Cybertough Industries » Career

Do the best job you can and rewards will follow

cybrfrk — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:14:15 +0000

When I was a young kid working my way through the public school system, each and every teacher told me to do my very best. Whether drawing circles, reciting the alphabet or categorizing insect classes, doing my best has always be the goal. Now I have to admit that when it came to school, I was never really challenged. To any outside observer it may have appeared that I was not doing my work or that I was not fully engaged, yet I finished with honors near the top of my class.

I wish my children found school as easy. For them it has been more of a challenge, but my youngest is only five months away from graduating with three working themselves through college. Their work ethic continues to develop and the amount of pride I have in that is immeasurable.

From my daughter

For our Thanksgiving this year my youngest decided to bake a pie, all by herself. She has never done this before and undertaking the task was something she did with fervor and pride. For her first pie it was a great job and a super pie. Not only did she mix, assemble and bake it correctly, she added her own flair with the lattice top.

When it comes to life we should take each and ever task with the approach that my daughter did. Set your sights, gather your tools and do the job the best way you can. If you fail, learn from your mistakes and try again. Do not approach the task with expectations of hoping for a reward you do not earn. This is not an exercise in playing the lottery; hoping for more than you earned is at best a pipe dream.

As we approach the new year make a commitment to yourself to approach every task with enthusiasm and a bold heart.

Set your priorities for the new year

cybrfrk — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:02:08 +0000

You ever have one of those moments in life when you know you are on the wrong path but you lack the clarity to find the right one? Perhaps you’ve wondered how much better life would be if you went back to school knowing everything you know now. Now I’m not talking about what companies to invest in or who will win the next 25 super bowls. Instead think about the life lessons — those things that are truly important and how you’ve spent so much time moving away from them, avoiding them. Everyday at work I spend some time helping to mentor people and move them in the right direction.

Why should my family be any different?

While cleaning up my desk (at home), I ran across some notes I had written. About a month ago I sat down with two of my kids and did a little exercise. The content and the direction I took from many different sources, but overall the approach is mine. It’s designed to help you refine what you do (today) compared with what you want to do (tomorrow).

Visualize the target

I now share with you the steps I walked the kids through. Overall it took about two hours and I was very surprised (and proud) at their level of attention and participation. My next goals is to find a way to help them remember to refer to the plans they created and update them periodically.

List out your activities right now.
- Examples:
  - Brush teeth and shower
  - Go to class
  - Go to work
Review the list, update as appropriate
- Hint: Walk through a typical week, include everything during the course of a day; think about hobbies, organizations and volunteer efforts
Categorize the activities with general names
- Examples:
  - Personal Health: Brush teeth, shower, eating meals,
  - Faith: Church, Bible Study, Bible Reading, Small Group, Praying
  - Education: Attend class, Study, Reading
  - Career: Complete Degree, Hands-on Training, Internship
Are there categories missing?
- Example: no category for Career, but you know you’ll need a permanent job
Rank the categories in the order of importance (as you think of today)
Rank the categories in the order of importance (for where you want to be in the future)
Order all categories based on future ranking
Add all activities into each category
Are you missing activities that you need to do?
- Example: nothing listed under Faith means you may need to start doing Bible Reading or attending a Study
Look at where you are today and where you want to be in the future.
- Develop a plan to close the gap and get you where you want to be.

This is not an exercise that should be used on younger children as they lack they ability to truly visualize a complete list of activities or understand what their future looks like. If the whole thing looks to daunting during a single sitting, then break it up. Do it over several days (or weeks). Challenge yourself or your children to work through it in order to grow a specific aspect of their life or to really get their whole life where they want it.

With the proper focus and the right attention you can make a change for the better in the life of someone you love.

Does teaching someone to fish always work?

cybrfrk — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:25:36 +0000

My title refers to the English proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” For those that have no idea what it is talking about, let me shed a little light on the topic. For many people in the world, due to choice and sometimes conditions, people live day-to-day using a hand-to-mouth mentality.

Wow, did I just really use a idiom to describe a proverb? How about explaining that people really live paycheck-to-paycheck?

Refocus John.

What I am trying to say is that there are many in the world that just want to be given without learning how to gather. In the above proverb, when you give a fish to a man, he has food to eat; until he goes hungry again. If you teach him how to fish then he can feed his hunger whenever the need arises without taking the handout.

Teaching is fun!

I love to teach people to fish.

