October 27th, 2011
A manager has evolved from being a time keeper and making sure things get done into a coach, counselor and driver of corporate strategies. Since managers are the closest to front line staff and have more direct customer contact they are a wonderful source of information that provides leads regarding the need for future development and can more easily influence employees during times of change.
If you are a manager, you know you are not only sandwiched between executive level people with big requirments, you are also surrounded by employees who look to you for guidance, advancement opportunities, motivation and at times a friend. Being a manager on almost any playing field is one that may require you to walk gingerly through political land mines while keep things calm on the home front, your department.
Managers know that it can be a challenge to keep valuable skilled employee who are grateful but still keep an eye out for new and improved opportunities. After all, in today’s job market if you don’t see thing happening within 2 1/2 to 3 years at your company, it is time to move. The days of moving up in your own company are often limited because many executives and directors bring in their own teams for their own job security limiting advancement for mid-level managers and front line staff. Managers must keep nuturing their staff providing an environment that fosters cross-training in other departments, involvement in decisions and direction of the department and incentives to stay.
Regardless of our lovely economy, recent surveys reflect that over 80% of workers hope to change jobs in the near future. Job satisifaction is at a low. People need to feel valuable and appreciated and I don’t just mean during the holidays. One time in a job interview someone asked me “Why aren’t employees more loyal?” I almost burst out with a “Are you kidding?” Employees have felt since the 1980′s that companies are not loyal to them. Employees watched their mom and dad’s pension diminish or evaporate, we had Enron then we also began to see many mergers and buyouts. Company raises began to shrink from the once robust 10% increase down to a ceiling of 5% to 7%. Health benefits were beginning to shift into a more of a cost sharing type of thing.
As a manager, it is up to you and not just your employer to provide an valued incentive to stay interested in their job. If most people feel that their boss is doing what they can to keep the job and environment productive and interesting, they will invest added time. Also, if their manager sincerely cares about them as a human being and meets with them on a one on one basis once a month to hear about the family and the manager gives of themselves a bit, an employee will feel appreciated and enthusiasm will soar! As it has been for years, employees leave their jobs first and foremost because of their boss, the job itself and then, because of dissatisfaction with pay.
Going back in time we learn about how our roles changed over the decades contributing to our jobs today:
70′s …
Training focused primarily on discrimination, racism, and management by objectives.
80′s …
Popular training topics were behavior modeling, the first real push towards teamwork, empowerment, diversity, feedback, quality and employee incentives.
90′s …
Lots of manager training to become visionaries, learning groups, performance management, sexual harassment, re-engineering, fun incentives incorporating company executives and the evolvement of balancing work and life.
00′s …
A time when our employers want us to learn how to protect the company by attending training on topics such as employment law, computer security, workplace violence and prevention, stress management, differences between men and women managers and employee motivation to help with mergers and/or rightsizing.
Fun Ways to Provide that Added Incentive:
- Fun Fridays
- Funny Sock Fall Contest
- Outdoor Meetings under the Trees
- Host a surprise Un-Meeting
- Bring a Treat Friday
- Manic Monday Casual Day
- Scavenger Hunt Thursday
- College a Coupon for a Good Deed for a Prize
Being a manager is rewarding. The more you involve your team and keep them motivated, the better it is for you. Your team will help you meet your goals and your involvement with them will help them grow and feel valuable. Those at the executive level will quickly see that you can easily motivate your team to move ahead through change.
Here is to being a manager, enjoy!
Tags: awards, employee, employee incentive programs, employee rewards, incentive, incentives, motivate
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October 21st, 2011
Key factors include benefit plans and potential for career advancement.
Career Bliss, an online company-review site based in Irvine, recognized 50 companies with its 2011 Bliss Leap Award, which gives a nod to those that are making the biggest advancements in employee happiness year after year. At the top of the list was Target, with a 12 percent difference from 2010.
