How to Get More Done Each Day and Lower Your Stress Levels

Have you ever had a day in the office go by and you felt like you didn’t accomplish anything of real importance? If you answered yes, you are not alone. If your day begins like most other public school administrators or secretaries, there are emails waiting, calls to return, projects that are overdue, interruptions, family emergencies, the latest student disciplinary problem and the list goes on and on.

The reason we feel overwhelmed from time to time is because the plan we are using doesn’t work as well as it could. It is bound to fail because we let our “school office happenstance” dictate what happens to us. We feel manipulated by others due to their own inability to plan. We become frustrated by the people that don’t return our phone calls or emails. And since they seem to be so irresponsible, we wonder just how they keep their jobs.

Here is one simple way to help you get control of your day before it begins. Fifteen minutes before you end your day, start preparing for the next one by getting prepared. Take a 3X5 post it note and write out the six main things you need to get done the following day. Next prioritize the list with a 1-a for the first thing you need to finish, a 1-b for the second thing you need to finish and so forth. The idea is to prioritize the things you must do first or work on until you can go no further. If you finish all the items on the list add a few more (this rarely happens).

The goal of this system is to give yourself a structured way to realistically accomplish the main things you must finish each day. When you are able to implement this simple but tested system, you will feel good about what you are achieving on a daily basis. Knowing days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into years, you will find yourself living a more productive and satisfying professional life.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC works with public schools and colleges and helps them attract and keep students and their parents support. For more information on our services please contact us at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com

Don't Let Limited Thinking Stop Your Creativity

One thing is for sure, if you keep on doing what you have always done you will get less.
Here is a test designed to help stop thinking in the same old way.

What is the reason for the logical sequence of numbers below?
8-5-4-9-7-6-3-2-0

The answer: they are in alphabetical order.

If you didn't get that answer you are ready to start thinking outside the box and get different results.

With today's cutbacks in education it is critical you look for ways to create fresh solutions to your problems.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., is a consulting group that specializes in without the box strategic planning, leadership training, team building, and customer culture transformation, for public school systems in Michigan and the United States. For a free 30 minute consulting session or for more information please call 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com

3 Ways to Start Taking Action Outside the Box

For many school administrators and teachers, thinking outside the box is about as far as they get. They don’t take any action. Although their intentions are good, it seems they reach a certain sticking point and can’t go any further. It is as if they are mired in thick, sticky glue that won’t allow them to move through the door and make changes that will grow their organization. If an  company cannot grow, it cannot create careers for people looking to be hired by that organization.

Of course, the bigger the organization, the harder it is to follow through and make the new changes work. As I have said before “People do prefer comfortable problems versus uncomfortable solutions.” Despite the fact that things need to change in order to eliminate the frustration and challenges that are facing them, people tend to want keep doing things the same old comfortable way. It is as if they are afraid of being successful, because it will bring new challenges that might make their lives more difficult. This type of thinking will not build a stronger economy and create more jobs.

Denis Waitley tells the story of a primitive tribe of natives in South America who live in adobe huts. The people of this tribe have been suffering from an illness that causes premature death.
It was discovered that the cause of this illness are the bites of insects that have laid eggs in the walls of their adobe huts. When it was revealed to the leaders of this tribe that the reason their people were dying prematurely from the bite of these insects, and that they should move, they refused.  It was more comforting for them to remain and do nothing, and continue to live and die as their predecessors had in the past.

Here are two ways you can help your school system progress by stretching the boundaries of how you operate. First, hold a group meeting and discuss all the obstacles that could prevent the identified and necessary action from being taken. Let everyone contribute their concerns as to why things would not work if your organization did things differently.

Once that has been exhausted, identify the overwhelming benefits that will come by doing something a different way. What advantages will your employees and management team, as well as the organization, be able to enjoy, by incorporating the changes discussed? Make a written list of the immediate and midterm benefits, and how they will positively impact the people in your organization. Discuss what the long term effects might be, and how everyone will gain. Elaborate on how this change could take your school system to the next level and position it for future success.

Finally, during this group meeting, identify the next steps that must be taken, who will be responsible for taking them, and schedule follow up meetings to adjust the path that is being taken to achieve the goals identified. Don’t forget to schedule the “milestones” to celebrate the victory when the goals been identified. By following through with this approach, you will be able to take action outside the box and succeed.

