For the majority of people I think that achieving fulfilment in their job role is really important and I’m no different – the days I love the best are the ones where I know I’ve made a positive difference to an individual’s professional life by enhancing their knowledge/skills/behaviour. Sometimes I can see the difference through encouraging them to participate in practice sessions or simply through a change in the individual’s demeanour and attitude.
The American author Ken Blanchard first heard the phrase “feedback is the breakfast of champions” from a former colleague of his, Rick Tate. And isn’t it the truth? However, many people in the world of Learning & Development rely heavily on the post-course ‘happy sheet’ to gauge the effectiveness of the learning that has taken place. There’s nothing wrong with immediate post-course delegate feedback – it can be very insightful and useful but it only gives you a snapshot.
I wanted to share with you some feedback that I had recently about a 2-day programme that I ran for Service Advisors. One thing you never know as a trainer when you’re facilitating group training is the mind-set that your delegates arrive with. Unknown to me at the beginning of the programme, one of the delegates who was attending the training had had enough of their job, the significant challenges of meeting and exceeding customer expectations, the ever-increasing levels of change, the relentless focus on converting ‘red’ items into sold work and so on. He had informed his manager that he’d ‘lost his mojo’ and wanted to begin the process of reducing his hours to make the pain go away – it was probably inevitable that at some point he was going to resign.
The Group Aftersales Manager rang me during the week following the training. He told me that the individual concerned had gone back to his dealership the next day and retracted his request. He was energised, enthused and the learning intervention had equipped him with new skills and coping strategies that he wanted to put into practice straight away. In reality, it also saved the business the significant financial burden in having to recruit a replacement for him and all of the associated costs involved.
It is feedback like this that helps me to know that I’m making a positive difference to business performance. If you feel that you or your business could benefit from my help please contact me for an obligation-free chat.