Interview Archives - Training Unleashed

Making Training that Sticks with Meredith Bell

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan’s guest is Meredith Bell, Author, Speaker, Publisher of Assessment & Development Tools, and president of Performance Support Systems is the guest in this episode of Training Unleashed. Evan and Meredith have a great conversation about how to make training that sticks.

Meredith explains their theory for the reason training doesn’t stick is because there usually isn’t any follow up after the training is done. Lots of people are sent to training and it’s an event. According to Meredith, when they get back to their job they’re playing catch up. So, when they encounter a situation where they can use the new skill they automatically revert back to doing it the way they did it before training. And that’s because the brain hasn’t had a chance to rewire itself for the new behaviour.

To help the brain rewire itself, a process needs to be put in place where people are meeting regularly ideally with an accountability coach—whether it’s by phone, by a platform, or in person. “We want to have the connection to real people where there’s a structured process for talking about follow up,” explains Meredith. What commitment did I make? Did I do it? If I didn’t do it what did I do instead? If I did it, how did it go? And the learner can also support and encouragement from the coach, in addition to accountability.

Meredith and Evan discuss the process that Performance Support System follows to help make training stick: Focus, Action, Reflection. But you’ll need to listen to the episode to get more details on how to add this follow up process to your training to make it stick.

Remember to listen to the end to get Meredith’s BIG tip. Details about Meredith’s giveaway are below.

Meredith’s Giveaway

Meredith has three offers for Training Unleashed listeners.

A free ebook that will help you discover how to improve the way you listen so you really “get” what someone is trying to tell you and create a stronger relationship at the same time.

A free quiz to rate how well you and the people you work with interact with each other.

And lastly, a call with Meredith.

All are available by visiting: https://growstrongleaders.com/trainingunleashed/

About Our Guest

Meredith Bell is co-founder and President of Performance Support Systems, a global software company providing assessment and development tools for the workplace. Their award-winning tools and books guide leaders and team members to make the shift from KNOWING to DOING. The result is permanent improvements in the way people interact with each other.

Meredith is an expert in leader and team communications, the author of two books, and the host of the Strong for Performance podcast. She’s worked with thousands of business leaders, Human Resources professionals, and Learning & Development executives to successfully implement their tools. Meredith co-authored her latest book, Connect with Your Team: Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills, with her business partner, Dr. Dennis Coates. In it, Meredith and Dennis provide an unprecedented, practical step-by-step how-to guide for improving communication.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-05-08T20:28:36-04:00May 8, 2021|

Fixing Workplace Injustice with Kim Scott and Trier Bryant

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan is joined by Kim Scott and Trier Bryant, co-founders of Just Work LLC. They have a very interesting discussion about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace and how we can be part of the solution to fix workplace injustice.

Just Work, the company, takes the theory from Kim’s most recent book, Just Work, and puts it to work. According to their research, bias, prejudice and bullying are the root causes of workplace injustice and each cause problems in the workforce, AND there are different ways to respond to each whether it is happening to you or you are an upstander.

Not only do Kim and Trier provide great examples of how to respond to bias, prejudice and bullying, they also give guidance on what leaders need to have in place in the workplace to help guide them, whether that be values, a code of conduct or consequences. But you’ll need to listen to the episode to get all of the great tips and guidance they provide.

And, their tips and guidance aren’t just for the workplace… think about children having to deal with bias, prejudice and bullying. Their advice can be used where ever you encounter injustice.

This is a great interview with Kim and Trier sharing their experiences, and tips to help you create the kind of environment where everyone can do their best work and enjoy working together. Remember to listen to the end to hear their BIG tip and giveaway available on the Just Work website.

Kim and Trier’s Giveaway

Kim and Trier are currently curating personal stories to help bring the Just Work framework to life. They invite Training Unleashed listeners to share your story with them by completing an online form on their website: https://www.justworktogether.com/share-your-story

About Our Guests

Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: Get *t Done Fast and Fair as well as Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. Trier Bryant and Kim co-founded the company Just Work to help organizations and individuals create more equitable workplaces. Jason Rosoff and Kim co-founded the company Radical Candor to help people cultivate caring and candid relationships at work by implementing a feedback-first culture.. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Earlier in her career Kim managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.

