Example training needs analysis report

This is an example of a training needs analysis report - generate your own here.

Thank you John Doe - below are the results of your training analysis report.
If, having read the report, you would like to discuss any aspect of these results, please contact us.

Part One: Clear purpose and goal focus

You have an understanding of the direction of the organisation. This allows you to make plans and organise your resources, both of people and materials and to plan ahead in a strategic manner.

Development action
Although you already have a clear view of the organisational vision and plans you could act now to further refine the big picture into specific projects. Begin to assign deadlines to the major steps and think about who should form the project teams that will achieve them.

Youve done well to determine how you wish to be perceived at work. You have given it thought and have refined your approach,

Development opportunity
You have clear personal standards: now your challenge is to live up to them. It is difficult to be consistent in a changing world. "You are the captain of your soul and the master of your fate" to the degree to which you can control your own performance under all conditions. Develop more self-control and you will gain more respect, and a greater level of personal confidence. Begin to hold others to higher standards so that the quality, quantity and spirit of your team are of the same high standards you expect from yourself.

You said that you are lacking a sense of goal focus and taking a "see how things turn out" approach. This philosophy does not work well in a professional organisation because success means " The achievement of your goals".

Without clear goals success is impossible.

Development
Sit down and write out a clear specific set of goals that you want to achieve in the next six months. Commit them to memory and review your goals once each morning upon rising and once each afternoon as you close for business. Call your goals to mind as often as is convenient throughout the day.

You know that goals should be well organised to fit the SMART profile: Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic, and with a definite Time deadline.

Development
Even though many people know the SMART target model, few use it enough to their benefit, as they should. So you can now harness the potential of goals by sitting down today and answering this question: What five specific things do I want to achieve within the next 365 days?

Motivate other people in your team by means of training in goal setting using the SMART model. Have them tell you what five things they want to achieve in the next year. Help them to build practical written plans.

Part two: Communication skills

It is common to interrupt others with whom one disagrees.
However when you interrupt another, you suffer by virtue of the fact that you annoy the other. In addition you will fail to hear new information which may have altered your perception had you known it.

Development
Learn to wait longer and avoid interrupting. Learn to listen with the intention to gain a deep understanding the other person. This simple skill will revolutionise your ability to connect positively with others and will improve your communication skill.

You said that you talk too much on occasions. This may harm your best interests because you may be overwhelming your listener.
Alternatively you may be talking about subjects about which your stock of knowledge is strictly limited, and you may be unwittingly advertising your lack of knowledge.
Did you know that empty vessels make the most noise?
Wisdom is often associated with silence.

Development
Learn to speak with authority only about those things for which your knowledge qualifies you. Make it your habit to restrain your tongue and not to "blag it".

You recognise the need to speak up for the truth, when necessary and you have the ability to do that when called to.
This ability reveals character strength you should develop.

Development
You know that you need to speak up for the truth as you see it. Your development increases when you support the same right for other people, even when their expression of their opinion is inconvenient to you.
Strong leaders allow opposing views to be aired in public so that they can be shown to be false, in public.

If you know what you mean but cannot explain it, it is because you think in pictures, and you have trouble transposing those mental images into words. It is common. But at work you need to be able to explain yourself in words too.

Development opportunity
If you are a person who thinks in pictures, you may have trouble expressing ideas in language. Therefore when explaining, use plenty of visual aids: draw it!

But in addition you should improve your ability to express yourself verbally, by attending courses on communication, or simply practicing over and over until you get better.

The best place to practice your verbal skill is in the car, when you are on your own. Practice finding the words to express difficult ideas. Leadership demands verbal dexterity!

You said that you do not always think through specific interpretations of the many words that have multiple meaning, such as fairness, quality and professional. That means that your messages can be misunderstood. That may results in miscommunication and confusion.

Development
Words are the tools of communication, and you should begin to demand from yourself a greater level of clarity and precision in your use of words, both in the spoken and written form. That means working out what you mean exactly before you speak.
Precision in the use of language is important and if you feel this to be an area of development for you, take immediate steps. Consider coming on the course The effective leader manager.

You already realise that one should spend only 20% of the time talking about the causes of a problem and 80% of the time thinking about solutions to that problem. This puts you ahead of many people who spend too long worrying about who they can push the blame to, not about how they can solve the situation.

