High potential employees can shape and lead an organization into the future, but identifying and retaining high potentials goes beyond assigning a label or offering frequent promotions. Rather, it requires careful examination of who your high potentials are, what they are motivated by, and the optimal development path that unleashes their full potential. As you set out to develop your high potential employees or build a comprehensive HiPo program, it will be beneficial to adhere to the following best practices.

Cultivate an Understanding of What Motivates a High Potential

High potentials are often looking for their next big achievement and want to exceed expectations. To retain them, you will need to provide the tools, resources, opportunities, and knowledge that will keep them challenged and enable their continued high performance. Without addressing those needs, you run the risk of your high potentials becoming disengaged and leaving your company for one that will meet them. In fact, one study found that nearly 60 percent of highly engaged high potentials planned to stay with their company, but only 23 percent of low-engaged high potentials intended to stay.

Some of the important motivators that can help to retain high potentials include:

• Providing frequent challenges that keep them engaged in their job and with the work your organization is doing
• Freedom to act without feeling micromanaged
• Resources that are readily available, which include tools, technology, and even other people
• Mentorship opportunities with other successful high potentials or company leaders
• Cross-functional opportunities that allow them to learn more about how the greater organization works

Experiential training that is interactive is an ideal way to learn new skills, practice them, and then confidently apply them back on the job, as it is a methodology that can be used both in-class and virtually.

Recognize Those Identified as High Potentials

Many organizations are unsure of whether to tell high potentials that they’ve been identified as such. They should be told, but recognize that doing so requires that the company be prepared for the questions and expectations that are likely to follow. Those who have been identified as high potential employees will have expectations of training and increased opportunities. Those who have not been identified as high potentials may feel left out and undervalued, which will have to be addressed, usually with a robust career development program. Despite these concerns, telling individuals they are considered high potentials brings transparency to the organization’s commitment to developing talent, and can also go a long way in retaining them long-term.

Create a HiPo Program That Caters to Their Unique Development Needs

Every individual in the organization must be valued for their potential and developed so that they can perform to their best. However, high potentials have unique development needs because they’ve already shown their potential for breakthrough performance, but may not have yet shown their full potential to lead. Therefore, they will need to be taught how to see the world through the eyes of those who possess a different range of talents and needs.

High potentials also possess a unique motivation and capability to succeed that others might not have to the same degree, which can sometimes lead them to become frustrated or dissatisfied with their progress. High potentials do not need to be led as much as they need a line of sight to the end goal, which is not true of all people. Therefore, the HiPo program you create should show them how to provide the motivation, coaching, reinforcement, and recognition that they will require throughout their entire career to be successful.

Conclusion

Cultivating and developing high potential employees is a long-term investment. It is worthwhile, though, as it ensures organizational success down the road, aids in the retention of top talent, and builds the skills employees and leaders will need to navigate the world of tomorrow. By following the three listed best practices you will be well on your way to creating a HiPo program that is experiential, practical, utilizes virtual learning, and aids in retention and attraction of top talent.

It’s of the utmost importance that we recognize how employee engagement and staff retention are connected. When employees are not engaged at work, they have little incentive to stay. Even pay increases often cannot keep an employee who is not engaged, especially if they don’t see a promising future that includes satisfying work and a clear development path.

Given this, it’s not surprising that an SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey indicated that the top three workforce challenges for HR professionals are retention, engagement, and recruitment. Rather than dealing with the symptoms—turnover and recruitment issues—getting to the root of the problem leads to long-term solutions. Focusing on engagement can help reduce turnover, which also alleviates recruitment issues because there are fewer empty positions to fill.

Why Is Retention Important?

One of the most motivating reasons for businesses to improve retention is the fact that it’s expensive. The cost of turnover includes lost productivity, lost profits, recruitment, training, and more. A Deloitte report found that the average cost to replace an employee is around $7,000. For large organizations with high turnover, this can quickly add up. While this number might seem reasonable, the more shocking number that is less easy to see in a financial report is the cost of lost productivity, which is estimated around $120,000 per employee. Even the loss of one employee can have an impact on the bottom line.

Another reason to focus on retaining valuable employees is the company culture. High-turnover companies have a hard time building the culture they want because there are fewer long-term employees to demonstrate the ideal behaviors. Additionally, when employees see that others frequently leave the organization, it sets a negative tone and prompts them to question why they are staying.

How Engagement Impacts Retention

Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report captures the link between engagement and retention in a nutshell:

“Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing overall turnover and the costs associated with it. They feel a stronger bond to their organization’s mission and purpose, making them more effective brand ambassadors. They build stronger relationships with customers, helping their company increase sales and profitability.”

