Making Man Happy

I heard the funniest thing last evening about keeping husbands happy in the face of a miserable attitude. The three steps to change a bad attitude into a good one were called the "Toddler Approach."

The steps:

1. Feed them. Are they hungry? When did they eat last?

2. Give them a nap. They are tired.

3. Wash them. They may be dirty somewhere, but this only happens in about 3 percent of the cases.

Patrick and I discussed "Toddler Approach" to being handled, as we are both husbands. He felt that the whole world always looks better on a full stomach. I have to concur, I remember being in Disney World last summer and the experience was beginning to degrade in the face of rain and exhaustion. A great lunch saved the day. I also know from personal experience that life is a lot better after an afternoon nap. 

As for item three-we had never really experienced the idea of being dirty and needing cleansing.

And then it hit me, these three steps to taming an ornery man weren't funny or cute--they were true.

Deep psychology.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Six PM Last Evening

What were you doing last evening at 6PM?

I was arriving home after another less than successful racquetball outing, but . . . 

I noticed something. 

I noticed that it was not yet fully dark at 6 PM. The daylight grows long day by day. We are back up to 10 hours and 18 minutes of sunlight. Sunset was at 5:28 PM last evening. 

Maybe it was a bit of wishful thinking, but I believe that I can see the daylight growing longer. I can almost hear the ocean waves lapping the shore while enjoying an end of day drink in the 8:30 pm timeframe. It is coming, soon.

Springtime flowers in February

Before long, as I leave the club in the morning just before 7 AM,  I should be able to see see the first glimpses of the sun just before the horizon and believe that warmer weather, green leaves, and flowers are close behind the obvious seasonal change. 

The dark days are ending!

And to add insult to injury, Sunday as I was cruising around the yard I noticed, in places where the snow has melted, that springtime flowers are beginning to poke up into the still too weak sunlight. What hardy plants they must be ready to face the continuing onslaught of winter weather that is in store for us.

Like the flowers in my garden, keep the faith--Spring is out there, somewhere!


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - February 3, 2014

1. February? Really? Already? I thought we just celebrated New Years!

2. Was it Super? Or was it just a commercial blow-out? You make the call. Has the "Big" game become so hyped that any semblance to football is merely the shape of the ball and number of players on the field?

3. Did you know that despite the hype and the 60 minute clock, there is only about 14 minutes of actual game play packed into 3 and a half hours of Super Bowl game time. The halftime show lasts longer.

4. Given the significant accumulations of snow in today's forecast for the Baltimore area, I guess Punxsutawney Phil's forecast was solid. Unfortunately.

5. Ten days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training and we can get on with the prelude to Spring as baseball ramps up for its eight month run.

6. Makayla, my dog, is funny. In the morning she is ready to charge out into the yard to take care of business, right up until she notices it is raining and then she puts on the brakes and slinks under the eaves to keep from getting rained on. I suppose I need to get her a doggie umbrella.

7. What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial? I liked Budweiser's Puppy Love, was intrigued by the first Maserati commercial that I have ever seen, and enjoyed the Jaguar commercial--just because.

8. One last Super Bowl related comment. It was funny last evening as the game went to commercial and the grandsons started talking only to be advised that unlike any other football game, it was time to be quiet during the commercials rather than ask questions and make noise.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Six More Weeks of Winter confirmed--Phil Sees Shadow

2013 File Photo of Phil

This just in:

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow as reported in the Syracuse Post-Standard, although I could not find it live on the national news. 

Here is the story from the Post-Standard:

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. -- Punxsutawney Phil, most famous groundhog in history, emerged from his burrow early Sunday morning and with the help of his handlers declared that he saw his shadow.

The Groundhog Day prediction means six more weeks of winter.

I kinda felt it would happen this way.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Happy Groundhog Day

Believe it! Today is February 2nd and the 33rd day of, the still too young to be in the second month, of the year.

Go get 'em Phil. I'm looking forward to your forecast direct from 
Gobbler's Knob in the sleepy village of Punxsutawney,  PA, for an early Spring and a long swimming season this year. Let's get on it! If you see your shadow, you'll be in someone's stew by the end of the day. The country is depending upon you!

I love Groundhog Day. It is a classic American holiday! Sadly, the movie by the same name is also a classic, but not as authentic.

Phil is expected to depart his burrow at 7:20 AM EST to make the hopefully early end to Winter forecast.

I will be watching. And hoping that this Winter which started early decides to give me a break, and end early as well. The prognosticators are all predicting that Phil will not see his shadow--time will tell!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Tenured Leadership

It has been a while since I wrote about some leadership principles that I discover while plodding through the daily grind. I have recently revisited the concept of consistent and tenured leadership. Given the current upheaval in government with a bipartisan and ineffective Congress coupled with a diminished President, now is the time to find leaders that know how to plan for the long-haul and can keep the organization steady during turbulent times.

Good leaders have tenure. They are stay in place and they develop depth and understanding in the subject and more importantly the people they lead. Good leaders are prepared to accept the consequences of their decisions in five years--fully expecting to be the leader that made the decisions or sponsored the decisions. That is hard to comprehend in a society and work paradigm that promotes changing leaders every two to three years. Yet, when I look at some very senior leaders, I find that the best ones have been in place for many years and their organizations have continued to excel, despite the paradigm that suggests changing leaders is essential.

Leaders who stay in place are committed to building teams and team leaders who are in place for the long haul. The idea of making a mark is measured in terms of years of consistent success rather than a single big splash in the pool of work life.  We have become a society of the quick-win! Ugh! Quick wins are a facade and are not a barometer of long term success.

