Be Different or be dead

November 30, 2020

What is the best way to decide among so many options?

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What is the best way to decide among so many options?

▪️You’re being inundated with information.
▪️You’ve got opinions from literally hundreds of people; there are too many ‘experts’ out there.
▪️You‘ve got too many choices; it’s like a restaurant menu with 15 pages.
▪️Theory seems to lead thought leadership; academics abound with their lofty advice.
▪️Those with the most lofty academic pedigrees seem to command credibility.
▪️Everyone seems to know what you should do.

All you want to do is make a decision that is right for you, but you can’t. There is just too much help; advice is ‘raining down’ on you — you have too many choices that you can make.

And as a result you’re stressed out, you’re stuck in the evaluation and consideration mode. You can’t move.

So what do you do when you are inundated with good intentions?

Here are a few suggestions based on what worked for me over too many years of sitting in the dark ‘under the mushroom’ while bits and bytes lay siege.

1. Get your priorities straight

You can’t evaluate the worth of someone else’s advice if you don’t know precisely (ok ‘sorta know’) what you want to do.
So sit down and define what you need; the specific objectives you want to achieve, and assess the advice out there with your needs as the context.

And try to define what you need in the short term rather than over a longer time horizon. The thing is, the long term never shows up if you can’t manoeuvre yourself through the short term. Long term results are achieved generally through sequential successes; there are simply no silver bullets you can rely on.
Do the hard work everyday. Get a nano-inch of progress everyday and the future will take care of itself.

2. Look for people who have similar backgrounds

You need to be able to relate to the person spewing advice at you, so take some time and research the advisors. Pick one who is the closest to you in terms of life experience, education goals and career aspirations.

Find someone who is relevant to you in the cloud of those who may have great credentials but are not on your wavelength.

3. Focus. Focus. Focus

Pick the top three things you need to sort out, not the total basket of goodies you face.
We all get sucked into ‘boiling the ocean’; believing that unless we solve each and every challenge we face, we are incomplete and will fall short of the perfect solution for ourselves.

The truth is that 80% of our problems come from 20% of the issues staring us in the eyes.

Roy’s Rule of 3: find 3 things that matter and conquer them; forget about the many other things that really don’t make a significant difference to your life.

So filter the volumes of information ‘raining down’ on you and pick 3 sources and study them; do your own due diligence on your discoveries to decide what is worthy of your attention and following.

The reality is that you simply don’t have enough time to chase every information source or piece of guidance anyways, so it’s critical to bear down on those few things that have a good chance of helping you achieve your goals.

4. Don’t rush

You didn’t reach your current state overnight so it’s ok to take whatever time you need to move forward.
I’m an advocate of ‘getting it just about right’ and then moving quickly to execution mode, and this applies to sifting through the barrage of data hitting us.

The thing is, though, try and be as thorough as you can in the briefest time available to you. If you need an extra week to assess the most appropriate course of action for you to take, then take it.

5. Track what you do

It’s important to understand what works for you and what doesn’t because your actual experience should inform subsequent actions you decide to take.
Your Plan A will not likely succeed; they rarely do. So it’s exceedingly important that you have data on your attempts to learn from and refine your next steps.

It’s great that there is a plethora of information at our disposal to help us make decisions, but there is a dark side that needs to be avoided.

The actions presented here when you have too many choices will help you navigate the information avalanche and find a nugget or two that will make the difference.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.30.20 at 05:45 am by Roy Osing
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November 25, 2020

8 simple ways Millennials can keep their job in COVID times

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8 simple ways Millennials can keep their job in COVID times.

Pandemics have shaken the financial lives of millennials who are suffering immensely due to the unstable economic situation in the country.

According to the Pew Research Center around 43% of people between the ages of 24 and 38, and 30% of Americans between the ages of 30 and 49 years have suffered financially. The numbers in Canada are not dissimilar. Either they, or someone in their family has lost a job.

If you are a millennial who desperately wants to keep your job during COVID-19, then it is natural to be apprehensive and stressed out.

However, there are a few ways to keep your job during COVID-19.

