None of your Business Case!

In a land far, far away and in a time many, many years ago, a young man (nameless) was a junior manager for a large corporation. This junior manager found it necessary, from time to time, to go to his superiors to gain approval for the expenditure of corporate funds to purchase goods and services which, in the mind of the junior manager would prove to be of immeasurable benefit to the said corporation.

After several trips up the mountain on such quests, this junior manager took stock of his position. To date, not one of his requests had been approved! Worse still was the fact that the junior manager's superiors were beginning to avoid him. Perhaps worst of all was the fact that said corporation had not yet been able to avail itself of the immeasurable benefits which would have surely accrued to said corporation if the junior manager's superiors had only had sufficient foresight to see that which was so very obvious to the junior manager. What they were unable to see were the obvious (to the junior manager) immeasurable benefits to be delivered through the expenditures recommended by the junior manager.

Fortunately for our junior manager, there was an individual working at this corporation whom the junior manager trusted and whose advice the junior manager sought on frequent occasions. This persons name was Obeewan Kagampbee. The junior manager scheduled an appointment and went to see his mentor. After listening to the plight of our junior manager, Obeewan asked to see one of the immeasurably beneficial recommendations which had been rejected by senior management.

After several minute of quiet deliberation and pondering, Obeewan announced to the junior manager that he would also have rejected the recommendations for expenditure. Oh horrors! The junior manager was now certain that even his trusted advisor Obeewan had become senile. If the brilliant Obewan Kagampbee was not able to see the obvious merit in his recommendation, surely all hope was lost.

Left with nowhere else to turn, the junior manager summoned his courage and asked Obeewan the fateful question, "Why would you too, Obeewan have rejected my recommendation?"

"Well", said Obeewan, "lemme tellya kid! Foist of all ya ain't got no decent description of WHAT ya think ya need.
What's all this crapola about ICT/IP/OKIKOKI 2000 ARCHITECTURE....NETWORK EIEIO?" The junior manager was shocked. Obeewan continued. "When you're convinced that ya need somethin for the betterment of your group or company, say in plain English talk what it is ya need

"Second kid, ya haven't told nobody WHY ya need this stuff. Is there a particular problem yer tryin to solve ? Is this junk gonna make the company more money ? Is this thing gonna save the company from a lawsoot or somethin ? Ya gotta tell people, again in plain English, talk what's in it fer them or the company!

"Third Kid, people like choices! Nobody likes to have a loaded gun put to their head. ya gotta Identify what alternatives you've thought about before you came to the conclusion you came ta! And, it ain't smart to tell folks that their ain't no alternatives. There are ALWAYS alternatives. So, tell folks about 'em."

Well, our junior manager went away thinking about what he'd been told by Obeewan. He reassembled his first recommendation taking into consideration the pointers he had just received. The very next time he took the proposal to his superiors they accepted it. Not because they had suddenly become wiser, but, because he had explained his case in understandable business terms and was able to demonstrate the benefits that the company would derive from the expenditure.

OWN GOALS!

Goals the most intellectually understood process but the most mis understood activity. Every few months if we are lucky we go through the process under protest of setting our team members goals. It’s quite often seen as an accademic exercise, let’s get it done and out of the way, then we dust it off at review time, struggling to remember what we meant by what was written. Yes but it’s a two way process I hear you say, the person who is receiving the goals is just as responsible about making sure they are set. I absolutely agree , and the individual is just as guilty because they generally don’t get their goals out again until a day before review time just to make sure they can reverse engineer the results as it may effect the next increase. Wow what a Eureka moment! Both parties have missed a massive opportunity.

People are engineered to perform best when they have a laser light focus on what they want to achieve or more importantly what they expect to achieve. If you are not making progress towards your goal, you are generally moving backwards, you never stand still, your life isn’t in suspended animation.

Like ships in the night both parties miss the opportunity to move forward. Different things motivate different people. It’s worth spending the time understanding what gives people a burn big enough to get up and make something happen as well as those good old company goals.

Get to know your people you will be positively surprised what you find out, and most importantly get to know what you want, set goals to drive towards them, you will get really motivated as you progress towards your goal.

When was the last time you wrote down your goals?

After all it wasn’t until Kennedy set a goal to put a man on the moon that this became a reality. Good luck

Going forward to go backwards!

If you highlight someones weaknesses they go backwards by 75%,

If you highlight their strengths they go forward by 14%.

Yes Gary!, that's all very well I hear you say, you don't live in the real world. Are you saying that we shouldn't address issues, and be all soft with people. Absolutely not, but it certainly opens the mind to the consequences.

It's so Average !

Did you realise......

The Average wage in the UK is £25k, the top @% earn £160k +, the top 1% earn £8m +, the lowest wage is £7k.

20 % of people don't earn the lowest wage and are therefore in poverty.

The top 5% earn over 35% of the money.

After tax the take home for the average wage is £1400 per month.

Morale to the story...

Leadership is thin, you need to do something different to stand out from someone else.

No wonder people struggle.

What are you going to do ?

Are your ready ?

There is a great deal of talk in the media about green shoots. Are we coming out of the doldrums, is the recession over ?

Everyone is desperate for some good news. There is no doubt that the market is improving, even if it's a slight change.

But the most Important question for you is-

"Are you ready and prepared to hit the ground running, coming out of the recession"

I strongly believe that the people who are prepared the most will have the greatest success.

It is a fact that the majority of people will try and invest in the stock market once most of the gains have been taken.

It's the same following previous recessions.

The people that set themselves apart from other and get prepared and start behaving as if we are on the climb will have the greatest success.

Whatever your business, whatever your goals are, whatever your Job situation, get ready to move.

Getting started is half done.

Good Luck!