Tag: information

Categories
motivation

Listen First, Speak Last

Cartoon of boy with his mouth taped and a girl

Listen first, speak last.

Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive, page xxiii

I did not expect to find “listen first, speak last” in a book on business leadership. But there it was. Peter Drucker elevated it to a rule for executives to follow.

Listen first, speak last: Cartoon of boy with his mouth taped and a girl

This didn’t play into my stereotype of the brash, bombastic, self-assured, influential executive. Aren’t leaders supposed to be the boss and have people do their bidding? At least that was the excuse I used when I tried to reason why some are leaders and others are followers.

Continue reading “Listen First, Speak Last”
Categories
wisdom

A Treasure of Knowledge

“Wise people treasure knowledge,
but the babbling of a fool invites disaster.”

Proverbs 10:14 (NLT)
red and black wooden chest on white sand
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

We live in an age that has a ton of information, but so much of it can be false. We can do research only to find that the source isn’t reliable, or isn’t possible to discover where it came from. How can we treasure knowledge when there is so much babbling going on?

  • Search for multiple sources, not just the ones we agree with. It is better to get divergent opinions than to seek comfort in information that we agree with.
  • Be humble. Pride keeps us from learning anything new.
  • Be a lifelong learner. There is too much information and new discoveries to remain at the same level of knowledge when we were in high school and college.
  • Know the difference between facts and opinions. Anyone can babble an opinion. And anyone can interpret facts. But what are the facts?

Knowledge is worth pursuing in any field. It can end up being quite a treasure.

Categories
motivation

Effective Communication in the Information Age

Cartoon of a dog and a treed cat. The dog says, "Come down! All I want to do is talk about taking a bite out of crime."

The more we automate information-handling, the more we will have to create opportunities for effective communication.

Pete Drucker in The Effective Executive

Communication doesn’t get more effective with today’s technology. It may get faster, but something gets lost in the process.

The other day, I discovered an email sent in my department was misunderstood. The message was correct, but the context and way it was said came off blunt, rude and made a customer feel like we were bossing him around.

Of course, that wasn’t the intention. But an email doesn’t show body language. The tone of voice can only be interpreted through the words. A please and thank you go a long way in showing politeness and a friendly tone in an email. It may sound overly polite in a conversation, but just right in an email.

The cat in my cartoon is wise to assess the dog’s tone and body language. Unfortunately, we don’t have those advantages in texts and emails. We have emoji’s and our words. And a smiley face in business correspondence may not be quite the professional feel you are going for!

Cartoon of a dog and a treed cat. The dog says, "Come down! All I want to do is talk about taking a bite out of crime."

Categories
Business

Quality vs. Quantity

Quote: The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification. Peter Drucker

“The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification.”

Peter Drucker in “The Effective Executive”

Peter Drucker’s quote got me thinking. Outside events happen all the time. We hear about a customer that needs our service done a certain way. It may be inconvenient for us, so we ignore it. But then another customer has a similar request.

It may be some quality information. It could positively change the way we do business. But is it quantitative? Could we survey all current and potential customers to get a reliable survey that would confirm what we’re seeing?

Perception versus fact

We can perceive that certain information is valuable even though it isn’t a fact. A customer has a suggestion that we perceive could change the way we do business. Yet, there is no way to know if all current and future customers feel the same way. Do we pursue it anyway? It takes some intuition and perception to know.

We have to get comfortable with making decisions partly based on intuition if we’re doing to move forward. There are just some things we cannot quantify. And that’s the part of business and life that is an adventure, isn’t it?

Categories
motivation

Phone check…or not?

Cartoon of a business man and homeless man

When I drew this cartoon, I did not have a smartphone. Ten years has made quite a difference when it has come to phone tech. But are we better for it?

This article on the morning habit of checking your phone first thing in the morning was written before all the coronavirus hit. I’m sure some of the warnings would be even more true today. It’s not a good idea for me to check my phone in the morning. All the stress and anxiety that comes through the phone does not put you me a good mindset to begin the day.

We face a constant battle each day to either control the content in our lives or let it control us. We are not facing a scarcity of information. On the contrary, we face a flood of information each day. We have to consider whether the information we receive is fact or opinion, accurate or made-up. And even if it is factual and accurate, we need to consider whether this is helping us or not. Does it put us in the right frame of mind? Does it help us start the day on a good, right footing, or just put us in despair?

It is tempting to just grab the phone and let the tsunami of information flood us. But remember, we have the control. We can choose how much and what information we consume. Otherwise, we may need a sign that says, “I have a smartphone. Please help me!”

Cartoon of a business man and homeless man