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Business Rule 17: Do You Do Things Right?

October 11, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

Do It Right, Do It Over

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In they army they have a saying, “Hurry up, and wait.” In business that same saying can be, “Hurry up and do it again.” In textbook publishing, we had our own version, “The project is over, time for the prototype to begin.”

Meet Hurry Up Harriet.

Harriet is the boss or the client who calls at the last minute to announce that she needs something done right away. She’s clear and concise on what it is, . . . if you’re lucky. She’s sketchy and rushes through the details, if you’re not.

Either way, Harriet is precise about one thing the exact time and date that she needs the work complete — 48 hours sooner than any human has performed such a task.

Because it’s your job — and you’d like to keep it — you set forth on the quest of making Harriet’s impossible happen. This requires a significant investment of overtime and work at home, but you do it. Through some miracle and no life, you come through with 7 seconds to spare. You feel like a wrangler at a rodeo. You throw your hands up to check the clock. You’re about to give your perfect, checked-over-three-times document to Harriet, when you get another call.

It’s Harriet on the line.

She says, “On that document I asked for, I’ve been thinking, could you also include . . . ?” She adds three or four things.

“I can wait for the new version until Friday,” she sings.

How would you feel about that?

Based on the three previous projects that went the same way, you realize that Harriet will repeat this behavior at least twice more before the current project is over.

On some projects, we never have time to do things right,
but we always time to do things over.

It’s hard enough having to do work for a Harriet.
What’s worse is the days when I act like one.

Do you have Harriet days too?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Filed Under: Business Life, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School, time-management

Business Rule 16: Nice and Good

August 2, 2007 by Liz 16 Comments

Looking Good

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He was one of a kind, probably a genius. Let’s call him Steve. Steve was an engineer who worked his way up to designing unique systems. His work had won important contracts and acclaim. He had garnered a pocketful of patents.

To the outside world, Steve was something special. He got along really well with clients and folks he thought were intelligent. To others, Steve could be a real pain in the neck.

Steve’s philosophy was “It’s about the work and getting it done. Either do it or don’t. If you don’t, you’re gone. In the meantime, get over what’s bothering you. We’ve got work. It’s about the work and getting it done.” Steve was a productive guy.

When the business Steve worked for was in good times, they let Steve have his way. His work was impeccable. His handpicked team understood his gruff, no-nonsense style and performed well. Their jobs came in under budget, on time, and with kudos from clients. The problem began when work started to slow.

People at the company began to worry whether they would still have work. They looked for reasons that the company was slow for work. Of course, only the folks at the top knew the reasons for sure, but that didn’t stop everyone from needing to have some. One of the reasons they came up with was Steve. People at the company started to discuss his flaws. The biggest of which was he didn’t treat people nicely.

People remembered slights and sharp words. The circumstances and his personality led to complaints about him. In the end, despite his stellar talent, his unique systems, and patents, Steve was dismissed because he didn’t understand a critical issue.

Being good at what you do is important, but a strong personal identity includes both good and easy to work with.

A company will make room for idiosyncracies that don’t upset the balance or upset the people. Talent and unique skills are good when they move things forward, but not good when they become the conversation or when they get in the way of the work.

Would you rather work for someone good who is nice or someone stellar who is not?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Filed Under: Business Life, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, good, nice, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School

Business Rule 15: Looking in the Wrong Direction

July 26, 2007 by Liz 15 Comments

Which Way?

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When my son was four, he was into geography. I was going on a trip to Las Vegas. The night before I left, we talked about my trip as I put him to bed.

“Mom,” he said so seriously. “There are mountains near Las Vegas.”

“Yes, there are,” I answered back.

“Don’t look that way and walk that way,” he said, pointing left and looking right. I’m not sure whether he thought his mother was going to walk into a mountain or walk off a cliff. Either way it was sage advice. That’s why I remember it.

Angel’s Problem

A friend of mine sees the world with clear eyes much like my son. She told me about a woman who got fired. I was sorry for the woman’s trouble, but interested in the sequence of events.

Angel is an overachiever. She prides herself on doing the best. She was a manager at a small company that was bought by a huge corporation. She knows the business she’s in. Not many are as good at what Angel does. Angel is one of the best.

Unfortunately when Angel had her first meeting with the corporate executives, she didn’t take time to get to know them. She prepared as if it were any meeting. She acted as if they should get to know her. She presented in a way they found inappropriate for the setting. Strike one.

Angel lost credibility in the eyes of the big guns.

