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Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.'s Articles

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Senior Managers Are Accountable for Training Results, Too The conventional wisdom: Trainers should be held accountable for training results. The reality: Many people - including senior managers - play key roles to influence whether training translates to workplace performance and has an impact on business results. Who's Accountable for Learning - Trainers, Learners or the Learners' Bosses? Traditionally, trainers are held accountable for the results of training. In truth, the learners themselves, as well as the learners' direct managers, have a major impact on whether training ultimately transfers to improved workplace performance - and they should be held accountable, too. Personality Self-Awareness - A Doorway to Self-Improvement An essential first step to becoming a better, stronger person is being aware of your unique personality - what's emphasized in your thought and behavior patterns, and what's not. The Payoffs for Self-Awareness You can't manage what you don't understand. Self-awareness gives you the ability to make the most of your strengths, work around the less emphasized areas and interact with others more effectively. Why Most Training Doesn't Transfer to Changed Behavior in the Workplace Most leadership and team training doesn't change behavior at all. So is the investment in leader development worth it? Once you know why most training doesn't "stick," you understand what it takes to ingrain improved workplace behavior. Are You Risking Your Life With That Cell Phone Call? Authorities discourage talking on the cell phone while driving. There is a commonsense neurological explanation for why you may be risking your life when you do so. What It Takes to Make Permanent Improvements in Leader Performance While it's crucial that organizations improve the way line leaders lead, the vast majority of leadership development programs result in little or no behavior change. This is because of a lack of understanding of how skills are formed in the brain and what it takes to establish this kind of learning. A new approach to professional development called Train-to-Ingrain is designed to make permanent changes in workplace performance. How Training Transfers to Business Results...Or Not The authors of "High Impact Learning" have some outside-the-box things to say about whether training transfers to changes in behavior and desired business outcomes. Does Training Change Behavior?...What the Experts Say For decades corporate executives have invested billions of dollars annually into training and development, and the result has been little or no change in behavior. This shocking waste of resources has been documented by experts during the past 29 years. Building the Character of Young Children When children grow into adults, they need to be strong enough to live fulling, effective lives on their own. This should be the goal of parenting: to help kids grow stronger and better as people every day. To Capture Each Precious Moment You Have to Pay Attention Is life passing you by too quickly? Do you long for rich life experiences in which minutes seem like hours, or days? The key is awareness. Advice for People Who Are About to Receive Feedback To improve your performance, you have to know what you're doing well now and what you should be working on to improve. This is hard to determine without feedback. But if you don't ask for it, listen to it, show appreciation for it, accept it, and do something about it--you may discover that people are reluctant to give it to you. The Scientific Explanation for the Power of Hope Your body needs a strong immune system to heal itself. Hope is something that happens in the brain, and it triggers the distribution of hormones that are needed for regeneration. Make a Deposit in the Bank Account of Self-Confidence People of great wisdom have spoken about the value of confidence for thousands of years. Self-confidence is earned through achievements, small or large. But you have to give yourself credit; you have to make a deposit in your account of self-confidence. Skill Building: What Happens in the Brain Learning a new leadership skill, or any new behavior pattern for that matter, is something that happens in the brain. When you learn what that something is, you appreciate why it takes so much practice and repetition to ingrain a new skill. Are You Really Ready to Lose Weight and Keep It Off? Anybody can lose weight, but the key is keeping off. That means making some lifestyle changes, and it's not easy to change habits of eating or exercise. It can be done, though. Lots of people do. Prochaska's model tells you whether you're ready to do all the work that will be needed to replace old patterns with new ones. Empowerment: The Real Meaning of a Misunderstood Concept How can employees perform if they aren't empowered? Unfortunately, the concept of "empowerment" has been generally misunderstood by managers. If you don't know what empowerment means, how can you do it effectively? Nurturing Character Strength Nurturing strengths of character in their kids is a big part of what it means to be a parent. Kids aren’t suddenly ready to handle responsibility just because they’ve come of age. They have to learn this from experience. Up Against the Wall When it comes to hard health choices, most people won't face the facts and decide to do the right thing until they're faced with dire consequences. Unfortunately, in many cases it will be too late. The Brain is Where Your Personality Comes From If you understand the basic organization of the brain, you can see how personality is formed and why people have so much in common but in the end are so different. What it Takes to Eliminate a Counter-productive Behavior Pattern If there’s no delete button for a behavior pattern, how can we replace a bad habit with a good one, if the bad habit has been reinforced over a lifetime? A Few Words about Giving Advice A good heart may lead you to want to help someone in need. But giving people advice often causes more problems than it resolves. So what should you do instead? A Lesson about Advice and Encouragement When somebody tells you about their problems, usually all they want is someone to listen and understand. The First Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Learning The trainer was outstanding and everyone raved about the course? But will anything change? A year from now, will anyone actually be doing what was taught in the course? It turns out that whether people apply their new skills depends more on what happens after the course... Keeping Weight Off: The Personality Connection You may lose weight, but will you keep it off? If that's your goal, you'll have to change some things. What will be easy for you? What will be hard? That depends on your personality... The Best Encouragement: Listening with Empathy In a world full of challenges and frustration, we what we need most of all is someone who will listen to us and understand what we're going through. But doing this well isn't so easy... The Truth: You're Neither an Extrovert Nor an Introvert - You're Both The old terms "Extravert" and "Introvert" oversimplify and wrongly categorize people. Current science has demonstrated that the average person has the potential to behave in both ways practically every day. The Second Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Feedback Most organizations arrange for formal feedback only once, expecting that this will result in the desired behavior change. The brain doesn't work that way. To change a work habit, motivated learners will need to work at it for months, and they'll need lots of feedback along the way to let them know know how they're doing. Recipe: Anasazi Chili Beans My wife and I eat for both health and flavor, and she believes that we should eat a half-cup of beans every day because of the protein, fiber (people need 30 grams per day) and trace minerals. This recipe delivers lots of both. Recipe: Baked Salmon and Onions with Beans This recipe is a great example of how to combine nutrition-rich "power foods" while kicking the taste up a couple notches. Character Strength Character strength is a major success factor, but very few people really understand what it involves. The Third Pillar of Reinforcement: Coaching A new skill must be reinforced for quite a while before it starts to feel natural, and only then will you use it habitually. A vital component of reinforcing the new skill is coaching. About Courage... Life is full of risks, small and large. That means to get what you want, you'll need to exercise some form of courage on a regular basis. Extraordinary Success: Are You Willing to Pay the Price? Highly successful people know that there’s really no secret to success. That "overnight success story" is usually the result of years of hard work. The Fourth Pillar of Reinforcement: Accountability Why would an organization invest in training if they didn't expect people to improve their workplace performance? That return on investment isn't likely without an extended program of follow-through reinforcement. There are ways to tell whether learners have actually changed their behavior, and holding people accountable helps to motivate them to do the hard work of establishing new patterns. Recipe: Shrimp Boil Fast, easy, delicious, and good for you...this dish has been my favorite since I was a little boy. All Men Are Not from Mars, and All Women Are Not from Venus It's much easier to stereotype people than it is to recognize the complexity and diversity of people. Broad generalizations may make for fun reading, but they don't help you relate to others. If You Value the Relationship, Let Go of the Hurt In any kind of relationship, it’s possible somebody will get hurt, even if the parties mean well. The question is, how long will you stay hurt? Mental Toughness...When It Counts During tough times, will your emotions get the better of you, or will you be able to clear your mind and deal with the situation? Intimacy Sexual intercourse is only physical intimacy. The problem is that sex is often so physically exciting that it produces powerful emotions that can be mistaken for the love and affection of relationship intimacy. Uncertainty...Risk...You'll Need Courage to Succeed Venturing into unknown territory can be scary. What if it doesn’t work out? Who knows what could happen? In the Zone: What's Really Happening in the Brain The study of how the brain functions gives an elegant explanation of peak "in-the-zone" performance. Recipe: Herbed Veggie Turkey Frittata Here's an amazing breakfast treat that's low in calories and high in taste. Are You a Life-Long Learner? Not everyone is on the journey of becoming a stronger and better person. But most highly successful people are. Oprah on Loyalty If you want to know who's loyal to you, notice who sticks by you during the tough times. Give and Serve...for the Right Reasons You can serve your neighbors and community. The idea is to give what you can to something you really care about. A Familiar Tale of Woe...and the Practical Solution It's amazing how many billions of dollars are wasted annually by corporate training that fails to improve workplace performance. The fault lies in seeing training as an event, which is never enough to alter behavior patterns that have been ingrained for decades. 