I couldn’t even imagine

                                                                              

hiring 99 out of 100! 

As you may know, I taught college (business, psychology, career development, creative writing) for many years, full time at Ocean County Coillege, parttime at Pace University and Georgian Court College and with the US Army Columbia College Extension Program.  At present, I’m loosely attached to the corporate training program of a small community college. 

     So, let’s say I have some sense of what college life is all about. 

     Or did!  Today that little piece of enlightened experience was smashed to smithereens.  Well, okay, it was severely dented; I’ve just been waiting a while to find someplace where I could sneek in that smithereens expression; it’s such a cool phrase. 

     Anyway, today I had occasion to be (what I felt like was) the oldest living human being in the middle of one of America’s largest and most populated university campuses. 

     My educated, experienced, objective observations?  99 out of 100 college students are just big high school students, and that’s a gracious understatement. 

     Walking through noontime clouds of cigarette and marijuana smoke, I thought I was thrown back into a time tunnel visiting San Francisco academic institutions in the early 70’s.  Aw, c’mon, Hal, there’s no more drugs and smoking on America’s campuses.  Right.   

     Overhearing how wonderful Obama’s decision was to consider adopting a puppy (nothing about the rest of his press conference, or unanswered questions about taxes, forthcoming Cabinet composition, exchanges with President Bush and all the former living Presidents, a peculiar side comment about Nancy Reagan, etc.), I was reminded of the lectures I used to give on selective perception, or, essentially, hearing only what one wants to hear. 

     At least a dozen students slept soundly (or were perhaps unconscious?) on benches and couches as thousands rushed past them to packed café tables brimming with pizza and beer pitcher lunches (Aw, c’mon, Hal, there’s no more drinking on America’s campuses.  Right.) . . . and more smoke. 

     Oh, and I was very nearly blinded by glittery body jewelry (counting, of course, only what was above, between, or creeping out of clothing, or those marvelous little glistening moments of illumination bursting forth from various tongues whenever the sun hit conversing, gasping, laughing, or drooling mouths at the right angle) . . . enough gold, silver, platinum, brass, bronze, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, to fill a flaming footlocker. 

     Now, I don’t much care how weird a lot of people choose to look; I’ve been there myself; but the pervasiveness of immature attitudes and behaviors that seem to be driven by unorthodox clothes (or lack of), makeup, jewelry, hairstyles and colors left me wondering about the challenge of corporate recruitment efforts, and the slim pickin’s American management has today in the business world. 

     I acknowledge this may not be the case when it comes to filling those beyond-IT-related positions, where wild and wooly and bizarre personalities seem to thrive. 

     So the new corporate America management teams need first and foremost to be surrogate parents, yes?  Go ahead, tell me what you think.  Tell me I’m wrong.  I hope I am.  I couldn’t even imagine hiring 99 out of 100 of the thousands I passed today. 

     That’s a sad commentary on parenting, on educational discipline, and on the take-everything-for-granted lifestyles that permeate today’s young people, descendents of the yuppies!  The times they are a changin’, sang Bob Dylan . . .  Halalpiar         

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     I’m not sure why

     . . . I choose right now to share this, perhaps just a whim, but I ran across some old lesson notes from my professor days and the following paraphrase that students used to love.  It’s of James Aggrey’s “The Parable of the Eagle” as represented in the classic 1971 Addison-Wesley Gestalt book on transactional analysis: Born To Win by Murial James and Dorothy Jongeward.  I thought you might enjoy it, and may want to share it with someone special:

Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a certain man found a young eagle.  He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat chicken feed and to behave as chickens behave.

One day, a naturalist who was passing by inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens.

“Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly,” replied the owner.  “It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.”

“Still,” insisted the naturalist. “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”

After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible.  Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth your wings and fly.”  The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and, seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle on the following day up on the roof of the house, and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle.  Stretch forth your wings and fly.”  But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food.

On the third day, the naturalist rose early anfd took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain.  There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle.  You belong to the sky as well as to the earth.  Stretch forth your wings now and fly.”

The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky.  Still he did not fly.  Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble, slowly he stretched his wings.  At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he even occasionally revisits the barnyard.  But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.  He was an eagle thought he had been kept and tamed as a chicken.

