Leadership Development Blog

Leaders completing a leadership development activity by Learn2

TOP 10 LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES FOR MANAGERS

Learn different ways you can ensure value from leadership development activities.

Change culture in the workplace through leadership development - Learn2

Change Your Leaders to Change Your Culture

Company culture is a defining factor in the success of a business. Rather than being a slogan tattooed on a boardroom wall, company culture must be lived by each individual with the capacity to contribute to it – and that is everyone in your organization. To shift your company culture, you will want to get buy-in and get creative: that’s where Learn2’s effective, strategic and awesome approaches to leadership development come in. Move Beyond Hierarchy to Develop Aspirational Leaders Leadership goes so far beyond titles and power trips. The people in your organization whom others look up to should be empowered to influence positive changes that affect the what, how, and why behind things getting done. When you rely on a top-down approach to company culture shifts, you are less likely to get at the heart of your organization and instigate change that is as positive as it is sustainable and influential. When you work alongside the leaders within your organization and provide them with the tools and freedom to champion tangible and qualitative changes, you will see how this ripple effect creates big waves. What a Positive Culture Shift Looks Like in The Workplace Whether your company is looking at launching a new line of products or a fundamentally new way of being, collaboration and consensus will empower the success of your evolution. Consult not only your leadership teams but also the team members who report to them to better understand the opportunities and challenges that will shape the success of your transformation. Once you have this data, continue to bring your leaders along and engage them in dialogue that will give them a sense of pride of ownership over your organizational changes. A positive cultural shift will look like engagement and excitement. You will recognize your team members are eager to implement new procedures and policies because they understand why they are necessary and how they will support a better way forward. As leaders leverage their capacity to influence and educate, you will see the organization’s new mentality diffuse throughout your company and, hopefully, culminate in expressions of brand evangelism. Best Practices for Leading a Cultural Movement 1. Get Everyone On the Same Page Whether you are addressing a perceived or very real challenge, or you have uncovered a better way of doing things, ensuring your leaders understand the “why” behind your movement will be essential in its success. Communicate your intentions with feel-good messaging that avoids blame and energizes, rather than deflates all those people who have worked hard to get your company where it is today. 2. Engage Your Networks & Leverage Influence When trying to influence cultural change, do not act in isolation. Your new purpose should be established through transparent conversations and invitations for a broad network of collaborators to contribute. The more buy-in you have and more strong personalities you have backing it, the more likely the sway of its messaging will trickle through your organization, invigorating countless people as it does. 3. Celebrate Often When you see team members activating and acting on your cultural purpose, let them know, and don’t be afraid to cheer them on in a public way. When others see their leaders don’t hesitate to applaud brand champions, they will be more likely to go above and beyond to do the same. By focusing on celebration rather than censorship, your team members will feel excited about your cultural shift, instead of being afraid of it. 4. Mix Up the Where and How Behind Your Work If your organization has always done things a certain way, if you maintain the status quo, how are leaders supposed to change things up? Consider introducing new workstations – tangible or ideological – where everyone is encouraged to embrace new beliefs, characteristics and tactics. Inspire cultural shifts that create a sense of fulfillment, excitement and loyalty – from the inside out Our team at Learn2 would love the opportunity to talk with your leadership team about the incredible potential of cultural change. As businesses from around the world rethink the way things are done; whom they want to appeal to; and how best to go about both, our leadership development specialists can be a fantastic resource to rely on. Reach out to us today and let’s see how we can position your organization for visionary changes that spark enthusiasm and inspire more effective means of achieving your aspirational vision.

A company practicing a speak up culture - Learn2

Building a “Speak-Up” Culture in the Workplace

Empowering team members to speak out and speak-up when they witness opportunities for improvement within the workplace can fundamentally improve your organization in immeasurable ways. Speak-up culture is a relatively new concept that has quickly grown in popularity over the last few years. Yet, despite the increasing recognition surrounding this innovative idea, there remains a lack of authenticity and effectiveness with which speak-up culture is implemented and supported. What is Speak-up Culture? Speak-up culture involves creating safe spaces where team members feel comfortable voicing their genuine concerns regarding behaviours or systems they see as counterintuitive or counterproductive to corporate culture. Not only does speak-up culture help prevent disasters by raising red flags on potential crises, but it also creates room for team members to bring forth transformative ideas to seize upon opportunities for growth. How Do You Create a Speak-Up Environment? Organizations of any size can benefit from creating and sustaining a speak-up culture. However, mid-to large-scale companies, where leadership is more likely to be removed from day-to-day operations, will see significant and far-reaching potential when they support team members to speak-up. This is because your decision-makers cannot be everywhere at all times. When focusing on an overarching strategy, it is easy to lose sight of the nitty gritty that makes your organization tick. However, by empowering your client-facing team members, managers – and every team member in between – to recognize opportunities for improvement and know their voices will be heard and valued when articulating them, you will enhance your corporate culture and performance from the inside out. Lead by Example to Build Comfort Around Speaking Up It is not enough simply to tell your employees you want them to speak-up. You need to build an environment of trust, vulnerability and safety to increase the likelihood that anyone will take you up on your offer. By cultivating leaders with great communication skills and who react positively to feedback, you will foster a more dynamic and equitable working environment. It’s important to reward them rather than silencing or scolding team members for identifying areas of risk. Either through tangible bonuses or qualitative celebration, going beyond making it “OK” for team members to voice their position toward showing them their ideas will be warmly welcomed. Empower your Team to Speak-Up How you respond to team members who choose to speak-up will have lasting consequences – especially if the experience is negative. Think strategically about building everyday opportunities for inclusive decision-making and leadership modelling, and empower your leadership team and team members with the tools for productive conversations and conflict resolution to manage these areas in ways that build respect and resilience. Move towards an accountability model that uplifts rather than blames, and you will begin to see how diversity of thought positions your company for a more inclusive, innovative and exciting future. Partner with Learn2 to Benefit from Speak-Up Culture Opening yourself – and your company – up to what can be perceived as criticism is scary. Encouraging a speak-up culture requires courage as much as it does thoughtful processes and careful management. Our Learn2 professional development specialists are well-equipped with the language, best practices and objective lenses to develop and nurture a fruitful speak-culture within your company. We are here to mitigate risk and protect your brand’s best interests while pushing the needle forward in shared decision-making and corporate modernization. Reach out to our team today, and let’s look at areas where we can build new structures and build upon established frameworks to encourage inclusive and authentic leadership. Together, we will create and implement the underpinnings of a feel-good feedback system, so your team members recognize their full value, and your leadership feels comfortable – and empowered – to cultivate it.

Team completing communication training from Learn2

How Communication Training Leads to Better Teams

Regardless of the industry, teamwork can be a core component of day-to-day work life. The more effectively the entire team works together toward common goals, the more profound the outcome can be. Nurturing teamwork within a work environment can be the key to reaching goals and excelling as an organization. The most high-performing teams have usually undergone some level of communication training. Why is communication important in high-performing teams? Below is a look at how communication training leads to better teams and the true value of communication within a team. The Benefits of Communication Training While some people are naturally good at communication, not every individual knows how to put that skill to good use when working with a team. Communication training hones communication and engagement skills to enhance: The better leaders and team members are with every area of communication, the more effectively they can connect with, engage with, and understand one another. This creates positive work relationships, reduces the risk of conflict, and creates better overall workplace efficiency. How Communication Training Leads to Better Teams How does communication improve teamwork? Take a closer look at how communication training leads to better teams. Leads to Better Idea Articulation The best team utilizes the best ideas from every individual to work through challenges and achieve common goals. However, if the members of the team don’t know how to express their ideas, this can mean a lot of good strategy falls by the wayside. Communication training ensures every team member learns how to express their ideas before a crowd, with other team members, or with leaders. More Effective Customer and Client Engagement A company can have the best services/products to offer. However, if the team responsible for interacting with customers or clients cannot communicate effectively, it really doesn’t matter. A well-versed team in communication can apply their skills with each other, but they also apply those same skills in sales situations. Productive Conflict Resolution Conflicts within the workplace can generate an all-out crisis and impede overall workplace culture and efficiency. The better the team and leaders know how to communicate, the quicker they can all navigate through conflict and move on effectively. For example, if there is a conflict between two team members, these team members would face challenges working together to achieve a common goal. Conflict resolution through good interpersonal and listening skills could alleviate the situation. Heightened Productivity A team that communicates well with one another is overall more productive. According to Computer World, 28% of professionals say that lack of communication is the primary cause of failed projects. Poor communication means unclear directions, misunderstood objectives, and unrelated information that hinders productivity. Builds Stronger Business Relationships A well-connected team values its members in every respect. The more team members and leaders are effectively capable of communicating, the stronger their bonds become. This human connection benefits individuals in everyday life, but it also creates a more resilient company culture for the organization. Find Out How Learn2 Can Help with Effective Communication Training Our Learn2 Communication Skills Training workshops address several challenges that can come about with communication in a workplace. From facing challenges with connecting to helping leaders become more effective communicators, let Learn2 help you inject new communication strategies into your team. Reach out to find out more about our Communication Training workshops.

