Category: Random
Change is good
| June 29, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Random, Words of Inspiration & Motivation |
For those of you that know my history, I started my career off at Rackspace back in 2003. I left Rackspace to work for PEER 1 in 2005 and spent the last 4 years at PEER 1. I have had the opportunity to work with some outstanding individuals (clients and employees) and have been a part of some great things. But business changes and sometimes you have to make change for yourself. Your gut will tell you when that time is.
I’d like to share a story that serves somewhat as analogy to my situation today.
If you look back on your childhood, I am sure you can name persons that had an impact on your life (positive or negative) that have helped you develop into what you are today. Persons that brought out the best or worst in you, helping you find the path you are suppose to be on. You didn’t know it then but you know it more than ever when you are out there in the real world trying to make some tough decisions. You have to sit down and take a look back on your life. Who are you? What makes you happy? What drives you?
How volleyball fits in
I grew up playing volleyball, playing since I was in 2nd grade. I am very passionate about the sport. From 5th to 8th grade, my school team didn’t lose one game in all 4 seasons. Her name was “Coach Debbie” and man, we thought she was so mean! She made girls cry all the time.
I also played club volleyball and my team made the Junior Olympics twice – once in San Jose, California and once in Orlando, Florida. I wasn’t the star player but I was always the dependable player. Volleyball taught me about discipline, gave me that competitive spirit and showed me what being a team player meant.
As a freshman in high school, I made the varsity volleyball team. I was excited and proud to have made the varsity volleyball team. Granted, I went to a private school but still, I was the only freshman on the varsity team. As the season progressed, I noticed that we weren’t very good and I hardly received any playing time. My coach would put me in 2 points away from the other team winning game. I didn’t have the chance to make a huge difference on the team.
The confrontation
I decided to approach my coach about it. I was nervous of course, I was just a freshman. She taught a geography class so I went to her classroom one day after her class let out. I asked for a few minutes of her time. I let her know my concerns about not receiving playing time and asked her what I could do to improve so I can play more often. All I wanted to do was help our team get some wins. She said this “Well, we have a lot of seniors on the team and it’s their last year to play.” I was so turned off by this and actually replied right back with “ Well, I didn’t realize the varsity team was built based on tenure, I thought it was built based on attitude and skill. If that is the case, then I want to be put on the Junior Varsity team where I know I will get some playing time so I can improve for the years ahead.” She was really caught off guard with my comment (and so was I) but she respected my comment and said that she wanted to keep me on the team.
She did end up playing me a tad bit more and I was able to get some solid playing time in. But it wasn’t enough. I didn’t feel that the team shared the same passion I did for the sport. Nothing against the team but my heart wasn’t it and it wasn’t a good feeling. I spent the next year there and decided that I wanted to leave the high school for a better opportunity.
The transfer
My parents accepted my decision and I transferred to another school my Junior year. I made the varsity volleyball team there. This was a solid group of girls that were passionate about volleyball, about their teammates and about having a good attitude. I will never forget our coach, “Coach Joyce.” She was tough. We practiced everyday except Sundays. We did pool workouts, weight work outs and speed workouts. She had us on a diet and that’s when I learned about protein shakes. I remember being in so much pain. But at the end of the day, we all wanted to feel that pain because we knew it would bring us to that win. We went on to win the state championship. It was the best decision I ever made.
The purpose of me telling this story is that first, I remembered it so I had to write it down so I never forget it. But when I think about it, I realized that my volleyball journey gave me the opportunity to know what it felt like to be passionate about something. When that passion was gone, I felt it and was more inclined to do something about it. Today, I am passionate about many other things and it all revolves around helping others and improving my well being. I want be part of a team that shares that same passion.
Rackspace had a great opportunity that I was fortunate enough to have offered to me. Sometimes change is good and I don’t see this transition being any different.
I hope I can inspire others see the opportunity for a change and embrace it.
Qualities of a Great Leader
| June 24, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Random, Words of Inspiration & Motivation |
When I read Nan Palmero’s MySA blog posting on his thoughts what makes a great leader, I was inspired to write my own thoughts on leadership. Many of us have different views on what we believe to be necessary qualities of true leaders (although attitude will almost always be one of them). I think every leader should have the following 5 qualities :
Willing to engage
I believe that leaders have to be willing to go out and meet people, get to know them on a personal level and be able to find a unique quality in that person that can be used to have a positive impact on others. I think often times, persons in high level positions don’t see the importance in engaging with others at various levels. You cannot be a leader without followers. You create followers by listening, understanding and helping.
Doesn’t get hooked on titles
One of my favorite books is “You don’t need a title to be a leader” by Mark Sanborn. When someone asks you where you want to be in 10 years, your answer shouldn’t be “I want to be a CEO of a company” or “I want my company to be #1 in the industry.” What matters most is how you get there. If you do all the right things, you will be put into a position to lead. One of my favorite quotes from a leader was from Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace. When Rackspace went public, they hosted a large employee event to announce the news. I joined my husband for the event. When Lanham went up to speak, one of his comments really stuck with me. He said something along the lines of “Rackers, I do not want to walk through the office and see the stock ticker on your desktops. If we continue to provide Fanatical Support to our customers, the numbers will speak for themselves.” Focusing on the fundamentals and doing what is right for the customer is what will drive them to be a leader.
