How to lose good people

Yesterday I started a two-part series on goals, this will have to be finished tomorrow because I have too pertinent of a topic that I feel I have to cover after yesterday’s events. Sometimes life slaps us in the face while we are busy planning it… This is about how to lose good people.

I spoke with three different people that work for the same company (two separate branches) yesterday that were all to the breaking point with their employer. I know the company and most of their direct supervisors so I can honestly say that their claims are not far fetched. Plus they have no reason to lie to me, I am an outsider. All three of these people just came to me asking advice on how to handle their situations because they felt they were not being treated fairly. More than anything they just wanted a sounding board.

I heard things like: overworked, no respect given, no consideration for promotions when outsiders were hired with less experience, 9 days late on paychecks, firings that lasted two weeks before the boss came to their senses, threatening jobs regularly, expecting overtime and additional work as the norm, and the list goes on.

But it’s sad. Sad that each of their situations have come to this. Sad that they can’t take these troubles to their supervisors. Sad that even if they did take it to their supervisors they will be met with degrading comments like, “What are you bitching about?” or “You got a raise recently didn’t you? So yes, that is your job” or my personal favorite, “I don’t have time for this.” And the worst part is that these are not minimum wage people, they have a combined 10+ years of experience in a company that has just celebrated it’s 7 year-anniversary. 

If this is how we treat our people, our tenured people, how can we ever expect to grow companies into anything more than a loose house of cards? What happens when times get tough? These will be the first to go; happily.

This is not the path to success.

Success comes from treating our people right: Going out of our way to make sure they are happy in their positions. Listening when they have troubles or feedback. Communicating without condescension when we want or need something of them. Buying them lunch ‘just because’ instead of trying to manipulate people into owing us something. Telling people they’re doing a great job when accolades are earned. Paying them on time (man, I really thought that one was obvious).

When we treat people like this, magical things happen. People stay late, they recruit their friends for the company, mountains are moved, people want to come to work, petty issues float away before they materialize, and we set the foundations for concrete organizations that will last much longer than ourselves. If we have great people we can leave without everything falling apart.

People matter. If you are guilty of the actions in blue you can start turning things around by telling someone how much they are appreciated today with an earnest heart. And if you really want to make a turnaround you can do it every day. Treat people with respect and keep an eye on productivity. There is a direct correlation between how people are treated and their output.

Goal Setting (1/3)

One of the very first topics I wrote down in my idea roll for blogging was about goals. I have always been a huge believer in them and I have always implemented them in my life and work. Plus, every time that I hear about them I am inspired to revisit and renew my own goals for the coming weeks, months, and years.

The first step in the goal-making process is to dedicate some time to think about what it is we want. Is it a raise? Is it more time with family? Maybe it’s to finish reading that book we’ve been putting off, or to start getting fit again. Goals can be related to anything in our lives that we deem worthy, they do not just have to be work-related. I encourage people to have goals for different facets of life, it helps us to keep a balance. If all of our goals are work related we end up being workaholics and we neglect our personal or family lives.

When I managed a number of sales people in the furniture store I would have a goal review every 4-6 months with them. This was not a time for me to impose my thoughts, it was my time to listen to what they wanted to accomplish. The ones that didn’t have goals were forced to think about what they wanted and put it on paper, this opened a lot of eyes. The ones that had goals liked this exercise because it helped clarify what they wanted and gave them an opportunity to talk it through with someone. I would have them write down their goals on a sheet of paper (hand-written, not typed) then I would keep a copy and they would get the original as a reminder of what they had committed to. If we did not have that sit-down many of them would not have put any thought to their goals.

What is going to be the catalyst for us to write out our goals if we haven’t done so already?

What have we done recently to help our teams accomplish their goals?

We often hear or read about goals and think, “Yeah I know, goals are good,” and it goes in one ear and out the other. I want to encourage anyone reading this to stop what you’re doing and write down 3 things YOU want to accomplish. They can be short-term goals, they can be long-term goals, anything you want to do with your life. Todd Henry wrote The Accidental Creative and he closes out this book with a story by a South African man that asks a question about where to find the richest land on Earth. Some people said it was Wall Street, other said oil fields. But the answer to the man’s question was the graveyard. He proceeds to explain that there lies all of the unwritten books, the projects never finished, and the businesses never started of all the millions of people throughout history. He then goes on to explain a theory he has to ‘die empty’ without that unfinished work inside us.

