Month: January 2010

A buddy asked me recently
why I post here.
What do I get from it?

Other than the good feeling
from sharing insights with others,
clientk pushes me to constantly read,
constantly improve myself.
Every day,
I know I’ll have to come up
with a post.
Blogging is never ending.

But then…
so is achieving success.
There isn’t a static finish line
for being the best.
The finish line is always moving
and
to be the best,
you have to move with it.

First Friday Book Synopsis
has some more thoughts on this.

Crucial Skills has a great post
on how to deal with accusations.

A manager,
years ago,
taught me this trick with facing
an emotional accuser…

I automatically repeat what she says.

I’ll say something like…
‘From what I understand,
you feel I did this and this and this,
is that correct?’

This does a few things…
I can respond initially
without thinking (or feeling).
It puts cooling down time
between the accusation
and addressing the situation.
The accuser usually,
after venting,
calms down.
Often when the accuser hears her own words,
she realizes she’s not being rational.
It also reassures me
that I’m hearing her correctly.

The key to handling accusations
is to take emotion out of it.

Before I went on vacation
(to attend the Consumer Electronics Show),
I asked about my coverage for the week.
I was told by my female boss
“Don’t worry about it.
Enjoy your time off.”

It was a flippant statement.
She is a nice lady
and wants to be liked.
She thought the nice thing
was to give me a worry-free vacation.

It sent the wrong message.

We worry about tasks
we’re responsible for.
By telling me not to worry,
she took that responsibility away.

For a couple of minutes,
I felt free and easy.
Why was I working until midnight
to finish up the year end?
It wasn’t my responsibility!

…Then I remembered
I was a professional.

If your employee is responsible
for a task,
don’t tell her not to worry about it.

In every meeting,
there are a couple head nodders.
Those are people
that nod their head
to every declaration
but don’t actually speak up.

Head nodding,
because it can mean a variety of things
from ‘I’m dozing off’
to ‘I hear you’
to ‘I agree and support you’,
means nothing.
Many phrases attendees use
mean nothing also.

Steve Roesler has a great post
on the levels of commitment
(or as he states… relationships).

Use of cliches and flippant phrases
illustrate a shallow commitment.
Using ‘I’ and expressing feelings
are indicators of a deep commitment.

No one ever said
listening well was easy.
One of the reasons
why good listeners are often rewarded.

In front of the building
I am currently posted at,
there’s a line up
of taxis waiting.

The official stance is
that it is a convenient place
for them to park.
The street widens there.
There isn’t that much traffic.

The company ‘legend’
is that they are waiting for layoffs.
Every morning
employees walk through those doors
and see those taxis waiting.

It isn’t a coincidence
that, in the company,
there’s a ‘live for today’ attitude.
Systems and routines
haven’t been put in place.
Employees don’t build for tomorrow
because they don’t think
they’ll be working for the company tomorrow.

That’s fine if this is the attitude
the management wants.
I don’t think it is.

Look around your office.
Is what you see
in line with what you believe?