Objective Goals typically fall into the category of SMART goals. Most objective goals can be specific, measurable, achieveable, reasonable, and time bound. Such goals often relate to objective properties in the real world that you can appreciate with your senses. In many ways, setting these goals are easy – because they make sense. It is also easy to get help with objective goals.

Subjective desires on the other hand are much more difficult to work with. Subjective desires often relate to feelings or perspectives on a situation or problem. Desires like “I want to get better at handling stress” become much more difficult to work with in SMART terms. Others such as  ”I want to have more self confidence” are just as challenging.

Fortunately, there is a simple series of questions we can use to turn Subjective desire statements into Objective goal statements and make them easier to work with. Here they are:

1. What would different if you achieved your goal?
   This is a good question because it helps you get to specific behaviors and circumstances you can work on or create. Each of these statements of difference help to describe a potential objective goal or action step.
2. What am I doing now that I should start/stop/continue doing to help achieve my desire?
   In the same way, this question can help you get to specific actions or behaviors that you can change to achieve your desire. Each of these start/stop/continue items may be made an objective goal very easily. For example if you want to stop thinking judgmental thoughts, simply start counting them. Such a goal might be worded “I want to think 15 less negative thoughts a week by the end of the quarter.”
3. What is the emotion/need behind the visible desire?
   Often times, what we think we want is a “desire symptom” of a deeper emotional need, or desire. For example, many people want to lose weight in order to feel more attractive and be more confident with themselves. Others want to lose weight for the more “objective” reasons of health.

Asking these three questions should get you from a squishy desire into a much harder objective goal. If not, keep asking them. Eventually such questions will drive into an objective statement that you can work with.  This is the key to taking a desire out of the realm of inaction and fantasy and bringing it into a place where you can work to make it happen.

Turning dreams into actions isn’t a once-and-done process. It requires a few steps in the middle. The single most important step in the middle is to define the contents of the ideal future and write them down. In other words write down a goal.

Groan.

Goals are those annoying things that keep getting put aside while you do the real work of life. The good news is – if you write your goals correctly – they get done!

Here’s how you write an effective goal: You make it Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. In other words effective goals are SMART.

A specific goal is one that is very well defined. A non-specific goal would be “I want to lose weight.” Whereas a specific goal might be “I want to lose 10 pounds of body fat.” The difference is how objective the goal is. An objective goal by its very design is also Measureable. The more objective the goal the easier it is to solve it.

Goals must be measureable because if they were not, how would you know you are “done.” Silly right – but a poor (un-measureable) goal is much more challenging to finish. For example – if “losing weight” is your goal; when are you done “losing weight?” If “making more money” is your goal how much is more?

Achieveable goals are goals that can be achieved. Goals requiring the alteration of laws of time and space generally are not good ones. It is unlikely that you can become your own grandparent, or grow an extra appendage at will – regardless of how well crafted your goal statement. Less extreme examples requiring irrational amounts of time or resources fall into the next constraint: effective goals must be Realistic.

The problem with many goals that are well structured otherwise is that they are unrealistic. Losing 10 pounds of bodyfat by tomorrow evening is blatantly unrealistic. Determining if a goal is realistic might take more time or research. Do a bit of homework to see how others have attempted to achieve your goal. Look for failures and successes to help determine if your goal is realistic.

The last criterion of an effective goal is that it is time bound. A time bound goal is one that has a deadline. Having an honest deadline helps many of us stay focused on achieving the goal at hand.

SMART goals are the first steps into turning your dream into a reality. I’ll be going over the next steps in a forthcoming article. . .

Fundamentally, it is because the very notion of wisdom is difficult to understand. What is it, really?

Wisdom in a Nutshell

When I was young, upon coming to a door that was stuck closed, I would attempt brute force to open it. After a few minutes of thrashing and pulling and sweat inducing effort I would give up on that method. Then I would analyze the door and see if I could understand where and how it was stuck. Only after trying to understand the problem could I then devise an approach to open it. Thirty seconds of looking at the problem and 2 seconds of finesse resulted in an open door.

Wisdom is a form of knowledge – but processed in a special way. Wisdom is the applied understanding that comes from knowledge. When looking for wisdom in an employee they call it: experience, insight, expertise, savvy, or know-how.

The definition provided above explains the key problem with businesses and institutions that focus on providing wisdom. Such businesses like self-help publications and seminars; and social constructs like religious institutions; can’t directly teach wisdom. They can only teach around it, because wisdom emerges from the experience of an individual.

The benefit of wisdom is in the outcomes it creates. Wisdom cultivates enduring, positive outcome generating environments. Beyond the single result – when applied, wisdom lays the foundation for more results, or paves the way for more wisdom. An added benefit of wisdom is that it often provides business value along more traditional dimensions like: quality, speed, or cost.

A wisdom based approach to problem solving, for example, looks for “everybody wins” scenarios. A wisdom based approach to patient care is comprehensive. A wisdom based approach to sales focuses on relationships. Each of these approaches build better outcomes than “me first”, “symptom management”, “close the sale” approaches.

There are a few ways to acquire wisdom in a more direct fashion. First, cultivate relationships with those who provide honest and meaningful feedback on your behavior. Second, put yourself in situations that you have not experienced before. Third, cultivate mindfulness. While these aren’t the only ways, they are the clearest path to acquiring wisdom.

However you may acquire it, it is clear that wisdom is a good investment.

It is also a direct cause of apathy and loss of energy, and yields a lack of concentration and motivation that costs companies money and time every day.

These are the effects of stress on corporations and businesses in the United States.  And much of this loss in money and time, and the costs that result from accidents or mistakes due to stress, could be prevented – if company leaders and supervisors applied some simple management techniques BEFORE the problems occurred.

Stress in the workplace is a modern day hazard which has a powerful impact on a company’s productivity and the cost of health benefits.  There are three basic elements which are commonly misunderstood in managing stress.

First, the financial and productivity impact that stress has on an organization is much greater than commonly believed.  Second, to combat stress, management will usually invest significant levels of resources to determine stress levels in the company and perhaps invest more resources in plans such as health clubs and self-help groups.  But there are more simple processes managers can employ which do not require significant time or financial outlays.  Third, “stress” itself is not a standalone problem, but a step in a three stage process.

In addition, related health care costs and health treatment costs attributed directly to stress range from $100 billion to more than $200 billion per year.  Continued, prolonged stress weakens the immunization systems, which makes the body more prone to contracting illnesses that are caused by viruses which ordinarily would be fought off.  Also, alcoholism directly attributed to stress is up 25% each year for the past two years, according to published reports.  Occupational and safety concerns show that a s high as 80 percent of all industrial accidents are caused by stress.

In terms of productivity, research indicates that 135 million work days were lost by heart disease which was caused by, attributed to stress.  And a major side effect caused by stress is apathy and loss of energy concentration and motivation.  These characteristics have a direct effect on work output.

Additional stress-related costs involve expensive law suits.  Recent cases awarded employees compensatory damages for stress related claims filed against employers.  Such cases as Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. versus Industrial Commission and Royal State National Insurance versus the Labor and Industry Relations Appeal Board, entitled employees to seek damages for excessive stress.

But efforts to lessen or eliminate problems created by stress in the work place have proven ineffective in the past.  This is usually because organizations address the outcome of stress – which is “strain” – and not the cause of the stress identified “stressors”.   Managers have, in the past, grouped stressors, stress and strain under the one heading of “stress”.  Organizations cannot effectively reduce stress in the workplace until they understand the cause and effect of stress.

Stress is actually a three-stage process that involves stressors, stress, and strain

“Stressors” are actual events that create a state of disequilibrium in an individual.  Examples would be failing to get a promotion or the threat of job loss.  Stressors CASUE stress, which gives rise to feeling of frustration, fear, anger, inadequacy etc.  “Strain” occurs when stress reaches a point in which the organism (the body and/or the psyche) begins to show signs of damage.

Stress should be addressed proactively at the “stressor” level – before the side effects of stress take their toll on productivity or costs, or before the side effects can materialize at all.  There are some easy-to-implement steps managers can take to save their employees and their companies from the costs of stress and these steps do not require significant financial expenditures.  These steps address the major causes of stress in the work environment, as identified by a poll of employees

The top six areas identified as primary causes of stress are relatively easy for a concerned manager to address.  They are: Quality of feedback; role ambiguity; lack of training; rigid policies; inadequate career opportunities; and work overload.  Five of these six can be addressed by the astute manager.  Here’s how:

Quality of Feedback

Employees need to know how their performance is viewed.  That means good work should be praised and poor performance corrected when identified.    Feedback should be often, and specific.

