Succession Planning, Why Bother?

by Richard Hohmann
Since I don’t have a enough time to plan on a daily basis, how would you ever expect me to plan my succession? With the economy going south and the real estate market at its lowest ebb in years, how can I ever retire and make sure the business continues demonstrating sustained growth? These questions may be going through your mind but it is certainly the time and the climate to make sure a succession plan is in place and is viable.

Most people wait too long before developing a succession plan, but most agree late is better than never. Many business owners feel that succession planning ends with an estate plan and enough life insurance in place to handle most situations. It is true that they need to be addressed but there is more to succession planning than insurance and estate taxes. There is no question that the tax liability placed on the business following the owner’s death may put the business in the ground with the owner. There may be the need to use the monies from the insurance policy to sustain the company during this transition period. It is best to work out the financial concerns before they happen. It is important that the methods to pay taxes, buy-out the deceased partner’s share, etc. are finalized before the event actually happens.

Let’s look at the intangibles. Things like good will, trust, and respect for the new management team must be established over time. Even if it is a family member or key employee that takes over the company, trust development takes time…and time is money. Clients will have concerns about receiving the same quality of service and attention. The best way to eliminate these concerns is to develop customer loyalty to the new regime before the person retires or becomes deceased. It is imperative that you transition in the new management team prior to the old guard riding off into the sunset. Take the time to introduce your clients to the next generation of ownership while exceeding their service expectations. A Win-Win combination!

It is imperative that the new management team or generation of ownership is ready to assume the role. Many newly anointed family members have no real business experience or have never experienced any other work environment and tend to be rather poor in “street smarts”. Many times we revert back to the “let’em sink or swim, no one taught me how to do it!” or “let them gain the experience through failure”. I guess we now know why most businesses don’t last past two generations.

Here are a few steps to help Succession Planning work for you:

1. Evaluate the stage that your business is currently in.
2. Evaluate the stage where the business needs to be to sustain the opportunity for the next generation
3. Evaluate the people in place to ensure sustained growth and development
4. Recruit and train the next generation in ownership
5. Select the leader for the company; don’t divide equally.
6. Prepare the company for the transition; communicate the plan
7. Design an implementation plan for succession and stick to the timeline

Succession planning is not an easy task. It is time consuming and needs the input from your most trusted advisors; your spouse, other family members, your lawyer, your accountant, your financial planner and your business consultant and maybe some others. It takes time and money to create an effective plan of succession but I guarantee you one thing, if you don’t, it will cost you and your loved ones a lot more.

Call me at 609.390.2830 for a complimentary consultation on the development of Your Succession Plan or click here to get started now!

Ellen and Richard Hohmann - Contributors in South Jersey Biz Article

Ellen and Richard Hohmann asked to be contributors to an article titled, “No Problems to Report” by Jennifer Nelson (South Jersey Biz, Volume 2, Issue 1).

The article focused on the difficulty facing supervisors and managers today in terms of having to deal with a wide range of personality traits and behavior. Some of the contributors felt that over 30% of an employee’s performance in the workplace is tied to their individual behaviors. In the article, Elizabeth Faircloth, Vice President of Augur, Inc. stated that, “I don’t think many companies realize how important an employee’s personal actually is. Both Ellen and Richard know for a fact that they don’t.

Ellen and Richard Hohmann have specialized in teaching companies and their people to better understand both the differences in personalities and the resulting behavioral tendencies that they will exhibit in the workplace. Individual performance and the productivity of the organization can certainly be linked to this. It is also important that managers or supervisors understand the cultural and generational differences present in the workplace today. After all, the effectiveness of any organization is a direct reflection of people being engaged with the company’s business strategy. This engagement cannot occur without a better understanding of these “people” traits.

Engagement is certainly one barometer that can be used to measure if the personality of the workers is understood. After all, a more engaged workforce is more productive making the company more profitable. Sure makes sense to us. Richard also uses Behavioral Assessment Instruments with every Executive Coaching client. It is important that excellent communication be achieved and assessment help with that immensely.

The uniqueness about the Leadership Courses offered by Innovative Leadership is that they don’t focus on content, they focus on the expected behavioral change needed by the participant to be more productive. Adults learn differently than children and content driven programs have been shown to deliver little of no change. Behavioral-oriented programs do make a change…in the employee and the company. As our slogan says, “We change companies, one employee at a time”.

Read the Full South Jersey Biz Article Here

10 Management reSOLUTIONS for 2010

1. Make sure the business strategy is understood and clear to all employees
2. Make sure the employees understand how their value and job roles contribute to the overall success of the business
3. Improve your communication with employees
4. Help people reach their potential through coaching and/or mentoring
5. Make sure you are consistent in your message and actions
6. Focus yourself and all the employees on the “High Payoff Activities”
7. Become more goal and results-oriented
8. Understand that you are responsible for employee engagement.
9. Focus your energies on people development and career enhancement
10. Understand that the tools of accountability (data, metrics, analysis, assessments, and performance evaluations) are neutral and need to become the tools that high achievers use to understand and improve performance.

