How to Inspire

People not only want to be heard, but want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted.  They want to make a difference.  Here are 10 ways to inspire a team through leadership (taken from a Forbes article):

1.       Solve, don’t sell.  Rather than selling employees about why they should perform better, explain why their contributions help solve problems and contribute toward the company’s advancement.  Employees are more inclined to step up their game when they know their work can add value to the whole.

2.       Purpose, not profit.  Employees are inspired by knowing that their hard work makes a difference beyond profitability.  They want leaders who look to create a wider reaching impact that extends into the community and influences social causes.

3.       Know the ingredients, not just the recipe.  The secret recipe to inspiring employees is knowing the “ingredients” of the people you are inspiring.  Employees are inspired when a leader takes the time to know them and show them that they have their best interests at heart.

4.       Learning, not just lecturing.  Employees are tired of being told what to do and are tired of leaders that inflict fear.  They are eager to learn, want objective feedback, and leaders that continuously coach.  Stop lecturing and start teaching.  

5.       Innovation, not just Ideation.  Employees want to create an impact.  Ideation is important, but being part of implementing the ideas that come to life is a more exciting and meaningful growth opportunity that inspires your employees to perform.  When given the right tools and resources, the best employees will instinctively challenge themselves and will perform better.

6.       Significance, not just success.  Activate the natural talents of your employees in ways that make them feel more responsible about their jobs to inspire with a longer lasting impact.  You never know the significance of someone’s performance until you measure it; and when you do, it’s an effective way to inspire even greater performance.

7.       Ownership, not just accountability.  When you give your employees ownership in the process of defining how accountability is enforced, you inspire trust and desire to go above and beyond the call of duty.   Giving ownership means that you entrust them with your authority.  Outline the expectations for the end result and allow them to take charge of the project.  Meet once a week to observe the change in attitude and desire to perform.  Use what you learn along the way to customize your approach to best inspire that employee’s performance long-term.  

8.       Respect, not just recognition.  Beyond appreciation and praise, show your respect and admiration for the work of your employees.  Re-train your employees about the importance of respect and lead them in how to earn it.  When they see the greater impact respect delivers, they will be inspired by your example.

9.       Personal growth, not just responsibility.  When a leader can help foster the professional growth and development of their employees, performance flourishes most.  Leaders must take more time to mentor and/or guide their employee’s development and growth.  

10.   Trust, not just transparency.  Ultimately, it is a relationship based on trust that inspires employees to perform.  When you trust someone, you believe in them.  People are inspired when they know that their leaders believe in their capabilities to deliver.

Inspiring employees to optimally perform requires a leader who can see beyond the obvious in people.  Inspiration comes not from something that you can turn on and off, but rather from constant behavior - triggered through multiple ways - that makes your employees feel that they matter and that you genuinely care.

How to Filter a Best Practice

As you read a best practice, ask these questions:

1.       Is it genuine?

2.       Do you believe it?

3.       Does it serve everyone we care about:

a.       Our people?

b.      Our client?

c.       The planet?

d.      Our vendors?

e.      Our client’s customers?

f.        Our platform?

g.       Our investors?

h.      Our profit?

4.       Is it in the right order?

5.       Are we serving rather than selling?

6.       Is it concise, clear, and focused?

 

Modify to align with these guiding filters. J

Training Creation Guidelines

This document is to be referenced during the creation of training materials.

 

Why Creating Training is Important

Any time that a process, template, or best practice has been created, it has come from a lot of hard work by several members of our team.  The results are very valuable to our company.  Making sure that those results are implemented properly, are understood by all participants, and live on (rather than die out due to lack of understanding) is important.  If there are others in the company that can benefit from what was done, training is a great way to share the accomplishment.  The way to communicate the achievement is by creating training material and training the team.

Training is a critical step for almost every process, template, best practice, and project.  Creating a training module that is optimized for learning transfer is important.  This document will provide information that will be useful to include in the creation of the training material. 

 

How People Learn

These tips will help provide a high level of learning transfer.

·         Make the training easy to access so that people can find what they need to find easily and are therefore more likely to utilize the content.

·         Alignment needs to happen repetitively – just like in a car – one training course doesn’t work for life. It’s a process of continuous adjustment (weekly, monthly) with adjustments as needed to stay on course. 

·         Video is the most effective method of training.  The average human can retain:

o   10% of text

o   65% of images

o   95% of video

·         Images are retrieved 60,000 times faster by the brain than text is.

·         By utilizing both auditorial and visual senses, help the lessons to stick more.  Each has its own channel to short term memory; double capacity by using both.

o   DO NOT have all the words up and have the audio just read the same words- very boring and closes reception of information.  Show images with key words instead while conveying the information verbally.

o   Visual images must clearly, simply connect with words so they are not distracting.

o   Great to give a document that highlights the steps as a follow up option for reference later.

