Vliescher.Org

I have often been asked what the best way to start a business is You can purchase a franchise or start your own business from the ground up. Both have benefits and downfalls.

There are many franchises available to buy.Franchises are everywhere. Franchises are typically founded on a tried and tested business model. When you buy a franchise, you can usually rest assured that every aspect of your new business has already been considered by someone. There are many different franchises available. Some will give you the business name, equipment and everything you need for start up, others only give you the basics and you still have to buy or lease a location, purchase equipment and the inventory you will need.

The negatives of buying a franchise however are that There is little room for creativity on your part, and of course the initial outlay. Visit the Key Mergers website for more information or if you would like to f you would like to buy a business or even to sell one.

Starting your own business from scratch however means that you can grow the business organically over time, you can limit your initial outlay and you can be as creative with the direction of your business as you like. Depending on how novel your new enterprise is, it is possible that your will have a steep testing curve and will have to make all of your own connections.

So, as you have probably gathered by now, the rational for choosing whether to buy a franchise or follow your own path are multi-dimensional Its a choice only you can make.

Improving your time management is not as hard as you may figure out, and it may help you build a stronger foundation for your success. However, this is a highly personal task in which there is no one better than you to design an action plan to achieve your goals. Personal time management is based on prioritization, and what works for one person may be useless to someone else, and following your heart to see what happens is not planning anyway.

People not familiar with setting goals may find time management software helpful to set priorities and manage their time, to meet deadlines. If you are concerned about time management, there are many software options to choose from ranging from to do list software to organizer software. Personal time management is easier when you have installed the right software package on your PC instead of a paper time management system.

Time management software allows you to organize the activities most meaningful for you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If this is your first experience managing your time, do not be afraid and simply make notes of those things you want to do on a particular day, whether an idea, plan, commitment or pending task. Over time, you will effectively organize your daily actions.

In fact, organizer software is the best fit when it comes to efficiency in time management, because you can concentrate on two or more things at once, if not flitting back and forth from one thing to another. On the other hand, to do list software is easier to learn, operate and use for common tasks in your daily life, such as shopping lists, attendance lists, personal things, etc.

Personal time management is as individual as you are, so make sure to review the features of the different time management software carefully. Time management applications featuring complicated functions that you will probably never use, will only serve to waste time, not to save it. Once the right software has been chosen, it is matter of disciplining yourself with its consistent use.

Depending on your activities and lifestyle, you may consider getting time management software for your personal digital assistant (PDA), which allows you to synchronize the information saved on your home or office’s PC, with the PDA for efficient access to your time management plan from any location when you are working on the run.

A personal digital assistant is small in size and cheaper than a laptop or any other portable computer device. Furthermore, these small devices come with to do list software or organizer software (depending on their amount of memory), making it smoother to development your skills in personal time management.

Copyright @2006, 4th Media Corporation

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.

Natalie Aranda writes about family, travel and business. People not familiar with setting goals may find time management software helpful to set priorities and manage their time, to meet deadlines. If you are concerned about time management, there are many software options to choose from ranging from to do list software to organizer software. Time management software allows you to organize the activities most meaningful for you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

In my previous article entitled: Information and Analysis - Baldrige Assessment Case Studies for Category 4, I shared about common assessment findings of several companies being assessed by a group of trained and experienced assessors. In this article, I will provide similar findings but on Human Resource Focus of the Baldrige Criteria. It is provided in the form of case studies which include Criteria summary as described in year 2001 Baldrige Criteria, assessment findings in terms of Strengths and Area for Improvements.

There are seven categories in the Baldrige Criteria. In this article, I will deal with the bold categories listed below:

Leadership | Strategic Planning | Customer and Market Focus | Information and Analysis | Human Resource Focus | Process Management | Business Results

Criteria Summary Category 5 - Human Resource Focus

The Human Resource Focus Category examines how your organization motivates and enables employees to develop and utilize their full potential in alignment with your organization’s overall objectives and action plans. Also examined are your organization’s efforts to build and maintain a work environment and an employee support climate conducive to performance excellence and to personal and organizational growth.

5.1) Work Systems
Describe how your organization’s work and jobs, compensation, career progression, and related workforce practices motivate and enable employees and the organization to achieve high performance.

5.2) Employee Education, Training, and Development
Describe how your organization’s education and training support the achievement of your overall objectives, including building employee knowledge, skills, and capabilities and contributing to high performance.

5.3) Employee Well-Being and Satisfaction
Describe how your organization maintains a work environment and an employee support climate that contribute to the well-being, satisfaction, and motivation of all employees.

Common Strengths

1. A long term Strategic HR is established and put into practiced especially for succession planning, oversea postings, R&D capabilities and Engineering Improvement resources
2. There is systematic approach to improving the work system to cope with the business needs taking consideration of skill personnel are lesser in the employment market
3. A structured manpower training program to inculcate corporate culture is in placed to disciminate corporate values. Global manager development program is in placed to develop more future leaders to support business expansion.

