Workplace Strategies

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Most companies have an “official” set of values that correspond to their mission statement and an “unofficial” set of values that actually dictate who gets paid the most. Be aware of these differences and position yourself advantageously. Develop career management strategies that enable you to stay in the ranks of the top earners rather than gradually falling off the pace.

Align Your Skills with What Is Valued Most in the Marketplace

Which Executive Skills Does Your Organization Value?

You probably know of companies that claim to promote good work life balance for their employees, but then routinely promote and reward those who work 60- to 70-hour work weeks. That should tell you unequivocally that the company values productivity more than anything else despite its public pronouncements to the contrary. Similarly, in your own organization, what is truly valued will be clear from the budget allocations and the attitude of senior managers toward the different departments.

If you know what is truly valued by your own organization, then you know which executive skills will come to the fore. To take some specific examples:

Value Key Executive Skills Job Functions
A company that values creativity and new ideas
1. Flexibility
2. Observation
Research and development activities as well as new business development activities are at the forefront

A company that values production and delivery
1. Task Initiation
2. Achieving Goals
3. Time Management
Everyone focuses on executing well and getting finished products out the door on time

A company that values customer relations
1. Flexibility
2. Emotion Control People who have face-to-face contact with customers hold the greatest influence

A company that is bottom-line oriented
1. Achieving Goals
2. Focus
3. Plan & Prioritize
These companies place a premium on meeting or exceeding your quotas above all else

A company that prides itself on secure and orderly management practices
1. Organization
2. Time Management
These companies love to establish and maintain routines. Banks are like this. They are highly predictable

A company that is marketing oriented
1. Flexibility
2. Plan & Prioritize
3. Observation
The marketing department will be willing and eager to try new and creative approaches

A company that values sales highly
1. Flexibility
2. Emotion Control
3. Achieving Goals The sales department is a very high profile area to work in. The CEO calls when significant sales are made

A company that is customer service focused
1. Self-restraint
2. Flexibility
3. Emotion Control
4. Task Initiation
The customer service people will be highly proactive and empowered

A company that is customer service focused
1. Task Initiation
2. Achieving Goals
The departments that serve customers after a sale is made will be the best places to be

A company that values communication highly
1. Plan & Prioritize
2. Achieving Goals
3. Emotion Control
Being able to share ideas and inform others about what is happening is where all the action will be

A company that is project management oriented
1. Plan & Prioritize
2. Achieving Goals
3. Emotion control
Most of the main activities will revolve around project managers and their track record in completing projects

Offset Insufficient Skills with Creativity

If you can determine which executive skills are most valued by your organization and these match where you are strong, then you’re in good shape to stand out and make an impact. If the skills most valued by your organization are different from those you possess, then you have to be a little more creative. You have to look at how you skills can be used to help those who are at the front line of delivering value. If you can do that, a kind of “halo effect” will kick in where you will receive credit for assisting a project team or someone meet their goals.

Long-term, however, you want to align your executive skill strengths with organizations that will value highly what you bring to the table. That will make your work easier to do day to day and more pleasant, which cannot be a bad thing.

Stretch Goals

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Goals influence choices. To innovate, you need to set goals that are challenging but achievable–which can be reached if you stretch. Get your growth goals right and innovation will naturally happen.

The challenge in setting goals is to hit the right balance between internal stretch goals and external goals that will position the company advantageously. Both types of goals are needed in order for innovation to occur, but clarity and focus are also essential.

In P&G’s situation, A.G. Lafley and the senior management team decided they would focus first on achievable external goals and then set ambitious internal goals that would hopefully inspire bold innovation and creative business plans. These external goals, if achieved, would position P&G among the leaders in its industry, which is where the company wanted to be.

P&G set three external goals:

1. To grow twice as fast as the industry; two times GDP.

2. To deliver double-digit earnings growth.

3. To focus on organic growth first and then acquisitions.

Setting Goals

A goal properly set is halfway reached.

–Abraham Lincoln

Think and Grow Rich

The Way to Personal Achievement

by Napoleon Hill (08400)

All achievement, including every fortune ever built, have their beginning in an idea. The wealth comes from turning the idea from something we can see in our mind’s eye alone into something that serves other people, and for which they are willing to pay. This is done through auto-suggestion, organized planning, mastermind association and an inner harmony between the thoughts of your mind and the actions and achievements of your life.

You literally become and achieve what you think about all day long. To control your life, control your thoughts.

“The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.”

“Success requires no explanations. Failure permits no alibis.”

“Happiness is found in doing, not merely in possessing.”

“Anybody can wish for riches, and most people do, but only a few know that a definite plan, plus a burning desire for wealth, are the one dependable means of accumulating wealth.”

The Millionaire in You

Ten Things You Need to Do Now to Have Money and the Time to Enjoy It
Michael LeBoeuf (04700)

At the end of the twentieth century, one in every fourteen U.S. households had a net worth of $1 million or more. In practical terms, that means the opportunity to obtain the financial freedom to do whatever you want is statistically closer now than at any other time in history.

For most people, however, the goal is not simply to achieve millionaire status, but to have sufficient time and money to do whatever they feel passionate about. In other words, money alone, without the time to enjoy it, is not so great.

Put differently, true financial freedom means to have enough money and enough time to enjoy it. To achieve that in practice, you have to master four different skill sets:

1. You need to make enough money so you have discretionary funds to invest.
2. You have to learn how to save money rather than spending every dime you make (and borrowing still more).
3. You must master how to invest your money in such a way it will continue to appreciate in value regardless of the market cycles.
4. You need to know how to enjouy your money — something most people consider a no-brainer.

Relatively few people manage to master all four skills, but until you do, financial freedom will remain just like a mirage, which is consistently beyond your grasp. And yet, if you commit to learning and doing everything that’s requjired, you almost certainly will become a millionaire.

So how do you create the millionaire that already lies inside you?

1. See the possibilities, which lie in abundance everywhere around you every single day.
2. Do what it takes to create your fortune using your unique set of skills, talents and interests.
3. Know when to step back, celebrate your financial freedom and enjoy it.

The Millionnaire in You

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