The Definition of Success

Success as defined
by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster defines the word ‘success’ as 1) the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect or fame; and 2) the correct or desired result of an attempt.

For some, achieving wealth, etc., is the only correct definition. It is the only goal on which to focus, and those who don’t embrace this truism will always be less than they could be. In essence, nothing else really matters except increasing the financial bottom line and personal prominence.

For others, achieving the desired result of an attempt is the ultimate accomplishment, regardless of what that attempt entails. For instance, many people feel successful because they are able to live simply with relatively little stress and have sufficient funding to support that lifestyle. It is the simple pleasures in life, rather than driving the top of the line 2015 Audi to a multi-million dollar home, that defines success for them.

The definition of success 

is different for everyone.

Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with either opinion (after all, that’s really what it is). 

The fact of the matter is that the definition of success is different for everyone based on many different factors such as personality, life experiences, and exposure to, or opportunities for, resources to not only set, but to also achieve goals.

For instance, the difference between a nonprofit organization and a for-profit organization is simply the main focus of their efforts. Both want to be successful (whatever that means to them), but they go about it in different ways.

Nonprofits focus most of their efforts and resources on achieving their mission. However, none of that can be done without identifying and soliciting funding/donations to support the programs and services it provides. 

In some nonprofits, the development team is larger than the other organizational teams combined simply because the amount of funding needed to support the mission is so great. While increasing the financial bottom line is a measure of success for a nonprofit organization, it isn’t the most important one. The mission is always Priority #1.

For-profit organizations also have a mission to fulfill, but the most important measure of success for these boards of directors and stockholders is achieving an ever-growing financial bottom line. 

Just like their nonprofit counterparts, for-profits cannot provide programs or services without funding (stockholder and sales) support, so in this case, product sales and stockholder satisfaction are the highest priorities for the team.

Again, neither one is better than the other; they are just different.

For me, the definition of professional success includes the achievement of my academic goals (PhD) and sufficient client-base activity at Dawn GannonConsulting to support my family at or above a specifically-defined (and private) financial level. I have been somewhat successful in reaching these goals, and I know that only time, resources and hard work will make them happen. Without a doubt, there is still much to be done.

However, like everyone else, I also have a personal definition of success. For me, that includes family, friends, good health, and peace of mind. For the moment, I’m doing well there, but there is always room for improvement.

The closer I move to the magical age of 50 (6 months from now!), the more I understand that the underlying key for success for any person or organization is simply the definition. Once you are happy with the definition that meets your needs, all that remains is the journey to get there.

So, I ask: What is your definition of success? What words of wisdom can you share from your journey toward that goal?

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected project management and administrative operations professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Business Lessons From Infertility

As we approach the end of RESOLVE’s 25^th National Infertility Awareness Week, I found myself reminiscing about the lessons I learned as a result of my own journey which ended 13 years ago with the conscious decision by my husband and I to remain a family of two.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the disease of infertility affects one in eight Americans of child bearing age. 

Regardless of whether you are 22 and just found out that you have premature ovarian syndrome, so your eggs are essentially 65 years old, or you are 35 and have been unable to carry a child to term over the last 5 years or more because of recurrent miscarriages or other medical issues, infertility takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, and professionally. 

Quite frankly, it takes over your life.

I won’t bore you with the details of our 7-year journey through multiple miscarriages, other than to say that without the support of our family, friends, the RESOLVE organization, work-place supervisors, and a really great mental health professional that specializes in treating patients suffering with infertility, life would be quite different.

So, what does that journey through Hell have to do with business, you ask? Here’s the short list:

Educate yourself on the resources and options available.

Every business leader knows the value of identifying the resources and options available for any given situation. Some require more effort than others to see, and some jump right out at you and scream: PICK ME! In the end, using tools such as a SWOT analysis and market research can be very helpful in making decisions and developing strategies for moving forward.

As for our journey through infertility, without the use all of those resources and the consideration of all the options available at the time, my husband and I probably would not be celebrating our 20^th wedding anniversary next month.

Plan B and Plan C are just as good as Plan A – Really.

The biggest mistake in business is not having a Plan B or a Plan C. Just ask anyone whose business or project failed simply because they were mired in GroupThink, and refused to consider other options. Moreover, many times Plan B or Plan C provide better results than originally projected, and you can find yourself in a much better position than you could have ever dreamed.

Our decision to make Plan C our new Plan A and remain a family of two has not been without its bumps in the road, but we are happy with our choice, and where life has taken us since. Without a doubt, it was the right choice for us. When you make the decision, just be sure it is the right one for you, and fits your circumstances; not anyone else’s.

I am stronger and more capable than I ever imagined.

Clinical research has found that the stress of infertility is just as debilitating as other disease diagnoses. Like a business in crisis, specific infertility journey challenges such as undergoing tests and treatments, miscarriages, or more bad news in terms of options, can identify unidentified strengths and provide many unexpected opportunities to thrive in other ways.

For me, I learned that I can handle much more than I imagined. I also learned that I can multi-task like nobody’s business, and I found an outlet for all my infertility-related stress: volunteering for RESOLVE. 

Volunteering provided me with an opportunity to control at least one aspect of my life, when I could control nothing else. I also met and developed life-long friendships with others who truly understood what I was going through.

Crises provide the opportunity to identify new strengths and take advantage of changing markets or industry conditions.

As an infertility survivor, I can now truthfully say that I am thankful for the journey we took, and the lessons we learned along the way. As a business owner, I am thankful that I can apply what I learned from that experience, and build a better business.

Note: If you, or someone you know, are facing infertility, check out the resources from these nonprofit organizations:

American Fertility Association

American Society for Reproductive Medicine

RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected project management and administrative operations professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Who Am I?

“Hi! Dawn Gannon. Nice to meet you!”

“Hi, Dawn. I.M. Fulavet. Nice to meet you, too. What brings you here?”

What brings me here – to this moment – to this event? In other words, who am I?

As business men and women, most of us already know the answer to that question, and those who don’t are struggling to find out. 

For those who do know who they are, have you checked in with yourself lately? Are you really who you wanted to be? 

I’m sure Mr. Fulavet believes he is.

I know this blog has a different tone than most of the others I have written, but the Passover and Easter seasons have struck a different chord with me this year. Both holidays represent freedom from captivity, albeit in different ways. 

Reflecting on the meaning of both has led me to ask myself the following questions:

• What if I have unknowingly become captive in a persona I would never have wanted or could believe I could be?
• Is the success of business goals my highest priority? If so, at what cost, both personally and professionally?
• Have I knowingly stepped on and over others to reach my goals? If so, why would I do that when I have been taught all my life that it is unacceptable behavior?
• Do I have my priorities straight? Where do my family, friends, and I myself fall within that list, and why are they in that order?

The answers, for me and anyone else, lie in the answer to the question: Who am I, really?

Granted, in business, the sharks generally consume the little fish and are successful simply because they think only of themselves. As a business leader, thinking and planning for the success of your business is also tremendously important.

However, in the 1998 version of the movie, You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hanks’ character, Joe Fox, tells Meg Ryan’s character, Kathleen Kelly, that the forced closing of her store is just business; that it’s not personal. But it’s Kathleen’s response to that statement that gets me every time. Click the link below to see the scene.

“All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It was personal to a lot of people. And what’s so wrong with being personal anyway? Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin with being personal.”

In other words, making your business successful is a great accomplishment, as long as you don't forget to be personal as well.

So, who am I? Perhaps I should start with being personal and let Mr. Fulavet take care of himself.

To those who celebrate, Chag Pesach Sameach and Happy Easter!

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative operations management and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Lessons Learned Through Volunteering

This week, the Points of Light organization leads National Volunteer Week, which focuses on “inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities.”

Having managed many volunteers, and been one myself for various organizations over the years, I happily celebrate this week and to share some of the lessons I learned only through being a volunteer.

First of all, I am happy to celebrate the selflessness of being a volunteer, and the opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Volunteers are the heart of any organization, and often bear sole responsibility for the administration and management of the programs and/or services offered.

For instance, the most of the local Pop Warner Football organizations are lead and operated by volunteers; no one gets paid to schedule the games, train the players or operate the concession stands. And yet, these volunteers have a tremendous impact on the players and cheerleaders they serve by teaching leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Some of the coaches and leaders in the organization in my local area haven’t had children in the program for years now; they just enjoy giving back and making a difference.

Over the years I have also learned that we all volunteer in one way or another; even in business. Besides helping others, volunteering – even to serve on an employee committee – provides the opportunity to learn new skills, see things from a different perspective and to recognize what is truly important to us personally.

As a volunteer leader and then staffer managing volunteers, I learned that it truly is the little things that make the biggest difference. For example, having a compassionate, patient volunteer who understand the issues of those calling into an organization’s Help Line is priceless to that caller. Many times, callers just need someone who understands what they are going through to listen. Sometimes, it’s the tremendous power of a smiling face and a compassionate greeter at a safe haven for someone coming from a horrible situation. Again, it’s the little things that make a tremendous difference.  

The most surprising lesson I learned through volunteering is that helping others provides a sense of control, often times when I cannot control anything else in my life. The best example of this was borne out in my volunteer service with RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, when my husband and I were struggling with infertility. Although I later joined the staff, it was my experience as a volunteer that provided me with the ability to control how much time and effort I spent on serving others travelling my same journey.

Dawn and RESOLVE volunteers (bottom row, l to r)
Anne Malave, PhD, Aileen Donato, Ellen Emmerich,
and (top row) April Simanoff at the 2008 Night of Hope.

It was only through my volunteer service to the infertility community that I found the strength to finish mine. In other words, I received more than I gave, found out what is most important to me, and gained an appreciation for those who selflessly give of themselves to make a positive difference. Indeed, it was that volunteer service which set me on the path to many, many great experiences, changed my life for the better, and helped me realize that I want to make a difference in someone else’s life every day.

To all those who volunteer – happy National Volunteer Week and thank you for making a difference in my life!

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Chaos Theory and March Madness

As an ice breaker for the Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED course I taught the other day, I asked about their March Madness brackets. Answers included: 

• Great!
• Ok 
• I don't want to talk about it, and 
• I’m not following it.

While listening to their responses, I was struck by how the progression of a bracket over the life of the NCAA tournament mimics the effect of market place chaos.

Following the analogy of chaos theory to March Madness, business leaders make decisions and adjust strategic plans to either gain or retain an advantage over their competitors. These decisions are based on knowledge of internal circumstances, the current market conditions, past performance, and the risk/probability of other known and unknown factors.

For the NCAA teams, the known factors are their team’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and a study of what they believe are the same for their opponents. Business is no different. 

In most cases, the higher tournament seeded teams (or larger competitors) spend more time preparing to play other higher seeded teams than the #14, #15, or #16 (smaller competitors). 

After all, the higher the seed, the better the team, and the better the probability of winning, right?

Not always…just ask #3Duke about their loss to #14 Mercer in the first round of the tournament. Now chaos ensues for the other higher seeded teams who had spent more time preparing to face Duke later in the tournament, and less time preparing for the possibility of facing Mercer.

From a business perspective, interacting with competitors is a common occurrence and decisions - or chaos - made by one competitor often affect the others like a ripple on an otherwise smooth stream of water. Other times, the ripple quickly becomes a tidal wave.

For example, the volatility of world markets can have a profound effect on any business, large or small. Consider the level of chaos that ensued during the 2013 financial crisis in Cyprus when the government announced it would tax all Cyprian bank accounts as a means of propping up the banking system, and qualifying for emergency loans from world financial bodies.

Up until then, the thought of a tax on banking accounts insured by federal governments was inconceivable. The possibility, although highly unlikely, now exists and businesses all over the world, regardless of size must include this scenario in their financial crisis management planning.

