EEO/AA Management is Sound Management

Simply put, Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action programs need active and energetic management. If left untended, organizations can become a jungle where indifference, inflated job descriptions, questionable standards, sloppy screening, missed hiring opportunities, outright or subtle discrimination, hostile work environments, and quotas are tolerated or ignored. 

And any of those can attract the 500 pound gorilla of litigation.

We've found that the best EEO/AA programs neatly mesh with sound human resources practices and high ethical standards. They don't stand apart as requirements that require occasional attention but instead blend in with daily management and supervisory behavior. This not only reduces resistance to such programs, it benefits the entire organization because EEO and Affirmative Action - if handled properly - are important tools for finding, keeping, and developing talent.

Questionable EEO/AA programs fail to enlist the active participation and support of the entire team. Just as the best quality management programs reach every corner of the organization, the best EEO/AA programs demonstrate how everyone has a role that goes far beyond preventing discrimination. 

In short, EEO/AA management is a major component of talent management. It not only prevents problems, it creates positive contributions to the organization's success by ensuring that employees work and strive in an environment where the only discrimination is on the basis of merit.

For information on how we can assist with the management of your EEO/AA program, call us at 602-788-1717 or email info@swrci.com. 

The Procrastination Infection

I'll do it when:

• I'm in the right mood. [When that state is achieved, I'm a dynamo.]
• The time is right. [If it ever is.]
• I have enough time to complete the entire project. [Because doing part of it just wouldn't be right.]
• I have all of the information. [And I always need more information.]
• Everyone's back from vacation. [Don't they all go at the same time?]

It is a rare person who is immune from the procrastination infection. All of us can find ample excuses for not tackling a project. A reason why we succumb to many of those excuses is that they are seldom without merit. We also want to do it right and "it" is the entire project.

Time management consultant/author David Allen notes that we don't work on projects; projects are the result of what we work on, and that rather than adopting an "all or nothing" approach, we should  focus on the next steps. That way, we will get to the end of the day with some tangible progress in hand instead of gazing at - and being demoralized by - a list of unfinished projects. [We experience more stress from the uncompleted than from the "not started."]

There is much wisdom in Allen's advice. Most of the good and bad things in life are produced incrementally. Every day, we advance or fall back in small segments. Taking matters 30 minutes at a time can make enormous sense. There will be hectic days when 10 minute segments may be necessary.

If we are going to fight procrastination, we have to think incrementally.

Strategies for Unhappiness

Consider how many of the following strategies may have slipped into your own approach to life:

• Don't appreciate your achievements. Instead, regard them as things that anyone could do or which somehow occurred through no serious effort of your own.
• Keep raising the bar for satisfaction instead of celebrating when goals are achieved. 
• Chastise yourself for not being perfect.
• Compare yourself to others and believe that other people are much happier, more self-confident, and have fewer problems.
• Expect others to behave and think as you would behave and think.
• Expect others to know when you are upset. Regard their failure to notice as a sign that they are insensitive and uncaring.
• Link your success to achieving a particular job title or income level.
• Periodically re-open old wounds.
• Always be on the alert for any insults or slights.
• Give greater weight to criticism than to praise.
• Expect others to be angels and then condemn them when they fall short.
• Believe that anyone who has more took it from someone else.
• Worry about your failure to control things that are beyond your ability to control.
• Worry about things that are unlikely to happen.
• Always be wary of being hustled.
• Focus on getting others to understand you instead of first understanding others.
• Be harder on yourself that you would be on similarly situated others.
• Associate with people who have similar negative habits so you can reinforce one another's feelings.
• Tell yourself every day that you are an impostor who talks a good game but who really doesn't deserve to be in your job.
• Keep careful score on who gets what.
• Expect the world to be fair and always define fairness as you getting more rather than you getting less.
• Cultivate an attitude of entitlement.
• Define wants as needs and have plenty of wants.
• Seldom show gratitude.