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I’ve been wanting to read this particular book for a really long time. I picked it up and it sat on my shelf for well over six months before I made my way though my list of other books I had committed to myself to read.

I’m a big fan of Starbucks and the way they make you feel when you buy product there. In fact I like the way they make you feel even when you don’t buy product there.

I began reading The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary in the bookstore and couldn’t put it down. In fact I made it through the rather lengthy introduction and half of chapter one before I put it under my arm and headed for the cash register.

Author Joseph A. Michelli details Starbuck’s five principles of being they use to separate themselves from the pack. They are:

1. Make it your own
2. Everything Matters
3. Surprise and Delight
4. Embrace Resistance
5. Leave Your Mark Read More

Who needs a lesson in how we communicate? Probably lots of us these days. We’ve all gotten those e-mails that read horribly but the sender didn’t mean to come across so rudely. I recommend Tim Sander’s 12 rules for e-mail ettiquette as a good place to start to develop your personal e-mail policy. So while you’re waiting for that to arrive in the mail, get rid of these phrases.

1. blah blah blah, don’t you think?

In real life this phrase is useful because you’re inviting the person you’re speaking with to share their ideas and bounce some brainstorming around. Online it’s just a one-way conversation and comes across a bit smug and patronizing

2. No

No is something you say to someone’s face or at the very least over the phone. When someone asks you a question in e-mail, respond with either a yes or a request for more information. If you need to reject their request then have the common courtesy to say it in person or let them hear your voice. They’ll probably have questions like “why,” and again, in an e-mail you can’t have that conversation

3. Any wrod spelt worng

Spelling things wrong in an e-mail is akin to telling someone you don’t really care about the message you’re delivering. Honestly, how hard is spell check? Plus, doesn’t your e-mail program automatically underline spelling errors? If not, start using one that does.

I was given The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything last year by the group leader of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Signature Workshop I attended last year. Like many reviewers on the Internet I was worried that Covey Jr. wouldn’t be able to add much to the conversation that his father had started and rather he was just making use of the family name.

My suspicions were way off base. Covey Jr. does an excellent job of discussing “the one thing that changes everything.” He provides excellent examples of how building trust – both personally and within an organization – leads to better results, faster paths to excellence and greater efficiency.

Covey Jr. presents a 360 degree action plan for building trust, first with yourself right through your organization. He doesn’t sugar coat the process pretending that’s as easy as flipping a switch but he does provide proof of concept that it can be done.

Just as his father has seven steps to become highly effective, ‘lil Covey presents four broad subject headings that are then broken down into smaller steps beginning with: Read More

In conversations with my boss at work she’s not convinced you need to hand hold Gen Yers as much as Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y might be suggesting. She says that at some point Gen Yers just need to either figure it out on their own or have some freaking initiative.

I agree with her and I think what this book is trying to accomplish is give you the tools when dealing with a Gen Y workforce. Some Gen Yers are really motivated and won’t need nearly the amount of heavy usage of the tips in this book that others well. But some will need A LOT of you using the suggestions from this book with them.

What I’ve found since implementing some of the strategies is I’m getting better accountability from my Gen Y direct reports. At just way over half way through this book I can safely say I’m satisfied with it over all. Read More

This is the longest chapter in Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y so far, so I’ll be splitting chapter seven into three parts with this being part one.

Chapter seven focuses on helping Gen Yers learn to how to manage themselves at work. Bruce Tulgan says lots of Gen Yers come into the job having an advanced set of skills having developed their specialties at a young age. He cautions today’s managers who insist they didn’t have their hands held when it came to doing things like showing up on time, dressing appropriately or refraining from cussing on the job. Managers will have to do what they can to help Gen Yers fill in these gaps of maturity they also bring along.

Tulgan says managers need to teach them to care about the basics, teach them to be more aware of those gaps in their repertoires. and to fill those gaps one at a time. Read More

I read a lot of Seth Godin on the Internet, mostly at his blog, but I’ve never bought one of his books. For my birthday and Christmas I asked for two of them:

1. All Marketers Are Liars
2. Meatball Sundae

Godin wrote on his blog a while back that all the information in his books are also available for free on his blog, all you have to do is sift through the posts to find it. While that is true, it’s like saying all the ingredients to make mushroom risotto are available in the grocery store and all I have to do is buy them and prepare it. Going to a restaurant is quicker and easier so for the same reason, I asked for these two books.

I only received All Marketers are Liars and I haven’t picked up Meatball Sundae yet but I think a combination of watching Seth on the TED Web site, reading numerous reviews and keeping up with his blog, reading the book wouldn’t add much value to what I’ve already discovered. All Marketers Are Liars is an older book and wasn’t discussed on his site as much as his newer titles so giving it a read seemed like a good investment. In all I read it over two weekends and his style of writing is very conversational which I enjoy. Read More

This chapter of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy is all about customer service and while the focus is on Gen Yers, this is a chapter we can all read and take away some great pointers.

Gen Yers have been bombarded by marketing from a much younger age and at a higher rate than generations before us, Bruce Tulgan says. Not only did the marketplace reach them in the malls but right into their homes via the Web. Gen Yers have had more buying power at a much younger age than anyone ever before so it’s only natural they begin their working life with a very consumer-oriented mind.

He says when Gen Yers arrive for their first day of work they look at their own time, dedication and best efforts as a kind of currency. They want to know what kinds of success and rewards it can buy them. They are excited and ready to work and put their efforts to good work so they can get great experiences. Read More

Part two of chapter five offers more great tips on helping Gen Yers navigate the workplace and basically helping them keep from making an idiot of themselves.

Teach Them How to Shine in Meetings and Presentations

Gen Yers feel if they participate in the production of a presentation or report they have full ownership over it. Bruce Tulgan reports several managers have told him about experiences where an assistant who helped prepare a presentation will cut in or answer questions without being asked to in a meeting.

You should approach bringing a Gen Yer into a meeting with the same rigour you would with preparing yourself for the meeting. Tulgan says the most important thing you can do is specifically tell them if this meeting or presentation is a time for them to shine or not. He has four other best practices he recommends you subscribe to as well: Read More

Chapter five has a lot of great information in it so I’ve decided to break it up over two posts.

I have two children in daycare and over the summer the daycare provider has been working out of our house. Some days it’s just our two children and one other, plus we have a nice backyard, plenty of space and lots of toys so when we offered, our daycare provider accepted.

Because of this I’ve gotten to know the other kids quite well. One in particular is a curious one and when I come home from work she’ll ask me a question, usually something like “was work fun today,” or “what is in your bag,” or something similar. With this particular child, whenever I give an answer she always follows up with “Why?”

More on this later. Read More