PHYSICAL Self: Do I Have What it Takes to Achieve Greatness

Wow... this is one of the Power of "P's" that will hit home with a lot of people.  When I do my live session on the Power of "P" and ask everyone to discuss which one of the 10 P's do you struggle with the most, outside of their PAST, their PHYSICAL well-being is always one of the top two.

Lets face it... if you aren't 100% physically, you can't give 100% of yourself as a leader of any group of people or organization.   How we feel physically affects so much of our emotions and decision making.  When you are not healthy physically, it leads to a higher number of poor decisions and mood swings.   Knowing that, it makes sense for you to do everything you can to take good care of yourself.

Everyday, people depend on you to be at your best so you can function at the highest levels of success.  Your association members, your staff, your family, and groups you volunteer for, need you to be on your game so you can be there when needed.

The crazy thing with being healthy is so much is in our control:

• We can get more sleep
• We can work out
• We can watch what we eat
• We can watch what we drink
• We can get our annual physical
• We can take the medication the doctor prescribes for any illnesses

There are a lot of health issues that are out of our control and there isn't much we can do when they occur.  My goal today is to encourage everyone in the areas we have great control over.

Most healthcare costs are driven by a number of conditions that we can have influence on including:

• Obesity
• Heart Conditions
• High Blood Pressure & High Cholesterol
• Liver Issues

The following chart was taken from Men's Health Network to illustrate controllable risk factors and their relationship to chronic diseases.  Take a look:

As you can see from the top line, poor decisions about your health greatly enhance the opportunities for you to have poor health, which will eventually work its way into your job performance.

I want to encourage everyone reading this blog to take charge of your physical and emotional health today.  Take the steps to ensure you are healthy.  See a professional if you have to.  When you are healthy, you feel great, which leads to building confidence and better job performance.

Just because you are not on a professional sports team, doesn't mean you don't have to be in shape.  The rigors of leading an organization, at any level, can be demanding both physically and mentally.  It's critical you have an effective training plan that includes:

• Periodic reading on leadership and management to keep your mind healthy with new ideas
• Some type of physical activity; training 3 to 4 times a week
• A balanced diet
• Networking with friends to keep your social mind fresh
• Take a look at other habits or decisions you make that can lead to poor health and seek advice on them

A recent study showed 37% of America is considered obese, and by 2030, 50% of America will be obese.  For many, they can take control of their bodies and not be one of those statistics.

There is nothing wrong with, "work hard, play hard."  The question is..."are you being responsible in your playing hard, or are you working out hard so you can play hard without diminishing your health?"  Put a plan together today on how you will begin to take better care of yourself so those who depend on you, can count on you, because they know you care enough about yourself to take care of yourself.

If You Don't PLAN, You Don't Maximize Success

One of the most important of the 10 "P's" is the process of PLANNING.  Planning is what gives your association, or life, the sense of organization.  It allows you to work through each facet that can impact you, and prepare for it.  Remember, you need to quit planning for a future you cannot predict, and start planning for the future you WANT!  It's a totally different mindset when you pursue what you want.  Most people wonder around lost in disbelief because they can't predict the future, and forget they actually have control of many things that can help them achieve their purpose.

The key to any plan is to have it written down someplace.  If it's written down, you can be held accountable to it.  A plan without accountability is no plan at all.

When looking at your plan over time, you need to see three things:

1) Where did I want to be,
2) Where am I, and
3) A plan of attack to make up the difference quickly if there is a gap.

The problem with any planning in life or business, is many do not write them down, leaving them to wing it.  A year later, they are wondering why they are still in the same place spinning their wheels.

The key is to make a plan, write it down, and ask the three questions above throughout the plan.

Your plan should be specific enough to keep you on course towards your purpose, but agile and flexible enough to take on new opportunities that may allow you to reach your purpose quicker, or in a way you never thought possible.

There are lots of different planning styles and programs...I frankly think they over-complicate the process.  You spend 8-hours analyzing what you could have found out in about 3-hours.  After years of going through many different planning styles, I've boiled it down to a few simple steps.  I use this in both my personal life, as well as, our association planning.  Here are the steps:

Step One:  Identify Your Threats to Achieving Your Purpose

On your journey of achieving your purpose, various obstacles are going to get in the way.  They may be the economy, an ineffective boss, divorce, or a competitor.   Regardless of what they are, you need to identify what those threats are, and then determine whether they are controllable or uncontrollable.  If they are uncontrollable, write down what you should do as a contingency if it were to occur.  If it is controllable, this is where you want to put your real effort.  I have found in my life, most people are so worried about what they can't control, they forget to be 100% effective and focused in what they can control.

