Need A Taxi?

I don't know about you, but with as many cities as I travel to in a year, inevitably, I will need a taxi to get to the airport, to rush around in the city on some sort of an errand or perhaps a late-night hunt for a Tim Horton's steeped tea. Well, if you've ever needed a taxi when you're in a strange city, WestJet's "Up!" Magazine features an article this month on one number to remember to get a taxi in any city: 310-TAXI.

That's the number to remember for a taxi anywhere in Canada - oh, except Manitoba where you need to call 1-800-310-TAXI.

I haven't had the opportunity to call the number yet, as I am in the USA as I write this. But as soon as I get home, I'm game for giving it a try.

Taxi!!!

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!
http://www.kevburns.com
1-877-BURNS-11

Boss Tip #9 - Recognize Your Stars

It's the easiest job in the world to dump all over your people or simply ignore effort out of the ordinary. Anyone can find the negative. You don't need to be in charge to do that. Want proof? Listen in to what your people are saying about you. See. It's easy to be negative.

The trick is in looking through all of the expectations, all of the process and all of the mundane, ordinary effort to find the gems. Look to see someone who has outperformed his or her co-workers. It's easy to find it. All you have to do is stick your head out of your office on occassion. You just have to go looking for it. The difficulty will always be in summoning up the honesty to say something out loud when you do see it.

I addressed a group of supervisory personel this week. These guys, all guys, have an easy time pointing out the mistakes of others. As I said, anyone can do that. It requires zero skill. I helped them see the real responsibility of their positions: recognizing and encouraging outstanding behaviours and results. I want to now recognize these fellows, they see their responsibility now. Good job to all of you.

If as a boss, you have a difficult time recognizing the positive contributions of your people, let me explain it another way.

Your job, as boss, is that of a team sports coach. (Pick your favourite team sport and substitute with my hockey analogy). At the end of each and every game, there is an announcement of the Three Stars of the game. Even though it is a team sport, and there is a winning team and a losing team, the outstanding contributions of a few individuals are recognized and publicly announced.

It is that simple. Every day on the job is game day. Every day there is a star player. Recognize your stars publicly and in front of the rest of your team. Do it publicly and do it often. Just make sure you look around for the contributions of all of the team. Don't play favourites. That will backfire.

Gretzky wasn't always chosen as a game star. Sometimes the rookies made it to star status. Recognize the efforts of all of your players and watch their contributions change.

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11

Employee Tip #2 - Simple Responsibilities

The way I see it, there only two responsibilities that employees have and everything else is simply an offshoot of either of these responsibilities.

The first responsibility for any employee is to honor your agreements, especially the big one, the one that got you here. Your employer has honestly agreed to pay you for an honest day's work. So as I see it, so long as the company continues to uphold their end of the bargain (think of them giving you a paycheck) then you should be upholding your end of the deal (Hint: That would be the work part).

Stretching breaks and lunches, doing personal stuff on company time and showing up late and checking out early is not upholding your end of the deal. But the company is still expected to uphold theirs aren't they? It just doesn't seem fair that the company must keep their word but you don't have to keep yours, does it?

Perhaps things would be different if it was OK for the company to shave a few dollars here and there from your paycheck whenever they felt like they weren't getting their full value. Things would be different if they could stop paying you every time they caught you not keeping your part of the deal.

The second responsibility you have as an employee is to ensure that you rested, relaxed and ready (100%) to take on the tasks assigned to you. That means not being drunk, hungover, high or otherwise distracted. Hey, if I'm your customer, I want you to be fully present, aware and ready to keep your word let alone remember what you said you would do.

In writing here today, I realized that there is one more responsibility that needs to be mentioned. If there are people on your staff guilty of not keeping either of the first two responsibilities, then it becomes the responsibility of the rest of the staff to address the issue with the offender right away. The offender needs to know that they will not be allowed to abuse the company or impact the workload of the rest of the staff. Trust me on this, if the other staff members confronted the offender en masse, I'll bet it never happens again. If it does, plan to visit the boss and have him surgically remove the cancer from the job.

If someone has already had this discussion with you and you still want to take issue with any or all of these responsibilities, well then you've got a big problem. Good luck with that.

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!

http://www.kevburns.com

1-877-BURNS-11

Oh And One More Thing

Meghan, my VP Everything, also figures that I need to come into the new techbology easier and with a little less kicking and screaming. So she convinced me to go Blackberry.

This column is written and uploaded on the new technology. I guess there's no reason to not keep in touch anymore is there?

I'm sure I'll get better at it soon.

Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!
http://www.kevburns.com
1-877-BURNS-11

All The New Changes 'Round Here ...

I know I've been out of touch for some time, about a month actually. Well, lots has been happening 'round here and I wanted to keep you up to date on what has been going on.

After much deliberation and a lot of soul-searching, we've moved our operation and offices to Calgary over the past few weeks. To say it's been hectic would be an understatement. I've been commuting to Calgary several times each week in perhaps the worst spring weather Alberta has seen in a long time, not to mention all of the increased traffic on the highways (perhaps the best economy in the world right now has packed the highways full of trucks and other drivers).

I've partnered up with two other fine gentlemen, Ken Larson and Marty Park and the three of us are all operating our speaking businesses out of the same office. I will tell you more about these other gentlemen at a later date.

Meanwhile, Meghan has jumped into the chair, grabbed the bull by the horns and has surprised everyone as to how fast she has taken over running the day-to-day operations of the business. She has a new title: VP Everything. Boy that's suitable.

For example, in addition to getting up to speed on roles and responsibilities, Meghan is heading up the "New Video" project. There will be a new video available to potential clients and on-line in very short order. (Talk to Meghan if your group wants one).

She has also taken over the "New Website" project and has taken on the responsibility of making the new website friendlier, easier to navigate, cleaner and faster loading.

She has set up a far-superior contact management system to anything I had before and is also making sure each of the guys has the proper materials to be marketed. She rides us pretty hard to keep on top of these things. That's a good thing.

In addition, Meghan and Leanne (Marty's Assistant) have been doing their own training in setting up new process within the office, in addition to answering phone calls, co-ordinating the schedules of three speakers and finding time to run to Starbucks for a grande London Fog (Leanne) and grande Coconut Latte (Meghan).

The new contact info to reach us now is:
Kevin Burns Corporation
Suite 203 - 1414 Kensington Road NW
Calgary, Alberta Canada
T2N 3P9
Toll-free 1-877-BURNS-11 (1-877-287-6711)
Local in Calgary 403-283-8357
Local in San Antonio Texas 210-787-1047

Meghan has managed to pull so much stuff off of my desk, that in past was cluttering my desk, that I now have more time to do what I need to do: namely write more books and another speech. Stay tuned. They are in progress right now.

Oh, and one final note. About 5 and a half years ago, Meghan approached me telling me that she wanted to run my business one day - she was simply planting the seed. Well, five and a half years later, she is running the show for not just me but for two other speakers as well. She has been around the speaking business her whole teenage and adult life. She knows it as well as I do and perhaps better than some who are in it. Meghan is my daughter. And today her Dad is very proud.