In short, good business leaders have the innate ability to identify and act on opportunities created by chaos. They are able to do so because they plan well, and take both the conceivable and inconceivable into consideration.

With the chaos caused by all of the Cinderella teams enjoying the Dance this year, only one of my five bracket entries really has any hope left. Interestingly enough, it’s the bracket I thought was the least likely to succeed.

How is your bracket doing?

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

How Do You Plan for the Unimaginable?

I am an unapologetic bibliophile. 

I simply love to read books. Although I’ve had a Kindle for several years and it is rarely out of reach, especially when I travel, I love the feel of my fingers running along a row of books; especially older, leather-bound books. There is something about the smell of leather and ink, and the exploration of a story that is soothing to me.

But what if there were no more books? It’s unimaginable, right? Even in today’s technologically advanced society, the idea of never picking up a printed book again is unfathomable.

In business, as in life, crisis management begins with identifying the unimaginable, the imaginable, the probable, and then planning how to mitigate the damage IF they happen.

Being caught off guard by the unimaginable is manageable if you routinely engage in, and actively fund, crisis management planning.

However, being unprepared to deal with a crisis of any type or size can be catastrophic and is, unfortunately, often fatal. 

In their book, Managing Crises Before They Happen, Mitroff & Anagnos point out that unlike in previous centuries, today crises are an unfortunate fact of life. Some are minor and affect only your own business, but in a global economy even small events can cause ripple effects that become tidal waves all over the globe.

At the risk of sounding like a management professor by quoting Mitroff & Anagnos, crises fall into one of seven categories:

• Economic
• Informational
• Physical
• Human Resource
• Reputational
• Psychotic Acts
• Natural Disasters

Regardless of the type of crisis your business faces, having a well-defined crisis management plan is essential to its survival. Good crisis management plans include:

• Identifying the type of risks that are possible, probable, and unimaginable (see bulleted list above)
• Determining the ramifications of the possible, probable, and unimaginable
• Identifying mechanisms for recognizing, preparing for, responding to and learning from crises
• Planning for the allocation of the company’s PR, HR, IT, culture, organizational systems and other resources before, during and after a crisis
• Open, frequent communications with all stakeholders so that everyone knows what their responsibilities are during a crisis.

In short, the unexpected will happen, and sometimes even the unimaginable happens. The key to surviving the unimaginable is careful, thoughtful crisis management planning.

So now I’m curious to hear what others think about crisis management.

Please take a moment to share what works for you, what doesn’t, and the best or worst advice you have ever received on the topic. 

Oh, and if you have a favorite book, I'd be happy to read it. 

Thanks for sharing!

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Time Management, Blah, Blah, Blah

It seems like everyone has something to say about time management these days. 

“If you manage your time right, you can get everything done on time.”

“Time management starts with determining your priorities; determine what is most important and go from there.”

Yeah, well, blah, blah, blah to you, too. As the Geico commercial points out, “everybody knows that.”

After being inundated with information on time management this week, I did just what they all wanted me to do: I started looking at my own time management practices.

Granted, life is always busy for one or more reasons, so taking a look at your time management process and practices every once in a while is not a bad idea. I equate it to reviewing your strategic plan periodically to ensure you are on the right track. If you need to make adjustments, you can, and then keep on moving along.

No man goes before his time – unless the boss leaves early.

–Groucho Marx

One of the more interesting articles I saw this week included one from Sue W Chapman and Michael Rupured at the University of Georgia, who listed 10 strategies for better time management:

     1. Know how you spend your time

     2. Set priorities

     3. Use planning tools

     4. Get organized

     5. Schedule

     6. Delegate

     7. Stop procrastinating

     8. Manage external time wasters

     9. Avoid multi-tasking

   10. Stay healthy

After taking a look at their list and comments on each one, I can now see where my time management issues are. I just need to move #6 up to #1 and get going.

What about you? 

What works for you and what would you suggest to someone who came to you for advice on managing their time better?

I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions, so please comment!