Successful long-term tenured leaders must be committed to continual evolution and improvement rather than looking for and snapping off the "low-hanging fruit" to get a quick win so they can declare success before moving on to another job. Leaders for the long-term develop a culture of innovation and change enabling the organization or team to stay ahead of the technologies that affect their business line.

Don't misunderstand, the infusion of new ideas and business approaches from outside the organization is critical. An organization will wither from deficient innovation and failing to maintain its mission lead. But, the infusion of new ideas and practices does not occur through revolving door leaders. It happens when an organization is committed to learning, leaning forward, and developing tradecraft. 

Leaders set the tone and the ethos for an organization, but it is truly the team that encourages innovation and not leadership change for he sake of change. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Cold January

I could not let January pass without commenting, once again, on the cold. This being the last day of the month, there is a reasonable expectation that the temperature will climb above freezing for the first time in over a week.

Atlanta Regional Roads after January Ice Storm

Yes, it has been that cold.

Even so, our region has been lucky compared to places like Atlanta where the ice storms closed the major arteries three days ago and they were still not open as of yesterday.

It is a crisis of immense proportions. School children spent in excess of ten hours trapped in school busses. Cars ran out of gas while idling in the blocked roadways. Motorists sat for 12 hours in their cars trying to keep warm.

It was bad there. 

It is bad here, too. Yesterday morning it was 5.5 degrees when I woke up and headed off for my racquetball match at the gym. Chris later reported a 4 degree temperature just before dawn.

People are suffering because of the cold. I know that by comparison, 4 degrees is warm compared with some locales. But it still is cold and the temperature does not account for wind chill.

Maybe winter will end soon! Not soon enough.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Winter Vineyards

King Family Vineyards during January

Although the leaves are gone and the harvest is long complete and it appears quiet with little activity, the vineyards of Virginia are busy places during the winter. 

Although it may not look like it, this vineyard is being pruned in preparation for the coming growing season. The piles of wood, as it is called, on the ground are the evidence of the activity that continues even with snow on the ground.

Chris took this picture during our Charlottesville wine weekend. The white snow provided contrast against the dark mountains in the background. And the vines, the stars of the show, are shown just after the pruning that prepares them for the growing season ahead.  

Although there isn't a lot of growing going on, vineyards are busy places during the winter.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Consensus Blending at Keswick

The Consensus Team
George, Sue, Peggy, Chris, Mark

Consensus Blending at Keswick Vineyards near Charlottesville, Virginia, is an awesome way to spend a day. I have written about the Consensus blending before--an event sponsored by the vineyard that brings the wine club members together to blend a winning wine that the winery will bottle and sell.

Our team was ready for the challenge of taking four wines with defects and making a good tasting wine that people would buy. It was tough. We were presented with four wines: Touriga, Norton, Syrah, and Chambourcin; all grown on the estate and ready to be blended into a great wine.

The Consensus Tools:
Four wines, graduated cylinder, and a wine glass

Blending a winning wine takes a lot of patience, the ability to find ways to blend imperfect wines into a masterpiece, and a lot of luck. There is science involved, but as the winemakers says every year, we are being asked to do in two and a half hours what takes him six months to achieve. And we do fairly well. 

This year we had a lot of fun, enjoyed some really imperfect wines, and blended what we thought was a great wine (until we tasted it later) all while spending another awesome weekend in Charlottesville. Our wine did not do as well as we had hoped, but when we tasted it later during the blind judging portion of the day, I felt that it got what it deserved. I rated for the winning wine very high and it was a very nice blend. Our wine, was mediocre by comparison and we rated it as such. 

Although we felt bad that our blend didn't do well this year--we learned a lot and I know that I am already looking forward to next year's event.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Flying--Overhead Bin Wars

I risked life and limb again last week by flying to and from Denver in the not so friendly skies. Not that it was bad, or that I had any irrational fear about the airline upon which I was flying. No, my concern was for the other passengers doing something stupid. 

Too Big Bag in the Overhead Bin

I believe that the most dangerous part of any flight is the boarding and deplaning process when bags are being slung into and out of the overhead bins. I fear that the too heavy bags are are going to go out of control and give someone a concussion. And, it seems, that the most frail people have the heaviest bags. There ought to be a big sign before boarding--if you can't lift your bag above your head--check it!

That written, I had a new boarding experience. Almost everyone knows that the overhead bins are the most sought after space on an airplane--especially in the winter with bulky clothes and coats. On my return flight, I found an nice empty row, yes, I was flying Southwest so I was empowered to choose my seat upon boarding, with corresponding space above for my relatively small bag. I moved a backpack which was taking up an inordinately large amount of space and installed my bag in the bin. Almost immediately I was confronted by a woman who informed me that she was saving that space for her husband's bag which had to go in sideways in order to fit. 

I had a choice to make which would set the tone of the trip for the next four hours. I could tell her how I felt about the oversize bag and that it should be checked because it was too big and that it was poor form to save space. Or, I could go find another seat. Not wanting to upset someone who I was going to have to share fairly close proximity with for the trip, I chose the other seat since I was an "A" group boarder and still had options remaining. 

How did I really feel? I wish the airline would enforce the bag size standard and not let people get away with using more overhead bin space than they are allotted. I wanted to tell her that the bag should have been checked--it is after all Southwest, they check two bags per traveler for free!

But I didn't. I found another seat, stowed my properly sized bag in the still empty overhead bin and slept for most of the flight home never having to confront the woman or her husband about what my "inside" voice was itching to say.

I remember my Air Force days when passengers were considered self loading cargo. I wish we could have left that cargo on the ramp.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD