No One's Perfect

If you’re trying to be the perfect, complete leader – STOP. You’ll just wear yourself down. No one is perfect. No one’s got it all. You can still be a great leader though without knowing all the answers. That’s why you have a team of managers and supervisors.

In an article by John C. Maxwell in Success magazine, he says, “incomplete leaders differ from incompetent leaders in that they understand what they’re good at and what they’re not good at. And they have good judgment about how they can work with others to build on their strengths and offset their limitations”. No one’s perfect.

Use your resources. That includes people. Everyone who works for (with) you has some type of area of expertise. Part of your job, as the leader, consists of finding out what those areas are. They have the answers to your questions. There’s no need in reinventing the wheel. It already exists.

You and your entire team work off of the same mission and vision. Do you know what they say? Does your staff? The mission and vision puts you all on the same path to success. Use them in conjunction with your teams knowledge and you’ll be headed toward the top. Remember my brainstorming blog (Sep 29, 2009)? This is the perfect opportunity to put the two together. Get everyone involved. The more answers and ideas you have, the more decisions can be made and the more new products, services, and success you'll have.

You don't always have to have every answer. No one's perfect. But you can still be grrrrreat. (sorry, had to)

HELP Them

Your employee’s can only do their jobs if they have the correct tools and knowledge. Without them, you’re setting them up for failure. Here are four points to remember in helping your employee's

Knowledge – Your staff must know what’s expected of them. No one can improve and no one can get a fair performance review unless they know what to do. They need a job description and ongoing coaching to fulfill their requirements. Roles are constantly changing. You have to keep them up-to-date.

Materials and Equipment – Work cannot be performed properly, even with the appropriate knowledge, unless staff have the proper equipment. That means working properly, in-date, clean, up-to-date, appropriate amounts, etc. Without it, well, they just CAN’T properly function.
Recognition – If you’re not providing constant recognition and kudos, then YOU are part of the lack of motivation problem. You, as their supervisor, should be out there every day showing that you care about them, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.

Develop – You must continuously encourage further development in your staff. Not just their every day procedural training. Help them get into some seminars (http://www.nationalseminarstraining.com/index.html, http://www.amanet.org/individualsolutions/seminars.aspx?SelectedSolutionType=Seminars), join an association, let them teach a class at a staff meeting.

Some organizations like to hand off all or some of these four points to departments, most commonly to HR. They may be able to act as a coordinator on the ground floor level, but it’s up to YOU, as the employee’s supervisor, to see that it gets done. And by “done”, I mean it’s being carried out. This is not a four point check-off list that you go, “check, check, check, check, done”. You must constantly and consistently ensure that all of your employee’s are covered.

Realize that the success of your employee’s directly impacts the success of YOU!

The Pen Is Mightier Than . . .

There are a wide variety of communication tools these days. No matter how convenient any of them may be, you cannot skimp on the necessities. Being able to write well in business is a requirement. You need to write concisely and be able to make a clear point.

First off, think about what it is you want to achieve with your memo or email. What’s the point? Who exactly is your audience? What do you want the reader to do as a result?

Organize your thoughts BEFORE you start writing. Jot down a few notes or a short outline. This will make the writing go a lot quicker for you.

Write the same way that you speak. The best writing most closely resembles normal, everyday speech. If it’s too formal, it becomes harder to understand. But watch out - that doesn’t mean to throw in a bunch of slang like “ain’t”, “gonna”, etc. That’s a bit too loose.

Be brief and concise. Make your point, support it and move on. This is not a time for a bunch of fluff (there’s never a time for a bunch of fluff). You’re not impressing anyone with it.

Write and re-write. It’s really not often that we get it absolutely right the first time. Write your memo, re-read it, let it sit, and re-read it again. Especially if it’s a critical piece. Don’t send something out when there’s a possibility that it might come back to haunt you. Get it right the first time.

BE POSITIVE, even if you’re conveying bad news. No one likes to read negative memos, so it will sound much worse than it actually is to the recipient. Negative writing often back fires on the writer by reflecting poorly on him and in return, loosing the message for the recipient.

Like so many other things – treat everyone as me – write your memos and emails to mimic what you would want to read. Ask yourself what types of statements would offend YOU being on the other end of the communication.

Resistance is Futile

Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. When change comes into view, fear and resistance to change follow – often despite its obvious benefits. People fight against change because they don't understand the change and its implications or they find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace.

