A 10-fold return to investors over a ten year period.
According to a recent Harvard Study, the most enduring and successful companies (delivering a 10-fold return) excel at a handful of specific management practices.
Your company's ability to create, execute, and sustain a competitive advantage depends greatly on the quality and depth of your management capabilities at all levels.
Yet, the majority of businesses see large skill gaps in their management teams - especially for new and mid-level managers.
Do your managers have what it takes to bring your organization to the next level? 10 minutes could gain you a 10-fold return.
Get Your Free Management Practices Analysis...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Generational Riddle:
A man and his son are in a car crash. The man dies, and his son is rushed to the hospital. The head surgeon says "I'm sorry, but I cannot operate on this boy. He is my son."
Who is the Surgeon?
Not very surprising to some, adults consistently fail to identify the surgeon as the boy's mother. Fifth graders, on the other hand, almost universally answered with "his mom."
For the first time in history, four different generations find themselves working within the walls of corporate America.
As members of these generations struggle to co-exist side by side, managers now must supervise vastly disparate working and communication styles.
1. How does a member of "The Greatest Generation" provide direction to a tech-savvy "20-Something?"
2. How will a "Baby Boomer" communicate institutional goals to a "Gen-Xer," who may have grown up as a go-it-alone, latchkey kid?
Today, management needs to be especially creative to enable these different cultures with their own experiences and values work productively together.
Savvy leaders can harness the strengths of each generation and leverage decades of knowledge and experience not only to survive but also thrive amid this generational divide.
Read the Whitepaper to learn more about the Top 4 Best Practices...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
86%. That is the percent of people from our recent Q1 poll that believe that their CEO would say that their current training programs do not significantly impact business performance.
Ouch.
While that number may be shocking to some, it does not surprise those of us who have been in this business for decades. It certainly is not a revelation to "line people" who are being asked to do more with less and who are tired of wasting time at irrelevant and poorly reinforced training events that do not "move the needle" in terms transferring the training to on-the-job performance improvement or tangible business outcomes .
Making matters worse, average learning and development industry spend estimates range from $60b-$120b per year and between $500 and $1,500 per learner depending upon who you ask and how you parse the data. Even if these averages are off by 50%, the numbers are still too big to be ignored.
Additionally, in most organizations, only a fraction of the true training costs are visible. Most cost estimates do not include the top three hidden costs of ineffective leadership development and management training programs, among others.
How could such large investments do so poorly in the eyes of leadership?
If you believe that the business and performance impact of your training programs may not hold up under scrutiny from your CEO, then you should make sure that you are avoiding the top 10 warning signs that your training function may be in trouble.
Read the Top 10 Training Warning Signs Whitepaper...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Amplify and accelerate.
Would you use those two words to describe the value of your training function?
World class training and development functions amplify internal and external value propositions while accelerating top strategic imperatives. Ask yourself - Does your organization have the training engine to create the skills, knowledge, and attitude to help your organization succeed:
- Prioritize: Identify the most critical skill and knowledge gaps to move your strategy forward?
- Sell: Build a high performance sales culture to drastically increase revenues and margins?
- Succeed: Create a high performance environment to execute your top strategies while getting the most out of your top talent?
- Lead: Markedly increase productivity and bench strength?
- Measure: Track and measure business results to drive accountability for execution and feedback for performance & executive coaching?
If you want proof, in tangible business terms, that your training function is delivering, then here are a few good places to start:
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Is your new hire speed to productivity where it should be?
Most new employees take 3-24 months to "get up to speed." This wide disparity provides wonderful opportunities for organizations looking to decrease "ramp time."
In a recent survey, 210 CEO's estimated the time for a typical mid-level manager to reach "break even" as 6.2 months. Using an average salary of $100,000:
- The difference between a 3-month ramp and a 6.2-month ramp is approximately $26,500 per employee. (Note: this does not account for increases in revenue, margin, utilization, or productivity.)
