Motivation in the workplace

“I am sure that you just need to be nice to people, you know? Is that asking too much?” Clearly it was too much for my colleague’s manager.

The discussion moved on: “All I had done was make a small error on the spreadsheet, but it had had a large impact. Instead of the department salaries being hidden, they were visible to all of the management team. No one had explicitly told me that individual managers did not know what the other managers paid their staff – surely they discussed this at their management meetings at the time of the annual review?”

Seemingly they did not. “Anyway”, my colleague continued, “not only did I get what I considered a vicious e-mail from her, my so-called boss, but also the ‘silent’ treatment for about three days! I had realised my error after feedback from Jim, who was really pragmatic about his feedback. And I immediately sent a message to the boss and then to her colleagues, withdrawing the attachment. Of course, some of them had seen the original spreadsheet, but surely they are mature adults and can confront such errors with more appropriate behaviour?”

Throughout my career, I have been an advisor to others on such incidents – and have been the originator of such errors too, I can tell you! Needless to say, as with my colleague, I experienced a variety of reactions from others and also the whole spectrum of personal emotions myself, from guilt through to depression and back to guilt again. But maybe that is just me.

And other colleagues, outwardly at least, were able to dismiss such incidents and continue to drive onwards – the attitude of “I messed up, I have learnt, now move on”. It is true, many people are able to deeply reflect and learn from events (good and bad) extremely quickly, whilst others take a bit longer.

All of which is not much help to my colleague when they are ‘in the moment’. So, what could I do to help them? And what about the de-motivating effect of their manager’s attitude?

Let’s deal with the manager first. Motivation of employees should be the main focus of managers and leaders, in order to maximise their effort and commitment to the work they do. We know all the management theory – from Adam Smith and his pin manufacturing through to Daniel Goleman and Emotionally Intelligent managers – and how it affects motivational approaches. And yet, we continue to FAIL to implement management theory, or leadership theory for that matter, successfully, over a wide range of industries, through effective development practices. Look at Dan Ariely speaking on www.TED.comrecently. A series of experiments advanced the thought that motivation of staff should be easy: “Ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of their eyes…” states Dan.

Now, my colleague was not being ignored; nor were they having their work ‘shredded’ – although the e-mail and the ‘silent treatment’ had the same effect. As we are managing knowledge workers more and more – in every industry and every level – keeping staff motivated as a rule should be simple. Acknowledge their contribution meaningfully – you should know their capability after all; address performance fluctuations ‘head on’ with empathy – was this a one-off or a pattern of errors?; and do both consistently across the team.

Yet, a recent CIPD report still suggests that 25% of managers surveyed do not seem to be equipped for / are concerned about “having difficult conversations” (for that, read discussions about a drop in expected performance, absence, other disputes and so on).

My colleague asked for my advice – I think I prefer to give you observations, I said. These were: ‘Nice’ is a variable concept, so how would you wish to be treated? When you have thought about that, what emotions and feelings do YOU need to maximise to help manage your boss? (Note – training on spreadhseets is not mentioned). And finally, what do your colleagues do when faced with similar situations – and see if you would feel able to respond in their way.

Without of course losing your motivation.

John Hepworth

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Coaching In Extremis

I have recently completed an assignment working for an HE employer who was remodelling part of its business which meant that a sizeable number of their staff, in a specific department, were put on notice of redundancy. This was a tough time for all of the staff involved having been employed from anything between 20 years and just a few months. Having worked on projects like this before it was gratifying to be contacted by the HR Manager looking after the project who asked me to get involved based on previous  performance recommendations.

The employer had allocated a one to one session (more if needed) for me to spend with each member of the team to act as a neutral and confidential sounding board as well as coaching them through some application, interview and confidence techniques. I saw 20 plus people in a few weeks and on reflecting on my contribution, the feedback I received from the individuals and the bigger picture of how this phenomena impacts people (and is becoming more prevalent) I thought I would share my thoughts here.

First of all let us not make the mistake of underestimating what a huge emotional impact this kind of strategic decision has on the people involved. The stress that being in fear of your future creates is significant and can be damaging to the employer / employee relationship going forwards. Of course if something can be improved then it should be, if costs can be reduced and standards maintained then they should be but morale is part of the fabric of any business / institution and the work done by Kettley back in the 90’s is still relevant today  (Employee Morale During Downsizing, Kettley P. Report 291, Institute for Employment Studies, 1995) because decisions like this are not as clear cut in reality as they appear on the spreasheet and must never be all about numbers; there are really good business and humanitarian reasons not to forget the people factor.

