Accomplishing Your Impossible Mission

Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it…

These words kicked off one of the best action TV shows ever produced.  Each week, Jim Phelps, leader of the Impossible Missions Force, somehow found a way to accomplish what so many around him thought was impossible.  You know, it says a lot about what people consider to be “impossible” when some people routinely find a way to accomplish the mission while others are content to say it just can’t be done.

We face the same issue today in the utilities industry.  We have a seemingly impossible mission ahead of us today.  Run a successful utility operation in the face of ever expanding regulations, a troubled economy that has dramatically cut our revenues, increasing maintenance cost on an aging infrastructure, a disengaged workforce, a customer base not receptive to rate increases…it certainly looks impossible.  Yet, somehow, there are utility managers that find a way to accomplish this mission while others satisfy themselves by saying it can’t be done.  How do they do it and, more importantly, how can we all learn from their example?

Mission: Impossible was certainly an entertaining show but it was so much more than that.  It actually contains a wealth of management lessons that can be applied equally well to accomplishing our impossible missions we face here in the utility industry.  Let’s look at a few of these lessons over the next few weeks:

First, every mission started out the same way:  Jim Phelps finding out his team’s mission from some sort of recording device hidden all over the city.  One of the first questions put to him was this one, “Your mission, should you decide to accept it…”   Did Jim Phelps have a choice whether to accept the mission or not?  Of course he did!  He could have said, “No”…but could he have done so and still been the leader of the IMF? Not at all!  This is a key concept not only for you but for everyone on your team.  We all have choices, but what we choose opens and closes doors.  As IMF team Leader, Jim Phelps did not have to accept the mission…but he could not be the IMF leader unless he did.

As utility managers, you don’t have to make the tough choices that come with management… but you can’t be a manager unless you do.  As utility workers, you don’t have to be drug free or care about our customers…but you cannot work for our utility unless you make the right choice.  Instilling these lessons into your people is what will set you apart as a success in this or any business. 

Are YOU ready to accept your mission?

Accomplishing the Impossible

“It might work for you, Rob, because you are a small utility and we are much larger.  It would be impossible for a utility our size to do this.”

 “Rob, we’re much smaller than you and, therefore, our budgets are much tighter than yours.  It sounds easy, but it would be impossible for me to accomplish something like that.”

 “Rob, we’re a city department so it’s probably impossible for us…”

“We’re a union shop so that will not work here…”

 “Maybe if I could get my people a pay raise, I might get them to care, but absent that, it’s going to be impossible at my shop.”

 IMPOSSIBLE.  The way we like to banter that would around these days.  There was a time when we could accomplish great things.  When our heroes did much with nothing. 

There was a time when the top show on television was “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE” and it was a hit because ordinary people from ordinary jobs found ways to work together as a team to get the right things done.  There was a time when we proudly watched a man step foot on the Moon for the first time and we accomplished that using less calculating power than all of us carry around on our phones today.  There was a time when “McGYVER” was the top hit on TV because here was a man that looked around him all the time and saw what could be accomplished using only what he had on hand at the moment…not what was impossible. 

What is a top hit on TV today?  SURVIVOR…where they take people to an island where people are already living and give them a million dollars if they can somehow find a way to live there, too!

This is nuts.  We must get back to our “can do” attitude!  We CAN accomplish this if we just work together and have faith in our abilities.  Someone…YOU…needs to start the ball rolling.  Not in a big way…but in something. 

A New Year and New Beginnings!

I will be heading to Boston to keynote the New England Water Environment Association Annual Conference.  My talk?  “How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible”.  If you are in the area, please stop by and say hello.  I am only there for Sunday thru Tuesday and then it’s off to Chicago for the WEF Mid-Year planning Meeting.  By the way, I wrote a change order the other day to extend the hours in a single day to about 30.  Haven’t seen it come through approved yet but I am hopeful!  That would surely help me maintain pace with all the commitments I have gathered in the last few months!

Again, apologies all around for the time away.  I am rededicating myself to writing regularly and to reaching out more to maintain active connections to my friends throughout industry and business in general.  If you would like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please follow the link here:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/robmcelroype

If you need a dynamic speaker at your next conference, Please do not hesitate to contact me.  It is some of the most fulfilling work I do and I would be happy to work with you to get just the right message out to your group or organization.  My press kit can be downloaded via the following link:

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_3994405_6722379

I sincerely hope you have a most prosperous 2013 and that your every endeavor reaps positive returns for you!  Excelsior!