For information on our services please contact us at 734-404-5909, email tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com or visit our website.

Good Meetings Make Good Sense

I was doing a brain storming session with a client recently and an issue they were having with the  
inaccuracy of their website, was identified. Several participants complained that
no one was asking for their input from their department, and as a result, the organization had a website that was improperly informing their customers about new services that were being provided.

Good public relations begins at home. Happy staff equals happy customers.
Meaningful and staff meetings can be a very powerful tool in helping your company meet the needs and expectations of your customers. As situations come up, mini-meetings and brain-storming sessions that quickly solve problems can also be used very effectively.

Regular meetings held with a purpose can keep the lines of communication open.

Often employees feel stymied in their ability to communicate their feelings and viewpoints to management. The staff  feel like second-rate people because they are never given an opportunity to be heard. What most organizations lack is a structure to insure that the meetings are held on a regular basis.

To insure that the meetings are effective in your school district, it is important that some preparation be made before each meeting. What are the challenges that need to be addressed? What is being done about the issues that were discussed at the last meeting? What is going right? Why? How can we make things even better? By asking these kinds of questions, you are building a framework to give communication within your company a place to grow and develop.

By holding meaningful and action-oriented meetings, you make it easy for your employees to communicate with each other as well as with management. Many times, it’s not a “generation gap” that prevents teamwork within a school district, but a “communication gap.” By following through with a plan for communicating, you are insuring a clearer, more effective form of constant communication in your organization. As a result, by keeping miscommunication to a minimum, you will have a happier and more productive staff.

For more information on how to help your public school team run the best meetings possible please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at: www.TomBorgConsulting.com

Three Ways to Effectively Deal with People and Reduce Your Stress

                                                     

The late author, Og Mandino, said, “In life we always headed towards a crisis, in the middle 

of a crises or headed out of a crisis”.  In other words, if you are experiencing problems, you are alive and be thankful.

That may not make you feel much better so let’s talk about how you can make the most of the stress you do experience in being part of a school system. 

The important thing to remember is that everyone experiences stress, and if they can deal with it, so can you!  When you can develop a system for successfully dealing with stress, you will have something that will be a dependable tool that you can use whenever you find yourself facing a stressful situation.

The three most common areas where people experience stress in their lives are coping with:

            Financial concerns

            Family members

            Co- workers, customers, managers and bosses

As you look at the list of the most common areas of stress, it is interesting to note that people make up two thirds of this list. Successfully dealing with people is an art. The human race is composed of individuals who are similar in some ways and unique in many others.  People’s values, expectations, upbringing, and a host of other variables make them different from you. These differences can serve as a stumbling block, or a stepping stone. The choice is yours.

Here are three tools you can use to be more effective when dealing with others in a stressful situation. First is communication. Most successful people are able to communicate with others in a way that creates a connection. Even though they may not agree with the other person, they are able to find some common ground or area of agreement.

The second tool is listening. When you can simply listen to the other person without interrupting them, you can resolve most disagreements. The real challenge is truly listening to the other person and not rehearsing what you are going to say to them when they stop talking.

Finally, the last tool is flexibility. Being flexible with others and not rigidly adhering to your own view point can allow you to come to a compromise and resolve the issue being discussed. One analogy that demonstrates this concept is comparing the oak tree to the willow tree. The oak tree which is very rigid and hard will lose several branches or have its’ trunk severely damaged in an ice storm. The willow tree which is very flexible will simply bend but not break.

So, by using these three tools: communication, listening and flexibility, you can effectively reduce your stress when dealing with other people.

For more information on the services of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC can help your public school administration and staff improve communication, please call our office at 734-404-5909 or email us at: tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com

Listening to Your Customers is the Key to a Successful School System.

One of the smartest things you can do with your school district in these tough economic times is to make your students and parents happy. This happens by design not by accident. The people you and your staff serve want to feel important and they will reward your school district with their loyalty and support.

This all starts with the attitude of running your organization or department like a marathon, not a fifty yard dash. It is too easy to cut corners on scheduling and hiring when you are trying to save money. That makes the bottom line look good in the short term, but if you are planning on keeping your school district over the long haul, you have to think in terms of your customer’s best interests.

