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Goal Setting

Goal Setting

Tonight, our returning guest blogger Sonya Law talks to readers about goal setting. 

We will explore here how fostering a dynamic workplace incorporates the macro environment in setting goals where People are at the center of creating your competitive advantage…

As an employee, our manager will set goals for us which flow down from the strategic goals of the organization, and these goals are communicated clearly so that we understand how our performance is measured.  Traditionally this usually takes place as part of a mid-year and end-of-year performance review cycle.  The review is also an opportunity for two-way feedback, for the employee to receive performance feedback that will guide their growth and performance and for the manager to receive feedback on where the employee needs support to remove roadblocks that are limiting their potential, efficiency, and effectiveness in achieving the goals of the organisation.

Human Resources play a dual role, firstly to support employees in setting their GPS and aligning them with the strategic goals of the organisation.  Secondly, to support managers and employees when performance diverges away from the expected behaviors that lead to the achievement of these goals.

Quite often, overlayed are external factors for example the current Global Pandemic, which forces organisation to reorientate towards goals that respond to a changing macro environment.  The Pandemic continues to require us to have a workforce that is adaptable, agile, resilient, and able to respond to new problems and anticipate future ones.  And work creatively to come up with solutions to customer, supply, service, and delivery issues.

Three scenarios that put the achievement of employees’ goals at risk are:

  1. New Manager
  2. New Team
  3. Changes in process and technology.

These scenarios can be navigated safely, with minimal impact to employees when a dynamic work environment is fostered that supports employees to solve problems as they arise.  This grassroots level problem solving, therefore enabling managers to invest more time on the strategic side of the business.

This is a common problem in organisations where management gets stuck in the weeds fixing problems in their day-to-day and not enough time creating value for shareholders.  Human Resources’ role is to work together with the senior leadership team to create flow and foster a dynamic workplace where time is equated across the operational, tactical, and strategic needs of the business.

A dynamic workplace is a space that can easily be reconfigured to meet the company’s needs, accomplished by using resources, collaborative spaces and technology. It is meant to follow an employee’s needs, as reflected in the state of the world.

Organisations that become too linear and micro instead of a macro view, lose sight of the big picture, this narrow focus leads to inefficiencies in utilisation of your human resources and non-productive time that does not generate income to the business and cannot be recovered.  Further cracks start to appear in a reluctance to explore new markets or business opportunities, they leak resources, people, profit, and stifle innovation.  You will see a decline in quality and an increase in rework, warranty issues, product failures, and a damaged reputation, which is value eroding rather than value maximising.

Organisations gain a competitive advantage as compared with their rivals by empowering and enabling their people, they innovate, fail fast, and recover quickly, creating value for the business.

When employees are empowered to make the changes necessary in order to respond to customer’s needs, they can fix customer problems right then and there boosting trust and confidence in the product, aftercare, leading to repeat business.  When managers see their role as removing obstacles and roadblocks and empowering their team and involving them in setting their goals, this ultimately will lead to improved employee and customer satisfaction.

Managers can support the business operation by:

  1. TIME – blocking out some uninterrupted time regularly to ask employees what are their roadblocks and where do they need support
  2. REINFORCING – what we do and why we do it, connecting them with the vision of the company
  3. POSITIVE FEEDBACK – provide employees with positive feedback about their unique and valuable contribution
  4. ALIGNMENT – help employees where there is misalignment with the goals and support them to self-correct
  5. STRENGTHS – play to the employee’s strengths
  6. STRATEGIC GOALS – link employee goals with the strategic goals of the organisation
  7. VALUE CREATION – when you involve employees in goal setting, they will be more driven and committed to achieving them

A few human resources tools that foster a dynamic workplace are:

  1. Career Anchors – supports employees’ re-engagement with their work
  2. VIA strengths – identifies employee’s strengths and how to leverage them
  3. What makes me tick – helps employees to resolve conflict by understanding different communication styles within their team.

The benefits to the organisation and culture in fostering a dynamic workplace are:

  1. Higher levels of innovation
  2. Increased engagement
  3. Greater productivity
  4. Increased customer satisfaction
  5. Improved quality
  6. Lower staff turnover
  7. Stronger financial returns
  8. Agility and adaptability in responding to a changing macro environment.

Ultimately, a dynamic workplace constantly is striving to create a competitive advantage through its People that is unrivalled when it comes to your competitors, that is so unique that it cannot be replicated.  Many products can be replicated but not people, they really are your greatest asset and competitive advantage if you take care of them.  Demonstrate to them with your words, actions, and behaviors that reinforce their valuable and unique contribution to the organisation.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
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Job Shock, Part One

Job Shock, Part One

This week, we are proud to introduce a new guest blogger, Edward E. Gordon. In Job Shock, Part One, Gordon is beginning a three-week series of thoughts for your consideration. The founder and president of Imperial Consulting Corporation in Chicago, Gordon has consulted with leaders in business, education, government, and non-profits for over 50 years. As a writer, researcher, speaker, and consultant he has helped shape policy and programs that advance talent development and regional economic growth. Gordon is the author or co-author of 20 books. His book, Future Jobs: Solving the Employment and Skills Crisis, is the culmination of his work as a visionary who applies a multi-disciplinary approach to today’s complex workforce needs and economic development issues. It won a 2015 Independent Publishers Award. An updated paperback edition was published in 2018.

