Attitude and Perspective
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Mediocre Attitudes And The Downfall of Greatness
It all started innocently enough as I was looking for casters. I had this idea for a piece of exercise equipment and decided to build a prototype but I needed casters - those swivel wheels that go under office chairs, carts, etc. I had to ask three sales clerks where to find them in the big box hardware store before the third clerk actually looked in the computer to figure out where they stocked them. Reluctantly, I purchased four casters from them. It turns out that it wasn't just the service that was lousy.
The Attitude of "Good Enough"
If you've been watching TV recently, you will have seen the new commercials for GM. GM is now touting their quality - something the average consumer is certainly not used to seeing GM do. It first surprised me a little that GM decided it was time to start marketing quality over price. This is not something I'm used to from GM. In fact, not too long ago, there were commercials on television selling GM cars at one dollar over invoice. Quality wasn't an issue then. It was all about price. But now, it's all about quality. But is it?
#1 In Sales Means Nothing
The sign in the front window of my local UPS Store reads. "#2 Store in Canada." I laugh every time I see it. It's too rare that you see a sign reading "#2" in anything. I get it though. Wayne and the staff at my UPS Store do a great job and give great service. They're always busy. Apparently they're busy enough to be #2 in Canada in volume. And if next year they're #3, I'm sure that's what the sign will read. But what about this #1 Salesman stuff or Salesman of the Year? Does it matter?
Why Teamwork is a Bad Idea
Before you think teamwork is the answer and spend large sums of money on “team-building” exercises, maybe you should consider whether your place of business needs teams at all. Perhaps more would get done by leaving your people alone to do what they already excel at. Forcing people to join teams simply for the sake of “inclusion” is a bad idea. The 20-60-20 rule applies to all organizations, companies, committees and teams. The top twenty percent of the members will be go-getters – those who want to change the world before five o’clock.
The Hard Truth About Soft-Skills
There are 350,000 opinions (books) on “leadership” on Amazon. Corporate America can’t seem to draw a consensus on what leadership is so it’s really no big surprise that Corporate America can’t figure out what soft-skills are and why they are important either. You know, for being such a dominating force in the world of business, we really don’t have a clue about the stuff that REALLY makes business run.
The iPod and the Downfall of Social Interaction
How many times have you placed a call to a client, a business or a colleague or friend only to reach voice mail? Then within two or three minutes of leaving your message they call you right back. Sometimes they’re honest about it and sometimes they lie but they’ve really been using voice mail to screen their calls. This is just one of a long list of items of what is wrong with Corporate America. We don’t allow people talk to us anymore.
Instant Leaders Overnight
The Global Leadership Forecast 2008/09 researched 12,208 business executives and 1493 Human Resource professionals across 76 countries. Seventy-five percent of executives surveyed identified improving their leadership talent as their #1 priority for organizational success. But the vast majority of those same respondents have no idea of exactly what leadership is. It is astounding that so many people, when asked to define leadership, can have so many varying answers. In fact, there are 350,000 books on Amazon with "Leadership" in the title. That's 350,000 opinions on what leadership is.
Leadership and Management Are Opposites
Log into any business networking site, like LinkedIn or Ryze, and almost daily will you see someone asking a question attempting to determine the difference between Leadership and Management. What are really interesting are the people who are asking: people in management or leadership positions.
Good Business Attitude Comes from Consequences
Consequences are the guideposts of your moral compass. If there were no consequences, people would run roughshod over each other. Items in your garage would be stolen by your neighbors. Police forces would become irrelevant. You would leave the doors unlocked because, what’s the point? Business would hire Grade 6 dropouts into senior management positions. You get the idea.
***Career or Job?
I met Wendy years ago when I took a job as a restaurant manager. For me, the management position was a job. It wasn’t my career as I hadn’t prepared myself to become a restaurant manager. Heck, I’d never even worked in a restaurant prior. But I had eaten in plenty of restaurants. I had a good ...
***Is Stress Really the Problem?
The Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health conducted a survey to determine the Top Ten Stressors at work. Here they are:nn * 10. "The treadmill syndrome" - Employees who consistently have too much or too little to do create a lot of stress.n * 9. "Random ...