January 5th, 2010 — general & admin | by Wendy Rose
There was a common theme amongst my friends this past holiday season: assessing their lives, work situations, relationships, etc. It wasn’t just a new year it was a new decade! - and time for some big shifts. A lot of them wanted to hear about new ventures I was working with in hopes of being inspired by my passion because, really, I love what I do. Which begged the question to them:
do you like your job?
I recently stumbled upon a book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni. You may recall I reviewed one of his books before and I must admit I like the story telling aspect of how he presents his management thesis.
The fable in this book is around Brian Bailey a successful CEO that decides to test some of his management theories on a tired local pizzeria, with a motley crew of staff, he has invested in. The basic premise of his theory is that dissatisfied employees have a direct impact on productivity, staff turnover and morale all of which hit the bottom line hard. So, why not identify what makes the job miserable for the employee and fix that and in turn increase profits!
so what is a miserable job?
According to Lencioni, a miserable job is: “the one you dread going to and can’t wait to leave. It’s the one that saps your energy even when you’re not busy. It’s the one that makes you go home at the end of the day with less enthusiasm and more cynicism than you had when you left in the morning.“ To be clear, a miserable job has nothing do to with the actual work a job involves … it’s about not feeling rewarded or fulfilled while doing the work.
ok, what are the three signs of a miserable job?
- anonymity - people cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known (we want to be understood and appreciated for who we are!);
- irrelevance - everyone needs to know their job matters … to someone. anyone. or why bother?
- immeasurement - staff need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution themselves - how else can they measure their own success or failure? people have a need to control their fate and feel good about it.
Yes, it really is that obvious and it makes one wonder why these things aren’t addressed naturally. Lencioni suggests that too often managers are slow to recognize they have an employee satisfaction issue and when they finally do their attempts to address the issue focus on the wrong things. Most often they only find out when an employee is exiting and typically they say they are leaving because of pay - but what made them think of leaving in the first place?
right then. how to make a job rewarding?
Well, that can only come from the employee/manager relationship. I am a firm believer in the adage: treat staff the way you want to be treated. As well, managing people effectively requires some degree of empathy and curiosity about why that person gets out of bed in the morning, what is on their mind and how you can make them succeed. Lencioni gives some basic guidance on how to turn a miserable job around for your staff:
- get to know your staff! seriously, this is just basic human decency. You spend so much of your day with your staff shouldn’t you know them better?
- make sure they understand who they are helping and how? of course for some roles it’s obvious (e.g. sales is helping the customer) but think of other roles. For instance, the Controller helps me immensely as the CFO!
- find effective measures that an employee can directly influence and that are connected to the person or people they are meant to help. So, ya, don’t pick that corporate revenue goal as a target.
Great! Seems straightforward but …
what if I am the employee with a horrid manager?
Well, perhaps you should both read this book as a starting point for discussion so that together you can turn things around. Or, as the book suggests, you will probably start looking for another job soon. One that is rewarding. But, my only request is, please be honest in the exit interview: if you didn’t feel fulfilled or rewarded then let them know. Oh ya and tell them how much more you’re going to get paid.
Here’s to rewarding work in 2010 and beyond!
December 19th, 2009 — general & admin | by Wendy Rose
This time of year many publications offer their person(s) of the year. People, living and dead, who have made a great impact and should be noted for their contributions to the greater good. I like those which include the household names (e.g. Ted Kennedy) but more importantly I really enjoy the recounts of those who are total unknowns - to explore and appreciate someone just on their merits. The little guy.
Readers of this blog, whether directly or indirectly, have been influenced by the wise words of wisdom from Alice Usher. Alice was my tax accountant and her understanding of Canadian and US, personal and corporate, taxes was unparalleled. But she was more than that: a friend, maternal figure, investment adviser, life coach. You’d be surprised how most of our actions day to day tie back to our “tax strategies” and Alice could see all that. Some key guidance that changed my life:
- Alice was the one who told me to sell all my stock and investments and plow it into my first house purchase and then apply for a line of credit to use in case I needed money in an emergency (I thought I should hold back some cash). That was January 2000 and I made a *ton* of money just before the stock market crashed based on that advice;
- When I give general guidance to incorporate a company but then consult to it (instead of being an employee of it) so that you don’t lose your personal tax deductions for running a small consulting business out of your home - well that was Alice (I got to write off huge portions of my home repairs);
- She figured out the fine line / gray area between greedy and leaving money on the table when it came to tax deductions and was more than savvy when dealing with the IRS;
- Her advice on my retirement investment strategy, for no charge, has governed my personal finances for the last ten years and has survived both boom and busts.
