Cover Your A!

People often ask me why I named my company CYA? Well, I didn’t.  A friend came up with it after I explained what the intended purpose was going to be. Plus, I shared with him that I wanted to leave a legacy to my grandsons.  He said, “you should call it: CYA” which is the first initial of my oldest grandsons’ first names (Andrew and Christopher), combined with the first initial of my first name.  My intended purpose was to help non-profits develop ways to evaluate their successes and accomplishments.  This idea came from my serving on several community boards where each Board meeting there was a request for ‘more’, but no proof that what the agency was doing was actually working.  My training and interests at the time were Program Evaluation, and I was equipped with skills to develop surveys, convene focus groups, and generally track results and milestones.  So, voila! The name CYA fit! Over time, however, I found that governmental entities and small businesses, in particular, could also benefit from my work.

BUT, whenever I explained these truths to people who asked me ‘why CYA?”, they simply did not believe my answer.  So, I soon developed a much more accepting and conceivable response.  I came up with the following explanation to satisfy other people’s curiosity, and it works!

CYA stands for Cover Your Assets! The Assets are these:

Accessibility—Your office door is open, your desk is moved against the wall so that you can turn around and look at the person who is in your office, not just sit across the desk from them;

Availability—You are actually fully engaged in what the person is bringing to your attention, you are not answering your phone, looking at your watch, watching your screen(s), or talking to someone else;

Affability—You are kind and respectful, not angry because you have been interrupted or trying to hurry the person out of your space;

Accountability—You are agreeing to follow-through with what is being asked of you, or not agreeing with an explanation of why not.

And, then there is Agreeability which could get you in trouble.  If you agree to something, and fail to act on it—boom!—your credibility is out the window.  In the world of performance excellence, we call the commitment: promise on delivery! You must get all the facts before agreeing to complete a task.  Once you agree, however, the griping stops because agreeability is not just going along to get along, it is following through with what you agreed to do with a smile.

The Abilene Paradox is a story that exemplifies how agreeing might not always be the best decision. Copy the link below into your browser to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox