Nerdistan

Why is it that 95% of people who set themselves goals fail to reach them? In one word: impatience.

The most important and difficult stage of goal-building is the immediate stage after you set your goals. In the first stage, there’s a brief blip of euphoria. But this soon passes and then you hit the arid plateau of learning. It’s in this phase that most people lose their way and give up.

But this is the phase when you have to hang in there despite appearances. Otherwise, it’s like digging up the seeds a week after sowing them. So, here, for those who need a roadmap through the arid plains of goal-building, is a 6-step guide to managing your impatience and keeping your plans on track.

1. Have Plenty of Motivation Reminders. One of the cruel tricks that life plays on us is to make goal-setting easy and goal-building hard. This is no more true than in the opening phases of working towards a new goal. When we choose a new goal that seems within our reach, we are full of excitement and anticipation. It’s like the start of a marathon when everyone cheers us over the start line. But the cheers soon become a distant memory when we move into the second phase, the hard slog. It’s in this phase that we need to have a ready supply of motivation reminders to keep us going. Here’s one I often use. It’s from Ray Kroc, founder of the global restaurant chain McDonald’s. Kroc was an amazing entrepreneur. He says that it is in the early stages of working towards a new goal that you learn the most: “When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot.”

2. Be A Fly, Not A Bee. The chief problem with the early stages of goal-building is that you can never be sure of the right way forward, particularly if you are breaking new ground. You try something and it doesn’t work. You try again and it doesn’t work again. And again. And again. That’s tough. But it’s essential. Because you’re learning. Karl Weick says that in this situation it is much better to be a fly than a bee. When you place a fly and a bee in an upturned jam jar, the bee will head straight for the light and repeatedly buzz against the bottom of the glass. The fly on the other hand will dive frantically around the jar exploring every corner until he finds a way out. That’s the example to follow when you want to succeed: be a fly, not a bee.

3. Accept The Struggle. Those who are eager to succeed often treat the second phase of goal-building as an unnecessary waste of time. They would prefer to skip it and jump to the next phase of success. But this is to misunderstand the whole point of the second phase. It’s there to toughen you up. You may have heard the story of “The Man and the Butterfly” about the man who saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. To help it out, the man cut a bigger hole in the cocoon and pulled the butterfly through. However, instead of flying away, the butterfly was unable to fly. Its body was too swollen. What the man did not understand was that the butterfly’s struggle to emerge through the hole forces fluid from its body to its wings and thus makes them strong and ready to carry its weight. Like the butterfly, we need to struggle to succeed.

4. Be Objective. In stage two of goal-building, it’s valuable to stand back and distance ourselves from what’s going on. We need to be tripeds not bipeds. Bipeds are people who see only themselves and others. Risk-taking is a do-or-die undertaking. Progress is either a triumph or disaster. Life is black and white, winning or losing. Tripeds, on the other hand, can distance themselves from their situation by finding a third position where they can observe things with objectivity. Life isn’t either-or any more. It has depth, colour, and many angles.

5. Don’t Judge Yourself. Our win-lose culture puts great pressure on us to consider ourselves at any moment in life as either winners or losers. This means that failure is a bad thing and winning is everything. One of the most quoted expressions in our modern culture is: “Failure is not an option”. But this is to misunderstand the real nature of success. We need to fail in order to succeed. And we need to fail big-time in order to succeed big-time. Practically every successful entrepreneur, from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, experienced failure many times over. But they didn’t judge themselves. They interpreted failure as “not succeeding yet” and saw it as just one more step on the road to success.

6. Manage Your Morale. Of course, it’s not always much fun to be stuck in the hard slog phase of goal-building. Nobody’s cheering any more. You have nothing to show for your efforts. And the dream still feels as far away as ever. That’s when you have to manage your morale. That means managing your stress, keeping things light, and working on the things you can’t see: your thinking patterns, your emotions, and your spirit. And, like the fluid in the butterfly, these may just be the things that will make you fly. “I can say: “I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won’t do it.” Or I could say: “Get used to being uncomfortable.” It is uncomfortable doing something risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?” (Barbra Streisand)

We human beings are very similar to the plant world. We grow best when we work with Nature and time. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to achieve your goals. If you hold on with faith, certainty, and determination, you’ll get there in due course when the time is right.

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

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After years of research on happiness, money, life and goals, here are some of my key findings.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and Pennsylvania State declare that, in a 1985 survey, the Maasai of East Africa were almost equally satisfied with life as some of the 400 richest Americans on the Forbes list. The Maasai are a traditional herding people who have no electricity or running water and live in huts made of dung.

