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Are You Accountable For Your Team's Mindset?

I love college football. While watching some of the games this past weekend I was struck by one of the comments from a coach following his team's poor showing during the game. He said "I'm disappointed in myself and how we came out to play. When you play like that, you're just not mentally where you need to be, and that's my fault." Think about the level of accountability in a statement like that. How many leaders do you know take accountability for the mindset of their teams?

In my experience, many managers go with the "I've told them how they need to act and if they don't want to act that way they can leave" approach.

Your team has potential. Are you fully accountable for helping them achieve it?

Don't get me wrong. That approach can work well if you have phenomenal recruiting and hiring practices, an endless supply of exceptional talent that wants to join your team, and a lot of extra cash laying around to attract them. Otherwise, you better invest in helping the people who are already on the team think differently and perform better. That's not to say that you don't cut players when you need to, but if if firing your people, or threatening to, is the only performance improvement tool in your bag, you are in serious trouble.

In the work that I do with businesses, there is often a debate about whether you can change people or not. The answer is no. Most people agree with that part. The part that gets missed is that you can absolutely help them to change themselves. If you need proof, go find anyone who has become wildly successful and ask him or her if there was anyone along the way who helped them get there. In their answer you will hear about others who inspired them, helped them change their perspective, and caused them to take another look at who they were, and who they wanted to become.

Too many managers and potential leaders feel trapped by the circumstances, the team, the culture, and never realize that they have control over most of what frustrates them. If you have a bad team today, that's a circumstance. If you have a bad team in six months, that's a choice. Become the leader who can either help them change or help them find a place where they can work without changing. Either way, help them.

If you take accountability for the mindset and the performance of the team you coach, you very rarely have to take responsibility for their poor results. Coaches and managers who take that kind of accountability typically have consistent remarkable success.

One example is the coach I quoted earlier. That quote actually came after a win, his 200th with the same school. Something only 10 coaches have done in the history of the sport. He knows he can make a difference in the mindset and the performance of those on his team. And because he knows he can, he does. Do you?

Randy Hall is the founder and principal of 4th Gear Consulting. He is passionate about developing amazing leaders and thriving, principled organizations. He believes that nothing will have greater impact on our economy, our communities, our lives and our kids' lives.

For more than a decade Randy has worked for and with organizations to help them realize more of their potential. His most recent roles in the corporate world were Senior Vice President of Learning and Leadership Development at Bank of America and Global Director of Learning and Development at Pfizer. Prior to moving into leadership development, he spent several years in sales and led his own high performing teams.

You can contact Randy at randy.hall@4thgearconsulting.com or visit him on the web at http://4thgearconsulting.com. You can also read more of Randy's articles at http://4thgearconsulting.com/blog.

By J Randy Hall

Business Succession: How To Find A Worthy Successor

A solid business that is to stand the test of time and endure does so through business succession. A leader is a great person, and their leadership might be stellar or exceptional. Nonetheless, a great leader also knows that his leadership is not eternal. The time will definitely come when the mantle of leadership must be turned over to the next worthy person. Business succession is crucial to a business and a great leader, at the time of his departure is calm and assured about his or her decision of turning over. What are essential considerations in business succession?

    * Faithfulness, dependability and loyalty. There may be a people's favorite because of gestures they may have done to gain the people's liking. However, a worthy successor is one who's been with the organization during thick and thin moments, has set aside their ambitions for the common good of the organization.

    * An articulate visionary to continue the legacy. Loyalty and faithfulness are not enough to determine a deserving successor. Business succession ought to be handed down to somebody who has been true to the vision and can further it to continue the legacy. A worthy successor should be a person of direction.

    * Responsibility. A successor fit to be the next leader should have been a responsible follower first. It's just one way and nothing else- leadership is spelled as r-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-i-l-i-t-y. Leave the wishful thinkers in the corners daydreaming their aspirations to the wind. Test your prospective successors to assess their character and level of responsibility. If ego gets in the way, consider the prospect out of the competition.

    * Integrity and willingness to learn. A leader fit to handle business succession should not be content with the status quo. Change oftentimes is essential for progress, that's why a successor ought to have a rigid mindset. Integrity is necessary to a person who is to handle responsibility of a higher magnitude. It is not only about not succumbing to greed but even in little things such as coming to work on time, paying what one owes as promised or keeping to their commitment.

    * A teacher and a team player. A prospective successor has to be able to connect with his or her followers, to kindle and keep the warmth of the team spirit alive.

    * Mature and wise. Age is not necessarily the barometer of maturity here, but rather the wisdom to handle responsibility and take control in times of predicaments within the organization.

    * A passionate and influential person. A passionate leader always fuels their motivation. Such a person is driven and eager to work. An influential leader on the other hand moves their followers. He or she inspires and motivates them to be better persons and followers towards achieving the organization's goals successfully.

As one leader steps down, business succession is crucial because it determines whether an organization will live on or falter.

By the way, do you want to learn more about leadership in your company? If so, download your FREE ebook here: Guide to Elegant Courage Leadership

Jodi and Mike specialize in executive coaching with individuals and teams. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

By Mike Krutza

Change and Integration Roadmap

I am pleased to share our, "Rapid Results Change & Integration Action Plan" within our "5 Core Competencies of a Systems Thinker" series.

If you are like me, you're always looking for ways to improve what you do. Many professionals like us have no shortage of great ideas to meet challenges.

Roadblocks typically occur when there are conflicting priorities or constant interruptions. Perhaps you are so busy that you are unable to fully provide people with the guidance they are requesting. Other times, it might be an issue of getting someone on your team to buy-in to a solution. When there are seemingly insurmountable roadblocks, a great idea can get shelved and problems persist.

Effective Change and Integration tools should support you in aligning communications and catapult the development, execution and ultimately the sustainability of your ideas.

Our Change and Integration Roadmap covers a lot of aspects, below is a short excerpt that you can use right now!
"Rapid Results Change & Integration Action Plan"

1. Assess Your Target Audience:
A. Identify the person or group of people that you need on board. Of those people, what person or group of people do they listen to? There may be several key influencer(s). These are now your communication targets.

B. Know your audience. There are many assessment tools on the market today, MBTI (Myers & Briggs), DiSC®, etc. Whatever your audience style is, the following questions will help you draft your communication plan: What inspires or motivates your audience? What causes this person or group apprehension? What can you do to help them?

2. Progress not Perfection:
Rather than being frustrated that you have to address resistance, recognize that you have identified where to best focus your attention. Your drafted communication plan with this person or group of people can move your idea to the next change stage.

3. Mirror to Establish Connection:
Mirroring is when you repeat exactly what you heard another say - word for word. After you repeat what you heard and they have confirmed that you heard them correctly, ask if there is more that they have to tell you. If you didn't hear correctly, try again until they confirm that you have repeated exactly what they said (without judgment, negative tone, or comments). Unless they ask you, as the receiver of their message, do not respond with your thoughts.

4. Make Sure They Feel Understood:
When the "resistor" has finished speaking and confirmed that you heard them, THEN (and yes only then) you can express how you understand why they feel the way they do. Even if you don't agree with them, the key is to look for a place within yourself that can identify with their perception.

If you can not identify with their perception, ask them to help you understand further. Then continue listening until you understand their point of view. Do not push for a result. Give this person and yourself time to process this new level of awareness and connection with one another.

5. Approach Your Message with Confidence:
When you sense the time is right, perhaps the person asks you clarifying questions about your ideas, approach your message to them in light of their concerns and feelings. In this type of exchange, both you and the other person are now discussing the solution from the same perspective and can move forward as a team.

That is it - simple and not necessarily easy!

Remember the concept is to have an agreed upon approach so that ideas are pursued. You won't get everyone on board with everything, nor do you need to, the trick is that you do your part to ensure good ideas don't whither away.

