Leadership on the Loose
by Cynthia Clay
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Organizations often promote top technicians or strong individual contributors into leadership roles because they've mastered unrelated skills in a specific discipline. The assumption, of course, is that the new leader will bring the same focus to their new role managing others. And Voila! Leadership!
It's odd. People seem to believe that leadership is one of the few skill sets that can be mastered through osmosis. (One definition of osmosis is the gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas.) Imagine a soccer team that never learns to play specific positions on the field, is never coached, and never practices. Picture yourself attending a concert in which the conductor never studied music.
Leadership is a discipline. Like any other discipline, leadership can be taught, practiced, coached, and mastered. The research consistently demonstrates that unskilled leaders create low morale and high turnover. (The Gallup Organization and the Conference Board are just two sources that have published studies to this effect.) Turning leaders loose without the skills to manage, coach, give feedback, and develop their teams is certainly misguided. So why do organizations fall into this trap?
The reasons we encounter include:
- It costs too much money to send them to management training.
- It takes too much time to send them to management training.
- Our managers are also individual contributors and they're too busy contributing.
- Other priorities are more important this year.
- It's hard to quantify the benefit of developing our managers' skills.
All of these conditions are probably true:
- Funds need to be invested to offer practical, relevant training.
- Time away from work is required to develop skills.
- Managers usually handle projects, tasks, and other assignments besides managing others.
- Pressing priorities can certainly compete for dollars and time.
- It is difficult to demonstrate the positive impact of management training.
However, none of these truths should prevent an organization from supporting the development of skilled managers and leaders. NetSpeed Learning Solutions recognizes these concerns by developing cost-effective, time-effective, and measurable approaches. We offer instructor-led, face-to-face, and webinar-based delivery options.
The next webinar in the NetSpeed Leadership Webinar Series is Leading at Net Speed, coming up on April 13 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/ 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Contact us to register you and your team.
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Webinars don't have to be boring...
Do you want your trainers to conduct engaging, cost-effective webinars that lead to learning transfer? Pick up a copy of Cynthia Clay's new book, Great Webinars: How to create interactive learning that is captivating, informative and fun, now available at our web site and at online book retailers like Amazon.com. Watch an interview of the author, and read a book chapter or check out some of the reader testimonials. Cynthia Clay is the president/CEO of NetSpeed Learning and a nationally recognized expert in virtual learning methodologies.
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Speed Read Recommendation
The Big Five for Life: Leadership's Greatest Secret
John Strelecky
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A successful leader starts with something so linked to their own Purpose for Existing that what they pursue is not just an opportunity, it is a personal necessity. Being a successful leader, while not always easy, is not rocket science. You just need to know this secret, and then you need to apply it. You bring people into your organization whose PFE is in alignment with the organization's. You put people in positions where they get to fulfill their Big Five for Life simply by doing the job that the company needs done each day. And you teach them to do the same for the people they lead. This is the secret to building profitable and sustainable organizations. Written as a fable it's a quick but powerful read.
This recommendation comes from the Leadership Book Club by Frumi Barr, a certified NetSpeed Learning Solutions consultant based in Newport Beach, CA.
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| It's About the Methods, Not the Media |
By David Aster, Ph.D
My mentor in educational research built much of his esteemed career on the idea that producing successful learning outcomes is about the METHODS and NOT the MEDIA. He was reacting to new volumes of research claiming that computer-based training was either superior or inferior to classroom training. He noted, however, that claims of superiority were usually accompanied by non-equivalent instructional strategies, and found that when strategies were equivalent the outcomes were too.
In examining the research, I became a believer that thoughtful design of instructional methods can more often than not overcome perceived limitations of the media available to deliver training. Nowadays, this approach leads us to plan Web-based equivalents for the classroom experience to engender the same learning outcomes in the virtual environment. For example:
- Photos of class members, posted either on a pre-work blog site or shown at the beginning of a virtual class, provide visual presence and immediacy and with early icebreaker exercises, help to increase the "quality" of subsequent interactions.
- Polls and status icons or "emoticons" can be used in place of physical feedback to "take the pulse", stimulate discussion and get real-time input about how the presentation is going.
- Shared whiteboards substitutes for flipcharts to generate group interaction and ideas.
- Breakout rooms can be used for small group verbal discussions, problem solving, practices, and games.
- "Fishbowl" enables volunteers to interact while being "observed" by the rest of the class and to receive feedback and coaching from classmates and facilitators.
This is not to say that well designed learning experiences in the virtual environment "feel" the same as in the physical classroom. Certainly, the virtual classroom lacks most of the physical feedback with which instructors and participants are so naturally familiar; but it also provides opportunities that are not generally available in the live classroom -- for example, the capability to have multiple participants contributing their ideas to the entire class simultaneously. Indeed, more people can contribute more often in the virtual classroom than if they were together in one room. Also, using layouts enables instructors to change the entire virtual classroom environment with a click -- something that would be very difficult to do in the physical classroom. In the absence of facial expressions and body language, instructors are more likely to insert questions or some form of interaction (requiring an active response) every few minutes to check-in with their learners and help maintain attention and reduce multi-tasking.
Overall, with creative use of the tools available and an eye on making sure there are equivalent strategies to help learners engage with the content, I believe most cognitive- behavioral objectives (and even many psychomotor objectives) can be accomplished with web-based on-demand learning content, live online workshops and seminars, or a blend of both. Generally, the perceived drawbacks of the virtual environment can be countered with strategies that help support effective and efficient learning. Success is about the methods, not the media.
About David Aster
NetSpeed Instructional Design Consultant, David Aster, earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology from the University of Southern California and also holds a M.S. degree in Clinical Counseling. His nearly two decades in the training industry has included private consulting for companies such as Xerox, Apple, Wells-Fargo Boeing, and Microsoft and a period as Online Training Manager for Microsoft Internal Technical Education. David is also a professional artist and musician and loves animals, sports, cooking, and living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
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| What's New |
New: Virtual Facilitator Trainer Certification (VFTC) Course
Reduce your training costs with web conferencing. The Virtual Facilitator Trainer Certification program is a four-week intensive course designed to give you all the skills you need to lead powerful, interactive, engaging webinar training. Our Spring 2010 sessions begin on May 3 and run over the course of four weeks. Learn more. Ask us about customization options for private course offerings.
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| Upcoming Events |
You're invited to a complimentary webcast: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 1:00 p.m. Eastern (noon Central, 10:00 a.m. Pacific) -- one hour
Great Webinars: Crossing the Chasm from Classroom Training to High Performance Virtual Delivery -- presented by Cynthia Clay, President, NetSpeed Learning Solutions
Most novice webinar presenters report that they are uncomfortable with virtual delivery because they:
- No longer have eye contact with learners
- Can't read facial expressions
- Have difficulty receiving feedback from their participants
- Lapse into one-way communication, despite their good intentions
- Feel like they're giving a speech in a closet
- Believe that their students are madly multi-taking
Without the tools or skills to cross the chasm, novice facilitators find it difficult to achieve high-performance in the virtual arena. If you believe that the virtual classroom can be as exciting, meaningful, and relevant as the face-to-face classroom, then join Cynthia Clay, President/CEO, NetSpeed Learning Solutions, and author of Great Webinars: How to Create Interactive Learning that is Captivating, Informative, and Fun at this practical and inspiring webinar.
Learn more or register.
Would you like to see how our tracking and reporting tools work?
Learn more about our online reinforcement, and measurement/tracking tools by arranging for your own web demo. See our most recent enhancement feature: the third party evaluation utility.
For more information, complete our contact information form and include "Web Demo" in the "Additional Comments" box.
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