Goals

Many years ago Wayne Gretzky was asked why he was such a great scorer. He responded by saying “when I’m on the ice I can barely see the goalie.” When he was asked what he meant by his response, he said, “if you ask a fifty-goal scorer what the goalie looks like he’ll say the goalie is just a blur. A five-goal scorer can tell you the brand name of the pads of every goalie in the league. I’m seeing the goal, he’s seeing the goalie.”

Oftentimes we get so focused on the goalies in our life that, we lose track of the goal. We lose track of what we truly desire, and in doing so we let our goals and dreams slip away. So, what steps can we take to aid us in achieving our goals? Let me suggest the following:

Lock Onto Goals That Excite You
Over the years I have always enjoyed running, and in the past my runs typically consisted of 3 to 4 mile jogs. A little over a year ago, I decided that I wanted to run a 26.2 mile marathon. For me, the idea of running a marathon was an exciting challenge. Once I locked onto the idea of running a marathon, I realized that it was going to take more than just thinking about it, to make it happen.

Break Your Goals Into Smaller Chunks
To help me in reaching my goal I decided to break my goal of running a marathon into smaller chunks. I knew that it would take several months for my body to be properly prepared to run over 26 miles. To keep myself motivated during this lengthy process, I signed up for a couple of shorter races. By committing to run these shorter races, I was able to keep myself motivated during my training.

Clearly Establish the Necessary Steps to Achieve Your Goals
As part of my training, I established specific priorities that I needed to achieve to reach my shorter-term goals. These priorities included buying new running shoes, establishing a training schedule, and signing up for races. The planning process was fun and exciting. As I thought about achieving my main goal, I became more and more excited. Unfortunately, this excitement soon waned as I started the arduous training.

Get Some Cheerleaders
As I trained, there were long runs in the wind and rain. There were days when my body gave up and I just couldn’t finish my planned training runs. There were times when I wanted to give up on my goal. I even started to question my motivation for reaching my goal. Fortunately, I had told some of my closest friends and family that I was going to run a marathon. They encouraged and supported me during those tough days. They told me that they wanted to come to the marathon and watch me run across the finish line. I didn’t want to let them down, so I kept going.

Don’t Give Up
With any major goal, there will undoubtedly be setbacks. During my training, my biggest setbacks were physical injuries. These injuries made me doubt that I could actually achieve my goal. However, instead of giving up, I adjusted. My progress was slowed, but in the end I persevered and achieved my goal.

On April 4, 2009 I completed the Yakima River Canyon Marathon. It is difficult to describe my emotions when I crossed the finish line. It was a mix of joy, relief, and pride. It made all the pain and effort worth it. Reflecting back on this achievement I better understand why tennis great, Arthur Ashe, said that “success is a journey and not a destination.”

I’d love to know your thoughts. tony@repowell.net

Tony

www.repowell.net

Dreams

When Louis B. Mayer the director of “Gone With The Wind” pitched his idea for an epic Civil War movie to MGM Executive Irving Thalberg, he was told “forget it, Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel.” In 1899, Charles H. Duell, commissioner for the U.S. Office of Patents sent a letter to President McKinley in which he urged the President to abolish his office. According to Mr. Duell, “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Mr. Thalberg and Mr. Duell both failed to see the vast opportunities that lay ahead of them.

In life we admire those individuals who dream of a better future and fight against the odds to make those dreams come true. Do you ever remember seeing a memorial or monument being erected for a critic or doubter? No, that’s because we love the dreamers. We love men and women like Walt Disney, Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony, and the Wright Brothers.

We all have dreams. Maybe your dream is to pay off your mortgage, go back to school, or retire and enjoy your grandchildren. The good news is, dreams do come true, especially in America. Even from its earliest beginnings, America was recognized as a unique land where people could achieve their dreams. In 1832, Alexis de Toqueville wrote his famous book Democracy in America, in which he stated that in America “there is no man who cannot reasonably expect to attain the amenities of life, for each knows that, given love of work, his future is certain.”

