Training helps your team ‘fly’

Let me be clear here. academy does not train pilots. 

So this is an observer’s point of view about the unfolding and deepening crisis (I think that dramatic word is probably very apt for a company forced to cease trading for safety reasons) facing Tiger Airways in Australia .

The focus of discussions between CASA (the airline safety regulator) and the airline is primarily training. As talks continue, CASA is also looking at how training is built into the airline’s systems.

Yes, it’s fair to say I have a vested interest in training, but this seems like such a basic thing to get right to me. Not only does training keep your team motivated and inspired, it has the practical function of having them know their job, know your company and its systems.

Whether it is in-house, or externally conducted, continual training is vital to your success. This Tiger Airways incident should ring alarm bells for any senior or team leader in any industry. The wider business and regulatory community not only expects your people to know what they are doing, they also expect you to be able to document it, ensure the continual improvement of your training processes and comply with the law.

Tiger has been shut down for the moment because it was not operating in a safe fashion – damning for an airline. But each and every business is expected to operate to a high level of safety, service and quality… it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

As a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), academy is required to continuously develop staff in order to keep our national accreditation. But even if we did not have to do this, we would. Our people are great at their jobs, but as a business leader, you can not always take that for granted. Regular training and communication updates are needed for peace of mind, the personal development of teams and to make sure your processes are the best they can be.

Training with benefits

People who train together, strive together

Building a community during corporate training programs

New skills, increased productivity, career and personal development. These are all the natural benefits of corporate training – and if you are not getting them from your training provider, you probably need to ask questions.

But there is one extra benefit of training, which is not often thought about upfront or factored in, and I believe it is time to change that. People who experience a training program together, bond. They form a community, a network, call it what you will.

That’s a massive advantage for nearly any organisation, and nearly any person within that organisation.

It is the power to pick up the phone to another department and personally know someone who can help. It is a ticket to informal corporate knowledge, insight into how other areas operate (as distinct from office gossip!). It is a connection beyond simply working for the same company. It is shared experience.

If companies foster a sense of community among course participants they are giving people a ready-made cross-functional team – or, in the case of people who are training in their teams, a much stronger link.

Here’s the kicker… community, connections to other people, keep people with their employers longer. Community is a retention tool.

As trainers, we can almost physically see these links between people forming, even in the most trying of circumstances. We recently trained people from a state Government department in the middle of a restructure. These were not happy people and they had been told they had to be at training to keep their job (not much fun for anyone at first!).

They all did similar jobs but didn’t know each other. The body language at the beginning of the first session was daunting to say the least.

As the icebreaker got underway, the participants started to realise they were all facing similar problems and had similar fears and concerns. As they shared their experience and chatted over morning tea, this became more obvious. By dinner, they were sharing positive ideas and solutions.

Between classes, they started sharing thoughts on approaching the assignments and by the last session, they were regularly contacting each other to offer and access support and bounce ideas around.

No doubt the participants learnt new skills throughout the course, but it was clear that the most valuable thing they got from the training was the community to support them in applying their new skills.

Community is not the sole reason you would choose to train people, but it certainly deserves its place on the honour role of training benefits.

Please mind the gap

Good manners go a long way when it comes to customer service

This week, I am handing over the reins to Shane Garrott, one of our sales and service trainers and someone who lives, eats and breaths service ethic. I guess that’s why he gets so frustrated when he sees poor service…

——-

Blood-boilingly bad service. I’m sad to say we all see examples of it from time to time.  Last week, I needed to get to Sydney Airport and had this conversation. Well, if you can call it that.

Allow me to set the scene.

I approach the ticket window. No one in sight.

I turn to the machine – an “Out of Order” sign.

I turn back to the window and let out a hopeful “excuse me?”

A woman approaches. Eyebrows pinched, brow furrowed and a look of obvious disgust on her face.

Awesome – this has started well. (I think to myself.)

“Single to the airport, please.”

“International or Domestic?”

“International please.”

She strikes the keys like she’s using a 1940s typewriter. Bang. Bang. I barely have a moment to get out… “Cred….”

The ticket is printed and in the tray.

I pull out my MasterCard and continue… “Credit, please.”

Her mouth contorts. The eyes roll.

“Why didn’t you say credit? Now I have to do this again!”

I try to explain I was saying it, but can’t get a word in.

“People complain that you have to wait in queue and then ask to use credit! I mean…”

Standing alone in the queue, I am speechless.

Things continue along the same vein and at the end of this ‘customer experience’ the employee walks away before I can say anything.

She was one of the rudest employees I have ever met. Of course it’s possible she was having a bad day for one reason or another, but I still believe that, especially in a service job, you should be able to provide actual service.

