Category Archives: Quotes

Business Plan

No Job Plan: Why Long-Term Career Plans Fail

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No Job Plan: To increase your income, do you plan to change jobs every three years?  On the other hand, do you plan a career at the same company?

No Job Plan: Why Long-Term Career Plans Fail

Are you basing your career on changing jobs every three years to increase your income?  On the other hand, do you plan to build a long-term career with the same company.  Plans are great.  You can’t know how to reach a destination without knowing where you are going.

But the world changes.  Industries change.  Career opportunities and options change.  What should you really be doing in a world of career uncertainty?

Are You Risk Averse?

If you are risk averse, setting up a job plan to reduce risks is smart.  You find a company that has stability.  The company has guidelines that reduce the uncertainty of your job requirements.  You love what you are doing.  Furthermore, you feel safe.

What Are the Risk of Playing It Safe?

However, playing it safe can also lead down blind alleys.  For example, you develop a specific set of skills for a job with a well-established company.  Then, another company buys your company and outsources your work to another country.

You will find that playing it safe has created anything but safety.  Playing it safe can leave you with a limited set of marketable skills in a world where job skills change often.

What Are the Dangers of Job Hopping for Income?

Frequently, I read articles that highlight the income advantages of changing jobs every two or three years.  The idea is that you get a larger pay raise through a job change than you get through merit raises with the same employer.

There are several problems with this theory.  One, you are giving up increasing benefits that come to long-term employees.  Furthermore, you are creating a resume that shows that you are less reliable than people with career stability.

No Job Plan

Everybody has a plan.  Sports team have a plan to play against other teams.  Consumer companies have marketing plans to compete in the market place.

To quote Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

What the “no job plan” means is the flexibility to make changes to your career as conditions change.  If you have stability at your current job and continue to learn new skills that make you more marketable over the long-term, changing jobs for a pay raise is a mistake.

Furthermore, if you find that you are in a job where you are overqualified, you can begin to explore new jobs that match your skills and pay you for those skills.

The important thing is to remember that career assessment is an ongoing process.  You don’t focus on a plan.  Rather, focus on the changes conditions and adjust to make the most of the conditions that will help you throughout your career.

The power of winning teams exceeds the power of the individual members

Winning Teams: 5 Traits that Lead to Team Success

Leadership, Quotes

Winning Teams: How is it that some teams continue to win while other teams continue to lose?  What are the things that winning teams do differently? Here are some traits for team success.

The power of winning teams exceeds the power of the individual members. ~ www.jaywren.com

Winning Teams: 5 Traits that Lead to Team Success

All teams must have a common purpose or a mission.  Furthermore, even though team members have diverse skills, great team members have common traits.

1. Team Members Own Their Mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes.  On winning teams, the members admit them and do not repeat them.

Additionally, members of winning teams quickly correct their mistakes and move the team along successfully.

2. Winning Team Members Know Their Job Description.

Members of winning teams know their job description.  They read it with their team leader.  They discuss the goals and responsibilities of their jobs openly with each other to collaborate effectively.

Furthermore, they are conscientious.  They know how to do their job, and they do it correctly.

3. On Winning Teams, Each Member Allows Others to Do Their Own Job.

Being a team player and helping other people occasionally is one thing.  However, on winning teams, each team member must let other members do their assigned work.  Like a team of horses, team members empower the team by allowing everyone to do their job.

4. The Most Talented Team Members Know When to Lighten Up.

Learning how to lighten up about the efforts of the team boosts morale.  Not everything that a team does is perfect.  Team members make mistakes.  Team efforts don’t’ always meet expectations.

Talented team members know to lighten up and not take team frustrations personally.

5. Winning Team Members Give Credit to the Team.

Team members deserve credit for their effort.  However, team members bond and become more powerful when they celebrate as a team.

Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd

Job Skills, Leadership, Quotes

Confidence:  From time to time, everyone feels insecure.  Our feelings turn inward. Here are five tips for turning insecurity into poise and confidence.

