Will's Blog

It is time to move on Robin – Make a name for yourself

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Posted on April 19, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

Growing up I was fascinated by Batman and Robin. It is an American comic book icon. I often looked forward to borrowing a copy from my classmate, as my family could not afford it. The comic book brought hours of enjoyment.

As I reflect on Batman and Robin’s relationship, I noticed their chemistry. They are compatible, as they know what each other does and understand their respective roles. Together they are unstoppable. Batman is the main character and Robin is what I call the supporting character. Robin is a role player who plays his role really well. Robin is comfortable being a sidekick and continues to do it for many years. They complement each other and continue to fight against their villain.

At work, I also see people who pair up like Batman and Robin. Batman usually gets the accolades for all the accomplishments of the group, while Robin is a willing participant. Robin goes wherever Batman goes, from department to department at times. So, what’s my point? I’m of the opinion that it is okay to be Robin for a period of time in your career. Because Batman is taking you under his wing to nurture, mentor, and help you grow and develop. Those are priceless gifts that go a long way in establishing a successful career for you.

At some point in Robin’s career, Robin must think, what would it be like if I’m the star? It would be nice if he saved the city and received the accolades and recognition. Maybe Robin is comfortable being the sidekick and has no desire to do his own thing. Robin might just be happy to say “Holy atomic pile, Batman!”.

The reality in life is Robin cannot stand behind Batman forever. What if Batman retires? Would Robin be forced to retire? Robin needs to venture out and try his own thing. Flex his muscles and demonstrate that he can accomplish things without Batman’s help. It would be looked at as a confidence builder for him to realize his goals and do them on his own terms. Over the last four years, I’ve seen people whom I deemed as Robin step outside their comfort zone and do their own thing. Most of them were successful. They pushed themselves and made a name for themselves. It is not easy; if it were easy then everyone would be doing it.

I’ll end this post with these conversations between Robin and Batman,

Robin: “You can’t get away from Batman that easy!”
Batman: “Easily.”
Robin: “Easily.”
Batman: “Good grammar is essential, Robin.”
Robin: “Thank you.”
Batman: “You’re welcome.”

I say of course you can get away from Batman. Does Robin have the initiative to take the first step? Initiative is the most important thing. Once the first step is over the rest will fall into place.

I’ll end this note with this exchange from Batman to Robin: “When you get a little older, you’ll see how easy it is to become lured by the female of the species.” It is time to move on Robin. Make a name for yourself. For those folks whom you know that are Robin, engage them to take on the challenge and grow and develop.

Finding Happiness

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Posted on April 13, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CSM, PMP, CLDC

In Merriam Webster happiness is defined as a state of wellbeing and contentment, or a pleasurable or satisfying experience. When I think of happiness, this quote comes to mind,

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

~Robertson Davies

When I think of happiness, it is relative to a person’s circumstances, time and state of mind. It also varies from one person to another. Some people find happiness through material things. Other finds happiness through helping others. When I was growing up, I was happy when I spent time at my parents’ convenience store, because I got to interact with the folks who buy stuff from us and the workers at the market. I also found happiness drawing and creating posters for use at school because it was a means for self-expression.

As you go through life, what makes you happy changes; it is indeed relative to a point in time or phase of your life. I find that sometimes we kind of live our life backwards. We work to earn more money and accumulate stuff to make us happy. However, it is better to find your true calling and then express your passion to achieve your goal. As I ponder this topic, I can’t help but think of what matters to us the most. I viewed that health is important and being healthy should make us happy because it enables us to do what we want.

I view a happy person as someone who can enjoy a journey with unexpected stops, but enjoy the scenery as he/she passes through. I’m often reminded that I need to put my expectations in perspective. The last time I served at St. Martin’s soup kitchen it reminded me that other people are facing problems; that a gift of a meal brings joy to them. It is a humbling experience that made me come back to keep me grounded.

As I reflect on this topic, I can’t help but think that there are people who find tremendous happiness in making others happy in spite of the grief that they themselves are going through. They put others’ welfare ahead of theirs. Mother Teresa is an inspiration for what she did. She dedicated her life to help the poor people. She founded the Missionaries of Charity with the objective of providing free service to the poorest of the poor.

These days, I’m happy when I spend time with my two daughters and wife. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be part of their activities and lying down and sharing stories with my daughters. I believe in doing random acts of kindness. A simple thank you goes a long way to putting a smile on people’s faces. Each day I count my blessings and avoid falling in the trap of complaining. Because I always remind myself that other people are going through tougher challenges than I am.

I’d like to close this post with this:

The happy have whole days,
and those they choose.
The unhappy have but hours,
and those they lose.
~Colley Cibber

May you find happiness in the little things in life like taking a walk in the park. May you seize the moment and make the most of your opportunity. As my friend Judy says, “She believes that truly happy people are the ones who are thankful for what they have.”

Teachable Moments

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Posted on April 7, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

A teachable moment is defined as a time at which learning a particular topic or idea becomes possible or relevant. What does that really mean? It means that when something happens, it provides an opportunity to share an experience, knowledge or feedback that can help the person learn something valuable. In most situations, that conversation ends up having a lasting effect on that person.

Applying the same concept at work, I called it instantaneous feedback. For example, during a meeting, one of my directs said something that did not come across nicely. The other party was not happy with the outcome of the meeting. After the meeting, we returned to my office and I asked my direct what just transpired. The person was not sure what went wrong. I explained the situation and proceed to cite an example and gave suggestions on how we can best handle such a situation in the future. It clarified the situation and the instantaneous feedback provided a learning opportunity. The stickiness of the lesson has a lasting effect.

In December of last year, while coaching my daughter’s 4^th grade girls basketball team against St. Anthony, we arrived at the gym surprised to see that the St. Anthony team’s players were taller than our players. I was taken aback by what I saw, but kept my composure so as to not get my team worried. By the time the game reached third quarter, we were ahead by 10 points. I called a timeout and told my players that we are not going to score. At first they were confused. I explained to them that we have a big lead and it is unsportsmanlike to try to score. I proceeded to elaborate that we need to respect the other team; that if we were in the same situation we would not want the other team to embarrass us. I looked at the opportunity as a teachable moment to impart a valuable lesson of sportsmanship. Over the season, the team learned to stop scoring when we had a lead of more than 10 points. I’m proud of my team for learning sportsmanship. At the end of the day, the win does not mean much if they don’t learn something that they can take with them for the rest of their playing days.

As a leader in my organization, I feel that it is my job to watch out for the best interest of the people working for us. That’s why I’m committed to coaching and mentoring. I firmly believe that people are our most important asset. We can have the best technology, but without the right people in the right place we cannot be successful. A teachable moment is another vehicle to impart our knowledge and experience. Sharing is the best way to improve our community and when our community increases its capability, the company and shareholders will benefit from it. It will also increase our competitive advantage.

Mentor…mentor …everywhere

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Posted on April 3, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

In 2000, I left my job at a big five accounting firm because I was frustrated that my career was going nowhere. Because I was eager to move on, I took an opportunity to go back and work as a consultant. Two years earlier, I had quit a consulting assignment to work full time to climb the proverbial corporate ladder. You’ll ask, why go back when I want to move up the corporate ladder? Back then I made a decision in haste, but looking back I was not sure why. Maybe it was my gut feeling that it was time to move on.

That move to work as a consultant ended up being the best move of my career. Someone took me under his wing and invested the time to show me the ropes and the lay of the land of the company. Back then I had no concept of mentoring, but I was truly thankful and felt blessed. Being technically strong in getting my job, I lacked the skills needed to succeed in the long run. I would not have worked for the manager if not for the dot-net boom that led to the departure of most of the members of the team. When he was introduced to the team, he came across as down to earth and made a good impression to the remaining members of the team.

After the initial meeting, I did some research and found out that he’s well respected by a lot of people and known to be a great leader. During our initial one-on-one, he told me that he wanted me to stay and work for him as he was trying to rebuild the team. He asked me what I wanted to do and to get back to him. Since I really wanted to be an employee, I told him on my next meeting that I wanted to have the chance to be the team leader. He said that he was not sure about it, but was willing to give me a chance. I was really thankful that he took the chance. In the end, I spent the best 7 years of my career at that firm.

What’s my point for this post?

1) Mentoring is a big part of our progress and success.

2) By identifying our weaknesses and areas of improvement, we can seek mentors who are proficient in those fields.

3) It is important to demonstrate to the mentor that you value them and make an effort to seek their advice.

4) You can have more than one mentor, because each mentor provides certain expertise that can help you focus on your development needs.

5) Be mindful of their time and make sure that you write down action items and provide status updates to your mentor. This way they know that you’re not wasting their time.

6) Mentoring alone will not make you successful; you need to work hard and do your job.

7) As you benefit from a mentor, pay it forward and mentor other people.

In closing, a mentor can help you learn more about yourself and develop the necessary skills that can help you in your career. Do some researches before you seek someone to be your mentor; make sure that you’ll keep the commitment and pay it forward. A mentoring relationship does not have to be formal. An informal mentoring relationship is equally valuable, depending on your situation.

Go seek a mentor and mentor others to pay it forward.

Keeping things in check

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Posted on March 20, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

There will be times in your life in which something happens that causes you to lose control of the situation. To cite some examples, someone cutting you off on your way to work, your manager at work criticizing you in front of your colleagues, or no foul was called when you were clearly fouled during a basketball game to name a few. In the heat of the moment, you went off the deep end and lost it. As a result, you have said things that you did not mean or made bad decisions that resulted in negative outcomes.

When we act in haste, our mind is not thinking clearly, therefore our decisions are skewed. We could be consumed by our negative emotions that cloud our mind and prevent us from making sense of the situation. In the end, someone could be emotionally hurt or, worse yet, physically hurt. Must we end up in the situation where we regret our actions and how we conduct ourselves in order for us to learn a lesson?

Nobody expects you to be perfect. However, we are always responsible for our actions whether we like it or not and have to deal with the consequences. It might be true that the other party was wrong, but your actions may exacerbate the situation. It is evident that you have no influence on the incident, but you have control of how you react to the situation.

Citing a recent incident that showed that no one is immune to the challenges of daily life, consider Rory McIlroy, the number golfer in the world. He walked off the course in the second round of the Honda Classic after going 7 over par after ninth hole. He cited a wisdom tooth problem for pulling out of the tournament. Some people were suspicious about the reason for pulling out of the tournament. A few days later, Rory apologized for pulling out of the tournament and explained that he is not in a great place mentally. Yes, he had a wisdom tooth problem, but he owed it to the fans and tournament organizer to gut it out and play through it.

No one says that we can’t make mistakes. Often how you react after a bad situation could define who you are as a person. Rory took the high road and apologized for his mistake. He understands that as an athlete he needs to set good example because he is a role model and has influence on others, because your follower could act as you do.

Just like a coach, when you display anger at your player, they will in turn do the same. If you shout at the officials, they will do the same, because they will think it is acceptable behavior. When you lead others, you are a role model whether you like it or not. People around you have their eyes on you and observe the way you conduct yourself. As a coach, you need to keep your emotions in check and take a step back. Take things in perspective. Sometimes it is not easy to hold back, but when your players see you, they will know it is correct to hold back and walk away.

The next time you’re faced with a tough situation. Try the following:

Take a deep breath
Step back and try to control your emotion
Analyze how important it is to react swiftly or if walking away is an option
Assess what is at stake
In most cases, unless someone intended it to hurt you, it is best to walk away and ignore the incident.
When we act while being consumed with negative emotion, we lose our ability to be logical and objective. So it is best to slow down and take a deep breath.
If you made a mistake, make amends and apologize. Admission and acknowledgement are important ways of showing you sincerely regret your actions.

The purpose of this blog post is not to say that it is incorrect to make a mistake. But rather the point is to impart knowledge on how to best deal with situation. In many ways, we are role models and as such people watch and observe our actions. It is best to set an example and inspire others to do the right thing. Remember by making mistakes we learn from them and that enables us to grow and develop to be the best person that we can be.

Above all, we can only make an impact on society if we share our knowledge and expertise. When we succeed in controlling our emotions and hold back, avoiding making decisions when consumed with negative emotion, our struggle will serve as a lesson for those who work with us or follow us. I’m a firm believer that we almost always have the choice to be angry or just sad. To hold back or walk away, it is never easy, but in the end, we are always responsible for our actions. With that said, the next time you’re faced with such a situation, step back and take a deep breath.

A journey to remember

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Posted on March 9, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

In the fall of 2012, my nine year old daughter decided that she wants to join St. Elizabeth 4^th grade girls basketball team. I recognized that this would give me an opportunity to be part of her activity so I volunteered as an assistant coach.

A few weeks before the season started, I received a phone call from the commissioner of our school that our team did not have a coach. He suggested that I think about volunteering as the head coach. I was not sure I was up for the challenge. I spoke to my daughter and asked her if she really wanted to play basketball. My thought process was, if I can convince her not to join, then I’m off the hook. But she insisted that she wanted to play and urged me to coach the team. That night I pondered on the responsibility as a head coach and its demand. As it is, my work demand is high, but then I still want to be part of my daughter’s activity. In my mind, I did not want to miss out on the opportunity.

During the next two weeks, I worked on my schedule and tried to move things around so I could be available. I gave the commissioner a call and informed him of my decision to coach my daughter’s team. That night I was left wondering if I have what it takes to coach the 4^th grade girls basketball team. I used to play basketball, but the last time I played was about 15 years ago. The last time I coached a team was back when I was a senior in high school coaching the freshman team.

Over the next few weeks, I prepared for the upcoming season by reading books, practicing and watching videos. I realized that I was putting in a lot of time and effort. As always, I never do things halfway. If I decide to do something, I often put in 100% effort and try my best. That’s how my father taught me growing up. You need to always try your best. The outcome might not be what you expected, but as long as you tried your very best and put in your best effort, that was good enough for him. It is the same values that I passed along to my daughters. A great addition to my team was the daughter of my former co-worker, who offered to help me coach my team.

I was anxious about our first practice. I started the session by asking the girls why they wanted to play basketball. Each of them gave me their reason and I gave them my objective for coaching the team. My focus for the practice was learning the fundamentals, teamwork, sportsmanship, trusting one another and having fun playing the game.

Our first game was against St. Anthony. When we walked in the gym, I was surprised to see the girls on the other team were a lot taller than the girls on my team. I kept my composure and focused on our game. I knew, if we played our game and focused our defense, we had a chance to win the game. The first game went really well and we won the game. We also taught the girls sportsmanship by stopping from scoring once our lead was over a dozen points. It was a hard concept for them to understand, but in the end they understood why it is important for us to respect our opponent.

Over the next few games, the team learned to work through adversity and won a couple of close games. Before we knew it, we had won five games in a row. Some folks approached me and congratulated me for a job well done, but I kept on saying that it was the team that did all the work. I often attributed our success to the team’s commitment to teamwork. I also found out that there were some reservations that this team might not do well this season. From my perspective, there was no doubt that my team was capable of winning games, because of their commitment to learn and work hard at all times.

We closed the season with a loss, but that loss taught us a valuable lesson, that we need to play the entire game and we cannot just show up the second half. We lost by a point. I told the team that I was proud of them for coming out and playing well the second half. The team remained hungry and eager to prove themselves.

We won our semi-final game and went on to play in the championship. In the championship game, we faced the same team that we played three close games during the season. We won all three games, but I emphasized to my team that we could not take them lightly. Before the start of the game, I told the girls that I was so proud of them for working hard all year and they should enjoy this game. I told them that I believed in them and that we needed to leave everything on the court and be aggressive. I stressed that we needed to come out strong and played our game. We led the first half, but then they came back and led by 4 points with less than 3 minutes to go. We were out of sync. I called a couple of timeouts and during each one of the timeouts I told them that I believed in them that we could come back from the deficit. I reiterated that I believed in them and did they believe in themselves. They responded “YES.” We proceeded to score a three-point play, then another basket that gave us the lead. We won the game by a point. The girls were so happy and everyone came running onto the court.

I was so happy for the girls. They played hard and came back to win the game. This win demonstrated that with hard work, dedication and commitment we can overcome all obstacles. I told them that I’m really proud of them. During the awarding ceremony, I thanked the host of the event, our opponent, AOL, who played four great games, the parents for their commitment, my assistant coaches for their contributions, and my players for working hard all season. We completed a magical season in which we compiled an 11-1 record.

Here is my lesson learned:

Be patient – Patience is the most important virtue. By stepping back and learning to listen to them, I was able to help them learn the fundamentals of basketball and enjoy it in the process.
Believe in them – I never doubted my team’s capabilities. From day one, I knew that with proper coaching and support my team’s capability was unlimited. I saw the joy in their eyes whenever they came to practice and played the game.
Work hard – There were days in which I felt like I was working two jobs. I put in 100% at work then came home and worked on the lessons and plays for my team.
Never give up – My personal approach applies to my team. I never gave up on them and continued to encourage them to try their best until the time runs out. This resulted in winning 6 close games, five of which we came from behind to win. Affirming that I believed in them was the first step in accomplishing our goal.
Keeping my composure – Throughout the season I kept my composure and never showed that I was worried. I kept on encouraging my team to work through it and never waver.
Apply effective feedback – Whenever they made a mistake, I often encouraged them to reset and forget the mistake and focus on the next play or shot. When a player was not playing well, I provided encouragement and engaged them in a one-on-one dialogue.

I’m truly thankful for the coaching opportunity. I’m so glad that I took this opportunity. I spent time with my daughter and formed a bond and shared an experience that we will share for a lifetime. I will always remember this experience. It reinforced my belief that I always have to seize the moment and make the most of the opportunity. Go Crusaders!

Why delegate?

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Posted on February 16, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

Delegation by definition is the act or process of delegating or being delegated. It is transferring of responsibility between the manager and his/her subordinate. This does not mean that the manager is completely freed of the responsibility or no longer accountable, but rather the subordinate is empowered to carry out the task on the manager’s behalf.

Early on in my career, I thrived on being a single performer. The reason I like to work as a single performer is because by and large you control your own destiny. As a programmer, as long as you understand the programming language and its limitations, follow the design methodology, understand the business requirements, work closely with your business and manage your time, you can control the outcome. In many respects, you get what you put in. It is an old saying my father told me many times: You’ll only achieve something if you put in the effort needed to accomplish the goal. It sounds simple, but indeed, it is simple. The results speak for themselves as I moved up the ranks and gained confidence along the way.

It is quicker for me to do it myself

While is it true that it is quicker if you do the work yourself, depending on your role in your organization, it might help you achieve your goal in the short term, but in the long term you’re not helping your organization achieve its goal.

The need to get it done quickly and getting it out of the way can also give you a false sense of accomplishment. The mere fact that the task was completed gives you the feeling that you can check it off your list.

So, why delegate?

Free up your time – this is ultimately the best reason why you need to delegate. Delegating frees up your time to work on things that have the highest value to the organization. It also means that you can work on strategic thinking to help expand your company’s capabilities.
Growing talent – this is essential to every organization. The overall capabilities of the organization will increase in equal proportion to the more people we develop. By delegating our responsibilities, people will learn new skills that will help them become valuable resources of the company.
Increase morale – delegation is only effective if we empower the people to carry out the task. Empowering people can improve their morale. The improvement in morale equates to better engagement and improvement in retention.
Sharing your expertise – showing people how to do things and explaining the purpose or what it means to the organization helps people understand how their work fits in the overall scheme of things. By showing people how do things, they will respect and appreciate your gesture.
You still own the responsibility – while you’re helping someone accomplish the task, you still own the responsibility and are accountable for the delivery of the task. Delegation does not preclude you from owning the task. You’ll learn a new skill by working through others. It will help you learn how to trust and have confidence in others.
Do not dump – some people fall into the trap that they can delegate anything they don’t like to work on. At times they delegate without providing support or guidance or forget to empower the people to need to get the job done. Without proper guidance and support, the people you’re working with will not learn how to effectively get their jobs done.

Delegation in itself is a great thing. It all starts with an acknowledgement that you need to spend your time on other tasks that matter to you the most. It shifts the focus from completing tasks to achieving what is important to you and the organization. It means looking through different lenses in which we focus on quality and not quantity. Similarly, all people who want to cook aren’t Chefs. In order to be a Chef, you need to have the advance skills only bestowed to that level or caliber. However, it does not mean that you cannot aspire to be a Chef. Just like any job, we learn from someone we admire and respect. That same analogy applies to being a Chef. They all started learning from someone they admire and respect. Overtime they learn new skills and become a Chef.

From an overall scheme of things, sharing your knowledge and expertise is a way to improve a community. When we share our knowledge, we empower people to grow and develop. It is through sharing that we can make this world a better place. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Differentiate Yourself

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Posted on February 10, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

With the competitive landscape and the existing economic conditions, companies need to find ways to stay competitive and gain or maintain market share. Companies’ profitability can be attributed to the following: efficiency, quality, productivity and innovation. It is increasingly important to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Some companies differentiate themselves in the following ways, by providing the best customer service, being first to market with innovative solutions, focusing on simplification or being known for best quality.

In the same light, companies look to their people to help come up with ideas that can help the company gain competitive advantage. Most companies still acknowledge that people are their most important resources. I’m of the opinion that a company can have the best technology and machinery, but without the right people in the right place to program and operate them, the company cannot be successful. Ultimately people are what make or break a company.

Just like a basket of apples, how can one apple standout from the rest? Could it be by being the largest, shiniest or the color is vibrant? It does not matter if you’re an entrepreneur or employee; you need to demonstrate certain attributes that make you stand out from the rest. From my experience, here are some of the ways to standout:

Commit to renewing and recharging your energy – this is the most important point that I want to highlight. In order for you to be able to differentiate yourself, you need to feel good about yourself. Renewing yourself means spending time to relax and recharge. This could be done by meditating or spending time on things that you love, such as family and hobbies, that keep you at ease. Make sure to remember that each day you need to spend time that contributes to your wellbeing and take the opportunity to reflect on the things you’re working on and how it contributes to your goal.
Be a subject matter expert (SME) – Be an expert on a topic, business process, operation areas, programming languages, user design (UX), etc. By becoming an expert, you’ll be the go-to person for people to seek help and get things done.
Volunteer your time in cross-functional projects – this is the best way to get your name out there. By participating in these types of initiatives, you can expand your reach, but make sure to follow through your commitment and get the job done.
Take on project that no one wants – I make a career out of being the guy that takes on projects that other people deem unimportant. Yet by doing those projects, management sees the value of being a team player and taking one for the team. This ultimately helps me get myself in the mix of people they deem to be important to the organization.
Helping others – our organization is like an eco system. For it to work effectively sometimes we seek help and other times we give back to the community. Help others and be known for your knowledge and abilities.
Focus on continuous development – sharpen your saw and look for new things to learn and develop. By committing to continuous improvement, you can develop new skills and increase your capability, thereby differentiating yourself.
Represent something – take an interest in programs that you’re passionate about or start something new. In my situation, my passion is developing talents. To this end, I commit to spend time to mentor, coach and develop people around me. I make it a point to provide effective feedback. By effective feedback I mean providing constructive feedback immediately after the situation arises and providing guidance for the way forward. This is also the reason why I’m active as co-captain of Stevens recruiting. I’m responsible for conducting the information session, recruiting at career fairs and interviewing candidates for UBS.
Network – it is important for you to network with people other than doing the work with one another. Spend time getting to know the people, who they are and if they value and understand their goals.
Selling yourself – In spite of all the work that you do, sometimes people don’t know your contribution, not because they don’t care, but because they are also busy with their own business. So, it is important to you to sell yourself to let others know what you do and the value or benefits of the work you and your team are doing and how it contributes to the organization.

Just like the basket of apples, you need to make people see you among all the apples. Make them notice you and ultimately select you to work with them. Make them want to be on your team and inspire them to achieve greater goals. Sometimes it seems like getting the work done is the means to an end, but really the journey is a big part of it. You need to figure out how to focus your attention and also recharge yourself. If you like this post, I ask you to do one of two things: share with me your ways of differentiating yourself or share this post with a friend.

Starting 2013

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Posted on January 2, 2013 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MASCL, CLDC

I’ll start by saying, “Welcome 2013! A year of opportunity for us to make our dream a reality.” Ushering in a New Year reminds me of Oprah Winfrey’s quote, “Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” It is akin to turning a page in our book of life and starting a new chapter, which is a blank canvas for us to draw whatever we want.

One of my favorite things to do as I end a year and start a new one is to review my plan and make adjustments that help me position myself as I ring in the New Year. By doing so, I can start the year right and focus on the things that are important to me and my family.

Here are a few things that can help you begin your year:

1) Take a risk – I urge you to take a chance, a calculated risk that is. Work outside your comfort zone and expand your horizon.

2) Plan – Prepare a career plan and track your progress. This way, you know where you’re heading.

3) Coach – Find a coach to help you grow and develop. If professional athletes have coaches to observe and provide feedback to help them improve their game, why don’t we have a coach at work? Seek a coach to observe you work and helping you improve our skills. This way you’ll continue to develop your skills.

4) Believe in continuous learning – The day you stop learning, you’ll be left behind by everyone else. It is important to continue to learning new things and increase your capabilities.

5) Network and collaborate – I believe in the saying that no man is an island. I encourage you to network and connect with others. Find a common interest and collaborate to develop new things; by doing this, you’ll expand your horizon.

6) When in doubt ask questions – Early on in my career, I paid the price for assuming things. In the end, certain mistakes took a long time for me to recover from. I advise that you ask questions and avoid the headache altogether.

7) Lastly, do something nice for someone. The random act of kindness can make someone’s day or help someone overcome some challenges. If we share our knowledge and experience, we can make this world a better place.

I’ll end this blog post by sharing a poem by William Arthur Ward.

Another fresh new year is here
Another year to live
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

Embrace the gift of a brand new day. Face it with enthusiasm and make the most of it. Remember that the choice is yours – to be happy or to be sad. Happy New Year to everyone! May the New Year bring good health and prosperity to you and your family.

Year In Review – Explore …Dream…Discover

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Posted on December 26, 2012 by Will Lukang

I’m starting my post by reflecting on Mark Twain quotes, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Just like most folks, at times I do feel the comfort of the current state and am hesitant to test the water. Why risk it? Why make a move and end up at the bottom of the pool? Why change things at work? Too many questions, but I don’t have any answers, as I have not put much thought into it.

To summarize my year, it has been a great year for me because of the following reasons:

Participated in the St. Elizabeth Men’s Cornerstone program – for years, I hesitated attending this retreat, but in the end I’m glad I did because I have a profound sense of appreciation for what I have and gained 18 good friends along the way.
Promotion at work – after years of waiting for my turn, I never waver and continue to work hard. I evolved by learning new skills and doing my very best at all times. I never give up and believe in chasing my dream and making it happen. It helps that I stayed positive during the numerous years of not getting my promotions. All throughout this journey, I continued to put my people ahead of my personal agenda and make sure that I show my appreciation for their commitment and contributions. It is my belief that people are the most important assets.
Participated as an assistant coach for my daughter’s recreational soccer team – soccer is not my best sport, but I figured that I’m a quick learner. I enjoyed being there for my daughter and helping out the coach. I truly enjoyed this experience and bonded with my daughter.
Caddied for my daughter’s golf lesson and tournaments – I value the time I spent with my daughter and the test of my patience. We’ve spent a lot of hours playing together that made me look forward to next season with much enthusiasm. The highlight was when she played at the Twin Willow shootout and placed second. I’m so proud of her. I’ll forever remember this experience.
Book launch of the Lead Change Book project on Character-Based Leader – writing a book has been on my checklist for many years. I’m honored to work with 20 other authors that I never met until the book was launched. This is pure collaboration using social media to its full extent. We met through Twitter and collaborated until we completed this book. The icing on the cake was when I met Tara at the Danbury book signing. What an experience! A true test of pushing the limit and working outside of my comfort zone.
Presenting the Recipe to the 2012 Year Up at UBS – I prepared this material in the middle of the year and was excited to share it with folks who are starting their careers and learning the ropes. The goal of the presentation was to impart knowledge on what it takes to be successful.
Hosted a picnic for my group – I believe that, as a leader of my group, I’m serving my people first and making sure that I show them my appreciation for their hard work and commitment. I took over a new group in June and was given the challenging tasks of building out a new platform while continuing to roll out the existing application. By helping the team to focus on our goals, we were able to complete our initial deliverables and then build out the new platform. It is an amazing accomplishment considering we were behind the eight ball by 5 months. The picnic was the highlight that people on my team still talk about to this date.
Learning a lot about myself – Hurricane Sandy tested my ability to help the firm recover its critical infrastructure. I worked through adversity and led the team through our recovery and restoration efforts. With 9 days of no electricity and working through almost 30 hours and, all in all, two weeks of continued work, I learned that I’m capable to lead in tough situations when called upon.
Coaching my daughter’s basketball team – being an assistant coach is one thing, but coaching is taking the challenge to the next level. I look at this opportunity to teach the girls leadership and teamwork. At the same time, I’m there for my daughter and making the most of my opportunity to be part of her activities. Like anything that I get myself involved in, I do it 100% as I spend time planning, reviewing and organizing sessions. So far we have a great season and the girls are having fun learning how to play basketball.
Celebrated three years of blogging – this is an important milestone in my aspiration to spread the word and share my knowledge and experiences. This is one of the most important missions I have—to help raise awareness on issues or challenges that people are encountering.

By all standards, this is one of the best years I ever had. As I look back to the year that went by so fast, I feel blessed that I created a plan and tracked my progress throughout the year. The lesson that I want to impart to everyone is that you need to create a plan. Because without a plan, you’ll be working on other people’s plans. Without a plan, it is like walking blindfolded as you go down the stairs. Please start your year by creating a plan, then track your progress. I urge you to dream, explore and discover new things and challenge yourself.

As I look forward to next year, I challenge myself to think about Mark Twain’s quote as I start updating my plan. I want to make sure I challenge myself and avoid playing the what-if scenario. In the next two weeks, I’ll be reviewing my plan and plotting my next steps. Mark Twain’s quote will be a constant reminder not to play it safe. As your take away, I hope you’ll prepare your plan and track your progress throughout the year. I encourage you to share your story and let me know how I can be of help. Best wishes to you on the coming year.

Teachers – a Sandy Hook perspective

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Posted on December 18, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Teachers are known to be the people that help shape the future of our country, because they are the ones that teach the leaders of tomorrow. Through their guidance, support and nurturing, the next generation’s minds are shaped and educated about the things that make them a better people in the society. Of course parents play an important part in the upbringing of the children, but for seven hours a day during the school year, the teachers help the children learn the things that they need to get to the next grade.

Through the years, I often heard people say that it is great to be a teacher because they only work till 3 p.m. and they have summer off. Comments as such in my mind are made because people are envious of the people who enter such a profession. Sometimes people think that just because school closes at 3 p.m. the teachers get to leave at 3 p.m. More often than not they have to stay behind to clean up and they are often up early to prepare the agenda for the day.

From my experience, there is a teacher in my life that helped turn my life around. Her name is Araceli Ilao. She was my 3^rd year high school teacher. I used to lack confidence and believed that I wasn’t smart or capable of accomplishing anything. I felt that way because the people around me kept telling me that I wasn’t as smart as my siblings and didn’t amount to anything. She told me that I’m the only one who knows my capabilities. If I trust and believe in myself, I can accomplish a lot of things.

