What to expect when you begin to hold employees accountable

When you begin to hold employees accountable, it is important to remember that morale may go down before it rises to a higher level. We call this riding the “J” curve of workplace excellence. When you start on the accountability trail, some employees may become resentful. If you are a new leader to a team, you know what this feels like. The employee wants to tell you something like this: “I liked my old boss a lot better. My old boss did not bug me and I didn’t bug her. You annoy me, and I would be a whole lot happier if you would just leave me alone.”

When you start to hold employees like this accountable, they, along with every other marginal employee, become disgruntled. Morale declines and starts to move toward the bottom of the “J” curve. The morale and motivation must go down to the starting point on the “J” before it can rise up to the top.

Being a great leader in search of the path that leads to workplace excellence is not for the faint of heart. Holding all employees accountable to clearly defined outcomes is hard work. With really difficult employees, it feels like a fight. Yet holding everyone accountable and holding onto the “J” for the entire ride takes you one step closer to creating workplace excellence.

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There’s always a fairly good reason to procrastinate when giving feedback to a challenging employee. What if the employee pulls an attitude and holds you hostage? What if the employee gets hurt feelings and quits? What if the employee stops talking to you? Or, perhaps, there’s just no time. Be honest, there’s no time because you’re typically spending way too much time cleaning up the messes left by your challenging employee!

During our twenty years in the business, we’ve heard hundreds of great excuses for not dealing with performance issues. When managers get down to the real reason for procrastinating when giving feedback, they often admit to either not knowing how to give feedback, or lack confidence in their ability to provide feedback that will motivate the employee to improve. While there are many coaching models, perhaps the simplest approach is to focus on helping the employee develop their skills to achieve optimum performance.

Describe the performance problem in objective terms. As you begin a performance dialogue with an employee, it is important to focus on specific, observable behavior. People resent personal attacks and are more open to hearing about aspects of their behavior that need to change. Phrases like, “You’ve really had a negative attitude lately,” or, “You just don’t seem organized,” will evoke defensiveness. It’s much more effective to discuss specifics regarding the behavior that needs to be addressed. For example, “I’m happy that you completed the report on time and the layout looks good. Unfortunately, there are several errors. Let’s talk about your approach to proofing your work.” Or, “I’ve noticed that you don’t look up and greet our customers when they enter. They talk to you before you talk to them. Let’s talk about our service strategy.”

Express your opinion regarding the performance. For example, “I’m concerned when you send reports out to clients that have errors. I think it makes us look unprofessional.” It is O.K. to express your concern, frustration, confusion, worry, etc. regarding poor performance.

Value the employee. When giving performance feedback, it is critical that you clearly describe the behavior that is inappropriate, or needs to change. However, we often find that even in the case of challenging employees, much of what they do is right on. It is important to value the employee’s other contributions when providing feedback that addresses a particular concern. For example, “Although I’m concerned that you have come in late three times in the last week, I want to make sure you understand I am pleased with how you handle your job once you’re here. You are pleasant to our customers and helpful to coworkers. You meet your quotas. My only concern is your tardiness.”

Encourage input. With the right approach, employees should feel encouraged to talk about their view of the problem and more importantly, ideas they have to address the problem. In some cases, the manager will need to be direct about how the employee should change his or her behavior. In most cases we find that employees can generate their own solutions to behavior that has been identified as inappropriate or counter productive. Employees are always more motivated to try their own suggestions for improved performance. If you can live with their suggestion, give it a chance. You can always regroup later, if needed. The whole goal is to have a dialogue that motivates change. If the employee’s idea might work, give it a try.

Listen. Leadership is based on a relationship. You can’t build a solid relationship based on trust and respect if you don’t listen. Listening says, “I care.” Listening helps you identify, from the employee’s perspective, why there might be a problem. Listening gives you time to begin thinking about solutions that might work to fix the problem. A great coach asks questions, listens to the response, and acts accordingly. It’s no coincidence that the best coaches are also the best listeners.

Outline future behaviors. After you have clearly identified the problem and had a dialogue with the employee about what will change, it is important to clearly outline the behavior you expect to see in the future. For example, “Great. It sounds like you’ve got a plan to have a team member proof your reports before sending them to our clients. Let’s meet in one week to review the reports you’ve sent out during the week. Our goal is to have reports that are 100% accurate.”