Development
When you are problem solving you know enough to not spend too long on the history of the problem, and more time on solutions. You are cool under pressure and ask solution based questions such as :
1. What are the facts we do know?
2. What are the facts we do not know and need to discover?
3. What is the time deadline we are working to?
4. What is the best outcome or goal, given the facts?
5. What are resources available to us?
6. What are three possible plans of action?
7. Of these what is the best option?
8. What are the first steps?
9. Who is doing what?
10. What are we waiting for? Lets go!

Now develop your skills by categorizing information.
Learn to demand facts, not guesses. Do not build plans on guesswork. Find the facts. When you have the facts, sort them into categories:

Relevant to the problem v not relevant

Important v trivial

Reliable v unreliable
Strive to focus on information that has passed all three tests

You work only with information that is Relevant, important, and reliable.

Part three: Time management prioritisation and planning

If you have many days when you are busy all day but feel that events conspire to make your days relatively non productive, you must check your methods. Are any of the following true:-

You do not have a clear plan of action worked out.

You are too easily distracted from your plan.

Nobody else around you is planning ahead.

You allow yourself to start too many things at once.

Development activity
If you find yourself working busily but you feel you are not achieving the results you need, you should attend a time management course and learn to refocus on the most important goals and priorities tasks. You need to reverse the trend and

1. Always have a clear plan of action worked out.

2. Learn to be not easily distracted from your plan.

3. Inspire others around you to plan ahead.

4. Stop initiating too many tasks at once and making minimal progress on any.

Many people do not know the difference between the meaning of the: a goal, a plan, a to do list, and an action plan. They get these four things mixed up and thus confusion reigns

Development activity
Learn the difference between a goal, a plan, a to do list and an action plan,

The difference between a goal, a plan, a to do list, and an action plan is as follows:

A goal is the target for which you are aiming: your stated ambition

The plan is the means by which you will achieve the goal

The to do list are the infinite number of actions that your plan creates as a logical consequence of its steps.

The action plan is the small number 2 -10 things on your to do list that make it on to todays ACTION plan.

You said you have the tendency to start too many projects at once. This will cause you to spread your energy too thinly across too many activities. As a result you will not make enough progress on any of them.

Development activity
Learn to make priority decisions and to focus more effort into a fewer number of higher value projects. You will be able to concentrate your powers to such a degree that you make good progress. This requires that you learn to say "no" to certain things and people. You have a limited supply of time, and energy. Invest them wisely and you will get maximum returns.

Consider attending a good time management course.

Many people who do not plan claim that their job does not allow them to plan, because "you never know what is going to happen next". That may be true for you on a moment-by-moment level, but not strategically. If you do not have a plan for your career, your team, your family, anything can and will happen. If you have a plan you will be able to take more control over the direction your external results will take.
Having no plan will cause you to become the product of your environment

Development opportunity
Even though you cannot predict nor control what will happen in the short term, you must set goals and formulate practical detailed plans for their attainment. The goals and strategic plans generate pro-active tasks that you should schedule in and commit to. Of course your plans will be upset by events, but the events will not be enough to ruin your plan, only delay it.
Walk away from those people who claim they are unable to plan, because they really mean they are unwilling to plan.
Leadership requires planners.
If you do not know how to plan, learn by attending a time management planning course.

Too often you have a task that you know you should attend to, but you tell yourself "Im not in the mood right now, I'll do it tomorrow" and you put it off.
The error here is the failure to recognise the fact that the mood will follow the action, once you start the action.
Emotion is created by motion.
In other words, begin the work, and your mood will begin to change as you work.

Development activity
Decide to use your will power.
Begin a task that you feel you want to delay because you are not in the mood.
Develop personal initiative and become a self-starter.
Initiating the effort and expecting your mind and body to respond with enthusiasm after you have started. This is a major skill that all successful people have mastered.
Your development demands that you become a person of self-motivation, irrespective of your transient moods.

You are a person who is not easily distracted. You can maintain your concentration for extended periods without losing focus. This is one of your most valuable assets.

Development opportunity
You can develop this skill to an even greater level in the following way:

Pick a mental activity, which you would consider enjoyable.

Begin the activity and note the time you start.
Work until you lose concentration; note in writing, the amount of time you worked without a break in concentration.

Next time try to beat your record.

In this way you will learn to extend your control of your mind: an invaluable asset.

If you plan ahead more than one month, let me congratulate you because you are in the top 20%. Most people do not plan ahead. You are doing the right thing because by planning you are less likely to be caught out by deadlines creeping up and surprising you.

Development opportunity
You plan ahead more than a month. Your development opportunity is to extend the period into the future that your plan covers. There are some industries that have 20 - 50 year plans (Forestry for example). Your future is not set, and so it can be determined by you: by means of a well-written plan. Sit down tonight and work out a plan for the next six months

98% of people do not know how to use decision matrices. That omission makes their decision making process reliable, and prone to emotionalism and guesswork. You said you do not use a decision matrix to help make decisions. This is something you can easily correct by learning three types of simple decision matrix: The "What is the correct priority order?" matrix; the "Yes or no" decision matrix and the "Which one" decision matrix,

Development opportunity
You said you do not use decision matrix to make decisions and so your decisions will not be as accurate as they could be.

Go online and look up decision matrix: or go on a good time management course.

You have the correct balance between work and rest. That means that you will be able to sustain the efforts you are making over the long stretch, which means ultimately you will be more productive.

Development opportunity
Recuperation and rest should balance work and effort. Make sure that your out of work activity is conducive to recuperation, repair and growth (i.e. good food, exercise and sleep) be sure that your "rest " is not really another attack on your bodies recuperative ability (boozing, late nights and overeating).

Part four: Handling conflict and difficult people

In conflict situations, you remain calm under pressure. This is good. You have learned not to blow your top nor fail to speak up when someone is out of line. Be sure you treat people with respect and allow them to save face as you discuss their behaviour.

Development opportunity
Conflict is inevitable in teams, because people do not think the same thoughts. Your development opportunity is to continually develop your ability to handle conflict situations according to the principles of reason. Try this development activity: Write some notes to explain the following five rules that govern proper conflict management.

What are the characteristics of good Constructive criticism?

1 Get the timing right.

2 Stick to the facts.

3 Dont make it personal.

4 Give them the solution with the criticism.

5 Keep it brief.

You said that you are able to speak up early in a conflict situation, and that you do not leave things too long.

This is a good habit because early intervention makes change easier. Bad behaviors repeated become bad habits. And bad habits are harder to change.

Development opportunity
The general rule for conflict is to intervene early and not to leave things too long. Your development is to realise there are occasions when leaving it a little while might be an advantage:

You may be wiser to wait a while before you speak if:

You are very angry. You may not be able to speak and think objectively.

There are many people present. Don't try to change people in front of their mates.

You said that you do not use highly charged language when you are in a conflict situation. This is a good habit. Use objective, fact based, non-emotionally charged language. Keep your negative feelings unverbalised and focus on behaviour, rather than character.

Development opportunity
Although you are able to control your language when you are in a conflict situation, your next challenge will be to check your body language. When you are in a conflict situation, notice your gestures: no pointing. Notice your facial expression, notice your voice tone: try not to shout too loudly!

You are able to name the difference between a reason and an excuse for not doing something

A reason for not doing something indicates the explanation is true, valid, takes into account ALL the facts and is a reasonable interpretation.

An excuse is an explanation that is emotional, untrue, does not take into account all the facts and is an unreasonable interpretation.

Development opportunity
You are able to differentiate between a reason and an excuse for not doing something.

Your development relies on developing your ability to gain the reputation to respond positively to reasons, but not to excuses. Do not respond positively and give concessions to people who offer you excuses. If you give concessions to people who give excuses, what will happen?

The self-concept is the sum total of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that a person holds about him / herself, their ability, character and potential.

It is the single most important aspect of a person because it defines the limits of what they believe they can and cannot / will and will not do.

Development opportunity
Learn always to protect the persons self-concept when you are in a conflict situation. The self-concept is the sum total of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that a person holds about him / herself, their ability, character and potential Learn to protect their ego and you will find conflict management much easier.

You said you do not know the difference between objective and subjective language. You should learn the difference between objective language and subjective language because the careless use of subjective language can cost you everything you have worked for!

Development opportunity
1: You should learn the difference between objective language and subjective language because the careless use of subjective language can cost you everything you have worked for!
Study the this distinction carefully and understand the implications of the poor use of emotionally charged language. Remember this phrase: "Once you have said it, you've said it. And you cant take it back!"

Objective is fact based, verifiable by observation, provable directly by the senses, non-evaluative, non-emotional language

Subjective language is the opposite of objective language: Subjective language is emotionally charged, opinionated, evaluative and not directly provable by the senses.

Example objective: You parked in the disabled parking space. Please go and move your car.
Example subjective: I am angry with you for being so unprofessional so as to park in the disabled parking space. You are so selfish!.