     Just like the eagle, say James and Jongeward, a person who has learned to think of herself or himself as something she or he isn’t, can re-decide in favor of her or his real potential . . . and become a winner! 

     You may need a helper, and just the thought of leaving the barnyard may make you tremble, but taking flight? — It’s a choice!  

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No matter how you feel,

                                             

do not give up your right

                                                           

and responsibility to vote. 

                                                             

     Today, Tuesday, November 4th, we name a new leader of the free world. 

     And tomorrow, the order of the day –and the many days, and perhaps years, that follow– will be compromise. 

     No American President can ever serve the Presidency as an effective leader without respect for the Presidency from those who are, and who support, the defeated.  Why?  Because leadership requires cooperation and teamwork to achieve objectives that bring benefit to the majority, including the losers. 

     So, today, Election Day, is a day of reckoning, but tomorrow and every day thereafter needs to be a day of compromise and acceptance and moving forward using the strength of the best dreams, goals and resources that remain available. 

     For a future that serves us all, regardless of personal preferences and political alignments, the next four years’ worth of Tomorrows calls for active listening, and patience, and openness, and receptivity from each of us. 

     It requires that we make the most of what we have to work with and believe in, to achieve lasting peace, meaningful progress . . . and abundance of life, health, wealth, and spirit in the next four years, for ourselves and our families. 

     It requires that we each reach agreement with ourselves to pursue these values for our children, for our grandchildren, and for preservation of  balanced life on this fragile planet.     

     May God Bless our new leaders and give them the wisdom, vision, foresight and strength to captain our ship through the storms ahead.  

     No matter how you feel, do not give up your right and responsibility to vote.   Halalpiar 

Note http://blog.igburton.com for my new two-part blog series (Part I tonight and Part II this coming Thursday) on STOP HOLIDAY DRIVING STRESS . . . good stuff for all of us!     

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DO I HAVE TO DO

EVERYTHING MYSELF?

     How many times have you made (or heard) this complaint?  One reason new businesses fail is that the entrepreneurial founders feel like they have to do everything themselves, or else . . .

     Or else WHAT? 

     Or else it won’t get done right?  What is “right”?  Who says what is “right” and what is “wrong”?   

     Don’t you really mean to say that “No one else will do this task the way I would do it”?  Well, Sherlock, that’s probably close to 100% true in every instance! 

     It’s not likely ANYone will ever do ANYthing exactly the way you would because no one else could possibly be as motivated as you because it’s not her or his business.  It’s YOUR business. 

     So what’s the next best way to deal with things?  If you’re lucky and have been careful in recruiting and hiring, you should be reasonably able to expect that someone else really should be able to do whatever task that’s asked of him or her, and be able to get it done in a manner that you should be able to live with (assuming that the end result is the same as it would have been had you done things your way). 

     But, you know what?  If you can’t tolerate someone else’s method (assuming the other person’s time and expenses are not totally out of whack), you need to either get on with doing the task yourself and not bitching about it, and realizing you’ve stumbled onto a roadblock to your business’s growth . . . or turn your business over to someone else and go get another life. 

     Delegating is not easy when you’re used to doing everything yourself, but your business can’t grow if you can’t get others to get the job done. 

     Delegation requires encouragement, training and back-up support, and incentives.  Small frequent rewards work wonders.  So does a physical pat on the back for a job well done (regardless of whether it was accomplished in exactly the same way you would have done it or not), a handwritten note, recognition in a news release or on a plaque or certificate, or a special bonus or reward that fits that person’s needs. 

     Only you can decide what motivates best and you can only do that by getting to know what makes each individual tick!  That means you need to get to know those who work for and around you well enough to help them achieve what’s important to them!       halalpiar

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. . . SO GO WITH THE FLOW!

     Today was one of those days.  I woke up with a smile, a full agenda, and a plan I looked forward to implementing, everything figured out and scheduled on a timeline. 

     But the help I’d planned on never materialized and 42 personalized client news releases weren’t going to get distributed unless I did the grunt work myself.  The best I could do for the first six people I called was leave voicemails.  The dog had bad breath and my shoelace broke.  You get the picture. 

     The whole day was headed down the tubes, but I decided to heed my own advice and “g o   w i t h   t h e   f l o w.” 

