February 17, 2025, will be forever etched in my memory— and heart. On a night we dedicated to recognizing excellence in employee training and development at our L&D Silver Jubilee Awards Gala, my organization and team turned around and recognized me!
I was honored by the beautiful award I received and by the heartfelt words spoken by my colleague, Lori Gardner, in front of 400-plus Learning and Development professionals.
I want to publicly thank everyone on my talented team—indeed, the BEST team in the world— and the owners of this terrific organization. I will treasure those memories—and the perfect mementos and kind words—from that evening forever. I truly have the best job in the world.
That evening brought home to me once again the importance and power of recognition. I want everyone to experience the exhilarating feeling of being publicly recognized for their talent, accomplishments, and dedication to their job.
That’s one of the reasons we created Training magazine’s Training MVP Awards (https://MVPawards.trainingmag.com/) and Emerging Training Leaders Awards (https://etl.trainingmag.com/). I hope you will consider showcasing all the amazing things you are doing with training by applying for the Training MVP Awards. Likewise, I hope you will nominate one of your colleagues, managers, or direct reports for the Emerging Training Leaders Awards.
The results of our Leadership Development Survey conducted in partnership with Wilson Learning Worldwide reveal how important it is for organizations to support new leaders as they transition to the next management level. Check out the cover story for best practices from our Training MVP Awards winners that have helped put their high-potential leaders on the pathway to promotion and prepared them to lead their organizations into the future.