Step 2:  Identify the Resources You Have At Your Disposal to Achieve Your Purpose

These are the tools you will use to overcome the obstacles in step 1, and take advantage of opportunities that come your way.   Resources may be your job, your network of people,  or training you are involved in.  After you have a full list of resources, brainstorm what resources you need to acquire to be more effective at achieving your mission for life, or your association.  Once you have this full list, you have all the tools you need to be successful.

Step 3:  Ask Yourself Three Questions:

1. What am I doing now that I should be doing differently?
2. What I am not doing that I should be doing?
3. What am I doing that I should stop doing because it's done?

After deciding what your purpose in life or business is, performing these three simple steps helps to keep you on track with minor adjustments, as opposed to waking up one day and having to create radical change because you let yourself go adrift.

I want to make one final point on planning in the area of life...this is soooo important.  I think everyone should have a plan in the areas of physical health, emotional development, spiritual growth, and financial accumulation.  I want to end on the financial accumulation issue because it is a biggie.  Many people think the illustrious notion of retirement, "just happens."  They spend their entire life having fun, and then wake up at 60 with the reality that they don't have enough saved to quit working, or have the option to enjoy life.  I want you to take a close look at the following chart.  It represents the four stages of life.  Stage one is childhood through college.  Stage two is mid 20's and early marriage.  Stage three is your mid 30's though retirement.  Stage four is actual retirement.  You spend your entire life pushing the ball of savings up the hill hoping to get to the final stage and retire.  The data at the social security office tells us that of all adults who reach 25 years of age, 69% of those people will have their ball roll all the way back down the hill at age 65, and have to depend on others for one or more of housing, healthcare, transportation, and food.

 

I want to highly highly encourage everyone reading this post to take the time to sit down NOW and access your financial risk plan.  Things that cause the ball to roll backwards include divorce, daughter's weddings, unexpected disability/death, taxes, job change, being fired, etc.  These are all "threats" to your idea of retirement in the future.  The earlier you put a plan in place, the less expensive it is to cover the risk and do something about it.  If you want to have a $50,000 a year income at 65, you need at least $1,000,000 in the bank.  Are you on target to have a million in savings at age 65.  If not, get serious now about a plan.

Don't let another day go by without putting some thought into where you are, where you want to be, and a plan to make up the gap if one exists.   When you are in the second half of your life, you will very happy you did.

Your PAST... The Obstacle to Ultimate Success

This week, the focus of "The Power of P" is on you looking at your PAST.

Lets face it, many people know their PURPOSE and PASSIONS, have their PRIORITIES in order, have solid PRINCIPLES and are surrounded with great PEOPLE, and still never achieve their maximum potential because of one thing.  Their PAST.

In today's world, there is a lot of hurt and pain in individuals.  That pain leads to fear, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, hesitation, and an unwillingness to take risk.  All of these are huge obstacles in people achieving their maximum potential in life. 

Most of that pain is related to your PAST.

Many people have pain from divorce, abuse, bad relationships with their father, mother, boyfriends, girlfriends, or just life experiences.  Too many give "subconscious" control of their emotions over to those who have hurt them in their life.  Because of that hurt, they never move forward and achieve all the potential and excitement they desire for their life. 

You need to eliminate the negativity of your past.  You need to eliminate time-wasters from your life.  You need to know you were put here for a PURPOSE and a PEOPLE to serve.  Don't let your past and negative people drown your dreams.  Eliminate them and pursue your dreams with all your might.

In order for you to experience a life of freedom and to maximize your potential, you must let your past go.  You must turn from looking backward, so you can put focus on the future.  When it comes to experiencing the fun, excitement, opportunities, and freedom that life has to offer, your past is like a huge bag of rocks weighing you down.

Letting your past go, means dealing with your unfinished business.  Unfinished business means facing your past.  This means having the "discussion" with whoever was involved to reconcile the issue and   most importantly, "FORGIVING" whoever wronged you.

Forgiveness is the most important part of this process.  Remember, forgiveness is not about letting someone off the hook.  It's about unstrapping the bag of rocks on your back with all the pain and letting it go.  Let your past be a set of lessons for a brighter future.  Not a set of obstacles that break you down and keep you from your future.  To forgive, you don't even have to talk to the person, you can simply write a letter, an email, or just in your mind, have that conversation with yourself and forgive the other person.

From there...you walk forward in FREEDOM with a renewed feeling of joy, excitement, and optimism.

If you have a desire to experience the ultimate life, do whatever it takes to wipe away the pain of the past.   Let today start the rest of YOUR LIFE.  Your future awaits you!

PEOPLE...You Are Who You Surround Yourself With

This week we will focus on the 5th "P"... PEOPLE.

