Tag Archives: life lessons

June 1, 2016 · 9:21 am

Braces

A female mouth with braces.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I went to the dentist last week for a cleaning. Despite having worn braces when I was a kid some of my lower teeth have shifted as I’ve aged and the dentist said I should think about having them straightened out (again). Having endured braces long ago, I told him that unless there was some reason beyond the need to be extra diligent as I brush and floss I would pass. It did, however, get me thinking about braces and I think there is a business lesson here.

Braces work by putting steady pressure on misaligned teeth. Over time, the pressure moves the teeth into the correct position. Orthodontists use rubber bands or springs to exert specific pressure to push the teeth in the proper direction. The trick is that there is constant pressure, and any of you who remember sleeping with the extra pressure of that contraption they had you wear at night will agree that while the pressure isn’t overwhelming it’s quite noticeable.

As managers, we need to act like braces. Organizations often have parts that are misaligned and which need to be moved back into place. As with teeth, one can’t just remove and replace the misaligned elements, at least not until all other options have been exhausted. It’s too traumatic. Figuring out how things ought to line up and applying steady pressure is what we ought to be doing.

The same goes for dealing with people. Really excellent people often have a flaw that can be fixed with time and patience. It’s identifying the problem, applying the corrective devices, increasing the pressure in a helpful but not painful way, and waiting that is the key.  The steel railroad ties of my youthful brace experience are long gone, replaced by barely noticeable orthodonture.  That’s how managers need to think as well – using a light, barely noticeable hand can be just as effective with the right pressure and design.

How are you fixing things today?

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May 18, 2016 · 11:38 am

Crappy jobs

One summer when I was in college I found myself without gainful employment. I had spent many other summers as a camp counselor but I had decided not to spend 8 weeks locked in a bunk with a slew of six-year-olds and hadn’t really found anything to do that didn’t require an investment of cash (like an ice cream truck route). All the “good” jobs were taken, and while a buddy and I were offering our services out to paint houses, I really needed to do something to generate cash. That’s how I ended up with a crappy job for which I am still thankful.

My crappy job involved going door to door selling encyclopedias. I’m not kidding. For the younger readers out there, printed encyclopedias were pretty popular (think analog Wikipedia) nearly half a century ago. Every day I would drive my car into some neighborhood and walk the streets knocking on doors. The case I carried was not light, even to my younger, in-shape self. I got rejected nearly every time, at least when someone was nice enough to actually open the door, hear my spiel, and not threaten me with a dog. I also made a few bucks in the process, but calling it a crappy job is an understatement.

I learned a tremendous amount from my crappy job. First and foremost, I learned patience and what is commonly called sticktoitiveness.  I didn’t quit; well, at least not until my painting partner convinced someone to let us paint their house, which was 8 weeks into the summer.  I learned cold-calling and how to qualify leads.  I learned not to fear speaking to strangers. I learned that, just as is baseball, it’s possible to fail 6 times out of 10 and still be an all-star. Most importantly, I gained perspective.  Nearly any other job seemed great by comparison, and I could mentally return to knocking on doors any time things got bad at some subsequent job.

Many years later, “tell me about the worst job you ever had” became one of my standard interview questions.  I looked for people who had a crappy job at some point and we always talked about why it sucked and what they learned. I always leaned toward candidates who had done the worst jobs.

What crappy job have you had? How did it change you?

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Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

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May 3, 2016 · 10:53 am

Refreshed

I’m back from my mini-sabbatical. I think once the exhaustion wears off, my mental acuity, as well as my productivity, will be better than they were before I left. One thing that I can already feel, however, is that I’m refreshed. Let me explain why this might just be important to your business thinking. 

It’s not so much the break from the daily grind although there is an awful lot to be said for that as well. It’s that my perspective has been recentered. My golf group consists of a dozen of us. We have folks from all over the country (including one guy who’s now living in Thailand). We work in different business sectors – lawyers, media folks, defense contractors, consultants, and others. We’re all senior people, and we have the complete spectrum of political views in the group. In short, we haven’t siloed ourselves into an echo chamber, where confirmation bias can run rampant. We have a few common interests (golf and good food among them) but from there, we’re very diverse.

How is this refreshing? I won’t speak for the other guys, but it forces me to listen to different points of view which come from a different experience set. Ask yourself how often you’re speaking only with people in your own company or your own business sector.  That’s not a broad enough view, in my opinion.  It’s scary once we get outside of our own group-think bubble (which can be as small as a department or as big as an industry) but it’s absolutely required of us if we’re going to continue to be effective.  Sure – we read the newspaper and we watch the news and we probably have the news come to us via various social media.  What’s even better is an extended person-to-person discussion, and that’s what I had over the last few days with the boys.  It invigorates one’s brain and forces you to be certain of your facts, at least if the group is as smart and experienced as mine is.

So I’m back, with lots of energy and, hopefully, a few new thoughts stemming from my refreshed perspective.  Stay tuned, won’t you please?

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