10 ways to be dumb enough to succeed

When we go to work we sometimes look at those more successful than we and ask ourselves why?  Why are they getting a lot of the gravy and I'm ending up with the gristle?  Well instead of looking at why you aren't winning in life, lets look at those that do. I'm not saying that this list will make you successful, I'm saying that I've observed these behaviors in people that are successful.

- Don't be afraid of Failure. - Failure is a problem for everyone.  As soon as we are born we find that we are failing at all kinds of things.  The difference between kids and adults is that adults have managed to learn enough things to avoid failing on a regular basis.  When we were kids, the only real experience we had was failure.  Of course when you are a kid you call it learning.  The fear should not be of failing, but it should be of not learning.  Successful people NEVER look at things in terms of the loss.  The rest of us use fear to measure what we risk.  We don't venture out unless we are certain of favorable outcome.

- Act first. - There is a time for thinking and a time for acting.  How many times have you said 'Why haven't they thought of this a long time ago?'  Well, they probably have.  The problem is nobody DID anything about it.  Lets face it, it's hard to implement a new idea.  Most people want to give you all of the reasons it will fail and not any of the reasons it will  work.  Fortunately you already have the reasons it will work.  But if you keep thinking about acting instead of acting, your brain will figure out a way that you shouldn't do it.  People that don't act on ideas are the same people that sit wondering why their lives always tend to treat them the same way.  People that do act first are usually unable to do otherwise in other aspects of their lives.  They are impulsive and are often left with egg on their face.  But when it works, they look like the hero.

- Let other people do the dirty work. - If you have the big picture in mind and you know what you want, let other people deal with the minutiae.  This sounds pretty oblivious to the effort that it takes to make things work, but it's what you need.  There is a lot of value in someone that knows exactly what they want.  Most of my life I have no idea what I really want, just a bunch of vague thoughts and impulses.

- Don't care about money. - The biggest worry about people in general is money.  It's also the biggest source of fear.  Money seems to be very hard to get and so easy to lose and everyone wants yours.  The best decisions are probably made without thinking about money.  You want proof?  Look at your kids.  Most people that have children had very little idea of what they were getting into.  Last on that list was how much they cost.  Yet there isn't many that would trade their kids for anything.  Sure there are some notable exceptions, but that's what prisons are for.

- There is only you. (family doesn't matter) - If you are going to succeed, you really need to put all of your energy and your soul into whatever activity it is you wish to succeed at.  You should care about your time like most other people care about their money.  If what you are doing with your time is pushing you towards your success then the opportunity costs are worth it.  Any time spent in pursuit of your goals is time well spent.  Just understand that this includes other endeavors like family.  Family done poorly takes a lot of time and effort.  Done well, it takes nearly all of your time.  Am I saying family men are not successful?  Not at all, they are successful at family, they can also be successful at their career, but I have witnessed precious few that are good at both.  There is no higher aspiration in my opinion.  I am saying that single people with no kids have a much easier time of being successful at whatever vocation they are in, but it still requires most of your time and effort.

- Double down. - Things look a little rocky?  Your idea isn't panning out?  Success driven people don't tend to believe it.  In fact when they are faced with the failures of their ideas, those people will work that much harder to prove their idea was in fact viable and worthwhile no matter what it takes.  Successful people take failure as a challenge to succeed.

- Be born into it. - This aspect of success is interesting.  Some successful people have been born into it.  There has been a lot made lately of being born into privilege and how it is just not fair.  No it's probably not.  Boo hoo, now get over it.  The funny thing about being born into extreme privilege is that you may live a lot of your life trying to decide if your success is yours or product of your lucky stars.  I would submit that being born lucky only gives you an opportunity that you must sill take advantage of.  The idle rich that take no effort to improve themselves and take that opportunity are similar to someone that has won a lottery and files bankruptcy years later.  One can be born into privilege, nobody is born into wisdom.

- Mans gotta know his limitations. - Unless of course you are successful.  I've found that most of us that have any intelligence at all are painfully aware of our own limitations.  We use them like different colored crutches that give us myriad excuses for inaction.  The successful will ignore many of their limitations and assume they can wing it beyond any trouble they are ill equipped to handle.  This is vital for success since we often overestimate our own shortcomings.  The pitfall of this of course is getting in WAY over your head.  If you are willing to let other people do the dirty work of course you will probably not run into your own limitations as much.  Sometimes that's just not possible.

- The glass is ALWAYS half full. - If you are going to be successful, you MUST see everything in terms of success.  This might be the most important line in this blog entry.  As a life long cynic and self proclaimed realist, I have often found myself expecting the worst of everything and not often being surprised, but also finding myself missing from opportunity.  If you look at most things in terms of possible success, you can see what it is you are working for.  There is no real downside to being an optimist unless of course you are relying on others to make up for your failed ideas.  Then people look at you as having your 'head in the clouds'.  You don't want that.

- Feelings are for suckers - I've met some successful people that are good at 'pressing the flesh' so to speak.  They are people people.  They get you to think that they genuinely care about your disposition relative to theirs.  They don't.  What I should say is they do care, but only as long as it doesn't get in their way.  That's ok.  We are all that way to some extent.  Each of us has that line that we care at.  In my own attempt at being self employed, I've found that I can't bear to charge people what I think they should pay.  I don't know what it is, but I would often discount myself and look on as my customers had NO appreciation for that discount.  The successful have no problem charging for their services or their products, and they don't care if you think it's not a good deal, they know their worth.

I do not offer these tips as a way to become successful, only as observations of successful people.  There is a difference.  Another 15 days and I'll probably have something else...probably, if i'm successful.

10 meetings

Meetings.  some are necessary, many are not.  As long as there has been business, there have been meetings.  Getting together to...do business.  Here are a few meetings you are probably involved with.  It's ok.  There isn't anything you can do.

10 - Why am I even here? - The obvious meeting.  The one you were called to that doesn't appear to have anything to do with you.  Even better, you aren't sure who invited you.  Two ways to handle this meeting.  One:  Up front mention that you probably don't belong here.  This is no fun, but probably a more effective use of your time if not the companies.  Two:  Own it!  Flog that meeting with all of your uninformed insights.  Make them explain all the processes to you.  Get them to give you an 'Overview' of what's going on.  In short pretend to be management.

9 - This is an email - Often managers will call meetings that should be emails.  These are easily identified by the fact that your actual input is not only not encouraged, but completely unnecessary.
This meeting is for the manager to spout off the top of his head something he or she should have thoughtfully written down in an email.  The problem is of course that once you write something down, you can be held to it.  If you sing it in a meeting, you are able to spin and adjust what was said.  Business as usual.

8 - derailed meetings - The meeting started out with good intentions, but someone there is going to turn this meeting into a grindingly long bout of minutiae that will get nothing done for those that are unfortunate enough to remain conscious.  Meeting derailers are people that really think they should be in a higher managerial position than they currently are.  They will interrupt with the same feel of authority that the organizer of the meeting has.  They have important things to say...they think.  The only way to improve this meeting is to stop it.

7 - One on One - Meetings are like farts.  The fewer participants the better it is for everyone.  The one on one meeting can be the most important ones because there are only 2 communicators talking and listening.  The chances of misreading what was said or intended are pretty low.  Normally in a one on one situation one party will do most of the talking.  They will carry the burden of imparting understanding to the other party.  With any luck the same manager will have experience on both ends depending on the meeting.

6 - I'm lonely - A pathetic meeting where the manager is just bored.  A bored manager is very tempted to start improving things.  This can be very dangerous.  It's fine to improve things that have very clear and obvious short comings, but when you start improving things that are working, you may end up improving them right into uselessness.