Employee communicating effectively after participating in digital communication skills training

Digital Communication Skills: Ensuring your Message is Received

Communication skills are needed in any job, and with digital communications becoming more mainstream, learning how to get your message across online is a valuable skill. To communicate effectively with your team, it’s essential to understand and practice digital communication skills in the workplace. Why Digital Communication Skills Are Critical in the Modern Workplace  A few statistics prove how important great digital communication skills are in today’s workplace. With the Zoom video conferencing platform logging 3.3 trillion meeting minutes annually and over half a million organizations relying on Microsoft Teams for workplace messaging, teams now need to adapt to embrace the changing digital landscape. Great digital communication skills are critical in ensuring your message gets across online and that your employees are engaged with what you’re saying. As great as it is to have so many ways for everyone to stay connected, it also means more opportunities for poor digital communication skills to impede workflow and have information lost in translation. For example, something as simple as a misworded message in text or an unclear video conference can inadvertently deliver the wrong impression or prevent adequate communication. With remote work here to stay, ensuring your team understands and retains what you’re saying is vital in ensuring your message is received. Common Digital Communication Platforms In the world of digital communication, there is a wide range of platforms used. The most common means of digital communication that your team should be comfortable using include:  Keys for Improving Digital Communication  Even the best communicators can struggle with digital communication skills. On digital platforms, you have many more facets to consider and navigate for effective communication. Therefore, it is important for those within the workplace using digital communication to be excellent communicators already. Learn2 Communication Skills Training works to build excellent digital communication with team members and leaders, teaching the keys to success. Below is a look at three effective techniques to ensure your message gets across as intended. Delivering Crystal Clear Speech and Audio  Someone delivering an important message in person would never step before a team and mumble or skip words. Unfortunately, this is possible if speech and audio are not crystal clear when communicating digitally. So, while speaking on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or another video calling platform, ensure you’re using a crystal-clear voice, as you would in person. A great technique to test your audio is to record yourself giving a short presentation. This will allow you to clearly hear if you are speaking at a too-low volume, not enunciating words, or speaking too fast. This simple test will flag any audio issues before they occur in a meeting or when collaborating with your team. Ensuring Great Video Quality  Good video quality is imperative during workplace meetings carried out via video conferencing. It’s also the quickest way to improve the quality of your communications because you can catch non-verbal cues on camera that would otherwise be missed if you were communicating via audio alone. To ensure excellent video quality, make sure you have adequate lighting, that your camera is centered on your face, and your background is tidy to limit distractions. One of the perks of video conferencing is the ability to speak naturally and use voice variations, visual aids, and body language to communicate better. However, if the quality is lacking, this can lead to misconstrued information.  Using Visual Aids to Enhance Digital Communication  Digital communication can be tricky when it comes to conveying the tone of the message, especially when it comes to strictly text interactions. To enhance your digital communications, we recommend using visual aids, similar to how you would when giving an in-person presentation. Whether giving a live presentation or providing a slide deck, including accompanying visuals will help not only capture your team’s attention but help them retain the information you’re presenting. Grow Your Team with Communication Skills Training from Learn2 Ready to give your team the skills they need to communicate effectively? Learn2’s Communication Skills Training can help. Get in touch to get a conversation started about how our communication training translates to successful digital communication. 

A mentor and an employee after learning how to build a mentorship program with Learn2

How to Build a Mentoring Program

Successful businesses prioritize measuring the return of investment on their time, human resources, and dollars spent. From years of engaging with and developing mentoring programs, we know about the far-reaching, long-lasting positive impact mentorship can have within an organization. While mentorship requires some upfront work, learning how to build a mentoring program is worth the personal and professional rewards this unique development style pays. In support of fostering mentorship best practices and bringing awareness to this meaningful model of professional development, we are proud to share the approaches to facilitating authentic connections and collaborations within your workplace. How Do I Start a Mentorship Program? 1. Understand Your Company’s Needs Look at your organization’s strategic plan to understand how mentorship can serve your short- and long-term goals. First, decide your key objectives, such as leadership development or improved workplace communication, and this frame of reference will help anchor your mentorship program, regardless of how it grows. When structured properly, mentorship can address these foundational business goals, whether you are looking to foster skill-building or raise company morale and retention. 2. Ensure Participants are Invested in Mentorship To stir up enthusiastic participation within your mentorship program, it’s important your team members genuinely want to take part. By ensuring you understand what individuals see as meaningful and communicating how mentorship will help them achieve those personal and shared goals, you will increase the likelihood that your mentorship program will be successful. 3. Define the Goals of the Mentorship Program If you truly understand why you are creating a mentorship program, it will be much easier to determine how fully it has delivered on those goals. For example, if employee satisfaction is your top concern, you can conduct a pre-and post-program survey to garner how participation influences morale. Alternatively, if your key area of focus is skill building, you can set up a measurement program with KPIs that reflect this to look at how mentorship influenced learning. Strategic measurement will allow you to clearly see how effective your programming is, so you can adapt toward improvement and communicate success to further increase participation. Designing & Implementing your Mentorship Program Structure Your Program to Align with the Company Culture After you have established the goals of your mentorship program and have a firm grasp of how best to communicate its appeal, you can get into the nuts and bolts of building the structure of your initiative. When doing this, ensure the program aligns with your company culture and reflects your current operational model. If your company is fairly flexible and your team members engage in a hybrid work model, it only makes sense that they will also be able to participate in a virtual mentorship program that flexes around their schedules and interests. Match Mentors and Mentees Designing your mentorship program will also require a clear understanding of how best to match participants. Again, gaining feedback on preferences could be useful here. Weighing your organizational goals against your workplace culture and preferred methods of engagement will reveal to you whether a “speed dating” model of mentorship, group mentorship or the traditional one-on-one model of mentorship may be best. Communicate Expectations of the Mentorship Program However you decide to approach your company’s mentorship program, be sure to communicate your expectations with your team members clearly. Ensuring they understand the time commitment, goals and expectations will be key in attracting people to the program and increasing the likelihood they follow through with the engagement. Partner with Learn2 to Develop a Successful Mentorship Program Rather than guessing which approaches will best serve your company’s strategic goals and align with your culture, work with our team at Learn2 to pull from decades of professional development experience. Our leadership specialists can not only advise you on how best to align expectations, but we can take care of all the most time-consuming components of building and promoting the program. This will allow your leadership team to focus on everything else that keeps you busy without sacrificing the quality of your new/renewed approach to mentorship. Reach out to our Learn2 professional development coaches today, and let’s establish how best to bring the powerful positivity of mentoring into your workplace. Together, we can revitalize your team members and encourage creativity, critical thinking and upward mobility.