- For a company hiring a minimum of 100 new employees per year, this creates a $2.6m window of opportunity for an improved new hire process.
- For companies closer to the 24-month mark, the opportunity is as large as $17.5m.
If you are unsure of your current "speed to productivity," facing high growth rates, struggling to retain top talent, changing your go-to-market strategies, or feeling increased pressure to improve productivity, then this whitepaper is for you.
Based upon helping to onboard thousands of new employees, we have identified 7 key best practices to ensure that new employee orientation programs "move the needle" to faster productivity.
Read about the 7 Employee On-Boarding Best Practices...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Making the jump to a new job is not easy.
Getting new employees up to speed faster can be even more challenging.
Many HR and sales enablement professionals are being pushed to address this under-appreciated area of productivity.
When we ask hiring managers, they tell us that they want new hires to "hit the ground running." When we ask new hires, they tell us that they want to "start off on the right foot" and learn as much as possible about the company, the products and services, and "how to get stuff done."
Fortunately the goals are in synch for both stakeholders and worth the effort because, done right, new hire programs can save millions of dollars. How does the onboarding training at your organization stack up?
Read more about new hire program options...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
What if skills and knowledge alone are not enough to "move the needle?"
I'll never forget the question posed by a veteran Vice President of Sales Operations.
We had just designed a comprehensive sales training assessment to pinpoint skill gaps in his sales team before designing a targeted solution to grow revenue.
We thought we had covered all the sales best practice bases - inside sales, prospecting, calling high, qualifying, financial acumen, sales presentation, negotiating, strategic account planning, influencing, etc.
Then he said, "I think we're missing something here. What about the fire in the belly?".
He explained that some of his best sales people lacked polish and sophistication, but they believed so fervently in the value of their solutions that clients responded.
He was not talking about "selling ice to the Eskimos," but rather moving people to trust you in the face of uncertainty.
As it turns out, that battle-tested VP was really onto something. Conviction matters. It can be measured.
Are you building, reinforcing, and measuring training Conviction? Our research shows that it may be the missing link to success.
Read more about the role of operational, training and measurement conviction...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Are you making the right business impact?
Unfortunately, if you asked your executives and stakeholders, odds are that the answer is - NO!
Not surprisingly, when we ask training and HR about the impact of their training initiatives, most tell us that they are making the right impact - even though the majority admit that they did not measure the training program it and are unclear about what happens "after people leave the session," or if there was an effective transfer of training.
When we look deeper however, the data is less encouraging:
- Leaders believe that 90% of training initiatives fail to meet expectations
- 75% of CEO's do not believe that training is impacting their business
- Without systemic training reinforcement, 80% of skills and knowledge are not transferred back to the job
Based upon more than 600 training assessment and measurement projects, we have substantial evidence that consistent executive coaching combined with clear measurement achieves significantly higher levels of cultural and environmental performance than stand alone training events.
If you have a training initiative that is critical to your success or the success of your business, make sure that you can answer the following questions. Eventually someone will want to know.
- Impact: Is it making an impact?
- Adoption: Are people using the new knowledge, skills and processes?
- Reinforcement: Are managers involved, supportive, and reinforcing?
- Coaching: Are we providing individualized feedback that is relevant, simple, and actionable?
Having answers to the above 4 questions is proven to help drive the right amount of accountability to make an impact.
While you may think that it is too difficult or too costly to measure and reinforce training, we believe that you will be pleasantly surprised with the possibilities.
Read more about the top 5 steps to measure your return on training...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Only 2%.
That's the percentage of what coaches yell from the sidelines that kids actually hear.
Fortunately, the percentages are significantly greater for sales managers who effectively coach their sales reps.
In a world of failed sales training initiatives and one-off "training events" that do not "move the needle," it is encouraging to know that effective sales coaching and performance measurement can significantly increase revenue, cross-selling, referrals, market share, and margins.
