One of the best things about being a learning and development professional is…wait for it…learning and developing. I’ve been tweaking my curriculum on persuasion for my Influencer Academy and Step Into Your Moxie Mastery women and to do so have been reviewing my notes in one of my favorite books, Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. One of the 50 ways is to focus on common errors when coaching, managing, and training.
Many of us opportunity-centered folks don’t do this. Whether we are espousing our best practices or actively developing our people, we focus on what we want rather than on what doesn’t work. The problem with this is that we don’t let our people encounter the mistakes they are likely to make. As a result, they aren’t able to identify the behaviors and skills to avoid or at the very least troubleshoot potential pitfalls. They also miss out on an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills to apply what they are learning in other situations. Doing the right thing may feel easy in a conversation or a role play, but often it isn’t as easy when real situations unfold.
One of the most interesting example of this approach I discovered when conducting interviews for 90 Days 90 Ways: Onboard Young Professionals to Peak Performance. A trainer for a chain of hotels shared that rather than just teach or role play good front desk customer service, he went online to find negative TripAdvisor.com reviews of his properties. Then, he showed the reviews to his staff and used this as an opportunity to discuss what went wrong, why it likely happened, and gave his people the opportunity to role play alternative conversations that better served their guests. As a result, over the next year those nasty TripAdvisor.com customer service complaints went way down.
How can you adapt this strategy in your work?
As I think about how to empower my Influencer Academy women during our final 2 months together, I’m committed to creating case study/role playing opportunities for us to explore what has gone wrong before imparting how to do the “right” thing.
Are you interested in learning more about the unique, hands-on Influencer Academy leadership development program? If you are in Las Vegas, you can meet the women of the current cohort and enhance your ability to access funding, secure sponsorships, and build high-level partnerships at this Friday’s luncheon, Raising the 4%. There are a few tickets left.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2014-2015 Influencer Academy cohort. If you know that this is your time to strengthen your ability to coach, negotiate, persuade, present, and facilitate. To pursue an aggressive and achievable career development plan that lets you make more impact in your company and community. To build lifelong friendships with an extraordinary group of heart-centered women. Then please, apply now.
