Success in any business is a clear picture of where the business is going and even though there is technically no “end,” What will the end result look like? The propensity of most management teams right now is to focus on the present, to put out fires, and manage by crisis. With all of the changes in the business environment of the last 24 months, that propensity is understandable; however, crisis management doesn’t prepare your organization for future growth and opportunity. Planning your business’s future is no longer a discretionary decision. If you want to control the destiny of your business then you need to create it!

The preparation of a strategic plan is a multi-step process encompassing vision, mission, objectives, values, goals, and specific action steps. The process we use successfully with clients can be boiled down into these stages:

Stage 1. Visioning

A company’s vision is a statement of potential. A vision statement is a description of what your organization wants to become.

Stage 2. Strategic Thinking and Planning

The term strategic thinking can be defined as the process that determines the future direction of the organization. This process addresses all aspects of your business and its resources. Its foundation is a strategic thinking process and its conclusion is a logical and well thought out plan that when implemented will ensure the organization’s success.

Stage 3. Business Planning

Business planning is the process that actualizes the strategic plan. During the business planning process, your mission is crystallized into specific goal categories. These categories then become actionable through goals and actions steps. If there are multiple departments each will have a mission and business plan which is their contribution to the organization’s mission. The progressive achievement of the mission or all of the departmental missions will propel the entire organization toward the realization of its vision.

Stage 4. Implementing the Plan

The real key to the success of this process is action. Vision alone does not ensure success. Even the most comprehensive plan will not ensure success without action steps and measurement. Without action steps, time frames, and accountability the process is just a mental exercise that, while it may be stimulating is meaningless or a waste of time and energy.

Stage 5. Review and Continuous Improvement

Without measurement, it is difficult to see progress, and it is impossible to manage a business. Creating a dashboard for the communication of goals and objectives is critical for measurement. Everything relies on execution. Success requires continued learning and improvement. There is always something you can do to gain control over any situation. There is always something we can learn to become better!

Take a moment and be honest. Do you have an actionable strategic plan for your business? Do you know where you want to take your business one year from now, five years from now? Do you want to learn how to better manage the inevitable fires while focusing on growth opportunities? Make the commitment with your management team to develop a strategic plan now as your future results depend on it!

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses achieve sustainable results through management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For information on creating an actionable strategic plan visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Albeit some Boomers may be reevaluating their time line based on the economic changes, but there is no question that a high percentage of the 77.5 million Boomers will be vacating corporate America in the next five years. (Study conducted by AARP-2008)

56% of business and industries’ Boomer population hold leadership positions. Conversely, there are only 46 Million Gen X and Gen Y’s to take the place of those vacating Boomers. These numbers reflect why business and industry need to be so concerned about brain drain and develop a strategy to combat it.

A recent report conducted by OI Partners state that 54% of companies surveyed said they did not have enough qualified candidates working for them to succeed their executives and managers and 14% weren’t sure if they have enough leadership successors in place. The survey included responses from 212 primarily large and mid-sized employers throughout North America.

The luxury of time is gone. Organizations must get prepared and begin implementing a leadership succession plan. Having prepared leaders at all levels of an organization is a management strategy and a competitive business advantage. Organizations achieve sustainability and growth through their leadership and the quality of that leadership. The important skills necessary to lead a company to succeed in the upcoming years will be different. In addition to being able to lead people, new leaders will need to plan strategically, inspire commitment, and manage unyielding change. However, to be an effective leader takes much more than skill. It also requires the appropriate attitudes and behaviors. There are many tactical skills of leadership, but without the appropriate attitudes and behaviors, the skills are almost meaningless. We talked in a previous post about how actions speak louder than words. It is difficult to inspire commitment in a team when the leader’s body language, tone of voice, and behaviors reflect something entirely different. Managing change becomes very difficult if a leader’s attitude is “this too shall pass.” In order to manage unyielding change a leader needs to be aggressive, innovative, and responsive. And yes, it takes certain skills to be aggressive, innovative, and creative, but success in these areas requires the right attitude equally as much as the right skills.

In working with clients to develop their leadership bench strength we have found the following formula works extremely well:

In order for your business to achieve Improved Results (IR) there needs to be Positive Behavior Change (PBC). We have found a successful way to achieve Positive Behavior Change (PBC) by customizing a process unique to the client that addresses the needed Attitudes, Behaviors, and Skills (ASK) combined with a Goal Accomplishment (Goals) model that drives Positive Behavior Change (PBC) which leads to measurable and improved results.

As your organization develops future leaders for your organization, you need to ensure there is a solid base of leadership skills is important. What attitudes and behaviors do you want people in leadership roles to exhibit? What messages do you want them to send when they are not talking? What example do you want them to set when no one is officially watching? To identify a true leader, observe his/her behavior and attitude as it will tell you a great deal more than an evaluation of their skills.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses achieve sustainable results through management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, and executive coaching, and youth leadership. For information on creating a leadership succession plan visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

In fact many organizations are faced with the reality that they need to get more results through smaller and perhaps more fragmented teams. As your employees have added and shifted roles, positions, and responsibilities, how do you know you have the right people in the right positions in order to maximize your organization’s efforts and outcomes?

The reality is, in some cases you do have the right team members in right places, and in some cases you probably guessed wrong, as we all have. Companies forced to reorganize made quick decisions resulting in people landing in the wrong roles. Likewise, companies that have experienced intense growth have ended up with similar results. Diagnostic assessments can help you to determine performance gaps and help your company to effectively understand and align the talents, behaviors, and motivators of every employee. Having the right employee in the right position is as critical to the individual’s success as it is to the success of the company.

The first step in bridging performance gaps is for management to be committed to a people development process for employees. It should be based on the skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to do their jobs successfully. If the size of the organization is large enough it can be HR implemented, but the objectives and strategies of developing employees and how those employees are going to help drive results needs to be driven by management.

After the commitment is in place and the objectives have been identified, diagnostic assessments can help specifically and individually determine performance gaps, as developmental issues will be employee specific. Assessments can also be the secret tool for creating skill development as well attitudinal and behavioral improvement while eliminating resistance to change.

When working with clients, we focus diagnostically on the whole person as defined by these three key areas:

• WHAT natural talents do your employees possess? How do they make decisions and interact with the world around them, as well as how do they perceive themselves?
• WHY are your employees motivated to use their natural talents, based on their personal motivators and drivers? Everyone has their own unique mix of personal drivers and motivators that help guide them toward success. Understanding what really drives a person is a crucial part of success.
• HOW do your employees prefer to use their natural talents, based on their preferred behavioral style? Since each individual has their own unique preferences and habits for how they like to behave, this understanding is crucial when working with team members, as a leader or manager, or in an environment that requires conflict resolution.

Establishing new behaviors requires the employee feel able to adopt the behavior and feel comfortable doing so. A well-designed people development process focused on objectives using diagnostic assessments drives long-term change. We consistently see 80-100% in adaptable change after the completion of a development process with sustainable results that remain a year later. To learn how to achieve these types of sustainable results for your business visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Case Study: A mid-sized manufacturing firm whose sales team is struggling to meet forecasted sales objectives.

The day before the pending storm there was quite the commotion in the sales department about what the next day would bring, how much snow were they really going to get, will the roads be okay to get to the office, will we have the most difficulty getting home, and what are we going to do? The sales manager took the bull by the horns and made an executive decision and told the team the following. “Because we seem to be in for a huge storm and driving to and from the office will be a safety issue here is what we are going to do. Everyone will have the choice to work remotely from home tomorrow. Please feel free to take everything with you in order to make your calls from home. The team was given a measurable outcome that needed to be accomplished to consider the day productive. If a member of the team choose not to take their work home or did not meet his/her productivity number, then he/she would have to use a personal day. Let’s not waste time worrying about what tomorrow will bring. We can’t control the weather and we now have a plan in place. Let’s make the rest of today productive.”

