Invaluable E-Book

Dave Crenshaw

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 132

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

A business fable for anyone feeling overwhelmed, underpaid, and frustrated in their job From the author of The Myth of Multitasking comes Invaluable, a business fable that empowers the frustrated and overworked to understand the value of their time. At the fictitious company GreenGarb, twenty-something Jason is discontent in his entry-level position, feeling his skills and knowledge are being underutilized; mid-level manager Tracy is overwhelmed by her own workload and needy direct reports; and CEO Helen needs them to sort it out productively. Jason's grandfather Charlie plants the seed of a new perspective in Jason mind: before he can get a raise, he must prove he deserves the raise. He must establish the value of his time, rather than expecting to be paid what he thinks he is worth. Time management consultant Phil helps them determine how they spend their time, and what it costs, with easy-to-follow worksheets that map what their actions and time are worth. * Offers solid advice for determining just how "invaluable" you are to your boss and customers * Shows how to create a productive framework of cooperation in the workplace * Includes an appendix of worksheets and examples that offer concrete tools that can be applied immediately The Myth of Multitasking taught readers how to take control of their time. Invaluable shows readers how to increase the value of the time they do spend working.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Dedication

Title Page

Copyright Page

PREFACE

FRICTION

FRUSTRATION

PERSPECTIVE

INVALUABLE

MANAGER

MVAs

CEO

BUDGET

ENTREPRENEUR

TRAPS

OFFLOADING

FACTOR

REPORT

APPENDIX

Acknowledgments

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Praise forInvaluable

“If you’re in business, you need this book! Read it, apply it, and buy Invaluable for your entire team. Dave has communicated in a short story what many CEOs wish they could tell their employees, but don’t know how. This deeply motivational book is packed with clear action steps to improve one’s performance in any organization.”

—Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures

“I encourage you to buy three copies of this wonderful book. Get one for yourself, one for a colleague, and one for a loved one who has lost hope about being ‘invaluable’!”

—Alex Mandossian, founder, ProductiveToday.com

“In this book Dave has brought together a simple yet powerful set of tools that will assist you in cultivating immediate and lasting results! At this point in history it is a key to become invaluable. By using the tools in this book you will truly be able to do so!”

—Jairek Robbins, coach, speaker, founder, The Jairek Robbins Companies

For David Winford Invaluable Mentor and Friend

Copyright © 2010 by Dave Crenshaw. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crenshaw, Dave.

eISBN : 978-0-470-60945-3

1. Organizational effectiveness. 2. Performance. 3. Value. 4. Time management. 5. Employee motivation. I. Title.

HD58.9.C75 2010

650.1—dc22

2009051939

HB Printing

PREFACE

My first book, The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done, grew from need. Early in my career, my clients were all business owners. They came to me feeling starved, desperate for a way to find more time in their days. A quick look at how they were spending their time showed that nearly all were segmenting themselves in too many parts. They had too many job descriptions, too many businesses. Over the course of working with these clients, I developed a program to help them get more time, the most critical aspect of which was to get more focus. Overcoming multitasking is the first great step to overcoming a lack of focus.

From the moment I started my mission to help business owners and CEOs, I found myself working more and more with their employees. Invigorated by their own quick results, business leaders asked me to teach their teams the same principles of success and focus. They wanted their employees to be more productive and, generally speaking, more compliant. In too many cases, the business leader essentially said, “Fix my employees.” The underlying message I heard repeatedly from the business leaders was, “If only my employees looked at the business the way I did, everything would be better.”

The irony is, as I worked with employees, I would very often hear, “Please fix my boss.” Employees would offer example after example of their leader’s dysfunctional behavior. “If only he would give clear directions!” “If only she would stop long enough to pay attention to me!” Employees felt that since I was working to hold their boss accountable, telling me about their woes was perhaps their best and only shot for some real change!

