This is not an uncommon question. It’s one that I wonder about quite frequently. Leadership development has hundreds of theories attached to it, and more are flowing in every day.
We have the usual ideas right in front of us. Great mentors and coaches build the roadmap. Lived experiences clarify our thinking, and eventually, with a mix of external and internal influences, we get the rare asset of a leader.
In today’s edition of the Top newsletter, though, I want to talk about something else: five clear
ways leaders are not developed.
#1 By taking up a leadership role
Do you learn by grabbing the driver’s wheel in a vehicle? No, right? So why has leadership suffered from this assumption for so long? Since time immemorial (I mean the last few centuries), people have been promoted to leadership roles with only a firm handshake in the name of support and nothing much else.
This goes on until the Peter Principle strikes, and one is promoted until they are no longer promotable. Still, most professionals assume that since they were great as individual contributors and their technical proficiency is top-notch, it’s only a matter of time before they ace as leaders.
#2 Through training programs that cover everyone and everything
Congratulations, you are leading a team now! Here’s your ticket to the all-in-one leadership development program that 205,843,753 managers have undergone before you and 875,882,385 will do after you.
Guess what? It won’t help you with any of the problems you are facing right now. Does your team not take you seriously because you are young? We did not consider that while designing, but here’s a cheeky module on effective communication as a manager.
Did that sound annoying? That’s how most managers are welcomed onto the leadership side. Companies often rely on generic leadership training programs, assuming they’ll create uniform, effective leaders. In reality, leadership development must be tailored to individual strengths, weaknesses, and contexts.
#3 By being great at what you do
Most managers believe that since they are great ICs, they’ll start churning out teeny tiny copies of themselves as soon as they grab the reins of a team. But is a great IC equal to a great coach? To be honest, the transition is not so neat in most instances. Instead, you end up with managers without the skills needed to coach and train others effectively.
Overemphasis on technical or strategic skills leads to neglect of crucial soft skills like emotional intelligence, communication, and empathy, which are vital for effective leadership.
#4 By imitating other leaders
Many people believe that the key to success lies in copying the success of others. “That’s how we did it back in our times. Why can’t you?” It’s a common enough question thrown at new leaders by seniors who forget that times and people change.
Sources of inspiration are great; they might be the last source of hope in challenging situations. However, they cannot be the end of all leadership development, even if the examples are present in real life, just next door in a glass cabin.
Every leader is unique, and that’s not said just to make one feel special. It’s because circumstances and experiences differ. Leadership development needs to consider the context to be effective.
#5 By collecting certificates and conference stickers
You can attend tens of conferences, and none will be impactful until you apply what you learn about leadership during those days. And yet, many leaders are chasing the tags that come with leadership certificates and conferences. At times, even the organizations encourage this.
While formal education is valuable, assuming that degrees or certifications alone create good leaders overlooks the importance of practical experience and ongoing learning. Most leadership development actually
And that’s not the end of the list. There are more concerns out there about what’s assumed to be effective leadership development.
Which ones irk you the most? Share it with me, and I might just solve it with Risely.
Ashish is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in strategy, coaching and product. In the present avatar, he is building Risely, an AI-enabled leadership development platform in between breaks from treks and baking.
Let’s bring change: one feedback at a time.
We’ve built Candor as a tool to share anonymous feedback from employees with team managers. It’s free. Give it a spin here and start connecting.
Geraldine Murphy , Global Learning Experience Manager at The Heineken Company, shared an interesting insight in the last edition of LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report.
While talking of a move away from one-size-fits-all training, her vision called for a major shift from traditional leadership training to a dynamic mode of delivering leadership development resources.
She discussed two major facets in this equation: the human-led leadership transformation focuses on deep inner work, such as values and purpose.
Do you want to guess what made the other half?
AI
Contrary to popular fear (or expectations or hopes), AI is not set to replace humans. Instead, it’s here to empower humans. It does so in leadership development and coaching by solving for the lack of real-time guidance and insights.
Suppose you don’t have a coach (as most leaders don’t) but do have a people management challenge (as most leaders do)—what’s the way out? AI-powered coaching solutions like Risely’s Merlin bridge this gap effectively through coaching at the point of need.
At first glance, solutions like this seem unreal.
Can an AI ever understand how annoying Karen from Finance is? Can it handle Smith’s mood swings as well as I do?
Amid the threat of job loss due to AI, there are also positive signals, like Asana’s report that 65% of employees understand human-centered AI and believe it will be helpful at work.
In people management roles, what does helpful AI look like?
Is it going to do everything while you relax? Probably not. (Although 1 in 6 US employees ARE open to the idea of having an AI boss)
Instead, AI makes things easier, as discussed in the first use case above of AI coaching.
We always assume and talk about the basics: AI will make data handling and routine administrative work easier, reduce biases, and remove the friction of small tasks.
But there’s more to it; the same report shared that over one-third (37%) of employees want to use AI for creative brainstorming. Going back to Murphy’s statement, we can see the need for brainstorming support even more clearly.
Look at the use cases she refers to, insights for:
career discussions
strategy development
marketing campaigns
All three have one thing in common. They are traditionally high-level human jobs. It is not what we’d ideally like AI to replace. After all, why can’t AI focus on cutting down my laundry while I effectively create value with my solid career plan (final final (2) version.pdf)
AI in people management also works similarly on the creative side. For one, AI coaches can bring skill development to your mobile device and everyone in your organization. It cuts down heavily on the cost of enrolling everyone in a leadership development program and the chase of getting everyone onboard for training that steals their work hours.
That’s not all. AI helps you overcome daily challenges that do not quite fall within the scope of any leadership training. It can address the pesky questions—how do we talk to Rahul about his underperformance? Or how does Brenda plan to meet the deadlines with such slow progress?
An AI coach helps you figure these out with insights or, sometimes, even a role-play.
AI is at work like your co-pilot to drive growth along with you, but it’s currently performing only selective tasks. In the years to come, it is likely to get better, but it still won’t help with laundry.
Ashish is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in strategy, coaching and product. In the present avatar, he is building Risely, an AI-enabled leadership development platform in between breaks from treks and baking.
Let’s bring change: one feedback at a time.
We’ve built Candor as a tool to share anonymous feedback from employees with team managers. It’s free. Give it a spin here and start connecting.
The retail organizations around us are changing. Technological developments promise faster deliveries than ever, and retail employment is not the same exciting prospect anymore for college students. Before looking at how the leaders are responding to these changes, let’s answer something critical: Are retail leaders prepared to take on the future?
Table of Contents
Retail Leadership Development – The Story So Far
The retail sector is facing the heat not just from the economic downturn alone but also from troubled global matters and stemmed revival after the pandemic. That’s one side. The other is managing the employees and the store. The first is challenging because of the typical high attrition of working frontline in retail. The financial benefits are no help, so the matters relate to the experiences. The second area is posing challenges because there are better options on the internet. Retail needs to focus on building great customer experiences to survive the drought brought upon by e-commerce, which again boils down to how loyal and good your employees are.
There’s one thread tying all of these together: The store manager.
These often assertive but usually tough people are the heart and soul of retail chains. A lot rests on their shoulders—right from managing the employee register to ensuring that the customer exits with a smile on their face. Historically, long-term employment with a retail chain would mean a series of promotions into managerial and leadership roles. But times are changing, and so are demands. The managerial role in retail is now about managing stakeholders, supply chains, tech, people, and so on.
Managers and leaders at every level in retail businesses need more training and support to achieve remarkable results that are becoming synonymous with survival. While historically, we have witnessed a drought of leadership development opportunities in retail, there are voices demanding change quite openly now.
For instance, in research by Spencer Stuart across retail organizations globally, it was found that leading and empowering people was one of the most important abilities a retail leader needed! That’s not all. There’s more context to highlight why retail leadership development is the need of the hour. HR leaders from these retail organizations shared that the biggest risk in succession planning for retail right now was the inability to address development gaps – which directly hints at the need for better leadership development initiatives for retail organizations.
But, is it really worth the fuss?
How do leadership development initiatives impact the retention of leaders?
Research cited above points to 25 to 48% of CEOs and direct reports being expected to leave their organizations within a year from the survey date. What’s next, then? Unfortunately, not many teams are sure, owing to the lack of leadership development practices. They are grappling with gaps in the talent pipeline, and most of the next generation does not seem fit to bear the load. The leaders and managers are bound to search for exits when the traditional career progression route is no longer feasible, and there are no alternate avenues on offer.
The growth promised through these programs is a great benefit on top of competitive aspects like pay and benefits. When similar offerings populate the industry, differentiation is made of L&D initiatives that boost employee loyalty by supporting them right where they need it. Leadership development opportunities can help curb the turnover of leaders and managers in retail. This is because investment in leadership development offers a sense of professional security.
That’s not all. There’s more that retail leadership development can change.
What is the impact of retail leadership development?
We can sum up the major impact of retail leadership development as follows:
Make your people stay: First, retail leadership development is important to fight up-and-coming challenges with the right workforce. External hiring, training for your industrial relevance, and then fighting the battle would prove costly. Instead, if you invest in bringing out the leadership potential of your people, you will have a more loyal workforce who values you as much as you do them. Building loyalty among your team members in a high-turnover industry is one of the best ways to secure competitive advantages.
Bring your people together: Leadership and management development programs will help you emphasize your organization’s core values and mission. In turn, the receivers of these messages, the leaders and managers who are learning, double up as culture agents with the frontline staff and ensure they have a sense of purpose at work.
Propagate the right behaviors to the frontline: Training managers in your core values and the right mix of management skills will help you create a trickle-down effect. As a result, the ideas and behaviors you want to emphasize are built with the managers as role models for the frontline staff, leading to the ultimate success, which is a great customer experience.
Tailor leadership programs to meet your needs: There’s a lot available in the open market when it comes to developing leaders and managers, but the question is—does that match what you need? Most likely, it will not. Most leadership development programs are cookie-cutter and not made to fit. As a result, the impact remains half-hearted. Investing in leadership development yourself will allow you to control the content and application.
Be future-ready: It’s no secret that the world is changing. The retail industry now needs to negotiate terms with consumers who are conscious of the level of comfort e-commerce can offer. There are also tech disruptions to keep in mind, like AI. All of these changes require leadership that is willing to take on challenges.
The old image of a rigid store manager is no longer the face of the retail industry, so let’s replace that archetype from the leadership development programs too?
Regarding retail leadership development, the most common forms include screaming ideas into an audience, which, although traditional, does not appear very effective. Since we are talking of preparing for a modern world, leadership development practices in a retail environment also need to modernize and get in tune with the present.
For instance, AI-powered leadership development fits neatly into the retail leadership development paradigm because it can meet the needs of distributed teams at scale even when the contextual needs are heavily varied. What does that mean? Let’s break it down into five key features of retail leadership development for the future.
#1 Not pull away people from work
One of leadership development’s biggest troubles lies in taking time for it. Most managers and leaders don’t have the hours (or sometimes days) that the conventional leadership workshops, seminars and getaways demand. They do have unique challenges that these programs don’t help with because they are made with an Ideal Customer Persona in mind.
Retail leadership development must embrace microlearning to meet managers where they are, most likely on the store floor. It means offering learning in bite-sized bits that are actionable and not just offering a checklist of best practices to follow. For example, Risely’s daily nudges for people managers share a small actionable idea that they can practice right then. This nudge is aligned to their job role and level of proficiency in particular leadership skills, and it even identifies which team members would be best to work in that area.
All of this takes about 15 minutes at best, including getting the idea, trying it out, and maybe even talking about what happened with the AI coach Merlin right then!
#2 Train a lot of people similarly even at different locations
The most basic part of training a retail organization is understanding that it is distributed. For example, one company that we work with, Fosters, has people spread over six to seven separate locations. Pulling them all into a single leadership development program would mean pulling key people from each place and potentially jeopardizing operations for at least a day or two.
That’s why retail leadership development solutions need to account for a centralized set-up that scales down into your context. For instance, Risely’s AI-led co-pilot for leadership development is accessible anywhere at any time. The managers do not need to seek permission to take a coaching session or wait until the company organizes the next one. All of them have access to an AI coach who is personalized to their job role, level of leadership skills, and professional goals.
Also, Merlin offers voice mode in over 40 languages, so don’t worry about typing out long paragraphs about what’s bothering you. It’s as simple as sending that voice note to a friend describing your annoying day at work. Simplification in accessing coaching and support through interventions like these is critical for retail leaders since they are in a high-stress and emotionally draining job that leaves little bandwidth to “learn” at the end of the day.
#3 Train people at different levels in the organization
Every organization has people working at several different levels. This leads to an obvious complexity: Who to train and who not to? What if we told you that every leader on your team deserves support? Broadly, the numbers in corporate organizations suggest that only about 10% of leaders are able to access training. It leaves out most of the people who work day in and day out with the frontline staff.
AI coaching and leadership development drastically reduce costs and barriers. As a result, you can train all the people in your organization at a fraction of the cost, time, and effort. AI coaching is adaptable to job roles, so it can help anyone from the CXO club to frontline managers who battle it out every day.
#4 Meet the unique contextual needs of retail leadership
Retail leadership is not for the faint-hearted. A number of factors are involved, from building customer experiences to managing supply chain networks. The trouble is that a leadership coach would not know about this unless they come from a retail background. This makes coaching and development services for retail leaders a niche and expensive area. But that’s not all. Not all retail leaders are cut from the same cloth. Some have to handle people by giving speeches; others do so in closed rooms where big deals are discussed. Both of these people need different skills.
AI supports this differentiation in the support being provided to leaders across a retail organization with personalized learning pathways. Risely, for instance, starts by asking you to configure challenges and assesses you on leadership skills to create a roadmap that would suit you. It further pulls insights from company policies and ties into individual professional goals to create a well-rounded learning experience. It is an entirely different paradigm from the leadership development best practices offered so far to retail leaders.
#5 Reinforce organizational objectives and values
In a business that’s known for high turnover, loyalty is chased. So why are we leaving it on the table when effective leadership development and shake things up? Investing in leadership development creates a positive employee brand that ensures your people stick with you. But that’s just one part.
Leadership coaching that is outsourced or conducted through external providers is more often than not likely to suffer from a disconnect from your values. It’s not because of inability but simply because of design. Embedding your mission and ideas is possible only when you train people with in-house experts, which is a costly affair on its own. So, what’s the way out?
An AI coach helps with this, too! Risely’s AI coach, Merlin, learns your company’s policies and values and offer them along with suggestions whenever your team is taking a coaching session. This is a great way to reinforce your core ideas rather than letting them catch dust in some lengthy documents that barely get read.
Retail leadership development is surely in for some amazing changes as the world progresses. Come 2025 and bid adieu to one-size-fits-all learning programs plaguing your people. Instead, gift them learning that meets their needs.
Read more: How To Make Leadership Development Programs Succeed In Your Organization?
To Sum Up
Retail leadership development is the need of the hour as we navigate more complex relationships and changing dynamics with the increasing popularity of e-commerce. Manager and leadership development promises a lot to retail organizations. There are many benefits to be sought in improved customer experiences, better frontline performance, and increased employee loyalty.
But the last bit of trouble lies in the prevalent old-school modes of leadership development in the retail industry. They are often not optimized for the right context where your learner is. AI bridges this gap by offering personalized learning paths to managers and learners for unique challenges.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
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Healthcare systems are critical to any society. How are we training the people who run them? Learn how leadership development is evolving in the healthcare space with the introduction of AI.