To develop the list, CareerBliss assessed more than 250,000 company reviews from employees on their website. The appraisal evaluated factors that affect company happiness, such as work-life balance, work environment, compensation, growth opportunities and interpersonal relationships. CareerBliss reps found a common element among the Top 50 companies: a comprehensive benefit plan.
“We take great pride in caring for our employees, our customers and our communities,” said William Strahan, Comcast’s senior vice president of human resources. “We believe it’s essential to invest in proper training, communication, competitive pay and benefits, and professional growth opportunities to create a supportive and motivating work environment where diverse employees thrive.”
Comcast, which ranked No. 26 on the list, offers a benefit package that includes above-average health insurance; a dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match; free financial planning services; life and disability insurance; tuition reimbursement; long-term-care insurance; pet insurance; commuter, legal, and adoption benefits; and more.
Other factors influencing employee happiness include opportunities for career advancement and work-life balance.
“Our data continues to show that even more important than salary is a company’s commitment to providing a balanced work environment that allows employees to enjoy ample time with their families and friends outside of work,” said Matt Miller, CTO and co-founder of CareerBliss.
All data is derived from 2010 to 2011, and in order to qualify for the award, each company must have at least 50 reviews on the CareerBliss site.
“What is unique about this award versus any other award out there is that employees, independent of their company, can review and evaluate their employer based on factors that determine work-place happiness,” said Heidi Golledge, CEO and co-founder of CareerBliss. “Each company on our Top 50 list should be proud to know they are making a difference in fostering a happy work environment.”
Tags: employee benefits, employee incentive programs, employee incentives, employee retention, employees
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October 20th, 2011
How would you react when you ask someone what they do for a living do for a living and their response is Supply Chain Management?
“What kind of job is that!?”
“Oh, so you work in a warehouse?”
“Gee, I thought this person had a good job!”
“How ‘bout them Bears!?”
Most people cannot begin to imagine what a Supply Chain is or does. They don’t realize that it’s the backbone of every company and in literally every industry around the world that produces a product or provides a service. There is the typical Finance, Marketing, Sales, R&D and manufacturing departments. But what people at fundraisers, around the water cooler or as a matter of fact, in your own company don’t realize that a Supply Chain a main contributor to a company’s success.
Typically, Supply Chain will attempt to centrally control or link demand, production, shipments and distribution of a product. This is managed through detailed planning and analysis. By managing the supply chain, companies are able to control costs, conduct risk management controlling excess inventory, work with off shore plants and vendors and most importantly provide products at a faster rate in to the hands of the consumer. This is done by keeping tighter control of inventories, production, distribution and sales.
It’s all a network created amongst different companies producing, handling and/or distributing a specific product. Specifically, the supply chain encompasses the steps it takes to get a good or service from the supplier to the customer. Supply Chain management is a crucial process for many companies, and many companies strive to have the most optimized supply chain because it usually translates to lower costs for the company.
One example is the I-Phone. All of the parts to produce a phone requires someone to plan and procure those materials, manufacture the phone, distribute it and stock it on the shelf in a retail store. All of this is managed by Supply Chain.
In a nutshell, it’s the complicated, behind-the-scenes work of getting goods from one place in the world to another, on-time when the customer expects it and on budget.
Next time you meet someone in an airport and learn that that they are a Supply Chain Manager rushing off to a plant far away, you will have a little more appreciation of the efforts in the supply chain process that made the I-Phone available to you when you purchased off the shelf to enjoy.
Tags: demand, distribution, logistics, shipments, supply chain, supply chain manager
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October 16th, 2011
Cash flow issues keeping you up at night? Instead of throwing money at the problem, try strengthening each part of your supply chain.
Cash is the fuel that drives business, and many financial analysts consider the condition of a company’s cash flow to be one of the most important indicators of that business’s financial health. After all, a well-managed flow of cash–like a strong heart–is usually indicative of a healthy business, while poorly managed cash flow, or a weak heart, can cause problems that affect the entire business.
