Be here now

Most of us have set through numerous employer-provided trainings.

And the truth is that most of those trainings have been less-than-memorable.

It is not for lack of either party trying. It's just that, for both parties, sometimes there is a mis-match of goals and hopes.

That's why...to this day...I find it remarkable that, of all my corporate education and training, there is one concept...a statement really...that I still remember.

I had been placed in an executive development course...one that people really desired to be placed into. The facilitator was highly-regarded in his field and had been flown in at great expense. His material and delivery was top-notch. He even took time with us one-on-one to give his insights on us, at the end of the week's training.

However, it wasn't his one-on-one insights (even though they were highly accurate) that have particularly stayed with me to this day. It was the one thing he told us as an executive group...in fact, 3 small words, that somehow got wired into my brain.

"Be here now".

I marvel at the fact of when they were first said to us as a group. It was before the advent of the Internet really and definitely before the ubiquitous smart phone. No one was talking about social media because there wasn't any.

Yet that facilitator knew there were still things competing for the one thing we had as corporate leaders: our attention. Fast forward to today and the average corporate leader is dealing with many more things, at a faster pace.

Yet, as human beings, our wiring has not changed...at least not yet.

Those 3 words...if you were to take the cost of what my employer paid for my executive training, would have been very expensive even back then.

Today those 3 words are priceless.

"Be here now". When an employee comes in to talk to you about a personal issue, "be here now".