Job Shock Part One: Solving the Pandemic & 2030 Employment Meltdown

Introducing a New White Paper.

Part I: Introduction: Why Read This?

Welcome to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in a COVID-19 challenged world economy. Their combined impact on the U.S. job market will stretch to 2030 and beyond. Say hello to “Job Shock!”

“Job Shock: Solving the Pandemic and 2030 Employment Meltdown” will be released as monthly topical Gordon Reports. This will give readers a greater opportunity to consider their outlook on the future of employment. “Job Shock” will present our most up-to-date research on the future of the U.S. labor market over the coming decade. We will review both long-term and short-term problems and solutions to them that are now underway across the United States. “Job Shock’s” premise is that America’s students and workers are as much in need of knowledge injections as they are of vaccine injections against COVID-19.

Defining the Realities of Job Shock

Technologies that have transformed American workplaces now require higher skills. The United States is not creating more high-pay, low-skilled jobs; it is creating more high-pay, higher-skilled jobs.  Unless we confront the reality of this talent mismatch, we face a decade in which there will be too many unskilled people without jobs who run a high risk for lives in poverty and too many skilled jobs without people. This potentially threatens to undermine the broader economy and increase the social disruption that has already begun.

In today’s job market at least 50 percent of today’s “good jobs” (those with higher pay and benefits) do not require four-year college degrees. These jobs need students who graduate from high school with a good general educational foundation, i.e., strong reading/math comprehension, good written and verbal communication abilities, problem-solving and teamwork skills. Students then need to obtain a career certificate, apprenticeship, or a two-year degree from a technical or community college. We are not preparing enough students for the talent realities of the current U.S. job market.

The United States has millions of well-educated, talented workers.  But the unrelenting demands of Job Shock tell us that we will need to double their numbers over this decade to run our high-tech economy.

Job Shock from COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this skills gap and sped up employment meltdowns. It caused the sharpest increase in the official U.S. unemployment rate ever recorded, rising from 3.5 percent in February 2020 to a peak of 14.7 percent in April. At the close of 2020, 12 million of the 22 million jobs lost at the start of the pandemic had been regained. The December unemployment rate of 6.7 percent reflects the number of workers permanently laid off because of the pandemic. The labor force participation rate also remains low.

But the effect of COVID upon different industries and jobs has been very uneven. The leisure and hospitality sector has been particularly hard hit with its low-wage workers experiencing the greatest job loss. Payrolls for couriers and messengers have increased by over 20 percent.

While many businesses lay off workers, others are struggling to fill job vacancies. Overall U.S. businesses continue to cut job training programs, further widening the skills gap. Businesses are increasing investments in automation and technologies that facilitate remote work. The continuing Fourth Industrial Revolution will further raise demands for workers with the skills needed to invent, use, maintain, or repair advanced technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic is illustrating that skill shortages can have lethal results.   COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have hundreds of vacant jobs in such areas as engineering and quality control. There are acute shortages of critical-care doctors and nurses as well as lab technicians to process COVID tests.  How many of the over 400,000 dead (greater than the death toll of the U.S. armed forces in World War II) could have been saved if we had fewer shortages of medical personnel in COVID hot spots?

Also, the skilled people we take for granted to meet our daily needs are in short supply. As computer systems have become more and more central to our daily lives, breakdowns and threats to the security of our private information proliferate. Finding a qualified plumber, carpenter, electrician or medical technologist has become more difficult in many communities. If more effective talent development efforts are not initiated, there is a real danger that the world will not end in a big bang, but that it will come to a slow grinding halt due to a lack of workers with the skills needed to maintain advanced technologies. Welcome to Job Shock!

Job Shock Objectives

The goal of the “Job Shock White Paper” is to raise awareness of the broad scope of the changes needed to equip students with the education and skills needed for 21st-century jobs and careers. And we must retrain workers with the specific skills needed by employers. There are solutions already underway in communities across the United States that can help your local area. But these solutions are not easily available to all.

We see the most promising responses to Job Shock coming from regional cross-sector partnerships composed of business owners and managers, educators, parents, government officials, union leaders, non-profit associations, and others. These partnerships have begun regionalized initiatives to rebuild their outdated education-to-employment systems.

“Job Shock” is a call to action. We need to work together in initiating the systemic changes needed to prepare more people for better-paying jobs and thus create a more equitable and prosperous economy over this decade.

Part II of “Job Shock” will provide an overview of how technology has dramatically transformed workplaces and occupational requirements over the last 50 years. Unfortunately, other parts of American society have failed to adapt to these labor market changes thus contributing to the social unrest the United States is now experiencing.  We invite to submit your questions or comments by email or by calling us in Chicago at 312.664.5196.

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Imagination Can Provoke Performance

Imagination CAN Provoke Performance.

Tonight, our founder and managing executive Ron Slee describes for readers the different ways that our imagination can provoke performance.

