Saturday, October 26, 2013

Editor: chris breach 815-937-3316 cbreach@daily-journal.com

Tip of the Week: Skeleton in your closet? Sell it. n E2-3

n Employment

Succeeding on the job

By Ed Piatt For The Daily Journal

Briefcase
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Riverside Medical Center announced Tuesday that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as one of Americas 100 Best hospitals for both orthopedic surgery and stroke care. Healthgrades, an online resource that helps consumers search, compare and connect with physicians and hospitals, evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 31 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions and identified the 100 best hospitals within each procedure. Riverside is committed to integrating quality care across all settings, both inside and outside of the hospital said Phil Kambic, CEO and president. We strive to ensure we are doing whats right for the patients, their families and the community. This report by Healthgrades shows we are doing just that. The achievement is part of findings released in American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Healthgrades Report to the Nation, which demonstrated how clinical performance differs dramatically between hospitals and the impact that this variation may have on health outcomes.

HEALTH CARE

Positive attitude keeps employees focused

Editors note: This is the second article in a series written by Dr. Edward Piatt, a manager with the state of Illinois and a Main Street columnist for The Daily Journal, and business editor Chris Breach about the job market in greater Kankakee. Our first article focused on getting past the interview and landing the coveted job. As a reminder here is a brief summary of landing the job from the interview. The prime directive in getting a job is the ability to express the want to attitude. This carries with the expression of having a want to complete the job; want to be a team player; want to do what it takes to get the job done. When you are applying for a job, the employer wants to know that you have the want to attitude to do what it takes to not only succeed in the job, but to move to new levels of personal and team excellence. In addition, job candidates must exhibit a want to attitude, being a team player and, more importantly, employers are seeking lifelong learners. These individuals will continue to express appreciation for learning all aspects of the job and continue to reinforce and augment their skill sets. This includes emotional intelligence (EI), conflict resolution and continual adaptation to the changing organizational environment. Finally the employer is looking for candidates that demonstrate the ability to learn, apply, adapt and evolve, as the organization becomes leaner to compete in the regional and global economy. OK, after passing the job interview with flying colors and landing the coveted job, how then do you succeed in the organization? First, look at the trait of character. Integrity and intentions are core components of character. As Jon Huntsman, chairman of Huntsman Chemical, said, There are no moral shortcuts in the game of business or life. There are, basically, three kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful and those who become and remain successful. The difference is character. Character has been often described as what you do when no one is looking. Integrity rides in tandem with character and can be viewed as consistent character. Therefore, success in the workplace derives from character and integrity. If the organization cannot trust you and you do not exhibit character in your everyday actions, you will not succeed. Besides character and integrity, essential components of success are TASKS. As Stephen Covey explains in his book, The Speed of Trust, TASKS are an acronym for talents, attitudes, skills, knowledge and style. Together, TASKS sets the stage for success. Ones talents are unique strengths, and the best chance of success is to maximize these talents in the organization. Attitudes represent how we view ourselves and others in the organization and allow us to

Employees who succeed are ones who have a positive attitude about their job and organization.
develop working relationships to solve problems. Skills, knowledge and style work in concert to bring our talents into focus. As such, EI allows the individual to bring all the essential elements of TASKS into play. Understanding and using EI allows one to understand themselves and others and control emotions so that one can manage the emotions of others to help steer the organization in the right direction. How is this all tied together? Shawn Anchor from Harvard University believes that simply being happy not only leads us to feeling better in our jobs, but also makes those around us feel better, so we are more likely to get a promotion, receive better performance reviews, and stay longer in our jobs. In other words, happiness can lead to job success, not vice versa. Consequently, Anchor defines happiness as the joy we feel striving towards our potential. People seem least happy when they stagnate and dont feel any growth at work. Therefore, putting a positive spin on things can reduce the stress of the day and week. The key is to take the stressful situations at work and view it as a learning experience, or see some nuggets of positives in these times, and as a result, feel better. Anchor further advocates that one take negative events or circumstances and use those experiences as places to grow. But, of course, this is easier said than done. Often times, conflict and negative emotional experiences seem to distract ones thinking and can enter into a state of disengagement. It is during these difficult times that EI can be used to take a step back and reassess the situation. Some simple techniques as illustrated by Anchor to remain focused include: Start appreciating the good. Write down the positive things about your job and start retraining your brain to react differently to stressful events. Take the positive descriptors of your job and use them to negate or cancel the stressful events that are occurring.

Brandpoint

See the big picture: View your current job as a learning experience to grow, adapt and evolve. Use every experience as a learning tool to become better at what you do and what you can accomplish. Surround yourself with happy people: Emotions are contagious, and choosing to be happy is a choice as well as choosing to be toxic. Stay away from toxic workers and choose to spread happiness and see how that one simple choice affects the climate of the workforce to one of being more positive and productive. Dont forget that things are short-term: Keep this in perspective, knowing that a bad event or experience is temporary allows you to focus on your long-term goals and objectives. View negative events as temporary and move forward to the long-term goals. Change your mindset: Changing ones mindset toward the pursuit of happiness works best if one can share it with someone else. It allows a deeper social connection and feeling part of something bigger. As a final point, job success starts to propel one moving in the right direction for a fulfilling career. However, it requires diligence and tenacity as well. Successful people are in a constant state of change. They evolve, adapt and apply the lessons learned from mistakes and failures. These workers have discovered the one simple secret of success: They have employed the central tenet of EI and moved from the I to the We. As part of a team, not only can he or she be successful, but the organization prospers as well. TASKS, character, integrity, happiness and EI can move ones career to the next level of excellence.
Dr. Edward Piatt, Ed.D., is a manager with the state of Illinois with 28 years experience and is an adjunct professor of business in the MBA and MOL program at Olivet Nazarene University. He also lectures frequently on Emotional Intelligence, organizational culture and leadership. You can contact him at epiatt@olivet.edu.

On Tuesday, AT&T launched its 4G LTE network in Kankakee and Bradley, bringing customers its latest generation of wireless network technology. This launch is part of AT&Ts three-year investment plan announced last fall to expand and enhance its IP broadband networks. AT&T is supporting the demand for high-speed Internet access and new mobile, app and cloud-based services. As part of the project, AT&T plans to add more than 10,000 macro cell sites nationwide by the end of 2015. We continue to see demand for mobile Internet skyrocket, and our 4G LTE network in Kankakee and Bradley responds to what customers want from their mobile experience more, faster, reliably, on the best devices, said Paul La Schiazza, president, AT&T Illinois. Were living in a wireless world and in an Internet economy.

COMMUNICATIONS

Comcast announced Thursday that it is hosting an open house and job fair for military veterans from 1-4 p.m. Monday at its Oak Brook offices at 2001 York Road. Comcast will provide veterans information about career opportunities at the company and help link them to positions that are currently open. For information, email emily_avila@ cable.comcast.com, visit www.comcast-jobs.com/military, or call 215498-9389.

EMPLOYMENT

n COMMENTARY

Dining chains stock is healthy investment

because I had $1,400 saved up from my student loan, I bought 50 shares of Maggianos when it was $22, though the stock is really of Brinker International, which owns this restaurant and Chilis. I only work part time now because Im studying to become a hairstylist. I hope to open my own salon and really make good money. Tell me whether I should sell the stock, which is now $41, because I read about the new $15-an-hour wage the unions want restaurant owners to pay restaurant workers. I know that this will force down profits and that Brinker will need to raise prices, which is not good and probably will cause my stock to go down. PD, Wilmington, N.C. Dear PD: Congratulations on finishing college, though you should have used the remaining $1,400 to stay in class a little longer (in your case, a lot longer) to improve your composition skills. Still, I wish you enormous and quick success in your hairstyling endeavor. And congratulations on your wise purchase of Brinker International (EAT-$41). If your hair salon dreams fail to materialize, you should consider becoming a restaurant analyst in the brokerage industry. Certainly, your two years as a waiter with Maggianos which is among the best Italian eateries in the Free World gives you the credentials to be one of the top restaurant analysts on Wall Street. Organized labor has staged strikes at fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and such) in 50 U.S. cities, demanding $15-an-hour wages plus benefits. Growing national media coverage and the social media buzz helped fuel strikes in New York, St. Louis, Hartford, Dallas, Detroit and Chicago, which caused work stoppages and millions in lost revenues. And your premise that higher wages and higher prices will cause lower profits is spot on. Wages of $15 an hour plus benefits (about $40,000 per year) mean that a NYC McDonalds will be charging $23.18 for a Big Mac, a small fry and a shake. Well, yipsee doodle dandy, more folks eat at home. Chilis, one of the largest dining chains in the U.S., soon will be installing table screens in its 1,266 units, and the unions are having a coronary. Wyman Roberts, EATs president and CEO, saw this (and Obamacare) coming and has been testing a device made by Dallasbased Zio Technologies. Its a computer screen mounted on a sturdy base, loaded with pictures of menu items, a credit card swipe device and games that can be played for 99 cents. And most diners would prefer to pay by machine because it often takes too long to get a check from the waitstaff. McDonalds and other fast-food chains may hop on this idea faster than a duck on a June bug. So, in the next few years, many restaurant chains will be reducing staff while saving big bucks on wages and Obamacare costs. Hold on to your EAT. Revenues and earnings should continue to improve nicely, and the dividend, which has enjoyed impressive growth, may continue to increase annually. Chilis has an excellent menu, and Maggianos continues to enjoy strong unit growth. Some on the Street believe that EAT will be a $65-$70 stock in the next couple of years.
Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 8303, Largo, FL 33775, or email him at mjberko@yahoo.com.

Revenue, earnings should keep improving

Dear Mr. Berko: My mother, who reads your column, asked me to write to you. I graduated in the summer of 2011 with a bachelors degree in liberal arts. The only position I could find was a waiter at a Malcom Berko restaurant called Taking Stock Maggianos Little Italy. I really like working there. I made $26,000 my first year, which was more money than I ever believed I could make. And