It's Not About Me

• Teamwork…and how to select your teammates! Imagine you are in a fox hole under heavy fire behind enemy lines in the middle of the night and you only have one person in that fox hole with you “protecting” your backside…who would you pick? Would it be your best friend, your golfing buddy, your fraternity brother or sorority sister, a relative perhaps…or would you want the person best qualified to help you get you out of this predicament! The need for selecting skilled, talented people with experience “under fire” who will assume ownership for their area of responsibility and will take initiative to do what needs to be done without having to be “prompted” to do so will go a long way in making your project or mission successful. No major project…no matter how well planned…goes exactly as anticipated. Therefore, it is important that your team members are adept at adjusting to unforeseen events when necessary on-the fly without a lot of direction. Team “make - up” is very crucial to most projects. While you may not always get to select your own team for many projects, you nonetheless need to make sure the team mates chosen for you have the right skills, experience and inclination to make the project work. Projects can be doomed to failure at the outset if the team cannot work together harmoniously toward the stated goal. While selecting the leader of the team is a very important component in setting up a project team…the cohesiveness of the team members is an equally important consideration. Make sure the individual members have the skills and commitment and time to make the project a success. Acquisitions, system/software conversions, plant migrations, etc. are but a few examples of major projects that can severely test the limits of even the most resourceful companies’ employees. Note: While many companies tend to “hire consultants” to help facilitate many major projects…it is the company employees that will be left later to make the implementation work and to keep it working! • Vision Having the vision or being a visionary is easier said than done. Perhaps, this real-life example of a visionary will illustrate how determined one must be in business to achieve visionary results. Vision, being able to see the “big picture”, commitment…these are all attributes of a naturally born leader. E.C. Raney in 1913 founded a company called the Automatic Reclosing Circuit Breaker Company that later was named Ranco; he was one of the early inventors and developers of refrigeration and air conditioning thermostats. Many of the early temperature and pressure controls used in Automotive, Commercial refrigeration, Household refrigerators, room air conditioners, etc. were developed and manufactured by Ranco, Inc. In the 1950’s, E.C. Raney developed a unique product called a “reversing valve” which was a critical component in a “heat pump” - the unit heats homes and buildings in winter and can cool them in s ummer … a single appliance that can both heat and cool year -round! While this was truly a great technological achievement, the acceptance of heat pumps as a replacement for traditional furnaces was not an instant success. Many parts of the U.S. did not e ven have air conditioning in the 1950’s so the need/desire for this new product did not meet with instant success. E.C. Raney continued to pour “lots

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