One of the most frequent questions asked in my “Taming Workplace Interruptions” seminar is about how to control email.

If you start your day with email, you’ll lose momentum and ruin the rest of your day. Don’t even open email until it’s on your schedule — 11:30 – 12:00 and from 4:30 – 5:00. These small time periods require you to address only the highest priority items. Delete the rest. And go home at 5:00.

Don’t let the minutia drag you down. Start out like the guys in the video … and finish like a pro.

“Workplace stress is as deadly as combat; it’s just more socially acceptable and takes a little longer to kill you.”

Check out the Municipal Utility Leadership Discussion Forum — click the link in the index bar above.

Would you trust this horse?

She was no lady. But that was my horse’s name.  She came with that name as a gift from my parents when I was nine years old, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that she couldn’t be trusted.

I could tell you stories of how this horse always figured out how to unlock the feed stall and rob the corn. I could tell you how difficult it was to catch and bridle her for a ride. And I could tell you about the many times she went under low branches or rubbed my legs against trees trying to dislodge me.

One of the things she has most fun with was stepping on my foot whenever I stood beside her barefooted. I don’t have to explain how painful it is to have a eight hundred pound horse holding you captive by standing on your foot. No matter how much I yelled or how hard I hit her, she didn’t release my foot until she’d made her point.

I almost always rode bareback, and Lady’s antics required that I learn how to ride like an Indian, holding onto her mane and sometimes hanging onto her neck as I dodged the trees and limbs that she put in my way.

On a hot August afternoon Lady and I were  a half mile from home when she decided she’d had enough “riding” for the day and started running toward the barn. No matter how hard I pulled on the reins, I couldn’t control her. I was bareback with no stirrups, so it was basically “hold on and hope we make it.”

As we approached the barn I prepared to hang onto her neck and lean over her side with only one leg over her back to hold me on. I just knew she was going to run through the open barn door and try to knock me off with the low hanging beam that ran across the top of the doorway.

That seemed to be her plan, but at the last minute she swerved away from the barn and ran as fast as she could, toward a nearly dried-up pond there in the barnyard . I was relieved that I didn’t have to deal with the barn door, but I didn’t know what was going to happen until we reached the very edge of the pond and Lady put on the brakes.

She lowered her head and planted her forelegs, sliding to a stop at the water’s edge. And I was launched into flight. I actually turned a flip in the air and landed in the mud on my rear end about 15 feet from my horse. I slid quite a way further on the muddy pond bottom.

When I turned to look at Lady, she nickered loudly and nodded her head up and down before walking slowly to the feed stall. I’m pretty sure Lady wasn’t saying “Good to see you” or “Woo hoo – you’re sexy,” as the horse whisperer’s would explain such a nicker. (Check out What is Your Horse Saying? at http://snurl.com/horse-talk).

You’ve probably worked with people whose personality was pretty much like Lady’s. They continually do things that make you wonder whether you can trust them. You spend far too much time correcting their actions and talking about how difficult they are to work with. Sometimes they “step on your foot” and hold you captive until they finish their tale of woe. And if you keep them around long enough, they’ll “throw you in the pond” and laugh about it.

The first time you wonder whether you can trust these people who are “hard to rein in,” you might want to think about the value of keeping them on staff. The second time it comes to your attention, you might want to make plans for a replacement. And if you find you’re spending more time talking about their distrustful behavior than you are on your own job, you’ve passed the point where you should make a decision. It’s time to “put them out to pasture” and let them perform their troublesome antics somewhere else.

Leadership Edge: If an employee cannot be trusted, it’s time for a replacement.

Maybe time to kick ‘em out …

Dale Collie – Author and professional speaker – Using the leadership skills of US Army Rangers to help key leaders succeed in tough times. Find Dale at http://sn.im/contact-dale

Copyright 2010 – Dale Collie – All rights reserved

Permission is given for you to reproduce this article on line or in print if you include the byline. You may edit for audience or space.

Standing on High Ground After Rain

It’s one thing to be dumb on your own, but it’s another thing entirely when your boss tells you to do dumb things.

One of the dumbest things my boss ever told me to do was in combat (of all the places to do dumb things !!!) My infantry company was ordered to move about five miles to the north, not such a bad order, except it was during the monsoon rains and the rice paddies were flooded to a level far above the dikes. In other words, we were walking through a lake of water and mud with our 80 pound loads of gear, weapons, and ammo, looking for a location that was under water.

The boss wouldn’t change the order, no matter how many times I requested it. Finally, long after dark and against the direct orders of my commander, I halted the company on the first patch of high ground we’d found all day. In the morning we found we were in a cemetery. Many of the graves had collapsed. Several of the burial “jars” were floating in the water.

Our boss changed our orders, and we “marched” off in a new direction. Dumber still … the Army had to pay the locals $750 for the monsoon damage. When they found that we’d spent the night there, they put in a claim with the US Army … and our government honored the claim. Lotta dumb going on here.

It’s one thing to do dumb because you’re following orders, but it’s even worse if you’re the one giving those dumb orders.

Leadership Edge: Be sure you have a trusted confidant who can tell you if you’ve lost sight of being smart.

Copyright 2009 – All rights reserved – Dale Collie