Cotton & Company

Coffee with Cotton – September 16, 2010

Yesterday I discussed four principles that may help you get going on your planning and goal setting for 2011.  Today I want to write about what happens when goals don’t work out.  Unfortunately for a lot of people, when they don’t meet a goal, they just kind of give up altogether.  Some people say “what is the purpose of planning when things are constantly changing especially in this economy”.  Well part of the answer is simply,  planning helps you focus and you will always get more done than if you didn’t plan or set goals.  But we do have to be realistic and realize that sometimes we don’t meet our goals.  Here are some tips on what to do when a goal doesn’t work out or is not achieved:

• Review the situation.  Look at it objectively and specifically.  What things did you do right?  Where do you think you went wrong?  Don’t beat yourself up for not meeting the goal.
• Did you set specific measurements as to what it will mean when you achieve the goal?  Were these measurements or “metrics” correct?
• Were the goals realistic and attainable?  The key to good goal setting is to set a high standard so that you stretch, but there is also something as being too ambitious.  Let’s say I set a goal of climbing Mt Everest.  While I believe that I could with proper training and timing, it is probably an unrealistic goal at my age!
• Try a different approach to meeting the goal.  Perhaps you need to break the goal down into smaller tasks or activities over a longer period of time.
• Assess honestly if it is a goal you really even need to achieve.  Sometimes a goal we set is more “wishful thinking” and perhaps it is just not a good fit at this time.

As we finish up the week tomorrow, I’ll give you another suggestion on breaking through challenges to your goals.

Coffee with Cotton – September 15, 2010

I mentioned yesterday that there are four steps you can take to help you be more effective in your planning and goal setting.

1. Evaluate and reflect.  Find a quiet place.  Set up a regular time to do this.  Look at what you have accomplished in the past, where you are now, how satisfied you are and where you want to go.  Write all of this down.  It becomes a record for your next evaluation.  Look forward and set your next goal.
2. Establish your dreams and goals.  We all have desires of things we want to accomplish.  Truly listen to yourself – not what others want of you.  What are you passionate about?  Take time to be quiet and create dreams for all areas of your life or business.  Write all of them down, no matter how foolish or unattainable you think they are.  Now look over the list and start to prioritize the dreams.
3. Set effective goals that lead you towards these dreams.  Goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Sensitive.  In addition make sure your goals are “For Me”: Focused, Optimistic, Ready, Meaningful, Exciting.
4. Accountability is essential.  It’s human nature that if we know someone is going to ask about it, we are more motivated to get it done!  There is both internal (reporting honestly to yourself) as well as external accountability.  It is always good to have a partner or friend to whom you will report.

Check in tomorrow – I will have more information about planning and goal setting!  It’s not too soon to start plans and goals for 2011.  It will be here before you know it!

Coffee with Cotton – September 14, 2010

Forget New Year’s Resolutions!

• Most don’t last through the month of January!
• Most are made in response to something negative – a bad habit or situation the person wants to change.
• It’s hard to develop momentum from a “negative”.
• Most  are not written and don’t incorporate the concept of “SMART” (more later or review previous posts on goal setting)

Goal setting, done with proper planning, is very powerful.  It helps you focus and aim. You are less likely to get sidetracked.  It gives you direction on exact actions needed to perform or to achieve something. It provides long-term vision.  Long-term goals help us to get past short-term obstacles.  So what are some tips for setting effective goals?

• Write them down.  Only 3% of the population actually has written goals!
• Remember that they are just tools.  Goals should help give you clarity, direction, motivation and focus.
• Make them positive and towards something you want, not something you want to avoid.
• Balance big dreams with small goals.

Tomorrow I will discuss a four step process to help you get started in your planning

Coffee with Cotton – September 13, 2010

It’s hard to believe but the fourth quarter is almost upon us and many individuals and companies are thinking about their plans for 2011 (or they should be).  To establish goals for the new year, whether on an individual or a company-wide basis, time is required.  And the more time that goes into the thinking and planning, the better the plan will be.  I wanted to share a couple of my favorite planning quotes with you:

• “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”  Peter Drucker
• “Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”  Sir John Harvey-Jones
• “It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”  Sir Winston Churchill

And of course, there is the famous quote from Alice in Wonderland where Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which way she should go.  He says “that depends on where you want to get to.”  Her reply is that she doesn’t really care, so then the cat tells her that it doesn’t matter which way she goes, because if she walks long enough she’ll get there.  In other words, “if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

So tomorrow I’ll start a series of posts on planning and goal setting.  As always, if you are interested in a workshop to help you and your staff, please contact us!

