If the people are sleeping, wake up the pastor

I saw this phrase somewhere and could not get it out of my mind. Sure I have seen the occasional church member dose off after a sleepless night. I even remember Wally who sat in the back row, always in the same seat of our small church. His wife made him come to church, I am sure. His head would bob from side to side or his chin would be touching his chest. Once or twice a year his head would bob back and hit the light switch. Out would go the lights and his wife would elbow him to wake him and reach behind him to flip the lights back on. Of course the title above is referring to a church setting but aha, on day I had an epiphany. It is the same principle in business. If the team is asleep, wake up the boss.

Over the years as I have attended meeting and seminars with contractors, I have heard that the employees just are not doing their job in the way the boss wants them to do it. They are lazy, they are stupid, they don’t care about the customer, they don’t care about the company, they, they, they. It goes on and on. Bosses are part of society today which likes to point the finger at someone else and not recognize the three fingers pointing back at themselves.

The boss needs to wake him or herself and actively make the changes within the business that will produce the results needed to make the business profitable and sustaining. It all begins with planning. A plan has goals, with each having finite measurements, and a time frame for completion. This requires the boss to sit down and think of the 10 –12 achievable goals that would make the greatest impact on moving the company forward. Then those goals need to be communicated to every employee. They should be posted if possible. Everyone should know their part in the plan and that they will be held accountable to achieve their part of the plan. This also requires the boss to express the option for an employee to come to him if they need help to meet their tasks. Weekly, biweekly or monthly updates need to be disseminated and posted. As a goal is achieved and maintained for a reasonable time, the team should celebrate the victory.

To help in this pursuit, BEC Group has provided a pdf goal sheet on our website, http://www.sayyestosuccess.com/, which you can download and use as a tool to start your awaking process. And remember this is a process not an end goal because if you don’t keep at it, you’ll be back to putting your team to sleep.

May your New Year be the best year of your life!












I saw this phrase somewhere and could not get it out of my
mind. Sure I have seen the occasional church member dose off after a sleepless
night. I even remember Wally who sat in the back row, always in the same seat
of our small church. His wife made him come to church, I am sure. His head
would bob from side to side or his chin would be touching his chest. Once or
twice a year his head would bob back and hit the light switch. Out would go the
lights and his wife would elbow him to wake him and reach behind him to flip
the lights back on. Of course the title above is referring to a church setting
but aha, on day I had an epiphany. It is the same principle in business. If the
team is asleep, wake up the boss.
Over the years as I have attended
meeting and seminars with contractors, I have heard that the employees just are
not doing their job in the way the boss wants them to do it. They are lazy,
they are stupid, they don’t care about the customer, they don’t care about the
company, they, they, they. It goes on and on. Bosses are part of society today
which likes to point the finger at someone else and not recognize the three
fingers pointing back at themselves.
The boss needs to wake him or herself
and actively make the changes within the business that will produce the results
needed to make the business profitable and sustaining. It all begins with
planning. A plan has goals, with each having finite measurements, and a time
frame for completion. This requires the boss to sit down and think of the 10 –
12 achievable goals that would make the greatest impact on moving the company
forward. Then those goals need to be communicated to every employee. They
should be posted if possible. Everyone should know their part in the plan and
that they will be held accountable to achieve their part of the plan. This also
requires the boss to express the option for an employee to come to him if they
need help to meet their tasks. Weekly, biweekly or monthly updates need to be
disseminated and posted. As a goal is achieved and maintained for a reasonable
time, the team should celebrate the victory.
To help in this pursuit, BEC
Group has provided a pdf goal sheet on our website, http://www.sayyestosuccess.com/, which you can download and use as a tool to
start your awaking process. And remember this is a process not an end goal
because if you don’t keep at it, you’ll be back to putting your team to sleep.
May your New Year be the best
year of your life!

I See You

This seems like a rather strange phrase here in America. Perhaps when you have played with a small child you have used those words as part of a game but it does not seem part of our everyday. Maybe you remember it from the movie “Avatar”. In some parts of the world, “I see you” is used each and every time they greet someone. This would be similar to us saying “hello” although it expresses much deeper meaning. It is saying, “I recognize you as a person, as important, as you have my attention.”

