Improve Your Results with a BIG Goal

Today is the final in my series of Seven Ways to Improve Your Professional Results in 2007 (or anytime). The first six suggestions are:

- Create more energy in your life.
- Commit to better working relationships.
- Project a contagious, positive attitude.
- Talk less, listen more.
- Mentor someone.
- Keep a journal.

I've never been very good at those "which five CDs would you want on a desert island?" kinds of questions and so I'm not sure I could pick just one of these suggestions, but I could make a passionate case for today's suggestion:

Set a big goal.

The reason this one might be the most important is that if you set a big goal, the other suggestions might well become tactics to help you achieve that goal.

Simply setting a goal would be a good tactic, but setting a big goal is a better tactic. If you have, in the past had trouble getting started, read this article - it will help you take away all of your excuses.

Your goal could be about your application of one of the other suggestions above, but more likely it will be about a skill you want to develop, a financial position you'd like to be in, a possession you'd like to acquire, a promotion you'd like to secure, or any of 1000 other things.

Whatever your goal is, setting it provides you greater focus and raises your intention for success. That is fine.

But if you really want to accelerate your results, make the goal big. Make it outrageous. Stretch yourself beyond where you think you 'should' be.

Create a goal worthy of your potential.

Then go out and achieve it.

You can do it.

The Biggest Key to Problem Solving

I have the opportunity to train and coach people on problem solving with some regularity. In fact, we recently built a one day customized problem solving and decision making workshop for one of our great Canadian Clients, OPTI Canada.

In the workshop we talked about a problem solving mindset, what gets in our way, a problem solving process, and much more.

Nothing we taught could be any more powerful than this quotation from Norman Vincent Peale,

"Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will."

An open mind, a clear problem statement, the right people involved, and a good problem solving process are all important.

But always remember to start with the belief that the problem can and will be solved.

Customers 1, Experts 0

Last night I heard on television and this morning I read online about the NBA's decision to go back to the old ball on January 1 for the rest of the year.

All of the new ball/old ball story can be referenced from this post, where I talk about the problem with the new ball from an important perspective - the perspective of the players (i.e. the Customers).

The good news of this change back, is that much like what Coca-Cola learned with New Coke; better is defined first, and most importantly by the Customer, not by management, the experts or anyone else.

Kudos to the NBA for rethinking their decision and kudos to the players for speaking their discontent.

The score?

Customers 1, Experts 0.

The NBA will no doubt reopen their look at an improved ball. Here's hoping they learned their lesson and include their Customers in the process next time.

Are you including your Customers (both internal and external) in your perceived process and product improvements?

Who is the Customer? Who Has the Ball?

In the National Basketball Association, the players have it (the ball).

And this year the League has introduced a new ball - it is constructed differently and is made of a synthetic substance rather than leather (is nothing sacred?!?)

The ball was developed and introduced to have more consistency in the way it handles and bounces. According to the experts (the players) it hasn't achieved those goals. In fact some players are actually getting small cuts on their fingers from the balls.

The Players Union has filed a grievance over the new ball and concurrently (perhaps because of the grievance?) the League has sent the balls back for further testing.

According to the New York Times in this article, (free registration maybe required) David Stern, the League's Commissioner has said, "I won't make a spirited defense with respect to the ball. In hindsight, we could have done a better job. I take responsibility for that."

He added: "If our players are unhappy with it, we have to analyze to the nth degree the cause of their unhappiness. Everything is on the table. I'm not pleased, but I'm realistic. We've got to do the right thing here. And of course the right thing is to listen to our players. Whether it's a day late or not, we're dealing with this."

Duh.

Who is the Customer here?

The NBA I'm sure thinks about the paying fan, the media and more as their paying Customers. However like any other business they have internal customers and stakeholders - all of whom are critical to meeting the external (paying customer's needs).

Who is the Customer of the ball?

The players of course.

The NBA made the same error that many of us make. We don't think about, and meet the needs of our internal customers.

I don't know if the new ball is better or not - but I do know that part of the definition of better must come from the customers of the product - in this case the players.

How clear are you on the expectations and needs of your internal customers?

How will meeting those needs more completely improve your results with your paying customers?

More Workers Playing Hooky

That is the title of the short article in the Indianapolis Star's Business Section this morning. It is a story from the Associated Press that cites a survey conducted for CCH by the Harris Interactive consulting firm. The results?

