Sample Columns:
A54: Advice
from A-Z Kathy Waddill, professional organizer, public speaker and author of the new book,"The Organizing Sourcebook, Nine Strategies for Simplifying Your Life" <http://www.theuntangledweb.com> helps business owners and employees get a handle on that nemesis - clutter and disorganization. She teaches professionals how to clean up their offices and them keep them that way, in order to increase productivity and lower stress. Since I write a lot about couples working together, I asked her if she'd ever worked with an entrepreneurial couple with vastly different, shall we say it nicely - "organizational styles," and if so, how she recommends they manage the stress of reconciling those differences. Kathy enlightened me with a case study of a recent client: "Sarah and her husband, Zachary, owned and operated two optometrist offices in neighboring communities. Each of them was responsible for one of the offices, and she handled the bookkeeping for the whole business. She was worried because she and her husband had different approaches to the company's financial records. "We met in Zachary's office. Almost immediately, it was clear Sarah was angry at Zachary. She thought his approach to the recordkeeping was so disorganized, it was going to jeopardize the long-term viability of the whole business. Zachary, on the other hand, was conciliatory. He acknowledged that his style was more haphazard than hers and said he was willing to do whatever she wanted in order to keep the business going. But more importantly, he wanted to make her happy. Once Sarah recognized that Zachary was willing to make some changes, she calmed down. "My challenge with this couple was to come up with a plan everyone could endorse. To do this, we started by listing all the points upon which Sarah and Zachary agreed: (1) They loved each other, so preserving their marriage was essential; (2) the business was their livelihood and needed to be managed in a fiscally responsible way; and (3) Zachary needed some help to reach the required level of fiscal responsibility in his store. "After laying this foundation of strong shared values, we moved on to building a plan of action. This was tricky because Sarah was the one whose standards weren't being met, but Zachary was the one whose habits needed to be changed. The key question for Sarah was, 'What is the minimum standard Zachary needs to meet in order to satisfy your concerns?' She wrote her minimum requirements down. "The next question was for Zachary. 'Can you agree to meet these minimum requirements if you have help?' He looked at them carefully and said, 'Yes.' The final question went back to Sarah. 'Will you trust Zachary and his professional organizer enough to let them work on your requirements without interference?' She said, 'Yes.' "Zachary and I worked together to get his records cleaned up, organized, archived, and into shape. We also rearranged some of his equipment and supplies so it was easier for him to meet Sarah's requirements and keep the store running smoothly. Sarah kept her word and didn't interfere. This meant Zachary could achieve her desired end result, but still do it his way." Kathy reports that when she puts a new organizing system in place for one of her clients, it's important to work out any conflicts there may be between the new system and her client's spouse. She always starts with this salient advice that applies to working out any conflict, not just organizational ones: "Start with your common ground. Then figure out what each of you must receive in order to be satisfied. Finally, establish what each of you has to do to make the other one happy. Remind each other that the things you share far outweigh your differences." Sometimes the answer does not lie in talking out the conflict. For the neat-freak wife who is sharing office space with a disorganized husband ( or vice versa), Kathy first does an objective assessment of their home to see if there is ANY way to separate their offices. Perhaps the neat one could set up office furniture/equipment in the dining room or a corner of the family or living room, leaving the messy one in the current office (which one hopes has a door that can be closed to hide the mess). If they HAVE to share office space, she recommends separating the space visually (with a partition, bookshelf or barrier of some kind) so each one has a separate space within the room. This makes it easier for each of them to function without bothering the other one. Sometimes, the solution to marital conflict doesn't come from opening your mouth -- it comes from closing your eyes. B100:
