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The year has started.
        Tick-tock, tick-tock...
Time to ask yourself some questions:
  1. Did I/we meet our goals for 2014? Why or why not?
  2. Have we prioritized goals and direction for 2015?
  3. Are we (globally, all leaders) prepared for the challenges of 2015?
  4. Do we have operational/functional plans to support our corporate strategy going forward?


Answer these truthfully, and you'll bring some clarity to reasons for 2014 results, and a preview of 2015 challenges and efforts.
 

If you didn't meet some of your goals last year, and you're expecting improvements this year, take a good look at your approach to goal setting and accountability.
 

I love pithy quotes that people regularly share, especially this one from Zig Ziglar on setting goals and time management:

"A goal without a deadline is just a dream."
Our goals have infinitely better chances of being accomplished if they are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely. 

Are yours?
Pop the Question!
No, not that question...

Triangle Performance LLC's 2015 Survey of Senior Leadership is almost complete!! This will be our eighth annual survey; the participant rate continues to grow, as does the validity of the data presented.

 

Rewards for Doing Your Job? Why Would I Do That?

By: D. Kevin Berchelmann
 
Email Kevin: kevinb@triangleperformance.com

 

But, Kevin, that's his job!


 An exasperated client exclaimed this to me after hearing-again-that she should get better at recognizing her folks, and to consider using regular accomplishments as the impetus, versus waiting for the one-off spectacular event.

 

She disagreed strongly, obviously. She felt that if people were just doing their job, they weren't doing anything exceptional, ergo no recognition warranted or expected. "Their paycheck is a reward for satisfactory behavior," she said. I'm sure no one reading this has ever uttered those words.

 

"Wrong," I told her. "That's just flat wrong." 

Since she is a football fan (assuming you actually consider the Jacksonville Jaguars "football,"), I used a football analogy...

READ MORE

Upcoming Webinar

LIVE WEBINAR

Thursday, February 12, 2015

2:00-3:00 pm Central 

Join us on Thursday, February 12th, as Kevin Berchelmann discusses how to find the time to do the things that need to be done. Leadership takes time-and the demands on leadership are not decreasing, by any stretch. Learn how to have it all-be a leader that inspires, make time for feedback and relationship-building, while still being reasonably present at meetings, budgeting, mandatory formations and the like. It's about discernment and--like we tell our children--making good choices. 

REGISTER HERE

Quit Setting Goals!

By: Bo Carrington

Email Bo: bo@triangleperformance.com  

Since early childhood we are taught about setting goals. As we enter the business world we start hearing acronyms like SMART and HARD to better help us write and allegedly better achieve our goals. Now, there is a move afoot (primarily academic) that says "we shouldn't write goals, they hurt us." While I disagree with that academic suggestion, I do believe there is learning for us all in the obvious ignorance of their premise.

First I'd like to start with a question-"why do we need goals?"

To write and achieve a proper goal we have to ask ourselves that question, lest we simply feed academic research. First, we need to define "goal." Webster's provides a good starting point:

"GOAL: the terminal point of a race... ...the end toward which effort is directed..."

So, what happens if we don't have a goal? If we don't have a terminal point of a race, how do we know when it ends or where we are in the race?

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I Hate Goal Setting

By: Kevin Ross

Email Kevin: kevinr@triangleperformance.com  

 

I hate goal setting. The whole business of it.

 

That's why I was surprised by a conversation I had with my daughter a couple of weeks ago. Home from her fall semester, she was describing her goals to me - her grad school goals, financial goals, career goals, life goals - and I was amazed. When I asked how she learned about goal setting, she unexpectedly answered, "from you, of course." I didn't know I'd passed goal setting to another generation, because (if I hadn't mentioned it) I hate goal setting.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate setting goals; it's the only way I know I'm on track to where I want to go. But there's so much of the institutional process of individual goal setting that is all about process and almost nothing about the accomplishment of what really matters.

 

I've got the stick for a minute.

 

Leaders who have vision and can translate it into an executable plan that followers buy into can be the Holy Grail to an organization. On the down side, results can easily be torpedoed by the intermediate level managers who don't know how to get the people who actually DO work to set performance and developmental goals that support that vision and plan.

 

I would propose that few leaders have a good grasp on the goals his/her workforce sets, but that doesn't mean they aren't held accountable for their workforce's results. It's past time to get involved.

 

READ MORE

  
 
In The News!
 
Featured in Texas CEO Magazine
Interviewed by the U.S. Army Infantry School Ft. Benning
Performance Review interview with CEO Institute
Presented at the TEEX Leadership Symposium
Featured in the Aspen Times
Presenting at the ISRI 2015 Convention