With the attitude of “let’s not blow it – good planets are hard to find,” the Linc Energy Blog is writing about energy. We’ll explore alternative energy and conventional energy. We’re interesting in providing an outlet to voice thoughts on bridging fossil fuels like natural gas to alternative energy.
Susan Bender started selling to the natural gas industry in 1980. In 1990 she founded Linc Energy Systems, where she remains as President and CEO. She attributes her success to her philosophy, “The customer is king (or queen),” which remains part of her company’s mission.
We did it again! For the second consecutive year Linc Energy Systems has received the 2012 Best Manufacturers’ Agent and Representative Award for Wheat Ridge by the USCA.
Whether you call it giving back, acts of kindness or pay it forward, at Linc Energy Systems we honor our employees for their thoughtful, selfless acts. Today I honor Zee Schultz.
While the expression “In like a lion and out like a lamb” normally refers to March weather, it’s also symbolic of my career path as a young professional venturing into the business world, and growing into the entrepreneur I am today.
Have you ever felt like life is speeding up? Or perhaps our days are getting shorter? I understand that since the massive earthquakes of Sumatra, Chili and Japan, scientists claim the earth is spinning faster and shaving milliseconds off our days, but I think there’s another phenomenon that’s speeding up life … the self-imposed marathon on the hamster wheel.
There’s something to be said about fresh starts and new beginnings. A blanket of fresh powder and a set of skis assure a thrill. A receding tide and beach offer a place for solitude and peace. The start of a new semester offers good intentions for high grades and success. It is no wonder that with the turn of a calendar’s page from one year to the next, we set resolutions to become better people.
This week I am reminded of how blessed I am, and how grateful I am to my customers, prospective clients, vendors and principals. I am in gratitude for your business.
Linc Energy has been selected as best manufacturers’ representative and agent and awarded a "2011 Best of Local Business Award" by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).
In this interesting economy, many are feeling the effects of fear of failure, and giving up on their dreams. Perhaps the answer is not to give up, but be a bit more resourceful when going to the edge in business.
At one point in my life I learned some incredible lessons about how to manifest the job you love.
Early in my career I heard the quote, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
July and August are notoriously quiet in our business. It’s a time when many are vacationing and some factories even shut down for a week. While it’s always interesting watching business activity impact the bottom line, this year I realized the quiet time or the calm before the storm was welcomed. Not only have I been able to get our new Facebook page up and running, but I’ve learned the power of reflection is about working smarter, not harder and slowing down speeds things up!
In a time-challenged world we need to do things more efficiently. The interesting economy has forced employers to expect more from their employees in less time. To help accommodate the demands of our customers’ challenging schedules we’re expanding our Lunch n Learn with Linc program.
“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people:
those who let it happen,
those who make it happen,
and those who wonder what happened.”
--John Richardson Jr.
As Linc Energy Systems celebrates our one year of diving into the social media craze I’m reminded of how fast and furious things are changing and pleased to be building confidence in our youth and Generation Y.
My father didn’t tell me how to live, he lived, and let me watch him do it.”
- Clarence Budinton Kelland
Sometimes the biggest business lessons don’t come from our education, training or employment experience. Often, the biggest lessons come from our parents and become the cornerstone of business success.
I Remember Mama was a wonderful sitcom my sister and I watched faithfully each week on our small black and white television set. The show portrayed the ups and downs of a loving Norwegian immigrant family living at the turn of the twentieth century. Mama oversaw the household with that stoic yet warm Norwegian way, never raising her voice but achieving everything she set out to do, aided by her thrifty and clever ways. My sister and I always thought that Mama would take a lickin’ from our mother, Gerry Cox, as she would run her over with her Irish enthusiasm. My mother instilled values in me through her own life experience as an entrepreneur who could provide interior design services out of the home and as a risk taker who wouldn’t back down from any challenge that others might view as insurmountable.
With a temperament that was anything like someone from the cool climes of Norway, my mother ruled the household and managed her brood of three boys and two girls almost singlehandedly as my father was working day and night in the oil and gas industry. The only connection my mother had with dad’s work was natural gas firing the burners for her stove. Yet her ability to take risks, multitask, budget within pennies of income versus expense and still have energy to devote to her growing family imbedded in me the very essence of what is needed to successfully run Linc Energy Systems.
