March Read/8

Title: How to Manage Problem Employees: A Step-by-Step Guide for Turning Difficult Employees into High Performers

Author: Shepard, Glenn

Subjects: Problem Employees; Personnel Management

Call Number: 658.3045 S547H 2005

ISBN: 9780471730439

Number of Pages: 198 p

Book Description: (from the back cover of the book)

            “A manager’s guide to hiring, firing, and motivating employees.” A comprehensive how-to for employers, How to Manage Problem Employees covers all the people-management skills managers need-from how to set new hires up for success, to properly structuring compensation packages that maximize employee work ethic, to dealing with employee problems before they take a toll on your business.

            Author Glenn Shepard doesn’t bother with political correctness and he doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to employees. He has no patience for negative behavior-and neither should you. He’ll show you how to handle every kind of problem employee-gossips, backstabbers, hypochondriacs, emotional basket cases, rebels with authority problems, and everyone else. And when you have to, Shepard shows you how to fire employees fairly and legally. There’s more:

-Fostering a good work ethic

-Motivating slow or lazy employees

-Being the best manager you can be

-Creating a healthy work environment

-Avoiding problem hires

-Avoiding legal pitfalls

-Using discipline in the workplace

-Rewarding good employees

            How to Manage Problem Employees helps managers run a productive department that people will want to be a part of, while building a business culture that encourages success. It empowers managers to be tougher, fairer, and better-but also shows them how to encourage the same qualities in their employees If it’s time for you to get tough with problem employees and take your business back, this book is the answer.

My Read:

            This is the second book of the series, How to***: A Step-by-Step Guide*** by Glenn Shepard. I enjoy and appreciate the books so much that I would like to buy them all and shelve them on my desk; they are Bibles on management and self-growth. The reason for the self-growth is if one person would like to lead and live a life of success and fulfillment, she has to complete her life with goal achievements, meaningful mission accomplishments, and with a strong wish to help others.

            There are some points I found helpful and inspiring in this book:

-I love what I do. It’s more than a career; it’s my calling. I didn’t choose my job; it chose me. So what about you? Do you have conviction? Do you have what it takes to be a strong manager? Are you sure this is what you want to do? Are you prepared to make our country stronger and better? If so, let’s get you ready to rumble. (p27) Those are questions assisting a person to ponder upon critical aspects and dig deeper inside her to bring out strengths and hidden potentials she has been holding.

-Managers must know their limits. You can’t change someone’s character, make an unpleasant person pleasant, or make a person care. You can only set boundaries, reward the good behavior, and punish the bad. When people refuse to play along, they’ll be ejected from the game. (p36) This point is hard, in my eye, to be really put into practice. The bad behaviors take at least five times of energy of a manager to deal with than the good behaviors. At least five times! It’s like an energy vampire sucking your soul, spirit, and energy every day you walk into the workplace you should have enjoyed and cherish being in. How to righteously punish the bad and award the good to the point is an art and mastery challenges every manager who is committed and dedicated to what she aspires being a great leader.

-Don’t hire applicants who won’t fit your company’s personality. The lesser of the two evils is to be slightly understaffed. Having too much to do and too few employees to get it done forces us to be more resourceful. It’s human nature to resist being asked to produce more. When in doubt, it’s better to not hire enough employees than to hire too many. (p54-p55) This reminds me of something so true in reality. When a person is struggling to meet the ends, her hidden creativity and potentials would be provoked helping her to discover solutions to get what she is in need. In my childhood, there was no toy in the house. My playmates and I would make something fun to play with in the neighborhood: bamboo guns, playing cards made of tin caps, rocks and pebbles played as if they were play cards, and more fun handmade toys created by and with plants, dirts, and any trashes the adults abandons. Limited resources invite and create imagination and innovation.

-Entitlement v.s incentives: entitlements destroy a work ethic. Earned incentives help build a work ethic. (p74) People tend to take things for granted without questioning themselves what they have done to “deserve” the things given to them. It’s a pity that entitlement, to me, is the killer for happiness and barrier for success. No pain, no gain. Work ethic is a tough challenge in these days. I simply didn’t get it. I have asked myself plenty of times why people keep coming to the workplace they hate and dislike. Good people deserve a place to work to their potentials to help others and to self-actualize to live a meaningful and enchanted life. It’s a playground for good people to share good experiences and exchange healthy spirits to enrich their soul and enhance their mind.