Over time, I have found the same principles of success apply to both groups, even though their perspectives are very different. While entrepreneurs live in a world of calculated risk for calculated reward, most employees seek security and steady advancement. This isn’t to say that each group seeks a different destination, only different pathways to that destination.

Unexpectedly, the friction between these two methods of work-life goal attainment lends itself to success in businesses of all sizes. The resulting pressure between entrepreneurial grand vision and employee attention to detail can lead to great progress. Unfortunately, characteristic of friction, the differences also create a lot of heat. All too often, the path of the business leader and the path of the employee not only intersect but also collide.

The message of Invaluable isn’t to remove the friction but to contain the heat. While heat left uncontained causes chaos, channeled and focused heat will generate a lot of lift and momentum. Channeled, focused heat propels rockets into space. Similarly, when both business leaders and employees understand each other, even though their differences in perspective remain, they are better equipped to find ways to work together. They begin to realize they share the same end goals. Business owners and employees realize that, at least in matters of business success and even the economy, they are in it together.

So, here’s to reaching new heights—together.

FRICTION

Jason could sense her behind him . . . hovering.

Through nearly six months of internship and a couple more months on the job, he had developed a sixth sense—his “Tracy-dar.” He could feel her coming a mile away.

He didn’t need to see her face to know she was rolling her eyes. He didn’t need to listen beyond the soft hum of his computer to hear her stifled sigh. He didn’t even need to have his feet on the floor to know she was tapping her foot impatiently.

“Yes, Tracy?” he asked, his eyes never leaving the computer screen.

Tracy now sighed audibly. “Where is that research report on next quarter’s trends?”

Jason barely masked his frustration. He spoke quickly, so as to not give her a chance to interrupt. “It’s coming. I should have it to you by Friday. You asked me to start working on the sales projections yesterday. You said those were urgent. I assumed that meant they went to the top of my stack. So I’ve been working on getting those ready. It’s what you asked me to do.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you assume,” she chided. “When I told you the sales projections were urgent, that didn’t mean I wanted you to stop working on the trend report. I still expected you to get that to me this morning.”

How was I supposed to know that? Is ESP part of my job description now? Jason thought. But what he said was, “Okay. . . .”

“This is why you’ re paid a salary now, Jason,” Tracy continued. “You’re supposed to work the hours it takes to get these things done. You may have punched a time clock when you were an intern, but now GreenGarb expects more from you.”

Yeah, that’s why I came here out of college, to get minimum-wage pay for a never-ending workweek. Jason spun in his chair and gave a quick salute. “Okay, boss. I’ ll get right on it.”

“So, when can I get the trend report?”

Jason looked around at the papers strewn around his cubicle. “Uh . . . well, I guess if I stop working on the sales projections right now, I could get it to you by the end of the day. Good enough?”

Tracy frowned. “It’ ll have to be, I guess.” She paused for a moment as if to say something else to Jason, then turned and walked back toward her office.

Jason clenched his fists in frustration behind Tracy’s back and sighed. “Looks like another long day again. This is not why I went to college,” he muttered to himself. Resigned to his current fate, he turned back to the computer and began pulling up the trend report, again.

FRUSTRATION

Jason absently tapped out a rhythm on his steering wheel as he sped along I- 11. The radio blared a familiar tune, but he wasn’t listening.

Am I burned out already? Jason wondered to himself. What a wimp. Snap out of it!

Jason felt he had a solid work ethic. He had never considered himself a privileged kid and had learned the value of hard work growing up with his family’s small business. Although he hadn’t been a star athlete in high school, he had also learned teamwork and discipline from a tough basketball coach.

In college it had been much the same. He did the assignments, put in enough effort to get decent grades, and even had a little time to goof around with friends and date. Overall, he always did what his teachers expected him to do and graduated with a respectable GPA.

