A better way to increase morale

August 2, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I have held a decent number of jobs in my working career.

Let’s see. I’ve worked concession stands, bagged groceries, run a cash register, delivered furniture, made ID’s, hung fliers, worked on campus, worked for a stock broker, worked at a book store, been a telemarketer, worked for an electronics store, been an auditor, sold real estate, sold insurance, worked in a call center, been an accountant, taught school, cut grass, worked on cars, and I feel I’m missing a few, but you get my point.

I’ve seen a decent number of jobs and the environments those jobs are carried out in.

And in the majority of those fields people were unhappy with their job and or their company. The reasons were as varied as the people.

Some of the organizations could care less what employees thought at any given time. I’ve also worked for a company that spent more than a million dollars annually to try and make its employees happy and feel good about the company.

Regardless of the company’s efforts morale rarely changed significantly. Sure, a cook out made some employees feel appreciated for a few days, but inevitably morale would return to “normal” in a couple weeks. A nice Christmas party followed by leaving work early would be a great hit the first year, but if it wasn’t there the second year the employees would be furious and feel cheated.

However, in my various jobs I have come across an action that actually boosted morale for the long term. It took a decent amount of effort on the front end, but after a few months even other employees began participating. It cost the organization nothing, but the return from the employees and coworkers was increased productivity and reduced customer complaints.

Some of you won’t believe me when I tell you what was done. Some will ignore it because it’s too simple. Some, however, will recognize it’s power and implement it at their work and in their businesses.

What is it?

A smile.

I have seen the power of a smile take a potential hostile situation and turn it around into a positive customer interaction. I have seen a consistent, honest, heart felt display of a smile day in and day out turn a department from people who hated coming to work and were rude to customers to people that smiled and joked with each other and began to appreciate their customers. I have seen a smile brighten the blackest of days for a coworker. And I have seen a smile sooth tension between people.

Before you completely discount the power of a smile, try it. For one week make every effort to smile (when appropriate). Smile when you’re seeing someone for the first time each day. Smile before you pick up the phone. Smile while typing your email. Smile when talking to a customer.

And the most important time to smile? When you LEAST feel like. Smile then and you’ll REALLY see the power of a smile.

So next time someone asks how to improve morale, SMILE, and tell them you know a better way.

Approach to Today

July 31, 2011 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”
~ St. Augustine

Can you help my business?

July 30, 2011 in Client Questions with 0 Comments

Last weekend Skye and I had the Ackerman’s over. It just so happens that La Sha is an artist and has an Etsy shop where she has been selling her works since 2008.

After lunch we were all sitting around and I was asked about my business idea, A Better Way of Business. We had a fun discussion about how I want to help small businesses see that there is a better way of conducting business.

La Sha asked what I thought was an EXCELLENT question. She said, “How could you help my business if you don’t know anything about it?” By that, La Sha was wanting to know how I could possibly help her improve her business if I don’t know the SPECIFICS of selling art, or creating art, or marketing art, or much of anything directly related to art as a whole.

I smiled because I had actually been thinking about that VERY topic earlier in the week. Mainly because I know myself and I KNOW that if I don’t feel confident in my ability I will be WORTHLESS when trying to help someone else. So what do I know about an art studio, or a car parts store, or a chiropractor’s office, or any other of a thousand different fields of business???

That’s just it. That’s what I know. Business. Working as an accountant I get to see a VERY wide range of areas in any businesses that I work in. I see where the money comes from and I see where the money goes to. More and more, I not only see that, but I must also explain why there are variances, so I must know what’s considered normal and then be able to provide an explanation for anything outside of the “norm”.

This means that I need to know what’s going on with sales, as well as what’s happening with production. I see how personnel are being paid and the benefits they receive, as well as which vendors are being used and what they are providing.

