Category: Leadership Development

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March 5, 2024

Beyond the Carrot and Stick: Why Traditional Discipline Systems are Failing our Workplaces

For decades, workplaces have relied on a familiar disciplinary playbook: warnings, write-ups, and even suspensions. The reality is the term “discipline” is associated with punishing people. This “punishment-based”approach may seem straightforward, but in today’s evolving work world, it’s proving increasingly ineffective and frustrating for everyone involved. In fact, it’s time we acknowledge the flaws in this traditional system and explore more positive, productive alternatives to managing performance.

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February 20, 2024

How To Maximize Leadership Training To Benefit Your Company

A thriving and successful company owes its success to a strong leadership team. Exemplary leaders can inspire and motivate their employees, manage resources, and strategize everyone’s performance toward achieving their business goals. 

Recognizing leadership and ensuring your team is primed for effective leadership can impact your company’s success. This is why many businesses invest in employee leadership training. However, not every company knows how to leverage this important resource fully. 

By maximizing your leadership training efforts, you can improve the performance of your employees, company, and bottom line.

What Is Leadership Training?

Leadership training consists of programs or courses that improve employees’ leadership skills. Employees undergoing training recognize their strengths and weaknesses and learn how to become effective leaders. By the end of the program, your team can overcome the challenges of managing their team. 

Only some people in leadership understand what it means to be a leader. As a result, they may be prone to micromanaging, poor delegation, or lacking certain areas that could affect their team’s performance. By being self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses and knowing how to overcome them, they can manage their team more effectively toward their goals.

Benefits of Leadership Training

By priming your leaders for success, you can take advantage of the following leadership benefits:

  • Decisive Decision-Making: Effective leaders must make informed decisions for their team and the company. Leadership training equips employees with the skills to analyze their options, foresee realistic results, and stick to their choices.
  • Increased Employee Engagement and Retention: Employees quit bad bosses, not jobs, and this is true in many cases. Ineffective leaders can scare away quality employees. On the other hand, employees appreciate sound leadership to benefit their team and help them reach their goals. This can contribute toward the success of the company.
  • Improved Communication: Good communication ensures nothing is lost in translation. Leadership training can improve interpersonal communication and communication between teams and departments.
  • Build Trust: Good relationships between employees can lead to a healthier and more productive work environment and a positive company culture. It also ensures that employees can trust their leaders to make smart decisions.
  • Minimize Workplace Conflict: Conflicts are inevitable in organizations, but how your leaders handle them can affect the workplace environment and employee satisfaction. Leaders understand the best way to deal with conflict and work towards solutions that satisfy everyone.

Tips To Maximize the Results of Leadership Training

Leadership training can require managers and key employees to take time off their regular tasks. It can also be an investment of your resources. However, by investing in proper training, you can avoid the pitfalls of poor leadership, including low productivity, high turnover rates, and operations that don’t satisfy your customers. 

In the long run, priming your leaders through leadership training translates to sustainable success. If you want to ensure that your team leverages their training, follow these steps:

1. Don’t Limit Your Training To Existing Leadership

It’s a given that those in leadership roles will benefit from leadership training. However, consider extending leadership training to other employees. While everyone can benefit, consider those who show initiative, take responsibility, and are willing to learn and grow. These employees have the potential to become the future leaders of your company and should be allowed to develop their skills.

2. Ensure the Program Aligns with Your Goals

Not all leadership training programs are created equal. Many leadership training programs offer facilitators and speakers tailored to your industry, goal, culture, and values. Ensure that the program applies to your organization’s operations and the career development that your employees want.

3. Use KPIs To Determine Effectiveness

Using key performance indicators (KPIs), you can quantify the effectiveness of leadership training. For instance, a steady decline in turnover, improved output quality, or better sales performance can be monitored to see how effective the changes in leadership strategies can be.

4. Provide Resources for Continuous Learning

Foster an environment that supports continuous learning. Offer ongoing training and development opportunities for leaders at all levels of the organization. This may include mentorship programs, workshops, or regular performance evaluations. By creating a culture of continuous learning, your employees will remain engaged and committed to their own development, and that of the organization.