If you think that you can stop change, you’re fooling yourself. You may as well try standing in the path of a hurricane to make it change its course (no thanks). The sooner you realize that the world – yes, even your world – will change whether you like it or not, the better. Then you can concentrate your efforts on taking actions that make a positive difference in your organization. You must discover how to adapt to change and use it to your advantage rather than fight it.

Face it – it’s going to happen. I’ve never worked in any organization that didn’t’ have change. It’s a requirement for improvement. Remember that favorite saying, “We’ve always done it this way.”? Argghh. Take that statement out of your vocabulary and from everyone in the organization!

Instead of reacting to changes after the fact, you need to proactively anticipate the changes that are coming your way and make plans to address them BEFORE they hit you. Ignoring the need to change doesn’t make that need go away. The best leaders are positive and forward looking, AND they also communicate.

Leaders armed with a complete understanding of the need for change and knowing the type of change required can best communicate with employees. Open discussion of change is the best tool in reducing the resistance to change. Get employees on board by projecting positive and strong discussions. Show the fiercest resisters what’s in it for them. Appeal to them either in terms of personal gain (status, salary bonus, recognition, etc) or avoided loss (financial or job).

Rumors, if allowed to run rampant, are extremely harmful. Keep everyone updated on the most recent decisions. This will make employees feel that they’re a part of the process. With healthy communication, employees are more apt to remain with the company - and often develop an even deeper bond during a time of change. That’s exactly what you need.

No "Blamestorming" Allowed

When was the last time you held a brainstorming session . . . a REAL brainstorming. Most people who hold group brainstorming do it wrong. “Huh”, you say? “All it is is throwing out ideas and weeding them out.” That’s pretty much true. However, most people go at it the wrong way. It's not the appropriate time for blame or criticism.

All comments on participant's ideas should be held until the end! Brainstorming is allowing participants to put out their ideas with no pressure to hold them back. Here’s what a good group session should look like:

• The facilitator presents the problem and gives further explanation if needed.
• The facilitator sets a time limit and asks the group for their ideas.
• All participants present their ideas, and the person documenting records them.
• Participants may elaborate on their ideas to ensure clarity.
• When time is up, the facilitator organizes the ideas based on the topic goal.
• Categorize ideas.
• Review the whole list to ensure that everyone understands the ideas.
• Remove duplicate ideas and obviously unfeasible solutions.
• THEN discuss.

If you want a more effective group brainstorming session – don’t make the boss the facilitator. In fact, don’t even let him in the room. That’s a sure way of intimidating your more timid participants.

The biggest reason group discussions don’t work is because participants feel too much pressure or are intimidated. Research at the University of Texas (Arlington) and Texas A&M University have found that traditional brainstorming is not as effective as other techniques because of social pressure – the fear of looking foolish among peers and superiors, or even being afraid of saying something that will offend someone.

The next time you want to brainstorm, try the individual approach. Most of the research performed shows us that people working by themselves will come up with more ideas than when they’re in a group. They just don’t have that group pressure. Individually, they can be more relaxed and take a little more time to think or maybe get ideas elsewhere, like books or the Internet.

Brainstorming IS a very effective technique of producing new ideas and solutions, IF you perform it properly. So next time you think of brainstorming, take a few minutes to plan it out.

Motivation Starts With Recognition

I recently read a good article from Successful Promotions magazine called, “How Mickey Makes Magic”. It discusses how some companies will cut back on their employee recognition programs when times get tough. What a mistake. Just think about it. What happens to your employees when you take away motivation? What happens to their service? What happens to retention?

In 2004 Disney World was hit by three major hurricanes within about five weeks (once during Labor Day weekend) and this year has seen a drop in revenue due to the economy. Yet even in hard times they realize, “you don’t mess with employee recognition programs.”

“Disney’s theme parks and hotels have the lowest staff turnover rates in the travel industry.” That’s made possible, in part, by keeping cast-members engaged. They’re not the highest paid people around so it’s got to be something more. You may think that they have some big elaborate program for recognition but they really don’t. Most of it is very simple and things most companies could also do.

One of the tools that Disney uses is the “Recognize Everyday Magic” kit. The kit consists of simple sticky notes, thank-you cards and praise cards that managers give out to cast-members when they find them “doing something right.” Every manager gets one of these kits.

