Month: July 2015
Take the time you need when you’re ‘cooked’
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Before you’re burnt out you get ‘cooked’. That’s the point you need to start saying no more. You need to carve out the time you need to get recharged so that you can keep going for decades.
LOVE and HATE Process
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I love a standard set of rules to operate by. It’s how I do my email communication with prospects and clients. It’s how I don’t forget my keys in the car, or how I don’t lock myself out of the office. Process is awesome, until it’s not. Ugh, the meetings One company I worked at…
Get Project Updates the Right Way
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I once worked at a company where the staff spent two mornings a week in a meeting to ‘update’ the manager/owner. We went around in a circle of 7 or 8 and simply told the manager where we were on our projects. There was very little discussion about any problems we might be having or…
Take a Deep Breath
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Have you ever considered how much your reaction time affects your response to a situation? Let’s take a moment today to consider this in the context of your business. Suppose you get an angry email from a client — do you reply right away or do you wait? Does your choice here affect your ultimate…
Don’t Monologue
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Have you watched The Incredibles? Remember the part where Syndrome is giving a monologue and Mr. Incredible catches him off guard? This is a common theme in superhero movies. The villain reveals his whole dastardly plan then creates some absurd way to kill the hero, who then comes up with an equally absurd way to…
Have a solution to the problem
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When you have a problem, don’t just push the problem along. Come up with 3 solutions.
Take Ownership of Problems
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Have you ever failed? I have. I’m currently behind on a project and I’m really not sure how I’m going to catch up, since next week I’ll be taking a trip to Mexico and won’t be taking my laptop. That means no catching up on coding. But really, how much ‘catch up’ actually happens when…
Don’t Assume: Why Email Communication Goes Wrong
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Assumptions are bad, so don’t make them. When you assume, you just make an ass out of both you and me. Today I’m talking about the risk of using email as your default for communication. It’s a terrible form of communication that denies you all the little facial and body language cues that are an…
Set Clients up for Failure
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Yup, I’ve failed. I mean totally let down a client by delivering 80% of a solution, then feeling a bit bored and not focusing on the last 20% like I should have. I’ve pushed bugs that brought down client servers, just before I went for a run or left for the day. I’ve told clients…
The client is always right
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You’ve heard this service maxim I’m sure: The customer is always right…even when they’re not. I’m also sure you’ve laughed at it and said clearly, they can’t always be right. I mean, some of the requests/emails read as though they were written by an insane four-year-old in the middle of a tantrum. Yeah, I’ve had…
