Crap! Evaluations again? How am I supposed to do that?

"Things are tight, right? I mean, if the economy is in the proverbial toilet and we're cutting costs everywhere, you can't possibly think you're getting a raise, can you? Of course not! It wouldn't be fiscally responsible."

As you sit and listen to the manager conference call your company has once or twice a month, all of these thoughts run through your head. You've killed it this year but it's been tough! The entire market shrank but you managed to stay flat even though others around you weren't so fortunate.

"If I worked in another industry or even for our competitor, I bet they'd see that I am valuable enough to scrape out some cash..." you mutter under your breath.

Suddenly, you hear the words you've been dreading for at least six months..."we've got the year-end evaluations due by the end of the month so make sure you're working with your people to complete these. They are an important tool for our company and our employee's professional development."


"Really?" you ask, "How am I supposed to motivate someone to perform better when there is no money for raises, bonuses, toilet paper for the men's room, etc.?" Immediately you think to yourself "why do we even bother giving out evaluations in a year so bad?"


Now that you've convinced yourself that you're under-appreciated, it's time to go show your employees just how valuable they are to the team. How do you manage that?  


It's easy...but difficult.


1. Be honest. People can sniff out BS from miles away and know when you're upset too. They'll appreciate your sincerity and sympathy when they understand that you don't like it either. NEVER blame the company, however, or you'll lose credibility.


2. Find a way. Barring the whole can't buy toilet paper thing, find some way to reward your team. Even if you have to pay for it out of pocket, show the team you care. If you do pay out of pocket, something simple works best. Extravagance shows you're now "they" rather than one of us. If it's cheap, make sure they know you paid for it and it wasn't the company; otherwise, they'll wonder why the company won't give bonuses if they can afford this.


3. Be optimistic. Sure, things suck this year but if it looks like things are going to turn around, let your people know that you'll remember their loyalty. That gets left out by managers who forget that their people are the one's who kept the company from sliding further than it did.


See what I mean? It's easy, right?

Success is sometimes accidental.

"Sometimes, success is a total accident."  When I heard someone repeat this, I was a little taken by surprised.  "What's he talking about?" I thought as he went on to explain.  It comes down to the idea that sometimes, we find success by accident.  

This doesn't mean that we should go through life without a plan or hoping to stumble upon success, but rather that we should always analyze the situation, be it success or failure, and ensure that we are learning from it.  There is no rule that we can only learn from our failures, only our own ignorance that causes us to think successes must be a result of only our intentional efforts.

When we succeed, it is sometimes due to factors we do not suspect.  Regardless, we should always look to the experience and learn from it.  Relationships might succeed because of our partner's traits rather than our own.  Business ventures might succeed thanks to an unforseen competitive advantage rather than our "better mousetrap." A team might win because the other team drops a pass.  A business might succeed because an employee is superb, even thought the manager is terrible.

It doesn't matter what causes the success.  What matters is that we identify what causes that success or negates our failures and learn from that.  I'm reminded of McDonald's introduction of the Filet-O-Fish sandwich.  This sandwich is one of McDonald's top sellers by accident because someone figured out that Catholics need a no meat alternative on Fridays.  

The best way to get skinny is to find what skinny people do and do more of that.  The best way to be wealthy is to find out what wealthy people do and do more of that.  Find out what makes something successful and do more of that!

The point is, if you can determine what causes it, always learn from failure.  Always learn from success.  Keep learning.  KEEP THINKING!!!

For Love or Money

This is a question that most of us wrestle with at some point in our lives.  Do we look for the position with the better pay, the better chance for advancement, better chance to learn the industry, or do we try to find a happy medium of those things.  

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to learn from a few people who I would consider very successful in their careers and one common theme kept coming up.  Many times before I'd heard, "Don't do it for the money," or "Find what you love, not what pays the best," but this time it was different!  Maybe it's getting older.  Call it living experience.  Whatever.  This time what I heard was put best by Leigh Davis, a successful manager in Southern Company's real estate division.  She said, "Don't chase a dollar, chase an experience."

Life forces us to choose...or so we think.  Richard Murray, Group President of RBC Bank in Alabama and Florida said, "Don't look for a chance to make money, look for a chance to learn something."  I'd always thought of it as a tradeoff: if you want to be successful, you have to always start with the higher salary/best opportunity for a promotion.  Now, several years into my career, I realize that it's much more important to keep learning.  

My challenge is just that.  Chase an experience.  Learn something.  KEEP THINKING!!!