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It helps to understand that people express anger differently. Three common profiles:

Blamers typically start off with, “You should’ve…” or “I thought you…”, suggesting you’re in the wrong. They focus on others instead of admitting “I’m angry,”or “I’m upset.”

Exploders shout, scream, or holler when something doesn’t go their way. This behavior is most common among authority figures – they may use anger to intimidate or manipulate. It may also be a defense mechanism.

Saboteurs give you “the silent treatment” by avoiding communication. Included: ambiguous or vague e-mail replies, skipping scheduled meetings or calls and other passive-aggressive moves.

What to do? First, don’t try to threaten or control a blamer or exploder. Let them vent without asking them to calm down or trying to explain.

Second, show you understand. Say “I understand how you feel, and I’d be angry, too.” That’s simple and doesn’t imply you agree with any criticisms lodged against you.

If someone is engaged in sabotage or passive-aggressive behavior, draw them out. Ask something like, “Do you have any concerns that would get in the way of us moving forward together?”

Source:www.sellingpower.com

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Just try to remember. If you must, struggle with it for a while. Why?

Because actively attempting to dig something out of your memory is what learning is all about. If your brain can’t retrieve what you learned, it’s as if you didn’t learn it at all.

The research
When it comes to active retrieval, researchers have found:

1. Actively attempting to remember is one of the most effective ways of learning something. In one experiment, a group of students studied material in four periods. Another group studied material in the first three periods and devoted the last period to recalling as much as they could. A third group studied in the first period and then used the last three periods for active recall.

On a final exam, the first group recalled about 40% of what they learned, the second about 55%, and the third group about 60%. In short: More recall attempts equalled better results.

Implications for trainers: Devote more of your training time to active retrieval. The true measure of training isn’t how much you stuff into learners’ brains; it’s how much they can pull out.

Active recall doesn’t just have to be Q&A sessions or fill-in-the-blank quizzes. For example, you might try this technique: Have students create a cheat sheet, then attempt to copy it from memory. Allow them to use the cheat sheet they copied from memory on a subsequent quiz. That creates two levels of recall (the cheat sheet and the quiz).

2. After active retrieval, people tend to underestimate how much they’ll remember later. In the experiment, the last group predicted that they’d do worse than the other groups, even though the opposite occurred.

That may be because active retrieval is hard work. When people don’t come up with the answer, they may feel they’ve failed.

Implications: Set expectations up front. Explain to learners that they may find themselves struggling a bit and why it’s a good thing. The effort will help them retain what they’re learning. In fact, if they’re getting all the answers right, they’re probably not being challenged enough.

3. Active retrieval is a long-term strategy. Over time, it’s repeated attempts at recall that keep material accessible – even if some of those attempts end up being unsuccessful. It’s as if these efforts are telling the brain: “This stuff keeps coming up, so you need to keep it accessible.”

Implications: This study reinforces what trainers already know: Follow up is key to retention. But it also raises the question of priorities. If you assume everything has to be retrievable all the time, you’re inviting cognitive overload.

So pick your shots. Decide what needs to stick most, and design your longterm follow-up accordingly.

4. Retrieval works for more than simple learning. Researchers have found the same effect when they’ve asked students to apply knowledge, make inferences, and solve new problems.

Implications: Don’t limit active retrieval to algorithmic, how-to learning. It’s effective for higher-level training too.

Source: Karpicke, J.D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science 21(3), 157-163.

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Here’s what they said: Everyone should be able to throw out ideas without fear of criticism or judgment. If you evaluate ideas as you go, people start to censor their thoughts, and the brainstorming session goes nowhere.

But as it turns out, this conventional wisdom about conducting brainstorming sessions is off-base. According to research from the University of California-Berkeley, people who debate and criticize ideas in brainstorming sessions came up with 20% more ideas than those using traditional judgment-free brainstorming techniques.

The value of dissent
According to the research, dissent is good for our brains. When our ideas are challenged, it forces us to reassess, revise and reframe our views. It makes us look at the problem from a different angle.

And in the process, new ideas pop up – ideas that are more likely to be practical, too, because they take account of other people’s suggestions.

So the next time you run a brainstorming session, make sure the participants know ahead of time that:

• Fair criticism of any and all ideas — including yours — is welcome.
• The goal is to make ideas better, not tear them down.
• No personal attacks are allowed. Any conflict should be over ideas, not personalities.

