John Cox

Five Things I Have Learned in Six Months

A quick down and dirty post on 5 things I have learned with my current job.

1) People are a pain in ass, but they are my peeps so treat them well. I am in a position where I am not in a profit center for the first time in my life. As such I have to find ways to support the folks that are generating a profit for my organization.

My old rule of thumb was that customers were a pain in the ass, but they are my customers, so treat them well. Same rule applies, but in a much different manner. My peeps are all on the same team with a common vision. It's an easy thing to forget that we all have the same end goal, when an answer is easier found on Google than asking me.

2) If I am running a cost center, then do what you can to change the paradigm to be a profit center. If you a drain on the resources of the organization, one of these days outsourcing will be a viable change for the organization.

As quickly as possible follow the first rule of business and that is to understand that the goal of business is to turn a profit and show share or stakeholder value. If you aren't managing with this idea in the back of your head, then you are doing your job.

3) IM is a major pain in the ass, and a major time killer. If I could find a way to turn off my IM for 4 hours daily, I might be able to accomplish the goals that I have set forth. This is no different than my rule of not checking email except on given time periods, and only checking voice mails during different time periods in order to work in serial.

I hate IM, and I am trying to figure out the best way to avert my attention to the important rather than the urgent.

4) Never manage based on your own capacity and strengths. Instead find the strengths and weaknesses in others and manage with those in mind. It's the same reason that star athletes rarely make the best coaches. They take for granted their own god-given talents.

I had thought that I was pretty good at recognizing and exploiting constraints in others, but I have learned that it takes much more patience than I, or others above me, have from time to time.

5) Suppliers and Vendors don't really want to partner with a small company, and their service usually sucks donkey balls (no offense to any donkeys reading this). I have had one good experience with a supplier in the past 6 months and several very poor ones. I am about to give all of my marketing business to the good experience and take the business away from the multitudes of bad experiences.

I have little patience for bad customer service in my organization, and have even less from Vendors. Perhaps, that is a flaw in my own personality, but when I was beating the streets in Sales I would at least return emails which is more than I am getting from a few companies. Guess what, you don't want to talk to me because I am persistent for my organization makes me not want to give you business. Worse yet, I will be happy to partner with any of your competition and give them feedback that might spur some innovation against you.

Enjoy, and I welcome comments on lessons I probably haven't learned as of yet.

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