Monthly Archives: December 2020

goal planning

Taking a First Step is the Key to Achieving Your Goals

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To achieve any goal, you need to act. Without action nothing will happen no matter how much you will or pray for it to happen. Many people may tell you otherwise but that is just deception.


Most everyone realizes that to achieve a worthwhile goal action is required yet often the first step is never taken. I always recommend writing down your goal and thinking it through and for that reason I make available my free goal planning worksheet.


Many things can stand in the way of acting on a goal and they can be both internal and external factors. Internal factors are things like fear of failure, lack of self-confidence, low self-esteem, lack of motivation and procrastination. External factors can be lack of know-how, lack of resources and other factors depending on the goal.


I have an important goal to publish a new online training on knowing yourself using a types of people approach that was developed by Fritz Glaus and explained in his book CrazyZoo, Know-Thyself Made Easy! This training is part of a larger training on a process to manage employee performance.


I found myself procrastinating on working on the course creation and I was becoming more and more down on myself because of this. I realized that I needed to break down my goal into extremely small action steps and have a daily plan for these steps.


I also realized I need support and help for some of the design tasks that I am not fully skilled for. I found myself projecting the workload into something bigger than it was and this stopped me from acting as I feared I would not be able to do other tasks that are important and that I enjoy more.


Imagine someone who has friends that run marathons and this person always feels left out. She wants to be able to join the events but hardly exercises. She knows that being active would greatly improve her health. But just the thought of running a marathon seemed impossible.


The first step for someone like this could be to go out and buy a good pair of running shoes. The next step could be walking briskly for 30 minutes every day or 2nd day. The next step could be to increase the walking time and gradually start a slow job and then increasing the pace, and so on. As each new step is taken benefits start to be experienced and confidence and skills grow. There is a well-known quote from John Bytheway, “Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life’s hard”. I find this to be true, yet many people seem to focus on the big steps and never start acting towards their goal.


goal planning

My goal planning worksheet walks you through each step of the goal achievement process and the obstacles to solutions section is where you then create your action steps. If you are procrastinating on your goal use this worksheet and when you get to writing down actions, break them into ridiculously small steps if necessary for you to take action, and then progressively go to each next step.


Actions and small steps make goal achievement easier and if your goals are worthwhile then take action now and start with the first little step.


happy people

Proof that Happy People are More Productive and Motivated!

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I recently watched the documentary film Happy People; A Year in the Taiga, and this was proof positive that happy people are better at what they do and more productive.


You can also say from watching this film that the reverse is true, people who are good at and love what they do are happier.


The people featured in Happy People; A Year in the Taiga live in the Siberian taiga. It focuses on Russian trappers who live off hunting for fur animals such as the prized sable.


The conditions where they live, and hunt are brutal with temperatures in winter falling below minus 50 degrees. But this does not deter them from doing their work with minimal modern equipment, such as a chain saw and at times a snowmobile.


My living conditions compared to the Happy People is luxurious as is my colleagues and friends. Yet are never heard the people in the film complain, whereas every day I find something to holler about.


I realized that even though the conditions are so harsh in this part of Siberia the people love their lives and what they do. They obviously love nature and working physically. They enjoy being challenged and finding solutions. They relish in being self-sufficient.


A good part of the work I do is helping clients make better decisions when selecting new employees. I do this using a psychometric assessment tool, the PXT Select. This assessment has a section on occupational interests that are based on John Holland’s RIASEC classification for occupational interests.


The PXT Select defines these as Enterprising, Creative, People, Technical, Financial/Administrative and Mechanical. It then measures the person’s top three interests and matches them to a performance model for the job. Each performance model prioritizes three top interests that are essential for job satisfaction.


The people profiled in the film obviously must have mechanical as their top interest, perhaps followed by creative and enterprising. I say this because they need to enjoy being creative in the face of danger, harsh conditions, and unpredictable situations. They also need to be enterprising to be able to run their business of trapping animals and then selling them for the most money they can get.