When it comes to the healthcare sector, we often interact with the front end. At the back, another parallel system keeps the show running—the administrative function. They are hidden, yet their presence can be felt in every small or big action, from disoriented teams to misplaced documents. In this healthcare administrative setup, the leaders and managers are like the backbone. They are crucial in ensuring that the show not just runs but does so effectively to support millions of people every day.
The sad part of this story is that it’s not an easy job at all. When it comes to being a manager in the healthcare sector, we are not just asking for solid leadership abilities; there’s a higher need for empathy and caution. It’s not only fast-paced and dynamic but also emotionally taxing. As a result, we witness high burnout among managers in the healthcare sector.
There’s no single cause for this challenge. Healthcare leaders are constantly facing the heat due to:
long work hours that hurt the work-life balance
staff shortages causing overworking
emotional investment in work
high-pressure work environment
While talking of managers here, it’s not uncommon for employees in this sector to handle empathy fatigue while continuing to strain themselves. This went overboard during the COVID-19 pandemic when demands from the healthcare sector hit the sky on quick notice. Since returning from that wave, the sector has coped with distress.
Inherent support systems at work can be one of the most effective solutions for increasing access to support for healthcare workers. This puts managers and leaders at the frontline as coaches and mentors for their teams. Yet, even this is mired with problems due to a lack of investment in healthcare leadership development.
So, what’s the way out? Let’s begin by appropriately contextualizing the role of leadership development in healthcare.
Why is Leadership Important in Healthcare?
Developing leaders in the healthcare space is vital for success because it directly improves employee experiences. Great leaders provide the valuable support, coaching, and motivation that healthcare workers need to sustain themselves in a physically and emotionally straining environment. They are also the key to creating a talent pipeline for succession and effectively building career paths.
To sum up, healthcare leadership development helps you:
Enhance customer experiences: Leadership development programs in healthcare are focused on developing skills that enable seamless experiences for service seekers. This ensures that your employees are focused and dedicated to the task, thus leading to better performance even in high-stress scenarios that are common for healthcare workers.
Enhance people’s experiences: Customers are one side of the equation; your employees are the other. As we noted earlier, too, well-trained leaders better support their teams and carry them forward through challenges. It is also a motivational factor for the employees to see that their growth matters to the organization and aligns with wider business plans.
Manage your people better: Focusing on developing the leaders in your healthcare organization ensures that you have a ready pipeline of talent who can take up bigger roles in the future as the current generation moves on. Leadership development can also help you solve high turnover and absenteeism because it helps employees find the right skills, purpose, and plans for their careers.
What’s the Status Quo of Healthcare Leadership Development?
Let’s break this down with an example.
HealthRight 360, one of the major healthcare providers for vulnerable people, emphasizes the role of leaders in its mission. As an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of people without access to insurance, it is at the frontiers with numerous service providers working every day. It calls for leaders who can unite teams around the mission and translate its core values of empathy.
As part of the healthcare industry with an extensive volunteer network, HealthRight 360 faces some of the most common challenges prevalent in both of these areas, namely, a shortage of resources, people, and time. Thus, prioritization and making the right choices to positively impact people become super important.
What Challenges Do Leadership Development Programs in Healthcare Face?
Healthcare leadership development programs face myriad challenges due to the sheer number of complexities built into the environment itself. First, there is the resource crunch that we discussed earlier. It is not just about funds but also about the availability of people and bandwidth.
As a result, we witness these challenges in healthcare leadership development programs:
Lack of resources to run programs for leaders
Healthcare leaders do not have the hours to invest in leadership development training programs that could take them out of work. In fact, one of the biggest challenges for L&D teams in healthcare is ensuring that people grow while not missing out on work. As a result, even the smaller and shorter alternatives suggested to leaders, like eLearning, are hard to implement, let alone extensive methods like one-on-one coaching.
At times, seeking investment for leadership development and making this case in front of the stakeholders makes things difficult since it is not viewed as an area that can directly bring in revenue. For nascent L&D teams, getting the ROI numbers is a challenge.
Meeting niche expertise needs
A healthcare leader operates in a specific context that happens to be pretty niche. It involves a high level of clinical expertise and a similarly high level of people expertise. The learning and development methods for healthcare leaders need to equip them with a holistic understanding of this environment. Sadly, a majority of leadership development programs available out there are cookie-cutter and do not provide the exact value needed here.
Creating a pipeline for succession
Healthcare institutions often lack the structured infrastructure for preparing leaders for senior roles. Without the strategic approach to identifying and nurturing future leaders, healthcare organizations end up with leadership gaps and succession risks. It is also vital to consider that talent with niche healthcare leadership competencies leaving the organization is a major loss.
Matching competency levels in functional and people skills
Healthcare leadership requires a complex mix of skills. While functional knowledge is critical to success, leaders also need to demonstrate emotional competence and great people skills. In the absence of adequate leadership development programs, leaders are left to grapple with people management challenges without the right toolkit. This poses constant challenges since healthcare employees are prone to burnout and need consistent support.
So, what’s the way out?
Picturing the Ideal Healthcare Leadership Development Program
Healthcare leadership development programs are thus stuck in an impasse because moving further in any direction can break the delicate balance of their environment. As a result, most L&D managers in healthcare remain on the lookout for leadership development solutions to reach out to distributed teams. Their major objective is to tie people around shared values, systems, and leadership approaches even when they are spread across different teams and offices.
To create this ideal solution for healthcare leadership development, we need to think along three pillars:
#1 Meet healthcare managers where they are, literally and metaphorically
There are layers to this challenge.
First, leadership development needs to meet the managers where they work. Healthcare managers often double up as field staff, so they cannot spare days to invest in leadership training. They also do not have the same range of allowances that permit corporate employees to take up the usual leadership development programs. Thus, learning needs to be where they are.
Second, leadership development for healthcare managers needs to align with their skill levels. This is frequently overlooked in the sector, and there’s a gap that any training program would have to bridge. It begins by emphasizing the people management aspect of the job and then further supporting them on the challenges as they show up. Implementing high-level training programs with bullet points on how to do things is not going to prove useful.
Thus, leadership development programs for healthcare managers need to embed themselves in the sector’s flow of work and people management routines.
#2 Define a consistent leadership style for the organization and spread it evenly
Corporates have their vision and mission documents. The culture teams further populate this area with documents describing the values at the core of their mission, leadership styles, and so on. These are often very low on the list of priorities in the healthcare sector. One of the challenges for healthcare L&D is then defining this common leadership culture and propagating it across the organization. We must also consider that not all teams work in a shared space with the same bandwidth.
With this in mind, we need a leadership development method that balances a central focus on organizational philosophy with individualized attention to professional challenges. Directives and documents for coaches seem like the most obvious route to achieve this. However, the questions of diverse interpretations, multiple coaching styles, and lack of constant support soon rise.
#3 Reach out to more healthcare leaders and support them effectively
The third pillar where leadership development programs in the healthcare industry need support is the coverage they offer. Thus far, even traditional corporates have been limited in terms of how many leaders they can effectively train and support. For the healthcare sector, the challenges are made more complex by low prioritization of development initiatives and resource crunch.
Leadership development programs for healthcare thus need to take a turn toward accessibility and scalability, wherein more people managers can seek help easily without hesitation or losing out on precious work hours. Moreover, scalability will allow L&D teams to show ROI much more easily. It happens as outreach to more employees translates into a bigger impact at the organizational level compared to investing in the development of a select few.
Since we have these actions in mind, we should also consider latching to the latest technological developments and using them to reach our goals. AI is one such factor that has shown many use cases in healthcare leadership development.
Let’s explore a few of them in the next section.
How is AI altering Healthcare Leadership Development Programs?
AI for leadership development is one of the hottest areas discussed globally by the L&D industry. Does it have some applications in improving healthcare leadership development programs?
Use microlearning to push growth every day
We have noted that one of the most common challenges for healthcare leaders is that they cannot devote the time needed for leadership development programs. Getting away from work for a few hours every week adds more strain to an already overwhelming schedule, as do programs that span multiple days. Microlearning is the savior here.
Microlearning is not just about reading a bit of information about people management here and there. Ai is putting an interesting twist on this to make it more impactful. At Risely, it unfolds in twin moves:
Nudges: First up, managers on Risely get daily nudges focused on improving their people skills. It focuses on the skills they need (which are assessed first thing), the team members this manager is working with, and the context in which they work. So, a healthcare leader struggling to be assertive at their new job with a team member named Alex will receive an actionable tip to do precisely that, not just anything from a random box of tips & tricks.
Activities: Leadership is not just about learning things; it’s more about doing them in real life. Risely takes this message to the core, which is why most daily lessons are equipped with short activities like watching a video lesson, taking a quiz, or practicing a role-play. These are again personalized to the leader’s context—their skill levels, challenges, job context, and so on.
The fun part? All of this takes about 15 minutes a day at best.
Use AI coaching to meet contextual needs
Another challenging aspect that we noted earlier is the lack of contextual support. Being a leader in a healthcare setting puts one in a unique spot. The job demands are physically and emotionally straining. Few people, either seniors or coaches, are available to support one in these roles since the experience being demanded becomes very niche.
Scaling healthcare leadership development via coaching thus proves to be expensive and time-consuming for the L&D team itself. (At the moment, we are not even going into aligning the coaches with company values and building relationships with the learners, which would be more complex issues for L&D teams that get into this.)
So, who can solve this? An AI coach like Merlin understands every manager’s unique context and offers support solely based on what’s needed. The great thing about AI leadership coaches is that they are always available, even when the work hours are over, and the manager is sitting alone, pondering how to confront someone. That’s where an AI coach shows up and saves the day!
With Merlin, people leaders can access multiple ways of learning. They can simply talk about situations and seek advice. But there are more interesting ways to engage an AI co-pilot in your leadership journey:
Role-play a situation: Is there something weighing heavy on your heart? It’s probably a difficult conversation that you need to have soon but are not sure how to approach it. Role-plays with Merlin help you practice these (as often as you want) by setting up the scenario and defining your partner’s expected behaviors.
Develop specific skills and set goals: You can chat with Merlin about everything related to skill development, from diagnosing what’s missing from your arsenal to creating strategies and roadmaps for growth.
Turn it into a culture agent: An AI coach must be generic, right? Except that it’s not. Setting up Merlin involves researching your company policies and values to ensure that they are reflected in the coaching conversations. While asking for guidance, team members can quickly glance at what the official documentation says, which is great because we both know that they will never open the PDFs otherwise.
Want to see how it works? Catch Merlin in action here:
Focus on scalable solutions for healthcare leaders
Last but not least, we need to reach out to many more healthcare leaders and deliver support. As an L&D team, our mission is to support organizational growth as well as personal goals, but a resource crunch can get in the way. As we noted in the point above, AI can solve this.
Picture this: Your team gets an AI coach supporting managers even while you are asleep. Not just one manager, but as many as you have. You no longer need to worry about scheduling meetings with the right coaches, the costs of accessing them, and regularly hiring for new ones since the previous set leaves. That’s precisely what Merlin does.
That’s not the end of the story. Risely offers people management skill assessments that you can run for the entire team with one click, as opposed to designing them from scratch, getting them printed and distributed, putting reminders to get them filled and returned, and then evaluating them. Leave the whole cycle aside in favor of people skill assessments that you can run as the administrator, with both self- and team ratings and evaluations at the sub-skill levels.
Did we tell you it ties into a learning journey personalized to the manager and offers them bite-sized lessons daily? It does! Give it a spin here; it’s free: Risely’s Leadership Skill Assessments.
There’s no doubt that AI is reinventing healthcare leadership development programs. The question is, are you and your team in the loop? Or, are you missing out by holding conventional methods dear?
Looking Forward
To sum things up, we have the most common challenges of healthcare leadership development programs:
Lack of resources to run programs and multiple stakeholders who are hard to convince
Need for niche expertise that understands both functional and people aspects of the job
Tying into the broader strategic HR goals like succession planning and career pathing
Creating a better understanding of the healthcare leader’s role and where they need support
Developing low-cost, scalable solutions that balance organizational objectives with personal needs
While the traditional methods of leadership development cover some or all of the bases, there’s a large gap to be filled. This is a more challenging case to tackle than corporate leadership development because it demands niche talent to run the initiatives amid a more straining environment.
The latest tech solutions based on AI, like Risely, are enabling new approaches to solve these long-held challenges. Innovative ways to personalize and scale leadership development solutions for healthcare leaders are on the way to make a difference.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
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The biggest shopping events of the year are just around the corner, and we’ve got everything you need to score the best deals without the stress. Black Friday (November 29) and Cyber Monday (December 2) are no longer just single-day events – they’ve evolved into a full season of savings, with many sellers dropping prices weeks in advance.
Keeping that in mind, we have listed the best SaaS Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday offers for 2024 here across industries and applications. Stay tuned as we update this guide regularly with the latest deals, doorbusters, and exciting products to help you make the most of this year’s biggest sales events.
Risely is an AI co-pilot for developing your team’s people, managers, and leaders. Risely adopts a hyper-personalized approach to ensure your managers meet their unique challenges and contextual needs. It starts by assessing your people managers for around 30 core skills and proceeds to create a learning journey that matches their unique learning needs and preferences.
But the story does not end here; our AI coach, Merlin, also provides constant support whenever a people management challenge strikes. Your team can access coaching in their preferred workspaces, in 40+ languages, and with great voice mode.
What do you get with Risely?
Personalized leadership coaching for managers at scale with global access.
Access to personalized micro-learning activities and nudges to support manager development.
Integration with company policies in admin mode to get your culture agent.
Black Friday Offer: 50% off on your first invoice for all plans. Duration: 15th November – 31st December 2024 Discount Code: BFCM2024 (to be applied at check out)
Got some questions, we are here to answer at info@risely.me
#2 ControlHippo
ControlHippo is a comprehensive omnichannel shared inbox solution that streamlines customer communication management. It empowers businesses to manage interactions across multiple channels—such as email, social media, and chat—through one unified platform. Focused on seamless collaboration, ControlHippo boosts customer support and engagement, ensuring consistent, efficient service across every touchpoint.
Black Friday Offer: 20% off on all individual plans. Duration: 25th October – 6th December 2024 Discount Code: Reach out to contact@controlhippo.com for your coupon code.
CallHippo is a leading virtual call center solution built for businesses of all sizes. Equipped with tailored features to elevate customer experiences and empower sales teams, CallHippo integrates seamlessly with over 100 applications like Shopify, Zapier, Freshdesk, and HubSpot. By automating call center tasks, it optimizes efficiency and simplifies workflows for enhanced productivity.
Black Friday Offer: 20% Annual payment discount; 15% Quarterly discount. Duration: 1st November – 6th December 2024 Discount Code: Reach out to marketing@callhippo.com for your coupon code.
Xobin is a comprehensive skill assessment software designed to streamline the recruitment process for businesses of any size. Trusted by over 5,000 teams globally, it offers 2,500+ customizable tests and advanced features like Psychometric assessments, Automated video interviews, AI evaluate, Applicant tracking software (Tracks), Eye-Tracking Proctoring, Actionable report, and much more.
Whether you need to conduct role-specific assessments for tech and non-tech positions, hire in bulk for university recruitment drives, or evaluate employee skill gaps, Xobin has got you covered. With 2 million annual test takers, Xobin operates in 55+ countries to help companies hire 20x faster while saving 10x time and money.
Black Friday Offer: 60% off on the annual pricing plan—limited slots are available. Duration: 11th November – 26th Novemeber 2024
Fill out the deal request form, Xobin team will review your request and approve it. Once you receive the approval you can make the payment within 72 hours, the activation code will be sent to you by the Xobin team. The chosen plan will be added to your account within 24 hrs. You can use the Activation code before Nov 1, 2025.
