Month: October 2017

The book I read every month!

This week I want to share a personal practice that I believe has helped keep my behavior in check, and my mind more focused on the most important things. I have not been perfect at doing this, and I have seen the opposite results at the times I have strayed.

Many years ago I was challenged to read one chapter from the book of Proverbs from the Bible each day. It doesn’t take long…usually less than 5 minutes. It was easy to determine the chapter to read because it was the “proverb of the day”.

See, the book of Proverbs has 31 chapters. This means there is basically a chapter of Proverbs for each day of the month. After a month you have read the book, and can simply start over.

After doing this off and on for several years, it has become a practice I really enjoy. Each time I read a chapter there seems to be a verse or principle I can apply to my life in a very practical way as a husband, father, son, employee, leader, friend or disciple. Somehow, at the right time there is a verse or passage that stands out for me. Sometimes it is right after a situation where I realize I should have handled something differently. Other times it is right before a situation and the verse provided the much needed preparation for the moment.

Here are a few “stand out” verses from yesterdays reading of Proverbs 15 (one of my personal favorite chapters):

  • Verse 1 – A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 
    • This resonates with every parent. And it is great advice for work, school, and even friendships.
    • A parent of a teenager may paraphrase this verse like: “A door closed gently is good for the relationship.”
  • Verse 22 – Plans are frustrated without consultation, but with many counselors they succeed.
    • For our family, this verse translates to time we spend each week to spend a little time to look at the calendar for the next few weeks to make sure we have everything calendared that we know about at the time.
    • At work I spend a lot of time planning, and then sharing my plans with others to see what they think. This has been very helpful for me to see areas where I totally missed an important step, or where I completely underestimated the amount of time something would take (I am good at this).
  • Verse 31 – the person who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
    • This tells us that the wise people have a mentor, confidant, or friend who will lovingly listen and watch them and give “life-giving” correction and direction.
    • I appreciate these friends in my life who will challenge and encourage me to be a better husband or father, live a life worthy of my calling and purpose, or help me get those negative thoughts out of my head so I can focus on the truth.
    • Conversely, you will find much in Proverbs 15 that speaks about the foolish person who does not accept correction. Not only have I met those people, I have been that person. The good news is…I was able to change. Thank God!

While each passage has much to ponder, I tend to take one verse or so that stands out that day and focus on that for a while.

I encourage you to try this for one month and see how it helps you. Let me know how it goes!

Would you like to make less money?

“Burger Boy” is what they called me. My job was to make sure the meat was ready when the customers ordered sandwiches. I didn’t even make sandwiches for the first several weeks of my new job.

In high school I worked fast food. I still say this was the most fun job I ever had, and the most stressful. I worked at a particular restaurant for five years. In those 5 years I went from “Burger Boy” to the assistant store manager, where the store manager was the only person in the store above me. Most importantly in those five years, I met the girl of my dreams.

I was still working there when I had less than 12 months until our wedding. And I had a problem.

I had to make more money.

I set my eye on getting into the Human Resources (HR) field and the opportunities in fast food at that time were pretty limited. I had no degree, and honestly did not know very much about HR. I was earning an annual salary of $19,500 plus benefits. I also had the pleasure of working at least 50 hours a week closing the store most nights.

A friend worked at one of the large corporations in the area and she helped me get an interview in the accounting department for an entry level position. Interview went well and the offer came in…$19,000 (~3% reduction). To me, it was a no-brainer. Absolutely!

Later in my career I found myself working a job in HR. I was again working well over 50 hours a week. My ability to have successful relationships with family, friends, church, myself, and even my hobbies was diminishing. If I wanted to be a successful dad, husband, or even friend, then I would have to make a decision.

I had to decide what was more important – Success at Work or Success at Home

I chose home! After some soul searching and preparation, I began looking for new opportunities. Similarly, the solution came through a friend. The interview went well, and the offer came back lower than what I was currently making. To me, it was a no-brainer. Absolutely!

In both cases the opportunities outweighed the risk. And both cases turned out great!

Getting to the decision to make a change was not as easy. I needed to be sensitive to whatever that new opportunity would be.

