Don't Make Resolutions; Make Realistic, Measurable Goals.

Don't make resolutions; make realistic, measurable goals. I can't stress that enough. Resolutions are just dreams or wishes. Realistic, measurable goals are an actual plan with trackable milestones. Don't just figure out what you want from 2014, figure out and stick to a real plan to make it happen.

Both in your personal life and professional, merely setting goals alone won't get you anywhere. They need to be realistic. They need to be measurable. And most importantly, you need to keep vigilant with it and see it through.

Write your goals down and keep them posted where you will always see them. Set deadlines and milestones to keep and track. Stay focus on the end result. Keep things realistic and achievable.

One book I can not recommend enough is EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches. This book is a must read for anyone in business from an Entry Level Cubical Jockey to Senior Management. I almost wore out a highlighter on my copy of this book.

Happy New Years, everyone! I wish you all a safe, healthy, and productive 2014. Good Luck with your realistic, measurable goals!

“Super” Sam. Our Company’s “When I was” Specialist.

My day job is with a small company that has two other sister companies. We now share a new corporate level salesman. I think his title is Vice President of Business Development. I stress I think. The reason why I’m not 100% sure is that, in the conversations I’ve had with him, I’ve lost track of his accomplishments. Hence the nickname we’ve given him Super Sam.

Sam is not his real first name. I changed it to protect his identity. But nonetheless we coined him “Super”. He is super because with every conversion you have with him, you’d think you were interviewing him for a job. He is almost a talking resume.

“When I was Sales Director at... When I was working at… When I ran this…. When I owned my company I…” are constantly being said by him. This constant boasting of himself I feel is doing the opposite of his intention. Instead of driving home he has a lot of experience, he has given the impression to us co-workers that 1) he really likes to brag himself up and 2) either he doesn’t last too long as a place or he’s 150 years old.

There is no denying the fact that one has to “sell themselves” in today’s business world. But I strongly feel its best be done in a more subtle manner. There has to be a balance between letting people know you’re experienced and qualified, and being a 24/7 infomercial about yourself.

Super Sam recently showed up at a project kick off meeting with the Design Engineering Team. During is constant talking over the Team Leader who called the meeting with his “When I was” statements; he kept bringing up the time he owned a company. “When I owned my company, I always made sure the Engineers….” He mentioned the fact that he owned a company at least five times during the meeting and it had a noticeable effect on the Design Engineering Team.

When Super Sam left the conference room one Design Engineer turned to the rest of us in the meeting and said something pretty profound. He said “why should we listen to him when he says ‘this is how I did things when I ran my company? If he was successful at it, why is he now working for us, and not still running his own company?”

I Only Have Two and a Half Hours

"2-1/2 hours, I only have 2-1/2 hours" is what I just told myself as I looked at my "to do" list and my clock. I have a ton of stuff to get done and in 2-1/2 hours, I have my next family Christmas gathering to attend.

I looked at my list and started crossing off things that need to be done without doing them, as I added the time it will take me to get dressed up, things put away, drive time, and any other excuse I could find to not be productive in the time between now and  my next appointment. I do this a lot.

We all do this. Around the house, around the office. "Well the department status meeting is in 20 minutes, no point in starting my next task." Sound familiar?

Next time you find yourself doing that, which if you're like me it will be very soon; try something different. Instead of looking over your task list looking for items to put off doing, look for small items that you can do to get them out of the way of the larger ones.

You may find that besides being over booked for time, you are looking for excuses not to do what needs to be done. You might even be putting up your own roadblocks in a subconscious effort to avoid items you fear you will fail at. Yes. I said that.

Look at this example. I could have spent the last fifteen minutes going over my list and adding items like driving to town to reduce the amount of time I have until I decided to just set on the couch and Facebook or watch YouTube videos until I had to go. Instead, I wrote this post that I will be able to post on at least two blogs. I was productive. I added content to my blogs, allowing you to be able to read this.

Granted it wasn't a life changing event for either of us. I had some fun writing and hopefully you were entertained or maybe inspired to quit stalling on one of your projects. I didn't move mountains, but it was better than "liking" status updates and watching videos of funny pets.

Now I have about two hours. I just might have enough time to take care of a load of laundry and mop the kitchen floor. Look out world: I'm not stopping myself with excuses today!

