Talent Development Strategies

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Somewhere along the line, too many companies stopped developing talent and started just chasing it. The problem? When you only hire “ready-made,” you miss out on the hungry ones. The ones who might not have the experience yet, but show up with the right attitude, a willingness to learn, and zero ego. That’s how you build greatness. Not by finding finished products - but by investing in people with their best years ahead of them. And let’s be clear: this isn’t about age. It’s about mindset. Humility. Potential. To unlock that potential, organisations need to stop being lazy and start building environments where growth is part of the culture. Here’s what that looks like: 1️⃣ Train Like You Mean It Don’t just onboard. Invest in real development — mentorship, hands-on learning, workshops. Give people tools and time. 2️⃣ Hire for Trajectory, Not Just Track Record Look past the CV. Prioritise curiosity, coachability, and drive. Use behavioural interviews and trial periods to assess mindset, not just experience. 3️⃣ Bridge the Gap with Education Partner with schools, unis, and training programs. Build pathways from education into the industry — not walls. 4️⃣ Create a Culture of Lifelong Learning Learning shouldn't stop after probation. Offer clear routes to reskill, upskill, and evolve. Make personal growth a company standard. 5️⃣ Recruit Without Bias Diversity isn’t a checkbox — it’s a competitive advantage. Use blind recruitment, set intentional targets, and make inclusion real. The companies that win long-term are the ones that bet on people early and build them up with intention. Don’t just find talent. Develop it.

I wanted to become an expert in ‘Behaviour Change’ But I struggled till an incident showed me what I was missing The story & the 2 Behavior Change principles every leader must know… It’s May and the Indian summer is at full strength. I am taking a session for school teachers but they don’t want to be here. They don’t want to attend another training that will be boring, disrespectful & useless. But our research had revealed these issues so I have some tricks up my sleeve. Our content is bite-sized, actionable & solves their top problems. Our trainings are full of games & movie themes. Most importantly we treat teachers with genuine respect. It works & the trainings go incredibly well. Teachers tell their friends & next day the attendance doubles. At the end, I ask: “Will you apply all this ?” “Yes” they answer. Then I follow up: “Do you think they will work ?” ”No” they reply. I am taken aback: “So why will you apply them ?” ”Because you were kind to us & you really believe they will work. We will try them for you.” This was unexpected. I wanted to convince teachers with our rigorous research & testing. But the trust was established by how we had treated them & our passionate belief in the content. Then I remembered Everett Rogers. Most know his innovation model: Innovators → Early adopters → Early majority… Few know his core insight behind the model: “Change is a social process. People change because of other people.” This explained what was happening here. Then teachers went back to their classes, tried our stuff & blew up our messages: ”OMG!! This works. Why were we not taught this before ?” ”This child who had never answered, answered today. I now believe every child can learn.” We had assumed these mindset shifts would take a long time. But many teachers were making them a lot faster. Guskey’s model provided the explanation: People do mindset trainings for teachers but that rarely works. What works better is to make it easy for teachers to try new behaviours. Once they experience success, they change their own mindsets. So ❌ Mindset Change → Action Change → Success ✅ Action Change → Success → Mindset Change ————————— Generalising these 2 principles for any leader trying to change behavior: 1️⃣ MESSENGERS MATTER → Make sure they are kind, fun, inspiring & respectful → It all starts with people liking & trusting them 2️⃣ FOCUS ON MAKING PEOPLE EXPERIENCE SUCCESS QUICKLY → People can disagree with you. They can’t disagree with their own success → Focus on them experiencing success quickly with the new behavior & adoption will skyrocket. We overhauled our model based on these 2 counter-intuitive principles. This helped us scale our model to 1000s of teachers & become one of the top training organizations in India. I now use these principles with 100s of entrepreneurs & leaders I support. They work just as well. #Change #Leadership #Management Any behaviour change insight you have stumbled onto ?