Now that you have defined your PURPOSE, discovered your PASSION, decided your PRINCIPLES, and set your PRIORITIES, it is a must that you surround yourself with great people to pull life and business off successfully.

I've learned throughout my entire life that there are few vital things to remember when you look at the PEOPLE part of your life.

• You never "ARRIVE" and know everything (we all need people)
• You CANNOT do "life" alone
• You ARE the PEOPLE you surround yourself with
• Choose them WISELY

People are a MUST in life.  It's too busy, chaotic, and tough to try and do it alone.  To be successful, you need to master the art of networking and grow a group of people around you who know your heart, soul, and mind, and can give you incredible advice on big issues.

Networking is perpetual, so NEVER STOP networking.  You never know when someone can help you years down the road.

Let's side bar to being a master networker...there are some keys in growing your power network around you.  Here are a few:

• It is a MUST Life Skill
• It is all about the CONNECTION
• Focus on finding INTEREST GROUPS you want to grow in
• Get connected to at least two MENTORS
• KNOW yourself and; others  (be a master of the 4-personality types)
• LISTEN more than you speak
• GIVE more than you receive
• Give WITHOUT expectation
• Always have BUSINESS CARDS on hand
• Be VIRAL (Online)
• Be CURIOUS
• Remember NAMES
• Not everyone will LIKE YOU (that's okay)
• Minimize or eliminate TIME-WASTERS

The key to people is to find people who challenge you to grow, are not afraid to tell you what you need to hear, ask the hard questions, are there when you need them, and most importantly, encourage you in your life journey.

When choosing to surround yourself with the right people, choose people of character.  Character is defined as someone whose beliefs and behaviors are in direct alignment.  They say what they mean and mean what they say. 

Choose people who are better than you are.  Think about it...if you want to improve your golf game, you don't ask someone who shoots 10-strokes worse than you, how to improve.  ...you ask someone who is shooting 10-strokes better than you.  The same holds true in business and in life.

The greatest leaders, business owners, and successful people in life, surround themselves with a TEAM of people who will help them achieve their goals.  Start looking at your Linkedin, Facebook, and Outlook contacts.  Are the people in your network, both online and offline, the people who can help you reach your goals in life?  If not, it doesn't mean you need to alienate those from your life, but it tells you that you need to expand your networking to meet some new people who will help you achieve success.

Step out of your comfort zone.  Look at your PURPOSE, PASSIONS, PRINCIPLES, and PRIORITIES, and start assembling the network of PEOPLE that can help you achieve excellence, excitement, and success.

Do it TODAY and make today the START OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!

PRIORITIES... Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Now that you have Defined Your PURPOSE, Discovered Your PASSIONS, Decided on Your PRINCIPLES, it's now time to get your PRIORITIES in order.  PRIORITIES are an association or individual's visual display of their actions, matching up with your words.  Specifically in two areas:

1) Where you spend your time
2) Where you spend your money

It has been said, "you can tell a man/woman's priorities and what he/she believes by looking in his/her calendar and checkbook, to see where they invest their time and money."

This is so true.  When I do my "Power of P" talk, I have everyone answer a set of 10 basic questions.  I'm never amazed at how many come back with the following:

• How many hours do you work a week:  75
• How would your spouse rate the quality time you spend with her on a scale of 10:  3
• How would your children rate the quality time you spend with them on a scale of 10: 4
• What is your top PRIORITY in life:  My Family

This simple example illustrates that family is NOT their top priority, but work is.  Now there are times when, in order to provide for the family, that someone must work more than 40 to 50 hours a week.  Knowing that, what would change this dramatically is if the ratings of quality time from the spouse and children were 8's or 9's.  This would say that even though your time is having to be pushed more towards work at the present time, your #1 priority is still your family.  And your family KNOWS it.

This is so true in associations as well.  More often than not, associations are characterized as a "good old boy network."  A good way to way to judge that is to look at where they spend the association's time and money, and how big of an impact it is having on the "full" membership.  Is it only benefiting a certain sector of the membership, or is the leadership making decisions that are for the good of the full membership?  Are your actions matching up with where your strategic action plan says you are supposed to be spending your money and time?

I have learned in both my professional association and personal life, that if your list of PRIORITIES are not in alignment with your PURPOSE, PASSION, and PRINCIPLES, you will experience conflict and frustration within your membership, yourself, and those around you (your Board, members, family, wife, children, etc).

As an Association and in personal life, it is critical that you have your priorities written down and ask yourself:  Do those we serve see our PRIORITIES matching up with our PURPOSE, PASSION, and PRINCIPLES?  If not, it's time to make some changes.

Take time over the next week to look at the following:  PRIORITIES for your Association and you personally, and ask yourself... are our actions matching up with our words?