You can make judgements on whether one session is sufficient, all I can say is that in my experience one is so much more valuable than none! The staff that took up the option to use their session (over 90% did) all came with needs; emotional, skill related, confidence based and practical and all presented very different challenges to me as a coach. They all embraced the opportunity, did not blame and were so receptive to what I could offer them. Someone else metaphorically standing by their side with experience of the application process, panel interviews (and offering insight into what managers want to see in both) was so well received that I questioned what those same talented, experienced and capable professionals would have done without that support, understanding and information and how it would have made them feel and more importantly how it would have impacted their performance in putting together their applications and facing the interview panel with potentially serious consequences.

I have been involved in some research around the subject of Personal Brand developing a model and work shop content for careerist and creatives and the process I have been talking about above for me really pulled the need for awareness and understanding of the whole Personal Brand piece into sharp focus. Since our PB is tested and most exposed when we ask (or are forced) to be judged in extremis for example an interview, pitch or networking environment.

Many of my clients in this process had robust and well developed personal brands but had somehow lost their connection with them and one of the most significant conversations that I had with many of them was around the importance of performing to your best under pressure to ensure that your skills, experience and USP’s are communicated clearly to those that matter; the judges (panel).

Our simple model explains.

        

I guess that my recent experience and understanding of the value of personal brand in practice means I can only recommend that HR and L&D functions would be well served to consider how they might enhance performance and confidence of their human resource through using this stuff as part of the development and support they give their people day to day rather than only being forced to consider it in extremis.

 

Paul Goring

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How to implement a peer-to-peer mentoring program

A 5-step guide on how to embed a peer-to-peer mentoring program within an internal comms dept

Peer mentoring takes place when the mentor isn't in a position of authority over the mentee. For example, an employee in an internal communication department might have a colleague within the same department as their mentor. The mentor will guide their colleague based on the life experience that they have gained and their professional expertise within the communication arena.

Step 1 – Senior management buy in

Ensure buy in from senior management and that the peer-to-peer mentoring program is part of the company’s talent management program. This ensures that the mentoring program fulfils the company’s goals and objectives and isn’t an exercise that's seen by management to be time costly, inefficient and unproductive.

Step 2 - Mentor recruitment

The success of the program relies on the ability of the organisation to recruit appropriate mentors. Each potential mentor should be interviewed against a criteria of desired competencies and required skills. An essential part of the recruitment should include a self assessment from the potential mentor as this indicates their level of self awareness.

There are a number of things that need to be considered when choosing the right peer mentor including the following:

1. Is the proposed mentor already considered a role model within the department/organisation?
2. Is the proposed mentor able to accept constructive criticism and continually learn from the      experiences that the mentor has gone through?
3. Does the proposed mentor have the ability to empower others?
4. Does the proposed mentor have a good work record or one that has improved over time?

Step 3 - Mentor training

All mentors should be trained before they begin this important role. They should not have to rely solely on trial and error to succeed. They should be trained on, for example, essential skills like coaching techniques, how to transfer their knowledge, the need for confidentiality and how to deal with conflict. Mentors should also have their own mentor to ensure that they continue to develop and know how to deal with the issues that may arise with their mentee.

Step 4 – Relationship building

There should be a good match between the mentor and the mentee and they should both agree to the relationship. A good match is when the mentor has a complimentary personality, a good understanding of the behaviours that need to be elicited from the mentee. For example if the mentee is known as a talented but troublesome employee the mentor should have experience in working with this type of employee. The mentor should not have an attitude of superiority and should truly be a role model.

Many companies fail when they enforce a particular mentor onto a mentee or when neither member of the party understands the nature of the relationship or the roles that they're supposed to play. There should be activities that allow the two individuals to get to know each other so that they can build a trusting relationship. For example the mentor and mentee could work together on a communication project as equal peers. This would allow the mentor to subtly demonstrate his expertise in a way that is not domineering to the mentee. The mentee would get to know his mentor without any artificial barriers being set up between them. The company should organize social gatherings activities where the mentors and mentees can mix together and get to know each other in a social background.

The mentor will need to assess the needs of the mentee and explain to the person how they will help the mentee achieve his or her objectives. They should agree a time that they'll meet, and a format of training or discussion that they'll work to. They should also discuss the level of confidentiality that they hold themselves to.

