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Theresa Falance is a human capital subject matter expert at Fors Marsh Group, a research and strategy company in Arlington, Virginia. She has more than 30 years of developing and implementing workforce planning, human development, and performance improvement strategies through systematically strengthening competencies, refining procedures, and rewarding quality. For the past 20 years she has consulted to federal government agencies as a specialist in human capital strategy, organizational development, and performance improvement. Falance employs industry best practices to develop customized solutions to complex problems, taking guidance from instructional design theory, Lean Six Sigma, and project management science. She has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University for usability and at George Mason University in the instructional design department.

Theresa Falance 

If the purpose of a competency model is to define and sequence the skills to master a profession, then most models tell only half the story.

Performance Measures: The Missing Link in Professional Competency Models

Reviews the various books on personnel training and development. \`Common Sense for Uncommon Times: The Power of Balance in Work, Family, and Personal Life,' by Mark S. Guterman; \`The Best of Technology in Training,' by the American Society for Training and Development; \`The Human Element: Productivity, Self-Esteem, and the Bottom Line,' by Will Schutz.

Additional reading January 1995

Workplace culture is always evolving, but perhaps the most seismic shift is still occurring in hybrid work and a changing workplace demographic. With more than half the workforce predicted to be made up of millennials and Gen Z by 2030, expectations of what today’s employees want from workplace culture have also shifted. Any scroll through Instagram about working in corporate will bring back hundreds of satirical videos mocking workplace culture expectations versus reality. It’s not easy for HR professionals in today’s workforce to find the right balance of a thriving workplace culture with the evolving expectations of employees.Especially when most employees crave straightforward benefits like flexibility, upward mobility, and less burnout. How can HR professionals ensure they’re building and maintaining the workplace culture of the future? It can be simplified by focusing on these key areas today’s workers crave.1. FlexibilityOver the past four years, workers have gained more flexibility than they ever had before. Formerly in-person roles shifted to virtual, some have never come back to in-person, and many have settled into a hybrid environment. It’s critical that employers are giving their employees flexibility when possible. Much of this comes in the form of trusting employees to do their jobs successfully from wherever they may be. But HR must also be flexible and adapt in how they deliver the same kind of support and opportunities to employees, whether in-person or remote. This means workplaces must have digital tools to replace outdated resources that aren’t flexible in meeting workers where they are. They must deliver the same benefits that support comradery and engagement to the workers not physically in an office. Workplaces that aren’t investing in digital tools and resources for their changing workforce will be scrambling to understand why good workers are leaving and hiring is a challenge.2. Upward Mobility and Skill DevelopmentAll other fun employee engagement programs and perks aside, employees who don’t feel they’re given opportunities for advancement and skill development aren’t going to stick around. With rising costs of living and economic concerns, employees are looking for higher-paying roles and job security. They know this can be achieved through career advancement but need to be given consistent learning opportunities. This is an area where employers can invest in their talent, increase retention, and achieve high ROI on employees who develop new skills and move up within their organization. Offering employees digital resources, like a digital library of professional development tools uniquely matched to their roles and interests, is one of the simplest ways to show employees you value and invest in their growth and development.3. Whole Employee SupportThis is where wellness benefits come into play and are still of extreme value to your workforce. But it must go beyond physical wellness challenges and the like. Employees today are placing more attention on their mental health and striving to avoid burnout. A 2023 Gen Z and millennial Survey by Deloitte found that while work is still central to Gen Z’s and millennials’ identities, there’s a strong desire to achieve more work-life balance.Forward-thinking organizations must support the whole employee. Providing resources to support employees’ lives outside the office will positively affect their work-life contributions. Burnt-out employees are more likely to leave the company or even become resentful. It can be as simple as providing resources on subjects like financial wellness, parenting, meditation, physical health, and personal growth that your employees can access for free and on their own private, personal devices. But the key is showing employees you value them beyond their job.While HR professionals have a particularly challenging task to ensure they maintain a strong workplace culture in an increasingly virtual environment, it doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. The strongest organizations will be the ones that adapt to these changing demographics and work styles. Those who invest in digital tools to support flexibility, upward mobility, and the whole employee won’t be scrambling to adjust when it’s too late.Start simply with a tool like an OverDrive digital library of personalized e-books, audiobooks, and magazines that are uniquely crafted to match your organization’s employee preferences. Change is easy when you’re prepared.Looking to learn more?Download OverDrive’s Six Steps to a Stronger Workplace Culture, and visit company.overdrive.com/professional-libraries.

