Better Than Average Blog – Page 7 – Improve anything, maximize talents, and stand out from the crowd

Thinking – The Other White Meat

Forget certifications. Forget technical skills. Forget high-priced degrees. The three skills that are needed most in the new world of work are initiative, creativity, and the ability to think. Demonstrate those skills and employers will come running.

It’s the later, thinking, that we investigate today.

Thinking – it’s the new white meat. It’s actually a yellowish gelatinous meat as you look at the brain, but that’s not important now.

We are no longer cogs in a wheel. We are no longer told to rinse and repeat. We are expected to initiate, perform, and accomplish.

Systems may be established, frameworks may be outlined, structures may be defined, but there is flexibility within those confines to get the job done.

And you are expected to find a way to make it happen.

Thinkers corroborate diverse data to get an overall design.

Thinkers search for deeper meaning in the swampy sea of statistics.

Thinkers take the silver platter that is handed to them, melt it down, and create an elaborate candelabrum.

As more transformational leadership practices enter the workplace, more thinking will be expected. If you examine the four factors that compose transformational leadership, one is “intellectual stimulation.” It is the idea that leaders allow their followers to think independently and they encourage creativity. In other words, transformational leaders believe humans are thinking beings.

Are you ready to think in this new world of work?

QUESTION FOR YOU –

What’s on your mind?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For the awesome first chapter of the forthcoming book Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World, send an email to me and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]

Stimulate Creativity by Changing the Scene

Is your creativity crummy? Are you snoozing through life? Do you do the same things day in and day out?

It’s not your fault. You get stuck in a routine. You drive the same roads to work. You see the same people every day. You rehash the already hashed. We are all creatures of habit.

Standard is stifling. Average is adequate. Mediocre is mundane.

To wrangle us awake, to shake us from our slumber, to drive us from our dormancy, change the scenery.

Add a new plant to your office. It will give it a new dynamic.

Work from a Starbucks for a day. All of your senses will be stimulated.

Change the meeting location to the golf course. The endorphins will help generate ideas (as long as you minimize the beer intake).

Kick yourself from the common to build brilliance.

To stimulate creativity, to stir new ideas, to discover new insights, change the scenery.

QUESTION FOR YOU –

How to you stimulate your creativity?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For the awesome first chapter of the forthcoming book Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World, send an email to me and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]

Can there be love at the office?

Is there love in your work? I’m not talking about spousal relations or the office love triangle. I’m talking about love between yourself and your work. Do you care enough about your work that your output is given with love?

Every time you send an email, it has your signature on it. Every time you produce a report, it has your name on it. Every time you chair a meeting, it has your guidance. Do you offer it out of love?

What you send out to the world is you – your raw talents and abilities. Do you simply ship it out the door with a carefree “good enough?” Or is it elegant, clean, and simple to understand? Do you take the time to make it shine? Is it an accurate mirror of who you are?

Every interaction. Every connection. Every output is your mark. Are you offering it with love?

QUESTION FOR YOU –

Does your work reflect who you are?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For the awesome first chapter of the forthcoming book Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World, send an email to me and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]

5 Better than Average Ways to Get Out of a Meeting

You need a way to get out of a meeting. You got sucked into it, but now it’s time to go. It happens. We all get stuck in meetings of which we would rather get out. You’re all sitting around a conference table. Your coworker is blabbing on about metrics that are not met. Your boss is bemoaning the back office. And the only place you would rather be is Somewhere Else. What is your exit strategy?

Here are 5 Better than Average Ways to Get Out of a Meeting

Sickness – There’s nothing like the threat of a little vomit on the table to get you your freedom. No one wants to deal with the mess if you do hurl, so any time you put your hand over your mouth, grab your belongings, and hustle out of the room will give you an instant hall pass. Just remember to actually go into the bathroom and into a stall in case you have a concerned coworker. Chances are, no one will actually follow you, but if they do, they’ll usually stop at the door.
Phone call – It’s really important. REALLY important. Like more important than your meeting. It’s a customer. Or the school. Those two will usually get you out of most situations. To make it look even better, grab a friend’s phone, call your number, announce quietly that it is a customer/school, grab your belongings and dash.
Take charge – If the meeting is really going nowhere and (almost) everyone can see the obvious, recap quickly what was already discussed, ask if there is any further input for the good of the group, then announce adjournment. You’ll earn high-fives from coworkers and get your time back.
Leave – This works particularly well at the half-hour and hour marks on the clock. You have another meeting that just “happens” to be scheduled at that time. As a courtesy, ask if there is anything else required of you before your take off. Remember to kindly announce that you can be reached after the meeting via email or phone if any additional items might arise.
“Forget” Something – Conveniently “forget” something at your desk. Announce that you “forgot” a critical item for the meeting, excuse yourself, and “forget” to come back. When questioned later, explain that an urgent “something” (phone call/email/jammed copy machine) came up and had to be handled immediately. By the time you finished that task, the meeting had ended. Politely ask if any business for you arose during the meeting and if so, complete those items.

QUESTION FOR YOU –

Why are you still sitting there?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For the awesome first chapter of the forthcoming book Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World, send an email to me and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]

Annual Performance Reviews are Worthless

Ah, the annual performance review, a ritual of awkwardness for managers, torture for employees, and hassle for HR. It’s the time of year also known as “Creative Writing for Business Professionals.” It’s where we dust off our thesauruses, embellish our accomplishments, and make our year surfing the Internet sound like we’ve accomplished something productive.

Managers struggle to give effective feedback. Employees sit in silence learning what their boss really thought of them during the year. In the end, the employee ranks a three out of five, just like most others in the company. But it’s no one’s fault. The company instructs managers to give no one a five and give a four only with Vice President approval. Since managers don’t want to get on the VP’s radar, whether for good or bad, they simply give threes and move on.

Since 2008, more organizations have been on a mass layoff schedule than an annual merit increase. For those not laying off, they have done away with merit increases tied to annual performance appraisals. Employees, forced to still complete the annual performance review, spent as much time on them as was proportionate to their expected merit increase – not much. Now, as companies begin to recover, some are adopting blanket merit increases, not tied to employee reviews at all. Again, employees are getting smart. If everyone is going to get a standard merit increase, why waste time doctoring a performance review? So it begs the question…

What if there were no annual performance reviews?

Modern psychological and business research continues to point to the meaninglessness of annual performance reviews. Most studies show that they tend to be more detrimental to an organization than to “achieve a high-performing team,” as most CEO’s expect.

What if feedback, instead of given annually, was given at the time of the action, whether good or bad? What if managers were actually trained in coaching and providing feedback? Could better team performance result? What might the work environment look like?

Think of a startup. Do you move from “startup” to “business” when you burden your staff with the annual performance review?

Wouldn’t life be grand without the annual performance review?

What if you wrote your own performance appraisal? What if it wasn’t tied to a merit increase? What if it was an open, honest conversation with yourself? What if you changed the conversation from one between you and your boss to one where you shared your results with your peers? What if they had an opportunity to provide feedback?

What if there was less scoring and more writing? We like our reviews boiled down into compact, neat little numbers. What if we had an environment measured in sentences?

Ultimately, performance comes down to intrinsic motivation. If you want a “high-performing team,” find out what motivates them and give it to them. This involves mutually setting goals, focusing on results, and providing autonomy for the employees to get the job done.

Better than Average companies eliminate the annual performance review and provide feedback and coaching throughout the year.

QUESTION FOR YOU –

Why are you still using an annual performance review?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For the awesome first chapter of the forthcoming book Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World, send an email to me and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]