What did you do in that situation? What should you do? Many leaders of former peers struggle at first. Some even go so far as to request a demotion in order to return to the way things were. There has to be a better way.

If you find yourself leading former peers, here are some steps you can take.

Address the Elephant in the Room

When you get promoted to the new boss, it’s a cause for celebration. But it’s also a cause for concern. Your old pals want special treatment. The rest want to be treated as equals. They probably doubt your ability to stay objective. Everyone will be waiting to see what happens.

The easiest way to address this situation is head on – in one of your first team meetings.

“I’d like take a minute to address the elephant in the room. I went from a peer to the boss. This means my level of responsibility has changed. It’s been a privilege to work along side of you and I’m excited to play a bigger role on this team.”

Acknowledge Prior Relationships

The quickest way to diffuse a tense situation is to acknowledge it directly. Your doubters will be forced to agree with you. So acknowledge your prior relationships in a positive way. Share how important they’ve been to you and how much you value them.

“It’s true that I’ve developed some strong relationships on this team over the time we’ve worked together. I wouldn’t be the professional I am today without your support. On a personal level, I value our relationship and the camaraderie we’ve enjoyed. I’m excited to be your leader, even though it means our interactions will need to be more inclusive of the rest of the team.”

Develop Relationships with New Team Members

Make it a strong point to reach out and get to know members of the team you have less of a connection with. Schedule group or 1:1 meetings. Make it a high priority to elicit their input. Find out what they are working on and ask specifically for their recommendations, concerns and personal aspirations.

“For those of you I haven’t worked with as closely, I need to tell you that you are as much a part of this team as everyone else and I value your contribution. I’m going to make it a point to get understand your work, recommendations, concerns and aspirations so I can be the leader you deserve.”

Set Clear Expectations for Everyone

Let everyone know what you expect from a relationship commitment standpoint – what you expect from them and what they should expect from you.

“I’m committed to working with each of you and supporting you regardless of how much we’ve worked together in the past. Everyone has equal “say” here and everyone will be held to the same standard.”

Ask for Input

It’s one thing to make a declaration, but in reality, that is only one-way communication. Teammates communicate with each other differently than they do with “management.” Go the extra mile to encourage two-way communication with your team. The moment they stop communicating with you, you’ve lost them.

“This is a big deal to me, which is why I bring this up today. But I want our ability to work together to be an open, ongoing discussion. If you ever feel that I’m not supporting you the way you need, will you let me know? We can fix anything if we’re open with each other.”

Repeat and Reinforce

It’d be nice if one interaction set the tone for the rest of time, but that’s rarely the case. What’s important must be repeated – often. Significant doubts often require multiple interactions to quell.

Of course, the most critical component is for your actions to match your message. This may mean saying no to happy hour with your buddies and insisting on a team event instead. It means being intentional about building new relationships. It definitely means listening and asking questions.

It’s never easy to lead former peers. But your organization wants (and needs) you to succeed. You were their choice to lead the team. The last thing they want is for you fail. But regardless of how supported you feel by your leadership team (they are busy, stressed and imperfect, just like you are!), your commitment to your new team is your responsibility.

The more I’ve studied business and leadership effectiveness, the more I’ve learned that servant leadership is a supportive, inclusive and empowering style of leading others. In short, it puts the needs of others above the needs of self, but without sacrificing the underlying needs of the organization.

Many leaders want to grow in servant leadership. I know, because they tell me so. But sentiment isn’t enough. What we all need is a strategy. These four items are a good place to start.

Who Will You Serve?

Without a subject, servant leadership is simply a sentiment and not an action. Did you know that as an organizational leader, your serving audience goes much further than just your team? In fact, that might not be the best place to start. Do a quick analysis of all the groups who are depending on your leadership. Which is most critical at the moment? Some may include:

• Customers
• Frontline employees
• Team members
• Owners
• Investors
• Board members
• The local community

Obviously, if you are just getting started, you can’t serve all members equally at the same time. Pick the top 2-3 you must focus on first.

What are the Core Needs?

