Life Improvement Tips For The Wise Few

The only way to actually be the boss is when it’s your turn to show your leadership skills and this week was my turn. My boss and my colleague went off Island for three days, and left me in charge. All I can say is being boss is no fun, and then again I have to admit that if you can prove your worth, this is the best chance you get in life.

When they left I assumed everything would go smooth and no problems would arise, but no one prepared me for the most drowsed in worked days that would follow.

Everything that could have gone wrong took place, my phone was like a hot line, anyone working there at that moment would have sworn it was a five star restaurant with many take out orders. And to top that off, one of the CSR’s (Customer Service Reps) took ill, so I was filling his spot also.

You name it, and I did it for those couple of days.

Then when I thought it would get better, I got a couple of calls from some Government officials complaining that there systems went down. I have never created a bridged network before and was wondering how in Gods name will I pull that off. Was shown briefly how to do it.

I stayed calm, and tried to focus, began going through some reading material, they called just around nine that morning, and I did not say I didn’t know what to do. I just told them to have a little patience with me and that I was working alone. A little later I called them up and told them that I needed to rebuild all the bridge connections and I will try and get it done A.S.A.P.

I was really multi-tasking, doing customer outages and reading up on how to rebuild those bridges. I just started creating the bridges on the computer and was trying to figure this out while doing that. At that moment I had no one to turn to, no one to call, it was all up to me, if it had to be.

The only thought that ran through my mind was; So you want to be boss then, well prove it.

The worse part came, when one customer was bombarding one CSR with slander, he called me and asked if I could assist him. When I got there, I shook the gentleman hand and he let me have it. I listened and stayed calm, very calm, I was even amazed at how well I handled the situation. Then I told him what I would do, and he left. I again promised the world.

I got that guy shifted on to a new system, got the field techs to assist, must give thanks to the only female tech we have, she really helped me out. We had this guy strapped and moved in under an hour. I called him and he came and got the new box, he went home and his system was up and running. Later that afternoon I called him. he said all was working.

You know what was so amazing, to see that… no thanks was returned. In life we are eager to condemn, but seldom are we prepared to praise.

I was crunched for time, but I wanted to get this done as soon as possible, those guys kept calling me, and I kept telling them that I was busy repairing the network, not quite true, I was busy learning how to do the impossible. In the mean time I was helping everyone out, no complaints, everyone was getting what they wanted except the Government officials.

The Intern who is training with us was laughing and wondering how I would pull it off, I just went and deleted all the bridges, that left me no choice, and started to recreate them, I finished just 5 minutes shy of twelve.

That was a great feeling, the phone calls didn’t slow down, more problems were being reported, and as they came in I was getting them completed.

I must admit, that for all the years working with this company, these couple of days made me feel I like I worked for a lifetime. I was actually busy for the first time in my life for 8 hours each day.

What did I learn from this experience?

1. To always stay calm, and test your limits, you will be surprised what you can do when you don’t have anyone around to help you out.
2. Being the boss takes responsibilities to another level, you have to make decisions and make them fast.
3. I honestly learned how to motivate and get people to do the impossible, and how to believe in you.
4. The best compliment I got is when one of the field techs was working on a problem, he called me and briefly discussed the problem. I went to work and called him back and said you can leave now, it’s up and running. He laughed loudly and said, I told the gentleman I gave it to the best, he will make it work for you.
5. To be the boss, doesn’t mean you have to be a “snob”
6. Together we can get more done, and I have seen this, when one colleague who had requested to take the afternoon off, insisted that he would stay on to help. It really moved me. It won’t go unforgotten.
7. Many of the things that employees do go unnoticed

Point seven is my closing point and that is the one I would like to address, because nothing you do goes unnoticed. And when your doing something, do it from your heart, because what you give is what you will get. I know now, that I do give my all and that the people I work with respect that.

I will send an email of gratitude to all who assisted me in getting through these couple of days.

Thanks, I owe you all a bunch…

Before I close I would like to leave you with this: “Our fatigue is often not caused by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.”

At some point in your life you will have to realize how important it is to stay organized, and if your not, then you should pay keen attention to what I write here today. Many times people mistake clutter for how busy they are, and then they call that; “Management”. I see that as plain old fashioned mess, no organizational skills what so ever.

To manage effectively means to be on top of everything, and to be on the top, you have to organized. You have to know the end point, before you can implement the plan. I have seen many workers and managers running their departments like it was a one day job. No structure and no plans. How will you be able to manage your money, if you don’t have a clue how much you have to spend and how much you have to start with.

Life isn’t always going to go the way you have planned, but one thing you can be assured of, and that is that life will return what plans you have for yourself.

To fully understand how to plan and organize yourself, you will have to start planning your steps, as you go along you adjust, but you have to keep your mind focused on the end goal. It’s the end goal that drives what you have planned, and without that your destined to fail.

A famous quote: “Failure to plan is a plan for failure”

So whatever you wish to accomplish, you first have to start with a plan, and I can’t stress that enough. I will hit on my St. Maarteners now, because we (I said we, that means me too) are famous for taking everything in a slow paced fashion. We actually never have a rush to get anything done. Time isn’t important, and we are always in a relaxed mode. Maybe it’s due to the size of the Island, or who knows what.

The biggest benefit we as St. Maarteners gets is when we go away to study, it is then that we see how differently other people live and that is when we honestly see how organized other societies function. And that alone should say why so many of our attitudes remain the same, because we didn’t learn anything while abroad, or we have never been over seas to learn from other cultures.

The true meaning stems from adjusting and learning as you go, your biggest problems occurs when you come back home. You have to re-adjust, otherwise many people will dislike your attitude, but I don’t believe you should adjust to anyone style.

