Your Organization Is Only as Good as Your PeopleWritten by Dr. Freddy Davis
Let’s begin by singing jingle from an old US Army commercial. Ready? Sing! “Be all that you can be, in Aaaaarmy.” Now, don’t you feel better? “Be all that you can be.” Why do you suppose army selected this slogan? They selected it because there was a certain kind of volunteer that they wanted to attract, and that message would appeal to that group of people. They wanted to attract risk takers and adventurers. The purpose was to try and tap into need that many people feel for adventure and growth. In more recent times slogan has been changed to, “An army of one.” A slightly different slant in order to appeal to a generation with slightly different values, but still an appeal to same basic group of people - adventurer and risk taker. Just why do they want to attract this kind of person? Simple! In a military organization, that is kind of person they need in order to be successful in carrying out mission. They can’t recruit a bunch of lazy folks who are not self-starters and expect to get job done. Every organization has a type of person it needs to attract in order to become more successful. If they can recruit those people, they will accomplish what they intend to do. If not, they will fail.Is That All There Is? Wouldn’t it be great if that was all there was to it? But reality is different. Sure we have to start with people who have right qualifications and personality characteristics. But beyond that, every single person who comes into organization has a whole set of other needs that must be fulfilled. They have personal growth needs, physical needs, emotional needs, relationship needs and on and on. And so what? Organizations don’t function for purpose of providing those kinds of things to its associates or employees, do they? Well, no and yes. Certainly primary purpose of any company or organization is to provide for needs of customer or client first. And even though it is not primary purpose of an organization to provide for human needs of its workers, people in organization still have needs. And if you ignore those needs beyond a certain point, productivity will begin to suffer, regardless of overall competence of workforce. The trick is to, somehow, accomplish primary mission while creating an environment which allows organization’s human individuals to experience fulfillment. It may be possible get away with being totally task focused for a while, but soon you will begin to see declines in morale and productivity. Four Keys to High Organizational Morale So, what are some things that can be done to insure good of organization and its personnel? Number one is to be absolutely clear about task expectations. People respond more enthusiastically when they know exactly what is expected of them. This is a principle of human nature that can be clearly seen at every age of development. What happens when you don’t give children clear parameters within which to live? They, literally, go wild. They need boundaries, and so do your workers. People are able to focus more fully on task, and will have a strong feeling of accomplishment when a job is completed, when they don’t have to worry about issues that are beyond scope of job.
| | Don’t Allow Yourself to Get BurnedWritten by Dr. Freddy Davis
I am not a big fisherman, but I do enjoy it whenever opportunity comes my way. I have some friends who are fanatics and occasionally I will go out with one of them. They have nice boats and it makes for an enjoyable day. I like fishing from a boat but, actually, kind of fishing I enjoy most is surf fishing. I don’t do it very often, but occasionally, when I go to beach on a family outing, I will take my rod and reel and fish from beach. Surf fishing, to me, offers a lot more excitement than fishing from a boat. Here you get to stay active all time. Basically you wade knee or thigh deep out into surf and cast using a rod and reel. Since surf is so active, there are a couple of special considerations you have to take care of. It is necessary to use extra weight so bait will stay put and you have be extra sensitive to your line because it can be hard to tell difference between a fish strike and surf pulling your tackle. Of course there are a few things you have to look out for. Sea currents can be kind of tricky in some places and you have to be careful not to get sucked out to sea. Sometimes there will be sea urchins under foot and if you are not careful you can step on one. This can be quite painful. There are also other kinds of dangerous sea creatures. On more than one occasion I have had to dodge stinging jelly fish or get away from small sharks (the sharks were probably too small to be any real danger, but I was not about to take any chances). But there is another danger that is a really sly one - especially on an overcast day. Standing out in open air for a couple of hours, without very good skin protection, can cause you to get a horrible sunburn. This really can sneak up on you, though. The nature of getting burned by sun is such that you usually don't realize it immediately. When your skin starts turning red it is already too late. It is very important to prepare ahead of time to prevent it in first place - doing things like putting on a good sunblock and wearing a hat and other protective clothing.Planning - The Foundation for Success The sun is not only thing in life that can sneak up on you. If we don't prepare ourselves well, in advance, we can find ourselves on wrong side of success in our career, our social life and even in important relationships. So just what can we do to keep critical mistakes of life from sneaking up on us? The simple answer is to plan. Strategic planning is a concept that is an absolute must for any business that wants to succeed. But this principle is not just for business. You will have to plan for any area of your life where you want to see success. Of course there has to be action and activity - stuff you do. You also have to have exert energy. But before any of that will have any meaning, you have to know where it all needs to be directed. That is purpose of planning. Planning has to be built on a particular foundation. There are plenty of resources that give you a clear 1-2-3 system for doing planning. We are not going there in this article. What we want to look at are underlying elements of planning. If we take time to put these elements in place first, actual process of planning takes on an entirely new level of meaning. Principle The most basic foundation stone relates to basic principles that guide operation of your life and your business. Principle defines parameters within which you will work. It defines how you will relate with other people, kind of integrity you will operate by, places you will do business, and even type of products and services you will offer. Once you decide your parameters of operation, everything you do will fit inside of that. There will be things you will do and things you won’t do based on it. Too often people don’t start their strategic planning at this level. They skip it and go right on to purpose. But even purpose has to come from somewhere. You will never have a complete handle on what you are doing unless you start by defining and understanding basic principles you will operate under. Purpose The second level of your foundation must be your purpose. If you don’t have a compelling reason for doing what you do you will not be motivated to perform at a high level. Purpose provides motivational propulsion which gives power and enjoyment to your activities. There are many possible levels of purpose at which people may operate. People with little responsibility tend to operate at very superficial levels. They only want a paycheck or to have fun. They do not really concern themselves with final outcomes. People with great responsibility are completely absorbed with final outcomes. The reason this is so important is that good motivation is key to good productivity. People have a personal purpose for what they do. If their only purpose is paycheck, they will do just enough to get paid. If their purpose somehow matches up with purpose of organization, they will do all they can to help make sure organization achieves its goals.
|