Association Priorities

1) Layout your action items in your strategic plan from top priority to the last
2) Look at where your funding in your annual budget is allocated
3) Look at where staff and volunteers spend their time

Does the time and money you are spending have your association headed in the right direction, given the mission and action items outlined in your strategic plan?

Are your priorities aligned to help solve your members deepest problems and threats to their business?

Me and My Son

If the answers to these questions are not a resounding "YES", then you either need to change direction, or realign your priorities.

On a personal level, I would challenge you to take the following typical priorities in a person's life and list them from highest priority down to the lowest priority.  Afterwards, look at your day-timer and checkbook...better yet, have those around you (your wife, kids, and friends put these in order for you).  ...Talk about a humbling experience!

List of Priorities (put them in order related to where you spend your time/money)

• Wife
• Children
• Other Family
• Work
• Faith
• Volunteering (church/nonprofit work)
• Friends
• Personal Health

Investing time to make sure your professional and personal PRIORITIES are in alignment will pay huge dividends in member value, loyalty, and greater bonds with your family and friends.

Bottom line...let your actions match your words, and you will begin to experience the "Ultimate Life."

Next week I focus on #5 of the 10 P's...  PEOPLE.  Don't miss it!

PRINCIPLES... They Drive EVERYTHING!

Now that you have engaged your thoughts about defining your Purpose and discovering your Passions, the third element to living the "ultimate life" is to decide what Principles are you going to live by.  The dictionary defines Principles as:  a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived, a fundamental doctrine or tenet, a personal or specific basis of conduct or management, or a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct.

The key words in the definition are truth, personal, conduct, guiding, requirements and right conduct.

You see, your principles are what guide your conduct, your heart, and your beliefs which speak to your character and integrity.  Principles are the road map of how you will go about accomplishing anything in your life.  They will determine the types of people you will surround yourself with, the type of actions you will take, and how you make key decisions.

When people look at you, what kind of Principles do they see in you?  When you are walking towards people in your company, what are they thinking about you as you approach?  How do you make people feel as you approach without saying anything?

Your Principles people see in you, drive what they think about you and how willing they are to help you.  If people do not think you are trust worthy, you will have a hard time finding people willing to help you.  If people see you as a user of people, you won't find people willing to step out on a limb for you.  If people don't see you as a hard worker, they will not be willing to jump on your team and work hard for you.

The key to Principles in your life is asking yourself:

- Who are my biggest influences in life?
- What do I believe in the areas of trust, truth, honesty, ethics, integrity, work ethic, friendships?
- What do I expect from other people?
- What are people's perceptions of me?
- Do my actions match up with my beliefs and what I say?
- Am I doing the right things when no one's watching?
- Who do I go to for advice when I'm in need of guidance?
- What books to I read do strengthen what I believe in life?

One of the the most comforting emotions in life is the "confidence" you have when someone says something and you can take what they say "to the bank" because their actions always match their words.  It breeds confidence in the workplace as a leader, in relationships as a mate, and especially in friendships.

I've seen one lie break 10-years of friendship.  I've seen people fired over dishonesty.  We have all seen marriages broken over mistrust.   Your Principles dictate how everything takes place in your life.  The question is....are your Principles aligned with your Purpose and Passions?

If you are running off course, in achieving your purpose, the first place to start is looking at the Principles that guide your life.  Look at your life purpose, your passion statement, and ask yourself... Is what I believe (My Principles), going to get me where I want to go?  If not, its time to rethink your Principles.

A Life PASSION Statement Can Mean Everything

Everyday, people wake up in a fog.  You could be one of them.  You go through life each day doing the same mundane tasks.  You get up...you go to work...you come home...you do chores around the house...you go to bed...you get up and repeat.  This mundane activity ultimately drives you crazy over time.  One day, you wake up years later and feel like you have wasted years of your life with no passionate energy that gives you LIFE.

One of the most amazing reasons I love working for an association is it is an open forum to make a difference in people's lives...to transform their being from going no where, to heading somewhere.   Associations are all about making a difference and transformation.  The question is, are you working in the association for the "one thing" you have a passion for?  Is it the disabled, needy children, helping war vets, or sports?  You name it, there is an association for anything and everything. 

I've been working in association management since February 20, 1995.  I remember it like it was yesterday, and everyday has been an incredible journey.  It hasn't come without its set of challenging moments, but when your purpose is in place and you are serving in your area of passion, challenges are always seen as opportunities, not obstacles.

If purpose gives you a direction, then passion is what defines you.   It's what gives you energy everyday because you are working or serving in an area that creates an emotional excitement in your life.

What you are passionate about is what causes you to take ACTION in life.  My questions to you are:

• What are you accomplishing with your life?  
• What gets your blood boiling?
• What do you care about?
• What people would you like to serve/help?
• What would you do if money was no object?
• What would get you excited everyday to get out of bed?
• Who would you help everyday of work for no pay because you loved it?
• What is your hobby?

