Archive for the ‘Optimizing Personal Results’ Category

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Consequences of the “It’s Just My Job” Syndrome

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Are you one of those people who, when others thank you or pay you a compliment about your performance, reply, “It’s just my job?” Have you ever been on the receiving end of that assertion when you thanked someone who has helped you? Those who deflect people’s praise or acknowledgment short-change themselves as well as others.

Just as organizations cannot optimize their business results unless their employees are fully successful, individuals cannot optimize their lives unless they acknowledge and “own” their talents and the value they generate. After all, if you don’t believe you provide great value to others, why should anyone else believe it? I know a very conscientious handyman who does exceptional work yet consistently undercharges customers for both labor and materials. Why? He is afraid that people will not hire him because they think he charges too much. In fact, his rates are very low, and I know people who would love to hire someone with his talent and expertise at two or even three times his current rate.

What’s going on here? This individual, like too many others, does not acknowledge the value he provides. Unless he makes the first “sale” to himself – i.e., sees and honors the talents he uses to help others – he cannot communicate that value to potential customers. Similarly, those who brush off the admiration and thanks of people who experience their value essentially are denigrating their own talent and disrespecting those who benefit from it.

Public safety employees are notorious practitioners of the “It’s just my job” syndrome. Brushing off the public’s thanks for years now is having an unintended negative consequence: over time, people mistakenly have come to accept the assertion that performing law enforcement and fire service jobs really IS no big deal. As a result, during this time of exceptionally scarce resources, public safety agencies’ budgets are undergoing unprecedented cutbacks.

I’m not suggesting that close scrutiny of these agencies’ budgets is unwarranted or inappropriate. What I am saying is that after years of downplaying their value, public safety employees have their work cut out for them in terms of re-educating the public, and specifically those who allocate resources, about the complexity of their jobs, of the risks involved, and of the resources required to sustain the desired level of readiness.

The moral of this story: acknowledge the value you provide to others, and accept their gratitude. After all, if you downplay that value, how can others possibly appreciate it?

© 2011 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Aligning the Misaligned, Appreciative Approaches, Optimizing Business Results, Optimizing Personal Results, Public Sector | No Comments »

Planning for Life’s Transitions

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

It is said that there are only two certainties in this life: death and taxes. I would like to nominate a third possibility: life transitions. Human beings go through many transitions, beginning with the most basic one: our journey from baby to child to adult. Many life transitions can be anticipated, such as those from student to worker, from employee to entrepreneur, from one career to another, from childless individual to parent, or from worker to retiree. Then there are those changes that we often do not expect, such as transitions from worker to jobless individual, from married to single again, from “empty nester” to roommate of grown children, or from retiree to worker.

The question is, do you plan for life’s transitions, or are you more likely to wait and let them surprise you? I can make a strong case for the benefits of planning for change, whether or not we can foresee it. Especially since we live in an environment of permanent “white water” (i.e., a world in which figurative raging torrents, unstable currents, and hidden hazards are everyday occurrences), proactively planning for change can make the difference between being able to act opportunistically and having to react to whatever comes our way. Why not approach the inevitability of change as a source of opportunity, making the process of navigating it as easy and productive as possible?

One way to prepare for successfully seizing opportunities as they present themselves is to develop a personal plan similar to the succession planning process that an organization would implement to ensure smooth transitions. Below are some of the elements of such a process. If done on a regular basis, they can facilitate life’s transitions, both expected and unexpected:

    • A clearly articulated “big picture” that guides your career goals.
    • Strong commitment to the course of action you have selected.
    • Support of your goals by significant people in your life.
    • Identification of the specific competencies required for successful transition to your next position or career, or to retirement.
    • Periodic assessment of your existing knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies.
    • Effective measures of progress and achievement of your goals.
    • Realistic assessment of your current performance.
    • Implementation of your on-going professional development plan.
    • Periodic re-assessment of your personal goals.
    • Mindset that is ready for change and the opportunities it presents.

Whether your life transitions are expected or come out of the blue, you can increase your odds of dealing with them successfully by spending some time developing an on-going, systematic process that is agile enough to help you thrive during turbulent times. Why not do everything you can to ensure you are as successful as possible in playing out whatever hand life deals you?

© 2011 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Optimizing Personal Results | No Comments »

Let Your Light Shine by Living Up to Your True Potential

Saturday, December 11th, 2010

What are the things you are most passionate about in life? What would it be like if those things played a prominent role in your life every day? In what ways would the world, your community, your family, and you be better off if you were able to let your light shine?

Just as organizations often fail to see their true potential – i.e., the expansive vision of what they can achieve vs. the more common limited view – so do most individuals. Even “successful” people often have unrealized potential that they fail to see and/or acknowledge. Here are some examples of obstacles that prevent individuals from seeing what they really are capable of contributing:

    – They are not used to thinking in expansive terms, especially when it comes to their own abilities.
    – In some cultures, behaviors that are viewed as self-promoting are frowned upon.
    – They have limiting beliefs that block their view.
    – They have bought into the low expectations of themselves and others.

Here are six steps you can take to help you go beyond your perceived potential and see clearly your true potential:

1. Make the first sale to yourself.
You truly must believe that you have a moral imperative to share your talents with those who desperately want and need the value only you can provide.

2. Think really big, then triple that view.
Push the boundaries of your comfort zone. Follow the lead of one of my colleagues, Phil Symchych, who has resolved to “become comfortable with being uncomfortable” because he knows growth occurs only when we have pushed ourselves beyond our perceived boundaries.

3. Get the necessary support to help you envision and implement your personal “big picture.”
Ask for what you want and need. Surround yourself with those who believe in your ability to achieve your vision; jettison the naysayers. (If the latter are family members, minimize the time you spend with them.)

4. Keep your eye on the big picture.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the minutiae of daily life. Your vision is your touchstone; return to it often.

5. Align everything you do to your big picture.
Focus relentlessly on the big picture when making decisions, setting priorities, and allocating resources. Things that do not contribute to achievement of the vision should be jettisoned.

6. Celebrate success.
Living one’s passion is an on-going journey, not an event. It’s important to identify realistic measures and guideposts that enable you to recognize your progress as well as your achievements.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Optimizing Personal Results | 2 Comments »

What You Didn’t Learn in ECON 101 CAN Hurt You

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

What criteria do you use for decision-making? If the amount of resources (e.g., time, effort, money) is the sole criterion, you could be making the wrong choices. A concept from Economics 101 called “sunk costs” illustrates why you may need to re-consider your decision-making criteria.

The term sunk costs refers to resources you have expended that cannot be recovered or re-done. They are in the past and cannot be changed. Time is probably the best example of a sunk cost, as it cannot be recovered. Making a non-refundable payment on a product or paying for a service that’s been rendered are other examples.

The problem arises when people use sunk costs to justify or make decisions about current or future actions. The problem is magnified when the existing or proposed path does not serve them well. For example, when I was a professor, a student who found she disliked accounting after deciding to major in it stopped by my office to tell me how excited she was about the human resource courses she was taking. Given this discovery, it seemed logical that she would change majors, yet she decided not to do so. The rationale for her decision was that she already had taken most of her accounting classes, and she didn’t want that time and effort to go to “waste.” Sadly, by using sunk costs as her decision criterion, she continued to move ahead into a field she disliked rather than one she truly enjoyed.

Here are some other examples of poor decisions based on sunk costs. Do any of them resonate with you?

    – Continuing to move forward with a project that is no longer aligned with the organization’s goals because of the money spent on its development.

    – Retaining an employee who is performing poorly because of the investment made in his training.

    – Sitting through a play you find boring because you’ve paid for the ticket.

    – Deciding to keep your old car instead of buying another one because of the money previously spent on repairs.

In each of the above examples, relying on sunk costs to decide whether to stay the course or go in another direction results in negative outcomes. I suggest two alternatives to relying on sunk costs as a decision-making criterion:

1. Resolve to cut your losses. That is, forget what you’ve already invested, and make the decision based on other things (including costs) that you CAN control or change and that will result in a better outcome. For example, walking out of the play and using the time to do something that does appeal to you will result in a much more pleasant evening.

