So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu
Today is the day.
While I’m on-call for another week, and will return to the office next Friday for a cake&coffee with the team, I’m leaving the company that I’ve been with for 15 years (give or take a month).
That’s 15 years through 7 different jobs:
- Research Assistant
- Staff Writer
- Marketing Project Manager
- Technology Solutions Manager
- Director of Home & Family markets
- Product Manager
- Director of Product Development
And 15 years through 3 different ownership stages:
- Premier (small, closely held company)
- FranklinCovey (medium-sized public company)
- SchoolSpecialty (largish public company)
And 15 years through 8 different bosses:
- Harold Ludwig
- Theodore Kingma
- Patricia Loeppky (now Newbold)
- Jim Gibson
- Kevin Moore
- Larry Renooy
- Joel Zucker
- Bob Lynch
What a wild ride it’s been, from a company that did about $40 million in annual business to a company that does over $130 million yearly. From a small family-run operation to a cog in a billion-dollar public corporation. From a small, cramped office in a leaky Abbotsford building to the former President’s (Henk Berends) corner office in Langley, and then to Bellingham, WA.
The opportunities I’ve had have been incredible. Just one of them is the travel, which has enabled me to go to San Francisco multiple times, Silicon Valley, Salt Lake City multiple times, Seatle, Portland, Wisconsin, Asheville North Carolina, San Diego multiple times, New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Texas multiple times, Florida multiple times, Quebec, Phoenix, Whistler, Winnipeg multiple (multiple multiple) times, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Moose Jaw (!?!), and many more places. Business travel is not always all it’s cracked up to be, but I always made a point of seeing or doing something at each place that I could not have seen or done at home … and so it has enriched my life.
Other opportunities have been career development. I started with Premier almost right out of Simon Fraser University. I had some previous experience managing a retail sports store … but Research Assistant was my first real career job. From that beginning people and experiences at Premier taught me product development, marketing, and basic business realities. My interest in technology grew significantly while at Premier, and the company had an opportunity for me to start and lead a web development department. From that, I moved on to other interesting and challenging jobs, including the one I’m currently leaving from: Director of Product Development. What a blessing! I feel truly fortunate and blessed to have had the career opportunities that I’ve already had.
But probably the best opportunity at Premier has been the people. Meeting and working with the amazing people at Premier … the David Leoppky’s, the Henk Berends, the Joel Zuckers … and so many more. I can’t - really can’t - name them all, but ones that really stand out are Pat Graham, Brandon Bird, Foeke van de Poel, Kelly DeVries, Bruce Morris, Sibrand Stulp, Andrew Westrink, Raymond Kenny, Teresa Alexander, Brad Kuik, Kevin Moore, Jane Hix, John Flokstra, Jonathan Catherman, Harold Ludwig, Wim Kanis, Natalie Critchley, Ronnie Zindorf, Larry Huinker, John Wesselius, Steve Misenhimer, Rastin Mehr, Arie Veenendaal, Ray Kuik, Dave Shoots, Bob Goodman, Diego Rodriguez, Sheldon Atkinson, Dominique Fugere, Francois Lupien, David Boone, Larry Renooy, Tom Osborn, Mike Skovgaard, Bernie Van Spronsen, Lisa Peumsang, Brian Koning, Steven Leyenhorst, Anita Lofgren, Phil Minderhoud, Tyler VanVliet, Bram Vegter, and Cheryl Vandeburgt. There’s more … I know there’s more, and I apologize if your name isn’t there. But those are the ones that came to mind. We had a great run together, and I wish you all the very best of everything.
Some of my favorite memories of these 15 years are:
- Running the annual convention in ‘98 or ‘99 in Victoria, BC - the first convention that we made a huge splash with a major show-biz type presentation. That was a blast!
- Bringing out the Discover Zone … an online learning, edutainment, productivity, and groupware environment in 2002-2003. What an application it was, and what excitement it generated!
