SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving FOR CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES

I originally intended to write an "article" giving information about SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving FOR CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES, but knowing two minor (or maybe not so minor) details...1. the wealth of information I wanted to share, and 2. my knowledge of my inability to keep it brief (as my brother always used to tell me...lovingly, I'm sure..."You make a short story long!"), I decided it would be best to keep the reader interested by initially giving only the necessary details in a FAQ format.  That said, as a document, it was 4 pages long with the smallest of margins allowed and a font size just large enough to read! :)  Oh well, hopefully it's interesting enough to at least keep your attention long enough to read through its entirety!  If you finish and find yourself wanting more information, please feel free to contact me!  As usual, please share with anyone you believe may be able to benefit from the information!  Happy Reading!

SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving FOR CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES FAQ’s

What is SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving? 

SA³SSY! is an acronym for the 7 step process that encourages the awareness of those obstacles impacting the ability to move beyond the realm of survival and into the mode of thriving.   Through a structured framework that incorporates flexibility within the 7 steps, it provides guidance as well as tools for achieving the level of desired thriving while allowing for individual unique strengths and challenges. 

How can it help my corporation or business?

The process can be used effectively by a varied audience of individuals. It is an easy-to-use tool to aid managers and supervisors in helping employees set appropriate professional goals for job performance.  This process can help those same individuals evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of actions toward those goals. 

How do I decide who within the company participates in the training?

·         Some companies prefer to initially train the management staff that directly connect with and oversee a good portion of the company’s employees.  This allows the managerial staff to be trained in the SA³SSY Surviving to Thriving process.  Then the information learned can either be disseminated directly to employees by the sharing of the whole process or by the sharing of the steps believed to be appropriate for a particular individual who may be struggling and not working up to full potential within the workplace. 

·         Alternately, companies may prefer to begin with a particular department that may not currently be as productive or whose morale may need a bit of inspiration.  The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process can provide support in that way also.

·         Some companies prefer to have every employee or staff member attend the training so all are “on the same page” and there is a common language when using the process to bring about changes that will enhance the productivity and profitability of the company. 

Is the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving training a form of counseling?

Though there are a number of ways the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process can help individuals with issues within the professional setting, there are just as many ways the process can aid these same individuals in dealing with personal issues. As human beings, it is difficult to separate our personal lives from our professional lives.  If one area is problematic, then it can very easily impact the other. Though the benefits of the process can carry over into the personal life of an employee, the main focus of the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving training within the corporate or business setting is to reach an intended outcome or desired goal pertinent to both the employee and the company.  Keep in mind that those who receive the initial training in their professional setting can also have a process to help raise their personal level or standard of living.  Once again, this in turn, has the potential to raise productivity and profitability in their professional lives thereby having a positive impact on the companies for which they work. 

How valid is it to say that the corporate or business setting can have a positive impact on employees’ professional performance when it’s being negatively impacted by employee personal life issues?  Is there research to substantiate this?

After extensive time taken to personally research common issues plaguing corporations and businesses, I have become even more assured in my belief that the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process is grounded in perspectives, perceptions, and practices that not only speak to but also give a process for dealing with these growing concerns threatening company productivity and profitability while creating devastating financial repercussions. (In the following information, though I’m paraphrasing key points of research pertinent to the benefits of the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process, I’ve listed source information for further reading and I personally thank those CEO’s and CFO’s that have allowed me to pick their brains!)

First, let’s begin with the impact of personal issues on employee professional productivity. In The Smart Manager article by Kelly Services (Australia) entitled 10 Issues that Concern your Employees, it is stated that employee concerns (regardless of whether personal or professional) will always impact productivity and profitability either positively or negatively.

According to a statement cited by Louis Efron in his article Six Reasons Your Best Employees Quit You (6/24/2013 www.forbes.com), “Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers”.  Three of those six  employee beliefs were stated to be that they felt their company had no vision, no empathy, and no future. 

·         The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process gives managers a tool to build a rapport with employees in which to positively and actively become involved in a discussion for the acquiring, sharing, and implementing of a plan of how to attain an intended outcome or desired goal.  Managers taking time to listen can often lead to employee venting about things not directly pertinent to a company’s productivity or profitability but yet those same things are, in fact, having a direct impact on a company’s productivity and profitability.  The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process gives managers a tool to bring the conversation back to action steps and support measures within the workplace that can be aligned with the intended outcome or desired goal; thus, bringing about a win-win solution with the allowing of the employee to “feel heard” and the allowing of the manager to set into place appropriate steps toward the fruition of an intended outcome or desired goal.  This same process gives the employee a future-oriented focus for where the company is headed along with knowledge of how the individual can strive to move either horizontally or vertically within that company, if desired.