A workplace with a good communications culture after participating in Learn2’s communications training

How to Create a Good Communications Culture

By all rights, a workplace is a community and culture. Much like any community, it thrives when communication is open between leaders and members. The more open and transparent communication is within any group, the more the group can work together as a team. Therefore, creating a good communications culture is critical to any organization. Below is a closer look at the benefits of good communications culture in business and the steps to take to get there. The Benefits of a Positive Communication Culture The communication culture in a workplace impacts everything from team experience and motivation, to productivity and business success. In general, organizations with greater levels of communication have more satisfied teams and leaders. The benefits that come from good communications culture are clear in several regards. Engagement Enhances Team Satisfaction Team members enjoy being in the know when it comes to what is going on within their workplace. Unfortunately, many employees feel like they miss out on important organizational news. Engaged team members feel more valued in their positions. They have a greater appreciation for the organization. Therefore, team satisfaction gets a boost when positive communication practices are in place. Communication Supports Organizational Productivity Did you know 85 percent of team members feel most motivated when their leaders offer regular communication? Worker productivity may even be increased by as much as 25 percent when communication is effective. If productivity is lacking within your organization, there is a good chance that something is off when it comes to communication. Good Communications Culture Means Lower Turnover Rates Have a hard time getting new hires to stay onboard after hiring? If so, lacking communication may be to blame, though can be improved through communication skills training. Companies that invest in creating a good communications culture tend to have lower turnover rates than those that do not. Good Communication Fosters a Sense of Respect and Integrity Open and honest communication encourages team members and leaders to openly discuss concerns. In the end, this helps to thwart issues with conflict, but also fosters a sense of respect, trust, and loyalty in the workforce. Among team members, feeling respected tops the list when it comes to what matters most among team members. The Steps to Establishing a Good Communication Culture When it comes to culture and communication in the workplace, the two are closely interconnected. An organization’s culture influences how communication is carried out. And, communication affects the overall company culture. To align culture and communication in a way that supports good communications culture: Establish a Good Communication Culture with Learn2 Learn2 offers programs focused on communications skills training to foster a good communications culture in your organization. These team building programs elevate how teams and leaders collaborate and engage by training them with engagement skills that make a difference. Ready to find out more about how Learn2 can help? Reach out to get a conversation started about what we have to offer.

