A recent study shows more than half of organizations reporting that they believe their leaders to be not ready or only somewhat ready to lead.

Further, more than 71% report that their leaders are not ready to take the organization into the future. These figures show that the majority of employees do not have faith in their organizational leadership.

In order for your business to truly thrive, it needs strong leaders and engaged employees. Microlearning can improve leadership performance and thereby boost employee engagement.

Amy Fox and Accelerated Business Results (ABR) have crafted a new microlearning library specifically aimed at helping leaders to have quick access to non-generalized, helpful and relevant material so they can learn and employ new techniques quickly.

Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific bursts. The learners are in control of what and when they’re learning.

Why has Microlearning has blown up recently? To answer this question, take a look at who comprises a majority of learners. By 2025, Millennials alone will make up that 75 percent of the workforce. The average attention span of the Millennial generation is 90 seconds.

 “ABR’s microlearning library includes ‘micro-content’ and ‘micro-training’ that addresses real-world situations with a variety of leadership topics,” says Fox, “from how to deal with employee gossip and emotional employees, to how to motivate employees during difficult times, to how to fire those who don’t live up to expectations.”

By putting these strategies into practice, leaders can gain the confidence of their employees. According to a recent studyby the University of Warwick, when employees are happier at work, they are up to 12% more productive. That degree of engagement improvement by employees can mean real change to the overall success of the company.

“In working with companies on all kinds of change initiatives for more than 15 years,” Fox says. “We have learned a crucial fact: Commitment from managers at all levels is the linchpin for success, whether it’s implementing a new internal system, improving customer experience or making innovation a company value.”

It all starts with leadership, and ABR’s new microlearning library focuses in on the tools leaders need to be effective. 

Here are five tips to help you get the most from microlearning, courtesy of elearning Industry:

1. Assign One Learning Objective Per Asset
A Learning Objective is what the learner will do or know after they consume the asset. Focus on just one learning objective so the learner will know exactly what they need to focus on to ensure knowledge is transferred. The more objectives you try to introduce, the longer your content will be. Ultimately, you’ll lose your audience.

2. Use Video
70 percent of Millennials visit YouTube monthly. They simply prefer video over other mediums.

3. Production Quality Matters
Technology has made it so nearly everyone has the ability to create video – whether it’s on a smartphone, tablet, a professional camera or a GoPro. But bad video can take away from good content. It doesn’t take much to enhance your video quality without spending a lot of money. Try using natural light from a window, shoot in a quite room, and set up your camera slightly above your eye level.

4. Timing is Everything
Remember that 90-second statistic? Microlearning videos should be four minutes or less. Learners want to get straight to the point. When creating scripts for video, a good rule of thumb to follow is 120 words for every minute of video. Making a short, content-rich video requires the ability to self-edit. If you’re scripting assets, take a good look at the content, and eliminate ALL the fluff. If your content is still longer than four minutes, you’re probably breaking the first commandment.

Here are a couple of tips: First, don’t waste time in a video talking about something a learner can download and review outside of the video. Second, assume your audience is intelligent. Don’t waste time telling them how to navigate through the videos (these are tech savvy people). And please don’t talk down to them or add insincere dialogue.

5. Prove Learning Took Place
When you build your content, think about how you will know learning took place. Instead of just asking students to answer a couple multiple-choice questions, ask them to demonstrate their knowledge. For example, If you’re teaching personal branding, you could ask learners to send a video of themselves delivering a 30-second elevator speech. This not only allows to prove learning took place, but also creates the opportunity for coaching and improvement.

After all, learning shouldn’t be a one-time event. Instead, it should be an evolving and adaptive process that creates a unique and personalized experience for each learner.