As we continue to develop products within our Learning Without Scars employee development platform, I am constantly pushing to find the tools and the means to provoke individual performance from the people who enroll in our classes and assessments. Typically, that starts with me. I am trying to provoke myself to accomplish more. It seems as if I have been on some type of mission my whole life. I am driven to help people achieve their potential. Talk about tilting at windmills.

But that is me. That is who I am. I am constantly looking around the next corner, asking questions, wondering how to do things in a better way. It seems that has been my approach since I was a little boy. I am impatient. I am curious. I am driven. I once asked a man, that I had worked with in three businesses, how easy I had been to work with. He started laughing. He said I was never easy to work with at all. At first, I felt insulted but I eventually understood what he meant. I didn’t like to fail at anything I did. Sometimes it just took a little longer than I wanted.

Years ago, I used to go to bed with a pad and pen on my night table. I would wake up in the middle night and write down some brilliant idea that had occurred to me. You see it couldn’t wait until morning. I might forget it. I stopped doing that when I couldn’t read my writing in the morning. My wife, Marlene, signed me up for acupuncture to address what she called my “busy mind.” The acupuncturist was a wonderful lady named June. After several sessions she called Marlene and told her to stop wasting her money, this wasn’t going to work. I still suffer this way. I am sure that I am far from alone in this regard.

Albert Einstein said that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” Think about that for a moment. Alfred North Whitehead a Harvard professor of Philosophy thought of all education as “the imaginative acquisition of knowledge.”

We are entering into an age of constant learning. Adult education. In a recent Podcast with Ed Gordon, we talked about the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The one we are in at the moment. He put forward two critical points that we have to face about the workforce.

  • Business doesn’t feel they need to train their employees once hired.
  • Employees don’t feel they need to continue to learn once they leave school.

So how is this going to work with the workplace over the next ten or twenty or thirty years? Ed suggests the following outcomes.

  • A third of the workforce will be fine, they are educated and have a purpose.
  • A third of the workforce is undereducated and has no purpose.
  • A third of the workforce has dropped out for whatever reason.

So let us return to the imagination. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of all men.” In athletics, it is called “Visualization.” You are taught to visualize the result that you want. Our imagination allows us to take flights of fancy. Imagine what it would be like if this happens or if that happens. I am going to hit this golf ball right down the middle of the fairway. I can see the path the ball will follow on the green right into the hole. Use your imagination and think of something you would like to happen.

That is how we can get to the place that we imagine. We turn our imagination into performance. We strive to make real that which we have imagined. If we can only use our imagination and then set goals, or have a sense of purpose, towards accomplishing what our imagination showed us was possible we would all be in a different place.

As I said I am interested in helping each person achieve their potential. The difficulty is understanding what that potential might be. In life, I believe that each person has three attributes that they live with every day.

  • Everyone wants to do well at whatever they do.
  • Everyone can do more than they realize.
  • Everyone is fundamentally lazy.

Think about that. Imagine that is you. Then translate imaginative thought into performance so that you will achieve more than you thought was possible. Then you will start to understand “The Art of the Possible.”

The time is now.

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Principia for After-sales

Principia for After-sales

In this week’s guest post, blogger Ryszard Chciuk offers us his Principia for after-sales, and brings us more ways to improve this valuable part of our business.

In Principia for Business I presented my personal view on the foundations of every organization. It was not a summary of the pile of publications on that subject I have read. In fact, I did not find there too many useful tips on how to build a durable and efficient organization.

In this and a few next posts, I am going to describe my own way of defining and implementing the idea of the main principles (values).

One of the main tasks of the founder of a new organization is to define the set of the most important principles binding its members. They should also know the long-term goals (have a look at the post about our vision). After that, they are able to find the proper ways to get closer to the goals. You will help your people in that process by telling them HOW you want to run your business to be different from the competition.

Another two important questions are: WHY you are starting up (Ron Slee explained his WHY in Why do we do what we do) and WHAT you are going to do for the wellbeing of your customers, employees, suppliers, environment, and yourself. Without a clear and public answer for those three questions a new entity is mined and the time bomb is ticking. It is my belief this is the main cause of going bankrupt by so many companies.

When I began to build the best after-sales organization in my country, Simon Sinek was not ready with his great TEDx presentation How Great Leaders Inspire Actions (54 million views since 2009). Just common sense told me that I should establish the main principles for my new team (apart from the long-term goals and mission). Some consultants say it should be done by a group of people. I dare to doubt. Only slaves must obey the rules established by their owners but free people always have a choice to work or not, for a given company. Its founder is entitled to set the main values. However, it is a must to discuss the meaning of values with all employees when somebody breaks any of the main principles. It is also helpful to celebrate when an employee finds a new way of better fulfilling any value.

The main values are important for employees when they have to take immediate action without the support of their superior. Very often they are not even aware that a required ­– in a given situation – behavior is described in detail in one of the dozens of special procedures. The older the organization, the more not understandable procedures, often written in a lawyers’ language.