3 Keys to the Future of Workplace Culture

In 1996, McDonald’s unveiled a new burger called the Arch Deluxe. This was “the burger for grownups.” In an effort to gain back market share they had lost, McDonald’s did some market research and found that many people wanted a burger “catered to them.” So they released the Arch Deluxe and spent millions of dollars on advertising for it. You can still find the commercials on YouTube with Ronald McDonald dancing at nightclubs or playing a round of golf.The launch was met more with raised eyebrows than enthusiasm or open wallets. The Arch Deluxe was ultimately pulled from the menu, and McDonald’s spent millions more on backing out of the advertising.What happened here? The company’s market research said that people wanted this. So why did it fail? Data literacy—or knowledge about how data is gathered, reviewed, and analyzed—would have saved McDonald’s a ton of money.What Is Data Literacy?Data literacy is a working knowledge about how data is gathered, how it’s examined and visualized, and how its significance is measured. You can’t visit a webpage anymore without seeing that popup about how the website is gathering data on you with every click. Our world is filled with data—some of it useful, some of it . . . less so.So when we learn about data and its significance, we’re learning how to find the relationships between the types of data we’re gathering and whether there’s a useful story there. If I plotted my number of trips to a bookstore along with my credit card balance, I’d find a definite trend, as the following image shows:How Data Literacy Could Have Influenced the Arch DeluxeWhen McDonald’s conducted market research in the mid-90s, they wanted to know what people wanted from McDonald’s. What is it people wished they offered that they currently didn’t? They recruited volunteers for market research and conducted focus groups to ask these questions, and then looked at the results.The problem here can be hard to spot, but data literacy can shine some light. Think about it—who is most likely to participate in a focus group? Someone who has free time, likes discussing menus and how things taste, and is open to trying new things. Busy parents without the time to join a focus group likely didn’t participate in this research. People who go to McDonald’s for the price point rather than the flavor were also likely uninterested in volunteering for such a focus group.This is what’s called sample bias or selection bias. It wasn’t intentional, but the sample of research participants didn’t represent the group McDonald’s was trying to research. Most customers don’t go to McDonald’s to sample new flavor combinations—they go because it’s cost-effective, fast, and usually a hit with children who are picky eaters. So when the research said “people want a burger catered to grownups,” it really said, “a small subset of people want a burger catered to grownups.”This is just one trap researchers can fall into, especially if they’re unaware of it. The sample size could be too small, we can commit a correlation-causation error, or we can use poor testing procedures, where our data looks great but it’s testing for the wrong thing (looking at you, New Coke!).The Importance of Data LiteracyData literacy improves critical thinking. And since critical thinking is one of the most in-demand skills in the workforce today, data literacy is also an in-demand skill. According to a 2022 survey from Qlik, as much as 85 percent of business executives believe that data literacy is an important skill for success in their business. And if you want to engender strong critical thinking in employees, data literacy is a fantastic place to start.Additionally, data literacy helps us make better decisions. When we want to buy a new car, what do we do? We look up cars and find out information about those cars. When we want to find a new restaurant to try, we go online and look at reviews of restaurants near us. This is research, and we do it all the time! So if we know a little about what the data in front of us means—and how we might be misinterpreting that data— we can make better decisions in almost every aspect of our lives.If you’d like a bigger bite of data literacy and you’ll be at ATD TechKnowledge February 7–9, join my session! I’ll be speaking on data literacy, and we’ll do some research on ourselves and analyze the results.