Goal. Realize that making huge amounts of money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness. Maybe it’s time to stop competing with the neighbours for the flashiest car. Money, power, fame or status should not be treated as the goal, rather as resources towards more meaning and purpose. Perhaps the goal will be more freedom, control and health in your life.

People who are truly successful look at their values and live a rich and rewarding life created through healthy relationships, personal integrity, and discovery. They are not concerned with impressing others with wealth and status.

Goal: Spending more time with family, friends and the community can be an inexpensive yet incredibly rewarding experience as opposed to watching TV or shopping. Being honest with yourself and open to new adventures certainly adds spice to life as well.

People happiest in their jobs are the ones that remain truly engaged, learn something new everyday, and have a connection with different groups and networks.

Goal: Start learning new things. Discover your passions and build on them. Seek information. This is what leads to true meaning and purpose in ones career.

Summary. Being clear on your life goals leads to a much more satisfying life.

1) After basic needs are met, money doesn’t buy much more happiness.

2) Our relationships with others provide some of our greatest values and inspirations.

3) Connecting with your work and continuously seeking value adding information makes life much more satisfying.

Please consider this article for your website, blog or ezine. Permission to reprint if by-line stays intact and
links are activated on the Internet.

Terry Vermeylen is one of those rare people that is passionately driven to help others unlock their own barriers toward fulfillment, meaning and purpose. He is the founder of http://www.mylifechanges.com/, an Internet value identification and goal setting enterprise.

Like every beginner, I have thought you could beat, pummel and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.

- Ray Bradbury

This is a key rule; create a contract with your subordinate that simply says: Your subordinates get the credit when things go well and you will take all the blame when things go wrong. The main reason subordinates will not take risks is that they are hung out to dry when things go wrong or someone else takes the credit when things go right.

To help your subordinates develop their leadership skills to the fullest potential you must delegate duties and assignments in greater degrees of complexity. Leaders are developed best through experiential projects or assignments rather than textbooks and manuals. As each new assignment is completed on time, but perhaps not perfectly, the level of difficulty must be increased. By adopting this tactic you are communicating the message clearly that your trainee is expected to perform at a high level of effectiveness and manage his or her time wisely. Your subordinate must take risks in order to satisfactorily meet your requirements.

The first step is to clearly outline what the assignment is and its corresponding time constraints, resources available, which by the way includes you, and what the expected outcome is to determine if the assignment is to be considered a success. Don’t forget to allow time for questions. Provide a brief overview of why the assignment is important. Also include who, what and where the most likely areas of support and challenges will come from. Establish a schedule of meetings to monitor progress. These meetings should be brief, no longer than fifteen minutes. Now that you have set your subordinates up for success cut them loose and let them get to it.

There are two things that happen when subordinates take risks; one is good and the other is not. However, both results have a tremendous impact on the willingness of your leader in-training to take future risks. The first is the assignment goes well, it is completed satisfactorily and on time. You must make a public acknowledgement of the accomplishment and make sure that he or she gets the credit for a successful outcome.

The second result is that the assignment does not go well or is completed after the deadline. There may be a number of valid reasons why the outcome was not what was required. Conduct an after action review to learn what when wrong and how this result can be prevented in the future. This process will contribute to the learning experience.

You must be the person to stop this practice. Simply approach your subordinate and say “We can fix this,” then begin to assist your subordinate in taking the necessary steps to correct the assignment and give practical guidance to prevent a reoccurrence. If you follow this process faithfully your subordinates will continue to take on more challenging assignments and risks.

This practice demonstrates that you mean what you say, you are a person of character, you are making allowances for their professional development experience and you are not going to deliberately let them fail. The result of this process is that you will have an extremely loyal and competent staff whose performances will far exceed those of their contemporaries. Your reputation will spread throughout the organization as a leader’s leader who trains the future leaders of the organization.

Remember when you adopt the practice of “We can fix this” you turn success into a given when your subordinates are assigned a task.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:
© Copyright 2006 GreatestStrategies.com, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, http://www.greateststrategies.com

Kenneth E. Strong, Jr., MS, is co-founder 0f http://www.greateststrategies.com a web based community devoted to educating, supporting and developing life-long learners

Mr. Strong has been a Health Care executive for 30 years. Mr. Strong received a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration from Providence College and a Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Salve Regina College He has had articles published by the American Geriatric Society and has spoken on a variety of topics for the American College of Health Care Administrators and the New England Not-for-Profit Providers Conferences. Mr. Strong has also served as Adjunct Professor at Stonehill College. He is also an evaluator for the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission and a certified Retirement Housing Professional. He is certified by Walden University as an online instructor and certified by Langevin Learning Services as an Instructional Designer/Developer and Master trainer.