Unfortunately, companies facing cash flow crunches simply throw money at the problem, which is a temporary solution at best, akin to treating heart disease with drugs alone. And just as heart surgeons encourage their patients to eat well, increase their physical activity and reduce stress, cash flow management requires more than just a financial fix. It requires a holistic approach that focuses on making a company’s entire supply chain operate more efficiently. After all, the faster goods move from seller to buyer, the faster sellers can be paid.
It’s important to note that a cash flow crisis is usually a symptom of a broader supply chain sickness. Treating this illness requires the attention not only if the CFO but also of the logistics manager, the purchasing department, operations, the tech guys and even the CEO. And while working with a bank to open a line of credit or amending an existing financial instrument can certainly help, the only real way to address a cash flow problem is to take a holistic, long-term view of the issue. Fixing a cash flow problem requires companies to examine and improve the three key flows of commerce: goods, information and funds. Let’s take a look at the first key flow.
Follow The Goods
The faster a seller moves goods to a buyer, the faster the buyer will pay for those goods, and that impacts cash flow. Therefore, businesses must ask themselves how they can better improve the speed at which their goods exchange hands. And this goes well beyond the actual transportation of the goods. Rather, it requires an examination of the entire process–from sales all the way through invoicing.
Let’s start with sales. It’s vitally important for a company’s decision-makers–and for small and growing firms, that usually means the owners–to be plugged into the sales process, examining the data from the sales staff on a regular basis. How much was sold yesterday, how much will be sold today, and what about tomorrow? The more accurate this information, the tighter the inventory. And the tighter the inventory, the better the cash flow.
After all, every item that’s sitting on a warehouse shelf represents inaccessible capital. Turning that inventory into sales begins to unleash that capital. If the inventory isn’t moving, you’re not moving cash. On the flip side, you have to be prepared to quickly replace sold or outdated inventory. Robust and accurate sales data ultimately drives inventory levels. Of course, this is sometimes a game of chance, but your chances of having optimal inventory levels increase with the accuracy of our sales data.
Next comes fulfillment. When a customer places an order, what happens behind the scenes? Who handles the fulfillment–that is, moving the goods out of inventory and toward the buyers? Is the pick and pack of the goods and the preparation of the shipment an arduous, manual process that delays shipments from leaving your facility? Or have you integrated technologies that create a streamlined, automated and efficient fulfillment process?
And, of course, transportation decisions are also important. Sometimes the cheapest form of transportation–usually also the slowest–isn’t the best choice. Spending more on expedited services can often result in improved reductions in the cash flow cycle.
Use The Information
Your next vital key to good cash flow is information, and for that, you must have visibility of your product shipments. Once your goods leave the dock en route to your buyers, how much visibility do you have regarding the progress each shipment is making? Do you have a tracking number for every package? Did you share the tracking number with the customer? Are you aware that a package was delayed due to weather? While all these questions primarily reside in the operations side of the house, they can also have a major impact on customer service, which in turn can impact cash flow. After all, a customer who feels well treated is more inclined to pay on time–and buy from you again.
In addition to tracking your shipments, using the information you have about each shipment’s status and delivery time enables you to put invoices into the hands of your buyers as soon as possible. Once the goods are delivered, does your business receive confirmation that the order’s been delivered? And upon receiving that confirmation, do you automatically trigger an invoice? All this information helps to build solid, long-term relationships with your customers while improving cash flow.
Speed The Funds
This is the area where business owners usually look for a quick solution. After all, most of us have heard the laundry list of best practices from a financial perspective on how to improve cash flow. Some of these traditional but important remedies include:
- Doing customer credit checks. Perform credit checks on all new and non-cash customers. This process can immediately reduce bad debt, since you’ll stop offering credit to customers who haven’t proved they deserve it.
- Offering term discounts. To encourage customers to pay on time, consider offering term discounts. For example, if your invoice terms are “net 30/2/10,” customer payment is expected in 30 days; however, you’re offering the customer a 2 percent discount if payment is made in 10 days.
- Asking customers to pay by cash or credit card. Rather than sell on term payments, sell on cash or credit card payments. Once you’ve got the cash in hand, deposit the funds immediately.
