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Have you ever made a giant mess of a situation at work? I have. I remember the first time I started working for Gordian Project, my boss asked me to complete a task by the end of the day, and I completely forgot. I felt so bad and didn’t even know what to say; I didn’t want my error to ruin the trust in our work relationship. I could have given an excuse, gotten offended because of how he reacted to my mistake, or apologized, but I took the coward way out, and provided an excuse. Come to think of it, our relationship as boss and employee could have been nurtured if only I had apologized and moved on. We often want to be forgiven without having to ask for it. The fact of the matter is that we did screw up and in order to make everything right an apology is necessary. But no ordinary apology will do, as I see it a good apology has three parts – “I’m sorry; it was my fault; and how do I make it right?”

Saying I’m sorry has more to do with attitude than with words. William James, and American philosopher, once said “Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.” The attitude you have when saying I’m sorry will display your sincerity.  Sincerity is the first step to rebuilding the trust that may have been lost.

Taking full responsibility for your mistakes is the hardest part of apologizing, especially in the business environment. However, putting yourself in the other party’s shoes will help you say the words: “It was my fault.” When we are wronged we expect someone to fess up and or need to know who to blame.  Though not taking responsibility can seem more appealing, doing so gives up your power to change. In order to learn from your mistakes, you must first acknowledge your mistakes.  Note, there is a big difference between admitting your mistake and beating yourself up about it. Once you have taken responsibility for your mistake, remember that you are doing the right thing by providing a good apology, no self pity will make your apology any better.

Fixing your mistakes is a step that many of us subconsciously chose to skip. Some mistakes are easy to fix while others have bad consequences. Saying sorry and even accepting fault are easy words to say, but as we all know, actions speak louder than words. Ask the person you have let down what they would like you to do in order to rebuild trust and be worthy of their forgiveness. In the business environment, making sure you complete this step will also help others to be lenient the next time you make a mistake, as they know you are not one to simply sweep it under the rug.

A good apology goes along way - Do it right and do it fast. Remember that a good apology is essential in any relationships. When you make a mistake at work and you apply the three parts of a good apology, your boss and coworkers will respect you for how you handle your mistakes.

We all can use a little help with dealing with apologies and mistakes, if you have any recommendations make sure you leave them in the comments.

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In a continuing effort to make the office both a fun and productive place to work, yesterday was the second annual Gordian Project salsa contest. The contest had 13 different salsas enter with a range of ingredients such as a grape based sweet salsa, one that featured baby shrimp and many with traditional spices. Everyone brought their salsas in the morning and they were left out all day for the office to enjoy and critique to their hearts content. Many, including myself, elected to skip lunch in order to save room for continued judging of which salsa would get our vote. In the afternoon the votes were emailed in, and today the winner was announced and received a gift card. Here are some great pictures from the event.

Now I say all of this to prove the point that their are many great and cheap ways to promote workplace comradery. The business supplied the gift cards for the winners, but the contest was run by the employees and they individually provided the salsas and chips for the competition. Throughout the office during the day you could hear, "I love salsa day, one of the best days of the year", to which I fully agree. There is just something about hanging out with your co workers and arguing over the range of flavors making up a good salsa, that adds another level to the normal work day. Sure a little extra time is spent visiting the salsa room to continue sampling, but in the grand scheme of things your employees can now boast on their Facebooks and to their friends that their workplace had a salsa contest with real prizes. This alone makes your work environment stand out, while at the same time building up a rapport with your employees that you want them to enjoy coming to work. Think about it, what is something you can do with your employees in the next month that would have the same effect?

There are hundreds of ways to do this, but I would encourage you to try out something as simple as a salsa contest today, your employees with thank you for it.

What about you, what does your office do for comradery?

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Feeling overwhelmed is inevitable in today’s workplace. With technology we not only work faster, but are constantly berated with incoming issues. It often seems like it is coming at you too fast or that you will never get your head above water. Just opening your computer in the morning to see your email inbox is sometimes enough to make you disheartened. Take heart, you are not alone; but how do we look past the avalanche of work and accomplish the tasks at hand? These are a few things I think about when I feel like I’m overwhelmed at work.

Don’t Get Stuck on the Big Picture
We all want to help with the main goals the comapny is trying to accomplish, but once you know what the general direction of the company is, use that information to help direct you to the projects that best assist the big picture. It’s easy to dwell on the big picture and forget where you are actually headed, so instead of letting that drive what you do, make that knowledge work for you in order to accomplish your smaller goals. These, in turn, will help drive the overall goals of the company.

Know When to Say “No”
In a technology driven society we all have the ability to multitask in a way our parents never dreamed of; but just because you can juggle ten flaming pins doesn’t mean you should. Know how you work and know where your max is. If you continue to take on responsibility there will inevitably come a time when all your tasks begin to hinder how well you work. In work, quality is always better than quantity, as a sustainable business grows on quality work. Say no to the projects that will push you over your limit and work hard to create the best quality work on the ones you are currently undertaking.

Stuck? Ask for Help
If you do end up with too much on your plate, don’t be afraid to ask for help or delegate a task to someone else. It’s for this reason that it is important to know who you work with and how you can help each other succeed. For me, when I am stuck on a task, I ask for help from someone who may know what I’m doing better than I do. Not only does this help get the task done faster, but I learn how to trouble shoot that problem in the future. We all love being the best at what we do, but there comes a time when a problem can be solved in 5 minutes by asking for help and that 5 minutes can save 45 minutes of frustration trying to think of what to do.

These three tips are what help me the most when I am feeling overwhelemed. How about you, how do you deal with your workload?

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According to Jonathan Strickland of Howstuffworks.com, “Offering on-site benefits, have the added bonus of keeping the employee workforce in the office more often.  Give employees enough reasons to stick around and you’ll likely see productivity go up.  Why head home when everything you need is at work?”

Have you ever had a job that made you miserable, where just getting out of bed seemed like such a hassle?  If so, do you remember how the lack of enthusiasm for your job made your loose your jobs ‘focus factor’?  Many studies have shown the advantages of a happy work environment.  Some of these advantages include increased productivity, quality of work, lower absenteeism, stress and burnout, higher sales and customer satisfaction, among many others. 

Melissa Dahl of MSNBC, reporting on a study done by Harvard University, writes: “New research shows that happiness isn’t just an individual phenomenon; we can catch happiness from friends and family members like an emotional virus. When just one person in a group becomes happy, researchers were able to measure a three-degree spread of that person’s cheer.  On average, every happy person in your social network increases your own chance of cheer by 9 percent — and the effects of catching someone else’s happiness lasts up to one year.”

So then, if happiness is a key contributor to employee productivity, what have we done as a company to boost our employees?  The answer we developed was Free Food Friday.  It may not be free food everyday like a mammoth company such as Google, but it’s still valuable.  Lunch is provided every non-payday week along with some ‘getting to know you and getting to know the company’ conversation.  Having all the employees in one place every other week for some fellowship has proven to create happiness and grow friendships.  In addition great management has also been a key contributor to our office happiness.  Each manager is given the unique opportunity to create a cohesive and happy environment for their staff.  Some bring coffee or snacks on occasion, give encouragement when needed, and laughter and music request days to lighten the mood.  It’s the small boosters that keep employees happy on a day-to-day basis.

This is what we do, what has your company done to create employee happiness?

 

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As you may remember from last year, the Gordian Project enjoys dressing up for Halloween. This year was no different as the costumes were in full swing. We had everyone from a barbarian and Nacho Libre to Ron Burgundy (from the movie Anchorman) and a double rainbow working at the office on Friday. Over half of the office dressed up for Halloween and candy was strewn throughout for all to partake in. Hopefully your office did something fun for Halloween as well. Check out the pictures below!

 

Trevor dressed up as a Barbarian with a stuffed bird.

Josh was Ron Burgundy from Anchorman.

Two Waldos showing their company spirt.

The whole crew.

 

As you can see productivity was still up!

Until next year, Happy Halloween!

 

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I love the Dog Whisperer, and recently I’d been trying to apply his principals to my life. What I didn’t realize was that those guidelines could also apply to the workplace! So I hope I don’t get in trouble for writing about my co-workers in comparison to dogs and I hope that Cesar doesn’t mind. So here it goes! Here is how I think we can create a calm/submissive and calm/assertive workplace.

Discipline: This is Cesar’s first and probably most important and foundational rule. Without discipline, you have nothing. This point is most important for those in management. It’s important to correct an issue as soon as you become aware of it. If the issue is allowed to continue you lose the respect of your other workers as well as the person that is creating the issue. In my experience with the Dog Whisperer the discipline aspect is the hardest part of the rehabilitation for most owners, and I expect it’s hard for most managers. Discipline doesn’t only come from managers; the pack also corrects unwanted behavior. This is probably the coolest part of it all. Leaders can’t be everywhere, and good leaders rely on the pack to call one another out when necessary because it is good for the pack. Here is how that applies to work: as a team we are responsible to each other to keep the team afloat. If you see someone slacking off you call them out.