Perhaps this would be a phrase to use with your employees on a regular basis. In my years in the industry, more employees have left an employer because they did not feel the owner or owners did not care about them as a person, as important or give them the attention they deserved than any other reason. Yes, pay was mentioned often, and the opportunity to grow and advance but these can be traced to “not seeing them”.

I was visiting with a business owner several years ago in his office and he was not seeing me. He was so preoccupied with his computer screen that he barely, if at all, looked at me during our 5 to 10 minute conversation. I felt unimportant, not a person across the desk, and not having his attention. I left that conversation feeling this owner did not respect me and I had very little respect for him. Is this happening with you and your employees, customers and suppliers? If so, a change in these habits can improve your company without a dime of cost.

Here are some thoughts for you to mull over and see if they might be of help.

1. When you are having a conversation with someone at your desk, turn the screen of your computer so it does not distract you from the conversation.

2. Turn down the ringer in your cellphone and landline so they are not a distraction and the calls go to voice mail.

3. Turn off the tone for an incoming text and leave the text reply until after the meeting

4. Keep the conversation on topic so it doesn’t drag out and waste time for both of you.

5. If it is possible, have the conversation at the employees work area or “off campus” such as a coffee shop.

6. Know more about your employees that just their name. Ask about their life outside of work without getting too personal.

7. Have regularly scheduled meeting with your employees without interruptions.

I see you can change your business. Drop me an email and give me your thoughts.

Gomo Part 1

With the extremes of weather over the last few months, many of you are excited about all the incoming calls and keeping your Techs so very busy that they received large checks with oodles of overtime. The money is rolling in and you are so excited. You can pay down those “nasty” creditors, your suppliers, your advertising bills, your telephone bill and maybe even yourself. Oh what a rush we get from the business of extreme weather. Why it’s almost as good as that rush you got last fall and early winter when the phones were ringing as your customers wanted that new system in before the end of the year to get that tax credit and utility rebates.

But let’s take another look at the nine months or so. You finished the year with great sales because of the federal tax credits and utility rebates. Then came January and February with huge invoices from suppliers and once again you are in the 60-90 day overdue to most of them. The calls are coming in from creditors and you are giving excuses. Certainly some may be legit, but you are just putting them off to get some breathing room. Then came the weather. Heavy rains, scorching temperatures, oh were they ever manna from heaven. Guess what, come August and September you will be right back into the 60-90 days behind on your bills, not paying yourself, and in the dumps again.

Do you remember one of the definitions of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over the same way and expecting different results. A while back, I had read an article which called this type of behavior, “Gomo”, or going thru the motions. Sorry I cannot recall the author. I should have saved the article along with the hundreds I already have. I thought I might find the article on the web but the search came up with 526,000 results. Too much information, although the first page of results came up with the Urban dictionary definition of GOMO as “A homosexual who is also geeky, or into geeky things.” This was not what I want to rant about today. Then there was the use of GOMO by Susan B. Wilson on Execstratagies.com of “Get Over it; Move On!” Once again not exactly what I was looking for as an accurate definition of the point I want to make.

The frustration I have with owners in our industries is the fact that many, many of them are just going through the motions of being a business owner. They are just doing the easy day to day stuff and not making the plans and decisions to change their businesses into the high income potential that most all of them have the capability of becoming. Quit the Gomo mentality and move your business forward. Learn how to be a true business owner and not just a supervisor of day to day activities.

The picture is William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress depicting Inmates at Bedlam Asylum

Success comes in Cans

Does Success Comes in Cans?

I was at the local grocery store this week and low and behold what did I find, but Success in a Can. Well that’s not true. Actually I heard “Success comes in cans not cans” on “Dancing with the Stars” last night from Hines Ward, an NFL football great.