Growing up just after the Great Depression, mother had to be creative in order to survive as one of five children in the family. Graduation from high school and marriage soon after signaled the end of her formal academic experience. She longed to be a nurse, but took secretarial work instead to help make ends meet. Yet she never gave up the dream for each of us to further our education. When I won a full scholarship to college, my mom was delighted, but my dad said, “No.” She told me in her no nonsense way to keep packing even though my father was downstairs in the living room protesting the fact that Nebraska might as well be Timbuktu.
One summer a year or two later, my mother told me to check out the house for sale at the end of the block and buy it if it was still available. I don’t really remember how I got the financing, but together we renovated it and sold the house for a profit. Mom’s advice through this learning experience was “Get in debt over your head and stay there!.” I have tempered this advice a bit over the years but certainly appreciate the concept she was teaching me. Having never invested in a house or a business, mother helped me to understand that without venturing into the unknown, my horizons would never be widened.
“If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” While Dale Carnegie made this statement, my mother acted out this philosophy on a daily basis. Throughout the economic downturn, I have witnessed many changes and challenges in the industry. . Thanks to the lessons I’ve learned from my mother, however, I can rise above the obstacles because I have confidence in myself and know Linc Energy Systems will come out on top.
We always find time to thank our business mentors and teachers for their contributions in our careers. I think we should start by thanking our parents. Thanks Mom, for giving me the character not only to survive, but thrive in this tough business climate.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said ,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
—Maya Angelou
The beginning of the year is an exciting time for me. Whether I am developing a new business plan for my company, Linc Energy Systems, or adding a fresh coat of paint on my living room walls, I like to feel as though I’m launching off from a dark night into the bright promise of a new day in a new year. It’s also a time to reflect back on special times with my family over the past holiday seasons from the time I was growing up to the present. My son is sixteen and his top Christmas request was for an iPad. Big difference from my hopes for the latest Beatles vinyl record way back when! I also celebrated Linc’s 21st anniversary on January 1. I will never forget the thrill of calling my father to tell him that I was a CEO for a manufacturers’ representative and contractor serving the Natural Gas Industry.
I had the luxury of being my own boss, traveling with my dog, Linc, to meet potential customers throughout a multi-state region in the majestic Rocky Mountains. I was confident, imbued with energy and the idealism of youth, and came from good stock, as my parents always reminded me. My values, sense of ethics, ability to believe in myself and take risks were the gifts my parents gave me. These gifts provided the cornerstone upon which Linc Energy Systems was built.
My father, Jim Cox, has been a wonderful role model for me. He helped me secure my first job in the oil industry with Anschutz Petroleum in New York City. Dad worked at the New York office of Exxon/Mobil, or Esso as it was known back then. We rode the bus together from New Jersey to our offices in Manhattan and I always bugged him with questions. Patiently, he always set aside his reading material and gave me his full attention. Dad took early retirement from Exxon after thirty years of increasing responsibility and decided to become an entrepreneur. He became President of the Axel Johnson Oil Company and at the same time, filled an opening on the Holmdel, N.J. City Council. This move eventually led to becoming the town Mayor. After retiring from Axel Johnson he became City Manager for two other New Jersey townships. At the “young” age of 82, my father just finished serving as president for his home owners association where he spends the winter months in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Leadership, service to others, honesty, loyalty and hard work are some of the many attributes my father has demonstrated to me through his actions. He has guided me over many years in business as my personal coach and mentor. Maybe the best advice he gave me was “Never announce your position.” While it was originally intended as a driving tip when getting my learners’ permit, the advice helped as I introduced myself to customers throughout the Rocky Mountains while traveling with my dog Linc, as well as enduring these interesting economic times.
As I embark on this new year, I will be mindful of how little things impact people and business. I can only hope I will be as good a mentor and instill the same values and ethics on my son as my father had deep-rooted in me. After all, our children are the future's leaders.
In Restoring the human touch in business Part I, I explored drawbacks associated with the overuse of communications advances. For example, as we become more and more technically savvy and automated, our oral and written skills are prone to weaken and the human factor seems to be removed from our business dealings.
A pledge to our customers
Sales organizations need to do better. We need to achieve a proper balance between streamlining our communications and keeping good old-fashioned customer service. While we will continue to keep up with the technological advances, we pledge to keep the human touch in our business.
Decision Making - We will always value the human factor in our decision making process. Many advanced decision making tools and grids lack the ability to measure the human aspect, because it’s too qualitative. Some human factors, like loyalty, reputation, and ethics are immeasurable, and we will factor them into the equation.
