Resources

Why Leadership Training Is Important for Your Employees

September 3, 2018 by Tim Grable

The growth of an organization relies on its employees. So if you want to build a successful company, it’s essential to invest in effective leadership training.

This is not something only managers or business executives should participate in. Every employee can benefit from leadership coaching because it can genuinely increase the quality of their work and performance.

Jack Welch, former chairman of General Electric, said:

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about developing others.

He understood employee development represents a competitive advantage. Here are the main reasons why you should consider leadership training for your organization.

1. Increase Employee Retention

Most companies are struggling with employee retention, which means they are losing a lot of money because people are leaving their organization to find new opportunities.

Employee training makes them loyal because they will feel they are essential to your company. Organizations which invest in their employees are perceived as being more attractive workplaces.

2. Improve Employee Engagement

Highly-engaged employees are more productive and overall, perform better than those with low engagement.

The secret behind keeping your employees engaged in your organization is teaching them to give feedback. This is one of the things people learn through leadership training. Constructive feedback helps employees learn from their mistakes and improve the skills they already have.

On the other hand, training programs give people something to look forward to.

3. Nurture Future Leaders

Vince Lombardi once said “Leaders aren’t born. They’re made.”

This means leadership can be nurtured by using training programs to enhance the abilities people already have in them.

Employee development will create a larger pool of capable workers which can be eligible for future promotions.

3 Speakers to Consider for a Leadership Training Program

Hiring experts outside your company is a fantastic way to ensure your employees will be getting the most value of the leadership training. They can provide valuable, expert insights and also bring a fresh perspective on the topic.

Here are 3 professionals we recommend hiring.

Brian Biro

Brian is one of the most popular speakers and teachers of leadership, possibility thinking, thriving on change and team-building.

He has been doing this for the last 25 years, and he managed to deliver over 1.600 presentations to diverse organizations such as Lockheed Martin, the US Army, Microsoft, the University of Notre Dame, UCLA, the North Carolina Association for the Advancement of Teaching, Starbucks, Boeing, Allstate Insurance and many more.

If your goal is to engage and energize your team by organizing an event which covers leadership, then Brian Biro is a top option to consider.

Jones Loflin

Jones Loflin has over 22 years of experience in speaking and training. He’s genuinely passionate about helping people succeed and teaching them how to create the perfect environment so they can deliver their best work.

Your audience will also learn from Jones what are the main areas they need to address as a leader and what may be limiting their success.

Cheryl Cran

Cheryl is a leadership expert who has worked with important clients such as AT&T, Gartner, General Electric, KPMG or Kaiser Permanente.

For the last 20 years, she has been studying the best ways to apply leadership mastery. Her research on the future of work and change leadership has been featured on important media outlets such as CNBC, Huffington Post, Metro New York, Readers Digest, Financial Post and Fox.

If you want to train your employees on how to become leaders in the future, then Cheryl is a great speaker to have for an event.

Plan Your Next Employee Development Programs

If you want to grow your business, you need to do it with the right people. After attracting them to your company, it’s also essential to retain them through various leadership training programs which are going to help them develop within your organization.

If you need to hire a leadership expert for one of your training programs, contact us at (615) 283-0039.

How to Overcome People-Related Challenges to Improve Productivity

August 25, 2018 by Tim Grable

It’s no secret employees who interact well with one another and get along work better as a team. Therefore, they are more productive, which only has positive effects on the business which employs them.

So, if you want to improve productivity at your company, a great starting point is addressing the people-related challenges impacting your organization. The tips we’ve included in this article come straight from the mouths of experts in this field, so keep on reading.

It All Starts with Good Communication

Good communication lays the foundation for a healthy work environment and leads to good cooperation among employees.

Communication speaker and author Sarita Maybin studied how communication etiquette influences the way employees interact with one another and included her findings into an insightful presentation called “Communicating for Success.”

The presentation goes into detail about the critical components of effective communication, including:

giving feedback in a constructive manner
responding to negative feedback without getting defensive
expressing ideas and opinions in a transparent way
overcoming barriers to listening
body language.

You can get a better grasp of Sarita’s presentation style and expertise by watching the video

Learn the Basis of Dealing with Strong Beliefs and High Emotions

In any office, there will be times when co-workers will vehemently disagree with one another and try to impose the ideas they passionately believe in. These types of circumstances are usually emotionally-charged, so people tend to take things very personally.

It doesn’t take much for the situation to escalate and turn into dispute, in which case, the productivity level will significantly go down.

Therefore, it’s crucial people working at any company have the tools they need to be able to de-escalate angry or emotional peers, superiors or subordinates as soon as possible.

Doug Noll is a speaker and professional mediator who has made a career out of helping others defuse difficult conflicts as soon as they arise to improve productivity.

