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 NetSpeed Leader

 Volume 34, October 2007

Teams that squabble like dysfunctional families need to learn and live by eight basic agreeements.

Leaders need to focus on the bad habits that have a negative impact on their teams.

A Total Team functions at the highest levels of performance. They share a sense of commitment and magic happens.

Varying pace, pitch, and volume will capture your learners' attention in the classroom.

 Volume 33, May 2007

The use of podcasting is changing the culture of learning. NetSpeed Fast Tracks combine short podspots with articles, blogs, and expert interviews in a searchable database.

Learn to tell a good classroom story with this book as your guide.

Storytelling helps learning stick. Trainees recall information, organization their experiences, and are motivated to learn through the use of stories.

Take the time to develop, learn, and grow and you'll be a more effective trainer.

 Volume 32, April 2007

The Gallup Organization reports that only 16% of employees feel actively engaged at work. Organizations that want to develop that sense of engagement ensure that their managers and supervisors know how to delegate smartly.

Are you your own worst enemy when it's time to delegate? Ask yourself ten key questions to identify your challenges.

As facilitators of adult learning, we need to give participants time to think after asking a question.

Great delegators work magic!

Use this comprehensive resources to learn the basic practices and techniques you need to manage others.

 Volume 31, February 2007

Strategies for communicating effectively in culturally diverse business environments.

Understanding style differences and being effective in the organizational arena.

Includes over 30 handouts with activities that provide practical application in building communication skills.

Consider partnering with NetSpeed Leadership. Our partnership programs give you the opportunity to represent our top-quality leadership and customer service training programs throughout your geographic region.

Every NetSpeed Leadership module has some sort of practice built in that develops participant's skills, whether these be in solving problems, coaching, or serving customers.

 Volume 30, December 2006

Purposeful performance appraisals produce effective outcomes.

Take responsibility for the success of the performance appraisal process for your team.

Tinkering with your training materials can enhance the training experience for everyone involved.

 Volume 29, November 2006

Individual and small group coaching is a viable strategy for improving individual performance, and ultimately, bottom line profitability.

Great coaches know when to offer support and expertise.

Get upper level management on board to support a training initiative in your organization.

 Volume 28, September 2006

Communicating to Influence, that is, using our best collaboration and negotiating skills, gives us a key advantage when leading teams.

Practical approaches to influencing others.

Rather than simply imparting knowledge, a great trainer facilitates learning.

 Volume 27, June 26, 2006

Great customer service is one of the last differentiating factors in an increasing competitive business market.

NetSpeed Leadership strives to be a provider of Blazing Service.

It's the personal touch that makes training relevant and dynamic.

 Volume 26, 4/7/2006

How do we use the challenges presented by change to strengthen our skills and boost our creativity?

Assimilating change can be challenging, but the effort reaps dividends.

Byron Steele, NetSpeed Leadership Master Trainer, offers up 3 P’s for Improving Productivity!

 Volume 25, 2/16/06

With the holiday gift-purchasing frenzy behind us, let's pause and reflect on the state of customer service in our world. I think it is safe to assume that most of us want to receive service that is fast, friendly, accurate, on time, and convenient. We want to feel as if we are important both to the business and to the people that are providing service. We choose to do business with certain companies and we don't want them to forget that we always have the choice to go elsewhere.

Observations from Founder and President, Cynthia Clay. This month, Cynthia ponders the questions: How often do you believe that you're dealing with an unsolvable problem? How does your belief that it can't be done prevent you from doing it?

Book Recommendation: From the guru of artificial intelligence, story-telling, and cognitive learning theory, Roger C. Schank, Lessons in Learning delivers a series of essays that explore the myriad issues facing the training community. Read it to understand how people learn, what can be taught (and what can’t be taught), and how technology can support what we do.

NetSpeed Leadership will soon launch an entirely new Customer Service training program called Blazing Service. Blazing Service consists of six two-hour modules, followed by a series of online reinforcement tools. Learn more at www.blazingservice.net.

NetSpeed Leadership Master Trainer, Elys Brewda, shares some quick tips for trainers.

 Volume 23, June 2005

Are you ready for quick tips on coaching and inspiring others, building your team, creative thinking, transforming conflict or managing projects? How about managing time, meeting change resiliently, managing your career, or working with style differences? Last month we featured a baker's dozen of our NetSpeed Leadership modules. This article features advice and ideas from ten more modules. Pick one or more to apply today.

If you can get past the provocative title, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots is a practical and fun guide to removing jargon and improving simply awful writing pervasive in business today.

In our last edition, we heard from several of our clients sharing their experiences implementing training programs. Now hear from Mintel (Chicago and London), Blistex (Chicago), and the University of Puget Sound (Washington State).

 Volume 22, April 2005

Want quick tips on delegating, appraising performance, and communicating to influence? How about on hiring the best talent, setting and achieving goals, running effective meetings, or other topics tied to improving individual and group performance? This article features advice and ideas from a baker's dozen of our NetSpeed Leadership modules. Pick one or more to apply today.

Now in its third edition, Love 'em or Lose 'em imparts a rich collection of terrific, practical ideas for managers who want to retain employees. In its 26 A-to-Z chapters, updated throughout to help you win today's talent wars, there is useful information for every senior leader, manager, and supervisor.

Our clients have terrific experience implementing training programs. Hear from Columbia Hospitality, Sterling Savings Bank, and Equity Office.

 Volume 21, February 2005

Imagine yourself on the pit crew of a high-speed auto racer. You want your vehicle and your team to win. But winning will require -- among other things -- efficient, foolproof, lightening fast communication. How can you communicate at high speeds? Read these 16 tips on writing for high-speed readers.

Deborah Dumaine has taught business writing for over 25 years. In this newly updated volume, she shares age-old writing wisdom along with fresh thoughts on e-mail, presentations, writing for the web, and more.

According to Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, readers don't read. Well, just what do they do? And how do we reach readers who don't? Read Lynn's quotes to find out.

 Volume 20, December 2004

According to Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro, authors of Unstuck, Choosing an outside enemy can bring your internal team closer together. A common enemy, or another external threat, unites a team.

Unstuck is the perfect tool to do the job of 'unstucking' a team. It's artfully designed, filled with stimulating questions and suggestions, fun to dip into, and eminently practical.

It's easy to sink under team conflict, especially when it gets resolved negatively. But it's possible to thrive and succeed when we constructively transform team conflict. Transformation begins with acknowledging the value of conflict, increasing conflict competence, and giving conflict situations a neutral name.

 Volume 19, October 2004

The childhood birthday party game Pin the Tail on the Donkey, with blindfolded children assisted by supportive parents to achieve the mark, smartly illustrates the elements of coaching to redirect employee performance. Apply these tips to create a constructive coaching environment and increase employee confidence.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s awe-inspiring new volume resonates with the confidence she writes about. From sports teams, to Fortune 500 companies, to hospitals, to an entire country, the book looks at the paths of success and failure. By the renowned author and Harvard business school professor, Confidence is well worth reading and savoring.

On any page in Kanter’s book Confidence, there’s a thoughtful nugget. She writes, for example, But self-confidence is not the real secret of leadership. The more essential ingredient is confidence in other people. Leadership involves motivating others to their finest efforts and channeling those efforts in a coherent direction.

 Volume 18, July 2004

Many supervisors dread conducting the periodic performance appraisal discussion. That's often because they don't have a framework to make the discussion painless, constructive, and valuable. We see the discussion as a slideshow in which supervisor and employee revisit events and experiences.

We have heard that Mike Deblieux’s useful paperback, published by SHRM, is a very popular volume. We can see why. It lives up to its subtitle, A Collection of Practical Samples, with dozens of performance management forms in hardcopy and on an attached CR-ROM.

Ira Duden, Vice President of Associate Services at Food Services of America, warns supervisors to know their facts: If you don’t know your facts, the employee will challenge you. Then you will waste valuable time in . . . a discussion of excuses and defensiveness.

 Volume 17, June 2004

Delegation directly affects the bottom line. When it is done well, tasks are completed at the most efficient and least expensive level. Are your supervisors skilled at delegating? Or is productivity slowed by supervisors who try to do it all?

Who doesn’t want to leave the office earlier? Good news!—a book of that name was just published, and it's an excellent, practical volume by Laura Stack, who bills herself as The Productivity Pro. Just one of her tips is worth the price of the book.

Chris Noble, President and CEO of Singlestep Technologies, lives by a rule of delegating smartly. He says this: We have one firm rule: Everybody does what they do best.

 Volume 16, April 2004

Broadband services can send multiple channels of data over a single cable or telephone line simultaneously. Our conversations are also broadband transmissions. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we send and receive information along several channels.

It’s nothing to be feared. As defined by author Susan Scott, a fierce conversation is one in which we come out from behind ourselves into the conversation and make it real. We share Scott’s seven principles and more from this excellent must-read volume.

Joe Winston, former Manager of Training and Documentation at ConneXt, Inc., shares some useful insights about the importance of ongoing, repeated communication when managing projects.

 Volume 15, February 2004

It's time to plan for a major event, a triathlon. How will you prepare for this goal of a lifetime? And how about new employees at your organization? Are they being prepared to hit the ground running, or are they slowed down at speed bumps not of their making?

The full title of Doris Sims' volume is Creative New Employee Orientation Programs: Best Practices, Creative Ideas, and Activities for Energizing Your Orientation Program. With valuable strategies contributed by 30 human resources and training professionals, the book lives up to its title.

Bridget Piper, VP of Corporate Development at Sterling Savings Bank, said in an interview, At every level, from the customer service rep to the loan officer to the back-office operation person—I don't think there's anyone who doesn't need to see how their job fits in the company.

 Volume 14, December 2003

It's always a good time to set and work toward goals, especially at the beginning of a new year. But every now and then we need to think too about how we set and achieve our goals. Are we doing the right things to achieve meaningful results? Does our approach work for us and for our teams? Consider these questions.

Mind Your Own Business is a surprising title given that readers are likely to want to learn all about Sidney Harman's business and what he has to say about it. This book is a memoir, a how-to guide, a richly told story, and an inspiration, written by an executive with over 60 years of experience.

According to David Metzger, manager of business analysts at Russell Investment Group, Our other goals are to learn something new about our colleagues, our business, and ourselves; do work that helps us achieve our personal ambitions; and have fun—not take ourselves too seriously.

 Volume 13, November 2003

Today's leaders face countless challenges, familiar and unfamiliar. But by following just a few clear principles, leaders can stay on course despite the pull in many directions. We look at five such principles: (1) Create an optimistic culture; (2) Promote collaborative relationships; (3) Encourage exceptional performance; (4) Focus for high impact; (5) Cultivate trust.

The exclamation point in Re-imagine!   epitomizes Tom Peters' new book. It exclaims! It shouts! It cries out for action! Tom Peters is near the edge, if not over it, in a jazzy new offering, spreading his wisdom on Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age.

According to Tom Peters, We seek shelter in the fantasy of a leader who has The Answers. . . . But in an age when all value flows from creativity and initiative, we must imagine and embrace a model of leadership that is loose, open, and perpetually innovative.

 Volume 12, September 2003

Whether it's the NHL, NFL, WNBA, major league baseball -- name your league or team -- there is always something going on in professional team sports. When they are playing effectively, sports teams teach us much about building the Total Team. We'll look at some of those lessons.

We review Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization, a must-have book for those who want to take collaboration to the next level in their organizations. It includes ten principles for building collaborative organizations, along with tables, tools, detailed discussion, and lots of examples.

Joe Paterno has coached the football team at Penn State for over 50 years, with countless successful bowl games, national championships, and coach-of-the-year honors covering his resume. Over the years, he has said a few things about teams and professionalism.

 Volume 11, August 2003

We often talk about the need to think outside the box. Yet typically it's our thinking methods which create that legendary box. We box ourselves in by the way we approach an issue, problem, or opportunity. Here are some useful springboards for thinking to break the box, which involve asking different kinds of questions.

This new volume by the prolific business writer John C. Maxwell is a tribute to first-rate thinking. Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work, sings the merits of thinking in all its facets: intentional thinking, creative thinking, bottom-line thinking, shared thinking, and more.

In Thinking for a Change, our featured book, John C. Maxwell writes, Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date. Side by side with his own sharp comments, he quotes a variety of authors and thinkers.

 Volume 10, June 2003

We are all different. That's a given. The challenge for us in the world of work is to recognize and adapt to style differences. Rather than going through our day thinking that others are flaky or nit-picking, we need to work successfully with them. Here's a tip sheet on how to do it.

Naomi L. Quenk's new book is a serious, detailed work—not a book for the beach. However, it's an excellent summer read for those who are drawn to valuable information and revealing stories about psychological types under stress.

A strategic principle of good leadership is to create an optimistic climate. Ask yourself these questions to review the mood you create on the job.

 Volume 9, May 2003

Having a great project idea, and even having the perfect people to do the job, offer no guarantees that your project will succeed. According to Murphy, if anything can go wrong, it will. But with the right planning and preparation, you can ensure that your project sidesteps any pitfalls and succeeds. In this issue, we'll offer some important tips to skirt Murphy's Law.

In this issue we review two books that approach project management from very different perspectives. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Project Management provides a clearly-written introduction to widely-accepted, time-tested project management tools and processes. The Blind Men and the Elephant, meanwhile, addresses the often-overlooked human side of managing projects, and challenges many of the assumptions of the management theorists.

There is a myth that a good project manager is a powerful, self-confident human being, writes David A. Schmaltz, a consultant and lecturer.