360-Degree Feedback: A Tale of the Technology Employees aren't likely to improve their performance if they don't know how they're doing. 360-degree feedback solves this problem handily, and what used to be a rigid, cumbersome expensive service is now quite flexible, easy to use, and affordable. Compassion and Empathy The movie "Pay It Forward" inspires thoughts of compassion, a human trait that has been heralded by the great minds for thousands of years. It Helps to Know How Learning Happens You can't manage what you don't understand. Learning happens in the brain. Here's how it happens. Why I Exercise When your health fails, you die. I was never an athlete. But now, as a senior citizen, I exercise to make my body stronger, to protect myself against injury and disease. People Will Like You for Who You Are Relationships are based on trust. If you put up a false front, eventually that trust will be lost, along with the relationship. Love, Emotion and Your Brain How the brain and body interact to produce emotions is a fascinating story. Orange Carrots If raw carrots don't appeal to you, try carrots prepared this way... Patience Is Making Me Stronger Being patient has never been my strong suit, but I'm working on it and I've experienced some wonderful benefits. Four Factors That Contribute to Effective Workplace Performance A supervisor can have a positive impact on all four factors, thereby helping a team member improve performance. Before Working on Getting Stronger, Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses You can be in control, and you can improve your situation if you begin with self-examination and self-awareness. Four Reasons Why Employees Take Performance Feedback Seriously If 360-degree feedback isn’t linked to compensation or personnel action, what would motivate a person towards self-improvement? Don't Take Best Friends for Granted It takes a lot of time, effort and commitment to cultivate a close, long-lasting relationship with another person. My Guilty Pleasure: A Steak Sandwich I'm blessed to be married to a woman who thinks cooking is a form of creativity and fun. But every now and then, I've got to have my steak sandwich. Optimism Makes You Strong for Life When bad things happen, I need to be strong enough to recognize the possibilities, to work with the resources available to me. Recipe: Curry Chicken Salad Very low cal...very high taste...a great lunch! Joy to the Fishes? The Indian River Lagoon in Florida has more diverse sea life than any other body of water in America. But it is being slowly polluted and the sea life is dying. Can the facts presented by a world-renowned expert do any good? Should You Spank Your Child?...A Story Some say there is a time and a place and a right way to hit a child to instill discipline. Maybe this is true. Here's a story to consider in the debate... Composure: Being Strong for Life Unless you live a protected life, your next crisis is probably already on its way, coming at you from the future. It's reassuring to know that you have the inner strength to stand up to the surprises life hands out and just deal with the situation. Using 360-Degree Feedback to Assess Whether Performance Is Improving Instead of evaluating whether there’s a causal link between assessment and the bottom line, it makes more sense to evaluate whether developmental programs are actually improving performance. When Personalities Clash, Stretch for Rapport A revealing story about my encounter with someone who is very different from me. Mass Extinction Most biologists believe the Earth is undergoing the sixth mass extinction to occur since the beginning of the planet. Even if you're concerned, the problem is so huge that it's hard to think about it. Never Give Up! Sometimes the journey is hard, like being in the ring with a brutal foe. More often than not, the secret is simply to keep on fighting. The Reinforcement Imperative Learning a professional skill is like learning a sport skill. If you want it to feel comfortable and natural and if you want to do it well as a matter of habit, it will take lots of practice. We Can Serve Even if you have only a small amount of time to give, that’s all it takes to positively influence someone else’s life. Others Will Help You Achieve Your Goals If you help others, they’ll be willing to help you. A Simpler, More Spiritual Life I think it's wonderful that the best things in life (most of them, anyway) really are free. Recipe: Pizza Lite Now you can satisfy your craving for pizza with a hot treat that not only tastes great, it's good for you. Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam: The Dues They Pay Tiger Woods is one of the all-time great professional golfers, and he hits hundreds of golf balls in practice every day. But even Tiger had to stick with his new swing for the better part of a year before the new patterns became ingrained and he achieved noticeable improvements in his game. Learning Is Physical What happens in in the development of any behavior pattern is the physical connecting of a neural pathway in the brain. And what stimulates this growth is repeated behavior. These are the dues you pay for learning any skill. People Skills Are Hard Skills People skills are much harder to improve than any other kind of skill. Here's why. When You Come to a Fork In the Road... Being decisive means acting on your best option at the most opportune time. Poison in the Silver Spoon Parents may want to give their children the things they couldn't have when they were young, to protect them from a difficult childhood. But if kids are to grow up to be mature, self-reliant adults, they need to build strengths of character. What Is Your Song? In my experience, most people are singing someone else’s song. I respect their need and choice to do so, but to be your own person you have to go your own way. More for Less I’d rather eat a homemade sandwich on sitting on the beach than have lunch in any restaurant in town. Nothing Is Ordinary A grackle is just a black bird, so common you don't even notice them, even when they arrive by the hundreds. Maybe you should notice them. You Need an Answer To: Why Am I Doing This? Friends and sports heroes remind me that to achieve your goal, you need the inner strength to keep plugging away in spite of discouragement and fatigue. A Caring Way to Give Constructive Feedback No one likes criticism, and most people don’t know how to give constructive feedback. Because it’s so difficult to bring up these issues, most people don’t bother. They just stew. Why We Dream People are often disturbed by their dreams. They worry about what they might mean. To understand dreams, I think it helps to know why we dream in the first place. A Warrior's Dream This article is unusual because it offers encouragement in the form of poem. And while its form appears to be prose text, it is actually far more poetic than most conventional poems you'll see... How Can You Get Feedback at Work? To do a better job, you need to improve your performance. But how can you do that if you aren't sure how you're doing right now. It always helps to have feedback. Survey Items Need to Be Well Constructed How well are people doing their jobs? A major part of the answer may be found using multi-source feedback. But everything depends on whether the survey items are well-constructed. Do It with Energy and Enthusiasm! Some people are willing to put an amazing amount of personal energy into something. There's a Time to Stop Thinking and Start Taking Action Being decisive means acting on your best option at the most opportune time. Pumpkin Soup You'll impress your guests with this one. It only takes 20 minutes to make and has a wonderful blend of flavors. And it's good for you. Taking Responsibility Will Maker You Stronger, Better A lot depends on whether people do things that need to be done. How often do you accept the role to take action? The Growing Child's Brain and the Crucial Windows of Development In a child, each area of the cortex develops at different times, but each area grows during a limited period of time, during which the magnitude and quality of the basic functioning network and the child's potential are defined once and for all. Is Your Organization Ready for 360-degree Feedback? The initial introduction of 360-degree feedback can cause concerns and questions. Does it help if your organization already has an established program of performance appraisal? Personality Compatibility Test for Couples in Romantic Relationships Based on a scientifically grounded personality test, "Compatibility Forecast" is designed to help couples in romantic relationships understand areas of personality compatibility and difference to help them choose what their next step should be, if any. How Can You Build Support for 360-Degree Feedback? Any organization can benefit from a well-administered program of multi-source feedback, if it has prepared the way for this new technology. However, implementing 360-degree feedback is not as simple as installing a software program and leading a few workshops. Books Can Be the Doorway to New Strengths and Opportunities There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island. Think Good of Yourself You may be imperfect, but you have significant strengths and huge reserves of goodness within you. You deserve the love of your friends, as well as success from your best efforts. It's Important to Be Generous...Even When You're Needy The more you struggle, the more you hope that people will appreciate your situation. If you hope for compassion from others, you have to be willing to give it yourself. Michael Jordan's Realistic View of Success Success isn’t a project. It’s not a goal with a plan and a deadline. It’s not something you work towards until you achieve it, and then enjoy the rewards. Success is a way of life,.
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