First let’s define Core Values. We are talking about, “a set of beliefs that influence the way people and groups behave”. These are deep rooted beliefs that make up who a person is. When I list Core Values they would include:

Peace, Happiness, Success, Friendship, Fame, Authenticity, Power, Influence, Justice, Integrity, Joy, Love, recognition, Family, Truth, Wisdom, Status

Some of these may be on your list some may not. The list of your core values is your personal values, however somehow or other they fit into one of these.

These values are the way that we live our lives. They are what keep us from going to jail. Yet we may sacrifice some peace to get wealth or recognition. Or we may turn our back on Family or friends to get or maintain employment. How important is missing your kid’s birthday for that all important business trip? I can hear you saying, that’s just business, people do it all of the time. So I guess that makes it right. Now go and explain it to your son or daughter. Explain how you must go away so that you will have money for their presents. If you ask them you may find they would rather have your presence that a present.

You are having a lunch with your boss and he says to you, “you know, we can make the sale if we say in the presentation that the product will do what the customer wants, even if we know it does not do it yet, it is not really a lie. It will do it someday and until then we come up with something to explain why it all of a sudden is not working. Meanwhile we have the contract signed”. Doesn’t that just give you an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach? It is compromising your ethics, but it is the boss telling you to do this so it is all right. Or do you want to sleep at night?

These core values are there because they mean something to you. They also mean something to the others in your life. They trust you and live you because they know that you will always do the “right” thing. They count on that consistency from you and are confused and disappointed, maybe even depressed and disillusioned. They know you intentionally deviated from your core value. You deviated from being you.

Hold on to your values. They are something that no one can take away from you. Only you can compromise them. When you do sacrifice your values it is not in a vacuum and you are not the only person that will be affected by that sacrifice.

Be true to yourself!! Think about your set of personal core values. Follow them and you will be happier, you will sleep well. The trust others have in your word and commitment, your good name and peace of mind are worth more than anything you can buy.

Hector Silva

Let’s take a few minutes to talk about your favorite subject, the most important person there is, you. Yes, you are the most important person in the world, or at least your world. I know you have heard it the saying, “It is not all about you”. It has also been said, “This world does not revolve around you”. I say it is ALL about you and your world does revolve around YOU. Sure there are the more humble or diplomatic of you that would defer to your spouse or your children as the most important. However, they are the most important to you. So there we are back to you again. And who are you? Who is the whole you? Let’s break it down to the different aspects of you.

There is the familial “you”. This is the “you” that interact with your family. This you can be one or more of a variety of titles. You at one time or another can be a spouse, a parent, a son or daughter, an aunt or uncle, a niece or nephew, a grandparent, a grandchild, a first or second or even third cousin. As a family person you have a different love for each situation, you treat your spouse different than your children. You are treated differently by them in turn. You do not feel or treat your aunt or uncle the same as your grandparents or they you. However what all of these family relationships have in common is you. Your spouse counts on you for love and support. He or she needs your companionship. You have created a bond to go through life together and take on together whatever comes your way. IT is not always smooth sailing between the two of you but in the end you are involved in the result. You may not have gotten your way but you have agreed.

Your children count on you for their care, their food, their education and all of the aspects of growing up. You are the person they look to for advice or they get advice from you whether they want it or not. They look to you as a role model.

Your parents look for you to be a good person. One who grows up to care about others, who are liked by others, someone who does well in school and makes a living to take care of your family. They look to you to be there for them as they grow older. They are proud of you and give unconditional love no matter what you do. When you were born they looked at you with love and made sure you were clean and fed. They clothed you and provided shelter for you. Yes, without a doubt from the minute you were born as far as you family is concerned it was all about you.

How about the professional you? You work to make money for all of the things you and your family need and want. You can be an employer, an employee, a peer, supervisor, manager, Subject matter expert or any position. In any case you are responsible to deliver. You are being counted on for something. Your employer is dependent on you as is you’re Manager and even your peers. The professional you takes all of the education, training and experience in your life and uses it to your advantage. You are known for and respected for your strengths. Your management also recognizes your weaknesses. Your are always evaluating and being evaluated. You never stop learning and improving. Others depend on how well you do. Results demonstrated how well you perform. Yes once again it is all about you.

Then there is the emotional you. Some of the males may cringe at this part of you but it is there. This is the you that is happy, sad, caring, hard, soft, cynical, calm, loving, romantic. All of these emotions are within you and they pop out and appear at the appropriate time. That time is when you are happy, when you are sad, when you feel romantic. How about that we are back to you and how you feel not how someone else feels. These are your emotions not anyone else.

