How do you measure learning?

How many times do you actually read the instructions and ensure that you understand them before you go ahead and do something?

Part of my work involves marking work for students so that they are assessed against a given criteria decided upon by awarding bodies such as Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) or Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD). If the student meets the required standard they then get a recognised qualification. This is often valued by many of the people I have the pleasure to work with and the reason they are attending the programme.

However it never ceases to amaze me that people, who appear to be competent and literate, do not read instructions!! If you are asked for 2 examples of something, why only give 1!!! Or you are asked to explain something and you describe it…these are two different activities.

Reading and understanding the instructions or the criteria against which you are being assessed is fundamental to the process of accreditation. It means that people like me, and lets be fair, there are a lot us out here, have a benchmark to which we are measuring a person’s work.

Interestingly if you as a trainer or a manager, or both, have not identified why the person needs to attend a training programme how will you be able to measure the success of that learning event once it has been completed?  This is why there is much more emphasis on accredited programmes now because companies can set a level at which they expect people to attain.  It is also why a lot of government money is available because it can be measured and therefore the expense can be justified.

So, if you are attending a training programme or planning to run one for your team or individuals within it, ask yourself: “how will I know that the training has been effective?” Ask this question to the people you are thinking of hiring to run that training or put your own measurement criteria together.  But remember to be clear about what you are asking people to do and then make sure that they actually understand what is being asked of them.

The assessment criteria needs to be clear, measurable and relevant to the subject and must be accessible to all.  Then depending upon how many people will be completing this assessment, how do you ensure consistency in the people who are marking this work?  This is especially true in the intangible area of leadership and motivation, so you as a trainer, or as a manager need to set clear expectations of what you are measuring and be able to provide examples for the learners.

So, if the instructions are clear & understandable for the learners it will make marking of such work fairer and more equitable for people like me!  It will also mean that the money you are spending on the learning will provide you with a measurable return.

Off to do some assessment now!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

What does your voice say about you!

One of our most important tools as trainers or managers is our ability to vary the pitch, speed and passion of our voice, be it in meetings, tool-box talks or at presentations.  Your voice is a wonderful tool and should be used in all its varieties throughout the delivery of your session.

Interestingly I was in church just recently and the key message was about managing what you say!  It made me think about how such a small part of our body can manage to get us into so much trouble sometimes!!!  It is the strongest muscle in your body, proportionately.  So you need to manage both your tongue and the words that come out of your mouth with as much effort as you put into other forms of communication. Consider this...I bet you think about the report you have to write for your boss for considerably longer than you think about what you are going to say to your team!!

How often have we been in meetings, presentations or training sessions where the person presenting the information has been so passionate and alive about the subject you come away feeling inspired and motivated.  Equally we have also had the opposite experience…how do you want your delegates or team members to feel when you are talking?

I encounter many managers who bemoan the fact that they have to have team meetings and they never get any response from their team.  I question this: maybe this is about how you deliver your messages?  Your role as a manager or trainer is to ‘sell’ the concept, idea, new process or procedure to your audience; if you sound bored or non-committal what do you think will be the outcome?  What ideas do you use to liven up your team meetings? How do you get your team involved in the meeting?

Whatever your reason for speaking to a group of people you need to be convincing, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, passionate so that you get your message across.  You need to take time to consider exactly what you are going to say and where you are going to put the emphasis so that you keep your audience engaged.

Remember the old saying; “think before you speak”.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

http://www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Meetings…how wasteful can they be?

How long do you spend in unproductive meetings wishing you were somewhere else getting on with your ‘to do’ list?

I don’t know about you but I find it very disappointing and frustrating attending meetings that are not well managed or planned.  What a waste of everyone’s time, which let’s be honest we can ill-afford to waste in the current economic climate.

Even more frustrating is when meetings have been arranged well in advance in your diary, you then check to confirm whether it is on or not as you get another opportunity on the same day as obviously you have to decide which takes priority. The person you contact makes out that the date was never fixed so you take it out of your diary and put in the other meeting and think nothing of it.  However, two weeks later you get an email inviting you to the first meeting again as the organiser could not organise the proverbial, in a barn!!  Oooh, makes me mad as you can probably tell!!