So what are the things that make your parents feel important? What are the actions you and your staff can take that will make them feel like valued human beings? One of the best ways to find out is to ask them. Sitting down with a parent over a cup of  coffee (your treat), can help them give you insights you never dreamed of hearing.

Many times the things you think are important to parents and students are not.  Curiously enough, the list of things that are important may change from week to week or may remain constant. This depends on the circumstances surrounding the people you serve. By having an ongoing dialogue with your parents and students, you can keep abreast of their service perceptions and realities.

In this age of increasing technology and the everyday frenzy that accompanies it, slowing the pace down and getting face to face with parents and students can be priceless. Investing fifteen minutes to simply ask a few questions and sincerely listening to the responses can be like hitting the mother lode of gold.

For more information on how we can help make your school district the best it can be, contact our office at 734-404-5909.

Help Your Employees Create the Right Kind of Cultural Awareness

Creating the right environment for the development of cultural awareness within your organization does not happen by accident. At your next company meeting, make some time for your employees to raise their level of understanding of the different cultures  within it. This can lead to a positive impact on the quality of everyone’s life within your workplace.

Get Your Employees Involved

Paul Gorski, founder of EDChange, makes the point that when you get your employees involved in cultural awareness activities, it allows people to learn more about each other. It helps them eliminate preconceived notions and myths about each other’s culture, and allows people to become more comfortable with each other. Here is an exercise that Gorski recommends that can be used to develop cultural awareness within your organization.

Cultural Awareness Exercise

Ask the participants in the meeting to find someone who they do not know. Ask them to introduce themselves to that person and spend five to ten minutes talking about respect. What does it mean for you to show respect, and what does it mean for you to be shown respect? After the allotted time, ask the participants to return to their seats, and open the discussion. What ideas did people discuss?

When you get the participants back into the large group and discuss the discoveries that were made, responses could include things like:

·         Not everyone wants to be treated the way I want to be treated.

·         Not all cultures are comfortable shaking hands.

·         Different cultures have different expectations in social situations.

Learn From Each Other’s Differences

This type of an exercise can help your managers and employees learn from each other’s differences. When people are able to communicate openly about the differences between their cultures, mutual respect, trust and understanding can develop. In addition to the differences, people begin to see how many similarities there are. By structuring cultural learning time into your meetings on a regular basis, improved cooperation and greater cultural inclusion within your company can be obtained.

Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, trainer and author. He and his associates help public schools become more successful and service oriented. For more information on our services contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com.

Don’t Use These Words

The words you use color your attitude. If you are constantly using words that are negative, you can be sure you will have a more negative outlook on life. One of the best ways to change your attitude is to be careful with which words you use.

When you are caught in a slowdown in traffic? What do you say? Don’t call it a “traffic jam”.  A more positive way to refer to it would be to describe it as “a chance to slow down and do some thinking”.

Rather than calling a disagreement with another person a, “heated argument’, you can refer to it as a situation where you both saw things from a different perspective”.   

When you make a mistake on a project and, “have to start over”, use self talk that describes it as “an opportunity to make it even better”.

Rather than complaining about the broken dishwasher, discuss the advantage of how it might be time for a new, more efficient one.

When you are running low on groceries, don’t complain about how much food costs. Simply say, “it would be fun to get out of the house and do some grocery shopping”.

The key here is to start positively reframing the situations you are experiencing.  By looking at things from a different perspective, it gives you a more pleasant and optimistic outlook on life. It allows you to look up and see things that you might have missed if you had kept your head down and kept complaining.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people think they have it bad when all they have to do is look around and see how good they really have it. It reminds me of the poem I once heard that goes like this:

“I had the blues because I had no shoes,

Until on the street I met a man with no feet.”

Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He shows school districts and organizations how to attract and retain more clients and customers. For more information on his services please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or email him at: tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com

Using an Analogy to be a Better Communicator

If you are a school superintendent, principal, secretary or an employee, it is critical that you use as many tools as possible to help you communicate effectively. Most people will criticize things they don’t understand.  In order for you to be convincing, you must keep your communication tools as sharp as possible.

One of the best ways to verbally convey ideas that may need some explanation, is to use something called an analogy. An analogy is taking something that is familiar and comparing it to something that is not familiar. By taking this approach, it allows the listener to bridge the gap between something they are already accustomed to, to something they are not. Using an analogy can be the difference between having the person or group you are talking to agree or not agree with you.

