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.

I read a book a couple years ago that took decision-making to a whole new level. It was Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath. I don’t think I’ve heard as comprehensive (or creative) a thinking process as it relates to decision-making. And the best part is that is applies to nearly all circumstances, from business (should we sue a bigger company? offer a discount on our products?) to personal (should I break up with my significant other? let my adult child move back home? buy a new TV?).

Here is a brief summary of the WRAP decision-making process the Heath brothers use:

W – Widen Your Options

The first decision-making mistake we often make is assuming a situation is binary – we chose between only two options. In reality, there are so many more possibilities.

Expand your options – Find several alternatives, not just one. Instead of deciding whether to stay or quit a job, come up with several options for making the best of a job without leaving.

Consider the opportunity cost – Determine what you give up by making a certain decision. What else could you have instead? For instance, by choosing to attend a private school, you may be choosing to not attend a public school AND buy a new car. Which would you rather have?

Benchmark – Instead of rushing out to make a decision, find someone who has already solved your problem. What did he or she do and how did it turn out? What do the experts say to do in this situation?

R – Reality-Test Your Assumptions

Once we’re leaning a certain way on a decision (and especially after we’ve made the decision), we’re often imprisoned by our confirmation bias. We want our decision to be “right,” so we look for confirmation and discount or ignore evidence to the contrary.

Consider the opposite – Look for reasons why the decision you want to make could very well be the wrong one. In other words, look at it from the standpoint of someone who disagrees completely and be willing to acknowledge the weaknesses from that side. (Maybe this could come in handy in politics).

Zoom in/out – Zoom in by asking for the real-world experience of others in the exact situation as you. (What did your friend think of the restaurant you are considering visiting?). Then zoom out by looking at the macro data (What is the overall Yelp rating for the restaurant?). Why guess when you can know?

“Ooch” – According to the Heaths, to “ooch” means to experiment on a small scale. Instead of investing tremendous effort and resources toward a decision, look for ways to test a decision before actually deciding. Hire several firms to do one project before awarding one with the big contract. Sell your pies at the farmer’s market before starting a baking business.

A – Attain Distance Before Deciding

Deciding and executing don’t need to happen at the same time. Better to take a “cooling off” period.

Overcome short-term emotion – Give yourself some time before acting on a decision. Use 10/10/10 – ask yourself how you will feel about the decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. Ask what decision your successor would make in this situation (especially for high profile ones) – or how you would advise your best friend.

Honor your core priorities – Remind yourself what is most important to you. Then consider the options in light of those priorities.

P – Prepare to Be Wrong

Being “right” about a bad decision just isn’t worth it. Politics aside, remember Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere? At least she had a jumping off point. Opt for a correctable slip up over a colossal failure.

Bookend the future – Anticipate the future given your desired course of action. If everything goes right, what will you do? If everything goes wrong, how will you respond? Ask yourself what could go wrong and improve on it.

Set a tripwire – Decide at what point you will change course. What would make a job so bad you would finally have to leave it? How much will you invest toward a failing business (or a hobby) before you throw in the towel?

We’ll never outlive the necessity to make decisions. As stressful as it can be, it is immensely rewarding as well. Decision-making is a function of leadership. The more willing we are to make decisions (and live with the consequences), the more opportunities we’ll get.

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.

That being said, continuous improvement isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen by itself. It requires the active involvement of as many people as possible… which brings me back to the question: how do you think about continuous improvement?

I’d like to share three questions I’ve found helpful when considering continuous improvements. I believe they work in just about any setting. Here they are:

Does the Customer Care?

Any customer centric organization ought to consider the customer experience implications of all both new and existing processes first and foremost. What does the customer think? Keep in mind, your customer may not care about many of the particulars; what internal system you use, who makes the decision, or whether you use FIFO or LIFO inventory accounting. Customers care about speed of service, ease of use, price, quality and support (for starters). If an existing process (or new initiative) doesn’t improve at least one aspect of the customer’s experience, that should raise a red flag – why are we doing it?

Does it Add Value?