Each day under her guidance, I gained confidence and before I knew it I placed third in my section. I couldn’t even imagine getting a great score much less to aspire to be an honor student. But for some reason I started to believe in myself and studied hard and aimed high. As the year progressed, I was impressed with what I’d done, because the excellent score helped me work harder for the next one. By the end of the year, I placed third in my section. As I look back to that year, it was the best year of my young life. I wrote names of people I wanted to prove wrong and each year I would work toward proving them wrong. I turned a negative into a positive. Negative in which people don’t believe me and positive by channeling the negative energy to working hard and focusing on my goal of proving them wrong. Mrs. Ilao helped me become the person that I am. Teachers like her make a profound impact on people’s lives long after she is done teaching them.

In light of the Sandy Hook Elementary incident, I’ve more respect for teachers and the profession. The sacrifice they put in on a daily basis to teach, nurture and mold the children who will be leaders of tomorrow. The fact that they have put their lives on the line to save the lives of their students, such heroism is above beyond what we ask for. Take for example, Victoria Soto who hid all her students and told the gunman that they were on the playground. She sacrificed herself for the love of her students. Such act of courage is beyond compare. As I end this post, my family continues to pray for all families who lost love ones and for the family of the gunman for the pain and suffering that they are going through. May this incident help change the way we manage how people secure guns. May the act of courage of the teachers served as a reminder that we need to hold all teachers in high regard and pray for their safety on a daily basis.

Seize the Day

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Posted on December 7, 2012 by Will Lukang

By Will Lukang, CLDC, PMP, CSM, MASCL

As I drive home tonight after a long day at work, I can’t help but think about the things that transpired at work and all the things that are left to be taken care of tomorrow. In addition, numerous releases that need to happen in the weeks to come. I find myself trying to figure out any possible issues and gaps that we could possibly miss.

As I get closer to my house, I can’t wait to see my family and hear the stories on how their day has gone. It dawns on me that I need to unplug myself from work and focus on the task at hand, which is to be there for my family. I’m often reminded that I only have one (1) chance to make an impression, connect and bond. If I miss this opportunity, I will never be able to take back the time. There is no rewind and replay in life; it is a one way ticket and there is no looking back. In some respects, there is no point to regretting you missed the opportunity, but rather you need to try your best to make up, or re-establish the connection.

I wrote this blog because I want to help others to realize that this opportunity is for them to seize or let go. From my perspective, here is what I’ve been working on:

Listen to your children – pay attention and ask questions to let them know that you’re there for them and what they say is important.
Let them know that they matter – by showing you love them in words and action. Not by giving them a false sense of love through monetary means.
Lead by example – we need to walk the talk (do what you say you would do) and be a role model for them. They need someone to help them learn right from wrong and understand the importance of integrity and community. This includes being true to your words. Sometimes it is difficult, but making an effort can make it happen.
Teach them that life is not fair – Don’t shelter them, and let them learn that they cannot have everything they want. Sometimes you can’t have what you want, because you don’t have the means to afford it.
Outcome often depends on your effort – If you work hard you can be successful, although it is not guaranteed. But you’ll get what you invest in and reward can only be expected if you put in the effort into getting it done.
Allowing them freedom – in choice by making some decisions that you believe they are able to make, and let them try or explore things in life within your guidance. Try new sports or school activities to learn more about themselves.
Teach them to love mankind – by caring for others and people who are in need. Have compassion for others and try their best to help the best they can.
Believe in them – give them the confidence by believing in them and helping them grow and develop to be people who use their values and morals to lead their lives.

In the end, my belief is that you’ll get what you put in. On most days, it is hard to juggle multiple balls everyday but when I get home I’m trying to disconnect and unplug to listen to my little one read me a poem or a book or talking about that happen during the days and ask questions that elicit interaction. Carpe Diem is what it is all about. I hope you’re take away from reading my post is to spend more time with your family or love ones. Let them know you care about them. Feel free to share your thoughts.

An inspiration – an act of kindness

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Posted on December 1, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, PMP, CSM, MASCL

Do you have someone in your life that you look up to? Someone you like to emulate and who inspires you to pursue things you otherwise would think you’re not capable of achieving. This person could be your role model or just someone who has touched a lot of people’s lives.

I’m fortunate to have this experience. The person I’m referring to is my cousin Dr. Domingo Lu Chiu, Jr. I still remember like it was yesterday that when we used to visit my uncle and aunt, I would run upstairs to his bedroom to talk to him. Back then he was in college studying pre-med while I was in elementary school. I would ask him questions about what he was studying or doing. He was very diligent and dedicated to becoming a doctor. When he graduated, I remember that he would often help people who were in need or unable to pay to see a doctor.

As I moved on from high school through college, our family had a falling out and we saw each other far less in between. But I still remember those times in which I interacted with him. His passion for helping others and compassion for others are what I remember the most.

As I move up the management ranks, I’m often reminded that I need to take interest in others and take the time to coach and mentor others. Developing talent became important to me and to this day I still ensure that, while I help the company achieve its goal, I make sure that the folks on my team learn new things, grow and develop. As I look back, I’m thankful for the opportunity to have spent time with my cousin when I was growing up. He definitely impressed upon me that helping others is a cornerstone for how we can make this place a better place.

Earlier this year, he was struck by a car while he stopped and crossed the street to pick up a cat (still alive) that was run over by a car. In my mind, most people would not pick up a cat that was run over by a car, but because he was compassionate and cared a lot about any living creature, he stopped and did what he felt was the right thing to do. As a result, he lost his life doing it. I’m saddened by the news and still reminded of his passion for helping others. He will forever be missed and I will remember his act of kindness for the rest of my life. His act of kindness served as reminder for me to help others grow and develop. In many respects, what I do has no comparison to what my cousin did, but he made an impact in my life by instilling the concept of human compassion and leading by example. He will be missed, but will never be forgotten.

Awareness – Retinoblastoma – For Nico Movement

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Posted on November 20, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP, MASCL

Let us help make things happen for Nico

In December 2009, I embarked on blogging with the purpose of sharing my knowledge and experience, hence the name inspiring others to act. I did it because I believe that if I can only help one person, I will have done my job already.

In the last few years, I connected with people who read my blog and thanked me for sharing my knowledge and experience and encouraged me to continue. There were also requests for blog topics along the way. On numerous occasions, I ran into some folks who mentioned that they followed my blog. Honestly, I did not know how to react to the complement, but I thanked them for following and suggested that they share it with their friends.

It is my opinion awareness is the key to uncovering the unknown, thereby shedding some light and educating us. At which point we’ll have to decide what we do with the new-found knowledge. With that said, at our recent Cornerstone meeting, my friend Kevin shared that his friend’s son has a rare eye cancer. My heart sank upon hearing the story. The boy’s name is Nico Santoli and he is 22 months old. He was diagnosed with unilateral retinoblastoma, a rare childhood cancer of the eye. For more information about retinoblastoma, please visit National Library of Medicine. For more information about Nico, please visit For Nico.

Why am I blogging about this? I’m doing this to accomplish two key goals. First, raise awareness and perhaps help others uncover and save a young child’s life. Secondly, help raise funds to pay for Nico’s medical bills. To make donation, please see information below.

NICO M. SANTOLI CANCER SUPPORT
992 Oradell Ave Oradell NJ 07649
http://www.indiegogo.com/ForNico?a=1726253
or buy some toys and 20% of the purchases from this page go to my sons cancer support http://www.discoverytoys.com/ForNico

I promised Kevin that I’ll use the power of social media to help Nico and other children live their life to the fullest. Together we can make it happen. It takes a community to come together to make things happen. I hope you’ll help me spread the word. I urge you to share or contribute. Thanks in advance for your help.

Prince Amukamara supporting For Nico

Chase Blackburn supporting For Nico

Bear Pascoe and Corey Webster supporting For Nico

Thankful

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Posted on November 18, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, PMP, CSM, MASCL

Life often finds a way to teach us a lesson. Hurricane Sandy impacted a lot of lives. Many are still picking up the pieces and trying to recover their houses and belongings. We came out of it just losing power for almost nine days and I learned a lot about myself and my team. For my children, they gained a sense of appreciation of the absence of electricity and were able to spend more time with each other rather than being preoccupied the IPad and IPhones. The cold chill nights were harder for our children than us. After a week, we managed to stay warm by turning on the gas fireplace. I wonder what took me so long to figure that out.

The incident required me to step up and take care of work-related items while the storm passed through that night. I learned a valuable lesson of mediating and facilitating the recovery in spite of the fact that I don’t have all the answers. I stayed calm and directed the team as we moved from one stage to another. 24 hours later we got the job done. A significant accomplishment considering the odds that were in front of us: the two key resources who knew what needed to be done had no power and we lost contact with them.

For two weeks, it seem like each day went by so fast because I was working long hours, if not round the clock. As I gained some normalcy, I started looking for ways to help those people affected by the storm. I participated in a couple of initiatives as a way to show my appreciation for my blessings.

Each day I hear stories of the devastation that other people had to face. As the year comes to a close, I’m thankful for the following:

My wife and my two daughters for being my sources of inspirations
My extended families for being there for us
My close circle of friends for being a constant source of joy
My team at work for inspiring me to be a better leader each day. They energize me to push myself to learn and develop to be able to serve them
My Lead Change co-authors for allowing me to participate in the wonderful journey that culminated in the publishing of the Character-Based Leader book.
My Knights of Columbus brothers for inspiring me to focus on our primary principle of charity
My Cornerstone brothers for allowing me to participate in the journey of getting to know one another
My tweeter and blog followers who inspire me to continue to tweet and write to share my stories and experience
And last but not the least, the gift of a brand new day.

I’ll close my blog with this message

May the worries of the past remind you of the things you have endured to get to your current state.

May tomorrow bring new hope that opportunity is waiting around the corner.

May you invest the time to develop yourself and spend time on what is important to you.

May you never put things off because there always tomorrow.

May you live the life you want and not that of what others want to see in you.

May you find comfort that you’re not the only one going through challenges in life.

Enjoy your life, invest in yourself and don’t forget that tomorrow is not guaranteed to be there.

May you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

A journey that created the Character-Based Leader book

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Posted on September 26, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

In 2009 I was exploring the social media out of curiosity. It is also the same time I decided to embark on blogging. I joined Twitter to share my knowledge and experiences as a way of giving back or paying forward. But I was not sure what to expect. I wondered what the power of a 140 characters message was and how this thing called Twitter could aid in spreading my message. As I tweeted messages each day, I would see other messages that I liked and I would find myself following those people that share the same passion for leadership, coaching, mentoring and customer service. Also, I gained followers and connected with people.

Mike Henry Sr. is a person that opened the door for me. I connected with him and before you know it we were talking about a possible meeting of the group of people that form lead change. The focus of the team is authentic leadership. We all shared a common belief that we need to instigate a leadership revolution that focuses on values, honesty and integrity. It is evident that we need this as evidenced by the leadership of various companies that failed to lead their companies and caused the economy to unravel.

The book was a byproduct of 21 people who came together with a common goal of writing a book and sharing our experience, knowledge and expertise to instigating a leadership revolution. The group consists of people from three countries, namely: Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Ten of the members met at a conference in 2010; the rest communicated via conference call and started to collaborate on how to proceed with this project. On the week of September 24^th, the Character-Based Leader book launches. For more information about the launch, please visit Lead Change or buy the book from Amazon.

The above map shows the locations of all the co-authors who participated in writing the book. What is amazing about this journey is we did all of the work with few face-to-face interactions. It goes to show that if a group of people wants to share the world and help change the way we lead as leaders, we can overcome any obstacle and get the job done. Help us shape the future by instigating a leadership revolution.

Recipe for success

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Posted on August 14, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

The purpose of this blog post is to share my experience in my over 22 years in the Information Technology (IT) industry. The goal is elicit readers to ask themselves what they are willing to do to be successful through better career management.

When I think of career management and how to better explain it in simple terms, all I can think of is a recipe. A recipe is the outcome or end state that is an amalgamation of all of the ingredients. So, I’m calling this blog post a recipe for success. I’ll try identifying and explaining the different ingredients that I learned along the way.

What are the ingredients for the recipe for success?

1) Discipline – this is in my mind the most important ingredient. Discipline is an orderly pattern of behavior in which we have a self control over how we want to conduct ourselves. This starts by understanding your core values and making decisions based on how it aligns to your core values.

2) Work hard – making sure that you earn the day’s pay is an important concept. It meant making sure that you’re doing the right thing and working and not spending time on things unrelated to your work. It is putting forth your best effort at all times no matter if you want the work or not. It is important to learn that there should be no work beneath us. Because if we start thinking that we are better than the work we are asked to do, we’ll stop being an effective team player.

3) Integrity – be authentic and be accountable for your actions. Commit to doing the right thing regardless if anyone is watching. Ensure that your actions are in alignment with your core values.

4) Be positive – no matter how hard the challenge that you face. Don’t let it wear you down, and keep on pushing forward. Focus on the positive side of every situation. By doing so, you’ll see things differently.

5) Be Proactive – means that you show initiative to want to do more if you have some bandwidth. Also, it means that you ask for more work, assuming you completed your work ahead of time. Seek to learn new things in order to help you grow.

6) Team player – remember that in order for you to be successful, everyone working on the project also needs to get their job done. If you have bandwidth, offer your time to help others. One person cannot do it alone, teamwork is necessary to get the job done.

7) Plan – if you don’t have a plan, you’ll be working for someone else’s plan. Also you would not know if you’re on track or not. Make a plan, work based on your plan and track and adjust your plan accordingly.

8) Network – connect with others and establish a good relationship. The relationship established will go a long way. Make sure that every interaction you have is a positive one. Respect others and demonstrate that you care about the people around you. Focus on making a meaningful connection beyond just being connected on Twitter and LinkedIn. Reach out to them and connect and interact with the people on your network.

9) Mentor – seek mentors who can help you accelerate your learning. Also, pay it forward and mentor others in your organization and community.

10) Embrace the change – change, like death and taxes, is certain to happen. In fact, change is expected to happen and your ability to adapt to change is crucial to your success.

11) Play – as you work hard it is important to realize that you also need to enjoy and relax and unwind. You need to recharge to enable you to sustain your performance. Just like an engine, it needs maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Determine when to take that downtime to refresh and help you refocus.

12) Learn something new – there is a saying that you cannot do business tomorrow with the same tools you use today. Commit to continuous improvement by learning new things over time. Sharpening your saw is essential to your success.

13) Focus on long-term results – instant gratification brought about a whole set of problems as exhibited in the financial industry. Greed took over and a lot of short-sighted decisions were made that caused the economic downfall. When we map out our career plan, we need to focus on the long term goals (between 3 to 5 years) and devise a plan to accomplish that goal.

In my opinion, the top five ingredients are integrity, discipline, being proactive, working hard and passion. The other ingredients can be added accordingly. It is worth noting that our career is a marathon, or perhaps an ultra marathon, and not a sprint. Therefore we need to be able to sustain a level of performance over time. Consistency and commitment to continuously developing and retooling your skills will help you attain your goal.

Do not lose sight of your career goal and dream. Our dream is the target that we need to focus on. Focus on chasing your dream and making it happen. In closing, think long term and act swiftly and make things happen.

A mentor is valuable to your growth and development

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Posted on July 31, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

In this competitive marketplace, every opportunity is contested by numerous people. Sometimes it feels like American Idol, because you’ll be going through numerous job interviews before you’ll receive an offer and are later hired. The current market setting is a buyer’s market—the buyers are the employers. They can be selective because they know that there are many candidates. Aside from being selective, they often look for an exact match or a very close match.

Once you’ve made it through and received an offer and accepted the job, the fun begins. You’ll be put to task to demonstrate that you can learn and adapt quickly. Learning the business will be key to your success.

Here are a few ways of accomplishing the aspect of learning.

Learn as you go, but that will take a long time.
Read materials or published articles related to the industry to help get you up to speed. This is valuable and can help you stay current.
Join a forum or user group to exchange knowledge and experiences
Attend conferences – this is another way of keeping abreast and networking with others in the field.
Work on attaining your certification where applicable. This will be a great way of enhancing your value.
Lastly, find a mentor—this means finding someone whom you respect who is knowledgeable in the area in which you’re interested.