Confidence: Only You Can Deny Yourself Permission to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd. ~ www.jaywren.com

Confidence: How to Feel Comfortable in a Crowd

I have a fair amount of confidence in a crowd.  I meet people easily.  However, sometimes I feel uncertain about how to start a conversation with people I don’t know.

I have become aware of these insecurities when I am walking the floor at trade shows.

You may have similar experiences in your own life.

First, relax.

Isn’t the inability to relax the source of insecurities of all types.

I find that taking a couple of deep breath helps me relax before meeting people.  Other times, I pause before entering a room and think of things I would like to discuss.

Before a meeting, I may use caffeine in one of two ways.  Caffeine can create a case of the jitters.  On the other hand, caffeine can boost your energy and lift your spirits.

When I am hungry and my blood sugar is low, I avoid caffeine before a meeting.  Instead, I eat a lite snack.

However, if my energy is low, a little caffeine boosts my energy and makes me feel more confident.

Second, say the name of the people you meet.

People love to hear their own name–myself included.

When I introduce myself, I must focus to hear another person’s name when they introduce themselves.  The only name I am sure that I will hear is my own name.  However, the best way to hear another person’s name is to repeat it back to them.  Saying another’s person name stimulates an awareness that you are listening to them.

Also, before seeing people I have not seen for a while, I go over the names of the people I will meet. My wife is especially helpful when I am seeing members of her extended family or families of her friends.

Third, ask questions.

You can find countless lists of small-talk questions on the Internet.

However, the questions that I find most helpful are the ones about a person’s interests or their families.

On the other hand, the questions I avoid are about stressful subjects like politics or work.

Fourth, smile and nod.

This simple gesture encourages other people to speak when you are at a loss for words. Furthermore, it is difficult to focus on your insecurities when you are smiling and nodding approval.

Fifth, speak with your eyes.

Look at people’s face when they speak.  Of course, look at their eyes. But also, let your eyes look at their nose and their mouth when they are speaking. Staring into people’s eyes can make them feel insecure.

Allow your eyes to express your feelings and to show that you are listening.

Perspective

Perspective: How to Refocus, Realign, and Create Happiness

Quotes, Success

Perspective: How is it that some people live balanced lives while other people damage themselves and their relationship through a loss of perspective?

When perspective is not automatic, the happiest people create perspective. ~ www.jaywren.com

Perspective: How to Refocus, Realign, and Create Happiness

These three steps help me keep perspective. They may help you.

Refocus.

When we focus on any thought, that thought becomes the largest idea in our head. When we focus on things that people have said that angers us, we lose perspective on the value of what people say.

To get perspective, we must step away and try to understand what the person is saying.  Just because we are angry doesn’t mean that we don’t need to hear the other person out.

To get enough space to understand the point of the other person, we may need to take time and get advice on how to handle the question.

Gaining perspective is not always automatic.

Realign

Often our thinking is out of line with things that are best for us.  For example, when we hang on to damaging habits, our thinking is out of line and our reasoning can’t reach us.

At one time, I was a three-pack of day smoker.  I grew up in a culture where everyone smoked.  Smoking just made sense of as a way a of life.  It was sort of rite of passage into adulthood.

My thinking was so out of line that I could not even reason that the warning labels on cigarettes applied to my health.  For me, cigarettes were an addiction.  Like other addictions, nicotine addiction creates a denial of reality.

I couldn’t align my thinking to reality until I came down with bronchitis three times over a few months.  I finally said to myself that smoking was not for me.  I knew people who might, on occasion, have a cigar after dinner.  However, I was smoking myself to death.

It took a bit of work, but I built up a system of defense and support that enabled me to quit smoking decades ago.

Create Happiness.

I learned how to create a happiness perspective.  I found that I could not just stop being angry.  I had to do things to things instead of being angry.  I had to take a deep breath.  Second, I had to learn to listen.  Third, I had to learn to step away until my anger passed.

Perspective: How to Refocus, Realign, and Create Happiness

In closing, I still have trouble remembering that happiness comes from the inside.  Even when I have wonderful things happen to me, my attention can turn to the things in my life that I don’t like.

Furthermore, I am still at risk of not aligning my thinking to the realities of my life.

