Career, productivity

3 Steps to a Promotion

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Pyramid?

So you want a promotion? There’s only one thing that you need to do to get your boss on you side- figure out what he wants. Give it to him. Make Sure he knows it. Then ask.

1. Give Your Boss What He Wants

A boss can want many things, but you need to think of the big picture. Let me start you off: he wants you to do your job well without bothering him. He wants you to do it so well that you and he get complimented. Most of all he wants you to solve problems- even those not recognized yet.

So you think you’re doing the above?

2. Get noticed

Forward some positive feedback emails to your boss (as you get them). Keep a folder with all your feedback so good things are on your mind should you need to bring it up. Act like you’re in customer service (even if you aren’t). Make sure your “client” is satisfied.

3. Make Your Move

Sometimes all you need to do is ask. Approach your boss and ask for a promotion. Set a time line and deliverable. Make sure your both in agreement on next steps. Now go get it!

If you dont think it’s moving well it may be time to look elsewhere…

What are your tips for a promotion?
Creative Commons License photo credit: tanakawho

Leadership, Principles

Vote for Success

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It’s election day. There’s been so much negative talk and misinformation about both campaigns that it’s depressing.

The Solution on Who To Vote For

It would be great if there was a web site that listed the candidates in a grid and compared their positions objectively (in numbers or yes/no answers as much as possible) so you can say “I agree with this candidate” or “I agree with the other one” and you can decide based on the grid: “I choose candidate X”.

Throw Out Candidate Character

Character and personality is important when you have to live with the person. But even Mother Theresa would be shown to have a lowsy character in today’s politically charged environment. So how do you know what’s real or a media fabrication? I’d argue that if someone convinced his party and half the U.S. to vote for him then his personality is good enough- it’s just his positions that will bear out if he’ll be using it to go in the direction you want.

Actions Not Words

Don’t just go by the rhetoric. A candidate may say they are for a certain position but their voting or actions may show otherwise. The grid should reflect this- and hopefully cause the candidate to correct his actions or clarify his position.

Get Rid of the Lies

Every time a candidate mischaracterizes his opponent incorrectly- it should appear on this grid in a box for honesty as a negative point. After a whole campaign if one side is more lopsided than the other you should have some good data of who is more straight and who is fighting dirty. I’d hope that this would compel the candidates to stop this and focus on their issues- not negative campaigning.

In short, vote for who will bring you success and improve the world.

I don’t have any candidate in mind as I write any of this.

That was as political as you’ll see me, now back to work.

Enjoy, Reduce Stress

Control your destiny

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Ordinarily I don’t get into topics between the arms (heart) and stick to topics between the ears (brain). Lets face it, it’s easier (at least for me) to deal with something logical. If A then B- is simple. You can see results. But this time I want try and use the brain to control the heart.

There is one simple law to learn that will reduce stress: you can’t change others. Once you internalize this you can pick a strategy to overcome this stress and watch your productivity soar. You can choose to eliminate the stresser, change yourself or your perception.

You can (and should) control yourself, not others.

Principles

How A Dad’s Love Teaches His Son To Read

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The other night I came home late so I wasn’t around to tuck my kids in. When I did get home I went to check on them- but I wanted them to know I did (because they ask sometimes). So I left a note.

My 5 year old is learning how to read so I left him a note “DAD LOVES <NAME>” in big bold letters. I purposely made it simple. He learned how to read “dad” recently. He recognizes his name and wrote “love” recently on a few birthday cards.

In the morning my 5 year old bounced out of his room all excited with his note and read it with a drop of help.

Principles

Success Through The Ages

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Here’s an email forward I recently got:

At age 4 success is . . .not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . .having friends.
At age 17 success is . . .Having a driver’s license.
At age 35 success is . . .having money.
At age 50 success is . . .having money.
At age 70 success is . . .having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . .having friends.
At age 80 success is . . .not peeing in your pants.

The joke above is funny but sad.  At each age it points to external measures. Success should be measured internally- by how satisfied you are (hopefully you don’t have a low bar).

system

People Remember Moments

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Doesn’t is seem like a fact that although you’re good all the time, the one time you make a mistake people remember that. It’s true. Memories are short, people take what they can remember.

Sports have many such examples: Think of Billy Buckner. A good career went bad with one ball that went through his legs. Scott Norwood missed one (missed Super Bowl) kick.

Now look at your life. Look at your coworkers, friends think about them. You may remember 1 good (or bad ) item right away and that’s your opinion of them.

There are two lessons to take out of this: 1) dont just picture people for one moment. Someone may be living on past glory. 2) Make your quality known when things are going routinely smooth. Create a moment by using a stat (e.g. you made no errors this year), highlighting some changes you’ve made to ensure the system is working effectively or simply forwarding praise you received from someone else to your boss.

Now go make a moment!

Principles

How To Live To 100

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I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.
Woody Allen

There’s a Jewish blessing “May you live to 120”. For a while I repeated it as part of my birthday wishes to people. But then one day I realized it was limiting- so now I say “May you live to 240”. My grandmothers aren’t sure if that’s a blessing or a curse.

This is the 100th post on this blog. Time flies. When I started it I didn’t know how far it would go and where it would go. Here we are 10 months later with many readers and a bunch of subscribers.

How did I get to 100 posts? Perseverance and trying to improve every day. I would imagine this lesson works in getting to 100 years of life also, keep getting better and living healthier. It also helps to have good genes and be a little lucky (don’t get hit by a bus).

Thank you all for reading. May you live to 120,000 posts!

PS I plan to stop at 119,999.

Principles

How and When To Criticize Correctly

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It’s easy to give criticism. Watch a baseball game and you can even criticize a superstar star who hits two home runs because he struck out his other two times up. Look over a colleague’s shoulder for a day and you can tell him how to be better. Watch your kids closely and you’ll find ways to improve everything they do. But when you point out some of these failings, even if it’s “constructive criticism”, you will often find that you are just starting a fight, ending relations or creating ill will.

So the correct answer on when to give criticism is “Never”. If you still insist then follow these guidelines.

No one wants it

Let’s face it no one wants criticism. Even if they ask for feedback, the only feedback they want to hear is “great job”.  Think about it, would you like to get criticism on something you worked hard on?

Change your mindset, don’t criticize until you’ve evaluated the following steps.

No one is perfect

Realize that no one is perfect all the time. Sometimes just let it go.

Motive

Why are you criticizing? If you don’t have noble intentions it’s likely your advice will be resented. Even with noble intentions your advice may not leave a mark.

Will it help?

Evaluate whether your criticism will help. If you’re sure that it will be ignored (because you’ve said it in the past and it’s been ignored) then save your breath. You gain nothing and stand to lose positive feelings.

Will it be well received?

Sometimes giving advise may help the person improve but will it be well received? Maybe someone else is better of giving it. Try to involve the other person.

Offer a solution

Don’t just criticize. Of course we all know we shouldn’t make mistakes. Offer a fix to the problem.

Focus on one topic

Sometimes it’s difficult not to advise someone but if you’re not helping the best thing to do is to stay close until they give you the opening. If you get criticism,  read The Critical Success on how to deal with it. Realize it’s not always about you.

Success Machine, system

The Machine To Stop Poverty

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As we sit comfortably just killing some time reading it’s unfathomable to think that there are some people who are hungry- they just don’t have food to eat. I’m not here to lecture anyone or to start a movement, the Blog Action Day site is taking some good steps for that. I’ll talk about what I know- machine building- and how to use it to stop poverty or at least make it a little better.

  • Eat less- this will lower demand (and scarcity and prices)
  • Don’t let food spoil- it takes money out of your wallet.
  • Take less on your plate- you dont want to throw out leftovers.
  • Consider those less fortunate- invite friends over who have reached hard times. Your small gesture can help.
  • Give away your old clothes- Is your old clothes to small? Too Big? Give it to those less fortunate so they have less expenses to worry about. Many organizations will come to your house to pick up those clothes.

Globally the solution is simple- ship off our leftovers and stop using food inefficiently (e.g. powering cars) but most of all give people the tools to take care of themselves growing their own food efficiently etc. In other words let them build their own food making machine.

Motivation

Are you Successful or SuccessFool? 9 Questions To See If You’re A Fool

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Many people run through their day being busy and trying to do everything but sometimes you have to ask are they successful or successfool? They fool themselves into believing they are productive because they are busy. Sometimes they fool others into thinking they are busy. Either way they aren’t being as successful as they can be.

What is a Fool?

A fool is someone whose outward presentation isn’t reality.
I know calling someone a fool is dangerous and I certainly don’t mean to demean people. This is just a way to highlight areas where we are not acting in our long term interests. Sometimes we fool ourselves.

Here’s some questions to ask yourself to see if you’re acting like a fool.

Are you Fooling Yourself?

  • Do you read every productivity article out there but don’t implement them?
  • Do you rush at the end of the day (or project) to accomplish your goals because you didn’t give a better effort earlier?
  • Do you really need to do what you’re doing?
  • Did you waste time doing a fun job that was unnecessary?
  • Do you snooze your alarm clock and go back to sleep?
  • Are you doing your subordinates work because you think you can do it better?

Are you trying to fool others?

  • Do you just generate a large stack of output from your task, but most of it doesn’t help achieve the goal?
  • Do you use big words when simple words would do?
  • Do you make exaggerated responses when people are around to highlight your hard work?

If you answered yes to the above questions think about ways to stop acting like a fool. Check in shortly for some suggestions.

Do you have other “fool” questions or scenarios?