Fans

 

It is an exciting time of year for sports fans. Baseball is heading to the playoffs, the NFL is building momentum, and college football is in full swing. Fans are sporting their favorite teams gear, yelling at TVs, and sweating their fantasy line-ups. They are passionate, invested, and all bought in.

Are your employees or team members passionate fans of your company or organization? Think about that. Imagine if they felt the same level of excitement about your business as they do for their favorite sports team. What would it be like to have a team full of dedicated, passionate fans?

This is likely easier said than done. I mean it is work, and it does not include cold beer and wings. It is also way more than just branded gear and a company happy hour. True fans are invested. They feel like they have something at stake, and they feel a tie to their team.  We should want employees and team members to feel that way. We want them to be all in on our team winning.

Are your employees rabid fans of your business?

Tweaking Your Trajectory

 

Where is your current trajectory taking you?  The ongoing process of self-improvement is all about trajectory.  We owe it to ourselves to check our current direction and see if we are headed where we want!  This requires honesty, transparency, and objective self-analysis. Whether this process is pleasant or not, we should take it seriously. Some changes require significant admissions and major life changes.  However, for many of us our trajectory just needs to be tweaked.  We need to slightly increase our positive habits and back off the more negative ones. Just because they are only tweaks does not mean they will be easy.  Change is hard.  Bad habits are hard to break, and good ones are difficult to become routine.  Change is how you alter the direction your life is taking.

 

Think about where you are headed and ask yourself these questions. Are you happy with that direction? Could your trajectory use some adjustments? 

The Pace of Life

 

Life moves at an incredible pace these days. News is available immediately. Social media is instantaneous. The controls for our lives sit at our fingertips. This is not all bad, but it is not all good either. Connectivity has its benefits, but it can also overwhelm us. Sometimes we need to slow down, tap the brakes. The only way to accomplish that is to disconnect and unplug. It is not easy.

 

I read a lot of fiction, in addition to the business books recommended by my business coach, which I carefully read word for word. Recently, while reading a work of fiction, I came across an interesting line. It was a comment made by a CIA agent in the story.

 

-          Things only slow down if you apply your own brakes and take control of the precious short time allotted to you in life.

 

It is up to you. Think about it.

 

Out Of Office

Do people notice when you're out of the office? You know those auto-reply messages we set in our email? I recently took a two-week vacation and left my team to manage things on their own. Now I’m not sure they even need me.

How does your team function when you're not immediately available? The answer should be just fine!

Happy Labor Day

 

It is not just about football season starting…

Labor Day: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Enjoy your holiday!