How well do you understand the specific needs of the group you intend to serve? It’s so important that Stephen Covey focused his entire fifth habit “Seek to understand” explaining how to do it. Unfortunately, most leaders are busy and biased. Even when they have time to do a formal analysis, it’s easy to ascribe the needs of others to our (often limited) understanding of their situation.

For instance, if you are trying to better serve your customers, do you realize there is a categorically different need between a brand new potential customer seeking information and a loyal customer who has just received his first poor experience? Investors who bought when the company’s stock was high likely have different needs (and expectations) than those who bought when the stock was low. And don’t forget, needs change over time.

For your servant leadership strategy to truly work, you will need to differentiate the core needs within your group and conduct a thoughtful needs analysis.

How Will We Measure the Outcomes?

Peter Drucker is frequently credited with the quote, “What gets measured gets managed.” It’s impossible to measure an unspecific metric. Core needs need measurable metrics.

Here is a quick example. If you work in fast food, you’ve probably identified that one of your customers’ core needs is to receive their food quickly. One of your formal targets could be average wait time.

Embody the Values and Commitments as a Leadership Team

Ultimately, you won’t be able to accomplish a servant leadership strategy on your own, even if you are the CEO. You’ll need a team that shares the same values and commitments. It’s even better if you create the strategy together.

At the end of the day, servant leadership isn’t just talk. It’s action. It’s easy to say we believe in servant leadership. But until we have a strategy, we’ll never actually serve the people we need to lead.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Leaders are responsible for making important decisions that by nature aren’t easy. In fact, in a certain sense the essence of one’s leadership is the sum of the decisions he or she has made over time. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle with the decision-making process. I’ve written before about the need for leaders to have the courage to step up and make the tough calls. I’ve also shared an insightful decision-making process I’ve found.

Fortunately, decision-making skills are a lot like public speaking skills. The more you step up when others shy away, the greater your influence will become.

Below, I’d like to include a variety of factors I consider when making decisions that will have significant organizational impact. These are factors I often use – and encourage those I’m responsible for to use as well.

Decision-maker – Are you the right person to make the decision?

If you are not the right person to make the decision, hand it off to the person who is. If you are the right person, accept the responsibility even if it’s difficult.

Leader Responsibility – What outcome are you directly responsible for as it relates to this decision?

Decisions (and scope) can get complicated very quickly. Always maintain clarity on what you are trying to accomplish. Getting sidetracked can really hurt your influence.

Boss – What is most important to the boss?

Filter your decisions through the lens of your boss’s priorities. If you are in alignment, great. If not, check yourself. One question I’ve begun asking my boss each year is, “Which of my projects is worth the most money at year-end bonus time?” This enables me to make appropriate decisions along the way.

Organizational Values – What would be most consistent with the organization’s core values?

One of the main benefits of well articulated core values is their use in making tough decisions. (That’s why it’s so important for organizational values to be meaningful, visible and practical.) When in doubt, make a decision that is best supported by the organization’s values.

Customer Experience – What would delight the customers the most?

If the customers don’t care about a particular decision, you may be wasting your time.

Long-term Solution – What is most ideal long-term?

Many organizations are artificially focused on the short-term – this month or this quarter. Your decisions today will impact decisions you’ll need to make down the road. The clearer the desired future is, the easier today’s decisions will be.

Facts – What does the data say?

It’s not worth relying solely on your gut if you have the relevant data available to you. Peter Drucker said, “Once the facts are clear, the decisions jump out at you.”

Benefit – What are the benefits?

There will likely be primary and secondary benefits, as well as immediate and lag.

Cost – What are the costs?

Don’t measure cost in only dollars.

Risk – What are the risks?

Be comprehensive in your assessment of risk, especially for decisions with wide impact.

Simplicity – Which solution is the most simple to implement?

All things being equal (or sometimes not quite equal), always be biased in favor of the simple option.

Communication – What will be the easiest to communication?

Communication should be productive and constructive, not defensive. Still, you’re asking for trouble if you make a decision you know in advance will be difficult to communicate or defend.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the long list – don’t be. Decision-making is a mental muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

If you’ve worked for any length of time, you know that’s just not realistic.

I’ve managed folks who were older than me in the past and recently finished an assignment with my first younger boss – a great experience for me. If you’re younger than the folks you lead, keep these best practices in mind.

