Quick Tip No 20: Don’t Be Weird

dont-do-it-ChuckReally, don’t.
Did you ever happen to sit in front of someone like in a bus, a theater or a conference, and you could have sworn this person was staring right at the back of your head?

So you turned around and of course the person was looking right at you. You turned back again to face the front, but now started to feel quite uncomfortable because you knew this person kept looking at you.

Then the back of your head started to itch. So you scratch once, maybe twice, but before the third time you stop yourself. Let’s try to focus on the talk…

Of course that doesn’t work for long. There is still this uncomfortable getting- stared-at feeling. Okay, now you turn around once more. Oh, alright he is now pretending to be really interested in the talk and looks right past you. But then when you turn back, just as your eyes move away you see this look again in the corner of your eye. Staring right at you…

Don’t be the weird guy of this situation and turn around again. Really, don’t.
That’s hard to keep up, right? (more…)

January 20th, 2014|Tags: , |

Problem Solving – No Checks, No Glory

Problem-Solving-101-No6The acronym of the problem solving process in this course is UPEC (Understand, Plan, Execute, and Check). In this lesson I want to talk about the last stage: “Check”.

You may wonder why I even have to write a separate post about that stage. It seems so obvious. You are done when the problem is solved, what is there to check?

Well, first of all, if you’ve done everything perfectly the check would be the point in time when you actually acknowledge that you are done. That’s a great moment worth noticing, isn’t it?

However as you may guess, again, things are often not that easy if you want to do them right. Even the simplest problem may have more to it than you think. (more…)

January 17th, 2014|Tags: |

Quick Tip No 19: Hear the Pain

AngrycustomerCriticism is ugly; nobody likes it, and we try to avoid it. However if it is out there we should not ignore it. It is important. If we have customers who criticize us, we would love to get right back at them and tell them how wrong they are. However, whenever that happens, for example, during a phone call, it doesn’t end well, because the last thing any customer wants to hear is that he is wrong. Who does, for that matter?

The thing is, customers who criticize you are the best customers you can get. (more…)

January 13th, 2014|Tags: , |

Problem Solving – The Big Why

Problem-Solving-101-No5After a couple of weeks, I am finally back with another lesson of my problem solving course. I hope you don’t still wonder “Why problem solving?”, but if you do, then it is more than time to eliminate these doubts.

Let me start with the following statement:
Happy and successful people are mostly good at solving problems.

These solved problems are both their own and other people’s problems. What do you think about that? You may not work in service, but unless you are living in solitude under a rock, in which case I applaud you to your internet connection, you will have some contact with other people. Any form of contact counts, phone, email, tweets, anything. People have problems, and there are different ways to deal with these problems.

(more…)

January 10th, 2014|Tags: |

Quick Tip No 18: Think Twice Before You Call in a Big Meeting

meeting-rulesObviously, when you are working with larger teams you’ll have to have big meetings. Right? Err…Why? No question, you and everyone else in the team needs to know what is going on. You need to know where in the process/project you are and whether there are problems to solve or course corrections to be made. However, I think there are better, less time consuming ways than meetings, to keep everyone in the loop.

I am a fan of small meetings with one or at maximum two other people involved. So, before you call in a big meeting think about the reason(s) for doing so.

Troubleshooting
You realized something is wrong in your process/project. Meetings in such situations can easily turn into finger pointing and useless discussions about the reasons and will rarely result in a productive exchange of solutions. Write instead a brief email describing the situation and ask for brief one-on-one meetings. This way you get equal input from everyone and very likely the most amount of solutions. (more…)

January 6th, 2014|Tags: |

Quick Tip No 17: Make a Plan!

Now that we start to count down the last few hours of 2013 many of us look back at the past year and wonder what the new will bring. Although every day is a new beginning, the first day of every new year somehow carries a lot of psychological momentum with it. So often the last year ends with the certainty that next will be a better and greater year. Greater hopefully not only by it’s number. But honestly, there is one person who can make sure your 2014 will be good. This one person is you.

