I believe one key to building retention, performance and satisfaction is to tell job applicants what will be expected of them if they come on board – and even to tell them during interviews. “Why wait until the first job review and then tell employees what they haven’t done right?” Evan wrote in a recent article.  And we couldn’t agree more.

It makes sense to utilize the earliest opportunities to explain the behaviors, attitudes and accomplishments that your organization values. For example, you can tell job applicants, “We value and reward people who can quickly apply creative solutions to customer issues, who are eager to contribute new ideas and solutions and above all, who demonstrate a strongly positive attitude toward each other and our clients.”

Training Offers an Opportunity to Set Motivational Expectations

The training you deliver to new employees offers an opportunity to teach not only skills but what is valued in your organization. Here are some opportunities . . .

• Talk about the values and behaviors that bring success in your company.
• Discuss your company’s vision, mission, and values. As an exercise, Evan suggests having each employee explain, in his or her own words, just what the company vision is.
• Use videos and other engaging content that teach compelling lessons about your company’s values. You can tell the company story and profile top executives, customers, and employees who are really getting the job done.
• Explain advancement opportunities and career paths within your organization. Spelling out this information motivates employees much more effectively than letting them discover “the ropes” after they come on board.
• Use games, exercises, and break-out activities that encourage trainees to think about why they are performing activities, not simply trying to learn the steps you expect them to take.

To learn more about providing great training, be sure to check out the course Customer Service Success.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel, a 35-year franchising veteran is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on franchising. Evan is founder and CEO of Ingage Consulting, and CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company. Evan is an active advisor in the C-Suite Network. He is also author of Ingaging Leadership, and host of “Training Unleashed,” a podcast covering training for business. Contact him here, follow him at @ehackel, or call 781-820-7609.

One of the roadblocks that many writers face is the barrier that comes along with producing a film after their book is published. One of the biggest misconceptions is that you need a huge budget to make a film. Granted the movie business can get expensive if you include high action, elaborate scenes, and celebrity actors in your film, but in reality, if you are looking to make an Indie film, or documentary you can make one with a budget that is within reach.

Recently, I caught up with Film Producer and Entrepreneur, Dar Dowling in NYC. She shared with me some of the tips and tricks that she uses in her own films, which I personally feel have an impact on our society and our community.

This is what she shared with me.

As one of the leading movie directors in the country what would you say are some of the keys to your success? 

More than a filmmaker or director I consider myself a storyteller, because in reality that is why I started making films in the first place whether they are documentaries or narratives. My films are at their best when I come from this starting point, which means telling them in a way that creates a connection that is authentic and cuts to the heart of the story. 

For instance, in my film ‘Hey Mom, What’s Sex?’, people share their stories about their sex talks with their moms, sometimes they are funny or shocking and at others, they are poignant and enlightening. I really wanted people to tell their stories in their own voice, with minimal intervention from me or during the editing process, and because of this, their stories touch people in a very profound way. I don’t want to lead people down a path when watching my films; I want them to engage in the process so they create their own path.

On the other hand, there is my film “By Any Means” which is a highly stylized film about the daughter of an Irish gangster. I actually integrated a story from my childhood in this film. Sharing something so personal took a very big toll on me, but I needed to tell the story in a visceral and visual way. The realness of it all helps connect and draw the viewer into this film even more than usual. 

One of the other keys is that I work with people who I trust and that I can be real with, including Ricardo Madan who is very often my partner in cinematic crime these days. Ricardo is an extremely gifted editor, producer, and cinematographer who worked with me on ‘Hey Mom’ and ‘By Any Means’. I also just dropped my new short ‘Double Take’, which is all about a transgendered man’s take on male privilege. It was edited by the wonderfully talented Jon Morgan Jones out of the UK, and the extremely gifted Tom Colleran out of Toronto. 

We have a lot of fun on this film-making ride and that includes the bumps and challenges. If it’s not fun then what is the point of it?

Most people feel that in order to produce a movie they need huge budgets, while money is always a factor, what is your view on budgeting to make a film, especially on the Indie side of movie production. 

It’s always amazing to have a huge budget so you can have all the bells and whistles, but here again, it is about storytelling. You can have all the money and still not tell a great story or even a good story, and on the other hand, you can have a limited budget and still tell a story that catches people’s imaginations – and achieve success. When I filmed hey ‘Mom What’s Sex’ I started out with a micro-budget, but we still made a great film, which went to festivals, because we stayed true to our mission – telling the truth regardless of where that took us. 

When shooting with smaller budgets often you have to improvise which can actually help make cinematic magic, and a very good kind of risk-taking. In ‘By Any Means’ a scene was supposed to be an action scene without audio, but the actors created such amazing dialogue while setting the mood for the scene that we decided to shoot it on a rooftop in NYC during a thunderstorm – with that improvised dialogue. That is one of my favorite scenes because it’s real, raw and very shocking. Also, while shooting that film we were down an actor, and the budget was tight so I made a rare cameo in my film. Let me know if you can find me. 

You have been nominated at various film festivals, what would you say is the number one takeaway that you gathered from all of the events you have been showcased? 

One of my favorite festivals was the Port Townsend Film Festival in Washington State. It was an amazing experience because they literally celebrate all the filmmakers, whether they are emerging or established. They offer filmmakers taking part in the festival a place to stay throughout the town in cottages and in people’s homes. I was lucky enough to get a cottage with an apple tree out front, so in the morning I could pick an apple, and walk along the shore to town because the tide was low. It was one of the best experiences of my career because the people in Port Townsend really love films and the people who make them. It may not be Sundance when it comes to hype, but in so many ways I loved it more because for me it’s the people and those connections that matter most of all.

