How to Love a Job Than You Hate

Work is where most people spend the majority of their waking hours. Not with their family. Not with their friends. Not doing their hobbies. But doing what they want or have to do to make a living. Work. Unfortunately most people are not happy with where they work, who they work with or what they do. And some people hate work. There is hope. You can love work. It is not easy but it is better than being miserable day in and day out.

Hours

What are your work hours? 7-7. 9-5. 8-4. Whatever your “scheduled hours” are, unless you are CEO, you are probably putting in more hours than you are paid for. Start by working your “scheduled hours” and only you scheduled hours. If you find that you need to work more hours you need to step back and ask yourself “why?” if you are not being paid for those hours.

E-Mail

How often do you check your e-mail? Once per day? Twice per day? Hourly? On the weekends? In the evening? Again, unless you are the CEO, if you check your e-mail more than twice per day during each “work” day, you need to ask yourself “why?”

Meetings

How many meetings do you attend per day? Are they all mandatory or can you not pass up the opportunity to be at a meeting. Regardless of what is said about “matrix management”, do not attend a meeting unless you boss tells you to attend it. If someone other than your boss asks (or tells) you to attend a meeting – fly it by your boss first before you attend it. The number of meetings that you attend will drop significantly.

Entrepreneur

Whether you are the mail room clerk or the CEO, do you view the company as your business? How would you run it as your business? Well it is your business. View it as such every day. Make decisions as if it was your business and any expense or expenditure of time was coming from your personal account or wallet. It changes your perspective of the workplace and the company.

Leisure Time

When not at work, are you at work? Do you check your e-mail? Do you call in for voice mail? Do you bring work home? Or do you do other things such as jog, garden, white water raft or collect antiques. How you spend your leisure time is very important. It is a break from work. It is an opportunity to relax and stretch you mind – and body – in a different way than at work.

Co-Workers

Do you love or hate the people you work with? Do you socialize with them? Do you talk to them when not at work? Work is work. Outside of work is for you. Beyond those you need to work with, only spend time with those who share interests, likes, dislikes and views similar to yours. Socializing exclusively with co-workers is like extending the work day into your evenings and weekends. Again, unless you are the CEO, you are not paid enough to do that.

Objectives

Do you have specific performance objectives? If not, do not let the day pass without asking your boss or supervisor for them. Once you have reviewed and agreed upon them, post them above your desk or work surface. Look at them every day. Every time you get a project, are asked to go to a meeting or sit on a conference call ask yourself “will this help me achieve one of these objectives?” If not, skip the activity. This includes so called “special projects”. Only spend time each day on what is going to be covered in your performance review. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Training.

How many days and dollars of training are scheduled for you for the current year? This is something that needs to be specific, scheduled and committed to by your boss or supervisor. The training should tie with both your objectives and also you career goals (short or long term). The response that “it is not in this year’s budget” is unacceptable. If you get that response, see your supervisor’s boss.

Boss

Do you love you boss? Hate your boss? Tolerate your boss? Love, hate or tolerate, she is just that – your boss. She is there to insure that you do a portion of what her boss demands of her. It is not unreasonable to ask to see her objectives and understand how your job fits into her objectives for the year. You don’t have to love or hate your boss. View her as someone tasked to accomplish a job and are the means by which that will be achieved. If you see it as more than that, you are setting yourself up to be frustrated, disappointed or worse.

While following each of these points will not insure that you love your job, they will go a long way to putting your job in perspective and make it much more manageable day-to-day.

George F. Franks, III is the President of Franks Consulting Group – a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting and leadership coaching practice. He is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and the International Coach Federation. His web site is:

http://franksconsultinggroup.com

He can be contacted at:

gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com

Business is War

Much has been written over the years about business. Much has also been written over the years about war. There are many parallels between the two. The more business people from the shipping dock to the executive suite view business as war, the more the spoils of war: success.

The Troops

Armies since ancient times have not been known for selecting the best and the brightest. At times, the bulk of armies were criminals, debtors and drunks. How did these cast-offs of society become armies able to conquer huge areas of the world and win massive battles? Training and discipline. Businesses today are so enamored with the best and the brightest that they seem to forget about the importance of training and discipline. Forget this bunk about baby boomers, gen-X and gen-Y. For a competitive edge, a business would be well served to get good (not great) people and invest in extensive training and that disciplines such as good management, quality and process control.

The Officers in the Field

Battles and wars have been won as much by the officers who are with the troops – such as lieutenants, captains and majors – as by the generals back in their tents and command posts. The officers in the field have the pulse of the people who serve under them. They see the enemy in action. They also see where the orders from above become a day to day reality – including all the things that can and do go wrong. For any military force, the field officers are a competitive advantage. For business too, lower and mid-level supervisors and managers can be a competitive advantage in the same ways as they serve between the troops and the executives. Unfortunately, most businesses have gutted these resources. On a percentage basis, the field and mid-level managers have been reduced more than the workers or the executives in many industries and corporations. As such, these businesses are less attuned to their workers, competition and have few vehicles for relaying the commands (and visions) from the executives above.

Generals

Generals in history have been killed by the enemy. They have been gravely wounded by their adversaries too. Generals have been fired by their superiors – both military and civilian for a variety of reasons. Why are the generals killed? They are up front with their troops. They are gravely wounded. And why are generals relieved of command or fired? For not meeting their objectives. Often this comes down to not meeting AN objective. Generals are expected to not only provide visions, missions and values – they are expected to lead their troops. And they are expected to WIN battles and wars. Those who do not effectively lead their troops and who do not win battles are replaced by others. The same should take place on a day-to-day basis in business. The executives who demonstrate they cannot effectively lead their people, who cannot meet their objectives, who cannot win new business over the competitors should be relieved so others can step in and drive success.

Technology vs. People

The rock. The axe. The arrow. The spear. The crossbow. The gun. The machine gun. The bomber aircraft. The rocket. The missile. The nuclear bomb. Technology has changed warfare of the ages. But there is one constant - people. In spite of all the innovations and technology, wars cannot be fought without people. That even applies to the most extreme and obscene form of warfare – nuclear war. Men and women must be recruited, uniformed, trained, trained more, armed, led and put in place with a mission and specific orders to each perform their own small task within the vast machinery of war. Businesses today are enamored with technology – both as products and as tools. And yet the basic elements of business have not changed. Even on the internet. A business is only as good as their people – even in the most technical sectors. In fact, as technology expands into the products and tools of all forms of business, people become even more important. They must be trained, led, motivated and rewarded – constantly for businesses to grow and be more competitive.

Strategy vs. Tactics

In war, civilians and military leaders develop winning strategies. The winning strategies are translated into tactics. The tactics are executed at the operating level on the ground, in the air and at sea. The tactics are used to win battles and ultimately wars by the troops and their officers as they face the enemy day in and day out. Strategy is important in winning wars. So are tactics. And so is execution. All three are required to be victorious in battle and in war. So why do business spend so much time developing strategies and then spend little effort on developing tactics. Then they wonder why something always falls short in the execution. In business, as in war, all three are important. Businesses must learn to balance resource and focus to insure that strategies play out in the day-to-day tactics and that the tactics are then executed with precision.

Battles and wars have gone on since the beginning of time. So has business and commerce. While warriors have learned to be more effective at their art, businesses have often grown stale due to technology, egos and the latest fads in management. If business people became more like warriors, workers would be better led, leaders would be more accountable and ultimately businesses would be more successful against their competitors.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group - a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting, leadership coaching and speaking practice. He is a member of the International Coach Federation, the Institute of Management Consultants (USA) and the Company of Military Historians.

George can be contacted at: gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com

Franks Consulting Group is on the web at: http://franksconsultinggroup.com

Revenue: That Extra 10%

Business people often talk about given an extra ten percent. But how often do they talk about getting an extra ten percent? With some extra effort, you can turn your business planning process into a way to bring in any extra ten percent of next revenue each year.

Business as Usual

Develop the business plan with the usual rigor. This includes: market, competitors, new products and offers, take rates, pricing, discounts and other assumptions such as sales and distribution channels. Use these steps and processes to develop the gross and net revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year. The process needs to not only involve planners but also line organizations responsible for delivering the results.

The Extra 10%

Once the business plan is complete including all the assumptions and strech for year over year growth the plan must be reviewed and approved by management. This being done, it is up to the senior leader or the senior planner to overlay an additional ten percent NET revenue on top of the total projected revenue for the upcoming fiscal period. The new uplifted figure must go back to the planners and line management team to relook every assumption and data element in the plan to achieve the high net revenue figure. Nothing less is acceptable.