You said that you do not always think about the other persons need to save face. You may even delight in beating people in arguments and proving them wrong. An examination of thousands of instances proves that this way represents an error:
In beating the other person in a way that damages their credibility, status or self-esteem, you may create bad feelings, which may manifest themselves later.

Development opportunity
Realise that when correcting someone or arguing in a conflict situation, you should never try to beat the other in a way, which results in the other being humiliated.

Always leave room or argue in such a way as to allow the other person to change without losing face

By allowing the person to save face change is more likely to occur

Consider enrolling in a good conflict management course.

Part five: Positive mental attitude and inspiring others

You are aware of how your attitude affects the results that you experience.
Your attitude is the sum total of your thoughts feelings and beliefs about any issue.

Your feelings and thoughts control your actions and your actions drive your results.

So your habitual thoughts tend to manifest themselves in your experience: your thoughts become, to a certain degree, a self fulfilling prophecy.

Development opportunity
Take more conscious control of your thoughts. In any situation you have the power to control only one thing, the content of your mind.
If you believe you cannot win, you are lowering your chances of winning.
If you believe you can win, you are increasing your chances of wining.

This simple principle is one of the most difficult skills to master and it is a lifelong task. Control your mind and you will control everything else: your feelings, your communication and your actions.

In the previous question, you said you knew the importance of attitude, but that is not the same as being able to direct your attitude towards the positive. Knowing that you should think positively does not tell you how to think positively.

Development opportunity:
In order to think positively follow the following steps

Think about the future, not the past.

Use your imagination to create images in your mind of the best possible future, which will create feeling of confidence.

Refuse to use your imagination to create images of a bad possible future, which will create feelings of fear and anxiousness.

Become more aware of your mental state. What are you thinking about?

Concentrating on thoughts about The bad- past will make you angry.

Concentrating on thoughts about The good- past will make you nostalgic for the good old days.

Concentrating on thoughts about The bad- future will make you anxious and fearful.

Concentrating on thoughts about The good- future will make you feel positive, confident and motivated.

For many people, their attitude is a result of the outside circumstances.
That is okay if everything is going well, but what if things are not going well? If things are going badly and you "lose it" emotionally, you are no longer in the best position to handle the bad situation. Leadership requires you to become stronger in the face of setbacks and difficulties, not weaker.

Many people allow their internal emotional state to be too dependent on outside circumstances. In order to feel strong, people need to praise them, the sun needs to shine, and plans need to work out as expected.
They are in trouble, emotionally, whenever people are mean to them, the sun disappears or plans do not work out. Begin to recognise the importance of being in conscious control of your own emotional state. We might call this skill, stress management.

Development activity
Learn to take responsibility for your own emotions and recognise that they are a product of your thinking, not the product of other peoples actions or omissions. You feel what you feel because of the thoughts that you allow to dominate your mind. If you think bad thoughts you feel bad, if you think good thoughts you feel good, if you think mixed thoughts, you have mixed feelings. In particular, be aware of your emotional response to set backs and disappointments. Make them a call to thought and action rather than a reason to get depressed and give up.

You said that people dont unsettle or unnerve you. The person may have higher status and yet status on its own does not unnerve you. The other person may be rude or overbearing and that does not faze you. The person may possess higher education and this does not upset you. You are able to create confidence in yourself by thinking empowered thoughts. This is a valuable ability you possess.

Development opportunity
You have the ability to create confidence in the company of people or situations that are unsettling to others. The ability to induce a feeling of confidence is a high value skill. Your development is to ensure that confidence does not over stretch itself into arrogance or overconfidence.

Arrogance is more easily dealt with because it is a communication style: If you are full of confidence it does not mean you should brag about it. If you are full of ability it does not mean you should tell everyone. In fact, the confident person is often more interested in demonstrating competence rather than talking about it.

Overconfidence is more dangerous because it represents a departure from logic. It indicates that your emotion of confidence is no longer based on a firm grasp of the situation and the facts surrounding it, but rather what you feel to be the case. Feelings on their own are not enough! Gut feel must be supported by rational argument. How many errors have been made by overconfidence that was not born out by the facts.

You said that you believed that you have sufficient confidence in most situations. Your confidence comes from two sources: Your level of knowledge and your "self image". You have confidence by virtue of your knowledge of the situation, and you have confidence by virtue of a good self-image.