Tagshop is a platform that empowers e-commerce businesses to leverage user-generated content (UGC) for increased sales and customer engagement. It allows brands to collect, curate, and showcase UGC from various social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, directly on their website or in email campaigns.
By transforming UGC into shoppable galleries, Tagshop enables seamless shopping experiences, boosts product discovery, and personalizes interactions with each customer. This ultimately leads to higher conversions, stronger brand reputation, and a loyal customer community.
Black Friday Offer: 20% Off on Any Plan. Duration: Till 31st Dec 2024 Discount Code: BFCM20
FounderPass is an exclusive membership for founders giving over $3m of perks and discounts on software, tools and business services. With 250+ companies including AWS, Google, Slack, Notion, Webflow, LinkedIn, Hubspot, TikTok and many others we help founders save thousands.
Black Friday Offer: 25% off on memberships. Duration: 19th November – 3rd December 2024 Discount Code: BF25
DronaHQ is a leading low-code platform for engineers to speed up custom application development and save 100s of hours. Build customer portals, admin panels, forms, dashboards, and lots more using powerful building blocks.
Black Friday Offer: Up to 40% off on annual plans. Duration: 5th November – 30th November 2024 Discount Code: Shared upon request
OneStream Live is a cloud-based live streaming solution that allows you to broadcast both pre-recorded and real-time content to over 45 social platforms and websites simultaneously. These include YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, LinkedIn, and more, ensuring maximum visibility.
Black Friday Offer: 30% off all monthly plans for 2 months; 10% off all yearly plans. Duration: 1st November – 5th December 2024 Discount Code: BFCM30 and BFCM10 respectively
Plerdy is an all-in-one website analysis tool designed for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) & SEO. It allows businesses to track, analyze, and convert visitors into buyers with AI assistance. Features include UX analytics, e-commerce insights, AI-powered reports, heatmap capabilities, and A/B Testing.
Black Friday Offer: Get 50% OFF on annual plans. Duration: 14th November – 1st December 2024 Discount Code: plerdyBF2024
Retable is an online spreadsheet solution that helps you organize your workflows, projects, teams, and business operations. Known as the best alternative to Airtable, Retable offers real-time collaboration and rich features that are easy to use to manage your projects and workflows with a user-friendly spreadsheet-like UI.
Black Friday Offer: 50% off for all plans for the first three months. Duration: 15th November – 1st December 2024 Discount Code: BF50
This deal is valid for the first 3 months for monthly payments. For annual payments, you pay at a 50% discount for the first year. A 50% discount is applied for each seat you add during purchase.
AdSpyder is a digital ad management and spy tool designed to help businesses and marketers discover, analyze, and optimize online ad campaigns. With access to a vast, continually growing database of ads across multiple platforms, AdSpyder offers insights into competitor strategies, ad trends, and performance improvements. Users can create compelling ad copies, manage campaigns, and conduct ad analytics, all supported by AI.
Black Friday Offer: 75% off on all plans. Duration: 11th November – 31st December 2024 Discount Code: NA
AiAssistWorks.- AI for Google Sheets—no formulas needed! Harness 50+ AI models, including GPT, Claude, and Gemini™, to streamline bulk tasks like rewriting, categorizing, data analysis, and formula creation. Simplify workflows and enhance productivity with ease.
Black Friday Offer: Get the Plus Plan for only $16/year (normally $48 – save 65%) or $40 for 3 years.. Duration: 7th November – 30th November 2024 Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY
CodedThemes is a leading provider in the world of high-quality, professionally designed admin dashboard templates & UI kits. CodedThemes is known for its strong and modern digital products, which caters to developers, designers, and businesses looking to create visually appealing and functional web applications.
Black Friday Offer: 60% off. Duration: 25th November – 7th December 2024 Discount Code: BFCM2024
Engage with your website visitors and customers instantly at the peak of their interest. Offer them live video meetings and chats directly on your site
Black Friday Offer: 90% off (5 avail.), 75% off (10 avail), 50% off (30 avail), 30% off (100 avail). Duration: 15th October – 4th December 2024 Discount Code: 90OFFBF24, 75OFFBF24, 50OFFBF24, 30OFFBF24
Placeit by Envato is an all-in-one design tool offering over 50k customizable templates for logos, videos, and social media imagery, continuously updated with fresh designs from skilled professionals. With AI-generated assets and a customizable brand kit, users can create high-quality visuals in minutes, even without extensive design skills. The platform also features templates specifically for promoting events like Cyber Monday, making it easy to attract customers and boost sales. Ideal for small business owners, freelancers, and marketers.
Black Friday Offer: 33% off on annual subscriptions. For new users only. Duration: 27th November – 3rd December 2024 Discount Code: NA
5centsCDN is a global content delivery network offering fast, reliable, and affordable solutions for web acceleration, live streaming, and video on demand. Our advanced platform and flexible pricing empower you to optimize your content strategy and enhance your online presence.
Black Friday Offer: Get Up to $400 in Free Credits, or Buy 1 Month and Get 1 Month Free!. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 15th December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
Sign up, purchase a base plan, and contact the support team to receive credits equal to the base plan value for an additional free month.
Bullet.so is a no-code, Notion-based website builder that enables users to quickly create professional, customizable websites without coding skills. With over 20 free templates, built-in SEO, and membership features for monetizing content, Bullet.so helps creators, educators, and businesses turn Notion pages into branded websites.
Bullet.so supports a wide variety of site types, including personal portfolios, blogs, membership sites, educational resources, and business websites. It also offers membership management, analytics tracking, and integration options for streamlined site management.
Black Friday Offer: Get a lifetime deal for $499/site (Limited for first 20 users). Duration: 25th November 2024 – 5th December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
SyncSignature creates branded email signatures for your teams. SyncSignature helps design, update and automatically install email signatures for everyone across your business.
Black Friday Offer: 60% on all recurring plans. Duration: 15th November 2024 – 10th December, 2024 Discount Code: BF24CM60
Wisery, an ultimate digital business card and link in bio tool has been designed to present your brand, generate leads, and simplify networking. Wisery is ideal for professionals, entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a freelancer, small business owner, or part of a large corporation, network effectively and foster meaningful professional relationships.
Black Friday Offer: 25% off on any plan. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: BFW2024
NoForm AI is an AI-powered chatbot designed to supercharge your website’s lead generation. It works 24/7, engaging visitors, capturing qualified leads, and converting them into customers, all while saving your sales team valuable time With NoForm AI, you can ensure no visitor is ever left waiting for a response, and your business can provide instant, personalized engagement every time.
Black Friday Offer: New customers get 50% OFF NoForm AI’s monthly plan for the first year. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
Newoldstamp is the leading email signature management platform that empowers to effortlessly design and implement brand-consistent signatures across the entire organization. A well-crafted standardized email signature isn’t just about contact information. It’s a powerful tool to connect with your target audience, potentially creating numerous sales opportunities every day.
Black Friday Offer: 25% off on any annual plan (recurring discount for all next payments; for new users) Duration: 25th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: BF2024NOS
MySignature is an all-in-one tool designed to help small businesses, creators, and freelancers with professional branding, enhancing their online presence, and efficient email communication.
Black Friday Offer: 30% off for the first payment for all yearly plans with discount Duration: 25th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: BFW2024
Replug is the ultimate link management solution for agencies, affiliates, and content creators. With advanced features like link shortening, data-driven insights, link tracking, and optimized link performance, Replug boosts engagement, improves conversions, and enhances your marketing strategy.
Black Friday Offer: Up to 75% OFF on annual plans. Duration: 20th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
Gumlet is a leading video hosting platform aimed at delivering fast, secure, and smooth streaming experiences. It offers enterprise-level video protection, customizable video players for branding, detailed analytics, and optimized global streaming.
Black Friday Offer: Lifetime video hosting and streaming plan starting at $69. Duration: 24th November 2024 – 4th December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
TubeOnAI is an all-in-one AI summarizer designed to simplify content consumption and creation. It can instantly give key insights from long YouTube videos, podcasts, articles, PDFs, Google Drive files, and more. Users can also repurpose content and create engaging blog posts, social media updates, newsletters, video scripts, etc. with a single click.
Black Friday Offer: 60% discount on premium plans. Duration: 14th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
The tool goes beyond summaries by offering features like AI chat for deep explanations, HD audio summaries, and translations into 20+ languages. Users can manage their YouTube and podcast subscriptions in one place and receive notifications for new content.
Influencer Hero is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform that brings brands and influencers together to create authentic, value-driven partnerships. It simplifies the process of discovering, reaching out to, and collaborating with influencers, enabling brands to manage the entire influencer partnership lifecycle in one place.
Black Friday Offer: Get 40% off on all annual plans. Duration: 22nd November 2024 – 13th December, 2024 Discount Code: BFCM40
With powerful features like content monitoring, cross-platform tracking, real-time analytics, and automated reporting, Influencer Hero helps brands measure the impact of their campaigns effectively. By offering a central platform for tracking performance and managing influencer relationships, Influencer Hero aims to make influencer marketing more accessible, efficient, and impactful for brands looking to expand their reach and engagement.
Jotform, founded in 2006, is a San Francisco-based company specializing in online form building and data collection solutions. Serving over 20 million users worldwide, Jotform offers tools for creating customizable forms, surveys, and workflows to enhance business productivity among global teams.
Black Friday Offer: 50% off on all paid plans. Duration: 18th November 2024 – 2nd December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
Snov.io is a comprehensive solution designed to optimize your sales engagement and lead generation. From sourcing verified leads to launching personalized multichannel campaigns, complete with automated LinkedIn interactions, Snov.io helps you connect with prospects more intelligently. Whether you’re focused on increasing conversions or simplifying outreach, Snov.io equips you with the tools necessary to achieve your sales goals.
Black Friday Offer: 50% off on all annual plans. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 3rd December, 2024 Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY24
Weblium is a website builder to turn your ideas and conceptions into a ready-to-use functional website. Weblium lets you launch a full website or online store in just one day with professional templates, business integrations, and an easy-to-use editor.
Black Friday Offer: Lottery based discounts ranging from 25% to 55% on annual plans. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
Dorik is one of the most beginner-friendly AI website builders, featuring 100+ fully responsive templates, 250+ stunning UI blocks, and 20+ dynamic elements. With Dorik Collection, you can store content in the database and display it seamlessly across your website. Also, you can build and publish blogs with all the features you need to rank on Google, and the analytics feature will help you track your audience.
Black Friday Offer: Flat 50% discount on annual plans. Duration: 14th November 2024 – 3rd December, 2024 Discount Code: NA
MinutesLink is an advanced AI-powered note taker designed to make your virtual meetings more organized and productive by recording, transcribing, and generating human-accurate minutes for every call. It ensures you never miss a detail, even if you can’t attend. Ideal for remote team collaboration, MinutesLink helps colleagues stay aligned, organize meetings efficiently, and boost productivity. Best for: freelancers, remote workers, sales teams, HRs & recruiters, all size businesses.
Black Friday Offer: Get 50% off on ALL plans. Duration: 15th November 2024 – 15th December, 2024 Discount Code: MLBLACKFRIDAY24
QR TIGER let’s you easily create static and dynamic QR codes for a host of applications, including URLs, digital business cards, files, social media, app store downloads, and more. Customize the design of your QR with an intuitive platform, and track scan performance through a detailed dashboard. QR TIGER is recognized as most advanced QR code generator and is highly rated on top software review sites.
Black Friday Offer: $12 OFF on any annual plan. Duration: 29th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: CYBERTIGERPUNK
Flowla simplifies complex sales and onboarding processes by consolidating all essential resources and action items into a single platform. Teams can customize workflows, set up automated follow-ups, and collaborate in real-time, making it easier to manage client journeys from beginning to end.
Black Friday Offer: 25% off for 3 months on monthly Pro & Team plans. Duration: 12th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: FRIDAY25
DocuGenerate provides a flexible and scalable platform for generating high-quality PDF documents, whether it’s for creating contracts, agreements, invoices, proposals, letters or any other type of document. Developers can leverage our REST API to add document generation to their apps, while non-developers can effortlessly use our no-code integrations.
Black Friday Offer: 50% OFF for the First 3 Months. Duration: 10th November 2024 – 30th December, 2024 Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY2024
Cloudways is a managed hosting platform that combines ease of use, budget-friendliness, and incredible website speeds to deliver magical hosting experiences for your customers. This Black Friday, you can avail an incredible 40% OFF for four months with 40 migrations to kick-start your digital journey using the coupon code BFCM2024.
Black Friday Offer: 40% OFF for four months. Duration: 7th November 2024 – 5th December, 2024 Discount Code: BFCM2024
Rapyd Cloud provides a powerful, scalable cloud platform designed for WordPress users, offering a seamless experience across hosting, security, performance optimization, and more. Whether you’re running a personal blog or a large eCommerce store, Rapyd Cloud ensures fast, secure, and reliable WordPress hosting.
Black Friday Offer: 8 Months free on 2 Years Plan. Duration: 12th November 2024 – 5th December, 2024 Discount Code: BFCM24
Gyde is an AI-powered browser extension that automatically records your actions on websites or apps and creates a step-by-step guide with screenshots and a video. You can share this screenshot and video guide with others to help them understand how to complete the same process. It’s an excellent tool for explaining complex processes quickly and easily.
Black Friday Offer: Free Forever plan and 50% off on yearly paid plans. Duration: 1st November 2024 – 31st December, 2024 Discount Code: Gyde50
Signaturely is a simple and effective digital signing platform that helps businesses and individuals send, sign, and manage documents online. It streamlines the signing process with legally binding signatures, making it easy to close deals and stay organized without the hassle of paperwork.
Black Friday Offer: Special rates on monthly (20 % off) and yearly (40 % off) subscriptions. Duration: 25th November 2024 – 3rd December, 2024 Discount Code: Reach out via live chat to claim.
ContentForce AI is an AI blog post generator that generates SEO-optimized blog posts designed to read like human-written articles. It offers features such as automated outline generation, research, and integration with WordPress, supporting newest AI models like GPT 4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Black Friday Offer: 30% off the first month on all pricing plans. Duration: 8th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAYAI
Telescope is a comprehensive suite of SEO tools to grow and scale your inbound marketing strategy that lets you research and track Google keywords, monitor backlinks, perform site audits, monitor competitors and much more.
Black Friday Offer: 20% off balance top-ups and 30% off your first 3 months on any subscription plan. Duration: 11th November 2024 – 8th December, 2024 Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY2024
Zonka Feedback simplifies CX, allowing you to start meaningful two-way conversations with customers via powerful surveys. Design stunning surveys in minutes, gather data from all touchpoints, understand customers better with AI analytics & close the feedback loop — all within one powerful platform.
Black Friday Offer: Flat 30% Off. Duration: 20th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: ZONKA30
Enhance your Mac experience with instant access to ChatGPT. Use custom shortcuts to quickly automate tasks, reduce manual input, and enjoy an uninterrupted workflow.
Black Friday Offer: 30% off all plans. Duration: 28th November 2024 – 6th December, 2024 Discount Code: LASTLTDCW51
Remember, while these sales events offer incredible savings opportunities, it’s important to stick to your budget and shop mindfully. Focus on the items you genuinely need or have been planning to purchase. The best deal is only a good deal if it’s something you’ll actually use. Keep checking back here for the latest updates and deals as we approach the big shopping days. Happy hunting, and may your shopping cart be filled with savings!
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Unsure of a commitment? Start by signing up. It’s free.
