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
Location, Location, Location.
It's the #1 rule in real estate, and it's often the most overlooked.
You can change the structure of a house. You can remodel a house. But you cannot move it.
Purchase a home in an undesirable location and you have most likely made a significant mistake. Nothing has a greater impact on your home's value than location. If your home's location is less than desirable, your options are limited. Often, foreclosure is the only viable alternative.
Because the #1 rule of training has also been grossly overlooked by most practitioners, it is no surprise that many aspects of training are in "foreclosure."
- Training budgets decreased by an average of 11% from last year
- Training hours decreased by almost 50% from two years ago
- Overall training spend across companies decreased by 14% from the previous year
- The size of internal training staffs were cut by 5-8%
As one customer put it, "We need to learn a new language and change the game."
Read more about the #1 Rule of High Impact 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
Is your training program making a difference?
Assuming that your initiative is relevant to the business, the target audience, and their supervisors, the difference between success and failure is often on-the-job adoption and impact.
According to most research, current training programs are woefully inadequate when it comes to providing the processes, tools, and support required to transfer the training, skills and knowledge to the job. They are even more remiss when it comes to needs assessment, training measurement and providing targeted reinforcement for participants.
In order to produce tangible results, you must first be able to successfully answer the following key questions:
- Are people using the new knowledge and skills?
- How much of a difference are the new skills and knowledge making on the job?
- What specifically should each participant and their supervisor focus on to ensure success through improved individual performance?
Being armed with quantitative and qualitative answers to these questions allows you to create the accountability, coaching, and follow-through required to ensure that your initiative is a true success.
Learn how to create adoption and impact for your initiative...
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
Organizations continue to spend billions of dollars each year on training and development for their employees - programs that typically fail to realize a transfer of training to on-the-job performance and tangible business results.
No wonder the majority of executives are looking at ways to aggressively cut training costs.
Under the auspices of helping organizations to effectively benchmark, align, and manage their training functions, much has been written over the years about training cost metrics.
While training cost information is certainly part of the equation, looking at costs alone (or even first) misses the point.
Building a smarter training budget is about much more than costs. Getting a meaningful budget approved and supported by an executive is about much more than cost metrics.
Unfortunately, we still find that many training budgets and training start and end with costs and efficiency - missing the most important and persuasive component altogether.
Discover the 3 steps to building a smarter training budget...
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
Most corporate training programs are designed to improve 8-12 competencies over a one or two-day period.
This approach works great for training companies looking for mass customization, increased revenues, and high margins.
It does not work out so well however, for clients seeking to manage costs, make training relevant to the business and change critical on-the-job behavior required to make a true business impact.
In our experience, a laser focus on 2-3 core skill or knowledge gaps provides you with the greatest return on your investment.
A concentration on only the most meaningful areas allows you (and your participants) to spend less time and money on training while getting better results. It also enables you to more easily support on-the-job adoption and training business impact - the keys to success.
If you would like to know "What is really holding us back?" and 'Where should we focus?" in order to spend both your time and money more wisely, then...
Learn about training needs assessment best practices that help target what matters most...
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
Our clients tell us that salespeople must embrace the art of negotiation to be effective both internally and with their clients.
Until now however, there have been few statistically sound studies that demonstrate the impact of negotiation skills on sales performance.
This study aligns with our belief that effective training must both change behavior and impact the business.
The sales negotiations research looked at 120 sales people in a large US-based Corporation and focused on 3 key areas:
- Work Performance
- Skills Improvement
- Financial Impact
The study also highlights the 4 key skills that had the greatest impact on performance.
If you are thinking about best practices to improve negotiation outcomes, increase sales revenue / margin, execute strategic sales account plans, improve client relationships, or increase future business opportunities, then this research report is for you. View the Sales Negotiation Training Research Report.
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 key to sales profitability often involves both selling effectively and negotiating a favorable outcome for both the buyer and the seller.
Our sales negotiation training and coaching solutions are considered the best in the industry.
We help move negotiating from an obstacle to an opportunity in order to build a deeper relationships with clients.
If you are looking to increase or hold margins while building long-term client relationships, our proven Sales Negotiation Training, Coaching and Consulting Solutions can show you how.
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
Up to 50% of critical projects fail. Some estimates have failure rates as high as 75%.
In our experience, project success or failure can often be attributed to how the project is initially "kicked-off."
At a time when most companies are counting on key projects to drastically reduce costs, quickly bring new products to market, and significantly increase the top line, it pays to ensure that your most strategic projects are set up to succeed right from the start.
We find that project leaders of unsuccessful projects frequently underestimate the importance of having clear goals, roles, time management strategies, responsibilities and processes before starting the "real work." We know, on the other hand, that investing in starting off on the right foot will exponentially improve your chances at improving project success while saving overall project time.
Fortunately, effective project kick-offs are as much about proper project definition and project planning as they are about providing the right team the necessary communication skills to get on the same page, with the right leadership support.
Learn more about kicking off and execcuting successful projects ..
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
For projects to be successful, it is critical to pay attention to both the art and the science of improving project management skills.
While the science of project management includes the tools, methodologies, and practices to effectively define, plan, execute, and control a project, the art of project management performance refers to the "people side" of running a project.
As most experienced project leaders and team members have learned, the best plans, project assessments, tools, and technologies (the science) can crumble due to the pressures their teams encounter (the art) during complex and challenging projects.
Typically, these pressures manifest themselves as missed communication opportunities, ineffective meeting planning, unresolved conflicts, personality clashes, morale crushing internal organizational politics, unsuccessful problem solving, and poor decision making skills.