The storm hits and for 24 hours they were blasted with unyielding snow. Worst storm since January 1996 the endless news reported. By mid-afternoon the major area highways and turnpikes were closed down to all traffic. The digging process was long and arduous for most.

How did the sales team fare, and what do their behaviors tell you?

• One salesperson actually braved the elements and made it to the office. That individual had a very productive day and met all of the objectives needed prior to trudging back home.

• Three sales people properly prepared and took all of their appropriate work home in an effort to work remotely the day of the snowstorm. Two out of the three folks could not make it to the office the day after the storm because they were still snow bound. However, they continued to work from home and focused on what they needed to accomplish.

• Two sales people decided not to take their work home making the decision to use a personal day. One remained snow bound for a second day and the other made it to the office.

With lagging departmental results and a sales team that says they are motivated by financial gain you might imagine the sales manager is dealing with a high level of frustration. What do the choices, actions, and behaviors of this sales team tell you?

There has been a great deal of research on the process of communication. Communication is much more than just the exchange of information. I believe communication is more deeply about what we are “saying” when there are no words coming out of our mouth. Albert Mehrabian, a researcher of body language in the 1950’s, found that the total impact of a message is about 7 percent verbal, 38 percent vocal, and 55 percent nonverbal. According to Mehrabian, our behaviors and body language make up over one-half of the message we are communicating.

Anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell’s conducted an original study of nonverbal communication. Birdwhistell made some similar estimates of the amount of nonverbal communication that takes place between people. Like Mehrabian, he found that the verbal component of a face-to-face conversation is less than 35 percent and that over 65 percent of communication is done nonverbally. Barbara and Allan Pease of Pease International analyzed thousands of recorded sales interviews and negotiations during the 1970’s and 1980’s showed that in business encounters, body language accounts for between 60 and 80 percent of the impact made around a negotiating table and that people form 60 to 80 percent of their initial opinion about a new person in less than four minutes. Mehrabian’s, Birdwhistell’s, and Pease’s research goes a long way to confirm that our choices of body language, behaviors, and actions send the real message about what an individual values or finds to be important.

Here is a quick and easy test. The next time you are in a meeting of your peers, sit back and observe. You will begin to clearly see the physical messages people are communicating by watching facial expressions, posture, and other body language queues. This simple exercise will confirm that there is no doubt—actions speak and sometimes scream much louder than words. Similar to the sales team described above, actions are a key indicator of focus. Now let’s make it personal to you. Have you taken a good look at your nonverbal body language and messages you are sending? Are you communicating the message you want sent when you are not saying a word?

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

We have discussed in previous posts the need for a leader to be a visionary because involving people in realizing a compelling vision provides a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. We have also talked about the leader’s role as a coach. A leader as a coach reinforces the results they believe people are capable of achieving as winning depends on execution.

In addition to the roles of visionary and coach there are two additional roles that round out an exceptional leader: The role of mentor and the role of director.

The Leader as a Mentor

While many aspects of the mentoring role are similar to coaching, the significant differences lie in the mentor’s advisory or teaching role. A mentor is a trusted advisor and tutor. Mentors share the benefit of their experience and knowledge. It is a critical role in developing individuals who will collectively be responsible for the success of the organization. As a mentor you should seek innovation, encourage experimentation, reward appropriate risk taking, drive out fear, and create an environment where everyone communicates freely, honestly, and positively.

Establish an environment that encourages and rewards people to develop their skills, improve their results, and learn new skills. Actively seek to help people learn from your experiences and knowledge. Develop a culture where people feel responsible for their own results and are supportive of others, as well as provide the model, knowledge, training, and freedom to achieve their goals. Today’s leaders must foster a culture where continuous learning and continuous improvement are the norm not the exception.

