Training & Development

One lesson that has served me well over the years: Don’t carry bad blood. In any long career you will be misunderstood. You’ll disagree. You’ll feel wronged. Sometimes even betrayed. Decisions won’t go your way. People will make calls you don’t agree with. The temptation is to keep score. But resentment is expensive. It clouds judgment. It narrows perspective. It limits future opportunity and is neither rational nor helpful. I’ve learned that making things right is both good relational practice and good business practice. Industries are small. Reputations compound. People you disagree with today may become partners tomorrow. And often, when you sit down and have the hard conversation, you discover the situation was more complex than you initially believed. There is real freedom in choosing not to carry offense. In picking up the phone and saying, “Let’s reset.” Over time, it builds a network of people who know you value relationships. Early in my career I valued results over relationships. Now, I know relationships trump results. Relationships are far more enduring and valuable than the near term results I used to favor. That’s good for business. More importantly, it’s good for the soul.

85% feel anxious stepping in front of an audience. And that’s perfectly normal. But here’s the thing: Leadership isn’t about having the loudest voice – it’s about commanding attention with confidence and clarity. Here’s how to do exactly that - even if speaking in public makes you nervous: 🔹 Grab Attention Fast You only get 10 seconds before people switch off. Skip the “Thanks for having me.” Lead with something bold, surprising, or personal. 👉 Example: “Everything you believe about leadership? It’s likely wrong.” 🔹 Command the Stage Your non-verbal cues speak before you open your mouth. Stand upright, hold eye contact, and pause intentionally. This signals authority - even if you’re nervous inside. 🔹 Slow Down and Stay Clear Anxious speakers often race through words. Slow down. Keep sentences sharp and pause often.  Remember: Impactful communication is about connection, not perfection. 🔹 Create Interaction, Not a Performance Forget memorizing scripts. Instead, invite your audience into the conversation.  👉 Example: “Who here has faced this challenge before?” 🔹 Leverage the BMW Principle True confidence = Body + Mind + Words working in harmony. BODY: Breathe, ground yourself, and use meaningful gestures. MIND: Focus on serving your audience, not impressing them. WORDS: Be clear, avoid fillers, and embrace pauses. 👉 Example: Before stepping up, pause, ground your feet, and remind yourself – they need this message. 🔹 Handle Q&A Like a Leader Q&A often derails weak communicators.  Use the ABC Technique to stay on message: A: Answer briefly. B: Bridge to your key point. C: Communicate with clarity. 🔹 Close with Impact Too many talks fade at the end. Be intentional. End with a single clear takeaway and inspire action.  👉 Example: “If you remember one thing — let it be this: [insert key idea here].” Leadership isn’t about loving public speaking. It’s about making people listen. 💡 What’s your best tip for owning the room? Share it below ⬇️ 📌 Follow me, Oliver Aust, for daily leadership communication insights that make people listen.

It takes one minute to damage a career you spent 30 years building. Because success isn’t about skill or intelligence. It’s about emotional regulation. Exercising restraint instead of: → Engaging in a heated debate with a client. → Exchanging a sharp word with a colleague. → Sending an angry email in the heat of the moment. The second you lose control, you’ve lost. Emotional regulation is the biggest marker of career success. The good news is it’s a muscle you can build. Here's how: 1. Know Your Triggers → Identify what sets you off. → Do you feel threatened when criticised? → Awareness is the first step to control. 2. Hit Pause → Before reacting, ask yourself: What are the consequences of my move? → Regret minimisation is critical. 3. Reframe the Experience → What else could this mean? → Maybe the person was having a bad day. → Chose an interpretation that serves you. 4. Create a Delay on Emails Sent → Set a 10-minute delay on all outgoing emails. → This in and of itself could save your career. 5. Breathe → When emotions rise, take three slow breaths. → It signals your nervous system to reset. → Simple, but powerful. 6. Speak With Emotional Intelligence → Once you’re ready to respond, choose your words carefully. → Ask: How can I create the right outcome in a calm way? Remember: → If you choose restraint, you win. → If you reframe, you grow. And every time you stay in control, you keep your power. How important do you think emotional regulation is for career success? ---- ☀️Follow Deena Priest for career, leadership and personal development insights.

