Creating Common Goals with Your Team Cultivates Personal and Organizational Success

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How to Set Common Goals

In a business, it goes without saying that the vision for the company should dictate goals for its employees. Whether this is in the form of a business plan, mission statement, or value proposition, having aspirational forethought keeps everyone in the organization working for the same outcomes. However, success will not look the same in different departments, given their different functions. This makes it critical for teams and departments to create their own common goals that support the overall mission of the company, but also helps employees explore and grow individually. Here’s how you can set common goals with your team to set each other up for success.

 

Have a Discussion

 

The first step to setting common goals is to get everyone together to discuss what their own goals are, both in the personal and professional realms. Everyone needs to be involved. This is a crucial meeting of the minds for any team; by stating what we want out loud we are acknowledging our hopes, committing to pursuing those goals, and giving coworkers an opportunity to support each other. This is also a great time to help those unsure members articulate what it is they hope to accomplish.

 

Goals may be directly job-related, like increasing sales or improving customer service, or may involve learning a specific skill that can be integrated into the workplace, such as video editing or photography. The doors should be open for all employees to take initiative within their roles and evolve in a way that fits them personally.

 

Figure Out How It All Fits Together

 

Once everyone has laid out their own goals, the team can then discuss how to help everyone meet them, and also how everyone’s aspirations can take on a symbiotic relationship. The types of goals may be very different from one another, but they can all exist together.

 

If one team member is interested in podcasts, and another wants to expand revenue-generating activities, that is a project they can take on together. A podcast for the company can be created with the hope of earning sponsors or paid advertising, and is a great vehicle for establishing the company’s brand.

 

Be careful not to compare the merits of each goal because you run the risk of creating hurt feelings or accidentally belittling someone’s dreams; this will not result in a productive conversation. For example, making more money and contributing to the greater good do not have to be mutually exclusive. It is not amoral to hope to bring in a larger paycheck as long as it is done honestly. Contributing to the greater good doesn’t have to be a drain on resources and might not be able to be the focus of every project. Both of these objectives can occur together with planning.

 

Once goals are established and mapped out, it is time to circle back and ensure that they all support the overall vision of the company. This is not as challenging or intimidating as it may sound. If the mission statement is well-laid out, most intentions can be explored and honed to fit fairly easily.

 

Setting milestones is a great way to keep the team on track both with their own aspirations, as well as with their contributions to the business. It offers each member a road map so they can identify where they are, where they need to be, and how they can get there. These milestones must simultaneously stretch and challenge workers while still being achievable. If the checkpoints are not reasonably attainable, workers will grow frustrated and lose interest in the process. Striking a balance between encouraging growth and promoting achievement is key.

 

To keep everyone on the same page, hold regularly-scheduled goal tracking meetings. This is a great time for everyone to catch up and analyze how things are going. Some important questions to ask are:

  • How is this working?
  • How engaged are we as a team?
  • Are we meeting goals? If not, why not?
  • Do we need to recalibrate?
  • Who needs more support?

 

Setting common goals is important to keep employees focused not just on just results, but also on the process. We can meet the vision for the organization by letting each individual pursue their own goals while simultaneously acting for the good of the company.

 

We often forget to have this conversation with our employees, because the general mindset is company before self. However, everyone can get to where they want to be together, without compromising the organization’s mission. It’s all about finding ways to make it work through common goals. Our teams will be more engaged if they feel they have the autonomy to explore the boundaries of their roles and pursue company-related projects that excite them.

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How to Adapt Your Leadership to Different Cultures

Working with clients and colleagues in another country is a wonderful
opportunity to expand your business and meet interesting, intelligent
people. However, it is vital that you understand the cultural norms and
expectations in countries that are not your own, in order to connect with
your clients in a way that is meaningful and useful to them. So how do you
adapt your work and leadership style to a different culture?

Adjust Your Mindset

Adjusting your mindset is one of the most important strategies when
conducting business in a foreign country. You cannot just walk in and
operate the way you are used to, mainly because cultures in other countries
dictate otherwise. Not everyone shares the same point of view as you do, so
in order to be effective, you must adjust your own mindset to match that of
your clients.

The best way to do this is simply to be curious. Research business practices
and expectations in the country you will be travelling to, as well as the
customs and the people. This will give you a starting point for your
adjustment and help you feel prepared. Once you are on location, notice
how people behave and interact with each other. What seems to be
important to them? What are the power dynamics?

In the United States, there is very much a culture of collaboration, where
employees at all levels interact and share ideas openly. However, other
countries view honesty and outspokenness as disrespectful, or as reserved
for the most senior members. You can see why a businessperson in the
United States might need to tone down their approach in order to fit in and
meet expectations.

Recalibrate Your Services

Because different cultures and countries have points of view unique to their
experience you also will need to rethink the services you provide and how
they may need to change in order to be more beneficial. The strategy an
executive coach offers a client in the United States may not be appropriate
in Japan or Paris, but can be reframed in order to achieve the same result.
The same idea applies to other industries. If your focus is in customer
experience, you must recognize that not everyone wants the same results,
and will not have the same experience.

Reassess the Meanings of Core Values

While the casual business participant may think that most core values are
universal, the experienced practitioner knows that this isn’t exactly the case.
The concepts of Integrity and Trust might be present in businesses
worldwide, but the definition of these terms and what they look like in
practicality may not be the same. It becomes incumbent upon you to to find
out what such terms really mean in the country you are working in. Make
sure you understand your clients’ working definitions of these concepts so
that you are speaking the same language and are coming from the same
place. Discussing this upfront will prevent miscommunications, and will make
you feel more comfortable in your environment. Culture shock is a real
experience, but having a base understanding of a country and its norms will
help you make an easier transition. It will also help you avoid offending
others or doing something that would be deemed inappropriate.

Working with new countries broadens your horizons and strengthens your
skills in many ways. However, you still must provide value to your clients, no
matter where they are. If you work only in the way that is natural to you, it
is likely that you are not serving foreign clients in a way that is valuable for
them. And if you act in unexpected, unusual ways as deemed by a country’s
culture, your clients will likely have a strong negative response. Making such
adjustments to your mindset and services, and learning about the nuances
of core values will not only help your success, but the client will also feel
respected. Whether you research independently or have upfront
conversations about expectations, you can avoid most miscommunications
or missteps and set yourself up for a healthy working relationship.

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Characteristics to Look For in Your Next Executive Coach

Corporate Training and Executive Coaching For Conscious OrganizationsFinding an executive and leadership coach that is the perfect fit for both you and your business takes a fair amount of research, but is well worth the effort when you connect with someone who can unlock your potential as a leader. If you’re new to leadership coaching, the process may seem overwhelming and it can be tempting to simply start working with the first coach you find. However, there are specific qualities you should be looking for in an executive coach to ensure that they are both qualified and a good match for your needs. Here are five steps you should be taking when shopping for a coach, and what they will reveal about their methods.

Evaluate their profile

It is essential that you interview any coach that you are interested in working with, just as you would with a potential new employee. This will be most telling about their style of coaching and approach. You are looking for someone who is open-minded, an active listener, and completely focused on the process. An ideal coach will create a safe and exploratory environment for you to grow, and will have forward-thinking conversations with you to help you find the solutions that work for you. They should  also feel strongly that any success belongs to you. Red flags include coaches who promise extraordinary results or have a one-size-fits all approach.

Check for Credentials

The leadership and executive coaching market is saturated with many professionals, but not all of them have the skills or experience to give you and your business the value you deserve. When looking at a potential coach, look them up on the International Coach Federation registries or the registries of the Board of Credentialing for Coaches. These two accrediting boards register coaches based on their experience, education, and the number of hours they have worked with clients. They also require continuing education to ensure that their coaches have the most current information and are keeping up with their skills.

Look Out for Coherence

It is important to evaluate the level of coherence a potential coach has between what they promote and what they themselves practice. In particular, you should find out if they have their own executive coach. Theoretically, if they believe in the power of coaching, they should also have a coach of their own so that they can continue to expand just as their clients are. Similarly, an executive coach should belong to a supervising group to reflect with on a regular basis about their practice as a coach. If an executive coach is encouraging your growth, but is not working to grow themselves as well, there is misalignment between their mindset and actions.

