Author: Bob Dailey

Bob Dailey. Born and raised in Southern California...now in Oklahoma. Graduated from (and met my future wife at) Cal Poly Pomona, in 1988. Married to Janet 37-plus years. Father of two: Julianne and Jennifer. Grandfather of 9! Held many leadership positions in small, medium, and large companies (and even owned a company for about 7 years). Tractor operator, competitive stair climber, camper, off-roader, occasional world traveler, sometimes mountain biker, and writer.

Searching for Awesomeness

How’s your search going?

How’s your search going? Have you found the awesomeness you’ve been seeking?

There are a lot of awesome nouns (people, places, things) out there. A whole bunch of awesome verbs. And, don’t forget about all the awesome adjectives. String these together in almost infinite patterns, and you have the makings of a lot of awesomeness.

The sound of steaks sizzling on the grill, a beautiful sunset, the sparkle in someone’s eye when you’ve taught them something they never knew, the quiet stillness of a starting line just before the starter’s gun goes off, the aroma of a perfect cup of coffee as the sun comes up, the crackle of a campfire, watching your daughter roast a marshmallow to perfection.

The search for awesomeness should be an easy one. It’s all around us.

Sadly, for some, finding awesomeness is impossible.

That’s because they don’t realize that awesomeness isn’t about what’s outside. It’s not about what we see, touch, or hear. It isn’t what we smell or taste. It isn’t even about who is with us.

Our thoughts drive who we are, what we’ll be, where we’re going, and how we look at the world. To find and experience awesomeness, we must first open ourselves to gratitude and appreciation. Without gratitude and appreciation, all of the awesomeness in this world (and beyond) are merely nouns, verbs, and adjectives, waiting to be combined.

The search for awesomeness starts and ends within each of us. Gratitude is our compass. Appreciation is our map.

[This post marks the first anniversary of my blog. My goal was to publish one post per week, and limit their length to no more than 500 words. This is my 58^th post, and I think only one went over my self-imposed word limit (but, it was one of my favorites).

I’m grateful and appreciative that you have taken the time to read my posts. I hope you found them encouraging, informative, and maybe a little thought provoking.]

Everyday is a Surprise

It all started with an earache…

“Bobby (what anyone who knew me before I was about 13 calls me), it all started with an earache. The doctor gave me some ear drops. The pain didn’t stop and seemed to get worse, so he gave me stronger drops. That still didn’t work. He ran some tests and told me it’s cancer, and I’m gonna die. It was an earache, and then I was dying. He says that I will probably just die in my sleep, so each time I wake up, it’s a surprise.”

In Pete’s case, it took about four months for the cancer specialists to identify the type of cancer that is killing him. He told me the name, and said it is very rare, untreatable, and fast moving. I made a mental note to look up the cancer and learn more about it. As I type this post, I have forgotten its name.

The fact that each of us will die is no surprise. The timing is the surprising part. That, and the name of the thing that ultimately causes our death. There’s always a name.

I remember a conversation I had with Grandpa Clyde (my wife’s grandfather) at least ten years ago. He was in his late-80’s at the time, showing me how to cook ribs properly on a barbeque. I asked him what it was like to have lived as long as he had. I will never forget his response. “If you live long enough, you say goodbye to a lot of friends and family. Most of the people I grew up with are dead and gone. I stopped going to funerals a long time ago. I spend my time making new friends, and enjoying this time I’ve been given with my family.”

Growing up, Pete was one of my role models for a life worth living. A firefighter, motorcycle tuner, racer, helmet painter, wheelie king, runner, water skier, speeding ticket magnet, traveler, and a Bluegrass fan. Although I never actually saw it, he used to say that he also jumped rope, attended three world fairs, and a few other things that are probably better left unmentioned. Pete never stopped making new friends, or appreciating his old friends. He grabbed all that life has to offer, and then some.

Pete wears a patch over his right eye now. The tumor has grown and prevents that eye from blinking. He is in a lot of pain, and the pain medications cloud the passage of time. This hasn’t stopped Pete from grabbing what life has left for him. He is living each remaining day as a surprise.

In truth, each day is a surprise for all of us. An opportunity to appreciate our family and friends. An opportunity to make new friends, and enjoy what little time we’ve been given.

Sea Turtles, Conversion Ratios, and Time

The only thing you get to do with your time is…

I was in Kona last week. I could write paragraph after paragraph about how awesome the Big Island is. How the island has nearly every climactic zone on the planet represented. The stark beauty of its huge lava flows, the serenity of its beaches, the fun I had boogie-boarding for the first time in 30 years. Maybe in another post…

For me, the most memorable part of our visit was snorkeling with sea turtles. Their fins are like wings in the water. Sea turtles don’t just swim. They soar and glide. Every movement is graceful. Effortless. Each movement has a purpose. Theirs is a plan that unfolds in slow motion before your eyes.

Did I mention that they’re holding their breath? In yet another almost effortless motion, they pop their heads above water for about three seconds to take a new gulp of air. With only three seconds of air, sea turtles can stay underwater a long time…3-4 hours.

