Are You Happy? It Matters!

Exploring LaserShip’s Culture of Opportunity

New Research: Your Outlook on Life Determines Promotability and Earnings

LaserShip’s record number of promotions in 2012—totaling nearly 75—indicates that not only are we a growing company with increasing opportunities but also we have a culture that identifies and rewards performance.  By rough calculation, over 10% of our employees ended the year in different jobs than the one in which they started the year (and some, as we know, worked their way upward through two or three jobs).  

In a merit based company, such as LaserShip, promotion is based on both performance and attitude: Ability and willingness.  Promotions, generally, are earned by people who excel at their current jobs (demonstrating ability) while taking on additional (above and beyond) tasks and responsibilities (demonstrating willingness). 
  

In addition to being able and willing, LaserShip promotions go to those who are positive contributors:  Forward looking, solution oriented, see problems as challenges, keep their minds open to new ideas and suggestions and don’t make excuses when something goes wrong, accept responsibility and learn from mistakes and, mostly, enjoy their lives.    

All of these positive characteristics add to LaserShip’s identified set of “personality traits:” 

-An obsession with going beyond

-Open to the exchange of ideas and solutions

-Caring about and finding joy in outcomes and relationships

-Feeling connected to a sense of mutual well-being.  

Scientific study has now confirmed what we have known intuitively and acted upon culturally. A recently released research study confirmed that people positive and happy in outlook generally find more work opportunities, get promoted sooner and more often, and, as a result, earn more money than those who do not share these optimistic and joyful characteristics.  

Happy people, it seems, actually do earn more money. The analysis suggests happiness isn't just linked to higher income—it helps generate it. This new finding turns on its head the belief that people with money are happier; they probably are, but what gets them to the point of having more money (outside of rich parents, our course) is being happy in the first place. 

Happy lives are a product of personal choice and actions.  Happy people, for example, choose to spend more time pursuing and nurturing relationships along with personal growth; they choose not to judge themselves in comparison to what others have or have achieved; they appreciate what they have and choose to express gratitude for it; they choose to be optimistic even in the darkest times of their lives; they know their strengths and choose to use them to their fullest.  As a result, happy people experience a higher level of positive daily emotions and satisfaction in their lives.    

This sense of positive satisfaction, research has stated, benefits happy people with more opportunities, promotions and earnings that come their way as a result.    

Authentic happiness, as the research indicates, does not come from unrelated events, money, position or power. Instead, the opposite seems to be true: Those things come about from the choice to have a particular outlook on life that produces happiness: All the other things are bi-products of that choice.  Happiness makes all the other things become possible.  Happiness is a choice.

Bottom line:  Happiness is a choice from which opportunity flows as demonstrated by the 75+ employees who were promoted in 2012.  Thank you for making LaserShip your choice.

Does SuperMan Work for LaserShip?

  "Superman must have a part time job with LaserShip,” said an Amazon customer about her experience receiving packages.  “Got my package two days early,” she related.  

  For Superman, who was just an ordinary being on the planet Krypton, what made him super on planet Earth was the  difference in the two planet’s environments and atmospheres; Earth’s influences are what gave Superman his extraordinary powers of super strength, super speed, super everything.  

Superman had to come to Earth in order to gain extraordinary powers; otherwise he would have passed his life in an ordinary way on his home planet.  This can also be said of many people who come to work for LaserShip: In previous work, perhaps, they were ordinary, but in our unique culture became extraordinary; our culture can be said to encourage excellence, extraordinary performance, Superman like powers for those willing to assume them.    

 

  Super powers are what give Superman an edge in his battle for “truth, justice, and the American way.” But powers are just traits, attributes, or characteristics that give anyone who can develop them in the right cultural environment an edge in meeting the challenges of life.

 Superman’s real powers are not jumping buildings, stopping locomotives or bending steel, but characteristics that any or all of us can have and develop, such as:

The Power of Courage: Courage is a central force in overcoming obstacles; courage is what it takes to go the extra mile even when already tired from the previous mile.

The Power of Collaboration: Collaboration goes beyond cooperation; it is closer to “synergy” where the final rewards are greater than that which individuals alone can achieve

The Power of Wits: Becoming a clever problem-solver is a super skill to meet life’s challenges head on. 

The Power of Loyalty: Loyalty is a powerful binding force in all relationships; it must be earned and never to be taken for granted. 

The Power of Passion: Nobody accomplishes anything great without a joyful investment in what they do. 

The Power of Empathy: Putting others first in terms of understanding how others see and understand the world; responding in an appropriate and supportive way.

he Power of Sacrifice: Focusing on the goal you are sacrificing for, not what you are giving up is essential in achieving worthwhile goals.

The Power of Vulnerability: We all have strengths and weaknesses.  Being aware of your own weaknesses, surrounding yourself with those who are strong where you are weak, and being able to call upon them in times of vulnerability are traits that make you powerful in the end.

The Power of the Code: Truth, justice, loyalty, professionalism—all the things that define LaserShip’s Culture. A code commits us to behaviors we can be proud and cause others to be inspired.

These are powers that make Superman an enduring hero; these are also the very attributes that define all truly “powerful” people, the ones who—irrespective of position or title—lead energizing, inspiring and successful lives.  

    A real life super powerful hero is really an ordinary individual who finds the strength to act upon their positive characteristics in order to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. In the movies about Superman he possessed special powers, but that's not what made him a super hero. If you recall, in Superman II (1980), there were three other Super-people from Krypton, and they all possessed superhuman abilities. However, they were no Supermen. Despite being able to fly and throw buses around they lacked the superhuman characteristics of loyalty, empathy, collaboration and sacrifice that Superman possessed.    

   These characteristics not only made Superman so powerful, but they are also what made Superman so enduring; it was not Superman’s incredible other-world powers that have kept him in the pantheon of super heroes for 75 years, but the more human-like qualities that everyone can identify with and develop that has made Superman so durable and lasting. 

  That which Superman possessed, is conveniently available to all of us. Placed at our fingertips and available at our whim, we have the ability to be average people that do extraordinary things; we are able to access the Superman within us.

    If we want to be enduring as a company and as individuals, it is the other characteristics that Superman possesses that we would be well advised to develop, maintain and practice. 

     

  Clearly our Amazon customer is impressed with what we have to offer.  She said, “LaserShip is LaserSharp." She also wanted to know if we would be expanding to deliver E-bay packages to her in the future. 

Lessons from the Olympics

 Michael Phelps a Metaphor for Life…             and how organizations avoid the same fate

   Michael Phelps, with 19 Olympic medals—the most ever one by a single competitor—is arguably the greatest Olympian ever.  Phelps’ Olympic swimming career spans three Olympics, 12 years of his 27 year life. 

   Sadly, the London Games have shown that while still a world-class athlete, Phelps isn’t the swimmer who dazzled viewers in Beijing 4 years ago.  His finish in the butterfly Tuesday of this week exposed him as vulnerable in the event he had won at two previous games.  He led for most of the race but was edged out for the gold by South African Chad le Close by just 0.05 seconds.

   At just 27 years old, Phelps is retiring from competition; there are younger swimmers who are now in the limelight.  In an event like swimming, the speed, strength and endurance required to win favors the young.

   Michael Phelps, retiring from competition, will soon focus on coaching the next generation.  This is the way of life for individuals: The young have the energy for competition--speed and strength—the older have the perspective and wisdom earned by experience. 

  While this dynamic plays out with individuals, organizations avoid the loss of competitive edge by a constant process of reinvigoration and reinvention.  Reinvigorated with young, eager, upwardly mobile talent and reinvented by dynamically responding to changes in the marketplace.  Organizations can, by these processes, be (unlike Olympic athletes) perpetually competitive.   

   But, only if there is an organizational culture that promotes reinvigoration and reinvention: Providing an environment that offers continuous opportunities to grow and learn through frequent changes in roles, responsibilities and projects as well as the strategic vision to change as change dictates. Reinvigoration is the realm of the young and eager; reinvention is the realm of the experienced and wise.