Role Ambiguity

The inability of an employee to clearly ascertain his/her function or responsibilities is an avenue which induces stress.  A manager’s responsibility is to be able to detail both individual and work product expectations before any undertaking.  By clearly defining an individual’s objectives and tasks at the beginning of an assignment will help give the employee a clear understand of the manager’s expectations.  This will help alleviate role ambiguity.

Lack of Training

Not being adequately trained for a position is a major source of stress.  A manager’s responsibility is to have a good understanding for an individual’s capability and a good understanding of the skills needed before assigning any tasks.  Knowing the discrepancy between the employee’s skill set and the skills needed to handle a function is the area where training is required.  Identifying one or two primary skills the individual needs – and providing training in the areas – should give the employee enough of base to more confidently conquer assignments

Rigid Policies

Unfair or inappropriate policies also induce stress.  A manager’s responsibility is to be aware of the company’s policies and procedures and amend those that are excessively rigid or non-functional.  Also, it helps for a manager to be flexible when and where appropriate.

Inadequate career opportunities

Organizations are flatter now than in the past few decades.  Advancement needs to speak beyond typical moving-up-the-ladder career advancement opportunities.  An increasing trend in American business is the elimination of middle management positions.  As a result, company executives must re-think how to adequately motivate employees if they cannot promote as easily and quickly as before.  An answer to this problem could involve managers recognizing how employees can make larger contributions of talent and effort while giving them more diverse and challenging responsibilities.  In doing so, employers will create more energized, motivated, stress-eased employees.

Stress in the workplace has far-reaching impact on employees, productivity, and profits.  Recognizing these stressors and managing the causes of stress more effectively will help make a company more productive and, eventually, more profitable.

What is the best way to follow-up? Email, a formal proposal, a personal note … let’s look at the options.

Email seems to be the standard these days. It does the job of conveying the information you need, yet it can be impersonal and get lost in the sea of emails. Email is a great tool for quick follow-up, but does it differentiate you from the competition? Does it leave your client with a feeling of “that was really nice”?

How about sending a formal proposal? Again, it conveys the information you need it to, you may even include some great charts, graphs, and cool graphics. But what feeling does it leave behind? Yes, it shows that you are thorough but does it add to your relationship?

The best follow-up tool is a personal note. Joe Girard, the Guiness Book World Record Holder for best salesman, built his career on personal cards. Thank you notes, thinking of you cards, birthday cards and holiday cards are a great way to stay in touch with your clients while building loyalty and referrals. The Thank You Note has become a lost art form. It is something we are taught to do, we know we should do, but few of us actually follow up with one. You may actually have bought a box of cards, only to sit in the bottom drawer, awaiting your handwriting and a stamp. Many of us feel we don’t have time to handwrite cards. There are programs available that can make the process quick, inexpensive, and yet keep it personal.

Once you do land that new customer, are they made to feel appreciated and wanted? Why is it so important to make your customers feel appreciated? The truth is that the majority of customers leave because they don’t feel appreciated.  Customers have a choice of who to do business with, and they will give that business to those they like and feel appreciated by.

Did you know if costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an old one? Did you know the best sales force and advertising you have is in your current customer base? What are you doing today to make your customers feel appreciated and valued? Are they telling their friends and co-workers what a great product or service you offer? Or are they going else where for a better deal since they really don’t feel the need to stay with you since there is no strong relationship?

The effort you put into following up with your clients sets the tone for the entire relationship. Leave your customers feeling special and valued and they will reward you with a profitable relationship.

Beyond sending out an email with the time and place, the way a meeting is communicated can have tremendous effects on the outcome of the meeting.

A hand written invitation and concierge level support will set a completely different tone than a casual invitation delivered at a hectic outing. In fact, the art of delivering communications around the meeting has led to some extremely exotic invitations.

Apart from the invitation itself, ensuring that logistics are managed clearly is extremely important. Here is some guidance for managing the logistical communications:

• Communicate clearly and often. In the vacuum of space and time, people begin to build up false assumptions about what is happening. At minimum, once – if not once a week, send a note to the participants in your meeting letting them know that the meeting is still going to happen and what to expect or how to prepare.
• Don’t ask too much of your participants. If there will be lots of complex requirements for each person to go through in order to participate, consider creating a “hand-holding” system or process to help maximize your results. The more complex the requirements, the more frequent and more intimate the communication required.
• Blind Carbon Copy (BCC:) all meeting participants on mass emails (if you do that). It shows respect for your audience and prevents issues when one person replies tries to reply to everyone with personal information.
• Have each invitee speak to one, and only one, administrative contact. You can have one administrative contact manage around 50-100 participants on average.
• Don’t forget to have some “post event” communications as well. This can be “thank you” cards, or a survey, or the meeting minutes. You will miss the key opportunity to setup the next meeting if you do not follow up on the meetings you host effectively.

With so much competition for people’s time and money, half the battle is getting to your clients. Let’s say you do manage to book the meeting, now what? You’ve made a great presentation; you’re sure your new clients will be lining up to do business with you… but are they? Did you follow-up with them, or did you leave them flat and wanting more?  What kind of impression did your follow-up leave – that you pay attention to detail and value their business, or that that you were slow, inefficient and didn’t need them as a client? ~ Jill Pezza of ThePezzaConnection.com

Be planful about your communications and make sure they meet the guidelines above. This will help set up your meeting for success!

But what should you say and how should you say it? Don’t worry, I’ll get more into communication styling and content in a different article.

Employees are responsible for every part of a companies assets and untold dollars in liability. A single bad hiring choice can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do not let this happen to your company.

Use a pre-employement screening process to make sure you are getting what you want (and pay for). Pre-employment screening takes the form of a few different processes. I’ll outline them here:

1. Resume matching process – this is where you match a resume to a well designed job posting and see how they line up. If your candidate doesn’t have a good match – don’t move to step 2.
2. Initial Interview/Phone Screen – At this phase of the game, you are basically checking for two or three things – can they hold a conversation (with relative ease), do they give you the heebie jeebies (technical terms), and are they still interested in employment. RentASmartGuy.com Phone Screening Form.
3. Any Number of Face to face interviews – The meat and potatoes of the hiring process and the one most prone to human error. There are tactics on both sides of this equation – both for the individual getting hired, and the interview techniques of the hiring manager – tactics that involve the standard spy vs. spy style conversations. In the end, most prospects win on the intangibles – style, demeanor, and trustworthiness.
4. Pre-Hiring background check and drug screening (this seems late in the game for most companies for all the wrong reasons). Spend $100 and make sure you don’t waste $500 in the interview process rather than the other way around.

Most companies stop there and don’t include any other assessments. Thus the hiring process remains a process won via social skills. Objectively, it is difficult to truly assess qualifications other than certifications and degrees. Subjectively, the only real decision you make is – do you trust the person on the other side of the table.

Testing, however, brings some of that subjective conversation into the objective domain. It allows the hiring manager to see if an individual knows the skills, or knows how to talk about them (the difference could cost millions). Other tests can also check for intellectual and emotional liabilities, and even integrity. Adding a screening assessment to your hiring process is easy.

To add an assessment, you simply need to identify an assessment that will meet your organizations needs. There are hundreds of assessments available.  Work with your hr staff, or a business coach, to work with you to select the right one.  You might also consider conducting the assessment on the leadership and management in your organization so that the purpose and value of the assessment can be experienced.

Don’t forget too, that assessments provide a great way to develop yourself and your employees.

The venue for your meeting is absolutely critical. The venue for your event gives it credibility with your audience. A great venue can set the tone for great outcomes. A venue that is not appropriate for the content to be discussed can spell disaster and it creates a fertile ground for miscommunication of all kinds.