Nina Segura B.S., M.A., CSSBB
Metaspire Consulting - "Performance improvement from strategy to execution."
Phone (954) 260-3888 or (866) 630-6334
Web: http://www.metaspireconsulting.com/
Our Whitepapers: http://www.metaspireconsulting.com/white_papers

"I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences." Margaret J. Wheatley

Metaspire Consulting
10211 Pines Blvd., Suite 117
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33026


By Nina Segura

I Love My Job, But My Boss Hates Me, What Should I Do? 13 Tips

The first solution that comes to mind is that you have to quit this job, but that is the advice you are getting from your family members, friends and fellow co-workers. That is the easy way out.

Let's take another route and really turn the tables in your favor.

Tip Number One is to maintain a continued professional attitude.

Tip Number Two is to protect your rear. Stay on top of new changes at the company and if you see an area and boss that is willing to accept you be ready to relocate and work elsewhere in the company, but doing the job you love dearly.

Tip Number Three. Try to find out why this person is totally not on your team, and you believe hates you.

Tip Number Four is become famous and well known in the company. That is not as difficult as you think.Write articles, books and contribute in little recognized areas. What you are going to do is out work yourself and anybody else at that job. Remember, everything that you do has a reason and purpose behind it. The universe answers to all efforts. That is why we have balance. One cannot give and give without a return. The universe frowns at imbalance and reacts in marvelous, and sometimes outrageous ways to make sure it keeps all in balance.

Tip Number Five is to do some mental mind solutions. That is mentally and without reservations send out good vibrations and good thoughts toward your boss. Some of what the biblical old adage of bless those that hate you.

Tip Number Six should be done just before going to bed. When you are in bed and ready to go to sleep ask these questions. Why does my boss hate me? What can I do to work well with him? Can I get along with him? What is the best job for me? Where do I belong?

Tip Number Seven is to seek professional advice in regards to employee relations. Maybe a visit to the human resources officials. Do not report anything that may get back to your boss.

Tip Number Eight. Whenever there is an activity or donation or an event that involves your boss, make sure you contribute time, money and sincere thoughts. There is nothing like good relations.

Tip Number Nine is all about the little things and not those huge events. Your boss will be attracted to you in a professional way when he knows that you care. But do not let this be the reason for doing service. Remember it is the little things that change people. Don't forget the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would love them to do unto you."When he knows who you are and that you could be at another location and making more money, he will be impressed. If he isn't, so what, that is his lost.

Tip Number Ten is that you must get to know your boss. You need to know everything about him or her. You need to put that person on your priority or people of interest list. This type of person is secretive and is watching you. He might be looking for someone to take over a different department or even replace him. Whatever happens your personal security blanket is in thought that you are looking for another post. That can be a powerful combination when you have the skills and know how.

Tip Number Eleven if you are religious and would welcome advice from someone with a spiritual spin, consider that as well.

Tip Number Twelve. If nothing seems to be going right, then you need a non-traditional approach through metaphysics. In this rare approached field you will find avenues rarely used for such a situation. There are therapies and systems in place that will not only change you, but your boss as well. However, remember it is difficult to change another person. In fact, attempts to change another person should not even be attempted. The most changes to your situation must come from inside you. You must convert what you are doing, and what you know. That is the clearest and more direct way to getting what you earnestly want and need. The universe has to be in balance at all times. Your boss's hatred makes him unbalanced. It takes a lot of energy to be out of balance. He must come into alignment. The longer he takes to do so will create havoc in his life situations and the people around him. Life will come easy for him because he has not made peace with you.

Tip Number Thirteen. Consider another non-traditional way and that is by using mind mapping practices. This system or procedure will give you answers immediately. It is one of the most fascinating techniques available today. Also consider subliminal learning recordings. Self-hypnosis has helped as well.

If for any reason you need more information about job changing, mind mapping approaches, new careers, or learning super skills, please do not hesitate to click on the site at the bottom of this article, at the end of the author's information.

NOMOREATRISKSTUDENTS.INFO

Alfred Porter is an International Educator, Author, Learning and Study Skills specialist. He is also a senior accelerated learning trainer. Professor has a community college life-time credential and holds a PH.D in Metaphysics. He has taught at UCLA, Pepperdine University, and many private and public colleges.

He taught and had residency in Spain. Professor has done much research in the Middle East, the Far East, Africa and Europe. He was a consultant for Ohio University in Saudi Arabia. See him at http://www.fasttrackproblemsolving.info


By Alfred Porter

What Every Organization Can Learn From Steve Jobs: Setting the Culture for Success

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? I wish I knew. Yes, a probing lyric from The Sound of Music may be unexpected when chatting about business. It's Steve Smolinsky's fault. The management consultant like no other -- the one that turns up at corporate headquarters and starts yakking -- wants me to extract ideas from his head and make sense of them. Why me? Why does he believe I have skills with pins and clouds and lateral connections? It's pretty much the theme for today's chat: change. Many people hate change yet business today has to constantly change. Something's gotta give.

Smolinsky starts yakking. "The vast majority of people, irrespective of culture, really don't like change. They like to get up in the morning at the same time, go to the same workplace and know exactly what they have to do that day. They even like to watch the same TV shows. Some people live their whole lives this way." I get the idea Smolinsky isn't one of these people. His temperament is suited to dropping into different companies and environments. Me? I don't mind a bit of routine.

"Senior executives tend to be more flexible but a large percentage really like consistency. Change is happening rapidly and with accelerating velocity. It feels like every 20 minutes there's a new electronic device that's better than the last one. And you know what? People who can't stand change are getting left behind." This is not what I want to hear. "At the same time, business has to provide products and services that work every single time. Imagine if an iPad only worked 40% of the time. Apple would be out of business. A company needs to provide consistency, quality, and repeatability while also embracing flexibility, creativity, and change."

JF: How do you combine consistency and creativity?

"It's all about the top person," continues Smolinsky. "They need vision and passion and the ability to attract people as passionate about the business as they are - it's all about passion. Think about the difference between someone who leads because they have a vision and personality and passion that grabs people - totally grabs people and makes them want to be part of their operation. Steve Jobs exemplified this. Part of Apple's story is 'we are on the cutting edge of technology and design but we make it right. If you want to work here, you have to be comfortable with change while manic about quality'. Compare them to Microsoft. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Apple with Jobs stepping back from the CEO role. Does anyone think the new CEO -- who is an exceptional expert in day-to-day implementation -- will be able to keep the passion going?"

JF: How do you create these leaders?

"I don't think you create these leaders. You allow them to rise up. Today, technology allows people with a certain amount of craziness to do things differently. It allows people who are totally driven and focused to ignore everything else and attract those willing to jump on the bus. In the past, the people able to rouse and enthuse a workforce were killed off but the Internet has changed this. Take Facebook, for example. Some people might dislike Mark Zuckerberg but he's pushed Facebook forward by attracting a collection of engaged, passionate people to work with him which would have been ridiculously difficult, if not impossible, if he'd worked in a traditional organization."

JF: So, how do you help workers embrace change?

"Blow them up!" Smolinsky replies. "The top person has to know that future opportunities are not related to what the company has done in the past. You need to constantly watch - to pay attention to everything and pursue opportunities you're passionate about and that you believe you'll be the best in the world at - profitably. You need to encourage new ideas rather than kill them. You need to reward ideas, even if they fail. 3M does this. It has a culture designed to come up with new ideas every year." I suppose for every Post-It note, there are several ideas that don't work.

"You have to be blameless about failures - taking risks always means there's a chance it won't work," continues Smolinsky. "The company culture needs to totally encourage people to share opinions and thoughts and ideas about improving things no matter what they do. Everything needs to be looked at and thought about. And there needs to be a willingness to make changes."

The take home message: "It's all about the culture set by the person at the top." Steve Jobs was a great guide.

In our next chat, Steve Smolinsky waxes lyrical on accountability.

