May / June 2012

By Chris LaVictoire Mahai In the animal world, the food chain is the most critical driving force. In the business world, it’s the performance chain—defined as allthe tangibleand intangibleelements that have to move from the moment you trigger demand until you have cash in the bank; allthe ins and outs that have to work together and align to your target customer experience to drive the outcomes you want.

By Jason Womack, MEd, MA, Founder and CEO, The Jason Womack Company We love to read about life. We talk about what happened, who’s doing what, and where people are going. One look at the newsstand in a bookstore or airport and the headlines of what people did compete for your attention!

By Jim Hornickel, Director, Training & Development, Bold New Directions There are as many schools of thought about leadership as there are leaders. But in the larger view, one can say there are two basic types: leading “at” and leading “with.” And these two opposite models or sets of comprising actions can be called “Command and Control” and “Consultative Leadership.”

After reading the 100 Top Young Trainer nominations we received for 2012, I was awestruck by the commitment, passion, multitasking abilities, and willingness to help others demonstrated by these training professionals. If only I could bottle their energy, take-charge manner, and ability to get things done—I would be a very wealthy woman!

By Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA I’m curious: How do you judge a “productive” day as such? Is it defined by the number of e-mails you sent and received? Perhaps how many meetings you attended? It could even be how “early” you arrived home for dinner with your family. Before you leave work, for just the next five work days, stop and handwrite on a 3x5 notecard basic things about the day, such as:

By Greg Pfeifer, Development Associate, FDNY Foundation

By Brian Fishel, Chair, Best Practice Institute’s Senior Executive Board,and Louis Carter, Founder and CEO, Best Practice Institute Developing your leaders to successfully negotiate the daily challenges of doing business has never been more critical and necessary—or more difficult. Here are a few keys to enabling your leaders to embrace new solutions and propagate them throughout the workplace.

By Lyrae Myxter, Senior Marketing Advisor, EnCompass LLC While there were human inhabitants in what we now know as Norway 10,000 years ago, the formation of the Norwegian nation began in the 10th century. Norway officially gained independence in 1905. It is now a prosperous country that, like other Scandinavian countries, combines a market-oriented economy with a guarantee of social welfare benefits.

By Neal Goodman, Ph.D., President, Global Dynamics, Inc. Baby Boomers with global business expertise are retiring, and many organizations are hoping to replace them with talented Asian leaders to help them succeed in emerging markets in Asia. Yet few of the leadership programs in Asian universities are teaching skills such as vision, creativity, and risk-taking that are at the core of many organizations.

By Bob Pike As trainers, we naturally believe we have large stores of empathy for the people we train. After all, we want our trainees to learn. We also want them to master the skills and knowledge that will help them to perform better. And we want to help create a workplace that will support them in applying new skills and knowledge after the training has ended.