- Charging late fees. Indicate on your invoice when payment is due, and specify the penalty interest for late payment.
These solutions have been and will remain key ingredients in helping to cure cash flow ailments. But they’re not the only funds-related prescriptions. Consider these options:
- C.O.D. (Collect On Delivery). C.O.D. delivers cost savings and processing efficiencies that improve cash flow. This process may seem archaic, but the reality is that you’ll be paid faster with C.O.D. than a traditional 30-, 60- or 90-day term agreement.
- Inventory financing. Have you ever thought about unleashing working capital generated from inventory that traditional banks won’t finance, such as inventory you’ve got housed overseas? What about moving that inventory to a different location that enables those goods to be financed? Unfortunately, many businesses simply throw up their hands in defeat when they learn that overseas inventory can’t be financed. But that’s giving up too soon. If you take a holistic supply chain approach, you’ll realize that realigning your supply chain can enable you to gain economies of scale, reduce inventory expenses and ultimately obtain additional working capital. Most traditional banks are simply focused on the money flow, not the supply chain.
- Credit insurance. Today’s business environment pretty much mandates that small companies go global. But conducting business with trading partners overseas can be risky. Credit Insurance can help mitigate the risks by protecting the value of your receivables. By guarding your bottom line against nonpayment–or even slow payment–of invoices, you can breathe easier about your decision to conduct cross-border trade. And credit insurance can be used on a case-by-case basis–for example, with new customers whose payment histories you’re unfamiliar with. Once you’ve established a more solid relationship with them, you can then stop charging them for the credit insurance.
To be successful at cash flow management is to make sure all three flows of commerce–goods, information and funds–are working together to accelerate the movement of money through your supply chain. In all my years in business, I’ve learned that cash flow can be–and must be–managed wisely, and that better cash flow management goes hand-in-glove with better supply chain management. This will help you create a healthy, strong business.
Tags: cash flow, manage supply chain, reward, supply chain, supply chain management
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October 11th, 2011
Made in America is gaining momentum as more Americans now understand that we have given to much away. We have a real chance to start a movement and recharge our economy. Chinese employees who are tired of working long hours, in conditions that are sometimes not favorable are wanting more pay and incentives for labor. Our challenging economy is also creating a passionate movement and getting people to stop and think about the benefits of made in America. Global supply chain is costly and difficult to manage. Because of all the moving pieces and delicate relationships between Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Sales, Customer Service and costly day-today delivery of product companies are taking a more serious look at things.
The once great cost savings gained from doing business in China, India and other countries along with soaring transportation expenses; increasing risk of supply chain disruptions when doing business globally; and, unregulated overseas markets where companies cannot be as assertive about their rights for quality control, intellectual property and at times a fear of managing a staff that may not maintain its loyalty to their distance clients.
For years the Chinese and Indians have gained from the U.S. thanks to mega stores such as Wal-Mart and others who have done business abroad. As consumers, we are very much to blame for ignoring the little sticker on our clothes, at the bottom of our products and the key compenents to international participation in the supply chain delivery process.
If you know someone who is a Veteran they will most likely tell you that we need to buy American to keep our country financially strong and secure. These vets usually drive Fords, Chevys and look at labels because they know that buying other than American is going to come at a much bigger price than what they may be saving if buy foreign goods. Why do they get so emotionally charges when you ask them why it is so important to buy American made goods, because they have fought for this country. They have watched what can happen when we are too dependent on others for our day-to-day goods. We all were striving for a global economy but we all know that things have gone to far at the sacrifice of our American jobs. It is not all about China, India or anyone else, it is about respecting and appreciating the great things that this country manufacturers, grows and delivers. There is a big incentive to understanding the benefits of buying from your own backyard, all we have to do is look back in history.
Our country offers intellictual advantage with some of the brightest minds in Engineering and Supply Chain in the world. We have well managed harbors with millions of products going and coming in every single day. American companies are modern with high tech automation, assembly, and packaging systems that are respected world wide and are located in proximity to the world’s largest markets. As a nation, we are more stable than other arising countries and can easily function in any language because of our diversity.