2. Replace the sunk costs criterion with this one: ask yourself whether the current or contemplated course of action will serve you or your organization well today and in the future. The answer to THAT question is a much more effective guide to action than using sunk costs. For example, retaining a poor performer doesn’t serve either the individual or the employer well.

For those of you who never took ECON 101 or who didn’t pay attention during that course (because really, who believed any of these concepts would turn out to be useful?), you might be interested to know that there are other concepts that are just as important in “real life” as that of sunk costs. For example, comparative advantage comes to mind – i.e., the notion that by doing only the things we are really good at and delegating everything else to others who are good at doing those things, everyone comes out ahead. What other lessons from ECON 101 have you found useful? Let us know!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Aligning the Misaligned, Optimizing Business Results, Optimizing Personal Results | No Comments »

What’s In a Name? More Than You Might Imagine!

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

What’s in a name? You might be surprised! Most people’s names are an integral part of their identity. After life itself, a name is the first thing parents generally give their children. It may be the result of long and careful thought, or it may be chosen to honor someone they admire or to continue a family tradition. It simply may be that the parents chose a name they liked. The point is that people’s names represent who they are. Names are personal.

There are some situations in which people’s names are changed for them. Alternatively, they may choose to change them on their own. For example, people often take new or additional names as part of religious rites of passage. On a more worldly level, some people may be given nicknames, or they may select their own. Records indicate that decades ago, many immigrants’ names were changed when they were processed into the U.S. at Ellis Island. They accepted the forced new identities because the urge to seek a new life in America was stronger than the need to hold on to the name they were given in their home countries. Changing one’s name when one gets married may be traumatic for some yet a welcome opportunity for others. For instance, those whose names are tied closely to their sense of identity or for whom there is a strong family connection may be reluctant to leave those monikers behind. Yet others cannot wait to shed their names, which may be cumbersome, or reveal something that their “owners” wish to leave behind (e.g., notoriety or fame), or cause implicit assumptions (e.g., ethnic identify).

For these reasons and others, names often are personal. So when others misspell or mispronounce people’s names, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they take such errors personally. If these “mistakes” are intentional, they might be interpreted as a sign of disrespect. If unintentional, they may signal lack of attention to detail, or indifference toward the individual. Because writers’ and speakers’ intentions generally are not known, people often assume the worst and take the error as a sign of disrespect. As a result, the relationship goes downhill from there – or never gets off the ground.

Here are two questions for you: when others spell or say your name erroneously, do you correct the mistake or do you let it go? Whatever your choice, how does it work for you? If you let the error go, you may find that continued exposure to someone who continuously misspells or misstates your name is analogous to a pebble in your shoe: initially a minor annoyance you decide is not worth fixing, its continuous rubbing ends up causing a blister or other injury that affects the way you walk. Now your body is out of alignment. Isn’t it worth taking the time to remove the pebble in the first place?

In the workplace, what happens when you don’t know your employees’ or co-workers’ names? Or worse yet, what if you know them but don’t use them? People have reported feeling invisible or de-valued when others don’t have the courtesy or respect to call them by name and/or to use their names correctly. Think it doesn’t matter? I’ll never forget the words of an information technology director of a large healthcare organization who was seeking another job: “My office has been next to the CIO’s (Chief Information Officer’s) office for three years. He doesn’t even know my name.” Is it any wonder that his colleagues and employees were leaving in droves?

There’s a really simple preventive measure you can take to ensure your employees and colleagues feel respected and valued: learn and use their names correctly. The return on investment (ROI) on the time spent learning names is huge. Think back to the time when your career was just beginning. Was there a person in authority in the organization, perhaps an executive or the business owner, who knew you by name? Or going back even further, was there a time when a teacher or a professor called you by name without having to refer to the class roster? Do you remember your reaction? Perhaps the experience of someone else’s knowing and acknowledging you left you with an added sense of importance and/or a greater sense of visibility.

