Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/263143
60 • MARCH 2014 • WORLD FENCE NEWS World Fence News contributing editor Read Jim Lucci's monthly column: The Human Link • Jim's by-line: PROFIT IS NOT A DIRTY WORD!™ Past IFIA Convention speaker and presenter of Eastern International Convention keynote addresses Fill out (please print) and return to: James V. (Jim) Lucci Management Motivational Associates, Inc. 18 Hansome Place • Freeport, NY 11520 • MMAJandJ@aol.com Please call me. I'm interested in ____________________________________________________ Telephone________________________________ Convenient time________________________ Fax Number _____________________________ E-mail: ________________________________ Name __________________________________________________________________________ Name of Business / Organization_____________________________________________________ Address_________________________________________________________________________ City________________________________ State ______________ Zip _____________________ COUPON Is your business or association positioned for the changing economy? Do you have the strategy in place to put you and your staff/members in the best position to succeed? If the answer to the above questions is anything other than a solid "YES", then contact us to discuss possible ways we can help you to improve your overall operations and to help put you and your business or association in a better position to succeed. MANAGEMENT MOTIVATIONAL ASSOCIATES, INC. When you need an experienced executive level management consultant like Jim Lucci to review overall business strategy and procedures or business specifics such as sales training, staff motivation, time management, inventory control, scheduling, yard/warehouse layout, etc., call Jim Lucci at 516-379-0903 or fill out and return the coupon below by mail or fax to 516-379-2404 or contact us by e-mail at MMAJandJ@aol.com (please identify subject as "consulting"). We will contact you promptly to discuss your needs and schedule business, seminar, meeting or convention appointments and rates. Appointments may be made for personal appearances or telephone consultations. Jim Lucci Reaching that elusive goal line a reason your boss acts the way he does. And I think I've found it. Through exhaustive research, I be- lieve I've stumbled upon the five most prominent reasons why bosses con- tinue to thrust Goal Setting Exercises on you, the unsuspecting employee: They hate you. They really, really hate you. They're using GSE to hypnotize their bosses just long enough for them to polish their resume so they can blow out of this hellhole. Or if they lack the creative skills to lie convincingly on their resume, GSE then provides them with an av- enue to tread water until the day they get transferred to another department or die. (See employee handbook defi- nition: Win-win situation.) They can look at you without los- ing their cookies, but still, the whole naggy, bothersome concept of actually interacting with employees really grates on their nerves. To them, the employee/animals interfere with golf, fantasy football, and downloading porn off the Internet. GSE offers protection against these rude interruptions. Clobber an employee just once with GSE and he's guaranteed to stay away forever. GSE is quick, easy, inherently and completely vague, and is sure to ren- der any employee – regardless of enthusiasm, drive, and ability – com- pletely numb. And that's how you want them. Even better, when applied properly, GSE closely resembles torture, thus providing hours of giddy pleasure for your boss. The problem (ha, suckeeerrrs!) Office goals are lucid in concept and fuzzy in detail. This is how they were designed. Through years of apa- thy and self-deceit, your boss has evolved an innate ability to convince himself that he's able to visualize goals with crystal clear perspective and clarity, even though he can't ex- plain them. And it doesn't matter whether you're large or small (I'm talking about office goals here, not body size). Even Fortune 500 CEOs with re- ally good hair and a direct bloodline to the board of directors don't have a clue, and haven't fooled anyone in quite some time. The employees are on to them. In fact, most figured out they weren't exactly working for a visionary genius the first time they walked in on their boss with his tie caught in the paper shredder. But the insurgence of GSE contin- ues. According to the latest U.S. Cen- sus information, the typical office manager (who according to this same report is 99.2 percent of the time the owner's most ignorant, unemployable child), GSE is now used to cure virtu- ally all office woes. When sales are down, set goals. When office morale drops, set goals. When there's no other solution (and you can't come right out and say your product and service suck), set goals. The problem (Let me know when this gets irritating ... ) Another troubling aspect of GSE, particularly when paired with humans, lies in the fact that goals have always had an inherent flexibility. Goals are often modified during the course of the journey. Here's one common example: • Original goal – Lose 15 pounds. • Modified goal – Consume body- weight in Twinkies and Jack Daniels at one sitting. You see – flexibility. This natural inclination by people to alter their goals was something the original GSE Nostradamuses never counted on. They never in their wildest dreams imagined GSE would inspire anything but complete transformation of virtu- ally any sluggish, stagnant business at- mosphere into a new, emboldened, and enlivened synergist environment that would rocket along like a humming- bird shot from a howitzer. I mean, after all – they surmised – what could possibly go wrong with a theory premised solely on the three most solid of human attributes: 1. Our laser-like, long-range vi- sion and acute planning skills. 2. Our innate ability to apply self- discipline and provide honest assess- ment of our own faults. 3. Our ability to relentlessly pur- sue the drive to unselfishly correct those faults (once discovered) in the selfless goal to perpetuate our com- pany and provide our owners with greater profits and larger cars. Oh, wait. I think I may have spot- ted a few potential problem areas. Conclusion (Whaddya mean, "Thank God?") We all need to step back for a Veiled in the ultimate managerial smokescreen, GSE provides your immediate supervisor with something he can pull out of his (mmmmmm ... let's see .... I'm searching for a word here and I can't use my first choice ... how about "hat") when he has nothing better. continued on page 74 Nationwide 855-470-4616 Atlanta 800-767-7322 Tampa 800-223-6879 Los Angeles 888-850-5090 Dallas 855-728-0683 Sacramento 7:30AM EST-4:30PM PST ElectronicEntryDistributors.com ALL MAJOR BRANDS & MANUFACTURERS COMPETITIVE PRICING KNOWLEDGEABLE TECH SUPPORT FAST RELIABLE SERVICE & SHIPPING OVER 100 YEARS OF COMBINED Super Human Customer Service & Industry Experience! MARCH 6 th -8 th VISIT US AT BOOTH 1347! 2014