The Optical Vision Site

Taking One Little Step-The 212 Video

As the saying goes ‘Talk is Cheap’ you have to act in order to make changes in your life, home and business. This video demonstrates the power of acting rather than talking, one little step at a time. That action could be answering the phone differently, having staff meetings, implementing new systems and trying something different. Anyway, I liked the video and have watched it a few times in order to remind myself to ACT rather than sit around talking about what I should be doing!

8 Things To Learn To Become An Optical Manager

Many years ago, I had a rep come to me and ask how he could get to be a manager. I told him he has to lead by example- no whining, no gossiping, strong work ethic, get organized and he really needed to work on his communication skills- basically he had to grow up and act like an adult and start to learn new skills.

If you are already a manager or aspire to be a manager- here are 8 things you need to learn:

1. Lead by example- if you complain- your staff will complain, if you are unsmiling, your staff will be miserable, if you take long lunches- your staff will take long lunches, if you shirk, your staff will shirk.
2. Money and Finances- Money and the management of finances drives all businesses. How can you be a manager if you have no clue on how money affects everything that is done in business.
3. Negotiation- Negotiation is important to resolving conflicts, staff morale, patients and career development.
4. Communication Skills- Good communication skills will help to grow your team and enhance morale, get and keep patients. As a leader- you have to be aware of every message you send even in casual conversations with co-workers.
5. Presentation- presentation is about communication, organization, knowledge and being positive and in control.
6. Focus- on what you can control- no need to talk about the economy- talk about what you can do, pricing, inventory, sales, training, customer service.
7. Daily Action Plan- Have a plan and the organization skills to accomplish something everyday. Getting things done is crucial to strong leadership skills.
8. Learn not to be hurt or upset about what your team is saying about you. People always talk about their managers whether good or bad- you have to learn to not take it personally, separate the wheat from the chaff and try to better yourself. It’s always wonderful to be liked and respected- respect can bring more results than being liked.

Do You Have A Plan B?

Photo:cheezburger.com

You would think that with 2 laptops, 2 phones and 1 camera, we would have been prepared for any eventuality. Who would have thought that all our technical devices would have ‘broken’ down at the same time- and we had no Plan B. Fortunately it wasn’t a disaster or life threatening- but it made me realize, we must be prepared for Plan B at all times.

Which brings up the question- do you have a Plan B? What are you going to do in worst case scenarios? Back up phone numbers for staff or doctors, generators for power outages, computer glitzes: do you have a spare up-to-date computer, are your staff cross trained, the list goes on and on.

Based upon our weekend at Vision Expo, we now have a Plan B- and will be following the following Tips for Worse Case Scenarios:

1.) Imagine every possible thing that could go wrong and and put in writing what to do. (Employee Manual and Disaster Preparation)

2.) Review all Plan B’s at least 2x per year.

3.) Put specific people in charge of certain areas- make it part of a job description (and write it down in employee manuals)

4.) Cross Train employees to take over responsibilities

5.) Be prepared by practice and or staff discussions.

Time Management in the Optical Workplace

Salvador Dali Watch

I recently read an article about “time suckers” which was about time wasting activities. I was surprised at how I had managed to fall into some of these. I work out of a home office alone rather than a office building or practice with other people but everything below applies for most situations. Time in the optical workplace is constant and irreversible. Nothing can be substituted for time. Worse, once wasted, it can never be regained. Thus, time management in the optical workplace is very important.

The following are example of some the biggest time wasters in the optical workplace:

• Worrying about it and putting it off, which leads to indecision (guilty!)
• Creating inefficiency by implementing first instead of analyzing first
• Unanticipated interruptions that do not pay off (whole other article about this!)
• Procrastinating
• Making unrealistic time estimates
• Unnecessary errors (not enough time to do it right, but enough time to do it over)
• Crisis management
• Poor organization
• Ineffective meetings
• Micro-managing by failing to let others perform and grow
• Doing urgent rather than important tasks (guilty!)
• Poor planning and lack of contingency plans
• Failing to delegate
• Lacking priorities, standards, policies and procedures

The following are examples of time savers in the optical workplace:

• Managing the decision making process, not the decisions
• Concentrating on doing only one task at a time
• Establishing daily, short-term, mid-term, and long-term priorities
• Handling correspondence expeditiously with quick, short letters and memos
• Throwing unneeded things away
• Establishing personal deadlines and ones for the workplace
• Not wasting other people’s time
• Ensuring all meetings have a purpose, time limit, and include only essential people
• Getting rid of busywork
• Maintaining accurate calendars: abide by them
• Knowing when to stop a task, policy, or procedure
• Delegating everything possible and empowering team members
• Keeping things simple
• Ensuring time is set aside to accomplish high priority tasks
• Setting aside time for reflection
• Using checklists and To-do lists
• Adjusting priorities as a result of new tasks

I hope you find these hints helpful. Let us know if you have any good ones to add!

Source: Kathy Weiman – U.S. Vision

Keeping Optical Employees Motivated

We know it’s tough out there, and one of the hardest things you have to do is to keep your employees up and motivated to deliver a positive customer experience. The reality is- if the employee is unhappy- they transmit that unhappiness to the customer- the customer transmits that unhappiness to others- you lose patients and referrals and then everybody becomes unhappy and unmotivated- a never ending cycle. It is important to nip ‘unmotivated’ employees immediately and address their concerns before it effects your eyecare business.

Dealing With Trifling Things

This was my Saturday morning laugh! Shirley was not laughing- Here she is making her infamous Trifle for a dinner party! But I love her facial expression.