Some of mine are:  I LOVE playing drums...it drives my emotional high.  I LOVE dancing to 70's and 80's music...it makes me feel good physically.  I LOVE speaking to groups of people on life and association management.  I LOVE seeing them write down action steps to help them transform their lives.  I love making videos that share stories of how associations are making a difference in people's lives.  ...bottom line, I LOVE PEOPLE and HELPING THEM achieve success.

If you like your job, but it's not exactly your passion, check out the local charitable organizations in your city and decide which one allows you to help those you feel most passionate about.  If you don't like your association, start panning the globe for the association that you pinch yourself everyday and say, "I can't believe I get paid to do this."

Make a commitment today to design your Life Passion Statement and live it out.  Someone out there needs your passion in their challenging life.

Tom's Life Purpose:  To engage people in conversation and network them with others to help them reach their maximum potential to live a deeper and rewarding life experience.

Tom's Life Passion:  Seeing people go from "I'm struggling", to "I LOVE my LIFE!"

Next week I will share about the 3rd "P"...life PRINCIPLES..

Achieving the Ultimate Life in Associations - The Power of "P"

Serving People on Mission Trips

Over the last year, there has been a lot of talk and blogging on how associations can be more human to take advantage of the human capital that exists in the workplace and industry.  While an association that taps into the human spirit of its people is the greatest possibility, a lot of associations do not have this quality.  The question is...what do you do as an individual while your organization is looking for that human spirit?  Lets face it, you spend the majority of your life at work and it needs to be a fun, exciting, and encouraging place to be.  Most people allow work to dictate the spirit of their life, both professionally and personally, because of the pressures of performing, a horrible boss/ supervisor, or just a bad work environment.

I'm hear to tell you it doesn't have to be that way for you as an individual.  You can be better than that.  You can rise above your circumstances to be so much more than what you are experiencing in the work place.  You can achieve the ultimate life if you put focus on a ten key areas I'm going to talk about over the course of the next several weeks.

I have found in my life that the letter "P" has more power words than any other letter, and can help you live the "ultimate life" if you choose to pay attention to them.  There are ten key words that can reshape your life at work and home...words that can begin to overflow from you into your other co-workers, where you begin to change the organization from the inside out.  No longer are you going to go home blaming your organization for your crappy day because it isn't a great place to work.  They will no longer have that kind of control over you because you are going to make a choice to be more than that...to see a vision for your life that allows you to experience the ultimate life everyday.

The first of these power words is PURPOSE.  The definition of PURPOSE is "the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists."  The key words here for you are "for which something exists."  My question for you is why do you exist each day?  The most successful and happiest people have figured this out.  They have a center focus on why they were created, why they exist and who they were created to serve.  The heat of a bad day at the office or a supervisor screaming at them doesn't get them down because their "purpose in life" is much bigger than that one moment that most likely will not mean anything one week later.

The People Lives I Impact

If you don't think PURPOSE is a big deal, then why do so many reach 40, 50, even 60 years of age and look back asking themselves after all that time, "What has my life meant?  Why was I put here?  Would it even matter if I disappeared?"

My PURPOSE is to engage in peoples lives, to help them progress forward towards purpose and away from pain.  I like helping people solve the pain in their life so they are free from the troubles that keep them from enjoying each day.  Don't be that person that lives most of your life without a life PURPOSE.  Define it on paper and live it out in reality.

So my challenge to you, is define your purpose is in life today.  Here are a few questions to contemplate as your PURPOSE:

• What brings the most meaning to your life? 
• What people or cause do you feel for and want to help?
• What life experiences have you had that has prepared you to serve?
• What gets you excited when you see the progress
• Where do you feel the most reward when its accomplished

Whatever it is, figure it out today.  It will change your life forever and make every day a great day no matter how un-human your association seems to be.  Stop blaming them.  Don't give them that control over your life.  Take control of your PURPOSE today.

Once you define your PURPOSE, nothing can shake your character, your emotions, or your strength.

Tom's Life Purpose:  To engage people in conversation and network them with other to help them reach their maximum potential to live a deeper and rewarding life experience.

Next week, I will blog about "P" #2....  Discovering your PASSION.

Return on Management.... Is Your Team Worth Your Board's Investment

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As this past year ended and my review by my Board of Trustees was upon me, I contemplated a number of metrics I could provide them that could share in the big picture what our management team’s value has meant to the association over time.  I needed a number that quantitatively could, in the big picture, sum everything up, and that everything pointed to:

• Was membership growing or declining?
• How was our management cost in relation to other associations our size?
• Were members participating in programs?
• How was the net worth of the association performing?
• Were association expenses in line?
• Was meeting attendance growing or declining?