The Little Things Matter for Maintaining an Professional Image

Recently while walking the dog, I came across another example of a business representing itself with a poor image. As my dog and I made our way around a corner, we walked past a house in the neighborhood that was for sale. The metal reality sign came loose from one end of the wooden frame and was hanging awkwardly at an angle. Since the place is currently someone’s cabin, I stopped and fixed the sign for them.

That was when I noticed that the hardware that mounts the metal sign to the wooden post were threaded connectors that were left open. This allowed the wind to knock the sign off the attachment at one end, leaving it looking neglected and uncared for. And the way the sign looks represents gives the first impression of the real estate agent representing the cabin.

It took me less than 30 seconds to place the metal sign back in place and close the threaded end of the hardware to secure the sign. 30 seconds that the real estate agent apparently didn’t think was necessary.  But that extra thirty seconds can make a difference. It was the difference from a presentable public image of the real estate agency to one of an agency that just carelessly stuck a sign in the ground and left.

Everybody who represents a business, especially us small business owners, must always be putting forth our best effort to have a good image. We need to make sure our company signs are professional looking. We have to take pride in our store fronts and vehicles by keeping them maintained. The first object that represents your business to a potential client or customer sees will be the first impression of you they will have. We need to put forth a constant effort that it is a positive professional image, not a for sale sign falling off its hinges.

The Sabbath

There are many things one can take out of the Bible that people of all different faiths or no faith at all can agree are good ideas. Of course there are the obvious ones like don’t lie, cheat, or steal; treat others as you would want them to treat you; don’t kill, etc. There is no argument that those are some great ideas and rules to follow.

There are even some faith specific items that the concept of should be applied to everyday life. One in particular is the Sabbath. Even an atheist can benefit greatly from the Sabbath, in concept alone.

A simple way to look at the Sabbath, in conceptual form, is even God needs to take a break every once in a while. In today’s fast paced digital world the hours of professional and personal lives blur together. On top of that, many of us are working full time while doing side projects, taking classes or both. Not to mention personal commitments for family and friends. At the pace we run these days, stress, fatigue and burnout are just the way we go forward.

Being employed full time, a part time student, working on multiple side projects and trying to live a life outside of work; I’ve been living my life on the edge of burnout for quite some time. The past few weeks I’ve decided to incorporate the Sabbath concept. One day each week, usually Saturday or Sunday of course, I go into a semi-shutdown mode. No answering work emails, no homework, no QuickBooks, no spreadsheets, no CAD models, no Word documents; just a day of rest. The way it should be.

Sure there are sometimes deadlines that trump this, but overall I have fully adopted the work/study six days a week and have one day of rest routine. This took quite a bit of effort to get on track with this, but it has greatly reduced the stress in my life.

Now more than ever we need to take some time off of our daily task lists. Overtime and multi-tasking is the normal instead of the exception for many of us. Especially for us who are not satisfied with just doing what is required or expected, but do the extra work to exceed beyond the rest. Sure it only takes a minute or two to reply to an email from your smartphone, but our minds, bodies and souls need a day off to recharge.

Since I started making an effort to shut off work for one day a week, the rewards are showing. I have more focus and energy during the other six days. I feel more productive and not stretched so thin of all my commitments, tasks and goals. Who knows, maybe someday I will take an actual real vacation someday. Well that won’t happen. I can’t totally unplug for an extended period of time. 

Communication Breakdown

One of the worst things about my day job, and I’m sure many of yours, is that there is a companywide communication breakdown. Important information and direction is not passed along. Poor communication can cripple an organization. Efficiency is decreased, employee morale is affected, and customers and vendors can be lost because of poor communication.

There can be several causes for poor communication, such as the structure of the company or the abilities of the leadership. But there is no excuse for it to exist in the workplace. In order for a company to strive and excel, it needs focus, direction, a solid plan, a united team. And the glue that holds all of that together is communication.

The company I currently work for easily has the worst communication of any place I’ve been. People are hired, fired and quit without anyone knowing about it. One department manager was leaving voicemail messages for another department manager for a week before he learned that the other manager quit. Outraged he asks our HR manager why she didn’t let anyone know. She didn’t know. That’s right. The person in charge of HUMAN RELATIONS was not told that a manager quit for over a week!

While that is a rather extreme example, smaller communication lapses can hurt a company, especially when it comes to personal changes. When people are hired, there should be effort put into letting people throughout the company know. Have a brief meeting with all company team members. If the company is too large for that to be practical, send a companywide email, or have each department leader tell their team.

