Displaying All Posts by Mike Vardy

The Pursuit For Perfection

I spent quite a bit of time during my vacation watching the Olympics…I really got behind my home team doing so well across the board.

(Yes, I’m Canadian.)

All of the athletes really pulled together and put forth a herculean effort to make the most of their experience. This just didn’t apply to the Canadian athletes – it was a trend that held true for all participating athletes and nations. Working together for one common goal – to be the best at what they do best…and to do it for them and their country. This kind of thinking applies in the workplace as well.

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Why Complaining Doesn’t Work

Mike Vardy 15th March Career Leave a Comment

“I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace, but the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.”

The above is the actual quote (often commonly stated as “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”) attributed to American humorist Josh Billings. It’s from his poem “The Kicker” describing his frustration with being polite and not getting his way with the authorities. A kicker, by the way, is also known by a more common name: a complainer.

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How to Provide Placation While You Vacation

Mike Vardy 4th March Your Job Leave a Comment

As I write this, I’m on vacation…hanging out with my family and getting a much-deserved rest. Taking a vacation is extremely important in maintaining a strong work ethic for the rest of the year. I know many workplaces allow for employees to take pay in lieu of time off—I would advise against doing this. Your body and mind need the rest. Depriving them of that only saps your energy further and sets yourself for missed opportunities and letdowns. Take the time off…you deserve it.

That said, you can put yourself in a great position to “take care of business” while you’re pretty far removed it. It’s not terribly taxing to do, either. It just requires planning and setting up the right boundaries for you, your employer and your family in order to make sure you can do it both guilt-free and without sacrificing a ton of your hard-earned time.

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Meetings 101: Always Bring Something to the Table

Mike Vardy 10th February Management Leave a Comment

During family dinners in my household, we’d all bring an item from the kitchen to the table. None was exempt from this ritual. No matter who cooked dinner that night, everyone ended up contributing to the meal because of what they brought to the table. What they brought was incidental–the fact they brought something was what was important.

The same applies in a work environment–especially in meetings. We all have different things we bring to the table. What we bring often depends on the role we have in the organization or the area of expertise we apply every day to our work. None of these are really any different than setting a dinner table – every part of the meal is important.

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Work Unplugged: Going Off The Grid

Mike Vardy 4th February Office Life Leave a Comment

“Inaction speaks louder than words.” – Mike Vardy

I’ve always wanted to quote myself. Call it self-adulation or self-indulgence if you will, but there’s a truth behind it: not making progress on something often can’t be saved by reasoning or excuses. You need to see things through to the end.

Let’s face it…we are getting inundated with email, RSS feeds and other types of information on a daily basis – it seems never ending. Because it is. The web has opened up a floodgate of pertinent and trivial news stories that come at us from all angles, memorandums and tasks arriving in our email inbox at breakneck speed and an endless stream of voice mails begging for us to respond to thanks to that blinking red light on our telephones. I’m feeling overwhelmed just writing about it.

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The Importance of Setting Goals

Mike Vardy 27th January Goals Leave a Comment

A good friend told me that within the last couple of weeks the most depressing day of the year pops up. Some say it falls on the Monday, some say it falls on a specific day; the bottom line is that it falls somewhere in there. So if you’re feeling a little low around that time, now you know why.

But I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: it doesn’t have to be that way.

Some say the reason that this time of year leads to a lack of fulfillment is because many have let their resolutions that they made only a few weeks before fall by the wayside. The dull weather plays a part, too. Oh, and let’s not forget the post-holiday credit card bills that fill your mailbox….and empty your wallet.

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How to Win the Work-Life Balance Battle

Mike Vardy 19th January Career Leave a Comment

No matter the work, the idea is always put your best foot forward and maintain a level of excellence. It is pretty standard knowledge that those who make their way to the top of their profession have made it there for a number of reasons; but tremendous effort is what seems to be the greatest factor. The flipside of this, of course, is that many of those who are at the top of their “office game” are cellar-dwellers when it comes to an even bigger game – their personal lives.

Make no mistake, there are plenty of those out there who spend way too much time with their personal stuff and not enough time on the professional stuff. Those people are content with where they’re at – but also can be in danger of falling from where they’re at into a much less desirable place: the unemployment line. On the plus side, they’ll have no need for balance at all if they hit that mark… Click Here to Read Article …

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One Resolution to Rule Them All

Mike Vardy 7th January Goals Leave a Comment

I’ve written earlier about how I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions; mainly because they seem to take hold for a brief period of time before quickly fading away. Chances are at this time of the year someone you know (ahem) may have already had some of theirs fall by the wayside. It’s not something that can be prevented in one fell swoop for most of us because there’s always a reason they don’t stick.

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