The Plan

The past month has moved very quickly for a lot of people as things seem to be moving faster and faster every year. Do you ever get the impression that things are moving too fast for comfort in your professional and business lives? How are you dealing with that? Do you have a plan?

Strategic planning is something that every business, organization and even individuals should do every three years to make sure that your professional and life goals are in order. A plan is very much like a compass that provides you with a direction to follow. If you do not have a plan, then how are you going to get where you are going. The Chief Commissioner for Scouts Canada said at a session last year that stuck in my mind, namely “ if we don’t change direction, we’ll end up where we are going?” Think about that for a bit. How often have you seen businesses, organizations or individuals following a path that you know will take them to a place that is not the best for them or everyone else?

When you set goals, use the SMART method, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely. Try to focus on a maximum of three goals, three objectives for each goal and three action items for each objective. That will give you 27 action items to address during the planning period. Three goals will keep you focused so that you can do a few things rather well rather than doing a mediocre job of trying to do too much. I once heard that anyone who has more than 3 goals has no goals at all.

Can you do this with your personal life? Yes you can. Sit down one day and set three goals for the next three years. Your goals could be something like:
1. Financial sustainability
2. Work/ life balance
3. Personal health and happiness

Then you have to develop objectives for each of these. An example of an objective for each might be:
1. To pay off my debts within 3 years.
2. To spend more time with my family
3. To become more fit

The action items for each objective would then describe what you are going to do to reach each objective. This could include things for the objectives above like spending less, eating out less, planning weekends and holidays by setting the dates now, walking a kilometer or more everyday.

For businesses and organizations, I would strongly suggest using a facilitator with strategic planning skills to assist you with developing your plan. If you think you can do it on your own, you will rob someone of the chance to participate 100% in the process. This is a small investment in the future of your business or organization.

And of course, the biggest commitment of all- actually doing it. We all love to procrastinate and think that we will get around to this sooner than later. Sit down with your leadership team and make a commitment to move forward to a brighter future that has direction and targets.

The New Year's Resolution

I was thinking of the inevitable question that everyone asks at this time of year- what is your New Year’s Resolution. I heard a great description of a New Year’s resolution the other day- “ a promise that I intend to keep for the next 30 days!” How true is that.

So here are some for you to consider keeping in mind my 2011 newsletters:
• I promise to use the “one second rule” this year. Remember that one? Take one second extra to do everything and it will force you to slow down just enough to do things like not hit your shoulder on the door frame as you leave the room or actually turn off the lights before you leave the room.
• I promise to get control over my email including managing my email loads.
• I promise to get a better handle on my work/life balance this year. More time for such things as reading, enjoying family and friends and taking some time for me.
• I promise to smile more and to share that smile with others every day.
• I promise to help others as much as I can and be thankful for what I have.
• And for supervisors and owners of companies, I promise to spend some time each day checking up on my staff to see how they are doing and to lead by example.
I am sure that you have a couple to add as well so I will keep the list to “doable”

A couple of good reads for you- “ Take Charge and Change your Life Today” by Trevor Bolin (yes the very same from Fort St John} and “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson.

And don’t forget to start each day with “Yes I Can!”

Workplace Literacy

One of the great groups that I am involved with is the North Peace Literacy Alliance. At this month’s meeting, I was please to review a presentation prepared by Clarice Eckford, the Fort St John Literacy Outreach Coordinator on workplace health and literacy. Here are some interesting points from this presentation:
• In a recent study by the Conference Board of Canada, 82 percent of employers surveyed said that increased health and safety was linked to an essential skills program in their workplace.
• Measurable outcomes include health (e.g. injury or illness prevention) while outcomes that are difficult to measure includes wellness (e.g. increased confidence, overall sense of satisfaction)
• Essential skills include reading, document use, numeracy, writing, oral communication, working with others, continuous learning, thinking skills and computer use.
• Literacy also comes in other forms such as well financial, health, workplace, cultural, family, media, and document.

What is really interesting is that studies over the past few years have determined that 45+% of people in Canada (it is a bit higher in the NE British Columbia) are below functional literacy levels. This includes things like completing an application form, reading the newspaper, balancing a chequebook or even figuring out change.

Workplace literacy is a major challenge for many employers and it is exasperated by the lack of time and resources for employers to deal with it. This results in additional costs to the employer and we end up in the proverbial Catch 22 situation- “ I don’t have time to deal with it but my problem continues to cost me time and money”.

If you an employer or know of someone who needs help, there are resources out there to provide help. There is a Guide for Employers and Practitioners- http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/LES/tools_resources/tools.sht....

As well, you can call Clarice Eckfort in Fort St John at 250-262-2088 or email her at locfsj@gmail.com

Email and Stress Relief

A couple of subjects this month- more on emails and some on handling stress. Both are related to each other and I am convinced more times than enough that email can add significant stress to one’s day – through the content, numbers and frequency.

I recently heard of an interesting innovation dealing with emails- no internal emails on Friday. This company only allows emails to clients on Fridays and insists that any communication on Fridays will be by personal conversation or by phone. They have found that production is actually increasing and that people are getting along much better with each other. They have found that their employees are also contacting their clients in person more often and this has been seeing positive results. This would fit in with what many companies call “casual Fridays”. Is it worth a try?

During this past month, I consulted with an individual who specializes in leadership and dealing with stress. Here are some of her hints for you to consider:
• Most stress usually lands from the neck up so when you are really feeling stressed out, take a deep breath and let that tension out.
• Ground yourself by mentally working your way up from the feet upwards.
• Focus on the task at hand. If you are driving, focus on driving and nothing else.
• If people are throwing bad stuff at you, do not keep it but focus on moving forward.
• Try not listening to the news when you are driving. Most news is negative and distracts you.

Try this little exercise: Stop what you are doing; drop your hands to your side. Close your eyes. Deep breath in through your nose. Breathe out slowly through your nose. Then breathe normally and relax. Feel your feet and wiggle your toes. Open your eyes. Smile and say to yourself “I am okay”. You will feel better and more relaxed so that you can move forward with your day.

So try that new software out – personal communication and the phone and try to relax more. It will be good for both you and your employees.

Are you Dressed for Success?

I had a discussion recently on dress and appearance in the workplace, I thought that I would devote this month’s newsletter to how we look when are in public and in particular at work. This is a continuing discussion amongst professionals and has evolved over the past few years. So I beg your forgiveness if you disagree with me, as dress is a very personal thing. But is it in the workplace?

I recently consulted with a communications expert on this topic and this is a person who has dealt with a lot of people in all kinds of walks of life for many years. We were discussing how your appearance makes a difference to how others perceive you and he stressed that if you dress change small things in your appearance it will not make a difference. However, if one were to radically change their wardrobe or appearance, people would wonder why and treat that person differently.

Many companies have various dress codes depending on whom the employees interact with at any given time. The favourite comparisons are with those software companies who always dress casually. I once listened to a talk show about this and a person phoned in to say that he was sitting at his desk with a t-shirt and shorts and wearing sandals. When the host of the show expressed surprise, the individual told the show that he owned the company and that he did not care what his employees wore at work as long as they were decent. But he also said that everyone of his employees had a three-piece suit hanging in their workplace and if a major client decided that they needed to talk to one of them, the suit came on.

Some companies or organizations want their employees in such dress as golf shirts, nice pants appropriate shoes. Other firms want suits and dresses to present a professional appearance. The trick is not to over or under dress for your work place and to keep in mind always that others will appraise your company and individuals by the way they dress. And if you are to wear jeans, please have them clean and relatively new. Casual dress is not an excuse to dress slovenly. One more tip- if you are the boss, you set the example. Again, don’t overdress and expect your employees to follow (pardon the pun) suit. But if you under dress, you can’t criticize if your employees look like they came just in from working in the yard.

Before you leave for work, look in the mirror and ask yourself “am I dressed for the job I have or the one I want?” The bottom line is that if you dress for success, then you will always be sure that others will notice.

Leadership

As I have been watching the debate in the U.S. between the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties and how this debate is getting precariously close to a major collision that will affect the world economy, I remembered a radio show a couple of months ago that focused on leadership. What the producers did was concentrate on what defines good leadership in the military given Canada’s roles in world conflicts in the past 100 years. They interviewed Canadian military leaders at all levels as well as some of those soldiers who had to follow those leaders.

Here are some of the points that they had to offer:

• A good leader is one who mentors on a constant basis. Think of how you achieved a leadership role and who had a large influence on how you developed.
• A good leader is one who shows compassion for their employees at the right times. Do not forget that we are all human and employees bring a lot of their issues to work on a daily basis. The key is to know what is going on with them and lend them your support when needed.
• Success as a leader is not trying to be like others but to be yourself and use your own skills and abilities. Trying to be someone else leads to frustration and most often a lack of success. How many times have you said, “I wish I was like so and so”? It would amaze you to find out how many other people are saying the same about you.
• Consistency is very important in being a leader. One cannot be changing ones mind or approach on a constant basis. A good leader has to be flexible depending on the issue but consistency of approach leads employees to turn to a good leader for direction and leadership.
• There are leaders at all levels of an organization and that includes the “non-leadership” levels. The key of a good leader is to recognize this and use the leadership skills of everyone in the organization. Sometimes the true leader in a group comes from surprising sources.
• Key attributes of good leaders are:
o Honesty
o Integrity
o Loyalty (to the organization and to the staff)
o Obedience to the organizations rules and objectives.

I was once asked how good leaders are found and developed. My answer was “leadership is 50% natural talent and 50% development of your skills”.

