Choosing Executive Training by Function, or Dysfunction? Part 4
In this last part of our executive training series, we will be looking the greatest challenges faced by executives in three specific industries. We will examine them in point form, as what we are really looking for are common challenges that are indicators of broad based executive training needs.
In 2008, Fair Isaac Corporation commissioned The Tower Group to survey Banking Executives. Results showed that their greatest challenges are:
- Improving analytics - 75%
(Indicates needs for better risk management/long term planning) - Managing increasing credit delinquencies - 50%
(Indicates needs for risk management/reduction) - Developing enterprise-wide fraud solutions - 50%
(Indicates needs for risk management/reduction) - Dealing with the current credit crisis - 33%
(Indicates needs for risk management/reduction)
A 2008 NASSTRAC Member Survey asked Transportation Executives about their biggest challenges, which are:
- Concerns around increasing transportation costs (despite rising fuel costs) - 50%
(Indicates needs for innovation/cost controls) - Globalization: increasing international shipping demand / outsourcing to third-party logistics providers - 35.3%
(Indicates needs for effective collaboration/long term planning/contingency planning) - Market Conditions: coordinating transport sectors & technology/maintaining & restoring infrastructure/managing congestion - 29.5%
(Indicates needs for collaboration/teamwork, innovation/recruiting/retention, short and long term planning) - Fuel surcharges and runaway fuel costs - 35%
(Indicates needs for risk management/communication/innovation/efficiency) - Marketplace demands to maintain costs, ensure efficiencies and deliver quality, on-time service - 26.5%
(Indicates needs for communication/innovation/efficiency)
- Labor costs. 71% said this is the primary impediment to enhanced competitiveness
(Indicates needs for innovation/recruiting/retention, short and long term planning) - Tax policy and work rules - 66%.
(Indicates needs for compliance/risk management, short and long term planning/contingency planning) - Government bureaucracy - 65%
(Indicates needs for short and long term planning/contingency planning - Raw material prices - 56%
(Indicates needs for innovation, short and long term planning/contingency planning
As a number of core issues appear consistently across these different groups it is tempting to conclude that many of these executives would benefit from training that enables them to directly impact:
- innovation
- efficiency
- recruiting/retention
- short, long term and contingency planning
- risk management/reduction
- cost controls
- compliance
- communication
- collaboration/teamwork
That may generally be true. But are these “nice to have” skills, or “must haves?”
When you look at all of the challenges listed above from a solution-based perspective, what would equip these executives far better to address these issues—quickly and efficiently? I suggest that training these executives in Conflict Management, Problem Solving and Decision Making Training skills would deliver far better returns. To go further down that path, training in Focused Selection Interviewing, and/or Performance Planning and Directing would give them the additional insights necessary to turn their challenges into success opportunities.
The paradox in selecting executive training is that what will minimize the pain of the issue is often 
chosen over that which will tackle the source of the pain. From the inside, it can be very difficult to tell the difference, as the pain can be overwhelming. And indeed, in industries experiencing a great deal of pain, such as manufacturing executives who are facing a loss of competitiveness due to their huge labor costs, a general anesthetic may be a necessary prelude to life saving surgery. But the anesthetic will only hold the pain at bay for a short time. If surgery is not conducted, recovery will not be possible. The entity—as it was—will cease to exist and a new life form will emerge to take its place. Addressing what’s causing the pain in your organization requires courage. Anything less than complete truthfulness leaves remnants of the problem intact. They fester and reinfect the organization. Repeat surgeries increase the odds of executive or organizational mortality
Contact us to discuss your organization’s health. Our Training Needs Analysis is designed to diagnose the true cause(s) of your organization’s pain and provide a succinct and targeted prescription formulated to kill the infection and establish an environment for vigorous growth. And if, after reading this, you think, “Hah! Yeah, right,” perhaps the disease you are dealing with is indifference to the truth?
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[...] in our Choosing Executive Training by Function or Dysfunction Series (Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). Or is it chosen on the basis of apparent analysis? Could it be even more random that that? [...]