Big companies define their values on a corporate level. In our case, they were: Quality, Safety, and Environmental Care. They seemed to me too general for the after-sales team I had the honor to create around twenty years ago. I defined the main principles as follows:

  1. Integrity
  2. Care of people and environment
  3. Profitability
  4. Excellence

It is not very common that the after-sales department has its own main principles (values) and purpose (mission) but I believed what I was doing was right. A few years later I found confirmation in Built to Last. Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras: There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t articulate a core ideology for your own workgroup, department, or division. If your company has a strong overall corporate ideology, then your group-level ideology will naturally be constrained by that ideology – particularly the core values. But you can still have your own flavor of ideology, and certainly, you can articulate a purpose for your own sub-organization. What is its reason for being? What would be lost if it ceased to exist? The concept of the core ideology embraces both mission and values.

It can happen the top management of the dealership does not know how they are going to run their business and does not bother about any values. Then CFO, Sales Director, and After-sales Manager lead their teams in accordance with completely different, opposite values. For example, CFO cares mainly about profit, Sales want to increase the number of sold machines, and After-sales are focused on customer satisfaction. The most dangerous is when they do not know each other preferences. Daily conflicts between managers are stepping down to the lowest level of the hierarchy. Employees do not collaborate with their friends working for another department. It is possible to avoid that problem. The managers have to look each other in the eye and tell each other the meaning of their main principles. Of course, their values have to be aligned with those the company founder believed in. Otherwise, it is a great waste of time to work for that kind of organization.

Next time I am going to share my point of view on the potential conflict between private and company values, how to write value definitions, the importance of constant reminding of the main principles…

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3 Reasons Your Business is Not Profitable Part 2

3 Reasons Your Business is Not Profitable – Part 2

In Part 2 of his blog series, guest writer Bruce Baker continues to break down the 3 reasons your business is not profitable, and what to do about it.

REASON #2: Not Understanding the Flow of Money

It’s reportedly unhealthy for people not to breathe in and out regularly, so why expect this from your business?

 As was mentioned in Reason #1 of the 3 Reasons Your Business is Not Profitable, understanding how your behaviour impacts the outcome (money) is an important place to start. Not understanding how to control the flow of money in and out of the business will remove all the value you gained by working through Reason #1.

Just like the human body breaths oxygen in and carbon dioxide out, so does a business system breath cash in and cash out. The only difference is that humans do this automatically without thinking…most of the time!

On the other hand, a business only has the owner to regulate the amount of cash-in and cash-out of the company. The business owner’s problem is not understanding this rhythm and making decisions that do not lead to profitability.

breathe

Imagine taking a deep breath and enjoying the feeling as you feed your body its much-needed oxygen. Breathing out as much as you can and stopping there…without breathing in for 30-seconds. Not the best feeling in the world! The discomfort we feel is our central nervous system ringing the alarm, forcing us to breathe in again.

If this makes an individual uncomfortable, why would this be expected from a business effectively maintaining the same balance? Sounds logical, but why not simple?

Work through the following exercise to start eliminating Reason #2

#1: On the first day of the week, determine approximately how much money needs to leave the business (i.e., expenses).

#2: In response to money leaving the business, determine your “battle plan” on how you will meet his obligation (i.e., at least break-even). If you cannot, do not sweat it…you have more weeks to work with until the end of the month.

#3: On the last day of the same week, review your accuracy of what money you anticipated leaving the business and evaluate whether your “battle plan” in at least breaking even was effective. Remember, make notes, so each week becomes a more effective week than before.

*Remember… If you do not at least break even for the specific week, no worries! You have more than one week in a month! Leverage this to plan for the week after. For example, if $1,000 more left the business than anticipated, ask yourself how you plan to make up for this the week after.

The more you practice this, the more golden nuggets you will discover about this process and your decisions’ effectiveness.

The purpose of this exercise is to provide you with an intimate understanding of how the money system in your business flows. The fact that the business owner regulates the flow of money in and out of the industry means that a company by default is not a cold non-living entity.

This means that the profitability of the business is directly associated with the owner’s natural behaviours. Attempting to go against your natural way of behaving, ignoring why you behave the way you do, leads to a path of misery and an unprofitable business.

Embrace and leverage your natural human behaviours and do not allow Reason #3 to hold you back from building your profitable business –

REASON #3: Changing Versus Leveraging Natural Habits

To ensure business profitability is to abandon the traditional axiom of  Sales – Expenses = Profit and adopt Sales – Profit = Expenses

 The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) formula for determining a business’s Profit is Sales – Expenses = Profit. It is simple, logical, and straightforward but not effective in building a profitable business because it does not account for human behaviour.

In the GAAP formula, Profit is a “leftover,” a “final consideration,” or something that is hopefully a pleasant surprise at the end of the year. Alas, the profit is rarely there, and the business continues its cheque-to-cheque survival.

Why is this the case? As noted above, natural human behaviour is not considered. One kind of human bias that most are not aware of is the Primacy Effect (i.e., people’s tendency to place more importance on what they see or encounter first as opposed to last).

It does no good to expect to build profitability and reduce debt if “expenses” are positioned first in the formula as opposed to “Profit” being “second best.” A human being does not work this way, and ignoring this, ends with the business not being profitable.