A Brief but Busy Update!

A couple of great things going on at the moment!

First, the WEFTEC conference in New Orleans was an incredible success!  I spoke 4 times there this year (that is certainly a record for me… it may be a WEFTEC record as well.)   It kept me hopping but it was a great show with a lot of great feedback.  If you attended and wanted copies of my presentations, they can be downloaded at the following links:

The New Business Model for Today’s Successful Utility - Elected Officials Briefing

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_3994405_6632291

You’ve Got a Financial Plan… Now What – Financial Workshop Presentation

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_3994405_6632217

Winning Team Onboarding

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_3994405_6632046

Will You Survive The Night of The Boomer Exodus?

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_3994405_6632032

Tomorrow (October 15, 2012), I am presenting the keynote address at the AL/MS Section of AWWA Annual Conference in Mobile, Alabama. If you are attending this great conference, please stop by the opening general session and give me a listen! I am also presenting on Tuesday on the need to deliver WOW service to our captive audience of customers here in the utilities industry. It's a message more people in the public sector need to take heed of so please stop by if you can. It really can make a big difference in your operation.

Finally, the October issue of MSW (Municipal Sewer and Water) Magazine just came out and features my company, Daphne Utilities, and the efforts we have gone through to both protect the environment and build a great, positive relationship with our customers.  You can read the article at the following link:

http://www.mswmag.com/editorial/2012/10/cutting_out_the_fat

 Wow!  Talking about staying busy! 

Cape Cod in the Fall… New Orleans Just Ahead

It was my distinct honor to keynote the New England Water Works Association Annual Conference in Cape Cod, Mass this past week.  It was a truly uplifting and great experience from start to finish!  By far one of the best conferences I have ever attended!  Thank you to everyone up there who made me feel so welcome.  I know that most of them could barely understand my southern dialect but all were extremely friendly and made the trip a quite memorable experience… surely something I needed after the recent loss of my mother. 

Next week, I am in New Orleans speaking multiple times at the Water Environment Federation’s WEFTEC conference.  WEFTEC is the largest utilities trade show on the planet and, somehow, I managed to volunteer for more activities there than there are hours in the conference!  I’m speaking at a financial planning workshop, two technical sessions on HR subjects, an elected officials workshop, three committee meetings and at least two dinners out.  As much as I love giving away information, somewhere in all of that, I need to find time to gather information to help me and my utility out, too!  I hate to be short here, but I have a lot to do yet to be fully prepared. 

In my next post, I’ll explain why most utility companies and Lindsey Lohan have a lot in common… and that is NOT meant as a compliment!  Stay tuned!!

   

Tragedy... and an Unwelcome Metamorphosis

I apologize for taking some time off of my blog.  My mother recently passed away and that has literally consumed me for several weeks.  I survived as we all must but the whole reality of it all has yet to fully sink in.  A friend once told me that you never truly become an adult until you lose both of your parents and have no one left with whom you can become a child again.  In that sense, I guess I am now an adult.  Yay.

How to WOW in Your Interview Now!

I interviewed candidates to fill a management position with my company last week and... wow, was I underwhelmed at some of the performances. Really? You're telling me that this was the best "sales pitch" you could offer? If you won’t prepare ahead of time for an important meeting to benefit you, what makes me think you’d prepare for a meeting to benefit my company?

As a manager, it’s my job to hold the line and hire only theright candidate every time (not the "least worst"). It’s not my problem if most candidates are unprepared for the interview (in fact, it saves me time because those interviews are very short). At the end of the day, I am only hiring the one who is prepared and delivers a great performance.

On a personal level, however, I would like to see more candidates delivering better interviews. To help them prepare to do this, I have been giving presentations in colleges and at job fairs across my area on interviewing skills. I have also been contributing lately to the “Job-Hunt Help” group in LinkedIn. As a result of that, I have been contacted by people from across the country asking questions about this subject.

To broaden the reach of this information, I am offering my slideshow for download freely at the link below. If you ever envision yourself interviewing for another job anytime during your life (and that should include just about all of us), you will benefit from reviewing this PowerPoint Slideshow.

Just follow the link below to download the slideshow. It’s about 17MB in size so give it a minute to download. There are notes in the notes section of every slide for you to follow so it is sort of like reading a book with pictures (…okay, reading a book with pictures that can help you land a job making a whole lot of money). Good luck and good hunting!

https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D7090779_708_640656393