Partners Issue # 113

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Dec 23, 2006, 2:44:55 AM12/23/06

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Dedicated to the personal and professional development of PMEE’s -- professionals, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs -- everywhere.

Issue # 113

Eighth year in publication

Since July 1, 1998

Current number of subscribers: 3,201

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Comments, feedback, suggestions, questions, etc.:

partner...@googlegroups.com or g...@gklim.com

Past issues:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/partners

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"IN THIS ISSUE"

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[1] Editor's Corner

[2] Personal Development Article

[3] Business Development Article

[4] Attitude Vitamins

[5] Stress Buster

[6] Feel Good Classic

[7] Chop Suey Rojak

[8] Sponsors’ Messages

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[1] "EDITOR'S CORNER"

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Hi,

This issue goes out two days before Christmas Day 2006.

Seasons greetings from the editorial team at PARTNERS. May the new year of 2007 AD be your best year yet.

PARTNERS will continue to serve you in your online management education efforts. We've been around since July 1, 1998, and we'll keep informing you of changes in the management development scene worldwide.

Some time back reader (and old friend) Amy Wan Ratos wrote to us, "Dear GK, congratulations on the 8th year of PARTNERS and for being a discerning and dedicated editor. Can always feel your grin coming thru. Thanks for your encouragement always. Regards, Amy Wan Ratos."

Thank you Amy. J

Back to our current issue.

The time has come again, the flood of articles about making New Year's resolutions. Though the articles have different slants I do not understand them because resolutions and goals are the same to me. I never make New Year's resolutions, but this year I decided to do it. Do these resolutions or goals match yours? Check it out at "Resolutions or Goals: They are the Same to Me," by Harriet Hodgson.

Polarization with organizations, between departments, can inhibit an organization from achieving optimal levels of productivity. Our Business Development article "Tips to Deal with Inter-Departmental Conflict in Your Organization," by Bill Lee, offers suggestions to reduce inter-departmental conflict.

Check out our other departments, Attitude Vitamins, Stress Buster, Feel Good Classic, Chop Suey Rojak, and of course our Sponsors’ Messages.

Well, enjoy issue # 113!

May you be happy, healthy and well always!

G K Lim < www.gklim.com >

Editor / Publisher

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[2] "ARTICLE -- PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT"

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Resolutions or Goals: They are the Same to Me

By Harriet Hodgson

At this time of year newspaper and magazines publish articles about New Year's resolutions. These articles are puzzling to me because I do not make resolutions. I do not even attend New Year's parties. Instead, my husband and I stay home, watch television for a while, and toast the coming year with a glass of wine.

Resolutions and goals are the same to me. My goals, or resolutions, are not end-of-year decisions, they are year-round decisions. After I have reached a goal I set a new one. To get a better understanding of New Year's resolutions I read some articles on the Internet. Economist Rebecca A. Morgan, Founder and President of Fulcrum ConsultingWorks, sees New Year's resolutions from a financial perspective.

New Year's resolutions are "known more for being broken than being kept," Morgan comments. She thinks the New Year gives us a chance to take stock of our lives, identify the business improvements we need to make, and work on them. Megan thinks we need to assess our resolutions and "stick [with them] through difficult stretches."

Clinical psychologist Pauline Wallin, PhD sees New Year's resolutions from a health perspective. Before we make any resolutions Wallin says we have to examine our motivation for change. Do we want to control our eating, exercise more, or make other health changes? Wallin says we need to accept the responsibilities that come with change, redefine our physical sensations of discomfort, make tasks non-negotiable, and accept imperfection.

There is no time like the present to make New Year's resolutions. "Do it now," advises Wallin, "because if you are waiting for a better time your resolutions will not happen"

"Making New Year's Resolutions Count" on http://www.mygoals.com begins with the idea of choosing the right resolutions for the right reasons. We have to think about what we want and be realistic about achieving our goals. According to this Web site we should write down our goals, look in the mirror, and read them aloud. The next steps: making a plan, sticking with it, being flexible, and modifying our goals.

These articles made me re-think New Year's resolutions and I decided to make some this year. My resolutions (goals) come from family, writing, and experience. The goals are few, but each one is important to me.

1. I will spend more time with family members.

2. I will be the best grandma I can possibly be.

3. I will try something totally new this year.

4. I will become better informed on financial matters and tax laws.

5. I will continue to take responsibility for my health.

6. I will give my articles and books to groups that will benefit from them and expect nothing in return.

7. I will continue to give back to a community that has given much to me.

8. I will treasure every moment, especially the ones I spend with my dear husband.

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http://www.harriethodgson.com

http://healthwriter.blogspot.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance nonfiction writer for 28 years. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD is available from http://www.amazon.com . A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will find another review on the American Hospice Foundation Web site under the "School Corner" heading.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harriet_Hodgson

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[3] "ARTICLE -- BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT"

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Tips to Deal with Inter-Departmental Conflict in Your Organization

By Bill Lee

No matter where I work, regardless of the region of the country, there's one situation I encounter that virtually all businesses have in common -- some degree of internal conflict between sales, operations and administration.