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Criticism is welcome appeared first on Rapid Learning Institute.

The worker’s name wasn’t released. Apparently he was working on a food conveyor, and a pan became stuck. The worker climbed under the machine to free it, and became tangled in the moving conveyor. By the time the machine was shut off and he was freed, he suffered fatal injuries.

Take home: Temporary workers are at increased risk. Their training may not cover the level of detail needed to deal with an odd event, such as a pan getting stuck in a conveyor. And they may not fully understand when to call for help, and try to fix it themselves. The result, as in this case, can be tragic.

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Getting that coveted invitation is about gaining your customer’s full participation toward a shared objective, says consultant and sales coach
Ronald Karr.

Sounds easy but isn’t. For most decent salespeople it happens occasionally. But the very best somehow manage to get “invited” over and over again. How do they do it?

Our research reveals four strategies that winning salespeople employ instinctively. You can learn them, too:

1. They’re not put off by No
“No” answers come early and often in your discussions with potential customers, even in situations where you eventually get the business.

That’s just because “no” is the lowest risk answer. When people are not yet convinced to make the commitment to buy from you, they’ll say “no” – but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the sale.

What it means is that the customer perceives that something is missing. You overcome this by making a value-adding proposition in one or more of these areas:

• Improving top-line revenue or profitability.
• Improving productivity and saving time.
• Reducing internal or supply chain costs.
• Gaining a competitive edge overall, or in specific market segments.

2. They ask issue-based questions
What kind of issues is your customer facing in any or all of these four areas?

Issue-based questions garner time and attention and almost always evoke answers that tell you where customers want to go.

They focus the discussion on the customer rather than the sale.

Here’s a good example: “You’re having a reject rate as high as 4%? That really runs up your costs, not just in materials but in production time. The customers I work with generally keep rejects below 1%. They couldn’t compete otherwise.”

You’ve displayed your in-depth knowledge of the product, the process and the industry. And you’ve demonstrated that you’re a potential resource – someone who’s more interested in meeting their objectives than in overcoming their objections.

3. They ask clarification questions
Make sure you understand exactly what your customer has told you about major areas of concern.

If you’re at all uncertain of what to correct or address, probe further into this area. Coming up with a great solution to the wrong problem isn’t going to move the sales process along.

Clarification questions also give you the opportunity to further demonstrate your expertise.

Example: “You say you want to reduce time-to-market. So how exactly do you measure time-to-market?”

4. They ask consequence questions
What would be the consequences of saying “no”? Would the cost of making the change you are recommending be higher or lower than the cost of not making the change?

If you can convince your customer that it would be lower, you’ve managed to establish the perceived value you’ve been striving for.

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Moving ahead
When you’ve effectively asked issue-based questions, followed up with clarification questions and concluded with consequence questions, you’ve made customers realize that it’s in their best interest to move ahead with your proposal.

Now it’s time to close the sale. Some customers will need you to start the ball rolling.

But you’ll find many take the initiative, inviting you to close. They’ll also be inviting you to embark on something else – a mutually beneficial partnership and a long-term relationship.

Source: Ron Karr is a professional speaker, sales trainer and consultant. To learn more visit www.ronkarr.com.

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And the people at the big consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu have at least one answer: Measure the things that the C-suite wants measured.

To be sure, if you’re doing a competent job within traditional HR parameters, you’re probably already measuring a bunch of numbers and trends.

Among these: employee headcount over time on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis, total payroll, total compensation and benefit costs per employee, and industry- and geographical-area-specific comparisons of your organization’s compensation levels.

It’s not just about cost
But as useful as these traditional measures are, they don’t do much to elevate the strategic status of HR in the organization.

What do we mean?

If HR tracks and reports only on measures that have to do with cost, then HR stands for reactive record-keeping in the minds of the people who are reading these reports. In other words, you end up always ringing the unwelcome cost bell, not the profit bell that the C-suite loves to hear.

What else to track
So what else should you be tracking, in order to both help the organization and impress the top execs with your strategic acumen?

Performance-driven measures are what the C-suite people look at in gauging corporate success and setting corporate direction.

And you can track some of these measures. When you do, you’ll bring both critical information and an aura of strategic understanding to the table.

"High-Impact HR Communication: How to Speak the Language of CEOs"

Five key measures
Among the measures Deloitte suggests you might want to look at:

1. Time-to-efficiency for new managers and employees. This is a hot measure, according to a worldwide survey of 531 executives – both HR and non-HR – that Deloitte did a few years back. Fully 60% of the organizations contacted either were tracking time-to-efficiency or planned to.
Why is time-to-efficiency so important? We all try to minimize turnover of key employees, but in today’s workplace you have to expect a certain level of turnover. The company that gets its replacement people up and running fastest gains a competitive edge – and that’s language your C-suite understands.

2. Management time spent on people issues. Again, a measure top execs are starting to look hard at. Some 55% of organizations either were tracking it or planned to when Deloitte contacted them.
HR can take a strong hand in improving line managers’ efficiency in dealing with people problems – and then report on its success. You’ll need to poll line managers periodically to get this data.

3. Cost per turnover. Deloitte’s survey showed that almost three-quarters of organizations contacted were tracking this or planned to. Cost per turnover provides HR with a powerful budget argument for retention programs – top executives are often floored when they learn the full cost of losing key employees, which may approach or even exceed annual salary.

4. Recruitment cost per employee. HR can score big points by streamlining recruiting through use of modern methods – social media, job boards, job fairs, tie-ins with key universities, etc. – and then demonstrating the cost reductions.

5. Training spend per employee. Some cutting-edge HR departments go so far as to calculate ROI on training. Training gets to the heart of what almost 90% of the execs surveyed considered their company’s most important source of talent – the development and training of existing personnel, as opposed to outside talent searches.

Is it all worth it?
Just in case you wonder whether it’s worth it to make the effort to track all these trends, check another finding from the Deloitte survey: Just 23% of the executives contacted said they believed HR plays a crucial role in corporate strategy and operational results.

That means 77% held the traditional view that fences HR in, restricting it to the narrower role of record-keeping and compliance watch-dogging.

Yes, some 82% of the respondents said they expected HR to take a more strategic role in such key areas as productivity and talent management in coming years.

But then, people have been forecasting a more strategic role for HR for a while now. You need to do something to make it happen.

Source: www.deloitte.com/us/alignedtop

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what the C-suite wants measured appeared first on Rapid Learning Institute.

• Nancy Nardin has 4 reasons why dumbing down your sales process is the smartest way to sell.
• Alen Mayer wants to show you how to use persuasion techniques in sales.
• Leanne Hoagland-Smith can help you with 5 Tips on how to lose the sale before you realized you lost it.
• Finally, Michelle Davidson wants to know how strong your client relationships are.

The post Sales Recap: May 17 appeared first on Rapid Learning Institute.

But are you unintentionally stunting the careers of the people you allow to work from home? A new telecommuting survey by recruiters Korn/Ferry International suggests you might be.

In the survey, 60% of the 300+ executives surveyed said they believed working from home limited an employee’s opportunity for career growth. Out of sight, out of mind, it seems.

And these aren’t execs who hate telecommuting: 80% allow it throughout their organizations, and 94% agree it’s a key option for working parents.

Stop the disappearing acts
If you don’t want your work-from-homers to “disappear,” try these steps:

• Program a certain number of days per month when they come to the office.
• Make sure they attend relevant meetings, either live or by teleconferencing.
• Keep them involved in office functions like lunches, parties and the like.

Check out the Leadership & Management Rapid Learning Center FREE. Get instant access to a collection of 6- to 10-minute modules perfect for training supervisors and managers throughout your organization.

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Memory researchers say putting the easy stuff up front is the most efficient learning strategy. Students who use this approach end up doing better on tests than those who don’t.

This prioritization process seems to have three benefits:

• It creates quick victories that build momentum. The early momentum gives learners a running start for tackling tougher concepts.
• It builds a minimum base of learning. So if the learning gets interrupted, learners don’t have to start over from scratch. They’ll already have achieved some mastery.
• The task of prioritizing is valuable in and of itself. The process repeatedly activates memory retrieval, which boosts the likelihood of remembering later.

As a trainer, help learners create an easy-first study strategy.

For example, say: “What do you think will be the easiest part of this to master? Work on that part first, then move on to the more challenging
material.”

Schwartz, B., et al. (2011). Four principles of memory improvement: A guide to improving learning efficiency. The International Journal of Creativity & Problem Solving, 21(1), 7-15.

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