Author: Eric Merz

Sharpen Your Saw

Posted on by Eric Merz

“Believe in yourself, if cauliflower can become Pizza, you can become anything you choose!”

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my ax.”

- Abraham Lincoln

In Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”  one of those habits is “Sharpening the Saw” The quote from Abraham Lincoln above gives us a lot of wisdom. Sometimes we need to step back and spend time in improving who we are instead of always plowing forward in haste. This is especially true if we are having difficulty in accomplishing something. Maybe we need different or better skills. Sometimes the skill we need to hone is “delegating”. Yes, that is a skill.
 

So, here is an exercise to help you improve:
 

  1. Think of one thing you have been struggling to accomplish.
  2. Analyze “why” you are trying to accomplish this one thing. If you cannot clarify the “why” and find that it might not be something you want or need to do, eliminate it from your task. If it is something you want or need to do, proceed to next step.
  3. Is this something that is in your wheelhouse?
  4. If it is in your wheelhouse, what skills could be improved to accomplish the task with better results?
  5. If it is in your wheelhouse, what reading, courses or mentors could you tap into?
  6. If it is not in your wheelhouse, who could help you accomplish it?
  7. Make sure you make it clear what that person needs to accomplish and follow up for guidance and accountability.


More to come on sharpening your saw on the next one.

Happy honing!

Total Gratitude Analysis

Posted on by Eric Merz

During this week of Thanksgiving, many will give pause and gather as family and friends. They will often indulge in feasting and give thanks for family and friends as well as the many blessings that have been bestowed upon them. I would like to take this opportunity to challenge each of you to really do an analysis of what you could or should be thankful for in each area of your life.

Examine the following areas;
 

Family and Friends
Be thankful for all who have been influential in your life. It is easy to be thankful for those we are close to and feel great affection for. However, I challenge you to be thankful for those who may have had a negative impact on you. These negative or difficult experiences have made us who we are to this point. Who do you need to thank that will not expect your gratitude?
 

Social and Community
Be thankful for the community you live in. Remember those who helped raise you through their community service. Remember those organizations you have and are a part of. These help you belong to your part of the world. What difference can you make in your community?
 

Financial
We live with an extreme abundance if you look throughout history. Yes, we have many “first world” problems. But there can be no denying that as a society in general we have way much more than we need and some have been blessed with financial security. Though some in our society struggle financially, as a nation we have plenty to share and support others. How can you help others in this area?
 

Mentally
We have been both blessed and cursed with so much information and learning at our fingertips. What are you thankful for in regards to what you have been able to learn and understand? How has that blessed you and your family?
 

Physically
Most men and women no longer do hard physical work these days due to modern inventions and improvements. However, there are so many opportunities and knowledge to improve our health. Every day we get up and breathe we can be thankful for that in whatever state we are in. How can you improve your health to better serve your neighbor?
 

Spiritually
For those in America we enjoy the freedom to worship as we please. Our connection to our Creator through prayer and worship is truly a blessing in our lives.What is your relationship with God? How might you show gratitude for the love and mercy shown to you? How can you share that faith with others?

 

I hope this examination blesses you in this time of reflection and Thanksgiving!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Aptitude or Attitude

Posted on by Eric Merz

 

 

“Just because I know I could get more  done if I got up earlier doesn’t mean  I have any intention of trying it.”

“Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude.”

-Ralph Marston

Both aptitude and attitude are important, but their significance can vary depending on the context and the specific requirements of a situation.

  1. Aptitude:
      – Aptitude refers to a person’s inherent ability, talent, or natural capacity to learn and perform certain tasks.
      – In professional settings, aptitude is often crucial, especially in roles that require specific skills, knowledge, or technical expertise.
      – For example, in fields like engineering, medicine, or IT, having the necessary aptitude is essential to effectively carry out tasks and solve problems.
  2. Attitude:
      – Attitude refers to an individual’s mindset, outlook, or approach to situations. It includes qualities like enthusiasm, adaptability, resilience, and interpersonal skills.
      – In many cases, a positive attitude can greatly enhance one’s ability to overcome challenges, work well with others, and adapt to changing circumstances.
      – Attitude is particularly important in roles that involve teamwork, leadership, and customer service, where effective communication and collaboration are key.

In summary, the importance of aptitude versus attitude can depend on the specific requirements of a given situation. Ideally, a balance of both is often desirable. A person with a strong aptitude for a particular role will likely perform well in tasks requiring specific skills, while a positive attitude can contribute to better teamwork, adaptability, and overall workplace satisfaction. In many scenarios, employers value a combination of both aptitude and attitude when assessing individuals for various roles.

Check both the attitude and the aptitude when hiring personnel, choosing vendors, customers or friends. This will go a long way in ensuring a better relationship and experience.

What is your attitude on the subject?

Executioner or Executor?

Posted on by Eric Merz

A football coach was heading off the field after a terrible loss and a reporter asked him, “How do you feel about your team’s execution?”
He said, “I’m in favor of it.”

“Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.”

