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Great Work Great Career – Complimentary Webcast

Friday, November 13th, 2009 | FranklinCovey News | 1 Comment

When we say that a person has had a great career, what do we mean? That he or she made a lot of money? Moved spectacularly up the corporate ladder? Became famous or renowned in their profession?

And what about you? Are you looking forward to a great career? Would you describe your current career as “great”?

How do you create a great career for yourself? Can you have a great career and still have a great life at the same time, keeping the things you love – family, friends, work, and play – all in balance? 

The answer is, “It depends.”  It depends on how you want to contribute and how you define balance.   

Based on content featured in the soon to be released book Great Work, Great Career, by Dr. Stephen R. Covey and Jennifer Colosimo, in this webcast Jennifer will share critical, insightful principles and practices to help you discover your great career by discovering what your contribution will be and how you will make it.

 Specifically in this free webcast you will learn:

• How to begin identify your strengths, as summed up by your talents, passion, and conscience.
• Tips on how to craft a Contribution Statement.
• How to use your resourcefulness and initiative to get the job you want and overcome obstacles to making your contribution.
• How to create a network of supporters, both co-workers and clients—who can help you achieve your career goals.

 When: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. CT/11:00 a.m. MT/10:00 a.m. PT
Cost: Complimentary

Register at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/198135273

Source Code: GCCB

Please join us, we would love to have you attend.

Tags: Career Goals, Co Workers, Conscience, Corporate Ladder, Current, Discover, Dr Stephen, Family Friends, Free Webcast, Great Career, Initiative, Jennifer Colosimo, Love, Obstacles, Passion, Profession, Resourcefulness, Source Code, Stephen R Covey, Talents, Www1

Do you know the goals?

Friday, September 25th, 2009 | FranklinCovey News | No Comments

The Center for Advanced Research at FranklinCovey recently completed a large study on goal awareness in U.S. organizations. The results were alarming. We found that 44% of companies, governments and other organizations reported no goals at all. In addition we found that even when goals have been established, a large percentage of employees have no idea what they are. For instance, we found that 74% of employees in government could not name even one of the goals of their departments or agencies.  Overall, only 15% of American workers could name all of the 3 main annual goals of their work units or companies.

In a related study, using a larger sample of respondents but not distributing the respondents proportionately across industry sectors, we found that close to half of front-line employees blamed corporate leaders for not clearly communicating their goals to them. A full third of senior executives agreed with them. Furthermore, even when goals were known, 41 percent of workers said they did not understand what they personally were supposed to do each day to help achieve their company’s goals.

The study is based on results of surveys to 530 companies and 6,778 employees over a 5 year period ending in 2009.  In some cases, the responses were weighted to provide an exact replica of basic U.S. industry categories.

It seems that when large numbers of workers show up to work each day  not knowing why they are there nor what they are supposed to do all day, that business is probably operating very inefficiently, and that means poor service and lower profits.

It is crucial for employees to know both their team’s goals and their organization’s goals. What can you do today to get up to speed on your organizations goals?  We would love to hear from you.

Click here to read the entire report

Tags: American Workers, Corporate Leaders, Exact Replica, Goals, Governments, Industry Categories, Industry Sectors, Large Numbers, Line Employees, Love, Mission, Organization, Profits, Respondents, Senior Executives, Surveys, Values, Vision

The Reset Button

Monday, September 14th, 2009 | Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times | 5 Comments

What happens when your computer gets overloaded?

It slows down. Everything takes longer. It starts giving you error messages. Soon it freezes, and then it crashes.

It’s the same thing that happens to you when you get overloaded. There’s a natural principle at work here: the things I have to do are infinite, but the capacity I have to do them is limited.  (In my case, quite limited.) In our new book, Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times, we talk about how to “push the reset button” on your work and your life when things get scary.

Here’s the issue: At work, everybody’s trying to do more with less. But the real question is, more of what? Are you just trying to do more stuff whether customers value it or not? Are you trying to do the jobs of people who aren’t here anymore, whether those jobs are worth doing or not?

Push the reset button. Ask yourself, what’s the job that really needs to be done? What job do my customers want me to do more than anything else?

Say you’re the only finance person left after everybody else is let go. Do you really need to keep track of every single data point that’s always been tracked? What are the company’s real needs right now? Protecting cash flow? Getting accounts receivable paid up? 

Figure out what the organization really needs you to do. Then focus on that job. Instead of trying to do 2 or 3 jobs that “kind of, ought to” be done, strip yourself down to the job that you must do and that only you can do.

 I hear you giggling. “Tell that to my boss.”  No, you tell it to your boss.  In these scary times, nobody—including you—can afford to carry responsibilities that aren’t core to the organization’s purpose.

What else can you do to succeed in the middle of the wild ride we’re all taking right now? We would love to hear from you.

Get a copy of Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times for 30% off.

Tags: Accounts Receivable, Boss, Cash Flow, Crashes, Error Messages, Finance, Focus, Job, Jobs, Love, Organization, People, Predictable Results, Principle, Push Button, Reset Button, Scary Times, Stuff, Tools, Unpredictable Times, Wild Ride