The same report found that only one-third of workers are engaged, which should be a red flag for most organizations. If you’re not confident that the majority of your employees are engaged, this could lead to a costly turnover rate.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

Improving engagement is possible, but it requires a sustained effort. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will immediately shift mindsets, organizations should focus on the following three components to improve employee engagement:

Recognition

Publicly recognize employees for a job well done. When leaders demonstrate that they value an employee’s contribution, it fosters further engagement. Employees also want to stay at a company where they feel valued and appreciated. You can do this by creating a rewards program, hosting monthly or quarterly dinners where employees are recognized for their contributions, or simply thanking your team at the next staff meeting.

Culture

Create a culture that encourages, supports, and motivates employees to do their best work. Whether you do this by allowing dogs in the office, having a company-wide ping-pong tournament, or having quarterly team meetings, your culture should remind people why they want to be there. So, while the elements that make up your culture will be as unique as your organization, determining the desired culture will be the responsibility of leadership.

Development

Employees today value education and learning opportunities. They also want to know what opportunities lie ahead. Create clear growth paths and provide the resources that will help people achieve their development goals to keep them engaged as they progress in their careers. This requires more than a single annual review and should include coaching and mentoring to help employees reach their personal career goals.

Conclusion

Retention is a real issue that should be addressed, especially if you already have high turnover rates. Increasing employee engagement can help improve retention and also provide the benefits of better productivity and greater employee satisfaction. Focus on your company culture and take proactive steps to improve engagement, especially among your top talent.

There is no doubt that teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. No single individual can do all of the work on their own. That is why leaders must cultivate high-performing teams and lead them effectively.

Think of teams as the two essential components of a brick wall: the bricks and the mortar. Individual employees (the bricks) must have integrity and quality in and of themselves in order for the wall to be structurally sound. If you have weak bricks, you’ll have a weak wall. Leaders (the mortar) must also be strong and have the right mix of skills and abilities. The leadership provided is what holds the team together and allows each brick to do its job.

With this in mind, the leaders who develop these nine leadership skills are able to build the most effective teams.

1. Communication

Teams can’t perform to their fullest potential without strong communication, and it is up to leaders to model communication based on these three factors:

• Style: The way you communicate must be appropriately matched to the person you’re interacting with to help put them at ease so that they will be receptive to what you have to say.
• Facts: Some people are very responsive to facts and information. If you don’t provide the level of information they are seeking, they are less likely to engage because they feel that something is missing.
• Passion: Some people will be persuaded more by convictions and passion than they are by facts, so it is important to know when you must communicate with enthusiasm.

The key is to find the right balance for each individual. Find the style that mirrors theirs, include enough facts to satisfy their desire for information, and be passionate enough to engage them.

2. Time Management

High-performing teams are able to successfully juggle multiple assignments, and leadership can provide the training and tools to help them manage their time effectively. In addition, however, leaders must also create an environment that enables their teams to use the training and tools effectively.

One of the most important skills leaders must master to make time management easier for their teams is the ability to delegate effectively. When assigning tasks to a team or an individual, it’s important to be clear about the expected deliverables and due dates and to provide opportunities for them to obtain clarification. This enables the team to accurately prioritize their workload, do the necessary planning, and execute the task efficiently.

Leaders can also help by being proactive. The ability to be responsive to shifting priorities is a great quality for teams to possess, but constantly changing course due to a lack of planning—or worse, the whims of a few people—is exhausting and makes it impossible to keep up. But if leaders anticipate organizational needs and prioritize effectively, their teams will be able to function proactively, and reactivity will be the exception rather than the norm. Along with delegating effectively, fostering a proactive approach will enable your team to consistently manage their work and deliver on their accountabilities.

3. Empowerment

Like that brick wall, a team is only as strong as its weakest member. In the context of the workplace, strength often translates to empowerment—each member of a high-performing team must feel empowered, and leaders are responsible for achieving this.

Leaders can choose to be autocratic—telling people what to do—or they can engage others and allow them to have more input and involvement in decisions. Involving others tends to be more effective than an autocratic approach because in an empowered workforce, hearts and minds are engaged.

Many employees want to contribute to the success of the organization, but if they’re not empowered to do so, the company misses out on their valuable skills, knowledge, and experience. If leadership doesn’t allow participation, the team’s skills are squandered and they become disempowered and disengaged. Empowerment is good for both the company and the individuals and teams that work in it.