We recently completed a coaching case study at a leading Financial Services firm so that we could understand the specific impact of sales coaching by sales managers.
The impact - pretty astounding.
The lessons - applicable for any sales force.
Read about the impact of sales coaching...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Is your sales team maximizing performance?
A recent LSA Survey showed that 25% of sales reps are meeting or exceeding quota while a whopping 75% are missing quotas - including revised quotas that take the current economic conditions into account.
The difference? Sales coaching from sales managers. A clear and consistent sales methodology. Sales performance management.
There is substantial evidence that sales professionals who receive consistent sales coaching from managers and mentors achieve significantly higher levels of performance than those who receive little or no sales coaching.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have "B" and "C" players holding back your sales goals?
- Could your inside sales leaders use help to more effectively motivate their team members and equip them for success?
- Would a formal sales coaching methodology lift your sales professionals to a higher level of performance?
- Are you lacking the sales tools and processes necessary to help your sales force succeed?
- Would you like to improve the accountability and results of your sales force?
- Are your sales leaders only coaching to the "lagging indicators" of performance?
If you answer "yes" to any of the above 6 questions, then this solution set is for you.
Read more about using sales coaching to make dramatic sales performance improvements...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Santa Clara, CA, May 6, 2010 - LSA Global, the premier one-stop global training outsourcing and consulting firm that focuses on achieving measurable business results with a select group of life science, high technology and services industry clients, today announced that their client, Redwood Trust (NYSE: RWT), was selected by Bersin & Associates as the 2010 Learning Leader in the Leadership Development Excellence category. Redwood Trust has looked to LSA Global for their people performance needs since 2005 and began Leadership Development initiatives with LSA in 2007.
The prestigious award recognizes organizations which have developed and implemented best practice approaches to employee learning and talent management resulting in significant business improvement. According to Bersin & Associates, Redwood Trust was saluted “for its integrated leadership development, role realignment, and performance systems—all part of an initiative to change how the company develops talent. The effort includes programs which put emerging executives into actual business challenges.”
According to Russ Silva who heads up LSA’s Leadership Development practice, “Redwood’s Leadership initiative exemplifies LSA’s approach to executive learning and development—driving meaningful business results. In Redwood’s case, the results added up to a multi-million dollar increase to their bottom-line.” While those results are extraordinary for a leadership development initiative, Silva noted they are the result of designing Leadership solutions that are executed within the context of achieving a company’s strategic objectives.
This Action-Learning approach to Leadership Development puts managers and executives into situations that are highly relevant to the current and future success of the individual and the company. The action-learning process is designed around the real work of executives and has a strong results-based format. Silva explains that “LSA’s three foundational programs at Redwood included a web-based Executive Level Enterprise Simulation, a Case-Based Strategic Decision workshop, and an Action Learning/Challenge Assignment that accounted for the positive impact to Redwood’s bottom-line. Each of these programs places participants in situations where they must make executive level decisions and take meaningful executive action. The programs also provide an ideal platform for Senior Executives to share their knowledge, coach, and mentor developing executives.”
Silva continues, “While developing executives’ ability to execute on Redwood’s strategy was a prominent component, institutionalizing Redwood’s unique culture, leadership and organizational values were equally as important. To insure this leadership legacy, LSA has helped executives at all levels improve their coaching capabilities, developed a behavioral 360 degree survey that provides leadership feedback, and developed a performance measurement system that facilitates performance alignment and coaching conversations. The end result is an environment where individuals are responsible for their performance and leaders are true facilitators of learning.”
The Bersin report, “Learning Leaders 2010: Lessons from the Best,” provides an in-depth look at the best practices of the 25 award winning companies, including Redwood Trust in the Leadership Development Excellence category.
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Two Key Moves.
Did you know that out of the 70 possible performance moves available to executives, only two will make a difference at any given time?
