Magazine Articles

Lack of senior-level support has emerged as the main obstacle to the implementation of global leadership development programs, according to an online survey of nearly 400 senior managers and executives conducted by AMA Enterprise, a specialized division of American Management Association that offers advisory services and tailored learning programs to organizations. What is the main obstacle you encounter in implementing global leadership programs? Time: 15% Cost/Budget: 26% Complexity ofthe program: 8%

By Jessie Lee Mills

The late Comedian George Carlin once said, “Do you hate your job? Sorry to hear that. There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar!” As a consultant on employee engagement to major health-care companies, Melissa Evans understands that feeling well. Her solution to it, however, is a little “uncorporate.”

By Brad Karsh It is no easy task to motivate, engage, and involve your team, and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight. Even today’s most prominent business tycoons admit the most difficult part of their job is managing and leading their people. Take the late Steve Jobs, for instance. Jobs obviously made extraordinary contributions at Apple, but he spoke openly about his struggles in his role as CEO. Jobs learned from mistakes, and his analogy for what builds strong businesses was spot on:

By Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA Happy New Year... and “Welcome back to work!” Now, look around your desk and your office. Is there clutter? Are there stacks of papers or files? Do you feel the “stress of the undone?”

Return on expectations (ROE) is a foolproof way to show the value of training in the terms desired by key stakeholders. ROE demonstrates the degree to which training initiatives satisfy the expectations of key business stakeholders. Assumptions that may assist training professionals include: Key stakeholders are high-level managers or executives. Stakeholder expectations primarily include the accomplishment of the organization’s highest-level goals and mission. Figure 1: The Kirkpatrick Model

Want to have a wickedly successful 2012? Vickie Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD, owner of Vickie Milazzo Institute and author of The New York Times bestseller, “Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman” (Wiley, 2011, www.WickedSuccess.com), has some ideas about where to start:

Verizon rang in the New Year with a new number: The telecom company earned the No. 1 spot on the 2012 Training Top 125. Farmers Insurance claimed the No. 2 spot, while Top 5 newcomers Miami Children’s Hospital, Mohawk Industries, and McDonald’s nabbed Nos. 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Some 24 new companies broke into the Top 125 this year, with Capital One and Sprint Nextel Corp. debuting in the Top 50. The majority of the companies are in the health/medical services, real estate/insurance, business services, and finance/banking industries.

By Lorri Freifeld One may be the loneliest number, but Verizon isn’t complaining. After appearing five times in the Top 10 over the last six years, the telecommunications company captured the No. 1 spot on the Training Top 125 for the first time in 2012. Despite a relatively flat training budget and a work stoppage that resulted from the expiration of union collective bargaining agreements, Verizon remained steadfast in its commitment to effective training tied to corporate strategic goals—and had the results to show for it.

By Lorri Freifeld It’s not surprising an insurance company would have an insurance policy for the future. But Farmers Insurance takes that strategy one step further, setting its sights on 2020 with a far-reaching plan to foster growth, productivity, and leadership development through intensive training.