Cash In on Your Career

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The PUMP Up Your Bottom Line System

Hey Hi Everyone,

Still PUMPed up? Remember what that stands for? … Passion Ultimately Means Performance.

As we discussed in our session on Friday, 9/9 a couple hours of throwing ideas around is hopefully informative. But it’s the long term investment of coaching your team – guiding them to implement and hone the techniques we talked about, that’s where real results (the Magic) happens. A few of you asked if there might be a way to keep a dialog going to help coach you through this process. So to that end, I would like to add tips and techniques on an ongoing basis to support you in that effort. Please view this as a forum, a “Coach’s Corner” if you will, where we can share ideas, ask questions and build onto each other’s ideas and resources. But most importantly, keep the momentum and the process moving forward.

Building the kind of employment engagement we were talking about will take some time and effort – but that’s where your natural assets of developing people, kicks in … AKA coaching. As Brigitte Richerson of Potawatomi put it so well, “I thrive when I helping someone maximize their true talents”. Can we drop in the 80% / 20% rule here? I think so.

My friend, Dr. Stan “Break Through” Harris, say’s, and I agree, “You have the opportunity to implement a SYSTEM”. He defines a system as.

Save

Your

Self

Time

Energy &

Money.

Ok, Ok. It looks like I’m not the only acronym lover. Anyway.

Here is a system that we discussed, the PUMP You Up System, that will provide you with techniques that can ignite your team’s desire to “want to put skin in the game”. Why? Because they know they have gifts, talents and a history of success they know they can leverage to contribute to success of your team and the organization over all.

Let’s review what the first step of the system looks like.

Tip # 1. D.I. G.

Discover What Makes You Truly Unique

How do we do that?

Inventory Your Successes and Achievements

Then

Give Your Gifts

My first recommendation is that you gather your team. Have each member do their Love Tos vs Have Tos Walk Down Memory Lane exercises (seen below). Have them start this process as a group. Have them find at least 5 situations, but if they can find 10 that’s better.

YOUR LOVE TOS VS HAVE TOS
WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Write down a few of your favorite and most meaningful activities you have had professionally.

Think about a few situations that have brought you great satisfaction? What are some events that have given you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment? You felt you “hit it out of the park”. You, “nailed” it. You made a big difference to its success. Think about statements like…

I’m at my best when I’m…
I’m very proud of the results when I’m …
The type of environment I thrive in is …
When I’m involved with this activity I could spend hours at it, but it never seems like it. Rather, it’s effortless.

Go over your list from your Love-Tos vs Have -Tos and reevaluate your list. Select the top five of your experiences. They should have the following qualities:

You feel proud of the outcome.
It needs to be one of your favorite experiences, you thoroughly enjoyed it.
You need to recognize you are good at the activity.
You had to meet and overcome a challenge or objective (very important).
You feel you made a significant contribution to the success of the situation

Then if you would like to go on with your group in this session, have them start to flesh one or two of their situations into a C.A.R. (Challenge Action Results) story. Eventually they will want to do all ten situations. Let them each share a situation, as you did with your small group.

We will start with this, and I will share with you how we can build onto this in your next group sessions in the next posted tip.

Good luck – have fun!!! Remember it’s supposed to be fun. Let me know if I can help you.

Take care and …

“Keep it Passionate”

Susie Mathews

Susie@winning-directions.com

262-391-3828

www.cashinonthepassion.com

Monday, September 12, 2011

Ten Years Reflecting Life Changes

In honor of the tenth anniversary of September 11th, I thought it would be nice to reflect on the magnitude of that day and how it has impacted your life and the choices you have made and are making to this day.

That tragic day was a wake-up call. If you were like me it sent me into a tail spin. I felt helpless and wanted to do something, but I feared we, as a nation, were out of control. I felt there was little I could do to get a real sense of control over that horrifying ordeal. The sense of fear and anger was taking over. But the overwhelming feeling was, “Life is so precious”.

I was not alone. Many people I talked with told me similar things. We had discussions of how to seriously re-evaluate priorities. We considered things like: What is truly important to me? What do I have control over in my life? What do I need to change in my life? Life’s too short to keep putting off something that has real meaning and purpose.

I would like to invite you to revisit the events of 9/11 as an opportunity for a challenge. Think about if there were things in your life you wanted to change. It might have been building stronger relationship with those you love. You might have wanted to shift the direction of your career. You simply may have wanted to laugh more or find more meaning in your everyday activities.

