Monthly Archives: April 2019

business life, Goals, Professional Development

The Role of Goals

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I read a Linkedin post from Ursula Burgess the other day.  I am quite sure I’ll never listen to the tune that inspired her thoughts. But her ponderings on opportunities, complacency and resilience got me thinking.

It is way too easy to stay busy yet get nowhere. Activity is fabulous at masquerading as productivity and progress. Opportunities get lost in the flood of information and other attention-grabbing stimuli, both internal and external.

Complacency

Knowing that there will likely be another opportunity tomorrow can cause complacency today. Once the pattern sets in, days become weeks, then months, then years, even decades. Goals, hopes, and dreams go unfulfilled.

It seems to me the key word in the last paragraph is “pattern.” Complacency is a passive pattern. It has the same effect as having a victim mentality in time management – the important stuff doesn’t get done. “Being intentional” is starting to feel a little like an overused cliché to me. But it is at the heart of establishing a pattern that breaks a cycle of complacency. While it should help in the effort to attain goals, intentionality starts with little things.

Little Things to Build Patterns

Here are just a few ideas for little daily actions that can help to build patterns that forge an intentional mindset and make a significant difference over time. They work because they feed both mind and heart. They work because they not only create opportunity, they make it easier to act on opportunities.

• Do a little more than you think you can do
• Do a little more than you have to do
• Do something for someone with zero expectation of return
• Commit to 1% improvement (thank you James Clear)
• Help someone who can do nothing for you
• Learn something or remind yourself of something you already know
• Stop and think for a minute to remember your Why
• Find awe
• Say thanks
• Start a list of the things and people you are grateful for and add to it daily

Goals

Goals are useful for setting direction, but should never define us. They are a means to an end, not the other way around. As Jim Rohn said, “Choose a goal for what it makes of you.” Defining yourself by your goals limits you and may set you up for failure. You may not achieve your goal for reasons beyond your control. Or you may decide to change your goals along the way. Do either make you a failure? You are more than what you achieve. You are the product of the effort it took to get there, what you learned, and the relationships you built along the way.

“Success doesn’t lie in the achievement of a goal, although that’s what the world considers success; it lies on the journey toward the goal. We’re successful as long as we’re working towards something we want to bring about in our lives. That’s when the human being is at his or her best.” 

         – Earl Nightingale

Being myopically goal-oriented may be damaging. In sports, winning is a goal. In business, profit is a goal. Coaches and CEOs that focus only on those goals without regard to the work required to reach them may succeed for a while, but it is rarely sustainable. Sooner or later, they crash and burn. Coaches that help their teams focus on playing the game well build legacies of winning. Business leaders who build cultures that stress fundamentals and taking care of people are more likely to be profitable over time. The lesson? A goal, whether it is winning, profit, or any other worthy objective, is a natural byproduct of doing the things necessary to attain them.

Context

Values, processes, systems & habits are the key. They help to set and attain meaningful goals. They set the table for progress with daily, intentional actions and it all adds up. It becomes who you are, and you continue to grow. Some days you’ll fall down. It happens. That’s where resiliency comes in. My definition of resiliency: The ability to bounce instead of splatting when you fall. The deeper the pattern of intentional action, the quicker you’ll bounce back up.

If you have any items you would add to the list of little things that help build your intentional mindset, please share!

Education, Professional Development, Test Tips

How to Crush the M100 Exam (or Any Other PMDP Class Test)

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This blog may offer insight to some managers or business professionals who struggle with passing exams, learning content for a class or absorbing any material in general. If you’re intimidated about taking a Community Associations Institute test because the other students in your class look like they are fresh out of college, fear not! You can boost your confidence by developing your study skills!

Make the Knowledge Your Own

I learned these tips through tutoring kids, college students, and older adults and by applying them to my own studies. They don’t suggest cheating or hacking the exam. Instead, you can hone your skills by deliberately practicing these methods. Over time, they may influence the way you absorb information, becoming second nature. The goal is to make the knowledge your own. Once that happens, taking the test is easy!