The work around here is to always be at your best, and to start organizing your life from a very young age, and actually adapting new ways to get things done faster. For me, there is only one way to get things done faster and that is to not put off what you can do today for tomorrow.

Keeping track of your life is so important and a part of life I wished that I had known when I was much younger, because it creates a much better organized you, and one with a more functional mind.

The way I go about my day, is to use the web for all my planning and ideas, as an idea hit me and I can’t write it down, I send myself an email reminding me of that idea.

My kids always ask me; Daddy why do you send yourself so many emails?

The idea behind that is to not forget my little brain-farts I get while working. It really makes things simple, for me that is. Even on the job I am very much organized, I never have a cluttered desk, and I always keep track of everything I do on paper. These skills are so important. I write everything down, and that makes it easy for me to retrieve what I am looking for.

Please don’t write on a loose pieces of paper, get a hard cover copy book. I have sections in this book, I write in it, like a Chinese person… I write in the back, then in the front, because I create divisions in the book based on the different subjects or problems that I deal with daily.

To most, that may seem confusing, but like I said, that is my system, you have to find one for yourself, and use it to keep yourself more organized. Once you start organizing yourself, you will see a big change, you won’t be searching through piles of stuff looking for nothing. To be organized is so important, it is the beginning of a new way to getting anything you want in your life.

An organized person is superb at time management, so it doesn’t matter where your at, you should be organized at work and if your going to school, you should be getting organized for school. Learn to organize yourself while your still in school, it will show in your character once you get your own little office space and keep it organized. Skills learned in school will only get better and be more developed once you get older.

I hate walking into a unorganized office, and most of all hate seeing cluttered desk, with loads of papers, some dating back a couple of years. But, those are the managers we see daily. My guess is if your reading this post, then tomorrow your desk will be cleaned… I have seen one office, where they have dust built up on the papers… I know you will be looking at your desk and clearing off your work space tomorrow…

Can you ever be too organized?

I leave you with that one, because many issues will arise once I start on that topic… I leave that for another time.

You must understand what it is that you like and dislike, about something or someone. But if your a true leader and not a follower, you will have to be criticized, complemented, liked and disliked.

Most of you and I must admit that I myself loves to be complemented, but what happens when your attacked with a bombardment of negative things that you do. How do you deal with it? What do you do? Will You run? Will stand there and argue?

Life is filled with positive and negative moments and people, and to be at the top, you have to learn how to deal with both the good and the bad. At times I really came to believe that the more bad you are confronted with, the stronger you become.

Let me give you a little example that took place just a couple days back. A colleague called me and I told him about an issue that had to be dealt with right away, he immediately went into defense mode, and stated that I should call the Hotel Manager and let him call him. I told him that’s a waste of energy, why don’t you call him and try to understand what the issue is.

He didn’t even bother with me, and told me no, he won’t do that, I should call the Hotel manager. Now, that really confused me, and at that moment I questioned myself, what is his issue. I didn’t make the call and later that afternoon our manager came to the office, I didn’t bring up the topic, just then that colleague walked in and I called him and asked him what happened with the problem from this morning. he was really nice and said in a soft an friendly voice, I already told you what to do. He was so sweet, I swore that I got cavities from the way he was acting. I then said, how nice, but the boss is here now, so let me hear what you had to say.

He then said you go and tell him then, and so I did. My manager walked over and asked what was the issue, I then explained what was going on, and he then asked the guy what was happening. Must give my boss a credit for that, he listened to both sides. Great skills, when your facing both evils, make no choice, choice no sides, just listen to both.

My colleague began speaking in a weird manner, calling and referring to people without names, I told him, hey if your talking about me, just say what’s on your mind, because I don’t like stories.

This was the first time I was being criticized for something I did. At that moment he caught me off-guard and I was really pissed. But, I didn’t show it, but my voice was much louder than normal. You know what surprised me most, is that this colleague stayed very calm and collective. He honestly showed more skills, he really made me loose my cool.

What happened?

A simple case of letting someone get to you, I left him irritate me, and lost my cool. From now on, I will have to pay much more attention, and think before I respond, and most important: Don’t ever, ever loose your cool!

He then said he would file a complaint against me for the way I addressed him. I then told him that he was just being childish and that when the manager is there he acts so sweet and nice like a spoiled child. But, I must say I honestly learned something from this whole issue.

What did I learn from this?

Ever since I came to work in this department, this guy was confronting me, and I was avoiding him, I kept avoiding him, and the more he kept attacking. I always believed that by avoiding the problem or this person it was the best solution.

That is pure hog wash.

After our problem, we met outside and he asked me; “So you want to bring out your guns and shoot me!”

That statement really pissed me off, but then I told him what I felt and what really happened, a stupid simple over looked mistake brought forward some serious issues. But, once I laid my cards on the table and explained him what I thought, and he explained what he thought. We finally understood each other.

As you can see at some point in your life, you will be confronted or criticized. Don’t run from your problems, just listen to the person attacking, and ask yourself: Why is this person attacking me? Do I attack people the same way?

If you can answer those questions honestly, then you will notice that you do the same and  what your sending out is what you will receive. Change that attitude, stop attacking people, try to understand and reason with people. If they can’t be reasoned with, just state your case and explain that you have to leave.

No matter what people say about you, just embrace and analyze if it’s true and if it is, just change that habit and simply move on. Your not trying to live your life to please. Your trying to learn how to speak your mind and how to be better understood. Those are the most important issues that we have to deal with in life.

Spend more time improving your speaking skills, that way people will understand you better, and you won’t be scared to say what you have to.