4. Decision-Making

The decisions that leaders make have a ripple effect—they have the power to influence many aspects of the organization and impact how teams perform. The scale of the decision directly relates to the consequences it will have. Because decisions from leadership have such power, it’s important to ensure that they are the right decisions.

Strong leaders get input, especially when making significant decisions. The people who will be implementing the decision often have ideas about the best path forward, more experienced leaders can share lessons learned, peers in the organization might have had similar experiences, and external sources may provide a fresh perspective. All of this information allows leaders to make better decisions and gives them more confidence to enforce accountability.

5. Openness to New Ideas

Success breeds success, but leaders cannot have tunnel vision about the things that are currently working, especially if they want to unleash the true power of high-performing teams. They must stay open to new ideas to maintain a competitive edge and consider other alternatives to embrace.

Leaders don’t necessarily have to seek out innovation or new ways of doing things, but they do have to maintain a mindset that allows them to see opportunities when they arise. One way to cultivate this mindset is to be continually learning by trying new hobbies, gaining new skills, and seeking out new experiences that will train the mind to automatically absorb new ideas and incorporate them when appropriate. Being receptive to new ideas is a discipline that can be rewarding both personally and professionally.

6. Teachability and Accountability

Leaders who are building high-performing teams should look for individuals who have both teachability and accountability.

Teachability is not the same as good listening skills and the ability to pay attention. Being teachable means understanding feedback and new information and then applying it on the job. Leaders and employees who are teachable are valuable in any organization, which is why it’s so important to recognize them and help them grow.

Personal accountability is demonstrating that when you say you are going to do something, others can rely on you to do it. When an individual has the combination of teachability and accountability, they can be trusted to understand the tasks assigned to them and follow through on their commitments.

7. Passing on Strengths

Leaders at every level have a lot of responsibilities, and they must ensure that all of them are delivered as promised. This often requires working with high-performing teams to complete the work, and leaders need the individuals on those teams to be as effective as possible.

It is up to leaders to work with individuals to make them better. This can be done through training programs, but one of the simplest ways is for leaders to share what they know. Passing your strengths on to your team allows them to build their skills, allowing for increased responsibilities and personal growth. Do this by allowing them to observe. Inviting them to participate in meetings and sharing experiences with them will expose them to the possibilities as they build their skill sets.

In addition to encouraging observation, it’s also important for you to explain to your team why you do things the way you do them. This helps teams understand the thinking behind your actions and allows them to replicate them more effectively. The combination of observation and explanation allows individuals to build stronger skill sets, which ultimately leads to better performing teams.

8. Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is a common goal for leaders at all types of organizations, and it’s a big topic to address, especially when building high-performance teams. One of the most important elements is understanding how much freedom each individual can handle with the tasks that are assigned to them.

Some people need a lot of direction and coaching when taking on a particular task, while others just need a few key pieces of information before running with it. What any given employee needs depends on how much experience they have with the task at hand. If they don’t have enough knowledge and experience, too much freedom will lead to lower productivity because they will be trying to learn along the way. On the other hand, if they have a high level of experience and are not given enough freedom to do the work, they will become disengaged. When maximizing the potential of a team, leaders must allow the appropriate amount of freedom to match the experience and competency of the individuals in the team.

9. Candor and Empathy

Leaders have an obligation to the organization to ensure that individuals and teams are able to contribute to their fullest. Maximizing all of their talent, capability, insight, innovation, and ideas requires delivering useful feedback.

To do this, leaders must employ both candor and empathy. Candor builds trust, which is vital when engaging employees and motivating them to work to their potential. Leaders with empathy demonstrate that they actually care about and identify with the individuals on their teams.

These two competencies work hand in hand—being candid with employees requires empathy. Hearing a difficult truth becomes easier when it’s clear that the individual delivering it has your best interests at heart. Leaders who can cultivate these two skills will be effective at building high-performance teams.

Strong Teams Need Strong Leaders

The performance of a team depends on both the individuals on the team and the leaders behind them. Without strong leadership, even the most skilled employees will not function to their highest potential on a team. On the other hand, the leaders who develop and hone these nine skills will unlock the potential of their teams and contribute to the success of the organization.

When it comes to understanding the balance between theory and practice, look no further than your own home. There are many parenting theories, ranging from authoritarian (telling their children exactly what to do) to indulgent (allowing their children to do whatever they wish) and everything in between. As a relatively new grand-parent, I have watched with amusement as the parents-in-waiting espouse their unique theory of how they will raise their child. In most cases, these theories experience dramatic change as reality hits over the first 4 – 5 years.