Through referrals Alice took many of you on as a favor to me because she really believed in Business Ready and helping the little guy and agreed that even tax accountants would charge exorbitant fees if they thought they could because, like lawyers, tax accountants are a necessary evil of doing business. I was always thankful that my portfolio companies could have access to such great advice at a reasonable rate. She’d been a respected accountant for five decades!
So, who was Alice? Well, she was New-England born (1940) and Virginia raised, a dual citizen like me, who absolutely loved her Jack Russells. Sure she was a single mom in her late sixties but you’d never know it: her zest for life and keeping on top of new technologies was awesome. She loved the clients I brought her so she could keep “one toe” in the scene. She had three daughters (Donna, Michelle and Chris) who I had met/known throughout school here in Vancouver that each brought a little trouble her way. Hah! But that laugh. Oh, that laugh. Ya, the girls may have brought home the trouble but by the time the story came my way it was just that: a story. She’d seen some tough times too, don’t get me wrong, but she survived it all.
Unfortunately, Alice had a bit of a tickle in her throat last year and was having a hard time swallowing. Upon further investigation it turned out to be cancer. She did the whole chemo/radiation business (while doing all her clients taxes earlier this year - half of them didn’t even know she was going through this!) and thought she had recovered enough to make it to her Christmas Eve/Day dinner rituals (which I was fortunate enough to be included in a few times). Sadly, today, December 19th, 2009, she passed into the mist.
Does this post do her justice? Not at all. But it is better than a two line obit and will hopefully, through the longevity of the internet, keep her in memory - a household name … if only at my house. Definitely someone who was notable. Alice, you will be sorely missed.
December 10th, 2009 — product development | by Wendy Rose
Well, I kinda intended that our 2009 year in review would be the last post of the year but then I saw this today: Oxford Word of the Year is “Unfriend”. Now granted, this is the Oxford American Dictionary which is a little more liberal when it comes to including technology industry jargon but when you look at the other adds (”intexticated”, “sexting”, “funemployed”, “birther”) well it gets a bit much. But to be fair, it is better than when Merriam-Webster crowned “w00t” its word of the year in 2007.
Now you may not know but I have a weakness for reading the dictionary. And, in particular, I am an Oxford English Dictionary (”OED”), the definitive record of the English language, fanatic (yes, I have read the Professor and the Madman, and loved it!, and find it fascinating that one can still contribute to the dictionary today).
The OED is updated quarterly and, in the spirit of things, of the December 10th, 2009 submissions the only one that horrified me was Bridezilla. Why? Because the OED editorial policy “is to retain permanently any word entered into the Dictionary … we seek to maintain a high level of awareness of new and evolving language while reserving judgement about its durability“. So Bridezilla has staying power? Yes I appreciate English is a living, evolving language but really?
On a funnier note, I was explaining the changes to the dictionary today to a friend and she let out a big sigh. Yes! I exclaimed. The injustice! Wherein she followed with: I don’t care about that it just makes Scrabble with my mother that much harder … Hah!
December 8th, 2009 — sales & marketing | by Wendy Rose
Wow! Business Ready manages to make it through another year and it is all thanks to you! It’s crazy to think that without any marketing we have:
It really has been a true joy and we get excited when we see your comments, feedback and general questions.
As far as the top five blog entries vs. last year (four of the five are the same!) we have:
what is burn rate and how do you calculate it - which doesn’t surprise me given the recession we found ourselves in during 2009;
reimbursable car mileage rate - again, I don’t really get this but I find it amusing that it gets so many hits;
how do I calculate diluted earnings per share - it’s true, once you see the math it all makes sense;
how do I calculate volatility for Black Scholes - this will always be a classic as long as we have to determine fair market value;
what is a W8 BEN? - a new entry to the top 5 as our US customers got tighter on asking for
It was all good fun. As far as us, well, I’ve taken on more clients which has reduced the new product rates and Tanya is handling our European operations out of Portugal which requires a lot of her time. Having said that, we still get really jazzed about helping you out and so this little site, for the little guy, will continue to roll on for 2010 and beyond.
SO, THANK YOU and let’s get your Business Ready!
