Saturday, March 11, 2017

Stopping to sharpen the saw

When I used to make my living working in sales, I formed a friendship with a colleague, John, in the office whose work habits, patterns, and philosophies aligned pretty closely with my own -- basically, we were work-a-holics.

Come in early, stay late, skip lunch, work nights, work weekends, go-go-go non-stop all day, everyday.  It was a formula that worked for both of us, and while his results were often better than mine (I held my own, but this guy was - and still is - an untamable beast in the industry), we both had success by doing things this way.

However, like most approaches that are dialed up to 11, especially when kept there 24/7/365, it's simply not sustainable.   This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a pace that a person can't continue, don't misunderstand what I'm saying.  One guy that I worked with previously used to work like this all the time, and I suspect he still does.  I can take you to the exact spot in my mother's family room where I was standing on Christmas Eve one year when the barrage of emails started coming in from this guy.  After working with him for nearly 8 years, I never knew him to truly take a day off.  In fact, I won a friendly wager with a colleague when this particular guy took a family vacation to Italy, and within 4 hours of touching down, he emailed me.  I knew he would.  After all, a lot of emails can be sent back-and-forth while you're flying over the Atlantic (this was before Wi-Fi on flights was as common as it is today).

What I mean about not being sustainable is that the results come at a higher price, in terms of effort.  John & I eventually reached the point where we finally had an epiphany, and realized that it was important to sometimes, step away and 'sharpen the saw'.

You may or may not have figured out by this point, that the term comes from the career of a lumberjack.  The sharpest axe in the world will eventually begin to dull when used all day, everyday, day after day after day after day.  After the edge starts to become less sharp, and more blunt, the effort to bring down a tree increases.  It isn't that a dull axe can't bring down a tree, it's just that in order to do so, the swings have to have more force behind them, and there have to be more swings, because the action that's taking place when the axe strikes the tree is less cutting, and more blunt force.  If you swing a sledge hammer and beat the trunk of a tree long enough, you can bring that tree down, but it's obviously far more effective and efficient to use a sharp axe.

Work is the same way, sometimes you've got to stop and sharpen the axe.  Initially, it might feel like you're losing precious time by doing so, because after all, if you're sharpening an axe on a grinding wheel, you're not swinging it into the trunk of a tree.

But two things are happening are as you're sharpening your saw:  Yes, you're improving the tool you use to do your job, but you're also taking a break from the repetition of swinging that axe.  This can provide an opportunity to reflect on the aspects of your job that you don't normally have time to give much thought too.  For example, you might catch yourself thinking about sharpening both sides of the axe, so that when one begins to dull, you can use the other.  Other ideas are likely to manifest themselves during a time of sharpening the saw as well.

Ok, great.  So, how does a person actually apply this to their life?  It's different for everyone.  Maybe for one person, sharpening the saw means taking a vacation, lying on a beach somewhere with their significant other, and just relaxing.  For someone else, maybe it means spending the weekend reading a book instead of working (even if the book is work-related), for another, perhaps sharpening the saw means something else.

Whatever it is for you (and if you aren't sure, experiment and discover your own--there may be more than one), make sure you take time to sharpen the saw.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Relationships - Never stop investing

This morning, I got an email from a former customer.  I've always found it easy to build rapport and create valuable relationships with colleagues -- internal or external.  I have not seen this customer in nearly two years, and because of the relationship he & I had, and I guess the impression I left him, he emailed me this morning with some questions about some potential changes that are on the horizon at that particular hospital.

The purpose of the conversation was to gather my thoughts & opinions on the matter.  He said that during some of the conversations they were having, between some members of the new(ish) management team, he immediately thought of me as the ideal person to go to with this particular topic.

I don't post this in an arrogance or as a "humble brag" -- not at all.  I merely think it's important to share just how much impact we have when we interact with one another, and the value of building good relationships.  Good relationships (in business or in personal life) only come when effort is invested, and the value of good relationships cannot be overstated.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Employee satisfaction: How perception dictates morale

Some might say it's bothersome to see members of management in an organization take an apathetic approach to employee satisfaction.  For me, it's far more than bothersome or inconvenient -- it's downright troubling.  It's a very dangerous place for a member of management to be for a variety of reasons, beginning with morale.  What's more is that morale can be eroded, not only by lack of concern for employee satisfaction (assumed: concern at a level that prompts action), but by the mere perception of it.  Whether that perception is accurate or not, it's true in the minds of those who perceive it -- and keep in mind, "those who perceive it" are not limited to non-management staff.



At some point or another, most of us have probably felt like we weren't cared about, or at least not as much as we felt we should be.  Whether by a spouse, a parent, a sibling, or yes, even a boss, it creates a wedge that generally drives people in one of two directions:  Towards the behaviors that the person knows will please the individual from whom a perceived low level of concern is being felt, or more often, away from those behaviors.

"They don't care about me, why should I care about them?"

And so the decline in morale begins.


We all know that it's financially less expensive to retain a good employee than to recruit, hire, on-board, and train a new employee.  It's also a much better psychological investment to treat current employees well, and make them feel appreciated and cared for.  Building trust and confidence from your employees is guaranteed to pay dividends for a very long time, and often in ways you might not even have considered.

I worked for an organization once that treated the employees like dirt's red-headed stepchild.  It was sickening to watch -- a truly toxic environment, if ever I'd seen one.  Turnover was so high that it's difficult to put into words, and trying to quantify it?  Futile.  You wouldn't believe me if I told you what the numbers were.

On one particular occasion, a former long-time (really good) employee stopped by the office to pay a visit and say hello, after having resigned a couple of months earlier.  I overheard top leadership fawning over her, all but begging her to come back to work for us.  I couldn't help but think about all the other employees we had, who were working their hearts out at that very moment, who weren't even a blip on the radar screen of these leaders who were now almost groveling to the point of embarrassment, asking for the former employee to return.  If they were willing to spend 5% of the effort they spent trying to coax the former employee into coming back on showing the current staff their appreciation and sincere thanks for the work they do, they'd surely have been able to keep more of their good employees...and when that happens, morale improves, and everyone benefits from even the simplest of gestures that demonstrate appreciation.  It really is the little things that make the biggest differences.





Comment below, and tell us about an experience you've had where you truly felt like your satisfaction in the workplace mattered to management.