- The convention we held in Quebec, about 3 hours North of Quebec City along the banks of the St. Lawrence. 35 or so of us stayed in the hotel lobby/bar until 1 or 2 AM, singing around the piano and generally enjoying each others’ company.
- Visiting our partners The FaQtory in Winnipeg in the winter and playing outdoor ice hockey at Ray Kuik’s house in -20 degrees Celcius … in shirtsleeves because we were so hot from the exercise.
- Building out a new department when I became Technology Solutions Manager. Finding space, painting, furnishing, hiring, and managing … tons of fun!
- A lunch with Henk Berends when he pointed out a serious error in judgement that I was making in a very gentle, tactful way, and saved me from a major, major disaster.
- Playing hockey with the Canadian sales team at their regional meeting this year.
- Giving a presentation on Royal Dutch Shell-like scenario planning at one of our company’s top meetings in ‘97 when I was still young and green, and hearing via the grapevine that Chuck Farnesworth said “that kid made more sense than all the rest of them put together!”
- Getting to write for audiences of tens of millions when I was a staff writer. Our product goes out to over 20 million students internationally, and their parents and teachers view it as well.
- Pulling an all-nighter with David Boone to get the Premier website ready on-time in ‘98.
- Boogy-boarding in 10-foot San Diego waves in ‘96, dislocating my shoulder in the surf, and swimming 100 feet back to shore one-handed.
- Working for a month on a Discover Agenda presentation to executive in 2007, presenting it, and getting an unbelievable reception.
- Getting the 3-day training sessions on 7 Habits as well as the Organizational Effectiveness Model when we joined FranklinCovey.
- Going to San Antonio for a conference and staying at the Emily Morgan hotel in a suite looking directly down into the Alamo.
- Getting a massive one-day raise in 2001.
- Jim Gibson’s last day, when he came to me at our north campus. We found an available office; he told me he was leaving; and we prayed together before he walked out the door.
- Imitating Henk Berends’ speech style in a send-off at his retirement banquet, and managing to do it well.
- Winning the company-wide crud tournament with Loren VanCorbach and Sheldon Atkinson at the Portland conference in 2007 while playing the last few games on a severely sprained ankle.
- Taking off from the Phoenix conference with a colleague (Mike Suto) in a van, not knowing where we were going, and finding the most amazing still quiet desert spaces where we stood still and silent for minutes just to hear nothing, and then continuing on to find a deep, cold desert lake.
- Climbing the foothills of the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City during a visit to FranklinCovey.
- Setting up a ping-pong net on my Technology Solutions department “boardroom” table to knock away the tensions of long, busy days.
- And far more than I can list …
I have been very blessed, and very happy to have been a part of Premier from December of 1994 to November of 2008. And while I’m eagerly looking forward to new challenges, I’ll remember these times and people with fondness and some nostalgia.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu!
Working out for success @ work
I feel good. Really good.
Reason? I worked out last night … even though it was a crazy, crazy day with a full 9 or so hours at work, an hour coaching baseball for my son’s team, and a coffee with friends.
I think it was Penelope Trunk who said it a few months ago … something along the lines of: you should work out if you want to be successful in your profession? Why? Most successful people work out.
That’s a correlational as opposed to a causal relationship. But it’s still significant.
Feeling better, feeling stronger, feeling more alert, just generally feeling physically better is going to translate, most of the time, to acting better, performing better, and simply being better.
I haven’t been able to work out regularly lately due to a crazy sports schedule (I signed up for two ice hockey teams - big mistake) and a neck injury (probably unrelated but its hard to tell). But in the past 5 days I’ve worked out twice, and I feel incredible already.
Here’s to the gym!
Light and color in St. Louis Cathedral
I’m in New Orleans for the week for a conference.
The big easy is an amazing place, to say the least. It’s my first time, and I’m enjoying it immensely.