Let’s look at the spiritual you. The Devout, or semi devout, agnostic, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, atheist, you are one or more of these. It is your beliefs and others see and hear how you feel about your beliefs. Your family usually follows the same Spiritual beliefs that you do. You and your spouse chose how and where to marry. Or you and your significant other decided between you not to marry and instead life together leaving the door open, so to speak to any quick further decisions. You have decided how devout you will follow it. Others that believe like you depend on your spirituality to help them enjoy or even maintain theirs. Again you are making these decisions either alone or with someone, but you are in the middle of it.

Let’s not overlook the important Financial you. The Budgeted, unemployed, long range planning, retired, pensioned, vacation, college savings, college loans, mortgage, rent paying you. Now we are taking about something that others depend on you for constantly. Your family depends on the money that you make for food and shelter. Your daughter could not get that cool looking outfit at the mall without your money; your son could not buy that new video game without your money. Oh, how about their education and your education? Those institutes of learning need money to provide education. How about your banker who counts on the money you deposit in his bank so that he is employed. Or the store owners that would have to close if you were not buying your share to keep than open. The financial advisor that is helping you make that nest egg grow and his grows along side of yours. The people who are not as fortunate as you who depend on your generosity. There are so, so many people that count on the Financial you.

So you see there are a number of “you” inside of you and in each instance they all are important and have others dependent on you. If you are taken out of the picture would all of these people survive? Probably, some better than others. But while you are here, you are in the middle of it all and the world you are in revolves around you. So make sure that you take care of every one that is you and make sure that each you is functioning optimally and that you keep that world of yours spinning, not only for you but for everyone else in your world.

How many times have you heard about a mother, maybe even your Mom, saying “eat your vegetables or no desert”. It is a harsh ultimatum but we all know that Mothers are always right. With this statement Mom was not only trying to get you to eat but also giving you a life lesson.

In life there are bad situations and good situations. There are things you want to do and things you do not mind doing and then there are these things you just do not want to deal with. We all have some things in life we choose to ignore. They are just too emotionally draining or even hurtful. Besides it is so much easier to just do what makes you happy.

However, life is made up of synergies. Everything you do affects something else. It may affect it directly or indirectly. It may affect your relationships or you finances or your spirituality. In the same manner, not doing something can also affect something else. To put it in three words, “everything effects everything”. That thing you ignored to do because you did not like to do it, could have been necessary to support the other thing you really wanted to do. Not doing it could result in a positive or a negative effect. However by not doing it you are leaving the result to chance. Therefore sometimes we have to deal with the uncomfortable and the unpleasant in order to positively affect the things that make you happy. To put it another way sometimes you have to go through the bad to get to the good. OR as Mom said, eat your vegetables or no desert.

When you have to deal with the bad the tendency is to rush through it. Get it out of the way. But remember what you want is a positive result. If you bungle the way you handle the uncomfortable or unpleasant task then the chances are that you have laid a pretty shaky foundation for the good stuff. It is not enough to deal with the bad you also have to do it as well as you can. You have to treat it in the same competent and detailed manner you would the good. Then when you deal with the good it will make you even happier. There is an old saying that I heard long ago. I do not know who said it or when. They were talking about love. The saying is that in love you must regard bad and ugly as good and beautiful because by contrast it makes the good more good and the beautiful more beautiful. Thinking in that way puts a positive spin on all you do.

This applies in everything you do. Whether it is at home, work, or play the same still holds true. At home you want clean plates to eat your food; therefore you have to take the time to wash them. You want to wear nice clothes, you have to take the time to clean, mend or iron them. You want a good relationship with your significant other and/or your children. Then you have to invest the time to make it a good relationship. That may mean that at times you have honest, uncomfortable discussions. It may not make you or them happy at the time but once the air is cleared and there is understanding then you can go to a happier place together.

At work not every day is peaches and cream. There are times you wish you were any place but there. However, you have to be there so you make it a good situation. You do this by doing the detailed grunt work that is necessary. You do it by building working relationships with others that you do not especially care for. You do it what you have to do (within ethical, professional and legal limits) to reach your goals.

At play it is the same. If you are athletic you have to tone your body and get it ready for play by going through grueling exercise. You go through hours and hours or repetitive practice to get it perfect. Then you can enjoy the contest that much more, because you are ready for it. If your play is art, Painting, acting or dancing you also have to practice. Who wants to spend hours reading scripts and learning lines? Who wants to spend hours hurting your feet and doing the same steps over and over to learn a new dance routine? However, how are you going to perform without going through all of that practice?

There is that other saying, “nobody said it was going to be easy”. No it is not easy but in the end it is all well worth it.