Access support for people managers at the point of need anytime, anywhere.
Black Friday 2024 falls on the 27th of November. SaaS Black Friday deals typically start in October or November and run until the end of December. You should check the company pages directly for the exact deal validity of different products.
How much discount is there on Black Friday?
Black Friday deals on SaaS offer great discounts, with products available at 50% to 75% lower prices than usual. It is a great chance to top up on the essentials for your team.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend. It is a day focused on online sales and deals. Cyber Monday falls on December 2nd, 2024.
Learning And Development 70 20 10 Plans (Free Template)
Is classroom training enough? Or can on-the-job training do the job? Neither can do justice to an organization’s learning and development needs. What you need to create an impactful L&D strategy is a balance between all these learning and development methods for teams. The learning and development 70 20 10 plan helps you visualize this mix accurately to meet your team’s needs.
In this blog, we will further understand how learning and development 70 20 10 plans work, along with finding ways to effectively develop it for your team with Risely’s free template.
What is the learning and development 70 20 10 plan?
The 70-20-10 Model for learning and development became popular in the 1980s for the development of managers. This model helps us understand how people learn new knowledge and skills. It moves away from focusing only on formal training. Instead, it shows that most learning happens through different experiences.
According to this model, 70% of learning comes from job experiences, 20% from talking and working with others, and 10% from formal training programs. This way of learning reminds us that we should create an environment for learning. This environment should include real-world activities and sharing knowledge with others, not just classes and workshops.
The 70 20 10 model focuses on how people learn best through experience. It shows that people learn more when they actively do tasks and think about the results. This model encourages hands-on skill development. It helps your team use what they learn in real-life situations.
Social learning is also a key part of this model. It shows how important working with others is, like through collaboration, mentoring, and sharing knowledge. When people talk to their peers, mentors, and experts, they can see different views. This helps them make connections and deepen their understanding through feedback and observation.
Formal learning is important too, even if it takes up a smaller percentage. It gives people the basic knowledge and planned learning experiences they need to support both experiential and social learning.
However in the recent years, new research has called for a shift in the ratio between the various modes of learning, especially since the model focused heavily on learning for managers and not learning for all the kinds of employees you have. Training Industry has termed this the “OSF ratio,” referring to the mix of on-the-job, social, and formal learning which remains flexible to the context of application.
How to set up the 70 20 10 plan for your organization?
Designing a strong 70 20 10 plan needs a clear strategy. It should match learning activities with the goals of the organization and the growth needs of individuals in your team.
First, find out the skills and knowledge gaps in your organization. These gaps must be filled to reach your goals. After identifying these gaps, the next step is to build a plan. This plan will show how the 70 20 10 approach will be used. It should clearly explain the roles of everyone involved, like employees, managers, and learning professionals.
Before you get started: Setting up the 70 20 10 framework
A clear 70 20 10 framework helps create a strong way to learn and grow. Here are some steps to set up your plan:
Start with a Needs Analysis: First, check the current skill levels in your organization. Look at the skills you will need in the future and identify any gaps. This analysis will help you focus on what skills to develop.
Define Learning Objectives: Write down the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities that people should gain from the 70 20 10 plan. These objectives will help you measure how well your learning and development efforts are working.
Establish a Supportive Environment: Create a culture that appreciates continuous learning. Give chances for growth and support employees in taking on challenging assignments. Encourage them to step out of their comfort zones and see challenges as helpful job experiences. Because a 70 20 10 plan steps away from conventional methods, this is very critical for success.
Incorporating Experiential Learning: The 70% Component
Experiential learning is key to the 70 20 10 model. People learn and remember better when they can apply what they know in real-life situations. This approach is not just about traditional classroom lessons. It focuses on practical, hands-on activities.
To use experiential learning in workplaces well, provide chances for on-the-job learning. This allows people to try new things, solve problems, and gain real experience. Job rotations, new tasks, and shadowing others can help develop skills and allow team members to see different parts of the business. Also, encourage a friendly space for informal learning. Make sure team members feel safe to ask questions, share their knowledge, and learn from their mistakes.
Let’s run an example of the learning and development 70 20 10 plans alongside to understand this matter. We have a manager; let’s call them Alex; your skills gap analysis shows they need to work on their people management skills to succeed in their first managerial role.
Experiential learning for a manager: In the first step, i.e., experiential learning, they can practice delegation by assigning a real project or task to one of their team members. It will include ensuring the person has the resources needed and setting regular check-ins to monitor progress. After completing the task, Alex can reflect on what worked and what could be improved in their approach.
Leveraging Social Learning: The 20% Component
Humans are naturally social. The 70-20-10 model shows that social activities are key for learning. To promote knowledge sharing and teamwork, we should start mentoring programs, coaching between peers, and groups to share experiences.
We can use technology to help social learning. You can do this by creating online spaces, discussion boards, and tools that let employees connect. It allows employees to share ideas and learn from each other no matter where they are. Creative leadership is very important for a great social learning space. Leaders should be the change agents and start to share their stories, be mentors, and create chances for their teams to work together and learn.
Social learning for a manager: You set up peer groups of people managers in your company for discussions or join a manager network where they can exchange experiences and tips on leadership. Alex can also take mentoring sessions or small group discussions with experienced managers, which offer insights into successful delegation practices.
Implementing Formal Learning: The 10% Element
The 70 20 10 model is based on experiential and social learning, but formal learning is also very important. It gives structured knowledge and basic skills. Make sure that formal learning matches the skills found in your needs analysis.
Formal training programs should add to and support what you learn from experiential and social learning. These programs can be in different forms, like workshops, online courses, industry certifications, and conferences.
Think about mixed learning approaches. These can combine online lessons, interactive workshops, and hands-on tasks. Doing so can make learning more engaging and help people remember better. Focus on programs that get everyone involved, use real-life examples, and provide chances for feedback and reflection.
Formal learning for a manager: Alex takes up the manager effectiveness masterclass on Risely, which offers in-depth ideas and insights on what it takes to succeed as a manager and gives real-life scenarios to practice on. The formal learning component in a 70 20 10 plan gives the theoretical framework for the learner to practice independently.
Using a 70 20 10 plan is just the start. You need to keep checking how well it works and change things if needed. Set clear ways to see how your learning and development (L&D) efforts affect both individual and team performance. Look at things like how engaged employees are, how well they keep what they learn, how they use their skills, and how these tie back to your plan’s goals.
Continue reading: Comparing Informal vs Formal Learning: A Quick Guide
Learning and development 70 20 10 plan example
Let’s see this in action with another example of learning and development 70 20 10 plans, this time for a marketing manager. We start with the organizational objectives your employee needs to meet and use them to derive personal learning goals. These learning goals are further split into three sections: on-the-job learning like running A/B tests, informal learning through peers, and formal learning via reading and video material.
You can effectively build similar learning and development 70 20 10 plans with Risely’s free 70 20 10 plan template. Grab your copy now! It also offers more ideas on building impactful plans, what ideas you can use in each component, and, of course, a free template.
Is your learning and development 70 20 10 successful?
Since we have three major action areas per the 70 20 10 framework, we can track the impact of initiatives with a similar model, although the impact comes from the combination of efforts.
#1 Employee Performance
Track improvements in individual and team productivity, efficiency, and the quality of work produced as a result of the 70 20 10 initiatives. These outcomes are primarily a result of the formal learning components and you will witness the impact in performance reviews, project outcomes, key performance indicators (KPIs).
#2 Talent Development
Measure the effectiveness of your L&D programs in developing future leaders and fostering a strong internal talent pipeline. These effects come in when learners utilize informal methods like peer groups and interactions, which not only boost their performance but also solidify their position, leading to career growth. How do you see these? Promotion rates, internal mobility, and succession planning metrics are your tools.
#3 Mindset and Attitude
Assess the impact on employees’ mindsets, including their willingness to embrace new challenges, their confidence in their abilities, and their overall job satisfaction. Learning together with peers and in the flow of work provides a relaxed atmosphere, allowing the employees to not just master skills but also gain confidence, recognition, and approval. Employee surveys, feedback sessions, and observation will help you notice these changes.
By regularly monitoring these metrics, you gain insights into the effectiveness of your 70 20 10 plan and keep growing!
Read more: 5 Steps of Developing an Effective Training Evaluation Program: With Best Practices
Explore other models of learning and development for your team: 6 Learning and Development Models For Employee Growth
Conclusion
The 70 20 10 model is a useful way to plan learning and development. It combines hands-on experiences, social interaction, and traditional teaching methods. This helps workers grow and do better at their jobs. It is important to track results and get feedback. This way, organizations can see how well the plan is working and make changes if needed. Small businesses can also use a customized 70 20 10 approach to build a learning culture. This model works well, even for remote learning. It can bring great benefits for both people and organizations. Check out our free template to start your 70 20 10 path to create a lively learning environment.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Get started with a free 70-20-10 learning plan template!
Grab free L&D resources and more for holistic growth of people managers. Only on Risely.
How To Curate The Best Learning Environment For Your Team?
Have you ever felt really productive when you are “in the zone”? When you focus intensely, and everything seems easy? That shows how important a good learning environment is. A positive learning environment is not just about a nice place to work. It also means making sure everyone feels they belong. Team members should feel supported and engaged so they can do their best.
This article will look at how to build this kind of environment as a part of your learning and development initiatives. We will discuss different learning styles, create a welcoming atmosphere, and share helpful strategies for success.
What’s a learning environment and why does it matter?
Let’s return to the starting point:—feeling in the zone, or the flow state, as James Clear would call it. What puts you there? Usually, it is a mix of physical and mental factors; you have a clean and peaceful environment with a mind that has the space and time to deal with the matter at hand. If you are doing it virtually, it could mean a laptop that works smoothly and Zoom calls that don’t make you repeat am-I-audible every other minute.
To sum up, your learning environment refers to the physical or virtual setting where learning takes place. It includes multiple aspects:
the physical space you are in
the mental makeup of your mind
the social scenario
the resources and tools available at your disposal
What constitutes the learning environment at work?
Physical space
Virtual space
Social dynamics
Resources and materials
Psychological factors
Classroom layout
Online learning platforms
Interaction between learners
Handouts and digital content
Sense of safety and belonging
Lighting and acoustics
Digital tools and resources
Relationship of trainers and learners
Technology and equipment
Motivation and engagement
Furniture arrangement
UI and experience of e-learning tools
Collaborative opportunities
Libraries or resource centers
Stress levels and comfort
Your learning environment impacts everything relevant to the process of learning. Just think how even one of the elements misbehaving can trip the set-up.
Bad internet? You miss some bits and get frustrated.
Stress? You are not really there and you have to repeat stuff now.
Wrong team mate? Forget the group project.
These tiny interventions together define how successful a learning program is going to be, in terms of the learner’s engagement, participation, and the final outcome such as retention and application of learning at work.
Workplace learning environments are usually either conventional and offline, like lecture halls and meeting rooms that double up as classrooms with presentations on the wall, or they are held virtually, which is the in thing to do as more and more teams are going global and working in a distributed setting.
We spoke to Janis Cooper, who leads Leadership & Staff Development at Best Friends Animal Society and discovered what helps L&D teams succeed. Catch up on the conversation below:
What are the common types of workplace learning environments?
A learning environment is a place that helps people learn. It can be a real space, like a classroom, or it can be online. It can also be in casual spots where people gather. There are different types of learning environments that meet different needs and styles of learning.
Let’s look at what makes different learning environments unique.
#1 Traditional classroom environment
The traditional classroom learning environment at work is a familiar setting for many. It involves face-to-face interactions, structured lessons, and physical materials like books and whiteboards. This type of environment allows for immediate feedback, group discussions, and hands-on activities that cater to various learning styles.
However, some drawbacks include limited flexibility in timing and location, as well as potential distractions within a shared space. Despite this, the traditional classroom setting can be effective for your team members who thrive in a structured and interactive learning environment. Plus, it’s great for standard training programs.
#2 On-the-job training
On-the-job training offers a hands-on learning environment where employees learn by performing tasks in real work settings. This type of learning environment allows for practical application of knowledge, immediate feedback from supervisors, and the development of job-specific skills.
Unlike traditional classroom settings, on-the-job training is tailored to individual learning styles and job requirements, making it highly effective for skill development and retention. However, you have to face time constraints, limited resources, and search for experienced mentors to guide the learning process.
#3 Virtual learning environment
Virtual learning environments have become increasingly popular, especially after covid, offering flexibility and accessibility for learners. Through online platforms and tools, your team engages in interactive lessons, access resources at their own pace, and collaborate with peers from different locations.
This type of learning environment provides the freedom to choose when and where to study, making it convenient for working professionals with busy schedules. Additionally, virtual learning fosters self-discipline, independent thinking, and technological proficiency – skills that are highly valued in the modern workplace.
#4 Social learning platforms
Social learning is an innovative way to combine the benefits of structured learning environments with the interactive nature of virtual platforms. Social learning involves in-person interaction that leads to reinforcement and application of learning at work.
Online social learning platforms leverage social media tools and online communities to facilitate peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing, and collaborative problem-solving. This approach not only enhances employee engagement and motivation but also fosters a sense of belonging and community among team members, regardless of physical proximity, as discovered by LinkedIn.
#5 Mentoring and coaching programs
Mentoring and coaching programs play a crucial role in creating a conducive learning environment. Experienced mentors provide guidance, support, and valuable insights to help your team members navigate challenges and enhance their skills. Through one-on-one coaching, mentees receive personalized attention and constructive feedback to aid their professional growth.
Coaching programs, on the other hand, focus on unlocking individual potential, setting goals, and developing strategies to achieve them. Coaches serve as accountability partners, motivators, and catalysts for change, empowering learners to unleash their full potential.
How can you build a great learning environment at your workplace?
Effective learning environments have important traits that help create a good learning experience. Let’s break down each of them to understand how you can build a great learning environment:
#1 Learner centric design
The first and foremost factor in building a great learning environment is keeping the end-user, i.e. the learner, at the very center of the design process. This principle ultimately comes from the field of product development. Learning designs are a complicated exercise and include multiple facets such as the course content and delivery modules. Environment of the learning at work impacts all of these. You approach should then focus on putting the learner’s needs, preferences, and experiences at the center of all learning initiatives. It involves:
Gathering and acting on learner feedback before and after a training program
Personalizing learning pathways for different needs and choices
Offering diverse learning formats to cater to different learning styles
Ensuring content relevance and immediate applicability to job roles
A learner centric design also ensures that as the L&D team, you earn greater engagement and participation for them when their needs are taken care of.
What does a learner-centric environment at work look like? Let’s picture that with an example of a company that needs to deliver cybersecurity training.
Learning Environment Aspect
Without Learner Centricity
With Learner Centricity
Physical Space
A common classroom with a trainer delivering material
Flexible online/offline space with the option to interact
Time and Pace
Fixed schedule (e.g., one 2-hour session)
Self-paced modules
Resources and Materials
Static PowerPoint slides for everyone
Diverse media like videos, interactive e-learning modules, simulations with role-specific content
Which one do you think would be more comfortable setting for the learner? Our bet is on the second one! As an L&D professional, you need to ensure that you are matching the unique needs of different types of learners at work so that all of them have a comfortable learning environment, instead of a one-size-fits-all learning environment designed with a neutral user in mind that ultimately matches no one.
#2 Continuous adaptation and improvement
The second key tenet to acing learning environment for your team is continuously adapting and improving. This happens due to two set of reasons.
