Don't Show and Tell, If you can't Do!

If you have a service or product that has been recently updated, and you are eager to get your prospects and clients into the loop about the new features, perhaps you should make sure you can deliver as expected.

I recently experienced a "new upgrade" to my existing service and the whole process brought to mind the concept of delivering on promises, and who decides when something works.

The young associated who was now my "team leader", was eager to sell new services and assure me of great new changes. She didn't take time to listen to existing or old concerns and seemed intent on telling me what I needed instead of clarifying what worked best for "me".

A review of my experiences produced deflection, dismissal and denial of my concerns and a quick return to how others had found the new service quite satisfactory. Since I am the one paying for the services, one might suspect my opinion had some merit.

Who decided if your services are working to expectations? And, if you really doesn't do as you say, why bother to show and tell? 

Managing People and being the Boss

If you are the boss, you are often required to manage some people.

Being the boss and managing are not the same.

You are the boss when you tell people what to do

You are the boss when you criticize people's work and behavior

You are the boss when you minimize people and their efforts

You are managing people when you make them better, educate them and elevate their efforts and behaviors to new levels.

Being the boss is easy, managing people, and ourselves is always hard work.

Patience and Persistence

It is tough to be patient and even more difficult to persist with your aspirations and goals.

The world tells us to hurry, we want it now.

Short cuts and easy tactics are in vogue

Doing the same thing over and over isn't being persistent, that's lazy, and foolish when the over and over isn't working

Being patient isn't about not changing anything, that's stuck; especially when you don't know what else to do.

Persist in learning what works and have some patience with the learning, both take time.

Your average is pretty cheap to acquire!

Astounding as it may seem people are trading average behavior and experience for average or below average wages. Go figure!

You may have a college degree or two, maybe not. You might be just out of school, re-entering the job market, or searching for another job after a layoff, or downsizing. Your parents are proud of you, you are proud of you and you have trouble trimming down your resume because of your many accomplishments, real or imagined.

Something wrong with this picture?  You will be working side by side with average people, who show up every day and do the minimum. You know, those people you encounter every day at the bank, post office, retail store, dentist office. You took classes from them and you hope you never have them as your doctor or hook up with them on a 911 call.

When you meet them, employers often talk a good game, but they know down deep it really doesn't matter how good you are, or pretend to be. Being ok, or average gets it done.

You really can't distinguish yourself form the people next to you and your company really doesn't want star performers, because they really won't pay for it.  And sadly the company has gotten so locked into mediocrity it doesn't know excellent from average anyway.  So where does this lead you?

Probably back to square one, or in starting your own business, where what you do and how competent you are might make a difference in pay,recognition and accomplishment. Or perhaps you can head back to school where you can get another degree that will promise you lots of success in your new career.