Be Authentic

When new leadership opportunities arise, the temptation to prove oneself can be overwhelming. Everyone wants to show they are up for the challenge. The problem comes when the focus shifts from serving the customer or client to maintaining the appearance of competence.

Age aside, what employees really want to know is: do you care, can I trust you and can you get the job done – usually in that order. Be yourself – don’t let a new leadership opportunity turn you into something you can’t sustain and others can’t respect.

Be Quick to Praise & Express Appreciation

No leader can succeed alone – and teams know this. Praise inspires. Appreciation motivates. Negative reinforcement can create resentment and easily backfire when you’ve yet to win your team over.

By the way, praise only works coming from a place of authenticity.

Ask for Input

One temptation of leading (regardless of age) is needing to “know best” in all situations – as if being the one with all the answers is actually possible. On a project I joined several years ago, the senior executive gathered his new team together to create the blueprint. “Don’t think that just because I’m the boss, I have all the answers,” he said. “We’ll need to work together to figure this out.”

Soliciting the input of your team – especially older team members – demonstrates value for their knowledge and experience. You may not use it every time, but asking for it is a tremendous way to win respect.

Stick to Your Guns

As the leader, you are responsible to represent the interests of your organization. That means making decisions that aren’t always popular with your team. If you acquiesce to your team’s preferences or value their input too highly, you won’t be what they truly need: a leader. This can be particularly challenging for younger leaders, but it’s a necessary competency. Pick and choose your battles, but stick to your guns when you do.

Do the Work

Everyone watches the leader, and a leader’s example sets the precedent. It’s hard to respect leaders who ask for more than they are willing to give themselves. At the end of the day, leadership is a responsibility, not a privilege.

Leading older and more experienced colleagues is a tremendous growth opportunity. It’s not always easy, but if you lead at all, you’ll have the opportunity – probably sooner than later. Until then, remember, you’re never too young to set a good example – with leadership or otherwise.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

More than 10 years ago, I had the privilege to co-author The Secret with Ken Blanchard, a book about Chick-fil-A’s point of view on leadership. It was a lot of fun doing the book with Ken and even more fun talking to groups all over the world about leadership. What I didn’t expect was the question that I received over and over again… “We’ve read The Secret, what’s next?”

In the beginning, I wasn’t really sure what people wanted to know. Were they asking about my next book? Did they want to know my career plans or what time my flight was going to leave? Most often, it was none of the above. Leaders around the world appreciated the lessons we tried to convey in the book, but they had an intuitive sense, informed by their experience, that the book was not the end of the conversation. They were right.

What organizations desperately need is not just a point-of-view on leadership, they need a leadership culture. I define a leadership culture as a place in which leaders are routinely and systematically produced. In a leadership culture, it is not unusual when there is a surplus of qualified leadership candidates for an open position.

Here are five keys to creating a leadership culture.

Define it – Does your organization have an agreed upon definition of leadership? If not, that’s the starting point.

Train it – Having a definition is critical but insufficient alone. Can your leaders deliver on your definition? Some can, I’m sure, but training is probably required – at least for emerging leaders. Leadership skills are not innate.

Practice it – Do you give emerging leaders the opportunity to lead? Most of what leaders learn about leadership they learn from leading. Give them the chance to practice by actually letting them lead.

Measure it – This can take many forms – Performance reviews; 360 feedback; “Readiness for Next Opportunity.” Then there’s always the “9 Box” popularized by G.E. which evaluates leaders on two dimensions – performance and alignment with organizational values. You can even measure participation in leadership training.

Model it – If your existing leaders are not showing people what great leadership looks like in your organization; if they aren’t working diligently to demonstrate the attributes outlined in your definition of leadership, none of the previous ideas will have much impact.

How deep is your leadership bench?

Originally published on GreatLeadersServe.com

In the end, high quality partnerships come down to trust. But if you rely on blind trust, you’re probably in for a rude awakening.

If you are responsible for signing up a new vendor, these 14 questions will significantly increase your likelihood of a great partnership experience and reduce the many business risks of a poor one. Some questions you can and should ask the vendor directly. For others, you will need to do your own homework. Here they are.

