The Lesson in New Year's Resolution Failures

by Scott Airitam

President, Scott Airitam's Leadership Systems, LLC

First of all, let me start out by saying that I sincerely hope that all of your new year's resolution are successfully implemented. For real.

Now, let me add that the odds are not with you. Bummer, right?

Think about past new year's resolutions. How many of them have you seen all the way through? For me, these goals represent a way of verbalizing how I want to be better in some way. There are some problems with new year's resolutions though. This is a lesson I learned years ago, and it's helped me to take on self improvement in a more a success-oriented fashion. Maybe this could help you too.

So, the problems with the old NYR...

1. They are often proclaimed without any sort of deadline.
2. They aren't specific enough.
   
3. NYRs often feel obligatory. Nobody wants to be the one in a conversation that doesn't have one.
4. We don't create a serious support system.

Each of those is a trap and the bulk of new year's resolutions fall right into one or more of them. Because of this, most of them never stand a chance from the very beginning. Without a deadline, it is easy to procrastinate or give into what's always been done instead of fighting through the discomfort of change. Unspecific goals don't describe what the "finish line" looks like. We need to know what we are working toward, right? When it feels obligatory or contrived, we don't fully own it. When we don't take it on as our own, it is easy to discard and throw away. Because most people have seen NYRs fail, they don't take them seriously anyway. So when one is proclaimed (at the same time as many other people) most let you to make the statement, but assume you are not serious about it. They do not push you through the tough times or encourage you to take that one extra step today. Instead, they leave it for you to accomplish all alone and are, usually, surprised to see a NYR completed.

So, when I am looking to improve myself, here is what I do. I really do write it down, and, I write it in the form of a SMART goal. Most people have heard of this, but for those of you who haven't, to me it means: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Framed. If I have those in place, I've covered the first two failings of NYRs and then some. I am adamant, though, about the last two of them. If it isn't relevant to where I am in my life, and doesn't seem necessary, it won't get done. I also make sure it is time-framed with a deadline and any intermediate goals I can slice up my big goal into. With it being relevant, I have covered most of the number 3 failing of NYRs, but I have to make sure I own it. In order to truly make sure it feels like my own, I never do this type of thing around New Year's Day. I don't do it then because everyone else is doing it at that same time. If I mix my serious goal setting in with many other people's throwaway goals, how will my support system know that mine is legit? I want to do this because I believe in it and want to see it done. So, I'm the guy who doesn't have a new year's resolution. But I have several improvement goals throughout each year, so I never feel bad about that. So, when I separate myself from the "everybody's doing it" timeframe, it is easier for me to generate a support system around me. When I am the only one declaring that I want to work on some aspect of me, people actually listen. Then I tell them that I want them to help me when I'm feeling weak or want to give in to old habits. People take it seriously and they do help.

There is a big difference between saying, "I want to run more to get in shape," on New Year's Day and saying, "I want to run a mile every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at lunch to improve my cardio-vascular system because I'm seeing friends/family that are having heart problems that I don't want to have," on January 24th.

At least it works for me.

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Professionalism

by Scott Airitam
President, Scott Airitam's Leadership Systems, LLC

Whenever I bring up the word "professionalism" to people, many take it differently than I intend. A lot of people associate it with "image." I guess it is true that if a person is unprofessional, a certain image will be connected to that person. Others associate it with clothes--with dress. Again, how we dress can come across as unprofessional, but that's not what I'm talking about either.

I suppose the peripheral issues of image and dress are to be expected, so it generally doesn't bother me or even require me to correct someone. But, I have a blog, so it's a good chance for me to clear this one up. With all of the focus, over the years, on "Dressing for Success," or "Dress Like the Person You Want to Be, Not the Person You Are" it's no wonder we get these things confused. And what is this about dress as the person you want to be? If I did that, I'd constantly be dressed in a swimsuit, with a straw hat and a koozy as accessories.

