Lawrence Fine

Sometimes, we get so caught up on looking at the big picture that we forget how some small things can make a big difference in the big picture

Thnk about water flowing into a bath tub. Because of complex plumbing that starts at your tub and goes through your house, then outside and finally connects to the city sewage system, things run smoothly. If you find your tub is overflowing, you could have the city check all of their pipes but the first thing you would want to do is check the opening to the drain. Something as small as a few pieces of hair, or some dirt can prevent a multi million dollar system from working properly. The entire infrastructure can work properly but still thousands of dollars worth of damage can be done because of what might appear to be a minor issue.

In your organization, do you have any small things that are causing huge losses? This could be a problem with a procedure, a program or a person. If we don’t regularly evaluate and look for these problems, something quite small can create huge problems.

Remember, while it’s nice to look big picture, taking care of the small things can make a big difference as well

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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I have put together a brief powerpoint presentation on the four steps one should go through when analyzing the usefulness of a product, service or almost anything of significance.

To see the ppt, please look below

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you go to a restaurant and order cheesecake and like it a lot, you might go back there a second or even a third time. However, chances are, you wont go there over and over and over again for the same cheesecake.

On the other hand, if the restaurant has 40 different types of cheesecake and you like the first type, you might be inclined to try others (or all 40).

Giving people the option of trying different variations open up many options. While many might think providing various options is done in case a person doesn’t like one of them, the reality is, it’s also with the idea that if they like one, they will come back for more.

Not everyone can give multiple options but if at all possible, look in the possibility.

While man does not live on cheesecake alone, it sure is nice to have the options!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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This thought is a continuation of the post from yesterday where I asked if you would hire you. Today’s question is, would you work for you?

Do you make unreasonable requests of employees to the point where, if someone made these requests of you, you wouldn’t do them?

Do you expect commitments from your employees that you aren’t willing to make yourself?

Do you treat your employees in a way you wouldn’t want to be treated yourself?

While there might be some jobs in your organization that you wouldn’t want to do yourself, the real question is, whether you treat your employees in a way that you would want to be treated. If you don’t, you might want to reconsider the way you do things.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you were looking to hire someone to work for you, if you could look at yourself objectively, would you hire someone like yourself?

Do you have the work ethic you would look for in an employee? Do you have the character you would look for in an employee? Do you have the ability you would look for in an employee? Do you have the temperament you would look for in an employee?

Instead of thinking of this as “would you hire you?” in terms of being an employee you can also look at it from a customer/client perspective. If you are a realtor, you could ask yourself “if I were looking to buy a house, would I use a realtor with the traits I have?”. If you run a camp, you could ask yourself “would I send my daughter to a camp run by someone like me?” If you are an attorney, would you hire someone like yourself if you needed an attorney?

Many people might automatically answer “yes, of course I would hire someone like me” but if they are truly objective and take a good hard look at themselves, they might come up with a different answer.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Things happen. As much as we want to be perfect and want others to be perfect, the reality is we are all human. Humans make mistakes. I do, you do, we all do.

Until you are able to be perfect (and even winning every game or every business transaction doesn’t mean you were perfect because even when winning, there are mistakes made) it’s not fair to expect perfection from others.

There is nothing wrong with striving for perfection. In fact, if we don’t strive for perfection, we might be underselling ourselves but when you are in a restaurant and things don’t go exactly as you want, you might want to ask yourself if it’s really fair to expect them to produce something in their field when you can’t do it in your field.

If the salesperson doesn’t know a fact about the product, before you get mad at the salesperson, ask yourself if you know everything about what you do.

If the coach makes a tactical decision that ends up not working, it’s easy to second guess the decision but it’s also important to understand that making decisions after the fact is a LOT easier than making them in the spur of the moment.

When you realize you aren’t perfect, it’s a lot easier to be understanding when others make the occasional mistake.

You can learn a lot more about a person by watching how they respond to a mistake than by looking to see if they make a mistake.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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How much are you willing to give without any expectations of receiving? As an example of this question, the blog you are currently reading is read by over 500 people each day on the web site, more read via email or RSS feed or Twitter. To date, there is no advertising, nothing has been offered for sale and the only time I have mentioned other services is when I’m recommending something that provides no financial incentive for me. So why do I do it?

To date, I have received over 15 clients from this blog. Some were people who found me online through the blog, liked what they read and decided to contact me about some service I offer.

Some have been clients in the past, but by keeping my name in front of them (usually via the daily emails) when it was time to consider needing more work, they came back to me.

Some have been debating working with me for a number of months and the more they read from me, the more it helped them make a decision.

If I were like many people with blogs, I would have written a few posts, got discouraged and stopped. Instead, I keep writing (and enjoy doing so) and have benefitted in many ways.

Another example is a book I’m going to be announcing soon (yes I will announce it on this blog as my first form of “advertising” but it’s a book that I have written, and which teaches the principles that I try to base my life on so it’s not a typical advertisement). I have a few copies of this book already and dropped one off for a current client to read. I did this simply because I thought he would like the book and find it of interest. The next day he called and said he wanted to order 6 additional copies for his management staff. Would I be willing to give one book to receive an order for six more? Every hour of every day. However, if I had given him this book with the hope he would order more, I don’t believe it would have worked.

It’s been my experience that the more I give the more I end up receiving provided my reason for giving isn’t with the hope of benefiting.

Many people talk about this concept but how many people are actually doing it?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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