Archive for the ‘Workplace Performance’ Category

No stories, please

Monday, February 26th, 2024

Business is filled with obstacles that we need to overcome and get through. The only thing that really works is an inner drive with complete commitment along with innovation and an unstoppable approach.

Obstacles will happen every day. When they see an obstacle, many people begin to craft their story of why the obstacle is the reason they can’t get the result. “Well, I was going to accomplish this, but then this happened, so I couldn’t accomplish it.”

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Love on Wheels

Monday, February 12th, 2024

The Dalai Lama says that happiness is a habit.

What if you could be “love on wheels”? What if you could be the person who is always happy, regardless of the circumstances?

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You Have a Revenue Job

Monday, January 29th, 2024

If you haven’t thought about this before, I hate to break it to you, but you have a revenue job.

That’s right. There’s this thing called salary expense. And that money has to come from somewhere.
It doesn’t just come out of the clouds. And as my father use to say, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
So, where does it come from?

It comes from revenue. Which means you and everybody that you work with has a revenue job. Even if you’re not in marketing. Even if you’re not in sales.

If you’re in operations, your job is to delight the customer, recognize more opportunities for sales, coordinate that with the sales department, and help create more revenue. If you are in quality, your job is to make sure the best quality product goes out the door because when you do, that increases revenue.

Whatever you do, every moment of everyday, realize, and think to yourself, “How does this connect to revenue? Because my job is to make sure that as an organization we grow and prosper every day, and we do that best by focusing on the customer.”

Assume you are part of the problem

Monday, March 6th, 2023

Whenever there’s a problem, don’t we always assume somebody else created the problem? I know I can be inclined to do that. My husband and I joke about it all the time.

We call it the “toilet paper syndrome” since the one time he asked me: “What percentage of the time do you think you change the toilet paper roll?” I said: “Well, quite frankly, about 75% of the time.” He said, “Well, that’s fascinating because I think I’m changing it 75% of the time, and that math doesn’t add up.” We had a good laugh realizing that it’s very easy to blame the other person.

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“What does ‘done’ really look like?”

Monday, February 27th, 2023
 

Before you start the next project, think about the conditions of satisfaction.

What does that mean? That means that whoever it was that gave you a project probably has some idea about what they want to have done with it; they have an outcome in mind.

They also know what procedures have been followed in the past.

They know where things can go wrong, what you should be managing around, when this thing is due, and what “done” looks like.

By getting the conditions of satisfaction before starting a project, your likelihood of having to do it only once AND having somebody give you a high-five at the end goes up substantially.

Sadly, here’s how it works for most people:

  1. They hear there’s something to be done
  2. They start running wildly toward that direction, not understanding…
    1. the when
    2. the how
    3. the goal, what the outcome is supposed to look like

And then, when they deliver something to their boss—or worse yet, have it sitting on their desk or in a folder on their computer, that is NOT a recipe for getting things done.

When we don’t find out the conditions of satisfaction first and then come back afterward and ask, “Did this meet the conditions of satisfaction?” What we’re doing is creating chaos in the workplace.

Listen, nobody needs to be working nights and weekends doing rework—not you and especially not your boss, because if they keep having to do your work over again, likely that does not bode well for your career. So, every time you’re given instructions about what to do, first just stop.

Ask a lot of questions to get the conditions of satisfaction before moving ahead.

But move quickly once you have them and bring it back and ask if the work you’ve done meets the conditions of satisfaction.