Understand the Coaching Process

An executive coach worth their weight must offer a customized approach in working with you. Cookie-cutter consulting isn’t providing you any value and certainly cannot be considered coaching. Valuable coaching is about adapting to you as the client, and bringing individual solutions for your specific situation. An executive coach is there to help you build and design the strategies for what you want and need.

Investigate References and Recommendations

Finally, when researching executive coaches, it is imperative that you look for their references and recommendations. Most commonly, you may be able to find these on the coach’s LinkedIn profile or perhaps even on their website. This will be useful to you in two ways. Firstly, you will be able to see who the coach works with, and whether or not they have worked with individuals or businesses that are similar to you. Secondly, you will get a feel for how the coach works and how they help manifest success for their clients, and whether or not that will be useful to you.

 

These key indicators are important to consider when researching possible executive coaches. You may be interested in an industry-specific coach, but here at Equanimity Executive, we don’t believe that is necessary. Coaches with industry-specific experience may wind up becoming more of an advisor or consultant due their inside knowledge, but keep in mind that this advice isn’t what you are looking for. You ultimately need a coach that challenges you and gives you the opportunity to create new opportunities for yourself.  Similarly, industry-specific coaches can have biases based on their own work and that may limit your exploration and innovation. As adaptive executive coaches, Equanimity Executive focuses on your needs as they are, from a fresh and open-minded perspective.

Looking for an executive or leadership coach may seem like an overwhelming prospect, but by considering these qualities, you will find a professional with the personality and ability to relate to you and your needs.

 

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Communication and Soft Skills For IT Engineers

Why Communication and Soft Skills For IT Engineers?

We have been working and living with IT engineers for several years. One of their biggest challenge is to develop communication skills that will enable them to be great business leaders. Equanimity Executive is very excited to bring its expertise to those amazing professionals.

Equanimity Executive will provide communication skills training at the Idea Center in Miami, FL. The World Cup of Sales and LaunchCode are partnering on this project to offer IT engineers quality soft skills training so they can not only be successful technical professionals but great business leaders. If you are interested in attending one of our public session, please check the dates of our next training.

Communication Skills For IT Engineers Launcode

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Executive Coaching Social Community

At Equanimity Executive we believe in the opportunity to engage with our prospects, followers, and clients around life coaching, leadership development and executive coaching topics. Our goal is to educate, develop and assist individuals and organizations reaching their goals.

Since the beginning of May, our team decided to design contests and activities which will support learning and personal growth at no cost, simply by following us. Those activities are a great way to deepen the connection we have with you as well. Many of you, newsletter subscribers (over 3500 in 2015) have been reading our content for years. Today, we have a chance to engage even more with you, our loyal and curious leaders and self-leaders.

Gabriela, our new Client Success & Awareness Specialist is dedicated to bring you fun and practical activities through coaching games and tools, reflective work and so forth.

We are excited to connect with you soon on social media and hope to help you reach some of your goals and raise your level of awareness.

Upcoming activities and events include followers and fans generated content as well such as a photo or video contest to get to know you better as well. This tap into the human drive to compete and learn on a more interactive way. We feel there is a need for connection to be able to apply everything that we share. You will never see the results you want, unless, you work on them and start playing in achieving them.

As a company we established a set of goals and concepts that we want to achieve. Belinda is constantly innovating and is looking to have fun doing it! Her purpose is to share life skills, help you build resiliency and become a true leader.

Our concept in a more detailed way is based on:  social media activities that connect with our fan based and engage with like minded people.

Join us on Social Media for our next adventures including

Weekly or bi-weekly activities

Free Information and Education about leadership, work life balance, stress management and more

Rewards in form of coaching services, spa gift cards and more

Opportunities to belong to Equanimity Executive (EQX) community

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Employee disengagement: the core cause and the sure cure

Whether you’re a manager or an employee, chances are you’ve had personal experience with disengagement in the workplace. Disengagement takes on many forms; zoning out, apathy about the company and its mission, lagging production and minimal effort are just some of the symptoms. This blog post will help you better understand the one core reason that employee disengagement happens, and what can be done to fix it.

The one reason is this: employees feel dehumanized. If you think this is an over-simplified reason, bear with me. You see, much like employee disengagement takes on many forms, the dehumanized feeling that leads to disengagement comes from a variety of sources.

One can be insufficient compensation. No matter how contentious the current debate about the national minimum wage is and no matter how pervasive the idea is that employees should just suck it up and be grateful for having a job at all in a limping economy, the fact of the matter is that employees won’t invest more than minimal effort and engagement in a company that doesn’t invest enough in them to keep them happy and comfortable.

Other employees feel dehumanized because their individual talents, expertise and skills are overlooked. Employees may or may not have the same credentials that their higher-ups do, but they often have unique insight through hands-on experience about how a business runs, what’s not working and how certain facets of the business could function better. Unfortunately, this knowledge often goes unnoticed and unused. Employees may also be harboring untapped talents that could make the work environment more enriching, pleasant, cooperative and unique. Not having those individual characteristics acknowledged or valued is immensely frustrating and dehumanizing.

Employee DisengagementSome employees feel dehumanized by a poor work-life balance, gaps in communication between departments, burnout, lack of bonding experiences with coworkers and a whole host of other issues.

But much as these issues all have a common factor, so do they have a common solution: re-humanization of the work space. This involves higher-ups taking a personal interest in the well-being, insight, personalities, attributes and worries of employees. Managers and employers should make it a point to know their employees well enough to understand what would make each of them feel more valued by the company. For example, if a manager finds out that an employee is a skilled painter, utilizing that employee to paint the break room would make that employee feel more valuable to the company. Even if the company is too small to accommodate mass raises in salary, taking one necessity off employees’ plates, like providing lunch so they have one less expense, makes employees feel like their bosses are human beings too who want to give them a voice and a sense of worth.

The moral of the story here is that working men and women are most likely to remain engaged in the workplace if they feel they are being fairly valued to the best of the company’s ability, if they are sought out for practical advice on the company’s operations and if they are recognized and celebrated as individuals with unique assets to bring to the table. It’s not enough to just be employed, to be cogs in a machine. They have to feel like they’re being treated as human beings.

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How to engage your employees

Faire participer vos employés et leur remonter le moral est l’un des principaux objectifs de chaque dirigeant. Les meilleurs employés sont ceux qui aiment leur travail, s’efforcent de bien faire et sortent des sentiers battus. En tant que leader, vous encouragez le développement de toutes ces fonctionnalités chez un employé et savez que l’engagement des employés est la clé d’un milieu de travail réussi. Mais pour que vos employés soient vraiment impliqués dans leur travail et heureux sur leur lieu de travail, il faut plus que quelques pizzas ou des primes de vacances. Utilisez ces méthodes pour faire sentir à vos employés qu’ils font partie intégrante de votre équipe et pour les inciter à aller au-delà:

1. Travaillez toujours avec eux, pas sur eux

No one particularly enjoys someone standing over them telling them what to do, even if they love their work. A boss with great leadership skills will join in the nitty-gritty work and make the work their mission as well as their employees’. If you can demonstrate that you too are willing to work hard and care about your work, employees will be much more motivated about their role.

2. Be someone employees can talk to

Any problem in a workplace, big or small, probably won’t be solved if no one ever brings it up. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to deal with problems or issues amongst your employees, but you can’t even begin to do so if you don’t know what those problems are. Employees need to feel not only that they can approach you with concerns, but also that you will listen to them and take action.

3. Employé d’abord, société ensuite

Personne ne veut se sentir comme un seul rouage dans une machine géante. Oui, les entreprises sont alimentées par le travail des employés, mais les entreprises fonctionnent aussi comme une chose vivante, en constante évolution et en adaptant. Ce sont les employés humains qui rendent possible le succès d’une entreprise, en proposant constamment de nouvelles idées, méthodes et solutions. Assurez-vous que les employés sont à l’aise d’exprimer ces idées, et pas seulement de se conformer aux anciennes méthodes et pratiques. Un environnement ouvert et créatif est idéal pour réussir.