Project outcomes, both positive and negative, related to the performance you are discussing. In the past, if coaching has not worked to change behavior, what were the consequences? In some cases, coaching doesn’t work because there are no consequences for the poor performance. In fact, sometimes there are positive consequences for the poor performance. For example, if a salaried employee consistently comes in late, but leaves on time, the positive consequence is less work. Make sure the employee understands the outcome of continued poor performance. In the case of the late employee, you could say, “It sounds like you have some excellent ideas for getting to work on time. Now that you know how serious we are, I know that you will make every effort to be here at start time. However, since we’ve talked about this twice, I want you to know that if you decide to come in late again, I will take the first step in our disciplinary process and write you up.”

Like every other skill you’ve acquired, coaching takes practice. Work hard to help your employees develop. The payoff is improved performance, better morale, greater retention of team members and less stress for you.

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As leaders, we are responsible for making decisions daily. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we don’t make our decisions alone. Over time, most of us have learned that the best decisions involve input from others. We’ve also learned that getting others involved takes more time than making the decision on our own. And, time is something none of us has in excess. So, gaining confidence and skills in the art of leading a group to consensus will ultimately save time, plus enhance your reputation as an effective decision maker.

Our experience has proven that the best way to reach a collective decision is by leading the group to consensus. When consensus isn’t used and management dictates the decision without employee input, people feel “talked at” rather than “talked to” and may even feel manipulated. If we involve people to a point, but ultimately vote to determine our course of action, we’ll end up with winners and losers. The losers will find it difficult to get excited about an action they did not vote for. Consensus, however, allows us to ultimately end up with a decision that can be supported by the entire group. While participants may conclude that the final decision is not their personal favorite, they agree that they can support the decision for the good of the organization.

Following these seven tips can help you effectively lead a diverse group of participants to consensus:

1. Allow Enough Time. Reaching decisions by consensus is initially a time-consuming process. However, when enough time is taken so all participants have an opportunity to question and express concerns, the group’s decision will usually be more final than a management-mandated decision or a decision made by vote. While initially more time-consuming, you ultimately save time by not having to revisit the decision again and again to make changes.

2. Don’t Interrupt. Simply put, interrupting is rude. As a meeting facilitator, ensure that participants do not interrupt one another. Participants who are interrupted tend to shut down and may become non-participants. If someone is rambling, you can help by waiting for a pause and then quickly summarizing the speaker’s main ideas. For example, “So, Marianne, it sounds like you are particularly interested in making two specific changes to our workflow process. They are…”

3. Encourage Listening. Most of us are poorly trained listeners. Rather than focusing on listening to others, we begin organizing our own thoughts on the topic and wait for the right moment to express them. As a facilitator, help participants summarize their key ideas. “I think what Martin has to say may have some real merit. Martin, would you mind quickly summarizing your three major points?” Or, if people are talking at the same time, you might consider saying, “Wow! I sense some excitement here. Let’s make sure that we each have an opportunity to express our thoughts without interruption. Let’s start with Mary, then…”

4. Look for Alternatives. When the group gets stuck, look for viable alternatives. Stimulate the discussion by asking questions such as, “Is it possible that we might consider…?” Or, “What if we tabled this topic for the moment and moved on to another issue? But, we’ll revisit this current topic before we conclude the meeting. We may have more information or ideas by then.”

5. Accept Differences. If you are leading a group to consensus, we can promise you that there will be differences of opinion before reaching a decision everyone can accept. Opposition, or differing opinions, are good. If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always had. Learn to accept challenging viewpoints as part of a productive process that will ultimately lead the group to a good, well-supported decision.

6. Check for Support. We know by experience that most decisions are made in the last twenty percent of the planned meeting time. Whether you plan to meet for days, or only hours, decisions will typically be reached in the final portion of the meeting. Before adjourning the meeting, check for support. Ask questions like, “Is there any part of this decision that you cannot support?” “Is there anything else you feel needs further consideration?” Make sure that all participants can live with and support the decision, even if they’re not excited by it.

7. Follow-Up to Ensure Implementation. Once the decision has been made, it is important for people to commit to taking the actions they have agreed upon. It is also beneficial to schedule a follow-up date where group members can return and report on the progress of their actions.

