Day 123 | Teaches Only...

My friend, Art Grecko, reminded me recently of an old Aldous Huxley quote that I encourage you to consider as you complete this week:

Experience only teaches the teachable.

Dear Leaders, how many times have we repeated an error because we were not teachable at an earlier moment when someone else caused a problem or we made a mistake?  The honest answer is too many.

And by the way, look in the mirror on this one rather than think of others who do this.  You only have full control over yourself.

BUT (there's that big "but" making excuses again) you were too busy...  You procrastinated (for years)...  You blamed someone else instead of learning from the experience...  You moved too quickly to think about it, or thought a lot about it, yet did not take action...

As you head into the weekend, consider how well you are doing on your annual goals and confirm you achieved your 3Strands for the week.  Then consider the events of the past week.  Identify one thing that happened where you can be more teachable, consider how you can apply what you learned, commit to change, and implement a new habit or system that improves your life and positively affect the lives of others.

It is only one thing.  You can do this.

Most Important Thing To Do

The most important thing you may need to do this year and in the future is free.

 I mentioned this in a recent email, but I want to give you more detail and encourage you to try this for the next two months.  Let me know how much it helps you focus on what is really important each week.

This activity is called Sanctuary.  It is a weekly discipline of self-accountability. Here is an expanded, simple outline for your weekly Sanctuary time:

1. Be systematic. Set aside the same 30-120 min. weekly. Do not look at or interact on email, cell phone, texting, instant messaging, or other distractions during your Sanctuary time.
2. Review your mission, vision, and values.
   • Have you been demonstrating these company culture cornerstones in your actions?
   • How often are decisions being made in your organization based on these cornerstones?
   • What needs to be done for you and your people to better live these out in the upcoming week
3. Review your current year's goals. Hold yourself accountable to progress weekly.
4. Review your 3Strands from the prior week. Hold yourself accountable to 100% completion weekly. This is not a to-do list that lives on forever.
5. Define your 3Strands for the upcoming week.
6. STOP. Identify activities you did this past week that you need to delegate to others.  Confirm you are focusing your time on what you do best.
7. Apply part or all of steps #2-6 to each of your key direct reports to focus your leadership in the week ahead.

One of the biggest challenges we have as leaders is FOCUS.  Pilot the Sanctuary discipline for the remainder of Q1.  So far no one has completed the full Sanctuary experience and concluded it did not help them.

We teach people who are in management positions, but have never been taught systematic leadership, to be GREAT Leaders instead of "Bad Bosses."  If you want to be a better leader, or would like to discuss your specific employee or company culture issues, then email me.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership;  inspiring others in Meaningful Work;  and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Sanctuary

Lee Iacocca turned around Chrysler Corporation decades ago.  One of the systematic actions he took that he credits as being crucial to his success was what I call "Sanctuary."

Every Sunday evening he would separate himself from the family to go to his study.  There, without any interruptions, he would review his key objectives of the prior week to confirm how well he had done on them, and define the key objectives he had to achieve to keep the company solvent in the upcoming week.

What is a simple outline for your weekly Sanctuary time?

1. Be systematic.  Set aside the same 30-120 minutes weekly.
2. No interruptions.  No email, cell phone, texting, instant messaging...
3. Review your 2014 goals.  Hold yourself accountable to progress weekly.
4. Review your 3Strands from the prior week.  Hold yourself accountable to 100% completion weekly.  This is not a to-do list that lives on forever.
5. Define your 3Strands for the upcoming week.
6. Consider how you spent your time this past week to identify things you can stop doing and delegate to others.  Confirm you are focusing your time on what you do best.
7. Repeat steps #3-7 for your key direct reports to prepare for how you can best serve them in the week ahead.

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME (that you asked for)!

1. How are you doing on your 3Strands this week?
2. Have you defined your 2014 goals? 
3. If you have defined your 2014 goals, have you looked at them this week?

Stay on track.   Email me if you need help.

Pick Your Battle

You are rushed and have no extra time. You are wondering whether to even scan this newsletter past this line. The answer is in your answers to these questions:

1. Are your people showing up for work or are they working to the best of their ability?
2. Are your people consistently creating positive memories for clients or are they memorable in other ways?
3. Is there meaning in your work or are you working to find meaning in what you do?

If you do not like any of your answers to these questions, then why not schedule 30-60 minutes to:

1. Get out of the office and consider what needs to happen in 2011 for you to answer these questions differently.
2. Schedule a free conversation with me to discuss the battles you want to win in 2011 and beyond. 
3. Do the first two items above, and then develop a plan with your people, me, one of our coaches, mentors you trust and/or your spouse (if applicable) to confirm what you are going to do differently this year.

Tomorrow a tsunami may roll in, an earthquake may hit, a nuclear reactor may blow, a drunk may kill someone you love or another unforeseen tragedy change your life. In 2011 you will invest over 2,000 hours on the job. Doesn't it make sense to invest at least one of those hours to confirm you are fighting the battles that are truly most important to you?

Yesterday was the Ides of March 2011. In 44 A.D. Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March at the pinnacle of his career. You can choose the battles to fight, or the battle of busyness will kill your productivity for the remainder of the year. It's your choice.

PICK YOUR BATTLE is a reminder that it is easy to be busy, but great leaders are clearly focused on why they are working and what they are trying to achieve. Here are some ideas to how you might clarify your purpose and allocation of your time for the remainder of this year:

Ask yourself and possibly your team to questions from above:

• Are your people showing up for work or are they working to the best of their ability?
• Are your people consistently creating positive memories for clients or are they memorable in other ways?
• Is there meaning in your work or are you working to find meaning in what you do?

Consider the fact that you only have so much time available to you. List your top priorities based on the time you are investing at work and any other priorities which actually should be receiving your time. Estimate the financial or other type of impact of each priority. List them in order of importance based on their impact. Discuss which priorities need to stay on the list and how you will build accountability into your week so that you and others are focused on these key priorities rather than other distractions.

Start scheduling Triple Play time weekly where you:

• Tech Out: Turnoff all technology so you are not interrupted as you work.
• Schedule Out: Schedule the time (30-120 minutes in blocks) on your calendar so it happens.
• Shut Out: Close your office door and put a sign on it that no one is to disturb you.

Two Lists, Not One

Many of us start each week with a task list of the most important things we must get done. This is good.

Most people when working on a project, service ticket, resolving a problem, building something or in a variety of other activities also create a list of steps to complete to be successful.

Both of these examples focus on the tasks or work that needs to be done.

We are developing methods to teach people the steps they need to follow to develop strong customer and coworker relationships. Although a lot of the time you do not follow a written list to build, maintain or improve a relationship, you still are following a series of steps or tasks.

Jeff Wood of Wood Networks calls these two approaches a list mentality versus a relationship mentality. A technical person is used to working a list, but not intentionally taking actions to work to build a relationship. The alternate extreme is to focus on the relationship, but not do the activities necessary to get work done.

Jeff states and I agree that to be successful we need to do both, and we need to train our people so they have the skills to do both.

Therefore if your people are strong completing tasks, then how can you train them to better develop positive, lasting relationships with clients and coworkers?

If your people are strong at developing relationships, then how can you help them develop better skills to focus on achieving what is most important each week and hold them accountable to those goals?

Tasks + Relationships = Balanced Success

Meeting Ideas

TWO LISTS, NOT ONE is a reminder that our ability to achieve our most important, job-related tasks is equally important as the relationships we maintain with clients and coworkers. To excel in one and disregard the other increases stress, mistakes and lost opportunities.

Here are some questions to consider with your people about how well they are doing balancing relationships and key tasks:

1. List your three greatest strengths and weaknesses in managing relationships with clients and coworkers. Share ideas on one thing you could do to further build upon each strength and improve in each area of weakness.

2. List your three greatest strengths and weaknesses in defining key tasks to be done each week and completing them. Share ideas on one thing you could do to further build upon each strength and improve in each area of weakness.

3. Schedule to work on one strength and one weakness each week for the next three weeks. Confirm this focus with your boss and if you meet regularly with coworkers, your team. Report back to them weekly how you are experiencing improvement in these two areas, and if not why not.

Do What You Love

Something was missing in my work. My typical schedule is up at 5:00 a.m. and leisurely read two chapters of Psalms, one chapter of Proverbs (matches the day of the month) and one chapter somewhere else in the Bible. A little prayer time... on to email to see if there is anything urgent... take a breakfast break... and then the day goes non-stop.

I love my work, but I have not found time to write. I am not the best writer, but when I have a topic that really interests me it is a deep passion that gives me great joy.

So this week I changed two things:

1. I get up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. (I am going to bed 30 minutes earlier too.)

2. After the study/prayer time, I spend one hour writing. Then I move faster through the rest of my morning so the net result is a loss of 15 minutes of less of my day, BUT I was able to write for one hour!

What is your passion about your work? Are other requirements crowding out your passion? If the answer is "yes," then I recommend you build Sanctuary time into your days (plural) to pursue your passion. (No outside communication or interruptions. Just focus on a meaningful activity.) This morning I got up earlier after a poor night's sleep, BUT I was wide awake all day - particularly as I was writing early in the morning!

Do not let your life get so busy that you leave out the best, whether your best is time with your family, a hike to see the waterfalls this time of year or maybe a project that you have delayed two years (like my writing)!

OVERWORKED / UNDERJOYED is about making certain at least part of your work is doing what you love the most. This not only makes work more fulfilling, but will make you more productive throughout your day.

Here are some ideas for discussion during your next staff meeting to consider how to be more overjoyed than overworked?

1. If you could be doing any type of work today, what would it be?

2. Why would that work be meaningful to you?

3. How could this work benefit our company?

4. What work activities are you doing that do not significantly contribute to your achieving the desired results you have set with your boss and/or team?

5. Can you stop doing that work, or delegate it to someone else with your boss' permission?

6. How much time each day would you need to do this work? Can it be done by working more effectively for the same or less hours than you do today?

7. What needs to happen so we can try a pilot for one week, then one month and then one quarter to try you pursuing this passion and then evaluate how it is affecting your overall performance?

Remember to Take Regular Breaks

In my book I encourage readers to take regular breaks which I call "Sanctuary."  I suggest a short walk, stretching, exercise and a healthy snack.  Just get away from your desk for awhile!

Well, USA Today on Monday of this week had a column that confirms we all need Sanctuary and possibly even more physical activity each day.  Based on a study of 8,800 Australians over a period of six years:

"People who watch TV (or sit in front of a computer?) for at least four hours a day are 80% more likely to die of heart disease than those who watch less than two hours a day."

This is important!  A Canadian study of 17,000 adults confirmed similar results, even if you are slim and exercise.  Apparently our bodies are meant to be in motion.  When we stop moving for long periods of time our muscles go silent, like they are dead.

What can you do?

1. Practice Sanctuary - take breaks every two hours to stretch and walk.

2. Get up and pace a bit when on the phone.

3. Have stand-up meetings with people (this also encourages shorter meetings).

Check out the USA Today article if you want more details.  Another added benefit of regular physical activity is you will be more focused and energetic during the day.  You actually get MORE WORK DONE when you take regular, short breaks! 

Meeting Ideas

Is Your Job Killing You? is a reminder that we cannot just sit for hours at a time and pound away on our computers.  It is unhealthy and there are alternatives - for instance, just get up!

Here are some ideas for discussion during your next staff meeting to consider how your people can develop a healthier lifestyle simply by building habits of movement at their desks and office.

1. How long do you typically sit at your desk without getting up?

2. What kind of stiffness do you have when you get up after a long time of sitting?

3. What stretching do you do regularly at the office?

4. How do your snacks or lunch provide energy instead of just sugar, calories or caffeine?

5. What are three things you can do NOW to regularly move your body more during your workday?

Do This For YOU

Can you perform your best without any training or reinforcement?

No. Have you EVER been trained the best way to:

• Resolve conflicts

• Manage meetings

• Delegate work

• Give engaging presentations

• Set and pursue goals

• Manage your time

• Work more productively with co-workers

MANAGEtoWIN is sponsoring the release of Success Scenarios, which teaches these skills and 17 other critical behaviors/habits you and your people need to develop to save time and achieve your career goals.

Success Scenarios is pre-recorded webinars, mp3 files, PowerPoint summaries, e-books, study guides and weekly insights via email. It teaches and helps make certain you apply what you learn. It is designed to help you as an individual or your team (each subscription supports up to 100 people).

Be intentional. Everything you need to develop 24 critical business soft skills is included in Success Scenarios so you can become the best you can be. Every day you wait costs you time and money.

