As we stare down the last days of 2017, let’s stroll down memory lane and look back at some of the popular content I’ve already created on the TalentGrow blog. According to my website traffic statistics, what were the top 10 most visited blog posts in 2017?
Drumroll please….
Plus, an announcement about what will change in 2018. Check it out!
Read MoreEarlier this year, ATD invited me to be a guest expert and create a series of instructional videos where I share insider tips from my 25+ year career in talent development.
In this one, I explain the one powerful question all facilitators must ask.
Whether you're facilitating a meeting, a client presentation, or a training or learning session or workshop, you're trying to engage your audience to actively participate. To be a truly engaging facilitator, you want to ensure you invite your audience members to ask questions and actively participate.
But HOW you ask for their questions -- that's something I want to get you to think about today.
Read MoreDuring a recent delivery of one of my popular client workshops, Team Power, about how to develop high performing teams, we discussed seven common team development stages (I am partial to using the Drexler/Sibbert model). We also identified structural supports that help teams function optimally, reviewed the importance of trust in teams and ways to build it, discussed important team communication dynamics, and practiced applying this team development knowledge in a simulated team work situation, culminating with each learner creating an action plan for applying team dynamic best practices within their own team.
As usual, the learners were highly engaged and interested.
Also as usual, they still had some challenges they were grappling with, which came out in the form of what I call “’Yeah, but’s”.
Read MoreGrit is so important to goal accomplishment and success that I decided to share some golden nuggets of wisdom from both the book and the podcast right here in this post, to get you started. In this blog post, I’ll share some of Caroline’s thoughts and ideas on what is grit, specifically her concept of authentic grit, why we need to cultivate more grit in our culture, the good and bad types of grit, and how to grow your grit by adding the ingredients required for grit according to Caroline’s ‘grit recipe’.
Read MoreDeveloping leadership skills (and any other skills) does not need to happen only in the classroom (be it in person or online). In fact, there are many different ways that anyone can upgrade their leadership skills. In this short video, leadership development strategist and CEO of TalentGrow, Halelly Azulay, describes three methods that can help you build up your leadership skills outside the classroom and with no budget. Leave a comment below about your reactions, or ideas about other ways to develop leadership skills. And read more ways to develop skills in creative, non-training ways in Halelly's book, Employee Development on a Shoestring, available at Amazon and everywhere books are sold.
Read MoreAre there diamonds in your back yard that you're not paying any attention to? This short story of a thoughtful gift I received and the meaningful fable behind it will help you focus on the gifts you already have and should be leveraging to become truly rich.
Read MoreThis past weekend I attended a professional development workshop centered around being a more creative facilitator, led by my friend and colleague and creativity-in-business expert, Michelle James of the Center for Creative Emergence. It was a great opportunity to gain new ideas, insights, and techniques I can use. But even more than that – it reminded me of some of the important lessons I’ve learned from my podcast guests (including Michelle) about why and how leaders should focus on bringing more creativity to their own ‘game’ as well as encourage and nurture it in their teams. Here’s a review those lessons for your reading convenience!
Read MoreI was facilitating a workshop on the three keys to communication success. We were talking about the need to consider the style and preference of the audience in shaping our communication approach when a participant spoke up.
“I hate when people do this. When my manager comes to talk to me and starts beating around the bush and giving me positive comments, I always get real skeptical and feel like there must be something bad or something more coming. I just want to tell him, “just come out with it! Give it to me straight!”.”
Here's what I told him.
Read MoreI’m a life-long learner. I love reading new books. But I’m not much of the fiction, beach reading type of reader. Perhaps to a fault, I always prefer to read books that I can directly learn from, even on vacation. So if you’re more like me, and would like to add to your summer must-read list with books you can learn from, here are five new books from friends of mine that I think you should check out. There’s something on this list for almost everyone.
Read MoreYou might have been exposed to the idea of Lunchtime Learning before. Sometimes called Brown Bag Training or Lunch ‘n Learn (beware – that’s a trademarked phrase!), it’s a short (45-90 minutes) learning session held during lunchtime. What’s so special about these Brown-Bag Sessions, you say? Invite employees to do the teaching, not just the learning! In this post, I lay out the what, who, why, and how of creating a 3-way win for employee development in any organization.
Read MoreCheck out my latest post on the ASTD Links newsletter (of which I am a field editor) titled "Digital Storytelling: Why All Employees Could Be Generating Video and Audio Content". In it, I discuss one creative and immediately available way to develop employees outside the training classroom and outside the box: turn them into what I call digital storytellers. What does that mean? You send them on ...
Read MoreOn Tuesday, I gave a talk at the Positive Business DC meetup in the suburbs of DC about ways to develop employees outside the classroom and on a tight budget. It was anchored in my book, Employee Development on a Shoestring. The audience members were highly engaged and enjoyed the interactive exercises and small group discussions. I'm pleased that this talk has resulted in two different reviews on two blogs, and thought I'd share them here with you.
Read MoreDeveloping leaders and teams to improve the human side of work. Grow your leadership and interpersonal communication skills. Develop stronger teams and create employee engagement.
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