Anyone here have employees? I remembered today a little pearl of wisdom a great manager shared with me.

He demonstrated it when someone in our organization came up to him in a panic to ask what they should do about a puzzling situation.

1) 'What are your options?' he inquired.

She then gave a list of things that she could do to remedy the situation.

2) 'Which do you think you should do?' He then asked her.

She thought for a moment & told him which option she thought would work best.

Then he said, 'okay, let's do that,' and he sent her on her way to solve the problem. This was his way of empowering her. I guarantee it didn't take her too many times of asking him questions like this to realize she already had the answers within her.

The following week I came up to him and asked him a question about what I should do. He asked me, 'what are your options?' I smiled, turned around and went off to solve the problem on my own.

Over the years I have found this to be a good two point check list for solving problems in business. Hopefully it helps you and yours as well.

p.s. try it on your kids!

"Better that this is happening to me than someone else who couldn't handle it."

I remember that was what I used to say to myself when I ran into difficult times when selling books door-to-door out of college. I would say it to remind myself that I am a strong person. If I was trying to finish up an 80 hour work week, it was pouring down rain, no one was buying, my bike had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere then that was the response I used. I would say it to avoid having a pitty party for myself.

If you have the 'why me' attitude about life then bad things will always happen to you. Is that the whole truth? The truth is things will happen to you. How you perceive it is a result of your attitude. How you handle it is a result of your perception. If you welcome adversity & see it as a challenge; if you take it on and strive to overcome you will always come out on top.

I usually keep this one to myself but with all of the talk of favorite quotes going around I thought I might share.

Here's my favorite quote:
“Expect nothing from everyone and everything from myself.”

I hesitate to put this quotation at the bottom of my email signatures because it lets people know I have no expectations of them to do what they say they will do. The fact is they often don't. When reading this quote you either take it as, ‘okay so I’m off the hook with this guy,’ or ‘of course you can expect the best from me too!’

I believe everything we do is based on a decision, conscious or subconscious. We chose to do what we do and be the way we are. Our moods are rarely dictated by out chemical imbalances but rather by our attitude. If you are tired it is because you decided to get how much sleep you did or decided not to exercise & keep your body performing well. You can trace any situation you are in through a chain of events based on decisions you made. It’s all about responsibility and accountability .