Helping others is the only way I have found to the path of happiness. It’s a path you have to walk yourself.

-I’ve never fired anyone but I have helped employees make the decision they’ve already made for both of us. (p28) Managers need to hold all employees accountable, but the need is even stronger with passive people who have built their lives around avoiding blame. (p97) Does the following saying sound familiar to you: “That’s not fair.” “You’re being mean to me.” “Yes, Ma’am.” It’s never their fault. And they are the backstabbers and snitches the author describes in the book. To avoid blame, those negative employees tend to work less and place their focus, time, and energy on seeking their coworkers’ wrongdoings. It’s natural for a person to eventually make some mistakes if she is engrossed at tasks and focused on meeting goals. Time is the essence for a hard working person whose mind sets on goal achieving and stays in the mode of competition with self and others.

            It’s interesting to learn about some terms the author uses in this book: the passive individual, the aggressive individual, the passive-aggressive individual, and the assertive individual. At the last chapter, the author provides a compilation of issues he is asked about most often in his seminars. They are:

-Bad Attitudes

-Blaming Others

-Breaking the Chain of Command

-Bring Personal Problems to Work

-Carelessness

-Cell Phones

-Character and Integrity

-Cheating on Time Sheets

-Chronic Arguing

-Chronic Complaining and Whining

-Conflicts between Coworkers

-Crying

-Cyber Loafing

-Dropping the Ball

-English as a Second Language

-Employee Theft

-Friends

-Gossiping

-Group Gripe Sessions

-High-Maintenance Employees

-Hypochondriacs

-Indecisiveness

-Insubordination

-Irresponsibility

-Lame Ducks

-Laziness

-Loaning Money to Employees

-Lying

-Motivating Slackers

-Perfectionism

-“Poor Pitiful Me” Syndrome

-Resistance to Change

-Slow Pokes

-Task Avoidance

-Tattletales

-That’s Not in My Job Description

-Toxic Personalities

-Ungratefulness

-Workaholism

-Working on Holidays

Reference:

www.glennshepard.com

http://www.themhedajournal.org/index.php/2009/04/problem-employees/

Ruby's Read/March

***

Martin Luther King,Jr. was born in 1929. At that time, black people were considered inferior to whites, and laws kept them apart. When Martin was a toddler, his best friend was a white boy, even though Martin's father was a well-respected preacher, he wasn't allowed to go to the same school as his friend, and he still had to take the worst seats on buses or at the movies. "Whites only" signs kept black people out of many shops and even churches.

When Martin was young, he studied hard and usually got good marks, and he was also very good at speaking. When he was 15, he entered a public speaking competition, he spoke so powerfully about " The Negro and The Constitution " that he won first prize. After the competition, Martin flung himself happily down on a seat in the bus going home. As the bus filled up, the white driver ordered Martin and his teacher to stand, they got up in the end, but it made Martin very angry.

Martin decided to follow his father and became a Baptist pastor, he was beginning to see a way to tackle the problem of discrimination by using nonviolent methods, just like the Indian politician Mahatma Gandhi did.

When a young lady-Rosa Parks was charged with breaking the " Whites first " bus laws, it reminded Martin of that night how a bus driver had forced him to stand, he called a meeting at his church. They decided to boycott the bus company - simply refuse to use the buses, and they organized a pool of cars with black drivers to provide rides for black passengers. Finally, The Supreme Court had declared that the bus segregation that kept black and white people apart went against the Constitution of United States. This meant that black and white people now had equal rights on the local bus.

Martin wanted all America to hear his side of story, so he wrote a book, and it sold well, but some black people didn't want to change, so when he signed books in New York, a black woman stabbed him. After Martin recovered from the attack, he decided to give up his church ministry and devote his time to campaigning for equal rights.

Martin helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. He also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his " I have a dream " speech.

In 1964, Martin received the Nobel Peace Prize, he was only 35 years old, the youngest person to win the prize. In the final years of Martin's life, he expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War. Martin was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the whole world was shocked. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.

***

"I Have a Dream" 

By The Rev. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.

Aug. 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Reference:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/martin-luther-kings-speech-dream-full-text/story?id=14358231

March Read/7

Title: The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations

Authors: Kotter, John P.; Cohen, Dan S.

Subjects: Organizational Change

Call Number: 658.406 K87H 2012

ISBN: 9781422187333

Number Of Pages: 188 P

Book Description:

            The Heart of Change is your guide to helping people think and feel differently in order to meet your shared goals. According to bestselling author and renowned leadership expert John Kotter and coauthor Dan Cohen, this focus on connecting with people’s emotions is what will spark the behavior change and actions that lead to success. Now freshly designed, The Heart of Change is the engaging and essential complement to Kotter’s worldwide bestseller Leading Change.

            Building off of Kotter’s revolutionary eight-step process, this book vividly illustrates low large-scale change can work. With real life stories of people in organizations, the authors show how teams and individuals get motivated and activated to overcome obstacles to change-and produce spectacular results. Kotter and Cohen argue that change initiatives often fail because leaders rely too exclusively on data and analysis to get buy-in from their teams instead of creatively showing or doing something that appeals to their emotions and inspires them to spring into action. They call this the see-feel-change dynamic, and it is crucial for the success of any true organizational transformation.

            Refreshingly clear and eminently practical, The Heart of Change is required reading for anyone facing the challenges inherent in leading change. (from the inside of the book cover)

My Notes (The following comes from the contents of the book)

            The eight steps covered in the book are: Increase Urgency, Build the Guiding Team, Get the Vision Right, Communicate for Buy-In, Empower Action, Create Short-Term Wins, Don’t Let Up, and Make Change Stick.

            -Increase Urgency: Raising a feeling of urgency so that people start telling each other “we must do something” about the problems and opportunities. Reducing the complacency, fear, and anger that prevent change from starting. What works: Showing others the need for change with a compelling object that they can actually see, touch, and feel; showing people valid and dramatic evidence from outside the organization that demonstrates that change is required; looking constantly for cheap and easy ways to reduce complacency; never underestimating how much complacency, fear, and anger exists, even in good organization.

            -Building the Guiding Team: Helping pull together the right group of people with the right characteristics and sufficient power to drive the change effort. Helping them to behave with trust and emotional commitment to one another. What works: Showing enthusiasm and commitment to help draw the right people into the group; modeling the trust and teamwork needed in the group; structuring meeting formats fro the guiding team so as to minimize frustration and increase trust; putting your energy into step 1 if you cannot take on the step 2 challenge and if the right people will not.

            -Get the Vision Right: Facilitating the movement beyond traditional analytical and financial plans and budgets. Creating the right compelling vision to direct the effort Helping the guiding team develop bold strategies for making bold visions a reality. What works: Trying to see-literally-possible futures; visions that are so clear that they can be articulated in on minute or written up on one page; visions that are moving-such as a commitment to serving people; strategies that are bold enough to make bold visions a reality; paying careful attention to the strategic question of how quickly to introduce change.

            -Communicate for Buy-In: Sending clear, credible, and heartfelt messages about the direction of change. Establishing genuine gut-level buy-in that shows up in how people act. Using words, deeds, and new technologies to unclog communication channels and overcome confusion and distrust. What works: Keeping communication simple and heartfelt, not complex and technocratic; doing your homework before communicating, especially to understand what people are feeling; speaking to anxieties, confusion, anger, and distrust; ridding communication channels of junk so that important messages can go through; using new technologies to help people see the vision.

            -Empower Action: Removing barriers that block those who have genuinely embraced the vision and strategies. Taking away sufficient obstacles in their organizations and in their hearts so that they behave differently. What works: Finding individuals with change experience who can bolster people’s self-confidence with we-won-you-can-too anecdotes; recognition and reward systems that inspire, promote optimism, and build self-confidence; feedback that can help people make better vision-related decisions; retooling disempowering managers by giving them new jobs that clearly show the need for change.

            -Create Short-Term Wins: Generating sufficient wins fast enough to diffuse cynicism, pessimism, and skepticism. Building momentum. Making sure successes are visible, unambiguous, and speak to what people deeply care about. What works: Early wins that come fast; wins that are as visible as possible to as many people as possible; wins that penetrate emotional defenses by being unambiguous; wins that are meaningful to others-the more deeply meaningful the better; early wins that speak to powerful players whose support you need and do not yet have; wins that can be achieved cheaply and easily, even if they seem small compared with the grand vision.

            -Don’t Let Up: Helping people create wave after wave of change until the vision is a reality. Not allowing urgency to sag. Not ducking the more difficult parts of the transformation, especially the bigger emotional barriers. Eliminating needless work s you don’t exhaust yourself along the way. What works: Aggressively ridding yourself o work that wears you down-tasks that were relevant in the past but not now, tasks that can be delegated; looking constantly for ways to keep urgency up; using new situations opportunistically to launch the next wave of change; as always-show’em, show’em, show’em.