5 - Useful meeting - I will admit there are useful meetings that exist.  The skillful manager calls them to get information quickly.  They usually consist of 2 - 5 people and are specific to a task or event.  The reason they are useful is because they are quick and to the point and disseminate information quickly.  They don't waste a lot of time with conjecture or finger pointing.  There is usually a plan of action that follows the useful meeting that is clear for each member.  They come in many varieties and you can recognize them after they have happened.  You feel like your time wasn't wasted AND you have a good idea of what you should be doing.  The difference between this meeting and a well worded email is that the manger is usually looking for a plan of action and that requires input.  No email.

4 - Stand up - This is the Jekyl and Hyde of meetings.  You never know if it is going to be a good meeting or if it will expand into a worthless waste of time.  A good stand up will include people standing up mentioning quickly their status on whatever project they are working on.  Nothing more or less.  The person running the meeting will inform everyone of anything that needs to be widely known.  The meeting is then done.  5-10 minutes is the most this meeting should be.  If this meeting goes out of control, it becomes a much longer 20 - 30 minutes, and it involves small details of other parts of a project that have nothing to do with you AND too many people, around 10-15.  You know when there are too many people when everyone else looks bored and disinterested because they don't want to know your status.

3 - I'm hungry - This is the meeting that is held during lunch.  a 'working lunch'.  These are brutal if they are an actual meeting held during lunch.  If they are just an excuse to give you lunch on the other hand, then they are ok.  Often the lunch meeting is a sales pitch by some vendor and they want to buy everyone lunch in exchange for your attention.  It's rarely worth it.  On the other hand, at least it's lunch, so it can't be too bad.

2 - Have you got 5 minutes? - The most insidious meeting there is.  5 minutes is about how long it takes to get nothing done.  The amount of times a 5 minute meeting was less than 10 minutes I could count on one hand of a Taiwanese factory worker.  Once in a while it is exactly just a point of information or something that needed some attention, but I have yet to hear the words 'hey have you got a minute?' from a manager and not cringe.

1 - Brainstorm - One of the few good meetings there is, if it's directed in a way that rewards creativity.  Very hard to pull off because one or two strong personalities will usually dominate the brainstorm.  If someone can moderate and draw out the opinions of everyone invited sometimes you can  bring out some great ideas and really get something to build direction from.  Otherwise you might be spitting in the wind.









There they are.  Meetings.  Nuff said.

10 things that make you a sub par manager

Anyone that knows me knows I have had my share of troubles with management.  I've tried my hand at it myself and I consider management to be one of the more difficult jobs that's out there.  Before you managers go patting yourselves on the back, I often think that management is given not to people best qualified for managerial positions, but rather as a reward for performance in an area OTHER than management.  This happens all the time.  Well, if you have managed for a while and wonder how you are doing, consider this list.

10 -  Everywhere you go, conversation stops - One of the true hallmarks of a micro manager is things stop happening when you are around because they are afraid they are doing it wrong according to you.  If you have a way or method you want things done, Outline it and make it policy.  Don't let people go about their business and correct them as they get things wrong.  Sculpting by subtraction is an art.  Managing by the same means is folly.

9 -  You secretly fear talking to your subordinates - Employee review is imperative to company and employee growth.  It helps you monitor the satisfaction as well as the effectiveness of your employees.  It is often difficult to talk to employees because you fear they do not respect you or worse think you are an idiot.  The more you fear this, the more you may be right.  So educate yourself.  Schedule regular interviews with your employees.  The more regularly you talk to your employees, the better you will be able to see potential problems and alter them as well as give your employees praise and direction.  Look at it like like this:  If we see a meteor heading directly for earth several million miles away we have time to alter it's course even by a small margin and it will clearly miss us due to the small change.  If you only see the meteor when it is say near the moon, the amount of energy required to alter it's course increases and your chances of success decrease.

8 -  Your employees routinely work overtime - Often a bad manager will look with pride upon their employees 'burning the midnight oil'.  They believe that they have set that fire beneath their employees and really gotten some value for the company out of them.  What the same thing is telling a good manager is that they are really bad at planning and are making their subordinates pick up your slack.  But Mark, there are 'urgent hot button emergencies' and 'crunch time' and don't forget 'all hands on deck!'.  Most of these phrases are made by bad managers.  I will not say that sometimes overtime isn't necessary for things that do come up that are out of your control.  But if they ARE out of your control, that should be understood and looked at in future planning.  You are supposed to MANAGE the tasks your employees are getting, not run around with your head on fire.

7 -  You feel like you can't trust anyone - You have noticed that there isn't one opinion you have that isn't right, there isn't one move that isn't brilliant.  But in retrospect, those same opinions and moves appear to be rather pedestrian.  You want honest opinions but for some reason nobody gives them to you except the one or two people that always do and they are the ones that think everything you do is right.  Remember the employee reviews you aren't giving?  That might be a part of it.  Remember asking for opinions but always going with your own?  There might be something there.  Remember that blowup you had in front of them?  Hmmm...  Clean up your act King Henry.  Often this is the trappings of the office, but you should be able to find a way to communicate with your employees that will engender trust.

6 -  You use meetings for emails and emails for meetings - What is it about people that makes them ask for suggestions in written form but give edict in verbal form?  If you have a list of instructions for people to follow, write them down and send them out.  Even God had the 10 Commandments written down.  When you are asking for suggestions, maybe a meeting is the best for brainstorming.  The free flow of thoughts when there are no wrong answers.  The answer of course is writing.  You as a manager don't want to be saddled with writing down what you want to happen so you call a meeting so you can just tell them.  When people have ideas, you don't want to write those down either so you ask them for an email.  What is it that you actually do in that office anyway?

5 - People quote/namedrop you - This may not be a sign of bad management, but rather something that a good manager should quash.  When people name drop or quote in order to make their task seem more important than they believe it is, it indicates that they do not believe that anyone else will believe it's important enough to cooperate for.  Often this is also a method to 'fast track' a job that would otherwise take longer to complete usually amounting in a disruption of the flow of work.  If you name drop yourself by intervening in your departments daily work flow and by force of your position request 'emergency' actions, you are doubly guilty of the name drop because you are doing it yourself on behalf of yourself.

4 -  You start buying business self help books - You've seen them:  Megatrands, Good to great.  7 Successful habits,  Management for Dummies.  Books about how to manage either yourself or others.  The secret ingredients to propel you to that elusive 'next level'.  The problem is, you probably got these books well after you have established your bad managerial habits.  You then look at those books and pull out the sections that agree with your 'style' and disregard the ones that don't.  That's not enough, you start to evaluate employees based on what books they are reading.  Something to remember is that every one of these books is designed primarily to make the author money first.  They may have some good ideas but they likely aren't revolutionary and if they are, they are  probably not realistic.

3 -  Your business tech is the BEST! - Does the technology you have rival that of the NSA while your employees are forced to use something out of War Games?  How much tech do you need?  Just because your department uses technology doesn't mean your job requires more of it.  In fact managing one department probably takes as much technological power as it takes to manage any department of a similar size.  This of course only applies to pure managers.  Team leads and working managers have every need for augmented technology.  The technology of your employees should always be similar to that of your own if not better. This is of course assuming that the company is buying the tech for day to day operations.

2 -  You watch business satire and you are somewhat offended - Most sit-coms have some kind of jab at day to day business life, but nobody really looked at it directly in the daylight like The Office.  Specifically the first couple of seasons.  If you wanted to see an even MORE uncomfortable version of that show, try to watch the BBC version.  Hits a little close to home?  Enough said.

1 - You don't reward/discipline right. -  When things go wrong you swing your managerial weight around all over the place, e-mail, meetings, you name it.  everyone knows something is on fire.  You are the motivational equivalent of a shot of Novocaine before a fine meal.  Try going with the opposite approach.  Single out individuals for praise in the group and especially in broadly addressed email.  Keep reprimands quiet and discreet.  I know there are times when an official reprimand is in order and all people are not reasonable, but in general you should be able to maintain maximum motivational momentum as the leader of your troops.  Always be ready to defend your employees against the slings and arrows of the other departments.  If your department is doing poorly, there is only one place to stop for a big helping of blame.  You.  If it is doing well, you should always direct the good vibrations towards your employees.  Yes, you managed them, but it's similar to the quarterback buying their front linemen extravagant gifts as a thank you for protecting him all season.  All together you make a winning team and you will most certainly earn your just reward for the position you play but makes sure everyone gets a taste, it will go a long way.

