We deal with it daily, hourly and sometimes second by second, employees, coworkers and quite possibly you, “How am I doing? Am I doing what you expected? Are the levels we reached yesterday the numbers you shot for the day before? How am I doing now?”
Knowing where you stand is a valuable part of a continued line of success or in some cases failure.
Business journals have poured gallons of ink into printing presses begging to better understand as well as lead the lost beyond the outer shells still standing after some of the worst economic earthquakes of our present time; business front relationships have evolved into mere mirages hugging a summer highway than quickly disappearing the very second the horizon meets your reality.
I’m not holding back hidden truths when I write about the separated parallels of a once assumed strong ally now being nothing more than a cell phone or text message form of companionship. Those who gathered in square circles have or are attempting to locate newer measures of music with high hopes of generating enough energy to create an even bigger hit inside better days.
Author Andrea Kaye sees nothing wrong when asking, “How am I doing now?”
Unlike Go Fish, Rummy and Five Card Stud, the rules that make up life’s everyday game are in a process of unguided change. Small businesses are shooting the ball from outside corners like Jiffy Pop Popcorn adding a melted butter scent to a kid cluttered home…partnerships beamed unfriendly six months ago blanket the chilled soil making way for a fresh new beginning not only for them but a list of consumers who’ve stood in lines wondering, “Why did it take so long for this to happen?”
Andrea forewarns the weary traveler, “Know where you stand.”
Business is business and many untrained eyes and hearts are getting busted in deals that land them in pools of investments that end up costing more than gaining. Let’s say we want to form a baseball team and it’s you who finances the nine players who hope to round the bases. Like most new ideas it takes years to establish but your partner wanted instant results. Although you slide into home plate with the majority of the monies required…in the end, your financial divorce could cost you more than the original number connected to the new beginning. Business relationships are just like marriage 50/50 and at times even more.
It just happened on an episode of South Park...a joke was created, because one of the members was in the room during the initial introduction he believed he was part of the process and deserved just as much credit as the writer. Things got horribly bent out of shape to the point where the person in the room started to believe he was the one who started the joke.
A little closer to reality...my wife's ex is an incredibly successful songwriter and producer. Thanks to his creative efforts she owns part of a Madonna song. He masterminded the bridge of the song and through their separation she was awarded the mileage for his travels.
Know where you stand. A gentleman’s handshake is pure Hollywood. Verbal agreements are what we do in the first grade when we meet the person who makes your heart flutter then they end up hanging out with someone else. How you felt then is ten million times worse during the chapters of sink or swim.
So what about yearly evaluations? Should you wait until your company moves before you start feeling comfortable again? In radio and television we’re evaluated every breath we take. A single seven second break can feel like the entire solar system has just landed on the only lung capable of working. Walking within such an honest environment is unforgettably brutal yet 99.9% of the time you know where you stand and if within the next seven seconds you feel a pattern starting to take shape, it’s easily and quickly corrected before another knock is heard at the door.
“It’s completely natural to rate yourself higher for the efforts made,” so says Dr. Miquel Quinones a business professor at Southern Methodist University. When you don’t size up to the view an outsider sees trouble usually follows, “Nobody understands me! I’m much better than they think!”
Andrea Kaye steps onto the surface of the bad result and softly says, “Learn to listen then work with the decision presented. Promotions occur when leaders recognize personal growth delivered after an evaluation."
Former NY Mayor Ed Koch became popular through one thought, “How am I doing?” He asked his employees, political challengers and most importantly those who put him in office, "How am I doing?" The downside of this effort to better create is a solid object called Brownnosing. One who takes from the opinion of others then revamps their path is seen by another team as being a Royal Boss Pleasers. Go ask them, “How am I doing?”
Know where do you stand?
If you’re currently seeking the arms of a great business to reach out and sweep you off your feet…check the web like you check your credit. That single connection to the world comes with no guaranteed boundary which means anyone at anytime can write anything about you. Clean it up before a potential boss unknowingly double clicks and wow…look at all those pictures! Wait! What’s this? It’s an editorial from a former boss who believes your efforts of leadership resembled a Steven King novel. Ouch!
Image is everything and the best way to keep it rock solid is to know where you stand. Through every twenty four hour period a new storm pummels the edges of the world you keep and by keeping focused on the hands, feet, ears and mouth that make you up…you’ll rarely dive into a pit of unknowing jive because in this new world we’re vowing to rebuild any and all acts of communication are the key to opening doors that policies once kept locked.
Build your day by being approachable, acceptable and willing to treat others in the most positive way. Where you stand today could be ten miles from where you’ll be tomorrow and in the process of recognizing newer paths to follow always keep in mind bridges were never meant to be burned but rather crossed connecting two opposite side’s now equaling one.
Steal my art…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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