Unscheduled absenteeism is at its highest point since 1999. The rate is 2.5%.

2.5 % of people won't be at work tomorrow, even if they said they would be when they leave work today.

If you are thinking that people can get sick and that is most of the reason for these absences, according to the survey you would only be right 35% of the time. Personal needs (18%), stress (12%) and the "entitlement mentality" (11%) are some of the other major reasons cited for unscheduled absence.

As I read this short piece all I could think about was the conversation I had with a potential Client yesterday. I was called to come and talk about improving or increasing the engagement of the staff.

Engagement.

People who are engaged in their work, who are passionate and truly care about their work don't take days off for inconsequential things and they certainly don't do it because they feel entitled to the time off.

Some people will read these statistics and think about how people taking unscheduled time off hurts their staffing levels and their ability to provide good Customer Service. They will be right.

Some people will look at the overall labor market and see that as jobs get easier to come by, people are more willing to take the extra time off. I'm guessing in some parts of the country this might be a contributing factor.

Some people will read these statistics and blame it on the younger workers, thinking, "They just don't care like people used to." I don't personally think this is true, but it is a valid perspective.

In the end though I don't think about any of those things. I think about opportunity.

As leaders we have an opportunity to engage our people more fully in their work. When we do they will become more productive, achieve more, and enjoy their work more. They will also come to work when they are scheduled to be there. They'll take Cal Ripken - baseball's all time consecutive games played record holder - as their role model, rather than Ferris Bueller.

We can engage others more fully in their work. When we do those things we are benefiting our business, but we are also benefiting the individual greatly. They will be happier and healthier, and they will choose to come to work because their work is contributing in positive ways to their life.

If you aren't a leader, you can still choose to be engaged or find new work that does engage you.

How engaged are you?

What could you do to become more personally engaged in your work?

The percentages in this survey in 2007 may go down. I hope that if they do the reason is because leaders around the country have taken the challenge to engage people more fully in their work.

A Lesson at the Deli Counter

I overheard a conversation between two employees at the deli counter at my local grocery store recently. The younger of the two women was talking about how people can't be trusted any more. "It's not like it used to be," she said (though she seemed hardly over 25), "People will say or do anything - you can't trust anyone."

"That's why I have just a small circle of friends, and beyond that, I'd just as soon be a hermit."

Her older colleague, listened carefully, then tried to end the conversation by saying, "That may be true, but that isn't going to stop me from talking to people."

I've had a hard time getting this conversation out of my mind.

The belief that "people can't be trusted anymore" is altering woman #1's life. It will impact her ability to be successful at work, build satisfying relationships, and navigate life easily. Her statement about being a hermit shows the depth of her belief.

It isn't my goal in this short post to convince you that her belief is incorrect, but rather to have you reflect on the power our beliefs have on our performance and results.

What beliefs are aiding or hindering your personal and professional progress? Have you consciously chose those beliefs or are they operating as filters in your life without adequate examination?

These are questions worth considering.

No one can do this for you, you must consider them yourself.

Manners and Customer Service

Someone recently posed the question to me, "Can we get "jerks" to give good Customer Service? I mean with the overall decline in manners, how can we expect service to be excellent?"

Whew. There is a lot of beliefs dripping around the edges of that question!

My first point would be that if you think you have "jerks" on your team - or think that "jerks" are all you can find to hire, that you are in deep you-know-what before you ever move forward. Leaders need to have a positive expectation of people first and foremost. But let me get off my soapbox there and talk about the rest of the question - which hinges on the connection between manners and Customer Service.

While there's definitely a connection between customer service and manners, good customer service is about a lot more than good manners alone. Good Customer Service requires processes and procedures and tools that will enable good Customer Service. It requires leadership that makes customer service a priority and that empowers employees who work directly with Clients and Customers to make decisions.

Often leaders have expectations about how the Customer will be treated but never share those expectations with employees. They may be thinking "this is so obvious; we don't need to focus on this with our people because they know how to treat others."

Great Customer Service is more than knowing how to treat people; it's more than being nice. It's having processes and procedures in place from the beginning. It's knowing what to do - plus knowing how and when to do it. Customer service declines within an organization when those in leadership positions decline to make customer service a priority.

Those were my initial thoughts to the question posed to me... What do you think?