Break out of the office and get some ACTUAL work done.

Earlier today, I was in the office pounding away on the keyboard, knocking some good ole work out.  Not really but it felt like I was really accomplishing things. I bolted out of the office early to grab my youngest son and take him to lacrosse practice.  As I sit here in the cooler part of the day, on a trim green lawn, watching and listening to parents talk about how busy they are at the office and what degree they need to get a promotion. I can’t help but be thankful for the life style we are about to move into.  Working from wherever, whenever.  Why does the corporate world think that offices are a necessity?

The thought that you have to be in the office to accomplish tasks is as outdated as the payphone that most of the managers grew up thinking was awesome new technology.  If you want to keep great employees and make sure, they are happy you have to loosen up and give them the trust they deserve and need to function at peak levels.  Let your employees work when and where they want as long as they accomplish their tasks.  Experiment with a group of those who are interested in working remotely three days a week to begin with.  Don’t watch their every move.  Your test should be “graded” on not only the amount of work they complete but the quality.  When your employees know that they are trusted and that they have some freedom watch their creativity soar and their quality and yes even their quantity increase.

I know there are many arguments about how being in the office is the only way that some can be productive.  Or the thought that you get more done in the office where the manager is watching the employees every move, or even worse coworkers that feel that they are better than the remote counterpart because they are in the office from 8-5.  All of these myths can be debunked with great leadership tactics.  The new generations don’t and won’t work an 8-5 “job”.  They want a place where they can take off and go to an appointment in the middle of the day.  The thing is that most of them work later in the evening again to finish their day. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the different generations from my point of view, if you don’t agree that’s ok.  That is one of the best things about living where we live, we can agree to disagree.

Baby-boomers want to work from 8-5 every day with a 1-hour lunch.  That time had better be spent in the office or at the shop.  If your salary you need to spend a minimum of 50 hours a week working.  If you’re the boss you need to be there before any employees and stay later then all of the employees to ensure that you are leading by example.  Remember that the 8-track was the “bees' knees” to most of this generation when they graduated high school.

Gen x’ers are similar to the baby-boomers they feel that their employees should be at the office from 8-5 as well, but they are a little more lenient you can leave early the Friday before a holiday. They are trying to be more open but have a hard time with it because they had to endure the baby-boomers mentality of work.  Gen x’ers are the ones who first got the phone in a bag as an awesome way to stay in touch.  Remember they would hook it up to their car and when the phone would ring the horn would honk!  Stylish.

Millennials get a bad rep all the way around.  They are accused of being offended constantly.  If they don’t get what they want they throw a fit.  While that is true with some of them, there are many others who are the top producers’ in the world.  Some of the biggest and most successful companies have been created and operated by this generation.  Millennials don’t like being confined to hours that they must work, and they definitely don't like working in an office.  They like to get up, work a few hours from the house, head to work (only when they have to go to office) then take a nice lunch. Get some more work done, then go work out, grab a quick bite to eat, and finish the night by working a little more.  No office required.

There are positives and negatives for each generation. 

I’m here to tell you that if you want to keep happy younger employees the office mentality needs to disappear.  With new generations and technology, that we have today there is no reason to time track or micro manager your salary employees.  There is no need to even have an office space for most of those individuals.  Really all that you need is a place to have meetings.  Guess what there are tons of places to have informal meetings and presentations in every town.  Even in rural America, I’ll bet you can find a library, a school, or a Grange hall that will be plenty big enough to house your meeting.  Be creative.

Remember your test should be “graded” on not only the amount of work they complete but the quality, not by the physical hours they spend behind a desk.

Let’s break out of the office and get some real work done.

How to fight distracted driving, and WIN

Hey guys when was the last time you checked your phone while driving?  Were your kids in the back seat?

It is not a big deal that I checked my phone while I was driving; nothing happened I did not swerve or crash, no one got hurt.  Maybe that is the case this time and every other time before but it will not be the case every time.  Distracted driving is the fastest growing cause of automobile accidents around the world.  We don’t want you or your loved ones to become another statistic so we are going to give you some easy to follow distracted driving tips that we try our best to follow every time we get behind the wheel.