The World Economic Forum's 'Top skills for 2025'- a clear framework to align your learning and development strategies! If you are wondering how to use this information to develop your team, here's a few ideas 💡 👉Audit Current Programs Compare existing training initiatives with the top skills for 2025 and identify gaps. 👉Tie Skills to Roles Show how the skills map directly to the responsibilities of each role in the organization. 👉Develop Targeted Content Design workshops, e-learning modules, or on-the-job training focused on critical areas like analytical thinking and active listening. 👉Create a Skills Inventory Tool Develop a simple self-assessment tool to help employees rate themselves and reflect on strengths and weaknesses ( I like to use competency tools- the visual works really well!) 👉Mentoring and Coaching Pair employees with mentors or coaches to guide their development in critical skills. 👉Use Development Plans Collaborate with employees to create individual development plans targeting both short-term needs and long-term aspirations. 👉Microlearning Modules: Offer bite-sized learning resources on priority skills to reduce barriers to learning ( Short videos work really well here). 👉Integrate into Appraisals Include questions about employees' progress in skill areas during performance reviews. So... How is your organization preparing employees to develop the skills that will be most critical in 2025 and beyond? I'd love to hear about any innovative approaches or challenges you've encountered. Leave your comments below 🙏 _____________________________________ I'm Catherine- A Lean Business and Leadership Coach. Follow me for daily insights on Lean, leadership, coaching, strategy and organizational behaviour.

Coaches: You may not be a sport psychologist…but you are often in a more powerful position than I am to influence your players’ psychology (and psychosocial development)… And it’s on the grass where your psychological prowess can shine through. It’s in your activities through your session design, and in your coach behaviours through your voice and through your demeanour… -session design -coach behaviour You can always be better in your delivery of psychology. You can influence their psychosocial development every second of every activity on the grass… And so… Use your voice…tone, volume, rhythm Use your instruction…inject them with certainty Use your questions…get them thinking Use conditions and constraints…help them feel stretched Use your gestures…help them feel positive Use your body language…help them feel activated Use your silence…help them experience autonomy Use your assistant coaches…help them feel supported Use your knowledge of mental skills…help them build their understanding Use your values…help them establish an ethical and moral compass Use your water breaks…ask them questions to consolidate memories for learning Use your time between activities…cultivate leaders and team mates Use your empathy…aim to appreciate individual, social, and cultural differences You can always be better in your delivery of psychology. Aim to be as good at delivering psychology as a coach as you can be…deliver deliberately, intentionally, purposefully…

I had bookmarked over 100 tutorials on automation. Never opened a single one. Then in one week, I learned Make, Typeform, Carrd, Airtable, and Softr—and tied them all together. What changed?  I had a project to build. Most of us try to learn tools in isolation. We watch courses. We follow tutorials. We bookmark resources we’ll never revisit. But tools don't make sense in a vacuum. You can't learn how to connect five different platforms by studying them one at a time. That's where project-based learning changes everything. When you have something real to build, the tools stop being abstract concepts. They become solutions to specific problems you need to solve right now. Here's why project-based learning is the fastest way to master new tools, or indeed, new subjects: 1: Projects give you a clear finish line. - Without a project, you'll wander down every rabbit hole. - With a project, you learn exactly what you need—nothing more. - The goal pulls you forward when curiosity tries to pull you sideways. Clarity comes from constraints, not endless possibilities. 2: Projects force you to connect the dots between tools. This is where the real learning happens. Make handles automation. Typeform captures input. Airtable organizes data. Softr turns it into an app. Carrd builds the landing page. Alone, each tool is interesting. Together, they solve a problem you couldn't solve before. Project-based learning doesn't just teach you tools. It teaches you how to tie them together into something that works. 3: Projects compress your learning curve dramatically. - I bookmarked 100+ tutorials and learned nothing. - One real project taught me five tools in seven days. - Theory builds confidence. Projects build competence. You don't learn to swim by reading about water. 4: Projects teach you what theory never will. Courses teach you features. Projects teach you decisions. Should you automate this step or do it manually? Which tool fits best here? How do you troubleshoot when two platforms won't talk to each other? These are questions you only encounter when you're building something real. I finished 80% of my project in one all-nighter. Then I spent four days stuck on the last 20%. That struggle taught me more than any tutorial ever could. 5: The best learning project is one you care about. - Pick something you want to exist. - Make it small enough to finish in a week. - Make it real enough to push through when it gets hard. Passion combined with quick, small wins is the antidote to quitting. #life #upskilling #business

