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One step closer to $150,000 goal!
It was a night filled with excitement, energy, and competition as more than 50 Cydcor team members, families, and friends participated in a “Casino Night” to raise money for Operation Smile. During the event, they enjoyed a poker and blackjack tournament, costume contest, and raffle prizes.
Cydcor team members have been raising funds for Operation Smile over the past several months with an overall goal of raising $150,000 to fund a medical mission to remote locations in Peru, Cambodia, or Rwanda. Operation Smile is a children’s charity that provides free cleft lip and cleft palate reconstructive surgeries worldwide.
Special thanks to the vendors and organizations that donated products and services to the raffle winners! They included:
It was a winning night for Operation Smile, Cydcor, and all the attendees.
When things are not going as well as we have planned, we should remember what Jack Welch said in his book, Winning: “Whatever you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others.” We measure our success by the effectiveness of our leadership, which takes hard work and skillful practice of the fundamentals.
Exude the right energy; teams take their cue from you.
Your team feeds off your energy, so demonstrate confidence, enthusiasm, passion and vision in everything you do. Uphold clear standards and expectations while providing knowledge, coaching and guidance.
Build a strong relationship with your team.
Determine how well you are connecting with your team. Do people feel that you care about them and have their backs? Do they feel their lives are better by being on your team? Are they engaged and motivated?
Be tough and consistent.
At times, you need to be tough in a relationship. Firmly holding people accountable to a high but achievable standard drives them to succeed. Teams lose confidence in leaders who appear inconsistent and allow them to become stagnant.
Lead by example.
Your example and intensity sets the bar for the team. Your character, integrity and follow-through create trust and bind the team together.
Congratulations to Team Cydcor, this year’s proud winner of the Corporate Games’ Division C JD Probasco Spirit Award! The award honors one company in each division that displayed a high level of team spirit and commitment to community service.
Joel Daniels, a quality assurance manager at Cydcor, said it best when he was quoted in a recent Ventura County Star article on the close of the games: “We feel great. This is a big deal for us.”
This latest achievement is fitting conclusion to Cydcor’s impressive performance during the 2011 Corporate Games. Among the medals that Cydcor team members brought home were the gold in indoor volleyball and table tennis (individual competition); the silver in basketball, table tennis (doubles competition) and football; and the bronze in bowling.
Way to go, team!
Click here to read more about the final results of the 22nd annual Ventura Corporate Games.
When I entered the workforce, I sought experiences that would teach me vital skills for the future and build my confidence. Although many of my peers wanted to find jobs at companies that would carry them to retirement, I wanted to rely on myself and become a successful entrepreneur.
During the first ten years of my career, I focused on honing the skills that would make me a successful business owner. Ultimately, I learned that I needed to excel at two things: sales and relationships.
In the beginning stages of a business, the owner is usually the number-one sales person, as I was during the first five years of my commercial printing business and during all three years of my financial recruiting business. Successful entrepreneurs are savvy sales people who understand their customers’ needs and offer the most effective, compelling solutions to meet them.
Good sales people also have good people skills. Unless you want to be the only person in your business, you need to be able to work cooperatively with others and build strong relationships based on trust and respect. The more people you can successfully recruit, develop, manage and lead, the more you can accomplish and the more economic value you can generate.
The most important lesson I have learned in my career is this: Choose work experiences not for their prestige or short-term gain, but rather for their ability to equip you with the skills for success and the opportunities to practice them.
Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you will do it. Following through on your commitments demonstrates integrity, builds credibility and earns people’s trust. Follow-through is one of the building blocks of success.
Conversely, you cannot respect or count on those who do not meet their commitments. They are not the ones with whom we will have lasting relationships, nor are they the ones we think of first when there is opportunity. We should make sure that we follow through, so we can be the ones on whom people rely.
Consistent follow-through requires not only the right attitude, but also the right skills. Planning systems like FranklinCovey’s® can help you become more effective at organizing and managing important activities and events. Your focus and discipline, bolstered by such tools, can help you become adept at prioritizing and accomplishing the toughest tasks under the most challenging conditions.
There are times, however, when things may slip through the cracks. It happens to the best of us. Do not get discouraged. Just be accountable and go the extra mile not just to finish the task, but also to excel at it.
The combined efforts of Cydcor along with our network of independent sales companies continue to make progress toward achieving our total fundraising goal for Operation Smile. With just a little over $30,000 left to raise, we’re on track to reach our $150,000 target.
Cydcor team members have led the charge, raising significant funds for this worthy medical mission through successful, high-energy charity events. Their passionate commitment shows no signs of slowing down and is ramping up for the upcoming casino night in May.
Thanks to all the participating independent sales company owners, Cydcor team members, the community and other supporters who are helping make this possible!
Cydcor team members not only work hard, but also play hard, as recent victories at the 22nd annual Ventura Corporate Games prove.
Team Cydcor has proven to be a fierce competitor, bringing home the gold in indoor volleyball and the silver in basketball. Participating in its third year, Cydcor is among 62 companies from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, competing in a series of sporting events.
Cydcor looks forward to this annual battle of athletic skill and is competing in 12 different games this year, including dodgeball, flag football, softball and table tennis. The next games on the schedule this week are lasertag and soccer.
Click here for the latest team updates on the games and results.
Click here to read the recent article in the Ventura County Star on the Corporate Games.
April 5 recently marked the birthday of Booker T. Washington, acclaimed African-American educator, author, political leader and civil rights pioneer. On this day, I’m reminded of his inspirational 1901 autobiography, Up From Slavery, in which he recounts his rise from early adversity to success later in life, driven by his commitment to a singular goal: getting an education.
