Category Archives: personal

Work like a dog today

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Our dog, Ruby is a special girl.

Every morning, I rise before the sun, and jog along the streets of Austin, Texas. The scattered streetlights provide a faint glimpse of our path — speckled grey sidewalks and rock hard ink black pavement.

My knees crack, crumble; voicing their disapproval for the early wake up call, yet I press on into the distance.

Some days, I am the aggressor, dragging her along for the ride.

Most days though she’s the hard charger, pulling Dad for a roller coaster ride of sprints, pulls, lunges, barks. Some mornings, I really think I’ve awakened up the entire neighborhood. Instead of the dog whisperer, I’ve chosen the dog announcer.

Do you have 30 minutes when you work like a dog?

Do you have 30 minutes when you work like a dog?

After our morning sprint, the dog takes it easy. She rests on her soft, brown, round pillow – an occasional sigh is all I hear for hours.

This 30 minute sprint is the dog’s most concerted, best work of the day. She focused her energy, giving it her all (most days) to hunt down that other dog on the trail or that faint scent of a raccoon in the distance. Sometimes it seems she just adores chasing something unreachable, unattainable. The thrill is in never quite reaching her goal.

Did you work like a dog today? What was your 30 minute sprint? Can you say you found a zone to give your best work the most focus?

Am I saying to just work a 30 minute day? No, but wouldn’t that be special?

My message: plan your day to do your most crucial, vitally important work at the start of the day. Make those 30 minutes count.

Have a meeting that you know you need to attend, but it isn’t mission critical? Push to make it happen later in the day.

I’ve always done my best work early, but we are all different, right?. Your 30 minutes may be in the afternoon. Only you know your ‘zone time’.

Now, if only I can figure out how I can curl up on a soft, round, warm pillow for the rest of the day after the morning run. Sigh.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

No one waits by the mailbox anymore

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No one waits by the mailbox anymore.

Waiting by the mailbox is a lost activity.

Convenience and immediacy rule the day.

Patience got pushed aside by his big brother, NOW!

Years ago, I waited, waited, waited for that month’s Sports Illustrated Issue to appear. I had reread the current issue, nearly memorizing every story and stat. There would be no other kid on the block with more sports knowledge than me.

During breakfast, lunch, dinner, school, playtime, homework time, family time, I thought: Who would appear on next month’s cover of Sports Illustrated?

Did you ever wait in anticipation by the mailbox for that special magazine to arrive?

Pete Rose? Walter Payton? Wayne Gretzky?

What sports star would I try to imitate with my brother in our backyard?

  • Would I lunge over the defense like smooth-running Sweetness (Walter Payton)?
  • Would I pray for snow flurries so I could smack a slap shot against the garage door like the Great One?
  • Would I take a head first slide across the grass like Mr. Hustle, the one and only Pete Rose?

Yes, times have changed, but I hanker after the non-immediacy days of waiting by the mailbox for the next issue of a magazine.

My vision of the next generation waiting by the mailbox for a magazine to come seems as out-of-date now as going to the library to research a topic.

It’s a lost relic of yesterday.

Today, teaching patience is challenging. Seemingly everything is at your fingertips with the lure of omnipresent, always on technology.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

The secret to a more tranquil airport

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Juan Alvarado please report to the check-in desk.

Attention: For your safety, please keep your bags next to you at all times. Please report any suspicious behavior to airport security personnel.

Flight 421 to Seattle, WA has been delayed. Our new departure time is now scheduled for 6:55pm.

There are usually no quiet zones at airports. Airports will soon become places that are ‘off-limits’ to those with high blood pressure.

Quiet and airports don’t seem to coexist.

Noise is always bouncing around the terminal about supposedly ‘urgent’ news. Important announcements become almost blasé. When everything’s important, what isn’t?

It doesn’t appear that anyone is paying any attention to the incessant intercom voices that permeate airport terminals. As announcements echo throughout the cavernous terminal, people don’t seem to notice. Headphones stay in ears. Eyes stay centered on iPhone screens. Books stay opened.

How about a better way?

How about meeting people at their place of comfort, escape, connection? The phone.

Could you ‘exclusively’ make gate change announcements, cancellations, delays, zone news via texts or e-mails? People are already transfixed to their devices, so why not share information through that medium? For those that don’t have a phone, the airlines could distribute a simple pager device that’s returned when boarding happens.

Think the pagers that are distributed after you place your order at Panera Bread or while you wait for your table at Outback Steakhouse. In exchange for getting on the plane, you return your pager to the airline.