I encourage you to learn and use others’ names. Watch the change in those around you when you do. Make someone’s day. It’s an easy and effective way to acknowledge and validate people who otherwise might believe they are passing through life unnoticed. And you might just feel better yourself.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Aligning the Misaligned, Appreciative Approaches, Employee-centered Workplace™, Optimizing Business Results, Optimizing Personal Results | No Comments »

How to Sustain Behavioral Change in the Workplace

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Given the dynamic environment in which we live, it should come as no surprise that some behaviors that worked in the past become ineffective over time. As a result, managers not only must persuade employees to adopt new behaviors, they also must ensure that workers sustain the desired changes over time. So what’s a manager to do? When asked to answer this question, I came up with over three dozen effective tools that help individuals sustain behavioral change! Here are five of them:

    1. Identify and focus on what’s in it (i.e., the behavioral change) for ME. The best motivator I know is enlightened self-interest. However, the key to success is focusing on individual interests, not on those of the team or the organization or the family.

    2. Create a very clear and compelling picture of the outcome, and explain how the desired behavior supports it. People who see the connection between behaviors and outcomes are much more willing to embrace the desired change and sustain it over time.

    3. Leaders must identify and demonstrate clearly the desired behavior. It’s not enough to say “Don’t do X.” You must go further and demonstrate (not just verbalize) the desired behavior, Y. People need a “picture” of the behavior you are requesting, something to replace the one that represents the current behavior. Otherwise they will revert quickly to what they know.

    4. Reinforce the desired behaviors. Make sure the infrastructure (e.g., performance management and reward systems) supports the desired behaviors.

    5. Celebrate successes along the way, not just final outcomes. This keeps the focus on the achievement of the desired behavior in the short-term as well as in the long-term.

The good news is that these tools work outside the workplace as well! To learn about three suggestions for how to sustain personal behavioral changes, I invite you to take a look at my article Promises, Promises: Three Ways to Achieve Lasting Behavioral Change in Your Personal Life. And let me know how YOU create and sustain lasting behavioral change!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Aligning the Misaligned, Employee-centered Workplace™, Optimizing Business Results, Optimizing Personal Results | No Comments »

How to Create a Personal Rewards/Recognition Program

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Do you reward yourself on a regular basis? If not, why not? If you do, give yourself a pat on the back – or whatever form of recognition works well for you! Paradoxically, perhaps, most people work best when they take the time to care for themselves. This includes rewarding or recognizing themselves on a regular basis. Yet to many people, self-care is a foreign concept. Recently I wrote an article that lists and describes six suggestions for developing a personal rewards/recognition program. Here are shorter versions of three of these ideas:

1. Identify the types of rewards and recognition that you value.

The first step in creating an effective reward/recognition system for yourself is being clear on what you want and need. This may require some outside-the-box thinking! Consider things that are meaningful to you and require little or no cost, such as taking a walk in nature, reading a good book, getting together with friends, or simply relaxing.

2. Experience the power of recognition.

Are you one of the many individuals who fail to give themselves credit for their achievements, or who refuse to accept recognition from others? If so, I have some advice for you: stop it! Instead, start listening carefully to what attributes or accomplishments others praise you for, and take ownership of the things they say. Allow yourself to acknowledge who you are and what you have done. Ask close friends or family members to identify some of your best characteristics or achievements, and reflect on the positive impact they have on others. Do not wait until you have finished a task or project to reward or recognize yourself; making progress is worthy of recognition as well. Incorporate meaningful forms of reward and recognition liberally into each day.

3. Connect rewards with performance that you can control or influence.

Few things are more de-motivating to people than being offered rewards for achieving outcomes over which they have little or no control. So why do they do it to themselves? Those who engage in this type of behavior are wreaking havoc on themselves and diminishing the quality of their lives. Instead, make sure that the personal goals you set for yourself are achievable. Break medium- or long-term goals into shorter pieces and celebrate your progress as you move along the path to completion.

For additional details about these ideas or to read about the remaining suggestions, I invite you to take a look at the article How to Optimize Your Personal Rewards/Recognition ROI. Then let me know your favorite way to recognize your achievements.