Exercise: Since physical exercise in the workplace rarely happens, unless you work at a gym, I am going to apply this principal to mental exercise. It’s really easy to turn your brain to auto pilot, but that is when mistakes happen. Our department tries really hard to keep everyone engaged with projects and tasks outside their specific daily tasks. Not only does this help keep everyone engaged and using their brains, but it helps protect us so we don’t fall into the hazards of a mushy brain.

Affection: Receiving rewards and approval from leaders is awesome!! Having hard work recognized makes “the pack” want to work harder. A little encouragement really does go a long way. If a worker is praised, then it sets the bar a little bit higher in their heads. Actively using rewards not only encourages workers on a personal level, but it also raises the moral of everyone around.

So, that’s how you can create a well balanced workplace that encourages all of its workers, managers and team leaders alike to set the standard high and work toward a common goal.

 

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As a team leader I understand that people make mistakes, just as I make mistakes. However one of the best things to see as a leader is someone who acknowledges when they make a mistake, instead of providing an excuse for it.  I understand providing reasoning, but I would much rather see that acknowledge the mistake and learn from it, then to hear a list of excuses. Here is the bottom line when it comes to excuses - You will NEVER succeed in life or at your job if you don’t stop making up excuses.

I have read many articles on how to help employees overcome the urge to provide excuse after excuse. Kelly Ketelboeter’s article on employee excuses provides four steps to helping employees: listen, ask questions, use empathy, and sell the benefits. “Keep in mind when an employee is feeding you line after line of excuses they are really saying, ‘I’m not comfortable. I don’t fully understand. And I don’t see what’s in it for me."  Using the four skills outlined above will help you work through and overcome any excuse they throw your way.” As true as this statement may be, the truth is that we can only help employees to a certain extent. If you want to succeed at your job then work on listing the excuses you have used before, start addressing those excuses and take action.

Of all the excuses I have heard over the years, the worst thus far is “I didn’t know.”  My immediate response back is “Then why didn’t you ask?!” It truly is that simple. If you are given a task and you have questions, or red flags, then ask.  Don’t just proceed do the work and hope for the best, especially because chances are you are doing the job wrong. Asking questions will help you understand your task and will allow you to accomplish it correctly, not only will you get your job done but you will also show your leaders that you are truly engaged in the process, and interested in having a clear understanding of your job. Believe me, anyone interested in learning their job well is noticed when it’s time for employee reviews.

Blaming others for your mistakes is also far too common. When some people realize they have made a mistake it can be a natural reaction to try to find someone else to blame it on.  Cowardice is the only word I can use to describe people who blame others and in reality this is just another form of an excuse. Eventually this employee will realize that they are slowly but surely losing respect from their manager and colleagues – guaranteeing their failure at the company. Throwing others under the bus to cover your own misgivings will only lead to a reputation of being someone who is untrustworthy.

If you have been giving excuse after excuse for every mistake you have made, it’s definitely time for you to change. The next time you think about giving an excuse, whether it’s for a mistake you made, the unmet goal, or late project, try to remind yourself: No Excuses! Like Skipper the Penguin from Madagascar said “Don’t give me excuses, give me results!”

 

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Identifying the “Knobs & Levers” that drive your company’s profitability is only the first step in a successful business. The second, and perhaps more difficult, is fine tuning those knobs & levers for a desired result. One such knob or maybe it’s a lever, is salaries and wages as a percentage of gross sales.

Focusing on balancing salaries and wages as a percentage of gross sales generally starts with the question, “When the heck are we going to hire someone to support our growth?” A few thoughts…

Explore all Available Avenues

While piles scattered about your desk, burning the candle at both ends for days, weeks, months, maybe even years and skipping one or more meals a day all potentially point to hiring reinforcements, these are not sole indicators hiring will be the silver bullet. Redistributing responsibilities (we like to call these buckets) can provide the efficiencies necessary to effectively manage the do-to list. You may just find a current employee stepping up to not only take on the additional responsibility but thrive on the opportunity to shine. Technologies within your current infrastructure may be able to offer more than you are aware of.  I’m not the expert on this one, I simply keep adding to the “request” list and IT finds a viable solution when available. With that said it’s amazing what the techies around here can accomplish when they put their heads together and look for alternatives that positively affect the bottom line.

Paint the Picture and Back it Up

Do properly identify a focused picture of what you’re experiencing, providing hard data that brings clarity to you or your departments needs. Let’s say you’re experiencing an elevation in outstanding returns (meaning your warehouse is backlogged on the returns it is receiving and needing to inspect and process).

Paint the picture…

New returns come in as one of two things, cancellation requests or RMA (return merchandise authorization) requests. Our Returns Team reviews the request, plans a course of action, and moves the issue to the appropriate bucket. For simplicity, cancellation requests generally move on to the reorder or refund tabs to be closed while all RMA requests require the attention of the Warehouse Team. The Warehouse Team is responsible for creating call tags (Call Tags tab) to get the product back and subsequently all product inspections (Inspections tab). The tabs are named and uniquely identified in our administration system where the processing takes place. Once an inspection has been performed the return is either approved as is or adjusted accordingly; moving the return on to the Pending tab awaiting a supplier RGA, Damage Claims tab initiating a carrier damage claim, or to the Reorder or Refund tabs to be closed.   As you can see quite a few different scenarios can take place, but it’s a system that’s been pretty well refined over the years.

Provide the data…

The simple snap shot shown above, while not indicitive of any real data will work for the purposes of what we are trying to accomplish for this post.  The chart provides the number of “transactions” open at the end of each day over a two week period by bucket. The work flow moving from left to right for each bucket has an identified outstanding target in red and subsequently highlighted anything greater than that target on any given day that it was not met.

In our example, with the exception of a single day the Returns Team is processing new cancellation and RMA requests within the target; driving the numbers down as they work through the week preparing for the weekend increases. A single instance can likely be attributed to a known issue or decision. The first Warehouse Team bucket (Call Tags) although significant is being met. This is an important step in the returns process as it sparks the products physical return. The first hint of bottle neck is at inspection, this is a time consuming, detailed, physically and mentally challenging step that sets the tone for the customer’s return experience. Although once the inspection has been completed the Warehouse Team technically moves the return back to the Returns Team via the Pending, Damage Claims, Reorder, or Refunds tabs, they’re not out of the spot light.  Once a supplier provides the required RGA from the Pending tab the Warehouse Team is responsible for shipping the RGA back to the supplier. Likewise, the Warehouse Team is physically involved in the damage claim if for nothing else than disposing of the damage once completed by the carrier. Finally, even a reorder has the potential to impact our Warehouse Team. That reminds me, they’re also responsible for inventory and order shipment including: domestic, LTL (light truck load), and international shipments. If you’ve ever shipped LTL or internationally you know you don’t just slap a label on it there’s a lot more that goes into it than just boxing up a product.

Analyze the Data

In this example if we’d looked simply at the Returns Team’s elevated outstanding returns we might have identified the need as an additional Returns Team member. With a more focused look at what’s being experienced throughout the returns process it becomes clear the Warehouse Team is struggling to support the volume moving through the numerous buckets they impact in the process. Assess and insure that the Warehouse Team is working as efficiently as possible taking into account their inventory, shipping, and returns responsibilities before moving on. Review available technologies for assisting those responsibilities. Pay attention to your bottom line, does the cost benefit impact to your knobs & levers more significantly impact the cost benefit of considering additional Warehouse Team support?

Connect the Need to the Big Picture

For our example:

• Overwhelming responsibilities may be heading your Warehouse Team to an elevated turnover rate. This only accelerates the issues currently being experienced in the returns process.
• Hiring warehouse support may also free additional time up from your Returns Team. The Returns Team may be working outside their responsibilities to help the Warehouse Team in an effort to meet their own targets. This inadvertently leads to inefficiencies in their own respective fields. Unaddressed, the same elevated turnover rate could result.
• Never forget the desired result of any returns process is a quality customer experience. Consider how you’re impacting the initiatives of the Customer Service department.
• As part of the inspection process (our examples bottle neck), the warehouse team works closely with the Data Team to identify discrepancies in data quality.
• Every effort is given to make inventory accessible to the Marketing Team’s initiatives to capture high quality images.
• Product that’s made its way through the returns process identified as unsellable is managed as salvage for philanthropic opportunities.

If you’re already sleeping at the office it can be difficult to slow down enough to move beyond the emotional desire for more support. Keep your eye on the prize; paint an accurate picture supported by data, coupled with connecting the need to the larger picture. It’s like asking, “When the heck are we going to hire someone to support our growth” but with an interest in affecting the salaries and wages knob or lever for a desired result.  Oh yeah, and in the end… turning a profit.

