Ten Tips for 2010

This is going to be a good year. In the words of Mary Crowley, founder of Home Interiors, "If it's going to be, it's up to me!" To make it good, I'm doing 10 simple things. As they say in the clothing industry: "You're welcome to try them on and see if they fit."

1. Determine what matters most to you. Things change. Health changes; families move; finances shift. You may need to press the "Reset Button" and ask yourself what's Number One in 2010?
2. List your top 3 strengths. Research studies show that we grow faster by accelerating our strengths -- rather than trying to wean ourselves away from our weaknesses. Strengths? Write them down. Examples: avid reader; can make people laugh; great with math and finance; interested in science and the future; nurturing with sick people; love technology; etc.
3. List 6 people that would be pleased to hear from you. Someone with whom you've lost touch. Someone that has had to "tough it out" this past year. Or someone that cares deeply for you.
4. Define 1 problem that you can reframe into an opportunity. This means take something that is a problem -- and rethink it. Look for ways that this problem will bring about some new ideas, new friends, new activities, new job, or new associations for you. None of us know what is around the bend. However, I do know that many times we can not see the opportunities out ahead of us because we have our heads down. Look up and look for ahead.
5. Resolve to find and implement 1 way to save money. I found $1,300 this past year that had been "frittered away" in one area. What was I thinking? It brought no greater enjoyment, no greater status, no greater anything! I was simply not thinking! What other "areas" of my budget need evaluation and closer study? How about yours?
6. Find 1 ongoing way to help others. The key is ongoing. What can you do that will make a difference to someone else? You know, we live in a country that values "good looks, big houses, frivolous consumption", and we can become pretty self-absorbed. Find your way to give...and do it over-and-over again. Ongoing help calls for your developing an interest and concern for one segment of people less fortune than you are... then give your time, talents and resources. It fulfills you while helping others.
7. Make a list of new business relationships to pursue. Are you in the workplace, looking for a job, own your own business, retired? It doesn't matter. Evaluate new business relationships - pursue ones that pay off for you (and are pleasant); get rid of ones that cost you (and are unpleasant).
8. Develop 3 new relationships this year. My husband and I try to find three new couples each year who we'd like to know better. We invite them for dinner or an evening out on the town. It broadens our perspective as we discover others' professions, hobbies, and passions. The old saying serves us well: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver; the other is gold."
9. Learn 2 new skills this year. I love to learn, and I also love to teach. So, I try to find new things that I know nothing about, like: blogging, webinar software, Wii-Fit, video uploads, animated software, Twittering, etc. I need all these skills to be better at what I do in my business. What do you need to learn to be better? Continuing education classes are offered at your local college, libraries offer free seminars; cities offer workshops. Keep your eyes open. Learn two new skills this year.
10. And finally, recognize your 1 greatest fear. Say it. Repeat it. When you face your greatest fear, you can begin to dissect it...break it down into manageable parts. As you evaluate each part of your greatest fear, you will realize that you can overcome that small part of it. You can learn about it; you can ask others who've overcome it; you can develop a plan for just that small part of your greatest fear. Over a period of time, you realize that, if you had to, you are prepared to manage your greatest fear.

You may have your own 2010 list. I'd love to hear what's on yours, so share via comments on this blog. Whatever it is, I simply encourage you to do new things. I think it's healthier than "rut living". Jokingly: The grown-ups say the definition of insanity is "to keep on doing the same thing and expect different results." God willing... I'll be right here working on my list through 2010.

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Not the same old leadership training highway

Your leadership talent is critical to your organization's success. During tough economic times, reaching goals and outpacing the competition is especially crucial. In 2010, the essential move for training divisions is to transform and change in order to keep up with the times. It's not the same old highway.

Investing wisely in new and existing supervisors requires focus on what is happening on the frontline and on the individual needs of that talent. According to Training and Development Magazine, three essential components for training in the New Year include organizational, analytical and interpersonal focus.

