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Senior managers mistakenly believe that people skills training programs by themselves can change how employees relate to each other. Typically, even people who want to change eventually return to their comfortable behavior, and so dysfunctional patterns remain the same. Employees are often cynical about such programs because they know that in the end almost nothing changes. On the other hand, organizations can gain a far better return on their investment in people skills training if they would do three things. First, assess people skills in advance of the training. The most practical, effective way to do this is 360-degree feedback, which was designed to provide a reasonably objective assessment of skills that are otherwise hard to observe, quantify and measure. Identifying the weak skill areas has two huge benefits. For one thing, training programs can be focused on the areas of highest need, making the best use of limited training funds. Also, attendees will have a powerful motivation to change: the weak areas have been spotlighted, and a repeat assessment can be administered later to validate improvement. Second, knowing about weak areas and trying harder may not be enough to improve workplacee performance. The behavior patterns learned throughout a lifetime often cause problems when working with others. So behavior-based training and development programs targeted to the weak areas may be needed to show employees what they should be doing to be effective. Third, consciously set up a workplace environment designed to reinforce the desired changes. The most effective approach is to develop managers first, then the supervisors, so they can establish the right team expectations and coach employees effectively. If leaders understood just how ingrained interpersonal behavior patterns really are, they would appreciate how crucial it is to have regular reinforcement of new skills. Once they accept that training programs are only the first step, they'll see that a supportive environment and follow-up coaching are the only way they'll get a pay-off for their considerable investment in people skills training.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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