Just because a customer doesn’t care, doesn’t mean a process inherently lacks value. The challenge is to build a case for it. Remember value is the difference of benefit and cost. Any time we eliminate one of the seven types of waste, we automatically increase value. The same is true for new initiatives. If a new idea adds more waste than benefits, it creates a net value deficit.

Think of an assistant who takes handwritten notes at a meeting. Then he types them and sends them to the meeting attendees and files the handwritten copies away. What is the value in taking and keeping the handwritten notes? The customer certainly doesn’t care. And if the notes can be produced (and reproduced) soft-copy right off the bat, it will save time and free up space – both of which have value. It’s a simplistic example, to be sure but it underscores the fact that opportunities for continuous improvement can come from virtually anywhere.

Are You Compensating for Someone Else’s Inaction?

Sometimes when we encounter problems, it’s easiest and time-efficient to address it ourselves in the moment. In the short-term. But unless we get to the root of the problem, it’ll just come creeping back up again. The leader’s role in this situation is to create clear cut areas of responsibility – and maintain the accountability to follow-through together as a team. It’s the difference between constant firefighting and a team commitment to “first time, right time, every time.” It’s easier said than done, but that’s true about most leadership responsibilities.

Remember, continuous improvement isn’t about cutting costs to their bare bones. It’s about creating value that can be shared by all the stakeholders of an organization. At the very least, it can help give your organization gain a comparative advantage over your competition.

What continuous improvement initiatives are you working on right now?

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.

That was one of the key messages of a sales training event I visited recently. The new sales consultants were supposed to realize they didn’t need to know everything about the services they were providing – they had plenty of other “experts” to support various parts of the deal. It’s a lot easier to sell when you don’t have to know everything yourself.

Which leads me to ask the question: whose “guy” (or gal) are you? And do they know it?

Here’s why it matters:

You are someone’s “guy.”

If you’re working at all, you’re serving someone. It may be an outside customer, another department, a territory, an interest group – you name it. You may be someone’s car guy (car dealer or mechanic), teeth gal (dentist), organization guy (office manager) or even leadership guy (consultant). The first step is to think in those terms. Instead of simply identifying yourself by a job title (“I work in finance”), make your role personal to the people you serve (I’m your forecasting guy).

If you aren’t clear on who you support (or how), your level of service will be low.

Nothing kills progress like lack of clarity. Several years ago, one of my team’s clients in IT realized everyone in the organization was unhappy with them. It wasn’t due to poor quality, but rather that they didn’t set clear service expectations – and therefore couldn’t met or exceed them. No one knew exactly what to expect. Establishing clarity became the first order of business. The same goes for you. Be clear or what you provide and how.

Your value proposition is what will set you apart.

Your value proposition is the reason why your customers get greater value from working with you than they would from working with someone else (or with no one at all). You provide more products, higher quality, better service, lower price, peace of mind – whatever it is, be clear, confident and upfront about it.

If your customers don’t know you serve them, they won’t reach out.

I got a new automobile headlight guy last week. Honestly, I didn’t know I needed a headlight guy. But one of my friends recently started his own headlight business and explained that if my headlights fade, I’ll be a safety hazard to myself and others – and risk getting a ticket as well. It will be much safer and cheaper to let him take care of my problem. So from now on, if I have any headlight issues (or hear of any), I know who to call. But it wasn’t until we had that conversation that I realized I even needed a headlight guy. Your customers (or clients, colleagues, or followers) likely won’t know why (or how) to utilize you unless you tell them.

If you can’t be #1, do everything you can to be #2.

Sometimes, the people you try to serve will already have a “guy” who does what you do. That’s okay. Share your value proposition and let them know you’re still ready to serve them. And if you can’t be #1, communicate that you’ll be thrilled to be #2 and fully ready to fill-in when needed.

When things get busy and the workload piles up, don’t forget that it really is a privilege to be someone’s guy (or gal). At the end of the day, we’re all in the people business, regardless of what our day-to-day entails.

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.

There’s no question that setbacks are a part of business – and a part of life. We can minimize some of them, but we won’t be able to avoid them completely. Once they happen, it’s what comes next that is the crucial part. If you find yourself encountering a setback, here are some next steps.