How to Stop Your Sales Team From "Knowing What to Do" But Never Actually Doing It Your reps sat through the training. They nodded along. Took notes. Maybe even practiced in the breakout room. Two weeks later? Back to the old habits. The new talk track sits unused. Discovery questions get skipped. The CRM is a mess again. Sound familiar? You can fix this, here's how. 1. Stop Teaching Everything at Once That two-day bootcamp where you covered discovery, objection handling, demo structure, AND negotiation? It's why nothing stuck. The human brain can't operationalize 47 new behaviors at once. Instead: Pick ONE behavior that moves your North-Star metric this quarter. Teach that. Drill that. Inspect that. Master it before you move on. Example: If your connect rate is killing you, focus exclusively on messaging and timing for 30 days. Nothing else. Watch what happens when the team actually gets good at one thing. 2. Make "What Good Looks Like" Crystal Clear - aka the Wiggle (WGLL) "Better discovery" means nothing. "Ask about their current process, the pain it's causing, and what happens if they don't fix it—then confirm budget and timeline before you demo" means everything. Document exactly what good looks like at every stage. Use your top reps' actual calls. Create scorecards with 3-5 specific behaviors. Then inspect those behaviors weekly. Not monthly. Not "when you remember." Weekly. 3. Inspect and Recognize the Behavior, Not Just the Outcome You can't coach "closed more deals." That's a lagging indicator. You CAN coach: "Did you multi-thread? Did you run discovery before demoing? Did you set a clear next step with a date?" Build a weekly inspection rhythm: → Pull 2-3 calls per rep → Score them against your WGLL scorecard → Flag the one behavior to improve this week → Coach it in your 1:1 When reps know you're watching the work (not just the results), the work changes. Shout out and recognize when the BEHAVIOR improves as well, not just the outcome 4. Turn Insights Into Micro-Drills Spotting the gap is step one. Fixing it requires practice. If your rep keeps talking past the prospect's objection, don't just "remind them to pause and confirm." Run a 5-minute micro drill right there in the 1:1. Skill doesn't come from awareness. It comes from repetition under pressure. 5. Use AI to Enforce What You Can't Watch You can't listen to every call. You can't read every email thread. But AI can flag when discovery was skipped, when a next step is missing, when a deal has gone dark for 10 days. Let technology do the inspection grunt work so you spend your time coaching the humans, not hunting for problems. THE REAL ISSUE: Most training fails because there's no operating system to keep it alive. You taught the skill. Then you went back to meetings, firefighting, and hoping it stuck. It didn't. Install the system. Make the right behaviors unavoidable. Watch your team finally do the work that moves the number.

Last week, I was invited to speak with a group of young managers and emerging leaders. The conversation was wide-ranging: leadership, coaching, current challenges, and what’s ahead. They came with lots of curiosity, openness, and stimulating questions that mattered a lot to them. At one point, someone asked: “What’s actually in the toolbox of a great coach?” What do you need to know, and how do you need to work to genuinely support others? I shared this: It starts with you (the “armchair”) If you’re not comfortable with yourself, you can’t be present with someone else. You need to be able to settle. To quiet the noise inside. Coaching begins with being fully available in the moment, without trying to impress or fix or steer. Then: listening. Real listening (the “stethoscope”) Not reacting. Not preparing your next question. Active listening means listening for their truth. Not your version of it. And being okay with the silence in between. And from that space, you ask open questions (the “wonder questions”) Not to lead, but to unlock. Questions like: What’s on your mind? What part of this feels most unresolved? What would progress look like for you? Not for the organization, but for you? These questions don’t direct. They expand. We also talked about reframing and the ability to change perspective (the “mirror”) Someone may come in saying, “I’ve failed. This project fell apart.” And through the process, they come to see, “I challenged the status quo, and now I see what needs to change.” Reframing means looking again, differently, until new meaning, and often new energy, appears. Then came the conversation about goals (the “bow and arrow”) Coaching should have a goal. But it’s not the coach’s goal. It’s the coachee’s. And it’s not about ticking boxes. It’s about growth and transformation. The coach doesn’t lead that journey. They walk beside it. You hold the process, not the answers. You stay in service of their direction. And underneath all of this: self-awareness (the “enlightened mind”) Not as a nice to have. As a discipline. You should be aware of your own biases and your blind spots. You need to learn how to empty yourself, so you don’t bring your own values or assumptions into the space. Your work isn’t to shape the coachee in your image. It’s to create space for them to discover who they want to become. On their terms. That was the conversation. It left me quietly optimistic, because what they were asking wasn’t just about tools. It was about responsibility. About how we show up and help others to leverage their potential. What do you think? *********************** If you want to learn more about coaching, feel free to reach out on Linkedin or via my website. I´m an executive coach, consultant, and advisor to senior leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide. A former leader at Amazon, L’Oréal, Chewy, and executive board member at Tchibo. #coach #coaching #growth #personaldevelopment #team #fulfillment #leader #leadership