It was too much to push through and show metric after metric.   I didn’t want to show tons of trends.  I needed one metric, one trend line that everything pointed back to….a metric that every number, and all activities led to.

Meet the Geeks!

Then it hit me.  If we were to judge an investment such as a mutual fund, we would ask ourselves annually, for the amount of money we invest in the stock, how much is it worth at the end of the year?  That gives us a return on investment or ROI.  Looking at this number at the end of each year over time provides you a trend analysis of whether you should continue to invest or make an adjustment in your portfolio.

As I thought this through, I realized that we could provide the very same analysis for the management of an association.  We call it Return on Management (ROM).  ROM shows for every dollar invested annually into the management of your association, how much money is your association worth.  The calculation is an easy one to perform:

If the association is managed by an Association Management Company (AMC):

Total net worth of the association divided by the AMC annual fee

If association is NOT managed by an (AMC):

Total net worth of the association divided by the total of salaries, payroll taxes, employee benefits, the cost of office space, and expenses associated with maintaining an office.

ROM is Key to Inspiring Staff to Change

Here is a sample calculation: if the association’s total net worth is $800,000, and the total cost to manage it is $330,000, then the return on management (ROM) is $2.42.  What this says is, for every $1 the association invested in management, it has $2.42 in net worth.  Over time as management fees rise or fall and the association net worth rises and falls, the ROM metric gives you a trend line to help you quickly identify if you are on the right path or have a problem.

Keep in mind, this number doesn’t mean a thing for one year.  The power in this metric is trending it over time.  Seeing the direction of this number provides an incredible visual to management and staff.  It shows how effective they are as a whole in delivering value and building financial strength for its membership related to the cost of management.  Every activity we do as associations always leads back to increasing or decreasing our net worth.  If we are making good choices as associations, the net worth will rise.  If we make bad choices, the net worth will decline.

We mapped it out for our association and here is what it looked like:

In 1990, our association had $1.40 for every $1 it invested in management costs.  From there, they started a slow gradual decline to .25 cents in net worth for every $1 invested in management costs in 2005.  A 73-year old organization almost wiped out its reserves and didn't see it coming.   If staff and board members had seen this graph annually starting in 1990, I would venture to say that somewhere along the way, early in the 1990’s, change would have been considered.

Fortunately dramatic change happened in 2006, and as you can see, the ROM has turned around and has dramatically risen, and it's now over $2.

I challenge all associations to internally perform this metric on a trend line for the last 10 to 15 years and share it with your staff.    The direction of the line will quickly share with your team, if they are delivering value towards the financial strength of the organization.  It also is a great visual if it's rising, to provide your board a historical perspective on the value of the management team.  Sometimes it's easy for them to forget that value.

Summary is simple….if ROM is trending up, pats on the back, we are on the right path.  If ROM is trending down, change needs to happen...and now.   What is your ROM Trend?

Why Boards Need to Innovate

Posted in the January Edition of ASAE's Associations Now

Associations are currently experiencing one of the biggest dynamic shifts in technology and demographics ever experienced in human history. Business is changing at lightning speed, traditional business models are no longer relevant, and each demographic group wants things differently.

Yet many boards are choosing to ignore these changes and instead make decisions that are driving their associations to become irrelevant to their members. One of the biggest challenges associations face today is motivating and inspiring their boards to face facts and take steps to move their association’s communication strategy, value propositions, and member service models into the future.

The problem, you see, is that many board members believe they are in the membership business. Success and failure is defined by asking, “How much did we grow membership this year?” That is wrong thinking.

Your association is in the business of creating a financially strong organization that has the funding to do the purpose of the organization. If you do that, people will want to join.

The questions that you, as a board member, constantly need to ask are, “What real value are we delivering to the member?” and “Is it shifting with the changing demands of our current and future members?”

Many boards today are predominantly controlled by baby boomers, who in large part rebel against making radical changes away from how it's always been done to adapt their associations. Baby boomers belonged to associations just to belong, but that’s not the case with younger generations. They want value.

Engaging with the concepts of innovation and change isn’t about making some radical shift that disrupts the association so much it splits the membership. Successful innovation and change starts with small steps, and continues with targeted, incremental changes that sees member value, loyalty, and excitement rise year after year. (I’ve seen this in my own association, where in the past six years membership has increased 8 percent, member revenues up 28 percent, and our overall net member surplus increased 582 percent.) 

Some associations may actually require a radical shift, but most simply need a series of small consistent changes over time to create the wave of excitement every association longs for. Below are three keys for tapping into innovation as a board member.

