The most valuable asset of any successful business is the human talent that executes day to day operations. Remove the individual team members, and you invalidate the role of leader or manager. Leadership becomes a title with no purpose or usefulness.
The effort and labor of the employee – their output – correlates with increases in revenue. Highly qualified and trained talent yields high quality output. What types of training should your business provide to develop high performing staff?
Diversity Training
The globalization of business and the economy, and increasingly generationally and culturally diverse workforce, requires helping employees work well together despite differences. Diversity is a contributing factor in team impact. Varied perspectives can lead to creative plans that stand out in the competitive marketplace.
It is not uncommon to find a 25-year-old recent MBA graduate working alongside and even managing a 65-year-old planning to presently retire out of the workforce. Aiding the development of relationships and training these colleagues to communicate across a generational gap, to share workspace, and to collaborate increases productivity and decreases workplace stress and conflict. Training is especially important for onboarding talent, as unconscious bias must be identified.
Cultural sensitivity training can:
- Keep the workplace free of discrimination and harassment,
- Boost employee morale,
- Mitigate legal risk, and
- Ultimately increase customer satisfaction and revenue.
Change Management
Transformational leaders are genuinely interested in the success of individual team members. They inspire and motivate, ultimately, expecting followers to evolve into leaders. Transformational leaders involve their subordinates in the change and decision-making processes and increase buy-in and acceptance while modeling change leadership.
Legislative and policy revisions can require major upheavals within organizations. Less effective leaders and managers simply notify team members about upcoming vicissitudes with bulletins, emails, and online posts. Effective training:
- Involves those affected throughout the change process,
- Empowers employees with knowledge regarding the laws, policies, and rules under revision,
- Informs holistically the changes necessary to comply and how those changes will be implemented throughout the company.
This form of training allows employees to have input, demonstrating their value within the organization. It also prepares managers to lead change within the rank and file, decreasing probability of rejection and resulting damage to the organization’s culture.
Online Professional Presence
With the more than 65% of the American population using social media, a complete training program must include sessions on appropriate use of the Internet, more specifically social media websites and mobile applications.
Balancing private and civil rights against the responsibility to protect the company’s brand and reputation is precarious and must be lead with astute policies and in-depth training. Recent media reports of firings due to posts on Facebook or Twitter that violated company policy or opposed corporate values and ethics raises red flags.
Training should minimally include:
- How-to information on adding job roles and titles to profiles,
- Protecting online identities and pages,
- Banned language or interactions (such as teachers ‘friending’ students outside an official institution page), and
- Inappropriate photos or video.
Skilled leadership is not innate. Effective leaders are and high quality talent is developed. Providing continuous education and innovative training develops a high performing culture. Training programs that include preparation, coaching, and instruction create a high performing environment and the impetus for organizational growth and career acceleration.
Joynicole Martinez
Dr. Joynicole Martinez is founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Alchemist Agency, a management consulting firm serving leading corporations, health care facilities, non-governmental organizations, and not-for-profit corporations. Dr. Martinez has 20 years of experience providing capacity-building services, including strategic planning, with a focus on performance management, fund development and impact measurement. As a community advancement and public health expert, Joynicole has developed initiatives that reach across disciplines to strengthen health and wellness. For example, the development of mixed-income, mixed-finance housing communities that address the social determinants of health, equity and human rights.
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