Internal reasons
Organization evolves over time: The first cause of adapting and improving learning is internal. As an organization evolves, the level of maturity in their L&D model changes. At one point an organization might have all learning programs in-house, in their common meeting room, but soon enough when the company grows the learning programs need to change shape and form. They might be reborn as an in-house online content repository that delivers self-paced modules.
The people evolve: The internal structure of your organization, the people who are influencers and decision makers, as well as the changing needs of participants are a factor in designing a great learning environment. Their feedback and opinions also cause shifts.
External reasons
Learning environments also need to keep up with the changes happening externally, such new methods of learning coming up and new tech that supports novel training methods. For instance, most companies relied on video content up until the last decade heavily, but AI is the newest buzz in town because it can curate personalized content effectively. The environment of workplace learning reflects the broader L&D trends and industry happenings.
#3 Technology-enhanced accessibility
Tech is pervasive in the modern times. Thus, if you are skipping on tech in your learning environment, your team could be missing out on a lot of features that define the success of modern learning. Microlearning is just one of those. Other areas of using tech to create a better learning environment could involve:
Leveraging digital platforms for anytime, anywhere learning
Ensuring user-friendly interfaces and intuitive learning experiences
Using technology to create immersive and interactive learning content
Providing multi-device support for seamless learning across devices
By using technological integrations, you can often shape up a much more accessible learning environment than the conventional methods. For instance, leadership coaching becomes hard to work with for many people because they do not have coaches within their teams, or they are not close enough to actually have a vulnerable and open relationship with any senior that would allow effective coaching. An AI coach like Merlin, which ensures that you are away from the chatter and other negative possibilities of opening up, is a great tool in those situations.
#4 Culture of continuous learning
The last, but definitely not the least important part of the equation, is culture. As you must have noted at the start of the article, learning environment also has social and psychological aspects. These two are often harder to navigate than the physical and technical areas, because as an L&D professional you need to approach with empathy for everyone while craving the best way out. The team’s culture is critical to what goes on here.
Using culture as a part of learning environment calls for a conscious effort to embed learning into the very core of your organization’s purpose. For example, our team values at Risely call for an approach that focuses on always progressing and being passionate about what we do. It ultimately leads us back to great performance, but before that it is a personal nudge to keep growing in our capacity and area.
How can you create a culture that adds to a great learning environment?
As the L&D team, your efforts should focus on promoting learning as a core organizational value. This could include recognition of learners in regular meetings, offering opportunities to learn, and even integrating learning KPIs in performance management systems so that the employees are able to see where their personal growth connects with professional success.
Second, it’s all about encouraging knowledge sharing and collaborative learning by being deliberate about it. Plenty of teams do not have the ready environment to do this. That’s where you need to step in and double down as the facilitator of change. Your people managers can become learning agents here. The same goes for involving leadership in championing learning initiatives.
Hostile learning environments and how to change them?
A hostile learning environment is the opposite of a productive one. It shows up as negativity, disrespect, lack of support, and fear of asking questions. Such places block learning, limit creativity, and slow down team growth – ultimately hurting everything your L&D strategy is trying to achieve. Spotting signs of a hostile atmosphere is the first step to changing it.
Signs of a hostile learning environment
Learners are afraid to ask questions or participate
Excessive criticism or harsh responses to mistakes
Exclusion of certain individuals or groups from activities
Fear of ridicule for making mistakes
Punishment-based discipline rather than constructive feedback
Emphasis on individual achievement at the expense of group learning
How can you change a hostile learning environment?
Recognizing these signs is crucial for addressing and improving learning environments. Keeping in mind the key components of a good learning environment that we have seen earlier, you can bring change with your L&D strategy. You should start by focusing on learner-centric design, with which we can create inclusive, respectful environments that cater to diverse needs and foster psychological safety.
After than, continuous adaptation allows us to regularly assess and improve the learning climate, addressing issues as they arise. Technology-enhanced accessibility provides tools for anonymous feedback, diverse learning options, and improved communication channels that curb the communication challenges and create an effective feedback loop for the L&D team.
Finally, work with stakeholders including the senior leaders and managers on cultivating a culture of continuous learning emphasizes growth, collaboration, and mutual respect, counteracting competitive or intimidating atmospheres. Showcase the ROI that effective learning can bring, and start winning!
Wrapping up
Creating a good learning environment for your team is about knowing different types of learning spaces. You also need to overcome challenges and boost engagement using teamwork and technology. It’s important to be flexible, adaptable, and inclusive to create a positive learning culture. Leaders have a big role in supporting different learning styles and improving current settings. By managing resources wisely, addressing resistance, and encouraging open communication, you can create an effective learning environment. This will help your team reach their full potential.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Say goodbye to messy learning experiences. Revamp your L&D plans today.
Grab Risely’s free L&D strategy framework and get started on a journey toward growth.
Launching a successful life coaching business takes more than just being passionate. You need a clear plan to draw in potential clients and make a name for yourself as a popular coach. Many new life coaches think, “How can I get coaching clients regularly?” The answer is to use a variety of strategies. These should mix effective marketing methods with real engagement. This blog post will show you seven good strategies to help you get new coaching clients and grow your coaching business.
Attracting coaching clients regularly takes a complete plan that boosts your visibility and shows you as an expert in your field. While it might be easy to look for fast solutions, the best way is to use natural methods that build trust and respect over time.
Keep in mind, your ideal clients are looking for help and support. You just need to use the best strategies to connect with them.
#1 Leverage Social Media Platforms for Visibility
Social media is everywhere. Sites like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn give you a great chance to connect with your target audience. They help you build a community and show your skills. The early belief capital you gain adds much value to your coaching business in the long term.
First, find out which social media channels your ideal coaching clients use the most. For example, if you are a coach for new managers, starting a Facebook group can help people feel they belong. It encourages them to talk and share with each other. In the group, share useful content about your coaching area, like tips, interesting questions, or success stories from clients.
While you are doing this, staying active is very important. Engage with your followers often, responding to their comments and taking part in related chats. It can help you build strong connections that turn followers into paying clients.
#2 Offer Value-Packed Webinars
Webinars are great ways to attract your coaching clients and show your expertise to a wider audience. A well-planned webinar provides valuable insights and practical advice, helping you become a trusted advisor in your field.
To make your webinar more effective, consider offering a free coaching session as a bonus for those who attend. It lets potential clients see your coaching style in action and notice the change you can bring. Make sure to collect email addresses when people register. It will help you follow up with these leads and guide them through your sales funnel. Here are some key things for success:
Choose a captivating topic: Pick a subject that speaks to your target audience’s needs and dreams. Sharing success stories from your clients is very powerful. It helps your audience connect with real experiences and picture their own progress.
Deliver exceptional value: Fill your webinar with useful tips, smart strategies, and practical steps. This will leave attendees feeling empowered. You should also try to include some freebies, like an ebook or a handout, that can help attendees after the session and present a constant reminder of the value you provide.
Include a strong call to action: Clearly explain the next steps for participants who want to work with you more. These can include scheduling a discovery call or signing up for your coaching program. While you are at it, remember that your attendees are present for the value they promised, and watching an hour-long sales pitch is annoying. So, stay balanced—provide value and make your proposal.
Networking is very important for success in any field, including coaching. Going to industry events, conferences, and workshops is a great way to meet potential customers. These events help you make meaningful connections and grow your professional network.
Identifying good networking events means knowing your perfect client and where they gather. First, look into industry conferences, workshops, and meetups that relate to your coaching niche. Search for events that bring together professionals, entrepreneurs, or people who want to grow personally or professionally. Also, think about attending conferences and meetups that focus on entrepreneurship, personal growth, or wellness. These events usually draw in people who are open to coaching services and want to improve themselves.
You should prepare a short and strong pitch that explains your coaching services. Talk about the value you offer to clients. When you meet others, show real interest in their challenges and goals. Remember that networking is about making genuine relationships, not just handing out business cards.
After the event, make sure to follow up with the people you connected with. Do this within 24-48 hours after meeting someone new. Send a personal email that thanks them for the chat. Also, mention what you learned from your conversation and any shared interests or goals. Take care of these relationships and see if there are chances for teamwork or referrals.
#4 Utilize Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strong strategy that can help you attract coaching clients over time. By regularly creating and sharing helpful content that your ideal audience enjoys, you can become an expert in your coaching area.
Start a blog on your coaching website. Write interesting articles and blog posts or record videos that address common problems, share practical tips, and tell inspiring client success stories. You can also appear on relevant podcasts to connect with your audience. When creating your content, consider what your ideal clients find helpful and informative.
Also, improve your content with search engine optimization (SEO) so it can be seen by more people. Use relevant keywords, make your website easy to find, and build links to increase your content’s visibility in search engine results.
One of the most popular examples of this model is James Clear, who ran a successful newsletter with a following of hundreds before writing his book. The ready audience was already acquainted with his content, which contributed to catapulting him to the forefront as an expert.
#5 Engage in Direct Outreach
While using organic marketing strategies is important, do not ignore the power of reaching out directly. Find potential coaching clients that fit your niche. Then, send them personalized messages. It can be very effective at the start of your online coaching business.
Instead of using generic sales pitches, work on building relationships. Start by figuring out who your ideal client is. Look at their age, interests, and the challenges they face. Check their LinkedIn profile or company website to understand their work history and goals. Use what you find to make messages that relate to their particular needs. Address their problems and show how your coaching services can help. You might also consider giving away a free resource, like an ebook or webinar. In return, ask for their email addresses so you can follow up.
Always remember that personalization is crucial. Customize your messages for each person. Show them you care by understanding their unique challenges and dreams. This personal touch can greatly boost your chances of turning prospects into paying clients.
Read more: 7 Unique Leadership Coaching Specialties For 2024
#6 Create a Referral Program
One great way to get new coaching clients is through referrals. When happy clients tell others about your coaching services, it shows how reliable you are and highlights your good work. Having a clear referral program can encourage this type of marketing by word of mouth.
Think about giving a discount on coaching sessions or an extra session for each successful referral. You can also use testimonials and reviews. Ask satisfied clients to share their positive stories on your website or social media, which will show the great changes you’ve helped them achieve.
Remember to remind your clients about your referral program and mention the benefits for them and their referrals. This will keep them engaged and help you bring in a steady flow of new clients for your coaching business. Managing referrals can get tricky as your coaching business grows.
Using the right tools and software can make this easier. You can track referrals well and give rewards on time for everyone involved using software like Mention Me. There are many more referral software options made for coaching businesses. These options often include features like tracking referrals automatically, flexible reward choices, and easy connections with popular email marketing platforms.
Strategic partnerships can help you reach more people and gain new clients. Working with other coaches or businesses that match your services creates win-win relationships that grow your network. You can host joint webinars or workshops that mix your skills. This way, you can offer valuable solutions to the same target audiences. Think about creating useful content together, like e-books, guides, or templates. This will show your shared expertise and help you attract new leads.
For example, if you focus on career coaching, teaming up with a health coach can help you reach their clients. This way, you can offer a well-rounded approach to personal growth. Think about doing joint webinars, workshops, or packages to provide helpful solutions for the same target audience.
These collaborations can boost your exposure and help you become a trusted expert in a larger wellness community. Share the advantages of your partnership with others, highlighting the benefits for everyone involved and the chance for shared success.
Starting a practice? Read more here: How To Become A Leadership Coach In 5 Steps
Conclusion
In conclusion, getting coaching clients needs a good mix of social media, helpful webinars, networking, content marketing, reaching out directly, referral programs, and working with others. These effective methods allow coaches to grow their client base and form strong relationships. Consistently providing value, communicating personally, and using different platforms for reach is essential for getting clients. It’s also important to take care of your current connections and look for new chances to grow in the coaching business. Start using these methods today, and you will see a positive change in your coaching business.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Check out Risely’s range of skill assessments to enhance your coaching sessions!
Risely’s assessments empower people leaders every day. Offer this resource to your people!
There’s so much happening around us – your competitor is merging with another company, and your rival manager is showing how well their team did. In this racket, it’s quite easy to get trapped in self-limiting beliefs that stem from a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset tells you that hard walls limit your prospects. There’s not much you can do beyond it.
But that’s not true at all.
That one mistake is not the end of the world.
These are the precise problems that need a growth mindset coach to help you out. A growth mindset coach helps leaders accept challenges, learn from failures, and reach their full potential.
A growth mindset coach helps leaders change their thinking. Instead of believing your abilities are set in stone, you see your potential as endless. The coach offers support, strategies, and help to ensure you can face and change your limiting beliefs that might hurt your and your team’s prospects.
In personalized coaching sessions, leaders learn about their own thoughts and actions. They pick up skills to talk back to negative thoughts, become stronger in tough times, and adopt a more positive way of leading.
What is the Genesis of Growth Mindset Coaching?
The idea of mindset coaching comes from the important research done by psychologist Carol Dweck. She showed how our beliefs can greatly affect what we accomplish. People with a growth mindset are better at facing challenges, sticking with tough situations, and reaching greater success.
Growth mindset coaching does not just give away all the answers. It helps leaders find their own solutions. Coaches do this by asking good questions and helping you think about themselves. This helps you see limiting beliefs and come up with ways to overcome them. As leaders go through this self-discovery process, they build confidence. Your team is inspired to follow suit as you learn to step beyond your comfort zone and take on new skillsand perspectives.
Growth mindset coaching is not just about personal wins, it determines the fate of teams. Managers can make or break company growth.
How can a Growth Mindset Coach Help you?
Investing in growth mindset coaching benefits leaders and organizations. When leaders adopt a growth mindset, they become more flexible and strong, better able to handle the challenges of today’s business world.
This change in mindset leads to better decisions, more creative ideas, and a more engaged and motivated workforce. Ultimately, a growth mindset becomes a part of your team’s culture, fostering an environment where success can thrive.
But beyond that, let’s try to outline the primary areas where a growth mindset coach can support you:
Enhancing Adaptability and Resilience
For many of us, change triggers quick responses and impulsive behavior because we are unsure of what’s happening next. When a leader in such a situation is facing self-limiting beliefs as well, they are unlikely to think of innovative or out-of-the-box unconventional solutions for the challenges hitting their team, either.
Leaders with a growth mindset can better handle change. They are more able to face challenges and change their plans when needed. Growth mindset coaching lets you see setbacks as chances for personal development and learning instead of failures.
Fostering Continuous Learning and Development
A growth mindset is closely tied to a promise of continuous improvement. Growth mindset coaches help leaders build a strong desire to learn and to step out of their comfort zones to gain new skills. They encourage leaders to create a learning culture in their teams. In this culture, trying new things is welcomed, and failure is seen as a part of growing towards success.
Build Self-awareness
Many of us are bound by self-limiting beliefs unknowingly. A growth mindset coach supports breaking down these walls and prompts us to build healthier relationships with ourselves, leading to enhanced self-awareness that is not clouded by biased judgment in any manner.
Improve Emotional Competence
In addition, awareness of ourselves and others ensures that we are able to regulate our emotions better and support others in doing the same. It includes improving our understanding of common triggers and defeating harmful patterns that limit our professional growth.
Recognizing that you need growth mindset coaching is often the first step to reaching your potential. Do you feel stuck? Are you having trouble handling new challenges or seeing your team’s performance decrease? If so, these could be signs that a growth mindset coach can help you get the support and guidance you need.
Other clues include being afraid to fail, pushing back against feedback, and not wanting to move beyond your comfort zone. Let’s see these signs in detail before you search for a growth mindset coach:
Stagnation in Personal or Team Performance
One clear sign that you or your team need a growth mindset coach is when you or your team stop improving. This standstill often results from limiting beliefs that slow you down. A fixed mindset leads to poor performance, a fear of taking risks, and not wanting feedback. It makes things worse. You might avoid challenges, thinking that failure shows your lack of ability rather than seeing it as a chance to learn.
