Making Yourself More Valuable

Has your company recovered from the economic downturn? How has it affected your training function? How has it affected you personally? How secure is your job? Even companies that have had “no layoff” policies for years find themselves in the position of needing to lay people off in order to cut costs. For most companies it is a required part of cost cutting to survive. It is not fun and in most cases, it is not taken lightly.

This article is largely about making yourself more valuable – to you and whatever organization you work with – either now or in the future. It can also serve as a roadmap to helping your organization be more competitive and to move from survive to thrive.

There are three skills sets that are required for people to be effective wherever they are, in the organization: Technical Skills, Functional Skills, and Personal Skills. As an employee, technical skills are critical. As one moves up the ladder, however, they become less important. For example, one who manages an information systems department does not need to have the same comprehensive set of programming skills that a programmer does.

Functional skills such as planning, staffing, organizing, delegating, etc. are less important at an employee level and become critical as you move up the organization ladder. The skills that remain constant are the people skills. Andre Carnegie, founder of Bethlehem Steel and at one time the richest man in the world said that he would pay more for someone who knew how to work with people than for any other skill. If anything, the need for these personal skills grows as we move up the organizational ladder.

Many times, we refer to personal skills as “soft skills”. Beginning today, let me encourage you to call them Core Skills! Let me suggest ten that each of us should be developing and then I’ll recommend a resource for you. Today, as never before, your organization needs you (and other employees) who can:

1. Make and keep commitments. This means that a “yes” is a “yes” and a “no” is a “no”. Many people make promises and don’t follow through. Or they over promise and under deliver. What if you and all the employees in your organization were known as people who made commitments and kept them. Do you think this would help you gain a competitive advantage?

2. Face each day with a positive attitude. It’s been said that we burn three times as much energy when thinking negatively as when thinking positively. What if you and each person in your organization looked for ways things could be done, instead of reasons why they couldn’t? What if we looked at the potentials and possibilities, instead of the problems?

3. Persist until you succeed. Most people quit one step short of success. Thomas Edison, who failed ten thousand times, before successfully creating a practical, sustainable light bulb said most people would not have failed if they had simply tried one more time.

4. Have a clear positive self-image. For years, I have sold and conducted a program that thousands of others could sell and conduct as well. My price was even a bit higher. There were always those that were willing to cut the price a bit – even a lot – just to make a sale. I didn’t. When asked what justified the difference I said, “All other things being equal, you get me with this.” I didn’t say it to brag or be boastful. My attitude was the same at 25 that it is at 55. What I mean is that I’m committed to getting you results, not just selling you a product. That attitude, that self-concept, that commitment, is worth the difference.

5. Multiply your value 100 fold. Many people focus on the MDR – the Minimum Daily Requirement, that is, what is the least I can do and still get by. My focus is on what is the most we can give to add value to whatever we do. For example, in 2003, at ASTD’s International Conference in New Orleans and at our own “Creative Training Techniques” Fall Event I led a special pre-conference session titled: Training and Performance Solutions: 514 Ways to Increase the Impact and Results of Your Training Performance. In preparing for this, I asked myself, what is the highest value I could deliver to this group? The conclusion was an interactive session based on the needs of those actually attending. I went back through over thirty years of files to pull together 20 modules of in-depth content that could be covered. I ended up with a 500 plus page manual that goes to the participants as a resource. In this way, I multiply my value 100 fold.

Over 100 years ago a nurse in a Boston “poorhouse” got in the habit of eating her lunch in the basement next to a cage that held a girl who was considered little more than an animal. The poorhouse was a home for charity cases, and the little girl was there with the mentally ill, with prostitutes, and with people who could not maintain functioning lives in the society of that day. The girl’s name was little Annie. Little Annie had contracted trachoma, a disease of the eyes, when she was about 5. This disorder is not unusual where there is poor hygiene, and Anne's situation was not good. She was physically strong, but the disease was left untreated and she gradually lost her vision, although she was never totally blind.
Each day the nurse talked to her as she ate lunch. Eventually the nurse talked officials in to bringing little Annie upstairs where she was eventually rehabilitated.

50 years late a woman was receiving from the Queen of England the highest honor England can bestow on a non-citizen. She was asked how a woman both blind and deaf could have accomplished all that she had with such handicaps. Helen Keller replied that it would not have been possible without her teacher, Anne Sullivan – little Annie. Here was an apparently insignificant woman, a nurse, who made an apparently insignificant impact on a little girl, Anne Sullivan, who made an impact on a little girl, Helen Keller, who made an impact on millions. The nurse multiplied her value 100 fold.

I’m out of space for now. I’ll give you the other five next time. If you want to put into practice some of what we talked about in this article let me know and I'll give you some additional tips, strategies, and resources.

Until next time -- add value and make a difference!

Are You Prepared to Survive and Thrive in the"Perfect Economic Storm?"

