The Sanford Berenberg Experience

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Message of the Day: Boxes Boxes Everywhere and all the bones did creak!

Good Morning,

This past weekend my family and I moved to our new home. We did it with the help of many loving people, and now we try to rest, recoup, clean up the old home and set up the new one.

There is a lot to be learned from the moving experience. The most obvious one is ‘don’t’. I am perfectly happy never moving again, but should I have to there is a lot of wisdom that can be gleaned from the harrowing experience.

First, it is almost always a bigger project than you first assume. For example, you can look at furniture and closets and stuff to assess how many boxes or tubs you will need, and when you purchase them, get 20% more than you expected. You will invariably find stuff you did not realize that you had stuffed somewhere. Make lists of what needs to be done, and leave room to add on what was initially forgotten, there always seems to be something.

Second, there is a lot to be considered outside of your ability to directly control. This includes changing the utilities, newspaper service, internet, mailing address, garbage service, etc. Relying on so many different groups and people to bring the entire move project together flawlessly is difficult. Often you have to rely on those you do not know or have little faith in. You can plan ahead, but it is often better to plan to do without while everything in the move normalizes.

Third, even if you purge your things before you move, you are inevitably going to regret that which you tossed out, and later when you are organizing your new home, regretting what you kept and have to throw out afterwards.

Moving is a lot like life in that there is so much to consider, so much that can go wrong, and during the process, the rest of the world does not stop and sit idly by as you make your move, they often expect you to be ready and able to do what is needed when it is needed.

The project can be done with a lot of planning or little to none, although the clean up efforts after the project seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of initial planning that was put in.

While I am hopeful to never have to move again, I know there will be large projects ahead in life which I can apply these lessons to, and I hope you can too.

Enjoy, and I am off to do some unpacking/cleaning/getting ready for work, etc….

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Message of the Day: Taking our foot off the brake pedal

Good Morning,

Welcome New Recipients!

My current read is “The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness” by Noah St. John (http://www.successclinic.com/).

Early on in the book, Noah St. John poses an interesting proposition as to why people do not achieve their goals and seem to be living life with one foot on the brake pedal.

Our brain is composed of the conscious and sub-conscious aspects, with the conscious part (what we consider to be us) comprising about 10% of our brain functions. The other 90%, the subconscious drives a good part of our life, yet we rarely see what it is thinking, believing and doing.

This unknown can cause a fear of success to prompt us to put our foot on the brake pedal just when we are starting to get moving in life.

The process of getting my own book published has been a slow one. Part of the reason is due to the above. I knew I wanted to share a book with the world, and I had many of you urging me to do the same. Yet, as I came closer and closer to the publishing of the book, there seemed to be a growing resistance to actually getting it completed, most of it in my own mind.

This resistance was small fears, like will I just be throwing my money away, will I be laughed at for self-publishing and having a poorly written book, and many others, especially, I am very busy, how can I put time into writing and publishing a book with everything else I am expected and want to do?

I found that by facing these fears I was able to shut them down, one by one. When the fears would not get out of the way, I prayed. And in the end, you know that the book did get published.

We can let that 90% unknown in our sub-conscious stop up by giving in to the fears and concerns which will mount up if we let them.

To show this, just try counting up all the reasons not to go back to school and improve yourself. You will find that the list against doing it will often grow larger than the list for doing it. The more time you spend ruminating on why you can’t, the reasons will mount. Silly reasons will start looking good and sensible.

Our subconscious mind is very powerful, and we need to better understand it if we are to succeed in our endeavors. The first step is to understand that it can cause us to slow down whenever we are moving in the right direction.

More to come on this highly recommended book!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

502-533-9336

Monday, April 20, 2009

Message of the Day - Drenched, Tired and Filled with Joy!

Good Morning,

This past Sunday, I started volunteering at my church. My role? Manager because of my MBA? Youth Councilor because of my coaching practice? Nope, I am a Parking Lot Greeter. My job is to walk around the parking lot as people enter and welcome them to the church. This Sunday, though, there was a day-long deluge of rain. So, with umbrella in hand, I walked around for half an hour greeting everyone I saw with a smile and even helped a few folks who did not have their own umbrella.

At the end of the half hour, I was completely drenched, and since I have been moving a carload at a time to our new house over the last two weeks, I was also tired and sore (my poor feet).

I was also energized!