Why Data Literacy Matters . . . Or Why McDonald’s Arch Deluxe Disappeared

Employee feedback: two words that induce anxiety and trepidation for managers and employees.The thought of critiquing or being critiqued can be nerve-wracking. Delivering and receiving negative feedback or criticism is challenging for the manager and the recipient.But when done correctly, feedback is an indispensable tool for growth and performance enhancement. Feedback has the power to propel individuals and teams toward success.By dissecting good strategies versus ineffective ones, equip leaders with the skills to provide empowering, productive feedback. It’s time to look the feedback demon in the eyes and explore why it instills fear in employees and leaders, and, more importantly, learn to harness this force to foster a learning culture and promote constant and never-ending improvement.Why Is Feedback Important?Unlike scheduled performance reviews, feedback can and should be ongoing and, in many cases, a less formal process.While many professionals view feedback as a necessary evil or simply checking a box on a manager’s to-do list, it’s an invaluable tool to increase performance, productivity, and employee engagement when handled correctly.According to data from Zippia, effective feedback leads to the following benefits:Decreased turnover. Companies that invest in regular employee feedback have 14.9 percent lower turnover rates than organizations where employees do not receive feedback.Increased motivation. Sixty-nine percent of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were recognized through feedback.Higher employee engagement. Forty-three percent of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.It’s critical to understand the common mistakes leaders make when giving feedback and what to do instead to turn feedback into a performance-enhancing tool.Mistake 1: Focusing Too Much on the NegativeIt should come as no surprise that employees don’t enjoy hearing negative feedback or reviews. That doesn’t mean leaders should avoid opportunities to help team members improve, but there’s a way to do this without being overly critical.“Managers often make the mistake of being overly pessimistic, which creates a hostile and demotivating environment,” says Gary Gray, CEO and co-founder of CouponChief. “Balancing constructive criticism with recognition of achievements and strengths is crucial for fostering growth and inspiring employees to excel.”First, managers must position constructive criticism as an opportunity to improve versus simply listing things an employee does wrong or highlighting recent mistakes.Managers should remove emotions and personal feelings from these conversations and instead consider performance tactically. From there, managers and direct reports can create an action plan to help employees improve.It’s also essential not to discount positive performance while focusing on areas for improvement.“Approach each employee’s performance with a dynamic evaluation method that looks at the contribution to a company wholly,” says Doris Joyce, co-founder of Electrly. “This could include harmony and balance they bring to teams and how they aid colleagues with communication. Focusing on the positives helps employees know what they’re good at and boosts their confidence to overcome any weaknesses they display.”Pro tip: Deliver negative feedback in private, but provide praise in public.Any negative feedback or critical reviews should be done one-on-one, whether in-person or via Zoom or Teams. This is respectful to the employee and also allows the manager and report to have an open, honest discussion about performance and improvement.Recognition, however, should be shared publicly, in team meetings, all-hands, or other forms of group discussion. Recognition and praise are vital for employee morale, motivation, and engagement. Sixty-nine percent of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were being recognized.At WorkRamp, we have a Slack channel dedicated to sharing praise. Employees of all levels can share shoutouts, recognition, praise, and appreciation in our #Props channel. It’s one of our most active channels, and employees use it regularly to recognize team members’ efforts.Mistake 2: Infrequent FeedbackLike learning and development, feedback should be an ongoing process empowering team members to improve. Employees are three times more engaged when they receive daily feedback from their managers versus annual feedback, and 65 percent of employees desire more feedback at work.This doesn’t mean you must provide feedback daily, but find a cadence that works for you and your team. Remember that feedback doesn’t need to be a formal process—reserve time during weekly one-on-ones for managers and reports to share feedback. Also, make it a point to ask team members what they’re working on for accountability and to provide recommendations for improvement.“One thing I’ve learned is that if there’s a theme to the feedback you give regularly, your team member might benefit from learning the ‘why’ and being given multiple examples of a successful outcome,” Kimberley Vandenbroek, growth product manager, Twilio Segment says. “This shifts your management approach to coaching rather than correcting. Explaining the rationale behind the feedback, providing a few strong examples, and then asking the team member to point out how the rationale is demonstrated in those examples can help solidify the concept and reduce the pattern.”Mistake 3: Using a One-Size-Fits-All ApproachWhile many organizations have protocols and processes for delivering feedback, it’s critical to remember that employees are individuals.Just as employees have various preferences for learning modalities, they are also receptive to different approaches and motivations. So while taking a professional, nonbiased approach to feedback is essential, you may need to tweak your delivery style or action plan based on individual needs.“As leaders, it’s important to develop appropriate, independent working relationships with each employee,” says Christa A. Lane, senior litigation paralegal, G3PM LLC. “This ensures you know best how to communicate with them directly and allows them to feel respected and valued. This also helps us lead them in the proper direction and bring out their best efforts in performance and productivity.”How can you adjust your approach for individual team members? Try these strategies:Consider personality and communication styles. Does your report favor a direct approach, or do they appreciate data and examples?Understand their goals and motivations. How does your assessment tie back to their growth plan or career trajectory? You could use the Situation, Behavior, Impact (SBI) model to map out feedback and discuss the next steps.Just ask. The best way to know which feedback method or style suits your employees is to ask them directly.Mistake #4: VaguenessFor feedback to be effective, it must be specific and actionable. Simply telling an employee they could “do better,” “try harder,” or “have room for improvement” doesn’t give them actionable steps or tangible goals to work toward.Managers must provide specific examples of an employee’s performance, whether positive or negative. Try including details like the date and time an incident occurred or particular things you observed. For example, “I noticed you read directly from your slides in the last team meeting. While the data you shared was important and impactful, this didn’t allow you to answer questions or open the conversation to the greater team. How can I help you prepare for your next presentation?”“When providing feedback as a leader, your main motivation is to help your employee improve,” Meredith Fish, PHR, WorkRamp’s VP of people and culture, says. “To do so, feedback must be specific and actionable. Saying ‘you didn’t do well in that meeting’ or ‘good work on that project’ isn’t enough.”This is where a framework (like the SBI model) can help provide specific feedback and develop an action plan to improve performance.Mistake #5: Having a One-sided ConversationDon’t forget that feedback is a mutually beneficial process and an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between a leader and team member.Allow your employees to share their feedback about your leadership style, but also allow them to share any causes or concerns around their performance.A majority—83 percent—of employees feel they aren’t listened to fairly or equally at work. This can hurt performance and make team members feel undervalued.When delivering constructive criticism, allow employees to explain their thought processes or methodology. Why did they do something a certain way? This also allows you to problem solve and strategize to avoid similar mistakes in the future.Actively listening and taking an empathetic approach can help you build a better working relationship and lead to increased productivity and initiative.Turn Feedback Into a Motivational, Performance-Enhancing ToolThe only thing worse than ineffective feedback is no feedback. In fact, 98 percent of employees disengage from their work when they receive little or no feedback.The impact of feedback on employee performance and overall organizational success can’t be overstated. It’s time to shed the notion that feedback is a necessary evil and embrace it as an invaluable tool for growth and development.As leaders, you can transform feedback from a dreaded demon into a catalyst for continuous improvement. Embrace the journey, hone your feedback skills, and foster a culture where feedback is not a source of fear but a pillar of growth and success.Create and deliver effective leadership training to empower managers to give impactful feedback. The Learning Cloud from WorkRamp is a single platform for all of your employee training needs. Contact WorkRamp for a free demo.