1. Give three hundred percent at work

COVID-19 has created an adverse situation in the country and the workplace. However, you have to remember one thing. The greater the adversity, the more important it is to resolve that now is the time to achieve victory in your life.

You have to keep challenging yourself. You have to consider adversity as an opportunity to prove yourself in the workplace. Work as hard as three people so that you become an indispensable employee of the organization.

2. Do all assignments without a grudge

Your boss may give you a few projects that are beyond your comfort zone. You may not have done that kind of work before. But you should try to do these assignments without any hesitation.

You should accept all the assignments with a positive attitude and not push back on your boss regarding anything they ask you to do.

And try to avoid thinking about your specific job only; look for opportunities to tackle assignments that create benefits for the entire organization. This might be a more effective way to save your job.

3. Come up with innovative ideas to save money

More than anything, the company needs innovative ideas to reduce operating costs, so any ideas you can come up with would be greatly appreciated and would definitely help you keep your job.

Give fresh ideas on how to complete a project on a tight budget or how to manage generally with limited resources. Leadership may accept some suggestions and discard others. Take any feedback you get on a positive note and be sure to ask for feedback on your suggestions.

Also, remember that company leaders are noticing your efforts. That will go in your favor in the long run.

4. Maintain a good relationship with customers

Never forget that customers are the reason companies exist.

If you have a customer facing role in your organization, make sure you go the extra mile and maintain good relationships with your customers and make them feel valued and appreciated.

Think about various ways to lure new customers to boost the revenue of the company. When a company is financially stable, employee jobs are also more secure.

5. Show up regularly at work

Undue absenteeism is something that companies will not tolerate during these times. If you have a habit of taking a day off every week, then it is time to change your attitude.

Companies will not be interested in keeping employees who aren’t committed and who do not take their job seriously.

6. Be flexible and develop new skills

COVID-19 has changed the work ecosystem. You have to be flexible and adapt to the new environment.

Take the initiative to develop new competencies that the organization needs to survive.

Don’t be afraid to take the lead to maintain the momentum. Have confidence in your ability and give it your best shot.

Learn to use new technologies and artificial intelligence to boost productivity in the virtual work ecosystem.

7. Manage your job stress

Too much job stress can hamper your performance at work, and during a pandemic stress is at all time high levels.

Concerns about being exposed to COVID at work, managing family matters, working with inadequate equipment, and the constant fear of losing your job all create stress which, if not successfully managed, will impact your performance and could jeopardize your job.

Here are some steps you can take to cope with job stress during the pandemic.

— Discuss how to overcome job stress with your friends and colleagues;
— Maintain a proper sleep schedule at home;
— Take short breaks during work to relax;
— Exercise every day outdoors to release stress and stay fit;
— Practice meditation every day to relax;
— Do fun things in your free time;
— Remember that everyone is in the same situation;
— Avoid alcohol and drugs;
— Connect with friends every day through social media platforms and share hearty laughter;
— Know about employee rights and laws so that you can avoid any sort of discrimination;
— Ask employers how they can access mental health resources to combat stress in the workplace.

8. Stay on good terms with management

Now is not the time to get into any kind of argument with management of the company. The organization may have to make some tough decisions during the pandemic which could involve pay cuts, reduced hours, or suspension of employee benefits.

While it is not easy to accept these kinds of decisions where you have to endure a financial loss, you have to think about the overall scenario. A job with a pay cut is still better than having no job at all. You cannot plan your financial future based on unemployment benefits.

Be on good terms with management even if you feel outraged inside. Keep silent if you cannot say anything positive to the management. Silence is better than criticizing the company’s decisions.
Your outburst will only put your job in danger. Remember, organizations are less likely to retain employees with a negative attitude during COVID-19.

Discuss what’s going on in your company with your colleagues and try to avoid being extremely negative about your boss or the company. Try and keep conversations upbeat and solution oriented.
You cannot depend on others to be discreet during this tough time because everyone is under pressure to keep their job.

These are extraordinary times requiring extra measures to stay working; give my suggestions a try and I hope they work for you.

Be safe.