Step 5 – Ending the relationship

It's very important that the mentoring relationship doesn't fade into inactivity over time but has a formal ending. This allows a period of review between the mentor and the mentee, a time to celebrate successes and to plan for the future. The plan should include the activities that the mentee will do to continue their learning. The company should ensure that the experiences of the mentor and mentee are captured for the company’s succession and training plans and the individual’s personal development or training plans.

Peer-to-peer mentoring is an extremely valuable tool for organizations looking for ways to continuously develop their teams, however it's vital to ensure the both the mentor and the mentee receive the appropriate support and guidance if the organization is to reap the long-term benefits of this approach.

I worked with Brand Aspect to implement a small peer to peer mentoring programme amongst the employees. The Managing Director wanted his employees to take on new experiences and responsibilities within a short timescale whilst on the job rather than on training courses. He believed that this would develop his employees quickly and would be more beneficial for them and the business.

He discovered that there was renewed confidence and pride within the team when working outside their comfort zones. They were able to implement their new learning quickly and this learning is embedded and not quickly forgotten.

The Managing Director has more available time for strategy as he was not asked similar questions from the team on a regular basis.  He was able to delegate more and his employees became more able to make key strategic decisions.

Judith Germain

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The state of training and development

Much has been written over the years about the state of training and development in the UK. ‘State’ in the sense that it ‘is in a state’. For example: the nuclear industry is lacking some huge number of scientists, I forget the exact number, no doubt amplified by the ‘yes to nuclear / no to nuclear’ indecision by Government. Now that a decision has been taken – it does hanker back to the early 1990s though as it is still unclear as to what the decision to build and by who will mean – the industry finds itself severely lacking in talent. In another example, we have a glut of graduates and nowhere near enough graduate jobs available to satisfy their – and society’s – needs.

Regardless of your politics – whether pro-nuclear or not, whether blaming Coalition education policy and the lack of private sector jobs, or not – the ‘state’ of training and development in the UK remains a concern.

Look at Europe. There has been the recent example of the German manufacturing sector advertising throughout the EU for vocational apprentices. Offering language training in addition to a range of jobs after completing apprenticeships, theirs is a long-term and considered response to demographics, as well as the economic realities. The German economy is booming – and has a history of stable growth, even with the introduction of East German structural problems – and so they have acted as part of an accepted strategy; accepted that is we assume by management through to Works Council members.

Shades of ‘Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’ perhaps, for those who remember the TV series or have caught the repeats on ‘Dave’ or wherever. Maybe so; but what stands out about this example is that the UK has made significant steps in improving long-term training and development of its workforce, but failed to deliver on a number of factors that act in partnership with a more skilful workforce.

Quoted in Grugulis (2009), a managing director at a UK company in the early 1990s stated: “I’ve actually got the [union] convenor saying to me ‘We’ve got to watch this multi-skill thing, because it is too interesting for them [the workforce]’”. I would hope that business has progressed since the early 1990s in this sense, but perhaps we have other issues to replace this attitude?

From the employer’s side: the Government has had to legislate to ensure that employees have a right to time off to be trained. This has been tinkered with and diluted, but the simple fact that a law had to be passed in order to invest in skills development beggars’ belief.

The attitude still seems to be that you have to learn on the job or by picking up skills from a training course (surely learning is more than this? Discuss). The obsession with attaining qualifications at the expense of demonstrated experience affects the recruitment and selection arena more, but it seeps into training and development too. An easy short-listing criteria it is true – if you have not got a degree in X, then you don’t collect your £200 and pass to the interview – but surely employers are missing out not only on experiences from a wide range of potential employees and by that I mean exposure to good training and development practices too. Surely IT can provide solutions to this blockage? Good practice does abound though – look at JCB investing in its own school effectively (as they had become frustrated with the inaction of the Government perhaps?).

From the employee’s side: a general desire to complete the minimum in order to get more social time?! A subjective view of course, given the UK’s structural issues in providing jobs for graduates, providing part-time hours for more rather than full-time hours for more and so on. After all, Canada and Australia are still profitable and sound: can we learn from them too? Yet, personal experience sees more drive and desire to succeed from other nations than from our own generation of potential employees.

Overall then, my general point is that if we has a culture of training and development in the UK rather that bolting it on afterwards, we would be in better shape. Sure, we have some iMac jobs in the country but far too many McJobs – and a workforce that is happy to accept that ‘state’. I see excellent students and employees, committed to their own development; I see excellent employers investing for the future; and I see far too many that fit either category.