Feedback Fumbles: Avoid These Pitfalls and Embrace Feedback as a Transformational Tool

 Here’s the bad news: It’s no longer enough to simply be great at your job.Here’s the good news: There’s a whole world waiting out there to help you shine. English poet John Donne coined the phrase “No man is an island.” Over the centuries, it has become a byword for a need to connect with other people in all areas of life and avoid becoming isolated, like a castaway on an island. Nowhere is this truer than in the complex world of global business, where leaders must inspire, influence, and engage through the relationships they build both internally and externally. Indeed, leaders need networks to get things done. It used to be said that, as a leader it was what and who you knew that made you great. That’s no longer enough to build a career in a complex global organization and global market. It is also a question of what do other people know about you? If you are not known and not connected, then your outstanding skills and experience remain undiscovered and unused. You need a network of people, at all levels, that listen to you, are willing to act and advocate for you, and who believe in you. This doesn’t just benefit your current job either. Your network will be the ones that think of you when promotion opportunities arise too. Building strategic networks is particularly important in businesses with matrix management systems where individuals need to be able to influence others without necessarily having management authority over them. For example, I have a client, Ron, who is a regional president, based in Shanghai. Although he has a high performing team, he was finding that they were struggling to deliver results when they needed to engage with other functions. After a while he decided to stop putting pressure on his team to solve this problem and instead proactively built stronger relationships with his own peers at a senior level in other functions. “I invited all the functional heads to a ‘Strategy Day’ where each of them shared their goals, priorities, and challenges openly. During the session, we developed a common scorecard that enables us to share the glories and the challenges of achieving results. This has transformed working relationships further down the ranks of the business. Cross functional teams are now motivated to collaborate and support each other.” Ron told me. “We have created interdependency among cross functional teams and a more balance eco-system in the organization.” How well are you doing in building your strategic network? Ask yourself:What are the unique attributes or skills that make me a valuable member of someone’s global network?If there was one thing I would like leadership to know better about me, what would it be?Have I connected in a meaningful way with leaders outside of my immediate functional area? If so, how am I building and leveraging these connections? If not, what can I do about it? In essence, do you feel secure in your connections with the internal and external contacts that will help you to grow, deliver and thrive in your role…or are you standing alone on shores of your island, looking to the horizon? Here is my guide to assessing and developing your global network. Get it Down on Paper. Take a sheet of paper and list all of your key working relationships—anyone who is critical to your professional success both in the long-term and on a daily basis. This could include senior management, customers, key suppliers, your managers and directors, peers, direct reports and team members a couple of levels down the organization. Be Honest With Yourself. Using a big picture, “helicopter view” approach, honestly rate the quality of each relationship on a 1-5 scale, in which 1 is a negative relationship, 3 is neutral, and 5 is a positive, trusted relationship. This process of self-reflection can be challenging, but it is important to do it honestly. Build a Plan. For each person, note down a plan to improve or nurture the relationship. For internal networks this might include inviting a colleague to lunch once every two months, getting involved with cross-functional projects and committees, and so forth. To build your external network, why not ask a mutual contact to introduce you to the person you want to meet? Always follow up with new acquaintances and look for opportunities to turn an introduction into a meaningful connection that is beneficial on both sides. You could also get more involved in global and cross functional projects, or join professional industry associations. Give of Yourself and Your Skills. To flourish, relationships must offer genuine, mutual benefit and enrichment. However, when you’re going out to build a new relationship, try to make the first move. Offer information, assistance, or other help to your new contact so that they view you as someone who will be a positive new contact in their working life. Over time, this should become reciprocal if it is to be a relationship that is valuable to you. Find a Mentor. Secure a mentor from within your organization, someone who has experiences, skills, or contacts that can help you grow. A great mentor will not only be a trusted advisor, but they also will be an advocate—someone who believes in your ability. Many global businesses have specific mentoring programs that you can tap into, but even if there isn’t one where you are, think about the leaders in your business. Who could you learn from spending time with? If you are known to them ask them if they would be your mentor, or ask a mutual colleague to introduce you. As in any aspect of life, new business relationships are always fragile at the start. But if you nurture them, something wonderful may grow. So if you feel isolated in your leadership position in your global organization, as we all do from time to time, the moment has come to reach out and make some important connections. In other words, build your raft and start paddling!

Are You a Global Castaway?

I don’t know of any business, small or large, that isn’t facing turbulence, change, and an uncertain future in the way they operate. Technology, global competition, greater transparency, complexity, and speed are causing havoc on a company’s perfectly laid out plans.A kid on a computer in Mumbai, Shanghai, or New York can create the next disruptive force and take on what we once thought to be an impenetrable industry. Who would have thought there would be so much backlash against trying to get a cab through your smartphone as is the case with Uber? From the way we get a taxi cab, to the way companies hire, to the way we connect with our friends, our lives have changed dramatically over the last 20 years.From running a Dairy Queen, which my parents have been for the last 25 years, to working in corporate America like I do for the last 22 years, many of us feel the pressure this new economy is causing. It causes us to feel anxious resulting in us getting stuck.As managers, we still have to operate, grow, and get the best out of our people so that we can continue to grow the business and contribute to the health of our organization. But how do we do it when there is so much uncertainty in the market? How do we get a high level of performance when our people have this fear of losing their job? Or are facing life challenges at home? How do we inspire and motivate our team, colleagues, and peers in this turbulent environment we live in today?Here are some lessons I’ve learned that might be helpful.Speak the truthNothing is less credible than a manager who is always a cheerleader yelling “Ra-Ra.”People value authenticity, which comes from being honest about the situation being faced by the organization. If there’s a great deal of uncertainty in the business, then a leader should say so. Accepting the situation as it is can be a powerful way to show leadership.Having open and honest communication helps to provide some comfort because in its absence rumors or false perceptions rear their ugly head further eroding the level of performance. We don’t want to paint a dire picture of the organization’s circumstances but an honest one with a hopeful tone. By speaking openly with the team often, we create some semblance of clarity, certainty, and trust.Ask for their opinionWhile colleagues appreciate direction, no one likes being told what to do, especially when they know that managers today are struggling to find the right direction themselves. When organizations are going through so much change and uncertainty, it’s critical for people to know that their experience, knowledge, and work matters.By asking the opinion of colleagues in the team, we achieve a couple of things. First, it cements the idea that individuals matter. Their thoughts, words matter. THEY matter. People feel better when their manager believes they have something to offer boosting collaboration and confidence.Second, no one has a monopoly on good ideas! There are plenty of opportunities out there if we only paid more attention to them. Genuinely listening to our people can help bring about whole new shift in the way we look at a problem. Some of life’s greatest innovations emerged during times of great uncertainty.Let them createHaving the freedom to create, innovate and work on a project of my own choosing was one of the greatest experiences of my corporate career. I will never forget that manager who allowed me to create a new function that never existed before in our company.It feels counter intuitive to not keep our teams on track, but it’s true. In fact, during times of uncertainty, no path is the ideal one—because you never know what new change takes place. So, it’s often better to allow people to try something than to get everyone in line and take the same path.Allowing for creative freedom gives people a sense of accomplishment, contribution and meaning. When people feel good about what they give, they will deliver outstanding performance.Speak often, meet frequentlyWe might work in a large organization in a large building downtown but we often feel very alone. Sitting in front of a computer all day, we can go hours without speaking to a single person or being face to face with someone.Don’t have meetings for the sake of having a meeting but it’s important for managers to speak to their teams more frequently in times of change and uncertainty. This is because left alone with rumors circling in their minds, colleagues are bound to get stuck in overthinking and confusion.Part of the reason people go to work in the morning is to be with others who share a similar mission. By providing an environment where there is a hum of activity through face to face collaboration, we are signaling that all ideas and opportunities are welcome and allow them to be surfaced right away.Good ideas rarely emerge from an email. They come from one on one, face to face conversations that allow for the human and social aspect of our being to be unleashed.Set goals and take actionDespite the uncertainty and change, managers can still forge together clear goals. We all need something to hold our gaze while we’re trying to balance ourselves in this new ever changing world full of shocks and surprises. Goals provide that light that helps us all direct our energies towards.But it’s not enough to have compelling goals. The complexity of business means that we will face numerous hurdles. And so the key is not to get stuck.By taking small but committed actions each day, we can inspire our team to keep moving forward. Once we begin to take those steps forward, we get more certainty because we get to know whether it’s the right path or the wrong one. We get feedback right away.I believe that in order for us to grow and succeed during times of great uncertainty and change, we must continue to innovate, collaborate and take action. Unlocking the talent within our people offers us the only hope because it is in their hearts and minds which serve as the source of new ideas and new opportunities from which emerges growth and success.

How Leaders Unlock Talent During Times of Uncertainty and Change

Good audio does not happen by mistake. It is the result of 4 Good Ps:productionperformanceprogrammingplatform choice.A lot of audio content is good in one of these areas, but rarely all of them. Quality learning content is good in each areas of these Ps.So, how do we make audio sound crisp and clear, as well as easy to understand in our podcasts, video, screencasts, and e-learning? Let’s consider each of the 4Ps of quality audio.ProductionAudio, whether it stands alone as a podcast or is part of a video, screen capture, or e-learning courseware needs to be well-produced. This means we need to record audio that’s crisp and clear, and record it so there are no distractions and edit it cleanly so it flows naturally.How do we do this? How much time do you have? There’s a lot you can do, but for the sake of brevity, here are a few factors to consider. Make sure you have a decent microphone. A good microphone ensures your voice sounds real. It creates the impression for your listener that you are right next to them. A lot of trainers record screen capture videos and podcasts with headset microphones. These are horrible and distracting. Yes, they’re great for Skype calls and playing games online, but they don’t make you sound as if you’re in the same room as your listener.Make sure you record in an acoustically acceptable environment. Take care of the obvious issues like background noise and music, which are a distraction and make editing impossible. If you’re in an office, find a room where you can’t hear colleagues on the phone or talking about last night’s episode of CSI. Also take care of the less obvious acoustic problems, such as the noise of air conditioners. Good microphones pick up everything from the noise of a space heater to the HVAC unit. Find a room where you can turn off the AC off. Don’t rely on the noise removal functions on editing programs or built into headset microphones because they can never make it sound as good as getting it right the first time.Think carefully about where you position your microphone. The closer your microphone is to the person speaking, the more personal it will sound. Conversely, the further away it is the more impersonal it will be. You don’t want to be so close you sound suffocating. Nor do you want to sound as if you’re shouting from the other side of the room.Edit the spoken word carefully. Don’t mistakenly chop syllables off words or destroy the natural flow of the person speaking. Learn basic audio production techniques that will make voices sound better. This could include graphic equalization—known in the industry as EQ—and compressor. Learn how to multi-track and get the right balance in volume between tracks is essential too.My preference when it comes to microphone choice for recording podcasts, screen video, and e-learning content is a large diaphragm studio condenser microphone. This sort of microphone will make your voice sound terrific, but it won’t break the bank. Audio manufacturers such as Behringer and Samson offer USB models that plug straight into your computer for around $60.If you’re capturing audio for a video, look into both lavaliere mics and shotgun microphones. Lavaliere mics clip on to your shirt and are designed to focus on sound coming out of your mouth. Shotgun microphones are highly directional and give you flexibility for capturing sound in diverse situations. You can buy cheap lav mics for consumer cameras as cheap as $30 although good quality lavs will range from $150 to $1000. Good shotgun mics start around $150. Cheaper mics tend to be less directional. PerformanceIf you’re recording voice over commentary for a screen capture video and get all of the production right but the artist’s voice is neither clear nor interesting, you will undermine the piece’s quality.In my multimedia workshops, I suggest people focus on four things to improve their vocal quality:breathingdictionexpressionmicrophone technique.Breathing relaxes your vocal muscles and allows the natural flow of air over the vocal chords. It is the key to developing both warmth and authority. You can learn exercises to help this. Posture also is a key factor to allowing natural breathing. Before you record commentary, take some deep breaths, make sure you are not slouching, and be sure to relax your shoulders and neck muscles.Good diction helps you sound more credible. By diction, I mean clear enunciation and speaking words at a natural pace so they are easy to understand. Poor diction is slurring of words and dropping off consonants. Practice tricky words and if you find yourself stumbling over some, speak them slowly. Practice words with multiple syllables so they are not compressed.Expression keeps people engaged. Monotonic delivery puts people to sleep even if you have a lovely rich and resonant voice. Think about varying your pitch, pace, and power (volume), as well as incorporate pauses to emphasize key points. I call these the “4 Ps of Expression. “ (Yes, it seems this article is in Sesame Street terms, sponsored by the letter “P.”)Microphone technique also is important and will make you sound natural and real. Learning how a microphone captures your voice is critical. Knowing how to avoid things like plosives, which are