Do you ever hear friends or family complaining about feeling ‘stuck’ at work? Maybe you’ve also felt that way sometimes, becoming restless or bored with your job, or dreading the arrival of each Monday morning.

Many people can become unhappy in their jobs after some time, especially if they no longer find their work exciting or challenging. Continuing to be challenged in your role or occupation is an important part of feeling satisfied, rewarded and energized by your work.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to make sure you keep learning, developing and growing within your role, organization and industry. Professional Development Programs (PDPs) are a simple and effective way to address this need, in the form of personalized action plans that get you from where you are right now to where you want to be in the future.

As a Manager or Team Leader, you can use Professional Development Programs to help your team members refresh or develop their skills in many different areas.

These can be role-specific skills, for example graphic design, or skills that are focused more on personal development, such as becoming more resilient to change, responding well to feedback or dealing with challenging situations or people.

Managers can work with staff to create a PDP, identifying their individual goals, strategies and desired outcomes for learning and development.

PDPs have become an essential tool for successful companies and organizations, as they have significant benefits for both employees and their managers. Let’s look at some of these benefits.

Taking the time to work with your team members on their professional and personal development will help them feel engaged, supported and more in charge of their career path and future. 

By providing sufficient learning and development opportunities to your employees, you’re helping them to learn new skills, experience professional and personal growth, and be better placed for career advancement. You may be surprised to hear that lack of opportunity for advancement and growth is the leading source of stress in the workplace, ranked even higher than low salaries – this certainly highlights the importance of these factors for your staff’s satisfaction.

Employees who receive ongoing training at work report being happier in their roles than those who are either untrained and in over their heads, or unchallenged and feeling stagnant. In fact, over half of today’s workforce considers professional development to be a contributing factor in their job satisfaction, with 58% of Millennials expecting employers to provide them with relevant learning and development opportunities. For the younger generation, it seems that the ability to participate in ongoing training at work has become more of a ‘must have’, rather than a ‘nice to have.’

Outside of the office or away from the job site, learning also helps to keep our minds sharp and active, providing further benefits for an individual’s personal life and wellbeing.

Putting the proper energy into staff development certainly makes for a better workplace culture, which in turn has a positive impact on performance and results. It can also be a great opportunity for Managers to reclaim more of a mentoring role, passing on skills and knowledge to their teams, and in turn, the organization.

Furthermore, with technology developing at such a rapid pace, it’s never been such an important time for companies to invest in structured learning and development for their employees. With PDPs, employees can continually refresh and upgrade their skill sets to keep pace with advancements in ICT, meaning their business won’t get left behind.

Learn More About Personal Development Through Online Training

Online training courses have become a very successful and popular way for staff to receive ongoing learning and development in the workplace.

Your team members can simply enroll and complete training modules online, using a Learning Management System. With the Go1 LMS platform, you can engage staff in self-directed development, through customized training modules they can access anywhere, anytime. 

With more and more staff working out of the office or remotely, online learning is a very effective and flexible approach to learning and development. You’ll also be giving team members the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning and allow them to complete their training at their own pace.

For Managers interested in finding out more about this topic, there’s even an online course about the importance of PDPs – enroll in Exploring Professional Development to start your own online learning. Throughout the course you’ll look at how discussing future opportunities with staff can increase engagement and ultimately their performance, with professional development offering greater opportunities for growth within the organization.

Hopefully, by investing more attention in your team’s learning and development they’ll soon be on the path to greater work satisfaction, with those Monday morning blues a thing of the past!

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The importance of professional development programs

What does it mean when people talk about mastering a skill? 

 What makes the difference between proficiency and mastery?

Most of us have heard about the 10,000 Hour Rule popularized by writer Malcolm Gladwell, which states that to become world-class in any field it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. But is this the only path to mastery? Does it all come down to endless repetition?

One expert doesn’t think so. In his book, Mastery, author Robert Greene claims that there is a specific journey that most of us take to becoming true masters in any field. According to Greene, this is as true for painters and sculptors as it is for salespeople and entrepreneurs.