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Many organisations today seem to have shifted from being institutions that develop great talent to those that primarily seek ready-made talent. This trend overlooks the immense value of individuals who, despite lacking experience, possess a great attitude, commitment, and a team-oriented mindset. These qualities often outweigh the drawbacks of hiring experienced individuals with a fixed and toxic mindset. The best organisations attract talent with their best years ahead of them, focusing on potential rather than past achievements. Let’s be clear this is more about mindset and willingness to learn and unlearn as apposed to age. To realise the incredible potential return, organisations must commit to creating an environment where continuous development is possible. This requires a multi-faceted approach: 1. Robust Training Programmes: Employers should invest in comprehensive training programmes that equip employees with the necessary skills for their roles. This includes on-the-job training, mentorship programmes, online courses, and workshops. 2. Redefining Hiring Criteria: Organisations should revise their hiring criteria to focus more on candidates’ potential and willingness to learn rather than solely on prior experience or formal qualifications. Behavioural interviews, aptitude tests, and probationary periods can help assess a candidate's ability to learn and adapt. 3. Partnerships with Educational Institutions: Companies can collaborate with educational institutions to design curricula that align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programmes, internships, and cooperative education can bridge the gap between academic learning and practical job skills. 4. Lifelong Learning Culture: Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning within organisations is crucial. Employers should provide ongoing education opportunities and support for professional development. This includes continuous skills assessment and access to resources for upskilling and reskilling. 5. Inclusive Recruitment Practices: Employers should implement inclusive recruitment practices that remove biases and barriers. Blind recruitment, diversity quotas, and targeted outreach programmes can help ensure that diverse candidates are given a fair chance. By implementing these measures, organisations can develop a workforce that is adaptable, innovative, and resilient, ensuring sustainable success and growth.

One skill separates great communicators from average ones: Perspective-taking. The ability to see things from someone else’s point of view. But most people do it wrong. Here’s how to do it right, especially when you’re leading or being led: When you’re the boss, persuading down: You’re trying to convince Maria on your team to do something different. She’s pushing back. Your instinct might be to assert your authority. But that’s a mistake. Here’s why… Research shows: The more powerful you feel, the worse your perspective-taking becomes. More power = less understanding. So if you want to persuade Maria, don’t lean into your title. Do the opposite: dial your power down, just briefly. Try this: Before the next conversation, remind yourself: Maria has power too. I need her buy-in. Maybe she sees something I don’t. Lower your feelings of power to raise your perspective. From that place, ask: → What does she see that I’m missing? → What might be in her way? → What’s a win-win outcome? That shift changes the entire dynamic. Instead of steamrolling, you’re collaborating. And that’s how you earn trust and results. Now flip it. You’re the employee persuading your boss. It’s a high-stakes moment. You’re nervous. So do you appeal to emotion? No. Drop the feelings. Focus on interests. Here’s the key question: “What’s in it for them?” Not how you feel. Not your big dream. → Will it save time? → Improve performance? → Help them hit their goals? Make it about their world, not yours. Why? Because every boss has a mental shortcut: → Does this employee make my life easier or harder? Be the person who brings clarity, ideas, and upside. Not complaints, drama, or friction. In summary: → Persuading down? Dial down your power to see clearer. → Persuading up? Focus on their interests, not your emotions. Perspective-taking is a superpower, if you learn how to use it. Now practice, practice, practice.

