A few days ago I went to my mailbox only to find one of those little forms the Post Office is wont to leave. This particular form advised me that something mailed to me had insufficient postage - it was a whopping 33 cents short.

So on Saturday morning I drove to the Post Office - about a 15 minute drive. At the Post Office I encountered a bustling parking lot and over 20 people waiting in line. Luckily, a couple of those people were old friends I hadn't seen for awhile. We had plenty of time to catch up. After about a half hour I was summoned to the counter. I dutifully paid my 33 cents and was back about my day.

Now, here's what I don't understand: Wouldn't it have been better for the Post Office to deliver the mail and leave an envelope for me to pay the 33 cents? Instead they made me invest an hour of my time, they stored the mail, they paid a clerk (which they clearly don't have enough of) to take my 33 cents, go find the mail and bring it to me. I have to think, THAT cost more than 33 cents.

Two things I'm thinking here: First, I'm generally amazed at how well the Post Office serves the public - I know that's not fashionable to say, but in my experience it's true. Second, I wonder what kind of dumb things we're doing in our business without questioning them?

To expose reality, there are three questions every leader or manager needs to ask and answer on an ongoing basis:

1) Do we have the right people doing the right work?

The very best people ALWAYS do three things: They initiate. They stretch. They grow. If there is anyone in your organization who isn't doing these three things, that person is suspect at best.

Is each of these people doing work that really matters to the organization? If that work wasn't being done, would the value of your product diminish? Would you sell less? Would your future be impaired?

2) Do we have the right strategy?

Strategy is a simple statement about how we intend to win. People will prefer (and buy) our product ABOVE ALL OTHERS because ... Now, is that really true? Would you bet your 401K on that?

3) Can we deliver?

Can we manufacture the product with sufficient quality at a low enough cost? Can we scale the service? Can we recruit, train and retain the people we need?

Those questions are Reality 101.

If you're going to lay your money down, put it on the team with the best players because that's who usually wins. That's the truth. And that means you sometimes have to get rid of people you really like – and yes, that sucks. But if you want to win, it's also necessary. Jack Welch, the legendary leader of General Electric said it this way:

"Companies win when their managers make a clear and meaningful distinction between top and bottom performing businesses and people, when they cultivate the strong and cull the weak."

Cultivate the strong and cull the weak – sounds a little Darwinian, and it is. But again, you gotta do it because upgrading your people is a prerequisite to upgrading your processes, products and services.

If you're using the same process and selling the same products and services a year from now that you're using and selling today, you're probably on your way out of business. If your staff has the same level of skill and commitment a year from now that they have today, you're probably on your way out of business.

Great leaders and great managers are willing to face reality – even when that reality is harsh.

As I've said, the truth often sucks – but it's still the truth. Effective leaders must be willing to confront the truth, even when it's hard – especially when it's hard. For example:

Head count has an insidious way of creeping up AND activity (not productivity) expands to fill the working day.

As a result, not everyone who receives a paycheck is advancing the cause of your company. Much of the "work" undertaken on a daily basis isn't vital to your success. In fact, there's a real possibility that some of the people you employ and some of their "work" is actually getting in the way of your success.

We need to scrutinize the function and performance of every single person on our payroll. Is the function vital to our success? Is the performance as good as it needs to be? It's hard. Charlie's been here a long time ...Donna is the soul of the place ... we've always done it that way. Maybe, but chances are some of those functions and some of those people are simply not essential to our success. So they gotta go. That's the truth – and it sucks.

The health club is full of folks with new found resolutions. Not sure how they'll do with their resolutions, but I'm enjoying the t-shirts.

Pain is weakness leaving the body

A young woman offered her sports insight:

FRONT: I don't know much about football

BACK: But I know a tight end when I see one

And maybe my favorite:

The Top Ten Reasons Why I Procrastinate:

1)

Over the last decade or so, Starbucks has become a part of my daily routine. I've never calculated what I spend at Starbucks (I think I'd be appalled) but I'm certain I'm in the top echelon of their customers. I enjoy the coffee, but what kept me coming back was what Howard Schultz refers to as "the distinctive Starbucks experience".

For me, that was the friendly, vivacious people behind the counter. They knew my name. They knew my drink. They looked me in the eye and seemed genuinely happy to see me. Sadly, there has been precious little of that behavior in the last few months.

At first, I thought it might just be my "regular" store. But I've visited half a dozen other stores in the area and it's pretty much always the same - which is to say, not so good. The coffee's OK - but without the gracious welcome, it just doesn't taste as good.

Howard Schultz is back at the helm at Starbucks. I hope he can fix this.

What used to be true in our business but no longer is – that's the question we've been wrestling with this week. Here's an example of what happened to us.