Common Courtesy - While it is common courtesy to turn off our smartphones while attending meetings how many times have you been in a meeting and been distracted by the vibration or audible tone of another’s phone? We will be mindful and in the moment. Our customers deserve our full attention. Linc Energy representatives will turn off their phones while in the presence of our customers.
The Phone – Knowing that emails lack tone, we recognize that a phone call can provide more information about situations than written words. While an email may be more an efficient way to respond to a situation, we will make it a point to reach out and touch someone with a good old-fashioned phone call when it’s appropriate.
A Handshake – Companies have become more creative and are using new technology, like Skype to conduct business. Certainly when you’re covering an expansive territory, like our own, we’ve needed to explore new cost-effective ways to interact with our customers. But we realize that no technology will replace a face-to-face meeting with a customer. We’ll reserve Skyping for emergencies, and we’ll meet with our customers wearing a smile and offering a friendly handshake.
“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed;
if in terms of ten years, plant trees;
if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.”
--Confucius
These are my company’s pledges to our customers. In the New Year, we choose to do things better. We choose to interface with our customers not only through new technology but also by sharing a cup of joe and learning what our customers need.
With the only constant in business being change, we will not lose sight of the human touch and will strive to teach people to foster long term growth.
As I reflected on the passing of 2010 and the birth of the New Year, the thought of planting new seeds for my company’s future came to mind. The past reveals the only thing for certain about the future is change. There have been some extraordinary changes over the years which have impacted the way we live and the way we do business. But as I thought about these technological advances I realized that there are some drawbacks to their use and perhaps it was time to restore the human touch in business.
When considering the communication advances over the last 21 years, since Linc Energy Systems began, I struggle to remember what it was like conducting business before these advances. Over the years we’ve seen the use of cell phones grow from being the exception to the rule to the norm, and our smartphones would make visionaries like Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek, marvel. With the internet and email, faxing and in some cases snail mail seems to have become passé. With the introduction of web 2.0 we saw the beginning of social media, blogging, micro-blogging, video sharing, video messaging, networking and a host of other applications designed to make the World Wide Web more interactive.
I don’t have to expand on the pros of some of these advances. I have witnessed firsthand how our new website, our blogs, twitter and Facebook has dynamically changed the way we do business. It is no surprise that these advances make us more efficient, speedy and offer more convenient ways to communicate with our customers. People are becoming increasingly innovative with how to use some of these applications. Consider how Delta Airlines used Twitter in crisis communications during the east coast blizzard over the holidays.
My son recently received a Christmas gift, an iPad, and I marveled at the breakthrough which will impact both personal lives and businesses. But as I watched him, increasingly obsessed with this new gift I pondered the words of Confucius, “If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” I wondered if these technological advances were about planting seeds, trees or teaching people. I’ve come to realize it depends on how we incorporate the changes into our lives and businesses. As we become more reliant on advances I have witnessed some significant drawbacks.
Drawbacks to technological advances
Weakens written, oral and interpersonal skills
It is no secret that as people become more and more reliant on new technology some skills weaken. When changing the way we communicate our written and verbal communication skills wane. In fact, only recently I had to explain to my son that RUT was a groove not an abbreviation for “are you there” in text and twitter dialog. And while we were amused by the Cingular commercial for My BFF Jill which mocked text dialog, it should be no surprise that communication skills weaken with excessive texting or micro-blogging.
What happened to the days when teenagers competed with their siblings for the phone? While my son has his own cell phone, he rarely uses it to talk on. One day I suggested he call someone to expedite a situation and he said, “Mom, we don’t call, we text.” How can we develop oral communication skills when there’s a pattern that speaking to people on the phone is declining?
I’ve also noticed an inclination for people to become a bit lazy. If everything we need is at our keyboard, when do we personally meet with coworkers, customers and friends to exercise some interpersonal skills? Then of course, there’s the theory that the technological advances promote laziness which fuel the nationwide obesity issue, and the younger generation won’t outlive their parents.
Addictive and subject to stalking, unethical
You don’t have to look hard to find situations where people have been hurt by excessive use of these new communication methods. Let’s face it anyone with compulsive personalities can easily get sucked into the never ending world of Facebook and Twitter. Then of course there’s always the issue of cyberstalking which has become a real issue over the last decade.
Additionally, is it right if employees surf the web for personal use during company time on company equipment?