Employees in a workplace with positive company culture - Learn2

Why Company Culture Matters

What is Company Culture? Company culture is the who, what, how and why behind everything that goes on in your company. Organizational culture is far more than just a buzz word intended to float around the boardroom. It’s the defining factor in a business’s success, as culture will guide and shape not only internal operations but also the way your brand is perceived by its stakeholders. Culture is the coming together of a set of values and beliefs as much as it is how they are lived on a day-to-day basis by every team member. Why a Positive Workplace Culture is Important A positive workplace culture is nothing short of the perfect embodiment of the chicken and egg situation. If you nurture a vibrant culture, you will produce and retain positive employees, and thus, the happy cycle continues. However, if your workplace culture becomes stagnant or toxic, your employees will suffer and they will, in turn, contribute to the further downturn of your organizational culture. Building a constructive, optimistic and collaborative workplace culture helps organizations achieve many things. Foremost, it is the deciding factor in employee contentment and behaviour. More than that, culture is intrinsically tied up with monetary sustainability and brand recognizability. Let’s dive a little deeper into why company culture is so fundamental to company success and how you can ensure yours is up to par. Promotes Better Performance Company culture matters because it affects the quality of organizational outputs, and defines what actions are taken and how they are taken. If you have a positive, well understood company culture, you will have consistency. All the people in your organization will understand the shared goals they are working toward, and which tactics are permitted to help them achieve those objectives. A solid company culture provides clear directives for resolving conflict, engaging with consumers and rewarding or providing constructive feedback to team members. It informs teams and potential customers what your priorities are and how you will deliver on them. This approach to managing expectations leads to improved communication and mitigates potential confusion and boosts morale and loyalty. Reduces Turnover A formidable company culture is one of the best ways to retain and invigorate effective team members. People are eager to feel as though they are contributing to something meaningful and that their contributions are recognized as valuable (and valued). By clearly and authentically articulating your company culture and bringing your team members along in shaping that culture, you will reap the rewards on the investment of your time and energy. A positive company culture that leads to team members feeling trusted, empowered and invested will significantly reduce turnover and increase the percentage of upwardly mobile individuals who will build toward something sensational. Improves Company Identity What’s internal becomes external, and that’s one of the many – and biggest – reasons company culture matters so much. A company culture that everyone in your organization understands and lives will help you carve out your niche within your competitive market. It will bolster the consistency with which your present yourself to the world. This, in turn, will enhance brand awareness and attractiveness with people who align with your culture. Employees Turn into Teams There’s a reason we are always talking about team members rather than employees. We believe there is a big difference between the two: employees are individuals who punch in and out to make ends meet. Alternatively, team members are people who share a vision and understand how their unique gifts come together to contribute to an overarching strategy. Team members are excited about what they are doing because they truly internalize the how and why behind it. These engaged and productive brand evangelists are the result of a strong corporate culture, which informs, uplifts and rewards them in accordance with an organizational mentality that is easy to buy into. Build your Workplace Culture with Learn2 Partner with Learn2 and our high-energy, high-impact professional development specialists will help you build strong teams, (re)define your corporate culture, or simply articulate and action it in ways that generate excitement, commitment and productivity. Let’s transform, update and implement your corporate culture in ways that make waves.

Ways to build a company culture on trust – Learn2

6 Ways to Build a Company Culture on Trust

Establishing a company culture built on trust will be foundational to your current and ongoing success. Whether you are in the office, juggling a hybrid working model or entirely remote, ensuring your organization prioritizes and projects trust will directly influence the happiness of your teams, the satisfaction of your customers and the quality of your outputs. Our Learn2 team has spent decades working with some truly incredible brands who have recognized the importance of trust but struggled to interweave it throughout every aspect of their operations. We are here to support organizations to see the value of a trust-based company culture and create new or evolve current models to achieve it. Why Trust in the Workplace Matters Trust is the foundation of every successful relationship. Be it a personal or professional partnership, without trust, there is very little to hold a collaboration together. Trust in the workplace creates a sense of safety. When you trust your team members and they extend that same courtesy to you, both parties will be more willing to take creative leaps, exercise accountability and self-govern towards more positive and productive ends. A corporate culture built on trust empowers everyone to save time and energy. By eradicating the need for double and triple checking on one another, each team member will be able to exercise and extend their individual gifts, applying them towards a shared goal. How to Build Trust in the Workplace 1. Welcome Feedback & Do Something With It Creating and sustaining a company culture built on trust requires involving the people you work with in the process. Organizational culture cannot be created in isolation, or it will not stand the test of time. An authentic way to bring your employees onboard and ensure a sense of mutual respect is to actively solicit their feedback. Whether it’s about the annual company celebration, approaches to the strategic vision or policies and partnerships, asking your team members to provide suggestions – and actually leveraging them – will show a flexibility, humility and respect that generates two-way trust. 2. Celebrate Employee Achievements To feel trusted and thereby imbue trust in another person or institution, team members need to feel seen. A quick way to destabilize a corporate culture built on trust is to only address your team members when their actions do not align with your expectations. By recognizing exceptional work and progress, you will show your team members you care for them as individuals, not just cogs in a machine. Plus, they will come to look forward to – rather than fear – directives and communications from leadership. 3. Empower Team Members Through Delegation Your company needs to achieve certain objectives and adhere to overarching values. But, the accomplishment of this does not require that team members continuously forgo their individuality to emulate the exact working style and way of doing things as modeled by their team leaders. We are not suggesting you let your team members run amok with their duties. However, one way to build trust is to provide parameters while giving team members the freedom to add in their personal flare. This approach takes the micro out of management. It also lets your team members know you believe in their abilities and trust in them to get the job done – and done well. 4. Create A Culture of Two-Way Communication We all know what it’s like to have a conversation with someone who is not listening, but rather just waiting (impatiently) for their turn to talk. Active and attentive communication is not only important when building one-to-one relationships, but it’s also essential for contributing to an organizational culture built on trust, and can be developed through team activities like communication skills training. By taking the time to listen to your team members and showing genuine interest in their contributions, they will return the courtesy ten-fold by showing up with enthusiasm and excellence each and every day. 5. Invest in Your Team Members’ Development Investing in your team members’ professional development and well-being shows you care about them as whole people – not just employees passing through. You can nurture their interests and skills through development training and provide support for their mental, emotional and physical well-being. By demonstrating genuine care and compassion for the people you work with, you will earn their trust and felty. Not to mention, happy people are more successful and more likely to stick around. 6. Allow Yourself – And Others – To Be Human “Perfect” bosses who never fail and never show even a glimmer of the person behind the professional make for an extremely rigid workplace. This stark separation between the personal and professional will inhibit the formation of trust by rendering your leadership team inaccessible and disallowing your team members from feeling like they can be their true selves. By asking for help when you need it, being authentic about where you are at and where you need to go, you will display a likeable vulnerability that will create safe spaces for others to flourish within. Build Workplace Trust with Learn2 Building and maintaining trust takes work. It can also require an outside perspective that identifies and articulates areas where you can build upon what’s already there and build anew what hasn’t yet been established. Our Learn2 professional development specialists have worked with organizational leaders of every persuasion to build company cultures based on trust. We create bridges and repair systems in meaningful and authentic ways. Our Learn2 coaches look forward to supporting your team top to bottom – and vice versa – to engage in pivotal conversations and programming that contributes to a strong, long-lasting foundation of trust. Reach out to our team today and we will create a custom plan that addresses your organization’s unique environment and opportunities. Together, we will achieve short- and long-term transformation, all with the power of trust.

