Evaluating Our Lives, Both in Retrospect and Now...What About the Future?

In an earlier posting the question was posed: Life's Lessons or What Have We Learned So Far?
Whether as a CEO, Senior Manager or entry level individual, we need to consider these issues.

The only way we grow as a person and in our contribution to society, is by evaluating what we have done in the past, what we are doing in the present and what we plan to do in the future. Especially, reflecting on what we want to be doing and contributing now and in the future is a critical life valuing process. Otherwise we wake up one day and life for the most part has passed us by.

Like in business, we need a plan, a life plan. This can be highly detailed or a "fly-over" view, but its is a critical process to be done periodically. Just like the pilots of aircraft, while the plane may be off-course 90+ % of the time, they ultimate land the winged monster. Likewise, by planning what we want to accomplish in life we may be off course most of the time, but if we have visualized and plotted the course, then we arrive close to where we want to.

Life coaches can help in this endeavor, or you can tackle it yourself. A proprietary methodology has been developed which I use with those that I help. It is not rocket science, but it is valuable as it forces a person to look at not only desires, wishes and ruminations, but also possible world events and economics that could positively and negatively affect these paths.

Recently, the article below became available and hence I am sharing it here. For some it might be morbid, but in reality, isn't the final breath we take, a bit late to change course or our plans?

I post it here with the link at the bottom of the article. Hopefully, you will find it helpful in evaluating one's life and purpose.

Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Posted on November 22, 2011 

Top Five Regrets of the Dying
By Bronnie Ware
For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.
People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.
When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honor at least some of your dreams along the way.

From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship.
Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.
As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming.
We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.
It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier
This is a surprisingly common one.

Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice.
They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.
When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.
Original source – http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

Talent and Skills Shortages Number One Risk in Asia Pacific and 4 Other Risks

In the earlier post about Corporate Risks ( Global Risks to Consider and Recent Analysis by Lloyd's- Has Your Company Considered These? ) that need to be considered. It was identified that Lloyd's had ranked these Global Risks, but they also identified Regional Risks. The  image below came from the report that they assembled for 2011. It is very interesting that Talent and Skills is the Number One Risk for Asia Pacific, given the unemployment rate and educational levels in the region and the flood of youth coming up.

So, CEOs and Senior Managers need to seriously consider this, not only if they are planning to expand in the region, but also if new entries (start-ups) are being planned. It will require expert Succession Planning and Strategic Planning efforts to address this risk issue and the others identified, as well as Coaching, Mentoring, Training and Team Development for key corporate members to help fill this gap.

The BPO industry in the Philippines, identified several years ago, that while the industry could do a good job of hiring and filling entry level positions, when they promoted effective call agents, for example, these people did not have the managerial skills to handle a "Front-Line Manager" position. In many instances they were promoted to their level of "incompetence." So the bottle-neck to growth was not having identified and trained potential new managers soon enough to handle the high influx of new candidates for entry level positions.

Consequently, they changed their processes in Pre-Hire to identify 5-10% of the people considered for the entry level position(s), who had the right IQ and EQ to fit into their organizations, and who had good "job fit" with the Benchmarks/Job Pattern /Performance Modeling for not only the entry level position (significantly reducing turnover), but also for the Front-Line Manager position. They would "mark/follow" these people by observation and possible early training to assume the higher level position. This experience was possibly the early warning signs that Lloyd's seems to be now reflecting in their study, now.

For the Asia Pacific Region, Lloyd's identified the following 5 areas of major risks to be considered or addressed:
    1) Talent and Skills shortages
    2) Currency fluctuations
    3) Inflation
    4) Loss of Customers/Cancelled Orders
    5) Company Reputation Risk

As also highlighted in the area: CEO, Senior Manager, Leadership, Strategic Planning and Charisma , it is essential that CEOs, Senior Managers, and Corporate HR Managers identify at least 3-5% potential Leaders within each level of the organization (bench strength) in order to help address sustainability for the corporation. Without bench strength, just like for a sports team, while the top players are available and not injured, the team does well; but without the organizational depth and strength, it can result in high fluctuations in corporate performance over time.

The question remains: How Well Positioned Is Your Company for the Upcoming Forecasted Risks within the Region - Presently and for the ensuing 5-10 years? The future and investments are yours to make to position the company for growth and profitability! To ignore these risks could be at the peril of the corporation and organization.


Risks - Then and now: what has changed?

Sales Characteristics for Success that are innate?

A recent article by Dr. Croner, indicates that most high performance sales people possess the following 3 innate personality traits which only about 20% of Sales people have. They are:

Need for Achievement
Competitiveness
Optimism

Personally, from experience, most people possess these, so it is doubtful that they are innate!

