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Life, the Universe, and Everything*

     Musings from Linda and LUE-42 Enterprises   

Upcoming Events   JULY

JULY is Independent Retailer Month. Support a local merchant!
1 -- Canada Day
7 -- Global Forgiveness Day
11 -- World Population Day (UN)
16 -- Corn Fritters Day
24 -- Cousins Day
28 -- World Hepatitis Day (WHO)
30 -- Intern'l Day of Friendship (UN)

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Shout Out!

   

A big thanks to some who made my life better in June 

 

 Bonnie Andriachuk

Steph Baran

Shirley Borrelli 

Lori Bursey

Linda Cochrane

Tim Essington

Alana Gueutel

Dianne Johnstone 

Karen MacKenzie

Dwayne Mandrusiak  

Ernie Paustian 

Paul Rechner 

Holly Rose 

Lori Schmidt

Wanda Stephens 

Dave Sutherland 

Esther West  

 

Websites/Links  

 

CSAE's new BoardReady newsletter (Great discussion Qs for your board) 

Click Here 

 

David Zinn (Amazing chalk art to make you smile)

Click Here  

 

100 Ready Made Compliments (from Happier.com)

Click Here 

 

How to make a paper wallet (I love this idea)

Click Here 

 

Watch a pair of Fluevog shoes "The Miracle" be made

Click Here  

 

LUE-42 Enterprises  

7 Things to do When Life Throws You a Curveball   

35 Expensive Things You Need When You're a Millionaire 

Heard in the Board Room

Reader Notes

 

Wish I'd said that...

 

Books by Moi   

 

Understanding Bylaws: A Guide for Directors of Not-For-Profit Organizations

ISBN 978-0-9866030-0-6

 

 Exceptional Board Members, Exception Boards 

ISBN 978-0-9866030-1-3

    

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Issue: #53                                 

July 2015

    


              

    June always starts rather calm and pleasant, but then (in my experience at least) everyone freaks out because they want to complete everything before summer. This is even more true of not-for-profit boards who want to avoid punishing their volunteers with meetings over the summer. So Executive Directors and Presidents try to anticipate anything that could come up by getting it on an agenda before June 30. I guess I am the person that takes on all that angst so every one else can calm down in July. 
     In my life June is also when old friends want to catch up for that coffee or lunch, and I want to say YES to all of them! In fact, I do say yes and that means my mornings, noons, nights, and weekends are committed. I am grateful of course, but some day I really must figure out how to spread out all this goodness so I'm not rushing from one dear friend to the next.
     June, of course, saw the new season commence for my beloved Canadian Football League. I attended as many days of Eskimos training camp as I could, although not as many as I'd have liked. One of my favourite drills to watch is the D-Line with the "Football-on-a-stick." For no good reason, that drill delights me. So imagine my surprise when I after the June 27 game I was presented with the object of my joy:



     Yes, I know I'm trying to downsize and declutter, but it's a FOOTBALL-ON-A-STICK, for heaven's sake! I cannot live a full and happy life without it! So my heartfelt thanks to Paul and Dwayne for this special gift.
     I actually saw two CFL games in Fort McMurray. At the first one the mayor sat in front of us and we congratulated her on hosting the northern-most professional football games. The new stadium there is really lovely, although the seats are very narrow. I couldn't jump up to cheer a touchdown for fear I'd rip up the entire row! I can't imagine watching anything there wearing winter clothing.
     I also got to deliver the 8 Track Stereo, speakers, and tapes to contest winner Lori Bursey, who came all the way from Toronto to Fort McMurray to see her Argonauts beat my Eskimos. When we weren't watching football we enjoyed the Village People, Al Martino, Barry Manilow, the Who, and more. 
     In June I also had the privilege of attending the opening ceremony of the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Canada-China game. I am very proud of the job Edmonton did in hosting this world class event and of Team Canada's performance.
     I managed to get to Golden to do some writing and to Lake Louise to do some work. I sometimes forget just how gorgeous that place is! I also went to a fun and entertaining house concert, an amazing performance of Cirque du Soliel, and Zoofest at which I played with baby goats.  

  I even donned my coveralls and unleashed some anger at nature by wielding my new "Wild Thing" chainsaw. I cleared a bunch of trees that were growing where they weren't planted as well as an unsuspecting lawn ornament. Oh well, at least my limbs and digits are all in tact and it was excellent therapy, even if my biceps killed me for a few days.