Attitude
Regardless of your skill level, experience, the number of people you know, you can never be a good leader without having an optimistic outlook on life. You may end up in unfortunate situations, someone may have burned you, you may not like everyone you meet but if you cannot find an optimistic outlet, it is almost impossible for you to succeed. You may be able to get by in the short run but you will never be able to endure leadership in the long run.
Brings others with you
Being a leader is not about you, it’s about everyone around you. It’s finding ways to bring out the best in others so that they too can lead. One of my favorite quotes was from Obama when P. Diddy interviewed him 4 years ago before he was president. Obama was talking about celebrities and other high profile individuals like P. Diddy and said this: “There are a lot of brothers and sisters out there that are doing well but aren’t thinking about the folks being left behind. And if you can’t reach back and pull some folks up with you, then you shouldn’t be in the position you are in right now.”
Always willing to learn
Leaders should always be accepting that they don’t know everything and should look forward to learning from others. One of the most inspiring stories for me was that of Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s. He was a high school drop out and although extremely successful, he started “realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later admitted was a mistake).” So he became a student at Coconut Creek High School and earned a GED in 1993, at the age of 60 yrs!
We are never too old to learn.
Book Report: Creating Customer Evangelists
| May 14, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Random |
At PEER 1, our employees will do book reports and post it to the staff site to share with others. I was up this week to post a book I recommend to others. It was tough to choose because I have so many books that I have in my back pocket to reference when I need some inspiration. Book topics I enjoy reading are Business (Leadership, Customer Focused, Purpose Driven), Personal Finance (Budgeting, Living Debt free, Saving for the future) and Inspirational / Motivational books. Sounds boring I know but that’s just what I enjoy at this point in my life. I find it relevant to what I want to accomplish.
So what book did I choose? Creating Cusotmer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. This book is a bit old (2003) but I think the content is still relevant. The book contains very fundamental concepts that I believe are crucial to understand when managing and growing your customer base.
I first read this book in one of my college business classes back in 2004. We were focusing on the Net Promoter Score and researching how industry leading companies like Starbucks, Apple and Southwest Airlines were able to maintain off the chart scores. These leaders are not leaders because they only have a compelling offering. That’s just one piece of it. The other piece is how they have built a community around their offering.
Of course, step 1 is to have a compelling offering (you can’t make mud look pretty). Once you have established a customer base, focus on them! These are your friends. If they are happy, they will market your product for you – they will be your evangelist. Often times I think we completely miss the boat here. We spend so much time and resources on gaining new sales that we lose sight of what we already have in front of us. Below are 6 basic tenets of creating customer evangelists (straight from the book / website):
1. Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better.
It makes perfect sense. Now, with the evolution of social media, we have so many outlets to practice these six key principles.
It’s important to know what your competitors are doing but it’s more important to know what your customers are doing. Once you lose sight of this, you have lost site of your business. Focus!
One company that I think has done a phenomenal job in creating a community is Harley Davidson.
The Goose in our frontyard…seriously
| May 7, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Family Stuff, Random |
Once again, I am awakened by our barking dogs. Our bed is positioned right next to the window facing the street. We have a corner house so our dogs have a whole side view of what’s going on in the street. They are great guard dogs but sometimes you can do without the barking when it’s just a rolling plastic bag they are barking at.
Early this morning, our dogs were going crazy. I woke up and yelled at them to shut up! Well that woke up Jason. So now we were both up. In between the barking, you could hear this strange sound. Our dogs have killed a cat before (sorry to say) and so I was hoping it was not some injured animal. The sound was very frequent like a quacking duck. The dogs did not stop their barking. So Jason went outside with a flashlight to see what the heck was going on.
Turns out there is goose wobbling down our street. Jason comes inside and says “There is a goose on the street.” A goose? Seriously? So I had to go outside to see for sure (not that I didn’t believe him). It was dark so cars couldn’t see it. Jason was trying to get it to the sidewalk (like it knew the difference). Then when it saw that we were trying to help it, it chased us (or at least that’s what we thought). It almost came running inside our house. It just sat there in our yard. We called animal control and told them we had a goose in our frontyard. They first started laughing and then they gave us the number to Wildlife control. They didn’t answer. The goose laid in the yard the rest of the morning and when we were ready to go to work, it was not there anymore. We hope it is ok. We were thinking it might have been sick and just got disoriented. Who knows. But there was a goose and here is a clip to prove it.
Thinking about the victims of the earthquake in Italy
| April 7, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Random |
I know natural disasters happen all over the world, even right here in the US. After blogging and posting photos of our wonderful trip in Italy, only a week later would a earthquake hit. It’s scary to know that only 7 days ago we were on a train going through Italy right in the area of L’Aquila, where the earthquake hit. Sometimes things are unexplainable and it’s not worth the time pondering on the question, why? All I know is that Jason and I are deeply saddened by this disaster and our thoughts and prayers go out to all those families that have lost loved ones, their homes and all their sentimental valuables.
The US is donating $50,000 to Italy in an emergency fund. We too can donate through the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF).
https://www.niaf.org/relief/Relief_info.asp
Prayers are also always needed.
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