15 Minutes a Day

Archive for December, 2009

The past decade has been eventful for me! A number of milestones have occured including:

• Worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles
• Got married for the 2^nd time
• Graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree
• Got caught up in the excitement of the Dot Com Boom when I got a job with a web design company
• Witnessed the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and it’s aftermath with the rest of the world
• Got caught by the Dot Com Bust when I got laid off by the web design company and experienced 18 months of unemployment
• Got a job with my current employer
• Bought a House
• Earned my Masters Degree in Health Administration
• Became the proud parent of two beautiful dogs
• Had Gastric Bypass surgery & lost 100 lbs in a year
• Bought my 1^st brand new car
• Got a promotion in my current company
• Started working on my Doctoral Degree in Management and Organizational Leadership
• Joined two Toastmasters clubs and earned my Competent Communicator and Competent Leader Awards

Whew! That’s quite a decade! So, with all of that behind me, what does the future hold? Naturally I can’t predict the future as precisely as the past, but I do have plans. They include finishing my doctoral degree, becoming a college or university instructor, perhaps starting my own business, and maybe doing some traveling with my husband.

I must say that I am excited by the prospects of my future! Most immediately I’m looking forward to researching and writing my dissertation on corporate use of social media. I really enjoy participating in social media and feel that if large corporations (like the one I work for) were to utilize some of the more versatile social media tools, they would be surprised by the resources and ideas they could tap into once their employees start using them.

At the beginning of February 2010 I begin the first real, solid steps down that path. Everything in my doctoral program so far has been in preparation for this next class which is a one-on-one with my Doctoral Mentor, Dr. Nancy Holley. In that class Dr. Holley and I will be solidifying the plans for my dissertation project and setting the plans for how we will proceed until our 2^nd class together in September.

The plans I’ve laid out so far only cover the next couple of years. I don’t know what will happen after that, but I am looking forward to finding out. I’ve always been someone who enjoys the adventures of life. I don’t see that changing any time in the near future…

Posted by Wayne Lambert (@FastWebProfits) on Twitter.com: “The only real training for leadership is leadership.” – Anthony Jay

I saw the quote above posted on Twitter when I did a search for the term Leadership and it got me thinking. Leadership is a skill that, like all other skills from knitting a sweater to becoming a star athlete to sculpting a statue, needs to be practiced. This requires that anyone who wants to be a leader put themselves into leadership situations. This can be a scary prospect, but each instance of leadership has the potential to:

• Add new skills
• Teach new life lessons
• Expose the leader to different personality types
• Make network connections
• Add another line to the leader’s résumé
• Prove initiative to current and future employers

So, how does one go about “practicing” leadership? The first step is to look for leadership opportunities in a job, in social organizations, and in the community. Leadership openings abound in our lives. All someone has to do is step up and take the chance to succeed… or fail.

Example of Leadership on the Job:

In my own job I am an instructor. I provide direction to people who are both eager to learn something new and afraid to fail at something new. Each interaction with my students – both in class and one-on-one – is an opportunity to practice leadership by instilling knowledge and confidence in my coworkers. Even though I am not managing them, I am leading them. I don’t get everything right in every situation. That is why it’s called practice…

Example of Leadership in Social Organizations:

In July of 2008 I joined Good-to-Great Toastmasters so I could practice becoming a better public speaker. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I would also have opportunities to become a better leader as well. At the first chance I became Vice President of Public Relations and the club Webmaster. Before I knew it, I was also becoming involved with a new Toastmasters club (GO Speakers!) at work. I became VP of PR and club Webmaster in that club and was also asked to be the club’s Mentor. I jumped at the chance because of the added leadership practice it would provide me…

Example of Leadership in the Community:

I am a graduate student working on my doctoral degree through the University of Phoenix. In this case, my community is comprised of other doctoral students from around the world (literally). We attend classes online and each have different backgrounds and experiences. We each take turns as team project leaders and provide each other with different perspectives. We influence one another’s ideas and aid one another’s research. Each project is an opportunity for each of us to learn to follow or lead others…

Now it’s Your Turn:

How do you practice leadership in your life? What opportunities have you taken to improve your leadership skills? By sharing your experiences, you may give others some ideas about how to continue to practicing leadership skills.

I enjoy shopping, dining out, and finding new “toys” to play with. When I’m happy with a vendor I tell everyone I know about it. When I’m unhappy with a vendor, I do the same. In my previous blog post I explained what NOT to do to get my business. Listed below are a few things vendors and service providers can do to get and keep my business and make me WANT to spread the word about their good service.