How on earth can we ‘wake people up’ and out of this ‘state’?

John Hepworth

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1 step forward and 2 steps back: why organisations will never move forward if they continue to coach backwards.

I am not a huge DIY enthusiast nor, as I am the first to admit, am I particularly skilled in it.  Yet, as temperatures in the UK soared last week, I took it upon myself to fit new hanging rails and shelving in the wardrobe.  What may sound like a simple 15 minute job turned into a full evening of activity with stress levels rising in a direct correlation to the rise in mercury.

Once the new rails and shelving were in place and clothing neatly stored in the wardrobe, I felt quietly satisfied with my work, gave myself a metaphoric pat on the back whilst I sat down to enjoy a well deserved cool drink.  It was at this point that my husband returned home.  Before I could demonstrate my work, of which I was particularly proud, he asked me why the lights were on in every room, at which point my sense of achievement and satisfaction quickly deflated.

There was of course a valid reason for my husband’s comment.  Following the arrival the previous week of an extortionate electricity bill we had made an agreement to do all we could to make energy efficiencies (I could have conserved a lot of energy had I not decided to reconfigure the wardrobes) and all week I had made a conscious effort to turn off all lights, TVs and other electrical equipment in rooms not being used.  But as I flitted from room to room, as I fitted the wardrobe rails, I had inadvertently left the lights on in rooms as I left them.

What does all this have to do with the success of an organisation?  As we all know, the success of any organisation is dependent on the performance of its people.  As managers we all have responsibilities to coach and develop our staff to drive exceptional performance.  Whilst I am not suggesting in any way that it is my husband’s role in life to coach my behaviour, nor am I innocent of making similar criticisms of him or others close to me.  This incident highlights that we are often bad at positive reinforcement in our personal lives, concentrating on behaviours we don’t want to see rather than encouraging those we would like to continue.  The (albeit minor) criticism and focus on the one time where I had left the lights on, after a whole week of making an effort to turn them off,  wiped out any sense of achievement at having managed our storage problems  and moreover left me disinclined to take the initiative to undertake further home improvements.  Translated into the workplace, coaching ‘backwards’  where excellent work goes unrecognised, whilst poor performance or conduct is punished, can lead to a highly disengaged workforce.

Whilst we all seem to demonstrate positive reinforcement instinctively with children, particularly babies and toddlers, clapping and congratulating them when they learn something new or demonstrate positive behaviours, we seem to find it so difficult to positively acknowledge the behaviour of adults in a similar way.  I am not advocating breaking out into spontaneous applause in the workplace, but rather that we make efforts to recognise excellent performance, celebrate successes and make employees feel valued for their contributions, using positive reinforcement to develop and encourage positive behaviours rather than coaching ‘backwards’.

Jane Malone

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Engaging for Success?

HR gurus such as Gary Hamel at CIPD conferences seem to mouth the word ‘engagement’ more times per minute than Robert Plant used to sing ‘baby’ in the average Led Zeppelin song.  But what exactly does this mean?  Is engagement some kind of secret code for ‘in company dating’ or a causal relationship between casual workers and casual sex?

I've listened long and hard to academics discussing the concept and they seem not to be able to even agree what the definition of the word is.  Of course engagement is all about the 4E’s: getting people excited, empathetic, ecstatic and energetic about the company and what it does.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but what about achieving it? Some people think it is enough to apply the '3 W's of engagement' by posting the word engagement on every Wall, Website and WC in the company, in the vain hope that the repetition will somehow rub off on staff in some Orwellian approach to culture change.   Let’s look at an environment where many people feel engaged naturally.  The pub!

Pubs do NOT have mission statements that say:

“We aim to encourage sociosexual networking and leverage mission critical knowledge, skills and wisdom through the use of addictive depressant substances in a relaxing lifestyle environment that encourages the suppression of societal norms of decency and so on”.

Equally, genuine ‘employers of choice’ such as Google, Innocent and Unilever do NOT have such depressing mantras displayed around the office.  Isn’t there something very odd about that?  To get people engaged with your company, try some of these things:

1. Set your people free to decide how they go about their work but be clear about the demands / end results – smart leaders worry about the destination but provide some scope over the journey.
2. Encourage constructive and destructive deviance in the pursuit of better / quicker ways to do existing things.
3. Encourage spontaneous behaviour by leaving some aspects of work unplanned and unstructured.
4. Where performance matters, insist on proper prior preparation.  Surprisingly, this applies as much to punk rock as it does to people management.  Writing a two and a half minute music hit requires a great deal of discipline as well as tapping into your intuition, as Ian Dury, The Sex Pistols and The Ramones would tell you.