Common Area for Improvement

1. while corporate training program is in placed, balancing between corporate and company level needs is lacking as a result many employee still not aware of corporate culture
2. Although Employee well-being and satisfaction survey is carried out periodically, there is lack of analysis of the survey result and action plan to close the gap
3. Motivational program to encourage employee to higher performance level is ad-hoc and non systematic. Without such motivational program, it is difficult to engage more employee drive the company toward a greater height

In summary, having understood the core value and concepts of Malcolm Baldrige, leaders of company would have a better idea TQM success may be represented by Malcolm Baldrige Assessment. Its assessment report both Strengths and Area for Improvement is a value-added feedback moving forward. My next article will share some case studies on assessment of several companies in Process Management - Category 6

—————————————————————-

Disclaimer:

All rights reserved. This article is written by the author based on his practical application experience. All definitions and interpretation of terminology are his point of view and has it has no intention to conflict with experts in similar topic. The author holds no responsibility for the use of this article in any way.

—————————————————————–

Free to reprint or re-publish:

All rights reserved. You are free to reprint or re-publish this article as long as you include my resource box at the end of this article. And ensure that the URL in the resource box remained intact and it is linked to the author’s website.

The Resilience Formula

Anyone can argue the accuracy of the Millions and Billions now purported spent each year by business and healthcare on stress-related illnesses and workplace absenteeism. Nevertheless, whatever the correct number is… it’s BIG! …and it is, in the Billions!

In a new global economy where every cent is crucial to corporate survival, governments and business can no longer afford to ignore this costly and ever-growing crisis.

The phrase Employee Burnout is common in this new millennium’s lexicon. Sadly, so is the phrase Long-Term Disability. What can be done about this?

Whether it’s stress on the job, at home or a combination of both, most everyone understands and accepts that responsibility and stress are simply a fact of life. What most people do not recognize, however, are important things like:

• What exactly causes personal stress and how it diminishes their quality of life,
• The [predictable] physiological and social, negative outcomes from uncontrolled stress, and
• The significance of learned Resilience and its relationship to Peak Performance!

Psychologists tell us that behavior of any kind - positive or negative - is learned through repetition. Learning to be more resilient is every bit as behavioral as learning to succeed. It is an integral ingredient for health, wellness and peak performance.

As one learns to Recognize the unfeigned motivations for their stress and imbalance, so too can they learn to Respond with strategic tools, designed to minimize the destructive aspects of stress. Breathing exercises, energy-management methods, psychological behavioral-triggers and priority-listing techniques are all integral parts of a proven Resilience Formula that teaches people ways to re-galvanize their time, focus and energy. It ensures an enhanced quality of life whilst saving business and healthcare, money.

The expression, Knowledge is Power, is redundant because most of us understand knowledge is rendered valueless if it is not put to use. A successful resilience strategy shares this same logic.

Having a clear grasp of how we are affected by stress and Recognizing its detrimental consequences, is in itself, the right first step. Learning new techniques and ways to minimize stress - what to do about it - for improved health-balance and increased productivity, is unmistakably, the correct way to Respond.

On the other hand, one must remember that stress never takes a holiday… then conduct one’s self accordingly. In keeping with knowledge and power, the most important part of a resilience formula, encompasses one’s strength of Resolve. An approach like this consists of a blend of a renewed psychological awareness in lockstep with real, tangible tools and techniques, expressly designed to control stress and garner Peak Performance.

To be successful, however, one must learn to inculcate these tools and techniques into their daily activities and Resolve to practice and hone what is, a life-balancing strategy. They must make it an essential part of who they are. Remember, good behavior is learned, as is successful behavior - accomplished only to the degree one can Resolve to make them a fundamental part of their subconscious mind. Moreover, making them habitual and without need for thought or justification.

Individuals looking to advance, invest a great deal of time and money in higher education. They learn tools, techniques and strategies designed to make them specialists in whatever discipline they choose. As a result, they transform themselves into valuable commodities [contributors] from which they, corporations and society, benefit. That benefit evaporates, however, the minute they lose focus and control - when they discover they are unarmed in life’s battle to stand Resilient against stress.

The Bottom Line:

Now, more than ever, companies and governments must take steps to invest in the lifeblood of what keeps corporations profitable and healthy - People. Millions and Billions… stand in the balance!

**************************************************************************************************************

Paul Shearstone, international Keynote Speaker, Author and Chronic Fatigue Survivor, is one of North America’s experts on Stress-Reduction and Peak Performance.
His 3Rs Resilience Formula improves Performance & Profitability,
Saving companies and Healthcare, Money …Guaranteed!