If we stay committed we can change how Washington thinks, we can change the trend of what our teachers are telling their students and foster a lasting beneficial commitment. The cause is for our livelihood and an investment for all generations to come. Stand and take notice of where your products are coming from and speak of the benefits of made in America from a supply chain strategy.
Imagine how much easily life would be with Engineering, manufacturing, Quality and sales being all in this country.
Tags: delivery, global supply chain, manufacturing, supply chain, supply chain management
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October 11th, 2011
Find out how giving praise is the key to getting it
Happiness Thought for October: Praise early and often. As St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”
I’m a real gold-star junkie. One of my worst qualities is my insatiable need for credit; I always want the recognition, the praise, that gold star stuck on my homework. Recently, I was grumbling to my mother about the fact that some extraordinarily praiseworthy effort on my part had gone unremarked upon. My mother wisely responded, “Most people probably don’t get the appreciation they deserve.” That’s right, I realized – for instance, my mother herself! I certainly don’t give her enough praise for everything she has done for me. Our conversation started me thinking about the importance of praise, and how to praise effectively.
1. Be specific Vague praise doesn’t make much of an impression. Parenting experts often express this point of view: Praising a child means more when it’s specific than when it’s general. “What a beautiful painting!” is less gratifying than “Look at all the colors you’ve included! And I see you’ve used all your fingers with the finger paints. You’ve really made your picture look like a spring garden!” This is true for adults, too. “Great job!” is less satisfying than an enumeration of what, exactly, was done well. General praise sounds perfunctory and meaningless; specific praise seems heartfelt.
2. Never offer praise and ask for a favor within the same conversation It makes the praise seem like a setup for whatever you’re asking for.
3. Look for something less obvious to praise Highlighting a quality that a person hasn’t heard praised many times before shows that you’re really paying attention, not just repeating what other people have said.
4.Praise people behind their backs The person you’re lauding usually hears about it, and behind-the-back praise seems more sincere than face-to-face praise. That’s why I make an effort to repeat any behind-the-back compliments I hear.
5. Match the quality of the praise to the difficulty of the task If a job was quick and easy, a hasty “Looks great!” will do; if it was protracted and challenging, be more lengthy and descriptive.
6. Remember the negativity bias The “negativity bias” is a psychological phenomenon: People react to the bad more strongly and persistently than to the comparable good. For example, within a marriage, it takes at least five good acts to repair the damage of one critical or destructive act. So when I praise someone, I remember that one critical comment will be far more memorable than several positive ones. If I want someone to walk away feeling great, I skip any negative remarks.
7. Praise the everyday as well as the exceptional When people do something unusual, it’s easy to remember to give praise. But what about the things they do well all the time without any recognition? I try to point out how much I appreciate the small services and tasks that someone unfailingly performs. Something like, “You know what? In three years, I don’t think you’ve ever been even an hour late with the weekly report.” After all, we never forget to make a comment when someone screws up.
Praise is gratifying to the person getting praised, of course, but it also boosts the happiness of the praiser – at least I’ve found that true of myself. Still, what about the opposite problem? I find it fun and easy to give gold stars, but so often I’m craving them myself. I struggle (admittedly with only moderate success) to master my need for gold stars. I’ve repeatedly asked my husband to give me more of them: “Manipulate me! Lavish me with praise, and you could have me jumping through hoops like a tiger at the circus! Just give me my gold stars!” He laughs, and he understands my nature, but he still doesn’t do it.
Some of my happiness-project resolutions are aimed at this desire, and I tell myself, Don’t expect praise or appreciation. Nevertheless, for all my efforts, I have to admit that I still crave those gold stars. It helps if I tell people I’d like gold stars. If you give a gentle reminder, they might happily shower you with praise. Here are some other strategies I use to try to curb my neediness:
1. Do things “for myself” For a long time, I self-righteously told myself that I made certain efforts “for the team” or “out of love for my family.” While this sounds generous, it led to a bad result, because I sulked when my husband or whoever was involved didn’t appreciate my efforts. Now I tell myself, I’m doing this for myself. This is what I want. I want to send out holiday cards. I want to organize the cabinets. This means I’m not waiting for a gold star. No one else has to even notice what I’ve done.
2. Find ways to reward myself Maybe other people aren’t giving me credit, but I can give myself credit. I keep a chart of my daily resolutions, and I get a little jolt of satisfaction when I reward myself with a check mark next to a resolution. I give myself gold stars!
3. Express your appreciation for what other people do One good happiness rule is that if I wish people would act a certain way toward me, I should act that way toward them. If I wish people would be freer with praise, I should make sure I’m ladling it out myself. Also, I’ve found, when I push myself to feel grateful for what others are doing, I remind myself of how much they do for me – and that eases resentment.
4. Remember that being taken for granted is a form of praise It’s ironic: The more reliable you are, the more likely you are to be taken for granted. If you always meet deadlines, if you never lose your temper, if you’re always prepared, people can overlook your efforts. And really, that’s a compliment. My only clear childhood memory of being picked up from school is the one day that my mother was late. Every other day – year in, year out – she was on time. As a child, did I ever say, “Hey, Mom, I really appreciate the fact that you’re never late”? Nope. But it mattered. How about you? Have you found effective ways to give or get praise?
Tags: awards, corporate incentives, customer incentives, employee incentive programs, employee rewards, incentive, incentive programs, praise, praise employees
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October 7th, 2011
If you think for one minute that making investments and providing incentives is only for your Call Center and Sales Departments think again. Excess inventory and stock-outs and horrific forecasts will send your financial numbers heading south quick, all curteousy of a team that may not be happy with their work and your management style. Your Supply Chain Team is crucial to the success of your company and your career. Your relationship with them is paramount and will provide you with a foundation to help your company sail through tough times. Sitting in your office reading spreadsheets and not developing relationships with your department, Sales, Engineering and Quality are only going to end up making live on Misery Island all by yourself.
At least once a month, you need to do an informal survey of each and every business partner, your employees and of course the ever important, customer. Ask open ended questions that may seem dangerous and uncomfortable at first but it is better to be the one asking then the one being asked. Ask if they are happy with your team’s work, if they are receiving what they need on a consistent basis and if they are, would they like to recognize the work of one of your team members. Asking if they would like to recognize someone in your area boost morale on your team and also speaks for your management abilities. Be sure to arrange cross training so your team can maintain relationships with others while keeping their skills up-to-date. End calls by offering training opportunities in turn to their staff. Be sure to provide some sort of service incentive or coffee for their participation in cross training and brainstorming sessions. Close with a warm and sincere thank you for their support.
If you do not invest time in your team and business partners, you may be rewarding those who do not support you. Others will work in Engineering, Quality and Sales on their own interests before spending time to collaborative and support you.
Some manufacturers build buffer stocks to ensure speedy deliveries. A kind of plan for the worst, hope for the best approach. But when a recession, merger or hurricane at your plant slams you, you will be stuck surplus raw materials. The only save are your keen skills and ability to flex back and forth as priorities change quickly.
A supply chain works well only when all involved equally share risks, costs, and rewards of reaching demands. How to do you provide incentive and encourage to foster sharing? Be sure that all supply-chain partners’ incentives are aligned. First, acknowledge that incentive problems exist, no finger pointing just honest conversation. Second, determine their causes and complaints. Third, realign incentives so that all levels in each business unit are pulling in the same direction. Write informal yearly contracts with each business unit requesting the participation of all involved.
As in any relationship, a relationship that is not based on trust will fail and one that acts on their own interests will cause a loss for all. When things become heated and sensitve, use intermediaries to prevent supply chains from breaking down because of mutual misgivings among chain partners.
It really is not a surprise how some supply chains extend across several functions and many companies, each of which that has its own priorities and goals. Yet no matter what there is absolutely no other way that to row in the same direction to ensure that supply chains deliver goods and services quickly and cost-effectively. Executives tackle intraorganizational problems but overlook cross-company problems because they may be difficult to pin point or they refuse to get involved in the relationship aspect. They also find it too much work and very time-consuming to define roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities for those they may not manage directly. Also each business unit has it own culture and loyalty to motivate their partners. To create an environment where supply chain partners respect and support eachother, companies have to create, modify monetary incentives and do continual pulse checks to monitor commitments.
Extensive research demonstrates that a company can increase the size of the pie itself by aligning partners’ incentives. Becauses of this all players in the supply chain must be interlinked. If your leaders come with degrees from impressive schools but lack Emotional Intelligence, you are in trouble. Emotional Intelligence involves cognitive aspects noted below:
Perceiving emotions – The ability to detect and understand emotions displayed on the faces of people and quickly understand their own emotions regarding their perception. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
Using emotions – The ability to harness emotions to facilitating thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent manager can capitalize fully by changing attitudes in order to best fit the task and issue at hand.
Understanding emotions – The understanding of an individual’s emotional language. To appreciate complicated relationships among their emotions. A manager who is insentive with the attitude of “my way or the highway” or one who refuses to understand the emotional situation and the evolvement that can be possible is one that is ineffective.
Managing emotions – Regulating of emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to reached goals and objectives for the greater good.
The day of education over experience and the day of an absent manager on a supply chain team are over. Companies seek supply chain consultants and managers who are well versed but more importantly one who can act as a camillion recognizing the needs of their team.
Tags: APICS, global demand management, global distributioon, MRP, supply chain, supply chain consultant, supply chain incentives, supply chain strategies, supply chain team
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October 2nd, 2011
Of the ten basic motives that inspire all human action, love is probably the most powerful. More has been accomplished by people motivated by love for mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children than any of the other motives.
It is very common to see athletes, musicians, and business people purchase beautiful houses for their parents when they make it big. I recently read about Gene Simmons, the famous bass player and singer for the band KISS, and his devotion and love for his mother, a Nazi concentration camp survivor who brought up her kids as a single mother. Famous, and not so famous, people recognize the love their parents gave them and the sacrifices they made to get them to where they are and want to ensure their parents never want for anything again.
Love for their wives has often been cited as the reason for the success of many men. Napoleon Hill wrote numerous times about the impact that the wives of the people he researched had on their success. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had tremendously supportive wives and this propelled them to tremendous success, despite the many difficulties each of these men faced. John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, is well known for his love of his wife Nellie. Anybody studying John Wooden’s success will soon learn the importance of his wife Nellie to that success. I think of the story that Zig Ziglar tells of his friend Bernie Lofchick. Bernie became a wealthy, successful, business person because his son David was born with Cerebral Palsy. Bernie and his wife did everything they possibly could to make sure their son David had as normal a life as he could. Part of doing everything possible was earning an above average income to pay for the extensive therapy his son would need throughout his life.
The motive of love can also help people endure tough situations for long periods of time. I think about single mothers who often work tirelessly and still manage to impact their children positively to become contributing citizens of the world. I think of parents who endure jobs they do not like so that their kids will have the best life they can possibly give them. I think of people who experience physical disabilities and challenges in their lives and their spouses make adjustments to their lifestyle and dreams to lovingly care for them.
Think of the person you love the most in this world and who you would do the most for. If you were to find out that person would die in one year and suffer in the process, unless you earned say, $20,000 more in the next 12 months than you did in the previous 12 months, would you earn the additional $20,000? Would you sleep less? Would you watch television less? Would you waste less time? I believe that, if your love is strong enough, anyone could do it.
Think of the people in your life that you love the most. Think of the needs they have. Think about how you could help them with those needs, big and small. Bringing happiness, joy, and comfort to loved ones can motivate you more than anything else in life to do what you need to do.
Tags: motivate, motivate donors, motivation, motivational programs, motive
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