There are no rules as to how many mentors you can have. You need to make sure you can honor the commitment and are not just wasting people’s time. It is important that you come up with a reason why you’ll benefit from having that person mentor you and what you expect to get out of the relationship.

Finally, you can seek mentors for multiple aspects of things you’re working on. It is important to take things in perspective and make sure you can spend the time to continue the relationship. As you gain more experience working with a mentor, do the same and mentor other people. Please pay it forward.

M”O”nday has an “O” for Opportunity

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Posted on July 21, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

Why do people dread Mondays? What’s with Mondays that make us anxious about it? Why do we dislike Mondays? Is it because it’s a start of a new week and people dread going to work? Or children do not look forward to going to school? In my opinion Monday is treated like the foster child of the days of the week. It feels neglected and unwanted to say the least.

From my perspective, Monday is great day because it is the start of the week. In golf terms, it is teeing the week off. It opens the door of the week that can lead to endless possibilities. Akin to a door that opens and lets us in, Monday is the beginning.

What is the best way to usher in Monday?

The “O” in Monday represents the opportunity. We need to make the most of every opportunity presented to us. Sometimes opportunity only knocks once; if we miss it we’ll never know when it will present itself again.
Try to be positive – by being positive, we can see things differently that can help us get through the day.
Be in the moment – by stressing or worrying too much, you’ll fail to enjoy the day.
It is like a fork in a road – Monday is like the fork in the road that reminds us that we have a choice to be happy and make the most of the day. Always remember that you have the choice.
Monday like any other day is consists of 24 hours. With all being equal, it could be treated as any day. The biggest difference is you had the weekend to get you ready for it, therefore you‘re well rested. Embrace the day and start the week right. You never know what to expect.

Truth be told, Monday is just another day. We are the ones who interpret things and come up with assumptions for each day. I would suggest to just go with the flow. Learn to smell the roses and enjoy the gift of a brand new day. I guarantee you that you’ll get the most out of it.

Box “ME” Not

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Posted on June 28, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Sometimes we go through life and come up with things that we think we could do and things that we should not do. It could be a byproduct of our experiences, upbringing or relationships we had through the various stages of our life.

Each situation provides us with experience that creates filters that become the way we see the world around us. Over time we create our own belief system that becomes our guide on how we conduct ourselves.

Here are some examples

You work in a company and one of your managers told you that you cannot approach a certain person or speak to them because you’re not the same level. If you take one person’s opinion as truth, then you’ll avoid interacting with any managers because you’re not at their level.
You’re told that you’re not allowed to make certain decisions because it is not your pay grade to do so. It could be true depending on the issue on hand, but by taking such a response at face value, from your perspective it becomes your reality.
When we were young, we were told not to talk to strangers. While it was true when we were young, that stays as fact and it becomes a filter that prevents us from networking or approaching people when we are adults. It is not because we are afraid something will happen to us, but rather we are not used to approaching and introducing ourselves.

What’s my point? When you’re not in a box, don’t create a virtual box and box yourself in. Sometimes all our preconceived notions create this virtual boundary that limits our ability to do things effectively. There are times that we are paralyzed by over thinking, thereby failing to make the necessary progress needed, then eventually we are marked down as ineffective on our performance review. As one of my managers used to say, “Don’t take the pill before you have a headache.” I would say, “Don’t box yourself in when there is no box. You’ll stifle your progress by doing so.”

Here is some simple advice:

Perception could be your reality, but it does not have to be. Asking clarifying questions allows you to assess the situation and make an objective decision.
Past experience is a good reference point, but does not have to be a matter of fact, unless it is a mistake made and lesson learned from it must be retained forever. As time goes by things change; what does not work before might work now—like being comfortable in introducing yourself when networking. When you’re a child, it is right not to speak to strangers, but when you’re an adult and are attending a networking event, you need to introduce yourself and connect with other people in the same field.
Ask questions; the worst people could say is no and it does not cost you anything to know the answer.

Next time, don’t put yourself in a box. Start fresh and step back and find out the answer before you decide your next step. A box is only good for putting things in it, but definitely not good for a human being.

Embracing Change

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Posted on May 31, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Humans in many ways are creatures of habit. After doing something for a while, we become comfortable and are set in our ways. Status quo becomes the norm and we would rather go through the motions. The notion of things being changed is something we dread happening to us.

As much as we want to stay the same, everything will change around us, like weather, seasons, and aging to name a few. The fact of the matter is that there are three things in life that are guaranteed, namely: death, taxes and change. At some point we will age and die, hence death is guaranteed to happen at some point in our lifetime. If we work, we have to pay taxes. Of course we can choose not to pay taxes, but the consequence means being jailed for failure to pay taxes, hence not an appealing scenario. Lastly, change will happen whether you like it or not. Either you initiate change, embrace change, or it will happen to you with or without your approval.

When it comes to change, some people are up in arms as soon as they find out that change is happening around them. They believe it is a waste of time. As some people would say, “It is working, why change?” Others would say, “Don’t fix it if it is not broken.” However the fact of the matter is, you cannot use the technology of the past and do business today. It would work, but it is rather inefficient. As time goes on, there are new ways of doing things. New tools or methods that can make things better by being effective and efficient.

So, how do we react to change?

First, learn what the change is all about – the reason for change and genesis of effecting a change. Everything happens for a reason, whether we agree or not. But change often is not initiated just for the sake of changing. There is always a purpose and reason for it.
Secondly, ask yourself the following questions: What does it meant to you? What does it mean to your organization? This question is important because you need to know the value of the proposition and how it affects you and the organization. In essence it is the understanding of what is in it for you (WIIFY). Will you be learning something new? Will it help you enhance your skills? What value does it bring?
Lastly, decide if you agree with the change and its reason. If you agree with the change, you need to learn what is it you can do to help facilitate the change. If you don’t agree with the change, you need to decide on your next step. It could mean moving on or looking for other opportunities.

From my personal perspective, I’d rather help facilitate the change or be part of the group that initiates change. Otherwise, change will be imposed on us, and at that point we would have little or no influence in the way it is implemented. One of my favorite quotes by Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Adapting to change is the key to our success. If we don’t change, it will happen to us and we will not like the outcome. It is best to understand and learn how we can help effect the change. Some people believe that they can outlast a change. Meaning all they need to do is hang in there and eventually it will blow over like a wind. By doing so, you will not learn anything.

As Dennis O’Grady in “Bottom Line” used to say, “Change has a bad reputation in our society. But it isn’t all bad — not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life — to keep us moving … to keep us growing … to keep us interested . … Imagine life without change. It would be static … boring … dull.” The fact of life is we cannot do nothing and expect things to get better. We need to change and evolve and improve. Progress is only possible if we change.

The next time change is happening around you, follow the three steps of how to react to change and please share the outcome. I would like to learn from your experience.

Be Positive

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Posted on May 14, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Every day we are faced with challenges that sometimes affect the way we interact with others. Decisions are made based on that state of mind that have lasting impact. Sometimes we lose our nerve and let the situation get the best of us. After the fact, we regret having acted the way we did, but then it is too late. We said things that hurt people’s feelings, and worse yet, we made bad decisions because of it.

So, what do we do? We certainly are humans who are bound to make mistakes. What’s the best way to preempt such a situation? When you’re getting overwhelmed or feel like your emotion is getting the best of you, do the following:

1) Take a deep breath — really slowly, a deep breath to help calm you down.

2) Try your best to see things in perspective – imagine stepping back to allow you to see the big picture.

3) Look at the positive side of the situation – as a result of stepping back, you’ll see things differently.

4) Decide the importance of the situation – determine how important the situation is to you. Think of it in terms of value and long-term repercussion of your subsequent actions.

5) Be positive – when we try to be positive, we’ll see the situation in a different light. We also can see the opportunities amid the chaos. Things get clearer when we try to be positive.

6) Control your emotion — by letting it flow, it could take control and get the best of you.

7) Audit what you will say – think through what you will say. Make sure you’re are not saying things that you will later regret

Here is an example why staying positive is important. After the Knicks lost game two (2) on April 30 to the Miami Heat, one of their star players, Amare Stoudemire, punched the case surrounding a fire extinguisher out of frustration. It resulted in a cut in his left hand that required that a small muscle be repaired. I understand his frustration, but by acting without thinking through the consequences of his action, he puts the team at risk of losing the series as he will not be able to return the next game.

He later apologized, but I believe it was a bit too late. The owner of the team and fans are the ones paying the price for his bad decision. We all at some point will experience situations that will frustrate us, but we need to take a deep breath and think through the consequences of our actions. By being positive, Stoudemire could have channeled the negative energy to motivate himself to work harder and perhaps play better the next game. At this point, the team is on their own. At this point, his season is over and so may be his team and the loyal fans.

It is helpful to stay positive and assess the situation before we react to the incident. It is easier said than done, but if we start by asking the question: How important is it to me? Then the subsequent action will be clear. As part of this blog, I’d like to start a Be Positive movement, where someone states something that they can be positive about. Feel free to share this post and spread the word. It takes a community to change the world. We can do this one person at a time.

Bad Customer Service

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Posted on May 3, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

We always have fond memories of my sister-in-law’s annual Easter visit. It is that time of year in which we invite a couple of our friends with little ones to participate in Easter egg hunt. A tradition that we look forward to, because it gives us the opportunity to connect and catch up.

Every year, my girls are excited because some of their female cousins will come for a visit and spend time with them. It is their bonding time. This year the big thing for them was manicure and pedicure. As soon as they arrived, they texted me to see if they could have manicures and pedicures, in this case we obliged and let them enjoy the weekend.

On April 7^th we were deciding which place to have our dinner and my nephew reminded us that a new restaurant named Aoyama just opened on Thursday that week. There is something about supporting your local business and I’m passionate about it, therefore it was not hard to make such a decision.

So, Aoyama it was. We went at 6:30 PM to try to beat the mad dinner rush. We arrived, and with minimal waiting, we were seated, in spite of having a party of eight. The restaurant has a great ambience and the first impression was great. They took our drink orders then later our meal orders were taken by 6:45 PM.

By the time we realized it, it was 7:30 PM and none of our food had been brought out. Meanwhile, we saw some of the people around us, who came in later than us, being served. We asked the waitress and she indicated that she would check and it was coming out.

Around 7:45 pm, four dishes came out, but the noodle soups for my girls were still not ready. Also, two other sushi dishes were not served. At that time, I asked the waitress for a word with the manager. The manager did not approach our table until 8:30, at which point we had waited almost two-hours. He explained that they were really busy and he was very sorry. When I explained that we had waited almost two hours, he declared that there were two other groups that had the same issues. I was shocked by his response. What was the benefit of telling me that we were not alone and I was in the same boat as two other groups? That’s not the way to do customer service. I mean, highlighting your deficiency will not make your customer happy. I was only asking for an explanation why orders were served to people around us, but he had no answers other than “I’m very sorry.”

By 8:45, one of the noodle soups came out. At that time, my 6-year-old said, if we ate at the other Japanese restaurant we would be long done. I was expecting the other noodle dishes to come out soon. But I found out they had not been prepared it at all. We can cook the same noodle soup at home in 30 minutes. Why did we wait over two hours for their noodle soup? I gave them too much credit to do the right thing and they messed up the chance to have a good customer experience.

One other sushi dish came out and the other was forgotten. Once they found out they forgot to fill the other, the sushi chef did not do anything. Overall, we all rated Aoyama in Wyckoff a 0 star. They don’t deserve to have any star because they don’t know how to treat their customers.

I learned the following about how not to treat your customer;

1) Sorry is not an answer/solution for all mistakes; actions need to be taken.

2) Telling your customer that we are having the same problem with other customers does not make your customer feel good.

3) Paying customers deserve your attention.

4) When you failed to fill an order, make up for it by delivering the dish. Not doing anything is the worst thing you can do. Because it is tantamount to ignoring your customer.

5) An unsatisfied customer will tell 10 more people, while a satisfied customer might tell one or two of their friends their experience.

6) If you’re in the restaurant business, starving your customer is not a good thing, especially if they’re children.

7) If you want repeat customers, you need to provide a good user experience

8) Lastly, treat your customer the way you want to be treated.

In spite of this experience, we continue to support local businesses, because it is important to help them sustain their business. My hope is that the managers of Aoyama have learned their lessons and rectified their issues, because we hope to one day give them a chance again in the future, as everyone deserve a second chance.

Adapting to the Situation

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Posted on April 19, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Many times in our lives we trained or studied for something for months at time and it all came down to the moment of truth and something happened that threw us off track. You can either throw you arms in the air and give up or adjust accordingly and see if you can make the most of the situation.

Our ability to adapt to the situation depends on our behavior. By staying positive, we can come up with ways to address the challenge we’re facing. However, if you get frustrated, you’re most likely to fail at it. It all comes down to how much you really want it and if your sacrifices can be thrown out the window.

The term “choke” in my observation is really an unfair assessment. Some people take more time to adapt, while others can easily adjust and move forward. However, there are many situations in which time is of the essence, where if you hold back a little, you’ll miss out on the opportunity. But at the end of the day the outcome is less important than the fact that you did your very best to adapt to the situation. The experience you gain goes a long way.

Here are a couple of stories that exhibit that staying positive helps the person adapt to the situation:

1) The son of a friend of mine recently tried out for a swim team. During his butterfly event, I noticed that he slowed down significantly and was left behind by almost a lap. I was puzzled but was not sure what happened. He did not quit and kept on swimming. At the end of the tryout, I asked him what happened. He said that his goggle was loose then eventually fell into the water. He decided to keep on swimming and not worry about it. Such an act demonstrates his commitment to getting it done no matter the situation. He did not make any excuses and kept on swimming. It must be hard to finish last, but the way he did it made me so proud of him. I told him that no matter what the outcome, he should be proud of his effort.

2) Nathan Adrian competed at the 100-meter freestyle at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. While crouching on the block, he felt a tear on his rear. This left him with an exposed buttock. In spite of that he went on to swim and ended up beating Michael Phelps at that event. He did not let the incident affect him, because months of practice all came down to that moment and he did his best and was rewarded nicely.

3) Last year, I was hoping to have my promotion. When the day arrived, my manager was surprised that I did not get my promotion. To say the least, I was disappointed. But I did not let it stop me from doing a great job and continued to coach and mentor people around me. Although I was affected, I channeled my energy to working with the new management and continued to help affect change in our organization. I never wavered and believe that one or two setbacks should not stop me from trying. The year went by and I was surprised that I got promoted to Executive Director. It goes to show that we need to try your best at all times and do not let some setback hold you back. You should continue to strive to achieve your goal. The lessons learned is that we cannot give up easily for we will never know the outcome if we quit too early.

There are more stories that I can share, but the above three stories did standout and are most relevant since they all happened recently. When something does not go as planned, do the following:

Step back and try to take a deep breath. Go out for a walk and allow yourself to mourn and deal with the situation.
Accept the situation and acknowledge it and move on.
Try to see the positive side of the situation. This often includes controlling your emotion and focusing on the task on hand.
Find alternative solutions and weigh the feasibility of getting it done.
Proceed with your decision and act on it.

For the above swimming situation, you cannot obviously apply some of the steps defined above, but you get the point. Act on the situation based on how important it is to you. Make a commitment and make it happen. When you commit, it makes going forward easier.

Are you happy?

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Posted on April 2, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Sometimes I find myself getting caught in life’s conundrum. At that point, I spend time worrying about things that matter to me and things that are happening around me. While it is not intentional, it affects my ability to be effective and productive. Akin to a cloud that is hovering on your head, it affects the way you deal with people and impacts your productivity.

As I look around and talk to people around me, I realize that everyone at some point will be doing the same thing, and it can become infectious. I compare worrying to carrying a bag of rocks. During the first five minutes, I would be all right, but as time goes by I would have some difficulty carrying, and over a period of time I could have trouble keeping it up. After a while, couldn’t carry it anymore and would be really tired and have to put it down.

The question I asked myself: Is it necessary for me to worry? It is not easy to decide not to worry. However over the years I learned to ask myself these two questions: Can I change it? Can I influence the outcome? If my answers to these questions are “NO” then I would remind myself that I have to stop worrying about it. I would let nature takes its course and face the outcome and react accordingly.

I believe in the saying “It is not the load that breaks you down, but the way you carry it” by Lou Holtz. Everyone in this world carries some sort of load. However, the way you carry the load is what matters. Life is short; therefore by worrying you’ll miss out on enjoying the present. Your happiness is defined by how you deal with life’s challenges. If you put things in perspective, it can help you enjoy your life a little bit more.

The next time you fall in the trap of worrying, ask yourself the two questions, and if your answers are NO, stop and take a deep breath and let it go. Life filled with worries is not going to do you any good, because it will affect the way you deal with your family, who has nothing to do with what’s going with you. You’ll miss out on the opportunity to create a lasting experience with your loved ones if you worry too much. It could also affect your work and cause you to underperform.

Don’t take the medicine before you have the headache. Sometimes by going with the flow you can see things better and come up with ways to address it. Learn to smell the roses, enjoy the gift of a brand new day, and appreciate the blue sky.

Embrace every opportunity

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Posted on March 13, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

On a Thursday morning in February of 2012, my little girls asked me if we were going snow tubing. I took the day off to spend time with them, but as usual I had some open items that I had to attend to and had to work that morning.

As I went about my work, my little girl came to me and asked, “When are we going snow tubing?” I said, “Sorry, honey, I need to get something done today. We’ll go tomorrow.” We went and played with her sister. It was the last of the discussion about snow tubing for that day.

The next morning it was raining. My wife and I talked about weather and decided that since it was cold and raining it would not be a good idea to go snow tubing. We told the girls of our decision and they were not happy about it, but went along. A few hours had passed and my little girl came to me and asked, “When are we really going?” At this point, I felt bad and told her definitely tomorrow, as I checked the weather forecast and it would be perfect to go snow tubing.

On Saturday morning, she woke up and was really excited. After my other daughter’s basketball practice, we had lunch and they both got ready and off we went. Their smiles were ear-to-ear. We drove to the place and as they got out of the car they were so excited. When we got to the counter to buy the tickets, we were told it was sold out. Their smiles turned upside down. My little one declared, “We came here for nothing.” Not to disappoint, I inquired if I could purchase the ticket for the next day. I was told we could and we bought the tickets and headed back home. The trip home was rather quite because they were really disappointed. My little one recounted on the lost opportunity on Friday. I reassured them that since we bought the tickets, we were all set for Sunday morning.

On Sunday, my little one was up really early because she was so excited to go snow tubing. Her enthusiasm to go snow tubing was apparent. I told her to go back to sleep and would awake her up with ample time to have breakfast. As she went back to sleep, I wished she embraced every opportunity with the same enthusiasm as going to snow tubing. Because the possibilities are endless if you’re excited and passionate about what you’re doing.

As I reflected on the situation, I reminded myself that I should always start the day by appreciating what I have and embrace the day with the same enthusiasm and take advantage of the opportunity to do my very best. In the end, they had a great time snow tubing. They raced with each other and were smiling ear to ear as we drove home that afternoon.

In my mind, it was mission accomplished and we took advantage of the opportunity to explain that sometimes things don’t go as planned, that they should not be disappointed. What’s important is that the promises are fulfilled and we embrace every opportunity with enthusiasm and appreciation for having such opportunity.

Don’t stop believing

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Posted on February 29, 2012 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, CLDC, CSM, PMP

Growing up I lack the self confidence needed to succeed. As a middle child, I was often compared to my siblings in term of academic accomplishment. Unfortunately for me, I did not do well enough to earn any honors like my siblings. I have to say that I was really proud of my siblings’ accomplishments. They deserve every accolade and they certainly did great.

As years passed, the frequent comparison and discussions about my inability to perform academically started to affect me. Even my family friends knew about my situation because my parents talked to them about it. It is not like I failed to make the grade. Each year I did well enough to move to the next grade. Truth be told, I did study as hard as I could, but the results did not match the effort.

During my junior year in high school, I met a teacher who believed in me. She guided me and gave me the opportunity to explore and excel. Each good test score help me feel good about myself and enabled me to trust that I could do it. But it still took a lot of work and the difference was I believed that I could do it. It was the turning point of my life. She provided me the opportunity and gave me more responsibility to showcase that I could get it done. As @TeresaAmabile (Is that right?) and Steven Kramer’s book titled The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work states, continuous progress is the key to improving and creating a good inner work life. Each small win helps build confidence that enabled me to tackle the next challenge and build on top of the positive feeling that I had in accomplishing the prior goal.

It takes a person to walk into our life and give us that hope to push the envelope and dust off ourselves and get back in the saddle and continue to pursue our dream. It is the very reason I blog, mentor and coach others, because I want to pay it forward.

Looking back had I given up, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything. Persistence and consistency are the keys to our success. By seeing incremental progress, we can develop confidence that prepares us to take on more challenge; it helps us prepare for the next opportunity. However, someone can walk into our life and trust and provide us with opportunity, but it all starts with believing in yourself and keep on believing that you can get it done. So I suggest that you don’t stop believing and keep on fighting until you achieve your goal. I’ll end my post by leaving you with music: Journey – Don’t Stop Believing.

Are You Looking for Leadership in all the Wrong Places? by @Kaity_FL

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Posted on February 13, 2012 by Will Lukang

Guest post by Kaity Nakagoshi (https://twitter.com/#!/Kaity_FL)

In order to be a great leader, you need to know how to spot talent at the blink of an eye, so that you can utilize the people around you to the greatest effect. In these difficult times when revenues are down, getting creative is a necessity. Though many people will make a point of demonstrating their skills and desire for promotion, some of those with a natural talent for effective leadership may be found in unlikely places. Don’t limit yourself by seeking out leadership in those with predetermined management experience or qualifications. Instead, take advantage of every life situation. Opening your eyes and mind may lead to surprising findings. Keeping these four “B’s” in mind during your leadership adventures can help you stay on track – Be Connected, Be Creative, Be Inspired, and last but not least, don’t to forget to Be a Leader.

Be Connected

Within your own company, you need to be present to notice the prospective leader who is not jockeying for position. Be sure to spend some time on the floor or visit team meetings. Carefully observe how each person works and interacts. Perhaps there is an individual in one section or on one team who has a way of naturally causing others to do better work or to work more efficiently together. Dig a little deeper and maybe you find that this same person has been involved in most (or all) of the successful choices made within that same department. You have found yourself a leader.

Be Creative

Though some people see a separation between the creative arts and business, many artistic endeavors require large amounts of discipline and perseverance. If you enjoy a football game, observe the marching band to see a great model of teamwork, discipline and efficiency. A worthy marching band leader is able to inspire the band members to get out and practice in tough weather while learning and maintaining precise line formations, not to mention performing musically at the same time. Be aware of those around you who create inspiring moments. They have the same traits you can find within your company’s personnel.

Be Inspired

Sometimes those who have truly suffered can inspire us with their passion for leadership. Born into a socially stigmatized position in a leper colony in Ethiopia, the story of a young man named Yemamu is truly inspring. Yemamu and his friend Sisay supported their families by rummaging through garbage dumps. They would scavenge for materials such as metal and plastic that they could trade for even just a little bit of money. Eventually, someone sponsored the boys, which allowed them the opportunity to go to school. Yemamu later created an NGO (non-government organization), and through his work, other people who suffered from poverty and/or social stigma gained jobs, which allowed them to support themselves and their families. The biggest obstacle that Yemamu overcame during his leadership role was the ability to inspire those with little or no hope. He shows genuine concern for others, and encourages them along the way. Essentially, Yemamu responded to his circumstances, a life of poverty unimaginable by western standards, by improving the lives of others. True leadership requires passion, and passion may arrive through suffering. To learn more about more about Yemamu and his ability to influence others, please visit The Leadership Challenge.

Be a Leader

Remember that being a great leader means recognizing the merit of others. One of your key tasks is to spot talent and nurture it. Be sure to participate in company events and observe those who may have an exceptional combination of creativity and discipline. Also, don’t forget to find noteworthy leaders as you live your everyday life. An exceptional waiter at a restaurant, your passionate tennis lesson teacher, a neighbor who enjoys throwing get-togethers for your street—all of these people may demonstrate leadership qualities which can improve your own outlook. As you become alert to excellence in unlikely places, you will develop an eagle’s eye for the raw talent within your reach.

This article was submitted by the University of Notre Dame in partnership with the University Alliance. The University of Notre Dame provides all the necessary tools and resources to gain an executive certificate in leadership and management online. To see additional information please visit http://www.notredameonline.com/.

How To Get Over Overwhelm by Jackie Yun

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Posted on January 26, 2012 by Will Lukang

Guest Post By Jackie Yun @JackieYunTweets

Photo courtesy of www.FreeStockPhotos.biz via Benjamin Miller

“Jackie will have a full report and recommendation for a financial and accounting system on your desk in 2 weeks”.

That was the confident voice of my boss’ boss. I had no such confidence. I had no clue how to start, what to do. I was just a programmer, not a senior business analyst, not a manager. I had no background in finance or accounting, unless a couple of classes in college counted. I was just a few years into my professional life. Back then, there wasn’t much on the Internet, nor was Internet access easy.

Shaky, sweaty and hunched down. I felt overwhelmed. While there was no Staples® Easy Button™ to push to meet this or any challenge, I did discover that there are things I could do to get over the overwhelm.

Make Your Environment Work For You > Not Against You.

When my boss came to my cubicle to find out about the meeting, I was so stressed that I burst into tears. With a comforting hand on my shoulder, he sent me home.

His actions were precisely what was needed. In her book, The Power of Place, Winifred Gallagher tells us that “our environments are not just backdrops to our lives — they affect how we think, feel and act”. She cites Roger Barker, founder of environmental psychology, who further clarifies: “once the environmental particulars of a modus operandi work their way into our nervous system, they help close our minds to better options and incline us toward knee-jerk reactions.”

In other words, when you’re overwhelmed, just getting out of your current surroundings, where the negative triggers are located, can change your perspective.

Going home isn’t always an option. Instead, go to a nearby coffee shop or book store, take a stroll in the park, or even go down to the cafeteria and grab a snack. If you can’t go somewhere, use the Internet to your advantage and let great photography take you away from those negative triggers for a few minutes. I love the sunrise pictures Leia Cator (@mscator) tweets.

Your Body Speaks. Help Your Body Say the Right Thing.

Christine Caldwell writes: “I feel the presence of fight/flee/freeze somewhere in my musculature and physiology. When I isolate, I also feel my defenses. In fact, that is all I feel.” ~ from her book, Getting Our Bodies Back.

When you’re overwhelmed your body feels it and it screams that to yourself and all who see you. How can we move our body from feeling overwhelmed to one that says it is open and ready for the challenge; not contracted, small or ill? Use your body’s 5 senses. Engage in yoga to re-gain flexibility, taste the warmth in a cup of tea to give you resilience, breathe in the fragrance of lavender or rosemary to give you calm or fortitude, or listen and watch Rocky Balboa in his “Gonna Fly Now” scene for the “I Can Do It” stance and feeling. Why not even get up and do that scene with Rocky?

This tweet from Tony Richards (@tonyrichards4) is a clever way of remembering the impact our body’s actions have on our psyche:

║

║ *Behavior wags the tail of feelings.*

║

Stop Your Mind From Reaching The Red Zone.

The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, tells owners to make early corrections for their recalcitrant dogs. Past a certain point, the dog won’t heed anything you say or do, his mind is in the Red Zone. Humans can be like that, too.

Before your mind reaches “The Red Zone of Overwhelm” try settling into meditation (something that leaders should have in their toolkit as evidenced in the HBR Post, The Power of Pause, shared by Rick Ross, @RickRoss10), read poetry and find balance (Terry Del Percio, @WorkIntegrity, tweeted an NPR piece describing how poetry gives peace to the author’s life), or playfully use prompts such as @AnitaBondi’s Interplay Inspiration Deck to gain a different perspective on the situation (and no, I’m not an affiliate, but I am an Anita Bondi fan!). If overwhelm has not completely hijacked your amygdala, try to engage logic. Break down the challenge into smaller pieces to see where this takes you.

Reach Out – Your Relationships Can Help.

If you’re in overwhelm, your focus is narrowly centered on yourself; not surprising, given what your body and mind are doing. Instead of looking inward, look outward. Look to connect with your network of support. Your network of support are the positive people who have your best interest at heart, who will uplift you and help move you forward. Your network can be comprised of friends, relatives, mentors, coaches, colleagues or even kind strangers! My boss and my husband each gave me learnings that I’ve kept with me throughout my career with good impact:

• Even though time is of the essence for almost every project, there is time to stop to recalibrate. Make sure you take that time.
• Figure out what you can do, then humbly without apology make your offer, their decision is not a reflection of you ~ and remember, you don’t have anything to prove.

Use The 4 Quadrants To Give You The Answers

James Flaherty, founder of New Ventures West (my professional coaching alma mater) introduced the concept of the 4 Quadrants as a way to evaluate a snapshot of a coachee’s integral state. It’s a very revealing model when you look at someone from the perspective of their 4 quadrants: environment, body and behavior, individual consciousness (what I’ve been calling the mind), and relationships. As we’ve seen, it is also a framework to help you get unstuck, such as when you are in overwhelm.

If you’re stuck, take the time to analyze each of these quadrants, see if you are out of balance, and then do work within those quadrants. Soon, you will be liberated and be open to the possibilities!

To Will and all you followers of Will’s blog, much gratitude to you for including me in your day’s reading. I’d love to hear from you about how you’ve gotten over overwhelm or become unstuck. Do you use a special framework like the 4 Quadrants? Do you think the 4 Quadrants would be helpful to you? Please share your feedback in the comments below. We can learn much from each other.

Jackie Yun is an Integral Coach ® and Former IT Executive. For more information about Jackie, follow her at @JackieYunTweets

Connecting with your children

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Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

I used to be a workaholic and felt that my career was what defined me. I often talked about work and everything seemed to revolve around work. I got married in 1996. A few years later my daughter was born and everything changed.

A few years before that, I was working with someone who told me that he wished he had spent more time with his children when they were young, because by the time they become teenagers they do not want to have anything to do with you. Back then I was not sure what it meant to me, but I figured that it must be really important and it took it to heart. I’m really thankful that I did just that.

Just like any new parent, I was so excited, but then soon realized that it takes a lot to be a parent. Nonetheless, I really felt blessed to have a daughter. Here is my top ten list of connecting with my daughters:

1) Spend time with them. By this I mean really spend time playing with them whether that is with their kitchen set or MacDonald store. Do I really want to do this, at first I said to myself. No, but I thought about it and decided that I have a small window to do this and this soon shall pass.

2) Treat them like adults and talk. This meant talking to them about choices, options, tradeoffs and letting them make some decisions. This all depends on their age. Small decisions early on and it will grow slowly thereafter. They need to learn that they have the choice and making the right choice is important and essential to their growth and development.

3) Love them like there is no tomorrow. Always tell them that you love them. Let them know it, and don’t take it for granted, and mean it. I always start my day by kissing them on the forehead and telling them that I love them very much.

4) Say No to them. Be honest and say no to them on things that do not make sense. Do not spoil them and shower them unnecessarily. Let them handle rejection and help them cope with it. By giving in to them, we are not teaching the valuable lesson of living in the real world. Guide them to learn to cope with what the future might throw at them.

5) Listen to them. Learn to listen to them and lend them your ear. Truly spend the time and understand what they have to say. As an adult, it is a challenge to do this because we often feel the urgency to get things done just to move on to the next thing. Listen to their stories and ask questions about them. I cherish every story they tell and immerse myself in it.

