The Boss is Always Right

Oh, it hurts to even write it. The boss is always right? Well, yes. Yes, boss.

Even when the boss is wrong.

Caveat 1 – The boss is not right when the boss is ethically wrong.  Don’t do anything you have a moral problem with. But if you have a moral problem with it, either talk it out or take it to H.R.

No one likes a sycophant.

Caveat 2 – Don’t be a “Yes” man. If you disagree with your boss, speak up. There is nothing wrong with questioning your boss’s position if you are genuinely questioning for the purpose of enlightenment. “Explain it again, I still don’t see your point of view” is different from “You’re wrong. I want to do things my way.” You have one, maybe two opportunities to disagree outright and explain why your opinion is right. But if you can’t sell it, it’s time to toe the line. And here’s why ….

1. Strategy. You may not be able to see everything that is influencing decisions at the levels above you.  Moving a company forward is done through vision and leadership, which may bubble up from the bottom, but needs to be driven from the top.  Staffing and decisions are based on reaching those goals.  Even when the decisions are bad, they need to be in alignment.
2. Trust. You build trust with your boss by supporting his objectives. The more trust you build and the more your boss believes that you are there help him to be successful, the more he will listen to you when you do have a dissenting opinion.
3. Paycheck. Remember who does your review and approves your paycheck.  Your place within the organization depends on whether you’re helping to achieve its goals.  And it’s your boss who decides how well you’re doing that.

Even if you have the worst, most unreasonable boss in the world, figure out what motivates him.  Be a part of his team.  You’ll not only feel more productive, but you’ll gain some social capital.   (OK, fine line between that and being a toady – decide for yourself where that line is.)

Question authority.  Innovate.  Improve the process.  But make it align with the big picture.  And make sure you understand the big picture – and the littler pictures underneath.

Damn!  Missed Bosses Day.

Collaborate to Elevate

Not making traction on an idea? Feeling in a rut? Or are you kicking ass and taking names and still want to elevate your game?

Nah, I’m not going to tell you why collaborating can produce a better result. You know that. But think about how it can produce a better you. A better me. A better us. Hugs all around. Seriously though – think of collaboration as co-mentoring and team building. By collaborating to synergize ideas, we also change the way we think about the goals we’re trying to reach and, in effect, we not only tap into our colleagues’ experience on the current project, but hopefully we take some of that experience with us.

Collaboration comes in all shapes and sizes, and again I will not bother to describe the various people and methods you can tap into. But I will take this opportunity to plug a local resource and an upcoming event:

• Columbus Tech Life is gathering steam as the network for Columbus self-starters to meet and discuss ways to make great things happen in central Ohio. I’ve started a page on the Columbus Tech Life wiki to ask some questions about collaborative problem solving. Because it’s great to talk about this stuff in a blog, but when do we make it real?

• In that spirit, I’m organizing an unconference to see how the local professional community can help us all advance our goals by problem solving via networking and collaboration. In this unconference, we will look at real problems that we’re trying to solve or goals we’re trying to reach, and we’ll work as a group (or as small groups) to complete something real.

Please visit the wiki and talk about yourself! And if the unconference sounds interesting to you, express your interest here. .. Or give your thoughts on how you’d like to see it organized… Collaborate!

Quit

I told my friend Lisa last week that working where I do is sort of a curse – it’s a great job with a great company of smart and cooperative people. I love it (most of the time.) And because my job is something I enjoy and a place where I can still develop professionally, I have no incentive to look for anything else. Which means that I’m not likely to find anything else. Which may eventually make me complacent. So I keep my eye on my profession and my marketability. But I don’t keep my eye on my other options – outside of my profession, my comfort zone, my universe. Maybe I could be a professional dog sitter, a tour guide someplace exotic, an artist, a window washer, a card shark or a drifter! I don’t know which of those things I’d truly like to be, if any. I don’t have any intention of finding out right now – because I really like what I do.

Maybe you’re in a different place. If you don’t like what you do, take a chance! Think about what you stand to lose versus what you’re losing every day. Can you adjust down your standard of living in exchange for … well, living!