"We brought in a trainer for two days and nothing changed." Of course it didn't. You treated training like a checkbox activity. Sales leaders constantly make this mistake: → Hire external trainer for 2-day workshop → Everyone gets excited during sessions → 30 days later, zero behavior change → "Training doesn't work" Wrong. Your approach to training doesn't work. Here's what actually happens: Day 1: Reps are pumped. Taking notes. Asking questions. Day 2: Still engaged. Ready to implement everything. Day 30: Back to old habits. Zero retention. Why? Because you treated symptoms, not the disease. You didn't change their daily habits. You didn't provide ongoing reinforcement. You didn't build systems for accountability. Real training that creates lasting change looks different: #1 It's diagnostic first. Before any training, you identify specific skill gaps through call reviews, deal analysis, and performance data. Not generic "they need better discovery" but specific "they ask surface level pain questions but never uncover business impact." #2 It's delivered in sprints. Six weeks of twice-weekly sessions beats a 2-day workshop every time. Reps can practice between sessions, get feedback, and build muscle memory. #3 It includes reinforcement systems. Weekly coaching calls, peer practice sessions, and manager check-ins. The learning doesn't stop when the trainer leaves. #4 It measures behavior change, not satisfaction scores. "Did you like the training?" is worthless. "Are you now asking better discovery questions?" matters. #5 It provides job aids and frameworks. Reps need cheat sheets, email templates, and conversation guides they can reference in real situations. Most importantly: It's customized to your specific challenges, not generic sales advice. The companies that see 40%+ improvement in performance don't do one-off training events. They build learning into their culture. They have weekly skill-building sessions. They do call reviews with specific feedback. They practice objection handling until it's automatic. Stop buying training like it's a magic pill. Start building capability like it's a muscle that needs consistent exercise. Your reps deserve better than motivational speeches that wear off in a week. — Tired of wasted training budgets? I'll design a performance improvement system that actually creates lasting behavior change. Book a diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

One of the biggest misconceptions I see in coaching: You have to establish a session agreement quickly. One of the coaches I’m mentoring for their PCC came to me with this exact challenge. They had completed their ACC with a globally reputed coaching institute and were taught that an agreement should be set within 5 to 7 minutes. So when they shared their recordings with me, I noticed: → The conversation felt rushed. → The agreement wasn’t deep enough.  → The client wasn’t clear on what they wanted. And as a result, the conversation lacked depth. So, I asked them to do something that went against everything they had been taught. → Spend 1/3rd of the session on establishing the agreement. → If that’s not enough, spend half the session on it. → If the client still isn’t clear, spend 2/3rd on it. Because without a strong agreement, there is no coaching. Fast forward a year—this coach has completely transformed their approach. They’ve slowed down and started giving space for clarity to emerge. These are the changes I see now: → Their coaching feels effortless. → Their presence is grounded. → Their silence is intentional. And the most beautiful part? Because they’re taking the time to truly establish an agreement, awareness starts before the coaching even begins. Although they’re still working towards their PCC, I already see them coaching at an MCC level. This is why I say that when you slow down, you actually move forward faster. P.S. How much time were you taught to establish a session agreement?

Sometimes the most meaningful learning emerges when students move beyond calculations and begin interrogating the lived realities behind financial decisions. During a recent routine classroom session using an Excel-driven Retirement Expense Estimation Tool and an online goal-planning calculator, I watched students push their thinking far beyond corpus adequacy and asset allocation. What stood out were the unexpected, human-centred insights; ones that rarely surface in traditional finance classrooms. Some of the most striking contributions included: • Students analysed how choosing a Tier-2 or Tier-3 city could dramatically extend a retirement corpus through lower living costs, lower healthcare inflation, and stronger community networks. • One team questioned whether the “expected lifestyle” we input into tools actually reflects retirees’ evolving aspirations. Their suggestion to build multiple lifestyle pathways, not one fixed projection, brought behavioural finance and life-design thinking into the conversation. • A group discussed behavioural trade-offs: 'Should we prioritise staying close to family even if it means higher expenses, or optimise purely on financial grounds?' Watching students connect technical tools to human realities reaffirmed why experiential learning matters: it cultivates judgment, empathy, and the ability to see finance not just as numbers, but as life decisions. If this generation can think beyond the spreadsheet, the next one will redefine what financial wisdom looks like.☺️ #ExperientialLearning #FutureOfFinance #FinanceEducation #CriticalThinking #HigherOrderThinking #ProblemBasedLearning #RetirementPlanning #LearningInnovation #21stCenturySkills