the popping noises we make when we say the letters B and P.Every microphone is different, as is each voice. You need to learn how best to position the mic for your voice. The closer you mouth is to the microphone the more intimate you will sound. The further away, the less personal you will come across.ProgramYou might have the best production quality and your performance may be superb, but if your program lacks structure or is boring, you’ll lose attention. By program, I am talking about the editorial content of your audio.It’s important to create a clear and logical structure for your content. Good structure aids comprehension, and enables you to plan a method for keeping your listener engaged and wanting more.If you’re adding audio to a screen capture or video, your structure will be determined by images rather than the audio itself. But while the audio plays a secondary role to the imagery, your audio will be better if you structure your sentences following media writing conventions. If you’re using audio only, such as in a podcast, good structure is critical and must persuasively answer the question, “How am I helping my listener learn X?” (Substitute your learning objective for the letter X.)The key to any good media content is starting with a clear objective. For learning professionals, this is easy. We can write the learning objective following Mager’s conventions: active verb, condition, and standard. Or put another way, follow the well-known ABCD approach. Without a clear learning objective, the content can end up going all over the place. Tangents can be interesting, but generally people will listen to a podcast or consumer media content with a purpose. The stated learning objective is usually that purpose.In addition to having an objective, it is important to have a clear structure. This makes it easier for the media consumer to process you content. And within the structure, you will find content is more effective when it is written well.Radio broadcasters follow a writing convention that we should also incorporate to learning media. These conventions include rules such as using short phrases and choosing short words with a consideration for how the words sound. As well as planning the structure and script, the program is about making the content audio more engaging. This could equate to choosing different voices, accents, music, and sound effects.Of course, it’s not just about mixing up a bunch of voices or dropping in music randomly. There’s both and art and science to using every single element to reinforce your message. This may seem complex at first which is possibly why it is easy for pieces media to become boring adlibs of poorly thought-through content that is not sharp or focused.Platform choiceAudio used to be the sensory method of radio and as such was its own distinct medium. Remember the old days when the three mediums were TV, radio, and print? Today, audio is one of several sensory methods that are used on the new medium of the Internet.Unlike the old days when audio people only had audio to work with—because you couldn’t use video or print on the radio medium—today we have access to any sensory method: audio, video, text, and animation.In the days of radio, we discovered very fast that some kinds of content did not work well. Content with lots of facts and figures generally failed to keep people’s attention for very long. Now, I know that failure to keep attention for very long can also be the result of avoidable factors like poorly produced, poorly structured, poorly scripted content.But as a general rule, broadcasters discovered that audio content does not endure itself to facts, complexity, or long duration content. This is because different sensor methods are good for some types of content and not so good for other types.This shouldn’t be surprising because it is all too common at the office. We know that jokes in emails don’t work well because they are often misunderstood. Emotion does not convey well in emails, and complexity and detail does not convey well in audio.Audio podcasts are great if the content is narrative-based. By that, I mean it tells a story and does not rely on lots of facts to get the message cross. Audio is not good for facts. This is why financial information such as updates on various currencies, the Dow Jones, and other indexes are hard to follow when you listen to them on the radio.It’s also why we hear the weather on the radio, we so easily forget. (I know, these days we get the weather from our phones rather than the radios, but once upon a time, it used to be mostly radio.)So, when I talk about platform for the four Ps of good audio content, I’m essentially saying that audio is not good for every type of learning. Just as doing practical exercises is better to help someone learn psychomotor skills, it’s audio is best for conveying narrative learning content.This concept is nothing new. In fact, it’s what I’ve been teaching in my workshops on transmedia and 360 degree storytelling for the past 12 years. Each and every sensory method has its own set of strengths and weaknesses when it comes to conveying information. Text is strong for detail, and video is strong for showing action. (The same principle applies for platforms too, but that’s a different conversation.)