By Richard Hohmann, VP of Innovative Leadership
Making of an Effective Manager Course 2010

Critical Business Success Factor

Many experts feel that even though every company is different, it is important for each to develop a succession plan that includes hiring from within, conducting a developmental opportunity or audition, providing a defined plan with time lines for anyone to assume a leadership responsibility, and disclosing the process or succession plan to the shareholders.

Most succession plans do not take into consideration that different environments require different leadership competencies or skills. So, if we narrow our development process than we may never have the right person ready to assume the leadership role in any company. Companies need to consider what most professional sports teams do as a major component for success and that is a strong bench. Most championship teams, whether it be in basketball, baseball, or even football have a great bench or understudy for their key positions. Companies, like professional sports teams, must have a strong bench of candidates who can lead or “step up to the plate” under a variety of scenarios.

Many companies use different forms of people development processes. Some companies call them Leadership Academies or Institutes, and/or High Potential Candidate Schools. Despite the different names, the end result is the same: development of people toward a higher level. As a business owner, you need to provide a constant flow of internal talent but you also must be aware that when people don’t get the higher position, they do have a tendency to leave the organization so the funnel better continue to be adequately filled at all times.

It is also important for companies to deliver some kind of transparency to their shareholders, customers, and internal personnel. The ideal succession plan should minimize uncertainty, which is not a bad thing in this economic climate, and continue to promote the “real” culture of the company. The depth of the company’s disclosure should be predicated by the need at the time and situational circumstances.

Also, many experts believe that the succession plan must take into consideration the corporate culture to the extent that every company should have a corporate culture that transcends the exit of any leader or person. Most companies do not really know what they smell, taste, and feel like to their internal and external customers. The best way to determine the current culture and the culture employees want is to conduct an Organizational Needs Inventory (ONI) assessment but most companies don’t do them.

So, succession planning is just a more formalized name that can be defined as a process to help companies develop their people to meet their future needs.It certainly sounds like it is time for a Leadership Program! Let's get started!

Let It Be...Let It Be

Let it Be was in fact the last Beatles album released in 1970 and the song was written by Paul McCartney which was inspired by his mother. I read a recent article that authored by Michael O’Brien titled, “Tardiness is on the Rise” and was published online by LRP Publications.

That exact song title came to me immediately upon starting to read the article, but as I continued to read on, the content contained in the article got my juices flowing.

It was noted in an earlier survey that more than 1 in 5 workers say they arrive late to work at least once a week and another 10% say they are late at least twice a week.

Some people believe that the rise in tardiness is directly related to the economic times and is more of an employee defense mechanism. People are now relating tardiness to specific behavioral patterns normally associated with procrastination. Behavioral change is possible and can be accomplished in good or bad economic times.

Other experts think the reason for tardiness has more to do with demographics as opposed to individual behavioral styles and the climate of the economy. Billy G. Blair, President and CEO of Change Strategists, Inc., a Los Angeles-based consultancy, and author of All the Moving Parts: Organizational Change Management says that the increase in lateness may correspond to an increase in the number of “millennials” in the workplace. She also says the “factory model” of being in a certain place at a certain time and predetermined duration is outdated. The “factory model” may be outdated but in many businesses today, coverage remains an important responsibility for the worker. Flex-time may help support the needs of the employer and the worker but random flex-time rarely provides a viable resolution for both.

Wake up! Work does not necessarily begin wherever you are, and the customer is not always available at the times you would like them to be. It just might be that in some workplaces today, consistency is more important than flexibility. Focus your culture on the customer, not the millennial. Oh, well, I guess I should Let it Be!

Article written by Richard J. Hohmann Jr., SeniorInnovative Leadership, a performance improvement company that integrates business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness and people development. Richard is a member of the Collaboration Team for Leadership Management International and a strategic partner with the accounting firm of Fitzpatrick, Bongiovanni, & Kelly, PC. For more information visit www.ILDV.org. Business and Management Consultant for

Do you have the right focus?

It seems like the HR professional must continue the fight for training and development since it does not appear that the CEO has realized the value of training to the company or organization.

Companies focus on profits, stock prices, and performance, but not on employees. How do we forget to see the value in our people, particularly our key employees, when it comes to celebrating our business outcomes? Studies have shown that companies that invest more heavily in training and development have been more successful in achieving their defined outcomes.

Many of the recent studies have concluded that a more engaged workforce provides enhanced performance and improved productivity. Companies with a more engaged workforce seldom have morale issues. “In the 21st century, our natural resource is our people – and their potential is untapped and vast. Skills will unlock that potential.” (Leitch Review, December 2006) Even with the economic climate of the past year or two, it has been demonstrated that training expenditures were a strong predictor of stock prices.