For example, if you were trying to explain what the office paper shredder does, you could use an analogy of how a cheese shredder works. A cheese shredder takes a block of cheese and slices it into tiny fragments. The office paper shredder does the same, only it takes paper and cuts it up into very small pieces

Another example is, if you were trying to explain how easy it is to accomplish a major project. You could use the analogy of how a large bundle of twigs cannot be broken in half as a bundle, but when taken apart, each twig could be easily broken. It is similar to how you can break a major project down into small enough tasks that would allow the person to easily complete them one at a time. By taking this approach, the entire project would gradually be completed.

Using an analogy to communicate your ideas can help you gain the understanding and support you need to communicate your ideas effectively.

For more information on how Tom Borg Consulting, LLC can help your school system please call us at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at:  www.TomBorgConsulting.com

Do This to Avoid Email Problems

Email is everywhere in public schools across America. What’s worse is that it is getting more burdensome than ever. What is a person to do? Here are five tips from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge for Business Leaders E-publication.

 1. Make Action Requests Clear - If you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There's nothing more frustrating as a reader than getting copied on an e-mail and finding out three weeks later that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance. This rule  is mandatory for professionals who want to land a job in communications.


2. Combine Separate Points into One Message - Sometimes the problem is the opposite—sending 500 tiny messages a day will overload someone, even if the intent is to reduce this by creating separate threads. If you are holding a dozen open conversations with one person, the slowness of typing is probably substantial overhead. Jot down all your main points on a piece of (gasp) paper, pick up the phone, and call the person to discuss those points. I guarantee you'll save a ton of time.


3. Edit Forwarded Messages - For goodness sake, if someone sends you a message, don't forward it along without editing it. Make it appropriate for the ultimate recipient and make sure it doesn't get the original sender in trouble.


4. Check E-mail at Defined Times Each Day - We hate telemarketers during dinner, so why do we tolerate e-mail when we're trying to get something useful done? Turn off your e-mail "auto-check" and only check e-mail two or three times a day, by hand. Let people know that if they need to reach you instantly, e-mail isn't the way. When it's e-mail processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone, and blast through the messages..


5. Use a Paper “Response List” to Triage Messages Before You Do Any Follow-up - The solution to e-mail overload is pencil and paper? Who knew? Grab a legal pad and label it "Response list." Run through your incoming e-mails. For each, note on the paper what you have to do or whom you have to call. Resist the temptation to respond immediately. If there's important reference information in the e-mail, drag it to your “Reference folder.” Otherwise, delete it. Zip down your entire list of e-mails to generate your response list. Then, zip down your response list and actually do the follow-up.


Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. For more information on how he and his associates can help your public school please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com

How to Tap the Mind Power of Your Local Business Leaders

One of the key result areas every school district should take advantage of is the wealth of mind power and potential financial support from local business leaders in your community. By connecting this group of people with your school board members, you can create a very powerful and influential team.

Far too often these two groups do not have the opportunity to communicate with each other on a regular basis. One way to make sure that this happens is to create a structure for it to happen.

Here is a three part formula to make this idea become part of your strategy to strengthen your school district. 

First, create a list of local business leaders from your community. Invite staff from all departments to submit names of various business leaders in the community with which they have a connection.

Next, set up a time to meet with each business person on an individual basis. Explain that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the idea of tapping the mind power of the business community and discuss their possible interest of being included in such a group.

Finally, once you get enough people interested, conduct the meeting and generate a to-do list of possible projects that could be acted upon.

The main ingredient in building your school district is to get all interested stakeholders from your business community to communicate with your school board in an ongoing basis. The action oriented business people in your community can be key contributors to the success of your school district.

Contact our office for more ideas on how to maximize the wealth of mind power between your business community and your school board. We are available for in-services or for consulting. You can reach us at 734-404-5909.

How to Help Your Staff Be More Productive

If you are a school superintendent or principal who needs to have your employees become more productive, read on. One of the main factors that lie at the root of non-productive employees is a lack of true communication. I am not talking about just the day- to-day, “How are things going”, but, rather, an innate understanding of what it is that motivates that person. It can vary from employee to employee, depending on a number of different factors.

When it comes to motivation, it can change from one month to the next, depending on what is going on in that person’s life at that particular time. For some, it could be money. Others it could be recognition, still others it could be a flexible work schedule or a combination of all of the above. Sometimes job security or incentives to earn more money the harder they work motivates people.

