Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Categories:
Total Quality Management,
Systems Development
I have been fortunate to have been blessed with a relatively healthy 51 years. Until this past week it had been over 30 years since I have even stayed overnight in a hospital…then it was for some fairly minor ankle surgery. Time has a way of catching up though and this week brought the total replacement of my left hip. The years of athletics, mountain climbing with heavy packs and digging ditches contributed to a hip that wasn’t functioning very well. I am now the bionic man.
I am happy to report that the surgery went great, I went home a day early and am on the road to recovery. Now life is about doing my exercises 2-3 times a day so that I can get back out on the golf course in a couple months.
Many thanks go out first of all to my doctor, Dennis McGee of Intermountain Orthopedics in Boise (great job!), the great health care workers on the 9th floor of Saint Alphonsus Medical Center and I don’t want to forget the food service at the hospital provided by Thomas Cuisine Management of Meridian (I definitely didn’t lose any weight).
It was amazing to observe all the many systems that have to be in place to make sure that things go the way they are supposed to. Systems for making sure the ‘customer’ is as comfortable as possible during an anxious time, systems for getting the right medications in place to ensure a successful outcome, systems for monitoring ‘vitals’ at the right frequency, systems for dealing with situations that don’t go as planned…even systems for getting food to patients when they want it.
I realize that not every hospital stay goes as well as mine did (I can honestly say that I wasn’t in a big hurry to get out). I, for one, am grateful for the thousands of hours of work that have been put in developing and refining systems that will hopefully allow me to live a more productive life…and maybe even lower my golf score!!
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching
I love the sport of baseball and have spent hundreds of hours coaching the youth in our area over the past 10 years or so. A good friend of mine, who also loves and coaches the sport, and I have had an ongoing debate about what makes a team good...what gets them over the hump to be able to compete with the top teams in their city, state, etc.
Is it primarily about having good or great talent? Or is how they are coached and motivated more important?
I have been closely observing a local high school basketball team over the past several years. One year ago (according to my evaluation) they had very average talent as a team, and had a coach who had
no previous basketball coaching experience of any kind. He didn't know what he was doing and team morale plummeted early in the season. If I recall (and I have spent a long time trying not to) they won about 3 or 4 games all year.
Enter a new coach at the beginning of this year. He has plenty of experience and a HUGE passion for the game. After a rough start where the new coach had to 'unteach' all the bad habits and attitudes of past years (3 wins and 9 losses through 12 games) this team with basically the same players as last year wins 10 of their last 13 games and this week gets rewarded with a spot in the state tournament.
Talent? Or coaching? It is easy to see the importance of coaching in my example, but the truth is that it is some of both. In your business you may have some 'players' with a tremendous amount of talent. But unless they are coached, unless you learn who they really are and what motivates them, unless you help them to develop a team attitude, they are likely to produce very average results.
You may have some very average players on your team. Can you get them to perform at a superior level? Maybe even win the state title?
I know of about 15 kids who are fairly realistic about their natural abilities. They know that they are going to have to fight and scrap for every win they get. But they have decided to pay the price, to give everything they have, because of one coach who has learned how to motivate them and has helped them to believe. Stay tuned to see how the tournament turns out...
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Categories:
Performance
I love the latest Southwest Airlines series of commercials where the young executive has been doing a great job, gets a big promotion, but now is accused of using 'performance enhancers' to get to the place where he is outdoing his peers. In one scene he stomps out of his office and away from reporters as the accusations fly. Turns out that he has just been traveling via Southwest, thus saving him all kinds of time and money and bringing profits to the company.
Just in case you have been living in a cave for the past several years, Southwest is making fun of Major League Baseball and its steroids woes. The recent Mitchell report named more than 80 big leaguers as having 'used' in the past several years. While none of them has yet been convicted in a court of law, it is clear that these individuals felt that they had to cheat in order to do their job to the level that they desired. As a lifelong baseball fan the whole issue has saddened me (although it didn't come as a surprise). Hopefully the resulting proceedings will make a serious contribution to cleaning up all sports; not only at that level, but starting with our youth.