The same effort in communications needs to take place when someone leaves the company for any reason, or if there is a position change. Few things will point out there is no communication like people missing or in a different office.

Here’s another example from my day job. Recently there was a change in positions and two people basically switched roles and switched offices. Since two were switching offices, the General Manager thought it made sense to move three other people to different offices. I guess since the guy from the phone company was going to stop by to switch two lines; he might as well do some more.

This change took place on a Friday. There was no company announcement. In fact one of the managers didn’t even bother to tell his team about the move! Since I work in the area, I had to tell people for the next week that so and so moved to a different office. Including people looking for their own boss!

It seems some leaders just make the assumption that people already know. Sadly there are also some leader who just simply don’t care or even get a power trip because the know something the rest don’t.

Effective communication is simple and requires very little effort. Good leaders will make the effort to make sure it is done correctly.

Great Advice From Chris LoCurto

Here is some really great advice from Chris LoCurto. I just subscribed to his YouTube channel.

Chris is the host of Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership podcast. I highly recommend you check the podcast out, if you don't already subscribe to it.

There’s No “My” in Team Either

I come from the mindset were a well-run business or organization functions as a team. Not just with the mindset that all members work together for the goal of the organization, but there is as little separation and division among the members as possible. Mainly the leadership members of the origination lead by example, being shoulder to shoulder with their team members as much as possible.

One word used often in business that bugs me is “my.” You hear it all the time in meetings & phone calls and see it often in emails. For example, you’ll hear phrases like “my engineers are working on it now”, “the PO will be issued by my accounting department this week.” You’ll even hear that from sales reps and customer service people who are not even in a management roll.

For me, it's even more annoying to here that from a person who is not in a leadership role refer to anything in the company as "my" except for possibly their desk. Almost as annoying as the 24 year old intern say "back in the day."

I worked with a person who does this all the time. We have a weekly conference call with another company we are teaming with on a new product. He is constantly saying “my” this and “my” that. I really projects an arrogant image of him to the other is in the meeting.

Doing this gives the image of a company with ownership or a management team that is removed from their employees. To me, it appears as company without a soul; that treats its employees as mere parts in the corporate machine. While the company model of having the leadership separate from the rest does work, I strongly feel a true team structure is much better.

I’ve worked at companies that follow both methods of management. The places with the highest employee morale and the lowest employee turn around had the “hands on in the trenches with the rest of us” type of owners and or managers.

"To be truly effective, soldiers must bond to their leader just as they must bond to their group. Shalit notes a 1973 Israeli study that shows that the primary factor in ensuring the will to fight is identification with the direct commanding officer. Compared with an established and respected leader, an unknown or discredited leader has much less chance of gaining compliance from soldiers in combat." ~ Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

I came across the above quote today and it made me think “that is what true leadership is all about.” That mentality does not just apply to soldiers, but to any group that has a leader. Whether it be in the workplace or other group setting, a hands on leader will motive and get results.

One key thing to remember is to be a true hands on leader, not a micro manager. There is all the difference in the world between rolling up your sleeves and joining in the work, and standing over one’s shoulder to make sure they do the work.

Being a true team in the workplace is something that really can’t be faked. So if this doesn’t come natural to you, it may be something that you need to work on. But it will be worth all the effort you put into it.

More for the 4 Day Workweek

I am a true proponent for the 4 day work week. In theses current times when many people's work and personal lives blur into one, having one more day that is mostly personal can be a win win.

Please see this opinion piece from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/24/opinion/drexler-four-day-workweek/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

Breathe Mints to the Rescue... of a Cluttered Desk.

The Curiously Strong Office Organizer 

I like to keep things simple and organized. Reduced clutter and reduced waste means increased efficiency. I also don’t like to let things go to waste, which kind of goes hand in hand. The below picture is of a good example of reducing clutter and reusing an item at the same time.

I usually have a tin of breath mints in my office desk drawer and in my office backpack. They help keep me from snacking (grazing is more like it) all day and I don’t want to be caught with coffee breathe during a surprise meeting.

Besides being “curiously strong” and great tasting, my preferred brand of mint is my preferred brand of mint because of it’s packaging. They come is awesome crush proof tins that if you don’t recycle, can be uses to store and organize small items.

