I am incredibly grateful to have the Harvard Business School, www.harvardbusiness.org, wisdom at my fingertips.   I was digging around looking for an article regarding practicing, how to practice more efficiently, become better at whatever we do as court reporters, and somehow Google led me to two articles, “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time,” by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy from Harvard Business, and “Why You Need Sleep in Order to Succeed,” by Anne Field.  What does Google know that I don’t know?  Why did I find articles on getting energy, rather than practicing and working harder?

 

I believe people perceive me as being a very high energy person, some might say “hyper.”  My father, Hans, used to warn me that I would be rundown by 40 and an old lady by 50 if I didn’t slow down.  15 years ago friends did an “intervention” on me, telling me to relax and work less.  People and activities give me energy.  I have no desire to “slow down.” 

 

The thing is, I am 49, and I’m starting to feel a little tired.  It is getting harder to “rev” up.  Google found for me these two articles that I plan on paying attention to, and I thought maybe someone out there could get a “jolt” out of them as well.

 

The article, “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time,” starts out, “As the demands of the workplace keep rising, many people respond by putting in ever longer hours, which inevitably leads to burnout that costs both the organization and the employee.  Meanwhile, people take for granted what fuels their capacity to work – their energy.”  McCarthy and Schwartz go on to talk about how it is the more energy one has that allows them to get work done, not more time.   They performed what is known as The Energy Project in which it was discovered there are four key dimensions that will build energy: 

 

1.     Take intermittent breaks to restore physical energy.  (Comment:  Typically, I don’t take breaks during the day.  I work straight through, eating something at my desk during lunch.  This is a bad habit.) 

2.     Rejecting the role of a victim and instead viewing events through “hopeful” lenses, avoiding draining negative thoughts.  (Comment:  I know this is true.  I use upbeat music to help support positive thoughts and energy.)

3.     Avoiding constant distractions that technology has introduced.  It takes up mental energy to be constantly multitasking.  (Comment:  I have been doing a lot of multitasking.  It is distracting and pulls my mind in different directions during the day.  I will become more disciplined with my time.)

4.     Participating in activities that give you a sense of meaning and purpose boosts the energy of the spirit.  (Comment:  Volunteering to help people is a great way to feel good and energize.)

 

Google led me to a second article titled, “Why You Need Sleep In Order To Succeed,” by Anne Field.  I have met people, typically attorneys, who brag about how little sleep they need, “Five hours is all I need.  I am up by 3:30 every morning getting work done.”  One thing I do know personally, I love sleep and get a lot of it, eight to ten hours a night.  I believe that is where a lot of my energy comes from. 

 

Two sleep experts explain that healthy sleep is divided into four-stage cycles.  Each cycle is to last 60 to 90 minutes.  In the first two stages, we become “unplugged” from the world until we reach stage three.   That is our deep sleep.  At stage four we are in our REM sleep.  During REM sleep, our brain becomes active and we dream.  Apparently, important restorative work is done in our brain during the deep sleep and REM.  This restorative work is crucial for physical renewal, concentration, memory, and higher-level thought.  The trouble is, when you cut back on sleep, your REM sleep suffers the most, making concentrating on a single task difficult and multitasking almost impossible.

 

For all of the court reporting students out there, working court reporters, and everyone in the world, let’s all pay attention to our bodies and our minds.  The baby boomers are known to be workaholics.  Many of us are proud to wear that moniker.  Let’s relax and energize.  Go, go, go!

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

via Twitter:  @rosaliekramm

 

 

As many of you know by now, I have been the owner of Kramm Court Reporting since 1985.  I began my career as a court reporter in 1981 at the age of 21.  I went straight from high school to court reporting school and then out to the work world.  In running my business, most of my education has come from the school of hard knocks.  I have been blessed with smart, generous mentors who have given me time and advice, and I have read many books, articles, and blogs in an effort to learn from the best how to manage and succeed.

 

I came across an article this week, “Want to Move Up?  Learn to Manage like a CEO.”  The author, Steve Tobak, speaks to the value of learning how to run a business by just doing it rather than getting an MBA or a business education and has come up with five steps. 

 

His first step is, “Focus on critical, trouble areas and leave everything else alone.”  I know that putting out fires and solving problems is my job.  I learned at a very early stage ignoring a situation and hoping it goes away or gets solved on its own very rarely, if ever happens.  All problems need to be tackled immediately.  A firm owner needs a powerful team behind him/her to come up with smart solutions.

 

Tobak’s second step follows beautifully, “Hire functional experts who are also solid, upcoming managers.”  Every expert, every successful person, everything I have ever read talks about surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are and who are experts in their field.  I would take this advice one step further and suggest a business owner has to hire the best vendors/service providers as well.  I want everyone that interacts with my company or my clients to be the best and to love their job, from our delivery guy to my banker.

 

The third point is, “Business comes first.”   Any great manager would understand this.  When I read the statement, “Business comes first,” I don’t look at it in a pejorative sense that a business should only care about making money.  In my opinion, business coming first means happy employees and court reporters; fair compensation for work being done.  The moment a company defines “business comes first” as a means to only generate personal income for itself  or management is the moment that that company will start their downward spiral.  Managers, salespeople, and employees need to understand that business does come first, the business of customers, service, and sales in the aggregate.

 

Tobak goes on to step number four, “Manage up.” He talks about “a critical function of any manager is to provide his boss with what she needs to succeed.”  Communication is key, and it starts at the top.  The CEO, owner of any company, must give permission for managers and employees to speak their mind and allow for give-and-take.  A business owner has to have the ear and trust of their management and vice versa and be able to admit they need information and even help, and the managers need to be free to speak to a business owner when he/she feels something is not on track.  Everyone has the same interest at heart, what is best for the business.

