To Give or Not To Give

Training is such a soul satisfying and virtuous profession. The idea to impart knowledge and skills to individuals and empower them to do better in what they do is the biggest contribution anybody can make.  Professional Trainers are accustomed to the pouring of gratitude and appreciation from the participants that is so uplifting and motivating. For a passionate trainer like me, I feel extremely privileged I chose this noble profession out of my sheer passion for a long time.

This week I successfully completed a corporate training program for the employees of NSDL. My training program titled The Art of PreSales was on PreSales and Proposal Development, a topic close to my heart and forte for a long time now. While I have gathered wide-ranging experience working with big and small technology companies, I also do extensive online research to develop relevant content and to continuously upgrade my skills and knowledge in this space.

I am a fervent believer that when it comes to technical training, as a professional trainer, to stay on top of the game, you must be aware of the trends, technologies, and developments in the industry you operate in.

One of the pertinent things that I often do during my training Programs is that I graciously give away the Content that I cover, typically in the form of PowerPoint presentations and other Documents and Templates that I so painstakingly build.

During my last training program, I did the same and one of the participants, who happened to be a seasoned professional having spent 20 years in the Industry, remarked that he was happy and pleasantly surprised to receive all the content that was covered during the program. He went on to explain that he had attended several training programs in the past, but he hardly ever remembered of any trainer giving away the PowerPoint presentation or a Document that was discussed during the Training. He was very appreciative of my gesture of giving away that it literally made my day.

Well, on that note, it set me thinking as to why several Trainers do not share their PowerPoint decks and documents with their Trainees. The question is To Give or Not to Give and that as much is the prerogative of the Trainer to decide, I honestly and passionately believe that all trainers must give away their PowerPoints and other content to the participants, free and square.

In the current trying times, when most training has moved online to virtual platforms, you tend to create a lot of content and fill PowerPoint slides with information pertaining to a topic of discussion, especially when you are dealing with topics that are very technical, functional or domain specific. During training, you expect your audience to be glued to the session and your screen. But, while many participants are attentively listening in, many tend to take notes and even frequent screenshots of your session.

Well, to engage the audience in a better fashion and to thwart the practice of them taking screenshots, I usually set a disclaimer at the beginning of my training session requesting all participants to just listen in and understand what I am talking about, rather than be distracted. I ardently tell them that I would be sharing the PowerPoint deck at the end of the session. This practice has always helped me build a sense of trust, commitment from the audience and make them more focused.  And then of course, at the end of the session, as promised, I mail them the PowerPoint deck in a PDF format after a bit of redacting for any sensitive information.

As Professional Trainers we all play an important role in becoming role models by spreading our knowledge and to that affect sharing valuable experiences with the individuals we train. It is therefore imperative that we do a much better job and up our ante by giving away all the content.

The idea of giving away your Training content to the audience might be a sensitive proposition, is debatable and up for fierce argument, and to the naysayers, this might even sound like an occupational hazard. But given my experience, what I have realized is that by giving away my content, I have made a lasting impact and built a profound connection with my audience. 

Amen!

Trellis Consulting is a boutique consulting and training firm offering professional custom built, bespoke training programs for professionals and corporates in the areas of PreSales and Proposal Management.

A shout of applaud and gratitude to several prolific content developers and bloggers, including Cheryl Smith at Privia. Image Courtesy by Debbie DiVirgilio at Non-ProfitConsultant. Thank You!

 

#PreSales

#PreSalesManagement

#PreSalesTraning

#PreSalesManagementSoftware

#ProposalWriting

#ProfessionalTraining

#CorporateTraining

 

The Experience Parity Conundrum

I recently got off the phone from an enthusiastic lady recruiter who informed me of an active position at a new age company and whose Job description fit me almost like a glove.

There was however, one uncanny issue, which the recruiter expressed to me in a very nonchalant way. The problem was that I had too much experience and that it was more than the person to whom I would be reporting. She went on to inform me in a naïve manner that the company was looking for a person with up to 18 years of experience and that the hired candidate would be reporting into an individual who has 20 years of experience. She said it was the Experience Parity that was prohibiting her from submitting my profile to the hiring manager. This hit me rather hard and set me thinking and inspired me to address this newfound conundrum.

We all are aware of the Pay Parity issue which has haunted employees for the longest time is a key aspect for huge attrition levels across organizations. The Experience Parity seems to have now become a big stigma for potentially deserving job seekers who tend to have more experience and varied skills sets than what the typical job description entails.

In a world where global companies are waking up to wisdom and flaunting their unbiased approach to race, culture, gender, background, and ethnicity, why are the same progressive companies biased to ‘more experienced’ or ‘aged’ candidates?

In my formative career years as a Software Developer in the late 90s, I had the good fortune to work in the United States with some great companies where a common trend was that many team members at the same level were about twice as old or experienced as I was, and this presented a great opportunity for me to quickly scale up and hone my skills. And then there were much younger individuals heading the company in key positions. In almost all cases, the managers that I was reporting into were very seasoned in their age, experience, wisdom, and work ethic, but were far less skilled in the expertise that I brought in. These ‘senior veterans’, some even from the Armed Forces were great influencers, pleasure to work with and were immensely motivating.

The big daunting challenge that is plaguing the job market in today’s trying times of the pandemic is the Experience Parity. Companies and placement agencies are not ready to even consider a profile resume if they find the experience of the individual on the higher side or if it is non-linear. Unfortunately, many recruiters and talent acquisition managers are still stuck to the age-old rule book of key words search, and predetermined experience years and exploitative pay bracket constraints.

Experience parity is downright discriminating and a blatant bias on the part of a progressive industry.

Individuals with ‘higher experience’ are known to leverage their excess experience to bring in efficiencies to the workplace, work smartly, more diligently to generate tangible results. They showcase great temperament, resilience and can handle adverse situations with more maturity and more importantly, much easier to manage.

The several advantages of hiring a seasoned individual is well depicted in the movie The Intern, a sleepy hit comedy by acclaimed director Nancy Myers. In the film, a Seventy-year-old retired and highly experienced Ben Whittaker (played brilliantly by Robert De Niro), is hired as a senior intern at an online modern day fashion startup, founded and run by Jules Ostin (played by an effervescent Ann Hathaway), a 30 something millennial entrepreneur who is juggling between her shaky marriage, motherhood, and her chaotic work life. The senior intern who is initially written off as a nobody seizes the great opportunity to motivate and help all his co-workers, quickly picks up all the desired skills and brings wisdom and order to an otherwise chaotic workplace, while also saving the company and the day for his young, aloof, and often misguided Boss.

Taking a cue from this relevant Movie, companies must wake up to the bias on Experience Parity and do away with the stigmatization. Managers in key positions must set aside their ego’s and be willing to induct Individuals with higher experience, age into their teams. Recruiters and hiring agencies must seriously consider never to overlook an Experienced or Aged Candidate or somebody who has non-linear experience or heterogenous skill sets.

The job market today is flushed with several highly skilled and over experienced candidates who are willing to take up key challenging roles, jump start on the job from day one and are even flexible on designations, work location and compensation structures.

In order to emerge as game changers, companies, big and small must innovate new recruitment strategies or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to hire senior and more seasoned veterans who will bring eons of experience from, possibly the Armed Forces or even Public Sector. They may be reskilled as necessary, and put in key managerial positions. These senior individuals will be a great asset in the long run and will bring in the much-needed equilibrium and add brownie points to organizations for their ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ initiatives.

Experience never gets old or redundant. It only accentuates the mindset and individuals’ capabilities. 

#Experience

#ExperienceParity

#CorporateJobs

#TalentManagement

#TalentAcquisition

#TheInternMovie