11/17/10
11/16/10
11/15/10
Quality
You need to know something...
Charm only works for the duration of brief exchanges with people, after that you should know and offer something of value in anything you are working on or talking about. This is especially true, in this new economic environment, at work. Pure knowledge alone is no longer enough if you are to be of real value, no matter what you do, in any organization. Doing the minimum required or going by the book is not working either, for you or any employer, whether you or they realize it or not.
It's up to us to make work more interesting and become more valuable in the job we're in or for the one we want. Others can't do that for us and neither can the amount, large or small, that we're paid. These days we need to know more than just our field of expertise, whether it's bending steel or programming bits or interacting with the public or managing people. We also need to make good decisions with our knowledge when we apply it and add value to the people we work with by quality interactions with them. That quality enriches everyone. Knowing the mechanics of what we do, whether it's machining a part, answering calls, guiding tours or directing the work of others, is only the ground level of what we do.
If you're doing something, even if it isn't your ideal situation, it always benefits you to make it worthwhile by going the extra step and adding quality. Otherwise minutes and hours are pure drudgery and you gain nothing and lose a lot. If you put a little creative thought into even the most rote task, doing more than following the policies and procedures to the letter, overcomes just being a piece part in the business. Even if it's not immediately apparent and only a small amount, you learn something by making it more challenging, adding to the job, totaling up to making your unique addition more valuable to yourself and who you work with.
It also keeps every day interesting. If you invest in what you're doing, it is returned to you in positive reactions by co-workers, a reciprocal beneficial reward.
Charm only works for the duration of brief exchanges with people, after that you should know and offer something of value in anything you are working on or talking about. This is especially true, in this new economic environment, at work. Pure knowledge alone is no longer enough if you are to be of real value, no matter what you do, in any organization. Doing the minimum required or going by the book is not working either, for you or any employer, whether you or they realize it or not.
It's up to us to make work more interesting and become more valuable in the job we're in or for the one we want. Others can't do that for us and neither can the amount, large or small, that we're paid. These days we need to know more than just our field of expertise, whether it's bending steel or programming bits or interacting with the public or managing people. We also need to make good decisions with our knowledge when we apply it and add value to the people we work with by quality interactions with them. That quality enriches everyone. Knowing the mechanics of what we do, whether it's machining a part, answering calls, guiding tours or directing the work of others, is only the ground level of what we do.
If you're doing something, even if it isn't your ideal situation, it always benefits you to make it worthwhile by going the extra step and adding quality. Otherwise minutes and hours are pure drudgery and you gain nothing and lose a lot. If you put a little creative thought into even the most rote task, doing more than following the policies and procedures to the letter, overcomes just being a piece part in the business. Even if it's not immediately apparent and only a small amount, you learn something by making it more challenging, adding to the job, totaling up to making your unique addition more valuable to yourself and who you work with.
It also keeps every day interesting. If you invest in what you're doing, it is returned to you in positive reactions by co-workers, a reciprocal beneficial reward.
11/12/10
Agents Of Change
On leadership...
Everyone is a leader in their own way. You may be leading your co-workers by simply being there, creating new ways to do simple tasks, soon you notice they're doing it the same way. To a nephew or your small child you're an example they follow. Perhaps your friends look to you for what is the right thing to do in an awkward situation.
Conversely there are people that you follow, people whose decisions you respect and you look to for guidance. They are in all walks of your life. To be a leader you don't necessarily have to hold an important job, be wealthy, high on a corporate ladder or famous. You don't have to be a titled leader, such as a manager, a music producer or state representative to be a leader. Very often they may be the last people for you to follow.
Everyone is a leader in their own way. You may be leading your co-workers by simply being there, creating new ways to do simple tasks, soon you notice they're doing it the same way. To a nephew or your small child you're an example they follow. Perhaps your friends look to you for what is the right thing to do in an awkward situation.
Conversely there are people that you follow, people whose decisions you respect and you look to for guidance. They are in all walks of your life. To be a leader you don't necessarily have to hold an important job, be wealthy, high on a corporate ladder or famous. You don't have to be a titled leader, such as a manager, a music producer or state representative to be a leader. Very often they may be the last people for you to follow.
11/11/10
Music Break: 3Js
Linda Paloma...
tijdens instore de Jan Cas, Voldendam 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE5A2oen1oU
tijdens instore de Jan Cas, Voldendam 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE5A2oen1oU
Only In America
The relevance of learning irrelevant things...
Just about everything I've ever done in life, no matter how seemingly irrelevant or unconnected at the time, later on has played a part in something I did afterwards or what I'm doing now.
Who knew when I started showing people, when there was no capable supervisor or a trainer around, how to do a technical support job that was growing exponentially at the time, that it would lead to my becoming a certified instructor? I wasn't asked to do it, there was a need and I did it to stop being asked questions in the middle of my work, to make my life easier. Years later, when I had gone as far as I thought I could as a technical instructor, I applied for a job for which I had no experience, running a vault and money processing center. They hired me out of the blue because they needed a leader who could teach and figured I could learn the specifics on the job. Little did I realize a few years after I had left and was working as a technical writer and was laid off, that my experience in a money processing vault would get me hired at a credit card processing company. The work I currently do I can trace back to at least six different apparently unrelated things I learned at a time they didn't seem pertinent. I know better now how what once seemed like odd things can fit together...everything to it's own purpose.
Never turn down the chance to learn something new, even if it doesn't seem applicable to what you're doing now. Always learn from others who are willing to show you something that may not seem important at the time and also teach others as you go along in return. One day it will pay off, because time has proven it usually does.
Just about everything I've ever done in life, no matter how seemingly irrelevant or unconnected at the time, later on has played a part in something I did afterwards or what I'm doing now.
Who knew when I started showing people, when there was no capable supervisor or a trainer around, how to do a technical support job that was growing exponentially at the time, that it would lead to my becoming a certified instructor? I wasn't asked to do it, there was a need and I did it to stop being asked questions in the middle of my work, to make my life easier. Years later, when I had gone as far as I thought I could as a technical instructor, I applied for a job for which I had no experience, running a vault and money processing center. They hired me out of the blue because they needed a leader who could teach and figured I could learn the specifics on the job. Little did I realize a few years after I had left and was working as a technical writer and was laid off, that my experience in a money processing vault would get me hired at a credit card processing company. The work I currently do I can trace back to at least six different apparently unrelated things I learned at a time they didn't seem pertinent. I know better now how what once seemed like odd things can fit together...everything to it's own purpose.
Never turn down the chance to learn something new, even if it doesn't seem applicable to what you're doing now. Always learn from others who are willing to show you something that may not seem important at the time and also teach others as you go along in return. One day it will pay off, because time has proven it usually does.
Arizona Landscape
Oh, the urbanality of it all...
[I gotta get out of this place and go back outstate]
[I gotta get out of this place and go back outstate]
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