My loving wife often tells me when I’m “lecturing” to friends and family, when in reality I’m trying to do a little teaching. It’s in my nature to explain things in full. Consider it a remnant from my translocated childhood or my Navy Nuclear training. It became obvious very early in my life that I found it easier to understand (and do) things if I knew what made them tick. With this approach in mind, I always try and figure out not only why things work the way they do but why they were designed that way in the first place.

Today was a day that I taught two people how to fish. Instead of solving their problem I led them down the street, showed them the door, gave them the key and let them unlock it. After we were done I showed them where the key is stored so in the future they to can open the door. And yes, I’m being vague so that no one feels bad about needing help (all the time).

It is good to teach your children, your friends, and your co-workers how to fish.

Work sometimes means doing things you hate

cybrfrk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:23:01 +0000

My daughter works as an assistant manager at a shop that makes “authentic” sub sandwiches. Their food is great tasting and they use fresh cooked meat products. For most people, roasting and slicing beef would be a simple part of the job,which is of course based on perspective. For someone who is a vegetarian it is a little more difficult. However, if you go in and order a sandwich from her she’ll assemble it with a loving smile and deliver it with a happy word; she loves her job.

Do you like everything you do at work?

I recently took a class (at work) for my career development, as a method for understanding where I am, and how to get where I want to be. The focus was on discovering the right balance between what my company and personal needs. When you identify the optimized intersect between business, skills and passion, you will find your Utopia at work.

Here are some things I would not put in the description of my ideal job.

Tight release schedule
Limited flexibility
Documentation required
Works well alone
Using established standards with stable technologies
Long release cycles
Equal work-life balance
Only internal products
Repetitive tasks

We are the choices made during our lives. This includes everything from the music on our computers, the type of church you attend (or not) and whether to be happy or angry each day. When we choose to extend our learning in college or obtain practical experience, our path is set and we march down it. Happy or sad, technical or musical, bicycle or moped, complete the task or blow it off, we are shaped with each action.

Prior to being hired for my current job I attended a full day of behavioral-interviews. Coming from the Navy, I was unfamiliar with this style of discussion but did my best. The concept is pretty simple: you can tell how a person will act in the future based on how they responded in the past. Prior behavior (and choices) dictate who they are and how they will be as a worker.

As we all mature in our lives and get a real handle on those “things” that puts passion in our hearts it is natural for our job focus to change. Much like you may have wanted to be a dancer or a fireman when you were younger, that desire changes as your world expands. When I was younger I enjoyed the limited technology that we had in our world and wanted to be a part of it. The path I chose was through the nuclear power program (US Navy) and then into a technical company. As I look back 27 years and remember that I was writing software for an Apple IIe I’m very happy to see that I was able to uncover my passion so early.

Much like my daughter who chose to work at a company serving meat (against her personal choices), we all make decisions daily in order to get the job done. Almost a year ago I agreed to step back into my old role in order to serve the larger good of our company and it’s been eating at me ever since. I basically chose to place my desires on hold for almost a year to benefit the organization and as such I have slipped out of my ideal job.

It’s time for me to take back the reins and drive those horses in the direction I want to go.

Would your customers tip you based on your service?

cybrfrk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:47:12 +0000

My son came home from work the other day very upset. As a server at an Italian sit-down restaurant (chain), he has moved from greeting to busing to serving in the only 13 months. He loves the work, thrive in the environment and enjoys his co-workers and the customers he meets. Although he loves the extra money that serving provides, he really enjoys creating a good time for whoever comes in for a nice evening away from home. He was upset because he was left a two cent tip.

Now most people would simply right them off as cheapskates, but he really tries hard to meet all their needs. As a matter of fact, his manager made it a point to congratulate him on great service, since the customers told her what a great job he did.

In his job the amount of tip you receive is a direct result of the quality of job you perform.

Do we have the same, instant feedback system in place for our jobs?

Imagine if you sent an email and immediately saw your “Communication Rating” go up or down. Perhaps after you release code, your boss deposits $500 into your checking account after passing all tests. Why not take it further and expect your peers to leave money on their desks at the conclusion of your training class or transfer some cash via PayPal after a superb audio conference?

We lack the instant feedback that many in the true customer-service industry have. Our jobs rely on surveys, postmortems and end of year focal reviews to course correct us. But is it enough? Is it timely enough? Can we do things different to approach a nirvana filled with bliss and peace?

Give this a try and see how it works out.

Positive or negative behavior needs feedback, do it:
- Verbally and immediately
- Follow-up with an email or written note
If any single person does three good or bad things
- Send that email/written note to their manager
Use your personal tracking software (mine is Microsoft OneNote)
- Create a sub-area for worker feedback
- Create sub-pages for each person
- Make a page for yourself
- Keep a running tally; this will help you give annual performance feedback
For yourself, if you recieve any good or bad feedback
- Take immediately action to correct
- Respond to the individual to tell them of your action
- Create a tickler to check (often) whether you are repeating it

Let me know if you already do this.
Think about it as a “tipping” system.