5. Follow-Up With Trainees

It can be easy to forget training if these aren’t reinforced. Setting up KPIs and following-up training sessions with opportunities to share findings can support your leadership training sessions from getting lost with time.

Who Should Undergo Leadership Training?

Everyone in your organization can benefit from leadership training, especially if they are existing leaders or want to progress their careers into a position of leadership. Aside from your organization’s leaders, these are the employees who you should consider to attend your training:

  • Career Professionals: These are those without professional experience managing a team. They want to build a career – potentially in your organization – and eventually climb the ranks to leadership positions. By allowing them to hone their skills proactively, they can be ready to take the opportunity when it becomes available rather than having to struggle with the transition. 
  • New Leaders: There are employees with enough experience to give them the ability to supervise some tasks. Training can give them the skills to manage their team effectively if they are thrust into a leadership position.
  • Business Owners: Even small business owners like yourself with no employees can benefit from leadership training. As a startup, you may have to wear many hats. However, if your business is likely to grow, you may need to hire more people. Developing your leadership skills can help you build high-performance teams that help you achieve your goals. 

Improve Your Organization’s Leadership Talent Pool With HPWP

Leadership training is only one step in creating a more efficient organization. By maximizing its effect on your team, you can create a work environment that encourages the growth and development of your employees, leading to a more efficient and successful organization.

HPWP helps businesses create thriving workplaces by honing their employees’ skills. Our remote and on-site leadership development training ensures you operate with high-performance leaders who prime your operations for success. 

Get in touch with us today to see how we can benefit your organizational development.

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January 3, 2024

PIPs: It’s Impossible to Explain Why We Still Use Them.

PIPs: Unraveling the Mystery of a Flawed System (And Building a Better One)

Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) sound good on paper. An employee struggles, so we offer a structured path to success. Unfortunately, reality often paints a bleak picture. PIPs, despite their good intentions, are riddled with problems that can undermine their effectiveness and even harm employee morale. Let’s delve into the key issues lurking beneath the surface of these seemingly well-meaning plans.

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August 17, 2023

What Benefits Does Hiring Consultants Have for a Business?

Executives in businesses of all sizes may find that their role requires them to wear many hats. This can lead to several operational challenges later, as you can only perform so many functions before you lack the time and capacity to take on additional tasks or learn new concepts essential to your roles. 

In this case, many executives and business owners find hiring consulting firms or consultants helpful for their operations. Consultants are experts in their field and can advise them in strategy, management, procedures, and more. If you’re considering hiring consultants to assist you, here’s what you need to know about consulting firms and their benefits.

What Are Consulting Firms?

Consulting firms are an organization of experts well-versed in a particular business area. They can determine what is profitable, what isn’t, and what you can do to improve a part of your operations. They aren’t your employees, nor can they make changes to your company. However, they can provide advice, guidance, and recommendations for your operations and any company issue to which they’re called to offer solutions.

If you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t sure how to proceed with a problem or don’t have the internal expertise to know the best solution, hiring consulting firms connects you with experts who can assist you. These consultants observe your company’s operations, assets, and other vital factors. From there, they can offer guidance and recommended solutions.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring Consulting Firms?

Business owners and executives work with consultants to identify problems in their operations and find feasible solutions. Some of the benefits of seeking assistance from expert consultants include the following:

1. Professional Expertise

Executives and business owners aren’t expected to know everything about running a business. However, if you encounter an unprecedented hurdle in your operations, you might be unsure how to move forward while minimizing negative repercussions.

Consulting firms have experts for that precise issue and can help you move forward. They understand your business operations, assets, and limitations, so they should be able to create solutions that fit your business’ capacity and operational needs.

2. Objective Recommendations

Business consultants are essentially neutral outsiders looking in. They’re interested in helping you solve your business challenges so that you can expect unbiased and objective observations. If they see a specific part of your operations as the root cause of your issues, they aren’t going to make excuses or overlook the cause and provide recommendations on how to improve it. 

