Archive for April, 2010

Do you really learn from your mistakes?

April 30th, 2010

Tips for learning from mistakes
• Mistakes do not define your potential, so don’t take things personally when things go wrong.
• Be courageous and face up to a problem with a view to learn about it, no matter how painful.
• Blaming is quick and easy, but short lived and leads to long term problems.
• Understand that learning is a growth process and growing can be painful. But in the end it is necessary if you want to reach your full potential.
• Mistakes are only repeated by people who deny the opportunity to learn.

Me? I made a mistake?
Not many of us like to admit that we make mistakes, especially if they are made in a work situation. We’ve all done it. The problem is we’re growing up in this ever increasing culture of perfection. We find that organizations incentivize perfection and punish errors. It might sound right on the surface, but deep down it causes a lot of pain and long term paranoia. And for you the employee, instead of your focus being on how to improve and learn, it tends to get shifted towards the fear of screwing up!

Scared
There are so many people out there who are truly scared of making mistakes at work that they fall into an almost paralysis of potential. Instead of really growing in skill and ability, they reach a state where they don’t mess up, and are grateful just to be there, they stick with what they know and they stagnate. And managers can’t understand why people are not performing at a higher level. So, we’ve established that fear of screwing up can force people into a low risk taking pattern. But let’s face it, we’re still bound to make a mistake, even when we’re not taking risks. Learning from mistakes can be painful because it is an emotional experience.

The blame
It’s time for more honesty. How many of you have blamed something or someone else for a mistake you know was your fault? Don’t feel bad, we’ve all done it. We should do less of that and be brave enough to start seeing our mistakes as a place of learning instead. The worst kind of blame though is when we blame ourselves. That’s also a big learning killer.

The lucky break
Another area where learning tends to be shelved is when lucky breaks occur. You may find yourself in a tough situation and suddenly you’re rescued by someone or something, and your reaction is to cast the problems aside and forget them, literally cashing in on the good times. I know a guy who has recently seen some success after months of struggling with his business. His first response to his new found success was not to change anything about the way he did business, but rather to go out spend more cash. I hope he can sustain his success, but I fear there may be more troubles ahead.

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Boss, I deserve a pay rise

April 29th, 2010

Who’s due for a pay increase?
Boss, I’ve been working for the company for a year, I’ve worked hard, I’ve done everything asked of me – and more – I’ve stayed late in the office, I’ve attended to all the details on the Morgan contract, I closed the Johnson account, completed the bid on that bridge project, fixed the insurance for the California energy plant and am neck deep in the water desalination pilot. I am exhausted and there’s no let-up in sight. A pay rise would be a great way of saying thanks.

Is he due for a rise?
Employers are regularly faced with the question of whether their employees should receive salary increases. The basic rule is that employees do not have a right to an annual salary increase, unless it is: stipulated in an employee’s contract of employment; determined by a collective agreement between the employer and a trade union or by a bargaining council agreement; or set down by a sectoral determination applicable to the sector within which the employer operates.

Management prerogative
In the absence of any of these, salary increases remain the prerogative of management. Obviously, if the right to an increase is catered for in any agreements or determinations, the employer cannot unilaterally remove this right and replace it with, for instance, a discretionary annual salary increase or take away the right altogether. This would amount to a breach of contract. The employee’s agreement would have to be obtained to effect such a change.

Unfair labor practice
Even if an annual salary increase is not guaranteed, not providing an increase to an employee may still amount to an unfair labor practice. This would be the case, for example, if an employee meets all the requirements of a discretionary increase but the employer, without a valid reason, refuses to increase his or her salary. Employees who rely on this ground would need to prove that: they have some entitlement to an increase and that the employer acted unfairly in not increasing their salaries.

No guarantee of an increase
Even if there is no guarantee of an increase, employers who are running into financial problems, but whose employees might expect an increase, should at least inform the employees of their difficulties and their decision not to implement an increase well in advance. Not doing so is harmful to good workplace relations and opens up the risk of unfair labor practice complaints.

Tell the employees
It is important to communicate the basis on which salary increases are awarded to all employees. If the employer has a written policy about this, it should make reference to it in any contract of employment and ensure that staff whose contracts might not contain such a clause are provided with a copy of the policy. Employees should know in advance what the criteria are for receiving increases, how regularly they are awarded and on what basis they are calculated. The actual increase awarded to each individual employee should be kept confidential.

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Blood tests and coffee – a cheap morning

April 28th, 2010

We find a coffee shop in a million. We’ll be back!
Today was our annual check-up day, our 100,000 mile service, this year’s medical milestone, whatever you like to call it. We live in the downtown area of a small town where most things are in walking distance and our car rests in its underground parking slot. We walked across to the HMO building, took numbers and sat waiting for our turn to come up. A few needle pricks, some weak jokes from the doctors and we were done. Now we come to the important part of the day – breakfast.

The coffee shop
The coffee shop, grandly named “English Cake”, consists of small round tables with plastic chairs set out on a strip of sidewalk under large shady trees on the busiest intersection in town. There is constant tooting of horns at double-park offenders, slow pedestrians, slow cars, a yelling newspaper vendor and the all-pervading background chatter of coffee drinkers and waitresses trying to get the orders right. But it looked inviting and we grabbed a table that became vacant as we approached.

Breakfast
Our blood tests had required fasting and we were hungry. We ordered Cappuccinos, a large for me and a small for my wife, and one large egg-salad sandwich to share in Ciabatta bread. This is a rustic, oblong, flat bread whose name means “slipper” in Italian. The egg salad consisted of hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, egg-plant, lettuce and other green stuff which I couldn’t identify. The sandwich, cut in half, arrived with a large bowl of tomato and onion salad with a jug of dressing. We tucked in and ate everything.

Noise
The noise was horrific and is one of the reasons we have stayed away from this particular coffee shop. The Cappuccinos are plain looking and are not decorated with little cedar trees in the top layer of milk as they are in the fancy designer coffee shops. The coffee was hot and good. The sandwich was delicious.

The cost
Restaurants and coffee shops are great places to be while there is food and drink waiting to be consumed. Then the bill arrives and undoes some of the pleasure. In the case of the coffee shop this morning it looked like this:
One small Cappuccino: $2.43,
One large Cappuccino: $2.70,
One egg-salad sandwich: $6.50,
Total: $11.63.
The tip brought it to $13.50, an outright bargain. We will be back there again and again, despite the noise and the traffic.

The end of the day
So far the day was going well but from time to time I had flutters about the test results. I hadn’t bothered to ask how long it would be before results arrived and I assumed 2 to 3 days. At exactly 13:13 I was in front of the computer when an email came rushing in with all the results. Apart from one or two slightly over or under numbers, everything was fine. A great end to a great day!

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