Talk About It

It’s important to give a voice to disappointment. The bigger the setback, the more important it is to put it into words. The counselors for the Pam Am Flight 73 hijacking advised the survivors to write down their experience as part of their treatment plan. Words have power. Don’t tell everyone about your setbacks; find someone you trust and who is a good listener. Share what happened, your thoughts or feelings about it and thank them for listening. It’s a lot easier to take the next steps when you’ve put your thoughts into words.

Acknowledge the Hard Work & Sacrifices

It’s enough of a challenge to pause and celebrate success. How much more do we overlook the investment that went into a setback? But ironically, most of the disappointment comes from the waste of the investment (especially the emotional investment). Acknowledging the hard work does not mean celebrating failure. It simply validates the worth of the effort that was given.

Count the Wins AND Lessons Learned

Whether you succeed or fail, there are ALWAYS positive and negative takeaways. If you don’t capture these at some level, you’re doomed to repeat the same outcomes. Evaluate what went well as well as areas that could be improved to increase the likelihood of success next time.

Acknowledge the Lack of Control

In any setback, it’s easy to focus on the factors outside our control and just move on. But it’s likely that many are within our control as well. Acknowledging a lack of control helps with managing future expectations, but don’t stop there. Think of ways you can improve the areas where you have control – and ways you can creatively influence the contributing factors where you don’t. There is usually much more we can do than we initially realize.

Take a Breather

Sometimes we need to take a step back before we jump start our next big thing, especially if there was a sense of loss. So take a creative day off. Schedule a down week. Clear your head and gear up for what’s next. But don’t let time get away from you. There’s a difference between taking a timeout and calling it quits. If you take too much time off, you risk getting in a rut.

Redirect & Reengage

When we’re coming off a loss, we usually come back with something to prove. So we throw ourselves twice as hard into the work as a way to make up for the setback. Be careful. You could go down a different path to the same destination. Let the strategy dictate what comes next. If the strategy is uncertain, invest the time to hash it out. They reengage with a sense of purpose.

Get a Quick Win

Finally, once you’ve reengaged following a setback, find something you can celebrate quickly. It doesn’t have to be big. Just get something quantifiable to demonstrate your new progress. Your team needs it and so do you.

At the end of the day, remember that most setbacks aren’t final. They’re only temporary. As NFL coach John Fox is fond of saying, “Sometimes setbacks are setups for better things to come.” Hang in there!

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.

Set Your Destination

When something is new, the possibilities can seem endless. New job? New project? You can take it anywhere you want, right? The problem is that endless possibilities significantly impede progress. That’s why Stephen Covey dedicated one of his 7 Habits to “Start with the end in mind.” It’s also why new organizational leaders often have an onboarding structure in place for them for the first 100 days (or so).

The start of your next big thing is a critical period. So set a SMART goal. Set a next step. Begin to set your destination – if not your final destination, then at least your next one. Until you do, progress will be difficult.

Get a Quick Win

In today’s ever-changing organizational environment, unfortunately there isn’t much patient for long-term initiatives. Because of this, even the best strategies can fall by the wayside unless they demonstrate a quick win.

A quick win is a tangible and visible evidence of progress. It gives your new project a concrete story to tell (after all, it’s hard to argue with results). It enhances visibility. And for professional as well as personal projects, it helps provide motivation to keep going. Remember: people don’t want to wait to win.

With People, Slow is Fast

Most projects can’t happen without the support of others. The bigger the project, the more support it takes. You may be able to pull off most of the nuts and bolts of the work, but if you try to go it alone, you’ll be doomed before you start. Try this:

• Build relationships with others before you need them to help you.
• Ask for and value input from others even when you don’t necessarily need it. (This will make it much easier to get when you do need it!)
• Value results AND relationships.
• Get buy-in from key decision-makers each step of the way. If you don’t, you risk having your project shut down because someone with authority wasn’t prepared for it.
• Bide your time. Credibility comes with a tenure of relational and performance capital.
• Say thank you.