Angel knew the meeting went badly, and she didn’t like the feeling -– no she didn’t, not one bit. She highly valued her personal brand.

After the meeting, people tried to explain what happened. They tried gently to coach Angel toward gaining back what she’d lost. Angel wasn’t used to being coached and was preoccupied with her wounds. It was a new experience for her to lose. She couldn’t get over it. She couldn’t quit talking about it. The people who worked for her had to be told that corporate didn’t “get it,” that corporate “didn’t know the business.”

Angel was feeling sorry for herself. She was spreading her feelings, generating bad morale. Strike Two.

Soon everything in Angel’s eyes became “them versus me.” They did reports one way. Angel did them differently. Rather than adjusting to make her reports match the corporate model, Angel just explained over and over how the corporate model was flawed. Angel was looking at herself not at the work.

Of course, with each little thing that she didn’t do to make things work, Angel left less appreciated and complained more. It became the vicious circle. She’d mess up. They’d tell her. She’d complain and mess up more.

People around her saw the signs of her departure. They tried to tell to her. She’d only complain again. The vicious circle got wider as people, who wanted to help, got tired of listening. Then Angel would complain about them. Until one day, it was just easier for everyone if Angel wasn’t there. Strike Three.

Angel looked in the wrong direction, and walked herself right out the door. She had violated a basic business rule.

When your boss or client points the way to go,
don’t bite the pointing finger, turn your head and take a look.

We may help write our job descriptions and our performance appraisals. But our company, boss, or clients have the last word about whether we are executing the tasks needed to get things done as they should be.

It’s nice to think, “My company needs me more than I need them.” It’s nice. It’s also not smart, and it’s never true. Companies need problem employees less than they need my all of my talents and yours combined. So if we can’t agree with our boss on our job description, we’ll be the ones who go, not them.
Watch where you’re looking.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Filed Under: Business Life, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, New-Bosses, New-Clients, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School

Business Rule 14: The New Boss

July 12, 2007 by Liz 28 Comments

I’d Like You to Meet . . .

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Whether you work at home or in an office, some changes that come from the top — new client, new boss, new owner — might not seem like changes at first, but they are.

Enter Commander New . . .

When a new “boss” enters your job life, change happens in one fell swoop. No matter how nice, how good, how competent the new entity might be, he, she, or it, isn’t the one from the past. This is important to know.

Doing what worked with the last “commander” could be exactly right again or it could be the most wrong thing you might do. For the sake of making the conversation easier, lets call the new arrival Commander New, a guy (to avoid having to use him, her, or it continuously.)

Everyone will meet Commander New several times in his or her business career. You might play the role a few times yourself. Whenever Commander New comes on the scene, change is the deal. That’s the way it is. An experienced Commander will manage change to a positive end, but every Commander knows that he is a de facto change just by being there. Some will try to share their priorities fast. Some will try to get to know yours first.

What Happens First

When Commander New arrives, you can expect these events.

  • The Commander will share a vision and try to find out who you are.
  • Fast adopters, optimists, and people who didn’t like the last commander will get on board with the new commander.
  • Slow adopters, cynics, and people still loyal to the last commander will stand back and watch.

Some folks don’t realize that any commander who’s been around knows that people are doing this.

What Happens Next

Commander New has been asked to assess the new team he has. That means everyone is on a kind of preliminary probation again. New clients of home businesses do this too.

  • The Commander evaluating your skill set; determing what responsibilities he can delegate your way; deciding whether you can do the job and do it well; and assessing how comfortably you fit the team and the new vision.
  • People who respond well to change listen and ask questions to make sure they’re looking in the same direction that the commander is.
  • People who don’t understand that’s what’s happening try to do what served them well in the past, whether it fits the new vision or not.
  • People who respond poorly to change try to teach the commander how the company is supposed to work rather than learn what he has in mind. Not a good move for their personal brand. I know I’ve made that mistake myself.

There is no cure for youth, but experience.

The Environment Adjusts

Eventually Commander New isn’t new anymore. People know him and what he expects. He knows them and what they’re good at. If you’re still working with The Commander and thriving, you might have a new role with more exciting responsibilities. That would be because you understand.

When the change is a new boss, new client, new owner,
you have just started a new job.

The desk that you sit at and your coworkers might look the same, but the job description is not.

Have you ever gotten a new job in this way, only to find you had to look for a new job? Yeah. Me, too.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Filed Under: Business Life, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, New-Bosses, New-Clients, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School

Business Rule 13: Structure Damage

June 14, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

Times Are A’Changing

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It seems a good time to write about change.