I wrote a micro book called Punk Rock People Management a while back, which aimed to digest all of HR down to a very short volume, based on three principles: Simplicity, Brevity and Authenticity.  The book offers us three chords on engagement:

1. Cut the crap on engagement and get engaged with what counts and what gets counted.
2. Give people discretion on the means of production whilst being precise on the ends of production.
3. Create a vacancy if your people are pretty vacant …

Punk Rock People Management is available free via the link above.  You can also see a set of seminar slides on the subject which we gave as a keynote to an HR Conference recently at Innovation and HR.  No need to pogo or throw a TV out the window at work when you read the book, of course ! :-)

And Martin Couzens made this superb mini video about a Punk Rock approach to HR.  Check it out at PunkHR.

Peter Cook

About the Blogger:  Peter Cook leads The Academy of Rock - Keynote events with a difference and Human Dynamics - Business and organisation development, training and coaching.  Contact via peter@humdyn.co.uk  His latest book "The Music of Business" is available direct or in the usual places.

  

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Commissioning coaching? Some contracting essentials

In this posting, I want to offer some real basics around HR’s role in commissioning coaching.  So basic, in fact, that I feel slightly nervous about teaching my metaphorical grandmother to suck eggs.  At the same time, as a coach, I’m aware that even the fundamentals can go wrong and want to offer a few pointers.  I also welcome your views and experiences.

What on earth can go wrong?

You know the scenario.  Manager X walks down the corridor to HR and asks for coaching for Employee Y.  Perhaps you hold the budget and you need to manage it judiciously.  Perhaps Manager X holds the budget.  Either way, you are at the beginning of a conversation about coaching.

Now, speaking as a coach, I find it easy and joyful to expound the value of coaching.  In my experience, it often delivers far more than is expected of it – results that go way beyond anything the organisation hoped for when the decision was first taken to invest in coaching for Employee X or Y.  What’s more, over the years, I have found that coaching continues to deliver way after a coaching contract is completed.  Recently, for example, a former coaching client told me that he has been increasingly in demand as a mentor since we completed our work together.  It’s not hard to see how, when someone in a leadership role develops his or her skills, the benefits spread through the organisation and, indeed, continue over time.

Nonetheless, things can go wrong.  For example:

• Is the right person getting coaching?  It can be a thin line between (i) recognising that an individual’s development needs require more (or different) help than a skilled manager can reasonably be expected to give or (ii) seeing that the manager him- or herself lacks skills in providing appropriate developmental support.  This issue can be compounded if, in HR or L&D, you don’t know how to broach the subject of where coaching will best deliver a benefit to the organisation.  Is it in coaching an employee or his or her manager?
• Are you clear about what coaching can and can’t deliver?  Many coaches will lay out clearly what coaching can and can’t promise.  Good coaching contracts explain who is responsible for what in the coaching relationship.  This is particularly important because commissioning managers often come to coaching with unrealistic expectations.  Coaching, for example, may support an individual in fulfilling his or her potential in a job.  However, if an individual is fundamentally ill-suited to do a particular job, coaching will not change the fundamental motivation, values or skills-set of the individual.
• Have you laid out clearly what outcomes you want of or for the coaching client?  In my time as a coach I continue to discover how difficult people find it to be open and honest about their real reasons for commissioning coaching.  I have had one manager describe a potential coaching client as “high potential” in an initial briefing, only to hear them lay out the individual’s multiple failings in an initial three-way meeting with the coaching client.  I have equally seen the reverse:  a manager who shared all sorts of correspondence about the person for whom coaching was being provided and promised – but ultimately failed - to share the “bottom line” in a three-way meeting.
• Is coaching the right intervention – and if so, how much?  Whenever you commission coaching, you need to consider whether coaching really is the right intervention.  Commission coaching as a proxy for managing under-performing employees, for example, and you give coaching a bad name in your organisation as well as using an expensive tool which may not do the job.  Equally, depending on the needs of the client, coaching may be a poor alternative to therapy, training, mentoring or some other intervention.  Having said this, when coaching is the right tool for the job, you need to be realistic about just how much support an employee may need.  I have sometimes seen organisations hope for miracles in just three months’ of coaching with no contingency for an extension if it’s needed.  Miracles can and do happen in coaching – but not always.
• What can you reasonably expect to hear about progress in coaching – and who from?  Despite a very clear contractual agreement with clients about confidentiality in coaching, I often field requests for feedback which, were I to give it, would be in breach of my agreement.  Of course it’s entirely reasonable for organisations to want to understand to what extent coaching is providing benefit to the person seeking coaching or addressing concerns raised by the organisation.  At the same time, many employees will feel concerned if they have any sense that a promise of confidentiality in the coaching relationship is not being honoured by their coach or employer.

