Success How to meet your goals without making everyone hate you along the way. Kim Bodine

About Me  Youngest of four children  First person in family to get a college degree  Started working at 13, not because I had to  Love to work, love to accomplish, love to help people, crazy about my kids  Background in fashion retail prior to 22 years in this business

About my organization  Workforce Programs have been around since the 1930’s when Roosevelt created the WPA to remedy high unemployment related to the recession.  CETA was signed into law in 1973, and replaced nine years later by JTPA, and in 1998 WIA was enacted, which will now be replaced by WIOA in July 2016

About my organization  In 1996, Governor Lawton Chiles used the upcoming enactment of WIA to re- configure workforce board regions across the state  He allowed economic development boards to be the conveners of groups to make the decision, and that is how our board was born  We have a board that is made up of 28 members across three counties

Why do I tell you this?  Our organization has never had the luxury of knowing that we will be around longer than one year. Budgets are annual.  We are at the mercy of local, federal and state legislative bodies and elected officials  Change is part of our life These facts shape our leadership and our focus on performance

Culture of High Achievement  Leadership  Right People  Partnerships  Focus on performance

Leadership  Board leadership Board provides: Insight to issues in their community that we may be able to impact Guidance on fiscal/state monitoring and political issues Flexibility to staff to manage day to day operations Muscle when partnership issues occur

Leadership “Its not about you”  Leadership at the Staff level includes the Executive Director, Directors, and Managers.  We do not have staff meetings often, if ever at the Management level, but we do communicate daily either electronically or in person.  We care about our people, we encourage them to take part in education and require training and certifications.

Leadership  We are professional, but very caring about our people.  We prefer hard workers over smart workers, but if they are both, we love them even more.  You must have a strong desire to help others to work with us. If you don’t you will not last.  We have strict rules on attire and behavior, as well as schedules and professional appearance.  We solicit front line workers ideas to come up with meaningful solutions.

Leadership  For the most part we expect our management employees to be involved in the community.  We do things that we are not required to do, if we know that there is a need to do so.  We do things differently, and we know sometimes our staff will fail at an audacious goal, and we are okay with that.

People  We choose the best people we can find and afford.  We use assessments to test their skills, and we make it clear that we are in the people business.  If we select a bad fit, we agree to part ways relatively quickly.  We celebrate their achievement and genuinely are grateful when they work hard and succeed.  We provide consistent training opportunities.

Partnerships  Partnerships are critical to our business.  We work in three counties and it is our goal to be closely aligned with education, economic development, local elected officials, the business community (chambers as well), and other agencies.  Partnerships expand your reach and help you attain your goals. Never underestimate the power of partnerships

Performance “ If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.” Benjamin Franklin o Thirty-four performance measures (really?) o Two performance measures added by the governor, several financial measures added by the legislature (state). o What do we focus on? o Repercusion for not meeting goals.

Questions? Kim Bodine Executive Director CareerSource Gulf Coast