All Right, Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready for My Close-up...

It’s awards season and my husband and I have been preparing for it with a frenzy of movie-going, sometimes hitting two, three, or even four movies in a weekend.

Leading up to the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the BAFTAs, we compile our lists of potential nominees and then move on to whom we want to win in each category. During the shows themselves, we make household chore bets, avidly keeping track on our scorecards as we laugh, cry, and wittily disparage our way through acceptance speeches. All of which is just a warm up to the Super Bowl for movie fans: the Oscars.

The only break in this routine has been the Olympics, which we’ve been watching every night (sometimes only after a movie). And it strikes me that what draws me to the Oscars – and all the other award shows – is also what keeps me glued to the Olympics: recognition of a job well done.

Working at EPI has made me even more conscious of the importance of recognition. The programs we’ve put together for clients over the past year have really illuminated some core concepts for me, concepts that are second nature to my colleagues but which are new enough to me that I can still think, yeah, cool.

A few of these concepts – the importance of coaching, teamwork, and proper training – have been on my mind, thanks to the Olympics and these ubiquitous award shows. An athlete may be hurtling down the slope alone, but she didn’t get there by herself. Behind every athlete is the support of her family, her team, her nation, her fans, her sponsors, her coaches.

Just as every film buff knows, making a movie is also a team sport. You have to start with a vision: the script, the producer, the director. You must have the right tools for the job: the cinematographer, the production designer, the crew. You have to cast the right actors, not just hire them but make sure they truly fit. And it all has to be in service of working together to tell the same story.

Some of us are just supporting players at work. Other people are the stars, the faces that clients know and admire, but no one does it alone. We all depend on one another for inspiration and vision and pure sweat. As a director, a coach, or a manager, it’s good to remember that nothing feels sweeter than the recognition that even a supporting player deserves the gold.

The Never-ending Story

Training – the never-ending story. Some see this as a burden, but I see it as an opportunity to develop relationships that become richer over time.

So many times I’ve watched organizations “complete” training projects, shelve the content, and move on to new challenges, only to turn around months or years later and wonder how their programs have fallen into disarray. When organizational performance begins to suffer, all eyes turn once again to training and the cycle begins anew. This on-again, off-again approach is costly. Training is not a bandage for problems; it’s a means of preventing them.

Regular, ongoing content maintenance and attention to change will keep your training current and retain the credibility and value of your programs at a fraction of the expense (and the work) of rebuilding them.

The great thing about a never-ending story is that it can keep audiences informed and engaged, making them aware that they are part of a team. The willingness to share information is a sign of respect, and respect is the beginning of beautiful relationships – with no end in sight.

Love for Development

Today, our team is preparing to celebrate our clients and show them appreciation for their partnerships with EPI. Each of our clients have a love for developing their employees and know that it impacts their bottom-line results. Not only does developing employees impact profitability, but it sends a message to our employees that we care about them, their success on the job, and their overall development.

Our own self-development is love for development. Last week I was contacted by a colleague that I hadn't heard from in a year. She said that she was disappointed in her lack of contact with the many people who have impacted her career. She asked me to lunch and said that she was reaching out to a few other people. As a result, she is challenging herself to grow and keep connected.

This week, I learned that one of my closest friend’s home burned down. She, her husband, and baby of six months, have to start all over. I can’t imagine the challenges they are facing and the growth that they will have as a result of this tragedy. She called yesterday and said, "The love we share is our strength and we are learning a lot through this trying time."

February 14th is just a few days away. Be sure to tell those that you love just how important they are to you. Moreover, tell yourself "I love you" and take on a new challenge!

The Show

You may have heard people say, “Show, don’t tell”, in response to your anxiety over a presentation that you must do. In response, you put together a delightful PowerPoint presentation that communicates very clearly all of your great ideas. You spend hours surfing for the perfect image that communicates innovation. You obsess over the choice between a bunny coming out of a magician’s hat and the smiley face guy with a light bulb over his head. Clipart is decoration not communication.

We’ve all had the experience of being in the audience as a presenter clicks to a slide with eight bullet points. As he/she starts discussing the first one, we read all eight. Now we’re bored. They lost us.

The best presenters don’t structure their presentations by thinking: What is the next point I should make? Instead, they decide: What is the next question I want my audience to wrestle with?

I talk about this concept regularly with facilitators when I am training them. The difference between training and facilitating is, when training, you tend to stand at the front of a room and talk AT people. When facilitating, you are facilitating conversation by asking questions that require the participants to think.

Ultimately, the greatest learning opportunities come about when knowledge and experience are shared, where collaboration is encouraged and PowerPoint no longer becomes a fallback option.