The subject did get me wondering a little about those in the workplace and what kind of 'performance enhancers' they may need in order to do their jobs well. We are all motivated differently. For some of us it may be the paycheck...the bigger the check (or at least the potential of a bigger check), the more determined to do a good job we are. For others it may be the social interaction that they get to be a part of. Still others love the intellectual challenge that each day brings or the chance to be able to impact other people in a positive way. A big part of job satisfaction is determined by how well our job fits with our inner motivators.
Do you love your job? If I asked you to rate your personal job satisfaction on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being, 'Every morning I can hardly wait for the alarm to ring so I can jump out of bed and get going!' and 1 being 'What job?' what number would you give yourself. If you gave yourself a 7-10 you are truly rare. Most people I talk with are in the 1-6 range.
If that is you, this new year may be just the time to commit to understanding more clearly what your inner motivations are and make plans to get more closely aligned with them. You will be more happy...and won't need any 'artificial enhancers' to set your world on fire.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 3:30 PM
Categories:
Miscellaneous
Funerals have a way of giving us renewed perspective on life. I attended one this past weekend. Several hundred people in our community gathered together to remember Jack Alban, a man who had a tremendous impact on a lot of people over the course of his 61 years (by the way, 61 seems younger and younger all the time). Jack was very involved in his church, having taught Sunday School for over 20 years. He had been a college professor for many years and a counselor/psychologist until he retired just about a year ago. He was an avid sports fan until his last day.
Among the many people who had glowing things to say about this man who had helped to changed their lives were his two sons, David and Dan, both in their 20's. They both struggled to hold back the tears as they told story after story of life with their dad. They told of Cubs games at Wrigley Field in Chicago and countless wresting matches that he watched them compete in. We all laughed and cried with them as they made it crystal clear to us how grateful they were for the years they did have with their dad.
It is not an easy thing to make Thanksgiving a part of our lifestyle, instead of just another holiday. "Life comes at you fast!" is a marketing line that a national insurance company is using currently. Hopes and dreams come and go...sometimes they are completely dashed. Life rarely turns out the way we thought it would. The truth of the matter is that it is a whole lot easier to be 'disappointed' than 'thankful'.
During this Thanksgiving season, I hope to remind you that the fight is worth it. I have not conducted a scientific study on this subject, but I am convinced that there is a direct correlation between our attitude towards life and our ability to be genuinely thankful each and every day. Thankfulness has a direct impact on how we see the world, no matter what comes at us. And how we see the world and how we handle tough circumstances (attitude) determines what kind of impact we have on those around us.
I know of two young men who have great attitudes, even now, during the toughest of times. There can be little doubt that their dad's impact on them has shaped their outlook on life. Jack's love and encouragement is still with them today. I know that I am more thankful today. The challenge is to be so tomorrow as well.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Friday, November 02, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Categories:
Strategic Planning
People. Strategy. Performance.
There is little doubt about it...a football team is judged by its performance. It is all about their won and loss record. You can have all the right people. You can have a game plan (strategy) that is impeccable. But if all the pieces don't come together and the team does not perform up to expectations, heads may roll. The prime targets of fan's wrath is the coach and the quarterback. If their team is not winning, then one of these two individuals usually has to go.
Performance is monitored by coaches and fans on a weekly basis. Changes are made to improve performance. In football there is a lot of accountability. In this day of instant media coverage of almost every game, if a player's performance is not up to par, it is there for all the world to see.
While usually not under as much intense scrutiny, most effective businesses have consistent measurements in place to track the performance of its employees. When a company is diligent in negotiating key results for its workers and takes the time to review them regularly, effective accountability happens and productivity is not only high, but readily observable.
Over the long haul, businesses who pay close attention to finding the right people, who take the time to work through well thought out strategy, and consistently monitor the performance of its crew will find that success is right around the corner. That success will be seen and enjoyed by all.