If you woke up this morning with everything you were thankful for yesterday, what would you have?
So asked a friend of mine the other day. The honest answer wasn't too pretty. There are plenty of things on a daily basis that can elicit a negative response. Far more importantly, there are plenty of things on a daily basis that should elicit a positive response. Gratitude for the vast blessings that I enjoy is important but, all too often, missing. It's a good time of year to be reminded.
Posted at 08:24 AM in Chris, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
My teenage son recently told me he may have locked my keys in the car. Of course, this was only minutes after my parting words to him were "be sure to bring the keys back". My first reaction was an internal surge of anger around my inconvenience and his irresponsibility; that surge pushed hard to transform itself into words that I could “share” with him. I restrained from saying anything as he ran off to the car to look for the keys. Fortunately, the keys were not locked in, he apologized sincerely, and there was no inconvenience to our day (let's skip the responsibility part for right now!). The incident reminded me of some valuable business advice given to me: "You don't have the luxury of losing you cool".
Wait a minute...did you say a luxury? Luxury implies choice or preference. But anger is hard-wired, unstoppable, inevitable. Got it...you will get angry...no choice. But you can choose how to deal with it when it arrives. This is an important choice in leadership. Anger hides ideas, narrows perspectives, and limits options. The idea of leading and serving others goes out the window because anger is, almost exclusively, about you. And why would I follow you if you are not thinking about me? People will give you a break for that rare outburst, but if you make that choice too often your influence is greatly reduced. So the question is whether you really believe that you can make a choice on how to deal with anger (and reap the benefits of that) or whether you want to go down the road of “I’m just wired up that way”. Your choice. I know what choice I’m going to make…even when my son goes from lost keys to dented fenders.
Posted at 03:40 PM in Jeff, Leadership, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
I know of this person who is going through a difficult situation yet he does nothing to reach out for help. Pride, independence,...whatever...is not on his side. We all need help to be successful in life's activities. There is not one successful person who "did it on their own". Success is always connected to others...the customer who gave you a try, the partner that covers your weakness, or maybe the encouragement from a friend. Humble and thankful should be our attitude if we are seeing things clearly. So don't let those internal voices stop you from reaching out, asking for help, opening up, learning. History has revealed to us that success involves others.
Posted at 03:40 PM in Jeff, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
After an end-of-summer hiatus, we are back in the blogoshpere. We hope your summer ended in a positive, memorable manner.
We are re-posting Jeff's original post from nearly a year ago now - October, 2009. Just a reminder of why we blog...
Learning...by Jeff Kaczperski
Today’s fact becomes tomorrow’s misinformation
-Alvin Toffler (business writer and futurist)
A leading expert on education in America delivered a message to teachers: Information is now becoming obsolete every 5 years. He went on to explain how that fact should change the lesson plans of our educators. Think how this changes our workplace. If what you know today becomes less valuable within a few short years, then your ability learn and quickly apply that learning becomes more valuable. The difficulty in this is that human nature has a gravitational pull towards security and routine. This fact was highlighted as I sat around a table of small business leaders who stated it was hard to find time to even read one book in a year. Whether it is a book, a video, an article, a seminar, or a supplier meeting…we need to be continually learning if we are to be relevant in the marketplace.
The goal of our blog is to share what we are learning as it relates to life, business, people, and sometimes plastics. We hope you'll come along for the ride.
Posted at 09:56 AM in Jeff, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
Man, do I love this.
What a great reminder that opinion isn't necessarily right or wrong. It's the viewpoint that only you can have given your expertise, life experience, and behavioral makeup. Give it freely when you're asked - it has value.
Posted at 10:40 AM in Chris, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
I wrote a little while back about innovation being considered the #1 wealth creator and that 90% of innovations experience failure. So it makes sense that we ought to get pretty comfortable with failing. I like the way John Maxwell talks about “Failing Forward” (http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/7430-8.html). The idea is that when (not if) we fail, we better be sure to learn from it. For some, failure represents a reduction in value of some kind (i.e. personal worth) while in others it represents an increase in value (i.e. understanding)…who do you think is most likely to find the next innovation or improvement?
Seth Godin hit the topic from a slightly different angle in his post found here.
Posted at 08:21 AM in Jeff, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
Remember your first real job after college, when you were starry-eyed and determined to show the world what you could do? And then you showed up at the office and found that there is a big disconnect between what you learned in college and what happens in the real world.
I remember early in my career sitting in a staff meeting with the corporate controller and the CFO, and pointing out why, after just a few short weeks on the job, I had come to the conclusion that our costing system was inadequate and outdated. I was so excited to propose my own “really good idea”--- an activity based costing concept that, at the time, was all the rage in academia and therefore must be a perfect fit for “us”.
