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Four keys to success! – Do you want to win?

Frode Heimen — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Imagine a naval army base that has just received their new delivery of three brand new destroyers. Let’s call them for USS Frode, USS Heimen and USS Norway for the fun of it. The crew that is supposed to be on these three vessels has all been trained at the same base, with the same officers in charge. The vessels are all equal only separated by their great and unequal names. After running on the seven seas for about a year, the following was stated: USS Frode managed as predicted, USS Norway have had a lot of problems with the engine and in general been far below expected standards and USS Heimen have been the most decorated vessel in the navy the last year. It was the pride of the base. The reason I am starting in a naval style today is that I am searching for the keys to success.

How can one business with great location be surpassed by a business placed in the more rural places of the city? What makes two similar companies different? Why did USS Norway fall behind? Why did USS Heimen end up a highly decorated vessel?

I have been thinking about this for a while, and yesterday I saw a TV-show on Travel Channel about historical railroads and trains. This time it was about a train in Canada where the steam locomotive was from about 1898. They interviewed one of the volunteer mechanics, and he said something that stuck to me; “When other train enthusiasts see this locomotive, I want them to say WOW!” – The train was spotless and shiny. He seemed extremely proud of his job on this train. This leads me to the first key to success; Being proud.

Being proud
As an employee you need to be proud of your job, to be able to shine. As a leader you need to create proud workers. Proud workers brag about their great job, they brag about how good their business is doing; they brag about how great their products and services are. They are proud to represent their company. Proud employees are good ambassadors for your image.
Still just being proud do not separate the good from the great, I am sure that the crew on all three vessels where proud from day one? What went wrong? And who is responsible for USS Norway’s repeating engine problems? This leads me to the next keyword; Responsibility.

Taking responsibility
Does the crew on USS Heimen demonstrate more responsibility than on the two other vessels? Most likely yes! I think the officers on the USS Heimen have been successful to develop a proud crew that is allowed to demonstrate a high level of responsibility. At your office, who is responsible for keeping the office tidy and clean? You? Your boss? Your co-workers? The cleaning staff? Or you don’t care, as long as someone else picks up your garbage? Fast rewind; back to the train mechanic; as he was being interviewed he was polishing away a spot on the engines side. The train should be spotless, even in the remote places that are out of view to the general public. USS Heimen did not contain dust and dirt where USS Norway was filthy. The crew took pride in keeping the destroyer in great shape. And it was everybody’s responsibility to keep it spotless, that resulting in not ignoring filth if they saw it, because someone else will pick it up.

If you take responsibility for your customers in the same way, you are on the way to retaining happy customers. You will not ignore what makes them unhappy because it is not your job, you will not leave a unhappy customers for others to handle, you will not accept that your store is untidy as you know it might create a bad impression on customers. If you walk by a dirty kitchen in your dining area at work, you will make it shine. You feel responsible for creating happiness around you, and you know the meaning of the word.

I define responsibility as a mental mode. This is something you can learn. It is your responsibility to contribute to happy customers, great co-workers, a great work environment, a tidy work sphere. You are responsible for being awake at work and doing your best to reach the goals and visions of the company. And ding ding, correct this leads me to the next thing that I believe is important; Clear goals and a vision.

A great vision is a roadmap to success.
As a leader you need to be able to demonstrate a vision and project this on to your employees. One of my favorite inspirations is a Norwegian author, advertising guru, consultant and soccer enthusiastic; Ingebrigt Steen Jensen. He wrote a book called “Ona Lighthouse” (I think it is only published in Norway) about creating a vision. He has been working for the Norwegian soccer club Stabæk for years since they were in lower divisions. And way back they had a vision about winning the Norwegian top division, and they did last season (2008). And a few years ago they created a new vision about playing the semi-finals of the European Championships at their new arena at Fornebu, Oslo. They have just built this arena, and established their new home venue before this season. And Ingebrigt have just been elected chairman of the board at Stabæk. The power of a great vision, proud members and people willing to take the responsibility pushed the vision into real life.