So where is the hidden agenda? Is any CEO really interested in the productivity and developing the potential of their people or is the real objective of only reducing cost associated with people including the people themselves. I have seen a decrease in revenue of less than 10%, yet the company has reduced its labor forces by almost 30%.

Training the management of any organization will certainly prove to make the organization more effective. People are looking for advancement and an opportunity to develop skills to assist with their upward mobility. They want feedback immediately from their supervisor and they want to work in an environment that supports their development. The social culture that is presented today by companies is very important to the millennial generation. Many believe that a budget for employee development indicates whether a company is in it for the long haul or not.

If we expect to retain our top producers in the management positions, we better make sure that they have the skills and competencies to work with four generations of workers. This ensures that knowledge is shared, cross-training is completed and the work is getting done in a timely fashion. We need to teach our management team that communication is the key to people success and that success can only be achieved if we develop people’s potential and focus on productivity and performance, and not just trying to reduce costs. Reducing training budgets can be detrimental.

We are fortunate that the economy has kept the Baby Boomers in the workforce but how long will that last? It looks like we will be left with an untrained workforce that doesn’t like to communicate with others. It sure sounds like it might not be the best time to be in a management position.

Come on Mr. CEO; listen to your People Developer. Investing in your management team will produce an improved bottom line. If you don’t believe that training and development can affect the bottom line, just look at how the reduction in their training budget prepared Wachovia for the merger with Wells Fargo. Their training budget was reduced by over 50% and their stock fell as much as 95% before the bank finally agreed to the merge. Helping people reach their potential, coupled with effective processes and procedures can certainly affect the effectiveness of the organization.

The time to train is now and please pass this on to the decision makers in your company!

Evaluate Talent from Day One

Where is Your Focus? on Your People or on Your Process?

In a recent article in the Investor’s Business Daily, Kevin Harlin points out that Employment consulting firms say it is vital to track and nurture promising leadership candidates even though the economy is sluggish. Steve Krupp, partner and leader of the executive talent management practice at Delta Organization & Leadership, asserts that if a company fails to engage and communicate its top performers, they might be inclined to depart.

Rather than focusing on your processes, focus on your people. They are your biggest asset. Remember that turnover can cost you double of just one employee’s salary. A survey from Delta found that most U.S. companies fail to monitor their best performers, even fewer communicate with these employees, and few top executives support such initiatives.

PPG Industries, a global glass, paint, and chemical firm, has been tracking its best employees for about a decade. Roughly 30 percent of workers are regarded as top talent, and just 1 percent is deemed suitable for the CEO position. Identified employees get first priority for training, special projects, and responsibilities. Executives also meet with these employees from time to time at informal settings like breakfast or lunch. Global business software firm SAP provides potential leaders with six-month fellowships in another division, typically in a different location, to ensure that these employees have adequate insight into the company.

The above synopsis of the article that appeared in Investor’s Business Daily demonstrates the need to evaluate talent from the first day of hire in terms of recognizing potential and people development as the priority for any organization. I really question whether companies today are focused on their future leadership and understand the need to develop people’s potential.
Innovative Leadership offers an Assessment Process called the Achiever Series that can assist you with people development and also compliment certain aspects of succession planning, downsizing or transformation.

We are a company that is focused on helping companies develop their potential of their people that will result in organizational effectiveness. Please call us at your convenience to discuss our Assessment Processes that can make the difference in the future of your company at 609.390.2830.

It's Time to Pay Attention to Personnel

We should never lose sight of the fact that people make a company what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. Also, we should not forget our people in the development and organizational sense as well as the retention situation. Have we taken our people for granted? Like other industries, the employee in the Home Healthcare market does not always feel as passionate as the owner about the mission of the organization, and they may be confused about how they fit in to the organization’s changing future. Many employees are becoming discouraged when they hear or read about the industry’s problems.

In all types of industries, the training and development of the employee is usually ranked first or second by most surveys listing the Top Five Methods to increase employee retention. 73% of all companies provide Leadership Development Programs, with Team Building, and Empowerment Programs. However, in the Home Healthcare Industry, many of the key executives, managers, and supervisors in a Home Health Care company are licensed professionals with extensive clinical backgrounds, but they possess very little in the way of formal management training. Is it like this for your company?

Home Heathlcare example of business: Take orders for products. Process the order after it has met all the qualifications. Deliver product in a timely manner with minimal expense and upon receipt of acknowledgment of delivery, bill the appropriate payer and await the payment that normally takes approximately 85 days or more. Phew!

How many people in your company get involved in any of those above processes? Now is the time to develop both your people and organization simultaneously to improve productivity and profitability through training and education. Leadership starts at the top. The application of this type of training, both philosophical and practical, must be instilled in all managers and supervisors by the executive team. Many companies suffering from the normal industry problems can provide resolutions to such by looking at organizational and personnel development that can lead to enhanced performance with improved productivity. There is no better time than now for the small to medium sized business owner is to start acting like a real leader and develop your people to make your company stronger to handle this highly competitive environment.