Operations Manager: "Those sales guys are prima donnas. There's one -- Kevin -- who is the worst offender of all. He'll invariably blast into my office at the eleventh hour with an emergency delivery one of his customers absolutely has to have the next morning on a “first-out.” He is always armed with every reason imaginable as to why he couldn't give me more notice, but the bottom line is that he wants me to "bump" another customer's order and slide his customer in its place.

"I'm telling you, I've had it with him. Last week he got in my face once too often; we had it out. I told him that he could either get his orders phoned in and scheduled like all the other salespeople or his customer could just wait. I told him that his customers are no more important than the company’s other customers.

"Now, Kevin won't speak to me. He now communicates with me through a manager. You'd think that a man making a six-figure income would be organized enough to get his act together and plan ahead. I can't possibly do my job when every order he enters is an exception to the rule."

Salesperson: "Getting our operations manager to cooperate is the biggest hurdle I face every day. He has never grasped the concept of customer service. He does everything in his power to keep me from taking care of my customers' needs. Just last week he told me that I had to get on a schedule like everyone else or my customers could just wait.

"I do the best I can out there. He thinks I have some sort of crystal ball. How does he think I can anticipate my customers' needs when my customers can’t see any further ahead than the end of their nose? Flexibility is the key to success in this business and he's about as rigid as they come. I can't do my job unless he can do his."

Credit Manager: "These salespeople around here are like a bunch of grade school kids. They practically never fill out their credit applications properly. And when it comes to credits, we need a full-time person to correct their mistakes. Customers are forever refusing to pay invoices because they're priced differently from the prices they were quoted.

"We could save a lot of money in our department if we didn't have to correct so much of the salespeople's work. They are the most disorganized bunch of guys I've ever had to deal with."

Sound familiar? Could this be your organization?

What's wrong in these companies and what's contributing to so much hostility is customer service-related. Not external customers, but internal customers.

The operations manager sees Kevin as a highly paid, but selfish and inconsiderate salesperson who totally disregards the systems the operations department has designed. Of course, the operations manager is partly correct. Kevin does appear to be a last minute sort of person who could benefit from some additional training in the basic principles of time management.

Kevin is also operations' internal customer. Kevin generates the sales and gross profit that make the operations job necessary. Without Kevin -- and others like him -- this company would not need an operations department.

There's also validity in the credit manager's criticism of the sales personnel. By nature, many salespeople are better at building customer relationships than they are at meticulously filling out credit applications. Salespeople need to be sensitive to the additional work they create for administrative personnel when they are sloppy with paperwork.

Salespeople are internal customers to the credit department, however. Without salespeople, there would be little need for any of administrative staff.

If salespeople are wise, they will do everything in their power to work just as hard at building good relationships with both operations and administrative staff as they do at building relationships with customers. Serving customers can be an uphill battle without the support of operations and administration.

Intelligent salespeople must eventually learn that getting "in the face" of the operations manager is a formula for eventual failure. The manager may take the salesperson's side because he cannot afford to allow internal conflict to interfere with customer service, but human nature usually dictates that operation managers will make life miserable for salespeople who show too little respect for their job function.

Operations is the internal customer of the sales force.

Without their willingness to service customers, salespeople are helpless.

It helps when employees in various departments take time to understand that different talents are required to perform different jobs. Frustrations can be lessened when all employees understand that stress caused as a result of human differences is natural. In fact, when we appreciate the value of human differences, we are usually more tolerant of them.

And more importantly, it's only through this kind of natural conflict that organizational synergy is achieved. Even though it can be uncomfortable working with people who possess different personality characteristics from yours, these characteristics are almost always necessary to efficiently perform job functions that require different types of talent.

Try this: Regardless of your job function, ask yourself this question:

How efficient would this organization be if everyone here possessed my exact strengths and weaknesses?

The answer is obvious. None of us possesses all of the characteristics, talent and chemistry necessary to perform all jobs in the company. The sooner everyone becomes willing to admit how much each employee needs each other, the quicker teamwork will improve.

Begin immediately doing your part to be more understanding of human personality differences!

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Suggestion to managers: If you’ve never administered psychological assessments to the key people in your organization, I strongly suggest that you do so. The investment is less than $200 per person and the insight your people gain into their strengths and weaknesses can be really eye-opening. You can email Bill Lee @ Bi...@BillLeeOnLine.com.

