August 23, 2011 • Volume 2, Issue 17 • ISSN: 2154-3240

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In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Determining Your Direction
♦	Ask Amanda: My team's anxiety when contacted by HR for routine requests is taking a lot of my time/energy. How can I deal with this?
♦	Practical Tips: Chasing Your Tail

Determining Your Direction

You may have heard of the famous study conducted among Harvard MBAs regarding the correlation between those who had clearly identified goals and their future success (which they defined in terms of earnings). Only 3% had written their goals down. Ten years later they were surveyed again, and that 3% were earning ten times as much as the other 97% put together. It’s probably not surprising to you that they were more successful but the scale of the difference is pretty shocking.

We’re all familiar with the concept of goal setting. We do it all the time. Often we focus on our short-term goals like getting a promotion, being able to afford to buy a house, and taking vacations. These are certainly significant goals.
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	Give without remembering; receive without forgetting.

Practical Tips: Chasing Your Tail

We all know people who expend a lot of energy spinning in endless circles, unable to stop themselves; they have no idea what they’re looking for, so they don’t know when to stop.

Think about the people you know who are job hunting. The less clear they are about what they want, the more time they spend endlessly researching opportunities. They get really comfortable in their endless quest, which also provides them with a viable excuse for not making progress. Then they spread the word that the job market is “impossible.”
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Our HR department is constantly conducting "witch hunts," and we never hear from them unless someone has complained. I spend a lot of time managing my team's anxiety whenever HR reaches out to them, even if it's for something banal like benefits. How do I address this drag on my time? N.C., Green Bay, WI

What strikes me about your question is that it assumes that “HR is on a witch hunt” is a true statement. If you believe that is the case, then it’s no wonder you have an anxious team. Your team will assume you have access to more information than they do about the true nature of HR’s role. If you’re part of the problem, then first you need to examine your beliefs about HR and find out for yourself if your assumption is true.
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About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation's history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20–year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior–level corporate executives.