The Leader as a Director

In the director’s role, the leader is like a symphony orchestra conductor. Everyone knows their part, comes in on cue, and maintains the tempo that had been established. The conductor does not play the instruments, that is the role of the musicians. Each musician does not decide when to play, that is the role of the conductor. The role of the conductor is to elicit the best possible individual performance in concert with the entire orchestra to create a symphony of sound. The leader/director establishes the direction for the organization and for the people. This does not mean the leader is the authoritarian expert who knows all of the answers. Rather, it means that the leader, as director, gathers the input and ideas from everyone in the organization, establishes goals, and aligns the resources to achieve those goals. The director creates conditions under which peak performers can thrive. The director continuously evaluates whether the direction serves both the organization’s best interest and the best interest of all individuals involved.

All leadership behavior must create an environment in which people are encouraged to seek out innovative ways of doing things which will ultimately lead to more revenues or lower costs. Excellent leaders use their complimentary skills as a visionary, a coach, a mentor, and a director to accomplish just that. In the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he/she wants to do it.”

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Most of us are very aware of our conscious mind because we “seem” to spend a great deal of time there. However, depending on which study you read, it has been proven that 60-95% of the decisions we make and the behaviors we exhibit are generated by our subconscious mind. Think about that staggering percentage and now think about your daily routine. When you got up this morning did you give any specific thought to the routine of getting ready and preparing for your day? Did you implement any step out of traditional order? If you took the kids to school or drove to work, did you drive the exact same route as yesterday? As you have continued through your day have you given any specific thought to breathing? There is always an exception to every rule, however, in most cases the answer to all these questions for many would be ‘no.’

As we live new experiences our subconscious mind very quickly stores data, creates neuro-pathways, and develops routines that allow us to easily duplicate an action or process in the future like driving to work and, yes, breathing. These pre-existing processes are convenient and even helpful. However, there are two questions I think are important to ponder.

• Are you comfortable spending a significant portion of your life on autopilot?
• How can you tap into the power of your subconscious mind to accomplish what is meaningful in your life?

Autopilot is fine for certain things like which to do first take a shower or have a cup of coffee. However, being on autopilot allows us not to be ‘present’ and provides for missed opportunities. How many opportunities have you missed with your family, your spouse, or at work to do, say, or be something better simply because you were on cruise control. Applied knowledge is power and understanding the power of our subconscious mind allows us to step out of autopilot and unleash our untapped potential. Do you really know what you want? Can you see it clearly in your mind down to the smallest detail? Have you written it down in a clear and concise manner? Do you know why you want it? Do you believe you can obtain it? Charles Simmons, author of Your Subconscious Power states, “Your subconscious thrives on knowledge. In dealing with a condition of life, whether it is a problem or an opportunity, consciously observe its traits. Then decide how you deal with the condition. Assign your knowledge, and your intention to act, to your subconscious. With its reserve of knowledge, your subconscious will then come to your aid.”

Tapping into the power of your subconscious mind can begin by committing to two things. First, deliberately focus your conscious action on positive and results-oriented action. Your subconscious will record these patterns which will help you maintain a positive attitude and focus even when life events take place that could take you off course. Second, change negative influences by deliberately cultivating positive habits that offset negative ones. You cannot erase a negative or bad habit; however, you can replace it with a new and positive influence by simply creating a new pattern your subconscious mind finds noteworthy and is worth repeating. Affirmations are a great system to help make these positive changes take place.

There are so many things in our environment that we cannot control nor influence. However, we have an incredible power source in the combination of our conscious and subconscious mind that is totally within our control. Take control of your destiny, your life, and your success by effectively using the power of your two distinct minds.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Much like a football team that is playing in the Super Bowl, having a game plan and the desire to win is important. Unfortunately, my Steelers will not have a chance to repeat this year. However, winning depends on execution. One of your primary roles as a leader is that of a coach. Coaches reinforce the results they believe people are capable of achieving.

One way to develop a winning team is to surround yourself with extraordinary people. Another is to surround yourself with ordinary people who through your leadership and coaching achieve extraordinary results. As Sam Walton once said “ … there’s absolutely no limit to what plain, ordinary working people can do if they’re given the opportunity and the encouragement and the incentive to be their best.” As a coach, your role is helping people develop winning attitudes and improve their skills. A coach helps people see beyond the problems, the limitations, and the “known” to focus on solutions and opportunities which are sometimes found by venturing into the “unknown.” If you are to create a winning team, you must be good at coaching. You must be able to inspire extraordinary performance from ordinary people. Coaching is seeing new possibilities and providing the support and guidance to help people and organizations to achieve new heights.