Did you know that by working for this company, you are playing an important role in making a dream come true? This dream began over three decades ago when a young couple dreamed of building a company where employees and customers were treated like family. They dreamed of creating a company that would provide growth opportunities for themselves, their children, and their employees. This dream has continued on over the years, and each employee that has worked at R.E. Powell, General Transport, AmeriStar, Mid Valley, and AmeriFuel, has played an important role in making this dream come true.

Wonderful things happen when we dare to dream. The first step is to find the courage to follow after those dreams.

I’d love to know your thoughts. tony@repowell.net


Tony

www.repowell.net

Core Values

Throughout a company’s lifetime certain values and behaviors develop within the company. When a company is small, these values and behaviors are greatly affected through team members close proximity to the company’s owner/leader. When a company grows it may become increasingly difficult to maintain those behaviors and values that made the company successful in the past. In an effort to reinforce their unique culture, many companies have established a written list of Core Values.

With this in mind, our company’s management team recently worked together to establish a list of Core Values that adequately defines those unique values and behaviors that have lead to our company’s past success. Through the efforts of the management team in conjunction with feedback from many of our fellow team members, a list of Core Values was created.

This list of Core Values reflects what is truly important to us as an organization. These are not values that change from time to time, situation to situation, or person to person, but rather they are the underpinning of our company culture. By maintaining these Core Values, regardless of how large our company becomes, we can preserve what has always been special about our company. These core values are the soul of our company.

Safety and Compliance - Strive for 100% compliance from 100% of our employees. We want to be known for excellence in environmental, safety, and all other areas of compliance.

Accountability - Do what we are say we are going to do. This includes conducting our affairs with integrity at all times.

Value Creation - Create real, long-term value by improving people’s lives and prosperity. Know your stakeholders, and profitably anticipate and satisfy their needs.

Entrepreneurship - Demonstrate the sense of urgency, accountability, initiative, and risk-taking mentality that is necessary to promote the company’s future success.

Customer Focus - Enjoy when the customer succeeds and do not allow any gaps in the Customer Service Chain.

Growth - Pursue personal and professional growth. Meet your full potential, and find fulfillment at work.

Adaptability - Embrace and drive change. Envision what could be, challenge the status quo, and drive creative destruction.

Efficiency - Do more with less. Strive to eliminate waste, and increase productivity.

I want to thank all those who helped out in establishing this list of Core Values. As a team, we now need to find ways to ensure that these values continue to be part of our culture.

I’d love to know you thoughts. tony@repowell.net

Tony
www.repowell.net

Building Strong Team Member Relationships, Part II

Last week we took a look at manager and team member relationships. This week we will take a closer look at the relationships between team members. History has shown that teams with strong connections amongst team members have a greater chance of accomplishing their goals. It is hard to find a high performing team that consists of team members that do not like and respect each other. So how do we as a company promote the development of strong team member relationships? Here are a couple of thoughts.

Share a mission or purpose. It could be said that business is a team sport. When we work with our teams to reach our goals, personal connection is generated through the objectives we strive to achieve together. Common purpose is experienced in teams by achieving milestones, goals, vision or intentions and in some unusual companies, all of these. We earn and sustain connection by accomplishing greater purposes than we could otherwise achieve on our own. As team members we should encourage our fellow team members to work together to create a clear team mission or purpose.

Encourage candor. Candor is defined as the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. I’ve observed in some cases, team members who are afraid to speak openly to other members on their team. What makes candor so challenging? Ultimately it boils down to the fact that we don’t think people can take it or worse yet we don’t think we can take their reaction to our truthfulness, so we avoid the discomfort and give up the opportunity. Fostering candor has ability to strengthen our teams. Let’s not hide behind our fear, let’s speak up and be authentic with our teammates.

Have fun together. The other day I attended a birthday party for the spouse of one of our team members. Several other fellow employees attended the party as well. As a team we enjoyed a fun evening filled with great food and great company. I personally had the chance to get to know some of our team members and their spouses better. My personal connection with these individuals grew. Our teams should be encouraged to have fun together in both work settings and non-work settings. Sometimes teams rely on the same people to take the lead when it comes to planning fun activities. These individuals should be appreciated for their efforts, and those of us that are not are so proactive in planning fun events, should look for opportunities to step up our participation.

I’d like to know your thoughts. tony@repowell.net

Tony

www.repowell.net