Focus

Happy Thursday Everyone,

Think about focus.  Can you tell someone what you do in one sentence?  Is it precise enough they will understand completely?  Will anyone get it?  If I own a shoe store, well, my answer is "I am a shoe salesman."

How about focus for your job?  Is your vision for your career path focused?  Do you have a clear visual on what your steps are to your next major accomplishment?  Where will you be in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years?

My clear focus for my Thursday Think Tank e-mails; To make every reader think differently.

Take a moment and think.  Think about the current situation you are dealing with.  Are you focused on what you need to be focused on?

Have a great Thursday and "Think Differently,"

Chris 

Communication

Happy Thursday Everyone,

Communication, it's the exchange of information.  I saw somewhere that the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.  Do you realize how much confusion and frustration is created by poor communication?  If you think like I do, my communication skills are almost perfect....it's everyone else that has the problem...lol, wink, wink.  We probably spend more time second-guessing the intent behind poor communication than working to improve it.

• Why did she copy my boss?
• He is not telling me all the information on purpose, just to make my job harder.
• Oh, she didn't copy me on purpose.

Sound familiar?  Communicating well will help build trust in our teams.  Here is a list of a few common mistakes in communication, that deserve all of our attention.

1. Assuming Mal Intent - Not everything is intentional, so don't let an innocent oversight, like being left left off an e-mail or out of a meeting, destroy trust.
2. Hiding Behind E-Mails - E-mails can be great for recapping a conversation, but not as a way to communicate bad news, escalate something over their head to their boss,  or sending and assuming they got the memo.
3. Failure To Write Down Decisions - Great teams have lots of conversations, debate pros and cons, challenge each others decisions, and many times walk away from a meeting with different perspectives.  Writing down and agreeing on important decisions and follow ups help keep everyone moving in the same direction.
4. Wasteful Meetings - Meetings should be held for one of two reasons: to make a decision and / or improve relationships.
5. Spinning BS - Smelling BS in a conversation turns people away fast.  Transparency and straight talk from the beginning are a must if you want others to truly listen.
6. Don't be Boring - Tell meaningful stories, talk in an interesting way, and get to the point.
7. Listen - Listen intently so that you can ask relevant questions and get a true understanding of what the other person is trying to communicate.

What can you do to improve your communication skills?  Just like we have been discussing with lean, find something small and work on improving, one small improvement at a time.  I am going to focus on listening more intently and giving my full attention to the person talking to me.  Todd is probably shaking his head right now saying, about time.

Go communicate,

Chris

Open Minded?

Happy Thursday Everyone,

Do you have an open mind?  What does having an open mind mean to you?  Are you able to see things from the other person's shoes?  Do you believe someone else might have a good idea?  What if their idea is opposite of what you think?  What if their idea is going to prove what you have been telling everyone is wrong?

Should you have an open mind?  Think about the last time you took an idea to someone that shot your idea down right away without you even having time to explain it.  Did you take another great idea to them?  What about when you've seen proof of something and changed your mind?  That is OK, you can change your mind.

Opening your mind up gives multiple benefits.  The two main benefits is that you might find something better than your current belief and keeping an open mind helps others feel they can approach you with ideas...especially crazy, outside the box, ideas.  Remember, some of the people that work for you are extremely smart and might really have some awesome ideas.  Allow their creative thinking and ideas to be brought to you and keep you mind open to them.  You never know, their idea might help you to hit your goal.

Minds are like parachutes, they function better when they are open.  Open minded people embrace being wrong, are free of illusions, don't mind what people think of them and question everything, even themselves.  An open mind allows you to explore and create and grow.  Remember that progress would be impossible if we always did things the way we always have.

Enjoy your Thursday,

Chris

Thinking Lean

Happy Thursday and St. Pat's Day All, 

Do you think lean thoughts?  Are you understanding lean better?  Why should you think about lean?  Do you have lean habits?

Lean, as we all talk about at PAi, is very simply the elimination of waste.  And to eliminate something you have to be able to identify it....

• D - Defects
• O - Overproduction
• W - Waiting
• N - Non-utilized Talent
• T - Transportation
• I - Inventory
• M - Motion
• E - Extra processing

Any activity that consumes resources such as time, manpower, or money, but does not add to the value of the product, is considered waste.  So, do you think lean thoughts?  Do you think about things that are consuming time that doesn't add to the value of the product?  Do you think about things that consume manpower that doesn't add to the value of the product?  Or how about thinking about things that consume money that doesn't add to the value of the product?  My guess is that each and everyone one of you think lean thoughts.

