Online Articles

By John C. Cunningham, Education Coordinator, Lenders Solution Group, Indecomm Global Services

By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP Speakers quickly learn that no matter how much they prepare for their presentations, things occasionally will go wrong—often through no fault of their own. Even so, you’ll need to be as prepared as possible when they do. Suppose the lights go out, there’s a crash backstage, someone’s phone rings, or the fire alarm goes off—how will you handle it? All of the above have happened to me in the past. I even stepped off the edge of the stage once (no kidding).

Last year, U.S. corporate training groups spent $67 billion to train and certify employees to improve productivity and worker effectiveness (Bersin & Associates, 2012).As government and industry regulations continue to increase, so does the need for training and certification. In addition, businesses constantly are looking for competitive advantages, and a well-trained, knowledgeable talent pool can be a company’s most a strategic asset.

By Dulce Gonell-Holderby, Training Account Manager, Signature Worldwide The word, “connect,” means to relate, associate, link, or join to one another. In the customer service world, it means to establish rapport or foster a relationship. So how do we go about making these connections? How do we know if we have done it right the first time? How do we know if it is working?

By Amy Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins When we lead executive programs, we start by asking people to think of someone they know who has effective presence. Then we ask them to describe that person’s impact. Why do they identify that particular person as having great presence? What are the qualities he or she exudes? Typically, this is what we hear:

By John Buelow, Executive Vice President, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

By Steven L. Ossad, Founder, Applied Battlefield Concepts LLC

Authors Paul H. Elliott, Ph.D., and Alfred C. Folsom, Ph.D., advocate a business strategy that drives greater results with existing resources based on benchmarking internal star performers. While their book, “Exemplary Performance: Driving Business Results by Benchmarking Your Star Performers,” is primarily targeted at executives and business leaders, it will serve to elevate their perception of the value that trainers produce when leveraging a human performance improvement approach.

Edited by Margery Weinstein To reach aggressive business goals, Farmers Insurance says it needs leaders who understand the destination and can inspire others to reach objectives as a team. Launched in February 2011, Farmers’ Presidential Leadership Program (PLP) develops emotionally intelligent, “whole” leaders who will engage the company’s employees to exceed business goals.

By Jill Burroughs, Director of Test Security, Pearson VUE