The gap I am focused on most these days when it comes to AI at work, is the gap between employees and employers. We know that 75% of knowledge workers are using GAI on the job, saying it’s not just helping them save time to focus on more important work but also to bring more human skills to their work, like creativity. But we also know that only 39% of those workers have been trained on AI at work, as companies struggle still to come up with a point of view on AI as well as a strategy for workforce development in the age of AI. If your company is struggling on that part, one thing you can do is look to those who are leading the way. IBM and Siemens are great examples of companies who are two steps ahead of most, moving beyond the incremental early days of AI towards the real, transformative benefits. I was inspired by my conversation a few weeks ago with Nickle LaMoreaux and Brenda Discher who are not only innovating with AI at scale, but keeping people at the center of it all. Across those conversations and many others I’m having, a few key foundational steps are emerging: 1️⃣ Have a pro-human AI point of view and strategy in place. AI has the potential to build a world of work where people can bring their full skills and abilities to bear — but we need to believe in the power of our people more than the power of our tech to realize it. 2️⃣ See jobs as tasks, not titles. Once you boil down a job down into a set of tasks, it’s much easier to see where AI is coming in to change or disrupt some of those tasks and where there are uniquely human skills people will spend much more time on then before. In a world where 68% of skills are set to change by 2030, understanding where this change will hit is crucial to helping your teams stay resilient. 3️⃣ Build learning into the day to day of your company’s culture. As skills for jobs change rapidly – learning is no longer a one-off moment at the start of a career. The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is what sets teams apart to stay agile and resilient. 

A market map with 10,000 companies is impossible to prioritize. These are the 300 to know. I was a VP of Product in sales tech. And I was frustrated with the maps I found. So I've been studying the space and speaking with experts. Here's the players you need to know: — ONE - Core: Revenue Operating System This is your CRM, your system of record - where your sales operation begins. I break this into 3 segments: Enterprise Platforms → Built for large organizations with complex workflows and high-volume deals → Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP Growth-Stage Solutions → Designed for growing businesses that need scalable tools but with flexibility to adapt → HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, SugarCRM Modern CRMs → Startups and fast-scaling companies looking to move fast without rigid systems rely on modern CRMs. → Attio, Affinity, Close.io, Copper, Freshsales. — LAYER TWO - Engagement & Intelligence These tools power outbound outreach, automate sequences, and provide real-time data on prospects: → Outreach, Salesloft, VanillaSoft, Groove Engagement tools ensure your team hits the right prospect at the right time. — LAYER THREE - Revenue Acceleration These platforms shorten deal cycles: → Gong, Salesloft, Chorus.ai, Ebsta With real-time feedback and actionable insights... — LAYER FOUR - Data & Enrichment Your outreach is only as good as the data backing it. These platforms ensure you’re reaching out to right prospects. → ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, Clearbit, Lusha, Hunter io, Cognism — SATELLITE CLUSTERS - Modern GTM Stack These tools enhance parts of the GTM journey. AI-Enhanced Tools → Automate and personalize content creation at scale. → Writer, Grammarly, CopyAI, Jasper Product-Led Motion → Identify sales-ready leads through product engagement. → Pocus, Intercom, Breyta Sales Enablement → Equip sales teams with training, resources, and playbooks to perform at their best. → Seismic, Spekit, Allego Conversational GTM → Convert prospects directly through real-time chat. → Drift (now part of Salesloft) — SATELLITE CLUSTERS- Emerging Categories These are adjacent categories sales teams often still use. Product Analytics → Track user behaviors post-sale for better upsell and retention opportunities. → Amplitude, Mixpanel Customer Success → Ensure long-term customer retention and success beyond the initial sale. → Gainsight, Catalyst, Totango Workspace Integration → Enable seamless collaboration across sales and operations. → Notion, Slack, Airtable, monday.com Revenue Orchestration → Connect workflows across different systems to streamline revenue operations. → NektarAI, Tray.io, Workato, Boomi — This took a lot of time. Reshare ♻️ if you loved this post. What tools would you add?

Over the course of my career, I’ve learned to be okay with getting things wrong.       Not because it feels good (it doesn’t), but because every mistake creates an opportunity to learn and grow. And because it means someone trusted me enough to tell me when I missed the mark. That kind of honesty feels increasingly rare—especially in a world where AI is telling people exactly what they want to hear and where people increasingly gravitate toward information that confirms their beliefs.      That’s why I think one of the most valuable skills you can cultivate is this: Find people who will give you tough feedback.      Across my time at Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, and Pivotal, the moments that shaped me the most weren’t the wins. They were the times when someone I trusted pulled me aside and gave me feedback I needed to hear. These conversations helped me see what I’d missed and rethink how I was showing up, which made me a better leader. But they only happened because the people around me knew they could be honest, and in fact, I expected them to be. You can’t grow—or help your teams grow—if you act like you’re the only one with all the answers.      I’ve seen this in every place I’ve worked. The leaders who made the biggest impact weren’t the ones who got it right all the time. They were the ones who created the conditions for honesty. Their teams felt free to surface new ideas, ask tough questions, and admit their mistakes. And those leaders were humble enough to hear feedback about themselves—and then take the steps to do things differently.       My advice on how to build this skill? Seek out colleagues and mentors you can trust to give you honest feedback. Ask for it often. Be vulnerable—not defensive—and take the opportunity to understand what you didn’t see before. It will transform the way you learn, lead, and build teams that thrive. #SkillsontheRise 

