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Lessons Learned – #5

Each year in December I reflect in my e-newsletter on the top lessons learned during the preceding 12 months. Here is #5:

Continuous Growth – My son is playing his last season of high school basketball. At ‘Meet the Cougars’ the coach told parents it’s important we allow children to learn from mistakes. “We try to teach our kids how to handle things,” he said. “Then when they mess up, we don’t let them handle things. That creates a lot of problems when they go off to college.” Amazingly, I heard the same sentiment from an energy company CEO a few weeks later: “A lot of leaders delegate, then jump in and try to fix everything. That makes it hard for people to improve.”

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Lessons Learned – #6

Counting down the best things I learned this year – #6:

Kind Consideration – In the spring we acquired a license for a team-building simulation. Every client I’ve delivered it to found the approach a terrific way to teach leaders how to be better communicators and collaborators. Surprisingly, the president of the company we purchased it from sent us a thank you card. In this electronic age where anyone can email in 30 seconds, I am a big believer in the importance of taking a few extra minutes to hand-write and mail a note. Add that to your ‘self-improvement list’ for next year and see how recipients react.

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Lessons Learned – #7

Merry Christmas. Here is the seventh best thing I learned in 2012:

Writer’s Lock – Angel investor Scott Belsky wrote: “The project plateau is littered with the carcasses of dead ideas that never happened… and that is why there are more half-written novels in the world than there are novels.” Three bestsellers allowed Random House to spread holiday cheer this year by awarding $5,000 bonuses to all 5,343 employees. I didn’t read the books, but a lot of people did. The publisher made $163 million on the efforts of E.L. James, who has 59-million reasons to be glad she had the discipline to complete the “Fifty Shades” trilogy.

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Lessons Learned – #8

The 8th best thing I learned during the year:

Terrific Reaction – Go Daddy – which we utilize for Web hosting – suffered a service disruption in September ‘due to a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables.’ Translation: someone hacked them and knocked out service for four hours. A day later an email arrived apologizing (‘We have let our customers down and we know it’) and gifting us with one free month. Four hours of disruption in exchange for a month of service. That’s a gesture of humility and loyalty that made a great impression.

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Lessons Learned – #9

Continuing to count down the top 10 things I learned in 2012:

Weak Response – This was the year newspapers began charging for online access. I subscribed to the electronic version of one and felt the $11 monthly price fair. Then one day a charge appeared on our credit card for $21. I called and discovered the trial period ended. I asked to speak with a manager, who said if we take the Sunday home edition, the cost for online access and delivery would be $18. Think about that: to read on my computer, it’s $21. If someone throws a paper on our doorstep, I could access the Internet edition for $3 less. So I cancelled. Two weeks later an offer arrived by mail: both for $16 per month. Arrgh!