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How to get leaders in the organization to take you seriously

While teaching a group a few weeks ago on “How to develop an eLearning strategy for your organization”, one of the key point I raised was the importance of becoming an eLearning consultant when you want to start talking about developing eLearning strategies.  

“You have to be seen as an expert providing value adding solutions to the organization’s problems.”

During a follow up conversation after the webinar, a question came up that I thought would be great to respond to as a blog post.  

“How do I get leaders in my organization to take me seriously.”

Here are my thoughts on this question: 

Beat them over the head with it!!! Just kidding!

      
1. Engage your stakeholders – Engagement leads to respect.  Schedule time with them to connect with your stakeholders to build a relationship. Ask them a lot of questions. Try to find out more about their vision, barriers, areas of concern etc.  Push to solve their problems.
It might seem ridiculous but here is a truth that cuts through life.  When people see that you care about them and their agenda, they will start to care about you and your agenda.

Seek to understand before you open your mouth.

 

      
2. Become a thought leader – Start writing articles around eLearning online.  Join webinars and volunteer to teach others in your community or your office. Keep
joining webinars and conferences. Keep reading books around eLearning. Your exposure will improve your confidence and competence.  As time goes on, people will see you as a thought leader in this ‘space.’ Becoming a thought leader will improve the chances of being taken seriously by stakeholders in high places.

c.      
3. It is all in the mind – I will end it with this. Your mindset is so crucial in getting people to sit down and listen to you engage as an equal.  The definition of consulting ultimately boils down to being a problem solver. You were brought into your organization to solve a problem.  See yourself as the KPMG or Prime Target of your organization. 

This will help eliminate this barrier. 

Have a lovely week ahead!

 

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The Danger of Multi Level Values

I’m sure you’ve experienced this phenomenon before. You sit with a leader in the HR department and are told about an amazing culture and set of values in the organization. You are excited and decide to sign up to become a member of that family. You arrive in your first week only to start noticing a completely different type of employees in the frontline. They are angry, bitter and cynical towards leadership. Your supervisors are no different – saying the right things in front of their line managers to uphold the culture reputation but terrible at leading people and culture.

This is what I call Multi Level Values. A terrible phenomenon in today’s organizations.

Multi level values occur when an organization has separate values at different management levels within the organization.

This occurs when the executive team holds a certain set of values, the mid-level managers live and govern by a different set of values and the Junior Level and front-line personnel live by another set of values.

How could this be possible in an organization?

My first experience of multi level values occurred when I first entered the workforce. I had a great meeting with a Director who spoke about the amazing culture of the organization. A few hours later, I finally had a chance to meet my direct supervisor who had a totally different view of the culture. A few days later, I met a few entry level staff members who showed me ‘how things are done around here.’

The same has also happened in organizations like Boeing, and Volkswagen. (Will share more later this week).

Perhaps this is a time to sit back and reflect. What can we do better with your culture? Where are you not getting it right? What are our people saying (Not what Mid-level managers are telling you)
Try skip level meetings. Be humble enough to listen to your people.
When trust is built, you’d be shocked what you’d hear.

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A view of Risk Management – Post Covid-19

I had an opportunity to chat with CEO of Conrad Clarke, Joachim Adenusi. Conrad Clarke is the leading provider of Strategic Risk and Transformational Change Management Solutions and Services in Nigeria. Our focus was on Risk Management post Covid-19.

Mr. Adenusi is a doctoral candidate with the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London. He is a chartered Insurer with The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), UK, certified fellow, trainer and a former executive director of the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) UK, with over 25 years of risk, governance, and strategic management experience, spanning financial services, public and health sectors, manufacturing, consulting and academia.

We did some great work together in Nigeria and I always love his insight, especially in respect to Risk Management.

Learn, Unlearn, Relearn.

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