Security is based on integrity

cybrfrk — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:21:46 +0000

It’s time once again to recount a story I overheard regarding a bank somewhere in the United States. The employee was contacted by a customer who was concerned that there was an issue at the bank due to the number of police cars surrounding it. Upon calling the manager, the individual discovered that customers had wandered in and were waiting in line. This is a very normal process for most financial institutions with the exception that it was a federal holiday and that the bank was closed. Yes folks — the bank was closed, the lights were off, there was a big sign on the door and yet people were inside waiting to check on their money.

Just in case you were wondering, security at banks is a really big deal. They have complete departments, third-party organizations as well as certain federal law enforcement agencies whose only focus is on the security of the money in our institutions. For a bank to lose security on their front door and not know about it is a really big deal. Now before you start freaking out you also need to know that the bank door is merely the first security measure to your money. There are often security alarms, camera systems and hardened vaults keeping your money from the bad people.

It was eventually discovered that the cleaning crew had left the door unlocked. This was also the second time that this specific problem had occurred. I’m reminded of the English idiom, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

How much do you put your trust in other people, places or things?

In most everything we do today there is an assumed security trust in our banks, our computers and even the 16 year old who takes your credit card. We rely on locks to keep our houses safe, fences to secure our animals and even word of mouth to keep secrets. The amount of trust you place in a security object should be directly proportional to amount of integrity that can be assumed about that object. And a measure of integrity is where most trust issues break down.

When I was in the Navy, you had to rely on the guy next to you for just about everything. On a submarine, with more than a thousand feet of cold water over your head, you didn’t have time to worry if your shipmate was being completely truthful about a log entry or maintenance item he did. You had to trust that he had the built-in moral values necessary to tell the truth. For me that is integrity, and those with none were rapidly removed from certain areas and people who could be more consistent in that area were brought in. Our jails are full of people who lack integrity.

My internal measurement of integrity is a bit more than most people today even consider when it comes to integrity and trust. As an example, I never (ever) reply to an email until I’ve done a Google search to ensure that the responses I expect are there. I also never fully read a forwarded article or post unless I ensure there is no associated discussion of it being an urban legend or false rumor. And guess what, every time you send me something that turns out to be easily shown as fake, I perform a mental subtraction on your integrityscore. For me trust and integrity are not assumed they are earned.

With that in mind you should also do more than assume that something or someone has your best interest in mind. Do a background check on that employee or company that you plan on trusting with your security. Read reviews on the software before you install it. Talk to people who use a product that can expose your valuables to others. Social tools are great for uncovering trust and integrity information about people, places and things. Just ensure you trust who is is saying them, or you to can subtract one from their integrity score.

Disclaimer: You should not take advantage of any information that I’ve divulged in hopes of gaining access to a bank. Bad people rob banks; you are not bad.

Navy (sea)story in celebration of Veterans Day

cybrfrk — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:59:02 +0000

In late 1986 I joined the US Navy Nuclear Power Program as a Machinist’s Mate, to serve my country and earn money for college. After nine months of classroom training I was deployed to upstate New York to learn how to run a nuclear power plant at a prototype facility. My training led me to being selected for a new school in nuclear chemistry and eventually being selected as an instructor at a new facility being built in Charleston South Carolina. It was the first time that a real submarine had been used in the construction of a training facility; only the best for our sailors.

In Charleston I helped supervise construction crews while the missile section was removed from the USS Sam Rayburn (SSBN 635). The following two years saw the prototype being completed and transferred to the Navy Weapons Station where it sites today as MTS-635. During my time there I trained thousands of sailors (enlisted and officer) and lived through hurricane Hugo.

USS Bluefish at commissioning

Pictured with my daughter in 1990

From there I was able to obtain billet on the USS Bluefish (SSN-675) stationed in Charleston, deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, specifically alongside a tender in La Maddalena, Italy. Upon arrival I was immediately suited up and sent into the reactor compartment to help repair a leaking drain valve. While on the Bluefish I was promoted to First Class Petty Officer, became the Leading ELT, qualified every enlisted watch station aft and eventually qualified as the only non-chief Chief of the Watch up front.

After nearly nine years in the Navy I sat on the pier and cast off lines as the Bluefish was transferred to Hawaii to be decommissioned. My experiences while in the Navy were full of little sleep, too much work and challenges that I’ve never seen since. The people I worked with and the technologies I encountered are truly one of a kind and could only have been experienced in a military environment. I was taught to value the experience, rely on my shipmate and solve any problem that came our way.

