Lessons from the 9th Grade

At the beginning of our lives, careers and businesses we can get into an extremely comfortable position with someone else taking nearly 100% of the responsibility.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Someone else tells us what to do, how to do it and when it needs to be done by.  

Professional Development: Life Advice the 9th Grade. Quote: The test had nothing to do with the study guide and everyone in the class agreed. Kylie N. Brown.

Feeling “successful” on the “test” is relatively easy coming down to whether you have learned and practiced a known skill enough.  

Rapidly accelerating advancements in technology are taking more and more of these routine jobs out of our economy requiring us to focus more and more on creativity, agility and the ability to make good decisions in the face information that is ambiguous, incomplete and conflicting .  

We must be immune to the “group think” of complainers and work to lead them out of their negative thought processes. 

We don’t know what will be on the “test” so the best thing we can do is learn a variety of topics deeply  paying attention to multiple perspectives

We can’t always control our results but we can control our process.

We can be disciplined in our approach leaving us more agile.




Aligning Your Team
Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractor’s business than having the right people on the team and having that team all aligned around a common vision.
Lean Principle - Observation (Gemba Walks and Learning to See)
One of the most important tools for improving productivity is going to the jobsite or work area and observing for an extended period of time with the intent to understand but not to immediately interact. Observation progresses through about 7 stages.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Human Motivations)
Understanding human motivation is critical for all levels of management and leadership, starting with managing ourselves. There is no single "Perfect Model" defining what motivates every person but there are some great models to help our understanding.