Coffee with Cotton – September 10, 2010

Are your employees eager to come to work on Monday mornings?  Winners of the 2010 “Top Small Company Workplaces” have a number of significant things in common.  They provide a good environment, opportunities to learn and advance professionally, and they also recognize that employees have lives outside their offices.    Here are some statistics:

• 75% of the companies offer educational assistance
• 83% practice “open-book” management
• 95% provide flexible work arrangements
• 28% pay 100% of the health insurance premiums

Some of the other things that these companies provided were wellness seminars and wellness perks (like chair massages), exercise rooms and in-house cafes with healthy food. Other companies who focused on going “green” or conservation, gave extra time off to employees who went on mission trips or worked with “green” non profits.  Or gave them extra bonuses for walking or biking to work.  Some companies provide training for families as well as the employees. 

If you are serious about creating programs or incentives like this, give us a call.  We’ d be happy to work on ideas for you.

Coffee with Cotton – September 9, 2010

I have been discussing ways to “clean up” a toxic workplace.  Here are some other things that you can do to begin to develop a better workplace:

• Let your people make some of the decisions.  This gives them “ownership” and they will be much more involved in the company.
• Share the corporate goals and where you are in reaching those goals, particularly financial.  Many companies don’t want their employees to know anything about the financial status.  If you really want to incentivize your employees, consider profit-sharing or some kind of financial incentive for reaching goals. 
• Share information.  Many owners are very secretive about plans.  This causes fear in people.
• Give them the tools they need in order to perform their jobs successfully. 
• Have company events, not just a sales event or even a customer event, but something meaningful to your employees.  One company I worked for did fun events each quarter.  One quarter we went bowling.  Many of us had not bowled in years and it was a lot of fun and helped the team to bond so much better.
• Spend money on training.  Investing in your people tells them you are important to them.  One of the first things companies cut when times are challenging is training.  This is the time when your people need more, not less, training.

Coffee with Cotton – September 8, 2010

Continuing with a discussion about “toxic” workplaces, if you truly are serious about changing the atmosphere in your company, how do you show your employees that you are serious about change?  This will sound simplistic but you need to tell them why things are going to change and specifically how things are going to be different.  Then tell them that you are willing to be accountable to them for these changes.  I once worked in a building which was very old.  Not only was everything outdated, we all started to realize that there was mold on the walls and pictures and posters had been put up in order to disguise the mold.  We realized that people seemed to have more colds and flu than would normally be the case.  The owners had not cared about this; they weren’t even local.  But we got a new general manager who told us his goal was to improve our work environment.  Although he meant that in terms of communication, etc, when we told him about the mold, he informed the owners that this had to be corrected, and it was!  That is “putting your money where your mouth is.” And what did this say to us at employees – that we were valued and cared about.

Tomorrow I will give you some more tips.

Coffee with Cotton – September 7, 2010

I have worked at a number of companies over the past 30 years – most of them in the media field – radio, tv, newspaper and magazines.  Some of these businesses were owned by large national companies; some were privately owned.  In general I would say that most places where I worked had decent, but not great leaders.  The work environments were generally fairly stressful.  I’m not sure if I would characterize any of my workplaces as “toxic” but I would definitely say that some were not particularly pleasant places to work, mostly because of the leadership.

So – is your company a troubled or toxic workplace?  Although a lot of leaders insulate themselves and probably have very little clue about the atmosphere at their companies, perhaps it is time for you to take a good hard look.  One of the indicators of a toxic workplace is the energy that exists.  Do your people smile; do they have fun at work while still getting the work done?  Do your people enjoy being around each other or do they avoid contact with each other or with you? Do you have high turnover?  (This actually may not be as good an indicator as in the past, since jobs are so scarce, people are willing to work at companies they hate, because they know finding another job will be very challenging.

If you would like to improve your company atmosphere, the first thing is to decide why you want to do it!  That seems simplistic because I know business owners who really don’t care.  However companies who have positive energy and happy people perform better.  Companies with loyal customers do better than their competitors.  And where do loyal customers come from?  Not necessarily your products or services; they come from loyal happy employees.  So if you are interested in making a change, each time you make a decision, ask yourself if this is consistent with the view that your people are your most important component of your company.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about how to let your staff know you are interested in making changes in the company culture and environment.