Steiger Training

Can Leadership be Learned?

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the difference that leadership can make in an organization, not just in terms of motivation, but in tangible, bottom-line performance, sales, and profitability. A reasonable question that arises, then, is, “Can leadership be learned, or is it innate?”

A new white paper published by the TRACOM Group, the organization long-known for its research and development of the Social Style model and its applicability for individuals and teams, looks afresh at performance results that can be attributed to EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, and its practice by leaders. “3G EQ” is a growing body of research that organizations from many industries and sectors are applying to achieve improved, and impressive, performance results.

The white paper’s author, Dr. Casey Mulqueen, describes the differences between “Emotional Intelligence” (EQ) and “Behavioral Intelligence” (BEQ). EQ is an internal process with two elements. The first focuses on Self-awareness; the second on Awareness of Others. BEQ operates in the world, where people and interactions exist. BEQ elements are behaviors and actions that can be seen and heard; EQ elements are invisible to the world, and harder to measure or observe.

Elements of EQ as relating to the Self include Emotion Awareness, Self-insight, and Self-confidence. These are likely the necessary prerequisites for the BEQ corollaries of Self-control, Stress Management, Conscientiousness, and Optimism. Emotional Intelligence abilities that relate to Others are Emotion Perception, Empathy/Openness, and Listening; Behavioral Intelligence skills relating to Others include Building Relationships, Influencing Others, Motivating Others, Flexibility, and Innovativeness.

One thing I know is that if you can observe something, you can measure it. If you can measure it, you can improve it. A key part of my job, as an executive coach,  a manager–and a parent!–is to gather information and feed it back into the system, whether that system is an organization or an individual. Awareness creates insight. But that’s the beginning, not the end, of a development cycle. Feedback on results or the perceptions of others can tell you HOW you’re coming across, but not WHY you’re getting those results. Skill development requires both insight on perceptions, and action on that insight.

Can you have high EQ, and low BEQ. Absolutely. We all know people who have said , “But that’s not what I meant” when dealing with the fallout from not considering the unintended impact of their actions on people or their performance. (Not that I’ve ever said that!) The good news: most people are usually more than willing to give others the benefit of the doubt, and another chance. But when that lack of consideration–that low EQ–becomes the norm, people start to consider their options and dust off their resumés. People will tolerate a toxic climate for only so long before deciding that they need to take action, whether that action is to quit and leave, or, worse, quit and stay!

Can you have high BEQ with low EQ.  Well, the research says, “Yes.” In other words, you can “fake it ’til you make it!” But you have to move towards the ‘making it’ part. The good news is that by doing the behaviors of BEQ, it actually helps improve and develop one’s EQ.

What I like about the BEQ idea is its congruence with that model, of feedback leading to self-awareness leading to insight leading to developing a repertoire of actions and choices to be applied to different situations as needed, all cycling back to improved EQ and BEQ in more and more circumstances.

Having skill-based choices, and developing the discretion of how and when to apply the appropriate option to each unique situation, is at the heart of what effective leaders do to develop their people and organizations–and themselves. And these choices can be observed, learned, practiced, and improved.

(Here’s a link to TRACOM’s White Paper on Behavioral EQ: http://docs.tracomcorp.com/TPD/Whitepaper/BEQ_Whitepaper.pdf )

Apple does it right

Okay, so why the Apple ode?

I’m typing this on my latest of new Apple objects, a 15-inch Macbook Pro. The machine looks beautiful. The keys are sensual. The internet screams on it. All my old files “just work” on it. So what’s that got to do with anything? This is a business and leadership column, after all!

Well, you see, I originally went to upgrade my seven-year-old computer, thinking I’d buy something cutting edge and current, like an iPad or a Macbook Air, but maybe save a little by purchasing from another company (of which I’m a shareholder). (That I’d be purchasing an Apple product was decided–I’m firmly anchored to their ecosystem. And I’m not a shareholder!) I’ve read lots o’ stuff online about specs and performance and features and thought I had a pretty good handle on the benefits and drawbacks of the product line. I’ve purchased a couple of iPads for the fam. Now it was my turn to get hip with the latest and greatest.

I went to my local Big Box Electronics Retailer where they wear blue and yellow shirts, fully expecting to buy there. I “hailed” a sales associate after a few minutes of looking at the machines on my own. She was pleasant, although I got the feeling she might have been heading somewhere else to do something else, rather than stop and speak with me. With little direct eye contact nor facial expression and frequent interruptions, she “listened” for a minute or two (which felt like 10 or 15 seconds to me), and made her recommendation. Rather than the shinier toys I coveted, she recommended the Macbook Pro to meet my needs, and called her manager over to confirm this. This rec made sense to me, given what I said I needed to do with it (though I was a little disappointed!). And the price was actually lower than offered on Apple’s site, so the “yippee, I’m getting a deal!” sensation made me feel alright about it.

The floor associate wandered off to do something else, and the manager began verifying pricing, filling out the paperwork–and heavily pushing add-on support services and warranties (“What happens if you drop it? This will protect you! And there’s no deductible each time, so you can drop it as often as you like! For Three Years!”) Final pricing was more than I was hoping to spend, but still within budget. Told him I’d think about it.

The next day, I’m near the Apple store in the mall and had some time to kill. With no intention of buying that night, I wandered in, near closing. Friendly greeter at the store’s front introduced me to a smiling associate to help me. Kirsten listened–really listened–to my story. My experience. My challenges with the present equipment. What I was hoping to accomplish and my needs. Even my desires to own the hipper new products! She looked at me and listened. And listened some more, engaging in back and forth with targeted questioning to balance the listening.

After several minutes of letting me ramble (probably seemed like a couple of hours to her!) yet keeping me focused through her skillful listening and questioning, she recommended the Macbook Pro to meet my needs. Same computer. I asked about the Applecare and “What’s this One-to-One thing?” (training and support), and she described it but left it to me to think about, with no pressure. (At this point we were more than ten minutes past the store’s closing time, although I wasn’t the last customer.) The list price of the computer actually was $120 higher, although the total package with support turned out to be about the same.

I said I’d take it. (And now I was the last customer!)

What drives a business’s success?

Sales? Controlling expenses? Cash flow?

All important, and necessary. But, who’s achieving these business goals?

People. It’s the people in an organization, the employees carrying out the day-to-day tasks and activities that bring about the most desirous of business outcomes: profitable mission fulfillment. (And this applies for non-profit and governmental organizations, also, of course. The business outcome could be called “mission fulfillment in a financially meaningful way,” but the bottom line is as crucial to ongoing viability for them as for their for-profit siblings.)

And from where do the people in the organization take their cues? Leadership.

Leadership that’s value-based and congruently “walks its talk” by behavioralizing and modeling its values. Leadership that treats its employees with honesty, fairness, and respect, building trust, commitment, and engagement.

Leadership is the lever to organizational success in how it defines and lives its company’s values, and engages employees in that culture and the real purpose of the business.

Making Learning Stick: Post 4 of 4

In my final post of this four-part offering, here are a number of suggestions to take as follow-up to a training event.

Following up with all colleagues, clients, vendors—anyone—who provided feedback or assistance to the employee in helping them prepare for the learning activity is not only considerate, it closes the loop for the others. Sharing their insights reinforces the employee’s awareness and commitment to applying what they learned, and has the added benefit of enlisting support for the change effort they’re undertaking.

To ensure skill transfer and integration from the workshop to the workplace, it’s critical that employees be accountable for using the new things they’ve learned. To make this happen, it’s sometimes necessary for the entire appraisal and review system to be revised to incorporate the new behavioral performance expectations, but it’s not usually necessary. At a minimum, though, employees need to know that there is an expectation that they’ll use the skills when appropriate, and this is the supervisor’s and manager’s responsibility. They should look for opportunities to both “catch them doing it right” to reinforce skill use, and to remind and correct an employee if they don’t use a skill when they could.

Follow-up facilitated discussion sessions can be helpful to review, reinforce, and further integrate the learning from the training sessions. Scheduled periodically after the initial learning activity, refresher meetings can provide people with a structured opportunity to discuss the successes and struggles they’ve encountered in applying the skills on the job, offer tips and suggestions, provide additional practice opportunities for skill reinforcement, and help them develop and enhance action plans for continuing to incorporate their new skills.

Evaluation and measurement of learning, and especially, of the achievement of the desired business outcomes is crucial—after all, this is the reason for conducting the learning activity in the first place. Planning upfront for what will be measured and how it will be done increases the likelihood that not only learning will occur, but also that business results will improve.