During one of his popular presentations, Doug teaches a 90-seconds or less method for dealing with an angry or emotional colleague in a professional, solution-focused way.

You can learn more about the value he provides to his audiences here.

Employ a Win-Win Negotiation Style to Improve Productivity

Conflict rears its head all the time in the workplace. However, conflict doesn’t necessarily have to lead to an adverse outcome. When managed right, conflict can enrich co-workers relationships.

So, instead of fearing difficulties or avoiding confrontations at all costs, it’s best to learn how to manage them in a balanced way through creative problem-solving.

One such example is the win-win negotiation style taught by speaker Liz Berney, an authority on the topic of negotiation.

The win-win tactic is focused on conflict resolution, while also strengthening relationships.

Here are a few aspects incorporated in this strategy:

getting to know the interests of everyone involved in the negotiation
laying down all the available options to reach the best solution which pleases all parties
developing the best alternative to a negotiated agreement.

This method can be used to successfully handle a wide array of situations, from negotiating a raise to working out a problem with a colleague to improve productivity.

Conclusion

Creating top performing teams which surpass their targets is all about understanding the problems and challenges they may be experiencing on a day-to-day basis. Now you know more about how to tackle some of those challenges head-on.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So in case you want to deepen your knowledge on the topic and also give your employees the tools they need to do their best work, consider booking an expert speaker like the ones mentioned in this article.

Call us at 615 283 0039 today in case you have any questions.

Best Tips on How to Supercharge Productivity with Goal Setting

August 18, 2018 by Tim Grable

Last updated on August 25th, 2018 at 07:00 am

Goal setting is an essential tool to boost productivity, as it provides focus and inspires commitment. Some studies indicate this practice could even be more effective than financial incentives to motivate people to work to their full potential.

However, just setting any goal is not enough to supercharge productivity; you have to know how to set goals to achieve maximum results. The following expert tips will help you with that, so keep on reading.

Successful Goal Setting Starts in Your Mind

This is not something most of us think about often, but the intention with which you lay down an objective can make the difference between failure and success.

As international keynote speaker Wayne Lee explains during his talks, the mind is capable of taking us anywhere we choose to.

Limiting belief, self-doubt, lack of direction, fear, stress; these negative feelings can creep into our minds and influence the way we set goals. What’s more, they block productivity and limit focus.

This is why it’s crucial to enter a mindset of success whenever establishing goals.

The best part is you can then instill the same enthusiasm and confidence in others. This way, you can empower your team to work harder and more efficiently towards a conscious goal.

If you want to inspire a culture of mindful growth and productivity within your company, consider booking Wayne Lee to deliver an eye-opening presentation at a future event.

Establish an Effective Process for Setting Your Goals

One of the most common mistakes leaders and other business professionals make is they don’t follow a process when establishing goals and thus risk overlooking essential aspects.

Speaker and author with 37 years of corporate and professional experience, Bill Humbert has put together a 6-point method for goal setting proven to improve goals achievement and increase revenues.

The method is called SCAMPS, so it’s super easy to remember. Here’s what each letter stands for:

Strategy. Make sure your goal is as precise as possible.
Challenging. A good goal is one which pushes you outside your comfort zone, makes you work harder and forces you to find creative solutions.
Attainable. Setting an unachievable, unrealistic goal will only lead to frustration and make everyone working on it want to give up. A reasonable goal, on the other hand, is likely to supercharge productivity, as it won’t feel overwhelming.
Measurable. This helps people regulate their activity levels and possibly even shift direction to meet goals.
Public. This refers to the fact a goal must be communicated to all those responsible for achieving it.
Specific end date. Setting a clear deadline for a goal will help reduce the likelihood of procrastination and poor time management.

If you need help propelling goal setting at your company, don’t hesitate to book Bill Humbert as a keynote speaker for your next conference.

His presentation on this topic will provide valuable insights for business owners, executives, managers, and employees; all meant to supercharge productivity.

What’s Your Strategy to Supercharge Productivity?

We hope the tips we’ve included in this article have made you realize a higher level of productivity among your employees and colleagues is within your reach. It’s not an easy road forward, but the destination is well worth the trip.

If you enjoyed this article and want to read more like it, then check out some of the other posts on our blog.

4 Steps to an Effective Email Marketing Plan for an Event

August 1, 2018 by Tim Grable

When you’re scheduling and marketing an event, your top priority is making sure enough people are there. A well-crafted email marketing plan can make all the difference, so it’s important to focus on that throughout the marketing process.

As with any email campaign, best practices apply; focus on segmenting lists, tracking key performance metrics, and using tools like an email validation API. However, your campaign does require additional attention to properly market your event. If you follow these guidelines, there’s a great chance you’ll sell out your event much more quickly than you anticipated.