How do you deal with trifling things? Here are the questions, I always ask myself and others:

• Is this a life threatening situation?
• Is this important in the scheme of life?
• Is this something I will laugh about tomorrow?
• What is the upside? What can I learn from this? (In Shirley’s case- no making a pig out of myself scarfing down this fattening, delicious dessert, thus saving me mucho calories!)

Employee Time Thieves

Source: salary.com

The other day at the dermalogist, the staff sat there on a personal phone call, at the 7-11 the clerk ignored me while on a personal phone call. As a consumer- I hate that- we pay higher prices due to lost productively, as a manager- it annoys me to no end that my staff is conducting personal business on my dime.

Eye Bogglers

• The Boston Globe and Denver Post recently reported that US companies lose nearly $400 billion per year in lost productively due to ‘time theft’ or loafing

• As the graphic shows, 64% of respondents report wasting one hour or less each day at work, which is, let’s say “acceptable”. 22% waste approximately 2 hours daily, and 14% waste 3 or more hours each workday.

• The primary-time wasting activity is surfing the Web (with 48%) followed by socializing with co-workers (33%).

• 30% waste time by conducting personal business
• 19% waste time by personal phone calls
• 15% waste time by taking long lunch breaks.
• 8% of companies have dismissed employees because of sites such as LinkedIn and FaceBook See Note to Self  Talking About Your Boss on Facebook. (True Story)

Not only that- but it is demoralizing to other non- time stealing employees when someone else is not doing their work and wasting time. I have known good hard working people who have left their jobs due to others not doing their job.

How to Resolve:

1.) Make sure your company policy- employee manual state clearly the rules and policies of  personal phone calls, tardiness and internet use. If employees are using Facebook and Twitter for company business, make sure that is clearly stated.

2.) Have a staff meeting to review and go over all policies and procedures and the reasons for those rules.

3.) If you have set up an Internet monitoring or filtering system- let your staff know. This gives them the responsibility to follow the rules. As an employer you have every right to monitor the Internet, voice mail and phone calls in your office. However under federal law, once an employer knows the call is personal, they cannot monitor the call. The employer has the right to prohibit the dialing and websites of certain phone calls and addresses. (i.e. pornography)

4.) If you have an employee that is not following the rules- speak to them privately.

5.) If an employee is wasting time due to not having enough to do – set up areas of  responsibilities. One of the key elements in productivity is job satisfaction. Work with the employee for professional growth.

6.) 25% of employees say they waste time because they are underpaid. OK- Every person is accountable and responsible for their own job satisfaction and growth. If they feel underpaid- then they should address that by increasing job skills or personal growth or rectify that situation with the employer or find a job elsewhere.

7.) Keep employees motivated by giving praise, thanking them for a job well-done- Reward or bonus them for achievement of goals. It is always better to focus on the positive and reward.

Resources

• Salary.com
• Proof Point
• Internet Law
• Results of 2007 Wasting Time Survey
• Cyclops Blog

Lessons Learned Over a Lifetime

Understandably, it seems most of us are focused on one subject these days – the current tough economic times. But as our leaders and financial experts’ debate solutions, this may be a good time for the rest of us to step back and examine the guiding principals by which we lead our lives. Unlike the economic crisis, over which we individually may have little control, each of us has absolute control over how we order our lives. Or as Randy Pausch, puts it, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” The Last Lecture. New York: Hyperion Books (2008)

When Dr. Pausch, a popular computer science professor, husband and father of three small children was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, he decided to take charge of the situation by preparing a last lecture that would draw from his life experiences. His goal was to leave a legacy not only for his students but also for his children who would soon be fatherless. Some notable excerpts:

• People are more important than things: While still a bachelor, Pausch enjoyed the company of his sister’s young children. When he showed up in a new convertible to take the kids for a ride, his sister sternly warned them to “Be careful in Uncle Randy’s new car. Wipe your feet before you get in. Don’t get it dirty.” As his sister was outlining her rules, he slowly and methodically opened a can of soda and poured it on the cloth seats in the back of the convertible. His message was delivered with a dramatic flair that amazed his niece and nephew and no doubt shocked his sister! (Chapter 15)
• Emphasize the positive whenever possible: When he asked his oncologist, “How long before I die?” the physician framed the answer positively: “You probably have three to six months of good health.” This reminded Pausch of the time that he and his sister visited Disney World as young children and asked a worker, “What time does the park close?” The response: “The park is open until 8:00PM.” (Chapter 12)
• Negative feedback is still very good feedback: When his football coach rode 12-year-old Randy particularly hard one day, an assistant coach later commented, “When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.” (Chapter 7)
• Obstacles need not be barriers to success: “Brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop other people!” (Chapter 16)
• Don’t obsess over what other people think: “I’ve found that a substantial fraction of many people’s days is spent worrying about what others think of them. If nobody ever worried about what was in other people’s heads, we’d all be 33% more effective in our lives and on our jobs.” How did he arrive at that 33% figure? “I’m a scientist. I like exact numbers, even if I can’t prove them. So let’s just run with 33%.” (Chapter 34)
• Effective leadership requires empathy not just intelligence: “Just because you’re in the driver’s seat doesn’t mean you have to run people over.” (Chapter 4)

Some books provide “a good read” while others can help reorder one’s life. The Last Lecture does both in a highly entertaining way!

Source: Selected by Audrey J. Pavia: from employee assistance newsletters. Audrey Pavia is Vice President of Marketing at Tura LP.  You can reach Audrey at apavia@tura.com