Are You Prepared to Survive and Thrive in “The Perfect Economic Storm?”

We’ve had a lot of discussion here at the office the last 90 days about what we could do to add the most value to our clients this coming year, maximize our opportunities, and minimize the hard costs to them.

These continue to be difficult times for many organizations and individuals. We are experiencing what I call the Perfect Storm. If you saw the movie, you know that the people in the movie had weathered many storms. A rare combination of things, however, layered on top of one another created “The Perfect Storm”, a storm of such monumental proportions that people used to storms could not withstand it.

For several years we've had an economic slowdown. We’ve experienced it before. Business goes in cycles – we all know that. Then came September 11. For the first time we felt unsafe, we felt violated. It impacted all of us psychologically, though not all of us were personally touched by it. It extended the economic recovery, and probably deepened the impact of it. Now we have a crisis in corporate confidence. Major companies have been brought down because of a lack of character and integrity. We are in the midst of an economic “Perfect Storm.”

Will you survive this “Perfect Storm?” Better yet, will you thrive in it? One thing we do not have to do is wait it out. We can do something. And we will. So I have a radical proposal for you. Let me challenge you to act on it. Here is how to:

Weather The Perfect Economic Storm – 5 Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in the Turbulent Times

Whether you live in the US or not the events of the last thirty six months have impacted you, your organization, and your country. We are all tied together in ways that we never have been before. Individually we have experienced economic slowdowns (even recession and depression), but we’ve bounced back. We’ve survived terrorism (remember Oklahoma City) and bounced back. We’ve survived fraud in the corporate boardroom (remember the Savings and Loan crisis) and bounced back.

Never have we experienced all three at once and this has created the Perfect Economic Storm. Here are five specific strategies you can use on an individual, functional, and corporate level to not only survive, but thrive in these turbulent times.

1. Focus like a laser. Whether individual, departmental, or corporate ask yourself, “What are my competitive advantages?” Can you add value by driving costs down? Is there something new you can innovate? Is it time to spend more time really finding out what your customers – either internal or external want? What would happen if you changed strategy, rethought structure, or revamped processes? You probably can’t do all of these effectively at the same time, but ask yourself, “Which two of these, if focused on, would create the most value?” Then act.
2. Rotate through the ten Core Skills that are key to multiplying individual and corporate value 100X. People are hired for their technical and/or management skills, but are often fired for their lack of people or CORE skills. Here are the ten CORE skills:

1. Make and keep commitments
2. Face each day with a positive attitude
3. Persist until you succeed.
4. Have a clear positive self-image.
5. Multiply your value 100 fold.
6. Treat this day as if it were your last.
7. Master your emotions.
8. Laugh at the world and yourself.
9. See a need, take action.
10. Seek guidance. So now you’ve had a look at all ten CORE Skills. I’ll drill down on them in the next couple of Blogs.

3. Think about how the three barriers to change impact you – and remove them. Think about how you can make change sustainable. The three barriers are: the environment, habits, and multiple priorities. The environment because others in your environment may like the status quo. It’s not easy being the pioneer, the one who takes the lead. It’s necessary, however, for change to take place. Habits because we’re used to doing things in certain ways and can do them unconsciously. When we start to do something new it requires focused, conscious effort. We can only sustain so many new efforts at any one time. Multiple priorities plays it’s part because while we may be trying to change in one area, it is, after all, only one area. Many other things must be sustained. While individually, each may not require much effort – when combined with all the other factors that we’ve just discussed, becomes a major factor in change not achieving permanence.

4. Start operating on the BDH (Be-Do-Have) Formula. Do you know that 95% of all people operate a on the HDB formula – and they never have enough. Those that operate on the BDH formula are in the 5%. The HDB formula says, “If I only Had_____, then I could Do _____, and I would Be. So achievement is always based on having something. And often it is something more or something else than you have right now. So people operating on this formula will never have enough to ever do what they want and be what they want. They are constantly in a state of dissatisfaction. However, when we focus on Being who we want to be (and the Ten Core Skills helps with this) then we find that we can Do more and this results in having more. In other words: As I Become, then I'll be able to Do, which will enable me to Have. The key to operating on the BDH formula is to focus on developing on a daily basis the Ten Core Skills.

5. Finally, we need to be following a strategy for overcoming the crisis of character and a plan for building (or rebuilding) integrity. People need people that they can trust. What are we doing to become more trustworthy? People need people who will follow through. What are we doing to insure that we follow through on commitments? People need people who will brainstorm ways things can be done, instead of looking for all the reasons they can’t! Once more, what are we doing to become one of those refreshing people who look for ways things can be done? Once more it begins with the Core Skills – and it begins with you and me. We don’t have to wait for our organization, boss, spouse, or children to be different for us to be better. We can start today on being who we want to be. That’s an awesome responsibility – and an exciting challenge. I’m committed to walking that path. Will you join me?

Until next time -- add value and make a difference!