By Jennifer A Fleming

Business Collaboration - Increase Effective Delegation for Top Performance

A significant amount of information has been written on teams and a number of topics related to team-work and cooperation for effective delegation and assignment execution. This process and these management skill have become front page news lately. The fastest growing companies, those adapting to the performance requirements of a tough economic environment, are evolving to more horizontal organization structures. There are many important productivity outcomes. Building high-productivity teams will depend on it.

    Why a"horizontal organization", and where does collaboration fit into this dynamic?

Horizontal organizations break down the normal silo-hierarchy, the traditional company structure. This allows much more efficient and effective cross-LOB and cross-functional cooperation. People work together. They cooperate and share resources. They are more efficient because they waste little time moving past the old silos. This allows companies to execute faster and move ideas and products to market quicker. It becomes a competitive advantage.

The key requirement to adapt the more horizontal structure is to move toward Collaboration. There are specific key skills and traits supporting a collaborative culture. Among them;

    * The teamwork is the focus and people who are adept at teamwork are valued.
    * Emphasize "team togetherness" where cooperation is King.
    * Encourage open dialogue and encourage idea exchanges. This can even include supporting constructive differences of opinion as long as a unified result is the goal.
    * Managers establish crystal clear objectives and define both individual and team responsibility. They leave no confusion of roles.
    * A mind-set of total open cooperation across lines of business is fostered. "Help others with their assignments anyway you can" is the watch word.
    * Wherever team-success and cross-functional cooperation result in success, the managers recognize, reward and encourage this result.

In a business world where performance, results and success are the top priorities, a collaborative model is much more efficient.There are valuable resources embedded in all companies. Someone may be a "supply management specialist" in one business unit but have skills and ideas that may be outside the "job box" that could help another business unit with their assignment. People who collaborate help to remove obstacles and assist in moving project steps forward. Those assisting can get rid of red-tape. This meshing of skills, abilities and sharing creates efficiency and improves what I call the Velocity of Execution.

If you manage a company or business unit, the requirement for success right now means going Horizontal & Collaborative. The market is moving fast. Companies that want to grow and adapt to market changes need a high-performance strategy. The direction is "collaborative management" structures. Don't miss the train because it is already leaving the station!

Plan-Delegate-Manage is an organization that strives to bring real world experience, proven skills training and valuable delegation tools to managers around the world. You will receive free tools and information of significant value for today's management world. To learn more about Management By Delegation, visit our Website http://plan-delegate-manage.com/authority-delegation/

By Michael Duncan Moore

Resiliency For Tough Times

Resiliency is "the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness." It's something we can all use more of, especially in these tough times. It's good to be reminded, as Robert Schuller wrote as the title of one his books, "Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do."

There are two movies I recommend you watch that provide inspirational lessons in resiliency. Both these movies are based on true stories.

The first is 127 Hours about Aron Ralston. You may not know his name but you certainly know the gist of his story.

Ralston was exploring the very narrow Bluejohn Canyon in Utah. In many places, he could only get through by walking sideways or crawling under and over boulders.

At one point, a boulder that was lodged between the canyon walls blocked his path. There wasn't much room beneath the boulder, so Aron climbed over it. As he did so, the boulder slipped, trapping his right arm between the wall and the boulder. 5 days later, out of food and water, Aron cut off his right forearm to free himself.

How can someone be so cool, especially when one's life is at stake? I lose my cool when I have to wait in line, when the Internet goes down or when I have to wait longer than I think I should for a table in a restaurant.

Certainly Aron experienced times of terror and despair, but he never let panic overwhelm him. In short, he demonstrated the toughness that is the hallmark of resiliency.

The second movie I recommend is Apollo 13 with the famous line uttered by Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks), "Houston, we have a problem."

In reality, however, that's not what Lovell said. The actual flight transcripts indicate that he really said, "Houston, we had a problem." It occurred to me that the difference between "have" and "had" is what resiliency is all about. It's what got Ralston out of that canyon and the crew of Apollo 13 home alive. That one word represents a significant transformation in thinking.

We have a problem suggests being stuck in the past. We had a problem indicates that Lovell has already moved past the event and is concerning himself with the next problem that this past problem has presented him with. He is staying in the present moment, dealing as creatively as he can with life as it comes to him.

You see, by the time we recognize that we have a problem, the problem has already passed. We now have another problem which, when solved, will simply lead to another problem in a never ending series.

Both Aron Ralston and the crew of Apollo 13 didn't have a problem. They had a problem. Now they've got another one. And once that one is solved, there will be another. Each solved problem is simply the doorway to another. That is the nature of life in these movies. That is the nature of life.

Resiliency is the willingness (and it requires will) to look for creative solutions to one's predicament rather than bemoaning the predicament itself. Resiliency requires staying present to life as it presents itself and confronting the challenge in front of us, not being stuck with the problems behind us.

There's another scene in Apollo 13 that captures this distinction.

Lovell's fellow astronauts Fred Haise and Jack Swigert get into a shouting match, blaming one another for the situation they are in. Lovell (at least in the movie if not in reality) stops their argument by admonishing, "We're not doing this, gentlemen. We're not going to go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, 'cause we're just going to end up back here with the same problems!"

Being resilient requires transforming our thinking from "have a problem" to "had a problem." It is the recognition that our lives are nothing but a series of "had" problems. Resiliency is dealing with these as they come and the recognition that "bouncing off the walls for ten minutes," will merely leave us in the same place complaining about our fate. In fact, it's the "bouncing off the walls" that makes it impossible to see creative solutions.

By the way: if you're interested in the true story of 127 Hours, watch the Dateline television show that accompanies Aron back to the very canyon where he almost died: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyPBTblkzBI

I have been an author, speaker and consultant since 1984. I help organizations, teams and individuals produce breakthroughs in results and relationships. Visit my websites to learn about the resources I offer.

http://www.conflictresolutiontraining.net
Simple, easily learned techniques for resolving the conflicts in your work and personal life

http://www.larrybarkan.com
Workshops and resources for leadership, management, team and personal training and development


By Larry Barkan

Catching Monkeys in Business

As a business coach, when I recognize that my clients are at an impasse, sometimes I ask them this question:

  • "How do you catch a monkey?"
  • Usually, they are perplexed by the question. The last person I asked shot back with:
  • "What the heck, does that have to do with anything?"
  • But I pressed on:
  • "Stick with me, because I am going somewhere."

Here's the deal. In certain parts of Africa when they want to catch a monkey, they cut a hole in a coconut, empty it out, and put a few grains of rice inside. Then they tie the coconut to a tree...and wait. After a while, a monkey comes along and spots the coconut. He looks around checking for hunters or prying eyes. When it's safe, he picks up the coconut, looks at it, shakes it, and hears something rattling inside. As a notoriously curious animal, not unlike human beings, he reaches in-the hole is just big enough for him to squeeze his hand into-he feels the few grains of rice, and tries to grab them. Got 'em! He clenches the rice in his fist and tries to pull out his hand... and then a strange thing happens. He can't get his fist out. It's stuck! All he has to do is let go of the rice and he is free...but no way will that monkey let go.

"So...what...?"

Well, if the trapper returns soon enough, he has caught a monkey. If the trapper is busy gathering monkeys from the many other traps he has set in the jungle and he doesn't get back to this monkey in about a week, when he does get there, he collects a dead monkey with a coconut stuck on his hand because, as we know, the monkey will never let go. NEVER! Even if it means death.

"Nice story. How does this relate to business?"

We see owners of companies, sales managers, and supervisors that simply get stuck and will not change the way they do business regardless of how negatively it affects their bottom line, profitability, or the quality of their life. Even if the inevitability of actually having to go out of business confronts them, they simply will not let go (of the coconut) of bad procedures or ineffective ways of doing business. Not convinced? Let us consider how marketing has changed over the years. Here's one example: Yellow Pages out...websites in. How many companies either have no website or have one that looks like a high school kid designed it? Often I hear, "we don't need a website, we never had one before and we are doing just fine."

Even if that is true, which it probably isn't, you need to know that your competition has thought otherwise. So what? Well what that means while you are still hanging on to your old ways of doing business, they are grabbing chunks of your market share... and really appreciate your stubbornness. And, as far as having a high school kid, or a relative create a website for you-not a smart plan. If I want to build a business to support me and my family for years to come together with lots of other people who I would hope to employ, I would NOT have my website be designed by an amateur. Isn't a website really an extension of your business like your storefront is? Might it not make a lot more sense to have a professional do it?

So if you are "monkeying around" with your business that's great. Just be careful, because if you are holding on to archaic procedures or a business modality that just doesn't work as well as it used to work, you may find that you and your company might become one of those growing statistics and you might be doing your part to add a few more names to the unemployment rolls. You could get stuck permanently.

http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=9781432761196
http://www.excelleronconsulting.com


By Brendan Cunningham

Frustration at Work: Can You Lead Gen Y in Ways That Reduce Frustration and High Costs of Turnover?

Traditionalist and Baby Boomer business owners and managers no longer need to experience frustration over employee situations that would not have occurred ten years ago. By understanding generational differences company owners and managers can learn how to get expected results from Generation Y employees, keep them longer, and lower the high cost of turnover.

Four generations of employees with differing values, attitudes and beliefs is one of the major changes in business today and issues continually crop up that cause uncertainty for owners and managers. The Y Generation (Gen Y) is the most challenging and some business managers have stopped hiring them. Rather, they expect them to change as they grow up and in time, to assimilate what are fast becoming outdated business practices.

Research shows that becoming cognizant of the expectations of the next generation is key for managing all employees better and seeing what is ahead for business. It also reduces workplace frustration and turnover costs. As Tinker argues, "Considering the three options for reducing employee costs - not hiring Gen Y, requiring them to adapt to business-as-usual, or understanding and managing their unique values - the latter has the greatest potential for company survival and positive cash flow."

If business leaders are not open to learning about generations at work they will be at a loss for how to work with them, just when they need them most. One generation will blame another and teamwork will suffer. The business brand will convey a message that its products and services are old-fashioned, and for old-fashioned people because that is what it will be. Customers will find they are unable to get the quality and latest version of product or service they shop for and cash flow will suffer as productivity and turn-around drag.

Here are 3 steps for leading Gen Y employees to reduce workplace frustration.

Step #1. Teach company leaders about the four generation workplace and how each generation differs then teach generational differences to all employees. Lead them to discover their similarities, where their characteristics, skills and capabilities compliment each other, and how they can partner in projects work.

Step #2. Focus on the benefits Gen Y brings to the company and the workplace. First listen to them for what they have to give then mentor them for what they need to know. Give them assignments that matter to the company and guide them to successful completion. Let Gen Y reverse-mentor those who need help with technology, adjusting to change, and being healthy and having fun at work.

Step #3. Embrace oncoming change for the workplace. Martin and Tulgan state that business owners and managers must update the work environment to adapt to, not the wants and needs of a new generation but, a "workplace revolution precipitated by globalization and technology". With a Gen-fit for leadership, companies can create agile, dynamic workplaces that adapt more easily and are prepared to serve customers better.

Bottom line, it costs no more than a little time to learn about what will help keep good Gen Y employees on the job longer and reduce the annoying costs of turnover.

And now, I'd like to invite you to claim your free instant access to my new white paper, "Workplace Frustration: How to Reduce It and Manage Gen Y For an Increase in Company Profits" For a limited time you'll find it free at my slide-up when you visit http://GenerationalDivideCoaching.com.

By Tinker Barnett

Gym Dinosaurs Face Extinction - An Alternative Look at the Fitness Industry

In the beginning, most gyms were pay-as-you-go businesses, competing for customers on the basis of good customer service, great equipment and competitive pricing. But as time went by, some bright spark realised that securing customers on a gym membership meant they wouldn't have to worry about any of that for the next 12 months!

Gyms have bills to pay just like any other business and the opportunity to secure revenue through a membership for the next 12 months was naturally an attractive thing to do. The problem for gym owners though, was that only a few customers wanted to sign up to such financial commitments whilst there was still the option to just pay for what they actually use. As time went by gym owners began to artificially inflate pay-as-you-go prices in order to make gym membership appear to be the cost effective way of keeping fit.

They developed marketing campaigns so that customers felt they had no choice but to sign a contract if they wanted to get fit, even though many of them knew that their personal circumstances may change such as moving home or changing job which would make their membership completely unpractical.

Having inflated the pay-as-you-go gym prices and forced customers into a corner, gyms were then able to demonstrate their 'generosity' by offering to waive the up-front joining fees (yes they slipped these in too), offering a free induction (lucky you) and promoting offers such as '12 months for the price of 10' when in fact many customers were uncomfortable signing up for more than a couple of months at a time anyway.

In the space of a few years gyms had managed to shift the risk in their business entirely away from them and on to the customer instead. No longer would the gym have to worry about competing for customers every month once they had secured people onto a gym membership. Standards began to slip as complacency set in, membership management companies carved a niche for themselves by threatening legal action on customers that wanted to leave their contracts early.

Gym sales teams, dizzied by commission, would say and do anything to get people to sign the contract and then wash their hands of it a few months later when the naive customer took them at their word only to have the small print read back to them by an officious gym office manager.

However, the gym industry is now at an evolutionary tipping point which could see the membership dinosaurs wiped out by the meteorite that is heading its way, powered in part by the current financial crisis. A recent High Court case has already landed the first blow by condemning the contracts used by the gym dinosaurs as being 'unfair and unenforceable'. But it seems that gym customers are increasingly waking up to the trick of the gym industry and are beginning to rebel on their own by looking for more and more flexible options, no longer willing to cough up 12 months of payments regardless of how often they are able to go.

The good news on the horizon though is that some gym dinosaurs are evolving to meet this challenge. Whilst the big clumsy gym dinosaurs will bury their head in the sand and continue to force gym membership onto people until they are wiped out, others are showing some real survival instincts.

The rise of the budget gym with no contract and low prices is a real start, whilst other gyms are becoming more accepting of the original pay-as-you-go gym passes which has started to entice more people back into their gym.

Although much of this article is, admittedly, slightly tongue-in-cheek, there is almost certainly an element of truth in there which many people will recognise (including some gym operators...) but the tide is genuinely turning.

When it comes to renewing your gym membership next time around, think long and hard about what you really want and whether or not that includes being tied to a wounded dinosaur.

By John Wal Smith

Are You A Problem Solver or A Complainer?

At our Company we have a dream employee, I will call A. When I have a problem I will discuss it with A. We will brain storm the problem for a few minutes and then we will each check out a few more facts on the problem and discuss our findings an hour later. At that time we will make a good decision on solving the problem.

A is an "indispensable member" of our team. A is intelligent, well- organized, is honest, full of integrity, fair- minded, always listens to others carefully, will always do the right thing and can be relied on to help solve problems and take responsibility for his or her actions at our company. In other words A is a leader.

Do you have a team member like A on your team at work? Wouldn't you like all your team members to be just like our "team member A?"

Remember leaders take responsibility for their actions and when a mistake is made they admit it and correct it immediately. A leader takes a stand for honesty and integrity and accepts responsibility for his or her actions and does not pass the blame on to someone else. President Harry Truman said it best. "The Buck Stops Here!"

What are the five things you can do to solve problems and promote leadership at your company?

1) Be a leader who has the courage of your convictions, the honor, integrity, morality, is fair- minded, well-organized, listens to others, will always do the right thing all the time, has a code of ethics and a clear and decisive passionate belief in the right way to conduct business.

2) Always have a paper and pencil ready, where ever you are, in case you think of a solution to your problem. Think of yourself as a detective like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and look for your solutions at work or at home.

3) Every day give yourself time to ponder your problems. Be observant and a good listener. Start thinking how to solve your problems today! Have a burning desire to solve your problems and Never, Never Give Up!

4) Continue to increase your knowledge in your chosen field by taking continuing education courses each year to improve your skills in your chosen field and read books by experts in your field each month to improve your expertise in your field. Never stop learning. As Dr. Einstein says, "The most important thing is not to stop questioning."

5) Surround yourself with experts your "Brain Trust", competent people who know your business and markets are of like mind, and have a strong firm intellectual capacity to help you accomplish your goals. When you have a problem ask your experts what they would suggest by going around the table and listening carefully to your experts. Then make informed decisions.

The next time you decide to whine and complain instead of being a problem solver I want you to ask yourself the following question: "If I take this action will it make me proud?" This is the No. 1 question I ask my children and my students to remember to ask themselves before they make a serious error in judgment.

So, train your team members at your business to be problem solvers and before hiring a new team member for your business ask them how they would solve a particular problem. What steps would they take to solve a difficult problem? Their response will tell you if they are the right person for your company, a problem solver, a leader.

Remember you want to hire problem solvers, leaders, who take responsibility for their actions.

Madeline Frank, Ph.D. is an Amazon.com Best Selling Author, sought after speaker, business owner, teacher, researcher, and concert artist. She helps businesses and organizations "Tune Up their Businesses". Her innovative observations show you the blue prints necessary to improve and keep your businesses successful. She writes a monthly newsletter "Madeline's Monthly Article & Musical Tips" and a monthly radio show "Madeline's One Minute Musical Radio Show". She has just published her new book "Leadership On A Shoestring Budget".

If you need a speaker contact Madeline at: mfrankviola@gmail.com

By Madeline Frank

Controlling Change Requests in Projects

Change requests resulting from external factors are usually beyond the control of a project manager and there is usually little choice but to deal with them. Most successful project managers will have already put a process in place at the start of the project to handle such requests and the plan will be flexible enough to cope without unduly affecting the final outcome.

But change requests resulting from internal factors should be handled very differently. In an ideal project many of these would have been avoided by ensuring that the project objectives were well-defined and that the requirements were clearly documented and communicated to all stakeholders. And that the stakeholders understood what to expect from the final product. Of course, we don't always live in an ideal world and no matter how thorough and detailed the initial stages of a project are there will always need to be an effective change process in place.

Not all stakeholders and end-users can visualise an end-product by reading documentation and studying diagrams. Even when prototypes are used to enhance the production of the requirements they are, by their nature, not fully functioning products and misunderstandings and assumptions will be inevitable on complex projects.

Nevertheless, good documentation and clear communication of the project objectives and requirements will minimise the number of change requests.

So what is the best way of controlling change requests in a project and still being able to deliver the completed project within an acceptable budget, time and scope?

Distinguish between the necessary and the "nice-to-have"

Every change request should have a business case to back it up in the same way as the overall project had. Of course, this can be a very simple and short description but is a necessary element of all change requests before they can be considered for inclusion in a project.

The most important element of the change request business case is the expected benefit, which should indicate the value that will be added to the project by the change. This, in itself, will indicate which changes are likely to be necessary. It is important to recognise that the description of some business cases may not necessarily benefit the project in terms of time and budget but are necessary for the client to remain competitive in their marketplace.

If the benefits are not explicitly stated then discuss the issue with the person who requested the change t determine if there is a genuine business benefit.

Better designed solutions, or nicer, more attractive features are not benefits unless they can be backed up by how this will have a positive impact on the project budget and schedule or a positive impact on the end-user's effort required to complete regular tasks. Typical questions that the business case of a change request should answer are:

  • "What external business change has resulted in this change request?"
  • "What internal factor has resulted in this change request?"
  • "How will this change affect the time taken to complete the project?"
  • "How will this change affect the use of the end-product?"
  • "What cost-savings will be made by implementing this change?"

Avoid wasting time & effort

The most obvious way of avoiding wasting valuable project resources on excessive change requests and the whole change management process is to ensure the project starts with clearly defined objectives and requirements. It is also important that the criteria which will be used to determine project success are documented succinctly at the start of the project. Ensure that all of these documents are distributed to stakeholders and end-users and that copies are easily accessible.

Schedule time into the project plan for dealing with change requests and if that time has been eaten up then defer outstanding requests until the following week. Ensure that all interested parties know that this is how the process works.

Have clear acceptance/rejection criteria

Use some clear criteria to screen out those requests that will not, or cannot be, implemented. One essential criterion is a business case so any request without one can immediately be sent back to the requester. Do not waste time tracking down the requester to find out what the business case is - it should be their responsibility to provide it initially (even if you later need to have discussions to refine it).

Be prepared to back up your reasons for rejecting change requests with a well-thought out description of why there is no case to include the change. Stick by your decision unless the project sponsor is prepared to increase the budget or time available for the project.

But do be prepared to be flexible and negotiate a trade-off by dropping a planned task in favour of the change when no budget or extra time are available.

Always apply project management best practices throughout every area of a project if you want the highest chance of success. Your can study best practices, including change management, on project management courses for PMP Certification, APM Introductory Certificate or Prince2.

By Michelle Symonds

New Job, New Company, New Industry - A Tall Order in 100 Days?

We are currently working with the HR director of a financial services company. Henry was one month in to his new position when we began working with him. He faced the extra challenge of adjusting to the banking industry after 20 years in FMCG. At this time he was struggling to cope; he was failing to build relationships with his team and was having difficulty asserting his leadership. While the team he had inherited was competent, the legacy of his predecessor was a point of constraint; his team were wary of his mandate for change.

We encouraged Henry to approach his first session with us as a fresh start. We worked with him on a one-to-one capacity and developed a 100 days plan, with particular emphasis on team management and relationship building. We encouraged him to start with the end in mind, by identifying his own clear vision for the role. And to be realistic; to exercise patience and resilience with his team.

We met with Henry at 30 days to review his progress against the 100 days plan. Had his patience paid off? Had he avoided de-railement? Henry found that he had finally started to come out from under the shadow of his predecessor, so now it was important to build the health of his team. And to seek out opportunities to fast forward the team by assessing if the right people were in the right places. After a full review of his progress in the first 30 days we asked him to reset his actions for the next 30 days.

At 60 days, it is likely that the 100 days plan will have been long forgotten. Henry needed to take stock and review his progress. Was he on the way to achieving his desired outcomes for the first 100 days? Was the performance of his team improving? Henry felt that though he had by now asserted his leadership there was still a problem with his team; an individual who was impacting negatively on their performance. This person had already been reassigned to a new role, but it was not working. We encouraged Henry to make a difficult personnel decision. While this was not easy, it was important for the performance acceleration of his team.

The first steps in a new role are about actions, and at 90 days outcomes need to be assessed. It is essential to have a clear indication of what is working and what is not working. This week we met with Henry again. We asked him if he was on track to achieve the desired outcomes for the first 100 days. Henry now feels that his team is working and his leadership is confirmed. He feels he has the confidence to move forward into a new phase, and start the rest of the year in his new role.

The capacity to build healthy relationships with your team is crucial to the success of you first 100 day in any new position. Henry's ability to start afresh, stick to his plan, and make difficult personnel decisions allowed him to make his first 100 days a success.

Hilda Goold writes on behalf of First100?. First100? focuses on the leadership development and performance acceleration required for a new leader and/or new team in that critical first 100 day period. The First 100 Days of a new role has a major determining factor on overall leadership performance and impact in the first 12 months and beyond.