What Hines was saying is success comes from our attitude. He is not the first to say this nor is he the last. Many great motivational speakers have said it with different words and phrases but the point is the same. When we have a positive attitude, we are much more likely to be successful in our pursuits. What are some ways we can change our negative attitudes into positive ones that help us achieve our goals?

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “We become what we think about all day long.” To me this means focusing on the goal I want to accomplish. I have done this by posting a picture of the goal or something that represents that goal in places I will see it throughout the day. It may be on my desk or on the mirror in the bathroom. I have written the goal down on a 3x5 card and keep it in a shirt pocket which required me to handle it several times a day. I have verbalized it to my wife and other key people in my life. I have tried to keep the goal front and center in my everyday life.

This is not a panacea for every goal or difficulty I have had in life but it has helped me complete many of my goals that I may have let slip by in life. Try it and see if it helps you. Let me know about your successes at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

Are you ready to drop the ball for 2011?

It’s that time of year again with crowds in Times Square, Dick Clark (or his protégé) rocking New Year’s Eve, and the crystal ball dropping and ushering in the New Year. The dropping of the ball represents the move from the old into the new, the dying hopes to the new hopes, the aged thinking and ideas into the new and bright ideas. But wait a minute!

Haven’t we had 30, 40, 50, or more New Years to bring on the new, the bright, the exciting, and the change? I have had 63 of them. But I don’t remember all of them since I was a child for a number of those (my wife would say too many of them). I didn’t care when I was a teen or a young adult. I may have celebrated too much at a couple of them, but I have had 63 of them.

So many of us have had the real New Year’s Eve experience, we have dropped the ball. We have dropped the ball on making the changes that would make us better, healthier, nicer people. We didn’t quit smoking like we said we would, we didn’t lose weight like we said we would, we didn’t work hard to change ourselves into better people. We dropped the ball.

We dropped the ball when it came to our families. We were going to spend more time with the kids, we were going to have regular date nights with our wife, we were going to mend fences with our brother, and we were going to call Mom and Dad regularly. We dropped the ball here too.

The same goes in our businesses. We are going to follow a budget, we are going to work on our business not in our business, we were going to improve Customer Service, we were going to improve our website, we were going to pursue new business lines, we were going to clean-up the warehouse, we were going to make a budget and track our results. None of it got done. We dropped the ball again.

Well the Lord has blessed us with another New Year to celebrate and make changes that will affect us in such positive ways that we can’t even imagine. Try to think what it would be like if you were healthier, if you spent more special time with your wife and kids, or if your business became profitable (or more profitable). It’s really hard to do, but I assure you it can be done. A few dedicated people do it every year. The answer may be as simple as writing your goals down for 2011 and thinking about them constantly. Keep reminders everywhere, on the mirror in the bathroom, on the dashboard of the car, on a 3x5 card in your shirt pocket, on your IPhone or Blackberry in a spot you see often. Don’t ever give up! You can do what you pursue! Go get your new life in 2011!

Are You Too Blessed?

I recently talked with a friend who has started to help out at a church that assists homeless people. I asked her what she knew about the people that came seeking help. She told me about one gentleman that her husband had met and spent some time talking with. The gentleman had lost his high paying job about three years ago. He searched for a new job. He then lost his house, car, and most everything he owned. But that's not the worse part, his wife left him with their two children and disappeared from his life. He didn't have a minimum wage job but has a college degree and had a good paying job. He had a nice 4 bedroom home in the suburbs, he was living the American Dream as many of us are doing.
I then asked her what they do for these homeless people. She told me they give them the basics of food, clothing, wash their clothes for them, provide showers, provide things like toothpaste and other basic human needs. But the thing that seems to mean the most to these less fortunate individuals, is the time the volunteers give to talk with them, do basics for them like washing their clothes or providing a warm shower.
I expect you are saying, "Another sad story, oh well." Could you share some of the blessing the Lord has provided to you? "But Dan, the kids want, the kids want, the kids want!" Sure they want and you can provide them with at least some of their wishes this Christmas season, but you could also teach them the joy and satisfaction of helping people close to home in need.
Yesterday I heard on the radio that the Detroit Salvation Army was significantly behind on donations as many of the charity organizations are today. Could you cut back on the gifts a bit and donate to the Salvation Army, Gleaners Food Bank, your church's local outreach, or directly to a homeless shelter close to your home. You could also volunteer to work at one of these facilities. You could contact one of them and offer you plumbing, heating or electrical services to someone desperately in need. You may have other skills you could provide. You could adopt a family for the holidays. You could get your whole family involved.
If you were to do one or more of these, perhaps the I want, I want, I want would change to the I am truly blessed, I am truly blessed, I am truly blessed!

