Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Be Sure Your Stressed Workforce Takes Their Vacation


These days people are working extremely hard. This only makes it more important than ever that they take their vacations. Without breaks, the hard work that your folks do is not sustainable.
Here are a few things you can do to encourage them to take vacations:
1. First and foremost, take a vacation yourself and let them know that you're planning to do this.
2. Communicate to your direct reports directly about their vacations and be sure that they have some time scheduled.
3. Tell them that you appreciate how hard they work and hope that they take the vacations that they deserve.
4. While you're at it, why not consider closing down for at least half a day every Friday to give your people some extra time off. They'll appreciate it and get more done during the week than you can imagine.
5. Or do as Scott Mertz does with his company,MC3, close down for the whole week of Fourth of July so that nobody is in the workplace and everybody gets a good break.
6. And what if you think you can't afford to have your people take a vacation? Then you better review your expectations, operations, and goals. Remember: all work and no rest, make a business fail.

Coach Rob
rob@leadersconnect.com
www.robertpasick.com

Monday, May 21, 2012

Here Are David Sarns’ Top 10 Life Lessons Learned From Dick & Norma Sarns, His Father & Mother


Question of the week? What key life lessons did you learn from your parents? 
1. The Value of Partnership and Team: Mom and Dad collaborated on all of their projects and businesses, always 50/50 partners.
2. Every Problem is an Opportunity: As I faced insurmountable problems as an MBA, my father would break the issues down into manageable and solvable pieces...much to my frustration.
3. Relentless Positive Action:  Rick Snyder must have borrowed this term from my parents.  They always focus on the positive, do not dwell on the negative, find the best in people and create a positive vision.
4. Life Long Learning: My father is a voracious reader of books, periodicals and newspapers.  He seeks out programs such as the AMA to continue his learning as well as other seminars.  I have never seen him without his notebook to write down key points he hears.
5. Be a Great Listener: They taught me that you learn more by listening than by speaking.  Listen intently and draw people out.
6. Calculated Risk Taking: On our travels up North my Father would challenge himself by attempting to travel to the next gas station which might be 25 miles away even as we showed close to empty on the gas gage.  We always made the next station, except for once, but even then we coasted into the station on fumes.
7. Loyalty: To husband and wife, family, friends, and employees.
8. Be Humble: It always take a team and no one individual can do it all.
9. Giving Back: Giving back to the community with our time, skills and resources.
10. To Be Continued: Many more life lessons to come.

Coach Rob
rob@leadersconnect.com
www.robertpasick.com


Monday, May 7, 2012

7 Steps to Becoming A Better Person


In my years of being a psychologist and executive coach, I have discovered seven factors that when practiced can lead to becoming a better person.  Here are the seven:  

1. Have healthy relationships with your family.
2. Have friends with whom you talk and to whom you are loyal.
3. Be involved in your community.
4. Have a committed relationship with a significant other who is a "soul mate."
5. Take good care of your body and your mind.
6. Keep in front of your mind at all times that "it's not all about you.”
7. Have work about which you feel passionate and where you can use your skills to their fullest.

How are you doing on each of these seven dimensions? If there is one where you are failing, develop an action plan to improve it. They all are important. None can be neglected.  For more information, please read my book Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times.


Coach Rob Pasick
Email: rob@leadersconnect.com