What does it mean to give 110%

What does it mean to give 110%
by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

On jet aircraft the military rates the engines at 80% of their maximum peak power to preserve longevity. It is often referred to as continuous or rated power.  Full military power is actually 110% of the rated power of 80% which is 88% of maximum peak power.  Otherwise they'll run an extremely high risk of damage to the jet engine.

The Army applies this principle of sustained effort to their soldiers as well.  They know they can't push their soldiers at 110% for long periods of time without permanent damage.  Wars can only be sustained with fresh troops.  The candle that burns twice as bright only burns half as long.  Giving 110% has often been misinterpreted as giving more than the maximum when in fact all they are doing is operating at 88% of the maximum peak power. 

When applied to people you should think in terms of a person's sustainable output versus their maximum output.  Maximum output is ALL that a person is capable of producing without regard for how long they can keep it up.  Think of it as a marathon runner as opposed to a sprinter: the marathon runner can run 26 miles at a reasonable pace while the sprinter can only run short distances at a very fast pace.

I once worked for a company that figured out it was cheaper to have their employees consistently work over-time rather than hire more people.  If you work 40 hours in a week, then that comes out to be 2080 working hours in a year.  Now subtract 10 paid holidays a year (80 hours) and 2 to 4 weeks of vacation every year (80 to 160 hours) and your now down to 1920 to 1840 working hours a year.

While working for them, I would typically HAVE TO work close to 3000 hours a year, which came out to be 50 to 60 hours a week.  Sure I earned a lot of money, but eventually I got burned out and my mental and physical health really suffered.  After years of that I finally came to realize that all the money in the world won't do you a bit of good if you don't live to enjoy it.  Eventually, I quit and found a less stressful job.

The lesson here is that good employers are more concerned with the sustainable, long-term efforts of their employees rather than their unsustainable, short-term efforts.  Numerous academic studies have confirmed that any attempt to conistently work more than 40 hours in a week reduces productivity.  If you keep asking your employees to give 110% or more, eventually you'll run the risk of permanent damage just like a jet engine.

The Virtue of Humility

"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." - Matthew 23:12

If you had perfect humility others could insult you, belittle you, mock you, beat you, and crucify you and it wouldn’t hurt your feelings one bit!  That’s what they did to Jesus Christ.  Few of us will ever learn perfect humility like Jesus, but it’s a virtue well worth striving for that can make a huge difference in your life.

Falling out of favor at work, having a career setback, or losing a well-paying job can be very humiliating experiences.  The mental anguish you and your loved ones experience can cause deep feelings of anger, remorse, anxiety, and depression.  And the stress can be similar to a long-distance move, a death in the family, a bitter divorce, or a diagnosis of cancer.

If you think about, the original sin of our first parents was pride, and to this day pride is still at the root of so many wrongs in our world today.  The remedy for this sin of pride is the virtue of humility!  Humiliation is simply the pain of your pride leaving your soul.  So if you let go of your pride and pretentiousness and embrace humility you’ll be well on your way to mentally bouncing back from the setbacks you encounter in work and in life. 

I once had a friend of mine who early in his working career had quickly risen through the ranks of his company.  He’d come from humble beginnings and was quite proud of his early success.  The only problem was he was absolutely miserable.  He didn’t like the pretentiousness, petty politics, and disingenuousness of the corporate world. 

Eventually his star fell as quickly as it rose and he lost his job.  He moved his family to Tampa, Florida and soon exhausted his savings looking for another job.  Finally he took a job literally digging ditches in order to support his family. 

He told me that through that humbling experience he rediscovered his roots and the dignity of honest hard work.  Much of his pride sweated away during that hot Florida summer, and he’d never been happier in his life.  It wasn’t long before he was promoted from ditch digger to foreman and from foreman to manager.  He'd like to think that God blessed him for embracing the virtue of humility.

Your Work does not define your Human Worth!

Our American culture defines our worth as human beings by Hollywood’s standards: your age, attractiveness, verbal skills, intelligence, education, profession, job, income, net-worth, charisma, etcetera.   The young and beautiful are more valuable than the old and ugly; the living are more valuable than the unborn; the eloquent are more valuable than the inarticulate; smart, educated, white-collar professionals are more valuable than stupid, ignorant, blue-collar workers; those with higher incomes/net-worth are more valuable than those with lower incomes/net-worth; charismatic, extroverted people are more valuable than boring, introverted people.  The list could go on.

All these worldly standards are simply false!  How about adopting God’s standard which defines your human worth as priceless?  The old and ugly are as valuable as the young and attractive; the unborn are as valuable as the living; the stupid and ignorant are as valuable as the smart and educated; blue-collar workers are as valuable as white-collar professionals; lower-income folks are as valuable as higher-income people; the penniless homeless guy is as valuable as the rich powerful man.  Your work and what you have and what you've done does not define your human worth!  In the eyes of God each and every one of us are priceless! 

The world and all its cravings for prestige, power, profit, and pleasure do not last.  But the one who follows God's will lasts forever.

A Boss -vs- A Leader

7 Cardinal Rules in Life

9 Core Beliefs of Truly Horrible Bosses

Here's a really great article contrasting bad versus great management:

http://business.time.com/2013/04/01/9-core-beliefs-of-truly-horrible-bosses/

Here's another great article about extraordinatry managers:

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-core-beliefs-of-extraordinary-bosses.html

Homily of Pope Francis at his Installation Mass

Here's the translated text of the Homily of Pope Francis at his Installation Mass on March 19, 3013.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Pope-Francis-Homily-Prepared-Remarks-198929021.html

Just Got My Second Article Published on a Mainstream Blog

I'm happy to announce that my writing partner, Allen Laudenslager, and I just got our second article published on a mainstream blog.  You can read it by following this link:

http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/2013/03/how-power-authority-and-obligation-impact-your-leadership-abilities/#more-8155

Here's a link to our first published article:

http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/2012/04/business-ethics-aint-rocket-science/#more-6995

"It is what it is!"