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Team goals – why having common goals is important

Team Goals

Your team needs common goals. Otherwise it becomes a group of individuals with their own agenda.

Being a  manager requires a lot of soft skills as you need to make sure that your team is comfortable with the goals that you are setting for each member individually. It is great if you could separate tasks for every person and have the project moving forward regardless of any personal delay. This would also allow you to monitor who is underperforming and control problems and situations as they happen.

But working by the piece is not the best practice – it can be a positive experience for small projects but not in the real-life environment. You need to have a better working strategy and make sure that each and every one on the team is focused on achieving results. Separating tasks individually means you are setting personal goals – if they meet them, then they are not responsible for any lack of result in another field. This is why setting a common goal for your team is of high importance.

Common goals is what separates a high performing team from a bad project experience. You need to make sure no man is an island or your project might fail. Common goals are important not only because they develop creativity and innovation but because they bring people together and encourage them to communicate problems and results. This allows for a much earlier and faster recognition of problems in the project development.

 

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Here are some tips:

1. Group co-dependent goals – Marketing and Sales should work separately and together. They have their own agenda but the goal is common – selling the best way possible using all resources and knowledge available. You know that achieving some goals requires tasks to be completed successfully by more than one department or team member. Those are the smaller common goals that you need to set for your team. This would mean in addition no more name calling on who is responsible for a delay or a project failure. If two or three team members know that they have to work together or they results would not be accepted as a success, they would also feel more motivated to control and communicate with their colleagues.

2. Set milestones – Milestones are practically team goals. Those are the steps that need to be finished by a certain date and this is the way you track results. Set personal and common milestones that would help your team members to keep on track and would allow them the flexibility to work together as much as needed.

3. Set clear common goal expectations – The biggest and most important common goal for a team is to finish the project successfully. But this shouldn’t be the only goal. Think of additional motivations – maybe a day off for everyone, a team building experience, a bigger project, company-wide recognition. There are a lot of things that can bring people together and focus them on results and not on personal comfort. Because personal comfort is what a lot of team members would like to have – knowing they finish their direct tasks and are not responsible for the project execution any further than that.

4. Hold goal tracking meetings – These would be a great opportunity to identify problems, to find solutions and just to feel better as a group. Discussions should be focused on the goal, not on the project itself. Talk about the problems that you have met, what each one of you could do to help meet the goal. Make sure that people feel comfortable and don’t feel the need to defend themselves.

Having common team goals is a great way to increase engagement, interactions and communication between your colleagues. There are a lot of creative examples that can be implemented – a board by the coffee machine with the number of successful days, a scoreboard that compares you to the best teams ever, or a totally irrelevant goal that might seem silly to others but not to your team. You could find ideas in the common humor and jokes that your colleagues have, things you all like, etc. The list is never-ending – you just need to find what suits your team best and start focusing.

After all, what makes a good team great is the ability to focus on the common goal. No sports team has ever won a major game by having the separate players focus on personal achievements and neglecting the big picture – they are all in for the win. As you and your team are.

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Team Motivation – Using Personal Goals to Invoke Success

TEAM MOTIVATIONManaging people is never easy. There are different motivation strategies that you as a business executive can use.

 

We have already discussed why it is wrong to lead your team with fear. Now we want to disclose another strategy – the personal motivation. It is really simple – if you know your team well and understand what are their short and long-term goals, you can use that knowledge to achieve better results.

 

 

Here are some great ways to start:

1. Talk to your team members – The easiest way to understand what drives people to do what they do is to ask them. You can do it when they join the team – but you might get not the most sincere answer as they might tell you what they think you are expecting to hear. Holding one-to-one meetings with each one of your team members regularly is another option. Discuss what is their career goal, ask them about their plans and how can you help them. They would appreciate your interest and desire to help.

2. Observe and make notes – When you know your team members good, you can see easily how they respond to small bumps on the road and bigger failures. Take a (mental) note and try to understand what made them the most disturbed. People don’t like making even the smallest mistakes if they see them as an obstacle to achieving their goals. You can learn a lot by just observing – but you already know that.

3. Use your new knowledge for good – Now that you know so much about their goals and personal motivations, start using it. Don’t blackmail them – it’s not going to help. If you see that someone doesn’t put all his efforts into his assignments, you can explain briefly how can this project help him achieve what he is thriving for. People tend to be work better if they can see the personal outcome.

4. Show them that you understand – If you know what they want to achieve, listen and use emotional intelligence. Try to assign tasks respective of what would give them more knowledge, what is relevant to their goals and what could help them stand out. If you need to assign some tasks to another colleague, be mindful of people emotions. People would easily assume sabotage if they don’t know the reason. Tell them why someone else is being made responsible for what they would have wanted to d and provide them with support and training to grow.

5. Don’t spare constructive feedback– I don’t say that you should tell them that they are not doing their job or they are under-performing. If you see that someone is not at the needed level, have a personal conversation. Let them know what they are doing wrong and how can they make it right. Don’t just list problems – suggest solutions for each one of them.

 

As you might have noticed, the key to successful team management is personal interaction. The added value to this strategy is that your colleagues would start trusting you more and this would lead to a better, more successful team.

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Redefine success on your own terms

Redefine success on your own termsWhat is success for you? Do you have your own personal definition or do you follow other people’s dreams?

Everyone is inclined to see success differently because we have different goals, we make different choices and take specific actions based on that. There is not a single definition of success and there can never be one! Success is a choice and personal point of view – there are billions of different definitions therefore. Here you can find a couple of great examples on how different can success be for different people. It’s interesting to see that there is a difference between personal and professional success. The problem with people not feeling accomplished is usually a derivative of a gap between his own perception of success and the one that people around him pose as normal. Let’s dig into these different situations:

1. You don’t feel successful because you are not moving up in the corporate ladder.

2. You don’t feel successful because people around you don’t see you as successful.

3. You don’t feel successful because you are only doing great in the personal or professional area – and the other one lacks attention.

4. You don’t feel successful because you follow someone else’s definition of success.   All of these problems have solutions and have their own way of dealing with them. Those statements require that you challenge the definition you have of success. Asking  yourself the following questions will assist you to assess in the process of  re-defining success on your own terms.

-Does this definition is aligned with your core values?

-Where does this definition come from?

-Who do you want to please when you set your goals and objectives?

I want to have a more in-depth conversation about the standard definition of success. Indeed, based on our cultural background, religion country of origin, language, we as a group set standard for what success should mean for each of us.  In some region of the world, success is hard work and social status.

In other places, success is strictly oriented toward building a life around family reputation and values. You can also find as well nations who define success on their health or happiness. Human beings are far more way complex and it is important to recognize our uniqueness. Because of this singularity, it is important to consider success related to our desires and our own filters and beliefs, not on other people definition of success.

When You follow someone else’s definition of success you ultimately compromise yourself, your authenticity in addition to your relationships, your support system your health and more. As hard as it is for us to understand and differentiate between our own beliefs and the ones that society poses above us, you want to re-think of the image of a successful person – he is driving a luxury car (or has a driver), she is wearing haute couture clothes, they travel the world, they are brilliant and make at least 7 figures. Everyone has different expectations and needs, different options and decisions to make. To you the small bakery shop on the corner might not be a glamorous success, but the owner’s family is proud of the accomplishment and he doesn’t want to hide it. This leads me to the main idea I want to leave you with- define and measure success in your own terms. Decide what do you feel success is for yourself, write it down and when you feel down about something – look at it. It will motivate you, it would help you change your mindset and get back on track.

Remember that even if you meet someone else’s definition of success, it doesn’t mean you will be happy nor fulfilled. You want to be confident and accepting of your own definition of success if you want to be happy and proud of it. So it’s all up to you to decide what is your goal – to be a VP of a global company, to be a small business owner, or to work as little as possible and have the time and income to be with your family. If you are having problems reaching the success point that you defined – contact us.

We have designed several programs that help you to learn to say “No” to the common definition of success that drags you down and leave you unhappy and to say “Yes’ to true success, the one that leads you to be authentic and content at all times.

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