Mystery of the Toilet

Our daughter, Melissa and Son-in-law, Kevin recently moved into their new home near Orlando. The house is about 3 years old and was a short sale. The previous owners moved out about a month before Melissa and Kevin closed and moved in. It is a larger home since they have 4 children and need some space of everyone.
Lynn and I are in Florida for the fall months. Since we could not move into the home we are staying in for several days, we bunked in with Melissa and Kevin and the 4 grandchildren. I noticed that the toilet in the main bath did not flush properly. Of course being a plumber that was not something that could go unfixed! And as a guy who likes tools and working with my hands, I brought my trusty tool bag properly outfitted with us to Florida. I was fairly certain that one of the grandkids or a child of the previous owner had dropped something into the toilet that should not have been deposited there.
It was Monday morning and the two grandsons left for school thus removing some of the chaos of four kids wanting to know what Grandpa is doing. The toilet was a builder’s model but the other similar toilets in the house flushed well so I was sure I would find a comb, a toy, a jar lid, or some other item in the trap-way of the toilet. I did not have a toilet auger with me (they don’t fit well in a tool bag), so I removed the tank from the toilet and pulled the bowl.
This is where it gets interesting and my point of the story. I gently place the bowl into the bathtub on a rubber mat so I can check the closet bend for the “object”. There is no “object” but there is standing water at the bottom of the closet bend. I immediately thought that the “object” has gotten lodged in the lateral piping from the closet bend to the stack. I stopped and unfroze my brain and evaluated the issue. The trap-way is the smallest diameter of the water and waste pathway so an “object” logically would not make it into the lateral without continuing on its path through the system. My next thought was some sort of construction debris, a rag, a chunk of a 2x4 or something similar was the culprit. But then my brain got into gear and said to me that it would not just be a slow partial flush as the toilet was operating, but a total blockage and a potential overflow of the toilet, which did not occur. Also the water remained in the lateral at the bottom of the closet bend even after several minutes. Being a well-trained Master Plumber for over 35 years, I remembered the basics of plumbing. Hot is on the left, “stuff” flows downhill and payday is Friday. The lateral must be going uphill!
I removed the screws holding the closet flange to the floor and tried to pry up the piping. If it didn’t work, I would need to open the living room ceiling to make a repair and that was not my first choice of solutions. Slowly the PVC closet riser came up but the water was not leaving. I decided that I would continue to pry it up since there was not much to lose. If the line broke or a joint broke that wouldn’t be an issue since I would need to open the ceiling for a repair anyway. The pipe kept coming up. The water began to drain. I continued to pry it up. At four and ½ inches, the water finally drained out completely. Having cleared hundreds of plugged or partially plugged toilets over the years, I had never seen this problem before.
What do I do now? Thinking about the alternatives of opening the ceiling to provide support for the lateral or just cut the riser down and glue a new flange on to the riser to support the lateral, I decided to just depend on the closet flange to hold up the piping. Not the way I would do it if I have access to the lateral piping, but with a substantial gluing surface on the flange I used, I was counting on the flange glue joint to support the piping. With everything put back together, the toilet now flushes perfectly for a builder’s model.
But how did this happen? The installing plumber didn’t support the lateral properly and the finish plumber didn’t test flush the toilet to assure that it was working properly. Perhaps a carpenter or the tile man pushed down the riser and broke the hangers. In any event, the details of a job are as important as the core task of the job. Be sure to remind your technicians of the importance of details especially testing of the finished job whether plumbing, HVAC, or electrical. They too may find a unique problem!