Five key considerations before quitting your current job to go to a new one…especially if you are going to make less money:

  1. Fit – Is this a company you would like to work for, or does this provide cushion while you look for the job you want? Is this a job that you would like to do? Do you want to learn what you need to about the business? Can you add value to your team and the business? Do you like what you know about the culture of the business?
  2. Career – Does this job help you get to where you want to go? In my first example I wanted to go from fast food to HR but took an entry level job in an accounting department. In my interview I told them I wanted to get into HR. Less than 2 years later, an opening came up, and I got that job. My accounting team was excited for me, and appreciative that I had been open with them the whole time about what I wanted to do.
  3. Salary – This is usually the one thing that will almost never reduce as long as you are with a company. If it’s enough to get you started, go for it.
  4. Benefits – In the US there is a mix of offerings that we call “benefits”. Some are required by the government (e.g. social security) and some are not required (e.g. vacation, additional retirement options) allowing businesses to decide how/what they want to provide. Take a good look at both. Example – a company who offers you $100 and matches your 401k at 6% may be a better deal than a company who offers $105 and a 401k match of 3% (if you use the benefit).
  5. Pray – As a Christian, it is important for me to seek God about things in my life. I also listen to friends and mentors. Even if you aren’t a person of faith, I would encourage seeking council in big decisions like this. There is a lot of wisdom in multiple counselors.

Obviously, I didn’t seek a new job to make less money. And I would not encourage you to do that either. But, I would encourage you to look at your situation and determine if the money you are making is worth the sacrifices it takes. Tough times will come and go, so you want to be sure that in the long run you’re able to focus on the most meaningful things of life.

 

So, what do you do?

“So, what do you do?”, she asked me.

“I am a Business Analyst”, I replied.

“Oh, so you work with IT?”

“Um, no. I am in Compensation.”

“Oh, so you do payroll.”

“Um, no. I do market pricing.”

This conversation went on for a bit until she walked away, still having no idea what I did for a living.

I needed to change the way I answered this question.

So, what do you do?

The next time I was asked “So, what do you do?” the answer sounded more like this:

“I help companies meet their business objectives by designing and implementing competitive pay structures, benefits packages, and career opportunities for employees in every country. Today I am doing that for X Company.”

The Process – five steps I took to change my answer to this question:

  1. Forget my job title – to be honest, a title doesn’t say much about you.
    • I have worked at three companies where honestly, I didn’t even know what my “official” job title was. I didn’t care. I knew what I was supposed to do, and I was determined to do that, and more. I didn’t need a title to box me into anything.
    • In the line of work I do, I have watched people turn down great opportunities, even promotions, because they didn’t like the title that was provided to them. I also know that companies of various sizes use titles so differently. A Vice President at one company could be a Manager at another.
    • I would encourage you to have a work ethic centered around growing your influence, scope, and skills, and not be limited by whatever title the company provides for that work.
  2. Determine what my duties are:
    • I took some time to really consider what I did on a day to day basis:
      • Answer questions from managers about how and when to give a pay increase
      • Analyze where benefits dollars are being spent to see if there is a program or solution that could help employees address their needs in a better and more cost effective way
      • Review the market practices by country for competitive merit increase amounts, and work with finance to determine what our company should do based on our financial situation
      • Educate managers on the compensation philosophy and practices so they can articulate them to their employees
    • This list was a starting point to answering the question – “So, what do you do?”. It certainly would be an exhaustive way to answer the question.
    • I needed more.
  3. Consider a bigger picture:
    • The company view:
      • Get the right people in the right place to provide the right product/service to the right client/customer in the most cost effective way for everyone
      • Others may say – Grow revenue and earnings – knowing this only happens when things are working best for everyone
    • The employees view – We know people work to make money, but there is more. We work to:
      • Contribute to a cause, provide value, and fulfill a purpose
      • Socialize, build friendships, and network
      • Grow skills and pursue a career
      • Change their current economic situation, grow wealth for the future, provide for their education, or their children
    • The customers view:
      • Receive – get the right product at the right price at the right time
      • Experience – as in a movie, musical, or art
      • Simplify – make life easier
  4. Connect my duties to a bigger picture – When I think about what my role was, I realized my role was to:
    • Help the business be successful so the right employees could serve the clients best. Even though I wasn’t talking to the companies clients every day, I did have a part in making sure make sure those who talked to clients knew the importance and value of their role, and that the company supported their success with competitive pay and benefits packages.
    • Understand the direction shareholders and leadership wanted to take the company. If I was designing pay and benefits packages that didn’t support the vision, then I was missing the mark. They had to be the right cost. They had to drive the right behavior.
    • Know what employees wanted. In the compensation space, you know that everyone would like to make more money. That isn’t my job though. I needed to make sure there were clear career opportunities for employees to growing their skills, influence and scope. This should translate to larger contributions to the company, which should translate to higher pay for the employee.
  5. Spend the time to wordsmith and summarize “what I do”:
    • After working through the first four steps, this did not take as long as I thought. And, It can always be improved.
    • Consider your answer to this question for various types of people. I may have a different answer for an employee in the company than I would for a person at a networking event.

Going through these steps helped me see my work as a key part of a bigger picture. It actually showed me where I had more influence than I realized, and, to be honest, where I had less influence than I should have.

Changing my perspective changed my trajectory!

COMMENT BELOW: So, what do you do?