Sometimes putting bed sheets on your bed can be hard.
The best way to put on bed sheets is as follows:
Get everything off your bed and ready to put the fitted sheet on. Have your sheets and pillow cases ready on hand.
Important part: start putting the fitted sheet on.. Starting with the toughest corner of your bed go get to. (there are sometimes one to two corners of a bed that you have to climb on top of the bed or move away from the wall to get to – my suggestion is to start putting the fitted sheet on the toughest corner(s) of your bed.)
Refer to the picture below — the upper left corner of the bed is the hardest corner to get to, so start with that one!
Stretch the fitted sheet so it covers the whole bed, tucking a little excess under the mattress on each side.
Go to the bottom of your bed and take the flat sheet by two close corners and “pop” the flat sheet over the bed by quickly lifting up and pulling down the flat sheet.
Tuck some excess sheet into the bottom of your mattress (where your feet would be)
Put the pillow cases on the pillows and go to sleep! Good night!
Start putting the bottom fitted sheet on the hardest corner of the bed to get to!
Business. What do you think of when you hear that word?
Money/Accounting/Finance), Systems/Operations, People/HR … Sales/Marketing, meals & entertainment ;), people in suits, etc…
What do you think of when you hear the word “Business“? (comment below)
Part of the WebMechanix crew at a networking event
Let’s Talk About People
I recently read this book “First, Break All The Rules” by Marcus Buckinham & Curt Coffman. These guys worked at the Gallup Organization in a 25 year study that found an answer to two questions:
“What do the most talented employees need from their workplace?”
They surveyed over a million employees and found that every employee is different and should be treated as such – but they all need great managers. Which lead them to ask the second question listed above.
“How do the world’s greatest managers find, focus, and keep talented employees?”
How To: Become A Better Manager
First off, why do you want to be a better manager?
The answer should be along the lines of “I want to know about each individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and personalities so that I can provide them a better workplace. I want my team to be focused, productive, and to grow with my company.
Even though every employee (I like to think of them as team members) is different – you can still gain insight into how they feel about their job.
The book “First, Break All The Rules” talks about the evolution of what an employee needs from their workplace.
They make an analogy to climbing a mountain. Haven’t climbed a mountain before? No problem, allow me to explain:
You don’t just climb a mountain all at once .. instead, you have to make stops at different “camps”. That basically translate to “you don’t become a CEO in one day” (or at least, that’s what I gather).
Let’s Apply It
As a manager, you want to make sure your employees are happy at their respective levels.
You can’t get to camp #2 which is half way up the mountain without first stopping at camp #1, right?
Check out this employee survey (let it be known, these questions were modified a little bit to be more “fun”.. they used to be dry and the answers were the standard 1-5, 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree .. I made the answers a little more fun).
The questions are broken down into sections (denoted by a dotted line). The first section is “base camp”, second is camp #1, then camp #2, and camp #3.
If you answer positively to all 12 questions, you’ve reached the summit (so to speak).
How I Recently Used The Survey
We are a fairly new company, so everyone is pretty much at “base camp”.
Therefore, I want to make sure that everyone gave the top answer to the first 2 questions before looking at theresponses for the next 10.
I gave this survey to all our employees and learned that what I thought about each team member was wrong (and exactly opposite).
Looking at just the first two questions… The employees who I thought knew what was expected of them and had all the materials they need actually didn’t (and vice versa).
Using the results, we conducted a “review session” that focused on the first 2 questions. I asked them:
“What is expected of you?” and “What are you missing that would make you more effective at your job?”
Taking it from there is up to you because every business and every employee is different.
General Advice To Become A Better Manager
I highly recommend the book “First, Break All The Rules” – and there are plenty of other books that can help you become a better manager.
Gotta’ Have A Purpose
From Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Drive”, we learn that purpose is the most motivating factor which “drives” us to do what we do every day.
It used to be biological forces, such as the need for food & water, and money (or other monetary rewards) were the cornerstone of motivation tactics.
But if you think about it .. well, actually think about it.. WHY are you reading this right now? WHY do you go to work? WHY!?
You might find that you did something for a friend just because it gave you purpose. That is, you didn’t get any food, water, or money, but you did it because it gave you a purpose.
You can give purpose in many different ways, such as having a company mission or telling employees why they are doing what they are doing.
Communicate
This is somewhat obvious, but works like a charm.
People like feedback, they like to grow, and they need to know what they are doing wrong (and right) so they can change.
If you think someone is going to change their ways without any intervention, think again (refer to Newtons first law).
Have quarterly (or bi-annual) reviews with your people – look up “how to conduct an employee review” in Google to get some tips.
That’s all for now – I hope this helps. Leave your feedback below.
As technology gets perpetually faster, smarter, and just better.. certain excuses, that were once fail proof, can no longer be used. Here is a look at some technologies that have nullified certain excuses… especially work excuses by text.
Picture Text Messages (MMS)
With cell phone and cell carrier standards of 2010, most people have camera phones and the ability to send picture sms text messages — so for instance:
An employee texts the boss to say “I’m stuck in traffic, going to be late”.
When the employee gets into work that day, the boss asks the employee about his phone. He finds that the phone has a camera and is able to send pictures over text.
The boss tells the employee that next time he is stuck in traffic, send a picture of the brake lights.
So anytime there is an excuse that can be proved by sending a picture text message – you can’t really use it anymore.
That Stupid Beep When You’re On The Phone
You know when you’re calling someone and you hear that beep at the end of each ring? That means the person you’re calling is currently on the phone.
If everyone knows about this, then when your friend calls and you’re on the other line – you can’t use any excuse that isn’t “I was on the other line”.
You can’t say, “Sorry I didn’t pick up, I was in the shower”, or “I was driving” – because the other person heard the beep and knows you were on the phone!
There are certainly many more examples … I’ll be back to update this as I think of them — if you know of any, comment below.
