Compose Your Mantra

In trying times, any of us can have our confidence jarred. The cause could be loss of employment, a temporary setback in a current position, failure of a project, a disappointing performance evaluation, or just random feelings of uncertainty or inadequacy. Instead of beating yourself up, try centering your thoughts through positive self-affirmation. Compose a mantra that is meaningful to you, and use it as your own personal pep talk. It could be something like this:

I am as smart and capable as anyone else
My experience has unique value
I will not be defeated by temporary setbacks
What I know can be applied to many circumstances
There is work out there that will feed my passions
He who hires me will be fortunate
I have important work still to accomplish
I will continue to learn and grow
The best is yet to come
 
Do you have a mantra?  Sing it out loud and often!

Data + Information = Power

Do you realize that there is a difference between data and information? Data doesn't become information without the perspective of analysis and knowledge. For example, data may tell you that 500 calls came into your support center today. But when compared with the average for that day of the week and time of year, was that normal? Were you properly staffed to handle 500 calls? What percentage of those phone calls generated new tickets? Data versus information.

As a manager, knowing your data - numbers and statistics - is a vital foundation for building your reputation for competency. Of course, you can look up anything. But what do you know about your area of responsibility off the top of your head? How large is your gross budget? How many FTE's do you have on your staff? How many calls do you handle per month? How many customers do you serve? What were your net sales this month compared to the same month last year? Do you have information that allows you to quantify your department's productivity?

As a friend of mine says, "You can torture data to tell you anything you want to hear". It's true that you can often make data or statistics into information that is very misleading. Obviously, that will not serve you well. When doing data analysis, you may have a hopeful result in mind, but if the data doesn't cooperate without undue "torture" or manipulation - don't go there. You want to be able to explain your results and defend them with a clear conscience.

When embracing the possibilities for what data can tell you, think about what you want and NEED to know. What data will provide the input for the answers you need? Make sure you are collecting the data you need to produce actionable information.

Finally, data - and even information - is not enough. Whatever you learn needs to be converted into action in the form of continuing improvement of your operation. Learn so you can do things faster, smarter, cheaper, better!

Data + Information = Power... only because you can get a grip on where you are so you can navigate to someplace better. In the meantime, your obvious competency will keep others who may be critics off your back so you can continue to enhance your position of success.

GIVE and GAIN

Much of our life experience conditions us to expect to gain something in return for what we give. We give – we get. What is sown in a work environment is reaped over long periods of time, in subtle ways. Give, be patient, and have faith that you will gain in the long run.

GIVE A FULL DAY’S WORK FOR A DAY’S PAY

Project management professionals assume 6 to 6.5 productive hours a day when scheduling manpower and estimating the duration of tasks. Start with an 8 hour workday, then factor in reasonable meal and bio breaks, and that number sounds about right. Add personal phone calls and email, surfing the internet, and your social networking updates; and your actual work time erodes alarmingly. Get back to work. Gain a reputation for being productive.

GIVE OPPORTUNITIES TO YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

When feeling under the gun, it often seems easier to do things yourself. Instead, work with your inexperienced team members. Give them responsibility and guidance. Implement accountability. Gain an experienced, valuable employee.

GIVE A HAND TO A CO-WORKER

A corporate environment is a team environment. You can be successful on your own only to a point. Reach out to others when they need support. Gain the prospect of help repaid in kind.

GIVE YOUR BOSS YOUR TRUE OPINIONS
Strong teams are made up of people with diverse experience and viewpoints. Don’t be a “yes man”. When you feel strongly about something, fight to have your opinions heard. Gain respect for having your own mind.

GIVE HONEST FEEDBACK TO YOUR EMPLOYEES
Provide praise when earned, and coaching when warranted. Be honest, specific, straightforward, and consistent with your feedback. Gain productive behavior from your team.

GIVE OTHERS IDEAS CONSIDERATION
I don’t care how smart you are. Often someone else will have a better idea. Stop talking and start listening and sharing. Pay attention and be open-minded. Gain value from a team effort.