Leadership Management Programs are available in presentation, seminar, or spaced- repetition formats. A spaced - repetition program is convenient for most management in the fact that the time required for presentation will allow the manager to miss the least amount of time from the office. It also will provide multi-sensory impact, compliment the classroom activities with audio reinforcement, and allow the participant to complete assignments at home or at work. More importantly, it has been demonstrated that participants completing such programs implement more course techniques into their daily work activities and change many of their current behavioral processes. Almost any program, product, or process can be customized to meet the needs of your company. Every member on your management team should participate in a Leadership Management Program custom designed to compliment your mission, vision, and values. Quality management starts at the top and the best way to demonstrate such is to “lead by example”.

For more information on our management training visit www.ILDV.org or call 609-390-2830.

Why. . .Why. . .Why? The Need to Understand.

By Richard Hohmann

At the most basic level of alignment, companies must make sure that employees understand how the company makes money. Employees need to understand the basic financial facts about not only how the company makes money but how revenue drives profitability, and how cash flow can inhibit growth or how cost reduction can impact success.

Since mid-level managers are the ones left holding the bag in terms of communicating with the workforce and we better make sure that our managers have a high level of business acumen so that the employees can have confidence that the decision making process is based on something more than a gut feeling. Understanding the financial thread that ties everything together in the company better not only be understood but communicated to the employee. The engaged employee wants to know why. Why did we decide to do that, why did we layoff people in our most productive department, why aren’t we advertising in the Wall Street Journal? People want to understand and the best way to get them to understand is to talk the talk – business acumen.

Workers just might start to understand how difficult it is to be successful in reducing costs when healthcare costs have risen in double digits for the past five years, fuel costs have doubled, and fortunately have come back down to a reasonable rate. People need to understand that their performance in their role directly affects the success of the company.

Let’s start talking to and training our Middle Management and employees about Business Acumen, Decision Making, Problem Solving, and basic finances. Provide a real foundation for not only communication, but for action plans and for people development that leads to organizational effectiveness.

It is really getting rough out there and you need to keep your key employees informed. Your employees count on leadership to be the visionary and they want to know what you see as well as what they are reading in the newspaper or hearing on the TV. Now is the time to communicate that the strengths of your people make the difference in organizational effectiveness. We all need to improve our skill-sets and competencies when times get rough but we must understand why we need to do that.

Where have All the Leaders Gone?

One financial advisor stated that we are in the middle of a very dark tunnel. If that be the case, I guess I can say that I don’t see light in either direction. The economy has offered some hiccups but no demonstrable change and it does not appear to look like there will be any major change in the very near future. We are in a bail-out mind-set and it is kind of frustrating when most small or even mid-size companies have no real safety net to protect them from making bad decisions. The job market is much worse today than it was even two months ago. So where is the light going to come from?

Possibly the most frustrating thing for leaders and managers is that they have to personally manage the employees so that they stay engaged in their jobs and don’t get distracted by the lack of sunlight. I would go even further to state that much of the leadership prefers to stay in the dark and not come out into the light, if there is any, and address the issues straight forward with their employees.

A recent survey from the public relations firm of Webber Shandwick noted that 71% of workers felt leadership should be communicating more about the current economic conditions and 54% of the workers have not heard anything from their leadership on how these conditions might affect their company and positions. On top of that, it was interesting that almost 75% of the workers said they had heard their colleagues and co-workers talking about the subject, but not the leadership of the company.

Where have all the leaders gone? Maybe they don’t realize that it is a tunnel and mistook the current environment for a cave. I really believe that leadership today is scarce and middle management is being forced again demonstrate that they are the glue holding the worker to the strategy of the company. Engagement is more than having fun in your job. It is an understanding that your contribution is significant in regard to the overall effectiveness of the organization. This engagement process must incorporate the alignment of individual goals with those of the company, demonstrate why performance management can make a difference, and the really great companies focus on their strengths to get them through the rough times and they do this by planning.

Manager vs. Man-eater

I am starting to read articles in which many people have expressed an opinion that due to the tougher economic times, many managers and employees are starting to compete against each other in the work environment in unhealthy ways.

“Survival of the Fittest” has always been nature’s way of adjusting to the changes in the environment. Competition can be healthy or it can be destructive and it is important that the owner or senior management team, including the HR professional, focus on the depth in which the competition presents itself. From past experience, we know that becoming “leaner and meaner” does mean that advancement opportunities are reduced and the workload per employee usually increases causing more stress in the work environment. Do we need to add a more competitive spirit to the equation or not?

