Managers, please understand that employees fall into one of these five profiles...what are the risks and costs for keeping level 1 and 2's? There is some value in level 3 and 4's, but level 5 "Problem Eliminators" can save you money!

Note: Do not keep level 1 or 2 performers

Level 1: Problem Avoiders
Inherently blind to or in denial of problems right in front of them. This is especially true if they created it. They do not want to be associated with anything that could hurt their reputations.

Level 2: Problem Identifiers
Like Avoiders, they can see there is a problem, but do not think it is their responsibility to do anything about it, because the problem does not overtly affect them and they have their own problems to deal with.

Level 3: Problem Reporters
Can see there is a problem, but want someone else to deal with it. After all, they may not have created it and they may think they are not required or paid enough to fix it.

Level 4: Problem Solvers
The hero (white knight), they are eager to solve the problems that pop up. They often have good intentions and mean to be helpful, but in reality, they think that they saved the day and you are lucky to have them. It is good to have problem solvers, but do not let them stop until the cause of the problem has been eliminated.

Level 5: Problem Eliminators
Anticipates and addresses problem situations before they become a crisis. They examine the root cause of a problem and they address the issues and implement actions to prevent the problem from reoccurring.

While many of you may be scratching your heads as to the merit of this salutation amidst the current economic climate, the often overlooked mind-set of optimism can have a very real effect on how we view others and situations and most notably - how others perceive us. And this perception more often than not translates into both happiness and success in your personal relationships and professional careers. Optimism is not only a philosophy - but a lifestyle. Those who see the best in situations and in people are those who tend to receive the best out of every situation and the most out of their relationships with others.

Living optimistically can melt away worry and open new doors of opportunity as well as provide personal and professional satisfaction. By committing to a positive frame of mind, others will soon take notice and perceive you as successful and secure. These are key attributes of those who are ready to take on the next level of advancement. The following are just a few considerations to keep you on the proactive side of positive thinking:

Renew your Outlook. Optimism is not only a thought process - but a way of life. You can either choose to believe you are hopeful and living in abundance or you can live with compounded worry and hopelessness. It is very easy to fall into the fear trap, but it is far more satisfying to see the joy in the beautiful things that surround you in everyday life.

Start a Gratitude List. For every new day, write down something that went well for you that day. Keep it simple and see your day-to-day successes!

Unplug. As the many media outlets serve to inform and entertain us, these days everything seems to be doom and gloom. Let's face it, just watching the news can be downright depressing.

Wipe out Worry. Worry serves to do little more than drain your energy. In addition, this thought process most often snowballs and creates even more dread and fear. Try this strategy; for every element of anxiety, replace it with a completely opposite scenario and dwell on that thought until you can imagine yourself in that situation. Before long, you will be in that situation!

Spin a Positive Web. Viewing situations from a positive vantage point will equate to even more success. By overlooking the negative and praising the positive you will be further on your way toward an optimistic mind-set. Not only will you attract more positive people in your life, but the people around you will soon take notice.

Reach Out to Others.By sharing your optimistic attitude with others, you serve to boost your own positive energy as well as those around you. Just imagine the satisfaction you can feel by mentoring another or offering advice and encouragement. An optimistic outlook is not only contagious - but it can get you noticed. When you really think about it, chances are you have much more that you ever thought possible five or ten years ago. Be grateful and giving and more of the same will continue to come your way!

What do you want for your business during the next twelve to twenty-four months? Increased Revenues...Greater Customer Retention...Better Margins? Common objectives, but where do you start? Savvy business owners develop highly effective strategy, people and processes. The savviest also recognize the impact their own personal and professional achievement has on business results.

Why? It's been said that the only sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to learn faster than your competition. It's also true that the leader sets the tone for the team. That means it's critical to stay at the top of your game. Successful leaders regularly take a high level look at their business. A similar personal assessment is also good business practice.

Think of it as a holistic approach to great results. Evaluate, develop and balance organizational, professional, and personal capabilities to get the competitive edge you need.

Leading others and your business is only part of the picture. As a leader, the most important person you lead is YOU. Mastering SELF LEADERSHIP enables you to most effectively lead others.

How much of your personal wealth is tied up in your business? If the answer is much, most or all, it's even more critical to incorporate personal development into your strategy. YOU are the most critical ingredient in your personal and business success formula and you can't afford to skimp on your own development.

