Of course it takes to getting near the end of the book that we finally find John Galt in some alternate land (I’ll admit that part kind of lost me; I might have to go back over it again) and learn that he was so disgusted with the way life was that he created a new life and society where others who believed as he did ended up and were thriving under a new philosophy they called Objectivism. And man, does he talk about it; the speech ends up being over 50 pages long! There was a man who had something to say.

Basically, objectivism believes that reality and consciousness are independent of each other. Rand said “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

It may seem strange that I’m talking about this on my blog, and the principle does go a lot deeper than what’s shown, but, in essence, if you look at just the basic philosophy above, can anyone say that this isn’t how most people perceive their own lives? Who can truly say that they don’t pursue everything in their life with the thought of what will make them happiest in the long run? Even if one’s purpose is only to help others, isn’t that action something that makes them the happiest?

I tend to believe that most managers are missing this concept when dealing with employees. I hear often about “bully” managers who seem to care only about themselves at the moment, not about long term success, or long term happiness of anyone else. One of my friends often says she’s sitting around waiting for the person to whom she reports to start yelling at her for one thing or another. I also hear people who say they’re always worried about making a mistake because they don’t want to get castigated for it.

Managers to attempt to lead by fear and bullying are doomed to fail because they haven’t learned the basic tenet of success, which is to try to make as many people as happy as they can be so that they will produce for them. Determining what makes these people happy and content during working hours is really what a manager’s job is all about, and the need to keep employees motivated is stronger than the need to find ways to pay employees more money.

I think everyone should probably find a way to read, or listen, to Atlas Shrugged, but I know that’s not going to happen. Instead, just think of the lessons it gives, and work towards making the workplace a nicer environment for your employees. You’ll be amazed at the benefits on the back end.

I think about that situation often because I wonder if I’ve applied that same sense of doing the right thing in other aspects of my job. I know I haven’t applied it outside of the workplace often enough, slipping as often into the “it’s not my business” mode as most people do when they see something going on with people they don’t know. When I know one of the participants, I’ve always gotten into it, sometimes against the person I know, because I figure I might have to see that person again. And that’s not quite right, is it?

I came across this blog post by Tom Magness at Leader Business where he mentioned a quote his leaders at West Point used to utter: “New Cadet, never walk past a mistake. If you fail to make a correction, you have just set a new standard.“ It makes one think about this issue a bit deeper, because, as I see the world today, with so much violence and hatred and the lack of respect for each other, I wonder if all of us have caused it because we haven’t stepped up to the plate at all times and worked toward maintaining the standards we already had.

In the workplace, we can’t afford to let these standards collapse; in the world, the same thing may apply, but we can’t control all of that. We can only control ourselves. And I’m going to have to think about this one some more.

Jill Hurst-Wahl, the initiator of the series, named Enitiative, wrote about the interview here, and she captured it all very well. I like that our area is doing things like this, and I believe every community should be looking to promote their own business leaders.

Her article also highlights the next interviewees, which you can check out at the link.

Anyway, I called my client, who’s also a friend, and told him I had fixed his problem, and all was right with the world. He asked me if I could come over to his office, as he’d made something he wanted to give me for helping him out. I figured he didn’t owe me anything, as I did what he pays me for, but I also decided I needed to get out of the office, so I went.

While there, I was telling him about some of the trials and tribulations of my professional life over the last couple of months. Suffice it to say, there have been better times than right now, though there have also been worse times. He offered me words of encouragement, telling me his history and how he was once in the same position I’m in now. He also said some very nice things about me and some things he’s seen that I’ve done; trust me, I needed the boost. Then we went into another room and he showed me what he’d made for me and my wife; I was touched.

Words of encouragement can turn a frown into a smile in a heartbeat. Even when someone doesn’t need it, positive reinforcement can work wonders. You don’t even have to be a manager or leader in any fashion to offer nice words to someone else. Carol Burnett used to talk about going places and seeing people who didn’t seem to be in the best of moods, and she’d find something to say to that person that would compliment then in some fashion, and whether they knew who she was or not they would always smile.

So, I want to say all of you who read this are special people, and I know you’ll have nothing but success the rest of the week.

Well, when stuff hits the fan, it sometimes spreads over a large area, and in this case, it’s not going to be pretty. Reading this from Stereohyped, it would seem that the highest-ranking black officer in the NYPD, Chief Douglas Zeigler, was pulled over without provocation. And, as it figures, they didn’t know who he was when he asked. Needless to say, there are repercussions, because, for once, the officers can’t lie and back each other up against a superior officer.

