Rememberance Day
This day has a very special spot in my heart, being ex-military and a supporter of our Canadian Forces scattered throughout the world, I am appalled at the number of people that would rather work today and take a day off at Christmas over recognizing the people that sacrificed their lives so that you can work today. It is shocking.
Take the day off people, go to the legion and thank a veteran who gave you and sacrificed life, limb and their memories so that you can enjoy the country that you live in today.
My good buddy Pete Justine has an awesome song on his myspace page. Pete is an American, so I won’t hold that against him, however he nails this awesome song that I want to put out there for all of our military members and their families. Check out the song called “Worth Fighting For“.
So if you are ready this and it hasn’t hit 11 AM yet, stop at 11 and remember those from all the wars that Canada or your home country participated in, maybe you have a loved one in a hostile situation like I do today, maybe you lost someone in a conflict or maybe you just care. Stop, observe and remember - go to the Legion and thank a vet.
Have you heard of Strengths Finder?
Our HTG group and actually several groups I belong to are now adopting the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 as a way to understand the strengths between team members, executive teams and they are even using this book as a way to filter new hires into their company.
The Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the 34 themes of talent determined by The Gallup Organization as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.
Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.
What do I love about this book and the process?
Basically in the StrengthsFinder book, it is a series of different strengths (34 in total), this is not a book that you read from cover to cover, it is a reference book in understanding how you interact with others, what strengths that you have and who you need to link up with in life and business to find success and like I mentioned before it is an awesome tool to find out that person you are about to hire, what are their strengths? Your investment includes the book and a 177 question online test that provides you with amazing and accurate results of who you are and the strengths that you have naturally inside you.
You can purchase the book online, by clicking the link below.
I also have learned what my strengths are and how I can benefit an organization, a team and even at home. My strengths are:
1. Adaptability - Hey, I don’t like structured process, I rather go with the flow and quick on my feet.
2. Futuristic - A number of times in my history I have been able to see things several years before they actually do occur, easy to see new trends and how they impact business and life (this skill has never been exploited)
3. Achiever - I strive to achieve great things in my life and the lives of those I am with.
4. Competitiveness - Second place is the first loser, need I say more…
5. Command - Yes, I like to be in command, must be from my army days.
I highly recommend that you pick up this book, maybe purchase several copies for your team, understand what makes them tick and also use it for your future staff aquisitions. I would rather spend $20 than make a hiring mistake because I didn’t understand a person’s core strengths.
Sharing the adventure
Sunday was an awesome day with more friends and some great learning’s at church. Today my good buddy Pete had his brother Jon deliver our message at church about sharing the adventure, well his message could not have come at a better time as I deliberate over my future when my time is completed at IT Matters. I have a number of parties interested in having my skills join their team, however, do they fit into what Jon spoke on 1 Samuel 26 1-12,
In 1 Samuel 26: 1-12 the message is quite clear, so have a read of it, at the 50,000 foot level the story is about David who makes his way into Saul’s camp while Saul and his army of several hundred are asleep. David makes his way in, and instead of killing Saul, simply takes his spear and his jug of water. Why? Well it is not David’s place to kill Saul, his time will come, however that is not the message that I am trying to share with you.
Before David could ever make this trip deep into Saul’s army he had to do a few things:
1. Choose your companions wisely - a great tip and an especially great tip for me right now, who do I want to take my next venture with. I need to sit down and carefully plan out who I want to have by my side during this next phase of my life. I wish I had this lesson much earlier in my life. But the one thing that I have learned over the past several years is that God shows His signs when the person is ready to receive them.
2. Share the adventure - You must have people with you that are going to share the adventure along side with you. I have done many trade shows in Calgary when I was the only person there, hauling the signs and banners to the event, setting up and then bringing everything back. Even as I look at the Extreme Tech Makeover, I have partners sharing the adventure with me, but there are some that are not showing any interest. In order to succeed in business, you need to have colleagues, partners, friends, employees and others who are willing to share in the adventure with you.
3. Give others the opportunity to succeed and/or fail - Many times in business we take a number of things on our own plate and take on a tremendous amount of extra responsibility. We need to give others the opportunity to succeed or even fail. With success and failure there are a number of key life lessons that are taught. Trust me on this one, I have learned quite a few lessons in my time and especially over the last few years.
These are just some of the items that Jon shared with us during the message at church today, the timing could not have been my perfect in helping me with the next few critical steps in my journey. Thanks Jon and thanks Pete for bringing Jon in to see us and his delivery of the word today. It is very much appreciated.
Here is a quote that Jon left with us today:
If we are waiting for the perfect person to perform perfectly at the perfect time, we will simply perfect the art of patience.
Jon P. Justine
Are you playing at Eleven?
I was watching one of my favourite movies the other day. Maybe you have heard of it, it is called “This is Spinal Tap“. I know it is not a real band and the movie is a comedy, however it is still one of the best rockumentaries ever done and some of the toones coming out of it are still played on Hair Nation (Sirius 23). The cast included some of best known names in film like Billy Crystal, Howard Hesseman, Rob Reiner, Paul Shaffer (Canadian and band leader on Letterman) and many others.
There is a seen that I have watched many times and it wasn’t until this week when I sat down with my friend Paul Moffatt that I saw something in from a business value perspective. In the movie, Nigel the guitar player from Spinal Tap is being interview in his guitar room and he is going on about some of the Axes that he plays and some that just sit there. The lesson comes from the Marshall brain that they look at and how the numbers on the brain go to Eleven and they go on to talk about just having that little more to go over the edge and when the band needs it, they crank it up to 11. Of course, it is purely fictitious however do you see the point in the skit. I have attached the Youtube video from the movie. The eleven part is near the end. Watch it, and then read on.
Also, notice the passion in Nigel when describing the guitars and what he does, he truly does love what he does!
So, do you see the message here?
Are you giving it that little extra to truly make it?
Are you just getting by?
In the movie, Spinal Tap was once a big stadium rock band and have come back for one last kick at the cat, playing small venues. It is not that their fans have reduced in numbers, it is because the band has been more selective in the fans they want. According to the movie.
However, when was the last time that you played one higher than everyone else around you? Do you come to a staff meeting 10 minutes prior to everyone else or do you show up 10 minutes after every one arrives? All through my life I have lived by the motto “The early bird gets the worm” and you know something it is so true. Usually the earlier you show up or when you crank it up one higher than everyone else is when things start coming your way. As they say in hockey, the puck bounces your way. The trick is you have to want it, you have to go for it, you can lay back and expect things to just fall in your lap. They NEVER DO!
You have to want it, you have to be hungry, you have to play at ELEVEN!
Secure Online Backup hits Canada
I had a chance to speak with my friends Ryan and Jae today at Toggle Networks about their partnership with eFolder. I helped them out linking the folks at eFolder with Toggle to bring secure, robust and reliable online backup services to Canadian firms. Having a online backup company that can store business data in Canada is something that many of my clients in the past have been asking for, and now Toggle Networks is brining online backup onto Canadian soil. So congrats to Jae and Ryan plus everyone else at Toggle for making this happen for many of us in the IT industry. Kudo guys! For more information read their latest press release.
Backup of critical business data is important and I am shocked still in today’s world that many Canadian firms still do not have a suitable backup strategy and especially one that is monitored and tested. This is what attracts me as an IT Professional to the eFolder solution and now the partnership with Toggle and eFolder ensures that the clients that I am responsible for have a great backup and recovery solution that keeps their data in Canada.
Why is data storage in Canada important? Simple answer, when our data is stored outside Canada, especially in the United States, acts like the US Patriot Act make data available to be looked at by the US Government. So it makes sense for all Canadian firms leverage data storage in Canada.
I have known the team at Toggle for quite sometime and they are totally committed to ensuring that their clients are looked after and also that the IT Professionals who partner with them have confidence in the solutions that they are recommending to their clients.
If you would like to try out the Toggle TrueVault solution, visit Toggle’s website at http://www.togglenetworks.com.