Monthly Archives: March 2014

Gold Star

Are you competitive?  Do you always have to be first?  When you’re not first, do you think less of yourself?  Being competitive is great.  It can be a wonderful motivator to strive to do more and to do better.

It’s also fun to let others win and come in first.  Some supervisors and managers feel compelled to be better and smarter than their staff members.  They think the way to earn their subordinates’ respect is to know more or do better.  In reality, respect is earned through actions, not just what you know.

What actions are you taking?  Following are… Continue reading

Ping Pong

Do you ever feel like a ping pong ball being bounced around every day?  Think about your actions.  Who are you rewarding?  Disrupters or schedulers?  How are you training people to interact with you?  Do you give your attention to squeaky wheels?  Whose agenda is it anyway – yours or are you allowing it to be someone else calling the shots?

Factoid:  If you’re looking at emails as they come in you are allowing someone else to manage your time.

Factoid:  If you’re looking at texts as they come in you are allowing someone else to manage your… Continue reading

Searching for the Noun?

When you’re working it’s common to define your self as what you do.  At a social gathering or networking event you are a [fill in the blank] lawyer, doctor, CEO, manager, etc.

What happens when that goes away?  You may be out of a job, retiring, changing careers or have decided to stay home with your young family.  There may be times where your definition of self is not as clear as it used to be.

Tip one:  Embrace the loss.  There is a sense of loss when your identity is in transition and you’re no longer a [fill… Continue reading