Trier Bryant is Co-Founder and CEO of Just Work LLC. She is a strategic executive leader with distinctive Tech, Wall Street, and military experience spanning over 15 years. She’s previously held leadership roles at Astra, Twitter, Goldman Sachs, and proudly served as a combat veteran in the United States Air Force as a Captain leading engineering teams while spearheading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives for the Air Force Academy, Air Force, and DoD. Additionally, Trier advises leading companies like Equinox, Airbnb, SoundCloud, Alto, Rockefeller Foundation, and others on their talent and DEI strategies. Trier has an unwavering commitment to employees within organizations to create a more equitable, inclusive, and thriving workplaces producing prosperous companies. She has been featured as an influential DEI practitioner by several publications and outlets from USA Today to CNN and SXSW. Trier earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering with a minor in Spanish and Leadership from the United States Air Force Academy (Beat Army, Sink Navy) where she played Division I volleyball. Trier enjoys spending time with her close knit family who taught her to live by the family motto “…good enough isn’t.”

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-29T09:16:46-04:00April 27, 2021|

Applying Peer Group Learnings to Business Teams with Leo Bottary

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan’s guest Leo Bottary, founder and managing partner of Peernovation, LLC, gives you a different way of thinking about the culture of accountability. The conversation centers around applying the learnings from peer groups into teams in your business. Leo explains how peer groups can help with employee retention and engagement, AND retention of information taught in training!!!

When Evan asked Leo, how he decided to take what he learned about peer groups and recreate it inside an organization? he explained the concept has been a decade in the making. That in looking at what made a peer group effective and what made a team effective—there were a lot of similarities. In peer groups you have “individuals who come together to help one another achieve their individual goals. While a team comes together to achieve a collective goal or shared work product.”

Evan asked Leo to tell us what he’s learned about peer (groups) that can be brought into an organization?

One of the things that Leo touched on is the concept of psychological safety being fundamental to peer groups. That when people come together as a group, they need to trust each other and feel that they can safely talk about what they don’t know, what they’re afraid of and what mistakes they’ve made. Leo continued by explaining, “When they come together, they’re sharing, often times deep personal and business issues with one another, they have trust that what happens in the room stays in the room. And that they’re helping one another in that way. And in teams it’s not a lot different, you’ve got to be able to share and be open with one another as peer groups do.”

Leo shared five things that he thinks are important learnings from peer groups that can be applied to teams, as well as the best way to roll out the concept to your organization. Listen to the entire interview to hear them all… and remember to stay to the end to hear his one big tip!

About Our Guest

Leo Bottary is the founder and managing partner of Peernovation, LLC. He is a sought-after thought leader on Peer Advantage and Peernovation, emerging disciplines dedicated to strategically engaging peers to achieve personal and organizational excellence. A popular author, keynote speaker, and workshop facilitator, he also serves as an instructor for Rutgers University and Opinion Columnist for CEOWORLD Magazine.

Prior to teaching for Rutgers, Leo was an adjunct professor for Seton Hall University, where he led graduate-level online learning teams and on-campus residencies in the areas of leadership and strategic communication. In April 2015, he was named adjunct teacher of the year for its College of Communication and the Arts.

Earlier in his career, Leo served in senior leadership positions at Mullen and Hill & Knowlton, where he was also Director of Client Service for the US. In the mid-1990s, he founded a public relations agency that a leading industry trade publication hailed as a regional powerhouse, new media pioneer, and great place to work. Leo earned a BA from Jacksonville University, an MA in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, and completed his doctoral coursework at Northeastern University.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-21T14:19:17-04:00January 20, 2021|

Establishing a Noble Purpose with Elizabeth Lotardo

In this energizing episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with Elizabeth Lotardo, VP of Client Services at McLeod & More (and self-proclaimed training nerd) about the concept of noble purpose behind the book, “Selling with Noble Purpose,” that Elizabeth co-authored. According to Elizabeth, purpose-driven organizations score high in customer retention, employee engagement and other quantitative metrics.

Evan kicked off the interview by asking Elizabeth, “what is a noble purpose?”

Elizabeth’s response, “A noble purpose is a declarative statement about the impact you make on someone else. You’ll hear a lot in business we talk about the why, the higher calling, some people call it a mission or a vision, we call it the noble purpose. It is the essence of why you exist as a business or why you exist as a person.”

