When a direct report doesn’t complete a task that has been assigned to them it can be frustrating.  In my early years (I started my business when I was about 25) I would become very aggravated.  I would think, “I told them to do this.  I sign their paychecks. What’s the problem here?”  Of course, being aggravated didn’t accomplish anything.  There are many new tools I have acquired to remedy this, but one of the best is looking at how well the task was assigned in the first place.  I use some C words to help identify what could be causing issues.

Capacity - Did the person have the available time to complete the task?  What is their workload?  Do they have the right tools?

Clarity - Was I clear on what I wanted?  Did I describe the outcomes I expected?  Did I give them a date to complete it by?  Did I describe what completing the task looks like?  Is there measurable results?  Did I follow up to make sure they understood?  Did I explain why the task is important?

Competency - Does the person have the ability to do the task?  Are they lacking some skill?

Courage - Does the person have some fear around the task?

Character - Does the person have the integrity to do what is right?  Do actions follow words?

Consequences - People often don’t do what you ask because they can.  What will happen if they don’t complete the task?  If you are a leader you will have the courage to enforce the consequences.

As a manager if you can identify the roadblocks it helps generate solutions.  It will help you assist the person to achieve results.  You can ask yourself if one of the above is an issue.

I give all my newly hired direct reports written goals and objectives for their position.  For my account manager I set the objective to make 50 phone calls per week.  I explained why I believed in the results this generated from my past experience.  This person said, “No problem, I can achieve that.”  Month after month it was not achieved.  I wondered if it was competency.  Our design-build process is difficult to describe and understand.  I had him practice what he would say.  He had it down.  We discussed his capacity and I agreed to lower the objective to 30 phone calls a week.  He once again said, “No problem, I can achieve this.”  Eventually, even though I thought I was very clear, I told him the consequences, “This is a deal breaker.  If you do not make the phone calls, I will let you go.”  He made the calls.  This is not a rosy example of using these tools, but I did go through all of the C’s in attempting to overcome this roadblock.

Do you have an example of when you used the Six C’s of Management?

Posted by: Betty

Meet our Project Management Office Manager, Drew Levan:

How long have you been with TSI?

4 ½ Years

What did you do before you started working at TSI?

Product Pricing & Ordering Software Applications Specialist for a Wood Window & Door Manufacture

What do you do at TSI?

Project Estimator and Project Management Office Manager

What do you like best about TSI?

I learn something new about natural history or cultural history almost everyday.

What’s your favorite TSI project?

Puget Sound Navy Museum

Why?

I learned so much about how sailors live and carry out the daily duties on an aircraft carrier.  It reinforced the personal sacrifice they make for my freedom.

What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?

I have a dream to someday restore and convert an old barn into a house.

What’s your favorite part of your day?

5:00 A.M. to 7:00 A.M. - It is very quiet and peaceful.  Watching the sunrise during the commute to work is nice too.

This saying is a bit of a running joke around Taylor Studios’ office.  I like to remind my number crunchers that even the game of business is art.  There is art in predicting where the market is going to move, what our clients are going to love, how many staff members we are going to need in six months, how many projects are going to be delayed, and on and on.

This week this art was driven home to two of my staff when finalizing our year end books.  We have to create a work in process (WIP) schedule that lines up the percent complete on a project, with billings, costs, estimated costs, total earned revenue, and so on.  The Excel schedule created by our accountants has formulas that tie each of these factors together in a neat consistent manner.  Well, our revenue, costs, estimated costs and gross profit do not operate in a neat consistent world.  There are many variables that will change these estimates in each individual project.

Last week, my management team and I worked with our Controller, Jane, to finalize the percent complete of every project at year end.  When Jane put this into the WIP schedule many of the 17 projects we were reviewing were obviously wrong in their gross profit percent and other variables.  I sat down with Jane and Drew, my PMO Manager, and said I know we have to follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), but this is not a perfect formula.  We went through each project and I calculated what I thought the estimated future costs on the project would be based on things like:  who is the client, are they slow at making decisions, who is the team on the project, is the end date set in stone making it less likely we will have delays, have we beat our time goals so far on the project, is it a difficult project to install, etc.  I then calculated how many hours over or under our time goals I thought the project would be.  Boy, this really made Jane and Drew uncomfortable.  Drew was trying to type in a formula in excel and it just didn’t work.

Today I will be reviewing this with my accountants.  I will be explaining that our projects do not have consistent costs throughout.  In the beginning of a project, our costs could be very low, but as we go through each stage, those costs change proportionately.  They will have to agree that we can forecast this way and still be GAAP compliant.

Many leaders fail because they do not make the tough decisions in a timely fashion.  They want to wait until all the data is available before making decisions.  Doing nothing is a decision, but often a bad one.  The best leaders use their expertise to make decisions without perfect data.  There is art in the game of business.

What decisions did you make today?  What intuition did you use?

Posted by: Betty

Meet Kara Vanskike, Marketing Coordinator

How long have you been with TSI?

Three years in April.

What did you do before you started working at TSI?

After graduating from college, I moved to Hilton Head, SC for two years.  I started out as a manager at a spa then took a position with a marketing, advertising, and public relations firm on the island.  We specialized in high-end real estate, golf course communities, financial institutions, etc.

What do you do at TSI?

I’m the marketing coordinator which means I get to do many different tasks so there’s a lot of variety.  I write all our proposals, keep track of the marketing department’s budget, oversee the advertising and website, manage our social media, and anything else business development related.

What do you like best about TSI?

The people and the company’s culture.