  • Define: First off, rote memorization of definitions isn’t as effective as you might think. Many people will mindlessly recite words from their textbook without ever understanding what they mean. This doesn’t have much benefit without understanding their significance. Think of the definition as a jumping off point from which you can understand the basic idea. Then you have a foundation that allows you to dive deeper and fully grasp the concept.
  • Rephrase: When you come across a new concept, rephrase it in your own words as if teaching it to a child. This will clarify the fundamental elements of the concept. It might help you communicate concisely with clients in the future. No one at work will ask you to define “special assessment,” but you’d better be able to explain the concept and its impact to a homeowner!
  • Use a Lifeline: If rephrasing the concept doesn’t come easily, it may help to seek a trusted friend or mentor. This could be a boss with more experience, a business partner with expertise in the field, or a colleague who can help you identify resources. Your answers won’t always be black and white. Sometimes the response you get requires you to think critically, ask additional questions, or do further research. It might spur three new questions! Though it may sound like a lot of work, it’s worth it when a tough concept finally clicks.
  • Make It Real: Once you have a decent grasp of the concept, start making connections. Apply the concept to something you experience at work, hear at a CAI conference or read in an engineering report. Strive to integrate this practice into your daily work life instead of restricting it to your study time. When a situation arises at work, connect it back to the coursework you recently studied. This practice will help ingrain the concept so that it’s readily accessible when you need it in real life.

Now that CAI’s test schedule allows you to take tests electronically up to 30 days after the class, you can take advantage of applying new concepts to your daily work routine. Instead of waiting until the last minute to study the course content, think about it while it’s still fresh in your head. There’s no reason to compartmentalize your learning time to the two hours of studying you do every week. When you apply the concepts and make connections to the forty hours of work you do every week, not only do you benefit but so does your employer, who may have paid for the class. When applied correctly, it helps you do your job better.

Conquering Test Anxiety

You might understand and apply concepts effortlessly but still suffer from test anxiety. Here are a few strategies to help get the answers from your head onto the computer screen when it’s time to take the test.

  • Create Your Own Questions: When reviewing material for tests, immediately check your understanding by asking yourself what a good test question would be. Then make sure you can answer it, looking back at your notes if necessary. As you practice this exercise, you should become more accustomed to recalling information, better preparing you for test time.
  • Mnemonic Devices: A memorization technique such as a song or an acrostic can help your brain encode information and help with information retrieval. Here’s the acrostic that I mentally use to recall all the Great Lakes:

Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior

  • Summarize: There’s nothing wrong with the summaries at the end of each chapter, but it isn’t your own! A summary that you develop will force you to rephrase everything so that it makes sense to you. You can say it out loud or write it down.

Making Education Work for You

Preparing for and passing all the courses in the CAI catalog won’t help you become a better manager if you forget everything the day after the test. Reinforce what you’ve learned in the classroom with everything you do on a daily basis at work. Chat with other managers about concepts that you want to explore. If they go off on a tangent, soak it in and consider expanding on what you’ve learned. Curiosity about a specific topic may blossom into a new passion or become your niche within the field.

CAI’s PMDP courses will help you grow as a professional. Focusing on this broader perspective can help motivate you to master the material.

P.S. If standardized test taking still makes you anxious, remember— you only need a 70% to pass! Don’t worry. You got this!

I’m happy to welcome Chantu Chea, CMCA, AMS, as my first T-Rex guest blogger. Chantu has been editing and collaborating with me on the blog for quite a while now.  She deserves a lot of credit for the quality of the writing and Association Bridge work product in general. About a year ago, I realized her title of “Associate” really wasn’t cutting it. She is now our “Creative Collaborator & Resident Contrarian.” After tutoring a nervous M-100 student to help her pass the course exam and then acing her own M-205 test (a perfect 100!), it was clear she could help managers prepare for exams and face down test anxiety. It was time for Chantu and me to switch places.  I hope you enjoyed reading her blog as much as I did.  

business life, community associations, Culture, Human Resources, leadership, Management

Do You Want To Keep Good People? Build an Intentional Culture

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Turnover is Expensive!

The struggle to attract and keep talented employees and volunteers is universal. For businesses, the hard cost of employee turnover includes hiring and onboarding, initial training, ongoing development, and integration with the team. Finally, it includes the interim costs incurred while a position is unfilled. Yet, soft costs can be far more impactful. Turnover loads a burden on the backs of everyone in a company. These can turn into hard costs with loss of business due to poor performance.

Not-for-profit community associations have different metrics. On-site staff and volunteer turnover result in soft costs such as service gaps and overburdened remaining staff and volunteers. This, in turn, takes a toll on member satisfaction. Increased stress and pressure result. Over time, this can lead to increased turnover and lack of volunteer interest.

Another common and insidious cost of turnover can be an intentional or unintentional lack of investment in employees and volunteers, which inevitably leads to more turnover.

The vicious cycle of churn is costly. And it sucks – it sucks the life out of organizations of every sort.