Managers are also encouraged to come up with their own types of recognition. Some managers have designed their own pins to carry around in their pockets and hand out as they see someone doing something right with a comment like, “Thanks for making a difference.” Pins really don’t cost that much to produce – maybe a couple of dollars a piece, give or take depending on the style.

Another very simple idea is to let everyone know when you implement suggestions that employee’s have made. Disney has a newsletter entitled, “You Said … We Listened.” This is a quarterly newsletter that lists “ideas generated by employees that resulted in changes.” Let others know that you really do listen.

A very important thing to remember with any recognition program is that recognition is NOT a yearly check-off. Good behavior should be reinforced immediately. So don’t look for your annual Christmas party to show your only thanks.

These are just a few things that you can do that have been proven successful by one company. Take a few minutes and think about what you can do. Maybe even get suggestions from your employees. There’s a simple type of recognition right there. What better motivation then to let your employee’s get involved in decisions?

What CAN You Change?

In many organizations, especially those under heavy regulation (banking, healthcare, etc), you just don’t have a lot of opportunity for change. For a gung ho leader, that can make a tough job even more though, not to mention more stressful.

There are actually some things that you CAN change in your environment to decrease your stress. The thing is, you’ve probably thought about some of them already, but just haven’t gotten around to implementing them. Now is the time. It’s on your mind. You have some time (you’re reading this, aren’t you). So Do It.

Learn to Have Some Fun. Business is business, but it doesn’t have to be all spit and polish all the time. Release that inner humor. Smile. Talk at the water cooler about what happened last night on “Two and a Half Men.”

Learn to Say NO. Remember this? – “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” When you’re plate is already stuffed, you just have to respectfully say no. It's better to do fewer things well than to do more things half-a**ed.

You’ve got to Manage Your Own Schedule. Too often supervisors get so caught up in managing others that they forget that they need managing also. Don’t leave it up to your boss, do it yourself. Get a planner, PDA (my personal favorite), or a desk calendar (do they still sell these?). Record every meeting and event as soon as you find out about it. Do a little triage. Is it a meeting you actually NEED to go to?

Be Optimistic. It’s human nature to pick out the negative. Be conscious of that and look for the good in everything that you do AND everyone that you meet. People have good qualities. Look for that first. You’ll feel so much better about yourself, your staff and co-workers, and your job. Attitude reflects attitude.

You can’t change everything, but you can recognize the things that you CAN change and work on them. You may not be able to change the regulations, but you can always change yourself.

So You Think You Have Ethics . . .

Well? Do you? You probably think you do. We all do. Most leaders do know the difference between right and wrong, but a lot of them talk it more than they walk it. Some just don’t care.

As a supervisor, you’re a leader and you’re expected to set an example for your staff – and other leaders. You’re in a position that you’re being constantly watched. When others see you behaving unethically, you’re sending a loud message to your co-workers that ethics doesn’t matter to you. And guess what. It won’t matter to them either.

If you don’t exhibit the following personal qualities and behaviors, you have some work to do:

• Honesty


• Integrity


• Impartiality


• Fairness


• Loyalty


• Dedication


• Responsiblity


• Accountablity

Most organizations have a written company code of ethics policy. Have you ever read it? The "code" should be able to convey to others that you value ethical behavior and that it guides the way you and your employees do business. But it’s not worth squat unless it’s shared (discussed) with your employees more than in their first day of work, as is usually the case. I’ve seen a number of organizations pass off ethics “training” as giving employees a piece of paper to sign once a year. Really? That is NOT enough. How many people do you think really read it?

According to Trainingscape, there are six keys to making better ethical choices:
E – Evaluate circumstances through the appropriate filters (culture, policies, laws, relationships, etc) .
T – Treat people and issues fairly within the established boundaries. Fair doesn’t always mean equal.
H – Hesitate before making critical decisions.
I – Inform those affected of the standard/decision that has been set/made.
C – Create an environment of consistency for yourself and your working group.
S – Seek counsel when you have any doubt (but from those who are honest and who you respect).

You may have a Code of Ethics, but if you don’t live it from day to day, what’s the use?