Do you know how powerful it is walk up to dozens of people you don’t know and say ‘Good Morning!’ cheerfully with a smile? Some were a bit confused, but most smiled back and wished me good tidings as well.

Each smile back gave me more energy and pep as I made rounds around the parking lot.

While being a parking lot greeter may not sound like an auspicious task, I took it very seriously. I knew that I was the first person these people would meet on their way into the building. I would set the tone for their visit.

This makes the task that much more important. Like a customer service representative on the phone, they set the tone for the customer who is calling in. The representative is the embodiment of the organization.

That being said; how would you like any initial contact to be handled?

Wouldn’t you want your first contact to be a positive one? When you call technical support it is better when you are greeted with a friendly voice. When go you to the store, it is better when an employee smiles as they greet you. One of my former supervisors used to have an activity of catching and passing along a smile. In a room full over 100 people, he would give a big ear-to-ear smile and the person next to him would then turn and smile to the next person and so on and so on. We would do this until everyone in the room had smiled.

While this sounds silly, everyone in the room lightened up and the atmosphere softened. More importantly, most people were now smiling on their own.

The power of smiles and being friendly is great. Are you going to harness it today?

With a smile Enjoy!!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

502-533-9336

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Message of the Day - When policies implode.

Good Morning,

I remember hosting a party at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The base had some pretty tough security, as it should. I was being driven in early because I had to help set up. The person who drove me in was from Philadelphia and worked for the government, with her own ID on her car window. When we reached the base entrance, the car was scrutinized and our ID was checked. We were then cleared after a few moments and continued to part. This part was fine, I felt safe.

Then I saw the car behind us, filled with some of my friends. Neither of whom worked for the government or had any military ties. They were basically flagged to go right through the checkpoint. The guard with an M16 waved them through within a few seconds of seeing their handicapped placard hanging from their rear view mirror.

My feeling of security wavered.

It’s interesting to think this scenario through. The handicapped placard did not have a higher level of security than that of the person driving the car I was in. She even held a security clearance. Yet it had an easier time going through security. It appeared to be a loophole of sorts.

It is possible that the rules to keep the base secure were met with rules to accommodate the handicapped, and boom, a loophole appeared in the standard operating procedures of the base.

This brings up a good point.

Do we have rules in place which also have exceptions or loopholes which basically undermine the very point of the rules themselves? Like allowing handicapped placards through a security checkpoint even though there could be danger within? Or my pet peeve, using Roberts Rules of Order in small organizations where the procedure is basically crushing the ebb and flow of the group.

Worse yet, are their policies with so many exceptions that the exceptions by their sheer number, become the norm? I bet there are, especially in some of the older organizations which have not taken the time to update their rules and regulations.

Why and how these exceptions come about is a topic for another day, but suffice it to say, we must take care to ensure that in our zeal to help all of our stakeholders, that we do not nullify the purpose and benefits of our organization with special ‘exceptions’ to the rules.

I am sure the security at Annapolis knows their stuff and what I saw probably was not what it appeared to be, but it does make for an interesting moral.

And that is to keep our policies from imploding.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

502-533-9336

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Message of the Day - You Get What You Expect

Good Morning,

If you expect to see something wrong, you probably will find it if you look hard enough.

If you expect to see something good, but give up before you have found it, then you may feel slighted or upset.

How come we spend so much time looking for what is wrong, and not so much looking for what is right and good?

Look for the good, it is there. You may have to look harder than you may have thought, but I bet you, it is there.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

502-533-9336

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Message of the Day - Lencioni's Three Signs

Good Morning,

My current read is Patrick Lencioni’s ‘Three Signs of a Miserable Job’ (http://www.tablegroup.com/books/signs/). I simply loved his other books: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Five Temptations of the CEO. This book was just as spectacular as the others.

The three signs are very simple and make a lot of sense, but as you will see, much of the world of business and organizations tend not to embrace these concepts in any real or passionate manner. These signs apply in all industries and wherever present open the door for team members to be miserable in their jobs.

Anonymity – This is where we do not feel acknowledged for who we are by our organization and more specifically, our boss and the management team. This knowledge is not just a few superficial facts. For people to feel acknowledged managers should know quite a bit about their team members and be truly interested in them (even if it does feel touchy-feely).

For example: It is not: ‘That Sanford, he works real hard.

