A new year is only six days away. What are you shooting for in 2014?
One of my favorite challenges in scripture comes from Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:26 (NASB): “I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” In other words, “I live with purpose.” So, in your personal life, family life, business, church, whatever, run with aim; shoot for something! One thing is certain—if you don’t shoot for something, you hit will hit nothing.
Here are a few suggestions that may help you hit the target in 2014:
#1 Have no more than three or four personal goals for the year. Choose things that are doable and will really make a difference.
#2 Choose one goal that is primary—an “if-I-only-get one-thing-done” goal, this is it. Make sure you reach this goal!
#3 Don’t let past failures keep you from trying again.
“Living in the past is an enemy of the future.” (Erwin McManus)
Forget “what lies behind and [reach] forward to what lies ahead….” (Philippians 3:13 NASB)
#4 Plan in detail for January through March. It is important to get off to a good start. In late March, plan for April through June, and so on. The greatest motivation for continuing will be progress.
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” (Coach Tom Landry)
It won’t just happen. You need a plan.
#5 Make sure you have an accountability mechanism. Post your plan on the refrigerator or give it to a friend who won’t say “don’t worry about it” if you begin to slip.
Leadership author John Maxwell challenges us with: “You don’t have to be great to start; but you have to start to be great.” 2014 is as good a time as any to start. Why wait?
Best wishes for a great 2014. I’m pulling for you to hit the mark—dead center!
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© Copyright 2014 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
A lot of you will be hitting the road…or airport…in the next week to visit friends and family for a hopefully “merry” Christmas. Part of getting ready is packing. If you are going north, you will pack up a parka; if south, maybe even a swimsuit. One challenge of Christmas travel is packing so all the bows and tags arrive still attached to the correct package. However, the biggest challenge of Christmas travel may be what to leave behind. So while you are packing some bags, you may need to unpack some others, especially the heaviest bag of all—the bag of unforgiveness.
There are a lot of reasons to get rid of this heavy bag. If you are a Christian, it is a spiritual imperative: Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 NASB
Apart from the spiritual dimension, there are still many great and practical reasons to forgive those who have hurt you. Stanford University has studied the impact of forgiveness on your health—both physical and emotional. According to Dr. Fred Luskin, director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, forgiveness “boosts the immune system, lowers high blood pressure, reduces anxiety and depression, and improves sleep patterns” (from Brain Power by Gelb and Howell).
In their book, HeartMath Solution, Doc Children and Howard Martin explain, “Forgiving releases you from the punishment of a self-made prison in which you’re both the inmate and the jailer” (cited in Brain Power by Gelb and Howell).
Few people had less reason to forgive than Nelson Mandela. He was tortured, slandered, imprisoned, and victimized by apartheid almost all of his life. Yet when leaving prison, he decided to forgive because he knew “if I didn’t, I would still be a prisoner.” He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in a prison of his own making.
Anne Beiler, founder of the Auntie Annie’s pretzel empire and a victim of sexual abuse by her pastor, learned that she needed to “forgive because I can’t forget.”
Forgiveness is a gift to yourself; it is about you putting down those life-sapping, heavy bags and getting out of a self-made prison. So while you are busy getting ready to give gifts to others, give one to yourself. It will make for a great 2014 and a much merrier Christmas in 2013.
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
December is here. Let the celebration begin! It is a great time for relaxing with family, friends, and coworkers at a slower pace. But…January is coming. I don’t want to spoil Christmas by suggesting that you focus on January. On the other hand, I don’t want you to spoil January by completely ignoring it in December.
So how about this: wind down—enjoy the season—but don’t come to a stop. A few suggestions:
If you don’t like any of my suggestions, make your own list. But whatever you do, wind down, but don’t stop!
[If you are in retail, “wind down in December” surely sounds like a joke—this is prime time for you. Maybe January becomes your wind down time, or May, or…whatever. Everyone needs a wind down time, so pick one and take advantage of it.]
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
“I hate my job. I thought working here was going to be great, but my attitude gets worse every day that goes by.
“I am trained to be an accountant. You know, make ledger entries, draw double lines at the end of the month, explain variances, and help people understand their budgets. But all I do is check other people’s work and grind out reports. A robot could do it.
“The company is making decent money, but none of it ever flows downhill. I don’t expect to make as much as the CFO, or even close, but a little extra every now and then would sure be appreciated.
“Too many of the people around me don’t do an honest day’s work. They have been here a long time and feel like they are entitled to the job no matter what. Us newbies are doing more than our share.
“My supervisor is a jerk. He doesn’t care about us individually—except for his golf buddies—and everything is a last minute crisis with him.
“There are a lot of things we could do more effectively and more efficiently, but new ideas aren’t really encouraged. We could actually do with less people, but our boss is always complaining about how understaffed we are.”
Sound familiar? There are two ways to look at this: #1, this employee is a chronic complainer who will never be happy no matter what; #2, this employee is working in a toxic environment, but would be a great employee if led well.
Either #1 or #2 could be true. If you are the leader, it’s your job to know which it is. And if you are the problem, fix yourself first!
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
“ ‘Brutal honesty’ is supposed to be a good thing. Lots of bosses pride themselves on it. But gentle honesty is better.”
This is the opening line in yesterday’s Wally Bock blog. (Wally publishes everyday at Three Star Leadership.)
Wally finishes his post with: “You want a team member to leave a conversation about behavior or performance thinking about what will change, not how you treated them.”
Though he is primarily discussing a workplace situation, everything he says applies equally well at home, with friends, wherever.
One of his best bits of advice is don’t use adjectives. I discuss that in depth in chapter 9 of my book, 16 Stones.
It will be worth your time to read his entire post at http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2013/11/11/gentle-honesty.aspx
One thing is sure. You won’t love your job if you hate your boss. First and foremost, people leave companies (or churches or universities or whatever) because of who they work for and they stay because of who they work for. It is the day-to-day interactions of boss/employee that make the most difference—one way or the other.
The October 28 (2013) edition of Forbes featured the 50 Best Small Companies. Four executives were asked, “How do you charge up your employees?” I don’t much like the idea of having to “charge up” employees because it implies they show up “charged down.” Fortunately, the four answers had to do with everyday leading that make employees show up already charged up:
#1: Share the rewards with everyone. Make sure all employees feel like they will benefit, not just a few at the top.
#2: Say “thank you” and show appreciation in small ways (e.g., an afternoon off after a late night of “saving the bacon”).
#3: Actively seek and encourage new ideas and creative solutions to both old and new problems.
#4: Celebrate success and do it every chance you get. Look for small things to celebrate. Progress is a great motivator.
Today would be a good day for you to help your employees love their jobs. Had a really good month? Give everyone a carwash coupon. Ready to finally solve that nagging-every-month problem? Ask for their ideas instead of insisting on your own. And so on…. You’ll be surprised at how much difference it makes.
(You can read the Forbes article for the specifics at http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2013/entrepreneurs-clinic.html)
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells at The Hard Lessons Company
Most of you aren’t old enough to remember Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: “Sherry”…“Rag Doll”…“Big Girls Don’t Cry”…“Walk Like A Man”—all hits I can hear in my mind even still. Call me and I’ll sing a line or two for you. (Trust me. That is all of my singing you’ll want to hear.)
One of their lesser known songs was “Silence Is Golden”:
Silence is golden
But my eyes still see
Silence is golden, golden
But my eyes still see
If you are a mom with three preschoolers, silence is golden. If your house has an interstate 100 feet from the back door, silence is golden. If you sit next to an incessant talker who thinks you are interested in every detail of her (or his) weekend, silence is golden. In our personal lives, “silence is golden” is often our heart song. But in any organization’s life, “silence is golden” is actually a death song.
An international study of “high-stakes projects, programs and initiatives” by the VitalSmarts organization (see Influencers by Grenny, et al), found that 88 percent of the people surveyed believed that the projects they were working on “would eventually fail.” However, less than 10% of those same people “said that it was politically acceptable to speak openly about what was going wrong.” Let me repeat: 9 out of 10 thought their project was headed for a train wreck and 9 out of 10 kept silent about it. This type of behavior is referred to as the “code of silence.” I wonder if that is why the ACA (Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare) website launch has been such a disaster.
If you are in leadership, one of your main responsibilities is to break the “code of silence.” You have to make it normal behavior for people to speak up—not shut up—when things are on the road to failure. How you respond to bad news will be the primary factor that determines whether the truth is surfaced or submerged. So it’s up to you. Nine out of ten people are silently watching your train run off the rails. Can you really afford that?
I would like to hear your stories of “silence is golden” disasters. Respond in the comment window.
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
Express Employment Professionals is the 5th largest employment service in the US. Founded in 1983, Express had sales in 2012 of $2.3B and more than 600 franchises. Per their website: “Our mission is to help people find jobs and our client companies find good employees, and to help those clients make those jobs and those employees even better.”
When Express CEO, Bob Funk was interviewed by Stephen Moore for a WSJ article (9/21/13, Where the Jobs Are—and How to Get One), he pointed out that many people are unemployable for three reasons that have nothing to do with the economy, government, CEO pay, outsourcing to China, and so on. He says, “I guarantee I can find employers tomorrow who will hire you” if you can meet only three minimal qualifications.
Want to guess what the three are? College degree—no. Technical skill—no. Movie star looks—no. Here they are:
#1 Integrity—simple: don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal.
#2 A strong work ethic—show up on time and do your job, every day.
#3 Able to pass a drug test—stay clean (one out of four applicants fail the drug test).
Imagine that. For people who are honest, willing to work, and drug free, Funk guarantees he can find them a job tomorrow. Further, Funk says “most employers will gladly train them with skills to fill higher-paying jobs.”
Funk is not saying that getting skill training is not important: “Express has as many as 20,000 jobs the company can’t fill because the workers don’t have the skills required.”
Where are those 20,000 jobs? In accounting, IT, robotics, welding and engineering. A degree in the history of southwestern native pottery will get you a job in…retail (but only if you are honest, hard working and drug free).
Funk has a lot of other interesting things to say about employment issues in America. Read the entire interview at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579087044033601178.html
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
More accurately, she is a heroine: Elinor Otto is 93 years old. Yup, 93. She works a regular five-days-a-week, eight-hour shift at the Boeing plant in Long Beach—not in an office, not as a receptionist—as a riveter on the C-17 assembly line. She takes a riveting gun in hand and hammers in rivets on a military aircraft, just like she did back in 1942 during World War II. She has been riveting longer than I have been alive, and I’m 69. Amazing!
According to the LA Times (At 93, This Rosie Is Still Working by Samantha Schaefer, 9/18/2013), she “is out of bed at 4 a.m. and drives to work early to grab a coffee and a newspaper before the 6 a.m. meeting. In the Boeing lot, she parks as far from the plant as possible so she can get some exercise. Every Thursday, she brings in cookies and goes to the beauty parlor to have her hair and nails touched up after her shift ends.” According to coworker, Craig Ryba, “She’s an inspiration. She just enjoys working and enjoys life.”
In Chapter 9 (A Hard Hat For Everyone) of my book, 16 Stones, I shared my own thoughts and experience with Rosie the Riveters:
It is common today for women to work in heavy industry factories. They do all the things men do on assembly lines, in machine shops, in quality labs, and stockrooms. But that hasn’t always been the case. It started during World War II when the men were off fighting, and workers were needed to produce airplanes, tanks, rifles, jeeps, and bullets. Women stepped up and were immortalized in a hit song, “Rosie the Riveter”:
All the day long, whether rain or shine, she’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history, working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that without thousands of Rosies, the war would have dragged on for years longer than it did. The women had no experience, but they were motivated to get the job done—and they did.