Therefore, I must continue to grow and work on creating perspective.

Authenticity The First Step to Greatness

Authenticity: The First Step to Greatness

Leadership, Quotes

Authenticity: Why are rebels so appealing?  Why are they so successful?

Authenticity – The First Step to Greatness

If you copy other people, you are an impersonator. When you remake the work of other people in ways that it becomes your own work, you are authentic. When authenticity leads you to break the rules and change the world, you are a rebel. With authenticity, rebels find greatness.
~ www.jaywren.com

Rebels Don’t Just Try to be Different.

Rebels don’t just try to be different.  They have the courage to develop what is great and unique in themselves.  Through the authenticity of what is true in them, they do original work that appeals to followers in any field: entertainment, consumer products, business leadership, and so on through all endeavors.

Therefore, do what rebels do.  Don’t try to be different. Try to be yourself.  Through your authenticity, you will find greatness.

Recognize Your Uniqueness

We tend to see greatness as coming from a common set of abilities.  People who have greater talent become more successful.
However, greatness takes many forms.  Your gifts for greatness are unique to you.

Michael Jordan is a historically great basketball player.  He has a competitive mentality that lead him to try to become equally great in baseball.  But baseball was not a sport where he had skills for greatness.  Rather, he was uniquely great in basketball.

However, everyone has a unique set of natural skills.  Focusing on developing the skills that come to you naturally enables you to become the most successful person you can be.  Assuming the courage to stick to develop your natural skills, sparks the authenticity of your natural greatness.

First, Seek Authenticity.

Copying other people makes you an impersonator.  However, building on the work of other people until it becomes true to your authenticity will free you to be an original, a rebel.

The Voice of Wisdom

Wisdom: How to Choose Intelligence over Bias

Quotes, Success

Wisdom: Is this a hollow word? A meaningless concept? Or is wisdom a powerful force that is available to everyone who seeks it.

The voice of wisdom is always there, even when we can’t hear it. ~ www.jaywren.com

The Wisdom to See Through Bias

Wisdom is that quiet voice that makes us pause and question our thinking.  It is our inner voice.  Some people call it the instinct of our gut.

When bias is shouting in our ear, wisdom is calling to us to look beyond our feelings to find the truth.

Knowing when to beware of bias and when to embrace your inner voice is the direction to wisdom.

Case Study #1:  Company leaders love a group of products.  Bias leads them to believe that these products are critical to a company’s image.

However, this group of products is losing money.  Furthermore, these products distract from the great products that will create a successful company future.

In this case, wisdom can balance between the feelings for image and the logic of building a successful business.  The company leaders decide to sell these image products.

Case Study #2:  Proud Dad loves baseball.  He insists that his daughter play fast-pitch softball.  However, his daughter hates everything about fast-pitch softball.  The size of the ball, the fear of dangerous pitching and fielding fly balls, even wearing a glove and cleats, everything.

However, his daughter loves volleyball.  She even excels in volleyball.

Proud Dad has no interest in volleyball. The games bore him, in part because he has never been around the sport.  Volleyball is not a sport that triggers for his enthusiasm.

Fortunately, Proud Dad can listen to that quiet voice speaking under the noise of his own bias.  He sees that the sports his daughter chooses are about her interests and not his interests.

Proud Dad signs up his daughter for volleyball and comes to the games.  He develops a positive interest (a new bias) in his daughter’s volleyball.

The Powerful Freedom of Wisdom

Wisdom frees us from the anger and resentments we have for people who are different from us.  It enables us to recognize the truth in what other people say, even when they say things we don’t like.  In this sense, it lifts us above our emotions to see the truth.

In conclusion, wisdom frees us to see the faults in our thinking.

Wisdom and Bias

Bias: How We Interpret the World with Our Feelings

Leadership, Quotes, Success

ias is the noise above reason and wisdom, but is it always bad?  What role does it play in decision making and in governing our actions?

It is always easy to believe the voice of my own bias. I have always heard it. ~ www.jaywren.com

Bias: How We Interpret the World with Our Feelings

Bias is the visceral, negative, or positive feelings that we have about a person, place, or thing.  These feeling simplifies our lives to interpret the world to our liking.  It bypasses our ability to reason.  Also, it is that noisy voice that drowns out wisdom.

