Free Talent Assessment: Leveraging behavioral strengths in the learning & career exploration process

People ask me all the time about career assessments and their importance for students who want to explore career options. My response is simple: “Teach someone their natural talents & strengths first.” That is right, let them learn about their natural strengths and how to leverage those for both personal and professional growth, which can enhance the career exploration process.

Are they outgoing? If they are, how do they leverage that? What about “blind spots” that could cause their extroversion to hinder them or how they show up to others? A blind spot might be that being outgoing is awesome, however, maybe sometimes they can be too talkative and hinder others’ opinions. Same can be said for introverted people who have a hard time saying no and speaking up.

These behaviors are going to show up which, is why we have just launched a great course on discovering one’s strengths for career exploration. This course addresses this and much more.

Additionally, we have our own free talent assessment for learners which takes less than 5 minutes and provides them with a high-level description based on their responses. Best of all, its free!

These are learning systems to help those through the learning process, and can play a big role in online learning as well. For example: someone who is more process oriented is probably going to have an easier time with online learning vs. someone who is extroverted. Don’t get me wrong, extroverts can be successful, however they may want more “touch points” by way of instructors, counselors, and tutoring sessions along the way.

Alert: Not all knowledge comes from college

As 2023 kicks off now more than ever (Note: CBS did a national story) we are seeing the growth of micro-credentials and globally recognized industry certifications. Take for example among the key survey findings for students, summarized in a Coursera blog by Scott Shireman, the company’s Global Head for Campus:

Students across the globe believe industry micro-credentials make them more employable – 89% agree or strongly agree that earning an entry-level professional certificate will help them stand out to employers and secure jobs after they graduate.

Including professional certificates in an academic program makes students, on average, 75% more likely to enroll in that program.

Among the U. S students surveyed, 81% believed that micro-credentials would help them succeed in their job, and 74% said the presence of relevant micro-credentials would influence their choice of a degree program at their university.

Almost four (4) years ago I blogged on the importance of these credentials and there demand continues to grow. As the economy “cools” and organizations look to Artificial Intelligence (AI) make sure you continue to gain important digital & customer/human skills so you stand out.

Positivity & Respect core ingredients to the fabric of our culture

For over four (4) years I have sent daily (well almost daily) quotes to our LearnKey team members around positivity and respect. It was something to help me through whatever I was going through and then just started sharing with everyone because they were helping me feel better.

Then I realized these really were important to our company, especially with over 90% of our teams working remotely. It was a way to connect and reinforce behaviors we have come to like. In my previous blog around culture this was another tool to help us all in building respect in a positive way.

It was also surprising that these quotes would also be great rallying resources especially during one on one’s or team interactions. Just a good reminder of how beneficial it can be to spread positive thoughts. So today I thought it would be fun to go back just a couple years and revisit some of these:

Monday 7/27/2000, “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. “- Lao-Tzu

Friday 12/20/2019, “If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.”- John W. Gardner

Friday 1/24/2020, “Positivity is contagious so share it with everyone because it costs nothing.”-JLC

Wednesday 2/19/2020, “Respect peoples time, if you want your time to be respected.” – the peacemaker

As the holidays come and go this season maybe this will shed some positivity on you and also be a reminder of how important it is to keep a positive attitude and one that really shows others the importance of respect. Sometimes it appears like we are not doing that and my hope is like anything else in life some self-reflection on what we have is always better then, focusing on what we don’t have. Words I try to live by in my life.

Culture: There is so much more to it than meets the eye

What if I told you the easiest and to me best analogy to explain what culture is that “Culture is an iceberg. There’s so much to it than meets the eye.”

That really resonates with me and my team. It is something that must continually be monitored, mentored, developed, with constant reinforcement of super amazing people, process, tools and technology.