A growth mindset coach can help you spot and change these limiting beliefs. They will help you create new, empowering beliefs that inspire a wish for ongoing improvement and help unlock your full potential.
Read more: Mastering the Mindset Game: Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
Difficulty in Navigating Change and Challenges
The business world is always changing, requiring leaders to be flexible and strong. Struggling to handle change will cause stress, lower team spirit, and even slow progress. A growth mindset coach helps you by giving you the right tools and methods to face these challenges successfully.
By using change management strategies and focusing on a positive mindset, you can see change as a chance to grow, not something to fear. You learn to recover from setbacks, adjust your plans, and confidently guide your teams through tough times. Being able to manage change well gives you a competitive edge.
Perfectionism and Defensiveness to Criticism
Perfectionism and defensiveness to criticism hinder personal and professional growth. These traits often stem from a fixed mindset, where individuals feel threatened by feedback and failure. A growth mindset coach helps you shift toward a more adaptive approach, where you see mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.
By working with a growth mindset coach, you can develop resilience to criticism, embrace constructive feedback, and strive for progress rather than perfection.
Fear of failure and Micromanagement
Fear of failure and micromanagement are common challenges that impede personal and professional growth. These behaviors often stem from a lack of trust in oneself or others. A growth mindset coach assists you in overcoming these obstacles by fostering self-confidence, uplifting autonomy, and promoting a culture of trust within teams.
Through targeted coaching sessions, you learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone to success, delegate effectively, and empower your team members to take ownership of their work.
Are you micromanaging your team due to fear of failure? Find out now with a free assessment: Micromanagement assessment for managers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, having a growth mindset is very important for leaders. It helps you adapt, keep learning, and handle challenges well. A mindset coach is key to building resilience, boosting performance, and encouraging growth. When leaders use growth mindset ideas, they can build a place where feedback and improvement are normal in their teams. Noticing when you need a growth mindset coach is the first step to growing in your personal and work life.
Explore personalized coaching for a growth mindset!
Try Merlin, Risely’s in-built AI coach, for people managers for free today.
Executive Communication Coach: When And How To Choose
Good communication is a must for professional success. After all, half of people management is all about saying the right things in the right way. But that’s where it gets tricky, too: effective communication is hard to nail down for many of us. In light of the advent of distributed and remote teams, workers feel burnt from communication.
Amidst these troubling waters, executive communication coaches are a great source of relief. They can help you leave the problems behind and work with you to build a solid skill set.
Should you get one? Let’s try to answer that today.
An executive communication coach is a trained expert who helps people improve their communication skills at work. They work with clients like you to make their messages clearer, boost presentation skills, and create a more engaging way of speaking. Executive coaches usually work with high-level leaders like CEOs, executives, and business heads. Their goal is to help these professionals deal with the unique communication needs of their jobs.
A main part of executive communication coaching is realizing it is not just about speaking well. It’s also about communicating in a way that inspires, persuades, and gets people to act. It means the coach must understand your goals, audience, and any specific communication challenges you might have.
What can an Executive Communication Coach Help you with?
Executive communication coaches help you improve your communication skills through various techniques. One key method is storytelling. Coaches know that stories can greatly influence how we connect with and understand information. They guide you to find and use exciting stories from your own experiences, data, or ideas. These stories then become part of your presentations, business pitches, or daily conversations.
Executive communication coaches also pay attention to other important parts of communication that we often don’t think much of. They emphasize vocal variety, body language, and the use of visuals. They know effective communication is more than just words. It’s also about how those words are delivered. They teach clients like you how to use pauses well, show confidence with body language, and create presentations that look great and support what they say.
In the end, executive communication coaching focuses on personal development. It encourages you to step outside your comfort zone. Coaches help them find their true voice and give them the tools and confidence they need to communicate well in any situation. As guides and mentors, coaches offer support, encouragement, and helpful feedback to create lasting changes.
When is the Right Time to Get an Executive Communication Coach?
Knowing when to hire a communication coach is important. It can help you get the most from your investment. While there is no single answer for everyone, certain signs can show that you might need help.
These signs often point to the feeling that your communication skills are not matching your career goals. You may think that your message is not getting through. Maybe your presentations feel weak, or you don’t feel confident when you speak. A good executive communication coach can help you improve in these areas.
If you often face the following, it may be time to seek professional help:
You are Consistently Getting Negative Feedback: Do you often get negative comments about your presentations, emails, or how you communicate? While some constructive feedback can be useful, regular negative feedback points to a deeper communication issue that a coach can help fix.
You are Feeling Nervous or Unready in Communication Situations: Do you feel anxious about public speaking, important meetings, or even casual networking? Feeling nervous or unready can make it hard to connect with people and share your message. An executive coach can give you the skills and confidence to handle these moments better.
You are Having Trouble Moving Up in Your Career Despite Your Skills: Do you feel stuck in your career even though you have the know-how? Often, it’s not that you lack skills that hold you back, but that poor communication holds you back. A coach can help you show your leadership abilities and communicate your worth clearly, helping you find new chances.
Let’s Assess Your Current Communication Power
Before you look for an executive communication coach, consider your current communication challenges and what you need. This self-reflection will help you find the coach who can best support you.
Start by judging your communication strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself what you do well and where you struggle. Is it hard for you to make your presentations clear and engaging? Do you find it tough to connect emotionally with your audience? Or maybe you feel unsure about your delivery style. Knowing your specific challenges will help you find a coach who can help you effectively.
Also, think about what you want to achieve with communication coaching. Are you looking for a promotion, wanting to be a stronger leader, or just hoping to speak more clearly in your daily life? Having clear goals will help you find a coach that matches your aims. This way, you can create a coaching program that fits your specific needs.
Let’s make this even easier. Take Risely’s communication skills assessment (it’s free) and get detailed insights into your skills.
How to Find the Right Executive Communication Coach for Your Needs?
Choosing the right executive communication coach is important for a good coaching experience. There are many coaches out there. So, it is important to choose wisely to find the best one for you.
#1 Criteria for Choosing the Right Coach
When looking for a good executive communication coach, there are some important factors to consider. First, find a coach with experience and skills in the specific areas you want to improve. For example, if you are a tech company CEO getting ready for an IPO roadshow, it is best to seek a coach who knows about financial communication and investor presentations.
Next, consider their coaching style and teaching approach. Some coaches follow a strict plan, while others take a more flexible approach. Choose one that best fits your learning style and personality. Also, ask about the tools and resources they use during coaching sessions. A good coach will give you practical exercises, helpful feedback, and support to help you improve over time.
Lastly, focus on finding a coach who can help you create a clear narrative. Good communication is about telling a great story that catches attention and relates to the audience. An effective coach will help you find your unique story and use it to connect with stakeholders and inspire action to reach your communication goals.
Read more: What Makes A Coach Great? 6 Essential Qualities
#2 Researching and Comparing Potential Coaches
Once you’ve outlined your criteria, begin by researching potential coaches online. Explore their websites, read client testimonials, and look for any media appearances or publications that demonstrate their expertise. Professional networking platforms can also provide valuable insights.
Next, schedule initial consultations with a few coaches who interest you. These consultations are an opportunity to gauge their personality, communication style, and methodology and determine whether their methodology aligns with your needs. Prepare a list of questions beforehand to ensure you gather all the necessary information.
After you choose your communication coach, the next step is to build a partnership. Start by sharing your goals, expectations, and worries. Being open will help the coach adjust their methods to meet your needs.
Keep in mind that coaching is a two-way process. Being involved, practicing new skills, and talking openly with your coach are important. It will help you get the most out of your coaching experience.
#3 Setting Goals for Your Coaching Journey
Setting clear and reachable goals is very important for a successful coaching experience. These goals should match your wishes for professional growth and focus on the specific communication challenges you want to solve.
Start by focusing on the areas of executive communication that need the most attention. For example, if you want to take on a leadership role, your goals may include improving your public speaking, making powerful presentations that motivate people, or communicating with senior executives.
After understanding your main goals, work with your coach to divide these big goals into smaller, simpler steps. It might mean setting deadlines for specific tasks, like giving a practice presentation, writing a strong pitch for investors, or leading a team meeting successfully.
#4 Strategies for Maximizing the Coaching Experience
To get the most from your coaching, you need to take part and focus on improving yourself. The coaching sessions give you a great chance to learn and get feedback. However, real changes happen when you use techniques and strategies outside these sessions.
Practice is very important. The more you practice, the more comfortable and sure you will feel. Use what you’ve learned in your daily life. It could mean paying attention to your body language in meetings, truly listening to your colleagues, or practicing your public speaking skills in front of a mirror.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions or ask for help. Your coaching sessions are all about your growth. If you’re unsure about something or need extra support, speak up. Your coach is there to help and give you the tools to succeed.
Find more insights here: What Makes An Effective Executive Leadership Coach? With Examples
Conclusion
In conclusion, hiring an executive communication coach can help you grow as a leader and boost your career. It is important to notice when you need coaching. You should also look at your communication challenges and pick the right coach for you. Working with a communication coach means setting clear goals. You should try to get the most from the coaching experience and ask the right questions to succeed. By choosing executive communication coaching, you will gain the skills to handle tough communication situations.
Great communication is a cornerstone of a solid career.
Assess your communication skills with a free assessment today.
Classrooms and lecture halls have been the traditional custodians of leadership development. But it’s 2024, and the world has changed. Have your manager and leader development ideas evolved, too?
Start your adventure in leadership development with the latest tech. Check out these five top-notch leadership training software picks that are all about smartly boosting your leadership skills. If you’re working in HR or L&D, dive into effective leadership using tools that fit just right with what you need. Tap into everything you’ve got and discover the world of leadership training software made to get you.
Why should you invest in leadership training software?
After all, isn’t it just another headache to handle? Before heading into leadership development software solutions, let’s look at how software can improve your processes.
When we talk about software for leadership training, a few important features really help people learn better.
Interactive and immersive learning experiences: the leadership training software with hands-on modules and simulations makes it easier for learners to get into it and really understand what being a leader is all about.
Personalized learning paths: With this, everyone can work on their own strengths and needs, which makes improving skills more effective. If you are a part of HR and L&D teams, you’ll know that leadership profiles across different teams need different skills and support.
Real-time progress tracking: Keeping an eye on how someone is doing allows for quick feedback so they can keep improving without missing a beat. Thus reducing the burden on the immediate managers.
Assessment tools: They help figure out where someone shines or might need some extra attention. This way, you can focus on building up those specific areas becomes simpler. It is a huge help because assessments often don’t get enough attention in conventional seminars or workshops for leadership development.
Smoother learner experiences: When the software works well with other HR or teaching systems already in place, everything feels connected, making the whole process of growing as a leader smoother.
Putting these elements together, along with what’s known best about teaching leadership, can really push your organization forward by creating strong leaders tailored to your team’s needs.
Top 5 Leadership Training Software Options for HR and L&D Professionals
Let’s look at the top leadership training software solutions you can try. All these different kinds of software bring something unique to the table when it comes to enhancing a leadership development program by focusing on various parts of leadership training for your team.
#1 Risely – An AI Co-pilot For Leadership Development
One thing can make all the difference between your typical leadership training and a learning experience that creates a long-lasting impact—it understands who you are training. A number of leadership development software solutions work by simply creating match-ups with human coaches. Risely, with its hyper-personalized approach to leadership development and AI-powered leadership coaching with Merlin, embraces these ideas wholeheartedly.
Workplace becomes the classroom: First, embedding them in the workflow creates learning experiences that stick. As a result, managers don’t need to step out or go to a different platform to avail of services. Their workplace is a learning space, too.
Tailor made journeys to fit your needs: Second, Risely creates learning journeys tailored to the needs of the learner by understanding their challenges with specific team members and tying up with company culture policies. Risely’s AI coach is available at the point of need every time.
Comprehensive admin dashboard: Third, it has excellent features for administration purposes, including a skill center that tracks every individual’s skill progress, reportage on team challenges, and much more cultivated through in-built leadership skill assessments.
What makes Risely stand apart?
Most typical leadership development software will stop at either coaching or assessments. Risely covers both the grounds and extends further by developing learning journeys for specific needs that are comprehensive learning paths. When you seek support from Merlin, the in-built AI coach for leaders, you get responses curated to your particular role and needs. That’s not all! While most coaches struggle to align with organizational and personal values, Merlin can adapt to both and embed them within the flow of the coaching experience.
Our users include people managers from leading companies, along with names in the non-profit and healthcare industries.
I have been on a trial of Risely and I am very impressed. As someone who designs and delivers Leadership Development Programs, Risely was on point with its journeys maps and coaching content. It was responsive and reinforced concepts in a variety of ways. I feel Risely will be a valuable tool for managers to utilize as they build their muscle in leading others effectively.
Janis Cooper
Best Friends Animal Society
Explore Risely Pricing
With its two-tier pricing model, Risely is much more accessible and affordable than conventional leadership development solutions.
Ascend package for individual managers – $59/month.
Accelerate package for up to five users – $299/month; add more users at $49 each
You can also contact the team to create a custom package on info@risely.me that meets your organization’s needs. Or, start with a free sign up today.
#2 BetterUp – The Most Comprehensive Coaching Platform
Dive into the world of leadership coaching that’s alive and kicking right when you need it. With training software designed to enable business outcomes, BetterUp guides you step by step as you sharpen those all-important leadership skills while moving along the professional ladder. It offers services in multiple modes for individuals and businesses, and within that, it caters to varying needs through BetterUp Manage, BetterUp Care, and BetterUp Lead.
What makes BetterUp stand out?
Although we are putting BetterUp as a leadership training software, that’s not all that it can do. This leadership development software provides life coaching and support from human coaches for all-round development.
Leading organizations globally employ BetterUp to enhance employee performance and supplement growth.
Intro Plan: Includes one 30-minute coaching session a month with your personal coach, Speciality Coaches, and access to their learning library and assessments.
Plus Plan: Includes two – 30-minute coaching sessions a month with your personal coach or Speciality Coaches as well as access to their learning library and assessments
Premium Plan: Includes four 30-minute sessions a month with a personal coach, or Speciality Coaches
#3 CoachHub – The Digital Coaching Platform
Leadership coaching is one of the most effective ways to facilitate career development. But let’s be real: not every organization can set up coaching relationships internally. You might not have the time, or the leaders might not be interested in coaching. Or worse, coaching abilities could be sub-par for your needs. That’s where CoachHub comes in with personalized coaching solutions. This leadership training software offers access to coaches across key areas, including organizational transformation, DEI, and executive development.
What makes CoachHub stand out as a leadership training software?
This platform doubles up as a leadership coach marketplace where you can find certified coaches for all your organizational needs.
CoachHub is used globally by many multi national organizations to add on to their training and development programs.
Explore CoachHub Pricing
Pricing on CoachHub varies as per feature requirements. You can contact the team for a demo and get started.
#4 LEADx – Scale and Sustain Leadership Development
You might have missed something surprising: as per the Training Magazine, most training budgets are spent on just 38% of people in a company. It happens simply because training everyone is hard and expensive. The question of scale remains hanging on the heads of HR and L&D teams. LEADx solves for this. With AI, this leadership training software incorporates personalization, regular nudges, and many more microlearning formats to train more people across your organization. What’s more, it reduces the common points of friction that stop training prevailing across the team, such as lack of time or sufficient information to create an effective learning program.
What makes LEADx stand out?
As a leadership training software, it offers complete control over designing a manager development system that suits your needs and would garner appreciation from your team.