Hire Personality

You’ve seen it before, and you’ll see it again. You hire the guy with the most experience and education and he turns out to be a jerk. You hope (pray) that once he gets to work he has good customer service skills and he gets along with his new co-workers. Oops. You’ve just wasted a whole bunch of time and ticked off a lot of people because that little voice that was talking to you really did make sense after all.

Sometimes you have to take a closer look at the situation and head a bit off the beaten path. Use your gut instinct. That’s what it’s there for. If you need to take a little more time to train someone else that doesn’t have as much experience but has a great personality, do it. These are the people that are looking outside the box – top, bottom, and sides. They WANT to work for you.

Take a look at a couple of successful examples. In 1984 Michael Eisner became Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Prior to that, he had been President of Paramount Pictures. He was pretty darn successful at what he did but was passed up for the top job because they felt he was “too childlike”. Paramount’s loss was Disney’s gain. The first decade of Eisner’s reign (prior to the internal frays) blew Paramount away.

Not being a big Internet shopper, I first learned of Zappos on The Apprentice. What I learned of this very successful Internet shoe (and now much more) company made me go “wow”. Zappos' hiring policy stands in favor of personality rather than job experience. CEO Tony Hsieh says that, “One of our core values is to be humble. So if there is someone who is really talented, and we know they will make an immediate impact on our top or bottom line, but they are really egotistical, then we won’t hire them.”

The idea is to keep the stress level down, not to increase it. Supervisors shouldn’t have to be always looking over staff’s shoulders and your customers shouldn't have to suffer. Go for the people who are going to be most advantageous to you, without you having to baby sit and continuously watch them. Everything from teamwork to customer service will benefit.

Make Time for People

When people become new supervisors they usually go through the, “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that” phase. This is a great thing to do. Set goals. Plan things out. The bad thing is that many people don’t follow through. They get tied up in operations and forget about all those great plans.

One thing that people normally say is that they’re “going to make time for their staff”. Sound familiar? How quickly we forget.

As a supervisor, you’re a resource for your staff, a mentor, a teacher. To others, you’re a trusted colleague. You’re in a people job now. If that doesn’t fit into your agenda, then you’re in the wrong position. You have to make time for people.

Some of your staff won’t need a lot of supervision, or time for that matter. That’s fine. Let em work. But you still need to be available when they do need you. Others are going to need constant supervision and an open door. When these folks come to see you, ignore the phone, put down the pen and listen. Show them how important they are and how much you care. This is not only courteous and respectful, but also motivating. They’ll believe that you find them important and begin to act like it more. They’ll have more confidence and act more decisively.

If you’re not in the same physical area as your staff you can still be available. Provide a means for them to get in touch with you quickly – phone, e-mail, voicemail, etc. Make sure that you get back in touch with them quickly. No more than 24 hours. Make this a habit and they’ll have greater trust and respect for you.

Need another reason for making time for people? You’ll reduce turnover. As I’ve posted before - most people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.

Negaholism

It's unfortunate that negativity comes so naturally to people. "No, you can't do that. No, I can't do this." To some, NO is the first thing that comes to mind. It's extremely stressful to be around these people all the time. But hey - what can you do? You can stay positive is what you can do. Realize who's causing the negativity and why and help them out.

A lot of times it just takes someone to point out to the "negaholic" that they have a problem. We've all been there, whether at work or at home. I was there. When my kids were growing up, any time they asked for something, my immediate answer was "NO". Not because the answer was really no, it was because "no" became a habit. Once I realized it, I had to work at losing it.

Negaholism causes many problems in the workplace and just keeps building if nothing is done about it. Some of the biggest problems negaholism causes are:

• breakdowns in communication,
• loss of trust,
• arguing over seemingly childish issues,
• the blame game (what does that TV commercial call it - "blamestorming"?), and
• competition where there should be cooperation.

So what can you, as a leader, do to help? Mentor your negaholics. Meet with them, talk with them. Show them how things are and how they should be in order to improve. Point out that their road to advancement depends on their change. You should discuss your (and the organizations) behavioral expectations. And most of all, give good honest - and frequent - feedback. Just showing a negaholic that you care can be enough to turn him/her right around.

Work With Locations

If you work for a large organization with a main headquarters and numerous locations, you’ll relate well to this. There’s always been a disconnection in most organizations with an organizational structure such as this, mostly because the locations are out of sight and out of mind. It's like trying to hold on to a long distance relationship. For some people it works well. For others . . . not so well.