Any city that prioritizes walkers over drivers can’t be all bad, and New Orleans is a great walking city. The art galleries are many, varied, and wonderful, as are the antiques stores.
New Orleans has distinctive smells, too. The ripe musk of the bayou nearby, the cooking spilling out from multiple restaurants in the French Quarter, the alcohol in a thousand hands on Bourbon street … and yes, the vomit on the sidewalk outside on of the thousand bars.
I’ve only started exploring the city in some of the hours not allocated to the conference, and I look forward to more over the next couple of days.
Our student agenda in Today’s Parent
Just found out today that the November 2007 Today’s Parent had a story by Helaine Becker on one of my company’s products.
I’m the director of product development at Premier, and we make student agendas - planners for kids in K-12 and higher education.
It’s always cool when people are talking about you, and the article was a lot of fun to read … I can totally relate to the challenges of being organized enough to model great behavior for your kids.
I just wish I had seen it earlier!
One day left
Tomorrow is my last day of work before the holidays - we’ve got a two-week company shut-down period, which is VERY welcome.
It’s been an intense last third of the year … two courses for my master’s program, a promotion (and subsequently doing both my new job and old job for some time), and all the typical family and home things.
Two weeks off is just what I need - if I can only get all my Christmas shopping done!
Leadership @ work
I recently received a promotion, and I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a manager versus a leader, what kind of leadership I want to provide, and what kind of a leader do I want to grow to be …This is tough stuff, and I’m pretty sure I have a long way to go. But I think the critical piece is summed up in this advice that I found on PositiveSharing (the chief happiness officer’s blog):
A leader is best when the people are hardly aware of his existence,not so good when people stand in fear,worse, when people are contemptuous.Fail to honour people, and they will fail to honour you.But a good leader who speaks little,when his task is accomplished, his work done,the people say “We did it ourselves.”
The person who said that lived 2500 years ago in China: Lao Tzu.
Tags: leadership, office, work, lao tzu, john koetsier
scheduling
Getting 6 people together at the same time on the same date at the same place (even if it’s virtual) is like herding cats.
So when a meeting fits in this nicely, it’s like the parting of the Red Sea … especially when our corporate meeting software shows busy times in red:
Office politics
You never have office politics at your work right? Riiighhht …
There’s a really good article about office politics at BNet. Here’s an excerpt from the intro:
Like it or not, every workplace is a political environment. But operating effectively within it doesn’t have to mean sucking up, lying, or slinging dirt. In its purest form, office politics is simply about getting from here to there: securing a promotion, seeing an idea come to fruition, or gaining support to make an organizational change. Playing the game well is about defending your position, earning respect, exchanging favors, and keeping your sanity amid the chaos. To get started, you need to know what you really want from work, then orient your political moves toward those goals. It all starts with strong relationships and helping others; those people in return make up the support system that helps you realize your goals.
Relaxing throughout the workday
Having endured years of chronic neck pain in my life, I know something about the need to intentionally relax your muscles.
I saw a good tip today intended to help prevent near-sightedness, but a major side-benefit (or perhaps the main benefit) is muscle relaxation. I find that I tend to get a little more stressed, hour by hour, at the office, and that results in tensing my muscles, locking up my joints, and making me more likely to have neck or other joint pain.
Here’s the tip:
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by nearpoint stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles like
the eyes into relaxing as well.
Productivity: making undesired behavior inconvenient
Just watched the excerpts of Scoble’s interview with Tim Ferris (the 4-hour-workweek guy), and one thing he said really resonated with me …
Control the environment, not the behavior
He said it in the context of finding a PDA for himself that had email but no wireless access, and not having a particular brand of dark chocolate in the house. Reasons: he knows himself, and he knows he’d be breaking his own rules about email access and healthy diet.
That’s a powerful insight: engineer your environment to make undesired behavior inconvenient. I’ll be finding some ways of implementing that in my own life and work.
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Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
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