Many leading names in the consulting and business development industry are actively building with this tool.
Explore LEADx Pricing
LEADx offers affordable annual plans that allow access to all resources for your team. You can contact them to get started.
Think of Apple, and you will be reminded of Steve Jobs quickly. Strong leaders define strong teams and organizations. That’s the motto followed by Torch as well. They focus on empowering leaders to create impactful teams. The idea is to combine human coaching with your company’s existing patterns and build custom solutions. Coaching at the point of need helps eradicate specific challenges that impede performance.
What makes Torch stand out?
Torch tailors coaching to meet the skill development needs of the people on your team, ultimately improving business performance.
Global brands like Reddit, Twitch, and Amgen are enhancing manager performance with Torch and winning big.
Explore Torch Pricing
Plans for Torch start at $200 per year. You can connect with the team to explore more options.
Let’s Compare: Leadership Development Software at a Glance
Leadership Training Software
BetterUp
Risely
CoachHub
LEADx
Torch
Microlearning
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In-build Assessments
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AI Coaching
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Human Coaching
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Personalized Learning Journeys
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Toolkits and Activities
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Company Customizations
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Integrations
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Evaluating Leadership Training Software: What to Look For?
When you’re checking out software for leadership training, there are a few important things to remember. First, find something that makes learning interactive and immersive; this helps keep your team engaged and build skills. The program should also be able to adjust the learning experience based on what each person needs and is good at.
When a program looks good and feels simple to use, people can access their lessons without any fuss. Everything from buttons to pages should be clear, nice-looking, and straightforward.
For your team members to really soak up what they’re learning, the software needs fun bits like videos, little tests you can take as you go along, and even pretend scenarios. These things help keep everyone interested and ensure they’re not just passively looking at information but actually using what they learn. Plus, seeing your progress helps a lot; setting goals or getting advice tailored just for you makes a big difference.
On top of all that, it’s got to be easy to use – nobody likes struggling with complicated software. And lastly, make sure it can grow with your needs and play nicely with any other systems you might be using across the team.
Read how Risely offers all this (and much more) Becoming The Best Manager: Why AI Co-Pilot Overtakes Manual Solutions?
How to Use Leadership Training Software: A Step-by-Step Guide
You have found the leadership training software that matches your needs. What’s next? Putting in place leadership training software can go smoothly if you stick to a clear set of steps, as we have noted below:
Start by figuring out what your organization needs and aims for
Before picking any software, you need to understand the specific areas and goals related to leadership development that your organization is targeting. You might want to focus on building certain leadership skills, boosting employees’ engagement, or helping your organization succeed. Look at your company’s current leadership capabilities to see where there might be gaps in skills or areas that could use some improvement.
Weigh your options
With those needs in mind, look around for the best fit. Do some digging to find leadership training programs that match your organization’s needs. Think about how the leadership training software is going to help you, how it fits in with the existing practices, whether the cost-benefit ratio is good, whether it would cause a lot of resistance, and so on.
Once you’ve picked one, prepare it for use. Install the chosen software, making sure it works well with the systems you already have and that people can easily access it. Adjust the training materials to perfectly suit what your team or company wants from its leaders. Put together a timeline showing when each part of your leadership program will happen. It includes setting key milestones and deadlines.
Building the right environment with your team
Tell everyone about these new opportunities and why they are there. Spread the word about these leadership training options, highlighting their benefits, which should help get more of your team involved. Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate their journey! Recognizing achievements along the way boosts motivation and shows appreciation for their efforts toward personal growth within your organization.
As leadership training software picks pace, use analytics tools and gather feedback regularly to determine whether these efforts are paying off as hoped to foster better leaders within your ranks. Be prepared to tweak things here and there based on the feedback received; this ensures continuous improvement toward achieving effective leader development.
Check out how setting up a leadership training software works with a free trial of Risely today. It will take just a few minutes! Start here.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, putting money into top-notch leadership training software can totally change how companies shape their leaders. Through tailored learning paths, instant coaching feedback, and fun game-like activities, these platforms provide a well-rounded way to boost leadership skills. You can use tech smartly to fill in missing skill sets efficiently, track improvements, and build training programs that grow with them. When you start using leadership training software, make sure you have clear goals, get your leaders involved, and tap into everything the software offers. Think carefully about what you pick, adjust it as necessary, and check if the investment pays off by seeing if it meets your company’s needs for growing its leaders
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Bored of dull leadership training sessions?
Explore hyper personalized leadership coaching with Risely’s AI coach Merlin for free.
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It’s 2024, and being a good leader is more important than ever. Good leaders do more than just guide their teams to meet the company’s goals; they also motivate people to give their best. But not everyone starts out as a great leader. The good news is there are plenty of leadership development training courses designed to help you grow into an effective leader.
This blog will take you through seven top-notch courses that aim to boost your leadership skills. These courses tackle various subjects like understanding emotions better, communicating strategically, leading high-performing groups, and thinking outside the box for solutions. They’re perfect for anyone hoping to improve their game in leadership roles—from managers all the way up to CXOs.
So, let’s hop right in!
Top 7 Leadership Development Training Courses You Should Try!
Growing as a leader is an ongoing journey about boosting your ability to lead and building your skills. It means getting to know and polishing your own way of leading and picking up the key skills needed to guide others well. While knowing your stuff technically can help you climb the ladder at work, having soft skills like understanding people’s feelings, working well with others, being adaptable, and solving problems is just as important for truly effective leadership.
Yet, busy schedules take over and throw out learning and growth. Online courses for leadership development are a great way to bridge this gap. Let’s explore some leadership development training courses that can boost your profile and break the rut.
Being a good leader is about understanding and handling feelings well, both yours and those of the people you work with. The emotional intelligence course offered by American Management Association teaches important emotional smarts that every top-notch leader needs.
In this course, you will explore leadership training for emotional intelligence and why it’s key to leading effectively. You will learn how being aware of your emotions, controlling them, understanding others’ feelings, and managing relationships play a big part in emotional intelligence. This can help you connect better with your team members, motivate people around you more effectively, and make choices that lead to success for everyone involved.
Why should you take this course?
Emotional intelligence prepares you to handle difficult people management situations better, such as conflicts, broken professional relationships, or sensitive conversations.
The Leadership Development Program by the Center for Creative Leadership brings home innovative approaches to developing leaders. One of the program’s primary objectives is to reduce the gap between frontline staff and senior management, which is a frequent impediment to organizational effectiveness. By reducing such communication and strategic gaps, you can enhance performance for the whole set-up. That’s not all; this leadership development training course also goes into the following:
Leveraging identities and building resilience in the team as a leader
Using networks to support personal and professional development for yourself and your peers at work
Developing the skills you need to understand the role of DEI and build relevant skills effectively
Leadership Development Training Course #3
Leadership Training for Results: Unleash Talent in Others
To lead teams that perform well, you need to know some special tricks and methods. This course by Dale Carnegie Institute empowers you to enable performance in others. It teaches people leaders what they need to know so their teams can do their best work.
In this course, you will first understand how to be confident in your leadership abilities. Next up, the course adopts an other-focused approach, so learn all about enabling and empowering others as a team manager or leader. You will better understand the typical problems that trouble teams, how to diagnose them, how to manage common types of teams, and the ins and outs of building a strong team on the foundation of effective communication.
What You Will Learn About Team Building and Management?
You will learn about being and building accountability in your team. The key questions being answered are: What is accountability, and how can you develop it in yourself and others?
You will understand the common reasons why teams get in trouble. After learning about the causes and contexts, you will move on to resolving these challenges with your team through strategic interventions with an external focus.
This leadership development training course combines many interesting elements in a concentrated yet comprehensive three-day program focusing on your growth and development. It starts with assessments and then provides support through convenient one-on-one coaching. That’s not all, though; the program enables support through peer-to-peer learning and post-program support in the form of leadership coaching for 90 days. Compared to the previous course, we saw focusing externally; this makes you focus on yourself. The journey is one of “self-discovery,” as described on the program’s website.
This course teaches you the many faces of leadership, how to switch up your style based on what’s happening around you, and how to make plans for personal growth. You will discover what makes you strong as a leader and where you can improve.
If you were to ask one thing that marks the present era of business, the answer is likely to be simple: change. The rapid global movement needs leaders who are both ready and proactive in handling such situations. You have a big job: explaining why change is necessary, standing by their team members during the shift, and getting everyone excited about trying new ways of doing things.
How will this course help you in the journey of managing change?
First, the course begins by building the foundations and assessing your change management skills. It helps you understand change management and how it works, including the primary processes and phases within the change management cycle.
Next, this course prepares you to handle the most troublesome aspect of any change, which is resistance. You will also develop a framework to propel and sustain changes in organizations.
Ethics are super important when it comes to being a good leader. Resultantly, it’s one of the most important leadership development training topics. When leaders make choices that are right and fair, they not only get the trust and respect of their team members but also help create a really positive place to work. Being ethical in leadership means sticking to what’s morally right, keeping honest, and making decisions based on what’s ethically sound. Leaders who stick by their ethics set a great example for everyone on their team, encouraging an atmosphere where everyone trusts and treats each other fairly.
In this course you will learn how to:
Develop a framework for understanding the responsibilities leaders have
Determine and deliver on your economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities
Formulate a plan to address conflicts and communicate the “why” behind your decisions
Establish a toolkit for making tough leadership decisions now and in the future
Leadership Development Training Course #7
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving For Organizational Leaders
During the course, you will dive into the concept of creative thinking in problem solving and work around ways to enable it with your team. You will learn ways to make your teams more open to new ideas, encourage everyone to think creatively and tackle any hurdles that might stop innovation.
Key Takeaways from This Course on Fostering Innovation
In this course, you will gather:
An understanding of how creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making work in tandem in real-life scenarios
To weave leadership development programs into the fabric of an organization, you need a well-thought-out plan and a holistic approach. Here’s a simple framework to use leadership development training courses with your team:
Start by figuring out what your team needs in terms of leadership skills and what would be the essential leadership development training topics in your context. Look closely at where you are strong and where you need help. You can seek feedback, take skill assessments from Risely, or conduct a personal SWOT analysis.
Then, put together tailored leadership development training courses that match your organization’s goals and tackle specific areas that need improvement.
Coaching and mentoring give leaders extra support to grow their abilities while guiding them along their development journey. So be open to accepting those offers from potential coaches at work. If not, you can look for coaches outside.
Promoting an environment that values learning encourages everyone in charge to keep getting better through various activities designed for growth. Thus, start discussing your ideas and get going.
Lastly, remember to check regularly to see if these efforts are making a difference for you and the whole group. Adjust as needed based on what you find.
When leaders start acting differently in good ways—like talking better with their teams or solving problems more effectively—it shows the training did its job. By keeping track of improvements in how a team gets along and does its work overall, you can be sure that you are getting real value from investing in leadership development training courses.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
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How to choose the right leadership coaching platform?
Your coaching journey can make a lot of difference for your team. Plus, with more use of AI and other advanced tech, manager and leader development coaching solutions are becoming more common than ever. Plenty of platforms offer everything you could dream of – remarkable coaches, personal touches, one-on-one sessions, and more. The question is: which coaching platform is the best one for you? Keep in mind that not all teams and managers are made alike; coaching needs differ. So, what works best for your friend’s team may not work for you.
In this blog, we will discuss choosing the right leadership coaching platform for your team. Look for tips on using your chosen platform effectively to maximize its benefits.
Searching the Right Leadership Coaching Platform for Your Team
When searching for the perfect coaching platform for your team’s learning and development, there are several vital points to remember. We have covered the top ten things you should consider before investing in a leadership development platform below:
#1 Evaluate Platform Usability and Accessibility
Step one is picking a platform that’s easy to use. After all, you want to retain people and ensure they fully use the product. For this area, think of metrics that can explain usability and accessibility. First, you need to look at the overall look and feel of the platform. Does it align with your existing systems? Or would it be hard to learn as a new tool?
The easier it is to get around and the more accessible it is, the more likely people will use it and stick with it. This makes the whole coaching journey better for all team members involved. Platforms that consider everyone in the workforce by including features that meet different needs help unite everyone. You should aim for simple but effective platforms where everything works smoothly on any device because this helps keep everyone engaged and learning well.
Explore learn journeys on Risely to see these principles in action. Tailor made with experts curating the content and AI empowering distribution across your team: How does Risely train leaders?
#2 Assess the Breadth and Depth of Coaching Content
Second, check the depth of the content. Here’s the thing: your organization has managers and leaders at different levels of understanding. Does the leadership coaching platform offer content to cater to each level? Can it explain one concept at varying levels of understanding and experience? You want something that covers all sorts of leadership skills, like talking well with others and knowing how to handle talent.
Ensure it has enough material for everyone, from the top bosses to every team member. The right one should guide each person toward reaching their best through learning paths made just for them. With this in mind, see if what the platform offers matches your team’s needs to grow professionally and meet business goals.
#3 Check In-built Features for Tracking Progress
A complete leadership development platform needs to offer much more than a list of courses and modules to complete. After all, you need to measure what your team learns. For that, features like in-built skill assessments, as Risely provides for nearly 20 core people management areas are important.
For example, a self-assessment on active listening can tell you about changes in that area, and the team’s score tells you about the observed change. A few other platforms integrate personality assessments instead. And yet, the game does not end at assessing; you need a dashboard to make sense of the metrics you view.
A good leadership coaching platform will empower you to track growth on specific skills over time, growth of specific team members, and improvements over specific people management challenges. Competitive benchmarking across the platform and within the organization are also great features that complement built-in assessments and motivate users to keep progressing.
Wondering how it works? Try an assessment now, it’s free! Leadership skill assessments by Risely
#4 Understand Integration Capabilities with Existing Systems
No one loves switching applications multiple times a day, least of all, buggy or unfamiliar ones. Thus, when picking out a coaching platform, it’s super important to see how well it can work with your existing systems. You want everything to blend nicely so that switching over is easy and you get the most out of what the leadership coaching platform offers.
For instance, Risely offers seamless integrations with workspaces like Teams and Slack so that coaching support is available at the moment of need. There are no extra steps needed to access help. Go for platforms that sync up without a fuss with what you’ve got now, making things more efficient and effective.
#5 Identify Customization Options for Personalized Learning Paths
Can sales and technical managers find equal value in the same leadership training? Likely not. In fact, one of the major reasons why training fails is that it fails to meet the contextual needs of the audience. So, what a sales manager wants will be different from what a technical manager wants, and neither can be neglected in your organization.
There are many ways to personalize coaching experiences on a leadership development platform. For example, Risely’s learning journeys are different for each user. They are based on the initial questions about challenges and context answered by them. Similarly, personalization is a great feature to support managers through career transitions.
Suppose someone on your team is moving from managing three people to twenty. While they have the skills, they will need fine-tuning and support to executive effectively, which Merlin’s personalization can offer. This way of personalizing things makes getting better at leadership more direct and effective.
#6 Find a Fit for the Coach and Your Team
The fact remains that human coaches can only do so much. Most coaches come with specific and niche expertise, either in a specific skill or a specific context at work. What your team needs is a diversity of ability and adaptability. Think back to the sales and tech managers – can one coach do justice to them? An AI coach like Merlin can provide this because it has expertise garnered through large amounts of data as well as the ability to continuously keep learning.