“It is what it is!” is an often overused cliché in many organizations today.  It basically means that you are unwilling or unable to change things or your circumstances in order to improve the quality or efficiency of your life or work.  But most of the time it’s more because you’re unwilling than you’re unable.  If you speak out against something you believe to be ineffective or just plain wrong you’ll run the risk of repercussions.

For example, you may be frustrated by the roadblocks, bureaucracy, policies, or procedures in your organization and when you complain about them you’re told, “It is what it is!”  You may be stuck in a hopeless, no-win situation such as a bad job or relationship and you say, “It is what it is!”  You see crime and social injustice happening all around you and you say, “It is what it is!”  It’s a victim mentality.

For many years I used to work for a company where management’s solution to every problem (and there were too many to count) was to say, “It is what it is!” For example, I once had a very important customer who spent millions of dollars a year with the company and complained about the unreliability of their equipment; after reporting this to my management, their response was, “It is what it is!”  And when my customer refused to accept their excuses, management’s response was to shoot the messenger (me). Now, when I hear someone use that blasted cliché “It is what it is!” it’s like listening to nails on a chalk board!

Imagine if Jesus of Nazareth said, “The world is lost and going to hell in a hand basket; I better shut-up or they’ll crucify me; it is what it is!”  Imagine is Abraham Lincoln said, “If I keep speaking out against slavery the Southern States will secede from the Union; I better shut-up about slavery; it is what it is!”  Imagine if Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If I keep speaking out against social injustice and the evils of segregation someone is going to kill me; I’d better shut-up; it is what it is!” 

Our world would be the poorer if great men and woman throughout history didn’t have the courage to speak out against the problems in society.  Working to make the world a better place involves risk and sacrifice.  George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself; therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man!”  I’m rather found of another great philosopher, Dr. Seuss, who wrote in his bestselling novel The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing’s going to get better, it’s not!” 

The Economics of the Ten Commandments (Final Part)

The 9th and 10th Commandments

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet your neighbor’s goods (Ex 20.17, NAB).

When we covet, we start to put little gods before the one true God and we begin to break all the other commandments. When we covet, we begin to accept that it’s all right to steal the object of our desire or to lie to get what we want. When we covet, we begin the process of accepting that dishonest actions are acceptable to gain the object that we desire, such as another man or woman or a promotion or to curry favor etcetera. 

We need to remember that wanting to have the same things as others is not the same as wanting those things at another’s expense. It is the first step in a moral and ethical decline that ultimately ends in the loss of our honor and self-respect. And once we loose our honor and self-respect we loose our respect for others.

We covet when we desire and work for riches, social status, and power at the expense of honesty and truthfulness. We covet when we’re unfaithful to our spouse or leave them to marry another. We covet when we try to keep up with the Jones. We covet when we buy things we can’t afford and live beyond our means. We covet when we’re jealous of another’s status, possessions, or accomplishments. Coveting is at the root of all jealousy, theft, robbery, vandalism, murder, fraud, greed, adultery, fornication, rape, arrogance, and every other dishonest, unethical, or immoral practice. St. Paul in his first letter to the Bishop Timothy (6.6-10,17-19, NIV) talked about the dangers of covetousness in this way:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Christians have always believed that relationships with others are not to be based on money. Businesses should not make profit their exclusive measure and ultimate end. The disordered desire for money will only result in perverse effects and conflicts with others. Any business practice that reduces people to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves men and women and leads to idolizing money (Matt 6.24).

History has clearly shown the adverse affects of the love of money. Over the nineteenth century, an industrial and economic revolution shook the very foundations of our civilization when unbridled greed, capitalism and competition oppressed the masses everywhere. Wealth became concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people and disparity grew between the rich and the poor. These changed the way people looked at society, the role of government, and work in general. Unfortunately, they also precipitated disastrous political ideologies like communism and fascism.

As a result of these social and economic changes, anti-trust laws were passed to control the oppressive use of money and power by individuals and corporations. Many leading Christians (especially in the Catholic Church) reminded businesses that they had an obligation to consider the good of people and not just the increase of profits, and that the ultimate purpose of business is meant to provide for the needs of people.

So what does this mean for you?

In this blog series, Allen and I have tried to show you the connection between economics, business and the central moral edicts of the Judeo-Christian faith traditions: the Ten Commandments. 

Here are ten simple rules to live by that we extrapolated into hundreds of rules to follow in life and in our economic dealings with others. The Ten Commandments were given to show us how to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. St. Paul wrote, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13.9-10).” 

We suggest that over the next week or so, you reread one section a day on each of the commandments. Then spend each day pondering the implications of that commandment for your daily life. On the final day, read Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 and compare it with the Ten Commandments. 

 

Some commandments may not be an issue for you, whereas others might be quite challenging. No one can keep these commandments all the time, but making them our daily focus will keep us from the situational ethics that cause so many moral and ethical lapses in business today. These commandments are certainly not impossible to follow, but when we do fail (as most people do) to live up to God’s commands we should admit our mistakes and try to do better tomorrow.

 

Final Note

 

Even though I have an MBA, have studied economics in depth, and have many years of business experience, I don't filter the economic choices I make through the filter of modern day economics; I filter them through a moral filter first.  And after they've passed the moral test I then try to make wise and prudent choices based on economics.  Experts can argue all day that one way of solving economic problems is better than another, but ultimately if the solution isn't morally sound, then it's bound to fail.  And this is focus of my blog.