1. In the past 6 months, have you ever gotten into a fist fight with your coworkers at work?
2. Sometimes, it’s ok for an employee to take a little money from the register. Agree or disagree?
3. If you see a coworker is upset with a piece of equipment and he kicks it so that glass shatters, what do you do?
4. Are lies ok to tell at work?
5. I always let my bad moods influence my work. Agree or disagree?
6. I believe it’s ok to use illegal drugs on the job as long as they don’t impact my performance. Agree or disagree?
7. You hear two coworkers gossiping about an affair with a supervisor. What do you do?
8. If you and your coworker are having an argument, what do you do? Talk to a supervisor, ignore the coworker, confront your coworker, or talk to other coworkers about the problem.
9. It’s ok to take small items from your office if you feel underpaid. Agree or disagree?
10. Suppose a new policy is started and you don’t like it? Do your job, do your job but tell your supervisor you don’t like it, or ignore the new policy?

Have you seen similar questions? If so, share them.

There are benefits of exfoliation. When you remove dead skin, it gives room for the newer, healthier skin to glow. Then, when you apply moisturizer, the new skin is able to absorb the moisturizer better.

There are things in our life that we only enjoy for a season. If we fail to exfoliate our lives, the dead layers can accrue so high we have no space for new life and new growth.

When we cling too long to that which gives no life, we don’t have a free hand available to reach for the stars.

New wine needs to go into new wineskins.

Are you ready for the next great opportunity which lies in your path?

The year previously, they had tried a new fundraiser that didn’t quite break even. I’ve had those learning curves and knew that we take what we learn from those experiences and retweak what we’re doing to make money. We re-invented the entire model for the fundraiser (a talent show) that year. First, I cut the ticket price in half. In addition, I decided performers did not need to buy tickets. Then, we switched from having a full dinner theatre menu to a dessert reception halfway through the performance. With the  dessert reception, to save money, I asked the parents to donate desserts. Because we went from a dinner theatre to desserts only, we eliminated the need for tables and could fit more chairs into the auditorium. As a result, we had more opportunities for ticket sales.

Because the new ticket price was only $5, more families decided to bring grandma, grandpa, their uncles, their aunts, and their next door neighbors. We sold out of tickets, the parents brought in beautiful desserts, and the entire event was a fun success.

In the brave new world of nonprofit development, the smart ones solicit expertise from business professionals. It’s a risky venture for them. Right now, I help two different nonprofits who have decided to make the leap and ask for more help from the business community. With one of them, we meet for lunch each month and review their marketing strategies/fundraising communications. With the other, we meet twice a year for a lunch followed by an intense afternoon of review and discussion of their publications. That one is particularly exciting, because the other members of the committee are from St. Louis, Louisville, Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Evansville.

Both of these organizations have decided to take the risk of bringing materials they have prepared to a table of business professionals from varied fields and ask what we think. And we tell them what we think – what works, what doesn’t, and how they can more effectively present their message. Smart nonprofits recognize that the business as usual, 20th century model no longer yields the same results. They don’t want us to simply rubber stamp their ideas but to share our talents. If  we tell them a logo is dated and needs to be fixed, they may not change it, but they listen attentively to us and thank us for our input.

I thoroughly enjoy those nonprofit panels because I learn from the other professionals attending.  We each have unique perspectives, and I like to think we make a positive impact on the nonprofits involved. Our combined efforts are more effective than if we worked individually.

But there is a deeper issue here. Maybe once upon a time, businesses simply cut checks to organizations they wished to support. What these organizations have realized is the value of cultivating our time, talent, and our treasure. Successful business professionals can bring a lot to the nonprofit volunteer table. We’ll scrub tables and do dishes, but we’ll also analyze ways to fundraise smarter if asked.

The organization wise enough to make the most of my talents is also going to be the one that I support the most financially. Yes, there are other organizations I may write an occasional check to support.

But the nonprofits that wisely make the most of what I can offer them are the ones I’ll support the most and promote the hardest.

And those nonprofits, with a more mature vision of public/private partnerships, are the ones that will most likely succeed in the future.

How do you think like a business owner prepared to meet new challenges?

• Listen and watch the world around you. As times change, you must understand what is happening. Then you’ll better predict future trends.
• Adjust for changes. Last year’s solution may not solve this year’s problems. Be willing to approach challenges from new angles for success.
• Raise the bar. Don’t accept mediocre service or results. With each project, always be on watch to continuously improve the process and your product. When we decide we no longer have room for improvement, we might as well put the seal of failure on our business ventures.
• Build your dream team. Surround yourself with people focused on successful outcomes. Avoid those who live for drama or advocate mediocrity.
• Have fun. Attitude is everything. The more you enjoy what you do, the better job you will do.
• Refuse to settle. Don’t settle for lower standards and a “good enough” mentality. You can always do better.
• Remember profit and cash flow. Businesses will not survive if they lose money. When a business is having problems with profit and cash flow, it’s time to change the business model and/or marketing mix.
• Give back but don’t give everything. Give back to the community and to the causes you care about. Of course you’ll give to your clients as well. At the same time, remember that profit is not a 4-letter word. Sometimes making sure your business generates a profit means you will have more flexibility to help other people.

I wouldn’t trade the adventure of entrepreneurship for anything. But I never realized, when we started on this path, how it would change my whole life.

What I should say is, “I know good people,” or “I know good people at great companies.”

Sometimes, with some companies, you have to know the right person to get something done. If I know the right person, at the right company, the waves seem to part on the company’s Dead Sea of Inefficiency, and things still happen.

Sometimes, with a few companies, it’s different. Everyone is on the same page, and the whole team understands what customer service is.

I just had one of those good experiences with Mills Body Shop in Evansville. While my car was parked in a parking lot two weeks ago, it was hit by a distracted driver. Working through the other guy’s insurance company was a less than positive experience. I had to call repeatedly for three days before finally talking to someone besides voicemail. It took two days to get repairs approved once I spoke to him. And then, when I arranged for a rental car, he barked at me that I booked the repairs starting on a Wednesday instead of a Monday.

Those are not stresses that any customer, but particularly one who is recovering from a heart attack, should have to handle. The good news is that after a week, the other company approved the repairs. Originally, the out-of-state insurance claim representative tried to send me to a body shop I had never heard of. I refused and told him that my car had to be serviced at Mills.

But there was a brighter light in this bad experience – Mills Body Shop. Yes, I know the owner. But I don’t have to name drop. As I worked with two different offices, each of his employees treated me with courtesy, compassion, and competence. They kept their word, got things done on time, and cheerfully went out of their way to treat me with kindness and respect.

You know a business owner has succeeded when you know him, but you know you won’t have to name drop because he has built his company to follow a high standard of customer service. That’s a sign of a company you can trust.

Thanks, Don.

OneNote, the Office version of a binder, also gives me thrills because I can attach my files, create subsections, and color code while having plenty of room to brainstorm. I don’t have the sensory thrill of hearing and smelling a binder in creation, but I can attach my spreadsheets, which offer an entirely different thrill; filters and sorts in Excel offer their own excitement.

The key to effectively organizing a binder isn’t to simply put it together in an easy to retrieve manner. It’s to use what’s in the binder in the most effective manner possible.

Once upon a bad time in our business and family lives, I filled our home with those binders. Our home and business burned, and it was my job to organize the claim. My file bucket, binders, and database were my best friends for the three years I worked through not only our rebuilding but our replacement of what we owned and submission of our insurance claim.

As the mother of teens in college search and scholarship mode, I filled binders full of my children’s information. Those binders include their best school work, their 4-H achievement records, and more. It’s easier to apply for scholarships with good documentation of past activities and achievements.

Those binders helped my daughter and me last year as she applied to several colleges and completed at least 73 scholarship applications. We were fortunate, and her hard work paid off – with a little help from organized binders.

So I guess you could say I worked to fit my daughter into binders. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Next year, I will again begin the scholarship and college quest with my son.

I’m perfectly fine with the fact that binders are the current scapegoat for jokes.  Keep it up. If the day comes that you get tired of joking about fitting people into binders, I have a suggestion:

Go after checklists. Surely there are jokes to make about them too.

While some laugh at my tools, I’ll keep building my binders and savoring the rustle of sheet covers when a binder is compiled, completed, and put to good use.

If you are going to succeed as a leader – or a manager – the first key to success is finding a good team. The second key is to delegate tasks well, to fit the best person to each task at hand. Finally, the third key is to inspire those you work with to put forth the best effort possible.

I have managed and led teams where those I work with know more about what’s to be done than I do. I prefer working with experts in their field. So long as I know the basics, I can rely upon their expert judgment and trust that they will exceed any expectations.

It’s not leadership with a carrot or with the stick. Instead it’s leadership taught by working together. Where I back off, don’t micromanage, and trust the pros to be the best pros possible.

It means my job isn’t to order them. My job is to provide them with the tools, the information, and the opportunities to succeed.

Sometimes, they will do things differently than I would. They focus on their details, and I’ll focus on mine – the organizational and background paperwork that keeps all of us going.

If I hammer down their initiative, disparage their risk taking, or discourage them from trying new solutions, then I have destroyed over half the potential of my team. Instead, the critical element is to recognize their worth, thank their initiative, and show them how much they are needed.

Our success lies in tapping into their genius and passion to make great things happen.

When I find the right people, give them the best tools, and back off so they can do what they do best, they always impress me.

Sometimes, we forget the most important tool – before the ones we actually touch – is preparation of the heart. If I hire a carpenter to do a job, I can organize and plan all the correct materials and tools and still have a job that fails. The first step is to tell the carpenter some simple statements some call cream and sugar fluff:

• I believe in you.
• You have what it takes to succeed.
• If you put your whole heart and mind into this job, you will not only succeed but surpass expectations.

Once we remind someone that having the faith of a mustard seed can sometimes move mountains, we need to prepare ourselves to see mountains moved.

Once the faith is there, then our job in empowering others is to give them whatever tools and information they need to complete the task at hand.

If we forget the first step, we will soon learn that you can give a carpenter tools, but you can’t make him build.

It started out as a potential sour note on a shopping marathon with my daughter.  She had found a dress there the day before, and we had returned to buy it. When we went to where the dress had hung the evening before, it was gone, as were all the others. We asked a clerk where they were, and she said they had been taken upstairs to be shipped out because no one had bought them.

To put a setting on this, I had been shopping on a hot holiday weekend, and this was store #5 that we had ventured into. I was ready to eat and go home. So I snapped, “Well can’t we get one of them before they are shipped out?” The clerk told us to go find a manager as it wasn’t her job.

To put another setting on this: my daughter and I agreed the dress would work well. When mothers and teen daughters can agree on a purchase, it’s a milestone, and I hated to miss this opportunity. I went to a cashier’s station and explained my predicament. Meredith, the clerk, immediately paged a manager and began to help us.  We showed her a picture of the dress and its size. She went to find it in the upstairs stock room.

As she searched for the dress, I listened to a lecture from my daughter that the first clerk was just doing her job and I should be more patient. When Meredith returned, she told us the dresses weren’t there.

But she didn’t stop there. She apologized and asked us to follow her while she checked two additional stock areas. The dress wasn’t in the first stock area. It was in the last one, in her size, ready to buy.

Meredith was gracious and pleasant and turned this tired, hungry, and irritated mother into one very impressed customer. It took about 10-15 minutes of her time, and she may never know just how much I appreciate her help.

We live in an era when customer service is sometimes just “good enough.” Meredith instead shot for a standard of excellence.

Penney’s – if anyone in your store reads this – you need to commend Meredith, tell her thanks, and keep an eye on her. She’s a keeper.

“Chance of a lifetime – everyone says this will be great,” those around you tell you.

But it stinks.

“It will be in short supply – those who buy early will be sure to get some. Everyone else will pay more for it later.”

When I get a whiff of it, the hairs on the back of my neck curl.

So do you go with your gut instinct or follow the crowd? That’s what I was thinking last week before the Facebook IPO.

I had no inside knowledge of over-valuation. But as a professional who helps multiple businesses with their Facebook presence, I had a gut feeling Facebook was desperately trying to boost its profitability. The ads got creepier and more obtrusive. Something didn’t feel right.

Yet, at a lunch meeting, an “expert” was raving about the opportunities of the IPO. I told him, “I’m not buying. It doesn’t smell right.”

Those sitting with him stared at me as if I were an Amish Luddite who couldn’t tell a good thing when she saw it.

I will not say I told you so. But I will say I won’t invest in companies when the CEO shows up for business meetings in a bathrobe. If he can’t be bothered, why should I buy?

I still believe in the public relations/reputation management/community building possibilities of Facebook. It can play a great role in top of mind marketing for businesses and can be a means by which they offer additional value to their customer base.

However, I hope Zuckerberg doesn’t throw the Face out with the Stockbook in his quest to generate profits. If he does, he will wipe the Face off the Book.

It all goes back to lessons learned looking at the meat counter:

• If it smells bad, don’t buy it. And don’t eat it.
• If it’s sprinkled with lots of spices, the higher price and fancy gourmet name might just be fancy window dressing to hide the fact that the slice of meat is a little grey around the edges and can’t be sold otherwise on its own merits.

Trust your gut.