Greene claims that the first step in your journey is about discovery— exploring your natural talents and finding out what your strengths and weaknesses are. For some people this process begins by rebelling against a particular individual or social institution (picture the young man who chooses to go to art school because his father wants him to be a lawyer).

During this stage it’s critical that you are aware of your primary talents. Mozart, for example, knew as a child that his natural abilities were of the musical variety. Once the skill itself is chosen then the second step on your journey begins.

Now that you know what it is you wish to master, you must begin discovering how you learn. Not everyone acquires and applies knowledge the same way: some people spend years in passive observation, while others take a more active and hands-on approach to learning right from the beginning.  Either way, during this stage it’s very critical to identify the patterns of thinking and inefficient processes that hold you back.

In order to be better than 99% of the population at any one thing, you must know how to keep going when others give up. For some people, an apprenticeship will provide the guidance needed to move effectively through the second stage of mastery.  Sometimes you will make accelerated breakthroughs in your skills, while other times you will need to embrace the tedium that comes from practicing your craft.

As you move forward with your journey, you may need to alter your perspective. You may need to step outside of yourself and watch your learning process from the perspective of an outside observer. At this point you will take a critical eye to the details of your learning process and eliminate the things that are holding you back—while at the same time adding to the ones that are helping you improve..

After you have begun your apprenticeship and you’ve started to discover how you learn, it’s time to go deeper into the processes themselves. If you have chosen a mentor you will begin molding their ideas into your own and there will be a healthy back and forth exchange that will help you gauge your progress as you develop. This is what great coaches do for their athletes, providing them with continuous feedback in their technique and conditioning to help them stay on the path to success.

The fourth stage of mastery is all about social intelligence. Now that you’ve acquired the specific processes necessary for developing your skills, you’ll need to learn how to navigate your social environment effectively. Great artists, for example, must learn how to market themselves to gallery owners and interact with the public in a way that helps them build a following. Entrepreneurs must learn how to court investors and managers must learn how to get the best out of their people.

During this stage it’s absolutely critical that you avoid the Seven Deadly Sins of social intelligence: envy, conformism, rigidity, self-obsessiveness, laziness, flightiness, and passive aggression. You must also learn how to read people effectively so that you can identify who will help and who will hinder you on your journey. Finally, you must understand how to develop the appropriate persona that will draw people to you.

The final stage of mastery is about activating and accelerating your creative learning process. You must avoid becoming complacent with your skills and knowledge and continue to give your mind the fuel it needs to make new associations between different ideas. By this time you will have internalized, shaped, and modified the rules to fit your unique personality and strengths.

At this point you will be adept with the creative process and understand how to focus on both the strategies and tactics required to make you the best of the best. Picture any athlete, filmmaker, artist or businessperson at the height of their career and you’ll understand what the results of this level of mastery can be. Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, Michael Jordan leading the Chicago Bulls, Charles Darwin developing his revolutionary theories—these are all examples of what true mastery can accomplish.

Many people give up at one of these stages, which is why true mastery is such a rare thing. Some people are content with a certain level of proficiency while others lack the focus or commitment required to move on to the next stage. If you want to become a true master of anything then you’ll need to be able to keep moving forward when the vast majority of people give up. It isn’t easy, but the end result is more than worth it.

Part 3 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

Sticking with what you know is always a safe way to get an idea up and running, but stepping out of your comfort zone and daring to change can be the push you need to reach your full potential.

Embracing change can be hard and take a lot of courage, but sometimes to achieve greatness you need to take a step in a direction that you might not be confident it and try something new. Changing the way that you think could be the difference between mediocrity and success.

In the final part of this Master Class series, Joy talks about how embracing change has led her to be in the position that she is in today, and helped her to create a number of amazing organizations.

You can enroll in Joy’s ‘Why Not Dare?’ course by clicking here 

Dare to change and reach your full potential!