6) The most memorable gift does not have to be expensive. I remember few years back that a friend of mine gave my daughter a snail rocking chair. Once we opened the gift she was ecstatic and played with the rocking chair. About half an hour later, she was playing with the box. For the next 10 days the box was all she wanted. I had to throw away the box because the box was ripped to pieces, but she still insisted on keeping it. To this date, when she sees a box, she still remembers that instance – amazing.

7) Keep the notes and drawings that they made for you. It might not look like much, but when they see you keep their drawing and notes, it gives them a sense of accomplishment. It also shows them that you recognize their work and appreciate them.

8) Help them accomplish things incrementally. Help them with their projects and show them the ropes. Make sure to participate and engage them in the activity. This also provides you the golden opportunity to make an impression on them and develop lasting memories. This helps them develop their confidence, which is essential for their future.

9) Don’t compare your children. Growing up in a Chinese family, my parents often compared me to my siblings. Unfortunately for me, I was not smart compared to my sister and brother. The more they talked about it to their friends, the more I felt it was really true and I started to doubt that I could really accomplish anything. Fortunately for me, by the time I reached my third year in high school, I had a teacher that believed in me that help turn things around.

10) Support them and guide them. While as parent I want my girls to be good at everything, I try to resist the urge to push them too hard. I always emphasis the fact that they need to try their best. When they didn’t make the next level in swimming, I would embrace them and say that there is always next time and try your best and don’t think about failing. Be sincere about it and let them know that when mistake happens, you’ll not be the first one to judge them but rather you’ll be the shoulder to cry on. Teach them to dust things off then get back on the horse and keep on trying. Teach them to never give up and the value of hard work.

So far I’m enjoying every moment that I spend with them. Don’t get me wrong, there are days I wish they would listen to me and do their homework. But at the end of the day, I think about the opportunity I have and how I took advantage to connect and make an impression on them.

Someday we all shall pass. I want them to remember the time we spent together, the laugh, the horsing around, reading books and not the expensive gifts they receive. At the end, the goal is to live life with no regrets. It all starts with realization that there is still time and acting on it. It is never too late.

Book Review: Get It On by Keni Thomas

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Posted on November 30, 2011 by Will Lukang

By Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

Keni served as a Ranger in the 75^th Ranger Regiment. He was a member of Task Force Ranger as part of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. He was involved in the Battle of Mogadishu and is now the author of Get It On. Through Get It On, he shares his experiences in Somalia as a Ranger.

While I was reading Keni’s book, it felt like I was in virtual reality, seeing things unfold as it happens. That is how vivid the description is of each scene. The play-by-play account kept me engaged. Because of my busy schedule, I was able to read the book at night. As I ended each night of reading, I was looking forward to the next opportunity to continue reading the book. Each chapter contains nuggets of information on leadership, teamwork and the Ranger creed.

Why the title Get it On? It means being able to do what you went to mission for. It is a chance to use what they were trained on and apply the skills that enable them be Rangers. As a civilian, I have enormous respect for people who sign up to be soldiers. Without them, no one will fight for our country and what is right and the world will be ruled by wicked people.

“Don’t forget nothing” by Captain Robert Rogers is a saying that reminds us that even when something becomes a routine, we shouldn’t take things for granted. We need to always do our best and put 100% percent effort in everything we do. If the mechanic of the plane ignored one of the standard operating procedures in the airplane maintenance, such action could cause a catastrophic result. That is why it is imperative that we don’t lose track of what’s going on and focus on giving our 100% effort.

This book is great in that it is packed with lessons on leadership and teamwork. Here are a few that I would like to share:

1) When you heed a lesson it is a good thing. When you find yourself relearning a lesson that’s not a good thing. You need to learn from your past mistakes and make sure not to repeat them.

2) A team is only as good as its weakest link. In order for a team to succeed everyone must pull their weight. It is like a jigsaw puzzle, when one member of the team fails to pull in their share of work, the team will fail.

3) Lead by example. To gain people’s respect you need to be there with them in getting things done. Leading by example has been a very important lesson in developing leaders.

4) Do the hard work in advance. If you want to be the best, you’ll do the hard work needed to be successful. As a Ranger, your teammates expect you to be your best at all times. Therefore you need to be prepared at all times – be prepared.

5) Customer service – the Black Hawk pilot guarantees to put their customer on target, on time, plus or minus 30 seconds. That is amazing that they could guarantee delivery. That’s customer service at its best.

6) Doing the right thing – as a leader you do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. As leader, you have a burden to make difficult decisions, but you do it because people depend on you.

7) Encouraging and building each other up – the Rangers are there to carry each other’s burden and lift each other’s spirit and support one another.

Keni’s started the book by telling the story that he was writing to his mom. That initial attempt was interrupted by a call to mission, which resulted in some of his comrades being killed. Get It On highlights the story and experience of young soldiers who fought for our freedom and what’s right.

Reading this book affected me in two ways. First, it reminded me that no matter how hard things are around me, it is little sacrifice compared to the people who fight for our country everyday around the world. Secondly, there are many ways to learn leadership and teamwork, but the military is still one of the best sources of knowledge in this area. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn about history and pickup nuggets on leadership and teamwork along the way.

As always, I’ll be tweeting about this book review. Three (3) lucky winners will be selected from the retweets. If you wish to purchase the book, use this link http://bit.ly/kenithomas

Bond shown by leaders

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Posted on November 15, 2011 by Will Lukang

By Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

I often wonder how does a group of people, most of whom have not had a chance of meeting one another, find a common goal and set out to educate others of the value of character based leadership?

I’ve always thought of sharing my knowledge in leadership development, coaching and mentoring. In 2009 I was looking for the best way of sharing and collaborating with others outside the confines of face-to-face meetings. My exploration brought me to try blogging and Twitter.

Back then I expected to use Twitter to share my knowledge. But as soon as I used Twitter and followed people that shared the common interest in leadership, I met a lot of people who shared character-based leadership. Through Mike Henry’s leadership, he formed the lead change group. In March of this year, I joined the group and officially contributed as contributing author. The objective of the group is to teach people the principle of character-based leadership.

From Tweeting to collaborating on a book project, the lead change group embarked on a book project, which I jumped on the opportunity to be a part of. We have since completed the copy editing and the graphic and marketing team is working on the book.

The last 13 months has been great as my blog has been generating a lot of traffic. This, coupled with my contribution to the lead change group has provided me with a great opportunity to reach a larger audience. Some of my plans next year are to try video blogging and co-hosting a web show with a friend.

Going back to the subject of bond shown by leaders, recently one of our peers at lead change had an unfortunate situation of losing her fiancée. The person had a financial challenge and one of the members of the group sent out an email to ask the group for help. In minutes, multiple email exchanges and members were figuring out ways to help and send the person financial help. I was surprise by the compassion that the group showed toward our fellow. I recently reach out to her to find out how she is doing, but I’ll forever remember the bond that our group has and the demonstration of support for one another.

In closing, I’m thankful that I took the chance of using Twitter and blogging. My hope is that if one person in this world learns a thing from me, then I’ve done my job in spreading my knowledge and experience.

Managing your e-presence

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Posted on November 3, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, CLDC

The advancement of the social media gives us many ways to express ourselves. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, to name a few, are sites that we can use to share our news, connect with others, like your friend’s stuff, friend others, or share a photo or two.

The freedom to post a comment and let it all hang out there can easily happen with a click of a mouse. With just one click, I can poke someone and they can poke me back. I can like this or like that or choose to unlike. It is so easy to fall into the trap of just doing it without thinking about the outcome or consequences.

I’m amazed by some of the pictures posted on some people’s profiles. I sometimes wonder if they realize that those photos will be out there forever and other people might stumble upon them. While we believe in freedom of speech, we need to be aware that sometimes certain things can be misinterpreted by others. Just like an e-mail that can be interpreted in many ways by different people, our post, comments, photos can be interpreted by people who see them.

Nowadays companies use the Internet to gather more intelligence about a potential candidate. A simple search via Google can bring us loads of information about a potential candidate. This information can then be used to determine the suitability of the person as a member of the company.

One could argue that what’s posted on those sites should stay on the site, but the reality is people have been fired for things they post on Facebook. People were fired for posting the following:

Caught surfing Facebook while “home sick” from work
Posting inappropriate pictures
Juror dismissed after posting a message before the jury arrive at a decision
Insulting their company and safety standard
Posting derogatory video
Making racist remarks
Blasting their boss

What is the point of my post? My point is that when we post something, we need to think about whether we will be okay if people proliferate it—that we will not be embarrassed about it. We need to be self-aware and think about the consequences of a basic post. Once it is out on the Internet, it can be replicated all over the place. Even if you delete it there will always be copies out there. So be conscious that a basic comment could come back and haunt you. Worse yet, it could prevent you from securing a promotion or opportunity that you really wanted.

A piece of advice next time you’re sitting in front of your iPad or laptop, think before you click. Don’t be trigger happy.

Book Review of The Progress Principle

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Posted on October 11, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, MBA, MASCL, CSM, CLDC

For this post I’m reviewing the Teresa Amabile @TeresaAmabile and Steven Kramer book titled The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

Let me start about my background. I’ve been in a leadership position for over half of my career. That’s 11 years. Coupled with my Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership degree from Seton Hall University, I thought that I knew everything there is on how to motivate employees. The fact of the matter is that I had successes in forming and developing cohesive and high-performing teams throughout my career. So, when I offered to review the book, I was a bit skeptical that it would offer any new information that would be of value to me.

Based on my experience, here are some of the ways to motivate employees:

Treat them with respect
Value their opinions
Show them you care by providing a supportive workplace
Provide a challenging job and guide them to succeed
Have an open-door culture
Being well compensated
Provide training that helps them grow and develop
Proactive and open communication
Recognize and reward people

The above list covers a lot of what people value that can help motivate them in the workplace. But as I read each of the chapters, it occurred to me that I’m missing one very important point, which is progress. The book highlights that the secret to amazing performance is meaningful work. Also, it refers to a concept called inner work life. For a moment I thought, it meant work/life balance, but later on I learned that inner work life is a rich and multifaceted phenomenon. It describes how inner work life influences people’s performance. It goes on to say that, no matter how good your overall strategy, the execution of it depends on the inner work life of your employees.

Inner work life is noted in the book as the confluence of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that individuals experience as they react to everyday events of their work day. When people are happy and engaged, they can be creative. It can rise and fall and performance is also affected by it. When people are happy, they’ll more likely do the work. When people have a good inner work life, they can overcome hurdles and get the job done. In the book it talks about the findings on Zappos that promoting positive inner work life doesn’t only make people feel better, it also leads people to do better work.

In my experience, having happy employees helps in delighting your customer. As manager/leader of our organization, the way we interact with our people can affect their inner work life and that has an effect in their performance and ultimately our organization’s ability to compete and deliver. Therefore, it is important to think about how my interactions, communications and decisions will affect the inner work life of my group.

My main learning point is that the best way to motivate employees day in and day out is by facilitating progress. Even small wins can help move things in the right direction. If we feel that our work is valuable and we are successful, then we feel good about our work.

This book does not just say what it is that can help improve our situation, but also provides a guide on how we can facilitate progress and the factors that we need to be aware of to make things happen. Continuous progress is the key to improving creating a good inner work life. Each small wins help build confidence to enable us to tackle the next challenge and build on top of the positive feeling that we had as we accomplished our goal.

Setback is the opposite of progress, when something that happens at work at causes a negative effect on our inner work life, it will start affecting our work. And if we don’t do anything about it, we’ll start regressing and ultimately affect our ability to deliver or achieve our goal.

From a personal perspective, I’m really glad that I volunteered to review this book, because I learned about the inner work life, its role in motivating people, and the importance of progress. More importantly, the awareness of the importance of inner work life and how to turn knowledge into action. I rate this book as 5-stars based on the value that readers can learn and its relevance to current setting. I highly recommend this book to everyone who leads others at any level of the organization. Sustaining a continuous cycle of progress and positive inner work life are key to companies’ ability to leapfrog against its counterpart.

In the end, as leaders at any level, we have the responsibility to make sure that we do the right thing to help that company produce the best product or service. The right thing means we need to make sure that we provide an atmosphere that supports a positive inner work life that can facilitate progress. That step starts by buying this book and learning how we can turn knowledge into action.

Would You Let Your Gut Speak – In the Corporate World?

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Posted on September 15, 2011 by Will Lukang

By Jackie Yun

Courtesy www.pixelperfectdigital.com via Darren Hester

“I’ve been mandated to shut down the office by next June, after we deliver on our key project this upcoming April”.

All eyes quickly turned my way. It was as quick as a door slamming shut and I hoped that wasn’t what it would portend. I knew conventional wisdom would not have approved of what I had just said. Our HR Generalist’s shocked reaction re-confirmed that. Instead, I had taken my direction from my gut. Would my team walk out and make an already terrible project situation disastrous?

Was the Gut Wrong?

I had just inherited the Austin Technology Center (ATC) and this was my first all-hands-all-staff meeting with the ATC. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost overruns and repeated schedule delays had plagued the ATC’s project. Our customers were terribly unhappy. High dollar penalties (possibly in the millions!) would be incurred if quality and schedule were not met. Even our support groups grumbled about the ATC and said that we were “rogue”.

My gut had a felt-sense that the staff at the ATC wanted and would appreciate the truth. They were extremely savvy and smart, very knowledgeable about the latest technologies, and quite entrepreneurial. This project could be turned around and perhaps (although I had no guarantees), our CIO and our President’s minds could be changed about the shutdown ~ but only if the ATC wanted that.

Incredibly, the Gut was right. They did!!

So due to a gut feeling, we were now together on an entirely different journey. And the first step called for some self-assessment.

Gutting It Out by Stopping, Keeping, and Starting

Until we asked, I don’t think the ATC knew to what extent their outright battle against using the Corporate Problem Tracking System had on the ATC being able to work with Corporate. Once the ATC stopped the battle (tabling it with plans to suggest improvements at a later date), conversations moved forward, opportunities opened up.

Stopping this one action helped the ATC to chip away at their reputation for being “rogue”. Stopping the ATC’s opinionated technical banter and eliminating their un-corporate dress code of shorts and flip-flops would help, too. But, this was part of their dot.com DNA and spoke to who they are. Could we keep our DNA intact yet start getting people to see the “good” in our “rogue”?

With the ATC’s unique knowledge set, we focused on becoming a Center of Excellence. We also touted the ATC’s satellite office culture as a place within our company to re-charge, re-energize. We gave authenticity to our “we do whatever it takes” attitude and took on projects that no other division wanted. We looked for opportunities to help. When our sister division, which supports our company’s core systems, needed people resources; we volunteered to provide “in-sourcing”, even subjecting ourselves to being interviewed. We started to reach out and not be so insular. Many other actions were taken, including those to specifically address the project situation.

Unknowingly, what we had been doing was a variation of the Stop-Keep-Start Feedback Method (Read more here: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/08/three-questions-for-effective-feedback.html). Asking ourselves, our peers, our customers and our executives: “What should we STOP doing? What should we KEEP doing? What should we START doing?”, gave us practical insights that we used. It got us to a better place.

That April, the project was finally completed; not the prettiest of implementations but it got done. The June shutdown was averted and we were on our way to becoming an integral part of the company and would be so for another six years.

A Few Final Gut-felt Words:

S. Chris Edmonds (@scedmonds on Twitter) tweeted a keen observation about leaders that resonates with me:

“Too often a leader’s HEAD doesn’t always act upon what is in that leader’s HEART”. To this, I would add — “and Gut”.

I encourage you to let your gut and heart speak; even in, or maybe especially in a corporate environment. Magic can and will happen!

To Will and all of you who read and engage on Will’s blog, a heartfelt and gut-felt thank you for giving me of your time. I’d love to hear how you feel about the gut and heart in the corporate world. Do tell me if there’s been a time when you let them lead instead of your head. If you’re curious about how to encourage your gut and heart to speak and for you to hear them, spend a few moments at the end of day and ask yourself: “Would the decisions I made today be any different if the gut and heart were involved?”. Put your response down on paper and review at the end of two weeks. You may be surprised at what you hear.

