The Resilient Employee

Do you want an employee who over-reacts to provocation from a customer? How much business could you lose because of one overstressed reaction? No one really wants to find out.

Resilient people do good work on bad days. They don’t take it out on customers, nor on their co-workers. You can tell they are tired, you can tell they don’t feel well, but they still do good work with a minimum of drama. Tomorrow they are back at it, feeling better, listening, collaborating and doing good work.

Resilience comes from having survived tough times, coming back from events out of our control, and preserving through failures and bad experiences. It is a faith that we can make it through crazy customers, clueless bosses and co-worker visiting from outer space. Just another day folks, nothing to see here. (or is there more?)

Emotional strength and intelligence comes from knowing life is about more than you. Common Goals and values drive better behavior. It is taking care of others. Serving the public. Loving people. Especially when they don’t deserve it.

What do you do when your world changes? Where do you find your resiliency? Is it in your history? in your family’s stories? Your uncle who served in the war? Your neighbor who is always calming and interested? Or is peace something deeper. After all God is Love.

Be a Better You

"Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin

Everyone would like to improve. Why else do we make New Years resolutions? We want to make more money, get promoted, lose weight or find the love of our life.

Instead of making very general resolutions that will fail in the first weeks, choose what you will succeed at. That is right, you are going to succeed.

How do I know this works? Have done it. Who else do you know planned to lose 10 pounds, and lost 16? Successfully lost weight and kept it off for years.

Lets Get Started

Start writing a list of desires.  Where do you want your life to be better? Get paper now.

Why do you want to improve this part of your life? Write down all the reasons.

What values & beliefs of yours support these ideas/resolutions? Write them down.

What values & beliefs hold you back? If you think wealth makes you an evil and mean, you will sabotage your efforts. Write down the values/beliefs why you can’t do it. Are they true? I really doubt it. There will be difficulties, but nothing you can’t work around or overcome. Your talent and hard work will be rewarded.

Now comes the hard part. Which resolution is no. 1?  You need to put them in order.  Which resolution is most important to your values and actions?

Then you pick. Preferably choose only 1 resolution, but no more than 3. May be one major and a minor one? You choose which goals to succeed at.

Now start planning how you will succeed at your first resolution. What steps are necessary for you to consider your experience a success? What can you start today? Focus on what you control.

Repeat if you are working on a second resolution.

Why It Works

Focusing on a few goals, and creating actions you follow get faster results. The more you value a goal, the harder you will work to succeed at your resolution.

Writing it down is another reason for success. Write the goal as if it has already happened. Write the actions as if the past and you did them already. You mind will follow you.

The results may take longer or be less than expected. Sticking with it gets results.

Results

Weight loss, was it easy? No. Did I fail at times? Yes, of course. But I stuck with it.

Was technically not fat, just at the higher end of my healthy weight range. However was not playing volleyball 4 times a week nor weightlifting. Sitting around let me gain weight. Just did not feel good physically. Motivation included Dad getting Adult Onset Diabetes. Taking care of myself could prevent that.

 My plan was rather simple. I gained weight one pound at a time. Losing it was going to be the same. Skipped the diet and went immediately to a maintenance plan. Less carbs, smaller portions, more exercise, and add some healthy foods. Did not give up any foods I loved, just limited how much I ate them.

Another secret, allowed myself one cheat day per week. Still could go for cake at a birthday, donut on Sunday, or restaurant meal. Spread them out by dieting 6 days a week.

Results: 16 pounds lost in 18 months. You have heard the last 10 pounds is the hardest to lose? That was my whole goal. Weight did not fall off easy. But have maintained the gain 5 years by making a permanent change.

Second did go through unemployment and find a new job while losing weight. Succeeding at one goal supported working towards another goal.

Follow Thru

Lots of people think they have to be perfect to accomplish anything. Not true. Every plan will have setbacks and make adjustments. Your plan must allow for changes, celebrations and vacations.

People think focusing on one or few changes, the other goals will not happen. Truth is by focusing you complete goals faster. Success motivates you to start the other goals expecting to succeed.

Pick your most valuable goal, and write down your plan. Then adapt and adjust your plan until you succeed.

Following this plan myself. Will let you know how I make out. Let me know how your plan worked for you.

A very happy New Year to you, your friends and family.

Salary Bump vs. Experiences

Someone questioned which are you more interested in, a professional experience or a salary bump? Which would you like now?

Having been unemployed and entrepreneur know about being flat broke. There are times in your career where a salary and a bump can really make a difference in your life. Having enough to pay for the basics and save is absolutely essential. Life without enough is absolutely stress filled.

One concern is the lack of savings and retirement savings. Too many do not have emergency funds and tap retirement funds at great penalty. This will cost your future, and delay your ability to retire.

Too many do not put anywhere near enough into 401Ks, and there is no 100% secure way to turn savings into income. The post pension generation will have issues that the Traditional generation will not feel with their pensions.

For your career experiences (even at a low pay) do pay off in the long run. You need to have experience to move up. Classes alone do not match experience.

For a contrasting thought, Jeffrey J. Fox wrote “Always take the higher money. The more you are paid, the more responsibility and opportunities will be given to you.” In addition he points out all raises are based on percentage of your salary, so a higher starting salary benefits you over your career. See “How to Become CEO”.

We need to manage both our careers and budgets with long term planning. The reasons I live well within my means is to have flexibility to explore options when they arise.

Day by Day Success

Success is built day by day. It does not appear magically overnight. The overnight successes you see on the news come after years of hard work.

What should be on your daily to do list?

•       Care about others
•       Listen & take feedback
•       Work on the important projects
•       Learn something new
•       Be 1% better than yesterday
•       Take Action
•       Repeat often

Build your success today.

Values Manage Your Career

Your work is strongly affected by how you feel about it. The more important you think it is, the more value and purpose you see. Drives us to be better.

My work is driven by these values:

1.      Make the World Better.

2.      Think (Disruptively)

3.      Productive Work

4.      Help Others

5.      Mastery, Meaning & Wisdom

#1 Make the World Better is influenced by Bill Boeing’s value “To Improve the World”.  Want leave the world a better place because of what I do. Henry Ford, Elon Musk, Thomas Edison, Rick Warren, Monet, Robert Schuler, Napoleon Hill are a few of the people we respect because of what they have done improving the world.

#2 Thinking Disruptively does not mean I want attention or to annoy people. What it means is we can always serve the customer better. Using new technologies, materials or applying old skills in different ways. There is always a better idea and way. Think about it deeper, ask tough questions, and share your insights. 

Note: disruptive thinkers often pay a high price for not appearing to be a team player. My solution is to explain the why behind questions, be very nice about it, and to execute my work for the team.

#3 Productive Work means creating and maximizing value for customers. Metrics are often used to manage work, but the wrong metric can lead to mediocre results. Focus instead on continuous improvement, reducing waste and organizing efforts.

#4 Help Others is charity and doing good for family, friends and people around the world. The small things done for others will be more rewarding and important than any payday. Serving coffee, washing dishes, picking up trash, and teaching are personal examples where the reward is not financial.

When I was broke figured we should give 10% of our time to charity. Work 40 hours a week equals give away 4 hours a week. Much better than another night watching TV shows or working unnecessary overtime.

#5 Mastery, Meaning and Wisdom means not only developing talents, but also teaching the next generations to do those skills. When involved in solving problems with people, often taught how I did it to my co-workers. It leveraged my knowledge, made the shop more productive, and freed me to tackle new problems.

What do You Value? 

Spend a little time thinking about why you do more than just enough, or where you care more. Your values guide you towards the career you will love and excel at.