A Different Kind of Spring Forward!

This post is a special announcement!

We will be moving all of our content to a new all-in-one learning platform. Our goal is to reimagine leadership and management development. It's time to offer something different!

Read on...

Clocks have changed for most of us. Have you recovered yet? The one good thing about this time of year?...there is an inspiring sense of Spring coming. We see daffodils popping up from the ground and trees with early blooms and we feel it's just around the corner. We're beginning to break free from the winter doldrums, feeling a bit more energized as we look forward to welcomed days of sun-filled activities.

If you're anything like me, Spring is also a time when I take a moment to assess what's been happening since the beginning of the year - what was and what could be as the year continues to progresses.  I set aside time to plan because I want to act with intention - to make the most of each day.

I encourage you to do the same and in particular with your professional development.  This is the purpose of this post.

One of the new initiatives I'm super excited to introduce is an all-in-one platform that holds my complete collection of offerings, including books, articles and courses. It's intended to be a one stop shop to serve as an expert professional development resource for leaders and managers.

Why the Platform? 

It's time to not only rethink leadership, but also to completely reimagine leadership and management development. This is the challenge I am issuing to my professional community and in doing so, want to offer a viable alternative.

It's well passed time - it just really needs to change! 

I wrote about this need a while back on LinkedIn: Is The Leadership Industry Failing You?  And, the timing for this challenge and offering could not be more perfect as it aligns with many disruptive changes due to the pandemic. There is no better time than now!

Here's The Issue

For years, I've witnessed and been very frustrated with the overall inadequacy of professional development offered by most companies and the professional industries that serve them. This inadequacy has continually hurt employees (and businesses) at all levels in variety of ways including delayed skill development. All of which ultimately suppresses cumulative earnings for employees and companies.

My philosophy and a professional truth: 

Skills undeveloped is money left on the table...

for everybody...and definitely not in your bank account.

So, I felt compelled to create an opportunity to remedy this. I'm launching a professional development resource that offers the best, most effective way to grow capabilities and skills in a way that is sustainable and which can even be measured financially. All resources to achieve this will be housed on the platform.

What Needs to Change?

The current traditional approach to professional development is not only antiquated, but also does not adequately take into account basic principles of human psychology and behavior - the origin of all change.

Because of this and for a few additional reasons, you are being held back...that is if you're solely dependent on your company to provide all the resources for your professional development. And sadly, most folks are.

I'll state the challenges this way. I want professionals to not have to...

- wait on the timing of internal decision-makers to get help to gain knowledge and/or develop a needed skill

- be beholden to selective, restrictive investment

- be dependent (and this is a big one) on inexperienced, novice decision-makers who select "trainings", which are typically limited, deficient time-wasters.

Sourcing and decision-making goes something like this...hum we need training, where should I look. I'll go on LinkedIn (and I'm saying this even as someone who has one of the most popular LinkedIn HR courses) and shoot out a question to the community (who by the way promote the traditional approaches). A one time event or series of webinars and workshops - usually in the form of massive information dumps - are suggested, along with certain vendors. A topic is decided and scheduled..but oops you can't make it...that's ok..it'll be recorded. Decision-maker then thinks, "Training done, needs met, we're good to go."

You sign up, learn a bunch of stuff, your brain is maxed to capacity within the first 30 mins. You may get to ask some questions at the end...then, the end. No implementation support, post event interaction and follow up from the presenter, generally not tied to meaningful business objectives with little to no accountability of usage. That's it.

Here's The Reality

One information dump does not automatically fix a skill deficit and the problems created.. talking about a skill does not make a skill. Temporary change can be immediate, but permanent change takes time. Permanent change is a mastered behavior change aka a skill.

I talk about this in depth in my Kindle Short - 10 Reasons Why Your Management Training Sucks.

And these are the driving factors behind my new offering. After years of the same ole' same ole'...it truly is time for something different. You deserve it! Your career and family deserve it and so do your fellow colleagues and if you're a leader/manager, those you led....and if you're a fellow HR professional you deserve something you can confidently offer that can provide the utmost value.

I'd like to offer the opportunity for professionals to...

- get competent help exactly when they need it

- in an affordable way so they are not dependent on their company to do so

- have strategic, affordable control of their professional development and earning potential by working with proven experts for as long as is needed.

- use of time efficiently 

So my message is... I encourage you to not undermine your professional earnings and development by being too dependent on your company and if you're at a senior level, not be wholly dependent on a novice HR, training and development department to make critical decision regarding the development of your most important asset - your employees. It is rare that they adequately provide what's needed. Additionally, there are definite gaps in development offerings for senior and executive leadership.

The Platform

It is a site that has a breath of learning resources - books, articles, videos, podcasts, courses, including live weekly interactive roundtables and periodic, specially curated masterclasses and 1 on 1 real-time conversations. Though this may sound like a bunch of random stuff put together, it all serves our key focus and development method:

What's different? Everything on the platform is serves to support our signature approach to leadership development using the lens of power => the ability to achieve desired results. My experience...everything in life is about power.

Our Approach

1. We use 3 unique, simple competencies - Personal Power, Community Power & Social Power.

2 Points here:

a.  Community is our updated, modern view of management and operations 

b. We think a lot of stuff around leadership & management competencies, as well as formal performance management is waste of time, adding little if any real, substantive value to an organization.

 

2. Framed within tested, proven blueprints.  They serve as a step-by-step guide to developing carefully identified competencies. Additionally, the blueprint is designed with behavior science threaded through-out, along with a method to calculate the financial impact of each step.

Our 3 Core Blueprints

1. The Emerging Executive - newly promoted or pre-promotion preparation

2. The Disciplined Executive - executives who want to refine their effectiveness (designed to be a tactical compliment to Peter Drucker's book, The Effective Executive)

3. The Smart Management Blueprint - for leader/managers at any level who want to improve their people management.

Each are designed to be implemented within a 90 day development cycle with weekly, measurable outcomes. Each has easy to access learning bites, action items with weekly, live accountability for feedback and additional learning. You experience support at each step along the way...for as long as you need! 

It's Time to Spring Forward Into Something New!

It's time to break out of our traditional view and approach to professional development. We've got to move passed and reject the notion that a meaningful "training", developing a skill is a 1 and done information dump and can only be sourced via Human Resources....that webinars and courses are the remedy. They are vehicles - they are not in and of themselves the remedy.

The best approach is to have access to proven tools, anytime needed, in manageable bites, with ongoing, live human support that is tied to real-time needs, for as long as is needed. That's what we offer.

Learn more about this innovative approach and how you can use this for your professional development. 

By the way, if you're a decision-maker or HR professional and recognize the value of this opportunity, we do offer special discounts for corporate subscriptions. Consider adding this platform and its offerings to your corporate leadership and management development portfolio.

A Final Note

After conducting thousands of professional development workshops, seminars and delivering many keynotes, here is one of the many professional development truths I've observed. There are primarily 2 kinds of learners - passive and active. 

Passive learners - which have been referred to as seminar junkies - love to learn...take in new information, but typically do nothing with it...they just keep learning and that's it. 

Then, there are active learners. They take in information with the intent to apply what they've learned to generate change. They have the motivation, focus and commitment to implement. In fact they welcome ongoing help. They want to be held accountable to maximize the learning experience. They want to ensure they're growing professionally and can achieve meaningful change...change that really matters.

Which one are you? If you happen to be a passive learner and want to boost your professional effectiveness and put more money in your pocket, we invite you to fully participating in all that the platform offers. If you're already an active learner, you'll love the format, offerings, live weekly interaction. You'll feel right at home. All are welcomed no matter your stage of growth. See you on the Platform!