Theory is an excellent starting point for understanding something complex. It can also be dangerous if we think we can master something by putting a label on it. In our solution oriented society, one perspective or theory can be adopted as the silver bullet to solve a mystery. If a person has trouble focusing, we explain it by labeling them ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). If they are fastidious, they are OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). And if they are wildly unpredictable, they are Bipolar. But these labels or theories never describe the whole person. They can at best only lead us to a better understanding if we apply them correctly.

New leaders usually adopt some theory of leadership, only to refine their perspective as the years of experience temper their initial position. Great leaders hold views lightly, and are open to assessing alternate and even conflicting theories as they develop their world view. I recently was struggling with my view of strategic planning. I read a book by Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel called “Strategy Safari”. The authors discussed ten theoretical approaches to strategic thinking, and concluded that there is a place for each method. Only after understanding all of the different techniques, could I come to my own understanding of what will work for me.

Robert Ornstein wrote in “The Psychology of Consciousness” about how an elephant is made of many unique parts. We do not obtain an elephant by adding separate observations of trunk, legs and tail together in conceivable proportion; he concludes that understanding “does not arise out of a linear sum of independent observations.” In other words, understanding requires both science and art.

As leaders, we gather independent data, and then form our images in the mysterious reaches of our minds. So, study business theory, then practice until you have looked at the elephant from all sides. Theory and practice must work in concert to create real understanding.

Leadership is about more than just having an executive job title. Developing leadership that works requires continuous effort and ongoing training to improve skills and expand the knowledge base of leaders at every level. The goals of introducing leadership training programs in your company should be aligned with organizational objectives. For example, if you strive to create a culture of accountability, it is critical for leaders to both demonstrate that behavior and have the necessary skills for developing it among their teams. The competencies that leadership training addresses—communication, delegation, coaching, building relationships, and beyond—will help ensure that your company has a full leadership pipeline both now and in the future.

Strategies for Achieving Leadership Training Goals

Once you have defined the goals for your leadership training program, you need a strategy to help you achieve them. Think of leadership training like any other internal initiative and apply the same process: Create a strategy with interim objectives, milestones, and methods for measuring success.

1. Offer Appropriate, Relevant Training

In order to build strong leadership skills throughout your organization, you must first decide which kind of training is appropriate for various levels of leadership. This way, you’re spending your training budget in the areas where you’ll see the most impact. For example, it doesn’t make sense to have a junior executive go through a high-level leadership course to learn how to be a mentor if he or she doesn’t even have any direct reports yet. Although mentorship training might be interesting to that individual, he or she won’t have the opportunity to apply that knowledge for many years to come. A better fit would be an introductory course for building effective relationships.

Exercise: Perform a leadership assessment exercise to determine the types of training that will make the most sense for your organization:

• Step 1 – Create a chart that outlines the skills needed for each leadership position in the company (supervisor skills, delegation, organizational communication, mentoring, etc.).
• Step 2 – Create a matrix of all of the existing and potential leaders in the left vertical column and all of the necessary competencies you have identified in the top row.
• Step 3 – Rate each individual for each competency to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie.
• Step 4 – Compare this matrix to your leadership skills chart to identify and fill the training gaps.

For example, you might determine that the mid-level role of Marketing Team Leader needs skills in effective communication, increasing productivity, and coaching others. However, during the assessment, you have determined that Manager Mike, who is currently in that role, is not a strong communicator. Once you have identified the gap, you now know where to invest your training budget for that individual.

2. Commitment to Ongoing Leadership Training

The more you invest in leadership development at all levels, the more likely your pipeline will be filled with future leaders who are equipped to tackle new challenges. The best way to ensure that this happens is by creating a long-term strategy that includes regular training sessions that build on each other as individuals progress in their careers. Develop a strategy to meet your short- and long-term goals just as you would for any project or company initiative. This should include putting training dates on the calendar and making sure the timeline doesn’t get pushed back.

Exercise: Solidify your training strategy and demonstrate your long-term commitment by implementing a training calendar:

• Step 1 – Create a rolling 12-month training calendar that you update once each quarter.
• Step 2 – Prioritize the training gaps you identified in the previous exercise.
• Step 3 – Set training dates at intervals that make the most sense for your organization.
• Step 4 – Share this calendar with everybody in the company to help you stay accountable.

3. Develop a System to Evaluate Training Results

As you would with any new initiative, you need to determine whether the leadership development program is generating the improvements you have outlined in your goals. An evaluation might include a pre- and post- training 360-degree assessment, an employee engagement survey, a series of short tests to assess retention, or observations of changed behavior by a manager who works closely with the individual. Don’t forget: A successful organization needs excellent, not average, leaders.

