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GIVE YOUR MANAGERS THE SKILLS TO BE EFFECTIVE AND SET THEIR EMPLOYEES UP FOR SUCCESS

84% of U.S. workers say that poorly trained managers create a lot of unnecessary work and stress. Is this true of your managers?

Ready for Results? Invest in Skill-Building Training

Laurel and Associates, Ltd. can help you build managerial, employee development and technical skills through the design and delivery of participatory classroom and virtual training programs. We also provide train-the-trainer programs that will teach your trainers how to effectively design and facilitate high quality training programs.

Eight Urgent Signals Your Organization Needs to Train Your Managers

Since 75% of employees leave their jobs voluntarily because of a poor manager, it’s a good idea to recognize the warning signs that a manager needs to learn better management and interpersonal communication skills. Otherwise, your organization cannot ensure continued growth, productivity, and profitability.

Here are eight urgent signals that your manager is not performing well:

Stagnating productivity, resulting in loss of customers and profitability.
Your managers need to learn how to inspire and connect with their teams to boost productivity and streamline operations.
Conflict and communication breakdowns, resulting in an unstable workforce. Better interpersonal communication skills will help your managers bridge gaps, open dialogue, and constructively resolve disputes.
Difficulty meeting deadlines, resulting in disrupted schedules and dissatisfied customers. Your managers need to develop skills in time management, planning, and resource allocation to ensure timely project completion.
Poor decisions, resulting in ill-considered actions with negative consequences. Your managers need to learn how to make timely and informed decisions, streamline processes, and improve productivity.
High employee disengagement and turnover, resulting in increased absenteeism and the loss of your high performers and institutional knowledge. Learning good management practices will enable your managers to create a positive work environment where they recognize and encourage your employee potential, build loyalty, and reduce turnover of your employees.
Escalating grievances and complaints, resulting in a contentious workplace. Your managers need to learn how to communicate goals and expectations more clearly and treat your employees with respect and consideration.
Inhibited innovation and growth, resulting in lagging behind in the business arena. Management training will help your managers become comfortable with delegating, accepting mistakes as learning opportunities, and guiding their teams towards creative solutions.
Lack of leadership collaboration, resulting in confusion, conflict, and competing agendas. Management training will help your management team recognize their shared values, align their leadership approaches, and establish a sense of unity.

Each of these eight indicators is an urgent signal that your managers are not performing well and need better management and interpersonal communication skills. Addressing these signals through management training can enhance an organization’s performance and profitability. An investment in management training is an investment in the current and future success of your organization.

Action: To learn more, schedule time to talk with Deborah Laurel at http://bit.ly/44yLO5l

The Not-So-Hidden Costs of Untrained Managers

Middle managers are the backbone of business. It’s up to them to translate policies and procedures and to manage the employee experience to ensure that programs achieve their goals and customers’ needs are met.

SET YOUR EMPLOYEES & MANAGERS UP FOR SUCCESS

Management Development Services

Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers. And if the employees are unhappy and don’t leave, their morale and productivity plummet. You know you have a problem if your customer complaints have increased, more production deadlines aren’t being met, and your revenue is down. Can you afford for this to continue?

My name is Deborah Laurel and I’m the President of Laurel and Associates, Ltd.

If your managers are struggling and your employees are thinking of jumping ship, it will cost you 6 to 9 months of the employee’s salary to ﬁll each vacancy.

Isn’t it time to see that your managers have the managerial and interpersonal skills they need to create a positive and productive work environment, so employees want to stay and, even better, do their best?

I bring practical experience with developing managers in a variety of different industries, based on my years as a management consultant and as an adjunct instructor in the Executive Management Institute and the Small Business Development Center in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I offer three packages to help your managers learn how to manage:

Package A is a ﬁve-day management development program that builds and reinforces necessary management skills in communication, delegation, motivation, coaching, and team building. An additional ﬁve days are scheduled a month later for follow up and reinforcement.

Five added values of this program:

Employee morale will improve.
Employee productivity will increase.
You will save the cost of replacing employees.
Production or service goals will be met.
Potential applicants will be attracted to the company.

Package B is a three-day management development program that builds and reinforces necessary management skills in communication, motivation, and delegation. An addtional three days are scheduled a month later for follow up and reinforcement.

Five added values of this program:

Less problems will result due to miscommunication.
Employees will be more highly motivated to work at their potential.
By delegating effectively, the managers will be able to perform at a higher level.
>Employee performance and productivity will increase.
Customer service will improve as employees are allowed to make decisions.

Package C is a one-day management development workshop that addresses a specific skill deﬁcit and is selected from our menu of management courses. These include but are not limited to coaching, communication, conﬂict resolution, delegation, motivation, performance management, change management, and team building. An additional day is scheduled a month later for follow up and reinforcement.

Five added values of this package:

Manager-employee relationships will improve.
Managers will feel more conﬁdent in their ability to manage.
Employee morale will improve.
Employee productivity will increase.
Employee retention will increase.