 Volume 8, March 2003

Influencing effectively, gaining support for ideas and plans, listening to understand objections, and collaborating to determine a solution -- these are key responsibilities of both parents and human resource professionals. Here are four steps to take to handle these responsibilities well.

Requesting more staff? Applying for a grant? Responding to an RFP? Kitta Reeds' book on proposal writing may be just the guide you need to bring freshness, serenity, and right thinking to the process of pitching your ideas. In chapters from First You Empty the Cup: Getting Rid of Your Preconceptions About Preparing Proposals to Relishing Rejection and Savoring Acceptance, she brings enlightenment to an often muddy process.

Matt Hyde, REI's Senior Vice President of Merchandising, uses the same techniques to influence one person or several hundred. He thinks of two things: his audience and his message.

 Volume 7, February 2003

What can we learn from our missteps? and What can we do differently next time? are two questions that often come up in project debriefing sessions. But two other key questions -- especially useful in managing your career -- have to do with accomplishments. Ask yourself What did I do well? and How did I do it?

Author Herminia Ibarra, former Harvard Business School faculty member, interviewed 39 members of the professional elite who successfully changed careers despite the risks and potential repercussions. In this book she shares what she learned from talking with them about their missteps and successes.

In the January issue of Inc, reporter Tahl Raz profiled networking king Keith Ferrazzi, currently CEO of YaYa. We offer several Ferrazzi quotes on networking, as deftly captured by Raz.

 Volume 6, December 2002

Talent -- the success of your organization depends upon it. But are your managers taking the right steps to fill key roles with the most talented players? This article uses a creative analogy to share tips on the hiring process.

Author Lou Adler describes his goal as this: To show every manager how to hire one great person. His strategies focus on hiring the best candidate—not the best interviewee. The book merits a close reading, complete with note taking.

Don't hire a piece of paper! says Donald R. Bell, Dean of the School of Business, Pacific Lutheran University. He continues, Too many hirers are too awed by credentials or experience that sounds better than it is. Hire people—not paper.

 Volume 5, October 2002

We've got to stop meeting like this! Does that well-known quote sum up people's feelings about meetings at your company? If so, try these strategies for running productive, effective meetings.

In 1996, the children's TV show Blue's Clues debuted on Nickelodeon. It now airs in about 60 countries, has over 13 million viewers, and generates approximately $1 billion annually through licensed products. This book tells the story of the team behind the show's success.

Leading a meeting without sending out an agenda is like winking at someone in the dark: You know what you are doing, but no one else does.

 Volume 4, September 2002

A leader sets the tone for employee performance throughout the organization. These six specific actions -- which involve vision, values, stories, branding, and other elements -- can lead your staff to higher performance through a work culture that inspires.

This book is all about that useful information-sharing group you belong to—whether it's a roundtable of health-care HR managers or a collection of informal experts on e-learning. You're already part of a community of practice. Read about such vital communities in this review of Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge.

Shellie Saunders, Training and Information Manager at Nintendo, talks about the corporate culture and how it is sustained: The three words that best describe Nintendo's culture are fun, focus, and flexibility.

 Volume 3, August 2002

What has changed lately? In business, roughly everything: the economy, technology, travel, tourism, employment rates, energy costs and availability, regulations, the global marketplace, and more. Change is everywhere -- some of it anticipated, some without notice. In this article, you will find four key questions. Answering these questions will help you prepare yourself and your organization for the inevitable changes ahead.

There is meeting change, and then there is leading change. Read a review of the new book On Leading Change: A Leader to Leader Guide, along with quotes from Peter Drucker and Frances Hesselbein.

Andy Grove, Intel chairman, asks, Do the people you have worked with for 20 years seem to be talking gibberish? Are they suddenly talking about people, products, or companies that no one had heard of a year before? If so, it's time to pay attention to what's going on.

 Volume 2, February 2002

Fast forward is normal speed in business today. As we move through meetings, demos, projects, plans, phone calls, contacts, and videoconferences, it is difficult (if not impossible) to set our days on Pause. And Stop! is our last resort. In this article, you will find strategies -- some new, some tried and true -- for managing time in fast forward.

Sara White, Organization Development and Training Manager at Coinstar, says, At Coinstar we always ask ourselves whether what we are doing is in line with what we want to accomplish.

Would you like quick, practical tips and bits of wisdom on five important topics? Here is some of our latest thinking on communicating, delegating, managing one's career, transforming team conflict, and working with communication styles, taken from five new NetSpeed Leadership modules.

A blended learning program for customer service providers