Online Events

There are two main types of events you’ll need to market, and each requires a unique approach. Online events include things like webinars, live-streams, and Twitter chats. Email marketing should be at the center of your strategy, as a number of marketers claim that it’s the most effective way to promote an event.

Offline Events

Traditional events are as important as ever, and compared to online meetings, they require significant investment in order to run successfully. You’ll need to fund the right venue, transportation, and staff for your event, which means it’s even more critical to attract an audience.

A poorly-marketed event is a major loss, but if done well, can prove a great success for your business. In fact, many event attendees believe in-person interaction is more important now than it was just two years ago. The most common types of physical events include trade shows, seminars, conferences, and the like.

Email Marketing Your Event

As you begin to brainstorm an approach to your new email marketing campaign, your first step should be ensuring that you have a sufficiently large email list. While it may be tempting to purchase an email list in order to quickly increase your outreach, this is a bad idea for many important reasons.

Instead, your email list should be grown organically, guaranteeing that your recipients are already interested in your business. Segment your campaign emails to reach out more directly to specific parts of your audience.

If you’re running a physical event, for example, you should only contact people within a relatively small radius of the location. Most users will probably ignore an email for an event they’re not close to, or even go as far as to unsubscribe.

Email Sequencing

Sending a predetermined series of emails (known as a drip campaign) is a great way to promote engagement and keep your audience aware of your upcoming event. For a short, informal event, your initial invitation may not need to be sent more than a few weeks in advance. On the other hand, you’ll want to reach out much earlier for a larger event like a conference or trade show.

Once people sign up for your event, they should receive an automated confirmation email allowing them to put it on their calendar or even invite others through social media or email. You can follow up with reminder emails, both to those who have already signed up and parties that have yet to RSVP.

After the event, it’s important to reconnect with your attendees. This shows them that you appreciate their presence and engagement, and offers them a chance to provide feedback. You can include photos or videos from the event, and place a call to action inviting them to stay engaged with your business.

Email marketing for events is more complicated than what can be conveyed above. However, following these guidelines is a great first step toward running a successful event and increasing your attendance.

Best Corporate Event Activities Ideas for an Interactive Evening

July 25, 2018 by Tim Grable

Coming up with corporate event activities ideas is no walk in the park.

That’s because the activities must be fun, creative, engaging, inclusive and align with the overall goals and theme of the event. Checking all those boxes can be quite a challenge, especially when dealing with a greater number of attendees.

It’s challenging but not impossible, though.

In this article, we’ll provide you with a few excellent ideas for activities which will get everyone to engage and participate. Use them as inspiration for your next corporate event to get the most out of it.

1. Quizzes Which Play into the Theme of the Event

One of the main advantages of organizing a quiz as part of your event is that this activity is highly-customizable.

In other words, you can quickly adapt it to your event’s theme or goals. For instance, if one of the goals is to reinforce company core values, then maybe you can do a quiz which supports that.

What’s more, this activity will engage guests without them needing to move seats, so it’s convenient, as well.

We would recommend hiring a master of ceremonies to manage the activity, keep it fast-paced and ensure everything runs smoothly.

2. Pass the Mic to Continue the Story

Start off a scenario for a story and then ask attendees to pass the mic and continue the narrative. To keep things interesting, introduce new characters and invite attendees to react to plot twists as they occur.

This is a fun improv exercise which will get everyone to pay attention.

You will be surprised by how invested guests will get in the story. Moreover, it’s also one of those corporate event activity ideas that encourages collaboration, which means it’s also a great team building exercise.

3. Follow the Clues

There’s no single recipe for how to organize a “follow the clues” game, but the main concept is pretty much the same: guests will have to complete different challenges by following a series of given clues.

You can use this exercise to encourage guests to explore different places across the venue, ask questions and interact with others. It’s an excellent idea for large conferences or trade shows because it motivates attendees to move from one place to the other and explore new areas.

This is one of those corporate event activities ideas which are super easy to implement – regardless of the number of attendees.

Keep the game interactive by pairing up your guests into teams and asking them to work together to solve the given tasks faster.

Elevate Any Corporate Event Activities Ideas with Top Entertainment

Sharing a new experience together is the ultimate ice-breaker, so here are two entertainment ideas which are guaranteed to spark up a conversation and lay the groundwork for an interactive evening:

Aerial Performers. Featuring this act is a fabulous way to get the audience involved – even if the venue is limited in terms of floor space. Moreover, aerial performers add an undeniable thrill element which can make any event more exciting.
Wow-factor entertainment which involves participation from the audience. Mentalists and magicians are two examples which fit into this category.

We hope you now have a few new ideas to power your efforts to put together engaging, interactive corporate events people will love to attend.

For a constant source of inspiration, make sure to follow our blog. We continuously post new ideas and useful information to keep your creative juices flowing.