Born into slavery in 1856, Washington spent his early years after the Emancipation in poverty working in the salt furnaces and coal mines. Determined to get an education, a 16-year old Washington arrived at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) in 1872 with little more than the clothes on his back. The assistant principal was suspicious of his ragged appearance and asked him to sweep the recitation room as a condition of enrollment. Desiring to prove himself, Washington swept and dusted the room until it was spotless. The assistant principal was so impressed with the results that she admitted him to the Institute, where he worked his way through school and later became an instructor. He then moved on to greater distinction, culminating in his founding of the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1881.
Washington’s story demonstrates the importance of embracing every challenge, no matter how difficult, to achieve our goals. With ego in check, he kept his eye on the ultimate prize to excel at each task placed before him. He carried this attitude throughout his life and became the foremost black educator and leader, working with the era’s most powerful businessmen and politicians to advance the cause of education.
Many times we must endure hardship and perform humbling tasks, but we must remember that they may be short lived in the scheme of things. Booker T. Washington’s example reminds us to focus on the big picture in pursuit of our goals. In doing so, we adopt the determination and grace needed to fulfill our greatest dreams—and potential.
Gary
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., March 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Cydcor, the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face sales teams, announced the promotion of Kyle Fried to director of operations.
As director of operations, Fried is responsible for managing quality assurance, vendor relations, program quality and compliance, developing infrastructure of new programs and coordinating reporting to meet retail client and merchant needs.
"Kyle has contributed to the company in numerous outstanding ways while modeling true development and collaboration, key behaviors we value," said Cydcor Senior Vice President of Sales Operations Vera Quinn. In his new role, Fried will play a vital role in ensuring operational excellence, which will help fuel the company's planned growth.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University in economics, Fried first distinguished himself as campaign support manager in 2005, before quickly moving through the ranks, providing input to every program implemented at Cydcor. In 2007, Fried was named supervisor of the data management department which oversees the complex processing of customer orders and payments for the company's client base of Fortune 500 and emerging companies.
Some of his many accomplishments include streamlining back-end processes, enhancing internal systems to meet client and field needs, managing day-to-day reporting with the field and clients, weekly payments to reps in the field and retail stores, vendor relationship and process development, as well as managing a team of 17.
About Cydcor, Inc.
Cydcor, Inc. is the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face sales teams to a diverse client base of companies in a range of industries, including telecommunications, office products, retail, energy, and financial services. Cydcor works with a network of independently owned corporate licensee (ICL) Cydcor sales offices providing clients with access to more than 2,700 sales professionals and nearly 200 offices in North America. The privately held company is based in Westlake Village, California. For more information about Cydcor, log on to www.cydcor.com.
SOURCE Cydcor
It's amazing what can be done when we all work together to make a difference. Cydcor along with our network of independent sales companies hit the $100,000 mark for Operation Smile - just $50,000 more to reach out goal to fund an entire Operation Smile Medical Mission. It has been inspiring to see what unique and fun ways we have come up with to raise money - bowling, stach for cash, car washes, auctions, raffles, you name it. The best part is - we won't stop till we hit our goal, because we have such an important cause to support.
“Our network of independent sales companies uses every interaction with a customer to build our clients’ brands,” said Vera Quinn, senior vice president of sales operations. “To watch that incredible focus and passion apply to raising funds for this very worthy cause has been amazing to witness.”
Cydcor’s Operation Smile ambassador, Barbara Majeski, summed up the company’s motivation in supporting the charity: “Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft condition. Our employees are leaders in their communities all over the country in supporting their communities through service, so extending that to such an important cause was natural. The level of their generosity and commitment to others is what is truly astounding.”
Spring is a season of renewal and growth—and with that season nearly upon us – now is a perfect setting in which to reflect on our progress during the first few months of the New Year: how we’re tracking on our personal and professional goals, commitments and development plans.
At this timely moment, we’ve reached Covey’s seventh habit of effectiveness, “Sharpen the Saw.” In the spirit of reflection, it seems fitting to consider this final habit in the context of all the others before it.
“Sharpen the Saw” is a Quadrant 2 activity (important but not urgent) requiring time, initiative and pro-activity. It makes all the other habits possible when we practice self-renewal and self-improvement in four areas.
The first three are closely related to Habits 1, 2 and 3—the principles of personal vision, leadership and management. The fourth focuses on Habits 4, 5 and 6—the principles of interpersonal leadership, empathy and creative cooperation:
Physical: Caring effectively for our physical bodies through exercise, nutrition and stress-management
Spiritual: Renewing our commitment to our core values through spiritual reading, study and meditation
Mental: Honing and expanding our minds and discipline through education, reading, visualization, planning and writing
Social/emotional: Strengthening our relationships through service, empathy, synergy and good character
Habit 7 teaches us how to maintain a balance among these dimensions so that we can reach higher levels of understanding and effectiveness in our lives and relationships. According to Covey, it's all about preserving and enhancing our most important asset—ourselves—so that we can do and be our best:
By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered in the task of creating effective, useful, and peaceful lives...for ourselves, and for our posterity.
Exercising the 7 Habits on a path of continuous growth and renewal helps us become more principled, more purposeful and more productive in ways that make a positive impact not only in our lives, but also in the lives of those around us. It’s a powerful lesson and aspiration for all of us—one I hope you’ll embrace, as I do.
– Vera