In an earlier blog article that was written based on Harvard Research, it was identified that "Challengers" created the most effective sales people, and these techniques can be learned. Obviously, some people may be more comfortable with these techniques than others, but if a person is committed, they can "flex" into the needs of the position, and over time they become engrained in the individual and drives success.

Existing Sales People in your organization present the greatest challenge because you have already employed them and the question then remains how do you, or can you, elevate them to be more effective? But the advantage is you have more information about them based around Thinking, and Behavioral traits and Interests, than you may have for people you may be looking to recruit or hire.

For an existing sales force, can you identify what generates a passion or a significant need which can drive the Need for Achievement within a person? It may take some effort, but from experience, most of the time it can be found. Then the objective is tapping into this internal "need" that this person has and structuring a compensation/benefit plan around this (these) needs.

Competitiveness can be created on some level. However, it is critical that this is created in a supportive manner and environment. Humans naturally are competitive, just look at the world problems which seem to revolved around the need to be heard or recognized.

Optimism, can also be addressed or taught. There are many methods which can be employed to change how a person views change and challenges, from meditation to structured courses.

So the objective is with existing Sales people, how to motivate the engage them to the point of wanting to grow and become more effective and professional. It may take effort, coaching/mentoring and involves some training costs, but it can be achieved. It favorably impacts company morale.

For Pre-Hire/Recruiting, there are effective assessments/tests and interview techniques to evaluate candidates by helping to minimize hiring the wrong people initially.  Obviously, the benchmarks need to be created around your Top Performers. Once these are set-up, then an in-depth interview(s) can help enormously in identifying people who should be successful.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help in the process by "self-selecting" out people that will not have a good "job fit" based around initial knockout questions, and then around benchmarks/performance models. These ATS systems also need to be used to help identify effective marketing programs in attracting the best candidates not only initially, but those who will remain with your company(retention). These ATS systems can greatly save time and effort for your recruiting staff and generally can be easily cost justified around ROI's. This "tracking" information is critical for future hiring programs to attract the best talent.

The more tools and methodologies you use, the greater your success can be. Hire around "job fit" and you gain the slight edge in being a successful and sustainable organization!

Charisma can be Taught and Learned

In an earlier posting concerning a presentation I gave at the HR Training Congress in August, entitled:


Linking People, Strategy and Performance to Engagement and Training: "Revolutionary Research from Global Corporations"

Profiles International (PI) identified in new research in January 2011, and published in a book found on Amazon.com, entitled "Leadership Charisma", that Charisma, and Leadership Charisma in particular, is behavior based. Thus it is learn-able, can be coached, developed, and it can be trained. This is also supported and discussed by a recent article by Jessica Stillman entitled: "Charm 101: Charisma can be Taught". (The article can be found below).


PI's research was based on over 40,000 Managers and 400,000 employees world-wide, and it seems that more people and companies are becoming convinced of this fact, which before had only been debated without hard facts and research.

Why is Charisma important? Because Charismatic Leaders have been documented in numerous studies in the past, to have companies and teams that deliver even higher profitability and even more extraordinary products, than those with just good Leadership. This is accomplished through heightened "engagement".

Therefore, there is a cost benefit to hiring, or even more so now, developing and/or training managers to not only be good Leaders, but to become Charismatic Leaders. The ROI will easily justify training costs to develop Leadership Charisma in Managers!

So what are you and your HR team waiting for? Isn't it best to start now in developing even more effective Leaders especially grooming potential CEOs and Senior Executives? The choice is yours, but it is no longer a point to debate, but only a point to implement.

Charm 101: Charisma Can Be Taught

By Jessica Stillman

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(MoneyWatch)  With the death of Steve Jobs, the media's attention has turned to his legacy as a business leader and his ability to inspire teams to create extraordinary products. The man, in short, may have been prickly but he was also extremely charismatic.

Where does that ability to spellbind others to your cause come from? His biographer plumbed Jobs' past for answers, but recently psychologists took a more hands-on approach to the origins of charisma, testing whether this elusive and valuable quality can be explicitly taught.

Turns out, the answer appears to be yes. Researchers out of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland decided to see if charisma boot camp would be effective, conducting 360-degree evaluations of 34 managers and then sending them to a three-month charisma training course where they learned what the researchers dubbed CLTs or charismatic leader tactics. These include verbal techniques such as:

• Framing through metaphor
• Stories and anecdotes
• Demonstrating moral conviction
• Sharing the sentiments of the collective
• Setting high expectations
• Communicating confidence
• Using rhetorical devices such as contrasts, lists, and rhetorical questions

Body language, facial expression and using an animated tone of voice were also covered. The results, recently published in The Academy of Management Learning and Education, show that these charisma classes worked. "Managers who underwent training saw their charisma ratings significantly grow, relative to those who didn't," according to reports in BPS Occupational Digest.