When people in the workplace complain of discrimination, often the majority believes people are just being overly sensitive. This proves that it does happen. It also indicates that, with greater equality in the hiring of minorities and having more of them in leadership positions, this type of thing may not happen as often as it does now.

At least we can hope.

My initial thought was that I was beating the crowd in taking them the day before Mother’s Day. However, not only was I incorrect on that one, but it turned out that two of the local colleges were graduating students this weekend, and that meant there were more people than normal waiting to get in.

Even though it looked like it was going to take us forever to get a seat, it’s a large restaurant, and we only waited 20 minutes. We were escorted to our seat, and in less than 5 minutes we had our drinks and they were ready to take our order. With all the commotion and the potential for stress, the people who waited on us were calm, cool, and collected. The restaurant obviously knew the day was going to have a heavier number of visitors than normal, and they planned well for it. The food came timely and just right, and the waitress made sure she checked in on us often and kept our drink glasses filled.

This is customer service done correctly. They knew what people expected of them, even under duress, and they delivered. Most businesses aren’t under this kind of stress, yet their businesses encounter customer service failures on a daily basis. Seems we all could learn a few lessons from restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory; I know I’m going to be a repeat visitor as often as I can be, since I live out of town.

It is true that officers in Philadelphia have been under some stress lately, as there was the murder of a fellow officer earlier in the week. But Philadelphia had been trying to do a crackdown in one of their most troubled neighborhoods lately, and if anyone thought this was something that didn’t have a potential to happen, they knew nothing about people and probably shouldn’t have been in leadership positions to begin with.

In essence, the officers exhibited a typical lynch mob mentality, choice of words purposely being used. It was somewhat reminiscent of the days when a mob would decide on the guilt of someone because of who they were, decided they didn’t want to wait for justice to occur, and took the law into their own hands. And when one jumps the gun, and emotions are already at a tense point, it’s hard to stop, slow down, and take a step back to look at it more logically.

History does indeed repeat itself, and leaders and managers are supposed to learn from history, and it doesn’t matter what the vocation is. But when the job the employees performs directly impact the populace, it becomes even more critical for those in leadership positions to be able to forecast the possibility of negative reactions to negative stimulus.

Has it really been that long since the riots in Los Angeles related to the Rodney King rulings?

Every one of us deals with the fear question, even us independent consultants. Sometimes we acknowledge it, other times we don’t think of it as fear, but it’s there. How we respond to the fear issues that come into our daily and weekly lives determines how successful we will be, and what level of responsibility we’re ready to accept.

CEOs of major companies didn’t sit around waiting for things to happen for them. They faced their fear straight on and decided they were going to conquer it. Trying to achieve things and move up the ladder of success takes a lot of courage. It’s much easier to get another job when you’re resume doesn’t have a lot of elevated positions listed. After all, there are way more regular jobs than managerial jobs. I look at the healthcare industry as a perfect example. Every management position is a solo deal, and the only opportunities for advancement lay in either obtaining more education or waiting for the same position to open up at another hospital. Talk about your job insecurity!

This is why I love talking to, and working with managers. It’s a part of their existence that’s hard to resolve, but once they do, and decide they’re willing to keep moving forward, management can be a lot of fun. And that makes executive coaching a lot of fun also.

What I had a problem with, however, is that the services I was being offered were services that I actually provide and market myself. In other words, even though the email came from an actual person (I know this because I wrote the person back), this person didn’t take even a quick minute to look at my main page to see what it was I did.

When businesses have websites online, it’s easy enough to take a quick look to see what a potential client’s business is to determine if it’s worth offering your services to them. As a healthcare consultant, I’m not going to offer my services to another healthcare consulting company. As a management consultant, I’m not going to offer my services to a management company. As a,… well, you get the picture.

True, it’s harder in the regular world where you may be sending something out to hoards of people all at once to specifically eliminate people who do something similar. But when you’re in a small business, your credibility is always on the line just a bit more than a large company, and making a faux pas like this one doesn’t look good, and you probably won’t get much business.

What’s funny about this is that I know a lot of people who have multiple blogs. Many people like to mix between pure business and fun blogs; some people have all fun, and some have all business. Many are topical. Actually, I have another blog, totally personal, that I’m not sharing with anyone, and I’m presently running a blog for my high school class reunion later this year (see the blogroll), even though it should have been last year; talk about procrastination!

Blogging is a good way to keep in touch with people, get your views out, and show your proficiency. But there is one thing I’d caution against, which is not to start one if you don’t think you can sustain it. Nothing worse than going to someone’s blog and seeing that they haven’t written anything in a year. Sure, every once in awhile a person has a legitimate reason for ending one, but if you have a blog and have only written three times,… looks bad.

So there you go; I hope you enjoy the other one as much as this one.