One of our team members Julie Plummer from KYT Corporate did an excellent blog topic on culture trends and she specifically gave her thoughts around the importance that people/team members/employee’s feel connected to the company and its cause. Since our cause is all about helping drive a culture of learning and helping individuals improve their employability skills its extremely motivating for me to be passionate about sharing our cause- if we focus on always trying to get better, we will. Our culture is all about getting better and our employee’s want to continue to grow as well.

Back to the “there’s so much more to it than meets the eye” in my analogy around culture. With my thirty-five (35) years of leadership experience one thing I have learned is the workforce, its landscape, working environment constant changes, requires three important skills: Communication, more communication and then yes, more communication. That is right – you develop your plan, share it, reinforce it, then go out and evangelize it through every communication method (i.e. newsletter, one on one’s, team meetings, all hands company updates, and then some) possible.

Then it’s about letting your leaders lead, empower your teams to take risks (calculated) from time to time, and to always be learning while trying to get better at what we do. I feel blessed to have the teams we do working with corporations, school districts and those adult learners going through our IT certification pathways, it reminds of why we do this and reinforces our culture too.

Company culture: One-on-ones validate – Employees want to grow

During our June all-hands video call I promised to complete one-on-ones with every employee who does not report directly to me. My goal was to ask four questions to each employee so I could get consistent feedback on what was working, what needed to improve, and what other learning experiences have they had along the way during their tenure with LearnKey and Know Your Talents.

Always be listening

The feedback has been amazing and truly listening to the voice of the employee is something that through these one-on-ones will help us get better. Plus, we have implemented some improved tools for specific departments and are working on a few others. Our leadership team works hard to develop a growth-oriented company culture that is focused on always wanting to get better. I was really proud of the feedback employees shared about the strong relationships they have with their peers and leaders. The word “respect” is big in our company.

The process was easy as I was following what we do for our customers through the four pillars of our Enterprise Development Solution (two specifically): “Know me. Grow me.” It made the conversation much more engaging. Every employee has taken a Proscan, so we learn about each other’s behaviors/talents, and it was nice to leverage that in conversations around benefits it has to collaboration, being flexible, and respecting why change and/or communication can be much more effective in different ways for different people.

One of the biggest things that jumped out at me was how every employee really wanted to learn other team members’ behavior so they could communicate and support each other more. Less about them and more about the team.

Another important benefit was the reminder of keeping a pulse on our established company culture of learning. Meaning never stop promoting all of the resources we have to our very own employees so they can gain more skills.

Last but not least, was the wonderful feeling of gratitude because we really do have an awesome team.

Famed Investor: Remote Work- “It’s potentially an earthquake”

Remote work is not new to me or a lot of people but the pandemic sure had an impact. Like many companies we adapted and learned along the way, and at the exact same time our corporate consulting division, Know Your Talents, was also in the process of rolling out: Know me. Grow me. Include me. Inspire me., our four pillars that enhances culture and optimizes performance at every level of an organization.

So after reading Marc Andreessen’s recent article/podcast where he talks about remote work – “It’s potentially an earthquake,” I have to agree with him 100% and that is not in a bad way. “It’s potentially one of those things that in a hundred years, people could look back and say, ‘That was a real turning point for how society developed.'” Andreessen goes on to say he’s excited by that idea, adding that “if everybody could still have access to great knowledge-work jobs online, maybe that’s a fundamentally better way to live.”

Now the question becomes how do you do that? Ensure people have the right process, tools and technology so they can work effectively remotely, be part of a successful culture, where their skills are up to date now and in the future.

Now is also not the time to scale back on investing in talent, this article on retaining and growing a workforce even with a potential recession in 2022 is smart thinking in my mind. A skilled remote workforce is inevitable for almost every company in one way shape or form. Let’s look back and say when remote work became an earthquake we conquered it.

Know Me. Grow Me. Include Me. Inspire Me.

Wow, this year is going fast, and as we reflect on the first quarter of this year we were thrilled to hear we had over thirty (30) veteran students get placed in jobs the first quarter of this year. It was also nice to see that the entry level IT Professional annual salary was over $65,000 a year. Additionally, we set a record for the number of certifications achieved by our students in March, topping over 143! IT certifications are a great way to demonstrate competency with potential employers and hiring managers.

What is next? How about our new messaging: Know Me. Grow Me. Include Me. Inspire Me. This is something we are so excited about as it matches who we are and what we want to do with our corporate customers, as well as the students that complete our signature Blue Ocean programs. It’s all about growth, development, investing, and engaging with people that make a great culture.

The fact that we can take feedback from corporate customers and incorporate that feedback into our courses, it gives us a competitive advantage, as we know exactly what customers are looking for in the new world remote/hybrid workforce. Example is when an employer survey shares that the top three life skills/reasons graduates fail in the workforce are Emotional Intelligence, Coachability, and Motivation, you can bet we are going to focus on it within our courseware and our employability team.

LearnKey Production 2022: Network+, ITS Cyber Security , A+ and More!

Here we grow! February is almost over, and boy are we busy. We have onboarded amazing new team members (Donna, Sydney, Sarah, and Larae) and in last month’s blog we were reflecting on the holidays. Now we are less than a week away from March. Q1 2022 is almost over- yikes!

Super excited about our amazing production team. Our Senior Instructor Jason Manibog just finished up Network+, and now he and our production team are already filming A+. These are super big LearnKey Signature courses and our production team is on it.

CompTIA is a signature track for LearnKey and, just as we did last year with CompTIA’s new Security+, our team has created an amazing learning scenario to be the theme of this course.

Since I joined LearnKey in 2011, we have always incorporated scenario-based learning as part of our theme for every signature course we produce. It really puts relevance to learning, and that is what we are all about.

Next month I will share some exciting news about our messaging for 2022.

Home for the holidays and a great start to 2022

It was so awesome to have holiday party celebrations this past year, and then before you know it, it is 2022.

This had to be the fastest holiday season ever! The month of December was filled with awesome holiday parties starting with our Know Your Talents Holiday Party on Thursday, December 9th, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at Pubblico Italian Eatery. It was fun to celebrate the holiday as well as moving into our new office located: 10446 N 74th St Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ 85258 (southeast corner of Shea Blvd and Scottsdale Rd.)

Next stop was St. George, Utah, for a great virtual party on Wednesday, December 15th. I have to say more folks enjoyed that than I ever would have imagined. We had gingerbread contests, music contests, and really made a good time of it. Then we had our party at Milt’s in Cedar City, Utah, Friday, December 17th. We had over forty (40) employees, spouses, and significant others for a wonderful celebration. The air was chill, plenty of stars out up the canyon – a great time. Then the Salt Lake City team had their party Saturday, December 18th, at Rodizio Grill in downtown, which was a blast. Lots of people, protein, and crazy conversation.

It was so well needed for us to reconnect, and we started the first of the year by having an awesome knowledge drop covering LearnKey’s 2022 course production schedule last week!

This week it is all about finalizing goals with each team and I cannot be more proud of how focused and on point everyone is as we continue to focus on getting better every day.

LearnKey celebrates amazing Employee’s 20 year anniversary!

Last week in our St. George, UT office we were fortunate enough to have lunch and celebrate Chip Ehlers twenty (20) year anniversary with LearnKey!

He is one of the most well-respected, hardworking, smart, and dedicated team members you will ever meet. Over the years Chip has been recognized for his great contributions as he has won recognition for his “can do attitude” many times. His peers were proud to be part of the celebration as Chip is someone we all greatly appreciate having on our team.

He wears many hats when it comes to his role at LearnKey from order entry, invoicing, inventory management and fulfillment to printing and shipping catalogs, Chip never says ‘it can’t be done.’ Of course he is most famous in the St. George office for serenading his coworkers when a catchy song comes on the radio, but its been a while:)

Thank you Chip you truly exemplify our core values: Ease – your easy demeanor, Value– Your work speaks for itself and Trust – well “In Chip we trust”