Eliminates the human touch from consideration
When was the last time you found yourself in trouble because you misinterpreted the tone of an email or text message? It took me some time to realize that there is no tone in email, micro-blogging or text communications. When we remove our humanity from communications we open ourselves to misunderstandings and disagreement.
I recently lost an order to a competitor. When I inquired about it, I felt as though the missing piece or the real reason my competition won, was the human factor. We simply didn’t communicate with our customer by being there in person to hear their concerns and to keep the operation running smoothly even with anticipated bumps along the road. I will not let this happen again.
Additionally, while I see the advantages of automated responses for efficiency, where is the human touch? We whip out emails before picking up a phone, we choose to Skype rather than personally meeting with clients.
There are incredible things we’ve been able to accomplish with communication advances, but with misuse, there are drawbacks. In "Restoring the human touch in business - Part II," (to be published soon)I suggest we need a proper balance between using technology and employing good old-fashioned customer service.
When turbulent winds of change blow, don’t fight it because your present situation seems safe – set sail. The winds I refer to are those indicators which suggest it’s time to do something different. Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Are you changing or are you playing it safe by staying in your present situation?
"A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.”
John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928
Who said, change is easy? It isn’t. It’s often uncomfortable and rarely welcomed with open arms. People become so entrenched in the way they do things; they resist change because it’s often disruptive and stressful.
In business we often face and adopt innovative ways of doing things better. This is change. There have been some major changes over the years which I admittedly met with resistance. Incredible changes, like: the introduction of computers, cell phones, the Internet, email, and many software packages. While not all changes I adopted have worked for me, like Windows Vista, today, I struggle to remember what business was like before many of these advances.
So I asked myself, why do we meet change with resistance? Here are a few reasons I thought of:
The risk of pursuing change outweighs the attraction of remaining with the status quo
Our peers identify with the status quo rather than change
There are no successful models to follow
People are skeptic and will only proceed with “I”s dotted and “T”s crossed
The fear of losing professional status or risking the quality of life
I’ve often noticed something interesting when I’ve dragged my feet and resisted from pursuing a change I had been contemplating. As if my thoughts had seeded some universal garden, I often see another person or company beat me to the draw. To appease my disappointment from losing an opportunity, at the time I think, ‘Great minds think alike.’
To remain competitive in business, we’re forced to forge ahead or we’ll get left behind. How often though have you made a change, become efficient and proficient at it only to be introduced to another product or service which claims to do things even better? What do we do in that case? We resist, again. There is a cycle here.
In these interesting economic times, the winds of change seem to gust and shift influencing the direction of people, businesses and even the energy industry.
Now having more than 20 years as a gas equipment distributor, I realize there are two types of change: reactive and proactive.
Reactive Change
When I am changing to respond to a situation, whether it is to avoid an imminent threat or capitalize on a missed opportunity, we function in a reactive mode. Change is good, though this type of change can be more about damage control and trying to “get in” on an existing opportunity. Most times reactive change is more about responding to a competitive situation and the rewards are not as favorable as a proactive change.
Proactive Change
When changes are actively pursued to capitalize on a potential opportunity or are precautionary against a future threat, they are proactive and generally offer more lucrative returns if the change is successful.
It wasn’t too long ago I had been resisting a change. I figured staying at status quo was safer, not thinking that I could be missing an opportunity. Then when I saw a competitor take advantage of the opportunity and I went into a reactive mode and worked to catch up so I could capitalize on a missed opportunity.
I could have responded proactively all along. I could have moved forward rather than drag my feet while a prime opportunity existed, but I didn’t. Instead I watched someone else seize the opportunity while I played catch up.
When winds of change surface in life we can respond proactively, reactively or ignore it completely. My lesson has been to heed the words of John A. Shedd, “A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.” If we never set sail we’ll never have a chance to reach our desired destination. True, I may never reach my ultimate objective, but at least I will try and I’ll never settle for status quo – will you?
NOW AVAILABLE from Mercury Instruments: Pressure Monitors and TCI - electronic temperature compensation for rotary meters. Call today (303) 697-6701 or email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Visit our Facility
If you’re interested in visiting our facility and learning more about our capabilities, send us a note and we’ll arrange for a private meeting to our Wheat Ridge, Colorado facility, which is located just outside of Denver.
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Who said, change is easy? It isn’t. It’s often uncomfortable and rarely welcomed with open arms. People become so entrenched in the way they do things; they resist change because it’s often disruptive and stressful.
Recent comment in this post Show all