-Sue Grafton

As a leader are you more likely to be an Executioner of those who fail to deliver or are you a service-style leader who is more of an Executor of what needs to be carried out. Executing a plan involves systematically carrying out the steps or actions laid out in the plan to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Here’s a generalized approach to executing a plan that can help any leader become more effective:

  1. Understanding the Plan: Ensure that everyone involved comprehends the plan’s objectives, strategies, and their individual roles in its execution.
  2. Resource Allocation: Identify and allocate the necessary resources—such as time, budget, personnel, and tools—to execute the plan effectively.
  3. Setting Milestones: Break down the plan into smaller, manageable tasks or milestones. Establishing clear milestones helps track progress and provides opportunities for adjustments if needed.
  4. Delegating Tasks: Assign responsibilities and tasks to individuals or teams based on their skills and strengths. Clear communication about expectations, deadlines, and reporting structures is essential.
  5. Monitoring Progress: Regularly track and monitor the progress of the plan. This could involve meetings, reports, or other forms of communication to ensure that everything is on track and address any issues or changes promptly.
  6. Adaptation and Flexibility: Plans may need adjustments based on changing circumstances or unforeseen challenges. Being adaptable and open to modification is crucial for successful execution.
  7. Quality Control: Ensure that the tasks are being performed to the required standards. This could involve quality checks, feedback loops, and revisions as necessary.
  8. Celebrate Achievements: Acknowledge and celebrate milestones and achievements along the way. This not only boosts morale but also serves as motivation to continue working towards the end goal.
  9. Completion and Evaluation: Once all tasks are complete, evaluate the overall outcome against the intended goal. Assess what worked well, what didn’t, and gather insights for future planning.
  10. Documentation: Document the entire process, including successes, challenges faced, and lessons learned. This will serve as a resource for future endeavors.

Remember that effective execution often requires teamwork, good communication, adaptability, and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Adjustments and refinements are part of the process, so remaining flexible and responsive to changes is key to successful plan execution. I look forward to hearing about your successful executions in your lives and organizations!

Communicating The Vision

Posted on by Eric Merz

A man walks into an eye clinic.
Man: I think my vision is blurry and I may need glasses.
Associate: Oh you need glasses for sure!
Man: (perplexed) how can you know that without testing me?
Associate: Because this is a bank, Sir.

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

-Warren Bennis

Communicating a vision effectively involves clearly articulating the overarching purpose, goals, and direction of an organization, a project, or an idea. Here are some key steps to effectively communicate a vision:

  1. Clarity and Simplicity: Express the vision in clear, simple, and understandable terms. Avoid jargon and use language that resonates with your audience.
  2. Storytelling: Narrate a compelling story that illustrates the journey from the current state to the envisioned future. Stories engage people emotionally and make the vision more relatable.
  3. Visual Aids: Use visual aids such as charts, diagrams, or presentations to supplement your verbal communication. Visuals often help in conveying complex ideas more effectively.
  4. Repetition: Consistently reinforce the vision through various communication channels. Repetition helps in embedding the message in the minds of your audience.
  5. Engage: and Encourage Dialogue:** Invite discussions, questions, and feedback. Create an environment where people feel comfortable discussing the vision, understanding its implications, and contributing their perspectives.
  6. Align with Values: Ensure that the vision aligns with the values and beliefs of your audience. This alignment can enhance the emotional connection to the vision.
  7. Lead by Example: Actions speak louder than words. Model the behavior you want to see in others. Your actions should reflect the values and goals outlined in the vision.
  8. Adaptability: Be open to feedback and be willing to adapt the vision if necessary. Flexibility and openness to change can make the vision more realistic and achievable.
  9. Empower and Inspire: Empower individuals by helping them understand how they contribute to the vision. Inspire them by highlighting the positive impact the vision can bring.
  10. Celebrate Milestones: Acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and milestones that contribute to the realization of the vision. This recognition can motivate and reinforce commitment.

Remember, effective communication of a vision is an ongoing process. It requires consistency, adaptability, and active engagement with your audience to ensure understanding, commitment, and successful implementation.

 

Happy Vision Casting!

Dirty Word: Time Management

Posted on by Eric Merz

One of my pet peeves when watching college or professional football games is watching these multi-millionaire paid quarterbacks and coaches burn time outs and waste the clock due to poor planning and decision making. Check that out the next time you are watching a game. You think they could afford to have a time manager speaking in their ears with all the money at stake. Enough of the rant.

“Lost time is never found again.”

-Proverb

Last week I went down the rabbit hole of time management. Some people cringe when the subject comes up. Sorry! Below is a list of reasons you might consider sharpening your time management. If even one of these is a barrier to your productivity and success, you might consider working in this area.

Ineffective time management can have critical flaws:

  1. Procrastination: This is the most common flaw. When tasks are put off until the last minute, the quality of work often suffers, stress levels rise, and deadlines may be missed.
  2. Overcommitting: Agreeing to take on too much work or filling your schedule too tightly can lead to burnout, missed deadlines, and low-quality work.
    Inefficiency: Spending too much time on a task that could be done more quickly, often due to lack of planning or organization.
  3.  Multitasking: Trying to do several tasks at once often leads to mistakes and decreased productivity.
    Lack of prioritization: Not identifying the most important tasks can lead to wasted time and missed deadlines. 
  4. Poor scheduling: Underestimating how long tasks will take or not allowing for interruptions and breaks can lead to stress and missed deadlines.
  5. Lack of focus: Being easily distracted and not staying on task can lead to low productivity and quality of work.
  6. Neglecting self-care: Not taking time for rest, exercise, and other self-care activities can lead to burnout and decreased productivity.

