he had a sign which said:
No job
too small.
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Not Personal, Not Impersonal
Swanson’s Unwritten Rules
A few years a CEO called Bill Swanson ago wrote down what he claimed were the 33 unwritten rules of business. Of course they have now become known as Swanson’s Unwritten Rules which seems a bit silly.
Although there is a little management-speak in there the points seem to actually be really right on the nose. And pretty interesting.
One of the rules has risen above the rest and is now often used by CEOs to rate their managers it is rule 32: A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person.
Its a long list but worth it:
SWANSON’S UNWRITTEN RULES
1: Learn to say, ‘I don’t know.’ If used when appropriate, it will be used often.
2: It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.
3: If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much
4: Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what’s there; few can see what isn’t there.
5: Presentation rule: When something appears on a slide presentation, assume the world knows about it and deal with it accordingly.
6. Work for a boss to whom you can tell it like it is. Remember, you can’t pick your family, but you can pick your boss.
7: Constantly review developments to make sure that the actual benefits are what they were supposed to be. Avoid Newton’s Law.
8: However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best effort.
9: Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement or indifference. Don’t be known as a good starter but a poor finisher!
10: In doing your project, don’t wait for others; go after them and make sure it gets done.
11: Confirm the instructions you give others, and their commitments, in writing. Don’t assume it will get done.
12: Don’t be timid: Speak up, express yourself and promote your ideas.
13: Practice shows that those who speak the most knowingly and confidently often end up with the assignment to get the job done.
14: Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15: Be extremely careful in the accuracy of your statements.
16: Don’t overlook the fact that you are working for a boss. Keep him or her informed. Whatever the boss wants, within the bounds of integrity, takes top priority.
17: Promises, schedules and estimates are important instruments in a well-run business. You must make promises — don’t lean on the often-used phrase: “I can’t estimate it because it depends on many uncertain factors.”
18: Never direct a complaint to the top; a serious offense is to “cc” a person’s boss on a copy of a complaint before the person has a chance to respond to the complaint.
19: When interacting with people outside the company, remember that you are always representing the company. Be especially careful of your commitments.
20: Cultivate the habit of boiling matters down to the simplest terms: the proverbial “elevator speech” is the best way.
21: Don’t get excited in engineering emergencies: Keep your feet on the ground.
22: Cultivate the habit of making quick, clean-cut decisions.
23: When making decisions, the “pros” are much easier to deal with than the “cons.” Your boss wants to see both.
24: Don’t ever lose your sense of humor.
25: Have fun at what you do. It will be reflected in you work. No one likes a grump except another grump!
26: Treat the name of your company as if it were your own.
27: Beg for the bad news.
28: You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100% of what you feel.
29: You can’t polish a sneaker.
30: When facing issues or problems that are becoming drawn-out, “short them to the ground.”
31: When faced with decisions, try to look at them as if you were one level up in the organization. Your perspective will change quickly.
32: A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person. (This rule never fails).
33: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, an amateur built an ark that survived a flood while a large group of professionals built the Titanic!
Postscript: The qualities of leadership boil down to confidence, dedication, integrity and love.
So I may have started another blog
I’ve decided to start a blog about Formula 1 here:
The reason for the seperate blog is to keep the F1 posts on here to a minimum. I hope you enjoy it.
Apparently all of these have appeared in church newsletters
1. The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
2. The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”
3. Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
4. The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
5. Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say “Hell” to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
6. Don’t let worry kill you off, let the Church help.
7. Miss Charlene Mason sang “I will not pass this way again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
8. For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
9. Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
10. The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: “Break Forth Into Joy.”
11. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
12. A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
13. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be “What Is Hell?” Come early and listen to our choir practice.
14. Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
15. Scouts are saving aluminium cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
16. Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
17. The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
18. Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00pm. Prayer and medication to follow.
19. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
20. This evening at 7pm there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
21. Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10am. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
22. The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
23. Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7pm. Please use the back door.
24. The primary 7’s will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7pm. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy
Why did the dog say ruff?
Because someone asked him how he felt.
After the demise of his football career Sol Campbell…
After the demise of his football career Sol Campbell trains to become a vet. On his first day he is called out to a local farm where two cows and two horses are about to give birth. The first cow goes into lengthy labour, meanwhile within minutes the two horses go into labour. Sol tends to the two horses but due to schoolboy errors he messes up and both newborns sadly die. After 45 minutes the first cow gives birth and sol promptly picks up his coat and gets ready to leave. “Where are you going?” asked the baffled farmer to which sol replies “I was badly at fault for the two foals so I’m not staying for the second calf”!
If you don’t understand this joke you may want to see this article.
A new job at the zoo
A bloke starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks.
First is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds. As he does this a huge fish jumps out and bites him. To show who is boss he beats it to death with a spade. Realising his employer won’t be best pleased , he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything.
Moving on to the second job of clearing out the Chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts. He swipes at two chimps with a spade killing them both. What can he do? Feed them to the lions, he says to himself, because lions eat anything. He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure.
He moves on to the last job which is to collect honey from the South American Bees. As soon as he starts he is attacked by the bees. He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp. By now he knows what to do and throws them into the lions cage because lions eat anything.
Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo. He wanders up to another lion and says “What’s the food like here?”
The lion says : “Absolutely brilliant, today we had Fish and Chimps with Mushy Bees!!”
I hate to say I told you so
The Senate Committe on Commerce, Science and Transportation is considering ammending the 1996 telecomunications act in the states to end “network neutrality”. This would allow telcos to charge you a different rate depending on the kinds of things you do on the net. Eg. Pay more if you’re using VoIP or filesharing.
I talked about the VoIP thing in this article: Why iTalk?
Bill Thompson talks more about, Why the net should stay neutral on his BBC blog.
Why iTalk?
The great thing about VoIP is that it has changed the way I use my computer. Not just by having me be able to talk to people on my computer an act which might be considered to render my computer as just a telephone for that time. But I now am able to enjoy the phenomenon of shared browsing.
Basically you and a friend are both looking at similar sites on the web, totally able to browse independently. And whenever you see something interesting you call out about it. You describe it, and then you send the link over. Because the phone call is free, it doesn’t matter if there is extended silence. You’re just getting on with stuff, and then when you see something interesting you send the link and chat about what you’ve seen, but you don’t have to stop looking at new pages to do it (like you used to in typed chat).
The big problem is the future of VoIP. What is skype’s end game? Maximum usage of the system would mean no business plan, because everyone would be online and there will be no need to dial out at the other end.
More and more isp’s are providing VoIP applications and implementations of their own. Any why is this? Because soon enough there will be a port blocking equivelent. Remember back in the day when you could change to any isp you wanted but you could only send e-mail from your web address if you were logged in to that isp? Well, that will be VoIP soon I think. You will only be able to make calls with your own ISPs software so the revenue stream is intact.
You know you’re in trouble when…
you start to wonder if the mint from one more Mojito would mean you won’t have to brush your teeth in the morning.
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