What I Learned From My Cake Wreck

Happy Monday Everyone!

As I turned my freshly baked cake out of the pan this weekend, I experienced what’s known as a “cake wreck.”  And it was spectacular.  Unkind words flowed as the cake split apart into large chunks that toppled in many different directions.  My daughter swept in to admire my handiwork and grab a picture of the underbaked chunks for posterity.  In reflecting on the bake, I didn’t test as thoroughly as I usually do.  I also wanted the process to be finished so I could move on to the rest of my evening, which would now be cut short by the cake re-make.  Heavy sigh.  Measure twice, cut once. 

“There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s always enough time to do it over.”  ~Jack Bergman

What are You Doing for International Day of Happiness?

Happy Monday Everyone!

The UN designates today, March 20^th, as the International Day of Happiness, to create a happier and kinder world together by adopting simple, daily practices – think things like mindfulness, gratitude and kindness.  It could also look like doing something that makes you happy and reflecting on the joy and contentment you felt and why it made you feel that way. It’s also a day to spread happiness to others.  What better way to do that, than to share the exceptional Special Edition email I received over the weekend from Gary Burnison, Korn Ferry’s CEO.  His emails always make me want to be a better employee, co-worker, manager and leader.   This one is no different and I hope you find a little happiness and inspiration (below): 

Who knows how long I’ve loved you You know I love you still Will I wait a lonely lifetime If you want me to, I will… – The Beatles, “I Will” It’s the song our colleague Jo Schaeffer sings to her four children every night. Except her youngest, now six years old, has never been able to hear her mother sing… So, imagine Jo’s excitement when her daughter was being fitted for hearing aids for the first time. “She asked that I be the first voice she hears after she gets them,” Jo told me this week. To keep that promise, she needed to catch the last flight out of Tulsa after a client training session she was leading in Oklahoma. Then her flight got cancelled. “I told people what happened. I was almost in tears. I needed to get home—it was non-negotiable,” Jo said. That’s when someone suggested she try leaving out of Arkansas, three hours away. To make it, though, she needed to leave immediately—with some unexpected help. This was a room full of experienced leaders, including several police officers. Every participant sprang into action. Some people broke down the room—and others cleaned up. One police officer returned Jo’s rental car to the Tulsa airport, an hour-and-a-half away. Another officer drove her all the way to Arkansas—a six-hour round trip. The training session ended early that day, but the real leadership lesson endured. After all, leadership is not merely words, it’s actions. And that takes Will. It’s all about transforming the desire of the several into the Will of the many. So perhaps the question we should all ask ourselves is: What is our Will? Will we be about it, not just talk about it? It’s so easy to critique, instead of construct—pointing the finger in another direction, particularly today when differences too often overshadow commonalities. We need to be about it, and that requires looking in the mirror. The late John McKissick, America’s winningest football coach, shared with us the wise words of his father: “If you don’t put something in the bucket, how are you going to get anything out of it?’” We need to ask ourselves: What are we willing to put in the bucket today to help ourselves and others? Will we listen for what’s really going on? “Hey, I want to talk to you about a couple of things.” When those words were expressed to me just the other day by a colleague, I had no idea at first what the conversation was going to be about. “You may be getting some feedback that I am off a bit this week,” the colleague told me. “The reason is I lost a young relative.” Then he tried to go to a different topic—context for a project we’d been discussing. But the more he talked, the more emotional he became… We dropped all of that and went back to the real topic—his loss. And in that moment, that’s all there was to talk about. It’s a reminder to all of us that the difference between hearing and listening is comprehending. We have to listen to educate our intuition. Will we help others get from here to there? Time and time again, our firm’s research indicates that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And when they find that connection, it turns “Me” to “We.” And so, I asked Jo—after all that she had been through—what it was like when her daughter received her hearing aids. At first, there was only silence for what felt like more than a minute as she composed herself. “I don’t know how to describe it,” she said, her voice cracking. “It was humbling… I could just see the relief on my daughter’s face… It was a look that said, ‘This is what other people experience.’” … Your song will fill the air Sing it loud so I can hear you Make it easy to be near you For the things you do endear you to me You know I will I will Indeed, that’s a leadership song for all of us to sing.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” ~Lao Tzu

The Hangover

Happy Monday Everyone!

Many are celebrating Spring Break this week and coincidentally the clock’s sprung forward.  While a simple enough change in the time, it tends to make people’s schedules untidy for a while.  Looking to manage it more effectively?  Sleep specialists Deepa Burman and Hiren Muzumdar offer us 6 tips on minimizing the daylight savings time hangover (see below):

“Dear Sleep, I’m sorry we broke up this morning.  I want you back!” ~Anonymous

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As clocks march ahead and daylight-saving time begins this weekend, you may be anxious about losing an hour of sleep and how to adjust to this change.