I had my own Rosie the Riveter experience in the late ’80s. While serving as VP of Finance for a midsize aerospace company, we were confronted with a crippling thirteen-week strike. At least it could have been crippling, but it wasn’t. Why? Because accountants, secretaries, engineers, buyers, vice-presidents, and even the lawyers all “went to the factory floor” to keep production going. Since they didn’t trust me with anything that moved or made noise, I was a wing wiper, meaning I took a rag, squirted Trike (trichloroethylene) on it, and cleaned excess adhesive, oil, dirt, and grime off of aluminum surfaces before they went to the paint shop. We were organized, inspired, and well led by our president, John Kleban. For thirteen weeks, our motley crew, by working hard with enthusiasm, kept the production lines moving and our customers satisfied. That is when the value of a hard hat for everyone was indelibly imprinted into my leadership DNA.
At 93 and still working, Elinor Otto is living my dream. I have always said, “I want to work as long as I can, and when I can’t, drop dead at my desk.” Today, my desk is in my home office and Dottie (my wife) will be the one who finds me. Of course, I am aware that I don’t get to prescribe my future, but as long as I can, I am going to stay on the assembly line of life, doing something useful in a way that honors God.
Elinor Otto reminds me of one my biblical heroes, Caleb, who, when 85 years old said:
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken. (Joshua 14 :11-12 NIV)
Eighty-five and taking on the Anakim giants. Ninety-three and still driving rivets. That is living life to the fullest. My bucket list can wait. I have all of eternity for it.
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You can order a copy of 16 Stones at 16stonesbook.com or online at Amazon, B&N, etc.
© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
“Practice what you preach” is an old adage that applies to leaders more than anyone. A leader’s credibility is always on the line and on display. So before the snow and cold comes, I am going to practice what I preach and head for Maine. Why? I need to escape for a while. The following excerpt about escape is from my book, 16 Stones.
ESCAPE: I have found, at least for me, fully restorative rest only comes with escape. My body, soul, and spirit all need occasional escape from the everyday world. For years my escape has been either the North Georgia mountains or the coast of Downeast Maine—a week of nothing but coffee, a good book or two, eating catfish or lobster, and listening to the creek or watching the waves. There is no doubt in my mind that without escape, the stress of running a midsize company or later serving a large church would have produced what Bill Hybels calls “many broken pieces rattling around inside me.” For Hybels, escape is on his sailboat. He says in Courageous Leadership, “I shudder to think where I’d be today had I not given myself permission to take up boating again.”
One mistake we make is equating different with escape. Let me clarify: taking your office to a different place is not escape. An open briefcase and ringing Blackberry at the beach is different, but it is not escape. Senior pastor, you can round up a couple of pastor buddies, play eighteen holes and then have dinner, all the while talking about your church problems. That is different, but it’s not escape. Business leader, you can take your team to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit (which I highly recommend) to be inspired and challenged. That is different and worthwhile, but it is not escape. Escape is leaving it all behind, emptying your mind of your ordinary work as Exodus 20:9 calls it, and letting God repair and refresh you from head to foot. In my own experience, I have found that I can get physical rest in a couple of days; however, mental and emotional rest usually takes a week or more.
You need to escape, but who you escape with is also important. My wife, Dottie, is wired much like I am. She doesn’t need to be entertained; she doesn’t have to be sightseeing all the time; she doesn’t need to be talking all the time; a day of nothing but sitting on the porch with a good book or working a puzzle is fine with her. She is a great escape partner. Once a year, I spend a couple of days alone, intensely seeking God, but most of the time I escape with her. My point is, choose your escape partner carefully. Remember, the purpose of escape is to detox from the stresses of your ordinary life, not just drag them to a different place.
You can order 16 Stones at 16stonesbook.com or online at Amazon, B&N, etc.
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© Copyright 2013 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company.
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