The Four Ps of Quality Audio

 If you realize the importance of internal relationships, and you know how much our emotional intelligence helps to put people at ease, create trust and respect, align people and further a can-do attitude, then I believe you will appreciate this blog post. If you are not especially familiar with emotional intelligence and the part it plays in highly effective leadership, I hope you will read this blog post carefully. Either way, I would certainly welcome your feedback and ideasEmotional Intelligence Leads to Personal Achievement, Happiness, and Professional SuccessIt is widely accepted that soft skills such as active listening greatly affect how people feel and respond to their boss and senior management. If they feel valued, appreciated, and heard, they are engaged and motivated to achieve goals set out by leadership. Great leadership is, in fact, servant leadership: attending to team members with empathy and helping them succeed.Emotional intelligence deepens our empathy—a capacity to sense the feelings of others. Our ability to use soft skills determines our level of emotional intelligence. However, a recent Harvard Business Review article reports that the quality that most senior executives lack is empathy. For this reason, it is essential that all of us understand emotional intelligence.Simply put, emotional intelligence is that “something” within us that helps us to sense how we feel and enables us to truly connect with others and form a bond. It gives us the ability to be present and listen to someone when they most need it. And emotional intelligence is that sense of internal balance within us that enables us to keep our composure, make good decisions, communicate successfully, and maintain effective leadership even when under stress.The four main skills of emotional intelligence are:self-awareness – our ability to perceive our emotions and understand our tendencies to act in certain ways in given situationssocial awareness – our ability to understand the emotions of other people (what others are thinking and feeling)self-management – our ability to use awareness of our emotions to stay flexible and direct our behavior positively and constructivelyrelationship management – our ability to use our awareness of our own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully.To be sure, it’s our soft skills that put people at ease, helps them feel appreciated, and enable us to build and maintain solid relationships founded on confidence and trust. And yes, being friendly and likable matters a lot, too!We also can all appreciate how much our mood matters. Our mood is contagious. As a leader, if our mood is positive, it ignites a spirit of trust, good energy, collaboration, pride in our work, respect for senior management, and healthy risk taking. If our mood is bad, well, we can expect a culture rife with fear, anxiety, high turnover, and poor financial results.Identifying People in Our Organizations That Have More Emotional IntelligenceIn my experience, the most productive organizational cultures are those with women active in senior management. Why? Women, on average, have an overall emotional intelligence that is four points higher than that of their male counterparts. In fact, women generally score higher on self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, while the scores on self-awareness tend to be equal between men and women.Also, women’s relationship skills build trust and collaboration. For this reason, I strongly believe that business leadership is most effective when shared between women and men. We have different natural leadership strengths, and combining our talents significantly strengthens our business cultures.Think this is important? You bet it is. Yet, most companies continue to be run predominantly by men. I absolutely know that financial results in this economy would improve substantially with shared leadership.Recent research by TalentSmart, a recognized leader in the emotional intelligence field, shows that 85 percent of business people do not feel respected and valued by their employer. This has a massive negative effect on our organizational cultures. But do you think these bosses know their people do not feel appreciated or valued? Not likely!We will all benefit from being much more aware of the impact of emotional intelligence. From now on, let’s all agree to:Promote people to management positions because of how effective they will be as leaders, not because of what they know and how long they have worked. One may be very good at sales or information technology, but effective leadership requires a different set of skills. Does the person realize that difference and want to develop these skills? Does the person accept that his performance is no longer just about him, but about the team?Recognize that emotional intelligence is more important to job performance than any other leadership skill. It is said that our emotional intelligence is more than twice as important as our technical knowledge.Work to improve our emotional intelligence competencies. The path to success is to strive for continuous improvement. If we accept that and realize just how important our “soft” skills are, then we are well on our way to success as a leader and in business. And let’s realize that soft skills may be hard for some of us. That’s okay. Where there’s a will, there’s a way to improve.Anyone Can Increase Their Emotional IntelligenceSome people are born with a great deal of emotional intelligence; others are not. And many of us are not aware of how our emotions may be adversely affecting our thinking and our reactions. The good news is that anyone can learn to increase their emotional intelligence.You can take an assessment to determine your EQ (emotional quotient), which details your level of emotional intelligence. Fortunately, there are several free EQ assessments online. I recommend doing this, as the skills we can measure are the ones we can best improve. I have personally taken an EQ assessment, so I now have a baseline of my emotional intelligence, and I am committed to improving my competencies.Then, when you’re ready to take the next step toward greater emotional intelligence, I suggest you read The Emotional Intelligence 2.0, by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, PhDs. This quick read will guide the process for you as well as offer suggestions for personal developments plans. The authors point out that the more we exercise our emotional intelligence skills, the more we will get out of life. These critical skills drive teamwork and excellent client service.An example of the self-development strategies these authors suggest is to practice greeting people by name, listen appreciatively in conversations, go for a 15-minute tour of our office every day, envision ourselves in other people’s shoes, and observe social interactions while watching a movie. These and other recommended practices will sharpen our social awareness and improve our emotional intelligence.I also invite you to read the research about emotional intelligence and to make this a priority in your business.Bottom LineEmotional intelligence is the single best predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. And when we increase our effective use of emotional intelligence, we will increase our ability to develop more solid, trusting relationships in our business arena.Relationships are so important to our success in business—and not just our relationships with clients. Our internal relationships, the ones we have with our colleagues and team members, are equally important. They can make or break us! And the quality of our internal relationships determines the effectiveness of our organizational cultures.Indeed, our understanding of emotional intelligence will vastly improve our internal relations and deepen our sense of personal fulfillment and professional accomplishment. And stronger internal relations mean a stronger bottom line. High EQ leaders vastly improve the performance of our companies. I hope you will accept the importance of emotional intelligence, and make it a high priority to increase yours.This blog post is adapted from an article on the Progressity website.

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