Coaching, though highly individual, has three basic functions. The first function of a coach is getting to know every person as an individual. If you are to coach them to higher levels of performance, you need to know what their skills are, what their level of knowledge is, what their goals are, and what you can do to help them reach their goals.

The second function of a coach is developing people and challenging them towards higher levels of achievement. Create a detailed development plan for and with each individual with whom you are directly working. Set goals, both short and long-term. Develop action steps and target dates along the way. Focus on those critical few action steps that are essential for personal and organizational goal achievement.

The third function of a coach is creating an environment for motivation. A motivating environment helps people become excited about setting and reaching goals. Figure out what inspires people and use this knowledge to create an atmosphere that stimulates high levels of productivity and effective decision making. Get to know what issues are important to each individual, Encourage people to talk openly and discuss problems as well as opportunities. Challenge them to go beyond their comfort zone. Help them to have the confidence to stretch themselves.

Your goal as a coach is to make the most of your most valuable resource, your people, and to maximize the skills, abilities, and knowledge of each person in the organization. Inspiring people to higher levels of performance has a lot to do with spirit, creating excitement, commitment, and desire. It is coaching ordinary men and woman to extraordinary achievements.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

• Successful leaders have mastered the art of self leadership and authenticity. Authenticity implies genuineness, reliability, and trustworthiness.
• Successful leaders have taken time to crystallize a personal vision of the future which will become the foundation or cornerstone for a shared vision. They are able to attract as well as inspire commitment among the people whose collective effort will make this vision a reality.
• Successful leaders understand how to align and maximize resources to realize a vision. The leader’s role is to create alignment between vision, strategy, structure, processes, and people with focus on attracting and maintaining a loyal customer base.

As a leader, you must be many things to many people. First, you must have the capacity to create a compelling vision. If your vision is to excite people, it must take them to new levels of achievement. Then, you must be able to develop and implement the strategies that will guide people toward the vision, analyze the alternatives and possibilities, and set goals that will drive the organization to sustained success. To do this will require that you are able to function successfully in several areas. The first is your role as a visionary.

Leaders who are able to involve people in realizing a compelling vision provide a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. Vision plays an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can play an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can motivate and empower everyone in an organization to seek higher levels of performance and achievement. People want to do a good job because realizing the vision is important to them. A compelling vision is inspiring and it is energizing. It provides an image of a better future that causes people to drive themselves to higher levels of achievement.

In the final analysis, you can’t really force people to be motivated. You can only create an environment in which people are motivated. A vision will release creative energies to successfully attain the desired results. It provides a reason for change and exploring possible uncharted waters with enthusiasm. It gives meaning to work and it encourages innovation. Individuals recognize the importance of their personal contribution to the overall whole. Vision helps everyone realize that their best interests are served by the success of the entire organization.

Vision alone is not enough. Look for future posts on the leader as a coach.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

After my early gym routine this morning, I had a window of time to run across the street to the grocery store. It was approximately 7:20 a.m. and my goal was to pick up some necessities for the week. Based on how the store is laid out, my first stop was the deli. As I waited, because there was no one currently staffing the deli, I observed five staff members in the bakery, the produce section, and the floral department taking inventory, stocking produce, rearranging displays, and discussing certain NFL teams and their playoff status based on yesterday’s games. As I stood there patiently waiting to be helped, none of the five folks who could physically see me thought it important to go find someone to fill my deli order. Their priority was stocking and rearranging. After about five minutes a young lady appeared. She did not say good morning, Happy New Year, or make eye contact. She proceeded to put on her sanitary gloves and asked, “What can I get for you?” She filled my order and sent me on my way with a thank you.

