Staffing Change

4/6/15 Staffing Change 

On a regular basis, we see colleagues retire or move on to different positions. I wonder how many of us see these staff members depart and take a minute, or longer, to evaluate our own current employment situation? Are we satisfied? Are we getting the support we need to get to the next position or onward toward some larger goal? Do we even have a long-term goal? Are we making a difference in our positions? Are we being as effective as we can be?

I know that supervisors and executives are thinking about these things when a vacancy comes up in their areas of responsibility. Are we meeting their expectations? Can they see us transcend into a different position- into that vacant one or one vacated because of a domino effect? As this is also evaluation time, supervisors are thinking a lot about the previous year and their staff members’ work. And, they are asking their supervisees themselves to reflect on their performance and needs.


Hopefully, you feel comfortable going to your supervisor to discuss any of these questions.

The Greatest Opportunity

4/20/15 The Greatest Opportunity

Do long wait times during peak traffic periods mean something detrimental? Well, I guess that’s up to us. Certainly, our attitude about our work will ALWAYS affect our performance and efficacy- and really our attitudes affect our performance more than outside factors like the amount of customers we have backed up at any given time. The famous pastor, Charles Swindoll, said “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

It can seem like the din of the crush of people in the lobby is impossible to work through, but it isn’t. It’s an opportunity to reach people in ways that may surprise them. One of the reasons that people wait so long is that we provide great service to the people sitting with us no matter who is behind them in line. Our customers will recognize that fact when they finally get to us. It will seem okay to them that they waited because they waited for great service. We will have embraced the opportunity to wow them and make a difference for them.

Ideas!

5/18/15 Ideas!

How do we find the time to innovate when we are so busy because we had implemented new ideas and we are down in staff members which make us so worn out that we just want to exhale for a minute when we have any down time? We feel oppressed by our circumstances. But, innovate we must because the alternative is to keep hemorrhaging students while our population base they come from continually shrinks.

We must keep the ideas flowing. We must keep trying and assessing new ideas. And, we must give ourselves room to fail. Failure is a great teacher if we use it right. Thomas Edison became famous for saying “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”

Let’s find the ways to help our students achieve their goals and complete college successfully.