HQ’s commonly develop SOPs and policies and distribute them with no thought on how they’re going to impact locations around the region or country. In organizations set up like this, you don’t have one culture. You may have one “corporate” culture, but there are numerous sub-cultures within it. Just the fact that you have locations around the country in the North, South, East, and West is going to give you four sub-cultures. People are brought up differently and have different work ethics in various geographic areas. Age variations and length of employment also create sub-cultures of their own which often stress different beliefs and actions. The authoritarian, “my way or the highway” thinking of HQ can do more damage to the overall organization than anything else. Internal strife is hard to deal with.

Now if you want to add mergers to the mix, you’ve just doubled the number of your cultures and sub-cultures. This will take extra involvement all the way around. But that's for another blog.

The means to solving these issues takes effort from all locations, but in the end, it’s HQ that has to take the time to truly care and implement solutions for everyone. Someone (management), needs to travel to your various locales and sit down and truly watch and listen so that you can get an accurate picture of what’s going on and what people need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. This act alone will build trust just because you made the effort to get involved with those that feel they're not being heard.

If you don’t listen and your locations are continually fighting to be heard, they’ll eventually give up. Then you’re in for lackluster, unproductive work. Their customer service suffers and retention suffers. What’s good for me isn't necessarily what’s good for you. Stop, look, and listen.

Learn!

Keep learning and never look back. Continuous learning, of any kind, will keep the brain fires burning, advancements ongoing, and respect by others increasing.

Many employees, especially those in the lower ranks, think of training as a burden. Something “extra” they have to do. These are the people that aren’t going anywhere in your organization. You can always improve yourself through learning and education no matter who you are or how much you already know (or think you know). Socrates said, “There is only one thing I know, and that is I know nothing”.

Learning doesn’t have to take the form of sitting in a classroom. It can be a class online (free at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/) or just reading books or magazines. Doing this keeps your mind active. I hear all the time from people that they don’t have the time or attention span to sit and read an entire book. That’s fine. Subscribe to a couple of magazines. These days, a lot of magazines are even available as digital editions online for free (http://www.successmtgs.com/mimegasite/index.jsp). You flip through the pages on the computer as if you actually have a copy in your hand.

Organizations want knowledgeable employees and employees that want to improve upon themselves. In the workplace, there’s always more to learn. Use your down time to review SOPs, not sit and chat about what you’re planning to do next weekend. Remember, “It’s called work for a reason” (Larry Winget). Just because you read it during training doesn’t mean that you’ve necessarily retained it all. SOPs/directives/policies, whatever your organization calls them, are living documents. They’re constantly changing.

If you don’t know already, find out what the trade journals are for your occupation and subscribe to one. Or, if you don’t want to put out the money, go to your local library or company library. You’ll be surprised by what’s there that you probably had never heard of before. Seek out your professional associations online. They always have a wealth of information about what's going on and what's coming up. Although you may have to pay to join, it’s a great way to network.

Continuous learning may require some discipline. If you need to, set aside a specific time each day to read. The key sometimes is to just do it. Your future depends on it.

Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

According to the ADP National Employment Report, from January through April this year, U.S. companies with fewer than 50 employees let go 904,000 employees. Being laid off is a huge psychological and financial event, but it can be just as traumatic for the business owner who has to perform this dirty deed. Although a much different setting, managers and directors of large organizations can go through the same thing.

But just like the flight attendants tell you on the plane, always put the oxygen mask on yourself first. You're no good to anybody if you're incapacitated. I'm not trying to be cold here but lets face it, you gotta do what you gotta do. If you don't look after the business, why would anyone else?

A number of years ago, I knew a guy who had a yard landscaping (mowing) business that took off like hotcakes. He quickly developed a rather large clientele and hired extra people in order to keep up with the workload. And then, alas, Winter rolled around and the workload dropped just as quickly as it had grown. He felt so bad about the idea of having to lay off some of his workers that he couldn't do it, and the business eventually (fairly quickly actually) fell apart. Instead of putting on HIS oxygen mask, he tried to share it . . . and there wasn't enough. The survival of his business depended on him putting on his own mask first.