In his business classes the teachers had warned him to expect long hours early on—that junior employees in almost any business were expected to pay their dues. So, after graduation, when GreenGarb had offered him a marketing assistant position following his internship, he felt he knew what to expect. He knew Tracy was very smart and talented, albeit a little authoritarian and neglectful at times. He had seen the long hours other employees put in. Early on in his internship, he had even seen the CEO, Helen, put in long hours—though he had seen less of that lately. Although this was his first job out of school, from his parents ’ business he knew it took an incredible amount of work to keep a company competitive.

Then why am I so upset?

He knew deep down it wasn’t about the hours, even though he was spending more time than he liked at GreenGarb. It was about the feeling of being underappreciated and undervalued. Tracy treated him like a grunt. She barely acknowledged his effort, let alone that he was a human being. When he performed the tasks she asked him to do, his efforts weren’t recognized. When he showed initiative and tried to give his input for improvement or make a recommendation, Tracy acted as if she cared about his opinion, but she really did nothing about it. And often he felt attacked for mistakes he didn’t even realize he was making, like today when he didn’t get the trend report in on the date and time Tracy expected.

What frustrated him most of all, though, was that he knew if he were in Tracy’s position, he could do a whole lot better.

He sighed as he flipped on the turn signal to move toward the next exit. Jason had learned one thing over the twenty-two years of his life—whenever he was confused or upset, there was one person he could always depend on to pick him up and point him in the right direction.

He was going to see Charlie.

PERSPECTIVE

Jason pulled into the parking lot of Palm Terrace Community. Grabbing the keys, he jumped out of his small car. He felt the warmth of the setting sun on his face as he jogged down the palm-lined walkway. As he reached the door, he smiled to himself. Things always seemed better around Charlie.

He waved to the head nurse, Nancy, who called out, “Hey, Jason, when are you going to let me set you up with my niece?”

Jason winked as he walked by. “Your niece? You know you’re the only one for me, Nancy.”

“Charmer!” She laughed and shushed him with her hands. “I think Charlie is back in his room. It’s Thursday.”

“John Wayne night, of course. Thanks, Nancy.”

Jason nodded to familiar elderly faces as he walked back through the residence halls of Palm Terrace. An occasional “Hello, Jason” and “Good to see you, son” greeted him as he passed by.

Walking up to the slightly cracked door of room 134, he could hear the familiar voice of the Duke drifting around the corner. “You wanna quit, quit! Go back to the bottle, get drunk. One thing, though. The next time someone throws a dollar into a spittoon—”

“‘ Don’ t expect me to do anything about it! Just get down on your knees and get it. ’” Jason recited with a grin as he opened the door.

Charles Fullman, a wiry, weathered oak of a man, nearly ninety years old, smiled widely and began to push himself up from the easy chair. “Jason, my boy! It’s so good to see you!”

Jason rested a hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “No need to get up.” But Jason felt Charlie’s deceptive strength surge as he rose from the chair and stood eye to eye with him.

“Nonsense!” Charlie laughed and clapped Jason firmly on the shoulders with large, gnarled hands. “It’s always an honor to see my favorite grandson. Have a seat and let’s talk.” He reached down slowly to the remote and pressed the off button for the TV.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt the Duke,” Jason said as he sat down on an ancient sofa. He fondly remembered many Thursday evenings as a boy watching and memorizing every John Wayne film with Charlie. After Jason’s grandmother passed away, his grandfather had built a small house on the lot across the street from their family, so Jason had visited often.

The one thing Jason never did was call him grandpa. Charlie would never allow it.

“The Duke can wait!” Charlie nodded firmly as if making a proclamation. He grinned, his eyes twinkling as he looked at Jason. “Tell me about your day. Have you conquered the world yet?”

Jason smiled ruefully. “My day was okay. Let’s not talk about it. How is Palm Terrace treating you?”

Charlie paused for a moment as if to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, he replied, “Great. Great! There’re a few fellows here who like to play chess, too. We get together every few days or so and brawl. John is a damn fine player, but I’d never tell him. That son of a sow’s head is already big enough as it is!” He laughed loudly.