Thank God It's Monday®! Blog

Collette says: “The better we feel about ourselves, the fewer times we have to knock someone down  to feel tall.” 

When we say something negative about another person, it’s important for us to ask ourselves, where does that come from?

We’ve all done it before. When we do it, it usually doesn’t help the situation, and it certainly doesn’t help the person.

This usually comes from someone who doesn’t feel good about themselves.

When we’re hurting, we want to create the impression that we’re above others and that we are doing things right, and that they aren’t. That’s not the best because as soon as we say something negative about someone else, about what they’re not doing, or how they’re doing right in front of others, we’re only making the situation worse.

So today, get into action by saying only good things about others. And if something’s wrong and not okay, it doesn’t mean that we ignore it and don’t deal with it but that we’re not talking down to the person.

Instead, we’re talking about what’s wrong with a process, what’s wrong with the outcome, as opposed to knocking down a human.

Be conscious of this because those words can be hurtful. And as you knock somebody else down, sometimes they stay down. And that’s going to be hard to live with.

Bring people’s spirits up instead, by only saying positive things about people behind their back. And if it’s a management thing where you have to talk about what isn’t done, that’s different.

Bring those challenges to managers with a request for a change, not a complaint.

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I read a quote recently. It said: “People think it is about finding a job they love. It’s not. It’s about loving the job you have.”

Yes, It’s about loving the job that you have.

You know what, you probably have a great job.

I guarantee you, while not perfect, you have some teammates who are pretty good human beings. And there’s probably one or two things about your supervisor that are probably pretty cool. And your CEO may not be perfect but probably has many good qualities. And your clients, oh my goodness, you get to make a difference in their lives!

It’s just not that bad.

The problem with switching jobs is everywhere you go there you are.

If you don’t like this job, statistically, it’s been proven that if you don’t like this job, you won’t like the next one… the one after that… and the one after that.

It is a skill set to decide to love your job, and it requires two things.

Number one, you get good at it, which means education never ends. Be a voracious leader and a learner to make sure that you understand things in the best possible way.

Number two, make a decision to be fantastic at what you do and to bring joy to what you do every day. It is a decision. Happiness is a decision.

The Dalai Lama said it best: “Happiness is a decision.” When you look at that decision, you’ll live a life that is happy.

So… stop looking for a new job to make you happy.

Start loving the job you have.

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People are too interested in job descriptions.

I don’t believe in job descriptions; I believe that your job is to see what isn’t there and make that thing happen.

Yes, there are certain things that are expected from you in terms of your key roles and responsibilities and your critical drivers, all of those things matter. Yet, there are so many other things that happen within the company.

If you’re waiting to be told or sitting there waiting for the direction to do something when you can see it needs to be done, that’s not what your team needs from you. W.R. Grace had a wonderful way of hiring people years ago.

After they would hire them they would say: “Okay, you are hired, go find work. We’re not going to spoon-feed you.”

So go into a meeting, discover what needs to be done, and say I’ll take that project.”

Go out and say: “I’ll move that ahead. You can count on me boss, this will come back as a completion.”

Your job is to see what isn’t there.

Bring it home, make it happen.

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Communication is one of the hardest things to get right.

Between what the sender is saying and what the person who’s listening hears, there is almost always a breakdown. The thing said is not usually what the person heard.

Yet most people go on with what they’ve heard, try to create the change in the work to make something happen, mess up, and say, “But you said…” Well, that’s not what they said, it’s what was heard.

It’s important that both people involved in communication understand the thought of closing the communication cycle. So, what’s the communication cycle?

It basically means this: there’s a sender who sends out the communication, and there’s a receiver who hears the communication.

It goes like this: “Tommy, I need the XYZ report completed to the specifications I laid out in the bullets that are laid out in the form that I gave you and I need it by seven o’clock on Thursday.”

The person who receives that message says: “Okay, what I think I heard is that you need it by seven o’clock, I do have that form. I understand the specifications, I will complete it to those specifications, and I believe you need it by seven o’clock on Thursday. Do I have everything correct?”

You would think that this is the end of a communication cycle because this is already far better than what usually happens? But oh no! There’s more.

What needs to happen next? Now, the person who received the request needs to come back to the person and say: “Hey, you asked me to put together this project by seven o’clock on Thursday meeting these specifications. Here are the specifications. Here’s the project. Did this meet your conditions of satisfaction?” Not until the person says, “yes” is it a finalized product.

Think about the number of times when people say: “ Yes. I did that. It’s sitting in a folder on my desk… Yes, I did it. It’s saved on our intranet…” Who would know if it was done correctly?

Think about the amount of rework that gets done in companies because somebody doesn’t check to make sure it hits the conditions of satisfaction before they check the little piece on their to-do list.

If they instead would just say: “Did this meet the conditions of satisfaction?\” and get that “Yes.” Now, they know it is completed correctly, and the rework goes away.

That’s the way to close the communication cycle. And guess what? That is your job.

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Ten birds are perched on a wire. Three decide to fly away. How many birds are left? Ten. Because the three didn’t fly away, they just decided to fly away.

Yes, thinking about doing something is very different than getting into action.

Many people in this world are suffering from this word called overwhelm. Overwhelm is something we do to ourselves when we don’t take action.

The cure to overwhelm? Take action. Take some small action.

Ask yourself this question: “What is the smallest thing I can do right now that I couldn’t fail that would move me toward my outcome?” And then get into action.

It’s easy to sit and stew and think about what isn’t being done in the big list of to-do’s that becomes more overwhelming by the moment.

Here’s the thing, many people think: “Oh, I’ll just have to switch jobs because this job is just too much. And so I’ll have to find an easier job.” Then, they go out of the frying pan and into the fire. Into a different job only to discover now they have less experience how to do that job and less team-building with the people they’re working with… and their job just got harder again.

If you look at the statistics, the same people who are leaving jobs are leaving them again. Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Instead, take action on the things you can take action on because wherever you go, there’s going to be too much to do. But, you can always take action on the most important things.

So, set your priorities and constantly look at those priorities. Take one at a time. Don’t look ahead to the next one. And take the first one to completion every single time before you move on to the next.

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