Welcome to 2011 and the new decade. Hurrah...a new start, spring will be here soon, it's time to strip away the old and open ourselves to new possibilities - and then return to the same old same old life as a workshifter. January, of course, is a time for making our New Year's Resolutions and then promptly begin breaking them.

The "78% will fail" statistic comes from research by Richard Wiseman, who does some interesting research debunking many of the claims made in the personal development field. According to Wiseman, many of the 78% in his research group failed because they had focused on what would happen if they didn't achieve their resolution and tried to do get there by willpower alone. Personally, I avoid being in the 78% category by not setting any resolutions!

Here's 3 reasons why people fail with New Year's Resolutions, and what works better:

Resolution Challenge #1: Cold Weather

January, for those in the Northern Hemisphere in particular, is a month of cold, grey, short days and one that follows a month of excess, merriment and celebrations. It's the prime "Cold Turkey" month - an image which conjures supreme acts of will in withdrawing from addictive substances, most of which will result in failure. Not really a proper environment to promote the best chances of success!

What works better: If you've already tried a resolution and failed already, shift your focus instead onto developing a Theme for the year ahead. Choose one word or a short phrase (up to 3 words) that represents the overall direction you want to take your life this year. My theme this year is "Simplify". I may not fully achieve it, but by having this one goal at the front of my consciousness, I'll strive to simplify daily and I'll be more aware (and, as a result, find it easier to make adjustments), when I over-complicate my life, which I tend to do on a frequent basis!

In short: Ditch the resolution and pick up a theme for 2011.

Resolution Challenge #2: Being Overambitious

People have a tendency to make large, difficult to achieve resolutions that don't afford the demands of everyday life. Remember that you don't live in a vacuum. For example, it's not easy to lose 2KGs weight when, like most people, you're probably leading a full and busy life. If you are a celebrity with a personal chef, then you're all sorted!

What works better: Look at your life and what's realistic and plan according to this. Break your resolution or goal into baby steps. One step at a time. And just because you stumble in your baby steps (as you will), it doesn't actually mean that you're doomed to failure! Just get up and try again!

In short: Be realistic, get support, take baby steps and keep on trying!

Resolution Challenge #3: Failing to Plan

Rarely do people plan how they will achieve our resolutions or goals. Nor do they consider "What might prevent me from succeeding in this resolution?" or "What might go wrong and what will I do if that happens?" and "What will I put in place to support me?"

What works better: Keep a diary of your goal progress. Ask yourself why you want to achieve this, what it will bring you and brainstorm as many ideas as you can of ways to get there. Don't make goals or resolutions with out thought! Ensure you've got good support and accountability structures in place (Coaches are good for this. There's one writing to you right now!).

In short: Treat your resolution or goal as a project, not just a sentence. Remember that boring old adage: "Failing to plan is planning to fail"!

Photo Credit: Jeff Hester

Tom Bunzel stops by today to discuss the changing face of learning and the growth of online training . Tom is a writer, consultant and trainer in Los Angeles and the author of "Tools of Engagement:  Presenting and Training in a World of Social Media" and can be reached through his website.

For a long time "training" was in the province of a Human Resources department or considered an extra cost element of customer service.

Today, however, knowing how to use a product or service has become critical not only for internal members of an organization, but a much wider audience, particularly online. The advent of social media in particular has created a generation of active learners who want to grow their skills and reach their full potential in areas from personal growth to using technology.

This has really blurred the distinction between marketing and training--because providing training has expanded from merely learning technical skills to empowering customers, clients, associates and even vendors on a wide spectrum of knowledge.

More important perhaps, the availability of broadband has made it possible to take training anywhere and everywhere, so that the "classroom" can be in your home office, easy chair, couch or coffee shop.

When the web began this extended classroom was limited to online courseware, but now with remote training tools, live interactive events can be experienced by large scale audiences. The enables organizations or individuals to reach out and provide significant value across continents and time zones, to build a brand, engage end users, and build a loyal following.

Besides the obvious feature of being able to extend a training session to remote learners online, the use of a good remote training tool can provide several additional significant benefits for organizations, individuals or entrepreneurs with educational content of value to an audience:

• Provide an interactive platform for users to experience your product or service.
  
  
• Provide a central repository for content to be used and reused with minimal redevelopment.
  
  
• Provide reporting and follow-up capabilities that let you evaluate and stay connected to an audience.
  
  
• Provide an archived video file of the training that can be used on a hosted video site and in social media campaigns.
  
  
• Provide a database of contacts and feedback through a registration process that tracks attendees and connects them to content through social media sites like Facebook events or email campaigns.
  
  
• Develop and maintain a library of content that can be accessed by learners and potentially monetized.