1. What is their core product or service?

For any new solution you are considering, it’s important to know if this is their core service (e.g. their “Big Mac”) vs. their new flavor of the week.

2. What results have their solutions produced?

Ultimately, you will be judged by the results YOU produce, with the assistance of your vendor partner. Don’t just research their offerings, research the outcomes as well.

3. How long have they provided the desired service?

It’s also important to know how much experience the vendor has. Are they “tried and true” or are they looking to get their big break by working with you?

4. What other work have they done with clients in your industry and in your situation?

Many business issues are similar across markets, but still – if your vendor has worked with similar clients and situations, they may come in with more familiarity.

5. What is their market position?

Is this vendor at the luxury or discount end of the market spectrum? Adjust your expectations accordingly.

6. What have other clients’ experiences been?

Don’t just take the sale rep’s word for things. Inquire of past clients – the more detailed, the better.

7. Do they have the capability/capacity to complete this work?

This is especially important if you have a lot of work to offload. The last thing you want is to sign a large contract and then have the new vendor struggle to staff it.

8. How will you partner throughout the project?

This speaks to the accessibility and flexibility the vendor will provide. Will you work together or will the vendor perform all the work? Will they be available if you want to meet? If you want to provide input, will they be open to it?

9. Can you contract for multiple phases instead of one full body of work?

If this is a new project, a new relationship or a mission critical assignment, it may be less risky for you to pursue a phased approach vs. shooting for the moon.

10. What is the price range for this type of service?

Price should never be the first, or only, consideration (there are much higher costs than price), but don’t wait until the last minute to inquire. Ask for a typical price range and then talk specifics once you think there may be a fit.

11. If it’s evident the solution isn’t working midway through, how will you course correct?

This conversation is less uncomfortable to have before an agreement than halfway through a contentious project.

12. If the solution doesn’t produce the anticipated results, will you have any recourse?

Again, you are being judged on results. Expect the vendor to hold you accountable (as they should). Do the same with them. Remember, the responsibility for performance oversight is yours.

13. If the solution produces results beyond your expectations, how will you scale it for additional capacity?

It’s important to risk manage for success, not just failure. If you may want to build bigger down the road, design the infrastructure with the potential to add-on vs. starting over from scratch.

14. If you love the service and want to extend, will there be any significant changes in personnel, accessibility or pricing?

If you are signing up with a new vendor, you may get the benefit of reduced pricing or special attention for the first contract. Then if you want to continue, the pricing may change or your favorite liaison may get reassigned elsewhere. Once again, it’s better to inquire about this upfront than be surprised down the road.

For those of you with significant partnership experience, what other questions would you add?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

The After Action Review (AAR) was originally developed by the U.S. Army to analyze and report on training exercises. Today the military uses a range of formalities (as do countless industries and organizations), but the essence is to capture two elements: what went well and what can be improved in the future.

Socrates uttered the immortal phrase, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Examining professional events may seem less dramatic, but it’s a critical component if you wish to improve. Also, keep in mind that an AAR shouldn’t substitute for a comprehensive program evaluation. (In fact, an AAR only partially measures to Level 1 on the Kirkpatrick Learning Evaluation Model.)

Here are several simple tips for performing high quality after action reviews.

Ask the Two Key Questions

What went well? What could be improved?

Your AAR needs to focus squarely on these two questions. The first captures the successes, breakthroughs and positive elements of the event. You aren’t looking for perfection, just positive performance. The second isn’t meant as an indictment, but should capture both the negative elements and possible alternatives for the future.

Ask in Advance

If you openly state you will be performing an AAR following the event, you prepare your audience to take mental (and hopefully actual) notes throughout the session. Sometimes this is appropriate for everyone involved, sometimes just for a subset (e.g. team leaders). Regardless, if you play a program leadership role, make every effort to create the expectation upfront.

Compile, Share, Archive

During an AAR, it’s crucial to compile all the feedback shared for possible follow-up. Share it with the appropriate parties – a report for the boss and action items for the process owners. Perhaps most importantly, save it in an archive where it can be easily accessed in the future. Ideally, you should consult a previous event’s AAR before you begin planning a new one.

Say Thank You

It’s hard to get good feedback – especially if you’re combative. Resist the urge to give unnecessary feedback on the feedback. You don’t need to argue or explain. If your team is evaluating the performance, it may make sense to go deeper, but with a large group, simply say thank you.

After action reviews might seem like extra work, but it’s critical work. Improvement is much harder without it.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Over the years, I’ve adopted a simple definition of coaching: “To coach is to develop another person by listening and asking questions to clarify ideas and commit to action.”

If you look closely, you’ll notice five key characteristics. I’ve listed each of them out below:

Developing Others

To coach is to play a development role. It’s focused on growing the competency and capacity of the employee. Consider the difference between a directing approach (“Here is what I need you to do”) and a coaching approach (“Let’s think about how you might address this challenge”). Both are appropriate at times, but the coaching approach is explicitly developmental.

Active Listening

Active listening requires some of the most discipline of any skill there is – but the dividends are enormous. It’s impossible to coach effectively without it. Quite simply, active listening seeks simply to understand the situation and delay the need to formulate a response or craft a solution.

Asking Questions

Asking powerful, open-ended questions goes hand-in-hand with active listening. It’s the perfect antidote to giving unsolicited advice or providing explicit direction. (Those responses are necessary in many management scenarios, but tend to ruin a coaching-rich opportunity). The more input an employee provides, the more he’ll own the solution.

Clarifying Ideas

Clarifying ideas is an extension of both active listening and asking questions. Without this clarity, employees may be unclear about the ultimate desired result – and managers may be unclear about key nuances of the situation. Adept coaches resist the urge to solve the problem until they have understood the situation and taken the opportunity to explore a variety of options together.

Commiting to Action

The last thing coaching leaders do is elicit a commitment to action. Otherwise, the conversation may be positive, but it won’t be productive. Coaching leaders are sure to ask the employee to commit to following through on the agreed upon action.

My favorite conversational “formula” for holding a coaching discussion is the GROW model, which stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or Way Forward). It incorporates each element into a simple framework that can be completed in just a couple minutes.

Coaching employees is hard work – it takes a lot of practice and discipline to develop and use the skills. But the rewards are enormous: a more capable staff, more buy-in, and more capacity for you as the leader, to name a few. Give it a try and keep at it. In the end, everyone wins on this one.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

In general, I tend to enjoy work meetings, but many business professionals dislike them – and often with good reason. Some detest them. Others bemoan their lack of ability to get any “real work” done when meetings pile up. Even the late Peter Drucker considered meetings a necessary evil.

Poorly run meetings can be exasperating. But productive meetings are essential for collaboration, decision-making and team effectiveness. Meetings are also expensive and can waste considerable time due to disorganization, lack of discipline and ambiguity. These best practices can help your meeting stand out, whether you are an organizer, presenter or participant – both for in-person and multi-site.

Before the Meeting

Identify the desired outcome. What is the purpose of the meeting? It is to inform, brainstorm, plan, persuade, decide, etc.? What do you hope to accomplish by the end?

Create the meeting agenda. If you are the meeting organizer, this is absolutely essential. The agenda should include items, presenters, and times for each item – and should be distributed in advance to allow all participants time to prepare. If you are not the organizer, make sure to ask for an agenda before attending a meeting to make sure it is a productive use of your time to attend.

Send invitations. The busier your audience, the earlier your meeting invitations should be sent. Always include the purpose, agenda and any critical materials.

During the Meeting

Begin & end on time. Respect everyone’s calendar by maintaining scheduling discipline. Meetings that run late can create a domino effect of late meetings for an entire day. Not only that, being late penalizes the punctual and rewards the tardy (Tweet).

State the desired outcome up front. Your participants should already know the meeting purpose and agenda when they arrive, but repeat them anyway.

Be fully engaged. If you are presenting, be intentional about the energy you project. You’ll get what you give. Solicit participation. Use the appropriate level of detail. If you are a participant, come prepared and be fully present. (Resist the urge to take phone calls or check emails). Capture your own key notes whether or not there is a designated scribe. (Meeting minutes are usually not critical.)