Three seconds of air providing hours of underwater time. How’s that for a conversion ratio? Consider the value sea turtles extract from such a limited supply of air.

Think about your resources. What are they? How much value are you extracting from them?

I submit that time is our most precious resource. It marches on, relentlessly. You can’t speed it up, or slow it down…and you can’t buy more of it.

One can’t talk about time without a few quotes on the subject:

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” Michael Altshule

“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” Thomas Edison

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” H. Jackson Brown

The only thing you get to do with your time is choose what you do with it. Choose wisely, and be sure to spend some of it snorkeling with sea turtles.

Photo Credit: http://www.wallsave.com

Your Talent Won’t Be Enough

Enough for what?

There are very few truly one-man (or one-woman) shops. Show me a successful sole proprietor, and I’ll show you someone who leads, and relies upon, a team of talented individuals…whether they realize it or not.

How can this be? Doesn’t the definition of sole proprietor mean that one person is the sole talent? Well, sort of, but not quite.

Imagine that you’re an awesome flower arranger. Your bouquets are exquisite. Their beauty is unmatched. You decide to take a risk and open your own flower shop. Your confidence is high. After all, your flower arrangements are incredible. Customers will come from miles around to buy your arrangements.

A few weeks into the process of opening your new shop, you discover that flower shops don’t run on flower arrangements alone. There are building leases to negotiate, furniture and fixtures to procure, point-of-sale systems to deploy, website interfaces to create (if you’d like to receive orders from some of the national flower delivery services), suppliers to line up, insurance coverage to purchase, merchant account services (if you plan to take credit cards), and payroll systems (for the one or two part-time employees you’ll be hiring, just for starters).

You’ll need to connect your talent with the talents of a wide array of other people, just to open your shop.

It’s the same thing in a larger company. Your ability to build trusting relationships across your company, and across your industry, will have more to do with your long-term success than individual talent. Creating a reservoir of trust with talented people, and relying on them, just as you’d rely on yourself, is critical to your success…and theirs.

Your talent, alone, won’t be enough. Enough for what? Enough to accomplish whatever your definition of success is.

Defining Semi-Retirement

I’m definitely not retired, although I have let the term, semi-retired, roll around in my head. It seems accurate, for now.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, I’m living the life of a semi-retired person. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it all began about six weeks ago. That’s when I parted company with my employer after a little over fourteen years of service. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I think we were great for each other. I learned a lot, contributed lots of value, helped many people advance in their careers, and enjoyed the fruits of success.

I often counsel people to remember that in any organization, large or small, every day could be your last. Many probably think I’m being a bit dramatic with this advice. While not speaking literally (well, maybe I am), the main message is to be prepared for a sudden exit, either by your choice, or the company’s.

My departure was my choice and the process took a few months. Heeding my own advice, my wife and I were well prepared. We’ve saved and invested (sometimes wisely) for our entire life, lived simply, and recently wrote our last tuition check (a big milestone in any parent’s life).

My friends congratulated me on my early retirement, but I was quick to push back.

I’m definitely not retired, although I have let the term, semi-retired, roll around in my head. It seems accurate, for now. “Semi” opens the door to a world of options, and sets a high bar for what I’ll choose to do in the future.

What’s next? I’m not sure, and I kinda like it like that.

The Most Important Strategy Presentation You’ll Ever Make

Was this the most important strategy presentation you’ll ever make? It probably seemed like it, with all of the hard work and sleepless nights that went into it.

You’ve figured out how to ask real strategic questions . You and your team have used those strategic questions to layout your strategy for next month, next year, maybe even the year after that.

You’re working on the big strategy presentation for your boss, and his boss. You have 30-45 minutes to present. It has to be perfect. Your PowerPoint slides need to be crisp, concise, and informative. Most of all, they must smoothly convey the sheer mastery of your team’s strategy.

You rehearse with your management team. You adjust and tweak each word, each number, and every bullet point on your slides. You gather as much supporting information as you can to support your conclusions. You write out every question you can anticipate, and make sure you have a clear and effective response for each one. You are ready.

Your company’s dress code is business casual, but it’s tradition that you wear a coat and tie for these annual strategy presentations. Your preparation pays off. You deliver a brilliant strategy presentation. There are a few questions thrown your way, but you’ve anticipated every one of them. Your boss, and his boss, are clearly impressed and excited to offer their support for your strategy.

You gather your team for a short post-presentation update meeting. You congratulate your team for all of the work they’ve done on the presentation. High fives all around!

Was this the most important strategy presentation you’ll ever make? It probably seemed like it, with all of the hard work and sleepless nights that went into it. But, it definitely wasn’t the most important.

Having your manager’s support for your strategy is a big deal. But, your manager, and his manager, won’t do much to help you deliver on the brilliant strategic vision you and your team have laid out.

Remember all the time and energy that went into your perfect presentation? Imagine if you spent even half of that time and energy preparing for, and presenting to, your customers and your employees.

The most important strategy presentation you’ll ever make is to the people who will deliver on your strategy…your customers, your direct reports, and everyone who works within your organization.