For more information on this seminar or others Paul delivers, we invite you to contact:

Success 150 Group Inc
7305 Woodbine Ave. Suite 458 Markham On Cda L3R 3V7 B:416-728-5556 or 866-855-4590
http://www.success150.com http://www.paulshearstone.com paul@paulshearstone.com

A successful leader told me, “The biggest challenge I’ve had in my career is dealing with bad actors. Brent, do you have tips on how to do it?”

First, before we can deal with “bad actors”, we must define the term bad actors. You already have a general idea of what the term means. You know I’m not talking about stage and screen actors but those actors you must deal with in meeting your challenges. A bad actor is a person who is not a part of the solution but is part of the problem. Every leader has to deal with bad actors now and then.

Look at it from the perspective of the 20/40/20 rule. When you have to lead others to meet a particular challenge, roughly about 20 percent of the people will be your ardent cause leaders in getting it done; about 40 percent will be on the fence; and about 20 percent won’t do — or at least won’t want to do — what is required. This 20 percent could be called bad actors.

However, being a bad actor can mean different things to different people. From your perspective, bad actors may mean the people who are resisting (or even sabotaging) your drive to achieve results.

On the other hand, their colleagues might not view them as bad actors but as employees who are standing up to unreasonable demands of your leadership.

Further: the “bad actors” may view their actions as heroic, and so wouldn’t apply the label to themselves. In fact, most bad actors don’t think they are bad actors. Your labeling them as such may prompt them to think YOU are a bad actor.

All this begs the question, why use the term at all? My answer: don’t. Words like “bad actors” or “bad characters” can turn out to be self-fulfilling prophecies. At the very least, the people whom you are labeling may resent your attribution, at worst they may actually like it and purposely and proudly act the part.

Instead of calling them “bad actors”, “bad characters”, etc., I suggest you call them the “not-yets.” They are “not yet” on your side. This designation avoids emotional value-judgments and helps keep communication open in your relationship with them.

However, make no mistake, you have to do something about the not-yets. The not-yets can be innovative, motivational leaders — against you. Most want company; they need to validate their point of view by convincing others to join them.

There are three things you can do when dealing with not-yets. A. Accept them for what they are. B. Persuade them to change. C. Get rid of them. There is no fourth choice. Let’s say, in a hypothetical case, that options A & C are unacceptable. That leaves B: You must persuade them to change.

Understand that there may be a continuum of persuasion: from simply neutralizing them (having them refrain from trying to enlist their own cause leaders against you) to having these leopards change their spots and actually become your cause leaders.

The latter occurrence can lead to great things happening in your organization; for when you convince not-yets to choose to be your cause leaders, you’ve not only gained cause leaders but you’ve also helped persuade fence-sitters to become cause leaders themselves.
Here is a process to deal with the not-yets.

(1) Define what constitutes each of the three groups in the 20/60/20 classification. For instance, “cause leadership” can be a determining factor. You will determine which group you think people belong in by ascertaining whether or not they are willing to be your cause leader.

(2) Identify what specific individuals go into each group as defined by the determinants: i.e., in this case whether or not they’ll be your cause leaders.

For instance, you have 20 percent who are already your cause leaders. 40 percent fence-sitters who haven’t made up their minds to be your cause leaders. And the 20 percent who are “not-yets” — who may be trying to stop others from being your cause leaders.

(3) Describe the dynamic situation, where these people are tending to move at this point in time.

(4) Institute rewards for positive moments between groups and penalties for negative movements. You may want to reward fence-sitters for becoming cause leaders. And you may want to penalize fence-sitters who start moving toward the not-yet group.

(Make sure you differentiate fence-sitters from not-yets. Fence sitters have not made up their minds about whether they should be cause leaders. The not-yets, at least for now, categorically refuse to be cause leaders.)

(5) Isolate the not-yets. Leaving the not-yets alone may encourage them in their ways. So, you must make sure the not-yets pay a price for their choice. If you find you are expending an excess of time and resources trying to persuade them to join your cause, then isolate them. Recognize, however, there is a delicate art to isolating them. Attempting to isolate them too quickly or harshly can harden their attitudes against you and may rally other people to their side.

You can isolate them in three ways: (A) Through penalties — making sure the penalties are fair and, equally important, are seen to be fair by others. (B) Through recognition — making sure that they are known to others as being not-yets. (C) Through “a rising tide”– making sure you celebrate your successes and use those successes to draw in more cause leaders, which will create a rising tide that can carry along even the not-yets.

(6) Measure and monitor your progress and theirs.

This process is not linear but a circle, more accurately a spiral. Keep working it.

Every leader is afflicted with bad actors. Make sure you avoid using the label and then use this process to neutralize their destructive influence and even turn them on to your cause. Who knows? You may turn bad actors into great performers.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com