What’s your favorite TSI project?

To narrow it down to just one is too hard.  I like all our projects for different reasons.

Why?

There are four that always come to mind first when I think about all the projects in our portfolio.  I like Grand Bay National Estuarine Reserve because our illustrations are beautiful.  Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is pretty and engaging with pull-out drawers and A/V.  Plus, I attended the pre-bid for this one.  I’ve always liked Boyd Hill Nature Park because of the colors and the alligator model.  Finally, our scenic work and lifecast figures at the Kenosha Public Museum are fantastic.  I was surprised by how our photos really don’t do the exhibit justice.  Seeing it in person is a must.

What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?

I’ve been to ten different countries and 28 states so far.  My goal, of course, is all 50 states.

What’s your favorite part of your day?

Lunch!  No, while I do enjoy it, usually I like when I’m one of the first people here in the morning or one of the last to leave.  The phone isn’t ringing so it’s really quite.  I can plan what I’m going to do that day or the next or work on things I didn’t get to the previous day.

I ran across these quotes today.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Maya Angelou

“Live live so your descendants will think you did good. Enjoy life so all you leave your descendants is good thoughts!” Jonathon Winters

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Gary Player

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” –Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Silence is Golden, Duct tape is Silver!

Do not despair, it interferes with work.” Florence Nightingale

After all is said and done, more is said than done.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. ”
Walt Disney

If you think you CAN, or if you think you CAN’T - You’re right.

“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” - Mark Twain

Don’t be the rooster that takes credit for the sunrise — anonymous chicken

Blame no one.
Expect nothing.
Do something.
- Bill Parcels

What’s your favorite quote?

Posted by: Betty

Throughout 2010, we want to introduce our staff to you, our readers.  Each Monday, check back for our Meet the Staff Mondays post.  We’ll start with the marketing department, then we’ll introduce our project managers, designers, fabricators, then our administrative staff.  We hope you enjoy the inside look at our team.

To kick off this series, we will begin with Betty Brennan, company co-founder, president, and marketing manager.

Betty Brennan

How long have you been with TSI?

From the start, 19 years.

What did you do before you started working at TSI?

I attempted another start up, but needed to eat, so got a real job.  Briefly, I was Director of Marketing for the Spaghetti Shop and was a Product Manager for MicroPace.

What do you do at TSI?

As the President, I set the long term vision of Taylor Studios; where we are going to be in 10 and 25 years.  I guide our team to move toward this vision.

What do you like best about TSI?

Oh, to narrow that down to one thing is a tough question.  I love many things about this company.  Ultimately I love seeing when we have achieved our mission, “To create products and services that inspire people.”  When clients and visitors go “wow” to something we have created is the best!!!

What’s your favorite TSI project?

Again, to narrow that down to one project is a tough question.  I love Woolly Mammoths, Whales, exhibits in court houses and the Pentagon, exhibits on War, aircraft carriers, the prairie, the forest, estuaries, bugs,  Native Americans, African Americans, people from Paxton and Geneva, IL,….  But, I would have to say I love our exhibit at Starved Rock State Park the best.

Why?

I grew up playing in this park.  As a teenager I climbed those rocks I wasn’t suppose to climb.  Plus much of my family lives near there.  I can share with my family what we do.

What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?

I skinned a buffalo.

What’s your favorite part of your day?

I like the first hour with that first cup of coffee.  This is when I plan what I am going to accomplish that day.

I think the word “profit” has gotten a bad rap.  In some circles it is a dirty word.  I think this comes from a misconception on how a profit is earned and how much profit is earned on average.  Profit is similar to an employee’s wage.  A wage is their profit for work well done.  Generally employees want to earn more.

The obvious way to increase profit is to increase revenue and decrease costs.  But in the long run how does a company do that?  I recently heard that our Art Director, Jason Cox, often told new employees a swordfish story.  Over ten years ago we were contracted to fabricate a swordfish as an outdoor photo op for The World Fishing Center.  At the time, one of my inexperienced sculptors really wanted a shot at producing this piece.  We gave him the chance.  Unfortunately, when The World Fishing Center received the Swordfish they noticed that the eye was put in backwards.  When I was asked what we were going to do by the client, I did not hesitate and I said we will replace it.  Ten years ago we were small and struggling.  This was a $10,000 hit and a very, very big deal to our bottom line (profit) and more.  Ten thousand is big in general, but for a small growing company, it is huge.  I made this decision because I knew our reputation and future ability to keep our doors open was at stake.  We stand behind our product because we love what we do and we need to make a profit to do this.

Profit is not about gouging your clients.  It is the absolute opposite of that.   To make a profit and to stay in business you must provide value to your clients.  You will need to provide more value than your competitors.  Profit allows businesses to invest in new technology, which in turn provides better products to customers.  Profit allows a business to expand, to offer higher wages and to be there for their clients to offer warranty services.  I hesitate to say this, but it also rewards the owners.  Without it there would be very few that would take the risk and make the sacrifices needed to create a growing business.  If there is no profit, you go out of business and employees lose jobs.  This in turn hurts vendors and the community that the business is located in.

I have asked others, what profit percentage do you think this company makes.  The answers range from 5% to 80%.  In general, most of the answers are much higher than is reality.  For example the average construction company earns 5%, restaurants average 4 - 7%, Nike had a net of 10% in 2009 and oil companies average 8%.  This means for every dollar of sales for these companies about five cents is net profit.

What profit percent does your company make and are you ok with that?  How do you earn higher wages or higher profit?

Posted by: Betty