VIA WORKS FOR ME! (By: Anna Frutos-Sanchez)

VIA WORKS FOR ME!

It is hard to believe that it is now the end of November, and December will come and go as quickly as the year has.  Time flies when you’re having fun!  That’s exactly how I feel about the work I do for Southern California Edison and the Boards I serve on, especially VIA, a key organization in the Santa Clarita Valley that continuously has educated and provided solutions for business success through our monthly information, education and advocacy.  

When I first joined the VIA Organization and the Board in 2006, it was specifically because of I had heard this was the organization which has existed for over 30 years and has made exceptional contributions to the Santa Clarita Community.  It is an organization with an exceptional reputation, and does not compete with other organizations; it simply has a mission that continuously delivers to its members.

VIA’s Committees  have contributed to my knowledge of this community and have been a very important element of staying informed on legislative updates, environmental issues/concerns, transportation updates, educational programs, etc.  For a company such as Edison, it is key and very important to stay connected and informed, and in particular to stay engaged and be a member of the decision makers in the community… VIA has provided this and more!

2011 has been a very important year for VIA and one that has set the tone for the years to come.  VIA has had its share of economic problems, as have many other organizations and businesses, however, because VIA is comprised of folks who care, who give, and who contribute to the betterment of our Santa Clarita Community, VIA has grown and is strong.  VIA brings forth very successful programs such as the B2B Expo, the Gala, the monthly luncheons, Connecting to Success, and other.  I just want to compliment VIA for making a difference and for staying committed to its mission.

I look forward to VIA’s continued growth and advocacy!  Way to go VIA!

Anna Frutos-Sanchez
Local Public Affairs Region Manager
Southern California Edison

Eat that Frog!

With more on our plates every day and time seeming to slip by at an increasingly rapid pace, this unique approach to time management from a book by Brian Tracy called “Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” resonated strongly with me.

Get More Done In Less Time = Eat That Frog.

If you are like me, you are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. As you struggle to get caught up, new tasks and responsibilities keep rolling in, like the waves of the ocean. Because of this, you will never be able to do everything you have to do.

For this reason, and perhaps more than ever before, your ability as a leader is to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task, get it done both quickly and effectively. To help you and others be more effective and efficient, we must remember the story about frogs!

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are mostly likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and resultsfor you and your organization.

The first rule of frog eating is this:
If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

 This is another way of saying that if you and those you lead have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

Although it’s so much easier to push off the “ugliest frog” in favor of fighting fires and cleaning up all the odds & ends and easy fixes, I think that frog eating should be my goal!

Andrea McAfee

Controller

Bayless Engineering & Manufacturing

Choose Change

Like a lot of business people, I get my fair share of junk email.  Every once in a while, something will catch my eye and I’ll take a look, wondering, “How in the heck did I get on this mailing list?” This time, the looking paid off.

From “simpletruths.com”, motivational and inspirational gifts, I got a glimpse of something I found useful and wanted to share.  It also reminded me of an earlier post by Scott Capistrano.  This is from a book entitled,  “The Nature of Success”.

“The root for ‘motivation’ is ‘move’, and movement is change.  Ask yourself right now… Am I moving forward or am I standing still?

Do I have a career that I love?  …Do I have a healthy lifestyle?  Is my energy level, my attitude, where it should be? … Is there an activity I’ve wanted to pursue?

Truthful answers to these and other questions will tell you whether you want, or need to change.

A cautionary inner voice will tell you not to rock the boat, to stay on the path of least resistance, but your heart is telling you otherwise.

Listen to your heart.  Filter out the old static and tune in something new.  Challenge your assumptions, identify and study people already doing what you want to do.

Read books and listen to tapes that will motivate you to break away from the notorious “comfort zone”.

Confront your fears.  When one is unsatisfying day just blurs into the next – your life is begging for a change.

Change can truly be a wonderful gift.  It can recharge your emotional battery and nourish your soul.  Just do it!  Choose change and let it make a positive difference in your life.”