Venue Considerations:

• Location
  • Is the location convenient to travelers from out of the area?
  • Does the location have enough parking and other support facilities to assist you?
  • Is it central to key players in the meeting?
• Sound
  • Will participants need to be amplified?
  • Is there a backup plan to manage any disruptive noises?
• Light
  • Will you need to dim the lights frequently?
  • Does the venue have well lit corridors and parking?
• Visibility
  • If the meeting houses more than 20-30 people you may need to make special arrangements in order for everyone to see each other or the presenter.
  • Put any visuals high enough off the ground to make sure that all participants can see them
  • Watch your font sizes and word density on presentations because people in the back can’t read anything smaller than 20pt font
• Size & Space
  • Does the venue support a meeting of your size regularly?
  • Spaces that are too small are threatening to some and spaces that are too big scatter participants too far apart.
  • Does your venue support breakout rooms, prep areas, phone booths, study carrels, or green room style facilities?
• Seating
  • Will the meeting be a 8 hour torture fest in the world’s most uncomfortable chairs?
  • Can the venue arrange the seats in advance to support your style of meeting?
  • Does the arrangement of seating that you choose support your type of meeting?
• Remote Participants
  • Can people effectively participate in this event remotely?
• Technology Needs
  • Does the venue have the technology to support your event? Consider things like voice amplification, video playback, computer screen presentation, telephone, or video conferencing, etc.
• Biological Needs (Food, Breaks, etc.)
  • Can your facility support the biological needs of your audience? One unisex bathroom is insufficient for a meeting of 100 people.
  • Can the venue support food service, and of what type? Buffet style? Sit down meal with wait staff? Will there be snacks during the meeting?
  • Break length will need to be managed based on the length of time it takes your participants to get their biological needs addressed.
  • Multi-day meetings will need overnight facilities – does your venue have access to such or will they provide transit to those that do?
• Transportation
  • Does the venue provide adequate transportation services? If the parking lot is more than 150 yards long is there a shuttle? Does the venue have transit to and from major transportation hubs?
  • Consider logistics for indoor transportation when interior walking distances are excessive. Don’t have your participants park in the A wing of the building when the meeting is in the Z wing a mile away.

Having good answers to the points above will ensure that you have properly screened the venue for your event. While all the points above may not be relevant, getting them into your thinking process will bring your meeting hosting skills to the next level. Understanding what it takes to put on a fantastic meeting is the first step to getting outstanding results.

Here’s a free printable worksheet to help you select a venue for your meeting planning.

Computers are just complicated.

I hear people always talk about not doing things on a computer because it’s too hard. Isn’t this ironic, since computers are supposed to make our lives easier?  I agree that computers are not the most intuitive tools to use. By learning how the software was designed to be used – your tasks will be MUCH easier and less frustrating.

In most cases – the instructions and procedures are out there for your viewing, and FREE. Most applications have a built in help system that you can easily search. You can also go to the website of the software or hardware manufacturer and find a lot of information on the product’s usage, sometime they will even have “How To” videos to help you.

In person training may be a better solution for those who would prefer to be trained by a person, rather than reading on their own. There are many classes out there that teach you the functions/procedures for an individual application, or computers in general. There are even classes out there now for Internet applications such as Google and Facebook. Not only do these training classes teach you how to use the applications or hardware, some of these classes are designed to help you increase your business’ profits by leveraging these tools.

Your local computer consultant may offer in person private training classes as well.  By taking the time to learn all of the tools available to you, you will find using your computer to be much less frustrating, and a lot more productive.

Oops – The whole world just saw the message about your digestive heath you wrote to your best friend . . . a message which you thought was private.

Facebook and similar internet sites open up countless paths for your personal information to leak out. The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to not create an account or submit personal information to the website. If you must have an account, then take the time to learn how the site works, and read their privacy policy & FAQ’s. Checking & adjusting your security settings should be the first thing on your list after creating your account.

Specific to Facebook, you will be able to modify/adjust who can and can’t see your information, posts, pictures, updates, etc. Even that may not be enough to help you protect your privacy. You may want to consider taking a training class on Facebook to fully understand the usage and the consequences and benefits of these social networking sites.

Then there are other sites such as Spokeo. Spokeo is what’s called an aggregator website. It’s sole purpose is to search throughout the web, and compile a record of all information pertaining to each person. Then they offer all of the content as a easy to find record that contains anything and everything they can find about an individual.

Such  sites usually have an “opt-out” policy where you can submit a request to be removed from their results. The links to these opt out requests are usually well hidden and hard to find on their site though. If all else fails, and you believe there is an invasion of privacy, you may want to consider talking to an attorney for guidance.