I use them to organize my desk drawers, office back pack and other area prone to clutter. Putting small office items, like rubber bands and paper clips in them and marking them  can really help keep things in order.

Quick Tip #6: Conveying the Team Mentality

If you are a true believer in an organization being a team, convey that in the way you communicate. Especially in interoffice emails and correspondence with customers & vendors. Replace "my" with "our." Examples: our production personal, our accounting department, our sales staff, our engineers. You will not reinforce a team mentality when people hear you say "my inspector is finishing up her report on your order as we speak."

Hiatus is Over! Back to Blogging and Being a Twit on Twitter

The three people who read this may have noticed I'm back to being active on this blog. The past few months got to be a little hectic for me and this got pushed to the side. Life has seemed to get back to normal for me and I'm trying to improve my schedule to allow more time to work on this.

The past few weeks I have been jotting down some ideas for posts and improvements to the site in general. Then some weird coincidences happened this last weekend.

Friday I met a good friend of mine who was in town visiting. She does the blogging social media branding marketing type thing for a living. She mentioned that she hasn't seen anything new from me and suggested I get back into it because she thought it was pretty good. I took that with a grain of salt because we were drinking a beer at a local establishment and she know I cry easy when my feelings are hurt. But then the next I ran into another friend who asked about this. So, I figure I better get back at it.

I paid attention to my social media guru friend's advice and I'm going to follow her suggestions before I forget them. One of her suggestions is to have a Twitter account to accompany this blog. So tonight, after trying to log into the Twitter account I haven't used in years, I created a new one.

Follow me @shane_lien if you're into that. My personal goal is to have 500 followers by the end of June 2013. Please help me meet my goal.

More posts are in the works, along with some improvements to the look and function of this site. topics will include having a paperless office, time management, dealing with difficult co-workers, among other office related things. Thanks for taking the time to check this out.

Spring Clean Home Office Tips from Evernote

Spring Clean Home Office Tips from Evernote

Spring has sprung and I'm setting aside part of my Sunday afternoon to give my home office a deep cleaning.

• Receipts and other papers that have been sitting on the desk waiting to be scanned and filed.
• Books shelves and file cabinets to be clean out and sorted
• Computer files to be better organized
• Microsoft Outlook to be cleaned up (contacts, archive emails, etc.)

By removing the clutter that's is in the home office, you will see a increase productivity and you will enjoy a more relaxing work environment.

The above link is to the Evernote blog that offers some great tips that you can apply, evenif you don't use their awesome free product.

Quick Tip: Keep a pen & notepad handy

If you spend your days at a cubicle farm, you'll often have somebody passing by who want to leave a note for the coworker that is not at their desk.

Be prepared for the less prepared coworkers. Leave a pen and a sticky note pad on the end of your desk.

Others can use it without interrupting you, or pillaging through your desk if you're not there.

There's A Reason You Were Fired For No Reason

Recently, at the day job, a little "house cleaning" took place. Two employees were fired. Both had been with the company for many years and there really was no shock that they were let go.

Both put very little effort into their duties and both do not work well with others. One spent more time trying to  look busy, than actually being productive. The other spent most of the day gossiping and complaining about the company and the job.

As no surprise to me, the one who spent most of the hours at work complaining is now telling the world that she was "fired for no reason." That is a statement I, and I'm sure you, have heard many times. Fired for no reason.

The simple truth is people are rarely fired for no reason. Any small business owner, HR professional, or recruiter can confirm that the hiring (and firing) process is a huge expense. Just the man hours alone in setting up payroll and benefits. The time invested in training. The fees involved  if a temp or recruitment service. Not to mention the dip in productivity and other expenses occurred until the new hire comes up to speed.

That investment does not want to be wasted by any company large or small. When a employee is not working out, most of the time every chance is made to improve things. From candid discussions on what is expected to changes made in the job description, usually something is done to prevent a firing. Besides, firing some one is a huge expense in itself.

Both of the people that were recently let go had several chances given to them, but things did not change and they were let go.

Now, just because some one is fired from there job, doesn't mean they can no do that job. Just not at that company. Companies can be compared to professional sports teams. While some do the same thing, they do things in their own way, capitalizing on their strengths, resources, experiences and skill sets.

Just as a Quarterback or a Pitcher can struggle on one team and be a superstar on another; an accountant, machine operator, or salesman with two different companies.