Follow the agenda. Maintain agenda discipline (this is why it is important to share the agenda upfront). Dial-down over-participation. If out of scope items come up, use a temporary “parking lot.” If new relevant items come up, suggest either reorganizing the agenda or addressing in a future meeting.

Summarize key decisions made and action items. Always leave a few minutes at the end of the meeting to review what has been decided and clarify next steps (who will do what by when?). If you skip this step, you risk wasting all the progress made.

Determine the next meeting time frame. You don’t need to have a specific date set in the meeting, but you should agree on the general time frame.

After the Meeting

Distribute a summary. As soon as possible following a key meeting, send a follow-up summary of progress made, key decisions made, action items (with names and due dates) and what they should expect next (e.g. a follow-up meeting).

Schedule follow-up meeting(s). If there will be a future meeting, schedule it as soon as possible.

Bonus

Make it fun. Just by following these steps, your meetings should stand out from the rest. But anything extra you can do to help your audience look forward to attending your meetings will go a long way. One team I’ve worked with reserves the last two minutes for a semi-impromptu dance-off just to reinforce that it’s a fun team to be on. That may not be appropriate in other meetings, but a little creativity can add an engaging touch.

Meetings are here to stay. Productive, engaging meetings create a productive, engaging culture (Tweet). Organizing a meeting definitely qualifies as a leadership opportunity.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Which session did you learn more from?

Regardless of your function or industry, learning plays a key role in business effectiveness. No one was born knowing how to do any job – and even with all the preparatory training we’ve received over the years (e.g. college), the speed of change demands that we continually learn better ways. (I know I, for one, don’t want to receive the same surgery a “seasoned” surgeon was trained on three decades ago!) So whether you develop training as a profession or you request it as a professional, it’s worth understanding how adults learn best.

Malcolm Knowles was an American educator who shaped much of adult learning theory (“andragogy”) with his publications in the 1980s. His works are considered best practice today. What is most important to understand is what makes adult learning distinct. Here are Knowles’ four adult learning principles – and some tips to be mindful of:

Learner Involvement

According to Knowles, adults prefer to be involved in their learning process – planning, goal-setting, evaluation, etc. In other words, they desire an active role, not a passive one. Because every adult’s situation and experience differs, what one learner takes away may be completely different than another. It’s important for educators to facilitate goal-setting among learners and attempt to design the learning process to capture application on an individual level. In many cases, it can also be helpful for educators to position themselves as fellow learners rather than instructional experts.

Bottom line: If you’re not collaborating with adult learners, you’re missing the boat.

Learner Experience

In formative years, education is geared toward learning something new for the future. For adults, their acquired knowledge and experiences provide a starting point – both successes and mistakes. As a result, “trainers” are rarely the only experts in the learning environment. Peers bring expertise as well. In fact, in a recent organizational assessment I recently conducted of several groups of executives, the top rated learning opportunity was “interacting with peers on common problems and sharing best practices.” If your adult learning environment doesn’t include peer interactions of past & present experiences, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Bottom line: Interact with and incorporate learners’ experiences into the framework of the learning environment.

Relevance & Impact to Learner’s Lives

The topics most ripe for adult learners are those that can have immediate impact on business or personal life. Remember, children learn for the future, adults learn for the present. Because of this, learning assignments should relate to an adult’s stated goals. When learning is relevant and impact is clear (e.g. a sales professional can learn how to close 20% more deals), the learner is inspired and motivated internally.

Bottom line: Adults want to learn when the topic makes them more successful now.

Problem-Centered

Content is no longer king in adult learning – problem-solving is king. If your team has elected to conduct training, ensure the training addresses the actual problem – don’t just settle for off-the-shelf content, even if it’s good. (Incidentally, many learning needs can be solved in ways other than formal training). Since content isn’t king, learners are more apt to learn by doing than by passive listening. Simulations or practice scenarios go a long way.

Bottom line: The learning solution should be specific to the problem or opportunity.

It’s easy to get learning wrong, even if you have the best intentions and pay top dollar. But the best learning environments – the ones that really result in change – incorporate adult learning theory into the bones of the learning experience.

Are there any learning opportunities you might need to approach differently?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.