a spirit of openness and transparency in any team. This might not sound like a priority for a manager who has business targets to meet, but it can go a long way toward increasing productivity.

With more engaged and focused employees who are clear on their role, this can only mean good things for the company.

A common mistake that business leaders make

The idea of setting clear expectations in a business may seem obvious at first. It may, in fact, already be part of your onboarding process for new hires.

However, what this does not take into account is changing expectations and developments in the business. When a team undergoes big changes, expectations need to be revisited for everyone.

For example, perhaps you started working for an organization with clear goals and expectations. However, organizational changes could mean you’re required to report to someone new. Suppose the company failed to set clear expectations with the new manager or leader. In that case, it could impact your performance review as mismatched expectations leave room for confusion, frustration, and even disappointment.

Different ways to set and maintain clear expectations

See the importance of one-to-one conversations

If you find yourself in a similar scenario, where the manager and employee have completely different ideas of the role, take it as a lesson.

One-to-one conversations are so important when it comes to setting expectations and goals plainly for both parties to see.

To avoid miscommunications about this, it’s good to have regular catchups with your team on a one-to-one basis. During these catchups, it’s important to redefine company goals and expectations (whether they have changed or not).

Ask what you need from other people

For non-managers, one of the most important things you can do is establish what you need from other people to do your job effectively.

That’s where setting an expectation becomes a two-way thing. It’s not just about the manager telling an employee what to do. It’s also the employee’s job to assess what they need from the manager to do it.

If you are the manager, this expectation must be communicated to the employee as well.

Acknowledge when things need to change

If your team runs into this problem of miscommunication, how you move forward is crucial. Rather than point the blame, people on all sides should acknowledge the problem and learn from it.

If you are a manager, it’s important to take it as a learning experience on how to better communicate your needs with employees. Employees should also take it as a chance to learn how to communicate what they need to do the job.

Setting goals and expectations sound simple in principle, but it’s very easy to let slip. Changes in company structure, management, new hires, and promotions can greatly skew perceptions of power and expectations.

The best solution is to have regular, open communication with all employees about the role and the team as a whole. Part of a manager’s job here is to make the conversation open and comfortable for the employee to speak honestly. Only through being open will real change and improvement come.

Thank you for reading this podcast episode summary. For more from The Learning Exchange, find all of the episodes so far on your favorite podcast app or website. Please subscribe to show us your support!

The post How to Set and Maintain Clear Expectations for Your Team appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

Feedback is integral to any group of people working together. It’s key to healthy working relationships, clear communication, and overall productivity. However, your company’s culture could be standing in the way of open and honest discussions at all levels in a business.

How you approach feedback can have a huge effect on your business. Get it wrong, and you could have an unhappy team on your hands. Get it right, and everyone can move forward and build solutions…instead of just resentment.

So, how can you start to build a culture of feedback within your company?

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, discusses the importance of feedback in a company setting. He also shares some best practices for giving feedback that genuinely helps others to improve.

Listen to this episode of The Learning Xchange below or keep reading…

Being mindful

There’s more to being a manager than just being firm. Sensitivity and mindfulness are sometimes overlooked qualities.

What do we mean when we say ‘mindful’? We don’t just mean being nice. We use the word mindful here because there are lots of elements to consider when giving feedback.  There’s body language, tone of voice, timing, the situation, and the person themselves.

Being mindful of all these elements will help you to give feedback in the best way for specific individuals and situations.

Moving away from defensiveness

Defensiveness is a fairly common response to feedback, no matter how gently you may give it. No one wants to hear that they are doing something wrong.

While you can’t guarantee the other person will react well, there are some ways you can ease it.

The first thing is to try to separate feedback from the other person. By this, we mean moving away from criticizing the person and instead commenting on the behavior. This approach, paired with mindfulness, should help to clear some of the defensiveness that can come up in feedback.

The importance of communication

Giving feedback is a way to communicate and raise an issue. It’s not necessarily going to be when the issue gets resolved. It’s simply to get everyone on the same page.

