Time Management, Goal Setting, Employee Recognition

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Welcome to the December 14, 2005 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts.

What's Inside:

1. Goal Setting Gets Personal
2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #483 to #485
3. NEW! Recognition Practices Inventory
4. Supervisory Skills Boot Camp begins February 2006
5. New Screening Test for Personality and Cognitive Reasoning
6. CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: Job Benchmarking and Certification

1. Goal Setting Gets Personal

A fine line exists between individuals who set SMART-R goals and overly ambitious goals. Some people want to shoot for the stars and are motivated by doing so. Others find that setting goals beyond their easy reach is demoralizing and frustrating. What affect does personality or values have on setting goals?

Let's talk a quick look at how strong competitive and assertive traits may guide goal setting. These individuals are most likely to set aggressive goals and they are driven to achieve them. They are capable of making quick decisions and will do whatever it takes to reach the goal. While that all sounds positive, there's a potential dark side.

Sometimes people emphasize their strengths so much that they become weaknesses. When the competitive/assertive individual becomes obsessed with goal achievement, they may step on others who get in their way, become argumentative, and manipulate others to their own advantage.

Which individuals are most likely to jump the edge from ambitious to aggressive? While personality assessments are not flawless predictors of performance, they do provide valuable and predictable insights to how individuals will approach work-related functions and skills such as goal-setting, decision making, time management, coaching and more. Following each description in this column, I've provided a few examples how assessments like TotalView (personality), Business Values and Motivators, and CriteriaOne DISC (behavior) can provide performance clues for job selection, coaching, or training.

TotalView Assessment:
      Competitive - 10 (on a scale of 10)
      Assertive - 10 (on a scale of 10)

Business Values and Motivators
      Passionate Power & Authority

CriteriaOne DISC
     High D, High C

The submissive and cooperative individual may struggle setting strong goals. They are willing to work hard and do whatever is possible to help others achieve their goals. Their goals tend to accommodate others and they go along with whatever the group or boss decides. Even if they have dreams and ambitions, they rarely express them and sacrifice individual rewards for the welfare of the team.

Which individuals are most likely to work hard to achieve goals set by others - even it means putting aside their own ambitions?

TotalView Assessment:
      Cooperative - 1 (on a scale of 10)
      Submission - 1 (on a scale of 10)

Business Values and Motivators
      Passionate Social and/or Doctrine, low Power & Authority

CriteriaOne DISC
      High S, Low D, Low I

What other personality traits, motivations, or behaviors might influence goal setting?

Good goal setting requires some pre-thought and planning. Individuals with strong conventional and organized personality traits are excellent goal setters. They tend to be conscientious, structured, and detailed-oriented. They play by the rules and can be expected to hold themselves and others to a very high standard. Their personality lends itself naturally to specific, measurable, value-driven, and realistic goals.

But like the extremely competitive and assertive, there is a downside to being too conventional and too organized. Extreme conventional/organized individuals can be afflicted by analysis paralysis. They can forget about the human element of work, be inflexible and resist change.

Which individuals are most likely to find SMART-R goal setting a natural fit?

TotalView Assessment:
       Conventional - 10 (on a scale of 10)
       Organized - 10 (on a scale of 10)

Business Values and Motivators
      High Economic, Theoretical, and/or Doctrine

CriteriaOne DISC
     High S, High C

Who are the most challenged to set goals? The innovative and reactive individual. By their very nature, they thrive on living life by the seat-of-their-pants. SMART-R goals are just too structured and confining. Besides how can you plan ahead? Opposed to the conventional/organized who believe that comprehensive planning drives success, innovative/reactive individuals consider planning a deterrent to getting a project started. They believe circumstances always change and you've got to be ready to seize the moment.

Innovative/reactive individuals find brainstorming invigorating. But their disdain for planning, detail and meetings leaves many ideas as just that - ideas that are never acted on or implemented.

The perfect team results when you pair a conventional/organized and innovative/reactive workers together - as long as everyone understands the diametrically opposed work styles and works to avoid the natural personality conflicts that might arise.

Which individuals are most likely to avoid setting SMART-R goals?

TotalView Assessment:
      Innovative- 1 (on a scale of 10)
      Reactive- 1 (on a scale of 10)

Business Values and Motivators
      Low Economic, Low Power & Authority

CriteriaOne DISC
     High I, High D

Other personality traits that impact goal setting are Emotional Stability and Extraversion. Individuals with high stability may lack the urgency needed to achieve aggressive goals. Individuals who are more restless and excitable lack patience and may change tactics too often or give up too easily. Strong extroverts may depend upon the support of others to achieve personal goals and tend to turn planning meetings into events. Introverts, on the other hand, may set goals without engaging others, even when their achievement requires team support and buy-in.

For more about using assessments to coach and train goal setting and time management, contact Success Performance Solutions

Source: SMART-R: Managing to Excel, Setting Goals and Standards.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 483 to # 485

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm. Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

Fact #483: Every year India graduates 2 million proficient English speakers with strong technical and quantitiative skills, China graduated 325,000 engineers in 2004, five times as many as the U.S. The number of researchers in China reached 811,000 in 2002, compared to Japan's 676,000, European Union's 1 million, and the United States' 1.3 million. (Source: A.T. Kearney)

Fact #484: The National Association of Chain Drug Stores reported about 5,950 full- and part-time openings in July 2005 in its 37,000 member stores. The American Hospital Association reported a 7.4 percent vacancy rate for pharmacists as of December, 2004, with 38 percent of its members saying it was harder to recruit pharmacists last year than in 2003. A consortium of pharmacy groups called the Pharmacy Manpower Project issued a report in 2002 predicting 157,000 unfilled pharmacy openings by 2020.

Fact #485: According to a 2005 Accenture Study, 58 percent of mid-level managers are mulling changing jobs. Thirty percent are currently looking for another job. Twenty-two percent want to change jobs to get promoted and 21 percent are searching for better working conditions. Forty-seven percent are most frustrated with compensation while 40 percent are looking to balance work and personal time. Thirty eight percent felt they had too much work and don't get enough credit. Thirty five percent wanted a career path, not available with their current employer.

Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - Only $7.95.

3. NEW! Recognition Practices Inventory

Take the guesswork out of what your employees expect when they do good work! This inventory will help you to quantify the importance to your employees of over 50 recognition items, behaviors and activities and the frequency they feel they currently receive such recognition from their managers when they do good work. It serves as the perfect behavioral baseline for launching, tracking and evaluating the ongoing success and effectiveness of your recognition programs and activities. Used in conjunction with the Recognition Practices Inventory for Managers, it helps you to identify the major gaps and misalignments between managerial practices and employee perceptions. also available for online scoring.

The Recognition Practices Inventory is a tool for employees to reflect on what forms of recognition they most want for doing a good job (Importance/Ideal) and what types of recognition they currently receive from their manager when they do good work (Frequency/Actual). Since what motivates employees is subjective and tends to vary from employee to employee, asking employees what they want is the best starting point for creating a motivating work environment.

Buy Recognition Practices Inventory here - 5 for $49.75.

4. Supervisory Skills Boot Camp begins February 2006

Ever since Success Performance Solutions introduced Managing to Excel in 2002, hundreds of Central PA supervisors and managers have been learning and developing proficiency in the twelve competencies that highly effective managers and supervisors have that average performers don't.

Success Performance Solutions will offer Managing to Excel workshops beginning in February 2006. Each workshop will be limited to 6 supervisors. Topics will include Settings Goals, Time Management, and Scheduling Work.