   LaserShip is invigorating.  Our offices pulsate with the energy provided by the many young and eager-for-opportunity individuals who have found their way to LaserShip.  As with our past—and deeply ingrained in our culture—many will quickly rise to leadership roles.  25 years ago, the energy came from drivers recruited into dispatch roles.  Today, the entry level jobs are often freight coordinators who rise to lead, supervise and manage processes and people.  They bring with them the energy to perform, the eagerness to learn and the yearning to belong and advance, thus reinvigorating us from the bottom up.

  LaserShip is inventing.  We continually reinvent ourselves:  Seeing the future of delivery and moving in that direction; spotting new technologies and introducing them to our systems; creating new processes and incorporating them into our procedures; searching our improvements and adapting them to our purposes.

   Michael Phelps has a future; it is just not in competitive swimming.  That is the way of life. 

   LaserShip has a future; it is in the business we have created and recreated.  That is the way of organizations that have created a self-perpetuating mechanism of reinvigoration and reinvention.      

Update: Michael Phelps displayed his professionalism, competitiveness, dedication and sportsmanship by winning additional in the 2012 Olympics making him the greatest Olympic champion of all time.

Honoring Milton Friedman

The Man Who Saved Capitalism

And How It Benefits All of Us

   The 100^th anniversary of the birth of Milton Friedman occurred this week.  You may have never heard of him (he died in 2006), but in the matter of economics and in defending the concept of free people and free markets Milton Friedman is a “rock star.” 

   Through his books and teaching, Friedman a professor at the University of Chicago, reinvigorated the world's faith in capitalism. He discovered, through rigorous science, that free markets work the best to distribute goods, services and wealth, and that we as individuals are best suited to making our own decisions.

   LaserShip has grown in the shadow of Milton Friedman and benefited from influence of his work in explaining and defending free markets and free people.  The success of starting and expanding a business is based on the choices of individuals: 

·       Individuals who freely risk and invest their money, time and effort (stakeholders)

·       Individuals making free choices to “sell’ their labor to whom they wish (employees)

·       Individuals who are free to choose with whom they wish to do business (customers)

 

Classic free market thinking, that Friedman expounded, serves and benefits all the individuals involved in transactions.  Each gives up something but gets something else that is valued more by the recipient: Profits, wages, services/products.

   Our concepts of customer service—pleasing the customer—and innovation that improves outcomes for all come out of Friedman’s explanation of free markets: By necessity, enterprises must focus on the needs of the customer.  Friedman once, humorously, put his thoughts on the subject of pleasing the customer this way:  “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.”

  Innovation which advances life and living was, to Friedman, totally dependent on and required freely acting individuals working within a free market system:  “The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.” 

  Beyond all of these benefits, Friedman, perhaps most importantly, believed that the concepts of private property and free markets are what protected free individuals: That free markets (businesses free to enter or leave, produce what the consumer wants, innovate and change as customer demand dictates, keep the profits of their work) were intricately linked with free people (people free to choose where and how to live, where and how to work, what to save or consume).  To Friedman’s way of thinking—and this is important—there could not be one without the other.   

   “It is widely (and wrongly), Friedman wrote, “believed that politics and economics are separate and largely unconnected; that individual freedom is a political problem and material welfare an economic problem….”  However, “history suggests that (economic freedom) is a necessary condition for political freedom.” 

   Without free markets, Friedman reasoned, there is only coercion.  Free enterprise is what creates choices: Individuals making free choices as owners, employees or customers, as to how to invest, where to work or how to spend resources.  “Fundamentally,” said Friedman, “there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion…” or “the other is voluntary co-operation of individuals--the technique of the market place.”

   Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for 1976.  This marked the first sign of the intellectual comeback of free-market economics that had been losing academic, political and popular appeal. 

   In a recent tribute paid to Friedman, the years of 1980-2005 were described as "The Age of Milton Friedman," an era that "witnessed remarkable progress of mankind. As the world once again embraced Friedman’s free market policies, living standards rose sharply while life expectancy, educational attainment, and democracy improved and absolute poverty declined."

Our Higher Purpose

Does LaserShip Have a Higher Purpose?

Our higher purpose is not just what we do that is meaningful for others; it is what, in that process, we create for ourselves.