How to Begin - How do you become a better entrepreneur, salesperson, manager, or leader? The answer is...Become a Better YOU.

Define your ideal. You might include traits such as visionary, influential, makes tough decisions, great delegator, etc. While these characteristics are important, you might also include balanced lifestyle, well-read, works hard and plays hard, makes time for what's important, and other behaviors. Although not specifically business related, these traits characterize the individuals we most admire.

Next, look at your leadership performance in the following categories: Ability to Influence, Time Management, People Management, Selling Skills, Personal Productivity, and Ability to Delegate.

Finally, look at where you stand personally. Consider the following areas: Financial, Business/Career, Mental, Social, Physical, Beliefs & Values/Spiritual, and Family.

What are your results compared to your capabilities? Do you like what you see? Are there gaps? What if you improved only one or two areas by 10 to 20%? How would that impact your business? Studies show that it can be significant.

What Next? - To HAVE you must first BECOME. For instance, to have a seven-figure income, you must first become a person with the skills and capabilities worth someone paying you that amount. To have a great relationship with your spouse and children, you must become someone they see as worthy of the relationship. To have a single digit golf handicap, you must become a golfer with the skills, discipline, and mental attitude required for that level of play.

When setting goals, people focus most of their attention on what they want to have. They want to earn more money, lose weight, have greater respect from their staff, develop a new product, etc. Rarely do they think about what they have to change about themselves, or become, to meet their goals. However, once people change their focus to achieving goals, they more easily attain what they want to have.

Start with the end in mind...what personal improvements would make you more successful? What positive behavior change is necessary for you to get the results you desire? What is your process for setting and achieving your objectives? What specific knowledge and skills must you develop? What do you need to become? Finally, what new and different perspectives might help you accomplish more of your goals?

The Last Word - Succeeding in business requires a vision combined with the passion and commitment to pursue that vision. It also requires a willingness to change, to learn, to become, and to take calculated risks. Your belief in yourself and your ability to achieve influences how you deal with others and ultimately your business results. Speed is of the essence. The faster YOU grow, the faster YOUR BUSINESS will grow.

When it comes to confronting a difficult employee or manager, business people will either ignore the situation completely or more dangerous, go behind the scenes and broadcast the shortcomings of another individual and their own personal misgivings about them in hopes that someone will somehow catch wind and solve the problem and/or situation. Emotions will push people to react too quickly and not take the time to sort through what is really bothering them most. The key to effective communication is timing. How many times have we all said after a heated exchange, "I should have said this or that?" When we take the time to analyze the problem, we are in essence, formulating a more effective plan of action and conversation. And sometimes, after thinking about the outcome and consequences of such an exchange, we find the problem as not so monumental. There are career enhancing and career sabotaging methods to effectively deal with and work with the difficult people. And although the difficult Do's are much more "difficult" to execute, they are well worth it in the long run.

Do's

• Acknowledge that you are in fact dealing with a difficult coworker and that things will not get better if ignored.
• Approach the individual in a professional manner and make an effort to confront the "right" problem.
• Carefully weigh the consequences with an outside- unbiased party (mentor) before addressing the problem.
• If the situation cannot seem to be resolved, seek the council of a supervisor and explain your concerns. When there is still no progress, request a mediation session with your supervisor and a human resource professional. This will ensure documentation of your issues, which will prove to be helpful down the road.

• Don't speak ill of the difficult colleague around the water cooler or anywhere else. Those who hear you may be wondering what you are saying about them.
• Do not become emotional when confronting the difficult colleague. This approach will always make you appear to be irrational.
• Don't downplay the cost of not speaking up when you should.

It's no surprise that new and more aggressive programs are being developed to give companies a competitive edge. One of the latest initiatives in this area is that of health promotion, and one of the programs most directly tied to that initiative is called Health & Productivity Management (H&PM). This strategy, which strives to ensure the growth of productivity within organizations, is gaining more popularity with each passing year.

A definition of H&PM, one devised by the Institute of Health and Productivity Management (IHPM), is "the integrated management of health and injury risks, chronic illness, and disability to reduce employees' total health-related costs, including direct medical expenditures, unnecessary absence from work, and lost performance at work (presenteeism)."

