Posted: June 22, 2012 | Categories: Leadership, Self-Improvement

When I am coaching teams, one of the key components I use is a working agreement.  To maximize ownership, working agreement is built by input from the entire team.  Each team member is asked to write down all key characteristics and qualities of a working environment that enables them to be the most productive.  One word that has been popping up more frequently is “fun”.  In addition to all that good stuff like a sense of belonging, self-fulfillment, and good benefits, they want to have fun!

At first, some seem timid when they suggest “fun” to be on the menu.  Possibly they are afraid that they will be perceived as not taking their work seriously.  Let’s remember what baseball great Harry Caray once said:  “I take my responsibility seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously” Say what you want about Harry Caray…he knew how to have fun.

In his best-selling book, The Happiness Advantage, Harvard Scholar Shawn Achor has concluded that “bosses who discourage fun for their employees are at a double disadvantage, because they tend to be people who are most negative themselves.  In short, sacrificing fun in the name of time management and efficiency actually slows us down”

Southwest Airlines is the only major commercial air carrier that has made a profit every year they have been in business.  Here are their top three priorities in order of importance:

1.  Employees are #1

2.  Having fun

3.  Making the customer happy

If you have ever flown on Southwest Airlines, you probably know what I mean.  They are one zany bunch.  They even went so far as to do a rap song to deliver the standard safety message required before each takeoff.

Here are some ways we can make work more fun:

1. Check your fuel gauge before the day begins.  Thoreau referred to the first hour of the day as the “Golden Hour”.  He believed that our thoughts and attitude in this time frame were critical to our attitude the remainder of the day.  We must do what it takes to get our attitudes on “full”.  Do some inspirational reading, listen to some zesty music, or watch a motivational video.
2. Plan your day well.  Dr. Hans Seyle said, “A successful life is a series of successful days”.  If we want to feel fulfilled at the end of the day, we need to plan it well.  We all know what happens when we don’t plan our day well:  We end up caught in the trap of hurry and indecision.
3. Make a game out of it:  If we have tasks to do, we can set a goal and see if we can beat it.  Occasionally, when I have some tedious work to do, I will use my stop watch on my cell phone, and track my time per item.  Of course, the goal is to keep improving on the time without compromising the quality of my work.
4. Have your favorite video and audio clips available when you need a pick-me-up.  I have mine.  One of them is a famous Three Stooges clip.  Another is the MAD TV Bob Newhart clip called “Stop it”.  It is always good for laughs, and helps get me back on track when I get in to a funk.
5. Take breaks:  A walk around the block or a breath of fresh air can reduce stress and spark creativity.
6. Play a game with co-workers.  This can be anything from dollar-bill poker to video basketball.  It is a complete diversion, and it is fun.

 If none of these appeal to you, just Google, “Ways to have more fun at work”, and you will find scores of additional ideas.  I close with a quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer:  “There is no way to happiness…happiness is the way.”

Posted: May 29, 2012 | Categories: Management, Self-Improvement

Having more free time is great…but…

What if you awoke tomorrow morning to discover you had been given all the money you needed and could do or own anything your heart desired?  In addition, as a bonus, you have been given all the free time you desired.  Does that sound like a nice picture to be in?  Not so fast.  Studies have shown that people who win big in the lottery do not necessarily become the happiest people.  It has also been noted in the book, “The Millionaire Next Door” that 70% of all millionaires did not get their money from inheritance.

Just having what we wish for does not automatically mean we will manage well.  Managing money and time takes skill and  discipline.

Some of you may have heard of Parkinson’s Law.  It says, “Work expands to fill the amount of time available” I remember one time when I was involved in a weekly evening commitment that lasted once a week for 14 weeks.  Towards the end, I was thinking, “That will be neat with I get that extra day back.  There is so much I could get to”

The end of the commitment came, and what did I find myself doing on that newly re-gained evening?  Yes, I decided to just crash and watch television – for the most part, a passive activity.   There were all these hobbies I had thought about starting, and groups that I wanted to join and courses I wanted to take.   All that stayed in the deep freeze.  I fell victim to Parkinson’s Law.

This taught me a lesson:  If I work on my time management skills to free up extra time, I need to have a plan for what I will do with that time.   I enjoy working on my scrapbook, riding bikes, being involved in Church activities, and spending time in our den engaged in quality conversation with my wife.  So you might be saying, “Hey, that is fine for you.  For me, I just want to lie in the hammock” No problem.  If you have taken time to think of what is important to you, and lying in the hammock is at the top of the list, go for it.  The key here is that you activity is intentional, and not by default.  Who knows, you may dream up the world’s next greatest invention while in the hammock, or figure out a way to communicate better with your kids.

Let’s boil it down to five steps:

1. Decide how much time you want to free up.
2. Take inventory of your time.
3. Ask yourself:  What can I combine, eliminate, or delegate?
4. Compute the amount of free time you will free up.
5. Make a plan for how you will improve the quality of your life with that time

Posted: March 26, 2012 | Categories: Management, Self-Improvement

One thing I love about coaching is the opportunity to get to what is most important.  In every conversation I have with clients and teams, they all start the same way.  It all boils down to focus and desired outcome.  What my clients are really saying is, “This is my “Here and now” and here is my “then and there”…How I get there?

The outcome of such a conversation always involves one or both of two components:  Building a new competency or skill and forming a new habit.

This morning I was talking to a client who was looking to connect with a person in a key position.  Jim had been thinking about calling the VP for several months.  He kept postponing the phone call.  So what was getting in the way?  Selling skills.  We did some role-playing practicing some key fundamentals, and at the end of the conversation Bill had both a commitment and eagerness to call the prospect.

Jim’s situation is one we can probably all relate to in some way:  When we are avoiding doing something that needs to be done, there is a reason.  If we can identify the reason, we can make the adjustment in our skill or habits to turn it around.  The other option is to keep avoiding the task, and we all know the definition of insanity.  Simply put, “If nothing changes, nothing changes”.

From this point on, as Jim and I continue to work together, he will become more and more competent in his selling skills.  As he does, sales will become easier and more enjoyable.  In time, what was once avoided will become a productive habit.  His skill and attitude will have changed, and making this new activity into a habit will be a natural evolutionary process.

Here is what we can do right now:

Ask ourselves:

1.  Am I where I want to be in my career and life?
2. What new habit or skill do I need to move forward?

Once we have  determined the key action we need to take, remember the 4 rules to build a new habit or skill:

1. Seize the first opportunity
2. Launch the strongest possible initiative
3. Keep the faculty of effort alive with daily practice
4. Never allow an exception to occur

It’s simple! (But not easy)

Posted: March 20, 2012 | Categories: Self-Improvement

If we are strong achievers, most of us have had the experience of being overwhelmed to the point where we say:

What’s the use?

I can’t catch up.

I am working around the clock with no end in sight

The irony is, most people I know who have achieved something they are proud of end up going through plenty of frustration.  If it were an easy achievement, we probably wouldn’t be that proud of it.

I was talking with a client last week who had reached a frustration point:  He was a regional manager, and was overwhelmed with constantly changing new policies and procedures in addition to taking assessments and getting new certifications.  He was required to get his team of 12 on board with the new mandates, and they were already overwhelmed with their time management challenges.   We put a focus on the problem.  First, we looked at his planning habits.  As pointed out in the planning blog last December, that is usually the first place to look when we want to manage our time better.  Bill (not his real name) was doing a good job of planning.  The next thing we did was look at time management goals.  A time management goals represents a new habit that we need to form.  New habits are the only way we can improve or time management skills.  After all, if it was a present habit, we would already be doing it!

I challenged Bill to consider what habit he could build that would help him.  In thinking through his situation, he discovered he worked more efficiently when he wrote up his reports right away after a meeting, rather than type them up after he got home.  He found that this habit kept him from bleeding in to his family time, and it also saved time, since the most efficient time to write the report was while his thoughts were fresh. All in all, he found he saved 30 minutes a day by building this new habit.  No big deal?  Consider this:  That is 2 ½ additional work weeks a year.  That is just from one habit. So how do you find what new habit would make a big difference for you?  Here are three steps I would recommend:

Do a time log and list all the things you do in your day

Ask yourself:

What can I combine?

What can I eliminate?

What can I delegate?

When you target the new habit, commit to tending to it daily until it is second nature.  This could take three weeks, or it could take six months.  Stay with it!

Posted: March 15, 2012 | Categories: Management, Self-Improvement

 There are some indicators that our economy is getting better, and you may be one of those whose business and profits are robust.  If so, here is some wisdom I will pass along to you courtesy of the late Peter Drucker:

“An organization should not grow faster than its ability to manage”

 That is the “what”.  Now we can turn to Ben Franklin to get a better idea of “how”.

Benjamin Franklin built his success on defining and living by clearly defined virtues.  He used these virtues every day to check the rightness of his actions or thoughts.  He originally had 12 virtues.  After a short time, he realized he needed to add one more – humility.  As he put it, “Every time I find myself getting very good at something, I start to feel too proud about it”

In his painfully helpful book, “How the Mighty Fall”, “Good to great” author Jim Collins analyzes five key phases in the decline of success.  Sears, GM, Motorola, and Circuit City are some examples he studied.  Here are the five steps as outlined by Mr. Collins:

1. Hubris born of success

2. Undisciplined pursuit of more

3. Denial of risk and peril

4. Grasping for salvation

5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death

He also emphasized that stage #1, “Hubris of success”, is the trigger that leads to the remaining steps of decline.

Let’s see how Webster’s Dictionary defines “hubris” and “humility”

Humility:  Refrain from boasting. Minimize personal accomplishments in favor or building others.

Hubris:  Wanton insolence or arrogance resulting from excessive pride.

Which word do you like better?  (I thought so)

Many businesses believe that their toughest challenge is generating more revenue.  In my experience, I find that the most stressful situation is when we are making tons of money.  There is a strong tendency to let our pride get out of hand, and when that happens, we can make some stupid decisions.

GM didn’t see foreign cars as a threat.  Sears didn’t take Wal-Mart seriously.  Motorola chose to be more engineering driven that customer driven.  As Mr. Collins puts it, “they lost sight of the underlying factors that created their success in the first place.”

So if you are at the top of your game, and enjoying profits beyond your dreams, take some time to do the following:

1. List the underlying factors that created your success

2. Determine which one needs the most attention

3. List and commit to one or two specific action steps you can do to improve the area of focus.

Have a “healthy discontent” with where you are at!