The Dos and Don’ts of Effective Training

Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.

Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.

Dear Readers,

I finished up a full week of training for a client this week. At the end, one of my participants said, “Whenever I see ‘training’ on my calendar, I roll my eyes and cringe because it is always a waste of time. This training, however, has been unlike anything I’ve ever experienced – it has been so good and so relevant. Thank you.”

This made me think about how often I hear this from my participants. For this week’s column, I want to offer some tips if you are considering coaching or training for your important team members. These are the dos and the don’ts I have accumulated over the many years of doing this.

Training don’ts

You want your team to learn and grow. That is a great objective! It shows you care and you are willing to invest in helping them. Don’t just schedule training for the sake of it. Don’t believe that training is going to resolve what might be a more deeply rooted problem that has nothing to do with the training you end up scheduling.

You know there is need. You want to figure out how to address it. Don’t be “sold” on doing training that isn’t focused on what is really needed. We call this solving the wrong problem – don’t “solve” until you know what you are solving for (an extension of point #1).

Your team is busy and focused on doing the work of the day. Don’t pull them off randomly without consideration to timing and substance for what you are asking them to do. Don’t ignore the important work they are already doing because you believe that spending time on training is going to be transformational for them.

You care about budget and ROI. Don’t invest in the most or least expensive training options. Don’t make a decision that is driven by financial outlay – either thinking the most expensive firm is the best one, or the least expensive will get you what you need for half the price.

Training dos

Know your audience. Care enough about the substance of the training to interview your team, or have the vendor do so and get to know how they define a successful outcome. What will make the time valuable for them? We start every training by asking about the take-aways each participant would like to accomplish. Even if you think you know what’s needed, take the time to ask and hear in their words what is most important.

Create an interactive and interesting learning experience. This is important. I’m always stunned by how often participants will thank me for making it engaging. It should never be an information-delivery process. No one learns this way. Even when I teach my undergrad and grad classes, I insert a number of opportunities for the students to talk with one another, to share ideas and learn. At the end of the semester, I always get positive feedback on this aspect of the class. Find ways to have participants do more than respond in the chat – have them learn, share and practice with one another.

Connect the pieces. Training for the sake of training is useless. If it is off the shelf, or hasn’t been updated or customized to your environment, it won’t land the way you want it to with your colleagues. I learned this years ago when I was invited to speak on time management for a property management company. I am an investment person – I know nothing about property management. But I spent time talking to people in that industry, reading everything I could about their profession and visiting chats where people were sharing ideas. I customized my core material to their world and at the end of the presentation the senior leaders asked me to reserve space on the calendar for the following year’s event because the participants loved hearing from “a property management expert.” I wasn’t trying to be what I’m not; I was trying to get into their world and understand from their seat what was most important. You shouldn’t have to explain your world to your trainers. They should care enough to learn about you and connect the pieces for your team.

Make sure it is action oriented. We bandy the word “sustainability” around all the time when we talk about training because training without some ongoing support isn’t going to have an impact. You want your participants to be accountable to implementing new ideas, and have them commit to practicing and finding out what works and what doesn’t. To do this, you need ongoing support – virtual, coaching, materials or in-house management who is engaged in the training. It can take all forms.

Allow for some fun! Training often takes people away from work they feel they should be doing. Engage them. Humor them. Have some fun with the learning. Make it an enjoyable and memorable experience!

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.

The Dos and Don’ts of Effective Training

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