Exercise: Remember that calendar you just created? Now it’s time to add evaluation activities after the training events that you have scheduled:

• Step 1 – Identify the metrics you want to track.
• Step 2 – Create the systems for gathering and evaluating data.
• Step 3 – Add measurement and evaluation activities to the training calendar.

For example, if you want to develop a coaching program, perhaps you use weekly coaching sessions and short surveys as metrics so that you can track how many sessions have occurred and each participant’s rating to determine how well the program is working.

If you are committed to developing leadership that works in your organization, select programs that are relevant to each group or individual, commit to an ongoing training program that builds on itself, and evaluate results to ensure that your goals are being met. The concepts are simple, but the implementation can be more challenging. Approach leadership training like you would any other important initiative in the organization and make it a top priority.

Introduction

Clear communication and alignment are key to successful teamwork in the workplace. According to one survey, 97 percent of respondents believe that a lack of alignment within a team plays a big part in a team’s outcome or impact. Understanding how to implement clear communication strategies, however, is often — well — less clear.
How do you cultivate a strong ethic of teamwork in the workplace through communication? The answer is twofold: by ensuring communication within teams is both frequent and effective.

Frequent Communication: “I Know What I Need To Know”

Frequent communication means keeping everyone in the loop. Teams execute more efficiently when everyone’s on the same page. First, team members avoid duplicating their efforts when knowledge is shared. Second, while each member has a specific role within the team, those roles are interrelated, so communicating frequently about one’s role speeds up the project. For example, let’s say one team member can’t start her role until another has the results of a specific task. In this case, knowing exactly when the other member completes the task keeps her – and the project – moving forward.
To keep communication frequent, the team should revisit key points and ask questions whenever it’s needed. If the team seems a bit too timid about frequent communication, it’s up to the team leader to model the desired communication behavior. Leaders should start each meeting with a “catch up” on accomplishments made since the last, and end with  a “recap” of what was covered.

Effective Communication: “I Understand Everything”

When it comes to successful team communication, just communicating frequently isn’t enough. Team members may know everything going on within the group, but they may still be left in the dark. How? Because they don’t understand everything. Think back to your school days — it’s the difference between scoring high on a quiz that requires rote memorization, but scoring low on a problem that requires you to link those quiz concepts together.

Effective communication requires all team members to know on a high level what’s going on within the team, but also to truly comprehend what’s going on. That can get tricky when your team is composed of members:

• From different parts of the department or company
• With vastly different expertise
• With different levels of comfort with processes
• Using knowledge sets that they don’t work with often.

To achieve effective communication, each team member should be able to summarize each key point that a speaker makes, if asked. If at any point during a meeting, something is not making sense, he or she must speak up to request clarification. Ensuring your team communicates effectively takes time, but ultimately you’ll save time by cutting down on costly mistakes that arise from a lack of understanding.

Cultivating Psychological Safety for High Performance Teams

Cultivating a team that engages in effective and frequent communication as described above is far easier said than done. Why? People don’t like to admit that they don’t know or understand things — especially in a group setting. That’s where the tenant of psychological safety comes in. First described by Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor whose work had a profound influence on Google’s recent study on teams, psychological safety refers to the idea that a team provides a safe space for “interpersonal risk taking.”
That includes the risk of appearing vulnerable by exposing the gaps in your knowledge. In a psychologically safe environment, team members don’t worry about feeling embarrassed or being ridiculed for saying, “Hey, I think I missed something” — or more importantly, “Hey, I don’t understand something.” Teams that exhibit high levels of psychological safety are ones where members, and especially team leaders, ask a lot of questions, which encourages everyone in the group to speak up more without fear of judgment. For effective and frequent communication to take place, a team must cultivate a culture of psychological safety. According to Edmondson, when you combine psychological safety with accountability, a high performance team is created.
Teamwork in the workplace will truly blossom when team building activities move beyond standard communication exercises — like improving listening and feedback skills — to also focus on communication that’s frequent and effective.

Every individual is unique, and everyone brings with them a unique set of traits to the workplace—from their personality and past experiences to the way they learn. In fact, there are several types of learning styles and ways that workplace training can be designed to meet those diverse learning needs, as well as decrease learning decay. While some individuals learn best with written material, others are make sense of new information when they can see or hear an explanation of what is being taught.

In order to ensure that employees get the most out of their training experiences, it’s best to tailor workplace training to address the needs of all types of learning styles as much as possible. By making small adjustments to existing training or larger changes to your training programs, you can position your organization to achieve strong training ROI, improved employee engagement, and sustained behavior change.

