In this Q&A podcast, I talk to Halelly Azulay, a consultant, facilitator, speaker, and author with 20 years of professional experience in the fields of workplace learning and communication in corporate, government, regulatory, nonprofit, and academic organizations. Halelly is the president of TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams to improve the human side of work. She also is the author of Employee Development on a Shoestring and facilitates the ATD Introduction to Training Certificate. 

Halelly discusses her path to becoming an L&D professional. To start, she wants to remind others that you cannot come into this field knowing everything, and new practitioners cannot be too hard on themselves. 

For example, something she wasn’t properly prepared for was managing behaviors in a training classroom. Fortunately, there are more resources on this topic for new L&D professionals. In the ATD Introduction to Training Certificate, Halelly addresses classroom management extensively—so that others won’t have to learn by trial-and-error like she did. 

As another example, Halelly shares how understanding the importance of learning objectives has been key to her training successes—and career success. Halelly briefly explains some of the critical reasons for learning objectives, as well as how to effectively craft them, both of which she says are covered thoroughly in certificate program. 

To learn more about Halelly’s personal skill development throughout her career, listen to the podcast. And be sure to join Halelly for March 13, 2015, for the ATD Introduction to Training Certificate program.