Bonus! - You make promises for your department to keep without knowing if they have the time or ability to complete it. - Newly minted managers are especially susceptible to this.  They really want to show that the company made a good choice in making them a manager.  The best way of course is to promise all the things the prior managers couldn't get done and then deliver!  You don't stop to consider if those things even can be done, but you'll just buy the crowd a few pizzas and work them in to the wee hours and the weekends and you will be credited with getting things done.  A real manager will see how many projects are being worked on and how much of the resource of your department is being used and then will provide an estimate of how long it will take at regular hours to get something done.  Upper management wants something done right away?  It's bound to happen.  Don't forget to mention how much extra time was used in completing the task and do what you can to make sure those instances are few and far between.

Ok, based on my years of office experience, that's more or less what I've observed.  One man's opinion.  But at least it didn't cost you 24.95 at your airport newsstand.

10 Stages of employment

From the point that you enter your first job, hopefully some time in high school, to retirement, you hope to remain employed.  That is to say you hope to be working for someone for money.  The interesting thing is no matter who you are, you work for someone.  Unless of course you are on government assistance, then you work at not working.  Even the 'fat cats' that run their own businesses usually work for a board of directors.  I have held several jobs in the course of my life and have realized that there are several stages of employment that you go through.

10. Nice place ya got here - This is really the dating phase of your employment, you are being interviewed and at the same time you are interviewing them (if you are smart).  You are trying to see what kind of set up you are getting yourself into.  This is where you promise each other that you'll be treated fair in exchange for hard work.  Nothing is set in stone yet, but you want this job, so you try to make yourself look like the perfect fit.

9.  Honeymoon - anywhere from 1 to 3 months.  The honeymoon period is where you learn the ropes of your job and business.  You might be employed there or you might be a contractor for an evaluation period.  This is where nearly any mistake is forgivable and you make new friends.  Everything is a new adventure and the days FLY by.  You start to get your real feel of how things work here and you are making your name.








From here on out,  the timing of things in other categories can be tricky.  Results may vary in timing and intensity.

8. I'm a company man! -  At this point, you are the company flag bearer.  You are telling your friends how much your company respects the employees and just how great the products are and how visionary your CEO and vice presidents are.  You are a company man through and through.

7.  Part of the family - You've settled in and you've made good friends, you've worked some late nights and you've had some good meaningful discussions on work, life and everything else.   You get your work done, but it's more than that.  You've made real connection's with people.  On the other side there are also those 'other' family members.  The ones you'd just as soon avoid.  The ones that seem to constantly take from your good nature.  Sure, they are a part of the clan, but you know every time you see them it's trouble.  But it's ok, it's all home.

6.  Just another day in paradise - There's nothing you haven't seen or done in the company, even new projects are fairly predictable based on who is making the request.  It's fine, you've got your friends there and your team.  Some days are good, some are bad, but you always appreciate the consistent atmosphere your workplace provides.  Sure, it's a bit boring at times, but you are an expert at nearly everything around and you are the 'go to' for anything the company wants.

5. Draw your line in the sand - Things were going along fine and suddenly something in the company has changed.  Maybe they used to buy everyone drinks and now they don't.  Maybe they stopped giving you that one day off that you used to get.  The bottom line is something has changed and you don't like it. For now, it's ok, but this company isn't what it used to be and you are starting to see things in a different light.  You aren't willing to do just ANYTHING for the company anymore you give yourself an ultimatum.  If they start doing THIS then I'm walking.