Knee jerk reactions. Frustration. Emotion. We are only human. But to ensure customers ‘board your trains’ so to speak, what do you do to positively represent your organisation?

Three small but effective actions are:

1. Take a breath.
2. Be positive.
3. Keep yourself in check.

A positive experience with someone when you are feeling down may even lift your spirits. And please, next time – mind the gap chasm you may create with your customers!

Open for business

A guide to help adults open up to learning

Open minds for learning

Some adults have shut up shop when it comes to learning. Perhaps not consciously, and for a wide variety of reasons.

There are the senior managers who are accustomed to leading and so used to being experts that it takes a big adjustment to learn from someone else. There are people who are about to change their life in some way, people who struggled in formal learning environments in the past, people who believe they are too busy at work and training is a waste of their valuable time.

And then there are people who are scared to learn, to not know, in front of their colleagues.

What does this mean for your training efforts? Sometimes it means you have someone who doesn’t get much out of a training program. Or worse, it can mean one participant’s negativity can bring others down.

But it certainly does not have to be that way.

HR Managers can help

If you know you are placing potentially reluctant people into a course, have a chat with your trainer about it ahead of time.

There are some great ways trainers can help turn people around, open their minds to the experience, and a discussion ahead of time can help them plan for this. Together, you may even decide that there is a better learning strategy for that person… one-on-one coaching perhaps, but in most cases, forewarned is forearmed.

Trainer strategies for reluctant learners

In a nutshell, the strategy depends on the person and the reason for their reluctance. One thing you must ensure is an experienced trainer.

Strategies used can be quite simple, but must be executed with skill. These are just a few:

1)    The opening words from the trainer set the tone for the whole session. They must establish their credibility, the reason they can guide others in their subject. However, an acknowledgement of the experience in the room goes a long way with experienced people – a ‘we can learn from each other’ message.

2)    Catering for the busy and deadline driven, a trainer should let participants know that there will be regular breaks for catching up with any urgent work issues. This seems to visibly relax some people

3)    A gentle reminder that participants’ managers have prioritised their training (signing off on their temporary absence) should also help some people realise that their full attention is the only way to maximise the value of their time on the program.

4)    Perhaps the simplest of all, one of our trainers says he always starts by finding out what each and every person wants to achieve from being there. Sure he might get a multitude of very different responses, but he knows exactly where he stands in helping each person meet their goals. After all, knowledge is power.

A ‘frank’ case study

Most reluctant learners are quietly reluctant but sometimes you get someone like (let’s call him) Frank.

Frank told one of our trainers in the first five minutes of session one, “I was made to come. I’m about to retire. If I hate you, don’t take it personally.”

Whoompa. What’s a trainer to do?

Well, actually he discovered that Frank loved mentoring the younger trainees, so made sure there was a peer-mentoring component to each session.

Frank blossomed and, instead of disrupting his colleagues with his attitude, actually helped them to learn.

At the end of the program he said, “You know I didn’t want to be here, but this wasn’t bad really.” His manager later told our trainers that this was a huge compliment from Frank.

Lifelong learning

Luckily, most trainees are excited to learn and share the academy philosophy that lifelong learning leads to a rewarding life and career, but should you encounter someone who does not; there are certainly ways to help them. I’d love to hear about any strategies you may have used (or seen used).

Change helps us soar

My goal in writing these blog posts is to provide you with food-for-thought, and maybe even help you in your busy workday. So, naturally, the posts are outward looking, focusing on broader training and organisational development topics.

Just this once I’d like to tell you about some of the exciting changes we are celebrating at academy. Hopefully some, or all, of these will achieve the same thing… helping you do a great job.

New brand, new expertise

First, we have a new brand – academy green – offering training in waste management, transport and logistics. Not only does this grow our stable of expertise, it also adds full-time staff and an office in Melbourne.

But the thing that excites us most about it…? We seek to engage in sustainable business.  The added bonus of our ‘academy green’ brand is that, in our own way, academy can make a difference as we educate people about sustainability and managing waste.

Do have a look at the academy green section of our website for more information – or, please, get in touch with any questions.

There’s no place like a home page

As we grow, it becomes even more important that there are a number of ways we can stay in touch with you. If it’s easy for you, we want to be there. If we can provide you with content that helps you with new ideas or ways of achieving your training and learning and development goals, we will. That’s why we are spending time and energy opening up as many lines of communication as possible:

• You can find our new home page at www.academy.edu.au – it features links to many of our services, enables you to find basic information with just one click and you can also sign up to stay in touch with us via whichever form of social media suits you best.
• We have started this blog for people who love learning. If you would like to contribute a post, please do let us know. It’s a great way to get your thoughts out there and we are all for guest bloggers!
• Similarly, we manage a LinkedIn group for anyone who wants to access articles on organisational development, training, education and so on – all in one easy place. If you haven’t already joined, please consider it. It’s here.
• You can follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/academyaus or join our Facebook page here.