Some contracting essentials for HR when commissioning coaching

So, what are the areas you need to look at if you want to avoid these and other common pitfalls?  Here are some thoughts from me:

• Get clear about the full range of help available:  The more you have clarity about the range of support available to an employee and when each one is appropriate, the better able you are to have a discussion with an individual and his or her manager about what support might best meet his or her needs.  Get clear on the full range of alternatives including coaching, therapy, mentoring, training and good, old-fashioned performance management.  Be ready to have a discussion with the person who approaches you to understand his or her desired outcomes and where he wants to get to.  This can provide the basis for discussing coaching as one of a number of alternatives and also for discussing who actually needs the coaching.
• Select a pool of coaches with whom to work ahead of a specific coaching need:  I have found that clients who are best able to match a coach for a specific coaching assignment have a pool of coaches and know their strengths and areas of interest.  (This could be an article all by itself – so please let me know if you’d like me to write on this subject by leaving a comment below).  Equally, the International Coach Federation recommends to anyone commissioning coaching that they interview at least three coaches and most coaches are glad to meet with a potential coaching client to ensure a good match.  (I would add that, given three good coaches, clients often choose the one they’ve met most recently, so if you want to keep your coaches happy, you’ll mix up the order in which you introduce coaches to potential coaching clients).
• Make sure you have clear contractual agreements in place - and educate people about your agreements:  A good coaching agreement is realistic about what coaching can and can’t deliver and about who is responsible for what in the coaching relationship.  In my agreements with organisations, for example, I spell out clearly that whilst it’s the organisation that funds the coaching, my client is the person seeking coaching.  I also spell out clearly what information I will and won’t share with an employer.  Equally, given my experiences over the years, I take care to let managers know that I will look to them to share any expectations they have of an employee as part of our initial three-way meeting and will not be filling in any gaps even if I am aware of things that have been left unsaid.  Increasingly I’ve learnt to spell out very clearly that it is for an individual to decide how he or she responds to expectations from his or her manager and to say that if the manager fails to share any expectations they have of the employee, this will have an impact on the potential outcomes from coaching.
• Be clear – from the beginning – about how you will monitor progress and outcomes from coaching:  Your contractual agreements need to give clarity from the beginning about who will do what to monitor progress and outcomes from coaching.  I include progress meetings in longer contracts and always complete a coaching assignment with a three-way meeting in which I facilitate a discussion between the person seeking coaching and his or her manager about progress.  I also seek to build into an assignment an appropriate approach to feedback given the needs a client has expressed.  For example, I occasionally coach individuals who are designated “high potential” within their organisation and who also have specific development areas.  Where client organisations are willing to fund it (usually for very senior clients), I begin an assignment by gathering feedback through interview to get under the skin of a development need.  It helps to mirror this process at the end of an assignment to see how perceptions have changed.
• Expect the unexpected:  Reading through this article, I realise there’s one important area to add.  Organisations who are used to using coaching and who use it effectively understand just how much their desired outcome can come in unexpected ways.  This, for example, is the individual who was struggling to perform in a particular role and who discovers, through coaching, just how much he or she yearns to do something quite different.  For watchers of The Voice, this is the dentist who yearns to sing or some equivalent in your organisation.  The truth is that whilst coaching may help someone to excel in a role it may, equally, provide a reality check such that an individual moves between roles or leaves an organisation.  In this case, whilst coaching is commissioned to support someone in getting up to speed in a new job, improved performance comes from recruiting someone better suited to the role.

I suspect this has been my longest article so for Discuss HR and still, I know I have barely scratched the surface of a huge topic.  I’m interested to know what you have taken from this article that’s useful to you.  Equally, I’m interested to know about your experience – what have you done that works for you?

