In the days of high school, it was easy to find organized clubs drag a few buddies out and check it out. Living in a new city, things are a little different; clubs are still all over the place but now just providing an un-recommended, unaccompanied adventure. A quick Google search found thousands of hits… Wow, there is a lot out there! How do I decide which are worth a visit?

First let’s cut the low hanging fruit, I have always been involved with sports, so this was a no brainer. Work was nice enough to offer club sports teams, while combined with a recent gym membership. My PE requirements are serviced. Now I need to search for the extra curricula’s which serve my motivations.

Second, find an endorsement. Word of mouth is a quacktastic thing and how I was introduced to my first club, Tampa Toastmasters… Yep, it’s the ever dreaded public speaking group which allows anyone who desires a safe haven to stammer, stumble and sweat. Given my necessity to improve these skills and gracious endorsement from a coworker, I am now a proud member of the local Toastmasters group.

This is a great start, and I am excited to work on these skills. However, I look forward to finding other opportunities which really allow me to grow my professional network and interact with individuals with common interests. Any suggestions? (PS this is where audience participation is required)

Can this success be analyzed, documented and reviewed? Well, that’s what I am hoping for.

Big shout out to Google and the 100 different websites that choose to write about the same freaking thing. I don’t want to read any more about the autocratic theory of leadership. I want real world experiences, feedback from employees. How would your team describe your style? Not sure what they would say, well it may be time to take a closer look at your relationships.

Well no better place to start than right herr, what is my leadership style? This may be tough, and will require some old fashion self-awareness. Go-go Gadget Awareness– Micro, micro and more micro… That’s probably what my team may say, but I would say customized. All teams are built differently and each member may require a different approach. Knowing what motivates each employee will be the secret sauce necessary to sustain success.

Leadership must haves:

1. lead by example and be the hardest working
2. help others understand the vision of the team and department
3. identify performance goals for each member allowing them to achieve a higher level of success
4. let your personality show and have fun

But seriously, why did I just spend $500 on a device which heats up to temperatures over 110 degrees, drains my 4G LTE on solitaire, and lies about its battery life??

And if you believe Apple would put out another product with any of these significant faults you’re crazy. They are the most valuable company in the world and have for years been industry leaders in making my life easier. Since my new efficency pad showed up a week ago, I have read two books, more than I have in any given 1 month period. I successfully enrolled into both Statistics 110 and Intro to Algorithms, thru Harvard and MIT… Are you serious? Thank you iTunes U, you complete me.

I am easily able to read the WSJ w/o having ink all over my hands and have articles readily accessible from all over the internet, through Pulse and Zite apps. Banking, Hulu, TED, social networking… Need I say more? This is a game changer, I am now informed, I have access to whats happening today. Oh yea, one more thing… It’s more HD than HD!!!

<<

It has been just over a year since my first vlookup, and I would say the changing point of my professional career. It has unlocked the pure analytic side/ portion/ quadrant… whatever, of my brain. Once I realized my ability to understand operations and create tools with excel to better execute set operations, my professional developments jumped again.

Feel you have a pretty good hold on excel, think again… The more you learn, the more you realize how much is yet to be uncovered.

**blog note 1, don’t alienate your audience, whoops!

Wait what?

Monday morning pep rallies, inspirational quotes, positive reinforcment, aneqdotes to over come adversity… They are all good and deserve to be imbedded in every organization. But it’s only part of the story, to truly influence learning and in some cases change, we need to move beyond that “yes you can,” and spend some time with “here’s how”.

If you lead by generalized statements, guess what? The same language will make it to your customers. Direction from manager to employee will be translated straight through to the customer. Empower your employees to, “do better” and they will encourage your customers to do that same. Encourage them to do better, discuss the specific areas to improve and the resources available to make necessary changes, well now we’re on to something.

Spend time reviewing your top performers, it will become pretty clear the areas of opportunity for the rest of the floor. If you can manage to the necessary standards, maintain a high level of activity. Well, you may have just established the foundation for your business.

Once we can determine the necessary skills, now the tough question, do we have what it takes? To often I hear the excuse, “I was set up for failure”.  The only person that can set you up for success is yourselve. Quit jumpping at every opportunity that comes your way, and slow down. Often successful individuals will highlight the paths not followed rather than those traveled. Do you have to make a decision now?  No, be patient.

The options are out there, start a business, go back to school, or work for someone else… Three very viable options which need to be obtainable when the opportunity presents itself. So today and everyday moving forward I must continue to progress in all relatable areas.

As of late my rant.com section has seen the most action on this blog, truthfully most posts initiate from the bar stool at 31. I need to understand what is necessary for tomorrow to be a reality and how what I do today lends to that success. Posts to come hopefully will include leadership, continued education, networking, resource management, strategy and whatever else I can relate to this mission.

Place: Starbucks drive thru
Mission: Cup of Joe
Impulse: bottle of water, and maybe some berry- berry coffee cake..
Final Purchase: Cup of Joe
Jason 1 : Starbucks 0 (second thought $3 coffee, they win every time)

I was on the fence, coffee and… a bottle of water? Noo maybe some coffee cake? A clear case of indecision which could have been easily swayed with the simple question, “will that be all today?” After not hearing this phrase I was in the clear, able to make a clean get away with only my cup of joe. For so long I thought this meant nothing, surely every purchase we make is planned, well thought out and executed. HA! If I had a dollar for ever impulse purchase I’ve made, I would have already spent the money.

This is a valuable lesson, take the time to train accordingly. In a business with an average transaction of $5 (guesstimate), this is huge! I could have doubled that number with three words from the man inside the speaker box.

My hope is that the final product is a 3-5 paragraph synopsis of my professional experience. Highlighting my key attributes and successes in the work place. What quickly came was a string of awkward resume words like; detail oriented, meticulous, independent, reliable, and people person… I had to regroup and decide how I wanted to position my profile. It should also appeal to those individuals with a common background and interests, what professionals today have come to call networking.

Bios should appeal to your customer, in this sense my customer is other professionals developing strategy, conducting analysis and consulting for companies seeking operational excellence. My hope is to create a group of individuals able to help problem solve and share experiences.

Now… how the heck do I do that? Back to the drawing board…

The excruciating experience left me blistered, bruised, bloody and hung over… It also left me with some great memories a few new friends and a discovery. Endurance racing should really be a social event, from beginning to end. Given a choice, which I’m pretty sure I have, the only races I plan to ever do will be relay. I have done marathons and Ironmans, and have no desire to ever complete another… I am on permanent maintenance mode and the experience of Ragnaring far exceeds any single distance race.

Ragnar… My first experience was a good one, and I cannot wait to receive my x2 medal. Keep up the good work!

Last we left off i had just completed my 2011-12 NFL fantasy football draft. One which i felt particularly proud about and was re-insured with my immediate success on the grid iron. Soon my success subsided as an risky portfolio of players fell to injury, my 1st, 3rd and 4th round pick all out multiple games. Quickly I began losing games, consecutive loses with no hope of resolve. As in past seasons I started to become disengaged after my 3rd lose, but this was only mid way thru the season surely we could turn this around…

Fast forward 2 months and I am in the championship game, how did I do it you ask, great question I’ll tell you. Luck, pure old fashioned blind, dumb luck… And proud of it! The two steals of this draft without a shadow of a doubt, Gronkowski and Jordy Nelson (not on my roster). Taking one of these two players almost ensured a spot in the playoffs, and that’s just what I did, rode his 15 TD, record breaking season right into the play offs. The addition of Adrian Peterson and the stellar performances from Arian Foster and Matt Ryan and here I sit today, Christmas Eve, enjoying a guaranteed 2nd place.

Sometimes a seemingly well design strategy falters and luck takes over, this could have easily gone the other direction and my lesson would have been learned. One, minimize risk, I drafted two injured players in the draft, I should not have done this. Two, maintain a close eye on performance and always be ready to wheel and deal, to close those gaps.

Pergaments 2012 champs? We’ll see