The Training Doctor

View Original

Changing Direction For YOU!

The Training Doctor has been in business for over 30 years but only in the last eight years did we significantly blow the business up and change direction. Why? For You!

Several societal events converged to make us change direction. Think of them as the perfect storm.

First, in 2015 the US census said that all the Boomers would be out of the workplace by 2030. Having consulted within professional development departments for many Fortune 500 companies in the prior 25 years, and knowing how little had been done to prepare younger generations for leadership roles, and knowing how long it takes to develop a leader... I immediately began to worry.

Next, I realized that we (here at the company) were part of the problem. For the first 25 years of our existence, we custom-designed training programs for companies and handed them back for implementation. The design work that we did was always for a job or role. We never built a well-rounded business person.

So, the confluence of younger people being promoted to roles for which they were unprepared, combined with their lack of years on the job (as opposed to Boomers who generally stayed with an employer for decades), was concerning.

The question keeping me up at night:

Who will be capable of running companies in 10 years if they don’t know how a company runs?

And then...the pandemic hit, and my worries came to fruition overnight.

❓ So why did we stop helping companies with their training and development?

❓ Didn’t I just say that preparing the younger generation was a huge motivator?

Yes.

BUT

Developing the skills of younger people is not enough.

Companies need to know why they are developing their younger generation and they need to know they are developing the right skills.

And that’s why we changed direction.

There are very few companies (if any—honestly, we haven’t found a competitor yet) that help you figure out this critical element. ⬇️

Before you start developing your up-and-coming leaders – you need a succession plan to ensure that you know who you are developing and for which roles.

You also need to assess your likely vacancies in the next few years and ensure you don’t go out of business because one critical role becomes vacant.

We changed direction because we are on a mission.

Our mission is to help small and medium-sized businesses to not go out of business because they didn’t look—and plan—far enough ahead.

If you’d like us to help you with YOUR mission – Let’s Talk!