Dorothy Nesbit

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Dealing with difficult people on training courses

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

Judith Germain previous post about HR networking is followed today by her view on a situation many of us will have been in; delivering a training session when you have to contend with someone being rather trying!  Here’s how Judith deals with those situations.  (Ed Scrivener)

Dealing with difficult people on training courses

A good training course delivers its objectives, is interesting and interactive and allows for the differing learning styles of the attendees. The success of the course will require an effective trainer who can impart their knowledge whilst retaining the attention of the learners. Understanding human behaviour is often a requisite to being able to deliver a course that can exceed the expectations put upon it.

First things first

When you are delivering training it’s important to understand not only what your required outcomes are, but also what the organisational goals are, the prevailing context and what the attendees were told about the course before they arrived. You are more likely to have a higher proportion of difficult people on your course if attendance was mandatory and not seen as necessary by them, and/or an organisational environment where major change is happening (eg redundancy).

Understanding the expectations of the attendees and whether they are likely to be hostile to your training intervention is therefore vital. If this is a possibility then it’s important to design the content of the course accordingly and deal with their potential hostility upfront and immediately that the course starts. A ‘safe’ way to do this is when you ask the attendees what their objectives are for the training course. Our experience shows that at this stage the attendees often articulate any resentment to being on the course and how they feel about the organisation. This is a fantastic opportunity to discover their objections, listen to their issues and calibrate them to the need for attending the course. This is why knowledge of the organisational context is important. It is imperative that this section on understanding their objections and you addressing them should be kept very short. The last thing that you want to do is spend significant time discussing their objections as it will have a destabilising effect of the morale of the group and your ability to deliver the course well and on time.

It is very common (and to be expected) that there will be at least one member of the course who will feel the need to demonstrate their expertise and challenge your authority or credibility in running the course. A good trainer would have used the five minute introduction phase of the course to establish they credibility and to flush out the individuals who are likely to be ‘lively’.

Delivering a lively, interesting course – mindful of the attendees behaviour

Some trainers mistakenly believe that delivering training in environments where some hostility is shown means they are entering a battle zone! The problem with this theory is that within every training environment there will be some hostility! The actions of the trainer can therefore make it substantially worse.

A good trainer does the following subconsciously:

• Analyse the attendees behaviour to discover which ones fall into the subsequent categories:

1. The ‘know it all’
2. The ‘sceptic’
3. The ‘been there done it’
4. The ‘enthusiastic puppy’
5. The ‘maverick’
6. The ‘follower’
7. The ‘academic’
8. The ‘life long learner’
9. The ‘demotivator’

• Adjust the course delivery and perhaps content to suit the training characteristics of the attendees
• Seek interaction and ensure that all learning styles are catered for
• Deal with each attendee according to their ‘training characteristic’ (for example the ‘maverick’ needs to be treated differently to the ‘follower’
• Are able to smoothly and flexibly shift their own style to meet the needs of the group
• Deliver a course that meets the objectives of the learner and the organisation

An example of dealing with a difficult training characteristic – the ‘maverick’

I define ‘maverick’ to mean wilful independence and it is this training characteristic which is probably the one that causes trainers the most difficulty. Mavericks have a high sense of self confidence and self esteem and believe that they are more intelligent than others. This can be a heady mix when they are faced with a trainer that has not established their credibility or is delivering a course that they consider to be boring or inappropriate for them.

The following are likely indicators that you are facing a maverick:

• You are asked a number of questions that are disrupting and show that they believe they know more than you do on the subject
• You are shown disrespect by the attendee (this can be on a continuum from mild to extreme)
• They show their displeasure through body language and audio clues (eg heavy sighs and rolling of the eyes)
• You are challenged constantly and other attendees or yourself are undermined
• They refuse to participate in the course or the exercises

Interventions to use with the maverick training characteristic

• Establish credibility upfront and immediately
• Discover their objectives/objections for being on the course (and build into the course)
• Find a way to avoid making them look stupid (if you fail you are likely to make running the training course extremely difficult)
• Ensure that you do not lose control or appear uneasy
• Provide boundaries and structure (when you need to enforce your control, do it quickly and do not dwell on it – avoid trying to make the maverick lose face in front of their peers)
• Be clear on the objectives of the course, and how the course will run. What are the components of the course?
• Give them something to do – eg ensure they lead on some of the exercises
• Recognise them (whilst ensuring that they do not dominate the course) and appeal to their intellectual ability

Training courses present the trainer with an opportunity to engage with all members of team, even those who seem to be resistant to whatever you are trying to teach them. Remember that a one size fits all approach is unlikely to be successful as is approaching resistance from a defensive position!  It can be easy to spend the majority of the course then fighting your corner, but by using some of the techniques mentioned above, you can be better placed to deliver a lively and interesting course which has benefit for all those in attendance.