Advice from A-Z When I was a young girl, my mother supported our family on her measly teacher's salary for a few years while my entrepreneur dad launched his business out of the spare bedroom upstairs. Then mom got pregnant with my brother, and my dad lost his home office, but still, mom went right back to work after six weeks to keep salary and benefits coming in until my dad's company had some positive cash flow. Back then, in the early sixties, it never would have occurred to my mother to quit her teaching job to, for example, start a desktop publishing business out of the home. It was understood that the money she earned was all we could count on to pay the mortgage and food bills. Now, couples make very different decisions. No longer is the assumption made that if one individual in the relationship is starting a business, the other must therefore stay in the working world with a regular job to compensate for the risk. Dual entrepreneurs abound, sometimes sharing a home office, and often living month to month as each one tries to pull in enough, combined, to pay the bills. One couple I spoke to raved about their lifestyle as dual entrepreneurs because now they could go on vacation whenever they felt like it, and return whenever they decided as well. Before, when one was in a corporate job, they were always tied to that person's work schedule. What this couple also acknowledged though is that vacations were infrequent because now, neither of them was being paid for the time they weren't working! A woman from Georgia wrote to me with this very common question: "I recently moved to Georgia from another state about a year ago, left my friends and family there, got married, started a new job, and got my daughter in college and settled in. It has been a good thing even with all the changes. My husband has recently gone into real estate. He is frustrated because his efforts have not paid off as of yet. "I would also like to make a change in my career but am not exactly sure what I want to be now that my daughter has grown up. I have done nonrewarding office work all of my life and need something more rewarding but am not sure what direction to go. I also am not sure that I should pursue anything drastically different until my husband's real estate business is established. Any suggestions?" First, remove any idea that there is an objective "right" or "wrong" path that you must follow. Everyone has their opinion and they'll be happy to tell you what you should do. Truthfully, there are pros and cons no matter what decision you should make. Of course there is financial risk if you should pursue self employment, but there is also the emotional consequences of holding yourself back too long from following a dream, and also the chance that resentment can build in your marriage if you put your aspirations on the backburner for too long, waiting for your husband to get established. Here are some options to consider: Can you help your husband in a strategic way, to accelerate his progress? I don't mean just with a pep talk, but actually joining in him the business? Is there any kind of self employment that you could tip-toe into on a part-time basis, while keeping your day job, to minimize the financial risk of both of you being self-employed at the same time? If boredom is your issue, must you give up on finding a job that could give you the best of both worlds, a steady salary but also a challenge to your mind? It sounds to me that you are assuming that you must leave the workworld in order to find rewarding work. I would challenge that assumption. You haven't stated a specific kind of business you are eager to start. If you did, I might counsel you differently. Since you don't have anything specific in mind, just a restless stirring in your soul for "something more," I encourage you to start searching for a job ( while keeping the one you have) that would be more interesting to you, but still provide financial stability to your family. If at some point, you should identify a business of your own that you would like to pursue, start gradually with minimal financial investment, unless by that time, your husband has given up on his real estate business and returned to a job. Also, consider all the changes you've made in your life as of late. It feels to me that you should be keeping your options open, but letting your new life settle a bit before you go full tilt into something new. Bottom line, follow your instincts, but make sure that your husband is on board with whatever decision you make. It's yours to make together. C145:
Advice from A-Z "If I want it done right, I've got to do it myself!" That's the motto of thousands of solo entrepreneurs in this country, as well as, unfortunately, equal numbers of employers who hire employees but then in fear, hold back from delegating key responsibilities that would lighten management's load. This letter came to me from a Southwest entrepreneur who has been in business for herself for seven years. She reported to me that after reading my book on business partnering, "Let's Go Into Business Together," she was thoroughly convinced that taking in a business partner was not for her. As her business has reached the maximum that can be generated with her efforts alone, and she has tired of regularly outsourcing work, she has decided to hire her first employee. Here's an excerpt of her email: "I am torn about whether I need a clerical person or a more professional level person. I do many clerical tasks but each one feels like it would take longer to tell someone how to do than to just do it. For example, I spend 3-4 hours a day reading and responding to e-mails from clients and associates. I would love to turn that over to someone else but they'd have to ask me what to say, how to say it, what price to quote, etc. "It seems like what I need is someone who is very professional whom I can train to take calls, talk to clients about our services, manage the flow of work coming in and out, and also do some