Learn how to create a positive workplace culture with a remote team from Learn2

Building a Positive Workplace Culture with a Remote Team

Creating a positive and productive workplace culture demands thoughtful planning and consistency. It requires going so much further than hosting virtual coffee chats, because an authentic and positive company culture is the result of presenting your core values and inspiring your team members to do the same. The active effort of strengthening and maintaining your organization’s governing set of beliefs and behaviors may require forethought, planning and persistence. But, when you work to create a positive culture in your workplace, your good habits will pay off in spades. Company culture directly affects how internal and external audiences perceive you. It drastically influences team member satisfaction and retention, and it provides everyone one in your organization with a way forward when navigating conflict and complexity. Why Remote Work Culture Is So Important Since transitioning – and remaining with – the work-from-home model, many organizations have experienced a decline in workplace culture. What this looks like for some is a lack of engagement, a decrease in ingenuity and idea sharing, burnout and team member exodus. Creating remote work culture is a powerful antidote to these consequences of allowing your sense of community to break down due to physical distancing. Reminding both your team leaders and their team members what is really at the heart of your organization will reinforce the how and why behind what gets done, which will improve the quality of outputs and their sense of belonging and achievement. How to Establish and Maintain a Positive Remote Work Culture Workplace culture is constantly shifting, but it’s important to recognize and nurture a few key attitudes and principles that are key to your organization. Here are some effective ways to build a meaningful remote work culture and enhance buy in from your team members. 1. Demonstrate Workplace Trust Don’t just tell people you trust them. Demonstrate that belief in big and small ways every day. Trust is the single most important component of workplace culture. Without it, your team members will feel disempowered and unwilling to take productive risks. Building trust requires relinquishing micromanagement tendencies and creating safe spaces for team members to fail. 2. Establish Efficient Communication Remember effective communication skills are KEY, but great communication doesn’t require over communicating. When we can’t “pop in” to someone’s office to follow up on something, we can tend to feel more anxious about things like progress and work quality. This may lead to overbooking meetings and overzealous emails. However, continuously checking up shows you lack trust in your team members’ diligence and delivery. Proactively agree upon timelines and adhere to them. Of course, if a deadline is missed, email or pick up the phone, but do not over insert yourself when the project is moving forward as planned. 3. Build Effective Communication Skills Choose the right means of communication to foster team building and trust. Remote work can create a sense of separateness. In response to this, team leaders have the tendency to host more meetings than they ever would have within their in-person work setting. While meetings can be great places for strategic thinking and social interaction, before booking one, consider if an email would suffice. If a meeting is required, ensure everyone has all the information they need ahead of time, so you don’t end up hosting a meeting to set up another meeting. 4. Listen Attentively and Be Positive Be cautious about tone and always treat your team members like people first. With less face-to-face interaction inherent in virtual work, it can be easier to misinterpret the tone of a pithy email. Do not forgo the kindness and politeness that defined your in-person work culture. How Can I Be a Positive Communicator? When relying on emails as your main form of communication, ensure you are humanizing them with “How are you?” and genuine sign offs. This will help reduce unnecessary anxiety and enhance your company’s sense of community from afar. 5. Address Workplace Conflict If you sense or are approached about a conflict, do not let it linger. Bring together the necessary parties to bridge any gaps in understanding and ensure everyone’s perspective is heard and valued. Use positive, outcome-focused approaches to conflict resolution and always provide constructive framework for avoiding similar situations in the future. 6. Celebrate your team members. Don’t let work anniversaries, birthdays or big wins go unrecognized simply because we are not together to share cake and balloons. If your team has achieved something extraordinary, brought on a big new client or shown remarkable perseverance during a project, ensure they know and don’t be shy about sending out an all-team email OR hosting a little virtual get together where you provide gift cards for coffee. Remote Work Culture Strategy to Keep Your Team Engaged and Connected Our Learn2 professional development and employee engagement experts would love the opportunity to help you build a vibrant virtual company culture. We will provide you with suggestions you can easily implement, or more in-depth communication and team building programs. These effective initiatives will be customized to your corporate values and day-to-day operations, so you can reenergize and reunite your teams in their excitement for achievement. Reach out to us today and let’s talk about how to enhance team effectiveness and satisfaction wherever you choose to work from.