Efron also found that employees within companies felt they had no (effective) motivation. “Extrinsic” motivators (such as financial compensation) for employee productivity is not always feasible in today’s economy but also isn’t always effective in keeping valued employees.

·         The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process allows for the opportunity for “intrinsic” motivation by aligning individual employees’ job performance tasks with their unique strengths allowing personal talents to shine through when striving for the mutual intended outcome or desired goal.

Though we may believe “intrinsic” motivation is reserved for the few highly self-motivated employees, it may be proven otherwise by the following statement included in Dr. Jan Stringer’s (Ph.D.) blog entitled 10 Things Employees Dislike Most About Their Employers:  

“I think one of the things employees dislike the most is the lack of context that their employers provide,” said Heidi Gorman, CMO of Capital H Group. “By that I mean many employees do not get enough information from their employers to have answers to basic questions like, ‘What’s really expected of me?’, ‘How will my performance be judged?’ and ‘How does what I do, day-in-and-day-out, really help the overall company achieve its goals?’ It is important for all employees, regardless of what they do, to have these essential questions answered because it gives a sense of meaning to their work.”

·         Once again, the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process provides an avenue to achieve all of the above through a firm foundational framework with a wealth of flexibility within each of its 7 steps.

I have high potential and high achieving employees.  How would my corporation or business benefit from the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process?

According to Glenn Llopis’ article The 6 Most Important Things Employees Need From Their Leaders To Realize High Potential (www.content-loop.com), even high potential employees need guidance and reassurance. More specifically, they desire to have their leaders (managers) challenge them, support them through professional development and growth endeavors, and encourage and guide them to take risks and learn from (instead of be reprimanded for) any mistakes made along the way. 

·         The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process gives managers a tool to work with the setting of higher level intended outcomes and desired goals while giving support in developing a plan for achievement through the 7 steps.  It also incorporates methods of support and evaluation of progress. 

I’m the owner of a corporation or business looking to restructure.  Can the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process help with that?

I am a top level manager looking to make overall changes to my corporation or business.

·         The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process can help with that restructuring process by allowing you to assess where you’ve been and how you’ve been a part of creating your company as it currently is.  Among other things, the process encourages you to be open to looking at other ways of thinking, to perceive events from a different perspective, and to work consciously in order to be aware of signs that are actually guiding you to your next steps. It allows for YOUR unique qualities and values while giving guidance toward making conscious decisions that help to direct your company toward the type and level of thriving you desire.

I am concerned about the effectiveness of some of my managerial staff when dealing with employee issues.

 Restructuring or not, rectifying these concerns are a must! As stated in The Smart Manager article by Kelly Services (Australia) entitled 10 Issues that Concern your Employees,

“(Employee) Concerns that are satisfied by management for just one team member can often uplift the performance of the whole group. On the down side, should management not address concerns of even one team member, performance of that employee – and possibly the entire team – typically suffers.”

·         The SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process can also be effective when helping set intended outcomes and desired goals along with evaluating their ongoing effectiveness and the quality of  job performance of your managers. 

What would need to take place in order for the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process to be effectively used within my corporation or business? 

An initial professional training seminar would provide employees of your choosing (whether supervisory/managerial level or other level of employee) with a background in the foundation and core beliefs that make up the basis of the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process.  It would also provide a variety of tools and guidance in order to achieve the maximum benefit from each of the 7 steps.  If desired, additional guidance is available through consultations in order to fine tune the process to the specific needs of your corporation or business.

Why the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process over all the other professional development choices out there?

Realizing that there are a number of programs with similar goals from which corporations and businesses can draw wisdom and knowledge, I feel the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process offers the unique way of doing so by setting up a consistent framework with flexibility within that framework.  It is NOT a cookie cutter program in which everyone must “fit the mold” in order for it to be effective!  Rather it is a “way of being”, NOT a “set of rules”, that allows each participant to access and then draw upon his or her unique strengths.  Doing so will allow not only personal thriving but also the thriving of the company for which he or she plays a role in the daily productivity and profitability. 

In the article in The Smart Manager by Kelly Services (Australia) called The Rise of the Compassionate Leader, Christina Boedker (a leader of a major business research study that looks at the links between leadership and organizational performance) states that…

“Out of all of the various elements in a business, the ability of a leader to be compassionate – that is, ‘to understand people's motivators, hopes and difficulties and to create the right support mechanism to allow people to be as good as they can be’ – has the greatest correlation with profitability and productivity.”

·         Amen to that! The firm foundation of the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process was built upon the core beliefs of resilience, guidance, support, gratitude, wisdom from lessons learned, and peace in not knowing all the answers but being able to find the source regardless of our humanness. Now THAT is compassion!

Yes! I’m very interested in finding out more details of how to incorporate the SA³SSY! Surviving to Thriving process into my corporation or business!  Where do we go from here?

For more information, please also feel free to contact me via the www.DonnaTemm.com Contact tab.