One. If you are going to use your phone while driving, make sure you use a hands-free system.  That means that you don’t have to touch anything to use the phone.  It’s been proven that just talking on the phone while driving increases your chances of getting an accident.  The National Safety Council reported that cell phone use while driving leads to over 1.6 million crashes each year.

Two. Never text while driving, it’s not worth it to take your eyes off the road at all.  Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year in the US from texting and driving.  When you text and drive you are increasing your chances of getting in an accident by over 400%.  400% that’s HUGE!!  Also think about what you just taught your kids in the back seat?  Do you want them texting and driving when they get old enough?

Three. Your attitude makes all the difference in the world, especially behind the wheel.  If you are emotional it’s not the time to get behind the wheel.  Take a few moments to get your thoughts collected before you take off.  Think about how hard it is to see after you’ve been crying.  Tears blur your vision, thoughts cloud your judgment and your body isn’t prepared to go to work.  Driving with any kind of emotional stress is the exact same way.  That emotion clouds your vision while your thoughts run wild making it extremely difficult to focus.  More likely than not if your anything like me you can’t even think straight when your emotionally distressed.  Heck, my wife might even say that I’m irrational at times. Lol.

Four. Plug your phone in and put it in the console so it’s not distracting.  I used to not only tell the people that I trained to drive trucks but also lived by this when I was driving.  I would place my phone upside down on the floor between the seats so I would ensure that it wouldn’t distract me. 

Five.  This is our last tip.  Avoid multitasking while driving.  Let’s face it you are already multitasking every time you get behind the wheel.  You have to move your foot on the accelerator, turn the wheel, use your turn signals, dim and brighten your lights, check your mirrors, all of that is plenty to do without adding more to it.  My favorite story about multitasking is when I was running a heavy haul across the Western US.  I hit Salt Lake City at morning rush hour.  As we were all driving bumper to bumper in stop and go traffic, I glanced out my driver side window.  What did I see? A woman changing her clothes while she drove.  Now there were at least two of us on the road driving while distracted. Lol. This lady got down to her skivvies and changed her shirt, skirt and shoes all while she was driving.  Then she proceeded to put on her deodorant and makeup.

The big thing to remember is that I guarantee that someone wants you to make it home safe tonight and every night.  Don’t take the unnecessary risks associated with distracted driving.

Buckle up and stay safe out there.

Everything In life happens for us not to us.

For the longest time I have believed beyond a doubt that everything in life happens for a reason.  We don’t always understand the reason why it happens right away, heck we may never understand why something happened. None the less it happened for a reason.  Sometimes the reason is because we needed to learn from the mistake. It might be because we weren’t ready for that particular promotion or job.  Or maybe it was because God used us to help someone else learn the lesson due to our faith being so strong.

As I look back on my life, I see many times where God guided my life without me ever knowing it.  I’d like to start with the choice of not enlisting in the military right out of high school.  I was on track to enlist into the Army the day I graduated, go to basic training straight from there go into warrant officers' school.  Then graduate and start flying helicopters for the military.  I would have enlisted at the beginning of the war on terrorism, don’t get me wrong I would have loved to serve my country, but during that period more helicopters were shot down than almost any other time period in American history.  God was looking out for me.  Let's not forget that the whole reason I didn’t enlist was because I met my now wife.  I most likely wouldn’t have the kids that I have now or the life I currently have.

Let's take a look at when I didn’t get a job working full time for the paid fire department.  At the time I was devastated, how could I mess that up? I mean I was already working part time, I worked on most of the shifts and most of the squads really liked me. Now I know that if I would have stayed there, I would have never moved to where I live now, I would have never got my CDL, and I would never be starting my own business.  Most likely I wouldn’t be as close to God as I am now either. 

How about when I was let go from a job for working too many hours.  I was young and couldn’t understand that one.  God used that experience as well as the next 3 years working for a different job to humble me and bring me closer to him. He taught me how to truly forgive.  He encouraged me to lean on him; he gave me a horrible boss so that I could learn how not to act and how not to treat others.  He gave me the passion to find a need a fill that need, no matter how difficult it was.  It was during that period that I discovered the need for CDL testing in our area.  I worked diligently for 1.5 years to get through the process and become one of the youngest testers in the State of Colorado at the time.

