Tonight’s guest was Elaine Biech, who joined Maurice Coleman, Diane Huckabay, Jill Hurst-Wahl, Tom Haymes, and Paul Signorelli. Elaine is the author of the recently-released book Skills for Career Success: Maximizing Your Potential at Work (her 86th book!). She is also the author of The Art and Science of Training. We talked about life long learning as well as her process for writing a book. Elaine said she can write a book in two weeks (by focusing only on writing the book)!
With a group of writers on the podcast, we had to ask about her process for writing a book. Elaine secludes herself when working on a book, and has other people handle email, etc.. She names the chapters, then organizes her materials. She noted that she writes chapter 1, which introduces the book, last. Elaine does not write in order. Jumping around works for her. This sounds simpler than what it likely is!
Elaine’s most recent book was born out of notes she has taken for 15 years, and skills, etc., that she knew worked. (This book was her passion.) Among her notes, she amassed 51 skills that she writes about in the book. She notes that we all need to be accountable for our own professional development. While our organizations likely have plans for us, we need to know what we want and then grow towards that. What is meaningful? What do we find inspiring?
Maurice did a really nice job interviewing Elaine and getting her to talk about skills and strategies.
By the way, ATD has done an interview with Elaine, which you might want to read.
You can listen to this episode on TalkShoe as well as on your favorite podcast platform. Our next episode will record on May 20 at 9 p.m. ET and we’ll be talking about writing and spreading the knowledge.
T is for Training 