Still there is one last thing…
We have the roadmap, the route planned, we have proud people creating an engine and the mass is responsible for the results. But wait what if we get lost underway? And don’t know how to manage a crisis? The company needs to create a set of values to match their goals and visions. What kind of company is this? What kind of employees is needed? And what values are important to get us started? Ownership? Hardworking? Creative? Honest? Strong?
healthy? Knowledge? Clear values works as a compass on the roadmap, if you are stuck, the values might guide you forward. What values do you think the train mechanic has? He wants to preserve the old, share with others and is proud to show off a train that makes other enthusiasts go WOW!

This demonstrates four keys to success, pride, responsibility, a vision and values. I could write a lot more about the consequence of having responsibility. This is actually a huge and important subject, and unfortunately a lot of people try to run away from it; No, it’s not my fault, the product department did not inform us, the boss failed to mention it, how could I know, I have not had the time yet and so on. This is a disease that needs to be cured for the company to be able to succeed. There is a chance that at USS Norway someone noticed a strange sound from the engine room, and thought; “what is this sound? Oh well, the engine crew probably knows.” – While on USS Heimen, this would result in a person trying to figure it out and alerting someone who could fix it? The officers probably had a vision about a decorated vessel with proud men and women, and the officers probably knew what values to tech to the crew.

These keys to success are probably not the only ones, but this is the four things that I at this current time of my life define as the most important.

Why you should always stay positive.

Frode Heimen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:51:00 +0000

I can’t believe it, my wife have been complaining lately that I am negative. What? Me? Negative? No! Yes it is winter in Norway, it is cold, it is always raining if I am going outdoors, it is dark when I leave for work and it is dark when I come home. The food is crap, I am bored. I do not feel creative and everything sucks. What have happened to the positive always smiling and happy me? I just read a book about being positive, and I am all of a sudden drowning in negative energy. How can I get out of this?

First of all reading a book does not help, at once.
I am sitting here tonight, my wife is watching a movie on TV and I am trying to update my blog. I am looking around me and searching for positive stuff in my life. I am happily married, I have a beautiful wife, I am lucky to be born in Norway and I have a good steady job that I love. The house is warm, it is soon Christmas, I am healthy, I have a cold beer in front of me and I am financially safe. I appreciate walking to work in the morning, with my four year old son tagging along singing some song he just made up, it is nice even if it is cold and/or rains. This is actually one of the exercises in the book I find to be most useful. Just sitting around and focusing on what is positive. All in all I am lucky, and I feel warm doing this exercise. The advice was to do this exercise in bed before you went to sleep and you will get a deeper and better sleep. It does work for me.

Be aware, negativity spreads like a plague.
If you are thinking negative thoughts, you are actually feeding a beast that keeps giving you negative focus. Everything becomes dark. And your mind loves to be negative. The only way to beat it is mental awareness where you focus on thinking positive thoughts. The monster will feed you with thoughts like: “this is crap”, “this does not work” and “this is stupid”. And you need to fight it.

I do believe that being positive have some strong advances.
1. People around you will be more positive. And being surrounded by positivity will make you happy.
2. You will feel more energy if you focus on positivity.
3. Your spouse won’t give you a hard time.
4. Your job will be easier.
5. Your co-workers will love working with you.
6. People will smile to you.

Positivity and negativity are both spirals that keep getting stronger the longer it lasts. If your job sucks, it is most likely not the jobs fault, but it might be your own fault. Do you think your job sucks? Peterson is mentally disturbed, coffee is sour, customers keep complaining? Start looking for the positive stuff that makes your job great. Who is the best co-worker? What do you love to do? Can you do more of it? What have you done to make other people love their job? What does working give you in return? Good friends? Money? Safety?

If you are religious, you will probably know the strong force of praying. You might think that God hear you and help you out? I understand and respect the force of praying, not because a God might hear you and help you out, but because praying is creating a focus on something. “Give me strength to exercise today” – And your mind becomes aware of the need to exercise. As an employee or business leader you might need to stop and “pray” a few times a day? “I need to get my report done within lunch, help me find time to finish” You will see that it does help, if you believe a God help you on the way, that is up to you. But it does work.