Put Fear in Its Place

If there’s one topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, it’s fear. Fear is real and it has the power to stop anyone in his tracks and abort any otherwise worthwhile endeavor. Unfortunately, many times the greater the undertaking, the stronger the fear. In his book Start, Jon Acuff says that, “Fear tends to argue both sides of the coin, leaving you absolutely no room to stand. Here are two of the complete opposite things it will tell you: Don’t chase your dream at all, and: If you chase your dream, you have to do it all at once.”

Dale Carnegie dedicated an entire book to disrobing the anatomy of fear and putting it in its rightful place. For that reason, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a must-read. Some fears are worth considering, but most play on our insecurities. The longer we pretend fear isn’t real – or that it doesn’t affect us – the longer we’ll limit our progress.

Acknowledge fear, but put it in its rightful place. Follow George Patton’s advice: “Don’t take counsel of your fears.”

One final thought: none of us can do everything but all of us can do something. Let’s make that thing count!

What’s your next big thing?

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.

So how do you get clarity when it comes to goal-setting?

You’ve probably heard about SMART goals before. If you haven’t, this little model could change your life. If you have, it’ll be a good refresher. Here are the steps to transforming regular, ordinary goals into SMART goals.

Specific

The first step to make any new goal SMART is to make it specific. The more specific the better. “I want to live a healthier lifestyle” is a noble and wonderful goal. But it doesn’t have any backbone until it becomes more specific. Do you want to eat better or exercise more? “I want to become a better leader” is excellent as well. But what do you mean by that? Better planning? Better execution? Better relationship-building? More personal development?

Check out these examples:

Unspecific: I want to buy a new house.

Specific: I want to save enough money to make a down payment on a home in the Pleasant View neighborhood.

Measurable

Whether it’s a professional goal or a personal one, we usually start by wanting “more” or “less” or to become “better” at something. That’s great, but it’s simply a good intention until it’s measurable. How much more? How much better?

In other words, how will you know when you’ve reached your goal? Without a finish line, everyone lets up when difficulty or distractions come. Without a performance target, no one knows how to adequately prepare.

To make a goal measurable, try to add numbers. How much weight do you want to lose? How many widgets do you want to sell? How many dollars do you want to make?

Immeasurable: I want to compete in a race.

Measurable: I want to run a 5K race in 24 minutes.

Attainable

Whereas the first two elements of SMART goal-setting have to do with clarity, the next two have to do with congruence and scale. They depend on the situation. When it comes to attainability, your goal may be as specific and measurable as it can be, but is it even possible? Do you have the resources you need to complete it? Are the factors within your control?

If you’ve just had open heart surgery, setting a goal to run a marathon in 3 1/2 hours by the end of next month is probably not going to be attainable, no matter how specific and measurable it is. Walking up to a half mile at a time by the end of next month is probably much more likely.

For organizational leaders, are these goals attainable for the people they will be assigned to? Selling 100 new cars off the lot this month may be attainable for a seasoned veteran but not for the new representative.

Relevant

Considering relevance can seem like a quick validation check, but it’s enormously important. It’s probably just as well to address this first in the process. But if it doesn’t get addressed at all, there could be a real problem. The key question to ask is: does this goal help us accomplish what is most important?

The best example I can think of for relevance came when I was in the Army. One of my soldiers was overweight and too slow on his running time, so he created a SMART goals to run x amount of miles each week. When we met the next month, he told me he had changed his goal to lift more weights instead of run. Now he was even slower and heavier! There was nothing wrong with lifting weights, but it was the wrong goal at the wrong time.

Organizationally, this speaks to the importance of strategy. Each SMART goal should help accomplish the strategy, not go off in a different direction.

Time-Bound

Time bound is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the end date when your goal will be finished. Every budget has one. Every goal should have one as well.

Not Time-Bound: To earn a promotion.

Time-Bound: To earn a promotion by the end of 2013.

And there you have it: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. It’s not rocket science – anyone can do it. And once you complete your goals, don’t forget to do two things: evaluate and celebrate. Then set some more.

Good luck!

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.

It’s hard enough to want to delegate in the first place. Many leaders lack trust, are insecure or are control freaks. But once you get past those barriers, what happens when your followers can’t pull their weight? Let’s talk about a few ways managers can guide their projects so that everyone can contribute.

