Building Your Bridge

Far too many companies and individuals are focused on the accounting, and the truth is that the accounting system doesn’t really provide you with a lot of useful and relevant information.

This may tweak a few of you the wrong way, but read on before you shoot the messenger.

The reality is that most leaders have gotten more and more precise and sophisticated at measuring less and less of an organization’s TRUE value.

At present, the entire focus of financial analysis is on “the numbers,” despite mounting evidence that they’re the WRONG numbers.

An organization’s most valuable assets are intangible.

Consider the following:

• learning ability
• technological know-how
• proprietary software code
• databases
• market knowledge
• communications networks
• distribution channels
• customer loyalty
• staff morale
• strategic alliance partners
• corporate culture

Yet NONE of these assets are reflected in any balance sheet or profit-and-loss statement.

Innovative leaders need performance measures that are dynamic and forward-looking.

Acquiring these measures will require discovering, capturing, and reinforcing the key strategic and competitive drivers of future performance.

One of the very few management maxims that have stood the test of time is “You get what you measure.”

This being the case, it is unwise to expect strategic performance from organizations that depend on OBSOLETE measurement systems.

Organizations that attempt to build the information infrastructure necessary to compete and win in current economic times must devote considerable energy to devising systems that not only capture the new performance, but actually promote it.

A word of caution, performance measurement, whether strategic or otherwise, has little if any value in and of itself.

Performance measurement exists-or should exist-for one reason only:

TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE.

No matter how elegant they may appear, performance measures will prove useless if they fail to meet four key stress tests.

To be effective, performance measurement must .

1. Help everyone to identify priorities they should pursue to maximize potential. They must be truly aligned with the strategic goals of the organization.

   CRITICAL POINT HERE — If they are not aligned with the company’s strategic goals then they are USELESS.

2. Focus the majority of your attention on those priorities once they have been identified.
3. Facilitate progress to EVERYONE involved in pursuing the identified priorities.
4. Lead to an observable difference in behavior and performance. This means that they must be consciously reinforced in practice, with both rewards and compensation. Be sure to reward the EXACT behavior you want repeated.

Without these four conditions, performance measurement is a wasteful, counterproductive exercise.

But if these conditions are met, forward looking performance measures can become an indispensable part of your strategic arsenal and in helping you come out of this recession as a winner.

To learn how to “Strategically Reposition” your company in today’s economy, fill out the coaching form on this page and I will personally ring you within 24 hours.

Time to Get Serious

One thing about successful people is that at some point in their life, each one has looked in the mirror and decided that once and for all they were done playing games, they were done settling for table scraps, they were done standing by idly on the sideline while other people that they did not perceive as being as bright nor as talented lived in nicer homes and enjoyed a better quality of life.

It was at that moment that they decided to get serious about being a mother, father, spouse, boss, teacher, leader or student. All the great ones have had this conversation.

So, let’s talk about you: Have you honestly made the decision to get serious about your life, to stop blaming others, and to finally becoming the best that you can possibly be?

It’s a simple yes or no answer, one that is clearly demonstrated by your actions as behavior never lies.

Simply put, your behavior tells the world if you are serious or if you are just screwing around. So what’s the answer?

The sad part is that far too many people take a casual and cavalier approach to life and have the audacity to complain and make excuses when things don’t go their way.

This is some sick kind and demented joke as these people are delusional if they think that they can really get ahead in life without getting serious about how they are going to use the precious and limited time they are given.

You can disagree strenuously with the following aggressive statements, but eventually you WILL come to the understanding that you have no choice but to accept them as reality.

You will become rich when you get serious about becoming rich and NOT a second sooner.

Until you decide to get rich by developing a plan and executing your plan consistently, you will forever remain in the situation you are in.

You will get in great physical shape only after you get serious about getting in great physical shape and NOT a second sooner.

Until you make the decision to get in shape you will continue to suffer the consequences of obesity, high cholesterol and poor fitting clothing.

You will enjoy a great marriage and a loving relationship only after you decide to get serious about having a great marriage and certainly not a second sooner.

Until you choose to build a loving, nurturing, safe and supporting relationship your relationship will remain as it currently is.

Let’s face it; until you accept the wisdom of those four words Grow Up – Get Serious, you will waste a lot of time and energy.

The purpose of the 100 Day Challenge is for you to set and more importantly achieve a number of challenging and worthwhile goals. This is a serious program for serious people who want serious results.

If you are finally ready to Get Serious about your future, than take the challenge!

You can't excuse yourself out of a pickle that you behaved yourself into.

Mark Twain once wrote that, “There are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason.” Knuckleheads have developed an unequaled gift for making excuses and thus murdering their own potential.

If you experiment with excuses, lies and exaggerations, it is probably because you find the truth inadequate.

The tragedy of the average knucklehead is that they have become dependent on the deception, false belief, and unfortunately ease of use associated with making excuses.

I know of no enemy more insidious or vicious than excuses. It’s an enemy that poses a clear and present danger to your future.

Excuses are to a knucklehead, what spin is to a politician – a clever yet lame way to pass away bad news or some undesirable reality. The truth is, no one is buying and we all know you’re full of beans.

You can’t excuse yourself out of a pickle that you behaved yourself into. Don’t lie or BS people with some sorry excuse for why you didn’t deliver the intended results. Trust me, they see right through it, which makes you look like an even bigger knucklehead.

Excuses are personality defects; the dirty ring around the collar of your performance, which carry the distinct whiff of mediocrity.

Few things make a knucklehead more uncomfortable than being confronted with the reality of their own sorry excuses. The excuse of using excuses is a behaviorally transmitted disease that inhibits the inherent potential of anyone that comes in contact with them.

So why do knuckleheads become such easy prey for an excuse when bringing home the bacon was what was expected of them?

Why do they continue to rely on such lame rational, which undermines their potential and destroys their reputation?

Why do they continue to dine on this junk food of behavior?

Why? Because they’re knuckleheads! That’s why!

Knuckleheads flip the bird to their own potential when they offer up an excuse, and it’s a bloody shame as far too many people demonstrate this reckless behavior pattern.

The tipping point of success resides on the other side of excuses – responsibility!

Excuses are a dramatic, ongoing theme for Knuckleheads.

One thing you can count on from far too many people is their consistency in being late for just about any meeting. They are an equal opportunity offender and THIEF of others time, and patience.

These knuckleheads are not the sharpest knives in the drawer; they waltz in late, apologize profusely and insist that this incident was highly unusual.

They are never, ever late they say. The victim of their excuse finds the knucklehead amusing because experience has shown them to be late for everything.

Let’s cut to the quick on this issue. Being chronically late is irresponsible, unprofessional, and is a significant factor in annoying those that have been on time.

Knuckleheads would never admit this but they are getting some kind of demented jolly by getting other’s attention when they walk in the room – late of course.

This demented behavior reinforces a sense of inadequacy that the Knucklehead feels about themselves and this is their creative way of demonstrating their incompetence to the world.

Excuses are a dramatic, ongoing theme for Knuckleheads. They consistently over schedule, become flustered when they fall behind, and continue to insist that they are never late. A rendezvous with reality is the only hope for change!