Too Many Ideas

Are you like me? I am having so much fun helping people becoming more effective leaders that I'm overwhelmed with ideas to improve the way people are managed on the job.

Some of you struggle to come up with new ideas. Sorry. I can't relate. If that's your issue then consider teaming-up with an idea generator.

However having too many ideas is a curse as well as a blessing. How do you manage the "Idea of The Moment Club" going on in your mind and still get work done? Here are a few tips:

Define your system for idea management

I have replaced my paper file folders with computer folders and MS-Word documents for long-term ideas so I can add to them easily. When I get an idea then I write it or add the link to the Word document. Links do go away so you may want to copy and paste info from the website into your document. Big ideas get a folder so I can add PDF's and other digital documents. I add to short-term ideas as a Microsoft Outlook Task (no reminder).

THE BENEFIT: Ideas are not lost. It is quick and easy. Over time ideas develop into something valuable or fade.

Work within boundaries

Idea chasing can waste hours of each day. Jot down the inspiration and toss it aside until you can enter it in your system. Do not start searching the web to validate or expand upon your ideas.

THE BENEFIT: Your important work gets done, which creates opportunities to pursue more ideas!

Be thankful and humble.

Be thankful you get ideas. Living in the past is an easy way to go nowhere. Living in the present is a blessing. Having a vision for the future is exciting! Balance your thanks with humility. Skeptics, analyzers and others question the value of our ideas and their perspective often has value. Be a good listener. The "fertilizer" they throw at you may be just what your idea needs to grow.

THE BENEFIT: Enjoy the thrill of new ideas and listen carefully so you can leverage the naysayers' perspectives to improve your vision.

Keep thinking!

Early Birds Rock!

In today's hectic world you have three choices to get productive work done:

1. Stay late to work

2. Arrive early to work

Schedule Sanctuary time is where you turn-off all communication and interruptions to get work done (Sanctuary can also be a total break from work to exercise, have a healthy snack and clear your mind.)

My preference and strong recommendation is to arrive early, but let me come back to that in a moment. All three of these intentional behaviors help you get more work done than during the majority of your typical work day. Here is why.

1. No phone calls, emails, instant messaging, texting or Twitter - and if there is, you should turn them all off

2. No distracting voices in the background

3. Nobody appears at your desk to ask a question

4. Quiet

Here is why I strongly recommend being an "early bird":

1. You gain a feeling of accomplishment to start the day, which reinforces a positive, can do attitude

2. Start early and quit early, or at least on time so you have hours with your babe, kids, family and/or friends

3. You are more likely to complete tasks that lead to your achieving your key annual objectives

Early birds rock! When I used to work on the floor of the stock exchange in San Francisco I was in at 5:30 a.m. and off by 2:30 p.m. My tennis game was never better and my wife looked great in her outfit. We loved it. How about you?

Consider being more intentional with some of your work time so your most important activities get done without overworking.

Hang Loose in Balance

As a result of our business is taking off I have to prioritize my time more effectively. I can no longer do everything I want to do, but must rather focus on my real needs.

How about you? I remember years ago I contacted Guy Kawasaki. At that point he was getting over 700 emails a day. How do you keep up with 700 emails a day? What about instant messaging? Texting on your PDA/phone? Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Whatever else...?

Get real people! Forget Internet bandwidth. You do not have the bandwidth to actively participate in most of these venues.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Focus on 1-3 key objectives each day, or if that is a struggle, just 1-3 each week.

2. Respond to every email or phone message. REALLY! Guy Kawaski responded to me in 1-3 words... not sentences or paragraphs. Have the foresight to treat others the way you want to be treated, even if they are in sales. Just keep it brief. If they push it, then politely cut the conversation short or do not respond.

3. Focus on one key objective each day. (See #1 above.) Once you get good at that, then focus on achieving two key objectives each day. If you can hit three a day then you are maximizing productivity or setting objectives that are too easy. That's your call.

4. Let it go. Do not stress. Be realistic on what your absolute needs versus what you want to accomplish. If you are getting the most important things done, then you will find a way to delegate, postpone without damage, or drop other activities.

I call this, "Hang loose in balance," because you are still driving to accomplish great things at work but now you can enter into personal activities with less stress. You are letting go of some wants to achieve all of your needs.

Life is way too short! Just let it go.

