Executive Interviews: Interview with Rob Jolles on Executive Development
October 2007 - By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary

Rob Jolles
President of Jolles Associates Inc.,
speaker and author

• Can you please share with our readers some of your achievements (especially creating, delivering and managing Xerox Corporation's highly touted customer sales training programs)
  I'm quite proud of the work I performed with Xerox but I think Xerox taught me more than I taught them. They are masters at building processes that are repeatable and predictable. I'd like to think that one of my most proud achievements was taking these processes outside Xerox and to customers.

• A word about one of your bestselling book, Customer Centered Selling?
  This book is celebrating it's 10th year on the shelveshere intheStates. However, I do have a newbook,Mental Agility The Path to Persuasion which is a book dedicated to the implementation of training. It incorporates over 50 exercises, many of which mirror exercises taught to improvizational actors, to help people speed up their ability to think on their feet.

• What lessons do you draw from your exemplary 15 year career of motivating, inspiring, and entertaining executives across the globe?
  "You're as good as your last presentation." It simply doesn'tmatter what your qualifications are. To be successful, you must treat every speaking opportunity as the most important presentation of your life.

• Many a times people use executive education and executive development in the same parlance. Are they same or is there any distinction between these terms. If they are different, can you please illustrate the differences? For instance, is it correct to assume that executive education programs run as per business schools' calendar and executive development programs run as per companies' requirement?
  These are two terms I don't use, and haven't heard used. I don't think it would be fair for me to give an opinion on terms I haven't heard before.

• For this Interview, we shall be using, with your permission, executive development (assuming the connotations of executive education are also embedded in this expression). What is the role and importance of executive development programs?
  My assumption is you are using the words, "executive development" as we would use, "training programs." As a corporate trainer now ing his 25th year in this industry, I can tell you that if you are not developing and training your people, you are falling behind. Proper development teaches,motivates and inspires those who attend. It is not a coincidence that the companies that cut back on their training almost immediately suffer motivational issues. Of course they also seem to fall behind those they are competing with.

• Companies develop executives in various ways: by giving them feedback, coaching, mentoring and training. As per a McKinsey survey, 48% of human resources executives said that most executives think development is simply a function of t raining programs. Training programs however seldom produce great executives. Therefore, where does executive development programs fit in?
  It's not the executive development or training programs that are failing, it's the implementation of these programs. In my quarter century of watching companies get trained, I'm always stunned at how much attention they put into having their people put through development programs, but no attention to protecting their investments, and creating true cultural changes but focusing on implementation. This is something that is near and dear to me.

• Some companies have created their own development platforms. First class corporate universities such as Motorola University and GE's Crotonville can help create strong corporate cultures, align companies with their strategies, disseminate best practices, build personal networks, and spur programs for corporate change. However, critics say that these are not the engines that drive the development of individual capabilities. They cite informality, which permeates the learning experience, as a strong impediment to the desired results. What is your opinion on such company owned development initiatives? Do you advocate all the companies to have their own facilities? Or is it better to send the chosen executives to an identified school for imbibing the desired outcomes?
  My opinion of company owned development initiatives is they are almost always colossal failures. I am sorry to be this blunt, but the fact is, a lot of money is invested in these programs and it is wasted money. Typically, the training is not taught well, but that's not the real reason for failure. Those they are teaching are almost always disappointed that the company they are working for did not see fit to invest in their futures properly. The perception is that if it's being taught internally, it is being done to save money, and not to provide world class training. So, money is spent, participants are pulled from their job, or the field, and they wind up shutting out the message they are being taught, and bitter their time was wasted. Now you have a company that invested in a product, trained it's trainers, and demotivated those who attended.

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