Here are a few questions to consider using to understand your employees more thoroughly:
How would that person prefer you communicate with him?
How would that person prefer you not communicate with him?
What is the ideal work environment for that individual?
Which management style does he prefer his manager to use with them?
Does this individual know his true value to the organization for which he works?
Is he aware of other people’s perception of his work style?

One of the keys to helping your employees be able to work at their full potential, is to communicate with them and come to a mutual understanding of how they really are, and the potential they possess.

For more ideas on how to help your school district be more productive or to use us for an upcoming in-service program, please contact our office at 734-404-5909.

Public Schools Need to Generate Revenue

• When it comes to funding, The leaders of public schools need to experience  a paradigm shift in their thought process. With a continued eroding of funding from state and federal sources, public school districts must begin to explore and implement ways to generate and increase revenue on a long term basis. Up to this point the only approach for most public schools districts has been to merely continue making cuts. If continued, this approach will most likely  result in diminished services, erode staff morale, increased loss of confidence from parents, and continued student attrition.

 It is time to re-examine  the strategies for funding and start to explore and implement funding that could be generated by providing services to the public and business community. 

For some ideas on how we can help your school district create and implement this strategy please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or email us at tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com

Do You Know the Lifetime Value of Your Students?

How often has it happened to you or one of your staff where you took a student for granted?

When you stop to think how much a student is actually worth, in dollars and cents, it makes you sit up and take notice.

For example, let’s say Joe Smith, one of your students, represents $6,900 to your school district. Every year that Joe is enrolled, your school district receives $6,900 in state funding.  If Joe Smith’s parents believe your school is doing an excellent job of educating their son, they will see to it that he attends school for all thirteen years of grades K-12. When you multiply that amount of $6,900 per year times 13 years, it equals $89,700.

So, you see in fiscal terms, Joe Smith is an $89,700 client. If Joe’s parents have other children enrolled in your school district, the overall value of the family goes up proportionately.

Whenever you or your staff deal with people, you are going to have misunderstandings and misconceptions that need to be clarified and resolved. By taking the time and investing in the education, training, and patience that is necessary in handling these kinds of situations, with your students and their parents, you are insuring a greater degree of successful student retention.

Many times you will have staff that do not realize the total fiscal value that each student represents.  As a superintendent or principal, it would be advisable that you educate your team to understand this vital concept. Yes, there will be times when you have students that will have to be asked to leave your school district. However, if you and your team can strive to minimize this sort of action, you can retain as many of your students as possible.

With the loss of every student, you lose funding. Lose enough students and you will have to start making even more budget cuts than you have made in the past. So, even though from time to time, most of your students will have issues that must be dealt with, you must remember that they are the very reason you have a school district. It makes good business sense to keep as many of them as you can.

For more ideas on how to increase student retention in your school district, please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or email our office at: tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com.

Seven Ways to Insure Your In-Service Programs Get Results

Far too often in-service programs fall far short of their potential to create meaningful change in a school district.

Here are 7 ways to make sure your School in-service programs get the kind of results that make them worthwhile.

1. Get input from all of your staff on the type of programs they would like to attend.

2. Form an Action Group with representation from all of the different departments to formulate a list of topics distilled from the input you get from all of your staff.  Identify and select the most important ones. 

3. If possible, conduct concurrent sessions on various topics that have been identified.

4. Make sure that people from different schools and departments, are mixed in the seating arrangement. This allows for an opportunity for people from different schools and departments to get to know each other and for a fresh exchange of ideas during the program.

5. Begin and end the program with the sharing of successes that have been experienced in the last year.

6. Have all participants set a goal of using one to three ideas over the next six months. Pair each participant with a “buddy” and have them report to each other the results of their efforts to implement the ideas they have identified.

7. Encourage all school board, PTO and other school related volunteer groups to attend.

For more ideas or to book a speaker to make your next In-service program a success, please contact our office at 734-404-5909.

School System Uses Tablets not Texts

Learn how this school district is saving money by transitioning to the use of tablets not textbooks.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_e7bf7411-5ef0-553b-9046-bb0145ef0139.html#ixzz1W3i5TzUE

For more information on how we can help your public school district contact us at: 734-404-5909.