I still remember the looks on the faces around the table at that meeting. They ranged from incredulous to horror, and a silence fell over the room. In my eagerness to “make my mark”, I had inadvertently stepped on an alternate proposal that the controller and his team has spent months working on prior to my arrival. I had taken an early leap by concluding that my solution was that the perfect fit for “us”, when it fact it really just fit “me” and what I had to offer…
It was at that time that I learned the value of team collaboration, and the pitfalls of “going it alone.”
At Omega Plastics, you’ll see that our tagline is “your TEAM just got Bigger”. We believe one key to becoming a great teammate is to take the time to listen. You’ll find that we ask a lot of questions. Why? Because we want to understand the project through your eyes. We’ll use your feedback to get on the same page, and in return you get the teammate you need to help lift your load. We’ll be a teammate that defines project success and deliverables the same way you do internally. Because, as I learned early in my career, leaping into action needs to be the result of listening and learning, then leaping into action.
Posted at 03:40 PM in Learning, Mike | Permalink | Comments (0)
One of my favorite things about Dilbert is that it pokes fun at ridiculous situations that truly exist in some businesses (not yours or mine, of course…). One thing I think that all of us share is some role in the quarterly or annual planning process. Even if you haven’t had the fortune of sitting in on the actual meeting, no doubt you’ve been affected by the myriad goals that come out of these meetings.
Now don’t misunderstand me, I am a goal oriented person, and in fact, I love goals, objectives, and being able to accomplish more than anyone thought I could. Our team pushes themselves with 90-day sprints each quarter to make a dent in our annual key initiatives—and we should.
Yet recently, a working paper from Harvard Business School (link found below) challenged my thinking a bit—and talked about the unintended “side effects” that can come from “going wild” with goal setting. In short, the authors argue that concept goes wrong when:
1.) Goals are too specific and narrow, which can blind us to other important issues.
2.) We have too many goals, which causes us to choose to do them all poorly, or to do one well at the expense of others.
3.) Timelines are too short, which leads us to short-cut, and ultimately may cause long term damage to the company
4.) Goals are overly challenging, which can lead to taking on too much risk, tempting others to take on unethical behaviors, or just downright feeling dissatisfied and de-motivated if the goal is unrealistic.
The article goes on to share several points that we have made a part of our culture at Omega—including our belief that an overriding goal in every successful company must be continual learning. And I would add, sharing that learning with our teammates. On that, we all can agree.
Posted at 07:51 AM in Learning, Mike | Permalink | Comments (0)
Technorati Tags: Learning, Management
Today’s fact becomes tomorrow’s misinformation
-Alvin Toffler (business writer and futurist)
A leading expert on education in America delivered a message to teachers: Information is now becoming obsolete every 5 years. He went on to explain how that fact should change the lesson plans of our educators. Think how this changes our workplace. If what you know today becomes less valuable within a few short years, then your ability learn and quickly apply that learning becomes more valuable. The difficulty in this is that human nature has a gravitational pull towards security and routine. This fact was highlighted as I sat around a table of small business leaders who stated it was hard to find time to even read one book in a year. Whether it is a book, a video, an article, a seminar, or a supplier meeting…we need to be continually learning if we are to be relevant in the marketplace.
The goal of our blog is to share what we are learning as it relates to life, business, people, and sometimes plastics. We hope you'll come along for the ride.
Posted at 04:51 PM in Jeff, Learning | Permalink | Comments (0)
What better way to describe the last 12 months than the analogy of navigating our own Andrea Gail in the midst of, what at times, has seemed like The Perfect Storm? I suspect for many, the ending of the movie of the same name is painfully familiar-- as having given it his all, Captain “Billy” goes down with the ship at the hands of a rogue wave…(sorry to be a spoiler if you never saw the movie!).
Let me ask you, as a leader in your organization, what have you learned so far, and what lessons need to still be applied to ensure that when the sun does come back out, that whether we're through the storm or just in the eye, that we’ll be ready to thrive?
In the link below, Martha Lagace from HBS interviews former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, William George, in an attempt to answer that question. My favorite quote from Mr. George is that “Crises offer rare opportunities to make major changes in an organization because they lessen the resistance that exists in good times.” Think on that for a moment—how much leaner, stronger, and cohesive has your team, your organization become since heading into the great storm that started with the crash of the financial markets last September? Would you have taken these actions even if the storm never came? And how much more difficult and at what pace might the changes have come if there were no crisis?
Are you determined to stay on course and ride out the storm? I think as leaders we are called to do even more than that—we are to look for an opportunity to thrive, not just “ride it out”. George calls us to emerging from this crisis by taking our team on offense—which allows us to “more quickly solve unforeseen problems and to develop competitive advantages sooner.” Ultimately, the advantage of a strong team leads to a better market position and secures our future growth.
And that raises a final thought-- are we doing all we can to help lead our teams successfully through the storm? Ask George Clooney about the alternative…
Posted at 11:59 AM in Learning, Mike | Permalink | Comments (0)
