Audio Tidbits

Can you deal with riding the train to nowhere? At first it is just weird, then it gets boring and gradually you find yourself too agitated to continue the trip. Few have the patience and self-discipline to handle the whole ride. Try it to see if you are up to the trip. Few are. – Pro tip: Focus on the rumble and not on the tune.

Let's not forget the young pessimist. We have been introduced before and best remember. If there is to be a better day for him in an America that is great for all, it's up to you and me and up to leaders who truly care about our young pessimist.

Sure, Marc has a few tips for you to make a difference to people who make a difference to you, tips to relate to others with style, all the time, on purpose. As usual, he is spot on. For me, though, I think you will find the best part of his podcast today if you stay tuned for the fairies.

Are you tempted to cut and run? Does the grass look greener over there? It might be time but your best choice is most always to hang in with the folks who got you here. Please listen before you go with the newest example of glitz and glamour that comes along.

Are you taking care of business? Will it help to know a few of the keys to better business? If so, please press play and listen.

In the last episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast, focus was on the perfect employee, on those who aspire to be perfect employees and on employers who hope to hire the perfect employee. In this episode, the discussion is expanded to consider the ideal home for the perfect employee. Please consider an organization that aspires to be the ideal home for the perfect employee. You can then judge the quality of the fit for yourself.

As a potential home for the perfect employee, what are our prerequisites for employment?

To join our organization, a potential employee has to have substantial qualifications for the position of interest. Organizations typically set minimum qualifications for positions. This means the positions are open to people who are just barely qualified. Throughout the organization, then, someone who is just barely qualified - and most likely, sometimes by someone who is not qualified - may provide virtually any service. These services cover all aspects of the operation. We have to be able to assure the people who use our services, either internally or externally, that employees who are substantially qualified to provide them are delivering those services. The best way to make this assurance is to only have employees who are clearly qualified to do what they do - people who are substantially qualified for the position they hold.

Our employees are clearly qualified to provide the services they provide. They are, in turn, allowed to provide those services with a minimum of supervision and direction. They function relatively autonomously and independently, so long as they function within the expected, functional parameters. Within limits, they can do what they think is reasonable and appropriate. Given this level of discretion and flexibility, there are additional criteria the organization uses to select employees. They are included below. Each criterion is required. If the prospective employee does not meet the criterion, he (or she) quite simply is not likely to succeed within the organization’s eco system. This is not a judgment about the individual's competence. Rather, it is merely a conclusion he or she would not make a good employee here.

Our employees have a clear vision, a clear sense of mission. The most successful employees have a clear vision of their mission, why they do what they do. They know they are not experts at everything and do not profess to have all of the answers. Even with this limitation, they are clear about why they do what they do.

Our employees value those who make the journey with them. For those who choose to be part of our internal eco system, they are valued and what they do is recognized and appreciated. They, as individuals, matter and what they do matters.

Our employees commit themselves to excellence. Our organization is not merely succeeding, it excels. Being an employee guarantees being a valued member of a team committed to doing the right things right, the first time, on time, every time, one service experience at a time.

Our employees appreciate where and how they fit in. Each of our employees knows that his or her primary role is to help others succeed. His or her task is to provide for other people the best possible opportunity to get where they are committed to going, to succeed with whatever they choose to do that requires services from us.

Our employees play by the rules. They respect the rules and expect others associated with us to do likewise. We have undoubtedly all run across the person who believes he is above everyone else. People like this think rules are for other people and what they want and do are exceptions to any rules or established procedures. Excellence is not something they have thought about a lot. Fortunately, they are very far away from ever being invited to join the staff.

Do you aspire to be the perfect employee? Perhaps you want to find and hire the perfect employee. Either way, this guide to recognizing the perfect employee is one you may find to be essential to your success. Please consider the guide carefully. As you will see, the perfect employee is rare. The best most of us can do is to come close. Even so, it’s well-worth the effort.

• The perfect employee avoids personal actions or involvements that may associate negatively with the organization.

If you are in the imperfect employee majority and plan to stay there, you likely believe that what you do on your own time is none of your employers’ business. The larger the organization is and the less important your job and you are within the organization, the more likely it is that your belief will work out okay for you. This is especially true if you stay out of trouble with the police and have no plan to get a higher position or more responsibility in the organization.

On the other hand, there are a few factors that can quickly make your personal life very relevant for your current and future employment. Two are central. First, the more sensitive to and dependent on public support or perception the organization is, the more your personal life matters and the more your behavior and personal choices become associated with the organization. Second, the higher or more important you and your position are in the organization or the higher your aspirations, the more your personal life matters.

The conclusion is easy. When employers are looking for the perfect employee or if you aspire to be the perfect employee, reputation, conduct and deportment do make a difference. Personal history, current and past reputation, the opinions of people who know you well and your current life circumstances matter a lot. They matter to perspective employers and equally matter to those who aspire to be the perfect employee.

• Shows up every day.

For most of us, this probably seems like one of those no brainers. For virtually all employers, though, it is far from a no brainer. I don’t know what the percent is, but experience tells me that it is about half and half. About half of employees show up every day unless they are truly ill or have a real emergency that prevents their being at work. The other half includes people who vary from those who make up an occasional excuse not to show up to those who use every excuse or justification they can conjure up. The worst of this group are those employees who don’t come to work because they just don’t feel like coming today.

Again, the conclusion is easy. Employers looking for the perfect employee stick with the group who responsibly come to work every day, in the absence of a legitimate reason not to be there. If you aspire to be the perfect employee, show up when you are expected, every time, on time, with none but legitimate reasons for being absent or late, no exceptions, no excuses. That is a major part of what employers mean when they talk about dependable employees.

• Is present all day.

This is obvious to most employees and employers but is a real brain twister for employees who just don’t get it. I think this is because there are only a few ways to be present and so many ways to be at work but not actually present.

Being present means that the employee is thinking about work and work-related activities, is paying attention to their work and to what is going on at work and is fully engaged with their work activities and responsibilities.

Not being present while being at work means thinking, doing and attending to anything other than work activities and responsibilities. The employee may be day dreaming, surfing the net, doing personal things on his or her cell phone, gossiping or socializing with other employees, taking care of personal business,

We likely think we value equality in some relationships and not in others. When it comes to love and power, though, the likelihood of equality is quite slim. This holds between the people in the relationship and between love and power themselves. Love, power and relationships are dynamic variables and not constants and mix and blend, depending…. Please join me as I explore that mixing and blending between parents and children, men and women, employers and employees, and whenever two or more people live and relate together.

I stopped by the Audio Tidbits Podcast Headquarters a while back and got what was for me a surprising present. I will not go with a spoiler here. You will need to listen to share in the surprising present.

How much can you get done when the best they can do is to assure you that “Your call is very important to us?” Some days, not much. The good news is that doing nothing and getting nothing done may be a better outcome than you might have thought. The Audio Tidbits Podcast team has some thoughts on that for you, along with their usual this and that about this and that. Please listen. I think you will find what they have to say at least worth a smile.