— Valentina Wilson loves to analyze personal financial matters and help others manage their finances in a better way. Traveling is also her passion. She follows more animals on Instagram than humans and her greatest achievement is her blog. She believes that transparency and conversations about money are essential in gaining control of finances. To connect with her, visit her blog.

• Posted 11.25.20 at 06:43 am by Roy Osing
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November 2, 2020

Why the ‘Magic Question’ is important to your career

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Why the ‘Magic Question’ is important to your career.

Everyone looks for a silver bullet to have a successful career; the one piece of advice that if practised consistently and correctly will result in a rewarding future.

I’m not a believer in singularity; that there is one factor that explains the essence of anything in life.

Ceteris Paribus — all other things being equal — is not an assumption that’s particularly helpful in most instances because all other things surrounding any particular issue or challenge matter are NOT and never will be ‘equal’.

Attempts at formularizing messy real world outcomes have never been particularly effective since they rely on a degree of predictive precision — y = f(x) — that doesn’t exist when there are so many random variables at play.

No one variable can accurately determine a successful career.

That said, I did develop a simple but very effective qualitative tool that was amazing in terms of helping me in my career; I called it ‘the magic question’.

In retrospect, it was probably the most useful thing I used to successfully navigate my way through several positions in the organization to eventually reach president.

Of course there were other factors at play in my journey — right place-right time, personal relationships, mentoring — but I am absolutely convinced that the magic question had the most influence.

Are you ready for the question?

‘Now that I find myself in a new position in the organization, what do I have to do differently?’

The need to ask the question is triggered by change. Whenever you find yourself in any of these common circumstances, pose the question and spend serious time answering it.

— There has been a major organization change and you have been appointed to a new position.
— You are being moved laterally to another job in the existing organization structure.
— You are promoted to a higher level role.
— Your existing job role has been changed; you have either been given added responsibilities or the scope of your current role has been reduced.
— You, unfortunately, have been demoted to a lower level position in the organization. You need to include this possibility in your thinking even though it is unpleasant.
— You’re a small business owner that’s just expanded into a new market.

There are 3 possible outcomes in terms of how you approach the question.

1. You don’t ask the question

You continue in your new role acting the same way that you have in the past irrespective of the new challenges that you face.

You assume that the things that got you here will get you where you need to go in the future. After all, you have attained success so far by practicing certain skills and competencies; why shouldn’t this work on a going forward basis?

Momentum continues as you practice what you are used to. There is no change in your behaviour and you eventually fail.

New challenges require new thinking and new ways of doing things; repeating what got you here in an entirely new set of circumstances will simply not work.

2. You ask the question but answer it incorrectly the first time

In this case you are at least on the right track having asked yourself the question, and you enter the trial and error process of discovering the essential things you need to do differently to succeed in your new position.

The result of your efforts might be eventual success, but it takes a while as you iterate among several possible answers to find the right blueprint.
You need to get on with finding the answers FAST if you are to survive long enough to see the final result. What you learn from your first one or two attempts is crucial to your eventual success.

You don’t have the luxury of pondering what changes to make in your strategy for very long, so do a quick study of what isn’t working, then act quickly to implement what you think you learned and monitor the impacts. Then move quickly to another tactic if you see more shortfalls.

3. You ask the question and you nail it

You discover and successfully execute the essential thing you needed to do differently to be effective in your changed position.
Your bosses and others in the organization are amazed how quickly you adapt and learn in the face of a new challenge.

The results of your efforts produce success not only in terms of your productivity in the new position but also in the growth of your personal currency for future career advancement in the organization.

‘The magic question’ process is not an easy one; it’s arduous and time consuming. It requires honest self analysis, development of options and selecting a path that you believe will yield the success you expect. And being prepared to modify it on the run as you experience results.

Use feedback you receive from your boss, colleagues and those that report to you to decide what you have to do differently.

Be prepared to make agonizing decisions that place yourself at personal risk, but have faith that it will work out for you.

The question requires dedication and discipline. You can’t casually approach it; you must be all in otherwise don’t waste your time.

