MultiTasking

In today's business climate it seems like the term Multi Tasking is all the rage. Everyone wants everyone else to respond/reply almost instantly and even at work the company may request/require that you multitask. 
I have found in my world that sometimes multitasking is a good thing and like so many other items, sometimes it isn't.  Driving to work this week I saw a women who provided an excellent point for the positive view of multitasking.  She was (A) walking her child to the local school, while (B) also walking the dog along with them, while (C) swinging her arms and getting her morning exercise workout.  Now that is creative use of time and multitasking.  In the next block I observed a driver (I won't reveal male or female) that was driving one handed while attempting to work on what appeared to be a BlackBerry phone, and, read the paper stuck up on the steering wheel. This was DRIVING, or maybe I should say swerving around, and not stopped at a traffic light!  Bad choice there just waiting to start an accident.
Now my wife, and many female friends, argue that women are far superior to multitasking than men - and there is at least one famous college study (by a woman of course) that documents several reasons for this claim.

• Women's brains are programmed to think and work differently than men's.
• Women are intellectually superior to men.
• Women from an early age are given multi dimensional tasks while men seem to prefer focused tasks with single focus activities.
• Women just practice this more than men do.

Now I'm not at all agreeing with this theory, but just reporting it as one of the reasons that women seem so much more inclined to multitasking activities than most men are.
One thing I feel very sure of: Multitasking, as with most other activities can, when used to excess or at the wrong times, and result in terrible results and actually hurt your situation more than help you to gain that time you are attempting to save by doing different things at the same time.
As for me, I feel comfortable reporting that I can occasionally multitask without a problem, like walking and chewing gum, or drinking beer and watching a sporting event, but if you get much more complicated than that my tired old brain seems to rebel and I find that I seem to do a very poor job of all of the tasks I am attempting to combine and accomplish. 
These are my thoughts today, what are yours?
Steve

Top Down or Bottom Up?

One day I heard a man give a personal testimony saying "I thought of myself as being a self made man and I worshiped my maker."  Now that level of Pride and Ego will get you in trouble for sure! 

If you're convinced that you know all and have all you need, and that you earned it all by yourself, then get ready for a really big learning lesson that is sure to come your way soon.  I know HUMBLE and how difficult it is to learn and live with, but I promise you (having been on both sides of this particular issue) that the Pride and Ego side is also extremely difficult.

Somehow we have to find a middle ground - that grey area - that path that allows both sides to live in Peace and Harmony most of the time, and then firmly plant our feel and ideas there to sprout and grow in that fertile ground.

I watched it happen when I was involved in manufacturing. When decisions which affect the assembly line are made in the boardroom they seldom work and are always resented. The quality of work diminishes and production stalls.

I watched it happen when I was in sales. When procedures are handed down as edicts, without including the input of salespeople, morale is damaged, which ultimately has a negative impact on sales.

In several churches I’ve been involved with I’ve realized it also happens in churches. When the pastor, or a body of senior leaders, makes a decision that impacts the children’s ministry, for example, without the input of people who are actually doing children’s ministry, resentment builds, momentum stalls, and people resist the changes.

Be careful making decisions from “the Ivory Tower”. Many leaders lead with a top down approach, passing down decisions without consulting with those who have to live with them. It’s easy in leadership to forget that real people have to implement your decisions.

Don’t stand in the tower. Get out among the people you work with on your team.

Great leaders build decisions from the ground up, not from the top down.

Want people on your team to buy-in to your decisions? Then allow the people having to implement them be a part of the team making the decision. You may just be amazed at how little you know and how much you can learn.

How is your organization making decisions?

Ambition

Everyone has some ambition I suppose, the problem I see is that many folks set their sights too low for fear of failure. Why is that? Why do we fear failure so much?
Thomas Edison led the way in product failures, and BECAUSE of that also led the way in product innovations!
Look at baseball, our all time strikeout king is one of the best remembered players!
I've spent a majority of my work time lately working on and thinking about new product development because my company, USG, wants to be the leader in every industry we are involved with. Not top 10 or top 5, THE LEADER! Without ambition that goal would be impossible.
Like most other things in life, balance is healthy and required, but ambition, like ego and pride, in appropriate balance, is a great and necessary item in making this a better world to live in. Have we experienced setbacks and failures during our efforts? ABSOLUTELY! But because of clearly stated focus on our ambition goals, those failures don't become permanent failures, but only minor roadblocks and setbacks that are then overcome.
Where do you stand on ego, pride, and ambition? Do you spend time deeply thinking about those traits? Do you only see those 3 as evil or bad? Why not take a few minutes today to think about how you can use ambition, ego, and pride to improve yourself and the world around you.
Happy Easter to you and your family! Be sure to take time during these next 3 days to reflect on the meaning of this holy time.
Steve