You can also check out the other parts of this Master Class here:

Introducing The ‘Why Not Dare?’ Master Class 

‘Dare to Ask’: Part 1 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

‘Dare to Listen’: Part 2 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

‘Dare to Change’: Part 3 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

GO1's Head of Strategic Partnerships, Melvyn Lubega, recently took some time to have a chat with the people at DestinyMan about how the company has expanded so rapidly across the world, as well as discussing some of the challenges that are associated with having a global team.

“When we first launched the company, I headed up sales,” says Lubega. “This meant building and growing the team, while developing our sales process to be both predictable and scalable. As we grew, this meant managing people across an increasing number of geographies and time zones, which means a lot of late nights and early mornings.”

Melvyn also talks about how his time at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation set him up for success and led him to gaining acceptance to the prestigious University of Oxford, which in turn led to joining the GO1 team.

“Through the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, I discovered that the difference between someone who is an entrepreneur and someone who is not is how they view the world,” he says.

Melvyn also has some great tips for aspiring businesspeople, which you can read along with the full article over at DestinyMan.com

Melvyn Lubega talks running a global company with Destiny Man

Part 2 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

Having the ability to focus and push forward is critical to success, but it’s just as important to remember to listen to those around you who are challenging your ideas, or questioning your approach, as this may be the push that you need to take your concepts to the next level!

Creating an organization is about bringing people together to work on achieving a goal, and opening yourself up to listening to those around you. This allows your team to pursue opportunities together and create a more rounded experience for everyone involved.

In this part of our Master Class, Joy discusses how being dared to listen led to her success in creating a positive eco system that allowed her community to thrive.

Dare to listen and find out how others can help you succeed!

Introducing The 'Why Not Dare?' Master Class 

At Go1 we are proud supporters of the local community and not-for-profit businesses, and by using Go1 to learn you will also be supporting the community. With the launch of our new website we will be giving back to those organizations that are working hard to make the world a better place by donating all funds from our user fees for our starter plan directly to charity.

Every month in our customer newsletter we will be announcing how the previous months’ funds have been distributed. If you are a not-for-profit and would like to be considered for our charity donations, please contact us and tell us more about your organization.

In addition to donating the starter plan user fees, Go1 also offer free portals for not-for-profit and charity organizations. We love helping people who are doing great things in the community, and want to provide you with your own custom portal for no charge so that you can help more people! Community projects (including open source projects) also can qualify for a free Go1 portal. To find out more and apply for your free portal click here.

We are currently donating to the following charities:

Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

You can read more information about our charity donations, as well as finding out about each of the charities that we are currently donating to on our website.

Part 1 of a Master Class with Joy Buolamwini

Have you ever had an idea, something you wanted to know, someone you wanted to meet, or some place you wanted go but didn’t know where to start?

At some point, we all reach the limits of our knowledge, resources, and connections. To move towards our goals we must dare to ask for what we aspire towards.

In this part of the ‘Why Not Dare?’ Master class, Joy takes a closer look into how you take a concept from an idea jotted down on a notepad, all the way through to a finished product by using the 3-S approach.

Find out more about how Joy’s determination and drive took her organizations from ideas, through to world changing innovations!

You can enroll in Joy's 'Why Not Dare?' course by clicking here 

To find out more about Joy, check out her Master Class Introduction

Dare to ask how you will change the world!

You may often hear people say that attitude is more important than skills or experience, but is this really true? Does attitude really matter when applying for a job position or when you are trying to close a deal with your client? Which really gives a great impression to the client…? Is it attitude or skills?

As a freelancer who sends too many applications to win great opportunities online, I can attest that many employees consider attitude as to be just as important as a potential employee's’ skills and experience.

Why am I confident to say that? Despite of the skills and experience I put in my portfolio, many clients judge me by the cover letter I send upon application and how I was able to answer every question they asked. As clients read my cover letter and listening to my answers in interviews, they are reading my mind and getting ideas of who I really am.

The following questions are what most clients ask applicants and sometimes require them to include in their cover letter:

Why you consider yourself as a good fit for the position?

What can you contribute to make this project successful?

And can you finish this task on or before the due date?