No, what I'm talking about with the word professionalism is different. Professionalism, to me, includes only behaviors that support the mission--the ultimate goal. That's it. Plain and simple. There is no need to make it all convoluted, but people do, and will. Think of it this way, "unprofessional" is the opposite. Is gossip professional or unprofessional? That's easy, it's unprofessional. It sabotages the mission instead of furthering progress toward it. It is divisive and it is petty and small. Is harassment or retailiation of any kind professional? Again, easy. It is not. Harassment places the focus squarely on the harassing behaviors and the environment created in its wake. It does not put the focus on the mission. Is how you dress professional? This one isn't as cut and dried. Dress can be so unprofessional that it takes attention away from the mission and puts it onto itself. That's one extreme. Where there is one extreme, one must only look far enough in the right direction to find the other. With that being said, then, dress can impress and create credibility. If impressing specific people and creating credibility furthers the mission, then, yes, it is professionalism at it's best! However, I'd squarely put most clothing in the category of irrelevant as far as professinalism goes. (Some of you are feeling the impulse to talk about how badly I dress right now, right?) That is to say, that even though someone selected the blue tie or the beige skirt this morning, if they'd decided to go with the red tie or the black skirt, it wouldn't have made a difference as to whether their focus was directed toward their mission or not.

I guess my rant for today is that professionalism is much more about the work, the goals, and the mission than it is about much more arbitrary and subjective measurements. Professionalism, thus, becomes the overlay for all work-related concepts such as Leadership, customer service, collaboration, sales, or communication.

Give this some thought next time you are wondering if someone is being professional or not.

Debunking Leadership Myths--Myth #2

by Scott Airitam
President, Scott Airitam's Leadership Systems, LLC
www.leadeshipsystemsonline.com

Ok, so somewhere along the line I was asked to be Chair-Elect of the Rowlett Chamber of Commerce.  And, logic tells me that somewhere along the line, in a moment I can't quite recall with any certainty, I said, "Yes."  Now, don't get me wrong.  I really feel like it's an honor to have been asked, and, just as much an honor to serve, but with my work schedule, my volunteer activites outside of the Chamber, and my commitment to my family and social life (big believer in balance here) I don't know how I was thinking I was going to do this.

The Chamber's situation is challenging because of the growth the city is going through and the need to change how things are done at the chamber to keep up.  It reminds me of a job I had.  I started with a company, AMX Corp., as the Director of Business Capabilities.  My job was to create a business savvy core of Leaders within the organization as it grew from a $40 million dollar company to a $100 million dollar company.  To do this, I was to create a training process, an internal consulting organization, and an on-the-job training process under the umbrella of a department called Business Capabilities.  It was a challenging job, but a great job and I had immediate success.  The real challenge came when I was asked to take over the AMX University, which was responsible for the technical training of customers, product distributors, dealers, and AMX staff.  Being a technical firm, this was a critical position because it affected the ability and desire of people to both sell and buy our product. The problem was that the AMX University had a number of deeply rooted cultural challenges when I took over--much like the Chamber.

Now, at AMX, taking over AMX University meant taking the Leadership reigns of a group of people who's skill sets were quite different from my own and who's ideas about work were vastly different than mine.  I knew the world of training and I knew how a training organization should be run, but I didn't understand the technical aspects of the programming language or the hardware, which were the very things we were training.  Because I didn't understand all of those technical aspects I also did not really get the AMX University employees or customers who lived in that world every day.  And, here I was expected to Lead them.

This brings us to a very common Leadership Myth.  Leadership Myth #2 is: To be a great Leader, one must be competent in every aspect of the work the followers are asked to do.  I will admit, that it helps to have that competence.  It is not a requirement, though.  

In truth, great leaders understand the mission and how to influence their people.  Great leaders command respect.  I gained the respect of my high-tech staff at AMX University because I was willing to go the extra mile to ensure the mission was accomplished.  When I demanded the same of them, it was difficult for that group to avoid accountability for working to the standards I set. An example of this is when a trainer quit on a Friday and we had a programming class starting on a Monday.  All Friday I worked in vain to find someone qualified to teach the session.  I tried rearranging schedules and I tried borrowing people from other departments.  When none of it worked out, what do you think I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday doing?  Making myself qualified to lead the session.  The session was three days long and people flew in from all over the world to take it.  I led the session.  It wasn't perfect, but it was successful and my team recognized that I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure we achieved our goals--even when the situation seemed impossible.  Within a year of me taking over the AMX University, it was a department that people wanted to transfer to, not the other way around.

So, now I look to Lead the Chamber of Commerce for my home city, Rowlett.  I do not have all of the skills the 18-person board of directors will bring to the table for us to meet our goals.  I can't claim all of those competencies.  I can be a great Leader to them, though, allowing them to do work they can be proud of and work that is meaningful.  I can lean on them, creating value in what each brings to the table.  This creates commitment.  This creates the want to do in followers and it allows me to completely refrain from trying to be a dictator telling them what they have to do.  With that, I look forward to Leading a Chamber of Commerce that achieves great things.