Approval

After the business plan has been developed by the planners and line managers it much be reviewed by senior management. While nothing less than the ten percent uplift or overlay is acceptable for net revenue, even so every assumption in the plan must be tested and challenged. After a complete review of the plan, all line and planning senior management must approve it. If agreement cannot be reached on any of the assumptions of resulting revenue figures (by product and sales channel), then the plan must go back to those who developed it to reconcile any open issues. The importance of buy-in and complete alignment on the plan cannot be stressed enough.

Business planning is more than an annual exercise. It is the fundamental building block for future revenue in any business. Organizations must do more to challenge assumptions and go beyond "stretch" objectives. A ten percent additional net revenue growth exercise on top of a stringent business as usual plan is one excellent way to accomplish this goal for any business.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group, a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting, leadership coaching and speaking practice. Franks Consulting Group is on the web at:
http://franksconsultinggroup.com
George can be reached at:
gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com

Mature Workers: An Undervalued Resource

Look at any business magazine or journal. You will see that the vast majority of “movers and shakers” featured are under age 50. Increasingly they are in their 30s and 40s. Why? Are those the real movers and shakers in the world of business? The fact is that corporations and large businesses, for the most part, value employees under 40 the most. By the time employees are in their 40s they are either executives or on they are not. Those who are not executives or at least on the executive track are viewed as being on the “pre-retirement track”. Most companies will do all they can to displace those employees with younger (and almost always cheaper) employees. Layoffs, early retirements and reorganizations confirm this fact time and again. So why should companies value mature workers?

Stability

Mature workers are often more stable in terms of their life style than their younger counterparts. Dating, job hopping, babies and post-college drinking binges are less likely to consume them during and after working hours. Workers age 50 and over view work as work and not source for dates or other social activities. Additionally, by age 50 most workers are established in their communities and are less likely to leave for greener pastures. While this is often seen as a negative, it should be viewed as a positive.

Teamwork

The vast majority of workers age 50 and over have extensive experience working as part of a team at work. Most have worked as part of many formal and informal teams. The more experience a worker has being part of teams, the more effective they are in the ever-changing environment where there are new formal and informal teams established daily. Mature workers are less likely to want to “show boat” but rather understand the value of everyone’s contributions to the team effort.

Flexibility

Since the early 1970s, the workplace has undergone huge social and technological changes. The generations age 50 and older have lived through all those changes. That has required and instilled in them a high degree of flexibility. Reorganizations, consolidation, flattening of organizations, computers, new technologies, recessions, go-go years and globalization have all forced great changes in the workplace and no generation since the Industrial Revolution has experienced that change more than the mature workers of today. Working through all those changes has enabled them to not only accept change but to embrace it.

Perspective

The more mature workers are, the more likely they are to have worked directly or indirectly in functions beyond their current primary one. Most younger workers in sales know sales. Or in accounting know accounting. Or in engineering know engineering. Mature works age 50 and over have perspectives beyond their current functions. Mature workers in sales may have engineering experience. Mature workers in accounting may have marketing experience. Or mature workers in engineering may have sales experience. The more functional and careers experiences employers have, no matter how “dated” they may seem, make them more valuable employees today.

Balance

Businesses today often hyper-focus on near term results. Employees over age 50 have experience 25+ years of business. That is over 100 quarters. Or 300 months. And more than 1300 weeks. There is a tendency on the part of younger workers to view every day, week and month as a crisis of results. There is nothing wrong with urgency. But urgency has to be balanced with the longer term. Businesses must balance short and longer term results. The ability of mature workers to see beyond the near term is one of the great strengths of their longevity in the workplace.

Expense

Finally, the media often talks about the expense of mature workers. Paid more due to their seniority and longevity. More vacations (sometimes). More medical expenses (sometimes). This is a fallacy. The turnover of younger workers, jumping from job to job for better offers and greener pastures costs companies much more overall than do mature workers. Also most mature workers put in as many, if not more, hours as their younger counterparts. When viewed on a total cost perspective, high turnover – high absence younger workers cost companies more overall than mature employees.

Business is about results. When all things are considered, companies are operating from emotion and conformity in their treatment of workers age 50 and over. The benefits that mature employees bring to the workplace including stability, teamwork, flexibility; perspective, balance and lower overall expense make mature workers a competitive advantage for any company or organization. It is amazing how few companies and organizations have taken steps to leverage that advantage to-date.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group - a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting, leadership coaching and speaking practice.

Franks Consulting Group is on the web at: http://franksconsultinggroup.com

George can be contacted at: gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com