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Happy New Year! We hope you had a great holiday and are looking forward to your best year yet in 2008. My personal motto is every year I am getting better and better - life isn't about standing still or going backwards but about making each day, week, month and year count. What do you want 2008 to look like so that one year from now you can look back with pride and go WOW!  Penny McDaniel
Executives in businesses of all
sizes have experienced
disappointment and frustration
when trying to drive changes to
achieve maximum business results.
Many executives know and
acknowledge that their biggest
challenge is executing their plans.
Achieving Better Execution
(ABE) is an ongoing series of
principles that, when applied, lead
to better results. I discovered these
principles over 20 years as a leader
of, participant in, and witness to
change initiatives in companies
ranging from start-ups to $20 billion
in annual sales, in many industries,
private and public, and profit and
nonprofit. Implementing each
principle will have a positive impact
on your bottom line. Collectively,
they produce dramatic results.
Principle V - State your
goals the SMART WAY
The better a person states the
goal, the easier it is to create the
action plan. An acronym commonly
used for stating a goal properly is
SMART (Specific,
Measurable,
Attainable,
Realistically high, and
Time-based).
While these criteria seem
simple, they are actually not easily
achieved. If they were, everyone
would be reaching a lot more of
their goals. Very briefly, let us
discuss what each of these criteria
really means:
The following is an example
of a SMART goal:
Once you have stated your goal
in a manner that meets all of the
SMART criteria, you then
need to consider whether they
achieve WAY (Written,
Aligned, and Yours): It is not
unusual to meet people who have
goals they have not communicated
to anyone. Even worse, they may
not be written down anywhere. In
personal and organizational
circumstances, it is always best to
write your goals down for the
following reasons:
A common reason goals do not
get achieved or take longer than
expected is improper alignment.
Goals may not be aligned for
reasons that include:
Lastly, if a goal is yours, it is
much more likely that you will be
internally motivated to achieve it. It
is hard to get excited about
somebody else's goals. This is
primarily due to the fact that most
people act based on their own self
interest.
If you have goals that are not
communicated succinctly to
everyone who is responsible for
accomplishing a part of the plan,
what is the likelihood they are going
to do it? People like to have
purpose and know where they are
going. We use goals to focus
individuals and organizations in the
same direction. When we achieve
goals, it increases energy, which
has a positive impact on results,
thus further increasing energy,
increasing focus on goals,
increasing results, increasing
energy, and so on. It is that simple!
If you want to achieve more
goals, make sure that you state
them in a SMART WAY!
Reference and excerpts taken
with permission from
Leadership published by
Resource Associates Corporation,
Mohnton, PA By Howard Shore,
Principal of Activate Group, Inc. All
rights reserved worldwide.
Businesses grow based on the
energy, ideas, creativity and
dedication of their people. Finding
and retaining the best possible fit of
people to jobs is among the top
priorities of every business leader.
However, changes happen. People
changes, that is. Now they happen
more frequently than ever, driven by
a multitude of reasons in our volatile
workplace, including:
People changes are further
accelerated by the workforce's
growing acceptance of multiple job
changes as "normal and
desirable." But for whatever
reason people leave their jobs, they
leave holes in the organization that
must be dealt with effectively.
People changes can be
approached as problems.
When they are perceived as
problems, businesses seek to
"plug the holes" in an
urgent, cursory manner. An under-
qualified or over-qualified person
(who may or may not be successful)
will be quickly recruited to step in to
avoid losing momentum.
Or, businesses may
permanently reallocate tasks and
duties to the missing person's
coworkers who are already
overloaded with their own work. A
habit of handling people changes in
these manners risks making
everyone's job either unsatisfying or
humanly unachievable, and can
lead to increased levels of people
changes.
Many successful companies
have developed the discipline of
working through people changes
with positive potential in focus.
They see change as part of a
continually recurring opportunity to
rethink, redefine, reposition, and
reinforce jobs that are left open.
When people changes inevitably
occur, the process they follow to
move forward quickly and
successfully can be guided by
questions such as:
We can all count on people
continuing to change jobs
throughout their careers in today's
workplace. It's whether businesses
handle people changes as
problems or positive potential that
will determine their success. Which
is the best choice for your business?
Copyright protected worldwide.
Gayla Doucet - People Powered
Solutions LLC
Although employment is
presumed to be "at will" (meaning
that the employer may fire the
employee for any reason, or no
reason at all), this at-will
presumption is limited by a number
of competing rules.
An employer may not fire an
employee for discriminatory
reasons, such as because of his or
her race or sex. The employer also
may not fire the employee because
the employee has engaged in a
protected activity.
Protected activities include
complaining of harassment,
discrimination or another violation of
the law, filing a lawsuit against the
employer claiming discrimination,
filing a workers' compensation
claim, or participating in an
investigation of the employer by an
administrative agency such as the
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission or the Environmental
Protection Agency.
An employee who can show
that he or she was fired shortly after
engaging in such a protected
activity may be able to sue the
employer for illegal retaliation.
An employer may also be
limited in its ability to fire an
employee by the terms of a union
contract or collective bargaining
agreement, or by the terms of a
contract with the individual
employee.
Finally, if the employer is a
public entity, such as a federal,
state or local government, a school
district, or a government agency,
the employer may be required to
provide the employee with notice
and an opportunity to be heard
before firing the employee, and may
also be required to show "just
cause," such as poor performance
or the violation of a work-related
rule by the employee, in order to fire
the employee.
Contact your legal council for
more information and clarification.
This is not to be construed as
legal advice.
Change does
not necessarily assure progress,
but progress implacably requires
change. Education is essential to
change, for education creates both
new wants and the ability to satisfy
them.
Treat a man
as he is, he will remain so. Treat a
man the way he can be and ought
to be, and he will become as he can
be and should be.
It's easy to
make a buck. It's a lot tougher to
make a difference.
He that is of
the opinion money will do
everything may well be suspected
of doing everything for money.
CCI's mission it to unleash passion and purpose in
people and organizations. We accomplish this by
engaging and developing successful leaders
throughout an organization; teaching people to
collaborate and work together effectively and by
supporting the alignment and commitment to
achieving both individual and shared goals in
organizations.
We are a training, facilitation, speaking, and
consulting organization.
Our goal is to bring out the very best in the people
and organizations we work with. When people are
passionate and on fire about their work everyone
produces more. Let us show you how!
Collaborative Connections is
proud to announce
our association with CRK
Interactive.
Today people are looking for fast
and effective ways to
learn on demand; when they want
it. We are pleased
to now offer several online 90
minute classes that
keep people's skills up to date.
Many of these online
classes work inconjunction with
assessements such
as the DiSC Behavioral Style Profile
or other
assessments and several offer CEU
Credits.
These programs are designed to
engage learners
and provide high impact training
for employees
available 24 hours a day. Classes
are reasonably
priced and can be used as a stand
alone course or as
part of a blended approach.
Online classes are available
for: For a list of available
courses, course
descriptions, courses that qualify for
CEU's or to
sample a course for free, please
call us at:
303-380-2550 or email
info@collaborativeconnections.com
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phone:
303-380-2550
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