(Part 1) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

Does Leadership Agree Upon a Clear Direction?

While this seems like common sense, we continue to be surprised at how many seemingly experienced learning consultants and practitioners fail to answer two fundamental questions with key stakeholders before designing and implementing learning solutions:

• Barrier: What are the skills that are holding us back from achieving our goals?
  
  
• Focus: Where should we focus our efforts for the greatest impact?
  

An effective skill assessment should clearly identify the key “money making” skills for your initiative. You need to know the critical few “A,” “B,” and “C” skills and invest your resources and efforts accordingly.
For example, a recent client called us to help significantly increase revenue. This global technology company had seen revenue decrease consistently for the last 8 quarters. With other initiatives in place to focus on product quality, competitive positioning, and service, they wanted to significantly increase the capabilities and performance of their sales team.
After our initial meeting, it was clear that the President, SVP of Sales, VP of Sales, and Senior Account Reps all had different ideas about how to solve the problem based upon their past experiences. We knew that a lack of agreed-upon direction among the leadership team and supporting cast was a death knell for meeting their goal.
To clarify the direction to take, we designed and conducted an online assessment covering 93 key skills related to selling successfully in their industry. 10 specific skill areas and 35 “Must Have” skills rose to the top. The assessment and the accompanying process to align sales executives started the initiative off on the right foot.
Alignment can also occur through interviews and focus groups; however, an assessment backed by (in this case) a research bank of 150+ proven behaviorally-based questions and scenarios provides a data-driven approach to ensure that your project is set up to succeed. A thorough approach also underlines the fact that you and your company are taking the initiative seriously. In this case, perception is indeed reality.