Harvard Business School professor and author Michael Beer says that CEOs who recognize the need to achieve "sustained high commitment from all stakeholders," recognize the value of high commitment, high performance (HCHP), and their organizations will stand out among others because of long periods of excellence. Beer points to firms like Southwest, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard and Toyota as leaders in excellence. Achieving commitment and performance is attainable in any industry; however, most companies haven't reached the HCHP club.

The differentiator, Beer says, is that these companies sustain performance because they achieve three goals:

1. PERFORMANCE ALIGNMENT: Organizational design, business processes, goals and measures, and capabilities targeted for a winning strategy.
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL ALIGNMENT: Leadership toward a higher purpose, challenging work and making a difference. Human resource management policies and practices geared toward leadership "managing with heart."
3. CAPACITY FOR LEARNING AND CHANGE: Honest communication at all levels about anything that is a roadblock for meeting goals. Creating a performing organization that equally values a strong learning system and a strong culture.

According to a study by Jim Trinka, Ph.D. and chief learning officer for the FBI, focusing on developing others and their communication competencies can increase overall leadership effectiveness by 50 to 60 percent.

Study evidence supports the establishment of a performance-managed organizational culture - not from a command and control perspective but rather one that involves a coaching environment and conscious attempts at continuous dialogue within work teams to achieve a balance between driving for results and interpersonal skills.

If these studies and quotes have not convinced you, review the scenario from my last post to consider if poor leadership may be going unrecognized in your company and how if might hurt your business. If you are doing something innovative in your company with leadership training, please share those ideas and your success stories with our readers so everyone can benefit from your expertise as well. Share by using the comment feature on this blog.

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Set Goals Within Your Employees Line-of-Sight

Your organization has probably just completed your strategic goals for 2010 or is in the process of creating your goals. Goal setting is important to do early in the year and reviewed frequently. The sooner your actions can be steered to achievement of where you want to be, the sooner you can feel the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Your top executives typically set the goals for your organization; however company goals are only effective if every one of your employees know exactly how their work contributes to achievement of the goals. We call that concept "line-of-sight" goal setting. Drawing an imaginary line between the goal and the actions your employees take on a daily basis. Start by asking these questions: Can your employees "see" how their efforts and daily work make an impact on corporate goals? Do they understand the concepts stated in each of the goals?

Quite often company goals are stated strategically such as: 1) Increase profit by 15% or 2) Increase market share by 5%, or 3) Reduce operating costs by 20%. Your organization's CFO or Vice President of Marketing may know exactly what they have to do to achieve these goals but does your receptionist, production operator or mail clerk understand how their jobs impact the organization's objectives? Many of your employees may look at these types of goals and think "this doesn't really pertain to me and my job."

The process of linking goals to everyone in the organization is called cascading goals. Like a waterfall cascades down the stream, goals start at the top and cascade down through your organization. For example the strategic goals created at the top of the organization are first translated by each department head. Then each unit in the department takes the department goals and translates them into useful language and targets. Finally, each manager within the unit works with each employee so they see how they're every day actions can contribute to the goals.

What if your company does not practice cascading goals, can you still apply this concept? Yes, begin by locating your organization's and/or departments goals. Examine the goals and help translate how your employees can make a contribution. Create that line-of-sight for your employees. If you are unsure how to translate a goal, make an appointment with your manager and ask for clarification.

To feel the motivation of success, employees need to know how they contribute to the game. By helping your employees feel part of the game, they will be closely linked to the success of your organization and feel they are making a difference when goals are achieved. Who is more engaged: the person who stands on the sidelines and just watches or the person on the "field" who understands their role and celebrates success when the whole team "scores?"

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Case for changing what highway supervisors are on

Consider this scenario: Ron works for a pharmaceutical company in Indiana. He's been with the company for five years as a sales representative. Six months ago, Ron was promoted to sales manager and relocated to the home office in New York. Upper management's rationale was that his success in the field would make him a top manager who would increase the productivity of three other regional teams.

It hasn't taken long for upper management to realize that Ron isn't the manager they'd hoped for. It took Ron's staff only a few months to come to the same conclusion. What went wrong?

