Greg's Right FIT #534 – This week: Manage, Guess, Psssss

Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.

In this issue: 

• Thoughts on Management
• Being Human – Read my mind
• Random Stuff
• Back In The Day

Thoughts on Management

• Be careful making exceptions. The saying goes, "every exception becomes the rule," because it's true. That said, be careful making rules. A big book of rules is crazy hard to manage from.
• There's a good chance your leadership's strategy is perfect on paper. Turning strategy into real outcomes requires our best laid plans ricocheting off company culture, prospects, and customers. Managers need to keep our heads on a swivel, as they say. Be ready for anything, and keep the goal in mind. It's what you're there for.
• If we're managing and feeling helpless, there's a good chance we've let our reserves get low. These reserves can be people, they can be personal energy, or even something like a reserve pipeline of prospects. Monitor the reserves on a regular basis. It helps you manage from a position of strength.
• This last week I was reminded of the importance of doing a detailed inspection what we expected to happen. Just because results look okay, doesn't mean it's happening the way you drew it up. In my case it was a misunderstanding of my language that led to results that are half of what they could be. We're heading the right direction, but doing it the wrong way. Inspect what you expect.

Being Human – Read my mind

In one of my early startups, I needed someone to help me process everything. I was looking for someone competent and the most competent, organized person I knew was my lovely bride. I thought, hey, you should come work with me. I am going to be paying someone, might as well be you. Plus, she'd get to see me every day. All day every day.

That was shot down. Not because she thought I'd just paw at her all day, but because she said I had an "assumed knowledge" thing. When I asked what she meant, she said, sweetly, "you have a habit of assuming the person you're talking to knows everything you do. I can't work with that."

That simple sentence was like the clouds parting and feeling the sun on my skin for the first time in years. I do that. A lot. Then, when I realize the person I'm talking to doesn't know what I mean, I run the other direction and over explain. Assumed knowledge.

I just did it again, like five minutes before writing this. A person I'm helping sent a note that said, "do you want me to do X?" and my first thought was, what they hell do you think we've been going back and forth about? Before I hit send on my terse note, I remembered assumed knowledge. I scrolled to re-read the previous conversation and, yep, I assumed. A lot.

I'll try to get better. I swear.

Random Stuff

"Pop. Fffsssss."

I know I tell too many stories about my beat up old truck. That said, this weekend I started on my gas trip. The goal was to go all the way out to Costco to save a few dollars, but it was cold and I had other things to do, so I stopped at a gas station close by. Saturday it was, I don't know, maybe 80 degrees out? Sunday was 40 and the wind blew. Very cold.

I needed to air up the tires. Pretty uneventful, but a little cold with the wind. Front, front, rear, rear. As I screw the little cap on the tire stem, it breaks off in my hand. The tire is flat in seconds. I look around because someone had to have seen that, right? Nope. Everyone was concentrating on gas.

I carefully roll the truck forward and break out the spare. It's an old truck. The spare sits on the underside exposed to the elements and looks a little sketchy. I fill it to the recommended PSI, waiting for it explode. I figure if it's my time, it's my time. No explosion. I start working on jacking it up with the little scissor jack in the trunk. I loosen the bolts, then go back to jack it up to get the wheel off.

Snap.

The jack breaks.

The wheel is barely holding the brake pad thingy off the ground.

Dang.

I call my lovely bride to come rescue me with her jack. I can't sit in the car for obvious reasons and I remember all the times in my youth I was chastised by my mother for not taking a heavier coat. The other jack arrives. It's not an exact fit, which makes me a little scared with the wind gusting, but it gets the truck up there.

It's a scissor jack too, so as it expands I hope the Swedes are better engineers than the Brits because I need to push it to its max height. The spare goes on, it doesn't blow out when I drive home, and now I need a tire fix and a new spare.

That can wait. We have a little road trip this weekend and I need to get my lovely bride's baby truck looked over. One thing at a time.

"Mr. Chambers, we have some things to cover," said the nice mechanic man after working on the car for a while. I walk over. "Everything is good but I would not take this car on a road trip. . .blah blah blah. . .new tires."

Happy birthday to my lovely bride! A new set of steel belted radials is what everyone really wants.

Moral of the story?

It's not "get rid of that f'ing pice of s**t" like someone said.

I'm going with "get your tires checked," instead.

Back in the Day

What was on my mind last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.

• Last Year: Right FIT #482 – Last year I was on about technology and in a web call how sound quality makes a difference in how you're perceived by the listener. This got me thinking about an early network texting tool and almost getting fired for using it
• Five Years Ago: Right FIT #273 – I spent some time talking about the idea of not just practicing, but directed practicing. It was coming out of covid times so I included a great drink recipe using a gifted whiskey. I may need to stir one.
• Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #11 – I gave some stress relievers, talked about Stimulus response, a favorite subject, and ended with a story. I went on a trip and packed a black shoe and a brown shoe. Both lefts. I wish I could say I haven't done that for 10 years, but it wouldn't be true.