Don't be a fool...

Every April 1^st we wait for the joke, hoping not to fall for it. But we often do.

 

·      It’s all good-natured fun. 

·      The kind we need more of.

 

Radio stations, late night television, and even newspapers seek to portray an outlandish story as being accurate on April Fool’s Day. Those all used to be in good fun until actual fake news became so prevalent. People used to try out some of these pranks at work until companies began asking for it to stop since rumors can get rampant in a workplace. People are on edge these days worrying that anything they hear shouldn’t be believed when in fact we all should be trying to stop untruths. It’s a shame we can’t joke around for fear that someone will accuse us of something. So, if you’re going to say something outlandish today, do it with a smile and a twinkle in your eye. Have a good laugh about it and let it go. The world needs a little more foolish fun today.

 

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910):  known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, essayist, and humorist, maybe the best the US has ever produced.

Looks for common ground...

Listen to the news and you’d think the world couldn’t get any more polarized. People talking at people rather than with them, all the while not hearing what anyone has to say.

 

·      Communications is a two-way proposition.

·      And it’s as much listening as talking. 

 

It’s almost like people don’t want to get into discussions – the briefest comments lead to the quickest assumptions. No give and take. No common ground. If you’re not this then you can’t be anything else. But look what happens when there’s an emergency or something unexpected happens – people drop their pretenses and pitch in. We’ve all seen that happen – a fire, flood, tornado, blizzard or worse, and everyone is there with only one thought: how can I help. At work, the differences are set aside for the good of the team – the people you work next to are colleagues and nothing else matters. At the park, produce a softball, basketball, or soccer ball and teams are formed without thought to backgrounds or political preferences. In those situations, it doesn’t matter what ship or horse you rode in on – everyone is in the same boat. Remember that when listening to all the talking heads on TV. Make it a point to do more listening and look for common ground today.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 –1968): American Christian minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

Be interested and interesting...

Nearly everyone I interviewed told me they liked working with people. Roughly 40% of them were stretching the truth.

 

·      Saying you like working with people, and doing that, are different.

·      Most people do - but those who don’t, can gum up the works.

·      Make sure you separate them accordingly.

 

During my tenure, we received nearly 4 million applications – it was our practice to meet and screen all who’d come in for an appointment; that resulted in approximately 3 million first interviews. It was time consuming, but we had a simple test to see if they were the kinds of people who didn’t mind being interrupted (since that's what happens all the time in any service business) – approximately 27% failed our little test over a 25-year period (they didn’t go any further in the interview process). The remaining 73% were the kinds of people who generally liked working with others (and the only ones hiring managers were allowed to interview) – they were open, curious, interested, flexible, and generally optimistic. That was our way of hiring for attitude. We ultimately hired 125,000 employees from that group during that period, all of whom thought that the nicest think about teamwork, and work in general, was that you always have others on your team. At your side. Creating a great community and culture. Create a workplace culture of open communication, appreciation, trust, respect, and a willingness to coach your employees. One that makes sure your employees understand the importance of collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork today.

 

Margaret Carty (1939 – 2021): American Naval officer who later served as the Executive Director of the Maryland Library Association

Try hard to be good every day...

I use quotes every day in my daily messages, meaning I’m always looking for good quotes. I recently bumbled upon The Neurotic’s Notebook, a compilation of aphorisms (a pithy observation that contains a general truth) somewhere between anxiety and bitterness. 

 

Neurotic means you're afflicted by neurosis, a word that has been in use since the 1700s to describe mental, emotional, or physical reactions that are drastic and irrational.

 

I’ve written these daily messages every weekday since 2009 – that’s 15 years and nearly 3900 quotes and messages. Some days I’ll use a proverb, others something anonymous; but mostly I use quotes to help make a point and give people something to think about.  I don’t believe this makes me neurotic, but it does seem compulsive. And then I found this Notebook and today’s aphorism – and I couldn’t help but think that if I must do this every day, for God’s sake I better learn to do it well. This could also apply to anyone who goes to work every day – best they learn to do that well too. Whether it’s writing messages or doing what you do: learn all you can about that and for God’s sake, do it well today.

 

The Neurotic's Notebook, by Mignon McLaughlin: Originally published in 1963, updated regularly and found on Amazon. McLaughlin was previously Editor of Glamour Magazine.

Play well with others...

·      People think teams are about picking the right people. 

·      Or having a great playbook and lots of practice.

·      But often they’re just a random group thrown together. 

·      Making it so important to get them to play well together.

 

I know hiring managers who spend hours going through resumes, looking for the right levels of experience, skills, and capabilities. They often look at where the candidates have worked, for how long, and whether they had a good upward progression of jobs. Those same hiring managers are always looking for more candidates, hoping the next ones will be more of what they’re looking for. Stop right there! The best employees are not the ones that bring the most with them, but rather the ones with the best attitudes, who can be trained and molded into the ones you want. The attitude you should be looking for is optimism – people with that are open, curious, flexible, anxious to play well with others, and see the glass as half full. Because a team is more than a collection of people; it’s a process of give and take; they’re looking to learn, to share, and to be there when needed. If you want the best team, hire for attitude and train for the skills needed to play well with others today.

 

Barbara Glacel (born 1948): American author, writer, executive coach, and organizational consultant.