H&PM has two focuses:

1. Health problems that are potentially preventable, especially those that could impact the company in an economic fashion

2. Sub-par performance in the workplace, with an emphasis on lost productivity due to "presenteeism."

Many characteristics make H&PM unique from other health promotion initiatives. These characteristics stem from the fact that this is a comprehensive approach to productivity management through health promotion. In addition, this is a thoroughly pro-active program; one built on commitment and designed to reach out to employees, as opposed to many of the traditional models that currently exist. Below are some of the specific traits that make H&PM different.

• Prevention - This is perhaps the major thrust of H&PM, its central platform, so to speak. It involves three levels of prevention: primary (precaution), secondary (early detection), and tertiary (impact reduction).
• Integration - The activities within H&PM are designed for integration, meaning that they are both linked and compatible with one another. In keeping in step with its comprehensive focus, H&PM involves internal integration, intra-organizational integration, and external integration.
• Systems-oriented - In order to address all of the potential management and productivity risks, an H&PM program emphasizes the use of systems to ensure a comprehensive (and ultimately more effective) approach to problem solving.
• Economically focused - The focus of an H&PM program isn't just on the company's economic interests, but on the employees', as well. If the cost savings realized from the implementation of the program is passed to the employees, they'll have more of a stake in maintaining the program's existence.

Regardless of the variables involved, what needs to be constant in all instances is a pro-active commitment to carrying out the program's initiatives. Without that commitment, success is almost impossible.

Copyright protected, Sorrell Associates, LLC all rights reserved worldwide. ©Gary Sorrell - www.NewsletterVille.com

Customer focus combined with proper alignment of vision with strategy, structure, people and processes is the best way to outperform and outlast your competition. When these critical components are in harmony, results are astounding. To sharpen your competitive edge, look at what keeps you from getting results you deserve.

Whether you are a group of one or many, the way you structure your organization can make the critical difference between simply satisfied and overwhelmingly loyal customers. That significantly affects revenue and profit.

Alignment
The best thing for yourself, your organization and those you serve is a regular check up. The org chart is a great place to start. One of my long-time, favorite book recommendations is Michael Gerber's The E- Myth Revisited. Gerber popularized the phrase, "work on your business, not in it." Although written over a decade ago, the concepts are still strong, the message straightforward, and the lessons on systematizing your business are practical and applicable.

Whether it's been a few years or you've never read it, try reading it twice within a couple of weeks. The repetition will add to the value.

Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team

• Are the right people in place to answer customer questions?
• What is the response time for customer inquiries?
• Are we flexible or burdened with bureaucracy and lengthy approval processes?
• Is it easy or difficult to place an order?
• Are invoices correct and easy to understand?
• How do we react when we make a mistake?
• Do departments work together smoothly or is there a silo mentality?
• Are there measurements in place to determine if customer needs are being met?
• What functions and activities add ZERO VALUE to the customer?
• Are front line employees and contract service providers equipped to resolve client issues quickly?

BOTTOM LINE: DOES YOUR STRUCTURE ALLOW YOU TO DO THE RIGHT THINGS RIGHT? When the answer is no, it's an opportunity to increase revenues, customer loyalty and profit. The better you understand customer needs, wants, and expectations, the greater your ability to structure your organization to create a true competitive advantage.

Our world seems confused right now! Should we move forward or stay right where we are? Who knows the answers? Confusion is an opportunity to stop and refocus. It is a warning signal our mind sends us saying "HELP! Do something different!" So what does our brain want and how can we refocus?

Here are 7 steps to assist this process.

1. STOP - The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So STOP the insanity!
2. WRITE - Put all the scrambled thoughts onto paper. Would you rather be swept up in the churn of the tornado or safely watch the event from the next town? By writing your thoughts, you remove yourself from the "churn" and can look at the confusion from a safe distance.
3. IDENTIFY - Now you can safely look at your thoughts and begin to identify categories that are creating the confusion. Often it is not as daunting a list as we think it is when we stop the "churn."
4. RATE - Take each area and rate it based on your ability to impact the outcome. In other words, by taking action, are you in charge of creating the results you desire or does someone else hold the power? You will find that some areas are in your control and some are not.
5. CHOOSE - Choose an area you can control and then develop a plan of action.
6. DO - Implement your plan. By taking steps in one area you may find that results happen in other areas. It is almost magical!
7. EVALUATE - Once you are on your way, you can go back and chose another area OR recognize the success you achieved and what you have learned to make the process better next time.