To invert a quote from m’man (man?) Yoda who said, “There is only do and not do. There is no ‘try’.” I say, “There is no succeed or fail. There is only ‘experience’.”

My friends Pat & Dianne are in the process of selling their house, quitting their jobs and travelling the country. I don’t have the guts. I’m envious, but I like a bit more security than that. But what’s secure these days? Maybe there’s more security in not having to rely on your job being there or your house and possessions being there, but in just having the wits and the skills to live happily without being chained to the preservation of those objects. You know that passage about it being more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven than getting a camel through the eye of a needle? Well that’s what it’s about.

So for now I can balance putting in the hours doing something intellectually stimulating in exchange for the comfortable trap of “stuff” ownership – and I think there’s nothing wrong with that, especially in the land of uber-capitalism.

Time is linear, baby. You can’t go back and you shouldn’t wish ahead. So are you enjoying now?

The Customer is Always Right

Last week I had a great vacation in Corsica and the South of France.

The trip didn’t start out so relaxing though – The plane we took from Newark to Milan had an emergency landing in Bangor, Maine due to engine problems. Inconvenienced as we were, the passengers were all thankful to the skilled crew that successfully landed the plane with one engine. And the passengers were patient and jovial as 256 of us were herded into a tiny lounge in the Bangor International Airport. We were in fairly good spirits because the captain announced after we landed that a replacement jet would be flying up from Newark to pick us up and resume the flight to Milan. So we would get in 2 or 3 hours late – a small change of plans and, after all, things do happen and at least we made a safe landing.

Two hours passed. The latest news was that a plane was on its way from Houston. It would be awhile longer, but the fine folks at Continental will take the meals off the plane and feed us. Three hours. Four hours. 1:00am. Two planes are on the way to take us back to Newark. Continental agents will be on the flight to assist us in rebooking our flights. Well, that’s the rumor that’s going around. No one really knew for sure. One plane arrives to take the first class passengers back to Newark. The other plane is on its way. (right?) We finally make it back to Newark at 4:30am. No Continental agents flew up to Bangor to assist us – but maybe that’s understandable; they would have taken up seats on the plane and since international flights always leave in the evening, we weren’t going anywhere for awhile anyway. (That bit of fact was easily dismissed by the now irate passengers.)

When we got back to Newark and got off the plane, we .. um .. didn’t really know where to go? Passengers meandered around, looking for a Continental representative to assist in rebooking our travel plans. Or maybe at least someone to direct us? Somewhere? Most of us went our own ways, asking random Continental employees for help. Some of them, I must say, were very helpful people. I think some people are just that way. I don’t think that they learned it from Continental’s training program because a very similar thing occurred as we flew with Continental from Costa Rica two years ago.

Which brings me to the focus of this post – As passengers became more and more frustrated with Continental’s system – or I should say: lack of a system – (Really, all anyone was looking for was some consistent answers, and then for those answers to be accurate – I.e. A PLAN) - anyway .. as all of the passengers were milling about, demanding help from a bewildered (and small) staff that walked into an ambush at work that day, there was one woman who swaggered into the area, barking, “I don’t want to hear about it!” She was the supervisor. As the first of many passengers gave her the third degree (which I’ll not defend either as being a good approach), she replied sternly with, “Don’t yell at me! I’ve been up since 1:00am babysitting this flight! It’s not my fault!” I turned to her slowly and said calmly, “It’s more your fault than it is theirs.” and turned back around. Two things. #1 – Up since 1:00 am and there’s still no organization? #2 – Take some ownership of the screw up. The customer is ALWAYS right – even if the customer is not morally right, when they walk away from your business (or you send them away), they are no longer your customer.

The “zen” in this lesson regards how that woman must have felt the rest of the day. She may have spent the rest of her day in a sour mood, clinging to the certainty that the passengers were all stupid and if they only knew how what she had to go through. Well, the customers don’t care. And when customers are angry, the last thing they want to hear about is how the employees have had a hard day. When your business involves serving people, a successful day is helping the people who patronize your business. And you should walk away at the end of the day knowing that you did that part of your job well. That’s not just for the health of your business, but for your own peace of mind.

