"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we can be."
 

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Training: Leadership Beyond the Recession

When he stated the quote above, Ralph Waldo Emerson was describing extraordinary leadership. What he said then is exactly what we need today. Organizations are obviously suffering from the economic fallout. The dynamics of business are in a state of change. Workers and managers alike are struggling to make sense of what they must do to survive the recession...

This year, some organizations may consider reducing or eliminating training as a way to lower expenses; but in reality, training is the last thing organizations should cut. It is the one thing that can help current and future leaders adapt so they can emerge from the recession healthy and sound. Training is about leveraging the present in order to build a future. The recession may be the best time to focus on leadership training.

Positioning for the Recovery

Organizations should be positioning themselves for recovery. Studies reveal firms that come out of the recession in a more advantageous position will be more likely retain that position far into the period of recovery.

Strategies for building leadership talent should be embedded throughout your organization. Train your managers and supervisors to help employees understand where the company is going and how they fit in with the company goals. Employees then are more likely to apply the proper decisions and skills in their day-to-day jobs.

Leading employees effectively helps avoid economic distractions and keeps them engaged in the business of serving customers, remaining proactive, and performing as a productive member of the team.

Leadership to Recession-Proof the Culture

Another theme on which employers must focus is communication. When times are tough, leaders should openly discuss the issues and challenges employees face. They should do this often and in many ways to reduce anxiety, stabilize the environment, and support positive morale. Communication becomes the glue that binds together the culture of the organization, making it more resistant to the pressures of recession, such as unwanted turnover, the ability to achieve more with less, disenfranchised teams, and loss of productivity.

Check out our Essential Skills of Communicating and Essential Skills of Leadership for excellent programs to train your employees.

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Contributor: Melodae Morris, M.A., APR, SPHR

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Inspirational Video of J.K. Rowling

We have placed a video on our website of J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter Series) giving the commencement address at Harvard University last year. Ms. Rowling is an amazing author who struggled from poverty to fame.
Regardless of whether you like the Harry Potter books and movies, you can’t argue with a person who overcame obstacles and achieved her dream.

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Will They Lie, Cheat, and Steal?

The CBI is a valid, contemporary integrity test—a cost-effective
screening procedure for identifying job applicants whose
behavior, attitudes, and work-related values are likely
to interfere with their success as employees. The CBI
consists of an objective questionnaire with 140 true/false
questions that can be completed by the job applicant in
about 15 minutes.

There are two forms available. One is administered,
scored, and interpreted by computer. It yields an
objectively generated report addressing the degree of
potential concern about the six major areas identified,
a measure of overall or total concern, and an
assessment of self-serving response bias.

The other form is a paper-and-pencil version in which
applicants answer the questions on an answer sheet. It is then
hand-scored and profiled by the test administrator,
yielding the same information as the computer-based
version. The cost of each report is $19.

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Daily Cartoon

For those of you needing a little laugh, we invite you to visit the Daily Cartoon page on our website. The cartoons are provided by Ted Goff.
 

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