Tag Archives: life lessons

January 29, 2015 · 3:24 pm

Show Me The Money

I read something this morning in USAToday that sparked a thought.  I was reading through the various Super Bowl stories and came across a piece on player movement on the Seattle Seahawks.  This was what piqued my interest:  

Michael Bennett had a more lucrative offer to leave the Seattle Seahawks as a free agent last March. But the standout defensive lineman chose to re-sign with the defending champions on a four-year, $28.5 million contract.

His logic was fairly simple.

“If you win, you’ll get more money,” Bennett said Wednesday. “If you’re a champion, people love you more. You get more stuff. You get to hang out. You get to be on TV.

“You can make a lot of money and be on a terrible team, and people don’t even recognize you.”

You may be thinking “what the heck does this have to do with my business, Keith?” but hear me out.  Every one of us at some point gets the opportunity to change jobs.  When we do so, I’d encourage each of us to approach it much the way Mr Bennett has.  Look at the team and the possibility for long-term success.  Being a member of a great team rubs off both in terms of how we’re perceived in the world as well as the standard to which we hold ourselves.  Being the best player of a lousy team may make you financially rich but being a part of a champion team makes you richer beyond your wallet.

It’s also something we need to get our employees to consider.  More money is great.  Is it enough to make up for the damage to your reputation caused by being a member of a lousy business?  What’s are the job prospects beyond the lucrative one?  How long will the terrible team be in business?  The onus is on us to run a championship team.  The onus is on our employees to choose wisely.

Food for thought…

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January 28, 2015 · 11:40 am

Expecting Epic, Experiencing Normal

Those of you outside of the northeastern US may have heard that we had a little snow storm here the other day. I got a call from one of my Canadian pals who was inquiring about the devastation foisted upon my home and family. After all, there was virtually no pre-storm shrieking before Buffalo received 8 feet of snow and since CNN had gone wall to wall with blizzard coverage, what was about to hit NYC, Boston, and elsewhere MUST be truly epic.

National Weather Service Caption "Two fee...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Not so much.

When I told him that Rancho Deluxe had received barely a foot and the winds were quite a bit less than the hurricane forces many had predicted, he laughed and said “Yeah, up here we call that winter.” I laughed but a business thought popped into my head at the same time.

The nonstop weather warnings, the closure of mass transit and highways, the empty shelves at every supermarket in town all served to set expectations. When the all-time blizzard turned into a large but not record snow event, those expectations were not met. That was fine with me – better safe than sorry. A number of people, however, were actually angry and a meteorologist with the National Weather Service even took to Twitter to apologize for raising expectations and getting it wrong.

The business point is pretty obvious. Overselling and under delivering always means problems. All of us in business need to be careful about how we set expectations and err on the side of caution.  We all go to the airport these days expecting 45 minutes in the security line, a flight on which we’re packed in like cattle, and delays, delays, delays.  Our expectations are so low that when things are actually OK we think it was a great flight.  When our fast-food sandwich looks nothing like the poster hanging on the wall, we shrug our shoulders and eat – who expected anything more?

Your business shouldn’t cause customers to think that their experience with your brand will suck but neither should they believe that what they are about to receive will be the blizzard of 2015.  You need to set realistic expectations and over deliver on them.  If they walk away thinking they got a good value, even if they paid top dollar, everyone wins.  If not, you’ll spend a lot of time digging yourself out, much as we were doing yesterday.  Make sense?

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January 21, 2015 · 3:03 pm

Is Tech Hurting Our Kids?

This was kind of a disturbing thought:

According to Havas Worldwide‘s “New Dynamics of Family” report, one in three adults say technology is destroying family life, and half believe that allowing a child unrestricted access to the Internet is a form of child abuse. Some 92% of children have a digital footprint by the age of two, and now, most adults believe digital technology and the Internet are ruining childhood.

How do you feel about that?  I mean we’ve all seen a two-year old handle an iPad or cellphone.  Did they seem as if they were being abused?  Not to overstate the point since it really wasn’t the focus of the study but it does get one thinking.  You can read more about it here.

We raised two children just as the digital age was dawning.  Most of our family time was spent doing things outdoors although once the first Playstation hit our home we played video games together as well.  Not every day and not in lieu of other things.  At the end of the day I think blaming technology is misplaced.  Yes, an iPad is a convenient babysitter although all it has done for some is to take the place of the television. Why is it ok to park your kid in front of Sesame Street but not ok for them to play with the Sesame Street app?

I could make the opposite argument.  Not allowing kids to understand technology or the social sphere is worse.  Going forward the world is going to become more technologically based (although hopefully with better, more intuitive, self-correcting interfaces).  Kids need those skills.  They need to understand what is appropriate to share and what isn’t.  I agree that the kid who does nothing but communicate with a video game controller to the exclusion of human interaction is going to have issues.  It’s our job as parents to make sure there is a mix of real and virtual.  Excluding either one is bad in my book.

How do you feel about this?

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