Placing profit first and flipping the formula to Sales – Profit = Expenses allows the business owner to leverage their natural behaviour and habits. Leveraging our everyday habits instead of changing what we do naturally opens a brand-new world to business profitability.

Another human bias that impacts our ability to be profitable is Parkinson’s Law. Author and historian C. Northcote Parkinson theorized that our demand for a resource increases to meet its supply.

For example, when we are given 2-weeks to do a project, it takes 2-weeks, and when we are given 8-weeks to do the same project, it takes 8-weeks. That is why when given

$1,000 to complete our work, we get it done with $1,000, and when given $10,000 to achieve the same outcome.

Making Parkinson’s Law an asset vs. a liability is immensely powerful in building profitability. By taking profit first, the money available for expenses lessens, and we are forced to find ways to get the same things done for less money.

Work through the following exercise to start eliminating Reason #3

Make a great leap forward by reading a few chapters from my friend and mentor, Mike Michalowicz’s book – Profit First.

 I share the TFR system with business owners in my FREE group –  Profitable Business Owners

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3 Reasons Your Business is Not Profitable Part 1

3 Reasons Your Business is Not Profitable – Part 1

In this first of a two-part series of guest blogs, Bruce Baker shares with us 3 reasons your business is not profitable. 

The real truth is that there is NO REASON why you should be working so hard and seeing little return from all your efforts!

I always see business owners trying to convince themselves that this is “just the way owning and running a business is.” Let’s be honest, why the heck would you put so much blood, sweat and tears into something that does not even reward or engage you?

You may have already spent money on expensive consultants, business books and online courses to figure out how to build a profitable business and still pay yourself consistently and eliminate debt. Well, if you, like many other business owners, have done this already, you’re most likely know by now that it hasn’t produced much of a result for you and your business.

What if there was a way to ensure your business is profitable and remains possible. What if this was a reality and you were still able to pay yourself and wish your debt a final farewell?

Years ago, when I started my first business, I initially fell in love with the hopes of building a company that provides immense value to the market with excellent prospects of profitability. I did indeed add tremendous value but worked 12–15-hour days, 6-7 days a week! I became unhealthy, struggled to pay the bills, and dealt with uncontrollable debt.

All this with ZERO quality of life, GUILT from not spending time with my family…the list goes on! This made me realize that it had nothing to do with how much or how little money my business produced but how I was thinking about money and the time I was using to manage it. This led me to the system I called Time and Financial Repurposing (TFR), a complete game-changer for my business, clients, and hopefully for you!

*Repurpose: “to use something for a different purpose to the one for which it was originally intended.”

Stop wasting your time on traditional, outdated methods that get you little if any results! It’s time for you to take advantage of a system that is not new but is uniquely you and is as natural as breathing. TFR will transform how you use your time and money, ensuring your business is profitable!

I share the TFR system with business owners in my FREE group – Profitable Business Owners

ELIMINATE THE 3-REASONS YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT PROFITABLE:

1. Controlling money (the outcome) and not actions (the reason money exists).

2. Not being clear how money moves in and out of the business.

3. Trying to change who we are vs. leveraging what comes naturally to us.

REASON #1:
Controlling Money – Not Actions

Human beings are focused on the end result versus what and how their actions impact the outcome.

The pattern is ALWAYS the same. Business owners gauge their success with what ends up in the “bank.” How many times have you thought to yourself how hard you work, only to have to deal with this…look familiar?

Bruce Baker

So, where does this leave you? Disengaged and deflated!

Remember, the only reason your business produces “money” is through the decisions you make and the actions you take…that is it! We spend a ton of energy (in many cases negative energy) stressing about the money (the outcome) versus the actions and decisions (the driver) that produce money (the outcome) in the first place!

Bruce Baker

As one CEO and client of mine once commented, “I avoided looking at my bank account for a month and mysteriously ended up with a positive bank balance for the first time in over 3-years”.
Magic, alchemy? Not at all! Simply put, she moved herself to flip her focus from money to action. It was a challenge for her, but the success blew your mind!

Work through the following exercise to start eliminating Reason #1
#1: List all the actions and decisions you have taken in the last 4-weeks and identify which decisions were directly related to generating revenue.
#2: Identify which decision led to successful results (no matter how small) and which decisions did not lead to any results.
#3: List the reasons you defined the outcome as either successful or unsuccessful and what you will do the next time differently.

The purpose of this exercise is not to analyze your financials, but your behaviour(s) based on how you interpret a situation. Doing this, highlights how your emotional response(s) to a particular situation leads you to the decisions and actions you take and the outcome (money).
If you are noticing connections between your behaviours and the money outcome, move to the second reason which we will post next week.

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Communication Vehicles

Communication Vehicles

When I talk about Communication Vehicles, I am talking about Blogs, Podcasts and Newsletter.

The world has truly changed. I was first on the Internet in 1973 with a business called I.P Sharp Associates. Ian Sharp tried to bring me on with his Company but I was having too much fun and learning too much at the Caterpillar dealership in Montreal called Hewitt Equipment. The internet was available via two different telecommunications networks Telenet and Tymnet. Their speed was a rip-roaring 30 bps. Can you imagine that? The “computer terminal was an IBM Typewriter type device and the Modem was an “Acoustic Coupler” that you put the telephone handset into. I thought it was absolutely the end of the world. Fantastic.