How to Develop Strategic Thinking for Your Organization

Strategic thinking is no longer something that only occurs at the topmost levels of your organization. To succeed, you must cultivate insight, foresight and critical thinking in team members and give them opportunities to contribute meaningful value to your way forward. Our Learn2 professional development specialists will help your organization internalize the value, culture, and activities that encourage strategic thinking, and teach you how to develop strategic thinking tactics for your organization. With Learn2 strategies, you will gain a long-term competitive edge that prepares you to overcome challenges and attain greater levels of success. Why Critical Thinking Is Essential for Successful Organizations Critical thinking is a vital component of problem solving and strategic planning. The ability to look at a complex problem and imagine how each different tactic will lead to a particular outcome creates the foundation for sound choice-making and team development. This capacity for visualization empowers you to remain objective under stress and empowers you to generate tangible solutions. Develop an Effective Thought Strategy for Your Organization Encouraging your entire organization to recognize the importance of thinking strategically requires thoughtful positioning and meaningful collaboration and effective communication. Our Learn2 team can guide you through each of the following steps to encourage your team members to approach new challenges and opportunities with an eye toward continual improvement and consistent innovation. Develop and Implement a Vision for Your Organization Something businesses continuously underestimate is the importance of developing a clear strategic plan and ensuring everyone in the organization understands and buys into it. A strategic plan incorporates your guiding principles, overarching goals, and the long-term vision you will work toward. Take the time to create a strategic plan that authentically represents where you are and where you want to be. Then, get your team members on board to support your attainment of those noble aims. Involve Management Teams to Develop Organizational Strategy Buy-in is essential when it comes to achieving a strategic vision. No matter how passionate you are, no individual can pull an entire organization towards the upper echelons of success. You will benefit from encouraging your management teams to inspire their team members to respect your organizational values and want to align with them every single day. Not only will this help achieve great things in service of your bold vision, but it will also reduce conflict, nurture positive collaborations, and create a solid foundation of relationships, ideas, and motivation. Encourage Creative Thinking Across All Departments Creativity is often a buzzword that floats around organizations, but never really seems to land anywhere. Creative thinking is not a pie-in-the-sky ideal; it is the responsibility and privilege of every person who is working towards your vision. By creating opportunities that encourage your team members to feel excited about putting forward new ideas, you will exponentially increase the potential and momentum of your company. Be it a high-energy brainstorming session with an enchanting array of treats or a virtual billboard where team members submit #MondayMotivations or #FearlessFriday thoughts, the more creative you get when soliciting ideas, the further outside-the-box team ideation will go. Recognize Team Successes Team members who are not in leadership positions do not always recognize the reward in speaking up and sharing great strategies. By rewarding courageous questions and exceptional creativity, you will encourage increased thought leaders in your organization. The greater number of safe spaces and conversations you have – where recognition rather than risk is the focus – the more likely you will be to reap the rewards of your aspirational approach to leadership. By creating a qualitative and quantitative reward system for strategic thinking, you will remove the fear around failure and start to welcome more solutions that could save you time and money while securing your vision. Let Learn2 Help to Develop a Strategic Thinking Strategy Tailored to Your Organization You understand your business better than anyone else. While your commitment to the company is inherently positive, sometimes when you are too close to something, it can cloud your vision. When you partner with our Learn2 professional development specialists, you will get access to a nearly limitless pool of resources that will help objectively inform your strategic planning process. Our team will guide you through each step discussed above and hold you accountable to living your mission and taking bold steps to inspire others to do the same. Reach out to Learn2 today and find out how we can make creativity and critical thinking a forefront in your organization.

Emerging leaders learning from Learn2’s leadership development training.

Good Leaders Are Good Learners

What goes into being a great leader? According to the Harvard Business Review, companies spend around $24 billion every year on leadership development. This goes to show that nurturing leaders within an organization is considered an important step. The thing is, even with billions spent on leadership development, not every individual that enters a program walks away as a good leader. In reality, and on the most basic level, good leaders are good learners. And the more a leader is open to learning for the long term, the more valuable that leader will be to the organization. Below is a closer look at the importance of learning in leadership. Reasons Why Leaders Should Always Be Learning Leaders Set the Tone For An Organization Leaders naturally set the tone for the culture of an organization. With that being said, leaders who remain in learning mode keep learning, evolving, and adapting at the core of the company’s DNA. Consider a supervisor who encounters a problem or fails at something. This supervisor quickly regroups and addresses the issue differently, possibly using advice from the team. This exemplary supervisory action can encourage team members to follow the same pattern. But this also encourages perceptions that the workplace is stable and capable. Learning Drives Innovation When good leaders are good learners, they are wide open to fresh opportunities and change. They don’t necessarily expect every skill or strategy that worked in the past to always apply. Instead, the leader looks for new ways to approach a challenge or situation using a combination of learned experience and more innovative tactics. For example, a learning leader is open to proposed ideas from colleagues during a conflict. They’re not afraid to take a new approach or experiment. This mindset drives innovation throughout an organization. It Builds Effective Teams Leaders who keep themselves in a continuous learning mode naturally translates into good team-building skills. Leaders open to evolving know that everyone on the team has the same capacity to grow and learn new skills. Therefore, teams led by leaders that model a “growth” mindset are less likely to be stagnant entities and more likely to have the mindset of their leader—they can flex as needed and as new skill sets emerge. In the end, this can mean that a team is better capable of adapting to and overcoming problems. Learning Helps You Become a Better Leader The best leaders are the best learners. Leaders open to active listening, adapting to change, and honing their skills repeatedly are better capable of setting an example for the team members they lead. This is one reason why executive coaching is such an effective way to enhance company culture. Essentially, the more a leader learns, the more resilient they become. The effects of coaching don’t just benefit the leader, but the entire team. Become a Better Leader with Learn2 In the end, building effective leaders can make all the difference in the overall success of a business. Learn2 can help leaders develop their leadership skills with leadership development training programs. Want to know more about how we can help? Contact us to get the conversation started.

Coworkers laughing after managing workplace conflict with communication – Learn2

5 Ways to Manage Conflict with Better Communication

Conflict in the workplace is often inevitable, though effective resolution of these conflicts can positively impact your team, creating stronger communication and cohesion. Effective communication programs, such as those from Learn2, help organizations improve conflict resolution. Take a closer look at how to manage conflict in the workplace with these communication tactics. Steps to Achieve Conflict Resolution Through Communication 1. Address Issues Directly and Openly As soon as the conflict is recognized, acting quickly becomes necessary. Avoiding or ignoring the conflict allows time for the problem to worsen. Act quickly by immediately addressing the issue openly with the team members involved. Encourage honest conversations and open dialogue. Ask different types of questions—open and closed-ended, opinion-based, and fact-based—to glean and encourage a good understanding of the problem. This makes it easier to address the issue at hand and have an effective discussion. 2. Manage Expectations Managing expectations facilitates more effective communication and alleviates tension that could cause conflict. Team members need to know what is expected from leaders and vice versa. Likewise, leaders need to know what to expect from their peers, just as team members do. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommends the following for managing expectations within the workplace: Ideally, expectations will be set from the beginning, such as when a new team member is in training. However, it is never too late to implement clearly defined expectations among the team. 3. Develop Listening and Communication Skills Creating a company culture in which colleagues actually listen to one another is incredibly important but often overlooked. Active listening is an immensely valuable skill. It has true impacts on effective communication and negating damaging conflict. When differences of opinion are combined with active listening, this allows individuals to see ideas in a new light. Oftentimes, the combination of unique opinions and active listening is the springboard for some great innovations. At Learn2, we offer communication skills training to help your team develop the necessary skills to resolve workplace conflict quickly and effectively. 4. Consider Implementing Neutral Terms and Open Body Language Amid conflict, how you communicate can steer the situation in the right or wrong direction. Do what you can to separate the individual from the conflict. For example, instead of making statements that always begin with “you”, begin statements with “I”. Maintain more neutral terms with open, calm body language during discussions to resolve conflict. This means being mindful of things like tone, posture, or hand gestures. Sometimes, the way something is said or the body language you hold is more eliciting than the words being expressed. 5. Understand and Respect Opposing Viewpoints Every team member views their workplace environment and the people around them through a personalized lens. Diversity, background, culture, skill sets, and more are unique to the individual, so individuals interpret things differently, but they also communicate in unique ways. One way to manage conflict resolution through communication is to embrace these differences. For example, if you hold a meeting with the entire team, understand that each team member may walk away with their own perspective on what took place or what was discussed. Learn Effective Conflict Resolution with Communication Skills Training With effective communication strategies in place, everything from everyday conflicts to potential crises evolves into productive talks and solutions. Learn2 is a leader in communication skills training. We offer workshops and training sessions that address typical communication challenges that arise in the workplace. Get in touch with us to find out more about our leadership development and communication training programs.

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