So the key questions that everyone in a leadership positions have to ask themselves is “am I able to live up to the points above?”

More Email Etiquette

I have received a lot of good feedback on the tips for emails and I have been asked to write another on the endless emails that are generated by “reply all”. This is very irritating to many people who have precious little time to open and delete copious amounts of emails generated by people who thought that the best thing to do is to reply to the originator of the email and send his or reply to everyone else in the email group. I would say that 99% of the time, everyone does not need to see the reply. So please encourage your staff that unless it is absolutely essential that everyone see the reply, only send the reply to the original author of the email chain.

This also applies to the “request a receipt” feature. Use it with the utmost discretion. I only use it for very important issues and only to make sure that my email made it through cyberspace to the intended recipient.

Ever get those emails where it starts with one or more pages of email addresses? It is very annoying and in most cases unnecessary. You can avoid this by using the “bcc” line on your email address box. If you are sending to large email groups or do not want to bother people by starting off your email with pages of email addresses, put your own email in the “to” box and then put your email group(s) in your “bcc”(commonly known as blind carbon copy) line. Those receiving your email will not see the long list of recipients.

Another piece of email etiquette- only copy those who really need to see it. I heard a story about a person who owned a large corporation. You can imagine the volume of email that this person received on a daily basis and he realized that most of the huge volume of emails came from his Vice Presidents. He finally had reached his breaking point so one day he hauled all his senior VP’s into the board room and delivered the following message:

“ From this day forward, I do not want to receive emails where I am in the “cc” group. If I am not the intended recipient of the email, than I don’t want to be copied. He then told his VP’s that he only wanted a maximum of 5 emails a day from each of them. He reminded said VP’s that they all worked on the same floor and a quick 30 second trip down the hallway to talk things over was much more efficient. Then he finished off his email lecture by stating that if anyone had an issue with these new rules, they were to remember that he owned the company.”

Now I know that most of you do not own the company but I can say from my experience that reducing the volume of emails from people who work 20 feet away from you is relatively an easy thing. A quick stand up chat with your staff every morning while everyone enjoys the first coffee of the day will save volumes in emails and stress to your day.

I know that there are volumes written on email etiquette but unfortunately most people don’t read them. Try to make a “halfway through the year” resolution to try and get a better handle on how you and your staff deal with emails and try to encourage everyone to try the old fashioned way of communications once in a while. That would be actually speaking to each other.

Blogging

My topic this month is blogging. I know that many of you follow your favourite bloggers and it is always great to read their perspectives on the world. Blogging has become another way to get your message out there and you can generate a very large following in a short period of time. It does take dedication to keep a blog alive and well so if you are contemplating on starting one, keep in mind that faithful followers expect to see your words of wisdom on a frequent basis.

It is very easy to set up a blog. A common site to start blogging is www.wordpress.com. Some simple rules of the road for blogs are:
•Commit to a monthly or more frequent message.
•Keep in mind that blogs are available for everyone to read.
•If your blog is about your organization or business, keep it non-confrontational unless you want to stir up some good discussion.
•Read some other blogs first if this is your first time to get an idea of what others are saying on their blogs.
•Create your own style.

Blogs can be fun and informative. They are another tool to get your own or your organization or business’ messages out there.

So if you are so inclined and think that you have a constant message to get out there, give it a try. You may be surprised how easy it is and who will follow you.

Social Media

The topic this month is Social Media. Now I know that some of you may feel that this is a trend and have not been keeping up but have you really looked at how other organizations and individuals have really stated to use social media for their businesses or organizations? The world today is moving at a very rapid pace and social media is one of the medians that are helping it get there. Both young and old have embraced it and it has quickly become apparent that everyone has to get on board with this new means of communication and marketing.

So why should you jump on the social media train? Did you know that the average age of people using Face Book is between 45 and 60? Did you know that if Face Book was a country, it would be the second largest country in the world? Have you been watching how people and businesses use Face Book to promote their causes or businesses? Or how about just plain communicating?

So once the young ones figured out that we old timers were using Face Book, they moved to Twitter. Do you or your organization use Twitter to send out updates on what you are doing? Take a look at Twitter. Most media, politicians and prominent leaders around the world use Twitter. This has become the new way to effectively communicate with each other. It is instant, short (you can link to larger articles, etc.) and effective. It takes less time and many have discovered its endless possibilities.

It seems hard sometimes to keep up with our changing times but we all have to do it in order to ensure that we are effectively communicating with our clients or constituents. Give it a try- jump into the deep end! It is not hard to swim in the pool and you will have lots of company.

A tremendous book to read this month is “Patriot Hearts” by John Furlong. It is an excellent story on the Olympics and a superb lesson on leadership and teamwork.

And watch this one on social media. Some good material here: http://www.ted.com/talks/alexis_ohanian_how_to_make_a_splash_in_social_m...