4. What??  Hey, that's not really fair - That's it.  You put up with the little changes, but now something has happened to you alone.  Maybe you went to the doctors without mentioning it to someone and now suddenly you are called into your bosses office.  After all that uncompensated overtime?  They do this to you?!?  They don't deserve your best.  They barely deserve you!!!  All this being said, often Companies have to change things because their best interest is themselves, not you.  You are a means to an end.  Brutal, but true.  The company obligation is to remain a going concern, not to make you comfy.

3.  You paid me for a job, I'm doing a job. - That's it, no more extra miles for me.  You have seen people get laid off and you have seen your responsibilities grow.  Of course your salary hasn't grown commensurate with your time needed to complete your additional work.  You can't keep up with all the work, so...you don't.  You put in your time and you start paying more attention to potential jobs that move by.  You have become the very definition of passive aggressive.

2.  Wow, I'd rather be too busy than THIS - This is actually an alternative to 3.  You've noticed that you've got less and less to do.  You offer help, but there isn't anything that needs to be done.  Suddenly tasks that used to take an hour or two take days.  You heard somewhere that if you stop getting things to do or better yet you are asked to share what you know about some arcane process to some bright eyed bushy tailed idiot, you are going to soon get the bums rush.  Every day, you wonder if this is your last, yet you feel like it wouldn't be THAT big a deal.  Your job hunting should be under full swing at this point.

1.  But who gets the kids?!? - This is it.  You get a call to come see your vice president or director.  When you enter the office, you see the HR officer and your boss.  There is no way that this ends any way but badly.  Their mind is made up, you are not coming back.  This is where things get genuinely pathetic.  From little words of consolation like 'it's just business'  Well duh you moron.  of course it's just business.  If it weren't I could probably just sue you.  But please don't make it worse by expecting me to not take it personally.  It is personal, you have said that as far as the company is concerned, I have no more value. Not in so many words, but still.  This is where the final lesson is taught.  Any business will only keep you as long as they have a use for you.  Remember all those unpaid overtime hours?  Yeah, they got you nothing in the way of loyalty and probably nothing in the way of compensation.  With any luck.  You have learned your lesson.    The other end is that you walk in and tell you boss you're giving them your two weeks.  If they are smart, they will take it and understand that your relationship has come to an end.  If they are desperate they will offer you stay money.  This doesn't really work.  That horse is out of the barn.  You move on to greener pastures hopefully to find a better experience.

No, this isn't the only way it ends.  You could end up with the Gold watch after many many long years of service.  The Odds don't really bear that out, but it could still happen.  The best you can do is remain circumspect through all aspects of your cycle of employment.  Look at each phase for what it is and remember the BEST thing you can do throughout all of your employment is remain involved with your own improvement in your skills and your business habits.  Companies come and companies go, it's up to you to increase your own value and ride the next wave.  Next wave...15 days.

10 Business phrases and their translations.

Happy April 2nd everyone.  Yes, I know, I have broken my self imposed timing.  But I didn't want anyone thinking that this was just some kind of joke.


Everyone says kids have their own language.  It's true.  Kids language is based on the most hip most popular shortcuts in language that you can muster.  If you aren't understood by your parents, so much the better.  The same holds true for business.  When you walk in the circles of business, you find yourself pummeled with a dizzying array of words and phrases that really don't mean what they seem to mean at first.  For example...

10. Leverage -  This means work, but when a manager says it, it sounds like he is doing the work by thinking hard.  A long time ago, they used to have a stupid phrase that was similar to this:  "Work smarter not harder".  That has given way to leverage.  Used in a business setting.  "We are really going to leverage Joe's talents on this next project"  Translation:  We are going to work Joe like a rented mule.  The manager that uses this phrase thinks of himself as the force and you as the stick.

9.  Reach out - This means to talk to someone, usually in another department of your company.  For some reason, communicate is so 80's.  Any more, you reach out to people in order to get specifications from them for a project, or possibly to leverage their resources.  Example "I'm going to reach out to Accounting and see if we can't get more clear on their requirements".