So, how do you ensure that the meetings you are involved in are productive and not time wasting, here are a few pointers that I find work well:

• Every meeting should have a start and finish time
• Every meeting should have a chairperson, a different person to take notes and a third person to watch the time
• Every meeting room should have an accurate clock in it
• Everyone who attends a meeting should contribute
• Every meeting over 30 minutes in duration should have an agenda
• Every meeting agenda should be issued at least 5 working days before the meeting, unless it is a weekly meeting with repeating topics for discussion
• Every meeting that involves the same people should spend five minutes as the end of every meeting asking:
• How well was the meeting chaired?
• How effective was the meeting in its use of time?What went well?
• What can we all do better at the next meeting?

When you have an initial client meeting it will probably only involve a maximum of four people (2 from both companies), but it is still good practice to confirm how long the meeting will be and what the key points that need to be covered are. Never assume that everyone is on the same page as you.  From a sales perspective you also need to know what the client’s agenda is and it is only polite to see how much time you have available.  It also shows that you are business focused, which will gain you greater credibility.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

http://www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Leadership behaviour...learn how to manage it!

As a manager, trainer or coach we all have to be leaders of people and we often forget how our behaviour impacts on other people…we need to learn how to manage our behaviour and recognise that sometimes we just don’t get it right!

If you go and look up leadership behaviour on a search engine or dare I say it, in a book, you will find many references to leadership theory dating back over 50 years.  As a trainer who delivers accredited training I have to share a lot of this theory with managers at all stages of their career and it is interesting to see when people have that ‘light bulb’ moment.

Most recently this has been around changing your behviour to different members of the team, for the theorists amongst you, this is situational or contingency theory.  Fundamentally it is about you recognising when a member of your team/group needs you to tell them what to do and when they need you to back off, so that they can get on with the job.

Different behaviour can be categorised into two key areas: directive behaviour where you tell the person what to do and supportive behaviour where you discuss with the person what they are going to do.  This categorisation forms part of Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory, which gives much more detail, I am barely scratching the surface here, just making a key point for you to think about.

Take a new recruit, for example, in the first few days & weeks they will need more directive behaviour from you but as they learn the job you need to pull back and give them more support to allow them to do the job on their own. I often use the analogy of swimming: when you are teaching someone to swim you are in the water telling them what to do; once they can do the basics you are still in the pool but you are encouraging them.  When they can swim a length or two you might be on the side of the pool still encouraging but eventually all you will have to do is take them to the pool.  That is where you want to get to with all your team eventually

.

So often I meet team members who wish that their manager would give them space to do the job, they do not want to be micro managed.  We, therefore have to look at our own behaviour and recognise when it is appropriate to be directive, which will not be all the time, and when it is important to be supportive of your team.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

http://www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Make sure you qualify every lead!

Although sales training is not one of my main strengths I was amazed to be part of a sales process where the initial qualification of the need of the customer was not done.

A couple of weeks ago a sales representative of a very well known double glazing firm called at our house selling his wares, so to speak.  Well I know that we need new fascia boards at the gable end of the property, which I explained to this person. He then asked about sofit boards (sorry to be so technical but you need to know what I wanted) and I explained that we only have one of those.  He said he would arrange for someone to come out and give us a quote on a date that we agreed.

Now from this representative’s perspective he had succeeded in getting an appointment.  So he was well on his way to his target…job done!

Two weeks later and three days before the appointment I get a call from another representative to check that I will be in on the agreed date to meet with the surveyor.  This person explained that I would also get a quote from the surveyor on the day, which this person hoped would be acceptable to me.

On the day of the allotted appointment I get a call from a third person from this company to confirm that I am in and I am the decision maker.  They also confirmed what I wanted and I explained two fascia boards and a sofit board, no I did not need the guttering replaced.  This voice said that was part of the package but the surveyor would ensure that I got the right information when he arrived later that day.

The surveyor duly arrived on time and very well presented…always a good start for a sales appointmentm I believe.  He took one look at my house and said he could give me a quote but it would be far too expensive, I was better off going to a local builder and getting them to do it.  He was with me for no more than 3 minutes!!

Two lessons to learn from this:

1. Make sure that you know what the customer wants and what you are selling.  If the initial representative had been better trained he would’ve been able to tell me that the job was too small for his firm.

2. If the job had been qualified better three people would not have had to interact with me to establish that the job was too small.  Again if the person on phone call had been better trained, again he could’ve qualified me out

Please make sure you do not waste your precious time & your resources on badly developed sales leads.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

http://www.rubusassociates.co.uk