Let me encourage you to summon some of those memories and answer the following questions. After that day:

What did you feel was truly important to you?

What did you feel you wanted to change about your life?

Was there something you felt you had been putting off that you wanted act on?

Now let me ask the most important question of them all … Did you do anything about it?

In a time where everything feels like it’s out of control, what can help us get back on track is to understand there are things in our lives we have the ability to have control over. Even if that objective feels insurmountable, taking one step at a time in that direction will help you live a more authentic, genuine life, one filled with fulfillment and worth.

There is the real challenge, what action – what one step can you make to move yourself to get you on your way? Then ask yourself the same question tomorrow, then the next day, etc.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Are You Thriving … Or Just Surviving?

Let me ask you a question, are you sailing along in your career? Or does it feel like your sail is only half way up the mast and you’re struggle to get anywhere? Do you feel you are performing at less than your maximum potential? A recent Gallup Poll said that 74% of Americans are disengaged with what they are doing for a living. The sad reality is, when it comes to their careers, the majority of U.S. workers are not going after what is meaningful to them at all. Rather, they are jumping through hoops, doing what somebody else wants of them. These unfulfilled souls function like organizational robots. They go through the motions of their day unchallenged and unfocused. As a consequence, they merely perform whatever it is they are supposed to be doing, putting in no more effort than what is required of them. Hummm … sound familiar?

In their heart they can feel the desire for something more. This purposelessness begins to eat away at their spirit like a cancer. They crave an opportunity to make their mark on the world, to make a difference in life. They hunger to be energized by doing work they believe in, something that has personal meaning and purpose to them.

Make no mistake, this kind of lack in fulfillment and personal driving force is dangerous. Not only for the individual but for the company who employs such people. Without a sense of purpose, one will march along on a programmed treadmill that results in a less then peak performance. The question remains then, how do you discover that environment in which to thrive? How do you uncover your greatest potential and create a clear vision for your individual strengths?

But here lies the challenge. It’s been my experience that when I ask my clients to tell me how they have made a difference, I typically get a black stare. Most – as high as 90% can’t tell me. In my opinion, that’s the starting block. Sadly, they really do know, but they simply haven’t taken the time to discover it, take ownership of it, then put it into a game plane for their career path. Without doing this, there is limited success in leveraging one’s personal potential.

Understanding one’s personal history of contribution, how one has made a difference is the key. I have an exciting and easy way to implement a solution

You have to DIG!

Discover Your Gifts

Inventory Your Successes and Accomplishments

Give Your Gifts

Discover Your Gifts

First, I suggest you go back through your history and write down a list of things in your work history that have brought great satisfaction. I call these your Love Tos vs Your Have Tos. What are your favorite and most meaningful activities? Think about situations you felt you “hit it out of the park”; you were “hittin’ on all cylinders”. What are some events that have given you a true sense of fulfillment? The answers to these questions are the clues to your gifts. Once you bring these gifts into focus, you will begin to see a pattern where you are thriving.

Inventory your Successes and Achievements

From this list identify your top five situations, ones in which they felt you’ve made a difference. Each achievement needs to possess the following qualities:

It needed to be one of your favorite experiences, one which you thoroughly enjoyed doing.
You met and overcome a challenge in the process.
You felt proud of the outcome.

Next, take each of these top five experiences and create what’s commonly known as a C.A.R. mini story. These stories should be based on three criteria:

What was the Challenge?

What kind of Action did I take?

What were the Results?

Once completing these initial exercises it’s not uncommon for someone to feel a sense of real accomplishment and genuine pride. You should be able to begin to describe, qualify and quantify your self-worth … how you make a difference.

Give Your Gift

Put these newly recognized gifts into action. A gift is not a gift if it is not given. Once an individual understands how they have made a positive impact they have a stronger sense of purpose. They take more ownership of their contribution to the overall success of your company. Yes, they become more engaged.

Now, let me pose a few questions. First, do you think if given the chance to discover your unique strengths, and know them inside out, upside down – backwards and forwards you know you have a track record of making a difference - would you feel better about where you are going with your career? Second, do you think your company might be the direct benefactor of your newfound fervor? Now if you learn to leverage these assets, you are on the path of creating an environment where you can thrive … not just survive. I will talk more about how you can do this with 30, 60, 90 Day Vision and Strategy