What do we want to accomplish before our time runs out?

Take some time to think about what it is that you want to accomplish. Make time in the schedule with no distractions to think about it. Turn off the phone, leave the music out of it, and just think for a while. I love to stay moving so taking a walk with a notepad and a pen is the best thing for me. Don’t rush, give yourself at least 30 minutes if not more to think about what is important.

Goal setting is the first step, it gives us a clarity of direction. When a goal is set, we can ask ourselves if our daily actions are helping us get closer to our goals or taking us further away instead of just drifting along like so many others.

I will address how to follow through with our goals tomorrow, making them is just the beginning!

We Must Have Larger Pies

As organizations grows in revenue, so do the teams that produce that revenue. Great organizations stand out from the crowd when team members are not added to take their own piece of the pie, but to make the pie larger when they arrive.

Yes, there will always be a need to hire people that take tasks “off of people’s plates” but when an organization is forward thinking, hires will also be made with expansion in mind. This undoubtedly means hiring with some uncertainty.

In growing organizations the positions are molded around the people, people are not hired to fit specific molds. This is the best way to grow a company, and the larger it gets, the farther away from that concept it usually goes.

piece of the pieSo if hiring during expansion is done with uncertainty, what do we hire for?

We hire for character, for attitude, for the ability to think on one’s feet and take action, and we hire with the company culture in mind. If this potential new person doesn’t fit with the rest of the current team, don’t bother. If the potential new person interacts great with the current team, many challenges can be overcome with little time spent on ‘petty’ issues.

As a manager or owner, it is more beneficial to have a cohesive team that works together rather than one filled with superstars (and their egos) who are constantly bickering. The former of the two will ship better, on schedule projects 99.9% of the time, guaranteed.

So when new hires are made with forward leaning progress in mind, the new person should be adding value.

But what does that mean?

Adding value means a new sales person that generates their own leads. Adding value means adding a graphic designer that has tons of outside experience and brings new ideas to the table. Adding value means hiring outside managers with varied experiences or a background in different industries so a fresh perspective is added.

Hiring new people in expanding businesses means adding value to the team, not just warm bodies.

pickadirection.comBe sure that the next person we decide to hire makes the pie larger, they don’t just take ‘their’ piece of the pie.

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Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!

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Training… for our customers?

As we continue to build on Epic Day Outdoors we’ve shifted our focus a number of times in search of the correct match of technology, user experience, and customer acquisition. Do we focus on advertising after we get eyeballs or do we focus on selling to the eyeballs themselves? Should we build a great product then monetize it or should we set up a business model and then refine it?

All questions we’ve debated and tested since we began this venture in August. But now we’ve hit our stride. No more noodling, it’s time to get laser focused on this project. Travis (my partner) did some great work and found us a great piece of technology that allows us to engage with our users on another level in order to drive them to our website. Since figuring this out we’ve had our best week ever in terms of web traffic and now it’s time to throw some coals on that fire. All this being said, I am going to focus on how to train our users how to engage with us. customer training

If that sounds odd, think about a visit to Starbucks: come in to place that looks familiar,  it has the same smells, the same aprons, and the same cheery baristas. When an order is placed, it’s placed in the exact same sequence each time:

  • Hot/Cold
  • Size
  • Beverage
  • Wet/Dry
  • Strength (Espresso)
  • Milk/Creamer choice
  • Additions

The regulars know this, but if it’s a user’s first time experience the baristas help out by repeating the order for the consumer after the order has been determind to help clarify the purchase. The next time the customer will know to just repeat, “Double Tall Cappuccino Extra Dry” instead of pecking around on the menu. It’s not rude or degrading to people, it’s used by the staff to keep Starbucks baristas efficient and effective at their jobs so no time is lost making coffee and the consumer gets exactly what they want as soon as possible.

Travis and I are now challenged with setting up the sequence of interaction with our consumers for Epic Day Outdoors. We will spend significant time testing and experimenting with ways to reach out to people and get them to our site in the coming weeks. After we’ve determined what works best, as Starbucks has done, we’ll solidify our position and help make it easier for our users to interact with us and get the experience they desire.