·         The way that people actually apply a lesson is by hooking it to prior knowledge.  This is best done through application of the lesson into an example.

·         Personalization makes the training more accepted by the user and leads toward better retention.   Gear the training toward the specific learner and using casual language (such as “you” instead of  generic or overly professional words like “people).

·         People want to see a presenter’s image in the training that they can relate to.  They want to see eyes.  They want it to be conversational with them.  This provides a 47% improvement on test results.

o   Studies show we want women to teach us personal things and men to teach us technical things.

·         Scenarios are a highly recommended method of training.  They include relatable characters, a plot, a realistic decision, and consequences with feedback.  They challenge the learners to make realistic decisions.   Having an expert that shows step by step how they would solve a problem is ideal.

·         People relate to stories.  They help to engage the learner and confirm appropriate application of knowledge.

·         People learn much more by having smaller “chunks” of training for shorter periods rather than a two hour training with a ton of content.

What to Include in the Training Content

·         Format –

o   Visuals that are simple and connect with what is being taught.  Audio that explains.  Not a lot of wording.

o   Small chunks – keep the training to a maximum of one hour

o   Use conversational style (you/your vs. people/the)

o   Think about who your audience is and customize for them personally.

o   Use colors/backgrounds of office

·         Content design –

o   Think about who your audience is and personalize this for them

o   Analyze performance gap –

·         Where organization is (current state of performance)

·         Where want to be (desired performance)

§  Determine what behaviors need to improve to close this gap

§  This creates the learning and development target

o   Open the lesson with why this is important for the person watching it.  Customize as much as possible.  Once they understand the value to them personally, they will be much more open to learn.  [This will help you do your job better.]

§  Add how it impacts the team as a whole

o   Utilize trainers that they will connect with via scenarios

o   Prime the lesson by getting the brain to open up and think differently  (challenge the mind)

o   Give challenges that mirror the real work they will do

§  Expert solve first one and share thinking method, step by step

§  Feedback needs to vary each time (not just “correct”)

o   Indicate who is the owner of template(s) so that people know who to give suggestions for improvement to

o   Capture analytics

o   Encourage/promote feedback

·         Follow Up Activities:

o   Code the lesson by locking in the learning through repetitiveness.

Method for Training Creation

·         The initial training is to be given by the person that developed it (for now we will do in person, but in the future this can be an eLearning).  Maximum one hour segments.

o   Type up preparation notes that will be used for eLearning content

·         An exercise given to the person to apply what they learned (a specific assignment that is written and given in AtTask)

·         A one-on-one review of the exercise by the person that created the training to provide more guidance on implementation.

·         Follow up at one month by the person that gave the training to review work product and confirm full application of what was taught. 

·         Repeat as necessary.

 

Top Qualities of a Good Template

What is a template?  A template is a pattern or model on which something else is based.  It’s focused on structure and is designed to provide a specific layout.

A form or document is an instance of a template that has been applied to a situation with content added.

 

How to make a good template:

1.       It gathers all of the information needed at once and speeds the process.  A good template makes the work that is required during a process move more quickly by capturing all of the information needed to complete the entire process at once.  Everyone ‘downstream’ from the information collector has everything they need to complete their portions of the task as well. 

 

2.       It guides the user to make the collection of information simple.  People want to use a good template because it makes their work easier.  A good template asks questions that guide the person completing the form to come up with the highest quality of information.  It asks the right questions.  There are also time saving tricks such as taking the information that was input and automatically populating a second page that is formatted exactly as needed for the next step in the process.  

 

3.       It is intuitive.  It is welcoming because it’s formatted in a presentable manner and is easy to figure out.  The location of items is logical and it’s simple to know where information is needed to be input to complete the template.  It doesn’t hurt your brain to look at the document and figure out how to use it.  You can look at it without any training and understand what you need to do.  It includes a description of who should use it, when they should use it, and who it goes to once it’s completed. 

 

4.       It’s not overly long.  If a template can be done on one page, that is ideal.  It is important that the template simplifies work and does not become a 20 page document that takes 15 hours and 5 individuals to complete.  As well, if one paper can be used for two functions of the same information, do it.  For example, the top of the form is the information collected and the bottom of the form is for approval rather than requiring a different approval form and manual copying of the same information.

 

5.       It is easy to find and people know about it.  Once the template is created, store it in a location that is easy to find.   Tell people about the template and offer to help show them how to use it.  If it could help a particular individual or team, introduce it in a brief training session where you convey which instances it is useful for, how to use it (complete it for an example task), and what to do with it when you’re done.  Create a storage of the instances in which the template is applied as well so that people can refer to the examples and build upon them easily.