Every Cloud...

Good Morning,

 

Folks know the saying ‘Every cloud has its silver lining’.

 

Have you ever looked for the silver lining in the clouds? When I was a kid, I would actually look for something silver-ish in the clouds and sometimes even saw the areas the sun reflected off the clouds making it appear like silver.

 

Clouds, being signs of those negative things we don’t look forward do. Like storm clouds on the horizon, a foreboding tough times ahead.

 

Bad things happen in life, and yes, there are often good things to be found when we look for them.

 

Like looking for the silver lining.

 

The key is two-fold.

 

First is to look.

 

How often do we go about our days assuming the worst, that, nothing good can come from something. Sure there are times when the good will not show up for days, weeks, etc., but it certainly will not show up if it is never looked for.

 

The second is to allow there to be good.

 

When we expect to see the bad, we are often not disappointed. Looking for the negative is easy, it’s looking for the good that can be tough.  We say, ‘nothing good can come from this’. We shut the door, and have often decided prior to even looking.  

 

Often we may have to wait a bit, but we should look back again, and give the good a chance to grow.

 

It is not easy, but better than constant gloom of the clouds.

 

Every cloud has a silver lining, every bad thing in the world has something good that can come from it, if we both look for it with even a small expectation that it can be there.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

Click on the book to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

A little levity for a stressful work life

Good Morning,

 

It’s been a busy year, apologies for all the silence on the Sanford Berenberg Experience front. While I have not been writing as much, I have been learning, reading and absorbing experience after experience this past year making it one of the most interesting I have had in many years.  Work has become more intense, which is an increasingly common facet of our ‘do more with less’ environment.

 

In finding ways to combat the increased stress, we have tried many programs and activities. Those that take a lot of time to set up and maintain can easily fall to the wayside, so finding those activities which take little time investment, yet provide some benefit are the gems we look for.

 

At my office we announce our different statistics on a daily basis to all the staff so they can see how well they did, or in some cases, didn’t do.  Statistics, though, are by their very nature, boring.  Having an Average Speed of Answer or ASA (the average amount of time it takes for someone to answer a phone call) of 22 Seconds when your goal is under 30 Seconds is a great performance, but 22 and 30 are kind of boring in and of themselves.  Even a 5 second ASA, with its thrilling accomplishment will soon fade into the performance hall of records next to Davy Jones’ locker (not the one from Pirates of the Caribbean movie).

 

So we decide to lighten up the mood a bit with some of our statistics. One in particular is customer satisfaction or CSat. We love our CSat statistic. There are few things in the workplace more rewarding then a customer sharing with you how much they appreciated our efforts. Sadly those compliments are often few and far between.

 

One way we found to increase the number of responses is to regularly promote the surveys after each call.  Yeah, it can be tedious to have each call end with an offer for a survey, but it does work. Yet, that too can grow very boring. So to combat that, I make the daily report full of humor. We choose a sport each month to promote the daily statistics and try to announce the top performers’ accomplishments in a way befitting the sport. We have already used March Madness, the NBA Finals, the Masters, and even the Iditarod (you know the sled race started after Balto, the dog, saved those sick kids in Nome, Alaska).

 

This month, we chose (okay, I chose) a new exciting sport, Extreme Ironing.

 

 

I am not sure what the performance metrics are for Extreme Ironing, like touchdowns, strikes, or baskets, but hey it’s fun.  Who knows what will be the sport for next month. Maybe you all could suggest one.

 

Another fun thing we do to help keep our folks engaged is sharing some fun facts about some of our leaders.

 

Any by fun fact, I am saying ‘tall tale’. Something over the top, delivered in a deadpan manner. Something like ‘Sanford reads so many books that he has been known to complete a few volumes simply by stepping into a local bookstore.’  Or ‘Fred the supervisor is so physically fit, he has been getting calls from the World’s Strongest Man competition for fitness ideas to help improve their athletes.’

 

Sure it is goofy, and sure not everyone is going to get it. There is, though a growing number of people who look forward to seeing those little quips of humor each day.  They enjoy the sports references, or at least the fun pictures.

 

Anyway, a little levity can help us get through the day, especially a stressful day.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

Click on the book to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

The best time of the day was when I gave of myself

Good Morning,

 

The last few years I have helped with the Crusade for Children in Louisville (http://crusadeforchildren.org/). This is a huge fund raiser to help special needs children in our area. I have even donated increasing amounts of money each year.

 

This year I have stepped it up and volunteered. Instead of handing off cash to people on the corners collecting, I stood on the corners of the streets and collected.

 

It was hot, it was muggy, and it was a busy intersection.

 

It also was the most fun I had all day.

 

Some people gave a little, some gave a lot, but in the end, for my few hours of commitment, hundreds of dollars was raised.

 

All to help people I may never meet.

 

What can be better than that?

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

Click on the book to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

There Can Be Joy in Inperfection

Good Morning,

 

Having Goals and Goal Setting, forming strategies and action plans have been a mainstay of our culture for some time. Goals are good, although there are times when our goals can cause us a lot of grief and disappointment.

 

Goals too easily achieved can cause a sense of invincibility or even boredom. Solution, make harder goals.

 

Goals too hard to achieve can cause a sense of inadequacy or even depression. Solution, make easier goals.

 

In making easier goals, we have to understand that we are not going to be perfect in everything we do. That not hitting our goals does not mean that we are bad or inadequate.

 

A runner, in their first week of running, who eyes the breaking the 4 minute mile will have a hard time achieving that goal. Facing those challenges, someone could assume that they will never be able to hit the mark and give up.

 

A better approach is to look at not achieving goals in a different light, such as an organization looking to improve itself by setting goals not to compete with local competitors, but with world class organizations.  While they may never get as good as the best, they will certainly get better than the local competition. In this case, not achieving the goal is a good thing as achieving the goal itself was never the goal, rather the improvements gained along the way.

 

Understanding that we are imperfect people (pause for effect), we can find greatness right where we are in our own imperfection.

 

That, though, does not mean that we stand still, rather we look to improve ourselves by working toward goals, even it if it only by reading a few pages a day, listening to a few minutes of a podcast or chatting with a mentor in passing.

 

When we learn and grow daily, we improve ourselves, and when we don’t place unobtainable goals in front of ourselves, we reduce our stress of attempting to achieve the impossible while we find joy in our imperfections.

 

We may never be the best in anything we do, and that is okay. Focus on what we can do, and take the next step up.  Then tomorrow, do it again.  

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

Click on the book to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

 

Life Comes in Waves

Good Morning,

 

Yesterday, while shopping at Target for groceries and stuff, I was talking to the checkout clerk who had opened up her register because there was a back up of people checking out.

 

She mused that throughout the day, people will just show up in waves at the checkout.

 

There is no pattern, you see people coming in, but they checkout at different times, depending on how much stuff they bought, how long they looked for it, how long they reviewed and compared it, etc.

 

I shared working in a call center is the same way. We get spikes of calls coming from people which can see all but random. Sure if there is an outage, we will get a spike depending on how many people are impacted, but often there are spikes because people in different parts of the world, in different roles, doing different work, etc., just decided to call.

 

These waves seem to also impact our lives. That is, there are days that are just busy for no apparent reason, things just happen all around us and keep us moving from sun up to sun down. And there are days that it is just slow. I like those days.

 

Waves can last days, months, or years.

 

And like standing on the beach of an ocean, how we prepare or brace ourselves against the waves often determines who we stand up to them, or get knocked over.

 

Life is like that too.

 

The more we prepare for life, by learning and growing daily, the better we embrace ourselves to withstand the waves the come our way in life.

 

Through my years of reading, learning and doing, I have found that I have a greater ability to handle the waves that seems to come no matter how hard I try to slow down my life.

 

How are you doing when the waves come? 

 

What do you do to prepare?

 

What should you be doing if you keep finding yourself knocked over by the latest wave?

 

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

Focusing on Teamwork and winning!

Good Morning,

 

Living in Louisville, at this time of year, especially this year, one cannot ignore the amazing and gut wrenching journey of the Louisville Cardinals Men’s Basketball Team as they enter the Final Four of the 2013 NCAA Championship for the second year in a row. Many things drove them to succeed in their match up with Duke on Sunday’s (Easter) game.  And for that matter, the Women’s Team which also beat the number one seed.

 

In a post game interview for the Men’s Competition, Peyton Siva shared one of the drivers that helped this team get to where they are now and hopeful for a championship win in the week to come.

 

He said that Pride was the issue in the 2012 season. That the team had to cast Pride out of the door and embrace humility.

 

He said the most important name on each of the team’s jersey’s wasn’t the one on the back (each players name), it’s the name on the front, the team name.

 

Each player focused on being a team, and winning for a single cause, for their injured player, Kevin Ware.

 

These two illustrate two elements for an unstoppable team.

 

·         Being a team, and not individual players.

·         Having a single focus.

 

Both are simple concepts, yet both are often difficult to accomplish. So many individuals out there, with their own goals, vision and focus.

 

Work toward being one.

 

And win.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

 

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

Just Right

Good Morning,

 

There is always the potential that there is someone out there in the world who is better than us in anything that we do.

 

There is also always going to be someone out there who is worse than us in anything we do.

 

Truthfully, though, none of that matters.

 

 

What really matters then, is that at any given time and place, when there is a call for help, we are the best we can be in what we are asked to do.

 

Then, to those we help, we ARE the best in their time of need and although there are others who may be better, we were the ones there to help.

 

Remember, as we Learn and Grow Daily to improve ourselves, we just need to be who we are and help with what we know, and we will be just right when the time calls for us to step up.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

 

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336