When you look closer, most of these questions are basically depend on an employee’s attitude. If someone passes these first few questions, that would be the time that the employer will look into their portfolio and know more about the applicant’s skills and experience.

Why is it important to have a great attitude above skills and experience?

A person with a good attitude has range of thoughts regarding their employment. They are constantly looking for better approaches to problem solving, and ways to enhance a workplace that will benefit everyone within a company.
Individuals with good attitudes get a kick out of watching the after effects of their performance. They will demonstrate a high level of pride in what they accomplished, or how they figured out how to improve the environment around them.

A great example of a company with great culture is Zappos.

Tony Hiesh, Zappos CEO firmly stands that he wouldn’t hire stellar candidates if they didn’t align with the company’s culture, and he would fire those who don’t fit in. This Inc. video can tell you more about Tony Hiesh vision about company culture. Zappos is very well known in giving great customer experience. Company culture is well observed by the employees and it makes a chain reaction, great attitude among employees’ ended up working in a nice, peaceful environment and great relationship with their customers. No wonder why Zappos became one of the most successful businesses in the USA as it is being led by a man with a great attitude.

Many companies don’t mind spending money to provide quality training for their employees, in fact they believe that having skilled workers is a great investment, but in the end, culture fit employees are their assets.

Great attitude plays a huge part in securing new client. If you are involved in the sales process, a positive attitude could be your greatest asset in leaving a very great first impression with your new potential clients. Great products and services are what will get people interesting in your business, but it’s a positive attitude can determine whether customers will buy your product or not.

Having a positive attitude can allow you to form a bond with your audience which can prove to be especially critical in the business world. The last thing that people want to do is deal with a negative service provider, or someone that they don’t get along with. Entering any conversations with a positive attitude shows that you are able to handle their business in a professional manner, as well as being approachable and easy to deal with on a regular basis which could be the difference between winning or losing a new contract.

First impressions last, and set the tone for how you will act throughout your relationship. Making a good and positive impression could be the difference between expanding your business or missing out on that next big deal, so invest everything you can on that very first meeting to make the best impression possible, so that customers will remember you.

A good attitude is not only about closing deals; it might also lead to you landing your next big career opportunity. Like we’ve said, first impressions last, and when hiring new employees, this can play a major factor and your behavior in an interview will set the tone for how you will be performing over the coming months or years. Being open to learning new skills or working to develop your company can be very attractive to a potential employer and can really give your career a big push forward.
You attitude can open many doors in your life for both your career and your personal life, so next time you are meeting with someone, think of how coming in with a positive frame of mind will affect your experience and how much more you can get out of your interactions.

Why your attitude is just as important as your skills

In case you’re not familiar with Joy, she’s the founder of Code4Rights, an MIT Media Lab endeavor that introduces novices to making social impact mobile apps.

In this Master Class series, Joy will be sharing her journey as an entrepreneur and outlining 3 key imperatives that have enabled her to start organizations across 3 continents and secure support for new initiatives. This includes sharing the creation stories for endeavors including Zamrize - a Fulbright tech learning project, and Code4Rights - the first Rhodes Scholar service year initiative.

Before we jump into part one of this series, let’s find out a bit more about Joy!

We hope that in turn that these stories will challenge you to:

You can enroll in Joy's 'Why Not Dare?' course by clicking here

Introducing the 'Why Not Dare?' master class with Joy Buolamwini

A key to building a business in any industry is being able to create a good relationship with your customers. As the people who are interacting with your customers on a daily basis, your customer support team are your relationship builders, and their role on a day to day basis could be the difference between winning or losing business.

There are no set rules to developing a great customer support experience, but it’s the little things that count. Being attentive to each and every person you speak to and showing a positive, helpful and friendly environment will guarantee that customers leave with a great impression and shows that you care about everyone using your business, no matter how big or small their contracts. Providing that positive experience will more often than not see customers investing further in your organization, or recommending you to their person network which is invaluable.

Great customer service is putting yourself in your customer's shoes. It’s critical to ensure the person you are speaking with understands that you care about them and you are concerned about what they are going through, rather than just looking to palm them off onto another team member. The best customer interactions occur when a customer feels that they are being listened to and understood, no matter the size of the problem.