GIVE “CRAZY” IDEAS A CHANCE
Brainstorm liberally. Your next stellar success could start as a “crazy” idea. Be sure your team feels safe to throw thoughts out into the wind. Gain excitement and creativity.

GIVE EMPATHY TO EMPLOYEES IN PERSONAL DISTRESS
When personal issues encroach into someone’s work life, be sure you understand what is going on. Be considerate, generous, and fair to allow a valued employee to overcome a temporary challenge. Gain trust and loyalty.

GIVE THE BENEFIT OF YOUR WISDOM TO A PROTÉGÉ
You won’t be around forever. Share the lessons you’ve learned and counsel someone eager to learn from your experience. Someone surely helped you early in your career. Now you are in a position to help. Gain the satisfaction of paying it forward.

No Crystal Ball Required

I’ve learned a thing or two in the course of a long corporate career and survived a handful of business cycles. Thirty-plus years of experience sometimes outweighs the value of a bright, shiny Ivy-League MBA when it comes to making common sense decisions. It's not all about the balance sheet and short term profits, friends and colleagues.

This fortune-teller knows that no crystal ball is required to predict exactly what is going to happen as a result of recent misguided business decisions being made by a real corporation that I prefer to leave unidentified. I can tell you what is going to happen and how. Alas, it’s a curse to be able to see the future…

THE SITUATION
Several years ago, an infamous private equity firm (“The Firm”) acquired a renowned publicly-traded company (“The Company”), and took it private. Based on The Firm’s track record and M.O., it was understood that The Company would be reorganized, downsized, squeezed mercilessly for profit, and either sold or re-introduced into the market as a whole, or in surgically-fragmented parts. The big guys stand to make mega-millions this way, although it may take a little longer than planned considering that The Firm paid top dollar during financial heydays.

THE DECISIONS
Select service functions, managed successfully within The Company for years, are now seen as undesirable corporate expense and are being outsourced. It looks better in The Company’s financials to have fewer “head count” and lower labor-related expense (i.e. pesky costs like employee health care and payroll taxes). Scores of jobs with The Company were eliminated and large contracts with external vendors were executed. Most notably, several IT support functions were outsourced to vendors, with current middle-management tasked with implementing the decision dictated by senior executives.

MY PREDICTION

1. Customer satisfaction will erode with the quality of support provided by the call center(s). The vendors will resist providing metrics that facilitate apples to apples performance comparisons to obfuscate that fact, but the truth will come out.
2. Call volume will drop, because customers will begin to realize that they won’t get the help they need if they call. Why waste time trying? Vendors and senior IT management will declare the reduction in call volume a sign of success. When coupled with the reduction in cost, they will consider themselves geniuses for their outsourcing decision.
3. Dissatisfaction with support services will foment into serious complaints to senior business management outside the IT/support arena. When challenged, senior IT management will respond by torturing the middle management responsible for implementing their outsourcing strategy, demanding that they “Make it work”.
4. When flogging middle-management fails to improve the situation, other support functions will pop up within the business, outside of IT, to compensate for the lack of effective support provided by IT. Support expenses will rise, but they will be hidden by their distribution within the business, and by creative naming of the new business functions.
5. The relationship between IT and the rest of the company will deteriorate. IT will revert to its natural status of corporate Whipping Boy.
6. Finally and eventually, at least some support functions will be brought back in-house. Having dismantled a mature, successful organization, senior IT management will have to find someone willing to build a new one from scratch (an expensive undertaking). Seriously now, did that save any money? (Of course, “The Firm” won’t care if they are able to stall until The Company is sold.)

OUT ON A LIMB
One last thought that is more a risk management consideration than a prediction: Support costs are being reduced and systems development has all but halted. Customers are not receiving the product enhancements to which they have become accustomed and are entitled – to which a substantial portion of their maintenance fees has historically been allocated. The Company’s maintenance expenses are substantially lower. Support was never defined as a revenue center. Are the fees charged to customers being reduced accordingly? Savvy customers could unite and demand an accounting and/or file a class-action lawsuit. I’m just sayin’…