Today the Internet has speeds that boggle the mind and I am constantly complaining that it takes too long. At Learning Without Scars, we are using a Learning Management Software package called Litmos from SAP. We use a credit card payment tool called Stripe. We use Quick Books for all of our accounting. I have grown used to Microsoft Software so I used Outlook and Excel and Powerpoint and Word. We use Word Press to drive the Website. We use MailChimp and Buzz Sprout to drive our Podcasts and we use Zoom to create our Candid Conversation with our guests for our Podcasts. We have come a long way with software and hardware in my work life since 1968.

For nearly twenty years we have used the “Blog” as a communications device. First on our Consulting business website www.rjslee.com and now with our employee development business www.learningwithoutscars.org. More recently, at the beginning of March, we have started a Podcast. These Podcasts will explain with an audio track the content of our classes in a more complete manner than the landing page for each class or assessment. They will also be the platform for what we are calling “Candid Conversations” with Industry leaders and influencers. And coming soon, July 1, 2021, we will launch a Newsletter. We are going through the process now of networking with my address book and asking the recipient of the email if they want to subscribe to the Newsletter.

 

This is all about communication, isn’t it? The website has evolved itself. In the earlier form, it was like a brochure. It had the company history the vision or mission statements, key employees. It was a Yada Yada Yada form of communications. Then we moved to having our inventory on the website with pictures and in some cases even prices. It became what I called Brochureware. The internet and websites have come a long way since then. However, many of us are stuck with the old methods and thinking. As an example, I still have a landline telephone. I know, I know leave me alone. So, it brings to mind a question I used to ask relative to the rapid pace of change in technology. “What do you do with a dead horse?” The first answer is “Change Riders.” A close second is “Buy a Stronger Whip.” Followed by “Harness together many Dead Horses.” And finally, “Promote the Dead Horse.” Clearly, tongue in cheek but change has become almost too much for most of us to be able to handle.

We are trying to communicate with YOU on our website. We are using three main vehicles to do this. The blogs, the Podcasts, and now a Newsletter.

  • The Blog
    • We give you articles we contribute as well as thought leaders in Industry on a weekly basis. Specific subjects that we feel will be helpful to you, our customers. We post these blogs every Tuesday evening.
  • The Podcasts
    • We give you audio tracks describing our classes or assessments. These audio tracks run between five and ten minutes and provide more detail than the job function assessment or subject-specific landing page on the website.
    • We also provide a Candid Conversation with thought leaders from the Industry. We do these with a recorded Zoom meeting. These conversations are with people in North America, Australasia, Europe, South America, Russia, India, and the Middle East.
  • The Newsletter
    • We will publish this newsletter four times a year, typically at the beginning of each calendar quarter.
    • It will contain articles of interest from us and significant thought leaders worldwide.
    • We will keep you posted on changes within the education community on current thinking and research into learning tools and methods.
    • We will highlight any special news on our progress on becoming your primary employee development product.

Please remember we are always interested in and will be responsive to YOUR needs and wants as our valuable customers. We wouldn’t be here without all of the support and encouragement you have provided over the years. Next year we will celebrate our thirtieth year in teaching within this Industry through Companies specifically involved in training personnel in the Construction, Agricultural, Engine, Material Handling, On-Highway, Forestry, Mining Equipment Industries.

We sincerely thank you for your continuing support.

The time is now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

 

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Understanding How to View Success

Understanding How to View Success

When we work on setting goals, understanding how to view success is a key component in the process. Please read tonight’s blog from Ron to learn more about this critical process, and all of the viewpoints that go into it.

Most of you are by now aware of our goal of helping each employee identify their potential and then put them on a path to achieving it. The keyword there is “goal.” Each person needs to establish goals in their lives. It starts from a young age in how we are treated by our parents and grandparents. They teach us right from wrong and good from bad. In this manner, we start on a developmental path of understanding what we should do. It is our first experience with goals. Be a good person. As Colin Powell is known to say “don’t do anything that will embarrass your parents.” Then we have a transition from family life as a very young person to our school phase.

We go to school and we are taught to read and write and perform arithmetic calculations. That puts us on a path of learning that is aiming at helping us develop our intellect. That is the goal. We also start to experience socialization with a peer group, first our classmates and then our friends, another series of goals in getting along with others. In some cases, we get involved in music or sports and then learn how to get along with others in different backgrounds, again more goals. We have the family, the school, the peer groups, the sports teams and clubs, music and other groups all helping us grow into a complete person. All goals.

And then we have to make a choice at the end of High School or in some cases before, about what we are going to do next. This is, for many, the beginning of making our own decisions and establishing our own goals. This is the next transition from basic learning to specialized learning. To become able to provide ourselves with sufficient knowledge or expertise to be able to look after our own needs. Another transition. A more serious one.

We then go on to Junior College, or a Trade or Vocational School, or a University. We choose the classes we are going to take with a goal in mind. Sometimes that goal is a particular job. Sometimes it is simply getting more knowledge and then deciding what to do with that knowledge. But we are establishing our own goals.