It’s not a one-time event that lasts 30-45 minutes. It’s a never-ending conversation that should be happening with your customers, and across all levels of your organization…every day.

Are You Asking Strategic Questions?

If your company stopped delivering its products and services, who would miss it?

It’s strategic planning season. Companies of all shapes and sizes are dusting off their strategic plans from last year, looking into their crystal balls and determining what they’re going to do next year. How can we extend our products or services within our marketplace? What will it take for us to keep up (catch up) with our competition? How can we squeeze an extra point of profitability from our existing revenue streams? Can we raise our prices a few percentage points without losing too many customers? Do we need this many people?

If the previous paragraph sounds familiar, your organization isn’t doing strategic planning.

Strategic planning isn’t just an annual event. Strategic questions don’t come from a defensive posture. They shouldn’t be about tweaking at the margin. Strategic questions definitely shouldn’t focus on ways to play “catch up.” These questions may be important, but they aren’t strategic. They’re tactical.

If your company stopped delivering its products and services, who would miss it?

What do your customers, or prospective customers, really want? What are they trying to accomplish? Your organization’s value comes from helping customers hit their strategic targets. Otherwise, you’re merely a commodity, a convenience to be discarded whenever possible.

Many organizations fool themselves into believing they do strategic planning. Sadly, they’re only going through the motions, “challenging themselves” to answer the easy, tactical questions…year after year.

That is, until their customers find another way to meet their strategic goals.

Remembering to Breathe

Nearly all sports are the same (at least on one level).

Nearly all sports are the same (at least on one level). It doesn’t matter if that sport is soccer, baseball, golf, archery, skeet shooting, curling, downhill skiing, long distance running, ice skating, motorcycle racing, or competitive yodeling.

They each start with the same fundamentals:

Relax and stay loose
Calm your mind
Visualize success
Bend your knees
Don’t forget to breathe.

One could make a case that each of these fundamentals are of equal importance, but my money is on the last one. Consciously remembering to breathe puts us in the right state of mind to remember the other fundamentals.

We each face challenges on a daily basis. Some are small, and some are huge (at least from our perspective). Here’s a strategy for tackling each of them:

Relax and stay loose
Calm your mind
Visualize success
Bend your knees
Remember to breathe!

The Perils of Over-thinking

Here’s a little over-thinking on the topic of touch-free paper towel dispensers…

To demonstrate how over-thinking can produce results that are the opposite of stated goals, here’s a little over-thinking on the topic of touch-free paper towel dispensers.

There are two main goals associated with touch-free towel dispensers in public restrooms:

Dispense a pre-defined quantity of paper towel, minimizing paper use.

Allow patrons to get their towels without coming in contact with someone else’s germs.

Simple, right? Well, not so fast.

How much paper does a patron need to achieve proper hand drying? If we use inches of dispensed paper as the measure, is three inches of paper enough? Six? Twelve? What’s too much? If the goal is to minimize waste, one could set the dispenser to only three inches. Theoretically, this would minimize paper use. But, if it’s not enough, the patron will stand there and dispense another three inches. Possibly, another six inches.

To get the additional inches of paper towel necessary to achieve proper drying, the patron must wait for the machine to cycle. This second-and-a-half cycle time can seem like an eternity. After all, we’ve all got other things to do with our time. The patron vigorously swipes their hand under the machine. After one or two wand-like swipes that yield no additional paper, they often resort to hitting the machine where the sensor should be. Oops, there goes that goal of not touching someone else’s germs.

Which setting will yield the least overall paper use (our first goal)? The first-level thinker would say the lowest setting will do the trick. But, we’ve established that the lowest setting is probably not enough. The patron will merely wait for at least one more cycle to get the paper they need.

The second-level thinker would say that dispensing more from the beginning will yield less overall paper use and waste. If the proper amount is dispensed from the beginning, the patron will be less likely to wait for another cycle. Don’t even get me started on battery use differences associated with the two options.

Why does any of this matter? Why think so deeply about touch-free towel dispensers?

To illustrate how easy it is to get wrapped up in meaningless minutia and forget about providing the patron (our customer) with an excellent experience. How much minutia are you focusing on while ignoring your customer’s experience?

Just Another PICNIC

I learned a new acronym recently: PICNIC

I learned a new acronym recently:

PICNIC–Problem in chair, not in computer.

“Way” back in the early 90’s when one of my jobs was desktop support, I referred to the same phenomena as a “nut on the keyboard” problem. At least 80% of the “computer problems” were actually human problems.

It’s the same thing with Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. Most “dog” problems are human problems waiting to be solved. Cesar spends most of his time “whispering” to dog owners. Cesar can’t call his show The Human Whisperer, even if that’s an accurate description of the service he provides. To do so would alienate the audience that he’s trying to help.

The challenge with humans is that most of us would rather not admit that we are the problem. It’s so much easier to blame the computer, the dog, the airline, the car, traffic, evil Republicans, evil Democrats, government, the economy, our manager, our parents, our kids, society, the system. The list of excuses is infinite.

The good news is that the solution to most of these “problems” is in the chair.

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