Leadership Challenges

Kids These Days

Problem: Senior Management of a technology driven organization began heavily recruiting and hiring recent college graduates and high school summer help to ensure the company maintained a competitive edge in both talent and technology. While the company was successful in their recruitment efforts, they were ill prepared to manage the work styles, personalities and behaviors of the younger generation they now employed.

Solution: iTrain Leaders developed a 2-day course to explore the various generations in the workplace. After providing an orientation on the different generations, iTL facilitated candid classroom discussions about the various generations and then created a long-term plan of action that proved to be a win-win for all parties involved. Though the organization had to ultimately make significant cultural shifts, the 2-day course initiated effective communication and optimized the organizations resources.

Losers Weepers...

Problem: A highly successful company was at a loss as to why they were unable to retain their highly talented and diverse workforce after investing countless hours and thousands of dollars on targeted recruitment and hiring. Though the company had achieved diversity demographically, they were losing many of their non-white colleagues, which had a negative impact on their business. The company hired several consultants to assess the organization and pinpoint the problem, but the consultant’s self-serving recommendation was, of course, “more of our training”.

Solution: iTrain Leaders quickly assessed the problem and immediately began forming focus groups at the non-managerial levels and then at the top and mid-management levels. iTL soon recognized that the company did not have a diversity problem, but instead lacked leadership development programs to guide junior employees to more senior positions. iTL recommended and introduced several mentoring programs that would not only benefit employees of color, but would assist all employees who were unable to network and align themselves with leaders and other successful employees. The company is currently implementing this solution and the corporate announcement of this new development program has alone improved retention.

Don't Be So Sensitive...

Problem:A local fire department had just recruited their first female fire fighter and could not wait to initiate her in as “one of the guys”. The initiation process proved to be filled with inappropriate humor and offensive antics, which eventually led to negative publicity from the city. Though the all male crew did not mean any harm, the Captain thought sensitivity training was long overdue.

Solution: iTL met with the Captain to assess the situation. iTL recommended a ½ day new hire orientation so that expectations could be established and sensitive areas, such as cultural and gender issues could be brought to the surface for future discussion. iTL develops and delivers the new hire orientation for another satisfied customer.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

Problem: An academic institution was unable to appeal to potential customers outside of its current location, which had caused enrollment to remain low and make the school appear exclusive. Though the school was marketing outside of the region, the reputation of the institution preceded each of their marketing campaigns and neutralized the impact. The Marketing Department and school officials were baffled by the ineffectiveness of all their efforts and ultimately contacted iTL.

Solution: iTL met with the Marketing Department and school officials and analyzed their goals and objectives. iTL discovered that the marketing campaign had successfully attracted potential parents and students to visit the school, but had failed to create and display an inclusive environment to the student and parents. iTL recommended 3-days of cultural training to the schools leadership in order to first understand diverse cultures and then iTL worked with the school to become culturally inclusive. The marketing campaign was modified and became a secondary strategy. iTL now consistently provides Inclusion and cultural awareness training to the school’s student body, parents and teachers.

Play to Your Strength...

Problem:Leaders of a large private firm measured their Return On Investment for their training programs and discovered that most of their courses lacked traction and often were delivered in a sugarcoated and watered-down fashion. The leadership team realized that the courses were ineffective because they were either delivered by leaders who were not skilled instructors/facilitators, or by employees who were not interested or trained to instruct. The leadership team concluded that they needed an outside perspective from an experienced instructor who could candidly speak to employees on all levels without fear of retaliation.

Solution: The firm contracted iTL to provide a 3-day leadership course designed to explore and discuss the role of leaders. The course introduced examples of effective and ineffective leadership behaviors and engaged each leader in candid discussions about their personal challenges and victories. The leadership team was then challenged by iTL to set the pace for those they lead.