Together we were stronger than any one and today, after being out for 15 years, I would like to recognize those sailors I served with.

You have made my life more valuable.
You have opened my eyes to the opportunities that our world holds.
You will forever be my shipmates.

If you are/were a member of the USS Bluefish, drop-by and join our Facebook Group. Be with friends.

Never assume technology is easily adopted

cybrfrk — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:28:07 +0000

Today I was reminded of a story that my daughter told us a few months ago. For the last four years she has been a bank teller in an area of town primarily composed of retired individuals. The stories she tells are always humorous and full of love for the job and the people she sees on a daily basis.

Technology Use

During a normal banking day and older gentleman came in and wanted to withdraw some cash for a trip he was planning. As part of their strategy to minimize identity theft, the bank requires the consumer to swipe their ATM card and enter a PIN. This double-security approach is a great thing but a hard-sell to those customers who have been banking for 20-30 years at the same location. She often hears, “I’ve been coming here longer than you’ve been alive young lady, why do I have to verify who I am?” Fortunately during this instance, the polite customer was willing to abide by their security protocol.

“I would like to take out some money for a trip,” explained the customer.
In her normal, smiling approach, “Absolutely sir, can you please swipe your ATM card and enter your PIN, so the system knows who you are?”

After stumbling around in his wallet, he finally found his card and swiped it, and then looked up at her.
“Just enter your PIN sir and we can get that money for you,” she explained.

Holding up his wallet, he began digging while explaining that he has it in there somewhere.
In triumph he withdrew a small scrap of paper with a written, four digit number on it.

By this time the transaction had timed out so he had to swipe his card again, and she explained that he needed to “enter his PIN” to finish the identification process.

After swiping his card he then laid it down and immediately pulled the piece of paper through the magnetic reader.

As you can imagine, most people would smile or chuckle at this time, but her gentle nature and customer service training taught her patience as she watched him pull the paper through two more times.

Eventually she interrupted and explained that he needed to enter his PIN on the keypad; resulting in a successful transaction and happy customer.

Oftentimes in our jobs we assume more than we should because of our own experiences and view points. As a technology evangelist, I try very hard to see the positive in the tools we use and the best applications we can place them in. From our perspective, the most obvious application is not well, obvious.

Imagine how a cell phone would be perceived 100 years ago? How about a typewriter to a monk in the 1700′s? Try explaining Twitter or Facebook to your Grandmother.

The challenge we have in technology adoption is one of perspective.
Once you get everyone on the same page, the rest of the story is easier to tell.

What companies can learn from large events

cybrfrk — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:13:17 +0000

In the last 24 hours I have attended two large events, which could not have been carried out differently.

Ignite Phoenix #5 Ticket

Ignite Phoenix was in Tempe, invitation was via social tools (including word of mouth), had a live web feed, local radio station simulcast and Twitter channel. They encouraged live blogging and displayed tweets during the event. It was a night of truly social engagement and fun in a hip and entertaining approach. With over 600 people in attendance the event went from a small room to a large stage in five just five events. Truly a great time and I encourage everyone to get involved locally.

For the uninformed, an Ignite event is a gathering of volunteers to give presentations about topics they are passionate about. There are rules. You get five minutes and 20 slides (15 second intervals). As the audience you must encourage and participate. That’s it! For this event they had 107 submissions and were able to accept 17.

Right now I’m sitting in a software conference (one day event) at work on-site with a few hundred software developers. This is an on-the-cheap virtual event with web casts (internal only) from key managers and a mix of local technical folks. So far the messages are focused on what we can do better and where we are today. The invite found its way into my in-box two weeks ago with only one reminder sent yesterday. Until I got here I didn’t even know what the topics were nor was I given the opportunity to contribute.

Meetings if done wrong

What can the corporate world take away from events such as what Ignite Phoenix delivered?

Engage with good lead to allow social tools to gather a following and generate excitement.
People have the desire to help and make a difference. Use that. Volunteer armies have power and “fire in their belly.”
Keep the presentations focused and limit the time-frame. We need variation, we want excitement. Find experts who are passionate and who “Show” it.
Allow live feedback, even encourage it. Knowing what the audience thinks and what they are learning is never a bad thing. Twitter, live-blogging and other tools are great for this.

Note to self: As I wrote this on my G1 (wpToGo app) I realized I didn’t have the flexibility to do the image sets or numbered lists, this must improve. And the web text box failed.