When the time comes to lay off staff is when the real leader comes out. Honestly explain to your employee(s) the reasons for your decision, express gratitude for their loyalty and service, and be sure that you re-enforce the fact that the lay off isn't in response to their performance. And remember that you aren't the focus of the conversation, the life of the organization is. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Protect Your Brand

Protecting your brand is the name of the game these days. There's just too much competition out there for you not to be continuously looking for ways to improve. You say you don't have a brand? Wrong. Every company and every person has a brand whether you realize it or not. It's what defines you. It's what sets you apart from everyone else. If you don't see or work on your brand, you're not going to be in business for too awful long.

One of the (many) things you need to do is protect yourself by actively seeking out the things that others are saying about you, whether good or bad. You need to be prepared to react appropriately to accusations or capitalize on positive comments. You don't have time though to sit at your desk and manually search for your name in articles, blogs, video's, etc. That's where Google comes in - I love Google. Contrary to what you may think, the Google website is chock full of all kinds of everyday business tools. It's definitely not just a search engine.

One of the things that Google can do for you is to send you alerts when people are talking about you. Create a Google account, if you haven't already, and go to www.google.com/alert. Here you can type in key words or phrases, like your company name, CEO's name, etc, and Google will continuously and automatically search the web for you and send you e-mail alerts whenever you're mentioned. Pretty cool, huh? And guess what - it's FREE. You can't beat it.

Setting up alerts takes less than a minute. Start taking some steps to improve your brand, and start right here and now. It takes no time at all, and it's free. What more can you ask for?

Note: If you want to search a specific name or phrase, type it in quotation marks (ie, "walt disney world") or else you'll get hits on each individual word also.

Relentless Preparation

In a recent issue of Success Magazine, Rudolph Giuliani discusses his seven success strategies. One of them that hit home was, "Relentless preparation is key". He says to "anticipate what is going to happen. Practice your response, and then afterward, study what actions you did take and what those results were."

Too often people come up with a solution to fix a problem, celebrate, and move on. That's not going to help down the road when it happens again or to someone else and you can't remember what you did before. Especially when it happens off-site. If you have supervisors out in the field overseeing operations and they're dealing with the day-to-day problems, they should be reporting these things to their supervisors back at the ranch. Chances are, if things are happening out there to them, they're happening to others. Why continuously try to reinvent the wheel? That just wastes peoples time and money, and could very well complicate the situation.

You should have a system in place to document problems that arise and what's done to correct them. They should then go to a main supervisor/manager(s) (or some other designated person) who will then discuss them amongst themselves or with the field supervisors, however would work best for you, to determine if that was the best way to correct the problem or if there would be a better way. Depending on the size of your organization, you may even need to go as far as creating an actual department, or make it a part of QA's job function. These problems and their preferred corrective actions should become the standard and be shared with your field supervisors/managers.

The idea here is to stop wasting time, energy, and money. Plan and be READY to act, not react. Even if you weren't a Boy Scout, I'm sure the majority of you know what their motto is - "Be Prepared". These are kids that adhere to this motto - do you really have an excuse not to?

Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings

Have you ever sat down at a meeting table and asked yourself, "why the heck are we even here?"? Me too - many times. I used to have a department head that held a basic "what's happening" meeting the last hour on Friday and again first thing Monday morning. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

According to the Wall Street Journal report on Wharton Centre For Applied Research, the average CEO in the United States spends 17 hours a week in meetings that costs the company $42,500 per year. Senior executives spend 23 hours a week in meetings and cost up to $46,000.00 per year each. Middle managers spend 11 hours a week in meetings and cost up to $20,000.00 a year each.

There are some things that you can do to counteract some of these expenses. First and foremost, ask yourself if the meeting is really a necessity. Look to see if there's a more cost-effective way to achieve your objective - by phone, email, or water cooler.

Speed up your meetings by supplying all participants with an agenda two to three days prior to the meeting. Include objectives, issues to be discussed, start and end times for each issue, a list of attendees and any preparations required. Assign someone as a time-keeper to keep things on track according to the set time limits.

When making out your participant list, be sure the people you're choosing really need to be there. If not, you're just completely wasting their time. Pretty soon everyone will be questioning their need to be at any of your meetings.

And by all means, manage your meetings. Keep discussions on track. Use the parking lot - if the group starts getting off track, write that issue on a sticky note and post it to discuss it more at the end of the meeting, if there's time, or at a later date.

Good meetings don't just happen. If you manage the process, the results will take care of themselves.

