Attention Business Owners: About Your Company Vehicles (again)

Attention Business Owners

I said it before and I will say it again: Do you know what happens when your employees take your company vehicle home?

Sure it might be after hours but they are still advertising your company name, phone number, website, and they are most certainly advertising your company's reputation. 

The situation is do you really know what your employees are doing with your company name on the weekends and after hours?  Better still, what are they doing with your company name when they are driving home after work or when they are driving to work first thing in the morning?

Are they really promoting the professional reputation that you worked long and hard to develop, cultivate, and maintain?

Are your employees working hard to maintain that professional reputation? Most of them are.  However, just like at a restaurant all it takes is one bad meal or a rude waiter and that restaurant's reputation goes down the kitchen sink and so will your organization's reputation.

All it takes is for one employee that is in a hurry to start the weekend and run a red light or do rolling stop at a stop sign or worst still shows signs of road rage in your company's van or truck and come Monday morning and almost as if by magic you sit there wondering how your company's reputation just disappeared.

Now, I know there's a need for employees to take company vehicles home after hours and weekends, especially if they are on-call.  However, those employees need to fully understand the severity of how quickly things could escalate and the importance of them to remain highly professional from the moment they drive the company vehicle off the company parking lot to the moment they return the company vehicle to the company parking lot.

So long as they have control of a company vehicle they have control of your company's reputation and fate.  Now, you need to ask yourself: Are you prepared to turn over total and complete control of your company to someone who you know is not prepared?

Of course, you send out your service vehicles and service people. Your employees have to get from point A to point B.  Obviously, you trust them enough to get from one point to another to do the job that they were hired to do.  That’s fine, however, it is their attitude and behavior while they're traveling that is the biggest indicator of how long your business will last.

If you have in the past or if you haven't, get those drivers together and lay down, in no uncertain terms, your exact expectations of those driving the vehicles no matter when they're driving the vehicles.  Also, don't forget to stress the repercussions of violating the expectations that you have just finished giving them.  I understand that there will be people who will push you, that will not take you serious as to what your expectations are and what will happen if they do not follow through.

Therefore, it behooves you, your employees, your company, and your insurance company that every driver signs a form that acknowledges their understanding and expected compliance of the vehicle use policy as you have explained to them.  Don't forget to ask if there any questions.  If there are no questions then verbally acknowledge that no questions were asked otherwise answer the question(s).

Something to remember; when you are talking to your staff please do not pull any punches, do not joke around, or they will most certainly take with them the impression that all of this is just a joke and you were not serious! This impression will be difficult to shake when it comes to following through when someone breaks the driving policy.

Remember, whether you want to admit it or not your customers and potential customers are ALWAYS watching you, your company, your employees and what they do with your reputation. So take my warning or not, that is up to you.

Thank you,
David G. Guerra

P.S. I do invite you to join this conversation. I want to know what you are thinking.

As always you can read this blog post in its original location at http://daveguerra.blogspot.com

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What is Great Content? Is It In The Eye Of The Beholder?

Last week, I was watching a "noted" author on SPREECAST.com talk about his soon to be released book. If you have ever seen any video presentation on SPREECAST you know that to the right of the video feed is a real time chat stream.

During that session, there was one individual, who later was revealed to be actively associated with this "noted" author, that posted on that chat stream: "We don't need more content, we need more GREAT content."

I responded, "[Name] all content is great. Remember "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

Then who I will call the author's alleged "ringer" responded "Dave, couldn't disagree more. Not all content is great."

I opted not to respond because I was not going to dive into a flame war with this guy.


However, seeing as how this is my forum, my soapbox if you will, then I will continue the monologue here.

As the Spreecast ended I was still not satisfied that I decided not to go down that road with the "ringer" that was recognized by the author. However, I am not satisfied. I am not satisfied that I never asked the question: What is "great content"? 

Who sets the standard for "Great Content"? I guarantee it is NOT this "noted" author and MOST CERTAINLY not the alleged ringer, not you and DEFINITELY not me.

That's why I stand by my statement of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I guess this individual could not see that "GREAT" is subjective and comes in many shapes and sizes.

So long as CONTENT gets out it will be great to someone! Then again someone will consider the content completely worthless.


It just hit me, the alleged "ringer" didn't also take into consideration that one day after the "noted" author's latest book is published there will be people that will consider the book a load of bunk and NOT chock full of "GREAT" Content.

So I say again: Beauty (and Great Content) is in the Eye of the Beholder.

Maybe he'll get it one day? I highly doubt it.


Thank you,
Dave Guerra

P.S. I do invite you to join the conversation and tell me what you are thinking.