     In the softball game I squeezed in at lunchtime, I produced three pitiful infield hits and was safe on an error, but, hey, four times on base for four times up, y’know?  And I scored twice and got 2 RBI’s, but ONLY because I decided to run my butt off from the moment of contact and not give up, and ONLY because instead of cursing and throwing my bat after such feeble hitting, I stood catching my breath and laughing with the first baseman who said he was getting sick of seeing me. 

     In distributing the news releases, I uncovered bad contact information for five key reporters and was able to update the master list.  (The help I didn’t get would not have known this, and releases would have been wasted.) 

     It turned storm-level windy this afternoon, killing plans to cookout, but ending up with some super pasta, and being prompted to notice and repair a beleagured windchime! 

     I could go on, but you already know –as Paul Harvey says– the rest of the story! 

     You’ve been there and done that! 

     So, all this is is (is is is like that that?) a reminder to make the most of everyday as best you can by going with whatever lands on your plate, in your lap or on your shoulders. 

     Being happy and helping others be happy is a whole lot more rewarding (and healthy) than sweeping unexpected events you know where in order to pile drive through your task list.  Of course it helps to have a role model in your life, and I do, which is how I know about “Happy-makers.”  I’m married to one!     

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Blood-sucking is a

commonly-shared trait.

     Have you noticed that everyone these days lays claim to be (or clearly evidences being)  from a dysfunctional family?  Now, who am I to doubt that?  I mean don’t we all? 

     Hmmmmm!  Well, actually, if you start to think about that with any kind of effort, you’re probably no longer alive because you probably scared yourself to death, right? 

     So, if you’re already dead and you’re reading this, that might suggest you are somewhat dysfunctional yourself.  Anyway, if it’s true that we ALL come from dysfunctionality (and that definitely appears to be the case last time I checked around), what’s left?  Zombies?  Vampires?  Politicians? 

     Zombies, vampires and politicians.  Now there’s an exciting group!  Sure, these are really normal kinds of individuals.  And I’m not certain of this, but I think I might have read somewhere that blood-sucking is a commonly-shared trait among those who follow in the footprints (?) of these three societal scavengers.  

     And are all three (zombie, vampire, politician) labels representative of categories of individuals we popularly believe to be strutting their stuff (oh, sorry, zombies are probably better known for plodding, stomping, and foot-dragging)? 

     Perhaps it would be more accurate to attribute to them the characteristic of having an inflated sense of self-importance?  Do any of them, after all, march to the beat of different drummers?  Or is it dysfunctional drummers? 

     Like I said, who am I to judge?  All I know is that I’m tired of big-talk do-nothing politicians (including two prominent ones from Delaware), and that given the choice, I’d prefer to have vampires running the show.  At least when vampires come at you, they’ve got their fangs out and you know where you stand.  Zombies?  Well, we’ve already got those! 

     We surely could use a new State Governor and US Senator who are willing to put their fangs out and take a bite or two out of the real problems in Delaware that are begging for help.  Not just the economy, y’all!

     What’s with our educational programs that Sen Biden brags about having helped?(Delaware ranks 44th out of 50 states in literacy!) 

     What’s with the energy alternatives our Governor has flatout refused to get involved with?  (Greedy fossil fuel power plant management has fought windfarms and high-tech coal-washing processes tooth and nail, relentlessly, for years because to do otherwise would cost them money.  Instead, they have been literally spitting on public outcrys and studies proving toxic damage threats to the health of State residents and entire communities . . . and now they offer us band-aids for our cancer clusters!). 

     What’s with immigration controls rejected by or not acted upon by Delaware’s political leadership (and who reportedly support programs that grant illegal immigrants the same rights as Native Americans and legal American citizens)?

     And healthcare? It won’t matter if we get universal healthcare coverage or thousands of dollars to spend on healthcare, Delaware has lousy healthcare.  Find a place where you can get a new patient appointment, and you’ll find inadequate or inexperienced (or both) practitioners.  Find more than one medical facility that can hold a candle to those in NY or Philadelphia or Baltimore.  Go ahead!  I dare you!             halalpiar               

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Do you work for a

bunch of pushers? 

Well, it looks like another big-time management theory has just bumped itself over the horizon by virtue of a new book, The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth, by J.C.Larreche. 

Larreche is an INSEAD Graduate Business School Marketing Professor.  He categorizes businesses as “Pushers,” or “Plodders,” or “Pioneers.”

• Pushers push their businesses hard traditionally seeking to drive sales through aggressive marketing increases. 
• Plodders are safety zone status-quo-invested businesses that maintain constant marketing-to-sales ratios. 
• Pioneers cut traditional marketing expenses to explore, discover, and cultivate other more creative and more effective avenues of growth, reducing advertising-to-sales ratios despite overall expense increases

The author contends that research he’s done uses Dow Jones Index markers and proves the revenue growth of Pioneer businesses measured over two decades ends up 93% better (almost twice as dramatic an increease) over Pusher businesses that spent considerably more in traditional “spend money to make money” marketing mindsets, while Pioneers and Pushers, both, left the Plodders in the dust!

Okay, so how does this translate for small business?  Slow down the push to be like everyone else in the market, and step up some new industry and community leadership approaches that will set you apart from the rest of the pack. 

If it feels like too big of a risk to suddenly start trying to do things differently, that’s a signal from the secure little competitive corner of your brain that you should do it!

Wasn’t it your Grandaddy that told you something like “Nothing ventured, nothing . . .”?

Remember that Momentum Leaders are, as Professor Larreche exclaims, “not lucky — they are smart.”  He says that managers often talk about “riding the wave,” but that Momentum Leaders aren’t so passive.  They believe you must first build your wave, then ride it.                   halalpiar 

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Hold Your Next Meeting

S T A N D I N G ! 

It’s your company or professional practice, division, department, team or work group . . . and meetings are eating up valuable time that needs to be used more productively.  Welcome to the majority, dear boss!  You are not alone in your frustration.  There ARE however some steps you can take to eliminate or minimize the impact of time-wasting get-togethers. 

Here are two first steps you may want to consider:

     First, accept the fact that it’s worth taking the risk of changing your approach to meetings!  What’s the worst that could happen?  Next, take a minute to write a summary sentence of what a typical meeting is like and what’s typically wrong. 

Then, think on the sentence you wrote as you consider the following questions:

• Do you use an agenda?  Is it circulated a day or two ahead of time so others can contribute topics under the (usually last, in case time runs out) new business section?  Is the agenda posted on newsprint or a posterboard or whiteboard or someplace where all can see it and keep track of topics and progress during the meeting? 
• Do agenda points have names or initials of those designated or responsible next to each?  Is the agenda a reasonable length given the alloted time?  Do you STICK to the agenda?  Do you step up to tell someone who’s strayed from the agenda that this meeting needs to stay on the agenda and that the point raised is a good one but needs to be dealt with separately after the meeting or with a separate session?
• Do you hold regular ongoing “status report” type meetings at regular set times at the beginning of every week or, in some cases when needed, at the beginning of every day?  Do you hold special monthly, quarterly, annual or semi-annual, or weekend retreat meetings?  Are these planned well in advance?
• Are ONLY those whose input is essential invited to your meetings?  Are people kept captive in your meetings for an hour or more when they need only be present for a five or ten-minute hunk of time, and could more easily be scheduled in a specific times on the agenda?  Do you remember to ALWAYS praise in public and criticize in private? 
• Do you solicit input from those attending or have them serve as an audience?
• Do you take notes and specifically request that all attendees take handwritten notes?  (Laptops are too distracting!)  Are follow-up issues given (and held to) deadlines or due dates?  Are expectations about follow-up actions clear to everyone involved?  You’re sure?
• Do you always start and end every meeting at exactly the times you advertise? 

     If you’ve been doing all or most of these things, and STILL have a meeting problem, remove the chairs from the meeting room, and conduct your next meeting STANDING!  Watch how fast things move and how little B.S. comes to the surface! 

     Finally, remember that:

 The more you manage by walking around, the less you’ll need to manage by sitting around!

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Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

    “WE DON’T SWIM

     IN YOUR TOILET

   . . . SO DON’T YOU

     PEE IN OUR POOL!”

      As a youngster, I remember snickering at seeing one of these comedic placards that you always find in tourist trap souvenir stores (and the one next to my friend’s father’s fish tank!).

     Well, you know what?  That maybe-not-so-silly little pool rule seems to me to have some surprisingly important value when you apply the notion to working in someone else’s office, joining in someone else’s conversation, sitting in on someone else’s meeting, visiting in someone else’s home, entering someone else’s private space, and being entrusted to spend someone else’s money. 

     Break it down and it’s all about respect, which sometimes these days appears to be going the way of buggy whips, 8-track cassettes, and carbon paper.  The only trouble is that buggy whips, 8-track cassettes, and carbon paper are all things, and have all been replaced by newer better stuff.  Respect (aka R-E-S-P-E-C-T, as in the song!), though, is a value, not a thing.  And I’ve never heard of an adequate substitute. 

     We speak of having to earn respect.  We’re told as children to respect our elders . . . and keep a respectful distance from the neighborhood mongrel, and from strangers who offer candy.  Yet, something here is missing. 

How many friends, family members and work associates can you honestly say you respect? 

How many do you think respect you? 

(Have you earned it?) 

How important is respect to your life pursuits? 

Your career? 

Your love life? 

Your feelings about your SELF? 

     What can you do to make this better than it is, or turn it around if it’s headed in the wrong direction?  What specific steps can you take now that are genuine (vs. quick-fix), to help yourself gain greater respect from others?  How much of your answer to the last question relates to the amount of respect you put out to those around you?

     A good place to start may be to take inventory so that you have a clearer image of those who are “around you”!   Draw a target —three or four concentric circles— on paper and decide who is closest to you (put them or he or she in the middle circle), next closest person/people (next ring), and so forth.  Of course, include animals if you like. 

     A few rings worth will give you a more accurate and balanced and realistic idea than the image you may have of these relationships that you carry around in your head.  If you’re happy with your circles, congratulations!  If you think you can do better, the R-E-S-P-E-C-T song isn’t a bad place to begin!  (Oh, and by the way, there is no end to respecting others!) 

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Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

COMIN’ OUT!

 

                                                

No, it’s not a reference to a specific type of celebration party, or to an at-long-last exit from one’s closet.  COMIN’  OUT! is a cry you can hear in almost every town across America every summer on every baseball and softball field! 

It’s the BP (batting practice) pitcher yelling to all those in the field to be alert and pay attention and don’t turn your back on the ball because the batting practice pitches are about to commence and the batting practice hitters will be trying to hit the batting practice pitches down the batting practice fielders’ throats!   

When an irate customer, business client or partner, patient or associate decides to throw a tantrum (or toss out a bombardment of accusations, half-truths or outright lies . . . in person or via email), don’t turn your back on the ball; it could hit you in the back of your head! 

Regardless of the indignant individual’s motivation to exercise pent up frustrations, flex political muscle, show off, play one upmanship or activate a superiority (or inferiority) complex, don’t waste time being analytical . . . and PLEASE:  don’t react!  Think respond, not react!  If you don’t react, you can never over-react!  The old saying still rings true that it takes two to tango! 

If you’ve mentally and emotionally prepared yourself in advance for such an eventuality, you won’t have to get your glove and get in the game; you’ll already be there! 

It’s easier than it might seem.  (Remember, since every behavior is a choice —yes, it is!— you can CHOOSE for it to be easy or, if you have masochistic tendencies, then go ahead and CHOOSE for it to be hard!) 

Simply imagine you’re in the field, glove in hand, and the pitcher yells over her or his shoulder, COMIN’ OUT!  Then turn to face the ball and get ready to catch it, even if it appears to be heading somewhere else.  Why?  It never hurts to be ready.  Be, as any good Boy Scout will tell you, prepared!  (I didn’t say “neurotic,” mind you, just “prepared.”)

For openers, most human beings caught off-guard by COMIN’ OUT! circumstances can benefit by taking a couple of deep breaths(to circulate oxygen and make the brain more alert, and to circulate blood flow and make the muscles more relaxed), which serves to pull the fuse out of the tendency to react! 

For closers, be persistently objective and unemotional in responding [The Adult ego-state in Transactional Analysis].  Attempt to get the whiner/complainer/bitcher/screamer/fist-pounder person to   s  l  o  w     d  o  w  n  and deal with each issue on a one-at-a-time basis.  Upset people tend to bunch together an avalanche of problems and issues, none of which can of course be addressed or resolved, buried under so many others. 

No guarantees with any of this except that —for sure— you will handle COMIN’ OUT! situations better having thought about best practice responses than you ever would with your back to home plate!

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!