The advantages are clear:

  • A quieter, less stressful environment for travelers
  • Removal of frequent communication barriers or mixed signals equals a more informed, ‘in the know’ traveler
  • Lower operating costs for airlines/airports (relying on scalable technology instead of error-prone humans)

Take a listen during your next airport visit and observe the various voices, announcements, news competing for your attention.

Go ahead airlines: it’s time to create a more informed, less frazzled airline passenger.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

5 ways to stay engaged at work

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The alarm clock beeps and it’s time for another day at work. Stumbling out of bed, you shake sleep from your eyes and embark on your morning routine.

It might not be apparent, yet there is a major choice confronting you as you greet the day.

Will it be ‘just another day’? Or a day where you make a difference in your company’s life or (even better) in the life of someone with whom you work?

If you won’t be engaged at work today, just keep hitting the snooze button.

Gallup recently surveyed workplace happiness and engagement and discovered:

  • 1 out of 5 workers is so disengaged that he or she actively seeks to undermine colleagues at work.

Doesn’t sound very productive, does it?

Are you in your ‘best place’ when your main goal at work is to hinder another’s path?

Let’s flip that depressing, discouraging statistic and find ways to bring the best out of those with whom you interact daily.

Here are 5 ways to get engaged (workplace performance not matrimony) and encourage and lift up teammates at work:

  1. Ask a teammate for his perspective. Got a problem that’s been plaguing you for too long? Swing by a co-worker’s cube or give him a call and ask him for this view. Getting another’s viewpoint may open up a whole new category of insight.
  2. Get involved in a high-profile project. If you are a part of a high-profile team, you sink or swim together. There’s no time and (hopefully) no desire to push aside a colleague when everyone needs to pull in the same direction to succeed.
  3. Take chances. Your company wants you to solve the problems that stand between it and continued growth. Brainstorm with others and come up with radical, game-changing ideas to the simplest of problems. Find a way to ‘fail fast’ so if one idea crashes, you can quickly pivot to the next one.
  4. Show appreciation. ‘Early and often’ is the motto for appreciation. Everyone loves to be recognized for hard work – no matter if he/she has been with the company 5 days or 5 years. Nothing says, “I’ve got your back” as genuine, heartfelt acknowledgement of great effort.
  5. Find a higher purpose: You don’t just build and sell widgets for cars. You help to provide safety and security for millions of drivers around the world. You don’t just exchange your product for the customer’s money. The customer sees incredible value for the peace of mind you provide.

It’s just minutes until your workday begins. Will you be engaged or actively seeking to roadblock others? The choice is yours.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Life lessons from a pint-size soccer pitch

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I was nervous.

It was soccer game day for teams named Tigers, Kickers, Dolphins, Yellowjackets.

The challenges you face today are also being experienced by a youth soccer team.

I’d hung up my soccer shoes years ago, but the youngsters in our household had taking a liking for soccer. I couldn’t resist the temptation to coach.

I wasn’t sure how this would go.

Practice sessions in the backyard sometimes turned into giggle fests instead of getting a feel for the ball at the feet. Other days, it seemed the US national team should be calling any minute. ;)

We’ve all heard forming, storming, norming, performing: it’s a phrase introduced to the world by psychologist Bruce Tuckman back in 1965. Bruce saw these 4 phases as the path to high-performance that most teams follow.

I don’t know that our teams are on the fast track to high-performance just yet, but I do know that we will have plenty of fun. As I reflected on these youngsters learning the basics, I couldn’t help, but draw parallels between us ‘serious’ professionals toiling away at the office every day.

As I coached the little girls and boys of the future, I consoled fragile egos, encouraged little tired legs to move faster, corrected when things got a little too ‘rough’.

I vividly remember a small soccer player saying these things under the warm Texas sun:

  • “Why don’t they ever give me a turn?”
  • “I am kinda scared out here.”
  • “Am I doing alright?”

Sound familiar?

Couldn’t these phrases be heard in meeting rooms and cubicles around this nation?

  • “I just want an opportunity. Why does Sheila always get assigned the best projects?”
  • “I’ve never done work like this before. This is frightening to go outside my comfort zone.”
  • “I wonder if my boss thinks I am doing a good job. I’d really appreciate some feedback.”

Children or adults can all agree on 3 things:

  1. Everyone wants a shot to show his/her brilliance.
  2. Change is difficult, even for seasoned workers.
  3. We all just want to be appreciated.

Teams will morph, change, form, storm, and hopefully, eventually perform. These truisms apply equally on the soccer field and in the working world. When joining a team (pint-size or jumbo-size), stay aware that there are many dynamics at play between individuals.

Until next time,

Dan Naden