8.  Push back - Displace responsibility.  Sometimes when someone reaches out to you, you have to push back. If someone in the company is requiring a task be completed by you, but they haven't given you all of the specifications, you have to push back in order for them to know that the responsibility of impending failure is partially or fully theirs.  This can of course be remedied by leveraging their talents to assist you in clarifying your specifications.

7.  Scrum - A short stand up meeting and a name for Agile project management.  Scrummage is a rugby term used for the initial play to determine who ultimately gains possession of the ball.   Now it's being co-opted by business to mean a short meeting normally used in conjunction with Agile planning/programming methodology.  Many will use the term Scrum interchangeably to mean Agile.  Scrum is slowly giving way to stand up as the term for the meeting.  Many people that are using Scrum will have a near religious fervor about them.  They will want to follow the methodology in a dogmatic fashion.  That kind of excitement excites managers.

6.  Work From Home - This is a term that means different things in different companies.  In some companies, it means tacit overtime.  Still in other companies it means that they do more work than is readily obvious from their habits at the office.  Other companies use the term to mean you have a doctors appointment, but you don't want to take a sick day.  Some rare companies will take it to mean that you do your actual job, but without a remote office.  In this case you are often paid less for the convenience even though you are actually costing the company less to employ you.

5.  Bonus - Extra money earned for extraordinary work.  The shiny keys of business.  The term Bonus means that you will be paid a variable unspecified amount at the discretion of the company in return for uncounted overtime worked on behalf of the company.  What I would suggest is that you track carefully your worked hours and what you work in overtime.  Reduce your salary, wage to hourly and then give yourself time and a half for your overtime work.  Now evaluate that against your Bonus.  You'll see quickly that excessive overtime has little or no monetary value in a company.  There are of course exceptions to this rule, and where there are, they should be valued.

4.  Self Starter - A new hire that is able to learn what their job is to be quickly without being told what to do.  This is the business equivalent of a unicorn.  Because most managers don't really want self starters, they want mind readers.  If you self start in a direction that your manager didn't envision, you are not a self starter, you are a loose cannon.

3.  Crunch Time - Over time.  As a rank and file employee, your job is to work on assigned tasks on a day to day basis.  As a manager, your job is to manage the resources at your disposal in order to finish a given project within a particular timeline.  The termination of this timeline should result in the projects approved completion.  When your manager can see that he or she has not estimated the time correctly and the end of the project is looming, they will use the term crunch time to indicate that you are expected to work extra time in order to complete the project.  Good managers never have crunch time.  They push back on people requesting things in order to make realistic expectations.   Bad managers use it often because they believe they are leveraging resources at full capacity.

2.  Deadline - The required completion time of a task, project, or submission. The deadline has been in use since business has been in use.  Deadlines come in many flavors.  External deadlines are the dates that are required by external sources that you have no control over.  The reason you have a deadline, is to avoid some extra trouble of fees as a result of not completing your task on time.  Usually Government reporting falls under this category.  Artificial deadlines, on the other hand, are times that are dreamt up based on the theory 'If you don't have a deadline, it will never get done'  As if the deadline meant it was done.  HA!  A few interesting deadline facts:  1. Nobody dies from not accomplishing a deadline.  2. No fewer than 13 movies between the 1940's and today have 'deadline' as their title.

1.  Proactive - A spurious word that means self starter.  Proactive was never a word until business coined it.  Though it is going out of vogue now, you still hear it from time to time.  It means someone that would tend to act (in a way pleasing to management) rather than sit still on any given project.  Where the self starter is proactive about getting to know their job, someone that is proactive is always searching for ways to do more around the company to get job done on a more permanent basis.  The problem with the proactive people is they are usually much more active about jobs that they aren't asked to do.  Many times, the proactive sort will notice when you come and go and what you are about when you are doing your job.  Makes you wonder what exactly they are being proactive about.



I hope this little guide was helpful.  See you in several days!  And to you, my few subscribers.  Just remember I think you are really the smartest and best looking people I know.