Your Team’s Performance is Your Responsibility

This should go without saying, yet it needs to be said. If you are the leader, you are responsible for the total collective performance of every person on your team. Most people understand this intuitively. A manager can’t explain to his executives, customers or clients that he couldn’t get the job done because one of his staff couldn’t pull their weight. But unfortunately it’s a major reason many great workers avoid management responsibilities. No one wants to manage a poor team and no one wants to be responsible for multiple jobs all of the time. So what can you do?

Not All Employees are the Same

We also know this is true, but our sense of fairness compels us to treat all our employees the same. That’s often the problem right there. Some employees are high performers and some aren’t. Some are highly experienced and some are new. Some work best while collaborating and some work best alone. Some will get all their work done ahead of time and some wait till the last minute. Of course it’s possible and sometimes necessary to remove under-performers through HR processes. But many times this isn’t the real need and doesn’t solve the problem. First, take the time to diagnose where your employees are on the performance scale. Work with them to create individual development plans for growth. Understand their career goals. Give as much responsibility as they can handle, with the stated goal of giving more in the future. Get to know their learning and working styles. None of these should excuse poor performance – and you’ll both be better for understanding.

Cast the Vision

When you launch a new project, don’t start by communicating the nitty-gritty details. Start with the bottom line up front (BLUF). At the end of the project, what will be accomplished? Explain the difference the project will make in the grander scheme of things. Communicate why it’s crucial for everyone to work as a team and address the benefit to them (WIIFM = what’s in it for me?).

Set Performance Expectations Upfront

Next, for each team member, explain his or her role on the project and the tasks that go with the role. Be as explicit as you can be about the responsibility and as detailed as you need to be about the tasks. For inexperienced employees, this could mean explaining the implied tasks until they reach the next stage of competence.

Make a Project Plan

A project plan is basically a document that breaks down all of the tasks and milestones of a project, their due dates and who will be responsible for each one. I like to use Microsoft® Project or Excel. It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. Think of it as creating an outline before writing an article. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it will most likely change (multiple times). But a project plan allows all parties to be on the same page at all times. Even more, it establishes an added level of responsibility and accountability. It’s up to me to follow through on all the project plan items assigned to my name. In project meetings, it’s up to me to provide updates on my items like percentage completed, red flags, additional information needed, etc. By the way, don’t just assign completion dates on your project plans. Assign first draft dates, review dates, dates to incorporate feedback, test/pilot dates and final dates – all as needed.

Set Leadership Expectations Upfront

Finally, how will you support the team? This should be addressed beforehand as well. If you manage the project plan, make sure everyone knows when their updates are due. (Management challenge: delegate the project plan responsibilities). Schedule review meetings with each individual (if possible) so all parties will have the opportunity to address questions and concerns before there’s an issue. And clarify what you want the employees to do when they need help (hint: they don’t always have to come to you first).

Project management can be exhilarating and exhausting, rewarding and trying. Most of us have been on projects we loved and ones we hated. Usually, the difference was leadership.

What else would you add on how to tactically execute a project effectively?

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.

Just like in medicine, the last thing a change practitioner should do is prescribe before diagnosing. You don’t want to “fix” the wrong problem. That usually just makes things worse and hurts your credibility.

So how do you diagnose an organization?

Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as you might think. While survey and data analysis have their place, the method I like to start with is the interview. I’ll identify the key leaders who make the management decisions (VPs, directors, managers, etc). Never just one, but several. Then I’ll schedule time with them to get their input.

The First Three Questions

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a set of three questions I always ask to leaders I meet with, whether I’m doing a diagnostic or not. It allows me to cut straight to the chase of how their organization is doing without being overly intrusive. Here they are:

• What excites you about your organization?
• What would you like to get to next if you could?
• What concerns do you have about your organization right now?

With these short questions, I’m able to quickly capture an overview of the passion, strategy and fear of the leader in a relatively pressure-free way. But if I will be responsible for proposing and/or delivering a solution, I don’t stop there.

In graduate school, I read the book How to OD…And Live to Tell About It by William Becker. In it is an organizational diagnostic I’ve come to really appreciate. Below is a sample of the most important questions from Becker that I use and you can use as well.