Identify the problems you need to solve as an association. I’m amazed at how many associations
embrace solutions because “everyone is doing it” without identifying the problem first. You shouldn’t be putting up a Facebook page without answering the question, “What problems are we solving by having the Facebook page?” Real innovation means matching up tangible solutions to meet real member problems, while also introducing futuristic ideas to solving problems we aren’t aware of yet. The key is to define the challenges of your members, and help them solve the problems they can’t solve effectively by themselves.

Survey your membership. As a board member, you serve the membership. That’s why you were elected. A key element to making great decisions as a board is to survey your membership on its thoughts about problems and solutions. Keep your finger on the pulse of how your overall membership views programs, services, and technology, and use the data to drive your value proposition. If they believe in the programs, they’ll remain members.

 Look at your financial trends. There are four key metrics you need to look at over time. These four numbers tell you whether board decisions are enhancing member value, or driving the association into the abyss.

·  Total Member Surplus at Year End. This displays the overall success of the organization in building financial resources to do the work of the association.

·  Total Membership Each Quarter. This tells you the direction of member confidence. If members have confidence in your association, retention rates are high, and membership continues to grow.

·  Rolling 12 Months of Revenues and Expenses Each Quarter. This helps you see the impact of your board decisions on monthly basis.

·  Revenue Per Member on a Quarterly Basis. This shows how engaged the members are in member programs.

Looking at these trends graphically at a board meeting will tell you within seconds if you are on the right track, or if you need to do something different. It’s amazing how quickly the conversation changes when you see any of those numbers heading south.

Stay tuned for next week's blog post on a new metric many associations are fearful of looking at and sharing with their boards....it's called Return on Management (ROM).

Why Are You Here and Do You Know Your Vital Signs?

With it being the end of the year, it's typically a time of reflection and a renewed energy towards making the future better.  My question to you is, do you know "Why you are here" (your association mission), and "Are you looking at the vital signs that can instantly tell you if you need some type of change"?

I want you to watch the following video.  It's 180 seconds seconds, and is a powerful message from John Maxwell, one of the leading speakers on purpose and leadership.   Take a moment to listen:

You see, just as knowing your purpose is a stability for successful people, your association mission is a stability for your association.  Your mission provides a confidence to your members that the industry could tumble tomorrow, but you will be OK because you are a member of our association.  The question is...do you have the right mission for your membership?  One they find great confidence in?   Is your mission clear, measurable, achievable, and supports the future picture of your organization and its member's needs?

I'm a believer in that before you can decide your mission, you need to look at your association's vital signs to see how much and how radical your change needs to be.  In my opinion, there are four key vital signs you need to be looking at every quarter on a graph to see a big picture perspective.  These graphs will tell your board in an instant if they need to make change, and where to make it.  The following are what I feel are the four key vital signs of an association, with a supporting visual for you to see what they look like for our association, with a line where we made change:

Total Membership - Tells you the health of your membership.  This line doesn't have to always be growing, but at least steadily moving upward because you are not in the membership business.  You are in the business of doing your purpose, and if done with awesomeness and clarity, non-members will want to convert to supporting members.  You can see before the line in the middle, if that is all you saw, you would know instantly you needed to make change because of the downward trend.  Our change has provided steady increases towards our previous highs in membership.

Per Member Revenue - This tells you the participation by members in your overall association activities. This number is simple...all revenue paid by members the previous 12 months including dues, meetings, programs, training, etc, divided by the number of total members each quarter.  As the following graph shows, when this association made some real change, their per member revenue rose over time from $1,500 a member, to $2,000 a member.  With a membership of 370, that is $185,000 of new funding.  They would have had to recruit 100 new members to gain the same.  We all know it's much easier to get members to spend more with you, than to recruit a new member...

Rolling 12-months of Revenues and Expenses - This helps you to see how the flow of income and expenses are each quarter, so you can quickly judge how your overall decisions are impacting both. You can see that when our per member revenue began to rise, it had a nice impact on our revenues. Costs began to rise as meeting participation rose, but seeing that on this graph, we have been able to curb expenses and keep revenues up.  The reason a graph is so important is it tells you the relevance of a number at a period in time.  The same number can look good or bad depending on if it's on the upswing, or on a downward trend.  Graphs make every number clear whether they are good or bad.

Total Net Member Surplus (Net Worth) - This tells you the overall health of everything.  If this number is rising, your overall health is good.  If this number is falling, you have a problem because you are dipping into reserves to pay bills.  Not a good thing.  When you look at this graph, tell me if you and your board were looking only at the graph to the left of the line, don't you think you would start thinking about making some changes...and quick?  Some of the same numbers on the right hand side look good because they are on the rise.  The same number on the left is bad because it's in the middle of a severe decline.  Visualization of your vitals signs are empowering in motivating decision making.