 

My favorite step of Tobak’s is the last step, “Help to manage the company.”  If an employee or manager sees a situation in another department where help is needed and steps in to be supportive, brainstorm, or even physically works alongside to complete a task, that person becomes invaluable to the owner.  If a manager sees a lack of direction in any area of a company and can step in and begin a process or even define the problem, that person will undoubtedly “move up” in a company.  But if an owner hears, “It is not my job” or “not my department,” you can bet that the owner is going to start looking for someone else to take that person’s place whenever possible. 

 

There are many days I wish I had an MBA, but I don’t.  Learning from the school of hard knocks has taught me a lot about myself, and there is one thing I know for sure, I need the people around me to be a part of the team.  I believe the five steps above all illustrate a common goal, wanting what is best for the company, the clients.  If the management team is helping the owner/CEO work towards that goal in an authentic and focused manner, one can guarantee success. 

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

@rosaliekramm (Twitter)

 

 

 

I have been following different court reporters around the country on Twitter, and the main topic this week was “hoping and praying” to pass the RPR, CRR, and CMR on Saturday.  I hope everyone passed.  I did say a quick prayer, as I promised, for one of my Twitter pals.

 

What impressed me the most about the Tweets was the effort, energy, and dedication reporters are putting into making themselves better.  There were Tweets about getting home in time to get an hour of practice in on the machine after a day’s work.  Some court reporters wrote about being nervous that they would be nervous during the test. 

 

The types of people attracted to our profession are perfectionists and achievers.  (I have stopped using the term “overachiever” because I believe the phrase is somewhat demeaning.  If a person achieves something that is great, it is because they chose to put the time and energy into that achievement.) 

 

Perfectionists and achievers have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on themselves, are many times very critical of not being good enough, and sometimes these personality types can be their own worst enemy.  Negative thinking about not being good enough takes a lot of energy with thoughts going round and round in your head until the thoughts take over, pushing out logical thinking. 

 

The successful test taker, I believe, is able to harness the wonderful attributes of being a perfectionist/achiever and force the thoughts to shift.  Many of us have a tendency to slip into old thought patterns.  They are oddly comforting, especially when you are tired and worried about an upcoming event, such as a speed test.  Because this personality type is also typically very disciplined, I know with practice and true intent, the thoughts can shift to knowing you are going to pass the test and that the words will flow through your fingers.  You can trust yourself that you will practice and do what it takes to have the skillset to pass. 

 

It is the nerves that need to be controlled.

 

Believe me, I have been there.  Here are a couple of tricks I use to pass speed tests:

 

1.      I use my thighs to push the machine up into my fingers so my shaking fingers are forced to write the words.  I basically bring the machine to the fingers rather than the fingers to the machine.  I do the same thing today when I am writing a really fast talker in a deposition.  It reminds me of a typical sports stance when you bend your knees to get your center of gravity working for you so you are standing strong ready to hit the ball.

 

2.      I have taught myself to be in a fog (literally) with a blank mind staring, focusing on a spot on the carpet or the wall.  When I am in that foggy state, I am incredibly relaxed and focused.  There is no shaking.  I believe it is what athletes talk about when they are “in the zone.”  This trick I often use during fast and furious depositions.  It is one of my favorite states of being.

 

One of my goals in life is to keep forcing the negative thoughts from going round and round in my head.  I figure I might as well face the fact I will always do what needs to be done to pass “tests.”  The ultimate trick is to harness those thoughts and shift them to excitement about the future, rather than fear about what might happen.

 

I hope all of my Twitter friends passed the different NCRA www.NCRAonline.org tests this week.  It is all so exciting.

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

Twitter:  @rosaliekramm

 

 

There are a lot of crummy things going on in our industry these days.  I am not going to point a finger at any person or any particular corporation and create a list of the reasons and practices that I believe is disintegrating the court reporting profession.  On a national level, there are court reporters working behind and in front of the scenes with lobbying efforts, article writing campaigns, and “blank” (top secret).

 

Today I am thinking about the working reporter who is in the trenches day in and day out creating a record.  Sometimes it is easy to feel powerless particularly when the economy is not great and there is not as much work out there.  My advice is to be careful.  “Desperate people do desperate things.”  A wise woman wrote me an email last week with those words in it.  There is a lot of desperation all around us with this recession. 

 

The danger is when court reporting firms make impossible or unethical promises to attorneys to get business.  You see the ads for $100 or $50 per depo cash incentives (kick-backs).  I have recently heard of a situation in which court reporters are being asked to give away their rough drafts.

 

I believe all people in all businesses these days need to be extra vigilant.  Think about it.

 

1.  There has been a lot of wealth made in the last decade, and many “wealthy” people are overextended with debt. 

2.  Those wealthy people in debt don’t want to give up what they have. 

3.  The wealthy people are smart (savvy) or they wouldn’t have made the money they did. 

4.  The wealthy people in debt are getting desperate because their stocks, bank accounts, and real estate have lost a tremendous amount of value. 

5.  Banks are not loaning money. 

 

Those five factors add up to trouble and a situation in which normally rational people might do things that are a little shady, stepping over the line.  My advice to be careful is not just for court reporters, but everyone transacting any business.  Get references from your friends or relatives before hiring a vendor.  Carefully look over contracts and bills and all line items.  Don’t assume anyone is looking out for your best interests.  Trust your instincts.  If something doesn’t seem right, be on high alert.

 

 I believe trust is going to be the number one factor that influences buying decisions in the future, particularly for service industries.  There are a lot of desperate people out there, and a lot of desperate things have already been done.   You can read about it in the Wall Street Journal every day.  Let’s be careful in all of our business dealings. 

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

@rosaliekramm. (Twitter)