Aren't we all on the same team?  Working towards a people empowered company driven to continually accelerate the speed at which we can exceed our customers' needs while focusing on..1) our team member's quality of life, 2) company profits, 3) an increasing and scalable business with a legacy for growth. If that's the case, you should be thinking about lean and creating lean habits.

My goal is to get you thinking.  Open your mind to new and crazy ideas.  Go out and educate yourself on lean thinking.  Read "2 Second Lean" by Paul Akers.  Read "The Toyota Way."  If you don't want to read, get the audio version and listen.  The more I learn about lean thinking, the more I realize I don't know about lean thinking.

Chris

Having Margin In Your Life

Happy Thursday All,

Everyone knows what margin is, correct?  It is the extra part of something that can be used if needed.  The margin on a piece of paper is around the edges.  It gives space to help things not seem so cluttered.  It gives us the room to be able to grow and expand.

Do you have margin in your life?  Work life, home life, budget, etc?  If you don't have margin, your stuff can quickly become cluttered.  Margin is breathing room.  It is time to work on the business and not in the business.  Margin in your budget gives you the ability to deal with the unexpected expense without so much stress.

As we push everyday to continuously improve, improving your quality of life is also very important.  You need to have margin to be able to keep growing. You need to have margin to help others around you keep growing.

Stop today and reflect on having margin in your work life.  Ask yourself the tough questions...Do I take time to work on the business and not just in the business?  Do I have the margin in time to really listen to what my team is asking of me?  Do I take the time to share the vision of my department so my whole team is pulling the same direction?  Do I take time to increase my knowledge as a leader?  If you have margin in your life, YES to these questions is a lot easier than the excuses many of us came up with.

Enjoy your Thursday,

Chris

Being A Better Teammate

Another Thursday, another thought provoking e-mail via the Thursday Think Tank.

How are you at being a teammate?  Are you a team player?  What does it take to be a better teammate?

I took this information from a sports oriented article which really is talking about a sports team.    The crazy part is all of us are part of a team at work and this can relate to each and every one of us.  If you are not working at getting better at each of these, well...maybe you should.  I know I am working hard at improving in each of these areas.  Some I need to work harder at than others.

10 Ways to be a better teammate....

1. Goodwill - Win as a team.  Lose as a team.  Don't blame or take it out on anyone.
2. Respect - Show respect to everyone around you.
3. Devotion - Devote yourself to the sport (job) for your teammates.
4. Support - Show your team that you are always willing to help.
5. Trust - Show your team that you are trustworthy and you do what you say you will do.
6. Encourage - When things get tough, encourage your teammates to keep working hard.
7. Problem solve - Work together to solve problems and mistakes.
8. Communication - Be effective when communicating.  Be honest with your teammates.
9. Learn to listen - Don't be in such a hurry to say your part.
10. Work together - There is no "I" in "TEAM"

"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the me for the we." -- Phil Jackson

GO TEAM GO!!!

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

What Do You Value

Happy Thursday All,

If you sat down and listed the top 5 most important things you need to be doing each week in your job, what would they be?  Would your boss, internal customer, or external customer agree with your top 5?

What about your time commitment?  Does that agree with your top 5 most important things?  Each week, we all have the same amount of time, it's how we use it that creates value for our boss and/or internal or external customer.  If I believe one of my top 5 is to make sure we are producing and shipping product on the date we have promised the customer, and I spend 2 minutes per day looking at a work in process and working on hitting dates, and we are not hitting dates...well, that doesn't show my time commitment is in agreement with my priorities.

I want to challenge each of you to work ON your business instead of IN your business for one hour next week.  

• Get to a quiet place.
• List 20 things you think are important that you do on your job.
• Narrow it down to what you, your customer and/or boss would say your top 5 are.
• Do a brutally honest evaluation of what you have been spending your time and attention on.
• Make adjustments on your calendar for next week to make sure your focused time commitment is in agreement with your top 5.

If you keep a time log, you will see what you value.  What are you spending your time on?

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

Leader vs. Non-Leader

Happy Thursday,

John Maxwell says, "True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader."  Are you a leader?  Do you do things to benefit the followers?  Or are you out for the benefit of only yourself?

Here are some points to ponder and to help you understand where you are on the Leader vs. Non-Leader scale.