            -Make Change Stick: Ensuring that people continue to act in new ways, despite the pull of tradition, by rooting behavior in reshaped organizational culture. Using the employee orientation process, the promotions process, and the power of emotion to enhance new group norms and shared values. What works: Not stopping at step 7-it isn’t over until the changes have roots; using new employee orientation to compellingly show recruits what the organization really cares about; using the promotions process to place people who act according to the new norms into influential and visible positions; telling vivid stories over and over about the new organization, what it does, and why it succeed; making absolutely sure you have the continuity of behavior and result that help a new culture grow.

            Through the book, the author reinforces the importance of the cycle of see->feel-> change. Allowing the people to see problems, solutions, and futures provokes deeper emotions inviting people to feel, instead of thinking on the surface level. When emotionally charged and involved, people are more acceptable to change, willing to change and committed to the change.

            Personally, I like the following in the book:

-Setting direction must come first and being the key player (p26)

-A powerful guiding group is composed with 1)the right people, and 2) demonstration of teamwork. Right people means: 1) with the appropriate skills, 2) leadership capacity, 3) organizational credibility, and 4) connections to handle a specific kind of organization change (p46)

-A good question: Was that not the right thing to do? If you spend all your life calculating what is safest, is it a good life? (p52)

-No vision issue today is bigger than the question of efficiency versus some combination of innovation and customer service (p70)

-The experience of changing a job can be powerful. False pride and a feeling that all’s well can be blown away. The experience can be life changing-from being stuck in the past to leaping into the future (p104)

-Seeing someone else’s survival makes you feel stronger (p113)

-One of the most powerful forms of information is feedback on our own actions (p114)

March Read/6

Title: How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without: 18 Ways to Become Indispensable

Author: Shepard, Glenn

Subjects: Career Development; Self-Realization; Vocational Guidance

Call Number: 650.1 S547H 2006

ISBN: 9780471751809

Number of Pages: 160 P

Book Description:

            This practical, actionable guide explains what today’s managers are really looking for in employees, what they place the highest value on, and how employees can surpass expectations to gain raises and promotions (from the back cover of the book).

There are eighteen ways covered in this book:

-First, understand why you need to be indispensable

-Learn what you boss wants from you

-Be low maintenance

-Answer the questions your boss didn’t ask

-Understand the economic realities of employing people

-Act like you own the place

-Treat your job like it’s your lifelong career, even if it’s only a stepping stone

-Become the most reliable person in your company

-Learn the right way to make mistakes

-Broaden your circle of influence

-Adopt the work ethic your grandparents had

-Be a professional at whatever you do

-Check your ego at the door

-Take charge of your own destiny

-Don’t confuse education with knowledge

-Avoid learned helplessness

-Become a problem solver

-Avoid the four career killers: 1) Confusing activity with productivity, 2) Giving ultimatums, 3) Breaking the chain of command, 4) Failing to have a sense of duty

My Read:

            My first impression of this book as I turned the pages was that it’s another book not only about career development but also a book of self development and self-actualization. And I was right as I looked up at the subjects this book is categorized.

            If you are great at home you will be great at work and vice versa. Those 18 ways the author lists and states are similar to self training; they tell you how to be a reliable person your employer and coworkers can depend on. A person has to acquire the skills of problem solving to deal with daily tasks and challenges.

Unknown fear is a learned habit as a person grows over the year. The author’s advice is: Choose to spend your life as a victim, feeling sorry for yourself, or believing you’re powerless leads to helplessness. You can’t be a highly valued employee if you’re helpless Seize opportunities whenever they present themselves and never complain that there are no opportunities out there. Just look more closely. You have the power to control your destiny (p131).

“Failing to take responsibility for your own happiness is the surest way to be unhappy because it leads to a victim mentality.” (p105) “We all have the option of being happy but happiness isn’t an entitlement or a result of any event. It’s a choice.” (p105) I personally believe and agree the author’s point and concept about a choice. Or should we say “attitude?” When a person blames others and points fingers s/he simply gives up on herself.

“You must adopt a strong work ethic if you are to become a highly valued employee.” (p84) “Working hard is necessary to survive and it’s the only way we can achieve most of life’s biggest goals. Working hard with a goal in mind is called focus.” (p86) It’s my personal experience that when I was focused on meeting a goal the time flied as fast as a flying bullet. When a person is able to engross herself at certain task the condition and status of mind is called flow; not only the time flied fast and smoothly the spirit and energy of the person are flowing smoothly as if they are flow of a river.          The task becomes the person and the person the flow of the task.

But there is one thing one has to keep in mind: “People have a strange habit of discouraging others anytime they try to improve themselves.” (p89) This concept makes sense to me. For…

“Another good choice professionals make is who they hang out with at work. The people you surround yourself with will have a huge impact on who you become.” (p100) This provocative say reflects well on the idiom: Birds of a feather flock together. One had better to surround oneself with other highly valued employees (p100).

“You are people bound by a paycheck. Even if you have developed personal friendships with coworkers, friendship officially begins when the workday end.” (p96) This is a highly professional advice I have acquired through this book. There are plenty of reasons why a person calls herself a “professional.” One of my best friends is an expert keeping professional at all time; she supervises more than a hundred of teachers and ten times more of students. Not only is she my best friend she is also my big boss. Whenever we discuss school businesses she is able to put aside personal feelings and emotions and focus on achieving common goals. Being fair and righteous are my image of her.

I appreciate the ideas of hard working, keeping one’s ego at bay, and befriended with people who are positive and supportive. Instead of waiting for someone to positively influence me, I choose to take charge of my own options. I encourage myself to take a risk or challenge into an opportunity, a chance for self-actualization and helping other to have a better life.

The famous author in Taiwan, Dr. 楊定一(Yang) said he does the following four things everyday: Appreciate(show your gratitude), repent(reflection), aspire(look forward to the future), and feedback(to be a giver).

I strongly believe that a highly valued employee is a happy person. And her positive influence and impact, not matter what position she is in, reflect who she is and what she can do at work and in life.

Reference:

Shepard, Glenn. How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without:18 Ways to Become Indispensable. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print.

-Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.-W. Clement Stone

-The best employees don’t necessarily have to be the brightest or smartest. They need to have a positive attitude and leave their personal problems at home.-Laura Toddie

-Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.-Benjamin Franklin

-It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.-Robert Green Ingersoll

-Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.-Malcolm Forbes

-The last freedom is choosing your attitude.-Victor Frankl

-Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.-John Maxwell

-In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.-Lee Iacocca

-Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.-Thomas Edison

-Number one quality of a good employee: They need to be problem solvers, not problem creators.-Mike Anderson

-Our best employees are those who try to think of solutions when they are presented with problems.-Sandra Vaughn

-We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.-Lee Iacocca

-If you take care of your company, your company will take care of you.-Robert Young Jr.

-One of the qualities of a good employee is not worrying about what’s in it for them.-Betty Mallen

-What makes a good employee? It’s never about them and what you can do for them. They are always asking what they can do for you. It’s never I, it’s WE.-Bonnie Kelly

-The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.-Theodore Roosevelt

-Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.-Benjamin Franklin

-The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.-John Maxwell

-The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you’re working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career.-Earl Nightingale

March Read/5

Title: Winners Always Quit: Seven Pretty Good Habits You Can Swap for Really Great Results

Authors: Colan, Lee; Cottrell, David

Subjects: Success; Success in Business; Strategic Planning

Call Number: 650.1 C683W 2009

ISBN: 9780981924236

Number of Pages: 91 P

Book Description:

            Are you feeling uncertain about the economy and what it means for you? The rapid changes and multitude of inputs that surround us van be overwhelming. What should I do now? How can I ensure we can still win tomorrow? One of the most important questions to ask today is, What should I QUIT doing? We keep hearing that little voice in our heads telling us winners never quit. Unfortunately, that little voice does not always tell us what we really need to hear. If you want to buck the trend and conquer your competition, take advice from Winners Always Quit. Now is the time to trade in some pretty good habits for really great results. Successful people generally analyze, manage their time, get comfortable, strive for success and show interest. They all sound pretty good, right? Well, what you are doing today may keep you from winning tomorrow! This rapid-read book reveals seven pretty good habits you can swap for really great habits... and really great results! Learn how to quit today and you will never quit winning! Quit Taking a Ride . . . and Take the Wheel - Quit Getting Comfortable . . . and Explore the Edge - Quit Analyzing . . . and Follow your Intuition - Quit Managing your Time . . . and Manage your Attention - Quit Showing Interest . . . and Commit - Quit Moving . . . and Be Still - Quit Striving for Success . . . and Seek Significance (from amazon.com page).

My Read:

            “When we say yes to one thing, by default we are saying no to something else. The key to winning is to say yes to the significant things in your life.” (p76) Are you an “always” person or, to the opposite, a person of “never?” It’s a smart pick of the title the authors have that originally caught my attention to read this book and got me wonder how powerful words could become. The usual pictures connected to the word “quit” are basically gray and negative. Curiosity is piqued and questions are answered as readers turn the pages. I should say it’s a successful marketing tactics right from the book’s title and the book cover.

            The seven pretty good habits the authors listed in the book are:

1- Quit Taking a Ride . . . and Take the Wheel

            Do you ride or do you drive? If you choose to be a passenger, you might have all the comfort and pleasantness going along for the ride: you don’t have to focus on where the car goes, expect the unexpected, or handle a difficult situation but you don’t have the control of the wheel and the direction to the destinations. You don’t have options or choices. Being the driver, you focus on solutions, expect and face the unexpected, and you handle and have the situations in control.

2- Quit Getting Comfortable . . . and Explore the Edge

            Comfort zone is considered a safe place: you know where you are and comfortable being there doing things you are familiar with. And, yes, you are also limited and stuck in that place you think is comfortable: you stop learning and growing. Learning is uncomfortable: you are exploring areas new to you.

            The authors provide four comforting questions help readers to move forward: 1)Who else has done it? 2) Can I dip my toe in first? 3) How bad can it be? 4) How great can it be? After these four questions the authors tip the readers s few steps to change the uncomfortable moments to moments of growth. They are: Take comfort in your discomfort, study those who can beat you, and set your sights high. Higher goals help a person force changes, require tough decisions, and inspire bold actions (p29).

3- Quit Analyzing . . . and Follow your Intuition

            The subconscious has the ability to find the hidden relationships between things we know and things that we’ve forgotten we know. Ours subconscious mind has uncanny ability to find patterns in chaos- to conjure up a startlingly vivid vision of a thing that’s going to happen (p36). To make good decisions, the authors suggest: avoid obsessing over details, be in tune with your surroundings, and keep a clear focus on your objective (p37). Sometimes we delay a decision due to incomplete data or information. If a dire or urgent situation calls, a person might have to allow her intuition to kick in and make up her mind to have the problem resolved or fixed.

4- Quit Managing your Time . . . and Manage your Attention

            Upon reading this, the term “flow” swims in my mind. It’s a term Geoff Smart describes in his book, Leadocracry: Hiring More Great Leaders into Government. It’s a status of mind fully and totally engrossed in doing something. It’s like a flow going smoothly toward its destination. Attention keeps a person focused on tasks and helps a person achievement goals with firm purpose and defined meaning and commitment.

5- Quit Showing Interest . . . and Commit

            Basically speaking, one has to walk her talk!

6- Quit Moving . . . and Be Still

            All actions and no rest tire a person. One has to find time with oneself. Stop, look, and listen. The authors advise: get away from the problem and let your creative intuition do its work (p66). Creativity is a playful process; it needs recreation (p66). It may seem counterintuitive to put aside your work in order to accomplish something great, but great ideas often come when you’re relaxed and out of your work routine (p69). I strongly agree with the idea of giving the self time to reflect, relax, and be with self.

7- Quit Striving for Success . . . and Seek Significance

            The authors pose two questions to ask the self:

-What am I absolutely passionate about?

-Which tasks are easy and natural to me?

            “But with age sometimes comes with wisdom, and wise people know that true success, and life’s greatest satisfaction lies in helping others. That is where significance is found” (p75). As Brian Tracy, another successful author puts: successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others while unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?”

            The authors borrow the shell game of lobsters to state the importance of getting out of a person’s comfort zone and getting into the learning zone. A person has to shed the old shell to become stronger. The shedding process would lead a person to expose vulnerability and weaknesses. But the process is a must to overcome obstacles and cross the hurdles to reach goals and empower a person.

            Are you living in your comfort zone and how long have you been there? Are you willing to walk out the familiar and get into the zone that invites all kinds of opportunities and answers you don’t expect to have? If you never quit learning, you build your competence-and competence builds confidence. Confidence is key for winners. Observe, read, ask, listen, and learn (p82).

Reference:

Colan, Lee. Winners Always Quit:Seven Pretty Good Habits You Can Swap for Really Great Results. 2009. Print.

-Be the change you want to see in the world-Mahatma Gandhi

-Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen-Dave Weinbaum

-If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living-Gail Sheehy

-If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness-Les Brown

-Trust your hunches They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level-Dr. Joyce Brothers

-Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do-Dr. Benjamin Spock

-The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor-Vince Lombardi

In the book, the authors introduce the Pareto Principle (80/20 Principle)

March Read/4

Title: Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss

Author: Cottrell, David

Subjects: Leadership; Management; Employee Motivation; Labor Productivity

Call Number: 658.314 C851M 2002

ISBN: 9780971942431

Number of Pages: 112 p

Book Description:

            This is the story of a youngish Fortune 500 Company Manager named Jeff

Walters. Jeff is in a slump. He has work load issues, people issues, hiring

issues, performance issues, and more. Playing golf one day, he sees Tony

Pearce, a semi-retired business leader who now writes books and coaches

top executives.

Jeff had met Tony years ago through his Dad, and Tony had

written him a note congratulating him on his graduation from college,

noting that now the learning would really begin, wishing him success and

offering to talk to him about personal and business issues. The note also

said he would be honored to allow Jeff to learn from (Tony’s) experiences.

Jeff called Tony and was elated that Tony remembered him. He asked Tony

for help and Tony agreed as long as Jeff agreed to meet on eight

successive Monday mornings and also as long as Jeff agreed to teach

others the lessons he learned.

They met each Monday for eight weeks and as Jeff discussed the problems he was having managing and leading his department, Tony offered some relevant lessons.

He set some ground rules for the meetings; start and finish on time, tell the truth and try something different. He also gave Jeff some homework to do between sessions (http://www.rsbvc.com/pdfs/8_Mentoring_Sessions.pdf).

My Read/Highlights of the Sessions

            Session #1-Driver and Passenger

Be a driver: Until you accept total responsibility-no matter what-you will not be able to put plans in place to accomplish your goals. Transitioning from manager to leader requires that you make different decisions.

--You have control over how you react to situations. What happens when you place blame is that you focus on the past when you accept responsibility, you focus on this time forward on the future.

            Session #2-Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

People have different perceptions of what the main thing is

People quit people before they quit companies

This session focuses on the importance of healthy communication and setting priorities.

            Session #3-Escape from Management Land

Have good people (employees): GOOD people is the most valuable asset an organization owns

Coach every member of the team to become better

--Get in touch with your people

--Your job is not to lower the bottom by adjusting and accommodating the falling stars. You should be raising the top by recognizing and rewarding superstar behaviors. The usual percentage of employees is as followed;

30 % superstars

50 % middle stars

20 % falling stars

            Session #4-The Do Right Rule

Develop your action plan before you get into a crisis

Guard your integrity like it’s your most precious management possession

--What matter to your team is what you do

            Session #5-Hire Tough

The most important asset in your company is having the RIGHT PEOPLE on the team. The greatest liability in your company could be having the WRONG PEOPLE on your team.

Never lower your standards just to fill a position. You will pay for it later.

            Session #6-Do Less or Work Faster

Your time is your responsibility. Take control of your time so you can take control of your life.

Look for small increments of time by prioritizing, limiting interruptions, and effectively managing meetings

            Session #7-Buckets and Dippers

Fill lots of buckets: know the main things; give feedback on performance; provide recognition; communicate the team score

The more buckets you fill the more your bucket is filled

            Session #8-Entering the Learning Zone

Live in the learning zone: get out of the comfort zone; read 10 minutes a day; listen to people; give back; set goals; stay positive

A manager and a leader is a positive role model for others.

            The part I like the most and enjoy sharing with my friends in this book is as followed: “You learn more by reading more. I’m living proof that the more you learn, the more you earn.” “Did you know most people don’t read one non-fiction book in a year? You’d think books must be scarce or expensive. But there is an abundance of books at every PUBLIC LIBRARY, waiting for people to simply walk in and check them out-at no charge-free!” (p 86) “So much life is about attitude and how we handle what life throws our way. Life is good-even when a situation appears to be the worst. Stay positive and help make another’s life better!” (p90)

Dehire the people who aren’t carrying their share of the load

Reference:

http://www.rsbvc.com/pdfs/8_Mentoring_Sessions.pdf

Cottrell, D. Monday morning leadership. Dallas, TX: Cornerstone Leadership Institute, 2009. Print.