Competition is one method many managers believe that can help individuals achieve their “real” or “true” potential. I am all for helping people reach their potential since most people believe that our capacity today is less than 10%, but competition is good as long as we can see the reason for our effort. Winning a race is a goal…..improving performance should be a goal. Competition may get us to the finish line in much less time than we ever imagined. This is good because we are getting closer to our potential.

What I see in many companies is this atmosphere of “competition” with no real goal defined. This lack of vision or visualization of the determined outcome must be classified as a communication disconnect. What happens too many times is that inappropriate behavior in the workplace becomes more evident as the competitive level rises. This “survival of the fittest” mentality takes hold and all the appropriate behaviors go out the window, like feedback in a timely fashion, recognition for something well done, and other basic collaboration practices.

When will we realize that when workers feel threatened, they usually don’t improve their performance but become disgruntled and belligerent? The worker becomes disengaged, discontented, and leaves the company.

Isn’t it time to focus on how we can better understand the employee by focusing on their behavioral style and communicate the organization’s objectives to them in a manner that is consistent and realistic. People need to hear the truth, understand the strategy of the leaders, and assume responsibility for their actions relative to the plan. They then need to set goals and set out to achieve them while monitoring their progress along the way.

Middle Managers are the Implementers

Today, I sat in a management meeting observing the dynamics of the meeting and watching the body language of the participants for an hour and a half. It is important when I am coaching executives that I observe the environments that can make a difference. It became evident that most of the managers in that meeting have not been told how their performance brings value to the organization and as a result they rarely pass on the value message to their employees. Employee appreciation is not new but understanding the value to the organization may be new to some. Concerns about communication, accountability, responsibility, and collaboration were expressed in one form of another by almost everyone around the table. The facilitator was particularly good today with his fairness and recognition of the other manager’s contributions to the overall success of the organization but I left with the feeling that his hands were tied in terms of getting the desired results.

It was important for all of them to realize that communication is a key element in getting people to understand what they can do to contribute to the success of the organization. At this meeting, there could have been more concrete objectives, more story-telling, more real-life examples, etc. but the defined need was to take responsibility for taking action. A commitment to take an action that may change this environment to a more positive experience.

I now know why there is no question why we call them middle managers. Middle management needs to listen to the senior or executive leadership team and while being responsive to the rest of the employees. As we know this listening and implementing position, AKA middle management, has always been the buffer between the top and the bottom. This is why middle management is often called the “glue” that binds the top to the bottom, much like an Oreo cookie.

It is my opinion that middle management is the one component that cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately, companies continue to put these positions in jeopardy when the economic climate turns cold. Middle managers continue to be the implementers of the strategy and policy. Middle managers are the change initiators. If change is not managed well, it has been shown that employee engagement never happens and low morale starts rearing its ugly head. It is my opinion that when external factors become evident and competition gets more aggressive, it is time to focus on the middle management and make sure that we are meeting their needs. Remember, middle management is the layer that attracts, retains, and develops top performers. Let’s not let the normal knee-jerk reaction occur when times get tough. Let’s focus on what we can do to develop our middle management team and allow them to implement the changes needed to satisfy the strategic direction of the company. Let’s give them the tools to do the job right and those tools involve training, career opportunities, feedback and recognition.



Don’t just eliminate the tools that help develop people, like training, education, and incentives.
When looking for training for your middle managers keep these points in mind:
Focus on programs and processes that guarantee results.
Use programs and processes that are time-tested, research-based, and results-oriented.
Use programs that that focus on the adult worker and are designed to change behavior, not just focus on behavior.
Make sure that measuring results is part of the plan.

It is estimated that 20% of all new hires will either rise to the top or fall to the bottom and remaining 60% will be productive and be engaged but only if your middle management team is committed to their success. Their achievement can make the difference with both performance and productivity and it must be acknowledged and recognized by their manager. Providing the tools and career path for people to achieve is what makes the difference between a good employee staying or walking out the door.

Innovative Leadership has a public course, open for enrollment, starting September 17, 2008 from 3-5pm. Click Here for more information

Shore Memorial Graduates

Congratulations to the Shore Memorial Graduates of our Making of an Effective Manager Course. In alphabetical order: Laurie Bartine, Jody Brady, Jon Cuviello, Sharon Dougherty, Michael Fox, Cheryl Franks, John Gosner, Anna Marie Guerrieri, Susan Krantz, Ken Michelette, Diane Miller, Denise Minus, Pam Mood, Sean Mulligan, and Karen Renzulli

The next Public Making of an Effective Manager Course starts September 17th at our Marmora Training Room. Managers will gain confidence to make the right decisions and will know how to motivate and retain employees. Don't forget this counts as continuing education credits!
More Information

We hope to see you and your managers there!

Adults Learn Differently

I have been training managers for over thirty years and I still find that most organizations have not realized that adults learn differently than children and for training programs to be successful, we must understand the methods needed to help managers realize their potential growth.