Bill Lee is author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($21.95) and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95) Plus $6 S&H for the first book and $1 S&H for each additional book. To order, See Shopping Cart at http://www.BillLeeOnLine.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Lee

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[4] "ATTITUDE VITAMINS"

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Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come. -- Og Mandino

He profits most who serves best. -- Arthur Frederick Sheldon

The ultimate objective of a business is profit. The primary purpose of a business is to create customers. Profitability without customers is an impossibility. -- Anon

In the quest for success, just remember that there is no substitute for character or service. -- Henry David Thoreau

So remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises those that court him and admires whoever will not bend before him. -- Thucydides

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. -- William Connor Magee

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. -- Thomas A. Edison

Don't ever fear having good and popular people around you, because they can only enhance your own performance. The more you can play to these people the better the show. -- Gene Roddenberry, from Star Trek Memories by William Shatner, 1994

One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you. -- Dennis A Peer

Among you Chieftains and Huns will be those whose spirits cling to our past ways. We will show patience with you unenlightened ones. Yet, if you choose not our new course and cause dissension, you will be stricken from our ranks. -- Attila the Hun, circa 450 AD

In a service business, you have to remember that your major assets take the elevator down every night, and you hope they come back in the morning. -- Samuel Hayes, Harvard Business School

If you're not serving the Customer, you'd better be serving someone who is. -- Jan Carlzon

The correct strategy for Americans negotiating with Japanese or other foreign clients is a Japanese strategy: ask questions. When you think you understand, ask more questions. Carefully feel for pressure points. If an impasse is reached, don't pressure. Suggest a recess or another meeting. -- John L. Graham

If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation—and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress. -- Henry Kissinger

Who digs a pit for others will fall in themselves. -- German Proverb

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[5] "STRESS BUSTER"

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Mrs. Goldberg was shopping at a produce stand in her neighborhood. She approached the vendor and asked, "How much are these oranges?"

"Two for a a dollar," answered the vendor.

"How much is just one?" she asked.

"Sixty-five cents," answered the vendor.

"Then I'll take the other one," said Mrs. Goldberg.

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Elizabeth was surprised to receive ten dollars from her Aunt for her birthday. The Aunt asked how she was going to spend it.

"I'm taking it to Sunday School and giving it to God." the little girl replied. "He'll be just as surprised as I was at not getting a dollar like usual."

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Deciding to eat healthier breakfasts, my brother-in-law declared that oatmeal would now be his cereal of choice.

But after eating his first bowl, he told my sister, "I hope I develop a taste for the stuff. It goes down real rough."

"Well," she asked, "how long did you cook it?"

"You're supposed to cook it?" he said.

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Registered Nurse Catherine was unhappy with her job, so she submitted her resignation. She was sure she'd have no trouble finding a new position, because of the nursing shortage in her area.

She e-mailed cover letters to dozens of potential employers and attached her resume to each one. Two weeks later, Catherine was dismayed and bewildered that she had not received even one request for an interview.

Finally she received a message from a prospective employer that explained the reason she hadn't heard from anyone else.

It read: "Your resume was not attached as stated. I do, however, want to thank you for the vegetable lasagna recipe."

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[6] "FEEL GOOD CLASSIC"

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Here's an old story. You've read it in the past.

Read it again!

An old Amerindian legend tells of an Indian brave who found an eagle's egg one day and put it in a prairie chicken's nest. The eaglet hatched at the same time as a nestful of prairie chickens saw the light of day, and grew up alongside them.

All his life the young eagle did exactly what prairie chickens do. He pecked for insects and grubs in the earth. He clucked and cackled exactly like a prairie chicken. And when he flew it was always in a cloud of feathers and only for a few yards at most.

After all, that's how prairie chickens fly.

The years passed and the eagle grew old. One day he saw a magnificent bird gliding high in the cloudless sky. Gracefully the huge bird rode the air currents, hardly moving his great golden wings.

"What a beautiful bird!" exclaimed our eagle to his prairie chicken friends. "What is it?"

"That's an eagle, the king of birds," clucked his neighbor. "But you better forget about it. You'll never be an eagle."

And so the eagle forgot all about the magnificent bird and died, thinking he was a prairie chicken.

Author unknown

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[7] "CHOP SUEY ROJAK"

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Note: If long URL’s break, please cut and paste.

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BBC - Human Mind Tests

Today's intriguing site from the BBC offers a number of fascinating quizzes
related to their "Human Mind" television programs. Gentle Subscribers will
discover some interesting indications about their own perceptions as
measured by these cleverly designed and well-presented tests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/tv/humanmind/index.shtml

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Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What?

Employees' personal connections can be as valuable as their individual knowledge base. Social network analysis, or SNA, helps maximize a company's collective smarts.

http://www.cio.com:80/archive/061505/km.html?CID=6956

http://www.cio.com/archive/061505/km.html?CID=6956

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A collection of some of the best online resources on "Collaboration and Partnerships"

http://www.suejames.com.au/linkcollab.html

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[8] "SPONSORS’ MESSAGES"

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"How to Sell Successfully to Corporate Customers"

a 2-day public program for sales professionals on how to sell by solving customers' problems thru consultative & solution selling approaches

at the Le Meridien, Singapore, on 25th & 26th January, 2007

at the JW Marriott, Kuala Lumpur, on 6th & 7th February, 2007