• A leader - gives credit to others.  Compared to - taking credit and complaining about lack of good people.
• A leader - has MBWA (manages by wandering around).  As opposed to - not having MBWA.
• A leader - is honest under pressure.  Versus - improvising and not giving straight answers.
• A leader - good listener.  Non-leader - good talker.
• A leader - Admits own mistakes and comforts others when they admit them.  In contrast - never makes mistakes, blames others, and starts witch-hunts to identify culprits.
• A leader - is tough and confronts nasty problems.  On the other side - is elusive and is the artful dodger.
• A leader - prefers eyeball to eyeball instead of e-mails.  Non-leader - hides behind e-mails.
• A leader - delegates entire important jobs.  A micro manager - keeps all final decisions.
• A leader - is available.  Opposite - hard to reach from below.

Be brutally honest with yourself and look at which side you are on.  It is never too late to start making changes to your thinking or leadership style.  Take some of these thoughts and debate with your colleagues.  Find a book, possibly in the PAi Library, that will help you with a better understanding of a certain topic.  Or just stop and think about it, what makes you do what you do?  

Remember, it's OK to change your thinking.  It's OK to tell others your past leadership style is not your new leadership style.  Or heck, go out on a limb and declare all this BS above hogwash....now that could create some great conversation and help make us all think just a little different.

Enjoy your Thursday,

Chris

Decision Making

Happy Thursday All,

As a leader, are you prepared to make the hard decisions?  Can you make good decisions or does it feel you are making bad decisions?  What is it about making decisions that people struggle with?  Many times people don't make a decision because they are afraid of the outcome.  Making the decision should really be the easy part, gathering the correct information to make the decision is the difficult part. 

Here is a few points to ponder as you make those difficult decisions as a leader.

Do I have a clear, quality perspective?  Ask why over and over.  Dig into and get as much information from other people, my team, my mentor, etc.

What am I afraid of?  Where is my fear?  What is causing me to worry?  What is causing me concern? 

What options need to be removed?  Things like, "I'm not willing to make this decision if this happens.  I'm not willing to make the decision if that happens."  

What is the impact?  How is this going to impact my team?  Is this going to impact revenues?  Is this going to have a negative effect?  

Is this long term, short term, or a permanent decision?  Can the decision be changed if it's wrong?

What would happen if we don't make a decision?  Is not making a decision, a decision?

What is the worst thing that could happen?

How do I feel about the decision?  What is your gut telling you?  If you have asked all of the above questions and you still feel weird in your stomach about making the decision, then pull back.

As a leader, you have to make decisions.  I make a lot of bone head decisions and typically it is because I haven't gathered all the correct information.  As with all other Thursday Think Tanks, I write on this topic as I try to improve my own ability in this area.  I want to spark the conversation because that will help us all gather more information so that we can make better decisions about the topic at hand. 

Don't be paralyzed in decision making.  If you do your research and gather the correct information and ask the questions above, just make the decision.  

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

Outstanding Customer Service

Happy Thursday,

This week I want you to think about who your customer is.  Many of us reading this don't have direct relations with Paramount's customer...for example Nike.  Our customer might be internal...for example another department.  Think about it, who is your customer?  We all have a customer, and quite possibly both internal and external.

Now, the real thing is, how do you create outstanding customer service?  We are in a "YES" economy.  Are we empowered to say yes to our customers?  Have we empowered our people to say yes to our customers?  We should be able to say yes without giving away the farm. 

So how do we do this?  Customer service is all about communication.  Do you really know what your customer wants?  Do you build a relationships with your customer?  Do you build an emotional connection?

How about putting yourself in their shoes.  Ask yourself, what would I like to happen if I was on the other side?  Don't you want outstanding customer service when you are the customer?

One last thought on this.  Do you go beyond and beyond and beyond and when you are done, go beyond again?  That would be giving outstanding customer service.

Go out and make your customers day!!!!

Chris

You Are What You Think

Happy Thursday All,

You've heard the saying, "You are what you eat."  If you eat cookies, chips, donuts, and cake...what do you think your body is going to turn into?

 

Your mind is like your body.  It turns into what it gets fed.  Your mind can be a very powerful thing.  Buddha said, "The mind is everything, what you think, you become."  Another very influential person, Napoleon Hill is quoted saying,  "What you think, so you will become."

So what is it that you think?  What is it that you feed your mind?  Your mind gets fed from many different sources throughout the day. 

First off, you feed your mind your thoughts.  Do you keep positive or negative thoughts going through your mind?  Are you thinking about the good things or the bad things?  Do you think about things getting better....or do you think how bad it's going to get?

Second, you feed your mind by allowing others to feed information to you.  What are your friends talking about?  What about what your co-workers are discussing?  Are they positive or negative?  Jim Rohn has a great quote, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with."  Who are you spending time with?  You are probably just like them.  You get to determine if you want that or not.