How about here recently when I was faced with yet another horrid boss.  The company leadership was awesome but my direct supervisor was audacious.  God was teaching me to let go, forgive, learn how not to treat others, and how to stay humble.  That instance really pushed us to start Eclipse and take those steps of faith. 

You see as I look back on my life, I could be full of regret.  Regret that I missed a chance to serve my country, regret that I messed up so many job interviews, regret that we were dirt floor poor for a while, regret that I had some atrocious bosses.  Or I can look at those instances where things didn’t go the way I expected them to and say, “Thank you God for helping me!” I don’t live my life in regret because I know that there is a supreme being that has my back.  He will never give me more than I can handle.  If we believe that things happen for us there is no regret.  Because it was supposed to happen that way and it is shaping us to become the best version of us that we can be.

I believe now more than ever that everything in life happens for us and not to us. 

Leave the Caveman Days of Implementation Behind You

Are you having issues implementing new processes in your organization?

Most companies know they have issues that need to be addressed. What they don’t know is how to effective implement the “fix-it” solutions. This blog will you revolutionize your strategies on implementation. It will take work from the leadership within your organization but it will be worth the result. 

Lets get started. You have come up with a fresh strategy to help your DOT program but you are having complications implementing it. The hardest part of anything “new” is the implementation. We have all had great ideas and we are going to share some of them with you in the blog. Personally, in the past I have allowed great plans to unravel because there was too much resistance from others. I am here to tell you to persevere through the resistance, put extra fuel to your plan, and make it work. Let’s go through the process for creating a new strategy and exactly how to implement it in a way that won’t allow the new process to fall flat.

The first step to refresh your current situation is to find the problem. Are your driver files taking too much time to maintain, is the onboarding process too lengthy, are you continually getting vehicle maintenance violations, the list goes on and on. After you identify the issues, yes I said issues, plural. Pick the most pressing one and create a strategy committee that consists of individuals from all levels of your organization. Include people who are natural leaders, the ones that other employees look to for help. Do not forget to get out of the office setting to find people to join the committee. By doing this your committee will have interest from across the company and have a better foundation to build on.

Now that you have selected the “right” team to help formulate the strategy, it is time to start brainstorming. Set aside about 10 min a week for a personal conversation with each member and see exactly what they have come up with. By adding this small personal touch, it shows that you care about what they are working on and that they have your support.

The team has been working diligently on a way to improve your current process. They have many good ideas, now it is time to help them select the right path. Remember as a leader you need to make yourself invested in their new strategy. Your confidence in their actions will go a long way in the implementation process. Add your input to their meetings and help them to refine the new strategy so it can be the most cost effective and positive change conceivable. Guide the team to look at it from different vantage points. If it will be a major transformation, I would invite a third party who is not involved with your businesses day-to-day operations in and acquire their view. The revision portion of any fresh strategy should take a while. Don’t forget to take time and several build a roll-out plan. Try to think of every possible thing that might get in your way during the implementation process.

It has been a long haul to get to this point but we are finally ready to implement our new process. Implementation is probably the hardest part of any new strategy. The good thing is that we have already built a foundation across the company on many different levels with our committee. Now all we have to do is build on our already created foundation. Throughout the roll out process, keep the ability to adapt to changes in the plan. We all know that no matter how good of a job we do brainstorming possible complications we are bound to find a few more during the actual implementation. Continue to have your committee meet until the process is fully implemented and running smoothly.

Here the last thing as a leader of any organization you NEED to do, reward those who helped with the process. Recognize everyone that plays a role in the process. If it was a field / office clerk call them and say thank you, or if you don’t feel you the time to accomplish that send out a mass email thanking everyone involved with the transformation making sure to highlight your committee and all of their hard work. Take a moment to visit with each member of the committee and get his or her thoughts on the entire process. Remember your implementing a new process yourself with this. Look for constructive criticism and truly make the changes recommended, if they fit your organization.

Good luck!  Do you have interest in being in a coach?  Lets talk.