Rather than say your piece and try to jump forward into solving the issue, let the other person process what you said. At first, there may be some defensiveness or embarrassment if you brought up a mistake. That’s fine, needing some cool-down time is normal. Give them some space to process it and then regroup later on.

By doing this, you help to ensure that the person receiving the feedback fully understands the message. If they don’t understand the message behind the feedback, you may end up having to repeat yourself in what could potentially become a much more awkward conversation in the future.

Best practices for giving feedback

If you want to get better at giving feedback, here are some tips that you can apply to the majority of feedback scenarios:

1. Focus on behavior

Rather than focusing on the person, focus instead on the behavior. Make it more about how the behavior must change, rather than suggesting that the person is at fault. Giving feedback is not about placing blame, it’s about communicating and moving forward towards a solution.

2. Remember to listen

Feedback is a two-way street. As the saying goes, you have two ears and one mouth, which means you should be listening twice as much as speaking. The same applies to feedback. Whether you are giving or receiving feedback, it’s important to listen and make the process a back-and-forth dialogue.

3. Be present

This applies both ways, but particularly when receiving feedback. Many people tend to listen to the feedback at first and then become defensive. They then spend the rest of the conversation waiting for their turn to speak to defend themselves.

It can be a difficult habit to break. However, try to practice being present and in the moment when feedback comes up and again, listen more than you speak. Take some time to listen and absorb what the other person is saying.

4. Be mindful

Rather than focusing solely on the message you need to get across, look at how you’re giving that message. Being mindful of how the feedback comes across will mean the conversation is much more constructive and positive.

Be mindful about things like body language and tone of voice. Think about the other person’s situation. Are they swamped at work? Are they struggling with something else right now? It’s probably best to hold off if this is the case because they will be distracted. Make sure you always take some time before you give feedback to assess the situation.

5. Check that the feedback is actually helpful

Feedback should be about creating positive change. It’s not about ranting, getting complaints off your chest or putting other people in line. While this might seem obvious, always consider what your intentions are before you approach the other person.

What some managers forget is that feedback isn’t just for them. It also needs to be useful for the other person as well. What will they take from this interaction? How can they improve?

Giving feedback can feel awkward at first, and receiving it is rarely fun unless it’s full of praise. However, feedback is an important part of any team of people. How you approach it can have a huge effect on productivity and morale.

Are you unintentionally avoiding feedback in the workplace? Do you encourage an open dialogue between managers and other team members? Take some time to assess your team’s approach to feedback going forward.

Thank you for reading this podcast summary. For more tips from The Learning Xchange, you can find all the episodes so far on your favorite podcast app or website. Please subscribe to show us your support!

The post 5 Best Practices for Giving and Receiving Feedback appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

But how can you start to measure the impact that training has had on your organization?

You’ll find out in this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast, where Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) talks about how you can get started when it comes to measuring the resulting impact of training on your organization.

Hit play to listen to this episode of The Learning Xchange.

What is the role of learning in your organization?

Measuring and evaluating the impact your training is having on your organization is so important. However, sometimes it can be difficult to find the time and energy to get started. The good news is that you’re not alone. Many people struggle to take the first step when it comes to measuring the quality of training within their organization. Often, we must figure out how to navigate the approach of determining the impact of training and learning.

Proving that your learning activities have had a positive impact on the business is critical. It also helps if the impact can be replicated in the future, further validating the training’s effectiveness in question.

Before you can understand your training’s impact on your organization, you first need to consider the role (or roles) that training plays within the business.

Ask yourself, what is the role of learning within the organization? Here are a few possible roles that may be fulfilled by your training:

• Develop people capabilities
• Uncover needs
• Deliver interventions designed to help team members overcome gaps
• Change behaviors

These are just a few of the possible roles that learning may undertake within your business. There are many more to consider. Most of these roles are all in service of developing people capabilities. However, from a culture perspective, the role of training is also focused on motivating and engaging employees. It can even be leveraged to reinforce a values-based culture within an organization.

You might want to think about how your training can further develop a culture in the business. You may even want to focus your training more strategically and leverage it to maintain the employment brand. When you develop a culture of learning within an organization, it helps create powerful stories that employees can share. Before you know it, you’ve got a team of happy employees who want to tell the world how happy they are working at your organization.

The result? You create a demand, which helps elevate the company and attracts incredible talent to the organization.

How do your employees feel about training?

Do you know how your employees feel about training? Do they love it or hate it? Or, are they somewhat indifferent? Knowing how people feel about the training in your organization is key to driving maximum impact.

If employees don’t enjoy the training, you have to fix it so that you can implement training that employees genuinely love. If your employees already love the training, you’re ready to move on to the next step. Don’t think too much into it if your employees aren’t huge fans of your existing training. They might not have enough experience with training to build an opinion on it. Or, perhaps they have the mindset that training is just another thing to stroke off their to-do list.

Whatever the case may be, you’ve got to try and win over their hearts and minds by creating a training experience that employees feel benefits them and the organization. Understanding how your team feels about training is so important because it can help you take the right action to start implementing training that generates a greater impact.

Begin with the end in mind

Having some sort of plan in mind or vision for the future is hugely beneficial when trying to figure out the impact your training has on your organization. You don’t have to know everything at this point. However, it helps to know what direction you’re headed so that you can make strategic decisions around training and learning to help you stay on course.

When you envision the future, look beyond the first set of measurements you need to capture. You must gather relevant data that proves the training’s impact on the organization. But, then what? Let your mind wander and explore potential possibilities for the future of your training, and its overall impact on the organization.

An easy place to start is the business metrics that the organization really focuses on. You’ll see these metrics pop up in the company’s operating objectives and throughout the organization. To help identify these metrics, just listen! What is everybody talking about? What are the leaders talking about? What is everyone focusing on?

Is the business focusing on customers, creating new products, evolving services, or something related to generating more leads? Take stock, take inventory of all the things your business cares about. From there, take a closer look at each one and figure out which things are underperforming. The thing that is underperforming the most is your low hanging fruit and a great place to start.

Gather data

When gathering data to prove what impact training has had on the organization, ask yourself this important question:

Do you know who you’re trying to impact?

Are you trying to impact employees? Once you’ve identified who you’re trying to impact, think about what you want to impact. Are you trying to close a skill gap? Are you trying to change behaviors or attitudes? Or, perhaps you’re trying to fix a retention issue?

You must know who you’re trying to impact, what you’re trying to impact, and then, you need to figure out how you’re going to make that impact happen. You must know how to get the needle moving towards your end goal.

The final question to consider is how much are you trying to move that needle?

Your answers to these questions will help you understand how to effectively deliver learning to your audience (employees, team members, etc.) and for what purpose. While working on building your program, try to anchor everything back to your answers, which you can view as your guiding principles.

Once you have all of this down, you can start to measure the impact of your training effectively.

We hope that this post helps you to get started and take the first steps towards organizing yourself and your organization so that you can effectively begin to measure the impact of your training. Remember that every journey starts with a single step. You don’t have to take a huge leap to get ahead. This isn’t a marathon. Just take it one step at a time.

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You may be tempted to simply hire a contractor and let them do their work – without making them go through the corporate training, eLearning, and other interactive training programs which new hires usually have to undergo. After all, it’s not like you need to invest in the future of education for an employee who won’t actually work for you for the rest of their career, right?

Wrong. The development of employee skills and understanding of corporate policies is important for everyone, even contractors. Don’t believe us? Take a look at these three key benefits of training your independent contractors, and you’re likely to change your mind.

A Legal Note – You Can’t Require Independent Contractors To View Orientation Materials

When you’re hiring independent contractors, you’re responsible for making sure that they are classified correctly – which means you can’t treat them like you would treat full-time employees. If you treat a contractor just like you would a full-time employee, you risk violating IRS rules about the misclassification of employees.

This is a bit of a legal “gray area”. While you are free to provide contractors with training materials and other orientation material, you should not require them to read corporate handbooks, or take other training courses. The materials must be optional – because you are technically a “client” and not the the employer of the contractor.