Another way you feed your mind is by what you watch on TV, listen to on the radio or read in a book.  What are these modes of communication feeding you?  TV is an extremely influential mode of communication.  Just think about how much money advertisers are willing to pay to spend just 30 seconds in front of you....this year's 30 second Super Bowl ad cost...$5,000,000.  That is over $166,000 per second, wow!!!  What are you watching?  What are you reading?  What do you listen to?

 

Henry Ford is quoted saying, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

 

If you are interested in growing, understanding what you are feeding your mind is pretty important.  You get to pick what you feed it so choose wisely.   "Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  Watch your words, for they become actions.  Watch your actions, for they become habits.  Watch your habits, for they become character.  Watch you character, it becomes your destiny."  Lao Tzu

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

Do You Want To?

Happy Thursday All,

This weeks Think Tank is trying to get you to think about why you want to do something.  Too many times we are seeking the how on something when really the question should be, "How bad do I want it?"

Do we really want to change our thought process to a lean thinker and eliminate waste?  How bad do we want to think that way?  What are we willing to do to change? 

Do we really want to become better communicators?  How important is becoming a better communicator to us?  What are we willing to do to improve?

If you think you might want to run a marathon, 26 miles 385 yards, the question is how bad do you want it? Are you willing to put in the time and effort to train?  It's easy to google "How to train for a marathon."  I found 37 million answers from google. The real question, do I want to do it?

The answers to these questions come down to, "How bad do I want it?"  Knowing why I want to do something is the biggest part of the battle.  Find your why and you will figure out the how.  And if that part makes sense.....to lead others, help them understand the why and they will figure out the how.

I have learned this about myself, and I'm learning it about others....If you don't want to, it ain't gonna work. Find your why.

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

Thinking About Lean

Happy Thursday All,

Are you starting to catch on that "Lean" is here to stay?  Remember, lean is just the elimination of waste.  A lot of times it is just eliminating what is bugging you.  Do you get a little confused by it all?  Don't we all.

First off, lean can be a lot of fun.  Lean is declaring war on any waste you can imagine.  Waste can be in the form of a defective cap, over-producing too many shirts on an order, waiting on a slow computer to process, not utilizing the talents of your team members, transporting an order from one office to another by foot, having to much inventory of shirts between processes (my favorite right now), doing a motion not needed such as cc-ing people who don't really need to know, or extra processing by printing an e-mail so you have it in print and electronically saved.

Second, lean is eliminating this waste through an empowered workforce.  What does that mean you ask?  That means as a leader, it is your job to create an environment where everyone on our teams feel safe taking risk and trying things.  Don't make them feel like Dilbert....

Third, keep in mind that each of us have many, many things to improve in our own areas.  Not that you can't help others, but finding waste in another department, pointing it out to them, and then thinking you are doing lean things....not quite Dilbert.

Lean is not a bad word, shouldn't be a negative to anyone, and sure as heck doesn't need to be hard or confusing.  If you are working on improving ways you do things and eliminating the wastes, you are being lean.  

We are all on the same team.......let's declare war on waste!!!!

Chris

Humble Leader

Happy Thursday, 

Are you humble?  Do you enjoy giving others credit?  Are you committed to lean?  Here is an exert from a great book I am reading, “2 Second Lean."

Besides being 100% emotionally committed to lean, a lean leader must be humble.  What does that look like?  Let me give you a tangible goal.  Commit yourself to validating, complimenting and/or recognizing the work of your employees at least ten times a day.  Your people should be accustomed to hearing you say things like, “That’s a great idea, Stacy,” or “Eric, I appreciate how hard you’ve been working on this project,” or “Actually, Nancy, I like your idea better than mine.”  When humility becomes a central attribute of the lean leadership a vortex of creativity and buy-in will follow.  When there is a culture where people know there is not an egomaniac in charge they can begin to grow and thrive.  They know that leadership is singular in their focus to give others credit above themselves.  There are no politics, no jealousies or rivalries because everybody knows they’ll be acknowledged for their contribution and more importantly, they understand their job is to acknowledge others’ contributions.  A lean culture is a generous environment.  It’s generous in giving credit to others, generous in respect, generous in offering ideas, support and help.

Stop and think about that and how it relates to you?  I think most of us would say we give credit sometimes to others, but how many of us can say we do it 10 times a day?  Keep in mind, we are all on the same team and we need each other to succeed.  Let's pull together and point out each others positives.  You & I can only succeed and grow by helping other people grow and succeed.  Zig Ziglar said it best..."You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."  Help others get the praise for a job well done....there is no limit on how much you can give. 

Humble lean is all about Leadership excellence.

Have a great Thursday!

Chris