As Lisa Haneberg notes in her new book, “Developing Great Managers”, ASTD-2008, people who facilitate management and development programs must be well versed in management training theory (MTT): She lists the main tenants of MTT as follows:
· Managers are too busy therefore the training must improve their abilities to succeed or it won’t be worth the diversion. In addition, shorter training sessions are easier to fit into a manager’s busy day.
· Managers often suffer from fuzzy priorities, competing priorities, scope creep, and meeting overload. Management training should acknowledge and assist with these challenges
· Many managers feel overwhelmed and stressed. The best management training programs will reduce feelings of stress and being overwhelmed.
· Many managers work well below their capabilities. For managers to try new approaches, they need more training about how to conduct their days and why the techniques are recommended.

Most training programs do not address the basics of adult learning:
· Adult learners cannot be forced to learn
· Adult learners resist forced attendance at training sessions
· Adult learners are invested in their careers and achievements
· Adult learners take responsibility for their progress and appreciate clear, concise feedback on their development
· Adult learners responds well to real-world examples and applications
· Adult learners come to training with a years of developed behaviors, experiences, and knowledge
· Adult learners may be on the defensive when their supervisor recommends training
· Adult learners need to feel that the new information and skills directly relate to their job role and help them achieve their goals

In 1999, Innovative Leadership made a conscientious decision to make sure that all our programs and courses satisfy the basics of adult learning and MTT. We focus on an “application and action” methodology for learning. All of our training has a basic foundation that is research-based or validated by demonstrated results. We find that challenging the status quo is fun, but introducing something for fun is a waste of time and resources. We use a proven process for adult learning and facilitation.

We incorporate video and audio to reinforce the issues or key points of discussion. We find that people learn and retain more if they can “see it”, “feel it”, “taste it, and “smell it”. Many of our videos and audio are usually entertaining in nature but reinforce the research or content needed to be learned.

We also find that the facilitators of any adult training program must make the connection between the new material being introduced and the application of the learned material into the workplace. We tend to differ from the academic community in this regard since we use facilitators that have previous management experience so that this connection can be related to a real workplace environment and not a text book hypothetical.

Our public workshops bring management personnel together from all types of industries and we have found in our post – course evaluations that this small inter-disciplinary group found the open discussion on how the learned material was applied in their workplace environment was just as important as the learned material itself. Sharing the knowledge of how to apply the learned skill and seeing things from a different perspective are certainly two of the most beneficial components of our unique adult learning process.

We realized long ago that people development requires a learning environment where conversation is the key ingredient to adult learning. We focus on creating conversations whereby managers learn about techniques and then tell others how they have applied their learned materials in their work environment. We provide several tools that may help the mangers implement their newly learned information in the workplace and we evaluate and allow them to re-design the tools for a more effective outcome.

Speaking of outcomes; isn’t that what learning is all about? All of our programs are goal-oriented and give the participant the opportunity to set goals that will provide success for them as managers with a system to measure the results. Most workplace environments today are results-oriented so we need to focus our managers on improving their skills to produce a desired outcome, using the tools to implement the application for the learned materials, measuring the results in terms of performance and productivity and measuring the results for sustained growth.

You can choose any training company, program, or material. When you choose a vendor or program, please ask yourself the following questions prior to the selection:

• How does the management training program meet the standards established by MMT and satisfy the basics of Adult Learning?
• Is your management development program goal-oriented?
• What tools does your management training program provide to measure personal growth and development?
• Does your management training program provide a process for implementation or application?
• Is the ROI for your management training program available upfront and how is the success of your management training program measured?
  
  Make sure your management training programs meet those requirements. If they do, you will see enhanced performance and improved productivity from your management team. It is the measured results that make the difference in achievement.

Experienced Facilitation – the Success Factor in Training

I really believe that facilitation skills are as important as the content or curriculum of any course, workshop or online activity. The facilitator is the most important component of a successful training program. Lisa Haneberg points out in her new book titled, “Developing Great Managers” (ASTD-2008) that there are four characteristics or skills that make up an effective management trainer:

- Previous success as a manager
- Business acumen
- A passion and talent for being a catalyst, and
- The ability to create and facilitate great dialogue

I think it is important for the facilitator to have those skills but my opinion this has often fallen on deaf ears and I am glad Haneberg has taken such a position. I think that the ultimate training program offers great content, an excellent pre-course work assignment, application and action exercises, practical tools for immediate use in the workplace, case studies, and goal-orientation. That is my prescription for a good training outcome.

Innovative Leadership has been a member of the American Society of Training and Development for almost ten years. We actively participate in their functions and subscribe to the majority of their publications including books, manuals, programs, and other materials.

We consist of a team of professional facilitators (meet us) that have extensive management experience and business acumen. We are committed to providing the vehicles that focus on both people development and organizational effectiveness. We integrate a variety of learning instruments to provide the desired outcome for the training and development engagement with the ROI defined upfront.

