7 Ways To Impress Your Boss

In this world of so many types of business, we see a lot of people moving from job to job. A large percentage of the people changing jobs are the ones who cannot do the job they are leaving. Last year, I remember a president of a large Canadian technology firm saying how appreciative he was that his American competition hired two slackers (employees) that had been in his organization.

Clearly, there are some good folks to hire out there. However, the chances of recruiting ineffective and/or trouble-making employees is a high probability. You never know what you are going to get, especially since you cannot reference the current employer for performance feedback.
If you are working for someone, as most of us are. The true way to success is to be consistent. Consistency is the key to success. If you want to be successful in business you need have to be doing the right things every day. One of the first things you can do is get along with your boss. Learn how to impress him or her so that they know they can trust you. Let us give some suggestions on how to do just that.

1) Demonstrate that you are honorable.
Honor is doing the right thing when no one is looking. There is a saying, ‘when the cat is away the mice play’. There are many offices out there that when the boss is in everyone looks so busy and works so hard. When the boss is out, people start slacking off. Show that you honor the boss’ investment in yourself.

2) If you are asked to do something, do it.
If you don’t agree, a good boss will have an open ear and mind to suggestions. However, keep in mind that in most cases the boss was entrusted with management responsibility because they are competent. Too much questioning is a good way to hurt your standing with the boss.

3) Give the job 110% effort.
So many times we do our jobs halfway and send our resumes out there hoping for another job opportunity with pop up. Managers are not stupid. If they are any good, they are connected to the market and know a lot of people. Before you could imagine, they will know when someone starts putting out that resume (CV) and stop entrusting you with any new things. Work hard. But also, don’t forget to work smart.

4) Be sincere.
Good bosses are always founded on experience. A good technical service manager is good because they know both technology and how to deal with people. If one of their staff is having trouble, there is no doubt they will read that from customer results, other player feedback, or judging other factors that they have been dealing with in the business for years. If you have issues that you are not sure how to deal with, be sincere with your boss. They will respect you for it.

5) Always respect the time of others.
When you are supposed to be at meeting, always be at the site, at least 5 minutes before commencement. Always be to work on time. It is wrong for one person to be habitually late to a 9AM office start when everyone else is there drinking coffee 15 minutes before.

6) Be positive and proactive.
“Oh, that customer is this, that supplier is that. Why do you want me to do that? The boss is not a good such and such. I don’t want to learn about that.” No one likes to be around pessimists. The world is full of critics and no office needs negative voices. You were hired to do a job. No matter what happens, see ‘trouble’ as challenges. See ‘change’s as opportunities. As things happen throughout the week, be always open-minded. Bring ideas not dark words to a situation. If you help your boss resolve issues (especially ones that he has no exact experience or time to handle), you will prove your contribution to the team. Positive people are winners. Everyone loves to be around winners, not losers and quitters.

7) Be a good communicator.
It sounds amazing, but wars can be started by not communicating well with others. Good communicators are lacking in pretty much every company.
– People show up to do work and can be frustrated by sales people who haven’t told them the whole story about the site.
– Someone goes on vacation and neglects to give their manager or coworker information on what the consumer wanted from the shop. Both coworker and consumer get frustrated when the consumer comes back into the store.
– The logistics person ignores the email and sends the site foreman the wrong building materials in spite of the request. The customer care representative receives no new product information for something that was hit the retailers’ shelves a few days ago.
At AINEO, in our new player indoctrination (employee orientations) we always teach our incoming new team members to ‘set expectations’. If you are asked to do something, let people know when you anticipate you will be done. Think ahead. If you can’t do something, let the boss know and get some additional help.

In Closing
These seven steps are the most important ways to impress your boss. We’ve found if you can work well with people at the office, chances are you are going to be getting along well with people at home as well. Most divorces are caused by financial worries but more often than not, miscommunication. If you make an effort to apply these words of wisdom to your corporate life, you will find that these good things will spill over into your personal live as well. Life will be so much easier because you will be easier to work with, and even easier to live with.

(c)2007

Originally posted at
http://www.aineo.com/insights/entry/seven-ways-to-impress-your-boss/

Direct Sales That Bite You Later

Dell Computer’s direct sales model destroyed many computer sales stores locally in the US. The model was ground breaking. However, when you are doing business you have to be thinking ahead and thinking about the possible results of your actions. With the failure of many businesses due to Dell’s cheap, direct sales model Dell was very successful in building its business. Unfortunately, while Dell was selling direct, HP, eMachines, and many other firms were still taking care of their sales channels. That has paid off. HP has recently surpassed Dell in market share. Dell is struggling. Dell is beginning to rethink their sales model according to an article in the New York times.

Is this the end of Dell? Probably not. However it is a strong reminder that we should always make an effort to do business with others with win-win in mind. Dell upset a lot of business people on the retail level. On the enterprize level, I know our company prefers to avoid the use of Dell servers just because HP makes them so much better.
-Our engineers have commented that they don’t like Dell’s hardware because you can see “cheap” in the manufacturing.
-The mother boards are sub-standard and flimsy.
-Even the number of screws are barely enough to mount servers in their Dell OEM racks, while other manufacturers give you plenty to spare.
-Sales staff (account managers) change quicker than the weather in Seattle.

It looks like Dell has hit its plateau. Will they actually provide better service to woo back the people that they alienated by undercutting and skimping on the parts? We’ll see. In Japan, once you burn your bridge in business it is pretty hard to rebuild it. Tumbleweed is working to do that right now in a market they abandoned with the dot com bubble bursting. In Japan, Dell Computer lost a number of their staff to work at Lenovo Japan in recent months. It seems to be a coup of sorts.

As for Dell, I think it really comes down to what you do when no one is looking. Many retailers don’t want to stock Dell products on their shelves because they feel that Dell was busy stealing business instead of helping their shops sell computers and peripherials. Dell has proven to be competitor in business and not a partner as the other computer companies have been. Congratulations to HP who has made an effort to do win-win business all around. They have won the marketshare wars for now. Good business is win-win business. What you do behind the scenes is just as important as what you do in front of everyone.

Let’s watch and see how things turn out. However, this is a clear example of short-sighted, sales number focused, American company. This is a good model to avoid. These days, technology and communications have made things so transparent that we need to be thinking long-term about the consequences of our actions. You can’t slap the person by selling direct to the customer and then go back expecting him or her to receive you with open arms.

Economic Models explained with Cows- 2007 update

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the
milk away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who
sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on
one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving
youwith nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

THE ANDERSEN MODEL
You have two cows.
You shred them.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want
three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market
it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and
milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your
country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy….

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.