A Special Announcement

August 29, 2010

Special Note: When this post went live, some of the links were not working.  That has now been corrected.  All links are working properly.

I am very excited to announce the release of 2 new books I’ve compiled this summer!

The first is a collection of wisdom for every professional entitled: Wisdom@Work – Insights for 21st Century Worklife Success. Get more info. or order – click here: https://www.createspace.com/3456926

The second is The 1% Edge – Strategies to Increase Your Management Effectiveness. There are 2 releases here. One is the handbook and the other is the workbook counterpart which is the expanded version with a series of coaching questions for each. The handbook is available now. To learn more or buy – click here: https://www.createspace.com/3467099

With this new announcement also comes sharing an exciting change related to this blog. This blog will now be replaced with a new blog related to the new book – The 1% Edge. It will serve as the interactive counterpart to the book for supporting information and a place/forum for purchasers of the book to share experiences and best practices as they apply the principles of the book – in essense to build a community of managers to support their professional efforts.

The blog is open to everyone: www.the1percentedge.blogspot.com.

Even if you’re not a manager with a title, it will additionally have tips to help you gain your 1% edge for career management success!

This blog will be ending in the next few months.

Again:

For practical coaching, tips, advice for career and management success visit: www.the1percentedge.blogspot.com

For commentary on currents news and trends related to leadership, career, and management – go to

www.leadership-careerandmanagement.blogspot.com

To your success!

JoAnn

How Effective Are You?

How Effective Are You?
In the realm of time management, the word effective is used quite often.  In fact, there is usually a comparison made between effective vs. efficient and of course, both are needed for professional success.

As a reminder, a common definition of effective is doing the right things at the right time to get the best results. However, in this post, I’d like to expand our thinking around the concept of being effective.

I believe increasing our “effectiveness” is more important than ever in creating and maintaining value to our organizations. It’s a must have and do career strategy.

An Expanded View
Consider effectiveness to not only be getting the right things done at the right time, but additionally identifying and  addressing needs, identifying potential solutions, and getting high-impact results.  In essence, effectiveness is beyond just executing tasks.

If this expanded view of being effective is to be realized, then what’s needed in order for this new version to occur?

Consider the following:
1.    Broader knowledge of the players involved in key situations, their roles, their strengths and weaknesses.
2.    A clear understanding of the core needs of the company.
3.    Identification and laser focus on the core needs of internal and external customers and how your role (and that of your team or department) addresses and impacts those core needs.
4.    How does the specifics of your job description contribute to the above.

Compiling the information to the above will craft a bigger picture from which to work to develop and increase your effectiveness. In fact, you may need to volunteer to tweak your job description.  There are a lot of job descriptions out there that are not “value based” job descriptions (meaning they are more about being busy than get high-impact results).

From this big picture access how you go about your work week, what you do with your time and how the tangible results of the day impact this big picture.  If you’re a manager, do the same with your team.

Then ask yourself this question, “Am I getting things done or am I getting things done that also impact the bigger picture.”   Getting things done that impact the greater picture are high impact results.

The irony of productivity is we can go a full work week, get things done and yet have little to no activity that significantly address the big picture.

Coaching Tip: Plan and work with the big picture in mind. Make sure to track and language your performance with this in mind. This is a beneficial strategy in performance reviews.  You can communicate and show how you’ve demonstrated results with more value.

Career Management Bonus Tip: This is also a great strategy for how to communicate your experience in a job interview.

Professional Success Tip – A Twist on the Word – Value

I love this quote, “What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are.” Edgar Friedenbar

Quick Coaching Tip of the Day: Make a list of how you are valuable to your company.

To extend the thought, listen to this brief Seminar-in-a-bite:

http://joanncorleyspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/11/useful-career-success-strategy-are-you.html

Leadership Lessons from Tiger Woods

First let me say, my heart is very sadden by the public display of the dismantling of a public image and there in is the reason why I decided to write this post.  There are many lessons  here for professional success, professional credibility and leadership and management success. The grace of it?….we are learning from someone’s mistake, other than our own. I invite the readers of this post to do so humbly.