   Our work is often made up of three types of activities.

·       Moving packages around:  Many of us are involved in the actual physical movement of packages—planning where they are coming from and where they are going, unloading, sorting, routing, reloading and delivering.

·       Moving Information around:  Increasingly many of us move the information about the package movement from one place to another, with some value added.  This includes inputting, monitoring, reporting, explaining, communicating

·       Moving People around:  Directing people on how to sort or where, how and when to deliver. 

   We move packages, information and people around because of our purpose: Providing the final mile in a customer’s logistical supply chain.  We don’t do this for ourselves, we do this for others—and often one step further removed, for their customers.

   Is there a higher purpose in this?  Seeing the higher purpose in these activities can easily get lost    in the sheer volume of packages and details.  

   To see a higher purpose, it is necessary to take a higher level view.  Look at what we do not from our point of view, but from the perspectives of our customer’s and the recipient’s.  While often we are delivering seemingly ordinary household products and purchases, each and every one was saved and shopped for then eagerly selected and awaited.  For our business to business customers we are the final link between two businesses with their own purposes and missions, but one of which is to stay in business—keeping people employed--by having the necessary materials and products available. 

   There is another class of final mile deliveries that we regularly perform:  These are both routed and on-demand deliveries of critically needed pharmaceutical and life science supplies: Prescription drugs, blood supplies, organs for transplant, diagnostic samples and medical equipment.  Each of these deliveries touches someone, somewhere in a meaningful life extending or saving way.

   Even with all of this, there still exists, perhaps, a higher level of purpose.  Beyond the specifics of our deliveries and who we touch with them, at LaserShip we are creating something that we are all a part of, something that we all contribute to and benefit from:  LaserShip itself.

   Together, we are building a human growth machine. 

·                   A place that allows anyone wants to participate the opportunity to learn, grow and advance

·                    A place where everyone has an opportunity to excel

·                    A place that promotes pride, confidence, strength, security, and vitality

·                    A place to grow our skills, our careers our income

·                    A place to develop meaningful relationships

·                    A place of where we find strength in collaborative interactions

·                    A place where we learn how to support each other

·                    A place where each person’s voice adds to what we know and how we perform

·                    A place where the concept of “our mutual well-being” is known, shared and appreciated

·                    A place to share the joys of winning

·                    A place that endures but made stronger by each individual contribution

   Our higher purpose is not just what we do that is meaningful for others; it is what, in that process, we create for ourselves. 

   Our legacy is in ourselves and our organization.  Individually, we are made stronger by each challenge, more skilled with each task, more knowledgeable with each experience and more fulfilled with each collaborative interaction.  Organizationally, each day our combined efforts and results facilitate our growth which makes us more secure allowing us to advance our future investments and create even more opportunities:  Great, enduring and rewarding.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

     Down through the centuries, the meaning of July 4^th

  Creating Culture Out of Mission, Purpose, Values and Goals

Revolutionary history is all around LaserShip.  From just outside Boston where the first gunshots were fired in our Revolutionary War, to Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was adopted, to nearby Richmond where the Revolutionary War ended, to Washington, DC where the founding leaders established the national capital: The original 13 colonies is the backbone of LaserShip’s delivery footprint. 

  What we celebrate tomorrow as “Independence Day” was the July 4^th 1776 adoption by the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, of the final and formal Declaration of Independence.  The declaration was more than a statement proclaiming a split from Britain, it was a document which gave purpose to an effort—the war to secure independence—that had been going on for more than year at that time. 

   The founders, in writing and adopting the declaration, wanted to give to the world, to the residents of the 13 colonies and specifically to the uniformed troops fighting under General Washington, both a full practical explanation as well as the philosophic foundation for their actions. The document spells out the real-world injustices committed by the King of England against the better interests of the colonies; it also puts the whole argument in terms of a visionary and philosophical yearning by humans for fundamental and individual rights…”Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

  The Declaration of Independence, which George Washington ordered read to his troops in New York on July 9^th, 1776, in effect, provided a renewed sense of purpose for the soldiers of the new Continental Army; a renewal which ultimately led to victory in what was an eight year long and difficult struggle to secure the independence of the United States of America.