• Develop a relationship with me. Pay attention to what I post here on my blog and on Twitter and then tell me how you can be of service to me. Within a few days after I bought my house, I got all kinds of fliers on my door offering to sell my house for me. Why on Earth would I want to sell a house I’d just bought? Those realtors obviously didn’t know or care about what I needed as a new homeowner.
• Provide excellent customer service. I return to businesses that find ways to help me achieve my goals. I am even willing to pay a bit extra if it means I can achieve my goals.
• Don’t engage in wasteful practices. I don’t like ordering items from online or catalog vendors and having a small book or other item come in a great big box with all sorts of padding or packaging. How companies interact with the environment is vitally important to me. Show me you’re a good steward of your little slice of the planet (and mine!) and you have a pretty good shot of keeping my business.
• Don’t make me feel like you don’t trust me. I’m not a big fan of the plastic clam-shell packaging that is next to impossible to get into. A majority of your customers are honest, law-abiding people who only want a good product or service at a fair price. Don’t engage in extreme measures because of what a few customers might do.
• Don’t preach at me. I don’t care what your religious or political beliefs are. Don’t put religious symbols or political emblems all over your ads or greet me with vigorous exclamatory statements. Treat me fairly and honestly and live your faith rather than preaching your faith. That’s the best way to get and keep my business.

Your thoughts on these points? What tips or pointers have I missed in this list? Please share with me in the comments area or on Twitter.

I don’t pretend to be anybody important or wealthy because I’m not. However, I do have friends, family, and contacts on various social networks and in various organizations. When I am happy with an organization or vendor I share that with nearly everyone I know. When I’m not happy, I do the same.  Listed below are things that I really wish vendors would NOT do if they want to keep my business:

• Don’t cold call me! I don’t like being cold called with “special offers.” You’re not going to get business from me if you call because there is too much of a chance that you’re scamming me. I’m not about to turn over my credit card or identity information to some company I’ve never heard of.
• If you do cold call me, do NOT use one of those one of those automated systems that asks me to “Please hold for one of our operators…” That is the fastest way to get me to hang up on you. After these two tips, I suggest that you don’t waste your time on cold calling me for my business.¹
• Don’t send me junk mail. When I check my mail or email I go through and pull out the letters and bills and toss the rest in the recycle bin (snail mail) or trash (email). I’m a busy lady & don’t have time to sift through every piece of mail or email I get.
• Don’t have lousy customer service! Nothing clamps the lock on my wallet faster than snooty or lousy customer service. I understand when a customer service person is unable to help me because something is outside their skill level or access level. However, don’t tell me what you can’t or won’t do for me. Tell me what you can or will do for me instead. If I’m calling you for help I’m already a bit irritated. Don’t make things worse by telling me what you won’t do for me.
• Don’t use overly loud commercials that shout at me. I have become so annoyed by commercials that frankly I don’t watch them anymore. I record all of the shows I want to watch so that I can fast forward through commercials. If advertisers want my business they can offer me information about their products or services in a manner that is much less phony and annoying. I DO listen to commercials on my favorite podcasts². The commercials are either very short, very entertaining, or both. That’s the way to capture my attention and my business.

Your thoughts on these points? What tips or pointers have I missed in this list? Please share with me in the comments area or on Twitter.

My next blog entry will address what those who want to capture my business should do to get it…

¹Nonprofits that I have a relationship with are exceptions to these first two rules. However, don’t call asking me for money. You’re more likely to get me to volunteer or buy tickets to something than to get a donation out of me. Let me know what you’re after and give me information about events, but give me the option to send it in to you, check my calendar, or attend an event.

²You can find a list of my favorite podcasts on the right-hand side of this page.

Today started out tough and stayed that way. I woke up feeling dizzy and continued having frequent dizzy spells throughout the morning. By 10:00 a.m. I was starting to worry that something was wrong so I called and made an appointment with a Physician’s Assistant in my PCP’s office.

My PA wasn’t certain that the dizziness was caused as an after effect of the concussion, but she couldn’t rule it out either. The brain is a tricky organ that is not always easily decipherable. To deal with the dizzy spells she prescribed meclizine. We’ll see how it works.

On the bright side, my cold seems to be clearing up. My husband’s cold seems to be on the mend as well. I’m trying to look on the bright side of things. It can be hard some days, but I keep trying. Mark is wonderful and makes sure I’m not overdoing it. I’ve also been getting lots of calls from friends and family who are checking up on me. I’m going to get to spend some time with family over the 24th-26th. That will be fun. I haven’t seen some of my family in more than a year.

Image Credit: This photo was retrieved on December 22, 2009 from the Health section of Mail Online using Google Images.