Nancy Friedman of Telephone Doctor outlines the three most important things that a customer representative should do and should avoid. In her video entitled “Excellent Customer Service Skills” Nancy talks about the impact of empathy and enthusiasm, as well as the negative effects of Apathy in your business.

We will now take a close look at Nancy’s Top 3 Tips.

Demonstrating to a customer that you understand and being aware of, and sensitive to, their feelings and thoughts are critical. We are all human and react to human emotions, so when we are treated in a way that doesn’t cater to those emotion, we immediately disconnect mentally. How many times have you sat through endless recordings while trying to gain customer support from a large corporation only to grow to hate the company more with every minute that passes?

Empathy is an essential service mentality and it’s a key building block in creating a great customer support experience. During phone conversations it is easier for well-oriented customer service representative to show empathy because they have the benefit of using perfect tone of voice to make understanding easier, but we live in a world where most of our communication comes in the form of email and live chat messages, so we need to adapt.

Some tips on how to show empathy include:

Listen – Active listening is the most effective way to show empathy to customers. When talking to customers, focus is very important. You have to listen with purpose and let the customer feel that you are the most reliable person to talk to.

Focus – When customer starts logging their issues, focus is very important. Don’t be afraid to paraphrase if you feel like you don’t fully understand the situation. Focus on the main issue but keep listening to every point that the customer is trying to say.

Sympathize – Even the customer is telling the whole story of his/her life, whether it’s related to the service that your company provides, it is important that you sympathize, sometimes clients make dramatic introduction before telling the main issue. When you sympathize to customers, they begin to become comfortable and you conversation will go smoothly and will end up nicely.

Offer Help – Once you heard the entire story and learned what the issue is all about, it’s time for you to offer help. Let the client feel that you are ready to help them resolve their issues the best way you can.

The last thing anyone wants when talking to customer support is hearing the person they are talking to sounds like they don’t want to be there. Being able to bring an observable high level of energy or interest to a project situation makes a huge difference to the customer. People who are truthfully enthusiastic don't discriminate between their activities, instead they tend to bring high energetic and passive of emotions to whatever activity they’re doing.

Acknowledge - The initial opportunity to put your enthusiasm on display is to acknowledge your customer. Enthusiasm makes it easy for you to reach out to your customer and it can be shown by the tone of your voice and by the positive words you say to your customer.

Provide – Whether you have the information or not, always provide assistance. Avoid saying negative words such as “I’m sorry, we don’t have that” or I’m sorry, I am not trained to assist you in that matter”. Great customer service is always finding a way to help and not telling what you can’t do.

Appreciate – Most customers like being appreciated. Thank you is the most used and common word and it is very powerful to show to customer that they’ve been appreciated. Appreciating customer is like telling them they are very important.

Apathy is indifference and lack of emotion and caring. A customer agent should not show traces of apathy as this would affect to the quality of service they are offering to their clients. Apathetic attitudes and bad attitudes are just similar when it comes to customer service; they both cause negativity in the workplace and to customer relationship. Avoiding apathy is leading you to be more professional customer service provider.

Define the cause – Defining the cause of an issue is one effective way to avoid apathy. Once you become aware of the cause, you will eventually become interested on finding a solution. Apathy sometimes a result of cluelessness and it becomes worst if you keep on believing that you don’t have any idea rather than finding a way to discover it.

Be perspective – Always learn how to weigh things and situation. A great customer representative should always compare, analyze and judge fairly based on the situation.

Be self-motivated – If you feel good about your job and you love what you are doing, you strive to achieve more and do better. Company culture is one of the most important things to motivate employees and that includes staff in customer service. A great company motivates its people that start from the heads to the staff and it will be contagious.

By following these basic tips, you will be on the path to providing exceptional customer success and taking your business to the next level!

Welcome to the Go1 blog. Helping you to achieve your L&D goals through the latest learning and development insights, trends, and technology.

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