Culture

• What are people like and what seems to be important to them?
• What type of person succeeds here? Why?
• How are people professionally developed?

Strategy

• What is the organization’s mission?
• What are your key organizational goals?
• What do people perceive they are most rewarded and recognized for doing?
• What are the top three challenges facing your organization/industry now? Over the next 3-5 years?

Change History

• What are some of the recent (or current) change initiatives your organization has undergone on over the last few years?
• What was their purpose? What resulted and how has this impacted your organization today?
• What were some of the obstacles faced and how were they addressed?

Needs

• In your view, what is the most important thing your company needs to address?
• What do you want to take on right now? Why haven’t you?

Influence

• How is the executive team composed in your firm? What are they good at (as a team)?
• What seems to drive decisions here?

Preferences

• Are you looking for a pair of hands to tell them what to do, or an expert to tell you what is the problem and provide a solution, or are you looking for a collaborative effort where someone facilitates you and your stakeholder’s discovery of the problem and create solutions together?
• Is there anything else I should be aware of if I am to be helpful to your organization?

Once you’ve interviewed enough of the leaders to get an accurate assessment of the situation, you have will generally have the information you need to get started. Compile the results, highlight the major themes, and report them back to the leaders you interviewed. Include your recommendations for what needs to be done and how you propose to make it happen – along with their necessary involvement.

Congratulations, you’ve just completed step one – and what some consider the most important step – in the consulting process!

What other questions would you include? Keep in mind that most leaders don’t have time to answer all of your questions!

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.

This may be how you feel about evaluation… unless you have a built-in evaluation plan. In that case, you’ll be ready to hand over the results of your training before management even asks for it.

So how do you evaluate learning programs? In this post, I’d like to summarize the Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Learning Evaluation.

Donald Kirkpatrick is the founder of training firm Kirkpatrick Partners and a past president of the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD). In 1954, Kirkpatrick developed what is now known as the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model as part of his doctoral dissertation. The comprehensive guide is presented in his book Evaluation Training Programs: The Four Levels. Here are the four levels:

Level 1: Reaction

This level measures the initial reaction of training participants to the content and event. It focuses both on their thoughts and feelings. Were they actively engaged? Did it seem relevant to them? Did they get to participate in the learning process? The Level 1 evaluation is most easily conducted onsite at the conclusion of the learning event, or at least very soon afterward. A short form or survey is usually the easiest tool to use.

Level 2: Learning

This level measures the increase in knowledge or capability as it relates to the course’s content. The ultimate goal is for participants to learn the material, develop the necessary skills, believe it is worthwhile, and be both confident and committed to using what they’ve learned. Depending on the course subject, evaluating this level may be a bit tricky. To measure an increase, obviously there ought to be a pre-event and post-event assessment. One method is to have practical exercises at the conclusion of the training to measure learning. Another is to use a test or observe on the work site afterwards.

Level 3: Behavior

This level measures the application of the learning in the participants’ work roles over time. The crucial part of this level is that the course’s learning goals must to be supported by the organization’s infrastructure, processes & systems in order to provide the sustained motivation for application. In other words, it needs to be easy for the participants to practice what they’ve learned without interference, and there should be visible rewards. One way to measure this is to interview managers who have been encouraged to observe their teams’ behavior after the learning event has taken place. (This is one reason it’s so important to involve managers in the course development).

Level 4: Results

This level is the ultimate measure of learning effectiveness: improved business results, such as increased sales, decreased turnover, higher employee engagement, etc. The great thing about this level is that management already measures these business results. The important thing for you is to be able to link the training to the results it ought to affect. Next, identify the performance of the participants for the next time period. Then you’ll be able to report that, “the average training participant had a 30% sales increase in the year following the training” or “customer service satisfaction levels for participants were 20% higher than for non-participants.” The more you can measure results, the better a case you make for your learning program.

Learning evaluation can at times seem complicated but it can also be provide immense clarity. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. If you aren’t currently doing any evaluation of your learning programs, simply pick one level and start with that. The feedback you get will let you know if you’re on the right track.

Which level do you focus on the most?

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.