Usually I don’t use this blog to discuss sensationlized news, yet I felt compelled to comment on this particular occurrence and even more so after reading a thought-filled blog post that I found very instructive.  You can read the entire post from the other blog, Orin Woodward Leadership Team,  provided at the end of this post.  What I want to do is submit my thoughts in light of that post.

My Thoughts:

One of the guiding themes of my practice and any coaching and training I do is leading, managing, living from the inside out.  Who we are on the inside dictates the kind of person we’ll be on the outside. This truth proves itself out, time and time again.

That’s why it’s so important to work on our insides more than any other area.  There are many managers and leaders who want to fix the people around them rather than consider, “what about me has allowed these circumstances to occur.”

I do carry the belief that people of great talent, those in high levels of leadership and influence need to be especially attentive to what’s going on on the inside and have someone in their life they deeply trust to help them effectively deal with their own inner activity no matter how unpleasant it might be.

To stay grounded and truthful with the good and the bad about ourselves is essential to a successful life and complete health.

It’s very common to talk to a leader of an organization and discover they feel isolated and that there is no one in their life that they can talk with about deeply intimate issues, that in some cases they are embarrassed about.

Perhaps that was true in Tiger’s case.  Perhaps he has struggled with sexual addiction (if this is true) from an early age or it surfaced after his father’s death to fill a emotional hole left with his Dad’s profound absence.  These are all assumptions of course.

What is not…we all need to continually practice internal honesty as the first source of living a meaningful, productive, successful life. How we do that will be reflected in every activity and relationship we have in every context.

This post serves as my summary of the following points from the post referenced above…truly profound and worth a read.

Key Points:

I. Leaders need to build their lives upon the solid foundation of good character and morals, not on gifts and abilities.

II. Leaders must understand that having great career success does not cause us to experience or feel internal significance and satisfaction

III. Leaders need to develop good coping skills so they can courageously confront reality instead of escaping from it.

IV. Leaders must not feed an ego-driven lifestyle.

VI. Leaders must understand that money, material possessions and a beautiful spouse cannot fill the vast empty space of an unhealthy emotional soul.

VII. Leaders need to understand the underlining motivation behind what drives them.

VIII. Leaders often equate performance with acceptance.

Eight Lessons Leaders Can Learn from Tiger Wood’s Life

Please pass on to colleagues and friends.  To our personal and professional success! JoAnn

A Key to Performance Success – Do This Unique Assessment

As the end of the year approaches, (which is hard to believe), it’s a ritual of many to take stock of the year that’s gone by. By the way if you don’t do that, that’s personal and professional success tip #1 – make it a habit to do an in depth assessment of how your year has gone.

Related to performance success, this is essential and I want to recommend a method that is a twist on the more traditional ways of approaching this.

To follow is a link to an assessment tool called – Annual Portfolio Evaluation.  What is unique about this assessment approach is the human part of the equation commonly known as our strengths and weaknesses is now reframed as an ASSEST OR LIABILITY, which is the language used on a company balance sheet and other company resources.

I think that this is the key advantage to using this approach.  You and those you use this with can feel a greater sense of responsibility to what you can contribute, in essence the value you and members of your team bring to an organization.  Framing it this way vs. “strength and weakness,” adds a whole new dimension to working in the context of human resource. In fact many use the word human capital vs. human resource.

This also can be used in developing a Personal Development Plan or integrating the information into any development program currently being used in any organization.

Conversely, there is something called a “liability.”  A liability is explained in Websters a follows:
3 : one that acts as a disadvantage : drawback.

This is a useful way of helping somone see that what would otherwise be considered a weakness is actually a cost.  The message is stronger – that behavior or lack of skill is costing you and the company.  There is a cost. As somone who runs my own firm, I am keenly aware of what weaknesses I have and how they tangibly translate into costing me money. Each employee needs to constructively feel that on some level.

This message and experience is much stronger than, “you’ve got a weakness.”