How to Tailor Training to the Various Types of Learning Styles

Though there are many learning theories, we’ll focus on one of the most popular, Howard Gardner’s Seven Learning Styles. There are a number of elements that can be included in workplace training so that it appeals and connects to each learning style, helping individuals learn new behaviors that will help improve performance and job effectiveness.

Here are some ways your training initiatives can be designed to appeal to the various learning styles:

Visual Learners

Visual learners learn by what they see and build comprehension of new concepts through pictures, images, and the spatial relationships of objects. Workplace training for visual learners can be tailored to include presentations with plentiful diagrams, videos, and charts.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners are excellent listeners and discern patterns in spoken, lecture-type teaching. This type of learner prefers speeches, audio recordings, and training that includes plenty of opportunities for dialogue.

Reading/Writing Learners

These individuals learn best through close examination of text, reports, stories, and case studies. Workplace training for reading/writing learners can be tailored to include manuals, handouts, quizzes, and presentations.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners expand their comprehension of new information through their senses, and enjoy hands-on activities like simulations, walk-throughs, and sessions that include building or working with physical objects.

Logical Learners

Sometimes referred to as mathematical learners, these individuals learn from studying whole systems, patterns, and high-level concepts. They are particularly drawn to spreadsheets, multi-step methodologies, and graphs. Logical learners respond well to workplace training that includes opportunities to distill multiple concepts into one big idea, showing them how to improve their behavior.

Interactive/Social Learners

These learners are strong at understanding the feelings and motivations of others. The thrive on team learning activities, role-playing, and group discussions.

Solitary Learners

Solitary learners focus on self-reflection and introspection as their prime way of synthesizing and making sense of learning. Training for these learners should be tailored to include opportunities to work through the content at their own pace, as well as a balance of collaborative activities with those that allow them to work independently.

Experiential Learning Works for a Range of Learning Styles

Experiential learning can be an appealing workplace training choice because it addresses the different learning needs of employees. Here are some examples of how experiential learning works with many types of learning styles:

• For visual learners – The immersive nature of experiential learning features stories with vivid details that allow these types of learners to visualize desired behaviors introduced to them in training.

• For auditory learners – The discussion and dialogue inherent in experiential learning allow auditory learners to learn by hearing how others synthesize and apply newly learned behaviors.

• For reading/writing learners – Reading/writing learners thrive on making connections through what they read, and experiential learning addresses this by offering discovery-based learning that compels learners to create order out of the information presented, then take action based on their understanding of the material.

• For kinesthetic learners – Kinesthetic learners love to learn by doing, which is at the heart of experiential learning. Participants engage in immersive activities that mimic real-life situations and are directly relevant to the workplace.

• For logical learners – Experiential learning works for logical learners because it challenges them to think about their actions and behaviors, and link it to what they did with the aid of a facilitated debrief.

• For interactive/social learners – Experiential training appeals to social learners because it is by nature an interactive experience. Expert facilitators engage groups of participants and help them to learn from their shared experiences during the session.

• For solitary learners – After the collaborative portion of experiential training wraps up, a facilitator-led discussion gives solitary learners the chance to think about their behaviors and actions, how those affected their results, and how the experience relates to their everyday life on the job.

Selecting a Solution That Appeals to All Types of Learning Styles

Though it may be challenging, it is possible to implement workplace training that addresses the needs of the many types of learning styles. Everyone learns differently, so it’s worthwhile to consider the various learning needs that exist within your organization and adjust your training accordingly. Experiential learning in particular includes elements that naturally appeal to many different learning styles and offers benefits that can be appreciated by every employee.

The goal for every organization is to create a high-performance culture allowing employees to perform to their fullest potential. When you cultivate a culture that supports skill development and continuous learning, you’re creating a work environment that encourages high productivity and performance. But other factors contribute to high employee performance, including fewer environmentally-influenced traits like IQ, EQ, and personality. While there may not be a clear answer (which is most critical), you may want to consider some important factors  when thinking about key contributions to employee performance.

IQ

IQ is a measure of an individual’s intelligence—their ability to learn and synthesize information.  Individuals need a certain level of intelligence to function in life and do their jobs effectively. Historically, IQ was considered a strong predictive measure of performance. In the early 2000s, organizations began to recognize that IQ, while an effective measure of cognitive ability, could not effectively measure an individual’s ability to be smart about the needs and motivations of others—key skills needed to succeed in business. The limitations of IQ began to pave the way for an expanded discussion about intelligence based on the introduction of emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence and EQ

Emotional intelligence, measured as EQ (emotional quotient), is the ability to identify and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. It helps you navigate and manage tough personalities at work while guiding your ability to display empathy, demonstrate active listening, and work successfully as part of a team. There is evidence of a strong link between high employee performance and high EQ, as research has found that high emotional intelligence determines 58 percent of success at work.