To double check the results, the researchers also asked 41 MBA students to give the same speech before and after undergoing charisma training. After learning to master their CLTs, the MBA candidates were rated more trustworthy, competent, influential, and moving when they gave their speech.

There are caveats for potential student of charisma. The researchers warn that a significant time commitment is need to improve charisma -- remember their course lasted three months, not a matter of hours. And it's also likely that when a student starts actively attempting to become more charismatic, their performance may get worse before it gets better as their attempts to appear charismatic often come off as stilted and stereotypical at first, leading to more laughs than loyalty.

Still, for the charisma challenged, the research shows that more traits that we think of as inborn are actually teachable. That's good news for those who need to be more charismatic to advance in their careers and perhaps also a call to action for others who have given up on gaining leadership skills because they thought they simply lacked the knack.

Mentoring and Coaching - both in Business and in Life

The ability to mentor and coach is critical for excellent leaders (whether they are CEO's or not), or any person for that matter. Whether it is in business or in life, we need to try and help people gain a vision, or gain the ability for self-guidance.  This can be our legacy rather than just how much we grow a business, or how much we have made.

Mentoring and coaching is not about "telling" someone what they can or should do, but helping them to think for themselves to arrive at a decision or conclusion that works for them. The old spiritual saying that goes something like: You can give a person a fish and he will be fed for a day, or you can teach a person to fish, and he will be fed for a lifetime, applies here.

Our efforts can help grow engagement and transparency, help to gain a better idea about succession planning and challenges faced by our employees, and can help to eliminate internal politics, if handled correctly. It is amazing the number of senior executives that have said they leave this activity of mentoring to HR (Human Resources).


As executives, we need to help mentor people to not only replace us, but to be even more prepared for the global challenging markets we are confronted with daily. Being a life coach for others is needed also, given the dynamism ongoing around us and the need for work-life balance.

However, it is a two way street. As we help people, they also need to also help in maintaining the relationship with the mentor or coach through communication and meeting from time to time. Otherwise it feels like one is pulling the load all by oneself.


Putting people in touch with others, recommending training programs, or sending people to conferences, all are methods of helping people grow and become stronger and better people. Many times external perspectives and people can help the other person gain a clearer view of a situation, and many times the mentor/coach also gains some insights in the process.

Hopefully, many people whom we have helped, we were not even aware of helping at the time. How many people have we really helped? This should give us pause to reflect and to reach out.

Related Article:

http://hbr.org/2011/10/the-relationship-you-need-to-get-right/ar/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-hbr_articles-_-The%20Relationship%20You%20Need%20to%20Get%20Right

Managing Your Time and Energy when on the Job and in your Life

There have been a number of studies in recent years identifying the need to manage our time, but even more importantly, there is now discussion in managing our energy. Many of us have probably noticed that at times we are not as sharp, as we are at others. As one ages, the phenomena becomes more evident and there is a greater need to care for one's self and health.

At times, we have possibly lived on 4 hours of sleep for literally years but "intellectually" and even more "intuitively," we understand that this can only last for a period of time, as it is not healthy on a long term basis. The adage of burning the candle at both ends, probably applies to most of us at one time or another, but we do need to recharge.

So learn and pay attention to your own energy cycles, as this is an essential first step. Are you a morning person, or a night person? But even more importantly, you will probably find certain times of the day, and at night, your productivity increases and at others, it wanes. As you learn about yourself, then you can begin to manage your work around these. Of course, there will be times you will not be able to adapt your schedule or project to work neatly around these times, as meetings are called, or an urgent project needs to be completed, but with diligence you will be able to help maximize your productivity throughout the day.

How can you manage your energy at work? Analyze your work day. You will probably see that there are surges in e-mails at certain times (just look at your e-mail list, there are time stamps), for example, or when you can best reach a client(s) or colleague(s), or there are regular assignments that need to be done. Certain days it is easier to reach people than others. Many studies show that normally Mondays and Fridays are the worst days to reach out to people, as companies have meetings on these two days to start out the week, or there are deadlines for project completion(s). Start to keep track of these surges by analyzing them, either by taking notes, or mentally observing them. You will probably begin to see that patterns do occur, daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly.

As an example, early morning calls to people may catch them before their work day has really started, or the e-mail that you send quickly comes back answered. Or, there are regular, less energy requiring activities that have to been done, so when your energy is lower, maybe this is the best time to tackle these items. Or conversely, for some people, by doing this exercise, it re-energizes them and sets them up for more "mind challenging" activities.

So, managing projects and your work cycles, can lead to heightened productivity, reduced stress and especially lead to sustained, long-term productivity. Obviously, for CEO's and Senior Managers this is even more important as world travel, with its associated jet lag, time changes and eating challenges all affect us.