Customer training is essential to many businesses, how can we improve user experience by training them to make us better?

Reading or Listening

I love to read books. I also love to listen to audio books. But which is a better method for consuming content, reading or listening?

I read in the early mornings as soon as I wake up to get my mind rolling prior to sitting down and writing for the blog. I listen to audio books while I’m marathon training and working out or cleaning up around the house. I do my very best to read and listen to something that will have a positive impact on my brain for 30 minutes, making up a collective 60 minutes of ‘education’ each day.

Physically reading a book makes us slow down life and concentrate solely on the task at hand if we wish to retain anything. It can be a great way to warm up in the morning or cool down at night after work or before bed. On the other hand, listening to content allows us to free our hands and eyes to do other menial tasks like jogging or scrubbing the dishes. Tasks that require some more depth of thought, like writing or working on a computer will distract the mind too much and nothing will be kept in. Depending on what is needed in our lives, both practices can be applied. This allows me to get through multiple books in the same time I would normally read one.

But do we really retain all the knowledge by listening versus reading?

There are articles and arguments for both sides, but my personal experience is that as long as I’m present when listening/reading I can fully retain using both. I have found that I comprehend books that I listen to just as well as reading them as long as I can get a second run through. With audible.com there is a Speed button that allows the user to speed up the recording to 1.25 or 1.5 times the normal speed to get a second run through the book. This second run through allows me to catch the little snippets I may not have the first time and allows me to re-think all the ideas that were provoked originally.

How should I determine what to listen to versus what to read?

Good question, I’m still figuring this one out for myself! When it comes to length, I can’t tell there’s a difference. However, when it comes to content be sure to only listen to books that will not require interaction like workbooks or very in-depth note taking for specifics. The reason we listen to audio is to free our hands up, so it’s counter-productive to write things out while listening. And lastly, experiment with it! I have typically only listened to business books, but my next book on audio will be Anthony Kiedis‘ biography to change things up a bit.

The bottom line is whatever method is preferred, do it now and do it often! Those of us that are investing in our knowledge are surpassing those around us and setting ourselves up for long-term success! The more we read/listen the more we have to connect with potential clients or employers, the more opportunity we have to make connections and “see between the lines,” the more we are pushing ourselves when our competition is standing still!

Leave me a comment regarding what you are reading and/or listening to right now, I love to get suggestions and I’d love to hear what you prefer for your method of consumption.

My recent list is below:

Top 8 Productivity Tips

ProductivityAs I’m constantly perusing the internet and listening to as many podcasts and audio books as I can find, I can’t help but accumulate a wealth of knowledge about productivity (as well as creativity). I thought these lists were dumb and I figured that as much as I see them, everyone else has as well. After a few conversations with people about their jobs and daily tasks, I determined that was NOT the case. Either way, I’ve compiled my Top 8 Productivity Tips (because I have OCD so it must be an even number, but I don’t want to be cliche and make it a “Top 10” list)  that help me get more done each day/week/month/year. Some of these things may only save a moment or two, but if they’re added up throughout the year you will save HOURS of time! In no particular order:

  1. Evernote
    • A piece of software that can be used for digital note-taking allowing the user to make notebooks, stack notes together, and categorize items. I use this for keeping lists of ideas, to-do lists, addresses, photos, and much more. I also use this to write drafts of blog posts and organize my life. The best part about this is that it syncs from your mobile device to your desktop automatically so you don’t have to keep multiple lists. Start with the desktop version and then go into the mobile app, much easier to comprehend. There is a free version and a paid version for $45/year, I prefer the free and it gives me everything I need and more.
  2. Turning OFF push notifications
    • How many times are you distracted from your work by a ping or a tweet or an email or a text or…. It’s never-ending! Turning off the “push notifications” on our devices allows us to focus on the projects/tasks/people in front of us. Too often we focus on what’s in front of us (push notifications) versus what’s important. We yearn for distractions, don’t let them in!
  3. Batching email
    • Since push notifications are off, emails need to be checked… but not every 18 seconds. Schedule exact times to go through email inbox(es) at multiple intervals throughout the day, or time if it’s just stuff you read that doesn’t require you respond.
  4. In-box Zero
    • When an inbox reads “no emails” you’ve reached inbox zero, congratulations! This is an entire process of filing emails, responding to them when they come in, and NOT using your inbox as a to-do list. This link is a video explaining the entire theory. Its lengthy, but then again how much time are you wasting responding to emails each day?
  5. Numbering a To-Do List
    • Keeping a To-Do list is a given, however numbering priorities helps me focus on what’s important. Break down tasks into priorities and start with the most important thing on the list each day and then go to #2. The top 3 things on a the list should be accomplished each day, until that happens: no Facebook, No Twitter, No Instagram, No Pinterest… and if you’re really feeling bold, no lunch.
  6. Keyboard Shortcuts
    • I spend 98% of my work day on a laptop and have found a few keyboard shortcuts that make my life exponentially easier by incorporating them each day. The “Ctrl” key is at the bottom left of the keyboard and if you’re on a Mac this is the “Command” key located right next to the space bar.
      • Ctrl + Z = Undo
      • Ctrl + C = Copy
      • Ctrl + V = Paste
      • Double Clicking on a word = Highlight it to be cut, copied, or deleted
      • Triple Clicking on a word = Highlighting an entire paragraph to be cut, copied, or deleted
  7. Music without words
    • I have never met someone that doesn’t like music. Unfortunately it can be distracting and we are all victims of the “multi-tasking” myth that surrounds offices throughout the world. Music can be soothing and it can help stimulate the brain, but when music has words it can be exponentially harder for our brains to concentrate on work when we want to start singing along. Find music without words from a friend’s Spotify playlist, from classical musical artists like Beethoven, or from bands like Orgone, Ratatat, or Explosions in the Sky.
  8. The egg timer
    • It helps me in certain situations to put a timer on what I’m doing. The E.ggtimer is an online timer that allows the user to put a time on the clock without having to get up from the computer. This can be productive things like dedicating 45 minutes to making new Craigslist ads or ONLY spending 10 minutes on social media. If this is weird for you, there is always the timer on the iPhone app as well.

Hope you enjoyed this list, feel free to let me know what YOUR top tips are for getting things done!

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What is our why

A friend posed this question the other day and although it is a bit intimidating as a blog post, I want to see what I can do. Always gotta push ourselves, right?

  • Why do we work?
  • What’s in it for us besides a paycheck?
  • Is there a ‘bigger purpose’ that we’re taking baby steps towards?

Why do I work? Because I cannot sit still. Not because I’m wrongly diagnosed with ADD like most of this country, but because I am know I have bigger things inside of me and the fear of mediocrity outweighs that sedentary feeling. When I got to college to play football, I gave it my best effort for as long as I was able to wear a uniform because that is who I am. Not defined as a football player – defined by my work ethic. I carried this into the furniture company, often working 80 and sometimes 100 hour weeks. Albeit back then I wasn’t working as effectively as I am today, I was working as hard and as smart as I knew how to in those days. One thing I noticed throughout both of those experiences, especially football, is that so many people waste the talent they have been given.

I watched football players much better than me fizzle out within 6 months of getting to school. I watched excellent sales people have moments of brilliance, but didn’t want to work to have that consistently so they’d quit. And now I see so many people have the opportunity to do more with their lives but they’re too content with their current situations. I’m not saying that everyone needs to have multiple businesses and try to take over the world, but just to have a job to have a job is a sin in my eyes.

A job can be a means to an end and give us the money we need to live life while our passions lie in the side projects we take on. The way we make money doesn’t necessarily have to be the one thing in life that we’re passionate about and it’s sad that we teach kids in school this. A lot of kids love music but  most aren’t good enough to make that their life-long career. Some are fortunate enough to get into the music industry, but the ones who have that as a hobby when they get home from work give themselves a way to release from the stresses of life. Nobody is passionate about cleaning port-o-potties, but someone has to do it.

Some people are fortunate enough to do exactly what they love, and I commend them because that is often not an easy path, nor is it obvious. There is the typical example of the car lover that owns a body shop, there is my Mom that is a personal trainer and works with upwards of 60 clients each week one-on-one or in small groups, and there is the marine biologist that travels the world scuba diving on reefs all day. But most of us are not in that situation. Some because we don’t want to work that hard for that one thing we’re passionate about. And still others because we’re not really sure what we’re passionate about…yet.

