How I Got "Bested" by a Pack of Surfing Dogs

Just when I was learning to surf myself I was bested by a dog. That is right....a dog on a surfboard. Imperial Beach was crawling with people watching Petco's Surf Dog Competition. Certainly not something I have not seen in other places but definitely fun to watch.

 There was a large crowd with vendors. Plenty of room to walk up and down the pier and then head to the beach for a while. A few stores dot the beachfront for those interested in shopping. I didn't have much time to check them out with the surfing and dog watching.

I was impressed by the strip along the beach. It looks like it has been built up over the years and is very clean. For a Saturday with nice whether and an event we were still able to find parking within 15 minutes which is great. We only needed to walk a half block to the beach.

Can You Tap Your Internal Motivations?

Whether you are a writer or working on a project it is important to understand your essential motivations in life. As you engage in daily business and have to make decisions about actions, projects and paths you will want to keep these internal motivations in mind. Use them as a guide to your overall work happiness.

Each person has things that motivate them but most don’t know what they are. We can spend an entire lifetime making decisions but not understand the basic latent motivations under those actions. Spending some time thinking about your interests and actions can provide key insights into what makes you “tick”.

This takes time to develop as it requires a level of insight and knowledge of yourself. One of the reasons why people become self-actualized in older age is because they have the experience and knowledge about themselves that comes from years of self-reflection.

This process can speed up if you are willing to think about the goals you have set and the decisions you have made over the past 5 or 10 years. Think about what you enjoyed doing, the type of work you felt happy with, and where you were successful. Use them as a guide for future decision-making.

Try and define the two or three essential statements that sum you up. Explain yourself in a single paragraph and use that explanation for making difficult choices easier. Seek to be genuine with your interests and work so that you can succeed in your life and career. Tap into your internal motivations and reap the rewards of higher performance.  

The Problem of Procrastination

Procrastination is common problem that can be improved with a little motivation and pre-planning. We can see procrastination at work in projects that are chronically delayed or papers turned in a few minutes before their deadline. People who wait until the last minute to get their work done often show poor quality work and missed deadlines.

Procrastination is a habit and motivational problem. People who are chronically late are subconsciously avoiding starting a project and then force themselves to scramble to get it done. They have not yet developed the discipline and motivation needed to  give themselves the best chances.

Assuming that they were successful in getting the project done before the deadline there are a few reasons why as a manager or professor you should discourage such behavior. I have noticed in both the teaching and the business world that the projects are often subpar and contain errors when under duress.

When people are rushed to complete something they cut corners and make mistakes because they are focused on finishing the main components. They also put unnecessary stress on everyone else that must also drop what they are doing to assist in the “all important” project.

Employees who procrastinate are not working at their full potential. Starting early is a sign of good planning and can lead to better project/paper management. Those employees that can manage their time and resources well are ripe for promotion. Reward employees that can manage themselves and their time appropriately--they are the same.

Two Skills of the Market Shaman

A few of us have met market shamans who seem to understand what is going to happen next in the market and can turn pennies into millions of dollars. They are a rare breed that has this drive to understand and apply knowledge to the market. The two skills of the market shaman include forecasting and understanding human nature.

Both of these skills work together and are related as a narrow and wide lens. The economic system is the collective action of individual human effort. Understanding people and how they act on a macro scale gives the Shaman a full picture of what is going on in the market and how events play out. 

As the economy globalizes it is necessary to view individual and economic behavior from different cultural vantage points. Each culture comes with a defined way of thinking about issues and new information is sifted through that culture’s decision making matrix to come to possible conclusions.

1. Forecasting: Forecasting the market is an essential skill of developing strategies and investment opportunities that pay dividends. The further the projection the more likely plans and contingency plans can be created. Unfortunately, the further the projection the less accurate they become. A market shaman constantly watches the market, educates him/herself, and connects the trends to understand where the market is heading. 

2.  Understanding Human Nature:  Markets are based on human behavior. We may describe them in terms of economics, numbers, charts, dollars, and graphs but they are essentially still representations of human behaviors. Understanding trends is one aspect of being a market shaman while understanding how people act and react to the market is another aspect.  Studying human behavior will help predict market reaction to events.

Signs You’re Working with a Workplace Bully

We have all met those people who have goals and won’t anyone or anything get in their way. Society seems to reward the aggressive. Each of us has likely come across a workplace bully at one time or another but understanding their characteristics and removing them from the workplace is an important part of creating a stronger business. 

Being driven is ok but overstepping your bounds is not ok. If colleagues and employees become alienated and don’t feel the ability to be genuine, or voice their opinion, their intellectual capital is wasted. What a bully interprets as “winning” is a short-term strategy that eventually damages their credibility along with the organization’s performance. 

No one likes to work with someone who knows all the answers and doesn’t respect the opinions and values of others. People want to feel engaged and connected with others and shutting them down without giving an opportunity to contribute leads to poor future decisions. Examples of aggressive personalities that lead to group think and poor outcomes dot history. 

Sometimes bullying personality manifests itself as manipulation while at other times it is associated with extreme measures to subjugate others. Lying, cheating, arguing, fighting, power struggles, demeaning comments, and even illegal activity are some of the ways a bully finds power. The message they are sending is, “anyone who disagrees with me is my enemy and must be destroyed!” 

The inability to understand or empathize with others has a darker root. An adult bully is a bigger version of the same bully in childhood. Externalizing shame, childhood bullying history and stigmatization are important characteristics that set bullies apart from the general population (Pontzer, 2010). Chances are bully’s will never change and should be avoided at all costs. 

Unfortunately they can’t always be avoided. There are times when aggressive behavior must be confronted. Make no mistake, they will do whatever it takes to ensure you are put back in line. Expected them to do and say anything to maintain the status que and their perception of worthiness. You may need to contact your HR department or seek legal counsel if behavior moves beyond civilized limits. 

Pontzer, D. (2010). A theoretical test of bullying behavior: parenting, personality and the bully/victim relationship. Journal of Family Violence, 25 (3).