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How to Create a Commit Goal
Learn what a commit goal is and what you should consider when creating one. When you set goals, I encourage you to set two kinds of goals. The first is a commit goal and the second is a stretch goal. A commit goal is something you’re committing to do for the organization. If you miss it, you can get fired. There should be extreme consequences for missing a commit goal. To build your commit goal, work from the bottom up. Work directly with your team and have them make commitments to you as far as what they’re going to deliver for their goals. You’ll then need to reconcile the team’s commits and make sure they all add up to your commit to your organization. At one point I had three different teams and we were tasked with a major cost reduction project. My boss came to me and asked me how much cost reduction would I commit to removing from the system. I went to my teams and I asked them how much cost they could take out, and I asked them for their goals. They gave me commit goals of one and a half million, two million, and three million dollars, for a total of six point five million dollars that they would commit to. When I went to my boss, I hedged on that number a little bit and I told him I could commit to six million dollars. Now, he knew better and he knew I was hedging a little and he pushed me on it. He eventually got me to a point where we negotiated and I committed to six point two five million. Over the plan period, we exceeded that goal and we hit seven million dollars of cost reduction. Obviously there were no negative consequences for the team, but the result of having that […]
Employees Experience Distractions Every 31 Minutes: What Leaders Can Consider Before Making Decisions on Returning To the Workplace
A recent survey conducted by Mopria Alliance shows employees experience 77 distractions per week. Phil shares how employees are affected by work environments. Today’s post is by Phil Mazzilli, Marketing Working Group Chair for Mopria Alliance. After COVID-19 pushed employees out of their offices and into their homes, we’ve gained a new wealth of knowledge on the benefits and pitfalls of working from home versus in an office. As a leader in the printing industry, the pandemic got me thinking about how this new work-from-home environment was affecting how employees interact with their workspaces. What equipment would companies need to supply their employees with? Would we see any shifts in employee behavior? And perhaps most importantly, how would a work-from-home model affect productivity?
How good of a negotiator are you?
Our reader poll today asks: How good of a negotiator are you? Excellent: I’m rigorous in my approach and usually successful: 15% Good: I generally use the same process and get decent results: 46% Average: My approach is haphazard, and results are hit or miss: 25% Not good: I lack a real approach and find success elusive: 11% Poor: I don’t know how to negotiate, and I usually have bad outcomes: 3% Are your deals coming up short? Almost 40% of respondents acknowledge their negotiating skills can use some improvement. Even if you’re not negotiating contracts or big deals, you’re negotiating every day. Time off, project resources, deadlines, project scope, promotions, raises, and even where to eat lunch are all negotiations. If you don’t prepare, expect to come up short in your deals with others. Any good negotiator knows that preparation is key. Understand the other party, their interests, your interests, and what concessions you’re willing to make. A little bit of prep can go a long way in terms of achieving negotiating success. – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
How to Set Zero-Based Goals
Use this common budgeting technique to set goals that are more relevant and actionable. When you’re setting goals, you can borrow a technique from a common budgeting process called zero-based budgeting. What you do is look at last year, forget about it, and then look at where you are today and what you can achieve going forward. Every dollar you’re going to spend in the budget is justified. And every number you’re going to deliver is based on your current reality.
Which Comes First: The Entrepreneur or the Company’s Brand?
Learn how your personal brand and your company brand can influence each other. Today’s post is by Lida Citroën, author of Control the Narrative (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Where do personal and company brands intersect? Should an entrepreneur seek to establish their own name first, or focus on the company brand to launch? Unlike the chicken/egg predicament, when the entrepreneur builds their personal brand first, establishing their presence and representing their vision, passion, talents and mission, the company brand becomes proof of that vision and an element of fulfilling their mission.
How do you handle a situation where someone backs out of a commitment they made to do some work for you?
Our reader poll today asks: How do you handle a situation where someone backs out of a commitment they made to do some work for you? It doesn’t bother me unless it’s a huge deliverable that will fail: 23% I accept it, don’t say anything, but then don’t give them work again: 24% I express my dissatisfaction, pull the work and don’t give them work again: 35% I try to hold them to their original commitment and make them back out of others: 18% A variety of ways to deal with missed commitments. There seems to be no clear consensus on how respondents deal with someone backing out of a commitment to deliver work. Some of you aren’t bothered while others directly express dissatisfaction or try to hold to original commitments. The bigger question here is how to make sure you don’t end up in this situation in the first place. Some suggestions are understand their workload fully before asking them to commit and push back if it seems like they’re overextending themselves. Also make it clear it’s acceptable to ask for assistance and it’s best to do so early in the project rather than later when it’s harder to recover from missed commitments. Finally, establish regular communication to stay on top of progress and identify risks early so you can act on them sooner. – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
Focusing and Eliminating Distractions
Learn how to identify distractions and focus your team on the most strategically important initiatives for your organization. In a fast paced world, there is no shortage of distractions. Side projects, interesting new ideas, and the crisis of the day can divert resources from key strategic initiatives. In isolation, pursuing these small ideas make sense, but when you put them in the broader context of your strategic initiatives, you get to see exactly how nonstrategic these distractions are. You have to remind people of their priorities. Eliminate these resource-draining distractions. Chasing these ideas prevents your strategy from being executed.
9 Lessons for Leadership Success No One Teaches You About
Learn nine principles that can help you become a better leader. Today’s post is by Angela Civitella, a business leadership coach and founder of Intinde. Most employees have big dreams of one day having the big title, the corner office, and being able to lead an organization. Industry knowledge is certainly part of the job, but it won’t make you a great leader all by itself. This is where leadership skills come into play, and without having an exceptional grasp of them, your days at the top will be short-lived. How do you learn these skills? They aren’t taught in school. There’s no formal on-the-job training about them. In fact, most great leaders will tell you that everything they know about leadership they learned as they went along. Even things they thought they knew proved to be off or not exactly as they expected. It was only after rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty that they learned these lessons by doing. Regardless of when and how you learn about leadership, if you want to lead an organization and do it successfully, there are nine things you have to know. 1. React to opportunities. Don’t sit back. There are two types of people: those who sit back and watch, and those who act. Great leaders watch for less than a second and are quick to take massive action. Always be thinking more about forward motion and less about right or wrong. Remember, in most cases, you can fix a mistake later. When an opportunity is gone, it’s usually gone forever. If being indecisive is something you struggle with, set a time limit. When time is up, force yourself to act. Don’t just act causally. Act with purpose and full intensity. 2. Stop micro-worrying. Micro-worrying is frantically trying to […]