 

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My partner recently sent out a neat article:

11 Business Lessons From The Battlefield

As I read through the lessons I naturally began asking myself “Do I do that?”, “How am I on that one?”, and “I wonder how my managers would rate me on that one.”  So to make things a bit easier, I went ahead and turned the 11 lessons into 44 more specific questions.  Here you go:

Eleven Lessons Become Forty Four Questions

1. Do I genuinely respect the people who work for me?
2. Do I help my employees reach their career goals in tangible ways?
3. Am I more interested in what is best for my employees or what is best for me or the company?
4. Do I conduct myself in a sober, professional way?
5. Do I make employees feel degraded or humiliated?
6. Do I provide relevant, positive reinforcement?
7. Do I criticize more than I compliment?
8. Do my employees know who I believe the star performers are?
9. Do I actively listen to people?
10. Do I allow employees to choose their own path much of the time?
11. Do I overrule my employees plan too frequently or without giving them a chance?
12. Do I bend or give in on nonessential issues or questions?
13. Do my employees believe I can distinguish between essential and nonessential?
14. Do I seek clarity on an issue before correcting or reprimanding?
15. Do I know when and how to give an order?
16. Am I timid about giving orders?
17. Am I condescending when giving orders?
18. Am I direct about what needs to happen when giving orders?
19. Do I make eye contact when giving orders?
20. Do I remain cool and firm, without yelling, when giving orders?
21. Am I passive aggressive when giving orders?
22. Do I validate grievances when giving orders?
23. Do I explain why an order is being given?
24. Am I afraid to insist on a standard?
25. Am I afraid to tell people what to do?
26. Am I afraid to demand quality?
27. Am I a “yeller” or “nice guy freakout yeller”?
28. Am I meek?  In the “poor leader” way or the “inherit the earth” way?
29. Do I do an appropriate level of inspection of work?
30. Do I care about output and results?
31. Do I allow employees to become lazy and complacent?
32. Do I care about the unglamorous tasks?
33. Do I see myself as above the unglamorous tasks?
34. Am I clear about expectations?
35. When giving a task, am I clear about what the task is, who has to do it, and by when or clear that my employee needs to identify the task, assign it, and establish a due date with his/her team?
36. Do I believe everyone gives a crap about my credentials, or should?
37. Do I give a crap about my credentials?
38. Have I established a reputation for competence, common sense, and listening?
39. Once a path is established, do I balance small, firm corrections with steady, disciplined execution?
40. Do I have a tendency to waffle on initiatives or change direction frequently?
41. Do my employees have a clear understanding of the paths/initiatives I believe are important?
42. Do I address problems in a clear, timely manner?
43. Do I have a tendency to side step problems and let them fester?
44. And lastly, if I sent these questions to my managers as a survey, would I do anything tangible with the responses?

 

If you’re interested in more leadership insight from a military perspective, here is a link to the widely distributed 18 Lessons in Leadership by General Colin Powell.

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Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

You just never know how or when, or in what capacity you may strike up a relationship that positively impacts your business.

I purchased a home in the not so distant past and subsequently found myself tied up in Code Enforcement red tape.  Code Enforcement responds to concerns, complaints, and nuisances within a city to make sure that properties are in compliance with city codes.  These complaints are often associated to issues that can impact the quality of life in a city such as zoning, maintenance of structures, inoperative vehicles, overgrown yards, and illegal signs.  Receiving a violation from Code Enforcement can be costly and time consuming regardless of the reasoning behind the violation or where the fault lies.  One thing I do know is that finding your family’s financial well being placed in the hands of bureaucracy places an emotional strain on the soul that I can’t put into words.  I responded in a way I’d never before, kicking off a letter to every bit of political representation I could think of.

Despite not expecting a single response I somehow felt better and was reinvigorated to continue the good fight. Interestingly enough I did receive a response from Council Member Rusty Bailey and although I’m confident no strings were pulled, I appreciated the handful of phone conversations that were had by the Councilmen and myself throughout the process. Ultimately, our (my family) plight was brought to resolution with the closing of our “file” and fines returned. I believe Councilmen Bailey summarized the situation best when he explained, “cooler heads prevailed.”

Having mentioned along the way my involvement with Gordian Project I had the honor of introducing Councilmen Bailey to Gordian Project Managing Partners Timothy Jackson and Brian Chelette over lunch.  A casual meeting for sure, sharing the life of Gordian Project along with hearing Councilmen Bailey’s heart for Riverside.  My thanks to the Councilman for the time and opportunity to continue in that relationship as I, we, Gordian Project seeks to partner with that heart.

Councilmen Bailey’s email signature concludes with, “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try." (Author unknown)  I believe I’ve accomplished navigating Code Enforcement’s red tape successfully but perhaps more importantly struck a relationship that can assist in Gordian Project’s desire to philanthropically impact "Riverside".

For those that are curious about my big code violation, here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

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