Being positive is putting your mind in gear.
When you are negative, your mind isn’t running. Being positive is an act of consciousness and it is putting your mind in gear. This mean your mind is in drive mode and you need to focus. Focus on positivity, possibilities and solutions. This is an active action that needs training, it is like running, you can run faster and longer the more you practice. The more you practice on positivity the more positive you will be. It is a need for practice and repetition here. At first you will practice hard for short positive periods, and when you keep practicing you will be more and more in auto drive. Just do not allow your mind to run wild, than the negative force strikes back. If you are not focusing, negativity will grow like weed. It might take a while as you feel positive and one day your mind will be clogged with negativity. Then you need to clean up and focus.
The first thing you should do if you feel negative is to write down all the positivity in your life. When you go to sleep, think about good things, and how you want the next morning to be, and you will soon find the next day being just as you planned the previous evening. Good luck…

My mind is for sure unclogged now Happy!

PS! I decided to use a picture of my brother for this article, as I feel that this picture show energy, joy and positivity. You can’t help to feel happy looking at this picture, unless you are the goalie.

Do you know the cost of employee turnover?

Frode Heimen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

How many people have quit their job at your office lately? How many did quit the last year? Do you know how long it takes to replace good quality workers? Did you know that you can save money and increase efficiency by increasing your salary? I do strongly believe that money should be no object in your choice of work. And I believe if you give it your best, the money will follow. Your company on the other hand, need to be attractive in the market of the best employees, the salary do help out in this field.

Metallic White Inc
Let’s say your company: Metallic White Inc has 100 employees. The average salary is $45.000. During the last year 50 people got replaced. They either got promoted or quit. In this company it takes one month to be able to do the work good enough to do it on your own. It takes six months before you are fully effective.

The cost of replacing this person will be: $ 22500 six months of salary for the new and for the one in charge of training. The cost of replacing 50 people, costs $ 1.125.000 a year. What if you gave your employees a pay rise of $5.000? That would cost you $250.000 a year. If it reduces the turnover by 50 % you will save $562.500 a year, giving you a benefit of $312.500 a year. This is only a simple example, and the other benefit is that you will keep your employees around for much longer, increasing the all over experience by a mile. Depending of type of job, and work load you might increase productivity by 10 -20 %. A 12 % increase at my office would be equal to hiring two people. This increase in productivity has a great value not often calculated.

Other cost you would save is recruiting costs, saved time in job interviews. There is actually quite a lot to save.

Turnover Calculators.
I do code in PHP and can invent the wheel all over. But this is not necessary: Check out: http://www.hr-software.net/pages/220.htm – Find one that fits you and fill in the form and act surprised.

What is the result for your company?

12 easy steps to become a great employee.

Frode Heimen — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

As a manager I see a lot of people just doing their job, and then go home. They have no goal, and no purpose, they just do what they are supposed to do. They do not perform badly and they do not stand out as good. If this is your case you might be the grey mouse that nobody notices at work. You are replaceable! Do you want to secure your job? Do great? And even maybe get a promotion? I got promoted twice in just about a year. These 12 easy steps are a guarantee that you will be impossible to replace. And if the timing is right the door will open for promotion sooner or later, will you enter?

1. Be on time.
There is nothing more annoying for a leader than people arriving late to work. And did you know that your fellow co-workers get demotivated if you turn up late? According to a survey I had at my office, 30 % says that they are influenced in a negative way, when others turn up late. Read more about step 1 in this recent post.

2. Care about your co-worker.
When did you last praise a co-worker for a great job done? It is not only up to the manager to praise good efforts. A good feedback from a co-worker can be of greater value. Be friendly, including and do offer your time to help others. Pour them coffee. Do positive stuff for others and others do positive stuff for you! Read more about step 2 in this recent post.

3. Look good.
This is not about attraction and beautiful people. The point is to dress well, be representative and take care of your personal hygiene. What is the dress code like at your work? Try to follow up. If all others have a suit, so should you. Take a shower now and then. If you always dress good, your boss will notice and just by that get a good impression. If you always dress improperly your boss will notice that too. Who will be trusted with the important client? The one that looks good, or the one that might scare the client? Read more about step 3 in this recent post.

4. Work with goals all the time.
How many sales did you get yesterday? How many cows did you milk? How many tasks did you complete? Do you know your average? Write three goals on a piece of paper. One is set to be your absolute minimum. The next is a goal a bit higher, this is a good day. The third goal is the highest, and if you reach it you’ve just had a great day. If you always manage to pass your absolute minimum, it’s time to adjust your goals, when you do, adjust all three. Read more about step 4 in this recent post.