Then comes the next step, another major transition. Getting a job. Finding a career. Becoming independent financially. This is a more difficult transition. Most people do not know what they want to do for a living. Some are very fortunate. They know they want to be a doctor or a teacher or a mechanic. But most people don’t have a clue.

How are we supposed to get the right answers if we don’t know what we are trying to do? We need to establish goals. We need to do a sort of audit on what we like and what we don’t like. What we are good at and what we struggle with. What kind of people we like to be around and which people cause us to want to be somewhere else?

I didn’t have a clue of what I wanted to do. Like most of us, I had been working in part-time jobs. I taught swimming and tennis at a country club. I sold things, encyclopedias. I did telemarketing, selling newspaper subscriptions. I played piano in a bar and organ in churches. I taught education at a University. I wanted to work in data processing but in those years, it was nearly impossible to find work in that field. So, I struggled. I am sure that I was not and am not alone in that fact. I think that most of us struggle to try to find our place in the world, in society.

Let me start by saying that I believe that we all want to be a success. But that is the challenge. What does that mean? Who teaches us or guides us on that path? Is success wealth? Or Status? Or Fame? I submit to you it is none of those things. I would like to say that it is simply being able to lead a healthy and productive and happy life. But what is that and who helps us to understand how to obtain it?

Education has changed today. The choices that a person has in classes are mind-boggling. Ed Gordon, a respected voice in education in America, in a recent newsletter stated “Many parents also believe that their local school is providing a good education to their children. Regretfully this is often not the case. Education levels have not kept pace with skill demands in workplaces.”

We, at Learning Without Scars, are strong advocates of the use of an annual performance review with each employee. This is an opportunity for each team leader to have a productive discussion with each employee and help them understand what they can do to become better as an employee. What they can focus on to be capable of another opportunity in the Company. How the team leader is there to help them. Goals can be established and then the path to success becomes clearer. Wouldn’t we all want that, for ourselves? Someone to help us establish the goals that would help us have a successful life. Don’t you think that would be helpful?

The Time is Now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.
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Principia for Business

Principia for Business

In this week’s guest blog, Ryszard Chciuk shares his Principia for business.

In my post The Future is Now I presented you why and how my after-sales team worked out its long-term plans, which most of business teachers call a vision. Today I am writing about the way we were going to bring us closer to our goals.

I am repeating myself: without the long-term plans, you are like a sailor who missed all his maps. You can use your compass, but you do not know where you will finally land on. Maybe it will be a deserted island. If you are a very lucky man, maybe you will land in a paradise. I am daring to give you one piece of advice: please, do not fool yourself, most probably you will break up the boat on the rocks. You and your crew have a little chance to survive the crash, it will be just pure chance.

Worse things happen if your team members do not follow the binding rules. I prefer to name them the main principles. Coming back to the metaphor. Before you abandon a port, you must equip your boat with precise maps and a compass. In 1492 Christopher Columbus had an astrolabe, compass, quadrant, and, instead of maps, his assumptions which directions to go. Finally, he was convinced he landed in “the Indies”, but fortunately for him (not for the original inhabitants), the ships made landfall on one of the Bahamian islands.

In real-life our maps are always uncertain, so before you start the journey, you should agree with your co-sailors a small number of basic rules to be strictly followed. For example, the captain is always right, you will keep watch till you are replaced by another sailor on duty, everybody is authorized to ask questions and make mistakes, the person in charge is not always right, and so on. Otherwise, all of you will fight against each other, instead of collaboration in the face of a turbulent market.

Those basic rules I name the main principles. Certainly, you are accustomed to calling them values, so I will explain myself. Most of the dictionaries, including The Cambridge Dictionary, define the first meaning of the word “value” as the amount of money that can be received for something. The second meaning of that word is the beliefs people have, especially about what is right and wrong, but it is only for the plural form. The three laws of Motion Sir Isaac Newton presented in the masterpiece called Principia (in Latin) and it is translated into Principles (in English). That’s why I ask my friends to follow the main principles instead of the values. Values and vision belong to the most overused – and least understood – words in the language of business. I want to avoid any ambiguities while talking about things of so high importance.

The most important for every organization is that all level managers and all employees subscribe to the main principles. It means, you as a manager, should employ only candidates who learnt the company values and agreed to follow those principles during the whole journey with the company. Later on, you have to observe potential breakers of the values and eliminate them. Otherwise, some employees may sabotage the whole organization. However, it’s not easy to discover the true personal values of a candidate during an interview. My advice is not to rely only on the information gathered by the human resources department. Use also your own intuition.

The most severe troubles for every kind of organization can be caused by people occupying more important posts. The company owner should keep it in mind when hiring top management. Do you remember the famous Enron case? In its annual report to shareholders, Enron listed its core values as follows:

  1. Communication – We have an obligation to communicate.
  2. Respect – We treat others as we would like to be treated.
  3. Integrity – We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely.
  4. Excellence– We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do.

The actions of Enron’s senior leaders stood opposed to these core values. They quickly established a culture with values of greed and desire to maximize personal gain. It also appeared that Enron managers were supported by the renowned auditing company Arthur Andersen LLP. What was the result? Thousands of people lost jobs, their money collected on retirement plans disappeared…

I am writing this article because I want all of my friends to be aware of a potential threat. I have read about many leaders driving organizations into bankruptcy due to breaking their values. In the last decades of my life, it concerns mainly political leaders all over the world. It is unfair that dishonest leaders never pay the highest cost. Perhaps Enron’s CEO Jeffrey Skilling was one of few exceptions. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison (finally was freed after 14 years). Have you heard about reimbursing the victims of the Enron scandal?

As I explained in the post The Future is Now, my plan to build the best after-sales organization could not be executed if we employed people having bad habits. In other words, we would fail if new employees were accustomed to the principles which were opposite to ours.

Next time I will explain, what it meant in our daily work.

For access to our classes, please click here.
For more blogs, please click here.
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Compassion is like a Marathon!

Compassion is like a Marathon!

Cultivating compassion is like running a marathon it requires daily practice over a period of time, like running your first marathon with training you can build the skills!

 Now more than ever, it’s imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. Compassion is the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others. Compassion in leadership creates stronger connections between people.  It improves collaboration, creativity which leads to innovation, raises levels of trust, and enhances loyalty in employees.

Jacinda Ardern New Zealand’s Prime Minister, leadership style is characterised by kindness and compassion for her response to the Christchurch shootings in 2019.  Her compassionate leadership style united a country in mourning for their fellow New Zealanders.  Whom lost their lives while at prayer in a place of worship in a country they chose as their home because it was safe.  In the days following Jacinda Ardern took action to correct laws to protect its people and embrace those mourning loved ones at the scene of the terrorist attack.

Leading German social neuroscientist, psychologist and author of Caring Economics Tania Singer – conversations on altruism and compassion, between scientists, economists and the Dalai Lama.  Delivers some key research into compassion based on studies with over 300 participants who participated in gratitude based, attention based study into the affect on wellbeing of people.

Below are my personal insights from this study.

#1 Compassion is trainable:

Compassion is trainable with daily practice according to Tania Singer,  after a study on the impact of mental training involving a combination of mindfulness, perspective-taking and compassion exercises.

#2 Empathy and Compassion go hand in hand:

Different brain circulatory – Empathy activates the pain network and negative affect; and transforms into compassion when the affiliative part of the brain is activated which has a positive affect.

Empathy feeling with others, empathy is connecting with the other person in how they feel.

Compassion feeling for someone at the heart level – you start feeling concern, for the welfare of the other.

Most resilient is compassion, a feeling of care and love.  You feel this warmth, altruistic strong motivation. I want to help you.  Altruism is a higher order need in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivational Theory.

#3 Compassion is a positive feeling towards the other:

Sometimes we judge others without awareness. Compassion is a positive feeling towards the other.   Compassion is when we are present and listen without judgment it brings down social stress (fear of being judged) for the other person, which makes them feel safe to open up and share their problems.

# 4 Compassion and perspective:

Cognitively when we identify that the person, we are listening to has different beliefs to our own, understanding the other person is not always easy for us to grasp – particularly in cross cultural contexts. An understanding and appreciation of different perspectives, diversity has the power to facilitate kindness and compassion in our workplaces, communities and strengthen global co-operation.

# 5 Compassion and Gratitude:

A daily Gratitude practice can build compassion at the heart level.  Appreciating and accepting that many leaders are at different stage of the compassion continuum is important, it’s a journey, having conversations about compassion takes courage, takes vulnerability.

I attended an inspirational Podcast this week with Rebecca Jarvis who eloquently interviewed the very inspiring Steve Farrugia CEO of the Share Tree – which is a good place for leaders to start in exploring how to implement daily practice of gratitude and compassion in organisations using an App!

# 6 Compassion is a key change management skill:

Compassion is passion, the direction of positive energy used to advocate for a cause, purpose, passion.  Having a compassionate leadership style can help advocate and facilitate a positive change management process within an organisation.

Top 3 actions to cultivate a culture of compassion within an organisation:

  1. Hire leaders who want to take care of others:
    Hiring leaders who want to take care of others. There is a great tool called the VIA – strengths survey which identifies 24-character strengths of leaders, for example those that display gratitude and love.

 

Hiring managers with an affiliative leadership style – are managers who know the importance of building social capital and will take time to listen to their people and will implement change seamlessly.

  1. Get the support of your CEO:

When CEO’s and Human Resources work together to build a culture of compassion it builds bonds, social connectedness, affiliation, sense of mutual appreciation, collaboration, innovation and a culture of high performance.

  1. Adopt a holistic approach:

A holistic approach, considers people’s physical, mental and emotional health.  A compassionate leadership style and holistic approach can transform toxic cultures that are faced with ethical dilemmas, bullying and harassment into healthy workplaces where people feel safe and thrive. Putting people first and placing importance on people’s physical, mental and emotional health, will have a triple bottom line impact towards wellbeing, higher performance and improved shareholder value.

For access to our classes, please click here.
For more blogs, please click here.