Talk to us about the new film you have in the works taking on the topic of human trafficking, and its connection that it has on a person in today’s world? 

The funny thing is that I had no intention of doing this film, but by chance I was at an event about Human Trafficking that a friend had put together. At that event, a woman who had been trafficked started talking about her journey and how she was now helping the police get other women out of their human trafficking situation. Her story really hit me on a gut level so much so I could barely breathe. I was amazed by her honesty and courage.  While listening to her story part of me wanted to do a film about her, but another part didn’t. I kept telling myself “I am not doing a film on her and human trafficking, I’m really not” over and over again. I knew it would be hard since this story is so close to the bone, but by the time she stopped talking I was already all in, and after chatting so was she – and I was very grateful because meeting her has been a very real gift, and literally changed my life.

During our interviews she would occasionally tell me that no one had ever asked her a particular question, and at that point I knew I was doing my job as a storyteller. She is an amazing woman, all I want to do is to tell her story in a way that touches people and hopefully helps make a difference. 

I’ve learned a lot while filming about the world of human trafficking. It is a brutal world, which has many facets, and I am taking on just one aspect – for now. During pre-production I was so happy to see that there are so many individuals, and organizations dedicated to stopping human trafficking, such as  Courage for Freedom and Win This Fight. Covid threw a bit of a monkey wrench into filming, but we will be ramping up production soon and have it completed in 2022. 

All great creators and visionaries have a special hot spot that they like to go to find inspiration and to unwind, what’s your hot spot in NYC and what makes it special to Dar Dowling?

To tell you the truth I love nothing more than to head down to the Hudson River for a walk or a bike ride to clear my head, and soak in some beauty to nurture my creativity and my soul. At other times I love to settle in at Mustache Restaurant to have some great food, laughs, and epic chats with my friends and co-creators. I have also been known to hang out at the Grey Dog Café, which is chock full of artists, making it a perfect place for what might pass for old-school-style Salon or an intimate tete-a-tetes.

Follow Dar Dowling on Instagram or  or check out her website.

Ideas from my new book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generations

Copious research documents the fact that younger generations like to learn. After all, they grew up attending schools and college; learning is part of the way they interact with the world.

One major study from Gallup, “How Younger Generations Want to Work and Live,” reports these findings:

• 60% of younger generations say that the opportunity to learn and grow on the job is extremely important. In contrast, only 40% of Baby Boomers feel the same way.
• 50% of younger generations strongly agree that they plan to remain in their jobs for at least the next year. That might sound like a big percentage, but 60% of all other groups plan to stay in place for at least a year. Baby Boomers and others are planning on sticking around, while younger generations are weighing their options.

Findings like these document that younger generations are more likely to stay Ingaged in their jobs if they can learn. Yet not all training takes place in a traditional classroom or corporate learning center. Here are some forms of training that appeal strongly to younger generation employees:

• Bite-sized training on mobile devices. I have observed that younger generations, especially, like training that is delivered to them on their phones. Even more so, they like training that is delivered in short sessions—the kind they can complete while at lunch, on break, or even at the gym.
• Mentoring relationships with supervisors. Gallup found that 60% of younger generations feel that the quality of the people who manage them is extremely important. With that in mind, your training for new employees can set up mentoring, not reporting, relationships between them and strategic managers. Explain how often check-ins and job reviews with their managers will happen, and what they will cover. (I am a firm believer in frequent check-ins between managers and the employees they supervise, not pro forma reviews that happen every so often.)
• Being part of an energized and innovative team. This is a bit of a contradiction, but at the same time, younger generations think of themselves as individualist entrepreneurs; they also expect to be part of a great team. Letting younger generations get to know their teammates during training, and fostering a sense of team/group identity, can help convince them that they have joined the right organization.

Yes, training is important to younger generations, but I encourage you to think of it as more than a chance to teach skills. Younger generations are the most energized, skilled, and capable generations ever to enter the workforce. Train them well and they will become your organization’s brightest future.

Action Step: Review your training activities and materials. Ask yourself and others whether they are outdated, or new enough to appeal to your younger generation workers.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is a franchise industry leader, a widely published writer, a keynote speaker, a member of the New England Franchise Association Board, and Co-Chair of the International Franchise Association’s Knowledge Share Task Force.

A consultant to some of the largest franchise systems in North America, Evan is also Founder and Principal of Ingage Consulting, a consulting firm focused on improving the performance of franchises and all business organizations. By building cultures of partnership and common purpose within organizations, Ingage Consulting has established a record of helping a variety of organizations dramatically improve performance. In addition, Evan serves as CEO of Tortal Training, a firm that specializes in developing interactive eLearning solutions for companies in all sectors.

Before founding Ingage Consulting, Evan worked at CCA Global Partners for twenty years. At CCA, he was responsible for four business divisions with over 2000 units in four countries that generated more than $5 billion in sales. He also founded CCA’s departments in marketing, national programs, and training. He led the company’s effort to buy and turn around a franchise organization from bankruptcy. In four years, he grew the troubled franchise from 250 locations to a very successful with more than 550 locations.

Evan received an MBA from Boston College and a BA in Economics from Colorado College. He is a current and former board member of several organizations, cooperatives and groups to which he lends his expertise. He resides in Reading, Massachusetts with his wife, Laura, and three children.