Don’t Show Me The Money

According to 84 percent of 1,200 U.S. adults age 18 and older who participated in a new poll from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for State & Local Government Excellence, health insurance is the most important factor in choosing a job. (Reported by SHRM.)

Check out where pay lands - 10th! (You’ve heard this from me many times. Compensation has only been the primary reason someone chooses a job in one survey that I’ve seen over the last 5 years. Effective leaders engage employees based on results and relationship, not strictly rewards.

The rankings were:

• Health insurance plan, 84 percent.
• Job security, 82 percent.
• Environment with clear policies and procedures, 82 percent.
• Retirement or pension plan, 76 percent.
• Flexible, family-friendly workplace, 71 percent.
• Getting quick decisions on work issues, 69 percent.
• Working with talented managers, 68 percent.
• Potential for promotions, 66 percent.
• Being creative and intellectually stimulated, 66 percent.
• Amount of total compensation, 65 percent.
• Making a contribution to society, 64 percent.
• Reasonable work commute, 63 percent.
• Having independence and personal autonomy, 57 percent.
• Working with others from diverse backgrounds, 50 percent.
• Amount of vacation time, 46 percent.

Making Telecommuting Work

Currently we have people in California, Wisconsin and Arizona. The question comes up, how can we be certain everyone is fully contributing their best efforts?

BusinessWeek magazine had a brief article edited by Michelle Conlin (Out of Site, Yes. Out of Mind, No, February 18, 2008) about this issue. It was great to learn Hewlett-Packard offers a personality test for workers so they can determine whether they can work effectively remotely. We offer our Talent Assessments to identify winning behaviors and values rather than personality, but the concept is similar. Our experience is matching behaviors and values is more reliable than personality.

According to the article IBM researchers have determined if teams of people go more than 3 days without gathering then their happiness and productivity suffers. IBM now requires managers to bring teams together at least once every 3 days - physically or virtually - for discussions or activities that often have nothing to do with completing assignments.

What’s the most important ingredient in making telecommuting work? Trust.

That’s why it’s so important for you to hire the right people in the first place. Recently I was talking with a company in who is interested our services. His struggle is the people he hires do not behave as expected once they start in their job. We can fairly easily solve his problem. If you are having difficulty hiring great people, email us (info@successwithpeople.com) to learn how we can help.

Let’s make 2008 our best year ever. Have an awesome day!

Layoff Opportunity

Employment consulting and legal firm Career Protection says that according to their January survey of more than 1,300 corporate executives and senior-level officials there will be a 37 percent increase in layoffs this year compared with last year. (Workforce 1/29/07)

Yet it depends on who you survey. The majority of our clients sell productivity tools that have a reasonable return on investment so even if the economy cools off a bit their business should remain steady. Currently virtually all of our clients are growing and struggling to find people to hire!

No matter how the economy is performing the key is to manage your people systematically so employees are fully engaged, productive, and fulfilled in their work. If there are layoffs coming then be one of the fortunate companies that is hiring great talent that becomes available, rather than having to let them go.

What can you do now? Wise leaders are choosing one area of talent management - hiring, managing day-to-day, employee development or retention - and taking this opportunity to make their company better at it than they are today. Shrewd business people take advantage of business downturns. If you need help on how to best focus your efforts, let me know.

Talent management ideas from the top 100 companies of 2008

Fortune magazine has an article in their February 4 issue titled, The 100 Best Companies To Work For. Our teaching is designed to provide you with a foundation for talent management. One of the benefits of being systematic in talent management is that leaders can incorporate good ideas into our system.

Here are some ideas to more fully engage your people based on this article:

#5 Genentech: You get doggie day care, and onsite farmers market, and 100% matching up to 5% of your pay into your 401(k).

#6 Cisco Systems: CEO John Chambers won praise for his leadership and new blog, On My Mind, which solicits employee ideas.

#12 Nugget Markets: Last year they took the entire company whitewater rafting = throw a year and bash.

#13 Umpqua Bank: Pay employees to give 40 hours of volunteer time annually.

#17 David Weekley Homes: Because the home building industry slowed they canceled their annual reward trip and tripled severance pay for laid-off employees.

#22 American Century Investments: New hires get a copy of the founders book, and many teams put up deskside banners or buying new recruits for lunch.