So next time you find yourself facing a bad situation just say, “please pass the Brussels Sprouts” but keep your eye on the chocolate cake.

You are an experienced, trained and effective employee, and then you lose your job through no fault of your own. Your performance has always been excellent and you have always been successful in your assignments. However, we are in a world where, based on the current economy, all decisions are money driven. Your former employer had to make very difficult budget decisions and you were caught in the numbers.

Since you were in your previous company for years, you find yourself in a position you may not have been in for a very long time. You need to spent time in interviews. This makes you nervous because it is a situation you have not experienced recently. In your old job you knew everyone and you moved from position to position through promotions, reorganizations or networking. It can be uncomfortable speaking to strangers about a job and basically selling yourself. You question if you can get through an interview without nerves tripping you up and even question if you are even prepared for an interview. I assure you that you are better prepared than any other time in your life.

You are going to your interview with a wealth of knowledge, experience and skills that you would not have had earlier in your life. There is not a question that they can ask you that you cannot answer. You just need to reach into your knowledge base and the answer is there. Of course you need study and prepare for the interview.

You need to anticipate what questions can be asked. Based on your knowledge of the industry ask yourself what would you ask someone else to determine their level of expertise. Get with your peers and ask them from their experience what questions they think would be asked. Prepare your answers.

You have to know the requirements for the position and write down how you meet these requirements.

a) Write down tasks, assignments, projects that you have worked on that demonstrate how you meet the requirements.
B) Write down what your were tasked to do
C) How you went about doing it?
D) What resources did you use?
E) How you successfully completed the task?
F) What did you personally do to make it succeed?
G) What issues did you encounter and how did you resolve them?

Make sure you quantify everything.

a) How big was the task in units and budget?
b) How successful were you in meeting the budget?
c) What benefits and/or revenue did completing the task bring to the company and the customers?

Do homework on the company and bring to the table examples of how you can help their company succeed.

You have the experience and have been around long enough that you know the key words to use in the interview. Let them see that you know how to “speak the language” of the industry.

Study everything you have written. This is all ammunition you will take into the interview with you.

When I said you are selling yourself that is true. You are selling your experience and also the training you have already taken. It is a benefit to the new company that they do not have to pay for training since you have already been trained. You are selling your history of success. You are selling everything that would make you the perfect candidate for them. You are selling the fact that with your experience and knowledge you can step in and start being productive immediately.

You do not have to be nervous because you can do anything they need, you have already done it and you can prove it to them.

All of this is at your disposal. Use it to your advantage. Remember it is more than the lesser experienced candidate can present.

Prepare, go in with confidence, be yourself, use your experience and score the job.

Establishing and strengthening emotional bonds between organizations and their employees is not a new concept by any means.  It goes without saying that today’s marketplace is extremely competitive and everyone could stand to increase their bottom line.   Strategic advantages that set organizations apart from another are hard to come by.  However, a distinctive factor each organization possesses is its employees with their unique backgrounds and experiences.

Organizations must choose to actively engage their people in order to increase morale and productivity.  When correctly implemented, employee engagement is a comprehensive, strategic approach that creates positive, lasting results.

According to a report from the Gallup Organization, employees fall into one of three levels of engagement:

Actively Disengaged – employees who are fundamentally disconnected from their job. Disengaged employees are not only unproductive, but their attitudes and perceptions spread through the company, resulting in poor performance, lowered job satisfaction and decreased productivity.

Not Engaged Employees – employees who simply come to work for a paycheck and complete their perceived job or functions for the company.  Day in and day out, these employees are not cheerleaders for the company or its objectives; however, they are not obstacles either.  In some instances, these employees are referred to as the “blind followers” or “sheep.” Who will they follow?

Actively Engaged – employees who stand out among the others.  Actively engaged employees are strongly aligned with the organization’s objectives and goals, and they care about the company’s success.  They are always looking for ways to improve the company, as well as themselves.

Managers must communicate and lead their employees toward the goals of the organization in order to facilitate engagement.  Surveys show that many managers often fall short in effective communication. This situation must be remedied.  When people understand company goals and the influence they have on their organization, they are more likely to embrace these goals as their own.

Employee engagement is a pressing topic for every industry. Engaged employees directly influence an organization’s bottom line.  Employee engagement programs are responsible for improved financial results, increased customer satisfaction rates, higher productivity, and better employee retention rates.  Companies can no longer choose to engage employees; it is a necessary element for survival.  Engaged employees are vital to building a successful organization.

The Leadership Institute can help you with training to re-engage your employees and have assessments to determine how engaged your employees are currently.  Give us a call at 816-582-7366 or email us.

Released by Leadership Institute of Kansas City a 360Solutions Strategic Business Partner.