The same can apply to your personal life. This has become critically important as we are globally connected, 24/7 with access to e-mail, texting, social media, television, print media, all coupled with mobile connectivity via computers, smart phones and now iPads and iReaders (Kindle, Nook).

Finally, plan some downtime, possibly away from these technological devices. Some peace and quiet to collect your thoughts, reflect on life and what goals you are fulfilling, and those that need to be initiated, can be wonderfully reinvigorating.

Good health is critical, and managing your energy and time can be major contributors to a long, enriching and productive life.

Related articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/jobs/24pre.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The+Personal+Energy+Crisis&st=nyt

http://www.hf.faa.gov/docs/508/docs/cami/00_10.pdf

Self-Appraisal? And that's all? What happened to the Performance Review?

Yesterday I came across the article below by Reylito A. H. Elbo entitled "Experimenting with Self-Appraisal." While his comments about his experience was that mature responses were made, it fails to address the main point of appraisals, to help to eliminate bias in evaluating performance and giving meaningful feedback to an employee. In my doing Assessment Center work, in evaluating senior managers, it is amazing how many see themselves vastly different than how others view them. (Of course this is true of all of us to some degree or other.)

In the early '80's in our Fortune 100 company, we were trained to have the subordinate prepare their evaluation, using the same form as we would being filling out on the individual. We also began to use quantified and qualified performance parameters at this point in time. Training was held about the process and competencies involved and a rating scale presented to help encourage uniformity of review results across the company.

This review process allows the subordinate to address the same areas of performance as those to be used by the manager. We would then exchange the reviews and mutually discuss them, with the manager taking notes of areas of difference and agreement. The manager then went back and wrote up the review taking into account the discussion. Then there would be a final review session, a discussion held, and the employee signed the review and could make notes of agreement or disagreement to the review.

As mentioned earlier in this blog site, organizations began to flatten and become matrixed in the '80's, so many times the subordinate was doing things the manager was not well aware of. As an organization flattens, interpersonal skills become more important. The amount of direct supervision declines substantially, and many times there are activities and accomplishments the subordinate may be proud of, that are overlooked, not known, or not valued by the manager.

In this fashion the performance appraisal became a better reflection of actual performance by gaining input from the employee and helped to capture and highlight, more accurately, areas for recognition that might have been lost otherwise. This was an effective method for dialog and alignment between the manager and the employee rather than just a one way discussion from the top down, which had been the case before this process was used. [Note: Salary discussions were separated from the Review Process and held later, at another time.]

In the '90s, 180 degree and/or 360 performance reviews began to be used, as this helped to gain a better, broader, more comprehensive and objective view of someone's performance. However, it was time consuming as the questions had to be assembled, mailed or handed out to different people who interacted with the individual in question. These questionnaires had to be filled out and returned. Then, the information was collected, analyzed and written up and incorporated in the overall quantified/qualified (now called metrics) areas of the performance evaluation (many times this took weeks of effort).

Normally the manager or an assistant had to "assemble/tabulate" this information, so she/he saw all the responses and comments, and who made them. The manager might decide to value some comments/ratings more than others, or disregard ratings entirely, if it suited the purpose of supporting the view of the manager. However overall,  it was a much better way of obtaining objective information for conducting a performance review, as it helped in gaining greater buy-in from the employee as these were no longer just the observations or opinions of the manager, but included input from many other people. Most of the time, this was more palatable to the person being reviewed and this encouraged greater participation in the interchange between boss and subordinate.

In today's technological world, it has to be asked why companies and organizations do not, or will not use 360's?

The internet provides the conduit for the performance form dissemination and is to be filled out online (many times only taking 15 minutes per rater), and if "assembled" and collated totally online, it offers COMPLETE CONFIDENTIALLY of how each person rates the individual in question, as well as capturing "comments" around each competency or area being reviewed. The assembly time takes a matter of minutes and can generate full detailed and informative reports, not days or weeks like before, and the information and results are not touched by any individual. This helps in obtaining CANDID comments and ratings from: peers, subordinates, internal/external customers, and in many cases today, multiple bosses, and of course the person rates him/herself.

This significantly adds to helping to identify: gaps that need to be addressed, coaching that can be done by the Manager or an external Coach/Consultant, Training Needs identified, and this builds stronger support for performance evaluations and what will ultimately be placed in the Personnel File.

Below is a quick graphical depiction of the evolution of the performance review system. Hopefully, the person who posed the original question to the writer in the link below, can be enlightened to the possibilities in today's more sophisticated HR processes, and "dabbling" can be replaced with concrete and proven processes and technologies.


 

My boss told me to improve our performance appraisal system. Specifically, he suggested that we dabble in self-appraisal and allow our employees to share in the responsibility of evaluating their own performance. What do you think?

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=23&title=Experimenting-with-self-appraisal&id=39160

In The Workplace -- Reylito A.H Elbo

Experimenting with self-appraisal