Development opportunity.
Use your confidence to extend the range of things that you do.
Test the limits of your confidence by stretching your comfort zone. You are confident in all the situations you find yourself. Push now against your boundaries and see where your confidence can and will be able to take you and others.

Ask yourself this question: What two things would I do in the next year, if you were 100% confident that you couldn't fail?

You said that you do not necessarily have the right diet and exercise programmes that will promote good health and high level of energy. Remember that without energy you can have nothing else. Your profession requires a great deal of mental and physical energy. That needs to be created by proper nutrition and exercise.
It means that you eat drink and do the right things and NOT the wrong things!

Development opportunity
Your emotional state is governed by two things: What you think about, and the state of your physical body.

In order to feel positive in spirits, you must be healthy and be able to create energy.

Health and energy is a product of your diet and exercise habits.
If you have a poor diet and exercise habits you will not have enough energy to have good spirits.
Resolve now to make positive changes in you diet by the following methods: -
Reduce the amount of bad foods you eat

Reduce, as much as possible (as close to zero consumption as possible) all social drug use, (alcohol, cigarettes cannabis etc).
Increase the amount of fruit and or fresh vegetables and fish.
Resolve now to add one form of physical exercise that is either a form of straight conditioning, wrights or swimming, or a form of aerobic conditioning, jogging, walking, tennis.

You said you have methods to shield yourself from negative influences.
The negative influences we mean are the following

Fear induced by TV "news" (We are all going to die......)

Fear induced by politicians (They will get you; they will steal your future....)

Fear induced by well meaning relatives and friends (It will not work - what makes you think you can do it)

Having methods to shield yourself from negative influences makes you more emotionally resilient. You will need to be resilient in order to weather the storms that will inevitably come your way.

Development opportunity
Keep working on yourself to enhance your ability to absorb setbacks, disappointments and trouble, without losing your enthusiasm, confidence and desire. Do this by:
Switching off depressing TV or pointless bad news or fear programming and replacing it with
Energy building activity or
Simple rest and recuperation.

In regard to inspiring positive feelings in others, there are three kinds of people:

The first kind, are those people who can and do inspire others towards the positive. People of this type will raise your spirits no matter what the situation and no matter what kind of day they are having. They are careful and recognise the need to be a source of inspiration to others.

You claim to be that kind of person.

The second kind is the person who is up one minute down the next: volatile. On a good day, they are great, on a bad day they are equally terrible: unpredictable: moody! You claim you are not like this.

The third type is predicable: but they are predictably depressed, cynical and depressing. No matter what is going on, you can be sure they can suck the life out of the project with cynical doom laden pessimism. You claim you are never like this.

Development opportunity
You are a positive person who has the ability to inspire others. Your development is to enhance this skill in the following way:

1. Talk of the future not the past.

2. Claim that we can, and think of practical plans to achieve it.

3. When you are criticising other peoples plans be sure to tell them an alternative practical plan which can take the place of the plan you are criticising (Don't just tell them what cannot be done, tell them what can be done).

4. Seek out those people who are cynics and promote them to the role of critical thinker. (Don't try to make a cynic an optimist he will never make it).

Whenever there is a problem situation you have an option about where to put the focus of the conversation:
Option one is: Find the solution to the problem.
Option two is: Find the person who is to blame.

You said that you focus is on finding solutions.

This is the correct approach. Finding out who is to blame can come later.

You may need to discover who is responsible- but do that later. Your most urgent priority is to find the solution.

Development opportunity
Develop your ability to creatively solve problems. Develop a series of problem solving questions along the lines of the following:

1. What are the facts of the situation?

2. What facts do we knot know and need to find out?

3. Given the facts, what is the goal?

4. To achieve this goal what recourses do we need and have?

5. What is the plan?

6. What is the first step?

Avoid the use of killer questions such as: -

Oh God. Why me?

"How could you be so STUPID?"

Nobody is perfect. We all require constructive criticism. Some people make criticism a learning experience and some make criticism a painful experience. You said that you are able to make your criticism sound like a learning experience. This is excellent. You should develop this skill to the next level, because leadership requires you to correct people with sensitivity.

Development opportunity
Correct people with sensitivity by the following methods: -

1. Get the timing right (do it soon, one to one if possible and briefly).

2. Use factual language.

3. Give the person the reasons for your criticism.

4. Give the person a solution to the criticism.

5. Listen to their reasons and give them due consideration.

6. Gain an agreement.

7. Don't criticise for entertainment value.

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