Incidentally, I did make it a point to thank the employees who were helpful and empathize with their situation, as did some of the other passengers. And I hope they left at the end of the day knowing that people appreciated their work.

Take a Vacation

Sometimes you just need to get away….

You might say it’s too busy to leave right now – well maybe that’s the best time to leave!

There’s never a great time to leave work – If you have a busy job, it’s always busy.  But that’s what makes a vacation so easy to do!  You’re going to have just as much crap piled on your desk when you get back as you would if you stayed.  Maybe more.  But you’re only going to be able to do as much as you can do.   (Read Doing less with less – be a monk.)  So take some time for yourself and let go of whatever’s waiting for you at the office.

Keep it in perspective: Your job is work.  Your life is worth way more than that.  Don’t forget to enjoy it.

I’ve taken vacations with a laptop before – and I’m glad that I did.  An hour in the morning of checking in (not because I was afraid of the world continuing without me, but because I was really energized about my job and loved it) – followed by 5 hours on the beach.  Not only did I keep up so that I wouldn’t have a lot of catching up to do when I returned, but I worked whenever I wanted and played whenever I wanted.   The way work ought to be!

But taking a vacation and completely shutting out work for a week (or two!) is even better.  You don’t need to scramble the day before you leave to get it all done – or burn up upon re-entry.. Approach it as you would any other day; do the important things first and let the small stuff go…

There is no crisis unless lives are at stake.

..and, I’m off….

How are you helping?

That question has stuck with me for years… My next door neighbor, Marty was painting the garage one day when his son Ben (about 7 years old a the time) came running by, doing some childish nonsense.. whatever it was, Marty said to him, “Ben, how are you helping?”  Ben was a great kid.  That question was all it it took for him to realize that he was doing anything but being helpful.

I always wanted to make a bumpersticker that said, “How are you helping?”  Not just to get people to start thinking about whether or not they are doing enough to help, but because so many bumperstickers send a message of aggression;  And how is that helping?

So this past week, as the political campaigns have really started to ramp up and the candidate bashing has started to get ugly, I ask, “How are you helping?”  To whom are you pointing out the weaknesses of the other side’s candidate?  Are you singing to your own choir?  Are you engaging in battle with the other side?  You’re not going to win.  Bashing the candidates only make the other side hostile – it doesn’t change their vote.  And as for your own side, I once again call on Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”  If you want to convice someone to vote for your side, discuss ideas.  Talk about what you think our society needs the most right now.  If you want to convince someone, convince them that your ideas are important.  If you get them to agree, they’ll see through the campaign bullshit and pick the best person to uphold that point of view.

And if you want to make an impact, you may need to go outside of your own neighborhood.  Although there are people near me who don’t share my ideals and won’t vote the way I vote, I know which way the scale will tip in November for my precinct.  It’s the electoral votes two hours away from me that have me worried.

You want to make a difference.  You can put a lot of time and energy into being active.  Yes, it takes a lot of energy to stay busy.  Work, work, work all day performing duties.  But the measure of impact is the output, not the input.  So how are YOU helping?

9/11, world peace, inner peace.

Three unrelated items today that are tied together by the attack in 2001:

Daniel Schorr, eloquent as always, speaks about our society’s slow recovery. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94428414

My friend Ben Blanquera posted today a video about Peace One Day – September 21.  As he passed it on, I pass it on.  http://columbustech.blogspot.com/2008/09/peace-one-day.html .  Pass it on.

In a meeting today, the facilitator started with a minute of silence to remember 9/11.  What you do with a minute of silence is up to you, but I was amazed at how long a minute of total silence feels.  We are (or maybe just I am) so used to stimulation that a minute of silence is almost uncomfortable.

Take a minute and stop everything.  And in the example of Peace One Day, take a day and stop everything.

Doing less with less

I ran across this blog post yesterday about being a monk – or, like a good, capitalistic member of modern society – take a lesson from a monk. Good thoughts if you can make them work for you. One rule in particular struck me though:

Do less. A Zen monk doesn’t lead a lazy life: he wakes early and has a day filled with work. However, he doesn’t have an unending task list either — there are certain things he’s going to do today, and no more. If you do less, you can do those things more slowly, more completely and with more concentration. If you fill your day with tasks, you will be rushing from one thing to the next without stopping to think about what you do.

I combined this lesson with the way I run larger projects – I committed myself to working on specific tasks for a set period of time. When the time is up, it’s time for a new task. By first prioritizing what I really, really want to get done today, I can start by making a conscious decision about what I will not do today. So when someone asks me about anything that’s not on today’s list, I can respond with, “That is not my focus for today.” Also, by timeboxing (committing a defined duration to work on a task) I have to be sure to get the most out of that time period that I can. So if my goal for the hour is to draw a picture of my dog, I’m going to start with a rough sketch of a dog, and I’ll save the characterization of the fleas until later, if I get to that at all.

Well, I thought this would work out pretty well … But an hour into the day it fell apart. A meeting ran long. And when I returned to my desk, I found six messages waiting for me that a good portion of work from earlier in the week had somehow disappeared. Oh, how I hate a crisis! Side note: When my colleague came to my desk to alert me in person, before she could say anything, I said, “I want to read a quote to you.” The quote was something I had Tweeted earlier in the day:

“Today, I timebox everything. 1 hour to work on project definition. 1 hour to review documents, etc. No exceptions, no emergencies.”

Then I said, “Sorry, but I already claimed dibs on my day. Can’t help ya.” We both laughed and then started to work on the issue. I was prepared to chuck the plan if I needed to – but I think it also helped both of us to start with some levity.

Then I went to lunch and wrote this post.

The afternoon may not end up being any better – the issue from the morning is still unresolved. But I have taken my timeboxes for today, reevaluated them, moved some to tomorrow and kept some for today. So I feel good about having a plan, even if that plan doesn’t work out.

“The plan is nothing. The planning is everything” – Churchill

And I know this method will not work when you have ten hours of work that MUST get done today and something else comes up. But if that happens regularly, back up and plan at the week level or the month level. (Build in some contingency time too, if you need to.) It’s either all going to get done or it’s not. So when it’s “not” – plan so that something gets done, rather than a whole lot of things that get almost done.

Great Minds, part 2 …..

“Great Minds Think Alike!“  Whether that’s just something you say when someone else shares your idea or whether it’s conventional wisdom….. it ain’t true.

A great mind I know refuted this old saying with, “Great minds do NOT think alike.  That’s the definition of a great mind, isn’t it?”  Ha.  Right on!  Great minds may reach similar conclusions, but a truly great mind thinks independently.

You acquire a great mind by exercising the one you’ve got.  Question everything.  Learn what makes other people tick.  Turn things upside-down and imagine how things would work if they were bigger, smaller, inside-out, black, white, broken, mended, backwards …. Take the last hour of the day today to examine your current work – the stuff you were going to do anyway – and think about how you could do it without its most essential element.

For example, how might you write a blog post without language?  Well, you could resort to pictures… Now, you go…

Tsk Tsk Task

This may seem ridiculously obvious, but it took me a long time to learn, and I have to remind myself of it every week…. Work is not life.

Now, countless people before me have spoken about not putting all of your energy into your job, and I agree with them. But not because you may be missing out on life. Good golly, life is about experiences – so if you are getting a life’s worth of experiences through your work – good for you! I’m not trying to tell anyone where they should get their kicks.

But I am trying to tell people where not to get validation.  Or rather, from where not to derive too much validation.  You can put all the hours you want into your job, and you may well enjoy every minute of it. But you can’t make that your identity. Unless you outright own your business (and even then, you don’t own it – the market does.) – your livelihood can be taken from you at any time. Not to sound pessimistic – I just mean that tying your identity and self-validation to something that isn’t yours is a bad idea. No matter how important you are or how secure you are in your position, when it comes to your job, not everything is under your control.  More things in your life that you control = good.  Limit your dependence on things you don’t control.

So find additional places where you can feel good about yourself. Get a hobby. Volunteer. Challenge yourself!