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Showing posts from March, 2021

Springtime And The Hope Of A New Year

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What a difference a year can make. Last year in March people were scarred, there was a dark cloud hanging over everything. It was unknown how bad the future might actually get. And of course, toilet paper was impossible to find. But a year later, hope is everywhere. It is spring, it is supposed to be in the 70's for Easter weekend, our daughters are returning to the stage for dance, we have avoided getting sick thus far and my wife and I have our appointments for our first dose of the vaccine. And of course, toilet paper is readily available in any store. We are still a long way off from things being like they used to and this virus and the new strains have their risks that don't disappear. But the risks come with hope now rather than hopelessness.  I've talked before about how there is always some hope . Sometimes it is our responsibility to also manufacture some hope for ourselves, and for those around us. We all need hope, sometimes that is all we have left. Luckily it

Copying Is For Cavemen

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It is always good to learn from others. Seeing others successes and mistakes and learning from them to better yourself is how we continue to evolve as a society. Each generation building on the previous one. If we hadn't done that we would still be living in caves trying to figure out how to start a fire. Learning from others is one thing, copying is something completely different. This falls in the same vane of just wanting to be given the instructions or the script to follow so you don't have to think for yourself. I see this all the time in software development. The way the Internet is about anything you want to do is available as sample code that you can download and modify. There are entire applications whose source code is available. You can even download Linux and try your hand at modifying an operating system. When everything is available on the Internet, it becomes super easy to just copy code to try and solve the problem you have. It makes total sense. Why waste hours

Throw Out The User Manual

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One of the biggest traps we fall into is needing to be told what to do. Managers like to create user manuals, employee training, and scripts on how to answer customer questions. This generally trains employees to follow the procedure and ask their manager when it deviates from the documented flow. What happens when it is a problem or question without a defined answer?  I was thinking about this with March Madness and how a basketball team draws up plays, yet great teams know how to stay within the framework of the play yet adapt to the needs of the current situation. Maybe the play is designed to drive to the lane but your opponent has a 7' tall center waiting to block your shot. Maybe the play is designed to hit your shooter beyond the three point line but he is having an off night. In football a running back has a play designed to hit a certain hole in the offensive line, but if the defense clogs that up they need to find another opening to gain yardage. Every sport has a playboo

The Highs And Lows We Face

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When things are going well, you feel great, your confidence is soaring. Confidence leads you to be more energized, bringing high energy usually causes things to go well. Positive energy is a real thing. The more you have the more you send out, the more it comes back to you. But as things are going well it is easy to fall into a trap. Feeling like you have King Midas' touch and you can do no wrong, you start getting cocky and missing things. You can topple very quickly from that mountain top you are on if you aren't careful. When things aren't going well for you, you feel miserable. You feel like everything that can go wrong does. Your confidence wanes with every misstep and problem you face. You become hesitant, overanalyzing every decision and second guessing yourself, expecting your next decision to end in failure causes you to make none. You are caught in a spiral, trapped in a low pit with no way out. Be confident not cocky. Humble but not timid. It is inevitable you wi

Partnership - The Often Forgotten Idea In Good Customer Relationships

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There is an old saying in business, the customer is always right. Ask anyone in business though and you know the customer in fact is not always right. The customer wants what they want, but that doesn't make them right.  Since that saying doesn't work people have tried to come up with ways of saying the customer isn't always right. A number of years ago I heard someone giving a talk and they said the customer isn't always right, but the customer is always true. What they tell you is the truth, or at least what they want you to believe is the truth. I've been in a number of interactions with customers where they state something wrong. It isn't always a lie, sometimes people forget. It might not be intentional but it isn't the truth so that can't be right either. At the end of the day the fact remains the customer wants what the customer wants, and if they don't get what they want they can always take their business elsewhere. Does that mean a business

Strength Training To Carry The Weight Upon Our Shoulders

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Each of us have a certain amount of weight we carry. By weight, I mean our responsibilities, contributions to society, serving our families and workplaces. There are things each of us just need to get done. As a leader, you are in a position where you take on more weight. As I was thinking about this my mind went to weight lifters, or any type of strength training. As people get stronger they are able to lift more weight. Take a simple example, doing push-ups. If you haven't done them in a few weeks, months or even years, the first time you try to do them, maybe just getting to 10 is a chore. Your arms are shaking as you push yourself up and you are astounded at how out of breath you are. But you keep doing them every day. Pretty soon your arms don't shake any more, you can crank out those 10 with no change in your breathing. You realize you can now do more than 10. So you push yourself and keep getting stronger. Day by day your total increases and suddenly you are doing 20, 30

Signs You Are Lazy At Leading People

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I will never deny being a manager of people is hard. When I say manager there are multiple jobs that fall into this category, not just the boss at work. Teachers, coaches, parents and mentors are all in the same group when it comes to overseeing, leading, guiding, and influencing other people. It is hard because every human being is unique and bring their own personality and baggage with them. But just because it is hard does not allow you to be a lazy when it comes to managing people. A lazy people manager does three things: They don't have the hard conversations with individuals - They would rather address a larger group, in a passive aggressive way. Broadly pointing out behaviors they expect to change. The problem is when you address a group the people that most need to listen to it are thinking to themselves they are fine, and you must be talking to someone else. You need to pull the individual aside and let them know specifically what the expectations are and why they aren'

Overcoming Our Selfish Human Nature

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I truly believe human beings are incredibly selfish creatures at our core. There is something inside all of us that causes us to want to take care of ourselves first. There is probably something in our core as a mammal which makes us prone to a base flight or fight mentality. Of course we aren't surviving in the wild or being hunted, but it is still in our nature. You see it when we compare ourselves to others, it is that same base instinct coming out.  For most people, when they recognize they are being selfish the want to ensure they are not viewed that way. Doing the little things like saying please and thank you, acknowledging to others when we fall down, and helping others out counter balances our selfish impulses. Two things come into play, causing us to show our selfish nature. One of course is the fact that we are selfish at our core, it is a base characteristic we have. The other is understanding when we are under pressure our base habits and traits come out. Pressure can

It Is Not About Being The Expert, Just Increase Your Expertise

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I was thinking about experts recently. One of the reasons it was on my mind stemmed from the COVID situation and how much we think about what the experts are saying. We desire experts to provide us all of the answers and to never be wrong. Many are frustrated because different experts and "experts" have made different claims on how things will go over the past year, and they are continuing to make predictions for a go forward plan. Chances are no prediction that is perfect, some are closer than others, but it is impossible to predict the future. Yet when it doesn't happen like you expect the expert gets ridiculed. Being an expert does not mean you have all the answers, you just have more than most of the people around you. I see this at work, for myself and for others. At my company I've become the so called expert on a couple of platforms. The main reason is because I was the first person to start working with them so I simply have the benefit of having a head start.