Generally, groups come to consensus through meetings. While no one likes meetings, they are a reality of organizational life! Use the tips listed above to confidently lead efficient and productive decision-making meetings, meetings where people leave saying, “We really accomplished a lot today! That was a good use of my time.”

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Strategies for Uniting Cross-Departmental Teams

The stress of the economy has had a negative impact on organizations and has hampered the ability of employees to work cross-departmentally or divisionally as one team. In many cases, employees are working harder, faster and having just enough time to focus on their own survival. They don’t have the time to make communication with other team members a priority.

Recently, we have worked with several clients that are struggling with cross-departmental teamwork. We like to describe this phenomenon as misidentifying the enemy. The cross-departmental teams get into turf wars and start battling each other instead of working together to achieve shared objectives liked increased revenue, or improved customer service.

Our extensive research demonstrates that almost all employees and their leaders can figure out how to work well as a team within their own department. The “gold standard” in our research is the Best-of-the Best organizations, those that consistently score in the top quartile of all the organizations we have surveyed with Employee Satisfaction Surveys. What separates the Best of the Best organizations from the rest is their ability to understand how to work cross-departmentally as one team. The Best of the Best are between 13 and 16 percentage points higher in the areas of cross-departmental communication and collaboration than their counterparts.

Based on our findings, we offer you 8 tips to help your organization build strong cross-departmental teamwork.

1. Recognize that your organization has a challenge in building cross departmental teamwork. Becoming aware, and having others gain awareness is a key to bringing attention to this lack of teamwork.

2. Make a commitment to take action. It starts with you! Take the team’s temperature. Ask team members, on a scale of one to ten, with one low and ten high, how they would rate the teamwork between departments? Getting a baseline is an important step and will keep your motivation going when teamwork starts to improve.

3. Sell people on the problem, not on the solution. Everyone knows that teamwork is important. But asking people a question like, “When we don’t work well cross-departmentally, what impact does the lack of teamwork have on our customers?” is an example of having people understand the ramifications of the problem and accept ownership versus telling them what we need to do to fix the problem.

4. Gain consensus in your own department as to which two or three departments you need to work stronger with as a team. Pick the team to work with that will have the most benefit if cross-departmental teamwork is improved.

5. Make a list of all the problems that can occur when teams do not work well cross-departmentally. Are there profits or customers that are lost by not being efficient or providing exceptional service? Gain agreement that these are problems.

6. Make a list of the top two or three actions or opportunities that would improve cross-departmental teamwork. Focus on the ones that will give the biggest bang in improved teamwork. Too many actions can be overwhelming.

7. Set up another meeting with the cross-departmental team one week later to review what went well or right, what problems the team encountered, and what actions will be taken the following week to improve teamwork.

8. Meet frequently. Repeat weekly meetings until everyone, including customers, agree that cross-departmental communication and teamwork has improved.

Improving cross-departmental teamwork creates change that deeply impacts the culture of your organization. People will feel uncomfortable being forced to work with team members they have been able to avoid in the past. We can guarantee that team members are going to say, “We are too busy to meet this week.” Don’t fall for this trick. Remember, dysfunctional teams will do anything humanly possible not to meet. If you want to lead your organization to the ranks of the Best of the Best, cross-departmental teams in your organization need to be united. It’s up to you to set the example and make sure each member on your team understands that teamwork is not an option, but a necessity.

Have you encountered difficulty uniting departments in your organization? If so, leave a comment below discussing strategies that have worked at your organization. (Also, strategies that haven’t worked and what you have learned).

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10 Tips for a More Empowered Workforce

Empowerment is one of the most valuable tools a manager has in achieving positive results and maintaining a motivated workforce. Experiment with these ten tips to discover their effectiveness with your employees.

1. Trust people. The tap root of empowerment is trust. If you do not trust employees, it is impossible to empower them. Demonstrate confidence in people’s abilities and watch them rise to meet your expectations.

2. Clearly communicate to employees what the standards and expectations are that pertain to their jobs. Ask for their input and listen to their responses. Get their commitment to meet your expectations.

3. Ask employees what support they need from you to be fully successful in their job. Make it a habit to frequently check in with them to determine what support they need from you.

4. Give your employees authority that is equal to their responsibilities.

5. Ask employees what training they need to successfully perform their job responsibilities. Provide training to enable them to gain the skills needed to meet expectations.

6. Provide ongoing feedback. Empowerment can fail when there’s a lack of communication. Make a daily practice of telling people what is going right, as well as your areas of concern.

7. When you feel you need to be the only one making the decision, ask yourself if any of your employees could be trained to make that decision.

8. Communicate almost everything. The more you communicate, the more you indirectly tell people you trust them.

9. Recognize success daily. When employees take empowered actions, tell them how much you value their contributions.

10. When failure occurs, stay in the aim frame. The fastest way to kill an empowerment initiative is to blame someone for failing. Next time this issue or circumstance arises, instead of blaming, ask team members to address these two questions: “Where do we want to be?” and, “What actions do you propose will move us in that direction?”

As you follow these ten tips, we are confident you will experience even greater team results and raise the level of motivation.

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The Perils of Moving Up the Corporate Ladder

In a recent survey, the number one concern of 100 new supervisors and managers promoted from within the organization was how to build a cohesive team when all individuals on the team are not in total support of the new boss. Newly appointed supervisors and managers promoted from within an organization are confronted with a unique set of challenges and problems. Some new supervisors felt so frustrated by lack of support and not knowing what to do to rectify the situation that they actually couldn’t sleep well.

Anytime a supervisor or manager is promoted from within his own work group, there is a chance that other team members might not be in total support of the new leader. Employees state various reasons why they do not provide support: 1) employee has more seniority; 2) employee feels he knows the job better; 3) employee was told by someone in the past that he would be considered as the next supervisor; 4) employee is just resentful he was passed over.

Whatever the employees’ reasons, the supervisor is left with the task of rebuilding the team and realigning the spirit of the disgruntled employees.

The following six suggestions have been helpful to newly-appointed supervisors and managers:

1. Before you make any major changes in your department or team, interview all team members. Ask them what they like about the team and what they feel needs to be improved. The information gained from these interviews will help you decide what needs to be accomplished to solidify the team.

2. Realign the cream of the crop. When teams struggle, the best people are the ones who are likely to leave the team. Go to the top team members and ask for their help in improving the team. You will also find it helpful to increase the team responsibilities of top team members.

3. Confront problem employees. Give team members a brief time to adjust to you as the new leader. Four weeks is more than enough time. First, ask the tough employees for their support when you interview them. After the fourth week, if it becomes clear that the tough employee is not supporting you or the team, confront that specific employee. Describe to the employee the problem behaviors you have observed and let him know that those behaviors are not acceptable because they undermine you and the team.

4. Admit to your employee when you do not know something or when you make a mistake. As a new supervisor, you tend to feel you should know everything. If you admit when you do not know and also show a desire or willingness to learn, you will find you have fewer people-related problems.

5. Overcompensate with soft pay. Examples of hard pay are raises and promotions. Examples of soft pay are specific praise and recognition for doing one’s job well. New supervisors tend to be focused internally: “What do I need to do so I will be perceived as a good supervisor?” Since supervisors’ success will often be judged by their employees doing what they are supposed to do, you may have better results providing ample praise and recognition when your employees do something right.

6. Learn new supervisory skills. Chances are that the new supervisor was promoted because he was technically sound or he had a positive attitude. To be successful in this new position, the supervisor needs to learn new skills. Attend a supervisory skills training course. Ask someone whom you respect to be your mentor coach.

If you communicate with all employees, realign the cream of the crop, confront problem employees, admit to your employees when you do not know something or you make a mistake, and learn new skills, you will find your new transition much easier.

P.S. Yes… you will even sleep better at night.

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Monday mornings can be difficult. You come back from a relaxing weekend to be bombarded by meetings, phone calls, and basically any other distraction under the sun. To help inspire you to seize the week, we send out a free Leadership Quote of the Week email on Monday mornings. Quotes from inspirational leaders will remind you of your role as a leader, and inspire you to look at the upcoming week in a new light.

Sign up here to start your week off with a little perspective.

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Never under-estimate the value of an open mind.

“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.”

-Everett Dirksen, U.S. politician who helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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How to Tactfully Discuss Customer Complaints with Employees

We all want our customers to be happy and to let us know when something has gone awry, but do you know how to successfully handle situations where multiple customers complain about a long-term employee?