For more information about Jackie Yun, follow her at https://twitter.com/JackieYunTweets or connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieyun @JackieYunTweets

Customer Service – Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

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Posted on September 6, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, MBA, PMP, MASCL, CSM

In this economic situation companies have a tendency to focus on cutting back and reducing expenses to make their business profitable. But there is a saying “penny wise, pound foolish”. While it looks like you’re making progress by seeing incremental expense reduction, you could be missing the big picture, which is what your company’s value proposition is – what your company is all about.

This week I witnessed this first hand while a friend of mine dropped off his car for service. The customer representative at the counter for loaner cars asked him which insurance company he has. Upon hearing the name of the insurance company, the customer representative says, “I’m afraid that I cannot provide you with our loaner car, but we can provide you a Budget rental car and you have to pay for the insurance.” I was surprised by what just transpired because the purpose of the loaner car is to let your customer experience driving the newer cars, thereby eliciting interest to possibly make a future purchase. The representative explained that they had an issue with the insurance company that led to their decision. The insurance is $36 per day. From my perspective, for such an amount, they decided to sacrifice the client experience and took away the opportunity for the client to drive one of their vehicles.

As I returned to work, I pondered on what just transpired that led to that outcome. My friend was not happy with what happened; he felt that loaner service is one of the conveniences that people expect. For $36, how many customers had a bad customer experience? Once a customer has a bad experience, there is chance that they will not make any future purchases. Therefore, is the $36 cost worth losing your customer? In my opinion the company was being penny wise but pound foolish. In fact, they’re missing the big picture as to why they are in business. They describe themselves as a luxury line of product, but they don’t provide the level of service commensurate to the image they’re presenting.

From a customer-service standpoint, it is important that we make the most of every opportunity we have when dealing with our customers. We need to ensure that the customer comes away feeling good about how they are treated. If they are treated well, it increases the chance of repeat business.

That experience taught me one thing. We need to deliver what we promised. Each touch-point with our customer is an opportunity to impress upon them that we are here for them. It is essential to do our best to make sure their needs are addressed and they come away satisfied.

Collaboration as a career strategy

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Posted on August 23, 2011 by Will Lukang

By Steve Broe

Stay connected. The people in your world can make a difference as you seek an intentional career transition. While you should hold people in high regard as individuals, never forget that your network represents a form of interpersonal capital. The connected links between friends, colleagues and decision-makers can help you launch a business or find a better job.

Now choose an attitude. Are you going to collaborate or compete with the people that you know? The collaborator strengthens the people in his or her network, leaving a positive impression that resonates among extended connections. Collaborators can simply go farther by leveraging the talents of their network.

One attitude embraces the power of the team; the other promotes the rugged individualist. The competitive career transitioner seeks to be a hero in the game of life. The collaborator earns less specific acclaim, yet ends up at the finish line regularly with other achievers.

Collaboration creates synergy. Synergy is a condition of enhanced productivity. The participants on a project encourage higher performance, typically be focusing on personal areas of strength. When collaborating, members notice each other’s work, pay attention to it, and appreciate the contributions. Synergy creates a condition where all players raise their performance energy.

The competitive career strategy is one of admirable self-reliance. Many organizations, especially sales-oriented organizations, encourage competitive work. The top sales professional is a hard-working superstar, and often very competitive.

Collaborative sales work is also a success strategy. Decisions that depend on long-term sales relationships, or complex decisions, are enhanced with collaborative work practices. Teams of colleagues, all supporting the same goal, can serve a business sales’ efforts, especially if long term, sustained, performance is important.

The collaborative choice helps one keep going, even when one is not feeling up. A network of colleagues can provide the inspiration or resources to get over a hump. Collaboration creates a community, and serving the community gives a person an extra reason to meet goals. Try collaboration with people you can trust, or can learn to trust.

For more information about Steve, please visit his websites http://blog.mycareerimpact.com and www.stevebroe.com.

A night for Tina

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Posted on August 8, 2011 by Will Lukang

Tina Coppola Fundraiser

Please join us for a night to help Tina fight her battle with Cancer

Tina Coppola is fighting the fight of her life. Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 2

years ago, Tina needs our help to combat this terrible disease that has taken

over her life. Tina, mother of two beautiful children Taylor age 14 and Jordyn age

8 continues to be an inspiration to all of us who are lucky enough to be with her.

She fights the fight everyday. She has been through every conceivable treatment.

Conventional Chemo treatments have not helped. She is now with Dr.

Raymond Chang in NYC of Meridian Medical for additional non conventional

treatments which cost $11,000. Per month. She fights the fight and with our help

will beat this disease. Help us Help Tina win the battle.

A Night for Tina

Mayfair Farms

West Orange New Jersey

September 9, 2011

@7:00 pm

Cocktail Reception

Featuring live Music by Nils Lofgren, from the E-Street Band

$150.00 per ticket

Please make checks payable to The Tina Coppola Cancer Foundation

If you can not join us for this evening please feel free to send us a donation for Tina.

We can also use gifts of merchandise for use in our Auction.

Please contact Lori Fiori at 201-230-8972 or libertydog@verizon.net for more information.

In reviewing The Final Summit by Andy Andrews

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Posted on July 28, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, MBA, PMP, MASCL, CSM

The main character of the book is Mr. David Ponder, a wealthy real estate developer in Dallas. He is committed to building a skyscraper without borrowing money. People don’t believe that it is possible, but he declares that he will pay as he goes. His life is not walk in the park, because he declares bankruptcy at age 55. But he believes that adversity is preparation for greatness.

He uses the Seven Decisions as a guide for the way he lives his life. What’s interesting about this book is the concept of travelers. Mr. Ponder is one of the travelers who travels to meet some of the great people like President Truman. The author was able to put events that happened from multiple time periods into one setting, which provides a historical perspective and a good blend of exchange of conversation that would otherwise not be possible in our current setting.

My favorite part of the book is when David Ponder, Winston Churchill, Joan of Arc, Eric Erickson, and Abraham Lincoln are discussing the possible solution to the question: What must humanity do, individually and collectively, to restore itself to the pathway toward successful civilization? They have four chances to answer the question and save humanity. The quality of one’s answer greatly depends on the quality of the question asked.

Reading this book is like peeling an onion; the more I read the more I became interested in it. Eventually it became impossible to put it down until I found out the outcome of the journey. The creativity that was put into writing this book is amazing. As I read it, I could imagine the characters interacting with one another. I highly recommend this book to people who want to take a peek into the past and also learn how the Seven Decisions can help change their life. To learn more about the book, please visit The Final Summit. You can also follow Andy Andrews on Twitter (@AndyAndrews).

Sharing the stage with others (Are you ready?)

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Posted on July 22, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, MBA, PMP, MASCL, CSM

A year and half ago, I venture into the world of blogging hoping to wet my toes and see what it is like to share my knowledge and experience. It took me over six months to muster the courage to jump into blogging. I blog because I want to share what I know with others, hoping that if there is only one person out there that can benefit from my knowledge and experience, I will have accomplished my goal.

Each post provided me a sense of satisfaction that someone out there will read and learn from it and avoid learning things the hard way. I enjoyed the comments posted and e-mails thanking me and suggesting possible future post topics.

Sometimes I have my ducks in a row and I know what to write for the month, but there are times I experience writers’ block and am unable to generate a post for weeks. It frustrates me that I’m unable to connect with people who read my post. I have the idea, but I was not able to put things together. Other times I’m just too busy at work that left me little time to invest in writing my post.

One day I was on a conference call with my fellow leadership coach and we were talking about sharing our knowledge and expertise. During that discussion I had a eureka moment that I can offer a guest blogger who can blog on topics that I’m not familiar with. This way I can expand the material on site. My first guest blogger will feature another leadership coach. I’ll run his blog at the end of the month.

My hope is that, by adding guest bloggers to my blog, I can offer a better experience to the people who read my blog and provide them with an opportunity to learn new things. For those who reach out to me or post comments, thank you for connecting with me. I really appreciate it. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments. I welcome the interaction and look forward to hearing from you.

Neglected Fish

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Posted on July 16, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, SCM, MBA, MASCL

Sometimes we can take things for granted because something is always there for us whenever we need it. Such would be like an oven that turned on whenever we need to bake or cook something, or a pet fish that is always there to entertain us when we feel like giving it attention, or people who are always there for us to back us up and help us get things done. Either way they are neglected in many ways.

Just like a pet fish that does not need to be walked or petted, there is a tendency to neglect it and go about our life. However, when we remember that it is around, we might spend a few minutes interacting with it, feed it, then off we go again. So, what’s my point for writing this post? As we get too busy with work and get preoccupied a lot of things, we might take the following for granted:

Family and children – our family will always be there for us, but your children will not be young forever. If you don’t take the opportunity to connect with them, you’ll miss the opportunity. You only have ONE opportunity to make a difference. Do it now and take the time to connect.
Friends – these are the people who are there for us through thick or thin and have been there for us, from being the sounding board or a shoulder to cry on. We need to make sure we set aside time to reconnect with them and let them know that we have not forgotten them.
Network – these are people whom we might have worked with or were introduced to us in the past. We need to let them know what we are thinking of them and set aside time to meet and interact with them. You need to ping them and let them know that you are thinking of them and not only reach out to them when you need them.
Mentors and coaches – to a certain extent you owe your success to these people, so let them know that you appreciate their help and always remember it. It is important that you remember where you come from because the experiences you learned will serve as guides for your future decisions.
Top performers at work – when things are getting taken care of, it does not mean you’re really good at getting things done, but rather that you have an efficient crew that stands by you and gets things done. You need to let them know you appreciate them and value them before they leave to seek opportunities elsewhere. Spend the time with them and recognize them.

Don’t treat the people you care about like fish; just like fish they will not last forever. If you neglect it, it might be too late. Always make time to let them know you care about them. Make it a priority to take care of the most important thing first.

Customer Service – Make a positive impression

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Posted on June 20, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

About a week ago, I post a message on one of the appliance merchant’s site to inquire about their program. The next day I receive a response asking me some questions in order to address my needs.

The next day, I received a response regarding my inquiry and he also mention that I should reach out to the person at the branch to further my request. I replied to his message and thanked him for his time, but at the same time I mentioned that he could have taken it to the next level by contacting the branch and clarifying the matter on behalf of the customer. It was a perfect opportunity for him to make a great impression on the customer.

My perspective is that every touch point with our customer is an opportunity to make an impression. When we make a good impression, the customer remembers that experience and it could provide a compelling reason to do business or continue to do business with us. Therefore, we need to take advantage of each of the opportunities, akin to playing baseball (three tries before you lose your turn) that you want to do your best in each of your at bats.

Every company has to be known for something, some for best quality, best in innovation, best in price, or any other for that matter. For example, your firm is second best in the quality category, but you have topnotch customer service. In the end, you might be able slowly increase your market share because of your ability to serve your customer. Let me reiterate that by no means do I promote that bad quality and excellent service will get you anywhere. It is important that you have a good service or product in order for you to talk about customer service, because customer service alone is not going to get the job done.

Going back to my point on my e-mail exchange with the customer service person at this appliance merchant, he replied and explained to me why he did not reach out to the branch on my behalf. According to him, he was avoiding confusion, as it already happened a couple times with them in the past. Then he said the situation does put everyone in a tough situation. Nonetheless I was impressed that he took the time to explain to me the situation rather than ignoring my response altogether. He also apologized and explained that he wanted to avoid the message coming across as being rude. As a customer, I was glad that he explained himself. Because of the email exchange and my interaction with their branch folks, I’m leaning toward doing business with them

Tired of your job – Is it time to move on?

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Posted on June 7, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

I recently spoke to someone whose son quit his job because he did not find it interesting. According to the person, he did not like the progress he was making and didn’t feel the passion to keep doing the same job. The question is: Is that reason good enough to drop everything and move on?

During the time he quit his job, he was convinced it was the right thing to do. It has been over two months and he has not found any other opportunity and his cash is running low. He’s feeling the pressure of the decision he made and wonders what he got himself into. Life lessons often provide us with tough lessons that we can learn, but the experience is rather a painful one.

The question is: Is it right to quit your job without having another job? My personal point is that you need to assess your personal situation and also the economic situation in general. In this economic situation, is it best to stay at a job you don’t feel passionate about, but that gives you a steady income and stability, or do you seek what makes you tick? If you leave your job without another job, you run the risk of being unemployed for an extended period of time.

My suggestion is staying put for the following reasons:

Reinvent yourself – you can always showcase other skills you have by volunteering on other projects. It provides you with the opportunity to show you’re a team player and are maturing to accept new challenges.
Learn new things or attend a class – sometimes by attending classes, you can learn new skills that can help you to be more marketable. Also, you might learn something that you can take back to your job and use this so your manager sees that you’re adding value to the firm.
Find the reason why you’re leaving – unless you know why you don’t like your job, you can’t just leave for the sake of leaving. You need to be able to pinpoint the three things that make you hate your job. Otherwise, you’ll be in the same stage again a few months down the road, except you’ll be working elsewhere. You need to seek the reason for your dissatisfaction.
Seek your mentor’s help – sometimes asking someone’s perspective can help you see things differently. Especially if you have an experience mentor to work with.

One has to take into consideration that grass is often greener on the other side. It applies to jobs and also your lawn if you own a house. From a certain vantage point, my lawn looks great, but as I drive closer, I see brown patches that make my smile turn to a frown. I agree that you need to find your passion and do what you love, but you also need to summon your practical side and survey things before you jump to conclusions. The best decisions are the ones that are made over time rather than one hastily made because of a knee-jerk decision.

Unless you find why things are broken, you are bound to repeat the same mistake, only that the view is different. The cost of mistake later on in your career cost a lot more than mistakes incurred earlier in your career. I say let the head do the thinking and keep your emotions in check.

Happy Customers and Angry Customers

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Posted on June 1, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

Few weeks ago, my wife and I were discussing her experience with her Coach pocket book that she bought few months back. The thread on the shoulder strap started to come off and she was deciding to send it back for repair. My initial thought was this would be amazing if they would bother addressing a single incident.

A few weeks later, they sent my wife a letter indicating they could not fix the strap and so they were giving her a store credit because they were sorry that it did not meet their quality standards. My wife was surprised that Coach had very good customer service. As a happy customer, I use Social Media to let others know our customer experience. Here is what I tweeted on May29th. “Love @Coach! My wife had a problem with her pocket book strap & since they can’t fix it, they gave my wife a store credit. Amazing customer service!”

Every time an employee of a company makes a contact with their customers, they need to make sure that it is a pleasant experience. The touch point could provide the firm a lasting experience with the customers. Happy customers have a tendency to go back and do business with your company.

On the flip side, angry customers are also an excellent source of customer feedback. The company can take advantage of the opportunity to understand the situation and take care of the issue at hand. There is a saying that negative news travels much faster than good news. An angry customer is most likely to tell 10 of their friends than when they experience good news. Therefore, the company has a golden opportunity to change an unhappy customer to a happy customer.

My point for this blog is that, when we interface with our customers, we always have an opportunity to impress our customer by showing them that we value their business. To that end, we will do whatever is necessary to address their issue. We will take ownership of the issue and see to it that it is addressed in a timely manner.

So, the next time you’re at the receiving end of a customer inquiry or complaint, imagine yourself being in the shoes of your customer. Try to understand their concern and work with your team to address their issues and concerns. Remember that a good customer always comes back and does more business with your company. Who knows, as a side benefit, they could provide you with an excellent feedback that can help you advance your career.

Time Spend Versus Results

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Posted on May 19, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

I was talking to someone few weeks ago about our work environment these days. The person I spoke to mentioned that working 10 to 12 hours a day is the norm and that anything less than that would be frowned upon. For most companies, cost saving, productivity and efficiency are up on their list of things to accomplish each year. The quest to do more with less causes a ripple that causes people to work longer hours to get things done.

