WOW Word-Of-the-Week #499: Efficient
February 27, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #499: Efficient
Efficient – accomplishing a task or project with the least amount of time or effort.
Do you think about how you can save time and effort when it comes to completing tasks or projects? When you are driving do you plan how you can get to your destination the fastest way? Do you take surface streets if you know it will be faster than the freeway? Or take a longer route to avoid traffic because it will be quicker?
When I was thinking of a WOW that would best describe me Efficient is one of the words that came to my mind. I hate wasting time! I am probably a little obsessive about it. I don’t take my car out of the garage for one errand. If I am going to go out I plan the order of each stop that will be the most efficient way to accomplish my tasks.
I found a couple of great quotes on being efficient in an article on Bloomberg Businessweek Lifestyle titled, Six Time-Saving Business Tips.
NO FREE LUNCHES – “I do business breakfasts instead of lunches. Breakfasts are often 45 minutes: a lunch takes an 
hour. It also helps keep the day flowing without interruption. During lunch, I usually eat at my desk and catch up on reading or e-mail.” – Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder, Wayfair.com
BAN VOICE MAIL – “We all have high-maintenance friends and associates. I encourage mine to not leave voice mails, and I’ll instead return missed calls. I also minimize texts and e-mails, because calling is a better way of getting timely decisions.” – Michael McCann, President, McCann Protective Services
Amen to Michael! I totally agree with him. I think phone calls are a much better form of communication when decisions need to be made or I am collaborating on a project. My experience is that people don’t read; they scan. So they don’t fully comprehend.
This week’s focus is on being efficient. Do you feel you accomplish tasks or projects with the least amount of time or effort needed? Do you spend time making a plan on how you will accomplish a goal? What could you do differently that would help you to be more efficient?
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #498: Delegating
February 19, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #498: Delegating
Delegating – giving the responsibility of a task to another person.
How comfortable are you giving another person a task to complete? Do you trust that it will get done? Do you feel a need to micromanage it? How willing are you to accept your strengths and your weaknesses?
This week’s WOW is in celebration of my delegating a task to Evan my “computer guru.” My good friend Mary said, “I love reading your travel logs but I can’t follow them on my phone because it is so small on my screen.” Well, that triggered my email to Evan who said he could “make my website mobile-optimized for ideal viewing and usability on smart phones and tablets.” It was my goal to have it all ready by January 1st.
Things happen! And Evan got backlogged and it finally just got done. I was not stressing out about that. In a perfect world I would have been able to do it myself and it would have gotten done just as I planned. However, my trying to learn how to do that would not have been a good use of my time and probably would have caused me massive frustration!
One of the best things that I have learned is how to use WordPress. Having control over my website has been wonderful! And once I got through the learning curve, it is now very easy to do. I have learned to let go and delegate those tasks that are best suited having someone else do!
“Delegation is one of the most important management skills. Good delegation saves you time, develops your people, grooms a successor, and motivates. Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivates and confuses the other person, and fails to achieve the task or purpose itself. So it’s a management skill that’s worth improving.” – businessballs.com
This week’s focus is on delegating. Is one of your goals to move up in your company? When given a task by your supervisor can they trust that you will get it done? How does it make you feel to give responsibility to someone else? Can you trust them or do you need to micromanage it?
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #497: Excuses
February 13, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #497: Excuses
Excuses – things you make up to justify the reasons why you can’t accomplish something.
Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? How have you done so far? They say it takes 21 days to create a habit and it has now been 42 days. Have you made excuses as to why you can’t stick to your resolutions?
This week’s WOW comes from Sade who some of you know about. I am on the board of Fostering Opportunities Dollars for Scholars. Our mission is to continue expanding post secondary educational opportunities for the foster youth of San Diego County, by providing them mentors and financial support. And I have been so fortunate to be a mentor to Sade since 2006. She graduated from Cuyamaca College in 2009 and went on to SDSU with the Alex Smith Foundation Scholarship. She graduated in May 2012, with a degree in Social Work.
In September 2013, she started her Masters program at USC. When I told her how proud I was of her and how she had so many reasons “why she could fail” she said, “Excuses are my motivation.” When I asked her to share her thoughts she wrote this:
“Excuses are simply reasons to why you should better yourself as a person, and as an asset to this world. While most people view excuses as a negative view of life, you as an 
asset to this world, must view excuses differently. Take all of the excuses you have and write them down. For some it may be, “I can’t give back to my community, I have no money to give.” For others it may be, “I don’t have the knowledge or leadership skills needed to be promoted.” Whatever the excuse is, use it to motivate yourself. You may not financially be able to give to your community, but if you’re an able-bodied person, you can contribute time and be of service to your community. If you’re not a natural born leader, luck is on your side, we now have classes to teach us how to become an effective leader. Remember, excuses are reasons to better yourself; it’s the motivation you need to further yourself.”
Several key points that I have not shared with my fellow Team Crisafulli donators until now are 1.) Sade got pregnant and her beautiful baby daughter was born in the summer of 2010. 2.) 13 months later she delivered a big, bouncing baby boy (they call those Irish twins, and he is as big as his sister) and 3.) Her marriage fell apart. So, if I were Sade I would have lots of excuses as to why I couldn’t go to college.
All I can say is, “If Sade as a former foster youth, and the first woman in her family to go to college (and who got straight A’s last semester) can dream big and go on to get a masters degree, with all of the hurdles she’s faced, then so can you! What’s your excuse?
P.S. If you would like to be part of my team, click on the link and make a donation. All I ask is that you let me know so I make sure you get credit for being on my team. And THANK YOU!
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #496: Accountable
February 6, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #496: Accountable
Accountable – responsible for the outcome or decision that you make.
How would you on rate yourself on “follow through?” When given a task or project do you take full responsibility? Are you consistent when it comes to meeting deadlines?
This week I asked Chris to pick the WOW since I picked the word “Execution” that I thought best describes him around the house and life in general. This might have been a mistake as he and I totally view this word in a different way. (His WOW could have possibly been over 14 pages long, just kidding!)
He ran a very large organization. When he started in San Diego he had 50 physicians that grew to 850. And he had 24,000 members that grew to over 500,000. One thing he had to 
do in the course of his job was to “take action.” I understand why he is the way is. You can’t be in charge and sit around wandering what you should do next. You need know and then take action. You also need to know how to manage you time, your schedule and your own priorities. (Along with a lot more attributes!)
Chris says, “In any organization, small or large, you need to take responsibility for quality, making others successful, caring about your external and internal customers, and being the best that you can be! It is especially important to take responsibility when things go wrong. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing you did the best job you could. Deflecting responsibility, hanging on to a large ego, and blaming others are all time wasters. By accepting responsibility for your decisions makes you accountable for the outcome. The buck stops here!”
This week’s focus is on being accountable. Do you want to move up in your organization? Have you ever felt you haven’t moved up as quickly as you thought you should have? How willing are you to take swift action?