5. Reflect and speak to your coach.
This one is linked to the last point about working with goals. Find time to reflect about the last week or day, why did you reach your goals? Why did you not reach your goals? Could you have done something different? Is there room for improvement? Did you do something that worked great? I increased my sales many years ago when I stopped asking the customer this question; “How may I help you today?” With this question; “Do you see something you would like to learn more about?” I sold even more when I learned about closing techniques. At my current work we found ways to reduce the time between each caller with 30 sec. giving us the power to handle 80 more calls each day. If you have a manager or a coach, speak to them about your results, they might guide you to see more clearly how to improve. Read more about step 5 in this recent post.

6. Detach yourself from you pay check.
Your salary is of no importance, if it is, you are many steps away from being an excellent employee. I have heard statements like: “Give me more money, and I will produce more”, “I do not give it all, because my pay is not high enough” – Guess what, if you think like this you’ve already lost. I will never give a rise to this personality. If you make pay unimportant, and give it your best, you will be rewarded. If you have accepted a job offer, you have accepted you salary, leave it there. Read more about step 6 in this recent post.

7. Learn and share.
Add value to yourself. Learn more, read about you field of expertise. Most promotions are equal to getting more responsibility and in most cases leadership. Acquire those skills now. Learn your markets; learn about business strategies in your fields. Learn how to motivate others. And when you learn, share your knowledge. Teach others your expertise, motivate others, and take care of others. Make sure you contribute to a happy workplace. Read more about step 7 in this recent post.

8. Grab that ball!
Attitude is everything. I have a theory that divides humans in two groups, those who are afraid of the ball, and those that want the ball at any cost. When I hold motivational speeches a basketball is one of my best props. If you ever saw how a basketball game starts, you’ll know what I mean. I compare the ball to challenges. If you board suddenly decide to sell napkins, darn, we shall be the best napkin sellers in the world. If management decide that we shall get a new task, bring it on, and we shall create gold. The business world is changing fast, you need to be able to adapt and positive about it. I hate it when I hear people say: “We never did this before, why should we do it now?”, “This task should be done by others” and “I do not know how to do this”. Read more about step 8 in this recent post.

9. Involve yourself.
Be pro active towards your manager, ask to discuss topics with them, ask to be evaluated and ask to reflect together. But do not bug them down; remember you need to produce results as well. Volunteer if tasks are given, especially if it is in a topic you love. Read Steve Roesler’s guest post about step 9 here.

10. Get to know your company.
Understand how your company works. If you work in a large company, you might just be a small piece of the puzzle. If you know how your company operates, you’ll easier see the importance of you job, and you might even see where there is room for improvement. If you have a faulty product, it would be nice to know someone who might actually do something about it. You might also discover that bonding with other departments might improve the production all over, as you might learn from each others. If you have a sales department at your job, what can you or your departments do to increase sales? If you work in a small company you might get a high influence, if you know your markets and can produce good ideas that work. Read more about step 1o in this recent post.

11. Be a good example.
Don’t be the one falling asleep under the table at all social happenings, if you drink, don’t get drunk. Have fun, and smile. Be positive about your job, and focus on positivity. Do not get tangled up in negative conversations. There is a difference between criticism and negativity. You can be critical if you have the arguments. But remember, if you are negative, you will create negative co-workers. Treat people good on your way up, cause you might meet them on your way down. Step up to the challenge when needed. Read more about step 11 in this recent post.

12. Relax and recover.
Use your spare time wisely, find a hobby you like or focus on your family. Work is important, but work to live, do not live to work. Find activities that give you energy. Get enough sleep; enjoy your friends and family. Take a walk outside. Do not spend the entire weekend indoors playing world of warcraft. Read something that inspires you. Kiss your spouse. Do one positive thing right now. Do you have chores that need to be done? Do one right now. Clean your bath, or make your living room a nice place to be. Surprise someone with a gift. It is up to you. Read more about step 12 in this recent post.

As a word at the end, I would also recommend to read this post as well.If you like this article please sign up here for e-mail notifications when I update my blog.