Evan continued the conversation by asking, “what was the genesis of the idea” of a noble purpose?

“The genesis of the idea is that people want to feel good. Beyond food and shelter we have core needs as human beings for belonging and significance. We want to be part of something greater than ourselves and we want our work to matter.”

Elizabeth continued, “[t”he crux of nobel purpose, Selling with Noble Purpose, the first edition which obviously came first, was born out of a research study which identified how that feeling of pride how that impact lens played out in a sales capacity. What we know is that sales is really measurable and you can see now from the research a clear difference in sales and in other professions of the people who do keep that purpose at the fore of their heart who show up every day to make an impact on their colleagues and customers and the people who are only focused on their own individual metrics.

“The difference in performance is really clear on an individual level and of course an organizational level. We’re seeing all kinds of data that the organizations who operate as purpose-driven businesses hit it out of the park on metrics like customer retention, innovation metrics, employee engagement, all those quantitative things we work so hard to adjust.”

Elizabeth notes that being a purpose-driven leader or being a purpose driven employee is a learnable practice and the way you learn it is by through closely connecting with the impact you have on others. She shares an exercise to help people find their purpose or connect to the purpose of your organization. But, you’ll need to tune into the episode to get her recommended exercise.

And, don’t forget to listen to the end of the episode for Elizabeth’s tip!

Elizabeth’s Giveaway

If you think your sales team could use a little more purpose, check out our assessment: Creating a Tribe of True Believers today!

About Our Guest

Elizabeth Lotardo is a consultant, researcher, and co-author of Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work that Makes You Proud.

As the VP of Services at sales leadership consultancy McLeod & More, Elizabeth leads sales transformation initiatives for clients like Oracle, G Adventures, and Fiserv. She is a popular LinkedInLearning author, and her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on NPR.

With an undergraduate degree in advertising from Boston University and a Master’s in Organizational Psychology, Elizabeth has enabled firms to drive employee engagement, competitive differentiation, and ultimately revenue.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-21T15:15:52-04:00January 12, 2021|

Creating a Framework for Well-Being with Paul Sherman

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with Paul Sherman, executive coach and co-founder of Ask What Matters?! about the importance of well-being and the benefits of well-being as a learnable skillset and how it enhances performance and engagement in the workplace.

“When we think about wellness think about physiological wellness…” Paul explained, “Well-being is an entirely different construct. It builds on wellness. So when you think about well being, I see myself in the training and well-being business. Well-being is fundamentally about having people be grounded at their best selves. So when you think about the components of well-being, yes there’s the physical health side, which encompasses wellness, but you also look with well-being, you look at having the sense of purpose. Having clarity about who you are fundamentally. What you want in the world. Who you want to be in the world. So, there’s an element of personal leadership with well-being. And there’s also, too, an element of social connection.”

Paul continued, “so when you look at the three prongs of well-being: it’s purpose, it’s health—both physical and emotional, and connection.”

Evan asked Paul to go deeper into leadership and mindset, and how they relate to well-being.

“If you cut to the chase, well-being is fundamentally about you being your best person. In all aspects of your life. You being as non-reactive and as creative and responsive as you can be. And I use the word leader when I talk about well-being because when your well-being is high, you’re actually the leader of your life. A leader across the board. In all aspects of your life.”

Listen to the episode to learn more how you can create a framework for well-being in your organization to enhance performance and engagement.

Paul’s Giveaway

We are pleased to offer Training Unleashed listeners a complimentary Kindle version of our book, Ask What Matters?! A Practical Approach to Your Total Well-Being. Email Paul, [email protected] to get your copy today.

About Our Guest

Paul Sherman, executive coach and co-founder of Ask What Matters?!, is a certified professional coach, workshop leader, and author specializing in individual, team and organizational performance. Over his 25 year career he has brought his unique blend of people and business acumen to over 50 major corporations and government agencies worldwide. His extensive experience includes leadership development, organizational assessment, and implementing strategic change initiatives including mergers, product launches, and new information technologies.

A pioneer in the emerging field of Team Coaching, Paul is co-founder of Team Coaching International (TCI), a global coaching services company with a presence in 45 countries. He is co-author of Team Coaching: A Systems View, published in the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations. He has been a featured speaker on the topic of team coaching vs. team building at the annual international conference of the Association for Talent Development. Paul’s team coaching specialties include cross-functional, project and leadership teams in a variety of disciplines and industries.

As an executive coach Paul is committed to helping middle and senior level managers to develop their values-based authentic leadership in the context of managing for results. He is a firm believer that in order to change behavior, one must look at the underlying thoughts, beliefs and feelings that drive behavior. His clients characterize his coaching style as candid, passionate, feedback-intensive, empathetic, authentic, pragmatic, and business-focused.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-21T14:21:42-04:00December 15, 2020|

Large Group Orientation with Amanda Gallant

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with Amanda Gallant, Director of Human Resources at Sunday River about orientation, training across multiple lines of business and training volunteers.

As with many seasonal businesses, Sunday River has challenges that come with transitioning to their busy season and adding over 1100 team members with 400-500 new hires—especially this year with the added challenge of managing the transition during a pandemic.

When Evan asked about the big idea Sunday River implemented to manage orientation this year, this is what Amanda had to say:

“Our orientation, up until to this year, is super fun. We have this big blow out every October typically where we get 400 to 500 people that come back to the resort—it’s typically rehires and very few new hires that come to this big orientation. But it is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and we talk about the resort updates, new things—capital project that we’ve done over the summer. It’s like our welcome back homecoming party. Um, so this year with COVID it’s been a challenge because we still want to have this fun atmosphere and community building piece of it but we really can’t get a group of 400 to 500 people in one room at the same time.

So, what we decided to do, and actually our CEO of Boyne, Allan Curcher, sent an email to us promoting what a large retailer was doing in their parking lots to get more people just to be outside and do things. It was a drive-in movie theatre. It was in this retailer’s parking lot. And so we were looking at it… and he was proposing it with the idea of can we do this with guests? Is there something—a fun activity we can do with guests. One of our team members on the senior team members, our GM of the Summit Hotel said, ‘why don’t we do that for orientation?’

Listen to the whole episode to find out more about Sunday River’s COVID-style orientation.

About Our Guest

Amanda Gallant is the Director of Human Resources at Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine. She started at the resort in 2013, holding various positions in the Marketing department before transitioning into Human Resources in 2017. Amanda graduated from Husson University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Administration. Having grown up in the Western Maine Mountains, her return to the area after college was a natural fit.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-21T14:22:33-04:00December 8, 2020|

Using the Entrepreneurial Operating System for Growth with Jeff Chastain

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with Jeff Chastain founder of Admentus, Inc. about how he helps businesses become more operationally efficient and effective using the Entrepreneurial Operating System.

Jeff explains his approach to Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), “EOS is based on the foundation, it’s like the old parable of build a house on the rock or build it on the sand, the house is the same. Every business is going to face storms, whether it’s a global pandemic or a key employee leaving—it all comes down to the foundation.”

He continues, “What have you got your house built on? What do you have your business built on? And if you have a solid foundation on it, when it comes time for the storm, or when it comes time to scale or grow, it’s much easier to do so successfully, because you’ve got that foundation laid.”

Don’t forget to listen for Jeff’s tip at the end.

Jeff’s giveaway

A free 90-minute workshop! Visit http://www.admentus.com/workshop to sign up for the workshop.

Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-21T14:24:27-04:00December 2, 2020|

Storytelling Video with Trevor Rappleye

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Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-22T10:38:39-04:00October 27, 2020|

Business Coaching with Sky Stephens

Evan sits down with Sky Stephens. Sky is a coach with Association of Professional Builders. APB helps transform custom home builders into professional home builders through marketing and coaching support. Some topics discussed include how APB got started and what it is today, how to get companies to buy into business coaching, best practices for keeping training alive and exciting, thoughts on the benefits of having a company book club and much, much more.

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Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-22T12:08:00-04:00October 19, 2020|

Responsibility and Accountability with Ed Evarts

In this episode Evan Hackel sits down with Ed Evarts. Ed Evarts is the founder and president of Excellius Leadership Development, an organization focused on coaching mid- to senior- level leaders and their teams in business environments. Some topics discussed include Responsibility vs. accountability, advice on how to have a successful career, how responsibility impacts companies, thoughts on business culture and milestones and more. To learn more about Ed and his company Excellius visit https://www.excellius.com .

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Training Unleashed Administrator2021-04-22T10:44:51-04:00October 8, 2020|