You can decide from the first day one whether you’ll be acting or reacting in 2014. It is always a much better position to be in when you are ahead of your own game versus trailing  behind. And this is why I decided to make a detailed plan for 2014. I usually know what I want to achieve within the next month personally, but so far I’ve always made only very rough plans for longer timeframes like one year. But with more things going on than in previous years, I know I have to do some planning to make 2014 my best year ever. (more…)

December 30th, 2013|Tags: , |

Quick Tip No 16: Take it Easy

ChuckMy idea behind these Monday Quick tips to share some actionable advice that made an impact in my life. This one is an advice I consider one of the most important for me personally: Relax and take it easy!

Seriously, hustle is important to get things done, but looking up at times to check if you are still plowing the right field is equally important. Life is short and eventually everything we do, we do for people. That is why it is important to keep those in mind that are around us, because no one can operate in a vacuum forever. So regardless of the time of year, make sure to come up for air and spend some good times with the people you care for. It makes a big difference.

 

 

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December 23rd, 2013|Tags: |

Problem Solving – Execute and Measure

PS101ftThis is lesson four of the my little problem solving course. If you read the last post, you are probably expecting me to continue with further methods of idea creation. But more about these at another time. Let me explain you why. I am a fan of parallel progression, which means I don’t think a project or topic (in this case) has to be tackled at the beginning and worked through in full detail from the beginning to the end. I rather suggest to start working on all phases at the same time as much as possible.

Hence, I will give you a rough, nonetheless whole picture from the very beginning and refine it over time. This way you immediately see where I am going and you know at all times where we are at. You should also be able to apply what you read immediately since you know the big picture (see graphic below). The drawback of this method is of course that I have to promise you further details for a specific module until later.

Today’s lesson is about executing your solution. (more…)

December 20th, 2013|Tags: , , |

Networking Tip No3: How to Get Meetings Scheduled Quickly

Hello-my-name-is200Despite all the possibilities modern communication has given us meeting in person or in real life (IRL) is still usually the best method to get something done. But even a meeting over Skype or Google Hangout keeps the ball better moving than lengthy multi-layered email conversations. Nothing beets a one-on-one session, but I admit, three are cases when there is no way around bigger meetings. But how to schedule one or the other quickly without wasting time on email ping-pong?

For one-on-one meetings I find the best method is to simply suggest one time, e.g. “next Monday between 9 and 11 AM” and then ask for an alternative if the suggested time doesn’t work. I try to keep larger time slots during the week flexible for possibilities like these. So I can simply ask for another time, “I am also open Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, but can work with other times if needed as well. I appreciate your cooperation to get this done next week.

Think about it, when given only one option recipients of your email only have to think about whether they have time at that date or not. If yes they are done. If not, they can check whether the other times match with their schedule. And if that doesn’t work, you already made a point that you want to get it done next week. So they will try to find a solution.

If you send a totally open email, you may easily get a response along these lines: “My next week is pretty booked. How about we get in touch the week after?” An answer like this means you essentially lost two weeks.

The more people are involved the more difficult it is of course to agree on a time. I would still use essentially the same technique but also include a Doodle Poll to avoid back and forth emails. Important is here to follow up with your first email soon, reminding everyone about the poll.

In general when you have a request, try to be specific about the modalities, because then it is more likely about the how and no longer the if of your request.

December 16th, 2013|Tags: , |

Everyone Else

othersThis is the time of the year when we are grateful for what we have, when we give back to others, and when we also usually start looking back at the past year. In other words, it is the time of the year when we are more conscious about things that don’t concern our immediate needs. The “I want now” takes the backseat and other things and particularly other people take the center stage in our thoughts.

Other people.

Wow, that is everyone but me. Everyone else!

As I write this, I picture myself standing on a pedestal and a huge crowd of people (everyone else!) looking up to me.

BRIAN: Look. You’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals!

FOLLOWERS: Yes, we’re all individuals!

BRIAN: You’re all different!

FOLLOWERS: Yes, we are all different!

DENNIS: I’m not.

ARTHUR: Shhhh.

FOLLOWERS: Shh. Shhhh. Shhh.

Source

We are all different. Well, yes and no. Of course we are all individuals. This is why I cracked up the first time I watched the scene and probably more than ten times after that. How could you argue with that?

Everyone else is different. Well, no. Not at least as much as we think. Do you for example think you are a better driver than others?

Yes? Then you already have that in common with the majority. Bummer.

It is a fact, we have more in common with everyone else than we think. I think now is a good time to reflect about moments when we may be wrong about how we perceive them. (more…)

December 13th, 2013|
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