Making Learning Stick: Post 3 of 4

In this post, I’ll offer a few best practice ideas to incorporate into the design during training.

In addition to all the best practices for any effective meeting (arrive and return from breaks on time, come prepared, etc.), participation in practices and activities during the training session is a critical success factor in getting the most possible from a skill-building program. In a good training design, there will be numerous opportunities for participants to practice, or “try on,” the skills that they’ll be learning. Depending on the skill being learned, they’ll practice in a variety of group settings, and will be asked to give feedback to their partners. Being able to give effective feedback is an important skill and it provides support for their colleagues’ development; being able to receive feedback is a crucial part of the employee’s own development.

Another important expectation during the training is that participants will practice the skills they’ve learned between sessions, when appropriate. Practicing the skills and preparation for the next session will quicken a participant’s skill development, since, as with learning any new skill, repetition is necessary to become more comfortable with it and more natural at it.

Finally, planning for application after the workshop of what’s learned during it is crucial. Building in actions and benchmarks fosters accountability, and makes it easier to check progress.

Making Learning Stick: Post 2 of 4

In my last post, I gave an overview and a timeline for making learning part of an integrated talent development process, rather than an activity or isolated event that gets a “check” next to it when completed. In this post, I’ll offer a few specific actions to be taken, before any training activity.

Ideally, participants should be invited to attend a training session by their direct supervisor or manager. This personalizes the training, builds a positive readiness for it, and sets the expectation of accountability to learn and use the skills or knowledge from the training.

Participants should be given an overview of the training program and how it fits with the larger business strategy and goals, as well as any required prework/preparation in sufficient time for them to complete it.

Customization of materials, especially including using language, examples, and even video, if possible, helps bring the content from “off-the-shelf” to relevant. This can be accomplished through interviews with employees from the target population to be trained, as well as with their leadership.

Who should be in the training room? It’s often advisable to schedule participants with no more than one “level” of supervision above and below, for a maximum of three levels in any given session. Personally, I like homogenous groups, but one level of supervision can work well, also, and sometimes is even preferred (for example, when a side goal of the training event includes team-building for an intact work group).

Along these lines, it’s almost always best for management and supervision to take the same training that they send their people to, even if it’s not with their people. This supports the training on several levels: everyone will learn the same skills so that there can be a common language and process in the workplace; it minimizes the common objection and resistance to training of “this is great, but the real people who should be here are our bosses;” managers and supervisors will be better able to reinforce and correct the targeted skills by learning them and participating in the training; and managers and supervisors will be better able to use and model the targeted skills on-the-job if they’ve participated in the training.

Making Learning Stick: Part 1 of 4

I just kicked off a Train-the-Trainer program earlier this week for the local chapter of the ASTD. One thing that I love about doing a program such as this is that it really forces me to “sharpen my own axe” and go back to the fundamentals of good analysis to develop an appropriate solution to a real business problem. When the solution includes training, whether it’s of knowledge or skill, it’s vitally important to think through not just the training event’s design, but all the things that will support successful transfer from the workshop to the workplace.

The research confirms what we’ve known all along: a one-shot, lecture-based “knowledge infusion” isn’t effective in getting sustained performance improvement and business results. After about one month, knowledge retention is about 34% compared with immediately after a workshop; after three months, it falls to 16%; after six months, about 5%, or less.

Rather than an isolated event, learning needs to occur as part of an integrated process in order to produce business results. If you had limited time and budget, yet had a high need to take a vacation, it would be silly to just get in the car and start driving without any sense of what you want to do or where you’re heading. How could you possibly answer your young passengers’ plaintive wail, “Are we there yet?” if you don’t know where “there” is? So, also, is it folly to just jump into a performance development event without deciding on a desired outcome—related to an important business need, mapping out a route, anticipating and planning for roadblocks and hazards along the way, doing some preventative maintenance upfront and along the way, and making adjustments for the unexpected as you progress.

There are critical conversations an employee must have and actions they need to take before and after, as well as during any well-designed learning initiative.

Over the next several blog posts, I’ll delve specifically into what the training professional in partnership with the client can do to promote successful learning transfer that will lead to the client achieving their desired business performance.