– Mac Anderson

Maybe this particular message appeals to me because like some of my business colleagues,  I am making changes AND want to know we have some company!

I’d rather be talked about than forgotten

I received a survey the other day and decided to take a few minutes to provide feedback for a couple of reasons… the first being that I was very satisfied and wanted to let the company know.

The second reason was because the survey was preceded (by a few days) with a note from the president of the company.  Now I realize that it was probably a form letter, BUT… this guy wrote just as if we were standing in the same room and he was genuinely pleased that I’d chosen his company.  He was hopeful that my experience was satisfying and that I would tell him all about it.

Since then, I’ve received another ‘letter from the President’, this time from a different company and for a different reason.  It was less personal and it felt like a form letter.  Guess it would take an expert to discern the difference, but there definitely was one.

The lesson for me is that if I’m going to take the time to enhance my business image by sending personal notes to my customers, I need to make sure to hit the mark.  As in my experience, the first letter was very impressive and the second was very forgettable.  Wish I could tell you exactly what the appeal was (or wasn’t), but all I know is that I’ll be paying attention to whatever goes from my desk to a customer’s IN box.   I’d rather be talked about than forgotten.

Never get comfortable

Over last weekend, I briefly thought to myself “it sure would be nice if things settled down at SNQ – even briefly and we had a normal day”.

So what precipitated this thought?  Well, it seems to me that since day one of the formation of Status Not Quo, every day has been dynamic, challenging, and mildly stressful due to constant change.  Granted, most of our challenges have been positive (i.e. either fall under “opportunity” or “character building” lol). 

 However, as I reflect today (I’m writing this on a Monday), I admonish myself to “Never get comfortable”.  I constantly challenge other business owners and our clients to continuously reinvent themselves, or stagnate and get left behind.  While this is always our focus, it is hectic.

 The entire year of 2011 at SNQ has been crazy busy due to a move – consolidating and moving to a corporate office.  We went from completely virtual and decentralized, to a mix of the two with stronger centralization. 

 However, not one week after I sat down at the new office, we were faced with the potential of an incredible opportunity to move into two new areas of software development by absorbing/merging with another firm.  This will expand us into a multi-office company, and very possibly into needing an international presence in South America.  Talk about Distributed to Centralized and back to Distributed (insert rising stress meter here)!

 My point is to be thankful for change, and embrace that uncertainty.  Granted, many times it stems from a negative challenge – but we must still view those challenges as opportunities to change, leverage, reinvent, and grow.  The day things start getting boring around here is when I will really start to stress.  Take a well deserved break this weekend, but when you return on Monday, challenge yourself and get outside of your comfort zone.

 Scott Capistrano

Status Not Quo

http://www.statusnotquo.com

Job Hunting a shifting process

There is nothing as constant as change.  And changing technology is fueling a shifting Job hunting process.  Today job seekers interact in a virtual world therefore should possess a virtual job-hunting toolkit.  However until such time as a bar-code is implanted on our foreheads enabling employers to scan a candidate’s; education, skill levels, personality dimensions, compatibility with the job requirements and culture of the company as well as background checks for electronic employment predictability.  Candidates will continue to personally interview with people who are in a position to make a hiring decision.  Up till now that has not changed.

John Silver

Director of Career Services

ITT Technical Institute, Sylmar Campus

What’s Your Approach … Train or Hire the Skills Your Company Needs?

Recently there have been numerous media pronouncements that, despite record unemployment levels, employers are finding skills shortages and mismatches as they look to add to their overall staffing levels.  A growing number of employers are taking the approach that, in order to keep staff levels at the optimal level and with the appropriate skill sets, they need to up-skill existing employees and then recruit at the easier to fill lesser skilled positions.

So what’s your company philosophy and why?  Are you enduring long recruitment cycles as you look for that “perfect” fit or are you taking the approach of increasing the skill levels of your existing employees through formal training, on-the-job training or a mixture of both?

Joe Klocko

Director, Center for Applied Competitive Technologies

College of the Canyons