That discussion led me to think about my time spent and all the people around me. While it is true that I have spent more hours over the last four years than I did in the past, the circumstances that I’m in are very different because of the types of projects that I was fortunate to lead and worked on. However, the discussion made me aware of how people spend their time and the result that yielded out of the time spent.

I beg to ask the question: Is working more hours really a way to demonstrate that we are committed to the cause of the company? And, by doing, so are we an asset to the firm? Therefore, why do some managers bring it up when discussing how much time we spent at work? As if we don’t spend 10-12 hours a day would mean that we are not reaching our maximum capability. Is it fair to expect that logging more hours is a true measure of our contributions?

From my perspective, I value the results more than the total hours spent. One could argue that there is a minimum number of hours worked to commensurate the pay we received. As one my developer often says, “I’ll do the work that I was paid for and won’t do anything less than it.” His saying reminds me of the saying “An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” Which I firmly believe is the way to measure our contribution. We need to be able to say that we did not take more than we deserve and that we put in the hours needed to get the job done.

Working more only makes sense when

It is for a stretch project – such project that you committed to ahead of time, but did not get around to and that would affect your ability to get better projects in the future.
Last-minute surprises – this could be last-minute problems that could jeopardize the project that you’ve work so hard for the last few months.
Taking one for the team – I believe that we succeed as a team and fail as a team. When someone fails to deliver their share of the work and the team will end up paying the price for an issue, someone should pick up the slack and get it done.

Working more does not make sense when

Task has less priority – don’t burn your midnight oil on a task that has less priority and brings little value. You need to prioritize your work and work on the one with the nearest due date and that has the highest importance.
To show that you’re committed – working long hours with the implicit assumption that it adds more value does not make sense. The number of hours worked should yield equal results.
Assuming that by showing you’re a hard worker you’ll get promoted – the reality is if you’ll be spending more time now to get your job done, chances are you’ll have to work even more longer hours to assume more responsibility.

Don’t fall into the trap that working long hours means you’re being valuable to the company. Focus on results and making sure your results match your effort. I’d like to reiterate that I did not write this post to discourage people from working hard. My point is: make sure that your work adds value to the business. Don’t do busy work and take important things for granted.

If you have children, remember that they are only young once. If you missed any opportunities you can never buy back the time. Bonding with your children is best done while they are young. Once your children reached their teenage years, they want to hang out with their friends; therefore your chances are minimized.

Take care of yourself and make sure that you’re a positive influence to the people around you. When you start your day tomorrow, think of the value of the task that you’re about to worked on and compare it against the other tasks on hand and work on the one with the highest priority. Because hours spent should be almost equal to the result they produce. It cannot be 150% work effort for 50% results.

Bullying in School

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Posted on May 5, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

Growing up I had my share of experience being bully in school. Back then they either took my lunch money, made do chores for them or, worst case, they would beat me up. At times, I would try to avoid the bully, particularly those older than me, just to avoid the hassle. It made my world a lot smaller because I was not able to venture to places that they would frequent.

My upbringing was a little different in the sense that my parents often thought that I instigated the fight and that’s why I ended up getting beat up. Therefore I tended to keep the issue to myself and never tell anyone unless I came home with a ripped-up uniform or all the buttons gone; that’s when I had lots of explaining to do. And as I grew up and got taller, the incidents of bullying trailed off. Especially in situations when I fought back and defended myself.

On Monday, my seven year old came home from school and told my wife that a boy from a higher grade yelled, “Go away ugly Asian girl.” My wife asked her what she did in that situation and she indicated that she just walked away. She was shocked by what happened to her. I understand that sooner or later that she will experience bullying. What upsets me is that the bullying has a racial undertone. The incident kept me up at night wondering why it happened. On Tuesday night, I wrote a note to her teachers and expressed my concern regarding the incident. The principal acted swiftly and the matter was addressed accordingly.

What’s my point by telling this story? The point of my story is that we need to constantly communicate with our children. It is important that they feel safe to tell us what’s going on while they’re away from home. As parents, we need to keep an open mind and resist the urge to jump to conclusions. Our children do not want to be judged, but rather want to be heard.

With the advancement of technology, bullying has manifested itself in many forms, such as sending explicit pictures to all their friends that would cause embarrassment to the subject. Unfortunately, bullies do not usually think of the repercussions of their actions and victims are left to fend for themselves. I would suggest that you establish an open channel of communication to your children. It’s best that you know what’s going on; this way you can help them. Let your children know that you’re there for them. Let them know that they have the choice to walk away and that the choice is always theirs.

Don’t dash off – Give Change a Chance

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Posted on April 17, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

I’d like to start my post with my favorite quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” This quote was in our office cafeteria this week. Change is about the only thing that is guaranteed, together with death and taxes. It is timely to talk about this topic as change is again in the air.

Change is a source of fear and anxiety for many people. It is easy to fall into the trap of being comfortable in your current situation. Why change when you can just do what you’ve been doing for the last four years. The routine simplifies things, but the question has to be asked: Is it really good for you? I’m sure this would be an ages old debate on why keeping with the status quo is good or why change is necessary. For one, staying as is would render your skills obsolete in a few years.

People react differently to change because of the fear of the unknown. Some people would dash off and seek greener pasture elsewhere because they don’t believe in the change that is about to happen. I’ve been in the industry for almost 21 years and it is my experience that grass is always greener on the other side. Until you cross and see all the brown spots, it often looks nice from afar. Just like my front lawn, when I’m driving home, I see it from afar and admire how green it is, but as I get closer, I can see brown spots and the smile turns to a frown.

So, what’s my point? For one, change does give people hope, especially when people are not happy with the past or current situation. It gives people a chance to dream and imagine what it would be like to see the end state of the change. Here are some points I’d like to share

Give people a chance – It is not fair to judge something without really giving it a try. You can’t say that something is bad until you live through it and experience it. Experience is our best teacher.
Learning is only possible if you keep an open mind – if we never push ourselves and embrace the change, we will not grow. Growing is only possible through patience and acceptance that through change new things can be learned that will make you better.
Staying the same is not good for you – You can’t expect different results by doing the same thing over and over. Staying the same means that you’ll be left behind.

Acknowledging the change is the first step. Embrace the change and give it a chance. Who knows what you will learn from the journey and experience that you’ll gain along the way. Remember that everyone deserves a chance. Just like when we were first seeking employment. Imagine if no one gave us a chance, how could we gain experience? With change comes opportunities, by keeping an open mind, you’ll see opportunity and achieve greater things. Just keep in mind that change could be slow, therefore patience is really important. The next time change happens, don’t think about seeking another opportunity elsewhere. Listen and give it a chance – you never know what will happen.

Insight from my Daughter’s School Project

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Posted on April 7, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

A month ago, my wife told me that Maddy had a school project to create a new character for the Dr. Seuss family. The character can be drawn on a piece of paper or be done in 2D or 3D image. I thought to myself, Why does the school gives projects that obviously the parent will be doing most of the work on? It would be a waste of my time. But I did not want to disappoint my daughter and I went along with it. I asked her to think of a character that she thinks could belong to the Dr. Seuss family.

No long ago, Maddy developed a fascination for giraffes. We have a giraffe stuffed toy that says a prayer when you press it, which we bought when our first daughter was born. Maddy decided that it is hers. Since then she has collected a few more items with giraffes on them. When I arrived home the next day, she came to me and told me that she had a character in mind. She told me that it would be a giraffe named OYZ (pronounce OZZIE). She declared that I could either draw or make a 2D or 3D character and to let her know when I was ready to work on it.

I spent the next three hours thinking how to create a giraffe character that is worthy to be part of the Dr. Seuss family. Before I went to bed, I had an idea what to create. Next day, when I came home I told her to get ready and we gathered our materials and I told her that I needed her help. As we created the character, I would ask questions like, what would the face look like? Faith was intrigued with what we were doing and she decided to join the fun. They would take turns telling me the things they wanted and we would try to create it. Over the next three days, the three of us worked on the project and enjoyed the sharing of ideas. Maddy and Faith would paint the giraffes and determine the size of the spot depending on the body parts. We also added a personal touch by creating a snout using Faith’s old sock. They initially did not think it was a great idea, but later on liked the outcome.

What did I learn from it?

Keep an open mind – I initially jumped to the conclusion that I would do all the work and felt burdened by it. After stepping back and thinking it through, I was able to come up with a solution to get them involved.
Get them involved – Children are creative and we have to believe that is the case. They see a lot of things and are full of enthusiasm. If they are involved, they will be more engaged.
Have fun doing it – Since we kept it fun, I got more out of it. I was able to bond with them and spent quality along the way.
Sometimes the journey is better than the end itself – learn to go with the flow and not worry too much about every minor detail. This is very true with everything we do. Sometimes we sweat the small stuff and it makess it hard for us to move forward because we are too focused on things that are not important.

In the end, it did not turn out to be a project that the parent worked on, but rather a project that everyone collectively participated in and enjoyed doing. Over the next few weeks, Maddy was proud of her character and she would often compare it to the ones that her classmates brought to school. She would say mine is still the best. The fact of the matter is it meant less to me that our character is the best than the experience that we three shared while working on it. It is something that she will remember for a long long time and to me that is what matters the most.

Pursuing Your Passion – Chasing Your Dream

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Posted on March 9, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, MBA, PMP, MASCL, CSM

Do you sometimes wonder how things would have been had you taken the course that you liked a few years back? What if you pursued a degree other than the one you had? What would you be doing? What if you left your current job and pursued other opportunities two years back? All these what ifs do create a lot of uncertainties. The fact of the matter is that most people would not dare take the step to seek their passion or try the alternative they desired. Why? Because there is no guarantee for a positive/good outcome, so people stay where they are and settle until it is too late.

What’s the point of this blog? I’ve met a couple of people who, while facing challenges, took the steps to seek their passion and step outside their comfort zone to try something new. I’ll blog about each one of them and describe their journey. It is important to note that success is relative to how happy you are in pursuing your goal. One quote that comes to mind is from John R. Amos, “It’s simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do.” The point I’m trying to get at is that some people are willing to push the envelope to do more and learn new things, while others are content with what they have.

In this blog posting, I’ll feature Elizabeth Hawk. Miss Hawk graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Italian from The Pennsylvania State University. She has always been interested in fitness and even thought about pursuing a degree in Kinesiology, but instead chose to pursue her first passion – writing – for her undergraduate degree. After ten years of working as a sales and marketing consultant after college, Elizabeth decided to enroll in an intensive Advanced Personal Training certification program offered through Santa Monica College. At the time she lived in Los Angeles, CA. She completed the coursework while employed as a Client Services Manager and Implementation Manager for a consulting firm specializing in outsourcing and quality assurance. It was a challenge for her to complete her coursework and weekly quizzes as well as all final exams and papers – especially as she was traveling a great deal for work at that time. Since all coursework was to be completed online, however, she had some flexibility and was able to do so. She received her certificate as a summa cum laude graduate.

Maybe not so coincidentally, Elizabeth lost her job at the consulting firm where she had recently been promoted and where she had worked for two years. She decided that it was fate and proceeded to pursue a career in fitness. Elizabeth struggled to get back into shape and lead a balanced lifestyle so that she could set an example for her clients and emphasize that balance is key, having herself fallen into the trap of working too much and exercising too little.

Miss Hawk began her fitness career at Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York City. There she completed courses at the Equinox Fitness Training Institute (EFTI) and worked with both men and women in designing optimal training programs. When an opportunity arose for her to move back to Los Angeles to work at the new flagship Equinox location, she took it. Soon after she transferred to Spectrum Athletic Clubs, a more community-centered gym, and was very happy with her clientele as she worked with clients of all ages and professions. Her specialties included working with clients with MS and arthritis and those with previous surgeries such as knee and hip replacements.

To supplement her training income, Elizabeth pursued another passion – online marketing and research. A self-professed “research guru” and “internet junkie” she completed coursework through SEMPO Institute and received her certification in Search Marketing, and is also certified in Internet Marketing through Inbound Marketing University. Elizabeth has written, designed and/or copy edited many Websites – including www.socialnetworkbutterfly.com, www.thefitnesscell.com – and has provided online marketing expertise to a number of online companies. She has advised many of the benefits of using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to not only gain an audience but to drive traffic to Websites as well. Some of her recent projects include writing a Beauty, Health and Fitness blog that boasted over 40,000 readers and many fitness industry-specific articles with an emphasis on cardiovascular training. Elizabeth has also founded a networking organization for women called Social Network Butterfly – where a sound body and sound mind approach is emphasized in all social activities – and is currently seeking funding to help take the organization beyond Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. She found that when training her clients (mainly women) many were so dissatisfied with themselves – especially their bodies. This led her to become even more passionate about helping others not only achieve good health through proper diet and exercise, but to achieve a positive self-image as well.

Miss Hawk managed to balance full-time work while studying to be a personal trainer. She did this because she has the passion for it – unlike some of us. We dwell on our desire to take courses that match our passion, but rarely do we act on it because there is no guarantee of a successful outcome, or sometimes we struggle to juggle multiple balls in the air. Elizabeth is currently working as an Analyst for a strategic advisory and business consulting firm and is writing her first book for women about how to find true happiness by first achieving positive self-worth. She credits her recent experience as a freelance journalist and consultant in helping her receive an invitation to join such a prestigious firm.

People like Elizabeth inspire me to pursue what I want and push myself outside of my comfort zone. As such, I started pursuing my Certified Leadership and Development Coach. I believe that if you want it bad enough, you’ll work day and night for it. You’ll give up time and sleep for it and never be tired of it until you achieve your goal. The goal is what keeps you going. You’ll never make any excuses to stop and fret on things that you missed. You’ll gladly sweat for it and plan every step of the way. Nothing can stop you until you make that dream come true. In a way that’s how I view life. Sometimes people ask me how I do it. My answer is: I will it and if I want it bad enough, I’ll make it happen. I hope this blog inspires someone to chase their dream. Imagine what it’s like to do what you really want – picture it and feel it. Keep that image and start your day by saying to yourself, “The investment I do for today is a building block for my future.” Therefore work hard and persevere to achieve your goal.

E-mail and texting as means of communication

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Posted on February 25, 2011 by Will Lukang

Will Lukang, PMP, CSM, MBA, MASCL

Merriam-Webster defined communication as information transmitted or conveyed. A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, behavior. In its plural form it is a system for transmitting or exchanging information.

With social networking being main stream, communication was reduced to posting and responding to statuses on the wall. Another common means are texting and e-mailing. Unfortunately the art of face-to-face communication is not commonly used by the younger generation. My nieces and nephews are constantly on their cell phones texting. You rarely see them use the phone to talk to someone unless it is their parents. I often wonder how the future generation can interact and communicate in the workplace. These are words that I see them using LOL, OMG, LMK, CYA, but they are not common words used in business presentation and discussion.

Even at work, there are times when you ask people to give someone a call, they will send e-mail instead. It is not uncommon to hear people say he/she never responded to my e-mails. In such a situation, I would ask them to pick up the phone and call or walk over to the person’s office or cubicle and ask the question. Also, there are times that you’ll see an e-mail chain of more than six responses back and forth without gaining any clarity of what the e-mail is all about. I often ask people to stop the e-mail chain and pick up the phone or set up a meeting. E-mail is becoming a de facto standard of communication. The challenge with e-mail, like any written form of communication, is that is subjective. Therefore people can misinterpret it. It often causes more confusion because you’re missing the body language.

The advancement of technology enabled us to be connected 24/7. However, it did not improve the way we interact with one another. Things like text messaging do not help our leaders of tomorrow practice the art of communication. As parents, mentors and coaches, we need to emphasize the important of face-to-face communication and help them understand the value of human interaction beyond the virtual world; otherwise they won’t be effective as future leaders.

In 20 years, the world will be different than it is today, but I believe that the art of communication or the foundation of it will still be the same. Therefore, we need to do our part in making sure that our future leaders understand its value and essence as it relates to their success in their future endeavors.

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