I know my top three interests are creative, people and enterprising and that is why I enjoy making videos as part of my business endeavours to help people with my expertise. I also know that financial/administrative is probably my lowest interest area and I tend to avoid related tasks, which can sometimes cause me problems.


I once read that over 40% of people hold jobs in fields they did not study for. They probably discovered they enjoyed something else and found a way to learn what they needed to.


The key point here is to make sure you hire and promote people who not only are skilled at the job but are passionate about the work. The best way to find out their key interests quickly is to use an assessment like the PXT Select. Otherwise, there is a good chance you are leaving it up to guesswork.


training needs

How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis to Determine Training Needs of Employees

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It is crucial to conduct a training needs analysis to determine the training needs of employees. To perform this properly and ensure positive results from the training there are certain steps to follow.


Achieving positive results from employee training means that employees improve their performance on the job. A training needs analysis helps you plan the training program and focus on the specific needs of each employee.


It also builds mutual understanding between employees and management on what training will do to help them be more productive in their job. Training and development is an important resource for everyone today as it helps stay productive in an ever changing workplace and adds to the marketing potential of a person when looking to change jobs.


training needs

To help you conduct your own training needs analysis I have created a worksheet containing columns for levels of importance, performance factors and levels of achievement.


This may sound like a performance appraisal, but it is a training and development tool and needs to be treated that way. The conversation with employees when using this tool is to be on improvement not on evaluation. Watch the video to see me explain how to use this worksheet in detail. I make reference to another video on the responsibilities of a manager, in which I list specific job skills associating with managing and supervising employees.


My training needs analysis worksheet has the managerial skills already loaded as performance factors and there is another tab in the Excel worksheet that is a template with the performance factor column left blank.


I have also created a questionnaire in Word to go along with the Excel worksheet. This document contains questions to have the employee answer as part of the needs’ analysis process. This helps you to focus in on what the employee needs to improve and discuss what that skill improvement would look like when applied on the job. You can download these documents through this link.


Physical Fitness is Imperative for Greater Success in Life and Work

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Physical fitness is imperative for greater success in life and work and yet not everyone exercises regularly. The CDC claims only 23% of Americans are getting enough exercise.


The other day I was feeling somewhat sluggish and having difficulty staying focused to work on an important project. The next morning, I did a home workout with my partner led by a professional trainer who just happens to be my neighbour and a fantastic instructor.


After the workout I was amazed at how great I felt. I was feeling energized and motivated to get working on my project again. This made me think how important regular physical training is not only to our physical health but also to our mental and emotional state.


Leaders need to lead by example as I spoke about this in a recent video and article. They also need to encourage employees to be healthy and physical exercise is an important component of total health.


Leaders can also provide a platform for people to exercise at work. You do not need a gym for this as I am discovering now that the gyms are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


Everyday I either train or do some form of physical activity. Having a high energy sporting dog helps as I need to get out daily with him for a brisk walk or run. Luckily, I live next to a large nature park that provides a great location for this


Good health and staying active is part of a recipe for feeling great, along with proper diet and a balanced mental and emotional state. We all want to feel good but do not always want to take the steps required to exercise regularly and eat well, especially if we have developed bad habits in this regard.


The first action then is to choose one thing to change or improve and take a first step in that direction. This approach is about changing a habit, which is usually uncomfortable at first but with persistence becomes easier day by day.


Suppose you want to simply get fitter and feel better about yourself. Perhaps start with a 10-minute workout in the morning or at a specific time in the day. Schedule that in your agenda so you can keep a check on yourself. Go to YouTube and search for something like short home workout. There are many like this ten-minute workout that do not require any equipment (do not let the into scare you away). There are plenty more of these.


In my goal setting training I explain the wheel of life exercise. Each dimension of your life is like a spoke on a wheel. If one spoke bends or breaks the wheel cannot work properly, causing a very bumpy ride. When one important dimension of your life like physical health is out of synch the whole being suffers. Creating a habit of daily or regular physical activity on a consistent basis is one of the best things you can do to live a happy and healthy life.