FUZE Issue 5-07

Text Box: We’re very big at Static on continually educating ourselves and were busy in 2006/2007 with professional development
initiatives to expand our knowledge base and keep current.
As a team with varied expertise we focussed a lot on bridging gaps between us to improve our ability to communicate and better understand each other’s area of practice.
Here’s a run-down on what we accomplished:
CompTIA Network +® Certification: Self study
Life on the Highwire: Balancing Sales, Service & Change With “The Daily Grind”: A two-session workshop with Doug Lipp former Head Trainer with the Walt Disney Company
CISCO Networking: 10 week course through Red River
College
Graphic Design: 10 week course through Red River College
Project Management Fundamentals: 10 week course through Red River College
Web Development: 10 week course through Red River
College
We’re looking forward to all the learning opportunities coming up in the fall, but school’s out for the summer!

Text Box: Few of us are unaffected by the summer holiday rush. Staff requests for one or two weeks off in the summer can be downright challenging to manage. Everyone is entitled to a break but in situations where there is no one to fill the shoes of the ‘holidayer’ business can suffer.
The question is: How do you make everyone happy and keep business running smoothly?
One of the most difficult positions to fill is leader or manager. You’ve probably said it yourself or heard it at the end of a
holiday “I don’t know why I bother going on holidays at all—nothing gets done (or done right) when I’m away!”. Who wants to come back from holidays with that attitude?
Why it Doesn’t Get Done or Done Right?
Ask yourself some questions about the leaders in your
company:
1. Do they delegate tasks and let the team carry them out?
2. Do they clearly communicate expectations to the team?
3. Is the team empowered to make decisions?
If you answered no to one or more of these questions it
doesn’t mean the leaders in your organization are not good (although improvement in those areas would make everyone’s life easier) but it does make it difficult to work effectively
without them.
Tips for Leaders Going on Holidays:
1. Make a list of all the projects, issues on the go.
2. Assess the list and determine what action must be taken while you are away.
3. Assign an individual most suited to accomplishing each task successfully.
4. Meet with each individual, explain the task at hand and ask them to repeat back to you what they need to accomplish to ensure you’re both on the same page—who knows, they might just have a better approach!
5. Provide ‘empowerment guidelines’ for issues that you deal with on a regular basis and can react quickly to. Just a few key guidelines will set your team up to be effective leaders in your absence.
If you need additional support to ensure the operation runs smoothly in the absence of management call us. We can stand in as an onsite leadership resource for your team so that
everyone can enjoy their summer holiday without having to take their laptop to the beach.
Article by the Static Interactive Team

Text Box: Main Vice President
Tom was so excited about his
promotion to Vice President of the company he worked for and kept bragging about it to his wife for weeks on end.

Finally she couldn't take it any longer, and told him, "Listen, it means nothing, they even have a vice president of peas at the
grocery store!".

"Really?" he said. Not sure if this was true or not, Tom decided to call the grocery store.

A clerk answers and Tom says "Can I please talk to the Vice President of peas?"

The clerk replies "Canned or
frozen?"

Even the Terminator
Has a Sense of
Humour
“When I was on my way to the podium a gentleman stopped me and said I was as good a politician as I was an actor. What a cheap shot.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Text Box: “In the end, all business
operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two.”
Lee Iacocca