The barriers to entry into the remote learning space are getting lower all the time, and a wide variety of tools exist from podcasts to enterprise programs--but significant benefits can be achieved with tools that offer the foregoing features at a relatively low cost in terms of reaching an audience and (re)developing content. And with the implementation of a complementary social media strategy, value can be provided across an array of platforms to a scalable audience, with accountability and interactivity through blogs, social networks and the features of the actual remote training tool itself.

What are your thoughts on taking learning and training online? Are you using it within your organization?

Photo Credit: doctorious

Today we have a guest post from Keith Rosen on the considerations between remote coaching and face-to-face coaching. Keith is the President of , a provider of leadership and sales coaching and corporate training. He is also the author of Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cold Calling and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Closing the Sale.

With more business conducted across online communication platforms and more sales teams operating in a virtual environment, many sales managers question how proficient they can be at coaching their team at a distance--especially if they have never been shown how to do so effectively.

While you may not always be in the same room as the person you are coaching, you can schedule regular coaching sessions over the telephone, or using an online meeting application such as GoToMeeting.

Now, I'm certainly not disputing the value of coaching someone face to face and the additional things that can be observed when doing so. However, a large majority of managers do not often have the luxury of calling a face-to-face meeting and instead find themselves supporting, coaching, and managing their people over the telephone. As such, developing and strengthening your telephone coaching skills becomes essential to leveraging every coaching opportunity you have with your teamwopr.

More and more, remote coaching is quickly becoming the norm and not the exception. In my twenty-plus years of coaching thousands of managers and salespeople, at least 95% of all the coaching I have done has been over the telephone. Not only has remote coaching been proven to be incredibly effective but it is also highly efficient. If delivered effectively, coaching at a distance can save you a considerable amount of time as it relates to scheduling limitations as well as travel time. Managers also have the opportunity to do more impromptu coaching and have check in calls with their team, whether it's to build accountability, reinforce a message, handle a timely challenge or even to celebrate a win. This 'just in time' coaching can now be delivered when your people need it most.

Some managers may think they are at a disadvantage coaching remotely, and as a result, don't put forth the effort and attempt to coach at a distance. These managers mistakenly believe they cannot effectively coach their people if they are not in front of them. They feel they are unable to 'observe' their team in the field if they are not physically present with them.

However, there are just as many managers who feel remote coaching works better for a variety of reasons. After all, the focus needs to be on the message and many managers feel that when coaching remotely, they don't have any other visual distractions that can take away from listening purely to the spoken word.

In addition, you actually do have the opportunity to observe your team 'in the field.' Granted, your direct report may not be next to you when they're delivering a presentation or a pitch but you can schedule a conference call with the salesperson and listen in while that person makes follow up calls to prospects or customers or when they're cold calling, should cold calling be part of that person's responsibility.

And even though you're not physically present, you can observe other things as well that go beyond simply what you're hearing. For example, whether you've scheduled a time for a coaching session or a time to observe them over the telephone, are they prepared for their meeting with you? Are they efficient and organized? Do they have their notes, call list, objectives and expectations clearly mapped out? Are they focused or distracted?

In many cases, if the telephone is the main communication tool for your salespeople, whether they are presenting, following up, handling a customer issue or prospecting, it only makes sense to observe and coach them using the same communication platform. This will give you more of a realistic sense of what they are doing, what they are saying and how they come across. After all, if the telephone is predominantly what your salespeople are using when communicating with your prospects and customers, it only makes sense for you to listen to them and what they sound like over the same medium. In this case, conducting skill practice scenarios and role plays face to face rather than on the phone is actually more of a simulated environment than a realistic one!

So, what else can you observe at a distance? If you're on the phone listening to one of your salespeople make cold calls or follow up calls to your prospects or customers, are you observing not only what they're saying but what they are not saying? Are you being mindful of their tone, pacing, resonance and the confidence they exude through the phone? By knowing what to listen for during a remote coaching session or observation session, you'll find that you will be able to uncover many valuable coaching opportunities, without having to be physically present with your team.

Of course, when coaching remotely, that does not mean you now have the license to check your emails, instant messages or text messages on your phone while doing so, just because your direct report can't see you through a phone line! I guarantee, they can still tell when you are distracted by something else and as such, are not listening or fully engaged in the conversation.

When coaching remotely, you must fine tune your listening and focus purely on the message, what is being said as well as what is not being said. Otherwise, you're sure to miss out on subtleties in the conversation which can result in a missed coaching opportunity that is sure to dilute the impact of your coaching.

Realize that whether you are coaching face to face or remotely, the same tools, strategy and coaching framework still work, are applicable and are just as effective, regardless of the environment in which you are coaching.

Photo Credit: newformula