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

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

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

Website: www.robertpasick.com

Dick Sarns, A Formula for Success

1. Have a great idea saving lives by developing a heart-lung machine

2. Develop a prototype for it in your basement

3. Manufacture the product

4. Build a company that eventually employs hundreds of people

5. Successfully sell to a Fortune 500 company which treats you right

6. Have another idea on how to save lives through an exercise machine

7. Build a second company to manufacture the machines

8. Work successfully throughout all of these endeavors with your wife as a business partner

9. Serve the community

10. Remain humble

11. Follow this formula and you, too, may receive an Honorary Doctorate from University of Michigan in your mid 80’s

You can reach Dick at dsarns@nustep.com.

  

Coach Rob Pasick

Email: rob@leadersconnect.com

Website: www.robertpasick.com

Shooting Yourself in the Foot

Dr. Rob asks, “what are your favorite ways to shoot yourself in the foot?”

We are all exceptional at shooting ourselves in the foot.  Some examples are:

1. Being late

2. Speaking when you should be listening

3. Multi-tasking when you should be paying attention

4. Blurting something out you don’t intend to say

5. Complaining without offering a suggestion for change

6. Making a joke when it’s not appropriate

These self defeating habits are among the hardest to overcome.  Here’s a suggestion for breaking this bad habit:

1. For the next week, keep a list of the ways you shoot yourself in the foot.

2. At the end of the week, review the list and come up with an action plan for at least one of these  habits that you will work on changing. 

If you need more help on this, I’d be happy to talk to you about it.  Please share your comments on here, Facebook or email.

Coach Rob Pasick

Email: rob@leadersconnect.com

Website: www.robertpasick.com

Basic Advice On Leadership from Bill Hermann

As part of the Dr. Rob series, I will be featuring lists from leaders of their basic advice on leadership. This week I feature advice from Bill Hermann, served as Managing Partner of Plante Moran for eight years, who will be our speaker at CEO Connect on Friday, April 20.

1. Find teachable moments – in groups and private vacations.

2. Stretch your imagination, whenever possible.

3. Don't hold grudges.

4. Allow people to make mistakes, just make sure you have their back.

5. Ask lots of questions – and listen to the answers.

6. Observe potential successors under pressure – making decisions, leading teams and as colleagues.

7. Be compassionate .

8. Take vacations and encourage everyone to take vacations.

Please submit to me your list and I will consider it for inclusion in a forthcoming Dr. Rob column.

Coach Rob Pasick

Email: rob@leadersconnect.com

Website: www.robertpasick.com

Ten Attributes To Create A Sustainable Organization

Bill Hermann, served as Managing Partner for eight years at Plante Moran and is author of a great new book, Succession Transition: A Roadmap For Seamless Transitions in Leadership, will be the presenter at CEO Connect on Friday, April 20.  Today we feature his ten attributes needed to create a sustainable organization and what happens if the attribute is missing. He will be elaborating on these principles on April 20.

ATTRIBUTE                                IF ATTRIBUTE IS MISSING

Vision                                        Lack of purpose/understanding

Planning/Strategy                         Lack of clarity/action

Alignment                                        Creates inefficiency

Leading/Promoting Change                Creates hesitancy/resistance

Create environment (culture)                Lack of cohesion

Communication                                Lack of understanding/perspective

Selection/Leadership                        Lack of resources

Development/Experiential learning        Lack of preparedness

Mentoring/Coaching                        Lack of skill development

Transition/Succession                        Lack of future leadership

Please join the conversation on my blog (link provided below).

Coach Rob

robertpasick.com