Keep your eyes and ears wide open...

We all know people who consider themselves the smartest person in every room they’re in. That is probably the biggest mistake anyone can make.

 

·      We can’t know everything about anything.

·      And even less about everything.

 

The best part of working (or playing) with people is the synergy of interests, ideas, energy, and knowledge they each bring with them. To overlook that simple fact is to miss so much of life and the opportunities we have each day. Don’t get me wrong: it’s good to be smart; the key to being effective is to use what everyone else brings to the table to become smarter. Every good idea I ever had was made immeasurably better as it wound itself from thought to finish. The people you work with all bring different perspectives and thoughts to anything you’re doing with them and that’s what makes good ideas into great products or efforts. Whether it was designing a paperless system, a high-volume recruitment or training program, or just planning an employee of the year event, the free flow of ideas and efforts between everyone on those project teams proved invaluable in the end. The best thing you can bring into anything you do is the notion that none of us is as smart as all of us today.

 

Ken Blanchard (born 1939): American author, business consultant and motivational speaker who has written more than 70 books, the most successful is The One Minute Manager.

Specialize in being you...

·      Working is a means to an end.

·      Initially it’s about earning an income.

·      Then it’s about becoming who you wish to be.

 

Many people work and their identities are bound up in that – and that can be fun and exciting. But at some point, you start to think about who and what you wish to be known for and remembered by. Sometimes we follow in our family’s footsteps, and others we set out on our own. Whichever, that motivation should come from within. There are lots of pressures to be something but the only one that matters is what you want to be. The definition of your success should start and end with you – to be the best you can be at whatever you want to be. That’s the mark of a professional – one who’s best at being what they are. Do that and you’ll acquire all you need today.

 

Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915): American writer, publisher, artist, philosopher, founder of the Roycroft artisan community, and an exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Don't ever shy away from a good risk...

·      tim·id: showing a lack of courage or confidence; easily frightened.

·      squeam·ish: (of a person) easily made to feel sick, faint, or disgusted

 

Every day is an adventure – something new that could be anything from exciting to unpleasant. You never know. Just the same, every day is an opportunity – an experiment, if you will, and should be looked upon as such. An opportunity to make something up from scratch, or to plan something complex; to be serious or frivolous; to care a lot or not at all. Whatever: don’t shy away from it and make the most of it you can. The truth is that many things we get involved in are too poorly planned, without enough direction or information and we’re left to take what’s there and improvise the rest. So, if you’re neither timid nor squeamish, the opportunities for creativity, collaboration, and excellence are endless. Don’t be reckless or careless – just give it your best and see what happens. As I’m writing this, images of the brainstorming sessions while designing and opening the Mirage flash before me: we were fearless, and that iconic property was the result. When the challenges of the day seem overwhelming, remember that life is an experiment. Approach your challenges like that today.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 –1882): American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.

When faced with a problem - figure it out...

 

I’ve come to believe that a professional is someone who chooses a particular job and sticks to it, getting better and enjoying it year after year. Doesn’t matter if they’re an electrician, manager, or dishwasher – fact is, we’ve all known people in all of those and many other professions who were the bedrock of their departments and companies. 

 

·      Some were well-schooled, others learned on the job (or on the street), but all were the kinds of people who came to work every day – good of bad, because that’s what professionals do.

 

Our chief mechanic was a burly and bearded fellow who had been there forever, knew where all the fittings, wires, transformers, pumps, and more were (even behind the walls), and no matter what the problem, figured it out. And he thought part of his job was to train others to do that too. While I was busy trying to design appropriate interview questions for our hiring processes, he had a grocery cart filled with tools and just asked his applicants what each was for, how they were used, and if they had better methods than those. Simple, straight-forward, and to the point. I don’t know if he worked every day, but I do know that he was there whenever needed – on good days and bad. Knowledge, experience, dedication, and professionalism. That’s what you want in and from your peeps every day, good or bad. Thank the professionals around you today.

 

 Norman Mailer (1923 – 2007): American novelist, journalist, playwright, and film maker who had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II.

Get your mind around believing you can....

·      “You’ve got mail.”

·      Just think what life was like

·      Before that term became operative and popular. 

·      With the internet, email, and the cell phone, everything changed.

 

Remember taking typing lessons in high school (I know, I’m dating myself)? I liked that class and have always been a good typist – I even got a typewriter for my bar mitzvah. So, I adapted to computers and was even able to easily move on to smartphones. But it’s been just six months since I cut the tips of two of my fingers off, and I’m worried my typing may never be the same. The last I reported in here about the accident, I was pretty much able to do most everything but play the guitar. But now I must add that every time I type the letter “e”, it usually comes out as “er”. I haven’t quite learned to compensate for that missing inch of the middle finger of my left hand and the way the blunt end stumbles on the keyboard. But I’m here to tell you I’m not going to focus on not being able to do that; instead, I’m watching that hand like a hawk and trying to retrain the motor memory of where that shortie should be. I’m going to slow down (which is against my nature) and be more careful while I’m relearning to type. And I’m going to keep seeing the glass of this learning experience as half full. Whatever challenges you face, don’t get stuck thinking you can’t – get your mind around it and be one of the exceptions who believes they can today.

 

Stephen Case (born 1958): American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL).