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The Total View
A Blueprint for Success

December 25, 2002
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-- Good skills in another era
-- Training wrestlers to pole-vault
-- Ouch! It's like the dreaded "blue screen"
-- Tight Labor Market Coming
-- Was Managing to Excel what you expected?
-- Tune in this Sunday (December 29) to WJJZ at 8 AM
-- Schedule Your 2003 Events Today

Dear Ira,

The post-holiday sales are on. It's not only the perfect time to buy products at great prices but it is an excellent time to take an inventory of your people and pick up some bargains. Many managers have held hard working but under-skilled employees past their due dates and this may be the last good inventory of qualified employees at reasonable salaries for decades to come.

Good skills in another era
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It is not that these out-dated employees are bad employees. In fact, one of the most troubling concerns is that many of them are really fine people and good at what they do. The problem is what they do well doesn't really matter anymore.

Training wrestlers to pole-vault
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Many organizations hired teams of sumo wrestlers to do yesterday's work and now expect them to be pole vaulters in today's fast-moving, ever-changing world. Dieting and even liposuction isn't enough to change them so management cuts a few employees to reduce expenses. The problem is that those that are left still can't even high jump yet pole vault. (Although you've got to admit, it would be quite a sight to watch!)

Job changed? A job analysis may be the answer.

Ouch! It's like the dreaded "blue screen"
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Nearly eighty percent of employees today are being loaded with new "software". They are being asked to do more complex tasks in less time with less mistakes. Their operating (skills sets) systems are simply overtaxed and new software is not the answer.

Isn't it time you learned what "version" of skills are your employees running?

Tight Labor Market Coming
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Now that the demand for labor has temporarily softened, the supply of candidates with updated operating systems and the most current version of the skills needed to do today's work has improved. This increase is temporary at best.

The unemployment rate may be at 6 percent but the amount of "surplus labor", or the potential number of new entrants into the workforce in the 24 months following the low point of an economic downturn, stands at 3.7 percent. In 1990 it stood at 4.7 and 9.6 percent in 1982! When job demand picks up, expect a dribble, not a rush, of qualified workers knocking at your door.

Was Managing to Excel what you expected?
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"NO! It was better." was the reaction of one participant at the 2002 Managing to Excel workshops held at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. Others told us it was "easy to learn", "great interaction", "perfectly timed", "unique and practical", and "great presentations on tough areas for me to work on."

Managing to Excel 2003 begins on January 8, 2003 at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. Managing to Excel is a series of 12 workshops for front line managers, supervisors and team leaders focusing in 12 critical skills including time management, goal setting, problem solving, team building, project management and more.