What this boils down to is simply this. Business principles are the same from one business to the next. Right now, I can take my knowledge of these principles and help make sure they are being applied in any number of businesses. As an outsider I can apply distant, impartial eyes to see what is actually happening in your business verses what you believe you’re doing in your business.

I do not profess to know the most intimate details of your specific field, but what I do state is that business principles are the same from one field to the next. And I can help make sure that you and your business are implementing and following them.

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Here’s a link to La Sha’s Etsy shop: loveaboveall

A Better Way to Learn

July 28, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I’ve come to realize in life that you can learn things one of two different ways.

One: You can  go through the learning process from the beginning virtually on your own. Researching, experimenting, refining, succeeding, and possibly failing with little to no assistance or input from others.

Two: You can seek out and grow a relationship with someone who has already been down the road you’re desiring to travel and ask for their assistance and guidance in your learning process.

Both methods are perfectly acceptable ways to learn a new topic. Both methods involve you expanding your current knowledge base.  Assuming you put in the effort required, both methods will help you achieve your desired goal.

In my life, however, I have found that going it alone consumes CONSIDERABLY more time than learning from another. I’ve also found that going it alone FREQUENTLY involves more personal experiences with failure than when you learn from another. I don’t particularly like wasting time or experiencing failure, if I can avoid it.

I have often said that the BEST way to learn is to learn from someone else. To learn from their experiences, their successes, and even more importantly their failures. Although failures are a fact of life and typically teach us very important lessons, I believe failures consume valuable time in our lives and can cause unnecessary pain and suffering. And how much better would each of us be if we were able to LEARN from someone else’s failures and thereby avoid the same failures in our own life. I believe that learning from others provides a proverbial staircase in life helping us step up and over a difficult area in life we might not have to face if we would just learn from those who have gone before us.

I learned the hard way that it is better to learn from someone else than it is to go it alone. I hope you will listen to my words and realize that there’s a better way to learn than doing it by yourself, and that’s to learn from others.

A Hypocritical Suggestion

July 26, 2011 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I’m an honest person. Some would say to a fault. This post is coming out of my honesty, because what I have to say is extremely SOUND advice. I’ll get to why this is hypocritical of me later.

I’ve frequently told people don’t ask me what you don’t want to know. Because I assume if you’re asking me, you want the truth from me, and therefore I say it. And I tend to lean towards the blunt end of the spectrum because emotions and feelings are not usually in the forefront of my mind.

This also holds true to advice coming from me. If you ask me to provide advice to you in a given area I will. But you need to know that I’m very analytical and fairly logical. So I break the situation down into its components and then construct what I see as a possible solution to the situation. This does not always go over very well, but it’s how my mind works.

I believe that if you asked those closest to me, who also happen to be those who ask for my advice the most frequent, you will find that my advice is usually very sound. It may not be what you want to hear at a particular time, but it tends to lead to the results you’re looking for.

So today on the way home from church Skye and I were talking. Without going into details, there were A LOT of medical complications with the delivery of our son which have lead to life-long negative side affects for her. And on the way home Skye said something that lead me to respond to here with some very sound, very hypocritical advice.

Skye said that due to the issues encountered with the delivery of our first son she’s very scared about having more children (side note, I understand AS MUCH AS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A MAN to understand what she’s going through b/c I was there EVERY STEP OF THE WAY caring for her during this time). And I instantly replied, “Skye, you can’t let fear of the future control your present decision making.”

And I believe it. None of us can know the future for certainty. Yes, we can take certain steps and actions that will increase the likelihood of certain outcomes, but we still do not know for a FACT what is yet to come.

Too many of us approach the future with more fear than courage. More reservation than boldness. More dread than wonder.

After I replied the way I did to Skye I instantly started laughing and patted her on the leg, while she looked at me and said with a loving, but in a very heart felt way, “Why don’t you listen to YOURSELF for once?”

Because I DON’T approach the future with courage, boldness, and wonder. I typically use my analytical, logical mind to map out THE WORST POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES in my OWN life. For others, I tend to map out what I see as REALISTICALLY happening. So if you have not done the leg work or preparation to achieve the desired results I’ll tell you I think you’ll fail. But if you have done the leg work and preparation then I’ll work through how you’ll likely succeed.

But for myself, regardless of what I’ve done, I’m more likely to allow the fear of future POSSIBILITIES to dictate my future.

I honestly pray that all of us, you and me included, realize that there is a better way to approach the future than to allow fear of negative future possibilities to dictate our action, and that is to approach it with courage, boldness, and wonder.

Running from or running to?

July 21, 2011 in Direction with 6 Comments

As I sat in the waiting room after getting my allergy shots this afternoon the idea for this post hit me. It’s something near and dear to both Skye and me because it has affected SEVERAL very important decisions in our recent past.

It’s the concept of “running from” something versus “running to” something.

You experience “running from” something when a situation is SOOO bad that you get away at any cost. You don’t care where you go, you just run and end up anywhere.

You experience “running to” when you realize your current situation is not the best it could be. So you take some time and determine what the best situation would be and then plan on achieving that desired destination. You run to what will be best for you.

When you stop and think you may realize that you have made some very important decisions because you were running from something.

You may find that you started your business because you ran from a horrible job. Now you’re realizing the business you’ve started isn’t much better than what you ran from.

You may find yourself running form your customer complaints and filling your time with busy work. Meanwhile your customers are telling everyone they know that you don’t care about them.

In life you ran from the last relationship you were in because your significant other just didn’t get you. But somehow, you’ve ended up in another relationship that looks exactly the same.

Some of us have run from God and we have no clue why our lives just seem to be on a constant downward spiral.

Each of the above situations happen because we hate our present situation SO BAD we just decide to leave. We have no idea where we’re going and no plan how to get there. We’re just running from the current situation.

However, I’ve found that if we actually sit down and look, REALLY look, at our lives we can usually see what doesn’t fit us. We can be forewarned that the business isn’t a good fit and we’re very non-confrontational. We realize that we continuously place ourselves in destructive relationships. And we recognize God’s sovereignty.

And since we realize these things we can do our best to determine how to correct them and then run towards that new goal. We figure out what business is best for us to start prior to leaving our horrible job. We realize a customer complaint is just an opportunity to improve our business and hopefully build loyalty with that customer. We see what type of person would be best for us and do our best to go about meeting that special someone. And we realize that God loves us and we try to grow closer to Him.

“Running from” something is usually the easiest way out and the quickest way out, but usually doesn’t get us where we want in life.

“Running to” something takes introspection, planning, and time, but will actually help us get where we want in life.

I’ve learned that “running to” is a much better approach to living life to the fullest.

A Better Way of Business – Intent

July 20, 2011 in Uncategorized with 9 Comments

So here it is.

Another blog to be read.

Another person who wants the world to hear his ideas.

Another post that may or may not be read by the millions of people who surf the blog world everyday.

So what’s the point? Why should you read? What makes this blog any different than the rest?

I don’t know. I’m not certain. The content you find here may or may not be found at other blogs. Not that I intend to plagiarize, but I am also not claiming to be the creator of any of the ideas.

If I could say there will be one thing different with this blog than any other I would have to say that difference will be… ME. My way of thinking. My way of looking at things. My way of writing (I must warn you I can’t spell).

I titled this blog A Better Way of Business and I intend on helping people find a better way to do business. A better way to increase profits. A better way to get more customers. A better way to treat employees. A better way to treat vendors. A better way…

But I also intend on addressing non-business topics that could use a better way of doing them. Things such as a better way to be a husband. A better way to be a father. A better way to be a Christian.

In general I want to help people see where positive change can be applied in their lives. I intend on focusing mostly on business, but I leave it open for me to post on other topics as well.

So sit down, buckle up, and hold on. I hope to throw your thinking on its head. I hope to show you that there is a better way.

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