Plus, with coaches, the question of building a relationship and being available rises inevitably. At Risely, we solve this with a unique solution. We have Merlin, an in-built AI coach trained to offer context-based coaching. You can explore it in voice mode with support for over 40 languages, ask questions anytime you want, and even do role plays and reviews of conversations. Here’s an example for you:
#7 Check for a Robust Analytics and Reporting Dashboard
It’s all about metrics, and we are here to ensure that you are keeping an eye on the right ones. When picking out a leadership coaching platform, it’s really important to look at how good its analytics and reporting section is. With this feature, you can monitor how your team members are doing, see if their leadership skills are improving, and ensure that the coaching is helping reach business goals in a smart way.
Plus, not every stakeholder wants the same metrics. As their goals differ, so do the numbers they track!
What metrics do they like?
Having detailed analytics, such as Risely offers in the Admin view, lets you understand more about skill development, which means managing talent based on actual data. Good reporting tools also let you figure out if the money spent on coaching is worth it by looking at the return on investment (ROI), making it easier for everyone in the organization to make decisions backed up by facts.
#8 Consider Pricing Models and Return on Investment
How much are you willing to shell out for leadership development? A one-on-one session with a seasoned coach would start from $200 an hour, and it can go up to $1000. Let’s take a different turn; this three-day workshop looks amazing. The cost? $2500 per person. It’s not so ideal for all the managers on your team who would benefit. Money matters, and that’s why there is so much to consider before picking the right leadership coaching platform for your team. The steep costs associated with conventional leadership development methods often limit accessibility.
You should also consider how this choice might improve leadership skills and make the whole team perform better. Go for a leadership development platform that boosts professional growth throughout your company and gives good value back compared to what you spend on it—this is known as getting a favorable return on investment (ROI) on training. Looking into these things carefully will guide you toward investing wisely.
#9 Explore Support and Community Engagement Features
Engagement is critical to the success of management and leadership development programs. In fact, lectures, the most typical form of training, show lowest retention of content among learners as per the works of education specialist Edgar Dale. Thus, your search also needs to focus on how the leadership development platform provides support and gets everyone involved. This kind of setup really helps people grow professionally together. You should look for places where team members can talk, share what they’ve been through, and learn as a group.
Community support improves the coaching journey because it gives your team a safe place to talk things out and get feedback. Good support keeps your team motivated throughout the process. Go for leadership coaching platforms that engage everyone so your team can keep learning and growing.
#10 Assess User Reviews and Success Stories
Before you pick a leadership coaching platform for leadership development, it’s really important to look at what other people have said about it and check out their success stories. Hearing from others can tell you a lot about how good the platform is and if people are happy using it.
Success stories are great because they let you see how the coaching has helped in real situations, showing what could be possible for your team’s growth. By looking into the good feedback and these inspiring tales, you can choose something that fits well with your team’s goals.
How to Implement Your Chosen Leadership Coaching Platform?
Once you’ve picked the perfect leadership coaching platform for your team, it’s all about how you roll it out. Here are four major steps that you should take:
Plan for a Smooth Rollout
Start by marking important steps and picking a team (or specific members) to handle the rollout. Your first task is ensuring everyone knows what’s happening at every step. To deal with any pushback, use strategies that help manage changes smoothly. In addition, run training sessions so people can get comfortable using the new platform.
It’s also crucial to have support ready and ways for people to share their thoughts to improve things as we go along. Getting leaders on board is key to getting everyone else excited and clear about what we expect during this whole process. At this stage, remain in touch with the team building the leadership development platform, too, because you will need to exchange queries and ideas.
Encourage Adoption Among Leaders and Teams
The success of leadership development and growth programs depends on multiple stakeholders, and some of them can impact the processes much more than others. Senior leaders and team managers are the influencers who can inspire others to use the platform extensively by setting up the right examples. As a result, getting them onboard becomes important for multiple reasons:
They are involved in getting budgets and permissions
They can influence adoption
They can help you overcome resistance and build consensus
To get leaders and their teams on board, it’s key to talk about how the leadership coaching platform can really help boost leadership skills, meet career ambitions, and push professional development forward. Point out that this tool gives senior leaders a way to lead their team members toward achieving everything they’re capable of. It’s important to keep conversations about the coaching journey open so everyone feels comfortable growing personally.
Read more: How to Obtain Buy-In for Training from Stakeholders?
Integrate Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement
What your team has to say about the leadership coaching platform matters greatly. Because, after all, they are the users and beneficiaries. When we listen to feedback from these, people in charge can get even better at their jobs, helping them grow personally and professionally. As the leader of such an initiative, you must monitor the feedback. You can do this in many ways:
First up, straight away, go and ask. Get the reactions from participants in informal conversations so that they are comfortable expressing opinions on their own terms. It’s a no-pressure way to gather feedback on training that you can use to establish yourself as the enabler of their development.
Second, you can use training evaluation programs. The survey questions are typically designed to briefly describe the experience. It covers everyone and allows you to understand experiences along a standard set of metrics at scale.
Third, look at the usage data. How many people are completing the goals? Are they sharing their achievements? Is your team meeting deadlines? All of these indicate the level of enthusiasm about the leadership coaching platform.
Lastly, you can also take up focus group style interviews, where you sit with some team members and discuss the leadership development platform in-depth. This exercise would be great if you could generate ideas for custom features or use cases to integrate into the executive coaching platform.
Having open talks regularly and checking how things are going often ensures that leadership skills keep getting sharper, leading to overall success in work.
To really understand if a leadership coaching platform is doing its job in boosting leadership skills, it’s crucial to look at the correct numbers that show how leaders are growing. You can see where progress is happening by keeping an eye on specific metrics that match up with what makes a good leader.
It’s also important to check if the money spent on this training is worth it by looking at returns on investment (ROI). Looking into how many people leave their jobs, whether goals for the business align with what’s being taught, and if your team members feel more connected after getting coached helps, too. Using analytics lets us keep track of all these things to tweak our approach as needed. Making choices based on solid data helps ensure we’re always improving at developing leadership within our company.
What’s more, along with learning metrics, there are more data points that you will need to be an impactful L&D leader. Think of what your team asks from you – completion rates? Participant engagement rates? Goal achievement? All of these further tie into the business metrics (reduced absenteeism, higher productivity, lower turnover, etc.) that define your value. By measuring these effectively, you can make a compelling case for the business impact of L&D.
If you have read so far, we know you care. Check out Risely and get in touch to create a custom offering for your team’s needs. Start your journey with a free trial for 14 days today, and hit us up the moment you get WOW’ed at info@risely.me
Conclusion
To wrap things up, picking the right leadership coaching platform is essential to boost how well your team does and grows. You’ve got to look at a bunch of metrics like how easy it is to use, what kind of content it offers, whether it can work with other systems, ways you can make it fit your needs better, analytics tools available for tracking progress on the leadership development platform as well as pricing structures and feedback from other users.
After choosing one that fits best for leadership development efforts in your organization, ensure everything goes smoothly by carefully planning its introduction phase, encouraging everyone to get on board, taking into account any suggestions they might have along the way, and keeping an eye out on how much difference this makes in improving leadership skills fostering teamwork among members leading towards greater success across the whole company.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
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Critical Thinking Training For Managers Simplified
Critical thinking is an essential skill that you must possess to effectively lead teams and make informed decisions. It involves collecting and analyzing information from various sources, evaluating different perspectives, and ultimately coming to the best conclusion possible. By developing your critical thinking skills, you can enhance problem-solving abilities, make better decisions, and ultimately achieve organizational goals.
This blog will explore the importance of critical thinking in management and discuss the core critical thinking skills managers need to cultivate. We will also provide practical steps to develop critical thinking among managers and techniques to enhance critical thinking in teams.
Critical thinking is one of the most vital skills for managers. It is the ability to collect and analyze information, evaluate different perspectives, and make well-informed decisions. In today’s dynamic business environment, managers face complex problems and challenges on a daily basis. Without strong critical thinking skills, it becomes difficult to solve these problems effectively and make informed decisions.
Being a critical thinker allows you to approach problems and challenges with a logical and analytical mindset. It helps avoid making decisions based on biases or limited information. Instead, critical thinkers gather relevant data, evaluate different viewpoints, and arrive at the best possible solution.
One key aspect of critical thinking in management is effective decision-making. You are responsible for making decisions that significantly impact their teams and organizations. By employing critical thinking, you can consider multiple factors, evaluate potential outcomes, and make decisions based on a thorough analysis of the available information.
Critical thinking also enables you to identify and address potential issues and risks. By thinking critically, managers can anticipate problems, evaluate the potential consequences, and take proactive measures to mitigate risks. This allows them to make better decisions and minimize the negative impact of problems or challenges.
Core Critical Thinking Skills for Managers
You need to develop and cultivate several core skills to be effective critical thinkers. These skills include analytical thinking, creative thinking, and the ability to solve complex problems.
Analytical thinking is the ability to evaluate data from multiple sources, identify patterns and trends, and draw logical conclusions. It allows you to make sense of complex information and make informed decisions based on a thorough analysis of the available data.
Creative thinking involves the ability to generate innovative ideas, think outside the box, and develop unique solutions to problems. It encourages you to explore different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and find creative ways to overcome obstacles.
The ability to solve complex problems is not just a skill, but a crucial asset for managers. Complex problems often have multiple variables and require a systematic approach to solve. Managers with strong problem-solving skills can break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts, analyze each component, and develop effective solutions. This skill is a testament to your value and importance the company’s operations.
Practical Steps to Start Critical Thinking Training Among Managers
Critical thinking training among managers is crucial for their success in today’s business environment. Here are some practical steps that you can take to develop critical thinking skills:
Cultivating a Questioning Mindset
Cultivating a questioning mindset is essential in developing managers’ critical thinking skills. You can foster a culture of critical thinking by encouraging everyone around you to question assumptions, challenge conventional wisdom, and seek different perspectives. Start with these ideas:
You should avoid taking information at face value and instead question the underlying assumptions and biases.
Encourage your team to ask thoughtful questions and seek out different perspectives to better understand complex issues.
Emphasize the importance of intellectual standards, such as logic, evidence, and clarity, when evaluating information and making decisions.
By cultivating a questioning mindset, you can identify potential biases, uncover hidden assumptions, and make more informed decisions.
Encouraging reflective practice is an effective way to lay the ground work for critical thinking training. Reflective practice involves taking the time to reflect on past decisions, evaluate their outcomes, and identify areas for improvement. Here’s how you can start:
You should regularly take the time to reflect on your decision-making process and evaluate the outcomes of decisions.
Reflective practice helps you learn from experiences, identify patterns and trends, and develop better critical thinking skills.
By reflecting on past decisions, you can gain insights into their biases, assumptions, and decision-making processes.
Encouraging team members to keep a reflective journal or participate in reflective discussions can further enhance their critical thinking abilities.
Implementing Scenario-Based Learning
One of the most engaging and unique ways of critical thinking training is implementing scenario-based learning among managers. Scenario-based learning provides you with opportunities to apply your critical thinking skills in real-life scenarios and practice analyzing information, evaluating different perspectives, and making decisions based on evidence. Here is how you can start in some simple steps:
Provide managers with realistic scenarios that they may encounter in their day-to-day work.
Encourage managers to analyze the information provided, evaluate different perspectives, and make evidence-based decisions.
Offer feedback and guidance to help managers improve their critical thinking skills and make more informed decisions.
Online courses, such as those offered by Coursera, can provide valuable resources for implementing scenario-based learning.
Techniques to Enhance Critical Thinking in Teams
Critical thinking training is most effective when teams join hands. Enhancing critical thinking skills in teams is crucial for making better decisions and achieving organizational success. Thus, to take critical thinking to your team, start with:
Facilitating effective brainstorming sessions: Encourage team members to generate and share ideas, challenge assumptions, and think creatively.
Promoting open and respectful communication: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing their opinions, questioning ideas, and engaging in productive discussions.
Encouraging diverse perspectives: Embrace team diversity and seek out different viewpoints to foster critical thinking and avoid groupthink.
Providing opportunities for reflection and feedback: Allow team members to reflect on their decision-making process, evaluate outcomes, and provide feedback to each other.
Critical thinking among leaders can often make or break the deal for teams. But not every leader has the same set of typical challenges to beat! And we get it; that’s why we created hyper-personalized learning journeys that enable skill development in your context. Here is how it works with you and for you:
Step 1: Define your challenges from over 30 options on Risely.
Step 2: Assess your current position on relevant skills as Risely recommends.
Step 3: Generate a roadmap of skill development that involves something new every day. We are not going to just talk about strategic thinking—we will build it one step at a time with case studies, sample statements, and more engaging ways.
What’s more? Critical thinking training can be tricky. We know you might feel a little down at time. That’s when you can talk to Merlin, Risely’s AI leadership coach, to vent your heart out, free from the fear of judgment or appearances.
Let’s get you started: Sign up for a free trial today.
Conclusion
In essence, cultivating critical thinking skills among managers is imperative for effective leadership. Managers can navigate complex challenges, foster innovation, and make informed decisions by honing analytical, strategic, and creative thinking abilities. Encouraging a questioning mindset, promoting reflective practice, and implementing scenario-based learning are practical steps to nurture critical thinking. Ultimately, integrating critical thinking training into managerial development programs is key to driving organizational success and adaptability in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.
Assess your critical thinking skills for free!
Master the art of critical thinking as a manager by reviewing your skills with a free assessment now.
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What Does A Learning And Development Team (L&D) Do?
The role of Learning and Development teams is critical in fostering growth within organizations. Understanding the essence of L&D in today’s workplace is key to driving talent management and achieving business goals. By understanding the core functions and processes of L&D, you can address skills gaps efficiently. Tune in to explore the anatomy of an effective L&D team, essential processes, key performance indicators, emerging trends, and challenges faced in learning and development.
Learning and Development teams drive organizational success through talent development and training initiatives. They focus on bridging skills gaps, enhancing employee engagement, and aligning learning solutions with business goals. L&D professionals utilize learning management systems, instructional design, and performance analytics to tailor training programs that cater to employee needs.
By taking a strategic approach to learning and development, these teams contribute significantly to enhancing organizational performance and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
What are Critical Skills for Success in the L&D Function?
To excel in learning and development, professionals need a diverse skill set that includes:
Strong Communication Skills: The ability to clearly convey information, ideas, and instructions to various stakeholders, ensuring understanding and engagement, is essential for your success as an L&D professional.
Project Management Abilities: Second, you need skills in planning, executing, and closing projects efficiently, including managing resources, timelines, and budgets to achieve specific goals. All of this becomes important while managing multiple development initiatives. For instance, analytical skills are listed by more than half of L&D professionals as per LinkedIn!
Deep Understanding of Instructional Design Principles: Training is best when it meets the needs of your team; that’s why you need knowledge of how to create effective and engaging educational experiences based on learning theories and best practices.
Talent Management Proficiency: The capability to attract, develop, and retain skilled employees, aligning their development with organizational goals, is also a vital component of the L&D function.
Change Management Proficiency: Skills in guiding and managing organizational change, helping employees adapt to new methods, technologies, or shifts in strategy help you overcome resistance and ensure smooth transitions.
Insights into Emerging Trends in L&D: Staying informed about the latest developments and innovations in the learning and development field to keep programs relevant and effective is critical. Knowledge of new tools and technologies to enhance learning experiences, such as e-learning platforms, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
Development Specialists are focusing on skills gaps
Training Facilitators and Coordinators execute these programs
Larger teams can also have administrators for Learning Management Systems, External Consultants, and Specialists for specific areas like change management.
Each role fosters a culture of continuous learning and achieves organizational performance. Structuring your team for impact involves combining project management, communication skills, and talent development expertise. By aligning with business goals, an effective L&D team ensures employee training meets organizational needs, enhancing performance and engagement.