For further information on leadership development please visit http://www.first100.co.uk/

By Hilda Goold

Ten Absolutes for Organizational Transformation

Many have argued that one of the best business management books ever written is Only the Paranoid Survive, by the former chairman of the Intel Corporation, Andy Grove. Intel is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker and arguably one of the most successful corporations in the world today. However, at one point they were one of many in a sea of firms manufacturing memory chips. At the time, they were where doing good, but not great. This is where many nonprofits find themselves - doing good, but certainly not "Best In Class". In the book, Andy describes this middle place. They could have continued to manufacture memory chips and be moderately successful. But the long term picture was not great. They were at a place he describes as an "inflection point". This is a place where they could have continued in their business but long term they would have succumbed to new technology and new competitors.
They had to make a decision that was difficult, expensive, filled with risk, anything but certain, and deadly if they failed. They had to be ready to stop what they were doing (manufacturing memory chips) retool, reinvest, and manufacture chips that would eventually be installed on almost every PC in the world. It was a brilliant move but hardly an easy one.

Many organizations, public, nonprofit, commercial are in similar circumstances. They must either reinvent themselves and risk dismantling the organization or stay the course and die a slow (it can take a lifetime) and painful death.

This article will outline 10 critical requirements for successful organizational transformation. There is one fundamental assumption that must be understood: for an organization to maintain itself, it must occasionally reinvent itself. Markets change, new technology puts the old out of date, the world changes, new social issues replace old ones that no longer look quite as ominous, and younger staff members see the world differently than founding leadership.
Change is inevitable. There are only three options of response:

1. Absorb the risk of reinvention and grow,
2. Take the risk and fail (dismantle the organization), or
3. Stay the course and eventually die.

Realize that the only difference between number two and three is one of speed. Either way, the organization dies.

#1. CELEBRATE PAST SUCCESS

Embarking upon a massive organizational change or transformation has all the appearance of dismissing the past. For staff who often invest their lives into a nonprofit or public sector organization with clear mission minded intent, this dismissal of past success is difficult. If the staff has been with the organization for any extended time, this change can be brutal. It might have the appearance of teen agers dismissing as irrelevant years of productive service. To counter this reality, celebrate the past.

By celebrating the past, staff and years of personal work is acknowledged. If change does require them to leave, they at least leave with the assurance that their personal contribution was valuable.

#2 - BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH THE FACTS

In 1982 seven people died after taking Tylenol - the Johnson & Johnson over the counter pain medication. The consensus was that the brand was dead, that the company would never again be able to market anything under the name of Tylenol. But the company proved the skeptics wrong. Almost immediately Johnson & Johnson admitted there was a potential problem. They stopped production and pulled all remaining supplies from the shelves. Pulling 31 million bottles of Tylenol off the shelves cost the company more than $100 million, threatened the 37% market share they enjoyed, and putting $400 million in revenues at risk. And yet, Johnson & Johnson earned praised for its reaction and Tylenol is still a top selling over the counter pain reliever. Their honesty won them praise, respect, and most importantly, trust.

When embarking on major transformative change, leaders must be brutally honest with staff, funders, and themselves. The old adage is true, the truth shall set you free, but first it will scare the pants off you. Problems cannot be tackled if the truth about them is unclear, uncertain, or being ignored. If an organization is going to change, then everyone deserves the respect of being clear about the reasons why.

When Alan Mulally took over the leadership of Ford Motor Company he is reported to have asked his senior executives: "You guys, you know we lost a few billion dollars last year, is there anything that's not going well?" Yet honesty does not have to be demeaning and degrading. In a similar meeting Alan was told that a new car on the verge of being delivered had some technical problems. However, when told of the problem in simple truth, his response was "I really appreciate that clear visibility". By the next week, the problems were solved.

Speaking again of the Intel Corporation, Authors Larry Johnson and Bob Phillips write in their book, Absolutely Honesty, state: "Intel has long enjoyed a reputation for being a place where people express their opinions freely and assertively - and the company has profited handsomely as a result".

#3 - DEFINE THE BIG PICTURE FIRST

Understanding the larger picture, on a global scale can provide serious perspective. This generally shows that for most social problems, no single organization is going to solve the problem. This perspective has the impact of demonstrating the need for collaboration in solving social issues.

In an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors John Kania & Mark Kramer (Winter 2011), point out that impact on major social problems require a collaborative approach rather than the current approach which is to find (and fund) the one organization that seems to be doing the most good. This approach, they maintain is fundamentally flawed. In the article, they state: "1.4 million nonprofits try to invent independent solutions to major social problems, often working at odds with each other and exponentially increasing the perceived resources required to make meaningful progress".

While many of us would like to believe that we alone have the solutions, the reality is that a consortium of organizations, working collaboratively, are required to address the large complex social problems that address our world. However, once the larger perspective is addressed, then individual organizations can better understand where they can contribute to the whole, rather than attempt to be the whole. This collaborative approach also has a way of diminishing competition for resources and ends up putting more resources where they have the greatest impact.

#4 - USE STRUCTURE AND DISCIPLINE

In his book, Making Strategy Work, Wharton School of Economics professor, Lawrence Hrebiniak PH.D, states: "...a disciplined approach to execution is needed to make strategy work. A reliance on a few sound bytes, anecdotes, or stories is not sufficient....Only an integrated, disciplined approach can cut through this complexity and achieve execution success." Why do so many well designed and beautifully presented, strategic plans fail at or end up being very nice door stops? Some research suggests that 90% of all strategic plans fail to be fully implemented. One solution to this might be inaugurating strategic planning and organizational transformation with a disciplined and structured approach. After reviewing a large strategic plan for a major urban school district, one that should have produced major transformation, there was one sentence that addressed how the district was going to accomplish its grand vision of improving academic test scores. The remaining 30 plus pages were pointing out problems, statements of aspiration, measures that would be used to monitor progress, (that was good), and slamming the organization for past failures.

In 2001 Steve Gorcester took over as executive director of the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB). This small but important agency acts much like a bank, investing state funds in city and county transportation projects. Within his first week he was faced with a disaster. The TIB had committed financial resources to more projects than it could fund and it was five months late in paying for the projects that were already completed. In addition, the legislature and the governor were ready to shut the TIB down. He needed to move quickly to turn the organization around. His solution was the implementation of a Balanced Scorecard. This was a tool that was comprehensive in nature and was able to turn guide the TIB around in very short order. One of the attractions of the Balanced Scorecard was the value of balancing competing objectives within the organization. The TIB had put a great value on customer service. So much so that anytime a city needed more money to complete a project it was provided with hardly a question. This may have been great customer service but it was driving the agency into insolvency. The two competing objectives had to be balanced. Later, they turned to the Baldrige quality criteria to go even further in their plan to improve the work of the TIB. As of this writing, (2011) there are two bills in the legislature to increase their funding, even in the midst of state wide budget reductions.

The value of a structured approach is in the discipline. An approach such as a Balanced Scorecard or the Baldrige criteria provides a comprehensive view of the organization. The result is that nothing is left out. Missing pieces don't show up three years later.

#5 - EVALUATE THE RISK AND PLAN ACCORDINGLY

The risk of major transformative change is significant. Major change can have an immediate impact on staff morale, funding sources, technology, leadership, processes, and customers. Lack of a thorough evaluation of risk can turn the best intentions into catastrophic events. The Project Management Institute defines risk as "An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives". From this definition we learn that risk is any variation from the expected that has either a negative or positive outcome. There are two primary benefits of a thorough analysis of risk:

1. Weakness and threats are identified that can derail the best intentioned plan; and
2. Strengths and opportunities that may lie dormant can be exploited and leveraged for positive results.

When Louis V. Gerstner, Jr took over as CEO of IBM in 1993 the company had an active plan to dismantle the firm. It was considered too big, too unwieldy, and too insular to change and the parts were worth more individually that the company was as a whole. Instead of seeing size as a weakness, he saw it as strength and turned the company around. The turnaround of IBM is still considered one of the great stories of modern corporate history. However, it was far from easy. Over 100,000 people had to be laid off; many of these staff came to IBM because of the culture of life time employment.

There are several ways to identify and measure risk, when it is defined broadly as either a positive or a negative unforeseen impact. The traditional SWOT analysis is a useful (but not the only) tool to do this. For those unfamiliar with this tool SWOT is an acronym that stands for:

S- Strengths
W-Weaknesses
O-Opportunities
T-Threats
There are other frameworks for identifying risks. Another is PESTEL Framework, which stands for:
P-Political
E-Economic
S-Societal
T-Technological
E-Environmental
L-Legal

Whichever one is used, it is important to use a disciplined approach to identifying risk and plan accordingly. How many organizations have suffered catastrophic losses after developing a great long term strategy only to discover three years into the plan that the technology infrastructure is incapable of handling the change, the staff lacked the required skills, and the leadership was incapable of leading?

#6 - ALIGN OPERATIONS AND THE INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Alignment is one of those 'buzz" words that is making the rounds of business management books. Basically it means that every operational and administrative unit is aligned with strategy. It is important, if nonprofits and public sector organizations are going to achieve "Best in Class" performance and the kind of breakthroughs their funders and constituents are seeking. In their book, Alignment, Robert Kaplan and David Norton, (Harvard Business School Press) state: "Understanding how to create alignment in organizations is a big deal, one capable of producing significant payoffs for all types of enterprises."

While alignment needs to happen throughout the organization, one of the most obvious places is in the budget. Every organization has a detailed strategic plan. Like it or not, it is called the budget. However, the budget may not be the best document to lay out a long term vision.

Examples abound of how organizations fail in their execution of strategy by not aligning their divisions around a common strategic strategy. For example, a large national consulting organization has three business units and thousands of divisions. Annually it conducts over $550mm a year with federal, state, and local government agencies. Each year at annual planning meetings there are substantial discussions about missed opportunities because staff from one division who have existing relationships with a government client, cannot leverage that relationship to the benefit of another division. Every new division president and vice president sees opportunities wasting away because the firm cannot leverage the customer relationships for additional business. Each year management puts out a directive to work together more. Every year the directive fails. Is it a lack of strategy? Absolutely not. Strategy is abundant. The problem was a lack of alignment.

• Staff compensation is linked to one on one customer relationships rather than the total value of the client relationship;
• Marketing has never segmented the market in such a way that prospective clients can be identified by any kind of demographic; and
• There has never any kind of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place so that staff from one division could instantly tell who had existing relationships with government clients from another division.

Without these basic tools it is up to personal relationships to make collaboration work. Unfortunately, people are too busy worrying about revenues for their own divisions to worry about helping another division.

The transformational change process is highly dependent upon aligning all units of the organization. If alignment does not occur, transformation will look a lot like chaos.

#7 - DEFINE THE TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE STRATEGY

Authors, Jeffrey L. Bradach, Thomas J. Tierney, and Nan Stone in their article Delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits, published by the Harvard Business Review point out that the hardest decision a nonprofit has to make is to determine what it will not do. To come to this place it must first determine how it will achieve its vision by establishing a "Theory of Change" or its "intended impact". This is a simple statement of how the nonprofit intends to be successful in the execution of its mission and vision.

For example, a nonprofit establishes a vision that says they are going to eliminate homelessness but never says exactly how they are going to deliver on the vision, unless it is building homes for every man, woman, or child that is homeless. Others may have a similar vision but they are going to do it by attacking the root of homelessness - addiction, poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, etc. Establishing the theory of change or the strategy that is going to bring about transformative change is critical to delivering on the benefit and promise of the nonprofit. Only as the strategy is identified in clear simple language can it be tested and verified.

Hopelink is the largest Community Action Partnership (CAP) organization in the state of Washington. It's vision is a community free of poverty. Its mission is to promote self sufficiency and make lasting change. In many ways, this is not too much different than any local social service agency. Many cities and counties could make the same statement. However, Hopelink has gone further. What separates it from others is a clear statement of how it intends to accomplish it rather ambitious mission. "By strategically aligning our organization, leveraging our key community partnerships, and offering a comprehensive set of Hopelink services, our clients will be able to achieve and maintain their highest level of self-sufficiency, thus enabling us to achieve our mission and vision." Note the key words: aligning our organization, leveraging our key community partnerships, and offering a comprehensive set of services.... In effect, it is saying we are going to help people become self sufficient by:

1. Making sure we are totally aligned with this vision. We will do nothing that is not focused on this goal.

2. We cannot do it alone. The task is too large and complex. We have to do it in partnership with other like minded organizations.

3. Our services will be comprehensive (both ours and those we partner with) so that any service that is needed by someone in poverty can come here to get what they need to become self sufficient.

Nonprofits, by their very nature are driven by mission. Conversely, commercial firms, by their very nature are driven by their need for revenues. When a nonprofit clearly articulates how it will achieve its vision and mission it makes it easier to do the really difficult thing, which is to determine what it will not do.

#8 - QUANTIFY THE VISION

When it comes to quantifying a vision statement, commercial organizations have a major advantage over nonprofits. "Increase gross revenues by 200%". "Become the number one auto maker in the world as determined by total revenues". "Increase sales by 50%". These are examples of common statements of vision for commercial firms. Nonprofits, on the other hand, suffer a basic challenge - how to quantify their vision. "Reduce high school dropout rates". "Improve test scores". "Train our students to become lifelong learners". "Eliminate the causes of poverty". "Stamp out hunger". These are all common statements of vision for nonprofits. However, if the organization is going to thrive in its vision it must first quantify it. If there is no quantifiable vision, then there is no accountability, any perceived movement towards success can be celebrated, but ultimately no one knows where is the line of success? Staff never receive the value of knowing if they are working successfully. Boards never know if their governance is doing any good. Funders are left with the decision of supporting an organization that looks good rather than the organization that can demonstrate "Best in Class".

Furthermore, instead of vision driving operations, operations tend to drive vision. Instead of operations being aligned around a vision that can be measured and designed accordingly, operations tend to function around their own perceived value, their own perceived understanding of what is reasonable, and their own discipline's idea of best practices. When the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board determined that paying their bills within thirty days was their objective rather than the five months it was taking, everything had to change. Their process in project acceptance had to change. Their financial system had to change. Their definition of project success had to change. Everything had to be aligned to a vision that had a number attached. When my small international nonprofit decided that we needed to grow by ten times in ten years it set off a flurry of activity by our IT staff who quickly realized that information technology was going to be a critical success factor. Inadequate IT would kill execution and never allow us to move forward.

One of the most difficult challenges for a nonprofit is putting a number on its vision statement. However, without it, it is really nothing more than a restatement of its mission, and gives no clear benchmark for success.

#9 - LISTEN, BE PATIENT, AND RECEIVE INPUT

Let's be clear. Major transformational change is difficult. It is risky. It is often expensive in terms of people's lives and life styles. It does not happen overnight. For leadership it never fast enough. For the rank and file it is always too fast. But Henry Ford may have put it best when he said: "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own."

A school district adopts a new vision, hires a new superintendent, and embarks on a process to transform itself. Who is it that will ultimately determine success? Will it be the teachers and principals that work with students every day, or the administrators who reside two or three layers above the fray of daily school life?

One of the most inspiring stories of business transformation was a Seattle based savings and loan. It was going broke and a new management team was brought in to turn it around. The normal process was to fire all the loan officers and vice presidents. But this team decided to try a different approach. Instead it embarked on a major retraining of staff. The result was one of the fastest turnarounds in local banking history. Few people were laid off or fired, and the new management team was highly successful.

The nonprofit world has a major asset when it comes to major transformational change. It has a staff that is motivated by mission rather than dollars. Use this sense of mission to drive change, but be patient. Give staff time to process what will be required of them and give them time to "get on board". They will.