clerical stuff like file and send out info packs. I'm troubled though by the thought that it will take me so long to train someone new, it will actually detract from my work output, and be more trouble than it's worth, never mind the expense I'd be incurring! And if I turn over client contact to someone who is not as competent or proficient in this business as I am, they could hurt my business, rather than help it. What do you think?" You need to be looking one or two years down the road, not three-six months. Looking through a short-term lens, a new employee is almost all burden and risk. If you knew for sure that you'd only have this employee for a short time, you'd naturally only give that person the most menial of tasks with little contact with your clients. You might consider such a person if you had a sudden large job, or, if your business has a predictable busy season that requires a slew of temporary workers to get through the season. ( Like retail stores do for the Christmas season). In your case, your reason for hiring someone is an intention to grow your business beyond the limits of your capabilities, and also, to reduce the regular 60-80-hour work-weeks you've been incurring to keep up with current demand. It's not reasonable to hope for a solution to that problem without investing your energy. Think of it this way: If you determined that your field required a graduate degree, you wouldn't expect to get that degree in just a month or two of study, would you? If you decided to expand your business into a new niche, you wouldn't expect to accomplish that with only a few months of effort, right? You would understand that any business restructuring or training beyond the superficial would necessitate patience, persistence, and several months of your time. Hiring an employee, especially your first one, falls into this category. If you ask the question, "will a new employee take up more of my time than he or she will give in the first few months?" the answer is 'Yes!' If you ask, will a new employee properly trained enable me to reduce my working hours, spend my time doing the work I really want to be doing, and expand the business beyond my own limits?," the answer is also "Yes." So, to answer your question, clerical or professional, and how much contact should he or she have with clients? That depends on your goals over the next few years, and how much time you are willing to invest in training that individual. Do you want someone more or less expendable, who will be replaced each year, or do you want to give someone a professionally rewarding career so he or she will hopefully remain in your employ for several years? You can't expect long-term loyalty if you give an employee a dry, boring, and meaningless experience. Put yourself in that person's place. What would you want if you were going to be employed in one place for longer than a year? If you want the reward of employee longevity, you'll need to take the risk and put in the effort. E43: Advice
from A-Z One's perception of an event may be entirely different than the same person who was sitting in the room, even though you swear that you know EXACTLY what transpired that day - you'd bet your left kidney on it. An entrepreneur writes: "My partner and I are at an impasse. I'm afraid this could break up our partnership. I've just finished reading your book, "Let's Go into Business Together," and I thought maybe you'd have some advice for me. "A few weeks ago my partner and I had a meeting to go over how to handle a problem customer who has been griping about the way we handled his order. I specifically remember that we agreed that my partner would call a vendor who was involved in this mess, meet with him, and see if he could negotiate a resolution to make the customer happy. He was supposed to make the vendor take some responsibility for creating the problem in the first place. Well, it never got done. The customer called me this morning, irate, because the problem still hadn't been handled. I was caught off guard so I just mumbled, "Ah, I thought my partner was handling this. I'll check it out and get right back to you." "I stormed down the hall to speak to my partner and basically, landed all over him. I couldn't believe my ears: he says that I got it all wrong. He says that he never agreed to call the vendor at all. He claims that he said he'd communicate with the vendor - not call him - and that he had mailed him a certified letter and was waiting for a response. I remember that he agreed to call. This isn't something we should leave to the mail - it was urgent! "Now, he and I aren't talking. He says that he DID do what he said he'd do, and that I had no right to chew him out. I say, he didn't keep a promise because I KNOW he said he'd call. I think he just chickened out. "How do we go forward from here?" Eric Cohen, author of a fabulous book on relationships: "You Owe Me, The Emotional Debts that Cripple Relationships" wrote one of my favorite quotes on this topic in his book: "One of the undeniable truths about human beings is the limitless diversity of our viewpoints, interpretations and conclusions about the world. One person's supremely rational discernment and arrangement of the data is another person's bizarre and insupportable misperception. "Unfortunately, many of us operate from basic mind-sets that we are unerring observers of objective reality. We are unshakable in our certainty that what we see is indeed what has happened, that what we hear is exactly what has been said. We will go to our graves arguing that we are right about our interpretation of events. "To hear some of us in the heat of disagreement would lead to the conclusion that we are endowed with photographic memories, the acuity of eagles, the flawless objectivity of video cassettes and the intuition of infallible psychics. "The truth is that none of us possesses the perfect powers of perception that we sometimes assert. The illusion of perfect perception which we so dogmatically uphold, often turns out to be the very instrument of our relational demise." You and your partner will never get at the real truth, unless there was a videocamera taping your previous interaction, or the two of you had put your agreements into writing. I'm sure that you absolutely, fervently, believe that you are right. Your partner feels the same way. Give up trying to prove that you are right. One of you has to be the big guy in this stalemate, unless you want to see this partnership dissolve. You are wasting your time rehashing the past and trying to convince your partner that his memory is inaccurate. Both of you could be right. He could have said "communicate" and you might have assumed he meant "call." You'll never know. Apologize for climbing all over him. Acknowledge that both of you had the right intentions, to solve the problem. Agree, going forward, to put in writing anything you each want to be sure that the other agrees to, if the stakes are high. To let go of your resentment now, tell yourself, "I know what I heard, but maybe it's not what he said. It's not worth busting up our partnership over it. We can both be right." Your real problem right now is the angry customer. Work with your partner to solve it, rather than destroying yourselves fighting over something with no resolution. Deal with what you know for sure - a valued customer needs your attention. D103:
Advice from A-Z Vicki Wineland of Helen, Georgia, ( a small town in Northeast Georgia), is about to be the proud new co-owner of "Lunar Tunes Gameroom and Cafe", a small snackbar and arcade venture. Vicki wrote to me with a very challenging problem, a problem some of us would like to have -- too many good people to hire -- but a problem, nonetheless. She writes: "My two teenage sons, my partner's teenage daughter and several teens that have practically lived with me since 2nd grade are eager to work in my new business. I want to be fair to everyone, but there are so many of them, I am afraid some of them will end up disappointed. They are all wonderful kids and they know we can't pay them a lot to start since this is a new venture, but they are enthusiastic anyway. Please help us make this a positive experience for all of us." Tricky situation. If you hire everyone and give them each only a couple of hours a week, many will be dissatisfied with the hours and pay and need to find work elsewhere. Also, it will be nearly impossible to adequately train such a large group as fast as you'll need to. If you hire with no objective criteria other than "I love these kids and they're great!" you're bound to end up with some problem employees who are poorly matched for the work. Chances are that some of the kids want to be hired, not because of the work itself, but to be able to hang with their friends and be part of this new experience. Objectify and structure this process as much as possible, which will be difficult to do. If you can delegate the interviewing and selection process to someone other than your kids, or yourself or your partner, that would be ideal. Create job descriptions and assess which of the teenagers have the skills and previous work experience to be an ideal match. Use this as a litmus test: If this wasn't a friend of the family, would we hire him or her? If the answer is no, don't hire that teen. You might love him or her as a part of the family, but assess that he or she would not make an ideal employee. Mark A. Nobile is General Manager of the Harrisburg East Mall, in Harrisburg PA. He has been managing malls for 11 years. He warns: "You can't change the spots on a leopard. I can't tell you how many times I've seen retail stores hire unkempt, unruly individuals, somehow thinking the individual will change to suit their business. Perspective employees with bad attitudes and piercings all over their faces aren't likely to be people that will clean themselves up and be happy selling ice cream." "Also, I have yet to meet the 16 year old, when left alone, that will know to scrub the toilets when they leave, check all the burners, shut out the lights, clean the counter, etc, unless they are directed to do so." So, these may be "great kids" you are hiring, but don't presume that the positive behavior you see when they are hanging out in your living room watching television is what you'll get when they are working for you. (Although you CAN presume that negative traits you've noticed at home are unlikely to disappear once you hire someone, so you are forewarned!). Hold a private meeting with your teenagers first and explain to them that you have a business to run and you have to treat it that way. Tell