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Aligning the Misaligned, Optimizing Personal Results | 1 Comment »

What Training for a Marathon Can Teach Us about Business

Friday, June 25th, 2010

As I announced on this blog last month, I am training with Team in Training to walk the Nike Women’s marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This will be my eighth marathon with Team in Training, so I’ve had a lot of time to think about the parallels between training for a marathon and optimizing business results. In fact, while I was training for my last marathon in 2008, I wrote an article that listed 11 business lessons. Since that time, I’ve come up with two more lessons that have a huge impact on organizational success:

1. The importance of having a compelling value proposition

Team in Training’s motto, or value proposition, is “Saving lives, one mile at a time.” Wow! From a fundraising perspective, this statement provides a compelling reason for people to donate, whether or not they have had personal experience with a blood-related cancer (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, Hodgkins’ lymphoma). Who wouldn’t want to support such a noble cause? From a participant’s perspective, this statement provides the inspiration to join the cause and the motivation to continue as the training miles increase, and it is the reason you dig deep down to find the internal strength you didn’t know you had to grind out 26.2 miles and cross the finish line. What actions does your organization’s value proposition inspire?

2. The impact of sharing results

Whether people are considering donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society or signing up to train for a marathon, they want some assurance that their participation will make a difference. There are two ways that I help others understand the impact of their support. First, I share some compelling data. For example, thanks in large part to the Society’s research efforts, the survival rate of the most common form of childhood leukemia has skyrocketed from about 6% in the 1960s to over 90% today. Second, I put faces to these statistics by telling the stories of some of the people I have been honored to meet during my 16 seasons with Team in Training. Those stories relate how we celebrate the successes of those in remission, encourage and support those who are going through treatment, and renew our resolve to conquer the scourge of cancer to honor those who have lost their battles. What stories does your organization tell to demonstrate the value it provides?

If you would like to support my efforts to “Save lives, one mile at a time,” you may make a tax-free donation on my Team in Training web site. And watch for my progress throughout the season!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Optimizing Business Results, Optimizing Personal Results | 1 Comment »

13 Life-changing Lessons for High School and College Graduates

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Below are thirteen lessons that have transformed my life. The sources of these lessons represent a variety of wise people, some of whom I know personally and others only through their writing. As a former university professor, I offer them to graduating seniors as they set out on the next stage of their journey through life. Others are welcome to them as well!

1. Sometimes we have to let go of the good things in life to make room for the really great things.

2. Focus on your strengths, not on your weaknesses.

3. Face your fears; they never are as bad as you imagine they are.

4. We find the things we search for: whether we choose to look for the positive or the negative, we will find it.

5. Harnessing the power of the subconscious mind enables us to realize our dreams.

6. Life is much richer when we realize we live in a world of sufficiency.

7. Focus on the “what;” the “how” will take care of itself.

8. Who I am is good enough.

9. We’re looking for success, not perfection.

10. Allowing age to be a barrier to your dreams is a travesty. How old will you be in __ years anyway?

11. While we can’t always control every situation, we always get to choose how we experience it.

12. We are the only ones responsible for our feelings and our happiness

13. Use this criterion for decision-making: does [name the action or outcome] make your heart sing?

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Appreciative Approaches, Optimizing Personal Results | 1 Comment »

Only YOU Are in Control of the Quality of Your Life

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Have you ever been faced with a situation in which you are so fearful of something that it prevents you from enjoying life? Yesterday on a flight from New York to Long Beach, I sat next to someone who was very fearful about flying. The concept of a huge piece of metal filled with people and their belongings moving hundreds of miles an hour in the sky just didn’t seem natural to her. Throw in some turbulence, and she was a basket case. In talking with her about the basis for her fear, I learned it all came down to the fact that she had no control over the aircraft. As a result, she experienced flying as a nightmare.

The April edition of my newsletter, Alignment Solutions, contains a series of articles that may help people who find themselves in similar situations – i.e., those in which they believe they have no control over what is happening around them. Although it often is true that there are people and things in the environment over which we have no control, there is something we always retain: our ability to choose how we experience those situations. As a result, we have more control than we might imagine. In fact, making a few changes in our perspective enables us to recognize and focus on what we CAN control, thereby increasing our quality of life significantly. If you are interested in finding out how you can exercise your ability to transform your life experiences in a positive way, I invite you to take a look at these articles. And let me know what you think!

© 2010 Pat Lynch. All rights reserved.

Posted in Optimizing Personal Results | 1 Comment »

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