It took me a while, but I realized that I love working with people and I have a passion for building things. I am a bit introverted, which may come as a surprise to some, and I like to work by myself on a lot of things. But I love to spend large chunks of my time helping others achieve their goals. I have achieved so many of mine in life that I know how rewarding it can be, and I didn’t do it alone. I was fortunate enough to help build a football program from obscurity to a championship and I was fortunate enough to help build a small business into a dynasty. Now I’m working on building a website with a life-long friend and I’m able to work on writing/building my book in the spare time I can create.

So I love to build, but what about you? This blog is not about me, it’s about you and sharing my knowledge with you. If you fall into that category of ‘not really sure what we’re passionate about yet’ don’t worry there is plenty of time. I just read about a man that found out his BODY of work, not some of it, was validated when he was 85. For me, it took a lot of alone time to figure out what my purpose was. I found that two activities in my alone time helped me figure out the why in life: running and writing.

When I run I have all the time I want to get lost in my thoughts. If there is something that is one my mind and I cannot seem to shake it I’ll review or write out the problem/idea/question why before I run (no headphones) and then give myself 30 minutes or an hour and 2 hours, or as long as it takes to get that thought all the way through my head with clarity. And the second thing is writing. Even before I was blogging I kept a journal of things that happened in order to help sort them in my head. I would ask myself tough questions that I didn’t want others to know I was struggling with and write them through.

It is easy to have a thought rattle around in our brains, we have millions each day. It is harder to speak those thoughts and put them into words, articulating them in conversation. But it is most difficult to write them out and tell a story (even it’s to ourselves) on paper and make IT make sense. At one point this blog post was over 1300 words… And I needed all of them to noodle through my thoughts to get what you see now.

As we all struggle with the big question of why? Go to the goals we’ve set and the big aspirations we have in our personal lives, those will shine a bit of light on what we’re looking for. I heard Todd Henry say that our bank accounts and calendars will let us know what we deem important even if we don’t readily know, so start there if there are not any concrete goals on paper.

I hope this sheds some light or at least my perspective on ‘why’ and I love that was asked about it. If you have something you’d like to see from me in a post, please leave me a comment, tweet me, text me, email me, or get a hold of me some way and I’ll do my best to work through it.

Sunk Cost – Knowing when to walk away

We’ve all heard the expression, “Know when to cut your losses,” but that’s much easier said than recognized.

Sunk costs are the monies invested on projects, ideas, people, or plans that never pan out. A half written blog post is an example of a sunk cost. We start and can’t finish the idea through so it’s left as a ‘draft’ never to be touched again, we cannot recoup that time spent on it. A baseball player that has been training with the team as the starter with the team all off-season that gets hurt in the opening game; an entire off-season wasted that could have been spent working with someone else. A sales call that requires travel and time studying the company being sold to that never gets closed. All of these are examples of sunk costs. The money and time spent on these projects cannot be recouped, however these acts do not need to be in vain.

We can always learn from half-written blog posts. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea to begin with. Or maybe it’s just a smaller part of a bigger idea, like a book or a longer post. Or maybe still it’s just a product of the creative process of taking an idea from a thought rattling around in our minds to well-thought out words on paper. The starting player can always teach the backup what he’s learned so he can pick up where the original left off. And for the original, he’s got great experience for the next season and is further along than he after the team invested that entire off-season in him. And that sales call that required so much effort more than likely produced some answers as to what that company did want. Now it’s time for the sales person to go back to the drawing board.

sunk cost

The key to each of these situations is knowing when to walk away. We have all seen the new sales person that never quite ‘gets it’ even after weeks of training and practice. Even though the company has spent time and money on him, he needs to be let go or the company is going to lose even more money. The company needs to determine what is more of a loss: the time and money spent training that him or the time and money that will be spent cleaning up trying to compensate for his lack of performance or even worse, cleaning up the relationships he ruins.

We find ourselves viewing the past investment as more important than the future investments for the decisions we’re making today. And when those past costs become more important than the future costs, we continue to invest today instead of severing ties and walking away. If we account for the future costs we will be making smarter decisions for the long-term instead of being hard-headed and continuing to invest in the lost cause.

Find the right time to cut our losses this week.