Throughout the decade of the ninties, we built a reasonably successful business in video production. Here's what was true up until around the year 2000:

The supply of video editing services was limited

The equipment investment for the video editing business was a barrier to entry

Demand for video editing was strong

Margins in video editing were high

By the year 2002, exactly none of that was any longer true. It was more than a little startling, but we had to find a different way to make a living. Luckily, we did. Others didn't. Finding a new way to get paid for what we did was hard. Really hard. But it wasn't as hard as going out of business.

Yesterday, I suggested you gather the troops and ask the question: What used to be true in our business but no longer is? Here are some thought-starters:

Is there more or less aggregated power surrounding our business? Do we have as many options for suppliers as we once had? Is concentration in one (or a scary few) of our customers more pronounced?

In the market as a whole, is the supply of what we sell larger or smaller than it once was? Do our customers have more or fewer viable options for buying what we sell?

Is it easier or harder to attract and retain the kind of employees we need? Have total employment costs gone up or down as a percentage of our revenue, as a percentage of our gross income?

Hmmm ...

Some years ago, Art Garfunkel sang a Bruce Johnston song with these lyrics:

Reality, it's not for me and it makes me laugh

Sometimes, reality just isn't that much fun. But confronting reality is the ante for just surviving in business. In fact, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan wrote an entire book about Confronting Reality. In that book they said:

"To confront reality is to recognize the world as it is, not as you wish it to be, and have the courage to do what must be done,not what you'd like to do."

Doesn't sound that hard. But it is. To illustrate, get your key people together and ask them this question: What used to be true in our business, but no longer is?

Sometimes on Friday it just seems like we ought to lighten up. So, from time to time on Friday, I'm going to do just that.

Last weekend I was listening to some old music &ndash really old to some of you, from the sixties. And I got to thinking about the a top ten list &ndash The Best ROCK Songs of the Sixties. There are some nominations below, submit some more if you have a minute.

Somebody to Love – Jefferson Airplane

Fire – Jimi Hendrix Experience

My Generation – The Who

Sunshine of Your Love – Cream

Born to Be Wild – Steppenwolf

Jumpin' Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones

Mr. Soul – Buffalo Springfield

Eight Miles High – The Byrds

Kicks – Paul Revere & the Raiders

I Want to Hold Your Hand – The Beatles

This is not a big deal. But it's been on my mind, so here goes:

A few weeks ago, I placed a phone call to a consultant/speaker/author/web guru fellow who will go unnamed. This is a guy who rails regularly at mere mortals to do all manner of marketing, including the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of blogging. I was calling to hire him for a speaking gig.

He never returned the call.

Obviously, he didn't get the gig – he didn't even get a chance to turn it down. He didn't do the basics. He didn't return the call.

Our company has just posted a new website: www.timemanagementsuccess.com The goal of the site is to help you get more done, succeed at work and get back in control of your life. (So you'll have more time to have fun)

The site has a free resources section with public content that can help with the most daunting time management challenges. We also sell our time management training courses on the site. The training sells for $499.95, but:

Readers of this blog get the training for free.

Here's how to get the training:

1) Go to: http://www.timemanagementsuccess.com/ &ndash click on Learn More.

2) Click on "Add to Cart" for one of the courses.

3) In the shopping cart, enter discount code: O07P01U (that takes the purchase price to zero) - complete the purchase process.

4) You'll receive an email with a download link - click on that link and you'll download the training course.

Let me know how you like the training.

In my last post I shared my one and only new year's resolution: Have more fun in 2008 than I've ever had in my life. But having fun takes time – time that in the past I would have spent working. Here's the dilemma: Just because I intend to have mega fun, doesn't mean I'm going to abandon my other goals and responsibilities. What's a fun-seeking guy to do?

Be more effective. That's what.

Upon reflection, I've determined that not everything I do in my business day is really worth doing. So first, I'm going to stop doing those things that don't have some significant impact on the success of our company. Second, I'm committing to ferocious focus – lasering total attention on the task at hand, NOT getting distracted by email, texts, phone calls, interruptions from other people, and my random racing thoughts.

More effective = more time for fun. That's what I'm talking about.

It's a new year. We have 8,760 hours. Hours that we'll use well or use poorly. I have a single new year's resolution – have more fun in those 8,760 hours than I've ever had in my life.

Two interesting things about this resolution: First, everyone I share the resolution with tilts their head to the side and looks a little puzzled – I guess it doesn't involve enough pain to be a classic resolution. Second, most of the people I've told about the resolution send me an email or a text or a voicemail within a couple of days. And what they say is, "Hey, I want to do that too ... I'm adopting your resolution ... Can I come along?"

There's nothing exclusive about the Fun resolution - in fact, it probably has network effects, so join the parade!