I recommend you download the free assessment sheet above and give it a whirl.  Got any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact me at joann@joanncorley.com

To your success! JoAnn

7 Must Dos For Professional Success

Ever read something that you felt compelled to share? Well I did today. As a career advis0r, I am regularly giving career guidance. I love when I run across another colleague who is giving great career advice as well. So much so, I felt compelled to share.

There are 11 career management tips included in the blog post I read to support ones desire for career advancement and professional success. I’ve chosen my favorites. The link to the complete list is at the end of this post.

Strategies for Effective Career Building (these are my favorites from the original list with my modifications)

1. Nothing replaces smart hard work  – what is smart hard work?…work that gets results (it’s more than just being busy).

Joe’s version: In an industry where smoke and mirrors are used in abundance, take heed: Nothing can disguise the absence of hard work. And don’t confuse effort with results. (actually this should be another, separate tip). I don’t care how early you arrive or how late you stay—it’s about ROI.

2. We all have a personal tool kit - develop a personal portfolio that reflects some level of expertise with the willingness to continue to grow. More than ever, we’ve got to set ourselves apart.

Joe’s version: know yours and how to use it. As my mother told me on numerous occasions, I have special talents. Specifically, I’m a good consensus builder. You may be a killer salesman. Or extremely detailed. Whatever your “special talents” are, hone them and let them help define your personal brand.

3. It’s about teamwork, but know who is and isn’t on your team, meaning have “organizational savvy.” (This tip is about thinking about the word “team” in a different way.)

Joe’s version: I too hate office politics. And avoid them at all costs. Ignoring their existence is not only careless, but possibly counterproductive. Even if you don’t engage in them, someone else might on your behalf. Know who has the boss’s ear, who the players are, and who could take or leave ya. Whatever the political landscape in your company, it’s your reality and one you’ll have to navigate whether you like it or not.

4. Life is not always a box of chocolates—so decide how much you can take before you bail.  I say know where to draw the line and actively begin to develop and exit strategy.

Joe’s version: The perfect job doesn’t exist. I would imagine that even the taste-tester at Krispy Kreme has complaints about his gig (though I can’t imagine what they might be). Too often we hit tough times and jump ship for a lateral move or get frustrated and stop giving 110 percent. A career is like a relationship, so make sure you’re putting as much effort into trying to fix the problems as you put into feeling bad about them.

5. Individuality is to be respected—as long as you’re still part of the team. I say there is a “me” in team, as Michael Jordan use to say. There has got to be a quality me….to make the me in the word team stronger. A weak me contributes to a weak team.

Joe’s version: Sometimes, there is an “I” in team. It just has to be the right kind of “I”—distinctive yet collaborative, unexpected but on strategy. Don’t be afraid to stand out, but do make sure you don’t alienate your teammates in the process.

6. Sometimes you have to shout to be heard. Perhaps another way of framing shouting is being constructively vocal.

Joe’s version:  You’ve heard the phrase “Squeaky wheel gets the grease”? Well, take note: Occasionally, persistent voices are listened to. Don’t be afraid to speak up when you’re passionate about something.

7. Always be that ray of light in your boss’s/co-worker’s day.  Does your boss feel you are a help or a burden….that you are psychologically and emotionally reliable?

Joe’s version: This one’s simple. Surprise. Delight. Be the kind if individual you’d like to spend 200-plus days each year with. And to be clear—that’s much different from kissing ass.

Summary: This list is just plain old expert career advice and can serve as an excellent career management checklist…pass it on to people you really care about!

Coaching Tip: If you’re a manager, you can use this list to coach your team members in desired attitudes and behaviors.  It self empowering and helps them become contributors rather than just employees.

Source: Joe Hodas, senior vice president of brand communications at Vladimir Jones, a privately held, full-service advertising agency in Colorado. Link to full article…to see the complete list of 11.

Need any additional career guidance?…you can submit your dilemma here and get advice for free: Get Free Advice

Effective Communication Tip – Use Targeted Feedback

This blog is underwritten by Management-in-Minutes, a portable learning resource for the busy professional that uses “laser learning” to accelerate building a knowledge base. The lessons are short (usually 2-4 minutes) and on each lesson page there is an audio clip with it’s text version and an mp3 download link for portability.

Every so often a lesson will be posted in this blog for you to sample. This lesson is in the Sample Library, which you can access here: Sample Lessons

A Key to Success – Give it Your Definition

If you want to know a key to success…then read on!

Have you ever considered the definition of success?  It’s a very popular word in our culture today.  And yet, it’s a tricky word as well.  You know I’ve discovered over the years in doing personal coaching that people are very confused about success in their own lives.  In fact, I think that we have attached a very narrow usage and view of success. A critical success strategy and key to success then is giving it our own definition.

Commonly, we would look at someone and say, “Oh, that person’s successful if they…” own a nice car, have a huge house, and have a lot of money in the bank.  And perhaps, on some level, that’s true.

But I would like to suggest to you, as food for thought, that success is much broader than those limited definitions.  In fact, Webster’s dictionary defines success as getting the outcomes that you want.  That’s right, getting the outcomes that you want.  And therein lies my challenge.

I would like to encourage you to take the time to define what success means to you.  Ask yourself, what outcomes would I like to have in my life, both in my professional life and in my personal life?

You know, I had a conversation with my neighbor who very much wants to be a great dad.  His being able to become a great dad is an outcome he purposes from his heart and that when achieved in his mind will make him a successful person.

I know another person who has a dream of having a small house out in the country.  Now, by someone else’s view, that might not be deemed successful.  And yet, to that person, to achieve that outcome, that would be great success.

I see many people today living out other people’s views of success because they’ve not taken the time to define their own.  I believe that people would be much happier and have deeper levels of life satisfaction if they would take the time to define their own success. I also believe that without success planning, they will stay on the hamster wheel of life.

Let me encourage you to take time in the next week or two, take an hour or a weekend and jot out what that is.  Now, as your life changes and evolves, I believe that list might evolve and change, too.  However, at each stage of the journey, you’ll have continual life satisfaction, continual success as you move throughout your life.

I wish you great success! JoAnn

Final Note: If you need some assistance or advice with that planning, don’t hestiate to contact me: joann@joanncorley.com

The Human Side of Project Management

Whether you use this phrase or not, we are all managing projects on some level….we are all a project manager. This is a key attitude to professional success.

There are 3 core components of managing a project: the process, the tools we use, and how we manage the human side of it.

What’s the human side?….how you manage yourself and the team members you’re working with.  As I said in a previous post, professional success is all about effectively managing the critical components of any endeavor…we are all managers.  Here’s the link if you’ve not read that post: post title – A New Way of Looking at Management.

I ran across a post on a project management blog entitled Integrity in Project Management.  I found this so curious.  The post addressed how one relates to those involved in the project with a spirit of integrity in the following 3 ways:

Be Impartial, Be Thorough, Be Focused on the End Business Results.

I would like to suggest an additional component to this list and that is… in managing the human side of project management and what should be included in every project management training is understanding and the honoring the work style of each team member.

The reality is each team member will have a different relationship to how they work with people, information, technology, and tasks.  Some will work with each of these with much more ease than another. If you want to build and maintain an effective rapport with each member, knowing and honoring their natural work style is critical!

Also included in the natural work style and an essential element to know is the natural decision making style. There are 4 common styles: decisive, methodical, spontaneous, inclusive.  How each team members works with information, works towards deadlines, their style of collaboration is influenced by their natural decision making orientation.

So here’s your coaching tip: Take the time to observe the behavior and assess your team members work styles and ask yourself these questions:

– What’s their natural orientation in relation to working with people, tasks, information, and technology?

– What do you observe about their decision making style

–Make a plan on how to incorporate this knowledge to increase your effectiveness.

If you need any advice or help, don’t hesitate to contact me.  You can go to my Management Life Line and get free advice there.