Anyone who has been involved in escrow administration of a mortgage company will agree this is one of the most complex areas of loan servicing. Hundreds of thousands of tax bills, hazard insurance premiums, flood insurance premiums, PMI premiums, and MIP premiums are paid by escrow departments around the country every day. Millions of dollars are routinely disbursed from escrow accounts and remitted to tax offices, insurance companies, private mortgage insurance companies, and HUD. Millions of escrow accounts are analyzed each month and mortgage payments are increased or decreased. Changes to mortgage payments result in customer inquiries that must be researched and responded to.

It is no easy task to see that all real estate taxes are paid on time, that properties are adequately insured, and that PMI and MIP premiums are paid; and at the heart of escrow administration are escrow analyses. The staff members involved in conducting escrow analyses must be well trained and have a good understanding of all aspects of escrow servicing.

In addition to handling taxes, insurances, and analyses, the escrow department deals with loss drafts, PMI cancellations, and in some companies, customer inquiries. Also, they deal with lender placed insurance. If a property not previously in a SFHA is later determined to be in a SFHA, the escrow department notifies the customer that flood insurance is required. Flood insurance is placed on the property, if the customer fails to provide a policy. Many customers do not agree that their property is in a SFHA and resist purchasing a flood insurance policy. Lender placed insurance, whether it is flood or F&EC, frequently results in telephone calls and complaints from customers.

If all of this isn’t enough, these functions must be performed in compliance with state and federal laws. Indeed the escrow department has been severely impacted in the last few years by changes brought on by HUD’s Final Rule for conducting an escrow analysis, the Homeowners Protection Act and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requirements for PMI cancellation, HUD’s regulations for cancellation of FHA premiums, and flood insurance regulations.

Department managers, supervisors, and employees of escrow departments have a great deal on their plate. However, the process works and works well in most cases because escrow departments are made up of talented and dedicated people. Unfortunately, in spite of their best efforts, errors can occur that create problems for the customer, and for the company.

There is one item that can help the escrow department immensely and that is employee training. There are always new employees coming on board that need training and seasoned employees that need refresher courses to strengthen what they have already learned. Everyone will agree that a well-trained employee is more productive and generally happier with his or her job. An effective training program creates a much higher quality of work and usually reduces employee turnover.

Depending on the size of the company, an employee may be trained only on the particular function assigned to him or her. In this case, it is difficult for the employee to understand how it all fits together and how one function impacts another function. An employee responsible for escrow disbursements may not realize how a processing error will affect the customer. Generally, new employees are trained how to process their work, but unfortunately they are not always taught why the work they do is important. They may not understand what the ramifications are to others if the work is not performed correctly. If they were provided with all the background information and an understanding of the components of escrow servicing, their work would be a lot of easier. This would result in the overall success of the escrow department.

The need for ongoing training exists in all business types. Some companies rely on a department’s management team to provide training. Since managers, supervisors, and other employees know the company’s internal policies and procedures, they are wonderful resources for providing training. However, these same people are key players in the day-to-day management of the department and may find it difficult to find time to provide training. Ongoing training classes should be structured with dedicated resources to provide the training needed. There can never be too much training and training is one of the best investments a company can make.

Teach employees “why” and not just “how”.

Linda Chandler
www.mortgageproducts.org

Those that have successfully made the transition from manager to leader have found the importance of continuously asking questions. Constantly receiving feedback from front line workers enables aleader to understand what is going right and where improvement is needed. At the same time, the leader is showing interest in the front line workers through these questions. However asking questions can become harmful if two key steps do not follow them.

First, it is important that the leader acts on what was learned from the questions. If a front line employee offers information about a problem they expect to have the issue addressed. Effective leaders have been able to eliminate unnecessary paperwork, streamline operations, improve customer responsiveness, and many other positive results. The employees that make these suggestions translate these changes as an indicator of their value to the organization.

Second, the employee needs to be provided with recognition once the leader has implemented a solution to the employee’s suggestion or complaint. Although traditional leaders believe this has to be monetary, the reality is that employees are very happy with verbal recognition. In the event a solution was not possible, the employee should still be acknowledged and provided with details about why the policy or procedure change, or the suggestion could not be enacted.

Here are some sample questions to ask in your daily contact with your employees. Notice the questions take a positive aspect to focus the employees on what is going right. An effective leader practicing active listening skills will listen to the hidden message and then probe for underlying frustrations from a positive point of view.

1. How are we providing the support you need to accomplish your work?

2. What are you finding most rewarding about your position?

3. What is your favorite part of your work?

4. Do you have any ideas to improve processes or procedures?

5. What customer interaction was most pleasurable today?

6. What is the most productive use of your time?

7. Do you have any ideas of how our organization might save money or time?

9. What is the silliest thing we have asked you to do?

Remember: Ask the questions, listen to the answers, enact solutions where possible, and value the employee with verbal acknowledgement of results.

This is just one of the best practices of today’s most effective leaders. Max Impact offers a seminar for leadership team reviewing this and other great ideas and tips with an emphasis on things participants can put into immediate action. For more information call 248-802-6138 or send an email to info@getmaximpact.com.

Rick Weaver is an accomplished business executive with a wealth of experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain enhancement, project management, team building, and process improvement. Building on a strong retail background, Rick moved to full supply-chain involvement, working with hundreds of companies to improve sales, processes, and bottom-line results.

As Rick’s interaction in varied industries expanded, he became troubled as he increasingly noticed that people and companies had untapped or unfocused talent.

Coupled with Rick’s passion for training and development, popular style of interactive workshops and seminars, and strong desire for continuous improvement, he founded Max Impact Corporation to be singularly focused on helping individuals and organizations achieve high performance.

Rick is a popular speaker at seminars, workshops, and conferences. He has spoken in 43 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and in Canada and Puerto Rico. He is available to speak at groups of all sizes.

Driving down the road our eyes frequently scan the vital instruments on the dashboard that monitor speed, fuel level, coolant temperature, and oil pressure. The modern vehicle also has many more devices that constantly monitor various systems for fuel mixture, exhaust gasses, timing adjustment and others. If there is something amiss, sensors trigger the “check-engine” light. As long as the instruments register within their normal range the “check-engine” light stays off and we drive along confidently that we will reach our destination safely and without problems.

Just like an automobile, a business is a complex system with many factors to be monitored. Sales volume, past-due accounts, cash-flow, employee turnover, new customer acquisition, inventory turns, margins, balky vendors, and quality measurements are just a few of the endless number of systems vital to the health of a company. It is difficult, if not impossible to watch all these systems constantly so I advise business owners to create a few, vital measurements to scan daily in the same manner we scan our cars’ dashboard, then delegate a second set of items that others monitor. When things go outside normal levels they are instructed to inform you in the same way the computers in your car turn on that “check engine” light.

Of course each business is unique. Each has different needs and different items to monitor. Ask what is vital to the safety of the company, to smooth, efficient administration, and to increased customer satisfaction. Determine the factors that measure these important aspects of your business.

Design a dashboard to measure activities and tasks that are vital to your business. Monitor the delegated systems that alert you to matters that suddenly become abnormal. With a dashboard and delegated monitoring systems your business will arrive at its destination safely and profitably.

You don’t want your car to run out of gasoline or your business to falter by running out of a vital resource so keep looking at your dashboard.

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler” Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com Questions??? Send an email to larry@larrygaller.com

This article borrows from Howard Gardner’s book, “Changing Minds” (2004). In order to get people in conflict to cooperate or collaborate sufficiently to settle or resolve their differences, and perhaps achieve reconciliation, it is necessary that they change their minds. The reason they are in dispute is because they are of two different minds about a particular thing, which is what they are fighting over. People do not change their minds easily. Some people are prepared to be burned at the stake, literally, rather than change their minds, or admit to a change of belief. People cling to the artifacts of their own minds with great stubbornness. This is called resistance. When a mediator seeks to bring parties together, she will encounter resistance. If there were no resistance, if changing minds was easy, there would be no need for mediators.

Howard Gardner has identified six R’s, which are helpful in helping people to change their minds. They are: reason, research, resonance, re-description, rewards and real world events.

Reason is employed by way of the use of argument in order to persuade.

Research is used in order to collect facts, also with the purpose of persuading, often a mediation is a conflict between competing facts.

Resonance appeals to the feeling part of the human personality. Does a proposal feel right? Some people rely heavily upon resonance, and prefer it to a reasoned and researched position. Orators and advertisers seek a message that will resonate their audience.

Re-description can be profoundly effective. Matters are often expressed in the negative, but when changed into a positive form of expression, convey a completely different and more attractive meaning. Mediations are often a persistent attempt to re-describe the problem in order to make solutions seem more attractive.

Rewards are an important part of any negotiation, and are usually accompanied by penalties. This is often known as the “stick and carrot” approach.

Real world events can have the effect of changing parties’ perceptions completely. Such events may be quite trivial, like going out for lunch. After lunch, what was said in the morning and rejected out of hand may, with the benefit of the simple event of several hours passing and a meal, seem much more attractive.