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June 4th 2013: Learn to Save a Life in 10 Minutes with “Sidewalk CPR”

LOS ANGELES – Can you spare 10 minutes to learn how to keep a cardiac arrest victim alive until paramedics arrive? The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), along with various other agencies is once again coordinating free hands-only CPR training on Sidewalk CPR Day, June 4, 2013 at multiple sites across Los Angeles County to help improve cardiac survivability.

Earlier this month on Saturday May 11, 2013 the LAFD successfully trained hundreds. Last year, more than 5,000 people in LA County learned how to save a life in just 10 minutes with a quick lesson from local firefighters and medical professionals. This year, the goal is to train at least 10,000 more, using simple mannequins.

“Citizen CPR is a fast-growing movement to empower bystanders to save a life when someone suffers sudden cardiac arrest,” says Cathy Chidester, director of the County EMS Agency. “We are glad to partner with the American Heart Association, fire departments and hospitals to bring Sidewalk CPR into local communities. With 80 percent of all cardiac arrests occurring at home, we need to help family and friends learn how to double or triple their loved one’s chance of survival.” 

Hands-only CPR focuses on the first few minutes following a cardiac arrest, since the lungs and blood contain only enough oxygen to keep vital organs healthy for that amount of time. While emergency responders are on their way to the scene, chest compressions using hands-only CPR will provide the ongoing blood flow needed to give the patient a much better chance of survival once responders arrive.  

Fire Service Day 2013

Currently in Los Angeles County, less than three percent of the nearly 383,000 sudden cardiac arrest victims survive. Only 32 percent of victims receive CPR from a bystander. You can learn to save a life on your lunch hour.

Pick one of six easy locations:

1) Grand Park Downtown Farmer's Market (10AM to 2PM)

Between Spring Street & Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90012

2) Food 4 Less Market / Shopping Center (10AM to 2PM)

1830 W Slauson Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90047

3) Ralphs (10AM to 2PM)

10309 W Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064

4) Olympia Medical Center (10AM to 2PM)

5900 W. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036

5) Universal City Walk (4PM to 7PM)

Fountain Court in front of Camacho’s

100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608

6) Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel Harbor 1 & 2 rooms (10AM to 2PM)

601 S. Palos Verdes St. San Pedro, Ca 90731

Click Here for additional training sites available through out Los Angeles and don't forget to join in the fun on twitter at #SidewalkCPR & #HandsOnlyCPR.

Don’t be a bystander in a cardiac emergency – be a lifesaver!

                       Sidewalk CPR Brochure - use the share links below

(PHOTOS)

Submitted by Erik Scott, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department

Follow @LAFD and @LAFDtalk on Twitter and find us on Facebook

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Extensive Drill of LAX's Emergency Response Plan was a Success

LOS ANGELES - On April 24, 2013, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) along with the Los Angeles International Airport successfully tested its emergency response plan with a two-hour exercise that included nearly 300 participants, representing more than 30 organizations. About 100 of the participants were volunteers wearing makeup to simulate injuries and played the roles of victims.
   

The drill, dubbed ``LAX AIREX 2013,'' began at 11 a.m. Such exercises are required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as LAFD's "Life Fire Training".

The LAFD utilized two-dozen fire engines, several command vehicles, Airport Crash Rigs, and one helicopter during the simulation. Organizations participating in addition to the LAFD were: LAX Operations, Los Angeles Airport Police, the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Security Administration, and the American Red Cross.

The scenario included simulated audio of an FAA Air Traffic Control Tower alert; a "crashed'' Boeing 777-300 aircraft with a simulated debris field of aircraft parts; and a medical triage area with a number of fatalities and injured people. This provided Emergency Responders an opportunity to successfully put into action and work out kinks of the emergency response plan, in particular the critical first two hours of a large scale emergency.

(PHOTOS & VIDEO) (KNX 1070 Audio)

Submitted by Erik Scott, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department

Follow @LAFD and @LAFDtalk on Twitter and find us on Facebook

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