I’ve had quite a few HR/People professionals reach out for career advice over the past year, and there’s one tip in particular that comes to mind every time. So for anyone thinking about how to grow their HR/People career more intentionally, here it is: Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one area of expertise. I’m not saying you can’t specialize. If L&D is your thing, go for it. But make sure you’re picking up and fine tuning other skills along the way. What do I mean? If you’re a recruiter, don’t just recruit. Dip your toes into the world of L&D by creating and leading interview trainings. Step into the world of analytics by running data reports on time to close, pipeline demographics, source of hire — go wild! If Learning & Development is more your jam, don’t just train. Build on your coaching skills by setting up office hours for any training attendees who need more 1:1 support. Spread your wings into the world of HRBP-ing by meeting with team leads to explore growth opportunities, develop metrics to track progress over time (i.e. are the trainings working?), etc. If you live in the world of Payroll & Benefits, take a trip over to Employee Engagement Avenue. What surveys could you run to assess whether or not your benefits are equitable, competitive, and easy to leverage. Are employees even aware of the full slate of benefits on offer? Here's why: 1. Increased stability. If you can only do one thing and your company decides that one thing is no longer in the budget or in line with company strategy, you run a far higher risk of losing your job. 2. More growth opportunities. Sure, recruiting might be your passion today, but what happens if you get bored 5 years down the line? What if there’s another field within the People space that you could love even more? What if a more senior position on your team opens up, but it requires a more diverse set of skills and experience? Exploring multiple areas within the HR space will broaden your opportunities tenfold. 3. Ability to combine and leverage different skill sets and perspectives. I am constantly impressed by the benefit that comes from a fresh perspective. Applying your Employee Engagement eyes to a recruiter problem could provide a creative solution to improving candidate experience. Putting on your DEI hat to tackle an L&D problem could identify a gap in accessibility for different learning styles and abilities. The possibilities are endless. What are your top tips for growing professionals in the HR/People space? #hr #peopleandculture #careerdevelopment

Forget Silicon Valley. The most fascinating digital transformation is happening in an Indian village where 25% of residents are content creator, earning ₹20,000 to 40,000/month. Nestled in rural Chhattisgarh, Tulsi village has transformed from a traditional farming community into what's now known as the "Instagram Village of India" - and it's challenging everything we thought we knew about digital opportunities in rural areas. Out of its 4,000 residents, over 1,000 are active content creators across platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and previously, TikTok. This isn't happening in tech hubs like Bangalore or Mumbai - it's happening in a village most people haven't heard of. The transformation began in 2018 when two locals, Jai and Gyanendra Shukla, launched a YouTube channel called "Being Chhattisgarhiya." Their success sparked a digital revolution as neighbors realized they could monetize their creativity too. What makes Tulsi truly remarkable: - The village hosts more than 40 YouTube channels - Many creators consistently earn between ₹20,000-40,000 monthly - The state government recognized this organic growth and built a dedicated studio in the village Most inspiring is their collaborative approach. Villagers gather at the village chaupal to brainstorm ideas, improve concepts, and decide on casting for videos. This community-driven model of content creation shows that digital success doesn't have to be individualistic. Tulsi proves that social media isn't just changing how we consume content; it's changing how entire communities sustain themselves. What it teaches us is profound: - Digital skills don't require fancy degrees - Content creation isn't just for the privileged - Community-driven models can outperform individual hustle - The next wave of digital innovation might come from the most unexpected places Have you seen other examples of digital platforms transforming rural economies? #digitalindia #contentcreation #instagramvillage