For better time management, it’s helpful to address these flaws by setting clear goals, prioritizing tasks, creating a realistic schedule, avoiding procrastination, and taking regular breaks.
 

Here’s to a better life and blessings!

Using Your Time!

Posted on by Eric Merz

“Procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it. In fact, I will–tomorrow!”

  –Gloria Pitzer

“He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”

-Victor Hugo

Continuing on our journey of accomplishing our goals and visions let’s review what we have covered so far. We have discussed clearly stating our goal or vision, understanding why or what motivates us to want this outcome, what is in the way (obstacles), possible solutions to those obstacles and the action steps necessary to create those solutions. Now, we must connect our plan to our daily life.

This is when we take out our time management tool to aid us in completing the tasks to bring about our future reality. It does not matter what kind of system we use, just that we use one. We can use a sophisticated proprietary planner, electronic calendars, paper calendars, yellow legal pads or any other types of programs and applications on our phones. Pick one that works for you. Now take all of the action steps into that system so that you can keep track of tasks. This is where the rubber meets the road. So, figure out a way that works for you to manage the system. Some people prefer to review their progress and plans for the next day at the end of the day. Others prefer to complete this task the first thing in the morning. Don’t forget to celebrate and reward yourself as you complete the tasks on your way to achieving your goals.

To Recap Today’s Newsletter

  • Choose a time management system
  • Enter your action steps into your system
  • Manage your system daily
  • Celebrate your wins!

Go Make The Rubber Meet The Road!

1,2,3 Action!

Posted on by Eric Merz
Make sure your directions are clear about the next steps for you and your team:

Employee said:

“Boss told me that as a security guard, it’s my job to watch the office. I’m on season 6 but I’m not really sure what it’s got to do with security.”

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

-Pablo Picasso

Once you have clearly identified the possible solutions to remove the obstacles, begin writing down all of the action steps for the solutions.This may seem tedious and time consuming, however you will be able to see clearly what needs to be done, by when and by whom. This is the key to successfully achieving the goal or vision of the future state.
You will notice that some of the actions may be better served to be carried out for someone else. You can delegate these and if you are working with a team, you can show them what you are trying to accomplish overall and why. This will help them get on board with the actions to be taken.
Carefully, plan out each action step by timing what needs to go first and then in order put dates on those action steps. This will be your “To Do” list for the goal. 
Next time we will talk about how to weave these actions into your daily life!
 

Happy action step setting!

Solutions Hunting

Posted on by Eric Merz

My landlord yelled at me today because my heating bill is through the roof and that he’s going to have to come over soon to discuss a solution.
I told him my door is always open.

“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.”

-Steve Jobs

The quote above by Steve Jobs points to the fact that if we have really done our homework on solutions to removing those obstacles. The reason we want to create multiple possible solutions is that we are not always sure what will work the best. There are things to consider finding all the “real” obstacles to achieving our goals or vision it will be fairly easy to solve the problem. So, for those following along these past few weeks, hopefully no shortcuts were taken on finding the obstacles.
Once we have clearly identified the obstacles we want to make sure we list all of the possible such as timing, time to invest, other resources and skill sets to mention a few. 
Once you have identified all of the possible solutions for each obstacle you can pick out the ones that you think will work best and work best together in concert with other solutions. This process will help you understand the problem at a deeper level and usually leads to very clear action steps. We will cover those in our next writing.

  • Find multiple possible solutions for each obstacle
  • Determine which solutions will work best
  • Consider how these solutions will work together

 

Find those solutions!

Obstacle Hunting

Posted on by Eric Merz

 A mime once nearly had me convinced that a wall was actually there…
…but it was just an obstacle illusion.

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.”

-Roger Crawford

Inevitably, once you begin your journey towards your vision you will encounter obstacles. Ever since the Garden of Eden mankind has encountered obstacles to living the life he or she wants. Not to worry. The first step to achieving any goal is to clearly identify and describe what the actual obstacles are or may be. Exhaust your brain with anything that could get in your way. Things such as time, money, energy, cooperation of others, skills,  knowledge, and attitude may be included. Write all of those down. Next, identify for each obstacles what the possible solutions could be. For example, if our obstacle was “time” we could create a schedule or delegate tasks to others. Once you have identified all of the possible solutions, jot down actions that need to be taken. We will go more into this next time.
But first, the most critical thing is to identify all of the obstacles. 
Some things to think about:

  • What internal obstacles might there be?
  • What external obstacles might there be?
  • What do you have control of?
  • What is out of your control?
  • From your past, what could pop up as an obstacle?
  • What have others experienced as obstacles before?
     

Happy “Obstacle” hunting!