With many tasks and managerial duties, executives and business owners may not always have their ears on the ground. As a result, some issues in the operations may go unnoticed. It’s a business consultant’s job to spot these issues and recommend solutions that could be beneficial to achieving your goal.

3. Cost-Efficient Solutions

Good business consultants understand that your business doesn’t have unlimited resources to fix a problem in your operations. This is why, after spotting the issues in your business, they must provide tailored and feasible solutions for your operations. You don’t have the time and cash flow to try several solutions and see what works, and business consultants take the guesswork out of taking the right step for your business. 

For example, let’s say your business is facing an issue with employee retention. You’re unsure if this is due to your current recruitment practices, inability to spot bad hires, or the type of engagement your company provides its employees. Rather than spending more on what you think is the issue, consultants can observe the process and offer suitable recommendations.

4. Reduce Delays and Operational Disruptions

The longer your business fails to address an operational issue, the more it grows and causes cascading challenges in your company. In our previous example, we used employee retention as a hypothetical issue in your company. Left unaddressed, it could lead to operational problems. Your existing workforce may be stretched thin trying to manage the workload until your company can find new hires, leading to burnout and worsening productivity and performance. 

Consultants understand the time-sensitive nature of your operational issues. This is why their solutions focus on saving you resources such as time, money, and the capacity of your existing workforce.

5. Implement Changes

After observing your operations, consultants can provide recommendations tailored to your business. However, if you’re unsure how to implement these changes into your business, consultants can also do that for you. This can involve training employees, modifying existing processes, and even handling more difficult tasks, such as restructuring the company and laying off employees in obsolete positions. 

From there, your consultant can monitor your progress and provide necessary adjustments. They can hold you or your managers accountable for ensuring changes for the benefit of your company.

Create a High-Performance Workplace With HPWP’s Consulting Services

Are you planning on hiring consulting firms to improve your operations? At HPWP, we can help you create a high-performing workplace with a culture that values your people. Our consulting expertise has created valuable opportunities for our clients, boosted operations, reduced expenses, and improved how they handle their hires. 

Send us a message through our contact form for inquiries and more information.

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May 16, 2023

What Are the Key Advantages of Leadership Development Training

The simplest definition of “leadership” is the action of leading a group or organization. However, this definition doesn’t detail the many ways that great leaders contribute to the success of their teams and organizations.

Great leaders take the initiative to develop and effectively communicate the organization’s mission, steering subordinates toward common goals. Importantly, they motivate and guide their teams to achieve great things.

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April 4, 2023

It’s Impossible to Explain – the Progressive Disciplinary Process

Sadly, the progressive disciplinary process is alive and well.  And, by progressive, I mean a series of actions that expect an employee’s performance to get better while treating them progressively worse.  (A good friend of ours who is unfamiliar with this draconian approach to dealing with people thought progressive meant “advanced” or “cutting-edge”.)  He was shocked to learn that this punitive practice is a common approach to dealing with adults on performance issues. (more…)

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January 31, 2023

Competition is Great – BUT Doesn’t Outperform Humanity

Football, soccer, basketball, etc. So much fun to watch and play. There’s an excitement in watching competition – whether it’s your child’s T-Ball game or a professional sport. The goal is clear: TO WIN. This is also true in non-team competitions like marathons, surfing, tennis matches, etc. As well as competing with others, you are competing with yourself to be the best you can be. Yes, competition is thrilling and there’s a euphoria when there’s a win. In all of these examples, there are losers. And that’s OK.
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January 12, 2023

2023: A Time to Believe

Fast Company is looking for companies that are the Best Workplaces for Innovators (Best Workplace for Innovators).  With the start of a new year, we’re wondering why every company isn’t trying to qualify.

Over the last few decades, we’ve seen many companies mission statements that proclaim high employee involvement and stress innovation as a core value.  These are good intentions and expectations.  But how often do we see them in action?

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November 11, 2022

Relentless Forward Motion

Relentless Forward Motion

So much is happening in our world (pandemic, great resignation, recession, inflation, and the list goes on).  Sometimes the feeling of uncertainty and constant change/challenge can be immobilizing.  While these challenges may subside, there will always be something else on the horizon so we need the right mindset.

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