As always you can read this blog post in its original location at http://daveguerra.blogspot.com

Here are some Technorati Tags: • 100 Ways • Content • Eye of the beholder • Author • Subjective Interpretations • Who sets the standard? • Dave Guerra • Leadership • Leading • Leadership Development • Professional Development • Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way • Ready, Fire, Aim! • If it ain't broke, break it. • Hire Crazies • Ask dumb questions • Pursue failure • Spread Confusion • Ditch Your Office • Read Odd Stuff • Avoid Moderation • Higher, Admire, Desire, Require, Satire, Inquire, On Fire, All Possible Scenarios • Give to the American Red Cross • Hire A Hero

Failing to Prepare (Part 3)

This is becoming a very disturbing trend. Tonight, I along with several million other people got to witness another shiny example of someone that failed to prepare. Before anyone says anything this is another NFL related story.

Yep, it was on Monday Night Football and the one who failed to prepare was Chicago 3rd String Quarterback Kyle Orton. At one point in the second half of the game, the announcers basically asked everyone to cut Orton some slack as it has been two years since his last start in the NFL. This guy is the 3rd String QB, if there is anybody that should be prepared to start in the NFL is this guy. If any team has to call on its 3rd String QB then he should know that something has gone horribly wrong and now the team is counting on him to be their saving grace. He, and all other 3rd String Quarterbacks in the NFL, should be prepared all the time, every time.

Yet, a professional football team took to the field and "expected" to win with a Quarterback that looked exactly like he has not played in over two years. What was this guy doing all this time? Sitting back, taking it easy, sipping Banana Daiquiris, while his teammates worked hard to take to the field and play a professional sport. Now don't get me wrong, any NFL Team worth its salt would not let just any schmuck onto the playing field, however, in this case I really think the Chicago Bears did. This guy was an embarrassment to the team and to himself.

I guess what I fail to understand is that this guy just flat out did not prepare to play, yet he went onto that field in Minnesota. For the record, Orton's stats were 22 completions out of 38 attempts, which comes out to a 58% success rate. That's right for almost every 3 attempts he got one right...hmmm, let's see in school 22 out of 38 is 58% and that was an "F" and I bet it still is.

However, in the business world, there are plenty of times that getting an "F" is like getting an "A". While it is true that it is the times that completions are made that matters. Unfortunately, what really matters is when you win, then you can miss 99% if all it takes is that 1% to win.

So this then begs the question: Can you afford to miss 99% of the time and hope that you can make it that 1%? or is it better to prepare now for when the time comes you can make 100% or real close to all your attempts being completions?

tags: Dave Guerra Kyle Orton Chicago Bears NFL MNF Failure to prepare lack of preparation Jeers Preparation observations

Preparation (or failure there of)

This evening I got a unique opportunity to see the preparation that people put in to be a success and I also saw the lack of preparation that people will use as an excuse for failure.

First the winner who prepared...The Dallas Cowboys. They played the Green Bay Packers in a decision making game for the top seed in the NFC. The Cowboys have obviously done their homework and were just a little too much for the Packers. The Pack used something called a 5-wideout set (5 wide receivers), in a way that appears as though 5 Wide Receivers are fanning out onto the playing field from one point of origin. The Cowboys gave up a couple of yards when the 5-wideout was used early in the game but that was it. From then, Dallas exploited everything that Green Bay was dishing out. In the end Dallas went to 11 - 1 and Green Bay goes back to Wisconsin with a 10 - 2 record. CHEERS TO DALLAS!!!

The one who failed to prepare...The Green Bay Packers. They traveled to Dallas only to get their back sides handed to them. QB Brett Favre must have thought that Dallas was a flash in the pan or something but he was wrong. Early in the first half, something must have spooked Favre because he could not get it together and was just heaving the ball to get rid of it. It cost him and the Packers, the only light at the end of the night was Aaron Rodgers (Backup BG QB) who stepped up and filled in nicely after Favre's "mysterious" elbow/arm injury. A little more experience and Rodgers will fit in nicely as Favre's replacement. Still the Packers came up way short and saw themselves seeing why failing to prepare sends one home with their tail tucked nicely between their legs. JEERS TO GREEN BAY!!!

Finally, who else failed to prepare: Fast Eddie's Sports & Billiards...Two out-of-town work guest and myself found ourselves there for the big game. We arrived just after the start of the game. I kid you not, we were never visited by a waitress or waiter. While we saw a couple walking around plain and simple there were not enough to serve the crowd. We were there the entire game and left without ever order or buying an adult beverage or any beverage for that matter. How can an establishment know for a couple of weeks that Thursday November 29, 2007 was going to be a big night for NFL games and this establishment failed to prepare by having adequate staff coverage. I just cannot come up with a suitable explanation as to why any customer service based establishment would give its customers less, especially when they advertise that they will screening the biggest game in the 2007 NFL Season, next to the playoffs of course, and want everyone to come on down and enjoy what they have to offer while watching the game. Talk about a big disappointment. So, dear reader, if you want to settle for less and have minimal to no service, then may I recommend your next social event be held at Fast Eddie's Sports & Billiards and you will not be disappointed. I know that I will never repeat that mistake because now I know. JEERS TO FAST EDDIE'S SPORTS & BILLIARDS.

tags used here: Dave Guerra, Winners, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Losers, Preparation, Failure to prepare, Fast Eddies Sports and Billiards