Speech Tics

After a little time off - I'm baaaaaack. And I want to talk about something you hear about a lot when discussing training or speeches/presentations. Speech tics. Speech tics are when you repeatedly use words, sounds, or phrases over and over. Things like "okay", "ya know", "I mean", and "um" and "uh".

Speech tics can be VERY annoying to your audience. PRACTICE your training or speeches prior to performing for the first time. You may think you don't have any tics, but you may actually find out that you do.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was listening, with a group of others, to a presenter. We all eventually tuned out what he was trying to get across because we were too busy counting his "um's" and "uh's". I actually can't recall what his presentation was on.

Repeating your speech tics - repetitive sounds - gets old and boring really fast. It's a sure way to lose your audience. In addition to just losing them, you also stand the chance of being made fun of (I saw some of that) and also decreasing your believability (saw that to).

Recognize your pet phrases and words and work on eliminating them - PRACTICE. Ask someone to keep a record each and every time one slips out. Use videotapes or even audiotapes to play back to see for yourself. Warning: it may not be pretty. Watch your audience while you're giving your presentation. You can pick it up by noticing their mannerisms and looks.

Even the most seasoned presenters will fall into the speech tic mode from time to time. If getting up in front of people isn't your main occupation, chances are you're going to fall into it more than what you think. PRACTICE.

Love Your Job

The keys to success come from being good at what you do. Lets face it, you're paid to work and to do a good job - everything else is extra. You're not always going to like 100% of your job. So concentrate on the part that you do.

It's easy to fall into the rut of hating a job - just because there's some aspect of it that you don't like. I've known a lot of people in that position, including myself. You really have to look past some aspects of what you do and seek out the reasons why you liked your job in the first place.

In Larry Winget's book, It's Called Work for a Reason, he says, "Fall in love with the 10 percent of your job that is really your job and just put up with the rest of it - the other 90 percent - because it's just part of what must be done to get you to the 10 percent that you enjoy". Winget gives a good example in explaining that he's a professional speaker about 200 days out of the year, yet he only spends about 100 hours on stage. The rest of all that time is spent traveling, waiting, etc - not really exciting stuff. But he has to wade through all that other stuff to get to the part that he really enjoys. They're necessary evils.

You may have to do some adjusting to get that love of your job back. Find that 10 percent, work at it, and you'll be good at what you do. You may even be excellent at it. That 10 percent is most likely that portion that gets noticed.

Think back to when you started your job. What was it that drew you to it? What aspects of it did you like the best? Make yourself a list. Find that old spark and work at getting it back. Forget all the other stuff and focus on the positive. Pretend that you've just started your job - all over again. Approach it from a new staff perspective - except that you already have the knowledge. Winget says that, "you don't have to love your job in order to be excellent at it. But it helps". It helps a lot!

Stay Informed

Donald Trump says that, "Ignorance is inexcusable; it's the surest way to fail. No acceptable reason exists for not keeping well informed." As a supervisor, this is essential. In order to excel you need to go above and beyond.

I watched a program on TV last night on the National Geographic channel about Air Force One (the Presidents plane). It was really worth my time. It showed just how much preparing and planning it takes to make any kind of trip - especially overseas. The pilot (Air Force Colonel) oversees EVERYTHING. He's constantly reviewing maintenance, scheduling and weather reports. He knows everything that's going on with that aircraft and plans for multiple scenarios.

The thing that was most interesting was the trip they made with President Bush (W) to Iraq for Thanksgiving. It was kept with the utmost secrecy - at that time Baghdad was a true battleground. In order to be able to pull this trip off the Colonel had to be sure that what his crew was doing was in total sync with the rest of the plans. They had to switch planes at one point and ensure they landed at the precise given time. While on the ground they had to be ready - literally at a moments notice - to take off. Now the Colonel could have had the attitude that, "I have great people and they'll handle everything". Sure. He has a highly trained and motivated crew and they each have a load of responsiblity. But he was the glue holding all the pieces together.

This is not a drill in micro-managing. Ugh - I hate that word. It's a matter of being ready, being prepared. It's a matter of gaining knowledge so you can make better and quicker decisions. It's a matter of being the best. Everyone wants to work with and deal with the best. If you work hard, hard workers will want to work with you. Remember - you are a role model. The ability and desire to keep informed will trickle down to your staff. That will make them more knowledgeable, motivated, and productive.