“Chance favours the connected mind”.
I think this book by Steve Johnson is going on my reading list. Watch the animated clip and let me know if you agree.
Be the best in the world at one thing, and likely you will be good at other things as well.
People that excel in one aspect of being in the world (sports, arts, business) can excel in all areas of their life – families, hobbies, etc. The skills, focus, and determination they develop serves them well through-out. They don’t accept anything less than high standards in all areas of their life, nor should they.
What about workaholics? Working harder and longer hours doesn’t make you good. It makes you emotionally & physically retarded. If being at work is getting you away from facing another issue or situation in your life, then you aren’t really there to work. You’re just hiding.
Posted in behaviour, emotional intelligence, relationships, self development, self-awareness
Tagged focus, productivity, self-awareness, work
Rogers stock tanked today. While I don’t usually write rants about how utility companies are bad at customer services, I wasn’t really surprised at this news. I figure they’re a lost cause anyway, and no matter how horrid my experience was somebody out there could do me one better. Which is depressing.
I’m going to vent anyway. If you want to set up a company whose apparent purpose for existing is to aggravate people, I don’t think you can do much worse than a phone company. In this case, Rogers in Canada. This was my experience two days ago. Here are the highlights:
Desired outcome: change in account billing.
Total length of call: 44 minutes 19 seconds, including being on hold before (25 minutes) and during my interaction with the so-called customer service representative
Number of levels down in the phone tree: 6. Yes I counted. I had to listen to six different “If you’re a carbon-based life form press 1. If you breathe oxygen press 2, . . . ” menus.
Classic stove-piping: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you reset your on-line account pass-word. That’s customer service. We’re sales”.
No, you’re Rogers the phone company, and your customers don’t care about your internal organizational structure.
Most bewildering request: my address. Why in the name of all that is holy and unholy would a technology & communications company, whose every interaction with customers is scripted by computer, be able to pull up my account information and NOT have my billing address?
Stupidest question: “Calgary is in Alberta, right?” Yes, and the area code should have been a hint too. I know it’s a big world, but if you’re going to work for a Canadian telephone company you might want to learn some Canadian geography. There’s only 10 provinces, it’s not that hard. Or is that why you’re working in a call centre? . . . Oops, sorry. My bad.
Most patronizing request: two pieces of government identification for a credit cheque. My change included opening a new account. I already have two accounts. My accounts are up-to-date. Why do you need to run a credit cheque please? “Because you’re opening a new account” explained three times is not an answer.
Most memorable quote: “That woman made me work!”, as shouted by another customer service rep in the background. Kudos for putting me on hold quickly after that outburst by your fellow representative.
Worse experience: A friend who shall remain un-named who, after 7 (seven) hours on the phone with customer service trying to resolve a broken phone issue, ended up crying. How is making your customer cry good business?
What makes me sad: Nobody else is better. Anybody sense a business opportunity?
Rogers, please call me. You need help.
There’s a current article that tells you to forget mentors, and instead employ a personal board of directors.
It’s good advice, but mentors still have their place.
What the HBR article describes is a high-octane version of networking. Which is great. Having a network of experienced and knowledgeable relationships invested in your success is a good thing, and something every successful project manager or executive will intentionally cultivate.
The reality is that mentors are hard to find. In this increasingly connected world, the time needed to develop and maintain personal relationships seems to slipping away from us. We’re so afraid of missing out something, somewhere, that we try to do everything. That just leaves us dazed and exhausted.
Yet the value of one-on-one mentor-ship is enormous. For both the mentor and the protégé. Try is some time and see what happens. If you’re the protégé it’s like having a career champion. If you’re the mentor you’ve established a valuable, life-long relationship. Talented people will be striving to work with you because you develop your people. It’s win/win.
So keep an eye out, either for that experienced, knowledgeable, and caring mentor to take you under her wing, or for that bright, energetic rising star that can really contribute to your success in the long run.
Mentoring is dead, long live mentoring!
Posted in developing staff, mentor, mentorship, selecting talent
Tagged mentor, mentoring, mentorship, protege
Another interesting article from HBR on how marketing is broken, and how to fix it in your company.
The (over)-simplification: start listening
Posted in communications, customer relations, marketing
In a recent HBR article, Brigadier Bill Dunham is the former Commandant of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines talks about how relying on your authority as an officer is weak:
Talking about your decisions isn’t always feasible or desirable, but it is important, and a leader or manager who regularly fails to constructively engage his people will almost always fail to get the best out of them.
I would go further than that: Authority is the weakest form of power. Any leader who relies mostly or exclusively on their authority will fail. The best leaders are those that use their authority sparsely or not at all.
In business you can tell who these leaders are because they’re the ones, who when asked what motivates their employees, answer “Not getting fired.”
Posted in influencing, leadership, relationships
Tagged authority, influence, leadership
One of the things I learned as a Scout leader, and taught other Scout leaders as a trainer, was you need to take care of yourself first. Giving back to the community and developing character in young men and women does little good if your own health, marriage, and sanity suffer for it. Even more fundamentally it means we can’t help others if we are hurt are suffering either physically, mentally, or emotionally.
But the thing this HBR article about “Take Care of Yourself First” reminded me of the performance reviews inflicted on us there once a year at my former salaried job. Once a year, if HR had their act together and you actually got a performance review, and you chose your peers carefully enough that you weren’t sabotaged by a well-meaning but naive trust in the party line that feedback from all your peers was a “good” thing.
Even though I went into one such review cycle with this open and learning attitude, my boss accused me of sand-bagging. He accused me of only choosing peers to give me feedback that would give me positive feedback. One of my friends chose a peers that would give her feedback that she knew might not be entirely positive, but she really wanted to learn. It affected her pay that year. Which is not how 360 reviews are supposed to work. No matter how pure our own intent, other people do not always have our best interests at heart.
We are not only judged just on our performance. Watch your back. Deliver, and realize that performance is not the only thing you judged by.
Posted in behaviour, effectiveness, emotional intelligence, execution, influencing, relationships, self-awareness
Tagged giving, performance, reviews, self care, suffering
Interviews aren’t just for filling empty positions with an outside candidate. There are at least two other triggers for conducting a disciplined, comprehensive job interview:
When shouldn’t you interview? As a courtesy. If a candidate really doesn’t have the prior experience or performance to do the job, then you’re not doing anybody a favour by being dishonest and leading them on about their suitability for the job.
This HBR article goes into detail on how to conduct an internal interview.
Posted in hiring and firing, interviews, promotion, selecting talent
Tagged internal interview, interview, job interview
If you have an e-media savvy mayoral candidate who continually calls upon the other two leading candidates to face him in a debate, and they refuse to do so, one of his minions will stitch together a debate from publicly available, creative commons, or fair-use video & audio clips, publish it on YouTube, post it on BoingBoing, and it will go viral on Twitter and Facebook.
And no, you won’t look good.
Lesson: Engage on your own terms, or be engaged on somebody else’s
Posted in internet, media, new media, promotion
Tagged boingboing, creative commons, facebook, fair use, mayoral candidates, municipal elections, new media, twitter
What do you think is an essential skill for good managers? E-mail me bernie@practicalmanagers.com and share!