In every leadership position I held, I coached my team to employ this process to enhance their career; the ones who chose to do the work were rewarded.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.2.20 at 05:30 am by Roy Osing
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October 26, 2020

6 tested ways to handle a really distrustful person

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6 tested ways to handle a really distrustful person.

There is one person in your group or on your team that is a 180 degrees out of phase with everyone else.

I’m not referring to someone who aligns with the values of their fellow teammates and merely finds a unique and special way of expressing them; a person who imprints their personal signature on everything they touch; who finds conformance to standard pedagogy repugnant.

No. I’m referring to an individual who is ideologically distant from their colleagues in literally every respect; someone who is constantly in the ‘no’ position when everyone else is ‘yes’.
And who is a condescending specialist who constantly criticizes past efforts of others.

It’s exhausting dealing with an outlier person because you know with every issue comes a battle with a predictable outcome.

And at some point, after trying all the conflict management and team building tools espoused by the experts, you have no choice but to adopt more draconian measures to deal with the dysfunction the outlier creates.

As the leader of a team with an outlier you and others have to work alongside, what can you do to press ahead in spite of them?

1. Know and ‘accept’ the beast

Accept the reality of who the person is and that they will forever be out of synch  with the rest of the team; this is the hand you’ve been dealt so work with it.

This is all about setting realistic expectations of what they will do and how they will do it in order to manage them in a team setting. Consensus is impossible; achieving likemindedness on any issue is the impossible dream.

Some will say this is a defeatist attitude and they’re right in a sense. But it’s also a necessary and realistic one that defines the context within which a leader sometimes has to work if any progress is to be made.

With an outlier the leader’s energy must be challenged into managing the beast rather than trying to change them.

2. Call for a vote

Forget about investing the time and effort in trying to reach consensus on an issue; it won’t happen.

Of course you have to engage in conversation on the topic at hand, but realize at some point as the outlier lands on their polarized position you have to call for a vote to move things forward.

More debate with an outlier isn’t productive; it merely gives them a platform to promulgate their narrative.
So allow a certain amount of air time for discussion — call the vote — make the call.

3. Avoid entrapment

These types love to carry their narrative on and on and on and suck others into the never ending conversation hoping they will be able to sway you to their side.

But the conversation and email string never end. There’s never closure because they want their minority view to win the day.

The only way to avoid entrapment in the discussion do-loop is to state your views once and let it go at that. You may think that by continuing to engage with them that they will moderate their position to that of the rest of the team, but they won’t ..... ever!

This is where resisting the temptation to engage and feed the outlier’s narrative is essential.

4. Be polite

After all, we shouldn’t stoop to their level should we?

For me, gritting my teeth and biting my tongue are the tools I rely on to get me through experiences with the outlier and masking it ever so genuinely by being polite (or at least as much as I can stomach).

Otherwise I would be ‘stressed to the nines’ constantly with nothing to show for it but high blood pressure and migraines.

Politeness is supposed to be a Canadian thing so it should come easier to me, but it doesn’t when it comes to dealing with an outlier. But soldier on, wear the grin, pretend you care about their message… but never relax.

5. Call them out

The outlier needs to understand when they have pushed too far and are pummelling the needs of the majority.

These are the times when they need to be rocked back on their heels forcefully (but politely) and told that they have occupied way too much airtime and are infringing on the rights of others.

You need a call-out tool for such circumstances; one that allows you to cease the unacceptable behaviour of the outlier.

Mine is always to literally say ‘STOP!’ directly to them and ask that everyone move on to resolve the matter at hand. It’s not a comfortable action for the leader to take, but it’s essential if productive work is to be achieved.

6. Find greener pastures

For the greater good, the outlier must eventually move on and find another environment where perhaps they will find greater comfort and prosperity — they will be happier as will your team.

The leader must take responsibility for seeing whether a change can be made and to make it happen.
It’s tough to do because of the bad blood that exists with the outlier; working with them to find another role is at best an unpleasant task.

Let’s face it, as a leader we always would prefer pleasure to pain. The outlier represents the latter; the 6 actions we discussed will not only make your life easier, they will also allow you to maintain the effectiveness and harmony of your team.

Cheers
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 10.26.20 at 05:29 am by Roy Osing
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