#10 STAY THE COURSE

Nonprofit boards are notorious for swaying in the wind when the tide of public opinion turns up heat. Boards of public sector organizations are worse. Any major change will cause disruption. This is a painful reality, especially when good people disagree and resign. It is hard enough to find good people, let along good people who are willing to work for low wages, long hours, and little thanks.
School boards set new visions but then fire the new superintendent over the first disruption. Churches set new strategy for growth but fire the preacher because he or she takes it seriously. City councils decide that government needs to run more like a business but then fire the city manager because she instills market place disciplines and the citizens vent their frustration.
Ultimately, mission and vision belong to the board. It is their sacred trust to make sure that the vision and mission go forward. Donors are relying on them. Staff are sacrificing their professional lives for them. When the feathers fly, as they surely will, stay the course. It is a sacred trust.

Dan Edds is the Managing Director of Praxis Solutions. He holds an MBA from the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, and is a Project Manager Professional (PMP). In addition, he is a Kaplan Norton Balanced Scorecard Certified Graduate.

Daniel B. Edds, MBA, PMP has been a long time board member for an international faith based relief organization. He is the author of numerous articles on performance management and cost analysis, the author of a book titled: Transformational Management, and frequent presenter at government and nonprofit conferences. He can be reached for comment at Dan@PraxisSolutionsNP.com

By Daniel B Edds

Leadership Development - The Cumulative Effect of Minor Human Errors

In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell writes "Plane crashes are much more likely to be the results of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions". He lists a litany of factors such as bad weather, the plane running late, pilot fatigue, and pilots who have never flown together so are not comfortable with one another. On top of that he adds "The typical accident involves seven human errors".

An accumulation of minor human errors can lead to failure. This illustrates the genuine importance of aspects of experience and behaviour (details) which are routinely overlooked - and which are most likely to be overlooked when we have 'bigger things' to worry about.

But a 'bigger thing' is always the product of a collection of smaller things. This is as true in the case of success as it is in the case of failure. Anxiety and arrogance, two emotional states which on the face of it have nothing in common, are alike in that either one can cause us to mis-handle, or miss altogether, any number of small details which seem irrelevant until their cumulative effect becomes obvious.

Imagine two executives, let's call them Tim and Paul, who are simultaneously promoted within their respected organisations to the role of senior director. This kind of transition requires the appointee to expand the remit of their operational focus from a close-up to a wide-angle overview. So, years of experience of gaining credibility and refining expertise in a specific area are rewarded.

Tim and Paul gain access to a much wider sphere of influence and a much broader range of concerns. Their success in their previous roles has paid off, but now they must adjust their working method to a new set of strategic priorities. From this point on their past success may become as much of a hindrance as a help to them in meeting the challenges they face. Success and promotion can lead to feelings of being the 'special one', or equally to feelings of being the 'inferior one'.

Tim is exuberant. He approaches his new position with confidence, assurance and arrogance. And, he allows himself to overlook details. He fails to form strong relationships with his new team, and thus fails to communicate effectively.

Paul on the other hand, is filled with anxiety and misgivings. He feels completely out of his depth, which hinders his ability to make decisions confidently and efficiently.

It is imperative to take an over-arching view of your new role, within the context of your organisation and the market as a whole. The broader perspective enables understanding of the minor elements as well as the major elements, which are contributors to success. An accumulation of small mistakes can easily and quietly lead to failure. However, the ability to accept your mistakes and move on, coupled with the ability to accept the anxiety you feel and move on, is crucial to success.

This article was written by Hilda Goold, Executive Assistant, First100? Performance Acceleration.

First100? offers practical guidance, thoughtful insights and useful advice that is immediately implementable and always grounded in commercial realism. As leadership development and performance acceleration specialists we are globally recognised.

To find out more about First100 click here http://www.first100.co.uk/

Niamh O'Keeffe is the founder of First100?. Purchase her latest book, Your First 100 Days: How to Make Maximum Impact in Your New Leadership Role on Amazon now http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-First-100-Days-Leadership/dp/0273751328/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312979341&sr=8-1


By Hilda Goold

Outside, Inside the Box

Wondering what outside, inside the box is all about? I know you've heard the term "think outside the box", but what does that really mean, and even if you really know the definition do you know how to think outside the box? I created this term to show you there are other ways to think. Am I saying the same thing, as "think outside the box"? Here's the concept, I am outside the box that I am presently in, looking at myself inside and creating ways to get me out of the box. Creating new paths to remove my self from being inside. Want to ponder that for a bit?

You see we're always in a box, perhaps a larger box than before because we have expanded our thinking and ways of getting things done, it's called growing. So every time we want to create something new we must step out of the box. It's almost like contemplating, "how the universe began". Now that will make you crazy. I can tell you from experience it's not easy. Even those of us who have practiced this for years get stuck often enough, and have to step back, step out, and think about what we're trying to achieve. We have to remove ourselves from ourselves by visualizing everything anew.

The goal of thinking outside the box is to actually do that, which means to think differently from what you know and believe. To not use all of the same excuses you always use as to why something cannot be done. You must approach this thinking by throwing away all of your preconceived notions about how you will achieve your goal. Your goal is to create something from nothing, paint your greatest vision on a blank canvas, empty your mind and re-imagine your world. Do you think Fulton, Bell, DaVinci, or others could have created what they did by using the same ideas and tools of others?

Whatever the goal, whether it is to gain more customers, build revenue, figure out how to increase profits, construct a new building or design the city of tomorrow. The magic word is "Create", to bring into existence, to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior, to produce through imaginative skill something new, and different.

So you're probably wondering how you go about "thinking outside the box"? As I mentioned, you do this by removing yourself from any and all preconceived notions or ideas about how it has been done before. If you were to re-invent the wheel, so to speak, and you needed to transport an object from point A to point B you would not use the same method of how a wheel operates because you need to invent something better, or completely new. Let me try and paint another picture for you. If you mediate this may help. In meditation the goal is to let all thoughts flow through you, by not expanding on the thought that just entered your mind. It's sort of like getting amnesia or having short term memory loss. You want new thoughts and new ideas that can propel you to invent a better wheel, or another completely new method for transportation in this case.

Typically, you or a group of you, will think they are "thinking out of the box", but you will do the same things you have been doing except do more of it. In other words if you are advertising in a magazine, or on a billboard, or on radio or TV, or through social media, or Google ad words, you will just do more of that in an effort to gain more exposure and more customers. While that strategy can work for you are you really doing anything different? You must create something new and different.

In football, they are constantly re-thinking plays. The goal of course is to get the ball into the end zone and score points, but they have dozens, maybe hundreds of strategies to accomplish this, don't they. And they keep inventing new ones all the time. It's the same for you. Easy to think out of the box? No, but if you want unique solutions and to do things and go places no one has ever gone before (Star Trek, couldn't resist) then you need to change your way of doing things.

So what is the 'Key' to "Thinking Out of The Box"? A combination of amnesia, creativity, guts, chance and entrepreneurship. I am reminded of all the job ads I see where they are seeking someone with qualifications having done the same thing as what that company is doing. They believe that the candidate will be able to hit the ground running using the same methods and contacts to achieve a goal sooner. While this may be true for the short term, isn't the goal to differentiate yourself from everyone else. Isn't the goal to actually create something new or use a new method? Many times, I have helped companies just because I didn't know anything about their industry. I'm a new perspective, a new way of thinking and a new chance at having bigger successes. I could go on with stories about why it's so important to "think out of the box", but instead I'll leave you with this... "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is, yes, "a form of insanity".

Now go and put on a new hat today and create your greatest dream, or hire someone already outside the box to help you get ahead. I can tell you that paying a little more for a consultant can be a lot better, and a lot less expensive in the long term, than paying a little less for an employee, who in the long term may cost a lot more.

I've been improving my life and the lives of others for decades and I invite you learn more about how to improve your life and achieve success with your relationships and increase your financial worth.

At my website http://www.TheCoffeeHouseCoach.com I have free information that will help you immediately. I also have a book called Quantum Shift Into Greatness, which is available in PaperBack or as an eBook.

By Arthur Tassinello

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