Don't forget that our "Making of an Effective Manager" course starts September 17th. Read more about it on our website Click Here

New Training Facility for Innovative Leadership

Innovative Leadership partners up with Cumberland Insurance Group to unveil their newest training facility to accommodate the growing demand for management training, business consulting and coaching in the Cumberland County area. This conference space will enable more clients to take advantage of Innovative Leadership’s unique adult training courses and workshops, as well as their complimentary “Lunch N Learns”. Innovative Leadership is continually looking for ways to improve their services to clients, and this is just one more way they have done so.

Innovative Leadership offers similar programs at their other two conference facilities located in Marmora, and Cherry Hill. This new conference facility is located at The Cumberland Insurance Group complex located at 633 Shiloh Pike, Bridgeton NJ.

Innovative Leadership’s team has over thirty years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, mid-size companies and small businesses. By working with Innovative Leadership, you can increase productivity, enhance employee performance, focus on your strategic initiatives and achieve your desired goals. We have the Tools, You have the People. Visit us on the web for more information www.InnovativeLeadershipDV.com
Or call 609-390-2830.

Measuring up to the Unknown

During a recession or economic slow down of sorts or when a major technology initiative occurs, the first budget line item to get the cut is Training. What defines the return on investment look like to most companies? It requires some research and analysis to develop a need or context for the training initiative. It requires a financial review of the analysis to make sure that the metrics used to value the training and development is relevant to the overall business plan or strategy of the company. It is important that you determine the desired outcome and define the metrics to be used to determine its success or failure.

Choosing a baseline or starting point is a must and then a measurement system to note the progress must be established. Many times the tracking of data must be continued well past the end of the training and the data must be recorded for future viewing. Progress reports should be noted periodically to see if the outcome changes to any great degree as time passes. Focusing on the financial return on investment (ROI) has always been our priority in delivering the training to companies.

It is a fact that many companies cut out the budget line that can really have a positive impact on their situation. Marketing expenses including sales personnel, Training and Development expenses including T&D personnel, Advertising and Promotional materials, etc. are all “first to be cut” items. Make sure you assess the ROI before your finance department uses the eraser. Make sure you are not cutting off “your nose to spite your face. Training and Development is an integral component of great retention programs. So don’t make a snap decision to eliminate a training program without making sure your projected ROI is well defined.

Innovative Leadership uses a specific format to define the ROI to any company prior to the initiation of training and development in a company. We also provide a post-training instrument to confirm that our financial objectives have been satisfied. We feel every training and development company should provide just that! Performance is defined and determined by metrics. Remember, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” – Peter Drucker.

Chewing Gum and Band-aids

I just received the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey’s Board Council’s on Responsible Government Report – Phase III – Meeting the Challenge: Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Adopting Best Practices”. The publication pointed out the differences between the Private Sector Practices and that of State Government followed by recommendations to the State for improvement by implementing these best practices.

This publication focused on the following: Job Classification Systems, Hiring Practices, Employee Assessment & Pay for Job Performance, Professional Development, Disciplinary policies, Human Resources and Personnel Management.

This is not a political commentary but when hasn’t the private sector had to focus on hiring and selection, retention, performance management and people development. What I questions, is, “How many companies in the Private Sector do anything more than acknowledge the need or focus on the concern?" Most companies today are aware of the employment statistics facing us today and many have moved on to the planning stage and have started to develop Succession Plans, Behavioral Interviewing Scorecard, utilization of an Assessment Process, implementing some type of “three strike rule”, retention of Key Employees or Top Producers, and a Career Management program.

I still would bet that those same companies have not implemented formalized plans or more importantly, designed processes to compliment the needs and focus of the company. Band-aids and chewing gum are being used to cover the gaps created by the “good to great” employees that are bailing something better or we are doing everything in our power to keep the baby boomers from jumping ship. I really feel that this “quick fix” mentality will not hold for long.

We are loosing a talented management pool that we are not training and developing at a speed equal to that of the exodus from the workforce by the baby boomers. We will find ourselves with a inexperienced, non-communicative, non-inspirational management team that can only lead by example because they will not have the skills to move the workforce upward and onward. They will have to be task-masters to gain the knowledge that the exiting management team declined to share.

There is only one Best Practice out there that satisfies the needs of any company in the areas of productivity, performance, and passion. It can eliminate the worry about employee engagement or motivation and it can provide the foundation for performance management. The Best Practice that needs to be embellished by both the private and public sector is to spend the time and money on your middle management. In simplest of terms, train the immediate supervisor because he or she is the one that is going to make the difference in hiring and selection, personnel development, performance management, positive discipline, and more.

The ROI for the training and development of your management team will easily be satisfied when you look at turnover, key employee retention, knowledge sharing, cross training, and behavior in the workplace.

