Want to achieve a goal? Here is some perspective, maybe inspiration

If you have not already seen it, this video is inspiring, and it tells us something about achieving goals, maybe an AMAZING goal, and believing in yourself in the face of major obstacles. It is about DJ Gregory who was born with cerebral palsy and was told he would be never walk in his life.

Warning: The video in the link below on ESPN is 12 minutes 22 seconds long. When you have the time, watch it. Even if you are not a golf fan, I bet you will enjoy it.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1165857-walk-on-espn-video

Taking charge - be a problem OWNER

I was at a dealership on Tuesday night trying to get our car fixed .... once again. Basically there is a glitch in the computer system that tells us we have low air in our tire basically all the time. I was mad this time because we DID have a low tire and the tire was almost flat. We had taken the car in before and they fixed the signal only to have it turn right back on the next day.

This time I pressed them a little bit on it. Now they told me it was an issue with the model in general. Their answer for me ... call the car company or send them a letter and they will then ensure it gets fixed. This had me more mad because I was wondering ... Don't you work for an authorized dealer of the same company?!

I am sure we have all been through this before ... someone at a company telling you they cannot get something resolved because it is either not their "department", they are not "authorized", or their company is set up where they are "just a contractor" or something like that.

All we want in these situations is COMFORT that our situation will be resolved. We want ownership of the problem. We do not want to know it is not "their problem" because we believe "our problem" is always their problem.

Remember this when dealing with your teams. Encourage "problem ownership". If you work with outside and/or inside "clients", empower younger staff to be problem owners when they arise at clients. They do not have to be "problem solvers"... maybe only someone else can do that. But the client wants to know someone will take charge for them and own the problem.

Relationships during "Busy Times"

So maybe you have just finished a "busy season" recently? You have been working hard, pushing others, and pushing yourself to make deadlines. Those types of times can test your communication, priority management, and other skills. They also test your .... RELATIONSHIPS.

Maybe now is a good time to review your relationships and get feedback on them from the source - those with who you have important relationships ... those with whom you really rely on when you are busy.

So what can be done to improve those relationships? How are the communication protocols? Are you interrupting each other more than you should? Are you helping each other RELIEVE STRESS or are you helping each other CREATE more stress? How is the team work?

What can be done to take your relationships to a new, better level? Don't just come up with questions and ideas on your own ---- ASK THEM.

Busy Season? Try slowing down like an NBA commercial

I know many of the readers on here might not be NBA basketball fans and those same readers might be going through one of the busiest times of the year. This week's theme. Slow down. Take a few minutes each day just to observe life and those around you. Slow down and listen to the person you are fortunate enough to be talking to...not just what they say but HOW they say it. Be comfortable in the moment. You can only act and live in the present. You can only see what life is in the present. You can only appreciate it in the present and you only have one life, which is a series of "moments."

There is an NBA commercial going around which will probably win some awards. It shows one play in slow motion. It is beautiful and set off to a great new classic song called "Fly" by Ludovico Einaudi. What makes it memorable? We are brought into the world of a basketball player. We are there. We see them. We see them in slow motion. We feel the game.

So, what is your music? Who are you slowing down for?

Link to commerical on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eIMPyAFD0o

Do you "dump" on people? Learn from potty-training

We have all been in situations where we just "dumped" on another person. Maybe you were in a bad mood and a project was delayed? Maybe they told you some information that ended up being incorrect? Maybe something happened at home and now a "fire" has started at work and you are pretty disgusted.

...So you let them have it! I have seen even the nicest people do it once in a while.

If you take time in being reflective on your days, maybe you realized it later. Maybe you apologized. Maybe you learned from it. Maybe it helped to spark a more positive behavior.

I learned the other day about a new progressive, maybe weird maybe not, form of potty-training technique. You take your little kid into a very clean and empty room with preferably tile-flooring and you let them hang out there naked for a while. You can probably guess what happens. They use the bathroom and you know what? Eventually they become very AWARE of what just happened! Their own awareness of the event leads to learning and, eventually, new behaviors.

Now I am not endorsing this potty-training technique. I found it curious and was thinking how accountants could learn from that technique. I just wonder what people are capable of if they become more "AWARE" of how they treat others. How many times a day do you deal with people where you are "not at your best"?

How do you become more aware? Unfortunately we cannot use the same technique. Some ideas ...

Ask your colleagues for feedback - Do they feel better about themselves after dealing with you?
Make it a goal for a few days or a week - You go into each interaction with "awareness" of how you can treat the other person the best.
Ask your colleagues to be ready to grade you on future interactions for a little while. (I had a client do this one - it worked suprising wonders) The act of doing that may in itself make you more aware of your interactions.

Too Busy! Are you listening or mining?

I know so many accountant who are SOOOOOO busy. They have very little time during their day and they work at what appears to be a frantic pace. They have little time to .... deal with people!! At least that is how they look sometimes. There can be many causes of this: time and energy management practices, interruption reinforcement, etc. The effects can be draining. When you feel real hurried there is a skill that can take a HUGE hit - your listening skills.

Have you ever been part of a conversation where one person is only half-listening? Heck, they aren't really doing that. What are they doing? They are "data-mining". They are listening only as much as they feel they need to in case something "big" is said that affects them. Other than that they may be glancing at emails, thinking about what they will do next, and many other multi-tasking items.

What can happen in these situations?

The other person probably feels like they are only being mined. The other person might pick up those same habits. Opportunities to be efficient may go by the wayside because the parties are not fully engaged. Relationships are hampered. Information is lost. Collaboration suffers. In summary - "inefficiency" happens. So maybe the best thing to do, if you want to be more productive, is to SLOW DOWN when it comes to communicating (and especially listening) with others?!

It's Just the Two of Us - You & I

Most accountants work with a lot of people during any one year, even one week or one day.

Who do you work with most? How are those relationships? There is a word used in the coaching community that I love. It is called relationship design.

How much time do you spend thinking about your personal relationships at work?
Do you intentionally, proactively study the "design" of those relationships?
What is working? What is not working?
What general expectations do you have of each other? Are they clear and known?
What style of collaboration does that other person prefer?
What is going great in the relationship? What behaviors do you reinforce?
What motivates that other person?

Don't have time to spend focusing, reflecting, and improving individual relationships? If that is true, it will be obvious to those people and they will probably emulate you. It's probably what they are accustomed to.

LEAD change.

"A relationship, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies." Woody Allen

Today I did nothing

In the 2001 movie Office Space disgruntled worker Peter took a day off (unbeknownst to his boss) and chose to just stay in bed all day. He said something like "today I did nothing and it was everything I ever thought it could be." He was proud of doing nothing.

Have you ever told yourself you were going to carve out some time for yourself just to relax? Conversely have you ever discovered that for the last few hours you have basically accomplished nothing? What is the difference? In results ... not much. But there is a big difference in the effect those two activities might have on you.

The first scenrio: You gave yourself permission to intentionally relax. It was probably empowering and it probably provided a source of energy renewal for your future activities. Maybe an energy boost?

The second scenario: You probably felt a sense of failure. You had intended to do some "stuff" yet you didn't do anything. Now you might be drained.

So, the effects are NOT the same. The only difference here: Being intetional about what you do (or "not do" in this case) Be more like Peter, be more intentional about your decisions and actions.