The essence of customer loyalty is all about the points of connection—every single touch point your employees have with every customer. In my seven-minute deli experience there were at least 15 points of connection that were missed or poorly executed. Five staff members watched me wait in front of the deli counter and none of them took the time to acknowledge my existence or offer to find someone to assist me. In my opinion, this earns double demerits because they could clearly see I wanted something from the deli and did nothing about it. (10 points of connection missed). The lady working in the floral area took the time to talk with a bread vendor in lieu of offering assistance (1 point missed).

When the young deli worker appeared there was no eye contact and there was no greeting (2 points missed). Her attitude was lackluster at best. She really did not appear pleased to be at work serving a customer (1 point missed). As she was completing my order another customer appeared and her opening line was “What can I get for you?” with no additional pleasantries (another point missed).

Points of connection define the customer experience and determine how a customer rates their service and how they ultimately rate your business. Your business is dead without customers. Adopting customer loyalty as a management strategy is critical to the success of business and industry in our ever-growing service environment. If you want to make a significant difference in the results of your business for 2010, I would strongly encourage you look how customer loyalty is defined in your organization. I am confident that the five staff people watching me wait for assistance are not bad employees and they were genuinely “doing their job.” However, I am also confident store management does not embrace customer loyalty practices or my early morning shopping experience would have been quite different. Unfortunately, my experience with the deli that morning is not my first.

Why do I continue to shop there? It is the closest store to my home and office. However, next closest store is only about 3 miles further and I have decided to break my habit and investigate the other store. If their services prove to be better my current store will lose a 5-year, weekly customer. By my conservative calculations that nets approximately $20,800 worth of business.

Take a serious look at your organization’s customer loyalty standards, practices, and measurements. No business in today’s ever changing economic world can afford to lose a customer because of non-existent or inappropriate points of connection.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

At times, however, the problem is a bit larger or the decision is more complex. It is in these instances that a conscious and objective decision-making process is needed.

In these cases there are two qualities that will lead to more effective decisions: logic and an open mind. When you approach a problem, strip your mind of preconceived opinions and prejudices. Logically assemble and learn the facts of the situation. Webster defines logic as “the science of formal reasoning; the unavoidable cause and effect relationship between events to a particular conclusion.” By understanding the cause and effect relationship involved in a situation, you can formulate solutions that deal with the root of the problem, not just the results. By keeping an open mind, you can creatively develop many alternatives from which to choose when making your decision. The logical, open-minded approach to making decisions involves the following process:

1. Identify and define the problem: You must clearly define the problem before you can solve it. Problems that remain vague resist resolution and create anxiety. Hazy, vague issues are impossible to deal with, and they often create a periphery of new problems. Crystallize the issues so you can deal with them one at time.
2. Gather and analyze information: You must have accurate information to solve issues appropriately. If in your haste to find a solution you short-change this part of the process, you can create unnecessary delays and unintended results. The more information you gather about a particular issue, the more likely you will be able to reach a satisfactory decision.
3. Development alternative solutions: If a solution to an issue surfaces quickly, it’s tempting to simply do it. The first solution you come up with, although acceptable, may not be the best. Take time to develop alternative solutions even when you don’t think you need them and be creative.
4. Choose the best alternative: Most problems have several acceptable solutions. Picking the best one becomes a matter of degree. Narrow your choices down to a few of the best alternatives by evaluating your options. Consider how the solutions aligns with your goals, how it affects costs, what time is required, what are the risks, what do others you trust think, etc. After evaluating all alternatives, choose the one that best solves your problem.
5. Take action: Now that you have weighed all of your alternatives and have chosen the best course of action, it’s time to act.
6. Evaluate the decision: Finally, you should structure in-progress reviews and a final evaluation in order to gauge progress and evaluate final results.

Implementing these steps can be instrumental in breaking large challenges, issues, or problems into manageable steps. Don’t let “life” overwhelm you. Using this proven decision making model will enhance your confidence. Your personal and professional success is dependent upon your ability to make sound decisions in an appropriate time frame. May 2010 bring you success and happiness!

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.