Everything in life changes. If we’re not changing, we’re dead.
But then, we knew that. Knowing how we respond to the changes that can happen is key to being a leader, more importantly to knowing who we are. . . . .

I was going on a business trip.

When I travel I have all things in order days ahead. Otherwise, a little nagging voice reminds me that I’m likely to forget something that will cause me to miss my plane or get to the airport without my bags. This advance routine allows time to add in things that I forget on the first try.

I had everything arranged for a meeting. It was still two days before my flight. I got a note saying a good friend had decided to attend the same meeting. The staff assistant had changed my seat assignment so that my friend and I could sit together.

I froze. It didn’t feel good. I didn’t understand why I felt upset. I wanted to sit with my friend. The new seats were better.

Why was I ticked that no one asked? My answer was so obvious. She had done me a personal favor. I should be grateful. What was going on?

I took a walk around the building to find out. Halfway around I got the answer — structure damage. The new seat assignment had changed the picture in my head. It shook the foundation I had so carefully laid.

Everyone suffers from structure damage now and then.

I’m a fairly laid-back person, but I’ve got two places where I’m not -– when I’m getting ready to travel and when I’m conceptualizing a project. I try, but I don’t always see that I’m in high-structure mode when I am. At least, I can realize what rattled me when I give the wrong response so that I can explain and apologize. Luckily as I get older, I need less structure, because I’ve done a lot of things before.

Some people need more structure than others. What sorts of things mess with your structure? Do you know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Business Rule 12: The Brother Story and the Facts about Grandma
Business Rule 11: Apples and Oranges
Business Rule 10: Is Their Urgency Real?
Business Rule 9: What’s the Value of Money?

Filed Under: Business Book, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School, sense-of-urgencybusiness-rules, vocabulary

Business Rule 12: The Brother Story and the Facts about Grandma

May 30, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

The Rules About Salaries

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Remember the three editors who were about to have their first review? They made a pact to go to lunch to make sure they got the same salary increases.

In my experience, the idea that you don’t talk about your salary is a foreign concept to well over 50% of people who are in their first business job. In a context in which most employees I trained didn’t go to business school, this number makes total sense. There is no reason they might have picked up this information.

In most companies, it’s a serious offense for an employee to reveal his or her salary or compensation details. I’ve seen it lead to written reprimand and probation. Every employee handbook that I’ve read states the company’s right to terminate an employee’s job for such an action.

Most new employees immediately can see why such a policy is in the company’s interest, but often they don’t see why the policy works to protect them. So whenever I share a company handbook, I tell The Brother Story and the Facts about Grandma.

The Brother Story

When I was nineteen and still in college, my much older, married brother sat me down to teach me of the world. He asked about my future and my goals as if I were in an interview. Then he invited me to ask him questions–any questions–I asked many. What struck and scandalized me at the time was that he answered every question, no matter how personal, except one–How much money do you make a year?
I thought he had his priorities screwed up for sure, telling me personal things, but keeping things of money secret. I told him as much. He said, “Never tell how much you make. People only need so much money to live, and the rest is gravy. If you knew my salary, it would change things.”

“No it wouldn’t. You’d still be my come-here-grasshopper-learn-from-the-master, older brother.” At the time I was too inexperienced and idealistic to understand what he was saying.

That’s why, when I relate The Brother Story, I always follow it with The Facts about Grandma. I figure if I needed something more concrete, other people might need it too.

The Facts about Grandma

“Now, listen to these facts about my son’s grandma,” I’ll say, “and decide whether my brother was right.”

  • My son’s Grandma retired.
  • She used to manage a real estate office in downtown Chicago
  • Her yearly bonus was US$20,000.
  • When she retired, her boss gave her an extra US$30,000 bonus, a sterling silver champagne stand, and a magnum of Moët et Chandon.
  • The bonus was 20% of her yearly salary.

Do you see how Grandma changed in five sentences? She’ll never be the same Grandma she was before I revealed the information in the last three sentences. The changes in who Grandma seemed to be are proof of the rule.

When people know how much money you make it changes how they see you.

I don’t even tell Grandma how much I make.

–Me “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Business Rule 10: Is Their Urgency Real?
Business Rule 9: What’s the Value of Money?
Business Rule 8: What Are Your Square Periods?

Filed Under: Business Book, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business-Rules, Rules-They-Dont-Teach-in-Business-School, sense-of-urgencybusiness-rules, vocabulary

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