This can put you in a difficult position, but if you do not handle the problem correctly, it will just keep happening. If you don’t confront the behaviors that lead to customer complaints, you will lose respect as a leader from not only the employee we are discussing, but your other team members as well. The bottom line is you need people on the front line that every customer views as courteous, knowledgeable and dependable. Following the steps below will help you in dealing with this difficult situation.

First, meet with the employee and discuss if he or she is aware of the complaints. Lead the discussion by asking the following type of question, “What do you feel has changed in the last two months that has triggered these complaints?”

Second, ask the employee if he or she sees these complaints as a problem. Without the employee’s agreement that the complaints are a problem, the employee will never be motivated to change this behavior.

Third, ask the employee for suggestions of what he or she is going to do differently so that customers do not describe him or her as rude or arrogant. In case the employee does not have suggestions, you may want to encourage her to involve you sooner before the problem escalates with the customer.

Fourth, leave the meeting having accomplished three things: 1) The employee is aware that you see his or her behaviors as a problem. 2) The employee and you have generated solutions or actions of what he or she is going to do differently so the problem does not occur again. And 3) The employee knows that you care about his or her success and value their contributions to the organization.

By the way, if the employee quits over this conversation, this is not the type of employee who truly cares about you or the company’s success.

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Expand Trust in your Organization

Good managers, supervisors, and leaders take specific actions to create a climate that is conducive to open and honest communication. In this open communication climate, people feel free to give their input and ideas, information is shared freely, conflicts are openly discussed and worked through, and people are more willing to express innovative ideas and to take risks.

The basis of the open communication climate is trust. The leader establishes an environment of trust within and among all the people in the group. To begin to build or expand trust in your organization and to foster an open communication climate, try some of the following tips.

1. Keep your employees informed.
   We all want to be “in the know.” Take time to keep your employees informed about what is happening within the organization. The more people feel informed about their organization, the better they feel about their participation in that organization. When you do not have the answer or are unsure of the reason for a particular decision, be honest with your employees and do whatever you can to get more information to them as soon as possible.

2. Use a real open door policy.
   Most managers say they have an open door policy. However, employees often quickly find out that although the door may be open, the mind is closed! If you have an open door policy, it means you welcome people to come to your office with their ideas, comments, complaints, and suggestions. It also means that you are open to actively listen to and honestly respond to those who come to see you.

3. Encourage others to express contrary viewpoints.
   Let people know that you expect them to challenge and disagree with you. When they do, let them state their case. Do not interrupt. Look for areas of agreement and be willing to see the others’ perspectives. Once you have a clear understanding of the others’ views, clarify the points that you support and those you cannot support. Provide a thorough explanation as to why you disagree. Help other people understand your perspective by speaking clearly and providing examples and illustrations to clarify your points.

4. Don’t “shoot the messenger.”
   Nothing destroys trust and credibility more than this one. And, unfortunately, this is a common problem in many organizations. A good leader understands that, in today’s complex organizations, people are required to relay messages. If you shoot the messenger one too many times, not only will the messenger not come back again, but everyone else will do whatever it takes to keep information from you.

5. Encourage employees to share information.
   If your employees rely solely on you to keep them informed, you will quickly become overwhelmed and the employees will not get all that they need to do a quality job. Let your staff know that you expect them to share information on a regular basis. Actively involve others in giving updates and sharing other relevant information.

6. Use a variety of tools to disseminate information.
   Be creative. The list is endless but here are a few to start with:

   • Departmental bulletin board
   • Organizational or departmental newsletter
   • Suggestion box
   • Special information-sharing meetings
   • Video or teleconferencing
   • Email

7. Promptly respond to communication from others.
   A general rule of thumb is to get back to people within a maximum of twenty-four hours. A better rule of thumb for some of the people would be to get back within four hours. When someone sends you an email, letter, or phone message, get back as soon as you can to let that person know what you are doing about the concern. Even if you cannot respond with a complete answer or solution right away, you can let them know that you are working on it and that you will get back ASAP. Then, do what you said you would do.

8. Keep your manager informed.
   Managers differ in the amount of information they wish to receive from the people they manage. Take the time to discover what your boss expects from you. How often does he or she expect to hear from you? Does he or she prefer written information (reports or status updates) or a weekly face to face meeting? What types of decisions does he or she expect to be consulted on? When can you make decisions on your own? How much detail does he or she like? If you cannot readily find the answers to these questions, set up a meeting with your boss to go over these kinds of issues. Remember, just as you would expect from your employees, no boss likes surprises.