#32 Rackspace Managed Hosting: Every other month they hold a Open Book meeting were all financial issues are shared.

#35 TDIndustries: One way they demonstrate their “Servant Leadership” philosophy is to not pay anyone more than 10 times anyone else’s compensation.

#37 Johnson Financial Group: Six weeks paid paternity leave, graduate tuition reimbursement up to $10,000 a year, and child care reimbursement when you travel.

#45 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: Employee referrals account for 46% of new hires.

#51 Paychex: Average amount of training per employee is 107 hours.

#57 Ernst & Young: In just three months during 2007 E&Y built the fastest growing recruitment group on Facebook and now has more than 12,200 members.

#60 Alcon Laboratories: They match employee retirement contributions 2.2 to 1.

#64 EOG Resources: They match charity contributions up to $60,000 per employee per year.

#66 Nixon Peabody: It targets 3% of billable hours annually for pro bono work.

#68 eBay: Maybe this is too much - golf lessons, bike repair and on-site dentist, prayer and meditation rooms, plus a four week paid sabbatical after only five years.

#83 AstraZeneca: If you like eBay then you’ll like this company’s on-site haircuts, video rentals, massages, tennis and basketball courts, plus a Bright Horizons childcare center.

#86 Microsoft: In just 3% of their budget in employee training.

Time Saving Tips

Readers Digest has an article in their January 2008 issue titled, How to keep from being overwhelmed - Get A Grip by Ron Geraci. I like the article because it not only reinforces several of the time-saving tips that I teach it provided a couple of new ones.

The time-saving tips that I regularly recommend that Readers Digest reinforced:

1. Seek Sanctuary time each day or at a minimum each week where you turn off all forms of communication - email, phone, PDA, instant messaging… and close your door to totally focus on an important piece of work. I thought it was interesting that one college freshman mentioned in the article goes gadget free every Sunday.
2. Set more realistic expectations of your availability. You do not have to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Not even for customers.
3. Stick to a schedule. Set times when you will do personal web surfing as well as when you will get key work done. Trying to look at every email that pops up is a productivity draining distraction.

Here are some tips from Readers Digest that possibly we all should consider. My favorite is by far #1:

1. Add a statement below your email signature that says: “I answer email at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. If you need a quicker response, please call.”
2. If you catch yourself doing some unscheduled web surfing, ask yourself, “should I really be doing this now?”
3. If you feel alone even though you are communicating with people all day, could it be a signal that technology is dominating your life? Talking to someone face-to-face is often much more of a boost than sending a text message, email

Effective executives are experts at managing their time so key priorities get done. In a great week!

Hiring Woes

Our Clients are still hiring and today I was reminded of one reason why: Unemployment for IT workers has fallen to an all-time low according to CIO Insight analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

My friend, J. R., forwarded me an article titled, Damn the Economy! IT Employment Rises to New Heights by Eric Chabrow in CIO Insight magazine. While overall unemployment creeps forward, joblessness among business-tech pros reaches a record low. When the government started tracking IT unemployment in 2000 the rate was 2.2%. Last year joblessness among American IT workers averaged 2.1 percent last year down from 2.5 percent in 2006.

Overall U.S. job growth in 2007 inched forward 1.1 percent, compared with the 8.5 percent gain within the IT ranks.

What does this mean for leaders? I think you know the answer.

1. Hire carefully rather than desperately. Make sure you get the right people on board in the first place.
2. Manage systematically so you are consistently fully in gauging your people based on their natural strengths behaviorally and most passionate values.
3. Reward and recognize people based on achieving results regularly.
4. Meet with people one-on-one on a regular basis to confirm they are enjoying their work and plan to continue with your firm. Listen carefully to concerns and respond promptly and comprehensively.
5. Make certain your people understand they’re doing meaningful work.

The article further reports: “Of the eight IT occupations classified by the government—managers, computer scientists/systems analysts, computer programmers, computer software engineers, computer support specialists, database administrators, network/computer systems administrators and network systems/data communications analysts—only one saw a decline in the number of employed. That occupation, computer programmers, employed 526,000 people last year, a loss of 6.4 percent.