Strategies

There are plenty of strategies out there to retain employees and volunteers. Google the subject and you’ll find scads of them. They range from simple recognition to the adoption of lofty ideals designed to motivate the troops. Volunteer retainage is its own animal because compensation is defined differently. In all cases, strategies are focused on showing appreciation and providing benefits that are designed to reward people and keep them in the fold. And they might not work.

Don’t get me wrong, many strategies can be beneficial. They may help keep some folks around for a while. But they cannot stand alone. Strategies need to be part of a broader context to have lasting value.

Want Retention? Engage

Retention is a useful metric, but it’s not a goal. It’s a byproduct. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 53% of U.S. workers are not engaged. Gallup states, “They may be generally satisfied but are not cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace; they will usually show up to work and do the minimum required but will quickly leave their company for a slightly better offer.” Another 13% were reported to be “actively disengaged.” Let that sink in. Two-thirds of American workers spend a significant part of their waking hours at a job they don’t really want to do. Yikes! If they don’t leave, they should.

In their seminal work The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes & Posner conclude that people tend to look at their jobs in one of 3 ways; as a job, as a career, or as a calling. The difference? Engagement. The higher the level of the synchronization between the work someone does and their values and goals, the deeper the engagement.

Want Engagement? Lead

“Engagement is not an HR issue. It is a leadership issue” – Simon Sinek, Author & Organizational Consultant

If the key to engagement is the connection of values and work, it begs a couple of questions. What does your organization stand for? What deeper connection does it offer? This is where many leaders fail. Kouzes and Posner offer an approach to address this. They boil it down to what they call “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership:”

  • Model the Way
  • Inspire a Shared Vision
  • Challenge the Process
  • Enable Others to Act
  • Encourage the Heart

All five practices directly impact engagement. Leaders who are hypocritical, directionless, non-communicative, myopic, micromanagers with low EQ  kill engagement. If there is a serious weakness in just one or two of these areas, you can count on good people walking out the door.

So then, effective leadership begets engagement and provides a context for strategy. Putting this all together, what are the leaders charged with doing? They must develop and nurture organizational culture.

Build an Intentional Culture – Defining the Organizational “We”

Culture is who we are, proven by what we repeatedly do. Its engine is the shared values of the organization. Shared values lead to aspirational vision. The vision drives goals, which sets the mission. Goals and mission drive strategies, which then dictate day-to-day tactics. We do what we do because we are who we are.

All organizations have a culture. Leaders are responsible for making it an intentional one. That includes community association volunteer leaders. It’s not easy, but it is always worth it. Leaving it to chance leads to disconnected strategies and tactics. And churn.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker, Legendary Management Educator

As the stewards of intentional culture, leaders must make sure that what we do stays in line with who we are. They must walk the talk. Disconnects must be addressed. Few things cause disengagement more quickly than an organization that espouses values that are violated in the way things are done. A dedication to a values-driven culture draws like-minded persons and engages them. Engaged people not only tend to stay awhile, but they also draw others who will find a satisfying place in the culture.

“Culture is caught, not taught” – Rolf Crocker, CEO, OMNI Community Management, LLC

But They Won’t Let Me!

What if your boss doesn’t get it? What if you are an on-site manager with a board full of clueless non-leaders that make it difficult for you to lead your staff? What if you work for a soul-crushing CEO? You still create a culture with those within your sphere of influence. In fact, you must…or leave. That will be the subject of another blog.
If a public high school department head can create a pocket of excellence despite deeply entrenched policies and bureaucracy, the odds are good that you can build a culture that makes a difference. Leaders don’t ask permission to lead. They may sometimes have to ask for forgiveness afterward. But results tend to take the heat off.

If You Want Them to Stay, Forget the Fence – Build a Fire

External rewards without engagement are like a fence. Engagement produces internal rewards. If you want to keep people in the fold, stop worrying so much about the fence. Instead, build a fire of culture at the center of the organization. That fire gives team members light so they can see the vision and the warmth of shared values and mission. Create a space where people are drawn and want to stay.

Recommended Study Material:

 

The Leadership Challenge, 5th Edition by James Kouzes & Barry Posner 

The Excellence Dividend, by Tom Peters 

Gung Ho!, by Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles 

The Culture Engine, by S. Chris Edmonds 

And if you are REALLY serious, go to Tom Peters’ website  www.excellencenow.com  for his 50- page “Extreme Humanization/Extreme Employee Engagement PDF