The ever-present problem of the mediator is that parties do not want to budge, but unless there is some change they start to get impatient. So the job of the mediator is to continue to make some progress, so that there is a perception of movement. This is necessary in order to keep the parties at the negotiating table. So it is helpful to the mediator to be able to play upon the six R’s, developing a facility with each one, in order to keep the parties going through the process in a productive way. Ultimately, the matter must be resolved, not by the mediator but by the parties themselves. The combined focused attention of their minds is what will accomplish the result that they have come to mediation to achieve. The mediator, by using the six R’s, helps to maintain the process to its successful conclusion.

Charles B. Parselle is a mediator, arbitrator and attorney. He graduated from Oxford University’s Honor School of Jurisprudence and is a member of the English bar, then was admitted to the California Bar in 1983. A practicing attorney, he is a prolific author and sought-after mediator. To consult him, please contact him through his website: http://www.parsellemediation.com

“Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let’s explore why leaders fail to do what is expected, wanted and /or needed. You got this “hot shot” manager who pushes everyone around because he’s the boss. Employees hate him. You don’t care for him, either. How did he become a manager with that nasty attitude? He’s out of control. Let’s take a train ride on the leadership express. First stop is organizational culture. Ideally, organizations should promote leaders with high, morale character. Organizations make the mistake of promoting high achievers with no people skills and little integrity. That leader becomes a cancer and destroys any team chemistry in the organization. That leader does not model the way for employees. Yukl, a leadership expert, notes that the values espoused by a leader should be demonstrated in his daily behavior and be done consistently. Second stop is leadership theory. Leadership is more than a pretty face, nice body, and a glowing personality (aka the Trait Theory). According to Hackman and Johnson (leadership gurus), early researchers assume that an individual’s physical/psychological features were the best indicators for leadership success; however, there is no guarantee for getting a good leader on this criterion.

Finally, last stop is character. It’s important for organizations to select the right leader as the first prevention mechanism. Character does count. Employees want a leader high in integrity. Therefore, an organization should be careful in selecting their leaders. Organizations should select a qualified leader, but the leader should reflect the organization’s values. Do you respect your leadership team? If not, why should your employees? Build your leadership from the inside out. Start today and improve organizational chemistry..

References:

Hackman, M. & Johnson, C. (2000). Leadership: A communication perspective. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Delhi, India: Pearson Education, Inc.

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in strategic leadership. For more information,visit his website at http://www.darylgreen.org

Get a grip. Is it possible to manage time? Can you make the clock run faster? Can you make it run slower. You have no control over time. Each of us begins the day with 86,400 seconds. It’s your personal inventory. You use the time or you lose the time. There are simply no alternatives. Each week has 168 hours, no more no less. While managing time is out, managing yourself is in. Remember, as Henry Ford once said, “Don’t complain, don’t explain.”

Here are ten techniques for achieving more in less time.

1. Get up 30 minutes earlier every day. Do the math and see how much extra time it gives you over the span of one year.

2. Take a course in self-management or one in priority management.

3. Commit to keeping a time log for one entire week. Record every activity and the time you give it. Your time time busters will become very apparent.

4. Throughout the day routinely and quietly ask yourself, “Am I making the very best use of my time right now?”

5. Never do a task if there is a more important one to be done. Never! Foregoing priorities gets you off track more than anything else.

6. Build flex time into every day’s schedule to allow for the unexpected. To do this is wise, not to do this is foolhardy.

7. Buy a timer. Time all phone calls, meetings, and projects. There is nothing more precious than your time. Don’t you squander it and don’t permit others to steal your time.

8. Set aside one hour every week getting rid of things (personally and professionally) you don’t need and can live with out. It’s called simplifying. Most of us have too much stuff that we can live without.

9. Take a few moments to write your own epitaph. Really do it. After you write it, look at it, and ask yourself “Is this the life I’m leading?” It’s never too late to make changes in your life. I take that back, it’s probably too late when someone else starts writing your epitaph.

10. Learn to say NO! Try saying it firmly and softly at least once a day to any unreasonable requests. In my new book, “57 Ways To Take Control Of Your Time And Your Life,” I devoted an entire chapter on The Art Of Saying No. It’s on page 73. Use this link to get your copy. http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/javanof.asp?MerchantID=39581&ProductID=1568139

There is a reason why you need more time. It’s because you’re attempting too much. Plan your life and plan your days. If you want more balance in your life . . . schedule it.

Jim Meisenheimer is the No-Brainer Sales Training Guru.
His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas
that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by
contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or e-mail: jim@meisenheimer.com

Use this link to sign-up for Jim’s FREE No-Brainer Selling Tips
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