Yes, this is no absolute and there are some times when someone could be fired for no reason. And if you feel  that has happened to you, considered it a lucky break. Because know you are not wasting your talents at a place you weren't welcome at.

Press One For Aggression

I've been spending a good chunk of this Saturday afternoon caught in a Catch-22 type loop. I've been trying to setup an admin email account for a domain I recently purchased from a new provider. I get an error message every time I try to set it up. After a few attempts, I put my pride aside, took three deep breaths and called the toll free helpline.

As expected I got an automated system, which will always raise my blood pressure. As I pressed numbers for the category of my problem, preparing myself for a conversation with someone who speaks broken English with a heavy accent, I hit a dead end.

I was asked to enter my PIN. I don't have a PIN for the account. Creating the account PIN is the next step after creating the admin email account. I sent off an email and posted a question on a forum, so this minor set back should be resolved shortly. I'm sure it's just a simple error on my end.

This is a perfect example of why I can't stand automated call systems. While they can help your customers reach the person who can help them without being transferred and placed on hold, nothing beats a human voice. Personally I would rather have my call answered by a human and be placed on hold, than dealing with a automated system. If your company has an automated system it should have a "press zero for an operator" option announced right away.

If  a customer or potential calls you and can't get through quickly to someone who can answer their questions, or take their orders; you may lose them without even knowing they called.

New Year QuickBooks

When I started my home business, designing plastic injection molds, I did what most people who start a home business do. I used a computerized spreadsheet for my accounting. I created and kept track of quotes and invoices in MS Excel. For just starting out, it worked just fine.

I had been using Quicken for keeping track of my personal finances, so after about a year or so I upgraded to Quicken Home & Office. Seemed like a logical step and worked out great. While Excel is an extremely powerful tool, using Quicken Home & Office was a vast improvement and I was very happy with it.

Then this fall I took a class on Computerized Accounting and the course used QuickBooks. As expected I quickly found that; while Quicken Home & Office was a vast improvement over Excel, QuickBooks is a much more powerful tool for tracking finances.

After the second class, I told my instructor that I was already sold on QuickBooks. I told her I planned to purchase the software for my business and go back to the standard Quicken for my personal finances. She made the recommendation of instead of buying the two software programs, just get QuickBooks and create a  separate "company" for my personal finances.

Besides teaching business classes at the local Technical College, my instructor also has an accounting and consulting business. She told me one of her clients started doing this and has been quite happy with the results. So the idea was in the back of my head through out the course.

Well the course is over. I bought QuickBooks Pro, and last week, while on "use it or lose it" end of the year PTO from my day job, I got both my business and me set up in QuickBooks. I don't need to go into detail on how to use QuickBooks for your small or medium size business. Many of you already know this. But I'm pleasantly surprised how well it works for personal use.

I'm just getting started and have a few things to try out; but I know QuickBooks is going to great tool for me.  It is going to be very useful for budgeting and planning finical goals. I will be sure to post tips and cool things I find while doing this here.

This could be a lot of fun!

Office Phone Etiquette for Snoogins

Someone recently made a comment to me about the protective case I have for my mobile phone. It's a "Jay & Silent Bob" case. I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's movies and the characters of Jay & Silent Bob in particular.

My friend commented "cool phone case, but you don't bring that to work do you?"

I replied "thanks and of course I do. It's my personal phone, I'll have whatever case I want for it."

Shocked my friend said "But you meet with customers and vendors. Shouldn't you maintain a professional appearance?"

Of course I maintain a professional appearance. I am by no means stiff-as-a-board having tea with the Queen über proper, but I am a professional who has good manners. Part of good business etiquette, is concentrating on the conversions and presentations involved with meeting with customers; not checking my email on my phone or taking a call.

In fact most of the time, when I'm meeting with someone with someone outside of the company, I leave my phone behind. My focus should be on the people who traveled to meet me and the topics they come to discuss.

Of course the phone comes out if my tablet isn't at the ready to check a date on the calendar, or find something I have on Evernote. But it's a brief appearance and my hand usually has awesome graphics covered up.

The point I'm trying to make is: when you meet people face to face, meet them face to face. Not face to face with your eyes on your phone checking email.

By the way, snoogins. It's one sweet phone case. Snootch to the nooge.

It's a Case Mate brand case, and I highly recommend them.

The model I have is a two part case. Soft rubber inner part with a hard plastic outer.