Wind Damage to Rowing Eight

So, rowing is a Spring sport, at least, it always has been for me. But this Spring has been anything but kind to rowers at the University of Scranton. In a recent wind storm, our only eight oared shell was blown off the stretchers and into the trailer. The worst damage was a 2" by 2" hole in the hull, which makes the boat unrowable. We have two four man shells, but for over 30 kids on the team, that does not give much water time!

The crew, understandably, is down, and with races already every weekend, is planning on what can be done to at least enter and compete in some races. But this kind of blow can really hit morale pretty hard.

So the thing to do, is to find ways to get this boat fixed, some other damage that was "patched" redone and make this boat rowable again. Wish us luck!

Ever Been Flying in a Small Airplane?

Recently, I had a Saturday opportunity to go out flying with a friend from church. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, we could see New York City in the distance. We flew over to an airport near the NJ/NY border for lunch, and returned. The picture to the left is of still frozen Lake Wallenpaupack.





On the way over, we flew in formation with a second airplane that my pilot frequently flies with . While that was fun to watch, on the way back home, he turned the controls over to me....my first time flying a small airplane since about 1978, when I was taking flying lessons out in California, flying out of Van Nuys airport in the San Fernando Valley.



Van Nuys airport has it's own interesting history, opening as Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport in 1928. Hollywood apparently liked that airport quite a bit, with Howard Hughes, Cecile B. DeMille, and Gene Autry, and Wallace Beery all flying out of that airport. In 1929, Amelia Earhart set a new speed record there during races that were held.

In addition, some famous movies had scenes shot there, including Casablanca, Lost Horizon, Hells Angels, Men with Wings, and Test Pilot.

Proud Dad in Many Ways!

Admittedly, Bonnie and I have two of the best children any mom and dad could have. And good news has come to Dr. Jenny Lang (daughter,) who is pregnant with our first grandchild. Jenny, who last year completed her Doctorate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is Director of Admissions for the School of Music there, is due late this summer.

To announce this to mom and I, Jenny and Brian gave us a small package, with a little baby outfit in it. On the front, it says "I watch Trojan Football with Grandma and Grandpa." Trojans, of course, referring to Bonnie's and my undergrad alma mater - USC.

So, even though this is not business-related, just had to share this good news!

Class Starts in March - HRM531 Human Capital Management

So, my teaching with the University of Phoenix starts in early March, beginning with teaching a class called Human Capital Management, HRM 531. I am looking forward to that new start, especially with teaching a class that is right in my "wheelhouse."

Recently, I've been asked to chair the Human Resources Committee for Tanglwood Lakes, the community we live in, which is run by a homeowner's association. There has been some excellent groundwork laid by previous committee chair and the Community Manager, so that is always nice to see. Organizations, big and small, always need to be aware of their employees and employee
relations.

Advancing to Faculty Status - U of Phoenix

Who says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks? 10 years ago, I had serious questions about employees who wanted to be reimbursed by the company's educational assistance program for online college courses. I mean, if you're not "in class" with everyone else and a professor, where is the value of that? I actually denied some employee requests for assistance in online courses!

For the past four weeks, I have been in an online faculty preparation course for the University of Phoenix, preparing to teach masters level courses in Safety Management, and eventually courses in Human Resources. What I thought would be an easy time actually turned out to be a rigorous schedule of about 20-25 solid hours per week, learning the U of Phoenix learning process for online courses. The good news is that today I received notice that I successfully completed the four week course, and now move on to the next step, mentorship.

Mentorship will be where I facilitate an online course, while guided on the side by an experienced faculty member.

The online environment allows one to attend class from anywhere in the world, and I am looking forward to the diversity of thought and opinion in these courses, with folks who have advanced already to a level in their working career. Although student privacy will not allow specifics, I will look forward to sharing some of the great stories in this new venture...teaching online.

Honesty - Needed? Truth Not Always Easy!

I had an interesting experience this past weekend. I am the part-time volunteer Rowing coach for the University of Scranton women's Crew. We had our last races of the Fall this past weekend in New Jersey and Philadelphia. The weather was awful on Saturday for the Frostbite Regatta, and wonderful on Sunday for the races on the Schuylkill River. But that is not the content of this story....

On Saturday night, after we finished our races on the Cooper River, the team loaded up the boats back on the trailer, and I pulled the trailer back over the Delaware River to Philadelphia for the races the next morning. While attempting to back our trailer into place in the parking lot on the Schuylkill River (there were already trailers with boats on them in the parking lot,) I unfortunately hit the bow of a boat belonging to Stony Brook U. There was no one around to talk to, so I decided to see someone the next morning.

The next morning, I went first to talk with the police stationed there. When I told them what happened, their response was, "well, were your boats damaged?" To which I replied, no. Their answer was, "well, you don't have to tell them (the other crew." Not liking this answer one bit, I went to a race official, who told me the same thing! Hmmm....that kind of consistency is not what I was looking for.

Anyway, the Stony Brook Crew did arrive a little later, and I went over to talk to the coach, told him what happened, gave him my card, and told him that I would also make sure that the folks at U of Scranton knew about it on Monday. Good news was, they were not using that boat that day, they called it an old "piece of crap," and we will move forward from there.

Interesting. Are your employees honest? If so, great! If not, might that be hurting your business at all? There are ways to find this out.....

Highly Focused Employees Increase Loyalty from Customers

Highly Focused Employees Increase Loyal Customer Base

Ever try to pound a square peg into a round hole? Are all employees customer-focused?

When we moved from Los Angeles to New Jersey years ago, I was continually told that the pace of business in New York/New Jersey was faster than the West Coast. Now, after having lived on the East Coast since 1984, I can tell you, it is not faster, it is just different. And in many cases, it comes with poor customer service. Hmmm, there is poor customer service on the West Coast too.

It hit me hardest when we went to a grocery store in Budd Lake, NJ, spent over $200 on groceries, had to bag them ourselves and were told that there was no help. Same store had a big red and white sign out front that said “Open 24 Hours.” They typically were closed by 7 pm several nights per week. When we moved to Atlanta, went to a Kroger, the bagger had our 4 items in a bag for us right at the checkout, and asked if we needed help to take the one bag out to our car….we told them we had just moved from New Jersey, and needed time to get used to a customer-focused attitude again!

Sorry New Jerseyans, please don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of examples of poor and great service all over the country. But, if your customer-facing employees are focused on providing assistance the customers will want to return, and keep on returning.

On the other hand, customer-facing employees who have a hard determining which tasks to focus on can be a detriment to your business. This is even worse when those same employees can’t seem to come to work each and every day they are scheduled.

The key to increasing your customer base with focused employees is to make sure that your employees are focused at the right times and on the right things – delighting the customer. There are Six Crucial Behaviors for Customer-Facing Employees. These crucial behavior are Trust, Tact, Empathy, Conformity, Focus and Flexibility. For instance, Empathy is a very different process from sympathy. Empathy is the ability of your employee to understand and put themselves in the customers shoes, even though they may not be able to change what the customer is unhappy about, and still make the customer know that they understand.
About Resources for Performance and Profiles International

We help organizations create high-performing workforces. Through comprehensive employment assessments and innovative talent management solutions, our clients gain a competitive advantage by selecting the right people and managing them to their full potential. For more information about our suite of human resource management solutions, visit our website at www.resourcesforperformance.com