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Invest in Employee Engagement: it will prove worth your while

The buzz word most associated with employee satisfaction these days is “engagement.” As recently as two years ago we were writing about the impending talent drain, as boomers would be leaving the workplace in masses for retirement. We stressed the importance of creating a workplace where employees would feel motivated, enthused and most importantly, “engaged.”

That was two years ago. Today the whole business landscape has changed. As of December 2009, California’s unemployment rate is 12.1%. Massive layoffs have had a profound impact on not only the way we do business, but on the employees who are left shell-shocked after layoffs, wondering if and when the axe may fall on them. We’re not hearing the word “engaged” much these days as it relates to employees. In fact, some leaders have been so bold as to say, “I really don’t care what employees think and how they feel. They have a job and should be grateful to have survived the last round of cuts.”

So… does employee engagement still matter?

Watson Wyatt’s 2008/2009 WorkUSA Report, Driving Business Results Through Continuous Engagement, reports that when employees are highly engaged, their companies drive 26% higher productivity, have lower turnover, and are more likely to attract top talent. More impressively, companies of highly engaged employees earned 13% greater total returns for shareholders during the past five years. Clearly, engaged employees positively impact the bottom line.

Many of us today are working with fewer employees and are tasking those remaining employees with doing more than ever before. Times are tough, and now more than ever, employees need strong leaders. The outcomes of an engaged workforce: productivity, high levels of morale and customer satisfaction are absolutely critical to your organization’s survival in this economic downturn.

Here are six tips to Engage! your workforce:

1. Stay Positive
   Your team is looking to you for hope, support and confidence. For your success, and the morale of your team, it is important that you keep a positive vision and remain upbeat by using strategies like these:
   
   • Choose your words carefully. Use positive language.
   • Learn something new. Teach someone else.
   • Set new professional goals . . . for the week, month and year.
   • Spend time with positive people.
   • Show support for senior leadership’s strategic goals and direction.
   • Forbid whining and gossip.
   • Do something you love each day.
   • Be grateful for what you have!

2. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
   During these troubled times, communicate more, not less. Employees are hungry for information, even when the news is not good. Plus, if you don’t keep employees updated, they will keep themselves updated, with gossip, which is always richer than reality.
3. Set New Goals
   Today it’s business as “unusual.” Your work may have slowed down and project priorities may have shifted. There is a tendency to just hunker down and wait out the recession, hoping for mere survival. Unfortunately, hanging out and waiting for something to happen, is demoralizing. Now’s the time to set clearly defined goals, identify measurements of success and then hold people accountable for accomplishing the goals. To energize your team, get your employees involved in setting new goals. Give people a reason to come to work. Having clearly defined goals and measures of success helps people believe in the importance of their team and the work they do individually to contribute to the team/company’s success. Get enthused and be a role model of commitment to successfully achieving the goals.
4. Hold People Accountable
   It’s hard for employees on the team to be fully engaged when they feel they are carrying a “slacker.” Coach the employee who isn’t pulling his/her fair share. If the coaching isn’t effective, work with HR to help move that employee on/out so they can strategically undermine the success of one of your competitors. Working short-handed is much better than being held hostage by an under-performing employee. Effectively dealing with performance issues raises team morale and clearly shows that you are serious about your expectations.
5. Recognize Success & Find Reasons to Celebrate
   Look for opportunities to celebrate team success, even small successes. Ask your team for their ideas about how to celebrate. Go beyond the typical “great job” and find out what motivates that particular employee. To keep people engaged, get to know your employees’ career aspirations and help them achieve their goals.
6. Ensure Everyone Learns and Grows
   So many things have changed in the business world where we now reside. In this new environment, there is an opportunity to unlearn some old, less effective behaviors and learn new ones. When people are learning and contributing, they feel positive and motivated, knowing that they are making a contribution. Expect learning and recognize employees who demonstrate growth.

Being a leader today is tough. Putting these six tips into practice will help you not only survive, but thrive in these trying times. You will be leading a motivated, engaged workforce and will have positioned yourself for success.

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