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8/10/2019 FireMeIBegYou_SECTION1

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Month 1 MeetsExpectations NeverFelt So Good


3/45

Dont Hate the Player,Hate the Game

I walked into our weekly Monday meeting with the top leaders in thecompany just like every Monday that preceded it. I sat down and waited a

few minutes for the meeting to start.

I pulled out my 99-cent Bic lighter that I got from a gas station around the

corner and placed it on the big oval conference table. Immediately

everyone started looking at me and gave me weird looks.

I ignored them and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and started to pack the

cigarettes by jamming it against my palm. It made an audible noise and

the stares continued, but the meeting presenter kept talking as if nothing

was happening.

I pulled out a cigarette, put it in my mouth and lit it. I took one big puff,

lifted my head and blew a puff of smoke in a conference room with a

beautiful view of the Chicago Skyline.

I wasnt done.

I pulled my leather chair back and then put my legs on the conference

table and crossed them as if I was on vacation smoking a big cigar with no

worries in the world.

By this time, the presenter had stopped talking and everyone was staring

at me.

The CFO, the CEO, the Human Resources Vice President and all of the

other directors were staring at me in complete shock.


4/45

I looked down at the room and said, Whats wrong? Never seen someone

smoke during a meeting before?

Then I woke up.

It was a dream. Except it wasnt nighttime, and I wasnt sleeping.

I had this dream while I was having lunch at my desk. I had many

different dreams and each one was the same theme: How can I get myself

fired in the most epic way ever?

To understand my situation, we need to go back to earlier in my career.

At noon every day, I would go to the local deli with my co-workers and we

would bring our food to a park near our office. We would sit in a circle and

take turns talking about how we hated our jobs and our managers. It

became a ritual.

Our bosses were the most selfish people alive. It was painfully obvious

they didn't really care about us professionally. Our job was to make them

look good. That was it. We were the little people in the organization.

When our ranting at lunch finished, we all felt better. We laughed, we

cried, we made fun of each other, we shared our dreams, but most

importantly we were in this together. We knew this wouldn't last

forever, but we shared a bond that our managers would never understand.

We were all hard workers and many of us worked nights and weekends.

We wanted to do good work and advance within the company.

3 years later, every single person who was part of the "hating group" was

no longer employed by this organization. We all decided that we would be

better off working somewhere else.


5/45

What happened to our managers?

I did a LinkedIn search and with the exception of one manager, every

single one stayed at the company and is now a senior executive. Its

extremely tough to become a senior executive within this firm, and

collectively as a group, they did it. I can't say we were wrong for leaving

because I don't think any one of us regretted moving on.

Where I went wrong early in my career

Early in my career, I really didn't have patience and that's where my

expectations went wrong. I wanted to advance as soon as possible and

although my managers told me I would advance, it was taking too long. In

retrospect, I realize I expected my managers to take care of my career

more than I took care of my own career. That was very stupid of me.

I never once looked at it from their angle. I never asked myself what

motivated my managers and how I could have helped them achieve their

goals. It was always about how the company could help me and never

about how I could help myself. I didnt understand I could benefit from

their leadership and expertise to get ahead.

However, it does make me think. It was almost like we were part of one

big social experiment. I wonder if I would have stayed at the companylonger if I hadnt been paired up with this hating group. Maybe if I would

have stayed longer I could have followed my managers coattails and

would be a senior executive now.

If I were able to get the hating group together for a reunion, I would say

this to them:


6/45

I miss the endless banter we had as a group, especially the nicknames.

The nicknames we assigned to our managers were the damn that's funny,

but we will get fired in a heartbeat if he or she finds out what we called

them nicknames. They were so bad we actually forgot what their real

names were.

We were wrong for hating for our managers, and it prevented us from

advancing within the company. We directed our dark comedic rants

towards the wrong people. They didn't deserve 90% of things we said

about them. We were pretty nave to think our managers didn't know we

were teaming up against them. Actually, I think we knew, but we just

didn't care.

My problem was I didnt know how to deal with difficult situations and

difficult people until much later in my career.


7/45

Working WithDifficult People

It took years to develop, but I was finally able to figure out how to handledifficult situations and how to work with difficult people.

I've worked with:

The decisive, smart and friendly executive type

The 9-to-5 do everything I'm asked with a smile and actually

enjoy my work type

The let me know if I can help you with anything type

The we all know I'm the smartest one in the room type

The you cross me, and I promise you it will be the worst

mistake of your entire career type

The please give me another day to make this decision type

The let's be real, I don't really give a shit, just tell me what you

need me to do and I'll do it type

The please don't ask me to do anything for you because it's not

in my job description type

The OMG she's walking near my cube, I better act like I'm

doing something before I get fired type

The you used this word incorrectly in a PowerPoint, therefore

I will call an all hands meeting to get this settled type

The I trust you Robbie to make any decision you see fit type

The if I don't get a summary email at 8 p.m. every day I'm

going to assume you didn't do anything all day type


8/45

The I'm going to cry instead of making an important decision

so please back off type

The I don't really care what you think about me or my

decisions, just do what I tell you type

The who the hell left an unclean spoon in the sink, your

mother isn't here to look after you so I'm going to leave a

passive aggressive sign above the sink and another on the

refrigerator in addition to an email blast to the entire office

type

The give me your date of birth so we can celebrate your half

birthday type

The I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear you the first time so

I can make this conversation as awkward as possible type

The I'm going to agree to everything said in the meeting then

complain privately once the meeting is over type

The I literally, figuratively and hypothetically do not care what

anybody thinks about me, so just keep paying me every 2

weeks and we'll all be happy type

The if I hear one single piece of constructive criticism about

my work I'm never going to open up my mouth again type

And finally my favorite: The holy shit lady I can hear your

nails click clacking on your keyboard from across the office

type

For the person who creates those passive aggressive, "If you're leaning,

you're cleaning" signs above the sink, I purposely don't clean dirty spoons

and put them in the sink so they can be even more upset. I'm evil like that.


9/45

The uncomfortable truth is that not all of these types are easy to deal with.

In fact, many of these types make it much harder to get anything

accomplished.

Deal with difficult people before they deal with you

Difficult people are an interesting breed. They tend to be the last person

in a workflow who has the authority to approve a particular process,

purchase order or contract, so theyre the final decision maker. They are

nitpicky, irrational, insanely busy people who dont understand how many

hours the team has put into completing an activity.

They ask questions at the last minute about verbiage in a contract when

they could have asked the question when you first started on the project.

They make you start all the way from the beginning negating all that timeyou and your team spent on it.

And yet instead of engaging this person right away, most people wait all

the way until the end to get their approval, then are in complete shock

when this person demands that additional edits be made.

Why?

Easy. People hate working with difficult people unless they absolutely

have to. Instead of getting answers to their questions right away, they take

the easy route and make assumptions hoping the difficult person wont

ask questions once they review it. Nobody likes awkward conversations

and would rather show the decision maker a finished product so they

dont get negative feedback on something that isnt finished.


10/45

Then when it comes time to review the finished product, the difficult

person becomes well, difficult. Of course, this story isnt complete without

the standard everyone blaming each other for a missed deadline when the

executive asks why that task was delayed.

Step up and deal with the decision makers even if they make you

uncomfortable. Dont do it to impress your boss or your teammates. Do it

because you want to make the final approval process easier, and do it to

learn how this decision maker operates.

Do it because no one else will.

Difficult people are often misunderstood. Theyre difficult because their

job requires them to be detail oriented and they have stake in the outcome

of certain activities or projects. They dont care how much time you spenton an activity. They care about the outcome.

If you can figure out what makes them tick through early difficult

conversations, youll not only have better answers early on, but also a

relationship with someone who others refuse to connect with or cant.

IF YOURE COMFORTABLE, SOMETHINGS WRONG

I was in a packed conference room with about 25 people. All the top

leaders and consultants were in this room to report their status to the CIO

of this company.

It was my third week on the job at the time and I thought I had everything

under control. All I needed to do was relay the status of the project. Since

I was the project manager, I had a good understanding of the details of

the project.


11/45

There were multiple projects, and we were first up. I really wanted to get a

feel for this meeting first considering I had never exchanged words with

the CIO and I wasnt even sure what he looked like, but those were the

cards dealt to me and I had to present first. It was a big meeting, but I felt

comfortable with my preparation and Im a great public speaker, so I

knew this would go out without a hitch.

I was 4 minutes into my heres the status of the project talk. The CIO

was on his Blackberry and wasnt really paying attention to me even

though the entire time I was speaking directly at him.

I was finishing my update with, And the project completion deadline is

driven mainly by the technology team. He looked up immediately and

sharply said, WHAT? Thats not right. Thats not right at all! This has

nothing to do with the technology team! Didnt you talk to the business

team at all? Didnt you talk to your boss about this?

SHIT.

I was caught like a deer in headlights. I didnt know what to say. He was

right, and what I had said was inaccurate. I tried to defend myself by

saying what I had said was partially accurate, but before I could finish my

sentence he simply said, You dont know what you are talking about. He

couldnt have cared less what came out of my mouth at that point.

My boss wasnt at the meeting either, so I just nodded my head and

pretended I was writing notes. I apologized quickly and said Id speak

with my boss as soon as the meeting was over. That was the last thing I

said.

He said, OK, you can leave now.


12/45

As I walked awkwardly out of the room with everyone staring at me, I was

still a little flustered.

It was embarrassing. I had only been at this client site for 3 weeks and the

CIO of this company just berated me in front of everyone.

I didnt realize he was going to be this difficult. I assumed I knew how to

deal with everyone. I was too comfortable with the project status. I didnt

ask questions about what the CIO looked for in project status updates.

I learned 2 valuable lessons from this experience:

1) Dont say more than I need to.Say exactly what I need to, then

shut the hell up. The more I talk, the bigger chance I will be embarrassed

again.

2) Dont try to defend myself if the CIO of the company tells me

that Im wrong.Refer back to #1. Shut up, take notes and let him know

you will fix it next time. He doesnt have time to hear why you think youre

right. I was wrong by speaking up again. I should have just nodded my

head in agreement.

I quickly let my boss know what had happened and we worked on a

corrective action plan so this would never happen again.

There were 3 more of these status meetings over my 12-month contract.

Before every status meeting, I made sure my boss was well aware of what I

was presenting. This prevented surprises from coming up during this

meeting.


13/45

The last company-wide status meeting a few months later ended with a

senior executive stating that the project I led was the best IT Project he

had ever been associated with. The CIO was also present in the room. We

were on time and under budget.

The CIO now knew who I was on a first name basis. He began to

recommend that I lead other projects.

This guy was difficult because he needed to be difficult. This was an

important project, and if it failed, his tail would be on the line. Once I saw

it from his angle, we were one big happy family but it took a lot of

embarrassment to get there.

Deal with difficult people quickly before they deal with you. I viewed this

as a challenge and never once did I think to myself, Man, I really hatethis place because he embarrassed me in front of everyone.

Its a trap to think like that, and you wont get any sympathy wherever you

go. I mistakenly thought I was smarter than everyone in the room, and I

got what I deserved.


14/45

Are You Smarter

Than Your Boss?

I took over a big project while my manager was on vacation for the week.

It was the most productive week Ive ever had in my career. No spending

hours on useless PowerPoint presentations, no over discussing issues that

had already been discussed to death and no unnecessary meetings to

finalize irrelevant decisions.

I led all status calls with leadership and the calls were the shortest they

had ever been. Status was discussed, decisions were made, calls were

productive and everyone was happy when calls ended early.

Then it hit me: I could lead this project without my boss. In fact, my boss

was a hindrance to the success of this project.

His absence allowed me to lead the project in a way I felt comfortable

with.

So, what was I to do? I couldnt say, Hey excuse me Mr. Boss, but do you

mind taking a longer vacation? Another 6 months would hit the spot,dont you think? This person had at least 7 more years of relevant

experience than me and was multiple levels higher than me in the

company.

For a while, I just stepped back into my normal role and kept the situation

the same, but eventually I needed to do something about it.

I didnt know what my next steps should be.


15/45

The one thing I did know was that something needed to change. I needed

to either have more responsibility on this project or I needed to be on

another project altogether.

For those of you who find yourself in this same situation, there is only one

mindset to handle it:Youre either going to be the leader of this

project, or you will be the leader of another project. There is no

middle ground.

Too many people think there is nothing they can do but to accept reality

that they will be behind an inept manager while their career stays

stagnant.

Im a firm believer that once you figure out that you are smarter than your

boss, its time to take immediate action with your career.

You have 3 options when you have this realization:

Option 1)Set up a meeting with your boss and tell her you really enjoyed

leading the project while she was gone. You would really like to keep this

leadership position if possible and you think you handled it well. You

think you can add value and make her life easier so she can focus on other

projects.

If this is the only project she is leading, then basically youre out of luck. If

she tells you no, lets move to option 2.

Option 2) Find sponsorship from another leader in the company who

has a project that you can lead. The bigger the company, the easier this

will be for you.


16/45

Dont have any relationships with other leaders in the company? Then

unfortunately there is nothing you can do. Building relationships with

other leaders is the ONLY way to make these types of changes.

Unless your boss truly recognizes your talents and cares about you, she

will never tell you about other projects you can lead. She likes your work,

and doesnt want to have to replace you.

The good news is that its never too late to start building relationships

with other leaders now.

Option 3)Quit

Find a job where you can be the lead. The key is to keep moving and stay

challenged. Dont stay in a dead-end job just so your resume can say you

stayed at a job for more than 3 years. If you hate your job and youve only

been there for 1 year, dont let that sway you from leaving.

Worry about how this will look on your resume later. Those things are

easy to fix, assuming you dont do it every single time of course.

The last thing you should be doing is working because you want to show

your loyalty to a company or to your boss. Loyalty is dead.

In my situation, I found another job and left the company.


17/45

Loyalty is Dead andMy Boss Killed It

I was the most loyal of them all. I was the golden retriever of corporateloyalty. I was sipping so much Kool-Aid I could have sworn the Kool-Aid

guy was following me around just to make sure I had enough Kool-Aid to

drink.

I got to work early and I left late. I worked weekends and I never cut

corners. I set up social events when no one else would. I was available

24/7 for my boss to contact me. I worked twice as hard as everyone else. I

was the ideal employee. Everyone loved me. I did whatever my boss told

me to do. I could do no wrong. I was the go-to guy.

On one particular occasion, it was time to discuss our performance

evaluations and raises. I thought for sure my work ethic and my loyalty

would get me the highest performance rating and the biggest raise. After

all, the people I took care of were going to take care of me in return. I had

it all figured out.

Then I got a meets expectation rating and a measly 2.1% raise. The

reasoning behind this: The economy was bad, and I needed to work on my

functional industry skills. That was it. All of those pages upon pages of

self-evaluation I filled out for my performance review really didnt matter.

That whole year I had hustled beyond belief, and dont forget about how

loyal I was!


18/45

Another year, I did whatever a manager wanted from me. I then found out

that I was actually hurting my career by being so helpful. How about that

time when I had worked until 3 a.m. 2 weeks straight to complete a

project no sane person could complete on time given so few resources? Or

what about that time I took an international flight to help with a project

on a days notice? That must have translated into a huge raise right? A giftcard, right? Nope, nothing.

Hell, I would have even taken a $20 gift card to Olive Garden. Do you

know how many unlimited breadsticks I can get with $20? Nothing says,

we appreciate your hard work like a gift card to Olive Garden. Come on,

you know you love Olive Garden because of the unlimited breadsticks and

never ending salad. Its OK to admit your weaknesses.

Loyalty doesnt matter. It doesnt matter one bit. What matters the most is

that you get the right work done for the right people. I also found that it

actually doesnt matter how long you work. No one will give you a better

raise if you work late for 2 weeks straight.

Loyalty should be earned, not implied

Ive learned to be loyal to the people I work with and not the company I

work for. There are a handful of people who have earned my loyalty:

The director who immediately honored my last-minute request to

not join a project for personal reasons.

The career counselor who found me a position in the company that

allowed me to stop traveling and work from home. This also

resulted in me losing her as a counselor as well as her having to

replace my spot on the project.


19/45

The executive who lobbied to get me an office when everyone else

wanted me to sit in a cubicle (a small example, but representative

of the types of things he did over a long period).

I found 3 people who have proven that they are willing to go out of their

way to help me even if the result is detrimental to their goals.

This doesnt mean I hate or dont trust everyone else I worked with. My

mentality is that I trust everyone I meet until they prove to me they

shouldnt be trusted. I have gotten burned MANY times by adopting this

way of thinking, but I still think its the right approach.


20/45

Action Plan: MeetsExpectations NeverFelt So Good

I'm going to ask you something that might seem contradictory to

everything youve ever learned. Everything you have ever been taught is

that to succeed you need to give 110% effort. Get to work early, leave late;

do the jobs that no one else wants to do; be the leader when everyone else

is following. Lead by example.

I want you to stopdoing all of that. Stop showing up to work earlier than

everyone else. Show up on time and leave on time.

Dont do the jobs no one else wants to do. Do the job you were hired to do.

Dont lead when everyone else is following. Let someone else lead this

time.

Stop saying yes to every work assignment that comes to you. Learn to say

no. Better yet, learn to avoid situations where people ask you to do more

work.

Stop offering new suggestions to improve a process.

Stop coming through the front door. Come through the back door and be

as invisible as possible.

While youre at it, take that stupid inspirational quote off your cubicle,

too. Newsflash, youre not Winston Churchill. Youre a miserable worker

who currently has no idea what to do with your life. For god sakes, look at

what you are reading right now.


21/45

Today is the day you actively pursue mediocrity in your current job and

youre going to love every second of it.

I'm asking you to work as if you wanted a B on your report card. I want

you try your hardest to NOT get an A on your year-end report card. In the

corporate world, the report card is the year-end performance review.

My biggest fear when I was on the receiving end of a performance review

was receiving a "you did everything we asked for and more. That's why

were giving you an 8/10" rating.

Human Resources call this rating a "meets expectations."

Here's how a typical meeting would go during my performance

evaluation:

Me: Did I do everything I asked you to do?

Boss: Yes.

Me: Didn't I do a few things that went above and beyond my

expectations?

Boss: Yes.

Me: Didn't I make your life easier by being loyal to you and the

company?

Boss: Yes.

Me: So, after all that I all I get a "meets expectations."

Boss: Yes! You have done a fantastic job and I want you to keep

up the good work. Don't change anything.


22/45

Me: Humor me for a second. What did I need to do to achieve a

"exceeds expectations rating?"

Boss: You could have done blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and

don't forget about blah blah blah blah. Take Jennifer as an

example. She did a lot of blah blah blah blah.

I would stop listening after I asked that question. I knew whatever came

out of my boss's mouth didn't matter and to be honest, I didn't care. I just

spent a year doing everything I could do and more, and all I got was a

"meets expectations." I felt cheated. I felt I deserved more. I would always

leave early after my performance evaluations.

The fact is, in most corporations a "meets expectations" rating is a GOOD

rating and viewed positively.

It means youre doing exactly what they told you. If you look at a bell

curve, meets expectation is the top of the bell curve and the "exceeds

expectations and below expectations" are at the end of the spectrum. So if

you receive a "meets expectations" you should be happy. Right?

So why is it every time I received a meets expectations rating I wanted to

punch someone in the face?

To me, "meets expectations" meant that I failed. To my boss and human

resources, "meets expectations" meant I was doing a good job.

This is actually great news for you. You can do what you perceive as a

mediocre job and your employer will be satisfied with your work.

Kind of like the series finale of the TV show Breaking Bad (Dont worry,

no spoiler alert), the ending of the show was satisfying. It didnt blow me

away with complete awe and shock, but it didnt disappoint me either.


23/45

It satisfied me. I was content with the ending. When it was done, I moved

on.

Your employer should feel the same way about your work: Satisfied.

Why pursue mediocrity?

All of the above activities require energy of some sorts for you to do. If yousuggest a new process to make something more efficient, guess who gets

to implement that new process? You do! This takes time and energy.

In order to achieve career freedom, the first step is to limit the amount of

energy you spend on something that doesn't get you closer to your career

goals.

It's the difference between working until 9 p.m. to put additional finishing

touches on a task and leaving at 6 p.m. when it was done and meeting up

with old colleagues for dinner.

It's the difference between enjoying your weekend doing what you enjoy

and working the weekend because you weren't able to finish all of your

tasks during the week.

You need a B on your report card. Thats it. Not a B+, and not a B-. You

just need to shoot for the 3.0.

But Robbie, I'm not the type of person that goes for B's. I either go hard or

go home!

A's take a lot of work, energy and dedication. A typical student who gets

A's in every single class often has no time for anything else. If your goal is

to keep advancing in your current company and to achieve greatness in

your company, then you probably should be reading something else.

What do I do with all this new energy?


24/45

In the following chapters I will tell you exactly where you can spend this

new energy on. You just need to know it wont be on your current job. It

will be on activities that YOU want to do and actively get you to where

YOU want to be.

How to make this a reality: Act like an independent consultant

An independent consultant is a person who is self employed and gets paid

by working at other companies on a contract. An independent consultant

is unique in the sense that they can work on one client or multiple clients

simultaneously, but its their responsibility to find clients to work on. If

they dont have a client, they dont get paid. Its that simple.

Achieving this goal is a big task and requires a different frame of mind.

Here is what you need to tell yourself:

You are no longer Michael Smith the full-time employee of Acme

Corporation. You are now Michael Smith, the independent consultant

who was contracted to perform a specific set of activities. Acme

Corporation is no longer your full-time employer; it is your client who

pays you for every hour that you work. You have a 6-month contract with

Acme Corporation in which they pay you for 40 hours of your time each

week. Any time worked outside of these 40 hours must be pre-approved

by the client.

Heres the difference between the full-time employee and the independent

consultant.

Michael Smith, full-time employee:

Hired to perform one activity, often gets involved in many

other activities not specifically related to job function

Jack of all trades, master of none


25/45

Expected to work all day and night, including weekends even

if the work doesnt require it

Pay is based on salary, not value of his services

Attends all required employee meetings, whether they directly

pertain to his work or not

Has a secure job for a successful company and doesnt need to

look for next gig

Doesnt take responsibility for something that went wrong if it

wasnt his fault

Michael Smith, independent consultant:

Hired to perform one activity. Contractually not allowed to

work on other work specifically not defined in the

Statement of Work (SOW)

Master of a specific function; Knows a little bit of

everything else, but is known for his specific function skill

Expected to complete the deliverable based on agreed

hours in the SOW If he goes over those hours, it will

require more difficult conversations and approvals in

budget to perform those activities

Hourly rate is determined on how valuable his specific skill

is and how important his skill is to the organization

Attends few to no company meetings so he can focus on

what he was contracted to do

Forced to continually look for new gigs and maintain his

relationships with other companies to see what

opportunities they have coming up

Will stop getting paid once this contract ends, so is always

thinking 2 steps ahead and planning for next gig


26/45

Takes responsibility for something that went wrong, even if

it was the clients fault. Puts an action plan together to fix

the issue and fixes the issue once the plan is approved.

See the difference between the 2? They were both hired to do one thing,

however one person ends up getting pulled in a million directions while

the independent consultant has a clear vision on what his job is.

The full-time employee Michael Smith has more stability than the

independent consultant. But since he doesnt have to look for new jobs, he

isnt expanding his network and forming new relationships.

Control your workload

A big part of this months exercise is to control your workload and youre

probably thinking easy for you to say Robbie. And youre right.

Everyones situation is different.

Some of you have jobs where you are a do-er and youre constantly

doing work.

Advice that sucks (Rant)

I read an article recently that said, If you want to control your workload

all you have to do is organize, analyze, manage time and delegate! Well

thank you for telling me absolutely nothing.

I could write an article that says How to Fly to the Moon

1. Raise $100 million from investors

2. Hire smart team

3. Build spaceship

4. Launch spaceship


27/45

Well, that was easy! Im so glad someone told me this! Before I thought I

could build a spaceship with my next-door neighbor and $300! Better get

back to the drawing board!

Let me tell you why this article has useless advice.

Organize How many times have you organized your cubicle, office,

folder setup, etc. and then the next day everything is back to mayhem

because everything around you is mayhem? How can you organize

yourself when everything around you is pure craziness?

Analyze You want me to analyze what the quick wins are when Pam

from finance keeps stopping by my desk to help her with a task that Ive

taught her how to do 15 times already?

Manage Time Maybe if IT did their job for once I could do my tasks inregular intervals, but instead Im dealing with systems not working or

being down every week.

Delegate Ahhh yes the Do what you can do and delegate everything

else advice. I tried delegating that work to Pam, and I ended up doing

twice as much work fixing her mistakes.

Here has what helped me dramatically control my workload, while

consistently making others happy with the work I deliver. Im going to let

you in on a little secret:

Controlling your workload has nothing to do with you. It has

everything to do with controlling everything around you!

You dont have to have decision-making power or management authority

to control your surroundings. But what you do have is the power to set

expectations.


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Let me ask you something. How many people in your workplace know

exactly what you accomplished every hour in the day? Does your manager

know everything that you do? How often do you go a full day or 2 days

without interacting with your manager?

The reality is although you report to one manager, youre often doing

activities for many people and many teams at once.

You ever walk out of the office and think, What the hell did I do today?

If youre like everyone else, this happens daily.

So, if you are unable to determine what you did today, that means that

everyone else is unable to determine what you did today including your

manager.

Following me yet? Others perception of you is based on their limited

interaction with you.

Your managers perception is based on tasks that you complete that she

deems to be important.

Your co-workers on your team base their perception on tasks that they

need you to complete.

The project manager from another team bases his perception of you on

the timeliness and completeness of the tasks that you complete for him

every few weeks.

The biggest misconception that employees have is if they dont work 60

hours a week, they wont be able to get work done.

Let me clue you on something. 40 hours a week is a made-up number.

Someone came up with this magic here is the # of hours that I believe

everyone should work a week.

Here is what I do:


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Over communicate.I communicate status on something that I dont

have to on a daily basis. If I was supposed to finish something and I cant

finish it on time, I let them know very simply that I cant get it done

because of other commitments, then propose another date to get it done

by.

Over communicating signals that I have all my work under control and

reduces anxiety of people waiting for you to get work done. It also reduces

the chance that a delayed issue gets raised to your manager.

Send end of week reports to my manager(s) I end every week

with what I accomplished that week. I always end the week on a good

note. This is a bonus if your manager never asked for it.

Be amazingly quick on responses I adopted the 5 sentences or less

policy. If I can answer a question in less than 2 minutes and type less than5 sentences, I answer it right away.

Resist the urge to reply back to emails that dont need your

input If the email doesnt start off with addressing you specifically,

then there is an 80-90% chance you dont need to reply back to it.

Replying takes energy, and most of the time the person who the email is

addressed to is the person responsible for answering. If that person wants

to ask you a question, then they will ask you. Until then, keep your mouth

shut and move on to the next email.

Estimate how long a task should take and multiply that number

by 3.This is a trick used by software developers because in theory a task

should only take a specific amount of time. But these estimates are

normally done as if you live in a bubble and dont have outside influences

that delay when a task can get completed. The system is down, Pam keeps

bothering you, an unexpected urgent task lands on your desk, etc.


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So if someone sends you a task that should take you 1 hour that you can

start on Tuesday morning, the number you communicate is that it will

take you 3 hours and you will get it done in 2 days on Thursday.

If you get it done on Tuesday, then you beat their expectations and you

signal that you have your work under control. The mistake many make is

that they say they can get it done by EOD Monday and dont actually get it

done until Wednesday.

Of course there are some tasks that just cant wait any longer that you

have to do immediately, but if you planned everything else properly you

leave yourself time to meet the urgent request while meeting everything

else.

Be absolutely relentless about controlling scope of projects.

In the project management world this is called scope creep. Scope

creep (also called requirement creep and feature creep) in project

management refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a

project's scope.

No matter how defined the processes are and how smart the people on the

team are, scope creep is bound to happen on every project.

If you are involved with big projects, you know how these projects can

quickly get out of hand.

If youre managing a project or part of a project, heres the easiest thing

you can do.

I manage projects with 3 points of emphasis.

1. Get the disagreements and confusion out of the way as soon as

possible. Do not wait one second to bring up an important topic

that can become a hindrance later on.


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2. Nice to have vs. must have. Too often people request things that

are nice to have and you spend all your time on the nice-to-have

things that are impossible to do and you mess up the must haves.

Focus on must haves and be relentless about this topic. On a

whiteboard, create 2 columns must have and nice to have. If

you start there, it can dramatically change the course of a project.3. Deliver consistently. If you agreed to a certain timeline, make sure

you stick to it. This is why I almost never agree to an accelerated

timeline if I dont feel its realistic.

Here are specific activities that will help you with this challenge:

1) No reading email before or after work hours for one full

week.

If you leave at 5:30 p.m. and you get an email at 5:31 p.m., answer it first

thing in the morning.

If you cant get away with not reading emails, you can read, but dont

respond until youre at work.

2) Do not eat lunch at your desk!

No more getting food and eating food at your desk while you work and

answer emails or browse web mindlessly. Eat in the kitchen in your office,

cafeteria or somewhere outside. Eat anywhere but your desk.

Use the full hour of lunch.

3) Say No to any large tasks that arent your responsibility and take

significant time away from completing the tasks your client hired you to

do.


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You want to do your original job the best way possible. You dont want

other things to interrupt what youre working on.

If you cant say no, figure out a way to delegate the work or schedule it so

it wont be done until you have the time to do it.

The power of setting expectations: How to go from working 60

hours a week to 40 by sending 2 emails a week.

Im convinced 95% of cubicle workers who work over 60 hours a week

constantly can cut it down to 40-45 hours by sending 2 emails a week to

their boss:

Email #1: What you plan on getting done this week

Email #2: What you actually got done this week

Thats it. These 2 emails will prevent you from working 60 hours a week,

while improving your relationship with your boss and getting the best

work youve ever done.

Heres what Email #1 looks like:

Subject: My plan for the week

Jane,

After reviewing my activities here is my plan for the week in order

of priority. Let me know if you think I should re-prioritize:

Planned Major Activities for the week

1) Complete project charter for X Project

2) Finish the financial analysis report that was started last

week


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3) Kick off Project X requires planning and prep

documentation creation. Scheduled for Thursday.

Open items that I will look into, but wont get finished

this week

1)

Coordinate activities for year-end financial close

2) Research Y product for our shared service team

Let me know if you have any comments. Thank you!

Robbie

But Robbie, my boss is the one that assigns me the work! He obviously

knows what Im working on! Why would I send him this email?

You are so wrong you disgust me. Seriously I want to throw up. OK, not

seriously but let me clue you in on a little secret. Your boss barely has an

idea of what he is spending his time on let alone knows what YOU are

working on. How self-centered of you to think he knows everything youre

spending your time on at work.

Tips for email #1:

Limit yourself to schedule 40 hours of planned work.

But Robbie, I have at least 60 hours of work to do. How in the world am I

going to do it in 40 hours now? Thats impossible; you have no idea how

busy our group is right now.

Take a look at my sample email #1. Did you break down your tasks into

Must be done vs. Nice to be done or did you put everything into the must

be done category?


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Did you schedule yourself for 60 hours a week or did your boss schedule

you for 60 hours of week? I want you to think about this.

Your bosss responsibility is to assign you work that you should complete.

It is not your bosss responsibility to also help you manage your workload.

Thats YOUR job!

Think again. Where did this thought of you have 60 hours of work to do

come from? Did it come from your boss, or did it come from you?

I didnt believe you had 60 hours of work to do, and neither should you.

Robbie, Im being honest with you. I have at least 60 hours of work to do.

I work non-stop and I work through lunch. Ive tried your stupid little

categorization trick too, and it doesnt work. My workload just isnt going

to get any lighter any time soon. Im pretty sure you live in this fantasy

world where you can tell your boss that you would only like to work 40

hours a week and hell be happy with it. I am THAT busy and my boss

EXPECTS me to work non-stop.

OK, OK. I believe you. Ive been there. But before I accept that there is

nothing you can do, let me ask you one question:

Lets say on Wednesday afternoon, a family emergency pops up and it

forces you to take the rest of the week off immediately until the upcoming

Monday. Everything you were working on Wednesday came to a halt.

Meetings were cancelled and deliverable dates were missed. The rest of

your workweek was ruined.

What happens on Monday morning when you come back to the office?

Are your files still there? Do you still have a job? Are your co-workers still

there?


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What about the deliverables that were due on Thursday that you couldnt

complete and you were the only one that knew how to complete it?

Did the building burn down because you couldnt complete them? Im

guessing none of this happened.

On Monday morning, you picked up exactly where you left off and guess

what: Everything was OK. The deliverables are late, but its OK because

everyone knew you had a family emergency to take care of. Expectations

were set and because of your family emergency, you could not complete

the deliverables. So, in reality the deliverables were never late because you

set expectations that you couldnt finish them. New expectations were set

on when you could deliver them.

Take that same exact scenario and replace a family emergency with youjust disappearing for 3 days without telling anyone where you went.

How does that change your Monday morning when you arrive?

It will probably end up something like this.

Because you didnt complete your deliverables you messed up everyones

schedule! They relied on you, and you just ruined it! They waited every

day to get the files and you never sent it. Now youre working extra hours

because everyone is waiting on you. What a huge disappointment you are.

Expectations are powerful. Instead of a family emergency, set

expectations on Monday morning and watch how everyone around you

adapts to YOUR schedule. Watch how your 60-hour week turns into a 40-

hour week and nobody will notice a thing.


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The better you are setting expectations at Monday morning, the easier

your life becomes. If you plan for 40 hours, you can get your planned

work done in 40 hours and nobody will complain that you arent working

60 hours. In fact, you have made everyone elses life easier because they

can now plan around you!

Email #2 on Friday: What you got done this week.

It looks something like this:

Completed this week

Completed X Report

Started the planning for the big project

Finished the month-end analysis and sent to financial

controller for review

Created a first draft of the project charter, which is currently

being reviewed by Project Manager Z

Open items

I have some questions about the start date of Y Project, but

should get confirmation by Tuesday morning

We need X Report signed off by EOD next Wednesday. Canyou follow up with Jane to get this signed off?

That is all for now. Have a great weekend.

Robbie

This Friday report is so simple and effective; its amazing that people just

leave on Friday without sending this report.


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This report does 2 things very well: It provides closure to the week and

gives your manager an idea of what you can complete in a week. In other

words, it sets expectations!

Tips for Email #2

Focus on what you completed first and open issues second.

Always end Friday on a good note. If you have issues bring that up on

Monday morning. Dont stress your boss out all week, and it will stress

you out as well.

FAQ

Question:My boss is a non-stop worker and expects me to work at all

times of the day.

Answer:Does he really expect you to work at all times during the day or

are you assuming he expects you to work these hours? Just because he

sends you an email at 9 p.m. doesnt mean he expects you or needs you to

respond back at 9:30 p.m.

Question:What if what I had planned on getting done on Monday isnt

close to what I actually completed on Friday?

Answer:So basically you are like everyone else. Be honest to your boss.

Let her know that this is what you wanted to get done, but here is what

got done instead. She will appreciate your honesty.

Question:Im the only one who can do my job and because of this Im

working extra hours. If I didnt, I would let everyone down.

Answer: This is a trick I learned during consulting when I found my

workload to be unimaginable: I took a planned vacation and made sure

everyone knew that I wasnt going be available.


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This situation will trigger your boss and co-workers to learn everything

about your job as much as possible so that they can do it while you are

gone.

Now, when you get back, you arent the only person who knows how to do

your job. It will reduce the tension on your activities because know you

have a back up!

Question: I actually enjoy working 60 hours a week and I like that I can

get more work done in a week than someone who only works 40 hours.

Answer: Nothing wrong with that at all. Good for you. Just know that

there is scientific evidence that people who work excessive hours are more

likely to create mistakes and be more inefficient1

1 http://lifehacker.com/working-long-hours-is-hazardous-to-your-health-

and-your-1542562871


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Everything You Needto Know About

Performance Appraisals

Performance appraisals are a necessary evil in many companies. They are

usually held at least once a year or sometimes twice a year, but never

more than that.

There are some companies such as Adobe that have completely gotten rid

of performance appraisals.

The hardest part about performance appraisals for many (myself

included) is that this is a completely anxious driven event. I have neverreceived a bad rating in the history of all of my performance appraisals,

but why is it that when the performance appraisal meeting is done, I feel

like getting out of the office immediately and going for the longest walk of

mankind?

Evidence shows that after certain types of performance appraisals, it

actually negatively affected employee morale.


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While objectively it may seem perfectly fine in a job to meet

expectations, the reality was (with two levels above this grade)

many employees felt like they were receiving a C, not an A or

B. And good hard-working employees never like to feel like C

students. Despite considerable management communication on

the topic, many employees still felt like they were getting Cs, andthat bred discontent. 2

3

2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2012/07/19/the-pros-and-cons-of-forced-rankings-a-managers-perspective/3 http://www.hazards.org/stress/workplacetyranny.htm


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However, in this months exercise you are focused on achieving a meets

expectation rating. A meets expectations rating is a GOOD thing.

So when you have this meeting, and your manager gives you a meets

expectations rating, you should have the biggest smile on your face

because this is what you wanted.

Getting laid off

A good friend of mine was laid off twice within a few years, and each time

he was the top sales person for the Midwest region, which is no small feat.

One time the company wasnt doing well, so they laid off an entire

department while they figured other things out.

One time the company was doing extremely well, but decided the Midwestregion wasnt their focus so they sold it to another company who then

promptly laid off everyone.

The major lesson in this story is that a great performance appraisal or

your teams performance does not shelter you from getting fired.

How often do layoffs happen?

According to the BLS, 4 in 2012 there were 6,500 occurrences of

companies laying off more than 50 people at a time. In 2012, this equated

to 1.25 million workers being let go.

What reasons do companies give for laying employees off?

4 http://www.bls.gov/mls/mlsreport1043.pdf


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As you can tell from the below chart the 2 major reasons are seasonal

workers and business demand, which is just code word for we really

didnt need this department anymore.

In reality, a layoff can sometimes be seen from a mile away and

sometimes it comes out of nowhere. Nobody is immune to layoffs. It can

happen for any rhyme or reason. The key is to be prepared.

What states have the highest number of mass layoff events?

California leads this category by a landslide. Of the 6,500 mass layoffs,

they accounted for 1/3 of them, 2,141 to be exact. New York had 441 and

Illinois had 430.

What industries had the highest number of mass layoff events?

Fifteen of 18 major industry sectors registered over-the-year increases in

the numbers of separations in 2012, with the largest increases coming

from the information, administrative and waste services and retail trade

sectors. Among all sectors, firms in administrative and waste services

accounted for the largest number of separations due to extended mass

layoffs in 2012. This represents the first occurrence in the mass layoffs

program history that an industry other than manufacturing has recorded

the greatest number of worker separations (annual data began in 1996.)


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Case Study: GettingRid of the

PerformanceEvaluation

Its not a secret that Im not a big fan of performance reviews.

The good news is that Im not alone. Adobe Corporation got rid of

performance reviews! 5

Morris quickly zeroed in on Adobe's performance-review process.

Each year, in the aftermath of the process, she had witnessed a

significant increase in attrition. Coupling that yearly increase in

voluntary departures with an annual survey in which employees

routinely expressed their disdain for the performance-review

process left Morris understandably worried.

Man, Im not alone! As I mentioned before, I wanted to punch someone in

the face after almost every single performance review.

5 http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534355695&


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A 2012 survey by San Francisco-based rewards and recognition

consulting firm Achievers found 98 percent of 645 HR managers

believe yearly evaluations are not useful. And nearly 60 percent

of HR executives give their own performance-management

systems a grade of C or below, according to

the WorldatWork/Sibson 2010 Study on The State ofPerformance Management, which reflected the insights of 750

senior level HR professionals.

Wait, what! Youre telling me that 98% of the 645 HR managers believe

that the yearly evaluations arent useful! So, they areself-aware!

So if Adobe got rid of performance reviews, what did they replace it with?

According to Wikipedia, they have over 11,000 employees and 4 billion inrevenue yearly. Thats a big company to just get rid of something so

traditional.

If managers were skilled and effective in their day-to-day

communication and leadership abilities, there wouldn't be any

need for formal performance reviews, says Lawler. The benefits

would have already been realized through ongoing feedback,

guidance, goal-setting, and development activities

Go on

"In a traditional performance review, the employee listens until

he hears the rating and then tunes out because he's doing the

calculation in his head about how that will affect his bonus," says

Carlin. "You never get to any true, honest, candid, constructive

feedback because they are so focused on whether he got the

rating he expected."


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DUDE. Is this guy in my head right now? I did this EXACT thing. All I

could think to myself when my manager was giving my performance

evaluation was wondering what my bonus was!

But, OK. I think I know where the article is heading.

HR enlisted Expedia's executive team to conduct town-hall

meetings in which they explained the new process, which

required each manager to have informal one-on-one

conversations with employees, with a heavy focus on

development and career-pathing, either weekly or bi-weekly.

Wait a minute here. Isnt this what an independent consultant does?

Constant communication with a heavy focus on what you accomplished

and, and planning whats next?

I think Adobe is on to something here. Ill forgive them for creating Adobe

PDF Reader that needs to be updated 500 times every week. I wish they

would switch Adobe PDF Reader to yearly reviews instead of weekly.

Har har har.

Over at Adobe, the company's no-performance reviews approach

has only been in place a few months, but Morris is convinced the

company is on the right track. In addition to saving Adobe

approximately 80,000 hours each year, eliminating formal

performance reviews has also had a positive impact on a number

of key indicators.

I take everything back I said badly about Adobe.

I heart Adobe.

I just wish I didnt have to update my Adobe reader every 2 weeks. Is that

too much to ask?

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