Although perceived as bad, like any emotion, biases have positive and negative effects.  It is an emotional voice that tells us what to think and do.

This voice is an essential element of human nature.  Patriotism, faith, political ideology, and fandom sit atop our biases.  The powerful effect of bias can bring us together to form successful groups.  In the sports or business, the voice of our feelings motivates us to become more powerful competitors.

Additionally, these feelings can make life fun.  The excitement, love, and joy we feel for our sports team, political party, religion, or family members come from these feelings.

We hear the word “biased” often from the proud parent who brags about a child.  The parent closes with, “Of course, I am not biased.” Nod, nod, wink.

Furthermore, these feelings bring us internal peace.  They help us overcome doubt and fear.  Bias can create healthy, positive emotions that carry us through periods of uncertainty.

At other times, bias can create tension when our feelings conflict with the feelings of other people.  Discussing religion, sports, politics, and other personal feelings in any place where people don’t share those feelings can undermine the bonds of loyalty to a team or a company.

A Healthy Relationship with Our Biases

Since bias has beneficial effects and adverse effects on how we think, having a healthy relationship with these feelings is important.

The first step in building a healthy relationship with our biases is recognizing that we have them.

Unlike the emotions that float through our daily lives, biases become hard-wired to our beliefs.  These feelings respond to triggers. When we hear or see things that instantly and subconsciously stir our emotions, the noisy voice of bias can drown out the voice of reason.

We believe in the things that we like.  We get angry when we hear or sear things that we don’t like.  When we interpret the world as good or evil based on our emotions, it is difficult for us to know what is true or false in the world.  Likewise, it is easy for biases to deceive us into making bad decisions.

How to Use Your Emotions to Make Better Decisions

Health and Fitness, Leadership, Popular Posts, Quotes, Success

Emotions: How do some people keep a clear mind to make intelligent decisions? Is managing emotions a skill anyone can learn?

There are no bad emotions. There are only bad uses of emotions. ~ www.jaywren.com

Emotions Have Positive Purposes

All feelings help us interpret our world and make decisions.  Even anger, doubt, and fear have positive benefits.  Anger can help us protect ourselves and the people we love.  Doubt helps us avoid doing things before we prepare. Fear can save our lives by avoiding danger.

Additionally, feeling positive is healthy.  When we feel good, we enjoy life more.  Positive feelings reduce mental stress.  Consequently, positive states of mind reduce the unhealthy physical stress that comes from mental stress.

Used correctly, our feelings can give us greater opportunity for success.

Too Low and Too High

When we overreact out of anger or fear, we risk damaging relationships and even our safety.  Additionally, when we let doubt drive us to inaction, we do not take risks that are part of growing personally and professionally.

Can we have emotions that are too high?  Absolutely.  When we are emotionally highs, we see a world of abundance.  And that’s fine up to the point. However, these highs can lead us to spend money and make commitments beyond our means or best interests.

Think Through the Action

The solution to making intelligent decisions in the face of highly charged negative or positive emotions is to think through the action.  I can ask myself, “What are the consequences of acting on my emotions.”
Personal Case Study #1: I am angry with my boss and with other people around the office.  When I vent my anger, am I damaging my relationships and putting my job at risk?

Thinking through my actions to the damage that my actions might cause can reduce the anger that I feel.

Furthermore, I can focus on what changes I can make in myself to reduce the anger I feel toward the people in my office.  I can get more rest, eat healthy snacks, and reduce caffeine.

Personal Case Study #2: I am jubilant about a pay raise and decide to buy a new car.

Before I buy the car, I can think through the costs and whether my pay raise makes the car affordable. Making an expensive purchase is never in my best interest.

Conclusion

All feelings are healthy.  However, sometimes I must do a few things to make my emotions work for me and not against me.

Great Teams

4 Traits that Form the Foundation of Great Teams

Leadership, Quotes, Success

Great Teams: Why is it that some organizations always create great teams?  Additionally, why is it that other organizations never create great teams?

Creating the foundation for great teams is fundamental to the management of any organization. ~ www.jaywren.com

4 Traits that Form the Foundation of Great Teams

On every list that I read, Google, and on a broader scale, the parent company, Alphabet, is the number-one rated place to work.

This rating is not by accident.  Google gives services and support that include free food and on-site doctors.  The services make it easier for employees to stay at the Google offices during the work day.

However, Google has taken successful steps to do more than give conveniences to workers at the workplace.  The company has conducted studies to fine tune the composition and the management of teams.

Team Spirit

Team spirit or esprit de corps is the feeling of enthusiasm, commitment, and loyalty to the other members of a team.

Feeling team spirit binds your desire for success and the team’s desire for success.

Brawls in the office or between business competitors are not anything anyone welcomes.  However, an example of the power of team spirit becomes in in competitive sports.  It is this element that causes bench clearing outbursts to come to the defense of other team players.

In the office, team spirit brings the team together to overcome challenges and frustration.  The power of team spirit instills confidence from the support among team members.

When there is conflict in a team, esprit de corps enables teams to tackle problems without attacking each other.

Engagement

There are two points at which great teams engage.  One point of engagement is in the work.  Team players engage to collaborate on the work of the team.  At the second point, team players engage each other for feedback and contributions to projects.

Great teams have members who engage with their work and with other members of the team.

Trust

When team members trust each other, they don’t focus on the negatives of personality.  Instead they focus on helping each other achieve successful results for the team.

For example, Jim doesn’t like Bob.  Every time Bob says something, Jim says something critical of Bob.  Therefore, Jim does not trust Bob.  He feels unsafe around Bob.  Bob may shut down and stop helping the team. Furthermore, he may retaliate against his team member, Jim.

However, when team member build trust, they feel safe and support each other.

Love of Purpose and Working Hard

One of the characteristics and great teams is love of purpose.  Another is working hard as a team.  New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, is famous for signing veteran role players who become successful main players for the Patriots.  I remember one interview in which a sports reporter asked Coach Belichick how he managed to find so many players who were minor players across the league and yet became major players for his team.

His response was that he looked for players who loved football and who worked hard.

Reduce Turnover

Reduce Turnover with These Powerful Steps

Leadership, Quotes

The most valuable assets of any company walk out the door at the end of the day.  Ensuring that those assets return the next day is the obligation of all managers. ~ www.jaywren.com

Reduce Turnover with These Powerful Steps.

With these steps, you will reduce turnover and increase the value of your employees.

Match Jobs with Job Skills.

Matching skills and tasks increases employee self-esteem and job satisfaction.  Furthermore, matching skills with tasks increases the success of the company.

Make Leadership Available.

Regular feedback helps employees adjust and focus. People who feel support from leadership have more confidence. Additionally, the presence of supportive leadership increases the bond between leaders and team members.

Resolve Problems Quickly.

Quickly resolving problems reduces stress.  Furthermore, it accelerates the progress of the work.

On the other hand, letting problems drift along reduces the progress of the team’s work.

Set Clear Goals and Deadlines.

Employees must know the goal of the project.  Knowing what they are trying to do allows employees to solve problems effectively.  Furthermore, it reduces stress from uncertainty.

Before the project starts, set milestones. These milestones keep teams on track with a sequence of deadlines.  Setting milestones ends procrastination.

When goals and deadlines are clear, employees become more engaged in their work.

Train and Retrain.

Encouraging employees to complete scheduled training increases their value to the company.

Additionally, reviewing skills development increases a sense of value to the company.

People who grow in skills in a world of evolving technologies carry the company through changes over the long-term.

Keep Commitments.

Never make promises.  Don’t promise pay raises or promotions.  Things change.  Pay raises and promotions don’t always happen as scheduled.

However, make commitments you can keep.  If you schedule time to meet with employees, keep that commitment.  Additionally, if you make a commitment to support an employee, keep that commitment.

Show Employees That You Value Them.

Make employees know that you value them.  Show value for their time.  Express your interest in their health and their family.

Feeling valued increases loyalty.