     And now it is really summer and I need to ramp up work while others try to catch their breath. I suppose it doesn't really matter when, just make sure that you take some time for yourself to stop and smell the roses.
     Consider smelling (and planting) the Never Alone rose, where a royalty from the sale of each rose plant goes to the Never Alone Foundation (cancer) and the CFL Alumni Support Fund. Here's a list of greenhouses that sell them:   Click Here



     If you're into golfing with some really interesting business leaders, consider signing up for GO Golf, put on by GO Productivity. Here's the link for Leadership on the Links, August 27, 2015 at Red Tail Landing.  Click Here

     With that, I'll wish you a Happy Canada Day and a wonderful July. Have some fun, ok?

 **

 

"It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything.  There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any." -- Hugh Laurie 


/lmwe  

The Answer   


 

Q:  WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE SITTING AROUND MY BOARD TABLE?

      

A: MOST OF THEM ARE GOOD PEOPLE WANTING TO BE OF SERVICE...

 

...BUT even those ones can be problematic sometimes.  

 

Once again I've been referencing Eli Mina's book "101 Boardroom Problems and How To Solve Them." I'll introduce you to some of his favourite dysfunctional board behaviours, but I suspect you've already met most of them.  

 

Disengaged (Unprepared, late or absent, reads emails during meetings, doesn't get things done). Damage: The board doesn't operate at capacity and others can disengage.   

 

Single-Issue Advocate (Only interested in one matter and may even trade votes with other board members to get support). Damage: Less leadership than there should be and perhaps an inability to see new points of view and solutions.

 

Rebel (Thinks he's the conscience of the community and rebels against authority, possibly revealing confidential matters or going against the "one voice" principle). Damage: The air is poisoned, other board members are annoyed/betrayed, decision making is called into question, and the board's credibility diminishes.

 

Accuser (Counters unpopular decisions with conspiracy theories, claims violation of individual rights, and often does not check the facts). Damage: Fear of taking a leadership role, no room for innocent mistakes, toxic climate.

 

Bully (Intimidates others to act as he wants, makes threats until the board backs down/reverses to his preferred way). Damage: Good decisions are aborted and flawed decisions get through; leadership is through the "tyranny of the minority."

 

Know It All (Speaks in an arrogant, condescending manner; uses meetings as a platform to show off). Damage: Others may stop listening, even if the input is valuable.

 

Contrarian (Finds flaws in all new ideas, routinely interrupts). Damage: Stifled creativity/innovation, inability to explore new ideas to solve problems, and may lose good board members).

 

Closet Parliamentarian (Raises points of order and procedure that don't really add value to the work of the board). Damage: Time is wasted, meetings slow down, board is distracted from substantive matters.

 

Short-Tempered (Loses temper and becomes loud, abusive, threatening when things don't go his way; insults colleagues and questions their competence; often on attack and trying to "set the record straight"). Damage: Unsafe to share ideas, toxic environment, increased likelihood of flawed decisions.

 

Overly Sensitive (Takes things personally). Damage: Board tries to not hurt feelings at risk of making a weaker decision, topics not given full scrutiny, robust debate less likely).

 

There's also Secretive, Talkative, Won't Speak Up, Mumbler, Lecturer. Eli Mina provides some excellent intervention ideas to deal with all these types of people but I'd be really interested in hearing what you do.

You can check out some of Mina's other articles here:

/lmwe

Overhaul Your Inbox   

      


     In the June 2015 edition of Chatelaine, Lora Grady summarized these email tips from Dawn O'Conner of Think Productive Canada. I've already tried a couple of them.
   
1. Sort by Sender

Make a bundle for your boss, your co-workers, your spouse, etc. and then delete or file.

 

2. Set up 3 Folders with the @ Symbol

@Action -- if it requires action or a response, file it here

@Reading -- if you need to consult it later, file it here

@Waiting -- if it requires someone else to do something first, file it here. Follow up and delete once it's handled.

 

3. Streamline with 4 Ds

Do -- if it will take 2 minutes to deal with it

Delete -- if you don't (really) need it, toast it

Delegate -- pass it off to whomever can take care of it

Defer -- if it's for later, put it in the @Action folder

 

4. Manage Incoming Emails with Bucket Folders

Create one for Projects, one for Clients, one for Personal -- whatever makes sense. Then number them in the order you want them to appear.

 

5. Visit Inbox Once in the Morning, Once in the Afternoon

No more than 20-60 minutes. Assign emails to the correct folders and do all quick replies. Schedule 1 hour to deal with the @Action folder.

 

6. Work Offline for at Least 1 Hour/Day

"Remember, email replaces the letter, not the phone." If it's urgent people can call.

 

About LUE-42 Enterprises 



Contact LUE-42 Enterprises  lue42@shaw.ca  www.lue42.com