We’d love to hear from you about content you’d like to see featured, any ways we can make these services more valuable and which type of communication best fits into your busy work day!

And the winner is…

We do a lot of work in the contact centre field and we were delighted to sponsor (what else?) the academy Awards on 6 August 2010 at Star City. The NSW ATA Contact Centre Awards of Excellence showcases individuals and teams who excel and we were proud to be part of the celebration of those achievements. You can see the winners on the ATA’s website here, plus we blogged here and here.

Well that’s it for our news and our changes at the moment. Please do get in touch to share any news or ideas of your own.

The yin and yang of sales

The yin and yang of sales

Some people may be able to ‘sell ice to Eskimos’ and others may be ‘born salespeople’, but I tend to disagree with the notion that great sales people are only born and cannot be made.

I believe that anybody who is passionate and believes in their product will inspire others to buy.

Furthermore, a natural ability to build relationships, through an empathic ability to identify people’s needs and wants (even when they cannot voice them!) will also close many a deal.

So all of these traits will bode well for a sales person’s potential to generate revenue.

However, I have also worked with many competent sales people who achieve solid results largely through hard work and discipline. These people may not necessarily be ‘naturals’ when it comes to relationship building and management, but their persistent dedication often gets them across the line.

I always hesitate to generalise, however perhaps we can conclude that there are at least two distinct ‘types’ of high achieving sales people. Leaving each ‘type’ with a variety of skills that can still be developed. Indeed, to be a truly great sales person, I believe people need to use tools from a variety of sources, with a range of leaders and mentors.

Sometimes this means training yourself (or being trained!) to go against a natural inclination. Good sales people who are strong on relationships can be coached in disciplined processes. And good sales people who rely on top notch systems can have their people skills developed, by good managers and training.

Having a mix of these natural skills sets in your sales team can only help. Companies that develop a range of attributes in their team may just elevate their sales from good to great.

What do you think makes for a great sales person?

Importance of Ongoing Management and Staff Training

When you talk about the people in an organization, it refers to everyone at every level from the Chief Executive Officer to the mail room worker. It is the people who accomplish the tasks necessary to fulfil the mission of the organization. Unfortunately, it is also the people who can become the barriers to progress unless they buy into the mission of the organization and understand their roles in achieving success.

But just as important is the fact people must be trained to do their jobs the right way and with an understanding of how their job fits into the overall scheme of things. Dysfunctional organisations are often unable to build quality business environments because they have one basic and critical flaw: lack of people unity due to lack of training.

This is true for the top, middle and line managers and for the staff doing the day to day customer work. When you read about the principles of project management, you discover that one of the first principles that must be addressed is the matter of governance and control. But how do you teach these important principles?

It all comes down to leadership training. The CEO must learn to lead the entire organization and be prepared to handle conflict along the way. The middle managers must be prepared to supervise the front line staff in a way that supports the mission of the organisation. The staff that have the most contact with customers need to understand how their jobs support the organization and how their treatment of customers is one of the most important factors determining overall profitability.

Unifying Themes

You see people draw organisational charts that show who answers to who by position within different functional areas. It begins with the CEO and the arrows normally flow downward through the levels. Instead of drawing a traditional organisational flow chart, you can draw a training flow chart. On this chart, the mission of the company would be at the top, and the arrows would flow through the various levels such as management training, sales team training, customer service training, and business training.

On the training flow chart though, the arrows would flow in a circle from top to bottom and back up to the top again in a circle. Training people to become business leaders within the organisation is an ongoing process which relies on constant feedback. This constant feedback takes the form of effective communication within the organization, communication between the organization and its customers, and a flow of training information that keeps people attuned to the organizational mission and how their jobs fit within the big picture.

Never Working Alone

One of the most important principles the people within a company must learn is that they are never working alone even if they work alone. This may sound odd at first, but an organization has to operate as a whole. Even the customer service representative working alone in an office answering customer complaints must always operate with a business mindset that he or she must do the job in a particular manner in order to help the entire company to succeed.

Management and staff training is an important and critical function if a company hopes to become and remain profitable. Without proper training and leadership development, people tend to create mini-kingdoms within the workplace and then rule to their own advantage which may or may not be to the advantage of the business. Teaching people to be leaders within their own company roles is how you can build a strong and well developed organisation that is able to flourish through all economic times.