Don't let these common and costly challenges impede your project team's success.
Learn more about leading high performance project teams ..
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
Even in this climate of tightened belts and increased analysis, more than 90% of training initiatives continue to fail.
If that sounds surprising, try to remember the last training session that resulted in measurable and sustainable behavior changec.
Then try to remember a session that quantifiably impacted revenue, costs, or productivity.
Does the fact that the great majority of training initiatives fail still seem so far fetched?
To help raise expectations and quality, our recent Q3 Poll highlights 4 critical success levers behind impactful learning initiatives and a positive TrainingRAI™: Relevance.Adoption.Impact.
Learn more about the Top 6 Questions to Ask ...
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 National Center for Health Statistics, one in 12 older people are prescribed the wrong drug.
Misdiagnosis rates in the ICU or Emergency Department range from 20% to 40.
Unfortunately, the odds are much worse when it comes to improperly diagnosing skill and knowledge gaps. Regardless of the economic conditions, we find the lack of proper diagnosis appalling.
Most skill assessments are not only statistically invalid, but they are often implemented in a way that inhibits trust, decreases relevance, and wastes time.
We believe that the purpose of a training needs assessment should be to answer the questions: "What is holding us back?" and "Where should we focus?"
We also believe that training assessments should be customized to each unique environment, drive toward outcomes rather than simply seek opinions, and guide strategies by comparing skills to actual performance.
And from a purely practical point of view, we believe as well that assessments should be short, relevant, cost effective, and timely.
In addition to traditional interviews and focus groups, LSA Global offers three proven online training assessment options. With over 600 assessment and training measurement projects over the last 15+ years, we think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the speed, cost, flexibility, and value of these options.
Learn more about 3 Best Practice Training Needs Assessment 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
As unemployment soars, will your interviewing and talent management practices help you take advantage of the available talent?
Are you hiring the best candidates to help you weather the storm and take advantage of the turnaround?
Even with record unemployment and significant cost cutting, client requests for interviewing performance support have unexpectedly spiked in the last 6 weeks.
With thousands of quality people looking for work, how could this be? Shouldn't it be easy to cherry pick "A" players in these tough times?
Not counting the negative impact on team morale and employee engagement, the costs of a bad hire range from one to five times their salary. So it is not surprising that people would like help in effectively and efficiently sifting through the hundreds of applicants landing on their doorstep. Most companies and teams cannot afford to hire "B" or "C" players.
If you would like to know how your interviewing process stacks up to leading organizations, this complimentary 10-minute Interviewing Best Practices Health Check Analysis is for you...
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
Unless you can count cards, your chances of winning at Blackjack are slim. In fact, on average you will lose at least $5 for every $100 that you bet. That is how casinos make money.
Unfortunately, based upon how most companies in America interview, they have better odds of beating the casino than they have of hiring the "A" players they desperately need to succeed.
If you are using the typical "give me an example" behavioral interviewing questions that are easy for candidates to prepare for, you are at risk.
In a previous issue of the Harvard Business Review, Larry Bossidy, the past CEO of AlliedSignal, describes interviewing as "the most flawed process in American business."
Based on over 25 years of experience in helping organizations improve competency-based behavioral interviewing skills and practices, we couldn't agree more. We also think the root of the problem is obvious and correctable.
Read the Behavioral Interviewing White Paper...
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
Getting profitable new clients has never been more important.
Our recent Q1 Sales Performance Poll shows that generating new sales opportunities is ranked as the highest priority by almost 4-to-1 as compared to other key sales challenges.
Savvy sales professionals do not delegate this task solely to the marketing department.
While there is much written about what to do once you are in a new sales meeting, there is little to help sales professionals get the initial meeting.
1. Would you like to create more new sales opportunities?
2. Are you having difficulty gaining initial client appointments?
3. Are your prospecting messages missing their mark?
4. Are gatekeepers stalling your progress?
If you are facing any of the above challenges, then we may have some solution selling training and sales coaching best practices for you.
Learn more about getting meetings with qualified new clients...
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
If someone were to ask you, "What differentiates your company from its top competitor?"
1. What would you say?
2. What would a colleague say?
3. Most importantly, what would your customers say?
On the surface, many organizations appear to offer similar solutions. Certainly a quick look at most websites would suggest the same. And because, like your organization, your competitors are continually enhancing and expanding their offerings, the distinctions become even more blurred.
Ultimately, knowing a few key things can make the difference between weathering the current economic storm, capitalizing on sales competitive advantage, and failing.
Read more about Differentiating for Sales Competitive Advantage...
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
Over 50% of executives today are unhappy with the returns from their investments in learning.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that in tough economies, learning is often one of the first areas to be questioned or cut. In good or bad times, slashing training that does not have a clear business impact makes a lot of sense to us.
While it seems like common sense to ensure that learning investments are set up to succeed, we continue to be surprised that billions are spent each year on corporate training without any assurance that the money is being spent wisely. This does not mean changing all training to elearning because you have a travel freeze or because you want to reduce costs. While elearning can certainly be an effective medium, it means only doing training that makes business sense and setting it up to succeed - regardless of the approach.
Smart organizations make sure that they address ten key training best practice questions before launching any training initiative.
A proper assessment is more than a skill gap analysis. It allows companies to effectively initiate change, align stakeholders, customize solutions, predispose participants, guide coaching, set baseline metrics, target investments, and obtain buy-in.
Starting off on the right foot provides the foundation to save time, money, and reputations. Find out where do you stand and How do you stack up?
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