Training is a Waste of Time

This weekend, I opened the latest issues of Training and Development and my eyes were immediately draw to the title “Why most training is Useless”, written by David H. Maister. My initial “gut” reaction was to say, “Oh no, another article that I have to read and prepare a defense for.” As I continued to read, I started to become more in tune with the ideas presented and certainly started leaning toward the author’s point of view.

I have found that most companies expect training to provide a “quick fix” and they utilize the training as an event to “kick-off” a change initiative. This type of thinking will certainly lead to failure if the desired long term effect is a change in behavior or culture. It takes much more than training but when used properly, training can be the most positive factor in the achievement of the initiative.

I have spent the last ten years in the business of training and I find that it is as difficult as ever to get anyone to view training as a process as opposed to an event. The reason we don’t usually see training as part of the process is that we have no strategy or plan to implement the change over time. We expect our trainers to sprinkle “fairy dust” over the participants and almost immediately, their company’s productivity and performance will elevate beyond possibilities.

I have only found a few companies where the leadership had a good understanding and visualization of the outcome resulting from the training. They know “what matters most!” but they aren’t willing to focus on a plan of action and implementation process to achieve the desired outcome. Most companies just ask, “What do you have for team building, conflict resolution, harassment, or what do you have to improve communication? We want to change behaviors and the culture but we don’t know what we want to look like.” We just want to get better and the prescription calls for training.

I find that most training programs do not have any research-driven basis for application and most training does not focus on the application of the knowledge learned versus the amount of information delivered. I can honestly state that most companies that pay good money for training do not see the learned materials being applied in the workplace to help achieve the desired outcome. The key word is application and as the author states, “helping people develop as managers doesn’t mean discussing management or leadership. It means putting people through a set of processes in which they have to experience, try out, and develop their emotional self-control and interactive styles”. I have yet to hear a customer ask me about how programs allow the participant to apply the learned knowledge in the work environment to improve their skills or competencies needed to make them a better manager.

The right approach is to focus on the outcome and then determine the best format to present the knowledge, demonstrate how they can apply the knowledge, and monitor the results whether it is a behavioral or a culture change. Our unique adult learning process is much more effective than event training, yet we have never been asked what format we use to initiate change or focus on desired behaviors. Awareness is an event, planning is an event; implementation requires a process of application and understanding to provide a desired result. The process you choose is the most important ingredient, yet most don’t even care. The learning process you choose can make your training initiative not only immensely powerful, but effective as well. I really find it ironic that most executives are process and results-oriented except when it comes to training. Training is a process that needs to satisfy the needs and desired outcome for any organization or company.

Is your training initiative an event or a process? I bet I know the answer.

Talent Management Means Competent Leadership

Talent Management is an entity that has been slowly evolving within many corporations. Most corporations list the following practices as part of their overall program:

• High potential employee development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Learning and Training
• Performance Management
• Competency Management
• Retention
• Employee Engagement

Talent Management should concern itself with competencies. Companies should focus on the competencies that make a difference today and will continue to make a difference tomorrow. It means fitting the “right person” to the “right job” and then measuring their impact on the company’s strategy or goals.

In simplest of terms, Talent Management is people development associated with organizational effectiveness. Most companies do not have a clue about what Talent Management means to them and what competencies will provide sustained growth and success. It is important that they focus on their Strategic Development plan now and don’t wait until it is too late. It will be too late when they do not have the people who are able to learn and perform the roles and responsibilities needed for sustained growth. Do we have the people that can respond to the rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace?

Most companies have not yet assessed the talent within their organization. How can the learning and training components be applied when you don’t know what is needed to develop the people. People are starting to talk about succession planning only because a lot of key people are leaving the workforce for retirement or alternative careers. I joined a pharmaceutical company in the late sixties and within three weeks, the company has decided that I was a “High Potential”….an HP as we called it back then.

A fast track of combined learning and training programs were laid out before me while at the same time, my performance was monitored as if I was under the microscope. It appears that many companies have strayed away from labeling “high potentials” and providing a program to accelerate their careers within the company. Now, I know some companies have accelerated programs and call these designated potential leaders something, like top producers, achievers, or whatever.

It just seems like the same old story. We have been concerned about this problem for many, many years but we have done nothing to provide a fully integrated set of human resource functions that can be called a people development process. We hesitate to assess anyone or anything because it will cause conflict and we can’t have conflict when we need to retain good talent.

Is Talent Management really meeting the needs of most companies? What are we waiting for? The leadership of our companies must step up and focus on a Strategic Development Plan that includes people, processes, and performance. The integration of those three entities often results in employee engagement, motivation, and success.

Human Resources in many companies is defined as the human capital experts. So, when are these so-called experts going to jump up and down and give their leadership team a real assessment of the culture, the people, and the potential to more forward while sustaining growth and reaching goals? It will probably be when all the Talent has left.