TRAINING MATTERS is a periodic e-newsletter for HR and training professionals published by Learning Communications.

Spring 2008

Recent Releases - The Four Styles

Do you want to be a better communicator? You're not alone if you've ever had a tough time getting through to someone. One of the biggest problems in business today is getting along with and communicating with others. And it's one of the top reasons why most people are limited in their relationships and limited in their ability to communicate well on or off the job.

Scientific research shows that people communicate, think, and behave differently. But, when large numbers of people were analyzed research has shown that they generally fall into four categories called behavior or communication styles:

• Supportives
• Emotives
• Reflectives
• Directives

In Part One of this three-part video program you'll learn about these four behavior styles and what's included in them. Part Two teaches you how to identify these styles in others.

Part Three talks about how to change your behavior to better communicate with others - what is called being FLEX-able - able to flex out of your style and into the other person's style.

Do you remember the golden rule? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The golden rule would be great if we were all the same style. But because people are different they want and need to be treated differently.

This program teaches you to become FLEX-able and introduces you to The Platinum Rule - "Do unto others as THEY want to be done unto."

Program includes: 20-minute DVD, Comprehensive Leader's Guide, and 10-pack of Participant Guides

Participant Guides available separately in packages of 10.

Preview The Four Styles online now - click here.

Coming Soon

Flawless Leadership - By Afterburner, Inc.

A new DVD-based leadership training program that teaches you how to brief and debrief your team for each mission.

Designed with the newly appointed manager/supervisor in mind, Flawless Leadership provides essential leadership principles training focusing upon the centrally important skills necessary to any new leader - organizing, communicating with the team, and motivating the team toward mission accomplishment.

Developed from the intense mission-oriented environment of military fighter pilots, this exciting lesson teaches the student the combat-proven steps toward mission accomplishment. In the fast-paced, modern business world where execution is the critical factor to any company's competitive advantage, developing your front-line leader's execution skills is imperative. This course will lead the way!

Little Things Mean A Lot™
From Microinequities to Micro-affirmations
with Brigid Moynahan

A new DVD-based training program that teaches strategies you can use to eliminate microinequities and promote inclusion.

Question: What powerful, eroding force has the biggest impact on diversity initiatives?
Answer: The little things.

Question: What are Microinequities?
Answer: Small, subtle signals we send to other people through our words and behavior that cause them to feel discounted, excluded, or devalued.

Question: What are Micro-affirmations?
Answer: Small, subtle signals we send to other people through our words or behavior that cause them to feel encouraged, appreciated, valued, and supported.

Reserve a free preview now! 800-622-3610, sales@learncom.com
Or, click here for a sneak peek.

Product Reviews - Mixing Four Generations - An Excerpt from a Review by Bill Ellet, Training Media Review

I'm told Mixing Four Generations in the Workplace is a best seller. I can see why.

This video program does a lot more than provide four or five general points on coping with a generational mix. Cam Marston, the presenter and a consultant on the topic, defines the four generations found in the workplace--Matures, Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials.

He defines them through essential characteristics that are easy to remember. Marston is careful not to pile on the adjectives; his selectivity helps make the definitions clearer. Boomers, he says, equate success with time spent on the job. They are both competitive and optimistic. Generation X wants you to prove what you say. Their big concern is credibility--your credibility.

Marston's timing is great. Due to longevity and economic necessity, people are working longer and aren't ceding their places in the workforce as they once did. Reinforcing this trend, social dynamics seem to change more rapidly than they did, altering how adults raise their children. The result is sharp differences between successive generations.

Organizations now house a mélange of age groups, and managers and HR people need some answers about how these different groups can be led and how they can be helped to work together. A wide span of employee ages is probably going to remain the norm in the workplace for a long time to come.

Reprinted from Training Media Review.

Order or Preview Mixing Four Generations in the Workplace.

Onsite Workshops

As organizations struggle with how to leverage their training expenditures, onsite workshops facilitated by experienced consultants are less expensive and become a solution of choice for many. Workshops complement Learning Communications' wide range of training media that provide blended learning solutions for client organizations.


Click here to view Learning Communications' Onsite Workshops and Subject Matter Experts.

Building Trust in Virtual Teams- By Debra A. Dinnocenzo

Underlying every successful relationship is trust. Without it, people become suspicious, non-committal, uncaring, undermining and jaded?all of which leads to deteriorated and nonproductive relationships. This further leads to un-pleasant work environments, disgruntled workers, frustrated customers, dejected leaders and unprofitable organizations. As a member of a virtual team, establishing unwavering trust in relationships with colleagues and your boss is particularly vital since distance and the absence of day-to-day interactions can create pressure on relationships that will erode trust.

The fundamental ingredients of trust in the working relationships critical to your success include reliability, integrity, and familiarity. Knowing how these factors affect trust and how your behavior affects perceptions and beliefs is important to your success when working at a distance from other team members.

RELIABILITY
Reliability means people have confidence that you will honor the commitments you make. A good rule of thumb here: under-commit and over-deliver. Remember:

•  Be available to people when you work remotely by establishing your office work hours and maintaining those routinely.

•  When you can't be available, follow-up promptly.

•  When you've scheduled time for a specific phone call or videoconference, show up.

INTEGRITY
Integrity is vital to trust since it reflects how people perceive your ability to be honest in your dealings, truthful in your encounters and respectful of the rights of others. Remember:

•  Be honest in everything you do.

•  Avoid sarcasm, joking and teasing in your distance interactions to avoid misinterpretation of your intent.

•  Maintain confidences and handle sensitive material appropriately.

FAMILIARITY
Current research on virtual teams indicates that familiarity is a major contributor to building trust. In other words, if team members know one another?either through face-to-face or virtual interactions?they have a greater chance to establish trust over time.

You can strengthen relationships and build familiarity with your team members by making time to:

•  Talk with them regularly by telephone and schedule face-to-face meetings whenever time and budgetary constraints allow.

•  Make the effort to attend social events (retirement parties, baby showers, promotion celebrations), even if that means joining ?virtually? by teleconference or videoconference.

•  Take time to talk about non-work matters whenever appropriate, both asking about and sharing information regarding topics such as families, hobbies, personal interests, etc.

Building trust in virtual teams and organizations can be difficult. The very nature of virtual work makes trust hard to come by and easy to lose. There are, however, some constants to keep in mind if you want to build trust, maintain trust or rebuild trust.

The keys to trust include:

•  Be reliable and honor your commitments
•  Be consistent in all that you do
•  Act with integrity, including respecting the right of privacy in others
•  Build on bonds of familiarity and nurture relationships you have established.

______________________________

Debra A. Dinnocenzo is a virtual workplace expert specializing in virtual leadership, virtual teams, telework, and work-life balance in the digital age. A dynamic speaker and highly praised author, Dinnocenzo speaks and writes widely on techniques for working and living wisely in the digital age. Dinnocenzo is the author of How to Lead From a Distance, How to Work Together From a Distance, 101 Tips for Telecommuters , Managing Telecommuters, Dot Calm: The Search for Sanity in a Wired World, and Working Too Much Can Make You Grumpy.

Preview Debra's book, How To Lead From A Distance, click here.