Success depends on leaders who can create common purpose, identify opportunities and new markets, and motivate and engage their teams.

Ron is a great salesperson, but he is not a great communicator. He failed to articulate his vision to the regional teams and to involve them in the process. He managed by fear, setting unrealistic goals without input from his team. He sent a message in a memo, "If you don't like the goals, then consider looking elsewhere for a job."

It doesn't take long, either, for today's diverse employees to recognize a poor manager. Some of the company's top salespeople have already left the organization. Ron's heavy hand was his own style and did not reflect the values of the organization. As a result, the regional teams have missed their sales goals two quarters in a row. Ron has blamed the teams for poor performance, and he raised goals again without team input.

Upper management at the pharmaceutical company is looking to replace Ron, but the damage is done. Having a great person from the field doesn't always translate to great leadership. The truth is that this situation is not only Ron's fault. This has been a pattern in this company for over a year.

The company has stalled along the highway. Due to the economy the company chose to drop its leadership training program and suspended other training programs, citing a lack of time and resources.

What the company should be doing is practicing innovation (and transformation to boost its training division. Ron, and others like him, could have become a better leader if assessment and training had been in place to pinpoint needs for the following:

- Fundamental management and communication skills
- Goal-setting and performance standards skills
- Motivation for productivity skills
- Coaching skills

Time and resources need not be the fallback issues anymore. Today's technology provides innovative training options with blended learning with online training. In addition, asking seasoned leaders or team members to mentor junior leaders and staff through collaborative communication spaces, such as online portals, e-mail, webinars and online corporate communities, can give employees the precise training they need, when they need it. These solutions can be transformational and cost effective, turning lackluster performance into leadership and teams focused on business processes.

Realistic and relevant goals and measures as well as capabilities targeted for a winning strategy are within reach. See my next post for 3 goals your leadership training should achieve.

Time for New Year’s goals, objectives, or resolutions

It is interesting that people use the first of the year to set personal resolutions or goals they wish to attain. Organizations also start off their fiscal year by selecting new goals or objectives for their company success and as standard of achievement for employees or departments. To decide what type of goals to set, you must first look at your past to determine what would be a good future for you. You should also look at the definition for resolution, goal, and objective to determine which best suits your needs especially if you find that a previous method did not work as well as desired in the past. To view the Wikipedia explanations for each, click on the links in this paragraph.

If you want to find out ways to achieve some personal resolutions, check out the dozen or so most commonly set resolutions the US government has recorded with helpful links. It is interesting to note that two of the top resolutions have to do with job satisfaction and work stress.

Wikipedia considers goal and objective the same thing. Most organizational effectiveness professionals would consider them similar but not done in exactly the same way. Therefore, below I provide examples from my corporate and non-profit training materials for “Dynamic Group Development” (copyright 2006) of teams that may be more helpful as a descriptor to decide what to classify your organizational goal planning as. When building company goals, use a defined annual process and be sure to consider making the organizational goals SMART or for team goals consider using the 4 C’s.

• Group goals will be a few sentences relevant to their reason for existence and specifically detail the items the group will accomplish and within what designated timeframe. These goals will also include how the group will measure success. Additionally, to be sure the group can attain their goals, they will not write any that are outside the scope of the group’s current power. Goals may be developed by the sponsor or leader, and then revised by the group or goals may be developed by the group with the leader and approved by the sponsor.
• The sponsor and/or leader typically develop a list of objectives for the group. These objectives may include more than a few sentences and reflect the ideas the group needs to develop or results they are to accomplish during the year or whatever timeline is assigned when their reason for existence was determined. In any case, the objective should be a set of clear and concise statements indicating what product/service is expected or what problem resolution will look like. It will also include how to determine objectives were successfully accomplished and include an approximate time for each objective to be completed.

If you are in charge of facilitating a goal setting session, you may want to review the Blog Label of goals to see archived posts for additional ideas. If you facilitate teams in the coming year, you may want to review the teams label as well. Let us know if you find a goal setting method that works for you and share it with our readers by creating a comment with tips on how you did it.

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