The moment these visual images were created in picture format of our 4-key vital signs for this board to look at, making change became easier.  No board wants to be the board that drove the association into non-existence.   Downward trends in the key vital signs are truly disturbing to any board, because they can now see how their decisions are directly related to the health of the association.

In my 15+ years as a CEO of three different organizations, I have found the following to be keys to them all growing to be the best at what they do for their industry and members:

1. Graph out your key vital signs to get the big picture of where you are heading.
2. Establish your mission that is clear, achievable, measurable, and supports the future picture.
3. Identify your controllable and uncontrollable threats that will get in your way of achieving your mission
4. Create an action plan to achieve your mission, taking into account threats.  Have an action item to deal with each controllable threat, and a contingency action item for each uncontrollable threat if it occurs.
5. Make sure to continue to plot out your vital signs to watch the impact of your action plan on the overall success, or need for an "innovation adjustment" to them.
6. Debrief your action plan with your board and staff, and look at your vital signs each quarter to look at where you said you want to be, where you are, and any "innovation adjustments" needed to bridge the gap.  The key is to watch your vital signs and make changes as needed.

Having an association that rules your industry is not that complicated to obtain.  The key is to know your vital signs, know your resources, know your members needs and wants, and match a plan of innovation and action that meets those needs.

Connecting With the Next Generation... Not as Hard as You Think!

So I was thinking on my plane ride today as I was looking at our Annual Meeting attendance, our new board members to be installed at the meeting and some recent pictures of me with members, and I noticed how the young blood is beginning to take shape within our association.

It frankly was quite exciting because I have heard many around the country say:

• “Those young people are not joiners.”
• “They don’t see our association as relevant.”
• “They don’t feel like they need us.”
• “They only want to connect through social media.”

 As passionately as I think "the association model is the strongest business model for banning people together to take action to make lasting change", I also think "associations offer young people a special connection and bond they can’t get anywhere else."

Young people have a desire to meet face to face.  They do join things that are relevant to their lives, and they don’t just connect through social media.

The problem with most associations is they are not embracing the youthful ways, which causes the “disconnect.”  They instead are trying to force their age old ideas on young people, who think those ideas aren’t good anymore.  They are seeking more!

Our association goes out of its way to make the young people feel important and give them a platform to be a part of the process.  We make them feel like their ideas count.  We tell them they ARE THE FUTURE!  We have created a premier industry management training program that energizes them and lets them know they have achieved something.  We educate them that this program is their stepping stone to serving at the highest levels of leadership in our industry.

If you want to attract the young people in your industry, take a lesson out of the military advertising, where young people join by the thousands everyday.  Young people believe they will see their world in ways they never thought possible, have an amazing experience along the journey, and be better off in the end, all while fighting for an amazing cause.

We have followed that model, and it has worked with amazement.   We even end every one of our online webcasts with, “You're not just strong.  You're MTI Strong!”  

I encourage every association to take a look at your next generation outreach efforts, and see what will it take to let young people know they can trust you, that you care about them, and you do things in a way that will be exciting to them.  They want an experience for sure.  

Associations need to "connect" with where younger people are, to draw them in, and sometimes that means taking somewhat crazy steps.  Let me leave you with one example.   Earlier this year, I found out one of our participants (a 24 year old), in our Young Executive Management Program, was the 2008 National Beer Pong Competition Champion in Las Vegas.  After finishing our networking dinner at the first meeting, and looking for what to do next, to keep the networking and bonding among the managers lively, he said he happened to have his beer pong table in his truck.  I told him to go get it, asked the banquet manager if we could keep the room open until midnight, and told the other 20 participants to meet us in the banquet room for some team building.

What transpired was amazing.  I sat in awe, watching 20 managers from different parts of the country, relax and bond as they connected with one another, forming teams of two, and playing beer pong for 3 hours.  They talked business, shared war stories, and laughed a ton.  My favorite comment came from a conservative guy named Dave, from the midwest.  He turned to me at one point and said, "Tom, this is so far out of my comfort zone, but I'm having the time of my life."

You see, we allowed a group of young managers to connect at their level, inside a game they enjoyed, in a safe and controlled environment.  We made it a team building event, used it to our advantage to connect and built loyalty among our next generation.   Throughout the night they learned strategy, focus, accuracy, patience, teamwork, and moderation.  Most associations would have stuck them in a room with an open bar and let them drink uncontrollably, or let them go out on the town, where who knows what would happen, and been okay with that.  Not us....we wanted to create more for them.  

We wanted that connection between them and our association...and we got it.

I suggest all associations figure out where your connection point is with your next generation, and go for it, even if it looks unconventional for associations....