However, you should still be supplying your contractors with the materials that they need to do their jobs – and this could include training courses and other learning materials. The choice of whether or not they actually use these materials is simply up to them.

The Benefits Of Providing Training Materials To Independent Contractors

Despite the fact that you cannot mandate a contractor to read or use your training materials, you can still enjoy some benefits by providing them as orientation materials, and suggesting that contractors use them to familiarize themselves with your company and policies.

1. You May Be Able To Avoid Legal Issues And Liability – One example of this would be if you worked at a hospital or another healthcare company, and you brought on a third-party contractor to do some IT work for you. Naturally, the contractor should already be familiar with HIPAA and other provisions related to the protection of healthcare information.

But you can protect yourself further legally by providing them with orientation materials related to corporate policies for HIPAA and the governance of Protected Health Information (PHI). This way, if the contractor ends up violating the law or regulation, you can provide evidence that they had all the information they needed about the policy – which can reduce your legal liability.

2. You Can Foster Better Employee Engagement With Contractors – When a contractor takes the time to understand your corporate policies – such as the use of social media at work, your corporate culture, and the attitude they are expected to have when working with others – this makes your employees more likely to engage with them.

This is especially important when you have a team of full-time employees working with one or more contractors. It’s common for contractors and employees to have disagreements – especially when their areas of expertise overlap. Allowing contractors to have the option to familiarize themselves with your company can help create a more positive, team-oriented working environment.

 3. New Contractors Have Hands-Off Orientation Options – Again, you can’t make training or reading of corporate materials mandatory for a new contractor. This is seen as “enforcing control” over an independent contractor.

However, you are likely to have many contractors come and go, due to the temporary nature of their employment. Because of this, supplying them with optional orientation materials is a great idea. Should they choose to do so, they can quickly get a top-level overview and education about your company, which will improve their on-the-job performance, and allow them to become an effective worker quickly.

As a rule, just remember that you are allowed to provide contractors with all of the educational materials that you want, as long as you make it clear that they are merely reference and orientation resources – and that they are not strictly required to read them.

Give Your Contractors The Tools They Need To Succeed

It may seem tricky to “train” contractors, but it’s worth taking the time to compile orientation information for new third-party contractors. Doing so will allow them to become a more competent contractor, should they choose to view the materials.

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According to a number of studies, there are generally five tools that generate an optimal performance level within an organization, namely

• Management of Effective Communication within Teams
• Improving Performance
• Dealing with Change
• Dealing with Conflicts
• Managing Expectations

Here is a detailed explanation of these that can ensure effective training.

Management of Effective Communication within Teams

The different teams working within an organization are the cogs that ensure it keeps running smoothly. The lubrication that can keep them running smoothly? Effective communication skills. This is the responsibility of the person managing the teams. Having training sessions highlighting the specific set of duties of every individual team and initiating sessions to promote a feeling of goodwill and coordination ensures higher levels of productivity on a whole. Competition usually gets in the way of a good level of communication; employees need to be trained to know that they are ONE organization working towards ONE goal.

Improving Performance

Proper project management enhances performance. The project managers of the organization should be trained to focus on the skills of management, the quality of the process and the competency of the performance. The right communication skills and assignment of tasks should be planned according to the efficiency of the outcome. Performance is much more productive when the team is motivated to achieve a certain, common objective.

Dealing With Change

Change is inevitable when it comes to most things in life, which is why within an organization there are a few changes that business owners and managers fail to forecast and plan accordingly for. Having the right skills set to manage such a situation proactively incurring minimum losses should be on the main focus.

Dealing With Conflict

Conflicts can become one of the worst, non-productive issues of an organization if they are not controlled from the very beginning. Office politics may benefit one person, but it has a negative effect on the organization overall. Situations like these should be handled in a manner that a win-win outcome for both conflicting parties results.

Managing Expectations

The final purpose of an organization is to have satisfied clients. A number of organizations advertise about their products loudly, which is not wrong, but when a customer finally approaches them, they do not live up to their promises. A dissatisfied customer/client should never be appreciated just for generating traffic within the organization. Manage and plan the expectations of your clients in a way that they become loyal to you!

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