them what your expectations are for work performance and ask for their input regarding which of the teenagers they know are best suited for that kind of work. Ask them how they want you to handle it if one of their friends turns out to be a discipline problem at work. Try to avoid putting your teenagers in a supervisory position over their friends. Brainstorm ways you can involve all of the teenagers in the venture, even if you can't afford to hire them all. Invite them to an opening party? Allow the cafe to be a place that the teens can throw a party for a special occasion? Ask for their help in spreading the word? Reward them monetarily for bringing in a certain number of customers? Hold contests and encourage all of them to participate? Share with them your vision that someday, with their help, the cafe will grow to be able to employ anyone who wants to work there. For now, only a select few will be chosen. That's a business decision, not a reflection on your feelings about them as being a valued part of your family. G42:
Advice from A-Z Ethics in the workplace is front page headlines just about every day now. Tens of thousands of hard-working, ethical professionals have lost their jobs in the last few months because of the unethical behavior of a handful of people at the top of the organizational chart. Every time I hear the announcement of widespread layoffs due to company management greed or fraud, my thoughts and prayers go immediately to the John or Sally who reported diligently to work every day, gave the company all that they had to offer, and are now, through no fault of their own, searching for a new job. You can bet that such people are hypersensitive to ensuring the ethical standards of any prospective employer they are considering. G-d forbid, it should happen to them again. For all those gun-shy, unemployed people, or anyone who is concerned about evaluating whether or not a potential employer is trustworthy, Linda K. Treviño, professor of organizational behavior in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and co-author of the book, "Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right has some advice: "While advancement opportunities, corporate culture, salary, and signing bonuses are important factors when considering a job offer, given the current environment and the growing number of corporate scandals, there are a number of questions that one should ask about the ethical culture of an organization before accepting a job. "Many large corporations now have formal programs for managing ethical behavior and legal compliance. And, many firms have 'integrity' in their values statements, but just talking about ethics and integrity clearly isn't enough. Ethics has to be 'baked into' the culture in a variety of ways-- in leadership messages, in follow-up and follow-through, and in reward systems. "Also, if ethical problems are portrayed as resulting from a few 'bad apples,' people won't see the importance of broader, more systemic fixes." Trevino recommends that you get a handle on questions like these before starting employment: "How are organizational leaders perceived in terms of their integrity? How do organizational leaders model ethics related behaviors? Are workers at all levels encouraged to take responsibility for the consequences of their behavior or to question authority when they are asked to do something that they consider to be wrong? How? Does a formal code of ethics and/or values exist? Is it distributed? How widely? Is it used? Is it reinforced in other formal systems such as reward and decision-making systems? Are people of integrity promoted? Are means as well as ends important? Are managers oriented to the values of the organization in orientation programs? Are they trained in ethical decision-making?" It might not be simple to assess these issues in a typical interview with Human Resources. Trevino suggests asking your prospective manager and/or the people you will be working with some of the questions from her ethical culture audit. In addition to the answers themselves, consider how quickly and comfortably they answer the questions. Look for nonverbals as well. Do these individuals seem pleased that you asked these questions? If they're looking for people of integrity, they should be. Do they talk with pride about being associated with their organization? Ask about ethical dilemmas they typically face and how they're handled. Then see if you're comfortable with the responses. Now, let's say that you do all the right things, ask all these good questions, and take on a new job with a champagne celebration! That whole other mess is behind you, thank G-d, and it will never happen again! How can you be sure? I asked Trevino for a few tell tale signs that maybe, the management of the company is not as ethical as you once hoped: . "Are you told to "make your numbers" no matter what?" "Do others appear to be "making their numbers" by unethical means?" "Are you discouraged from asking about the possibly questionable conduct of peers or superiors?" If the answers to any of these questions are a strong yes, or your intuition tells you that something fishy is going on, don't wait until it hits the newspapers, the stock price plummets, and you and your colleagues are all out on the street all at once. |