  The idea of the United States was set in motion by a vision of the founders, and then shared by these forward-thinking men through the Declaration of Independence; it resonated (word of the day) throughout the land made it a shared vision of the new nation leading to a sense of mission to create a living-space based on fundamental Core Values.  

  The declaration infused into our culture most of what we have come to believe and value as a nation. Our noblest ideals and highest aspirations—our beliefs in liberty, equality, and individual rights—came out of the Declaration of Independence.

   Words, after all, have meaning, purpose and longevity when acted upon—they are important to the growth of a strong, positive and meaningful culture. The Declaration of Independence, in effect, is much like current organizational Mission, Value and Goal statements.  These statements, like the declaration, provide a reason for being, why we take certain actions, what those actions should be, what we believe in and what we desire to achieve—they are the cultural touchstones of organizations.  

   As with the Declaration of Independence, businesses find it important to communicate a clear vision from the founders’ perspective, including purpose, value and goals. Purpose defines the fundamental reason why an organization exists. Values define how people are to behave as they work towards the purpose. Goals focus the people’s energy towards accomplishing the purpose. 

   Our purpose at LaserShip is to provide meaningful services that connect people the things they need, to build an organization made up of growing, learning and earning people sharing our long-term outcomes, and to provide a return on the investment made in the company.

  We do this by believing in our ability to create meaningful, long-term relationships with the people we serve and who provide the service by focusing on the Values of integrity, quality and professionalism.   

  Our goals are to grow the business so that we can provide service to more people, be an always improving, challenging and satisfying place to work, and to demonstrate the value of all of it by being profitable.

  “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” and many of us do.  For others who are new or not fully introduced to our culture, it is important that we continue to communicate and demonstrate to all our Mission, Values and Goals. 

  It is not the Declaration of Independence with the soaring rhetoric of its author Thomas Jefferson, but it is our shared purpose, the source of our mission, the foundation of our culture. 

Life, Work and Lessons from Golf

Project Manager Works for LaserShip

But Lives to Play Golf

  In tournament play, LaserShip Project Manager Justin S, doesn’t see the beautiful green of the golf course, there is too much pressure; “you feel under the microscope,” he says, “with hundreds of people watching your every move, ready to praise or criticize your every swing of the club; playing golf, even as an amateur, at the professional level is extremely stressful.”

   It is a lot like the stress felt in our offices each day, observes Justin:  Getting all the packages underway, keeping them moving and the entire effort under the microscope of customers who are quick to either praise or criticize.  

   Although ranked as an amateur, Justin qualifies for and plays tournaments and has earned money from his playing.  He has even reached the regional qualifying tournaments to play in the U.S. Open golf tournament. 

   Playing at a high level—even as an amateur—requires some raw talent, but it also requires an equal amount of work.  Justin has a passion for golf; it is what drives him to leave work and spend the next 4 hours hitting balls. 

   “It is work,” says Justin, “but it is satisfying work especially when reaching the point of overcoming something that has held you back.”

   “When a ball is hit wrong in a tournament,” comments Justin, “two things immediately kick into play:  How do I recover from this, but also, after the fact, how did I get the ball into that situation in the first place.”

    Listening to Justin speak of his golfing experience is to gain insight into our own business. It too is an act of passion, it requires work to improve and when something goes wrong our first impulse must be to recover from it, but also to understand what we did to get so far off course so that we do not repeat the same mistake twice.  

   When Justin was even younger than he is now he learned some important lessons about winning.”   “I was ahead in a tournament, my play was dominant, but in the final three holes I completely blew it,” recalls Justin, “I choked in front of the crowd and my sponsors.  Nothing in life prepares you for the final three holes, you have to experience it and learn from that experience.”

   “I stopped having fun,” remembers Justin of that day.  

    It was his dad who pulled it out of him; he asked Justin:  “Do you still love it.”  

   Justin still did love it, he just needed to get past the experience and learn from it.  “In golf (like other things) you get good by the experience of your failures.  I discovered that when I choked I was just trying not to lose, but what I needed to do was try to win.  You really have to believe that you can do great if you are to win.”