Even though it’s technically just one hour lost due to the time change, the amount of sleep deprivation due to disrupted sleep rhythm lasts for many days and often throws people off schedule, leading to cumulative sleep loss.  Many studies have demonstrated that there is an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure associated with sleep deprivation. Workplace injuries increase and so do automobile accidents. Adolescents often find it harder to wake up in time to get to school and may have difficulties with attention and school performance or worsening of mental health problems.

We lead a sleep evaluation center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and regularly see patients who are dealing with sleep loss and whose internal clocks are not synchronized with external time. Our experience has shown us that it’s important to prepare, as much as possible, for the time shift that occurs every spring.

Here are some quick tips to prepare yourself for the time shift.

1.      Don’t start with a “sleep debt”

Ensure that you and, if you’re a parent, your child get adequate sleep regularly, especially leading up to the time change each year. Most adults need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep daily to perform adequately. Children have varying requirements for sleep depending on their age.

2.      Earlier to bed — and to rise

Going to bed — and for parents, putting your kids to bed — 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night in the week before the time change is ideal. Having an earlier wake time can help you get to sleep earlier.

Try to wake up an hour earlier than is customary on Saturday, the day before the time change. If you aren’t able to make changes to your sleep schedule in advance, then keep a very consistent wake time on weekdays as well as weekends to adjust to the time change more easily.

3.      Use light to your advantage

Light is the strongest cue for adjusting the internal body clock. Expose yourself to bright light upon waking as you start getting up earlier in the week before daylight saving time starts. This resets your internal clock in the right direction. If you live in a place where natural light is limited in the morning after clocks change, use bright artificial light to signal your body clock to wake up earlier. As the season progresses, this will be less of an issue as the sun rises earlier in the day. https://7438d7ee45ce415914b01a83c690ba72.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html At night, minimize exposure to bright light and especially the blue light emitted by the screens of electronic media. This light exposure late in the day can be enough to shift your body rhythm and signal your internal clock to wake up later the next day. If your devices permit, set their screens to dim and emit less blue light in the evening.

In some geographic locations, it might be helpful to have room-darkening curtains at bedtime depending on how much sunlight your room gets at bedtime. Be sure to open the curtains in the morning to allow the natural morning light to set your sleep-wake cycle.

4.      Carefully plan day and evening activities.

The night before the time change, set yourself up for a good night’s sleep by incorporating relaxing activities that can help you wind down, such as reading a book or meditating.  Incorporate exercise in the morning or early in the day. Take a walk, even if it is just around the house or your office during the day.

5.      Pay more attention to what you eat and drink this week

Consider starting with a protein-heavy breakfast, since sleep deprivation can increase appetite and craving for high-carbohydrate foods and sugars.

Stop using caffeine after noon. Consuming coffee, tea, cola, chocolate or other sources of caffeine too late in the day can lead to trouble falling asleep and even disrupt sleep.

Adults, decline that wine at bedtime. Wine and other kinds of alcohol can also disturb sleep.

6.      Be especially gentle with yourself and the kids

If you’re a parent or caregiver, try to be patient with your kids as they adjust to the new times. Sleep deprivation affects the entire family, and some kids have a harder time adjusting to the time change than others. You may notice more frequent meltdowns, irritability and loss of attention and focus. Set aside more quiet, electronic media-free time in the evening. Consider a brief — 20 minutes or so — nap in the early afternoon for younger children who are having a difficult time dealing with this change. Prioritizing sleep pays off in the short term and over the years. A good night’s sleep is a necessary ingredient for a productive and fulfilling day.

Deepa Burman is codirector of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center and an associate professor of pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh. Hiren Muzumdar directs the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh.

The Chevy and the Caddy

Happy Monday Everyone!

This week Seth Godin posted an on point blog (below) underscoring the hidden costs of applying the same standard of excellence to every task we undertake.  Situational excellence requires us to be intentional about how we define the standards required for our tasks.  Shout out to Heather (😊) who consistently reminds our team that knowing when our tasks require a Chevy and when they require a Caddy makes a huge difference in expectation, productivity, cost and employee engagement.  Do you know the difference?

“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.” ~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

99 vs 0

If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good.

On the other hand, if the scrub nurse only does a 99% job of disinfecting the tools in the operating room, you’re still going to die of an infection.

Some projects respond very well to ordinary effort and 99% perfect. In fact, the last 1% isn’t worth the time, the effort or the focus.

Others fail if they’re not fully and completely to spec.

Knowing the difference between the two saves everyone a lot of stress and avoids needless cost and avoidable disasters. We come out ahead when we put our energy into the projects that reward our effort and choose to meet spec with the others.