It is a real getting to know each person. It is more like: ‘That Sanford is a hard worker, and did you know he celebrated his wife’s birthday on Easter and recently started volunteering at his church, had his first book published and loves to read.’

Which do you think will cause someone feel more acknowledged?

Irrelevance – This is where we know that our work has meaning. What we do impacts others based on the very work we do. The lady who waters the plants and changes the garbage bags in the building I work in has a very important job (what would the place be like with dead plants and garbage piling over the containers and smelling up the place?). Although, unless she feels her work is relevant, she may think it just a grind and be miserable. Although it is not my job, I personally thank her each time I see her for helping make the workplace more cheerful and keeping it clean. I have been doing this for over a year. Now, whenever she sees me, she smiles. Maybe she remembers that her work makes a difference to me, that what she does is important.

Immeasurement – This is basically not being measured on how well we are doing our jobs, or being measured by statistics which have little or no relevance to our actual function. If we have no way of saying if we did our job well one day over another, then we fall into this category of immeasurement. The challenge is to both find ways to measure our productivity in a way that does not hinder our productivity and measure something relevant to our success.

I have a team that used to use a daily tick-sheet and counted up all of their interactions and activities. In the end we killed this process because it was taking upwards of a half hour a day just to count productivity, and many of the items they counted were not key to their daily success. We have to find a simpler way measure our performance, and we have to find the right metrics to record. While we are not there yet, we are still looking.

As a manager and or leader, it is our job to help reduce or, if possible, eliminate these roadblocks for our team members to have a happy job. No matter what kind of job, working what kind of industry, these signs can be used to help improve how we like our jobs or those who work with us enjoy theirs.

We can all tackle anonymity using such tools as the MacKay 66 created by Harvey MacKay. This is a list of 66 questions which if filled out will tell you many many things about someone, like a customer or employee.

Irrelevance is also easily conquered once we honestly look at what everyone does and see who our work impacts. Teams who do not work directly for customers often help those who do, or even the bosses themselves.

Immeasurement is a tough one for some folks, but when you can say that you have done a good job every day, with stats to prove it, it makes it easier to enjoy your job.

If I have not said it enough times, I simply love Patrick Lencioni’s books, and highly suggest everyone read them when you get a chance.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

502-533-9336

Friday, April 10, 2009

Message of the Day - Not what it appears to be

Good Morning,

I remember back in early 2000, when I worked in Manhattan, New York, that about this time of year when I got on the Path train by Herald Square and started my trek home. People filled up the train as normal, but looked more dour and emotionless than usual. Some of them had some sort of a gray splotch on their foreheads, and they seemed to be the most indifferent acting people from the everyday crowd who took the train. I thought it was a bit weird and thoughts raced through my mind as to why this was happening. I crazy thought popped in as I remembered the movies ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and I chuckled to myself.

When I exited the Path train at Hoboken, New Jersey, and got on the Metro North train to my home in Middletown, NY, I saw more and more of these ‘zombie-like’ people coming onto the train. They had no emotions, except for some dour unchanging expression on their faces. The more people who came onto the train with the gray splotch on their forehead the more I thought about the body snatchers. Sure I was a grown man, but I had never seen anything like this before, and lack of religiousness in my life at that time armed me with next to nothing in explanation.

The train headed out and I was surrounded by what could have been an army of zombies, alien body snatchers or something. My heart was racing and I tried to avoid everyone on the train, which was not hard because everyone else seemed to do that. Then all at once, this image of reality vanished as I heard someone say something with the words ‘Ash Wednesday’.

Of course after I laughed at myself for the foolish assumptions which scared me half to death, I realized how easily it was to accept something as real when I did not realize what was really going on.

Reality is subjective, and what we see, and how we see it can all change what we are really looking at and experiencing.

When something does not look right, then there is a chance that it is not what we think it is. I have since learned to ask more questions and this has helped me see pierce the veil of illusion which covers many parts of our life.

This tactic is not foolproof though, as we both need to remember to ask questions AND we have to ask the right questions.

Knowing this takes time and practice and we can find ourselves asking silly questions at first, but that is okay. Asking a question is healthy and a sign of engaged curiousness.

Asking the right questions comes easier with learning and growing as we arm ourselves with a greater and greater arsenal of information to formulate our questions with.

With time and experience, we will find that what does not appear to be right, isn’t and how to better see what is truly going on.

For me, I know there are no more zombies or body snatchers on the Wednesday before Easter.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”