Even during a recession, some companies and groups continue to thrive. Recent research indicates that 46% of organizations cite creating a high performance culture as one of their top 3 priorities. Yet 61% of line and new managers do not feel that they have what it takes to drive greater employee performance from the business.
Like many of our clients, as CEO I often struggle with how much performance management pressure to place on our company and which lever to pull at which moment to accelerate the business. In the past, we have found most approaches to be too theoretical and too "consultanty" to actually make a difference.
Fortunately, what we learned from 16 years of high performance industry research has pointed us in the right direction - with benefits both for us and for our clients.
Read about how to identify your top two performance moves...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Are you driving organizational performance?
Given your unique circumstances, what "MOVE", made today , will have the greatest effect on the performance of your organization or teams?
In our recent Q2 Survey, 67% said that they are not getting the most out of their organization.
For those of you who would like to generate more performance from your people, we have a proven, business-oriented process that can make a dramatic difference.
Our clients tell us that after using this process that they have increased factory productivity by 25%, gained over $500,000 in annual benefits, improved net profit contribution by $100,000 per month, and raised Call Center revenue by 400%.
If answers to the following questions are eluding you and your team, then you have an opportunity to take your business performance to the next level.
- Do you know the strengths and weaknesses of your current performance environment & culture compared to best practices?
- Have you identified the likely accelerators and inhibitors to performance vis-a-vis your current corporate strategy?
- Are the current and future 'pressure' dynamics that will most influence performance clear?
- Do you know what levers to pull when?
- Is your environment driving the highest possible performance?
If you are an Human Resource Leader who would like a seat at the executive table or if you are a Business Leader who would like to dramatically move the performance needle, then this solution is worth checking out.
Read more about how to make dramatic improvements in performance...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
A whopping 70%.
Based upon a recent Talent Management study, that is the percent of the workforce that is complacent and actively disengaged. In the words of one client, "we have a looming crisis on our hands."
When you combine that startling statistic with the fact that an engaged workforce is over 40% more productive and effective than their unengaged counterparts, it is no surprise that leading companies are embracing employee retention best practices by taking action to change the game and create a high performance environment.
While Employee Engagement has garnered considerable interest in the last few years, we believe that few companies have scratched the surface of the positive impact that Employee Engagement efforts can have on a company's bottom line. Even though people are being asked to do more with less, we believe that the current "crisis" presents a wonderful opportunity to implement meaningful change that results in true competitive advantage through people.
Some sales forces however are thriving by focusing on 3 key talent management and engagement areas to help ensure sustainable revenue growth.
Read more about how to deploy employee engagement best practices to drive results...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
According to the Wall Street Journal, 34% of workers left their jobs as we came out of our last recession in 2003.
Unfortunately for many companies, the majority of the 34% that left were top performers moving on to greener pastures.
In today's environment, you should be asking yourself 3 key questions regarding your talent management strategy, in particular your top performers:
- Can you risk the loss of your top talent?
- Is your organization paying enough attention as recruiters begin to contact and lure away key performers?
- Are your key workers at risk of leaving this time?
While budgets are still lean, one proven low cost strategy to retain top employees and engage the workforce is to provide career development options and navigation skills.
As companies become more confident, we predict that new positions will open up before the end of this year.
Opportunities for advancement will be possible if your people have the right skills and experience.
One of our clients recently turned to LSA for just this reason. This company was entering a new market space at the same time as a formidable competitor. They could not afford to lose any key players.
LSA's expert designed and implemented a career development and performance management system for the company. The system included key tools and targeted development for new managers and employees as well as internal career and executive coaching. The goal was to provide their top talent with a vision for a future within the organization and the ability to take advantage of new opportunities.
As a result of our work, employee engagement scores have increased across every dimension while turnover in critical roles has dropped below 4%. This translated into significant cost savings and increased productivity.
Read more about:
Managers Developing Top Talent ..
Employees Navigating Their Careers ..
Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices..
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
67% of companies froze or reduced lead-generation budgets for sales reps last year according to CSO Insights' survey of more than 2,800 companies worldwide.
The percentage of reps making quota in 2009 dropped to 51.8% from 58.8% a year earlier, the survey shows.
At a time when sales cycles and competition have increased and almost 50% of sales leaders surveyed by LSA Global cite "getting new clients" as the key issue that keeps them awake at night, this data presents both an opportunity and a challenge.
It is no wonder that most companies are experiencing a significant revenue shortfall at the same time that employee satisfaction levels, as reported by the Conference Board, have sunk to an all time low of 45%.
Some sales forces however are thriving by focusing on 3 key areas to help ensure sustainable revenue growth.
Read more about the 3 key areas...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
Fewer than 30% of all salespeople ask for referrals.
A high-quality referred prospect is more than 40 times more likely to buy than a cold-called prospect.
Salespeople who actively seek and exploit referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than salespeople who don't.
Whether you find new customers through marketing, repeat business, referrals, or through an inside sales force, our experience tells us that a few key moves could greatly improve your results.
To truly improve performance a mix of approaches, solutions, and modalities must be implemented in a way that works for your unique situation.
Get more qualified sales meetings...
Close over 50% of your pipeline through referrals
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
A 5% increase in customer loyalty can boost profits by as much as 85%. In contrast, poor customer service has a negative impact on revenue, margins, and brands.
I recently spent 45 agonizing minutes on the phone with the local cable provider I have had for over 15 years. After not getting my problem solved, receiving conflicting answers, and getting transferred multiple times, I switched to a new provider. One bad interaction with unskilled call center representative destroyed a 15-year relationship.
When Harvard Business Review asked consumers what dimensions of customer service they would most like to see companies measure, the highest number (65%) said "knowledgeable employees." Consumers defined these desirable employees as being able to "answer my questions without putting me on hold, searching for someone, or transferring me."
LSA Global helps leading customer service organizations and contact centers to:
- Improve customer service product knowledge management
- Resolve service calls the 1st time
- Improve customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer retention
- Increase contact center cross-selling and up-selling skills
- Clearly differentiate products and/or brands
- Capture the voice of the customer to improve customer interactions
- Balance quality and quantity customer service measurement
- Assess the culture to diagnose service performance gaps
- Test, interview, on-board, and customer service coaching and mentoring
Read the Intuit Case Study on increasing revenue and customer loyalty...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
The call center is one of the most important alternative channels for delivering products and services.
Call center representatives are the first, and sometimes the only, employees whom current and potential customers ever encounter.
Whether existing customers call regarding their accounts or prospects shop for information, call center representatives must provide excellent service and professional, needs-based inbound selling and outbound selling.
To truly improve call center performance and execute the contact center strategy requires of a mix of approaches, solutions, and modalities must be implemented in a way that works for each client.
Learn how to expand a call center reps role to increase sales...
How coaching increases, sustains, and continuously improves rep performance...
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
As 2009 draws to a close, I would like to wish you a happy holiday season. On behalf of our 2,500+ experts around the world, thank you for your continued support!
We at LSA Global all join in wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and prosperity in the New Year. We look forward to continuing our relationship and helping you succeed in these challenging times.
All the best to you and your family -
Tristam B. Brown
President & CEO
LSA Global
Note from the CEO:
In December, Chief Learning Officer Magazine reported that an overwhelming majority of executives believe that Leadership & Executive Development will have the most significant positive impact in the next 12 months and that training will be more aligned with company business objectives. Maybe organizations did learn from the travails of 2009 and are finally treating Leadership Development Programs appropriately. At LSA, we know that Leadership Development must be more than “aligned” with the business. To be successful, Leadership Development Programs must be an integral part of executing the business plan and getting results. This Action Learning approach to leadership is critical if leaders are to help navigate the organizations through 2010.
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