When we have worked together, you will have identiﬁed the specific concerns you have regarding your managers’ skill sets and the results you desire. Your managers will have participated in the workshops, developed the desired skills, and used them to create an engaged and productive workforce. They will have been held accountable for increasing employee morale, productivity, and retention.

Managers are not born, they’re made. If they’re not made well, your en:re company suffers the cost. You can’t afford that. Avoid having to let them go. Give them the training they need.

Let’s talk. You can schedule a mutually convenient Zoom call.

Blog

Laurel Learning Tips

A colorful picture with vertical blocks that each explain what ADKAR change model means: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement

Tip #1036: The ADKAR Model of Change Management

Change happens at the individual level. In order for a group or organization to change, all individuals within that group or organization must change. This

Male white professional with head bent, holding a sign saying I quit, with a box of his things on his desk ready to leave with him.

Tip #1035: Can You Live with the Consequences of Poor Managers?

“People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.” Marcus Buckingham. Most managers aren’t born bad. “Too often, the title of manager is doled out

Picture of Deborah Laurel, short white blonde hair, blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a dark blue jacket

Tip #1034: How to Help Managers Who Don’t Manage

In previous Tips, we looked at the three major reasons why managers don’t manage: they are uncomfortable with their role and responsibilities; they lack confidence

testimonials

The Impact

I have learned more from your 1-week course than from any other communication training I could remember. And the tools you have shared will come so handy… excellent! Thank you so much!

Dora Alicante LeonCSR Supervisor, Trident Equatorial Guinea, Inc.

Deb is an amazing instructor and curriculum developer. Her Train the Trainer program helped to solidify my love for adult learning and coaching. Deb’s innovative methods and logical templates have helped me design many successful training programs. She is a wonderful facilitator, educator and coach.

Shelly WeberProgram & Policy Analyst at Department of Workforce Development

It’s my absolute pleasure to recommend the services of Deborah Laurel. Deb has worked with Compressed Air Challenge since its inception in the mid 1990’s. Without her expert training and advise, all our workbooks, and training material used today would not have occurred. Deb took the knowledge many of our engineers and turned it into an amazing training that has been successful and still going strong today. Both a fundamentals training and an Advanced Training were created. In her work with us, Deb took a bunch of engineers who thought they could easily relay technical informant and taught us how to teach adult learners. To deliver the material in small doses so the attendees fully understand each lesson. This was not an easy task, yet Deb pulled it off brilliantly. I would absolutely recommend the services of Deborah Laurel to anyone interested training or curriculum design.

Frank Moskowitz CCASS at Compressed Air & Gas Institute (CAGI)

In my nearly 20 years of training, this program gave me more clarity and useful tools for facilitating and designing programs than any other I have attended. The level of learning was phenomenal. The tools and tips are something that I can use immediately. The feedback was very insightful and again, something that I can put into practice. I recommend this program to all trainers, regardless of their experience level.

Jackie HardyTraining Director, CUNA Credit Union

You have a gift for delivering and designing learning. Not only did I have a blast in your workshop, the interactive nature of your workshop design ensured that I retained far more than I would have with more traditional learning methods. I have used so many tools from that workshop in my job. You are a natural for designing learning. You very quickly can identify the goal of the training, can work through powerful learning objectives, and then rapidly put together effective interactive activities to ensure knowledge transfer. Your approach to learning is clear, logical, and compelling. Thank you for sharing your gift for delivering and designing training with me! I feel blessed to have a mentor with such skill available to me as a new learning and development person. I would love to continue to learn from you!! Because of your training techniques, I enhanced my training and facilitation skills 100%. No kidding! I used what you taught and would recommend your training to anyone who needs to learn how to train, facilitate or needs to learn anything.

Thank you Deb for all the great learning!!!

Kim Robinson Manager of Learning and Development, Sage Publications

Thanks for the promised materials – your class is going to be SO helpful in making our training classes more fun and productive. We have 4 PowerPoint presentations that we give one after the other and I have had the hardest time doing these presentations because I have found them so boring. Now I am breaking them up with Jeopardy and worksheets and brainstorming in hope of keeping the class as well as myself awake. Your class will make a big difference in how we present our information.

Kathy FraserTechnical Trainer, Data Innovations North America

I have known and worked with Deb Laurel for over thirty years. She first taught for the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when I was the director. I was so impressed with Deb that when I was putting together an advanced 5 day Train the Trainer for an Open Society program in Croatia I asked her to do the program. The students not only learned solid pedagogy but also accelerated learning curriculum design. She was invited to return to JJ Strossmeyer University in Osijek, Croatia to help them develop the first student-centered MBA in Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. She trained the faculty how to use participatory training methods instead of traditional lecture. Since that time, Deb has been my go-to trainer for the CUNA Management School, the Government Financial Officers Association, and the Walker Broadcasters Management Institute. I highly recommend her for curriculum design, facilitating training, and train the trainer programs.

Joan GillmanEmeritus Director, Special Industry Programs, Wisconsin School of Business, UW Madison