“As fewer companies develop custom systems combined with the increased use of offshoring for coding applications, the ranks of employed programmers in the U.S. has plunged by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the decade. Yet, the need to fill the coding jobs that remain in U.S. offices continues to be strong, as reflected the relatively low 2.2 percent unemployment rate among computer programmers.“

Obesity Concerns

The Pacific Research Institute reports that 17% of children today are obese and that number climbs to 66% by the time they reach adulthood. For employers the question is does obesity affect productivity?

The answer is yes. I can give you lots of quotes from studies that indicate when people are overweight they miss more workdays due to sickness and struggle with other ailments. Excessive weight due to poor diet and lack of exercise can affect productivity in other ways too. However what I want to touch on today is a warning: Be careful what you conclude based on the headlines you read. Do not be quick to categorize any employee as obese.

Not everyone will agree with the Pacific Research Institute. I certainly do not all of the time. They are very conservative group that believes government should be a fraction of its current size (that much I like!). However their perspective is worthy of consideration. Sally C. Pipes, the president and chief executive of the Pacific Research Institute and the author of “Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer,” wrote an article for Washington Post titled, Brave New Diet, which appeared on December 26, 2007.

According to PRI the standard government metric for ”…a person’s body-mass index, or BMI – the ratio of one’s height to one’s weight. But at best, BMI is a rough tool that does not take into account an individual’s body type. A six-foot-two athlete who weighs 210 pounds would be classified as ‘obese’ according to BMI charts – despite his 32-inch waistline, 17-inch biceps and his less than 6 percent actual body fat.

“If you believe the BMI tables, most of the best players in the NBA and NFL are “overweight,” including superstar athletes Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady. Many Hollywood heartthrobs also qualify as fatties – Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise and George Clooney, to name a few.” To read the entire article, click Brave New Diet.

My point is there is a benefit to your company and employees to encourage everyone to eat healthy foods and exercise on a daily or at least 3x a week basis. The best place to start is with you as an effective leader. You set the example and then encourage others. If you cannot find the time to exercise, then do not be a hypocrite telling others they should do what you refuse to make a priority in your own life.

One great example of making a significant life change in this area is presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. He has lost over 100 pounds through improving his diet and exercising.

Let’s all improve our diet and be more consistent in our exercise so we have more energy than the competition to do the best job possible.

Jack Welch on Celebrating

Jack Welch recently spoke at a major ScanSource Impact Now event in Orlando, Florida late last year. VARBusiness magazine and their web counterpart, ChannelWeb, reported on his comments.

As we enter 2008 with the intention to fully engaging our employees in achieving our objectives, I thought one area of Welch’s comments were a particularly important strong reminder.

He asked the audience to raise their hands if they felt they celebrated their success is enough. Few hands were raised and many of them tentatively. “You better be thinking hard about why you’re not celebrating more,” he responded. “The whole game is to excite that talent out of the people around you and see them be rewarded — that’s the joy of managing.”

The 2008 economy looks like it’s going to be a roller coaster, yet most of our clients are anticipating strong growth after coming off a strong 2007. We are too. I encourage you to recognize people for results and celebrate success throughout the year. Do this monthly if not weekly and or spontaneously. Have fun with it!

Employee recognition and celebration are two of the most important things to do as an effective leader. It is a key to success. Enjoy the week!

Comp Reviews

I was with a new TMT client of ours yesterday. Are you wondering what our TMT program is? I’ll talk more about that on Monday. It’s very popular!

When we got to the point of talking about their performance reviews and compensation reviews, we discussed the value of having these as separate events. However this particular business is very virtual. Most of the employees are consultants and there is not one large office where people congregate on a regular basis. Scheduling people for separate compensation reviews is a challenge.

The problem with combining a compensation review with a performance review is the employee doesn’t really focus as much attention to the performance review because they just want to learn how much more money they can make. The pending compensation review is kind of like having an elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Although you’re reviewing the employee’s performance, they’re mainly thinking about the “elephant” and wondering how long it will be until you talk about it.

He has a great solution: He talks about the compensation review first and then provides the detail that validates the compensation decision (the performance review) second. He he talks about what’s most interesting to the employee first, which is their compensation, and then they review the individual’s performance.

If you have to combine your compensation and performance reviews, then I recommend you take this approach. However, you should be prepared that if the compensation increase you propose is less than the employee expects, then it may make for a more tenuous performance discussion. Brooding, complaining, shuffling of feet…