Some organizations value a high EQ over a high IQ, in large part because intelligence about the motivations, desires, and emotions of others is such a critical success factor at work. In fact, in a CareerBuilder Survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and HR professionals, 71 percent said they favored emotional intelligence in an employee over IQ.

Personality

A high IQ and EQ are not the only traits that can contribute to an individual’s high performance. Personality—what makes you ‘you’—also impacts performance. Despite many theories on the psychology of personality, the traits comprising our personalities do impact job performance. For example, our level of extroversion and introversion, communication style, and level of conscientiousness affect our behavior at work. In fact, one study found that 37% of variations in job performance are attributable to extroversion personality characteristics.

While personality (who we are) is not exactly the same as behavior (what we do), it can affect job performance and the way we approach our work. For example, when faced with the challenge of giving a presentation at work, an individual with an extroverted personality may feel energized by the prospect of being in the spotlight. Conversely, an individual with an introverted personality might feel less comfortable as the center of attention, and might structure the presentation to pull the audience into a discussion so more views can be heard. Depending on the expectation level, either the extrovert or the introvert will perform better when giving the presentation.

Secret Sauce for High Performance?

Research has shown that environmental factors, as well as IQ, EQ, and personality, contribute to high employee performance. The combination of an individual’s innate characteristics and a high-performance work culture are the main building blocks for employee success at work. When all these ingredients for success merge, when they come together, then an individual is in the best position to learn new skills and behaviors that will lead to continuous performance improvement.

Experiential learning is an ideal tool to support continuous learning and performance improvement.  When individuals learn and repeat behaviors, neurons in the brain grow stronger, and performance improves. This is at the heart of experiential learning; individuals learn and practice new behaviors in training, which are reinforced through repetition, coaching, and follow-up after training.

While there are indicators, there is no secret sauce for high performance. Coupled with the fact that each individual is different and possesses a unique mix of capabilities and personality traits, the reality is that IQ, EQ, personality, and work culture must blend together to support individual learning and productivity.  Once experiential training is added to the mix, your employees can be well-positioned to learn, practice, and master the behaviors that will contribute to sustainable high performance.

Stress in the workplace is a reality for most people at some point, although some handle it better than others. With remote working and a hybrid workforce introducing a new realm of workplace stressors.  The American Psychological Association report on Stress in America found that the majority of people (61 percent) cite work as a source of stress, and a Paychex survey identified the top three sources of stress at work as:

• Complicated or hard work
• Long or erratic hours
• A lack of control at work or a lack of resources

While these factors cannot always be avoided, it’s entirely possible to manage stress better by equipping yourself with the right skills.

Understand the Impact of Stress in the Workplace

Stress is a real issue, and depending on the severity of it, it can have a significant impact on the mental and physical well-being of employees. we can’t ignore that working from home can create added stress, with the constant juggle of work and personal life. Chronic stress can lead to health issues for individuals, such as increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and stroke.

Stress in the workplace also impacts business performance. According to Harvard research, higher levels of stress lead to more missed days at work, costing U.S. businesses $30 billion per year. Fortunately, an investment in skills training can help employees at every age, experience level, and in any department reduce their stress by learning to manage challenging situations more effectively.

3 Crucial Stress Management Skills

1. Time Management

Managing time to be optimally productive—and not just active—helps reduce stress by making it easier for employees to meet their deadlines, manage expectations, and achieve their goals. Some of the most practical tactics to use for managing time better include:

• Writing to-do lists
• Understanding what is urgent
• Prioritizing tasks
• Defining goals and the paths to reach them
• Proactively scheduling tasks
• Making weekly plans

Training sessions and individual coaching focused on time management teach employees how to plan their time, handle interruptions, prioritize incoming tasks, and alter their behavior to overcome procrastination. All of which lower stressful situations because employees are able to manage them.

2. Conflict Resolution

Whether between individuals, teams, or competing priorities, conflicts arise in the workplace all the time and can be major contributors to stress. Employees who develop strategies for handling these types of situations will not only reduce their own stress levels, but will contribute to a more collaborative work environment. Some of the strategies that help reduce stress related to conflict include:

• Using active listening skills to understand other perspectives
• Having an open group conversation in which everybody has a chance to speak
• Addressing the issue in a timely manner to avoid further escalation
• Knowing when it is appropriate to escalate the issue

Ignoring conflicts—or engaging in them—is a sure way to increase stress and tension. Equipping employees with the tools they need to effectively address conflicts as soon as they arise benefits everyone.

3. Project Management

Successfully managing a project can help prevent stressful situations from arising in the first place. Although everybody experiences crunch time or an emergency every now and then, it should not be the norm. With the following project management skills, employees will be better able to deliver results without unnecessary stress:

• Set realistic deadlines and make a plan to stay on top of them.
• Use time management skills to avoid unnecessarily working long hours.
• Learn how to prioritize tasks so that the most urgent work is completed on time.
• Set realistic goals and allocate resources appropriately.
• Implement an effective communication plan.
• Incorporate risk management and contingency plans.

While it might not be possible to entirely avoid stressful situations in the course of managing a project, it is possible to minimize them.

Learning to Manage Stress

Stress is a real issue that has an impact on both individuals and organizations. Taking steps to avoid stress and giving people the tools to handle stress when it’s unavoidable will help you create a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace. Although there are many ways to teach new skills, experiential learning has one of the highest retention rates, enabling participants to quickly and effectively practice and then apply their new stress management skills on the job.

If a key executive member—including you—left your organization tomorrow, would your company crumble? The long-term success of a business depends on the sustainability of leadership. If your company is currently successful, it can be assumed that your leadership program is effective. However, many companies do not invest in the resources to prepare future leaders for future roles.

Developing a strong leadership pipeline can help your organization not only achieve immediate success, but also ensure that success over a longer period of time. To help grow your leadership strategy, consider these five techniques.

1. Mentoring and Coaching Initiatives

Coaching and mentoring are crucial components of an effective leadership pipeline. That’s why it’s important for your strategy to engage existing senior leaders so that they devote time to nurturing potential leaders across your team. Establish a mentoring program and make it responsibility for leaders to coach employees through both formal and informal mentoring sessions.

An effective coaching program emphasizes the connection between the coach and the student. Your leadership team must first take the time to connect, to understand, and to build trust and respect with their team members. Once this is established, it’s far easier to share industry insight and expertise, instruct on important organizational operations, and share role-specific hard skills.

2. Leadership Development Programs

Implementing a leadership development program allows you to cultivate leaders from within your organization so that you have a stable of prepared, talented individuals who can step up when need be. While many organizations have programs that either cater toward senior-level employees or require team members to apply for consideration, think about offering leadership training to your entire organization. When you keep the program open, you create a pool of candidates to fill open positions.

For front-line professionals with no direct reports, leadership training can help develop individual potential and overall leadership strength for the future. These programs drive focus, improve efficiency, and maximize individual contributions to the organization. For mid-level leaders, or those who display focus and confidence in their assessment and coaching techniques, leadership programs help develop their own capabilities in order to tap into the potential of those they lead.

3. Real-World, Real-Time Experiences

On-the-job training programs should be supportive and challenging. To truly groom leaders, offer them more and more responsibilities over time and challenge them with new situations and assignments. Much of what individuals learn happens in real time, so encourage them to work through situational problems to experience real-life workplace situations. Ultimately, it’s your executive team’s responsibility to offer team members the necessary training and resources to be successful.

4. Regular Feedback

According to a Gallup study that measured how Millennials want to work, regular meetings and consistent feedback improve engagement and performance. The survey found that 44 percent of Millennials are more likely to be engaged when their manager does meet with them on a regular basis. Despite these benefits, only 21 percent of Millennial workers meet with their managers on a weekly basis. Your team members want feedback; it’s up to you to provide it.

Relevant, on-the-job training can mirror real-life situations. Without feedback, however, employees are left to assume that their behavior is acceptable. It’s clear that feedback is an essential motivator in developing leaders. Be aware that this applies to both negative and positive feedback. On one hand, a leadership team that does not correct poor employee performance can’t expect change. Conversely, without positive feedback, employees are not provided with the opportunity to flourish and grow.

5. Cross-Departmental Learning

Silos and turf wars impact even the strongest organizations. That’s why it’s up to your current management team to create opportunities in your leadership pipeline for different departments to work together. After all, executive leaders must actively engage with all employees. When departments collaborate and communicate with each other, they gain a greater understanding of the role of other team members and how they function, as well as a more comprehensive overview of how the entire organization functions.

Below are some ideas for cross-departmental learning:

• Team building events
• Peer mentorship
• Cross-departmental project teams
• Job shadowing assignments

Not only can cross-departmental exposure help future leaders understand your company as a whole, but it can inspire ideas for their own roles. This type of learning can improve productivity and ensure that individuals have the right amount of diverse work experience to step into leadership roles.