Monthly Archives: September 2016

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Open Dialogue

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Technically Dialogue  is conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie.  A conversation is an exchange of ideas through spoken word.

Organization Speak

I find it interesting how structured environments twist the meaning of words to fit the context.  In an organizational setting you will hear reference to having an open dialogue with your colleagues.

Leaders in particular use this practice.  Most of us don’t tune in to the subtle difference in meaning between an open dialogue (say in a team setting)  and an open discussion or conersation.

Dialogues have a scripted component, are structured and intentionally on display.  That is to some extent they are a performance.

Try a dialogue at home

Would you have a dialogue with your spouse, open or otherwise you would not.  The home contenxt is a discussion or conversation.

It is doubtful you would make much headway with a significant other if you had already scripted the result (I very much doubt they would follow their part of the script.)

Think of situations where you have tried to have a dialogue with your kids (yeah, we try anyway).  For example “You can take the car if home by ten” The sripted answer is “Got it”.  Rarely the actual response.

Back to The Organized Gruop

Leaders can have me shaking with fear when offering the opportunity for an open dialogue.  More like a lecture with fill in the blanks answers.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Managing Yourself in times of Sickness

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I have had a cold for a little over a week.  I am still going to work and doing as much as I can, such is my personal value system.  Over the week I have noticed my personal tolerance filter is greatly reduced.

This is an interesting side effect of some illnesses that affects not only me but others as well.  It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “He’s just irritable because he’s not feeling well” or something similar.

Behaviour Filters

Undoubtably, colds and fever can affect our behaviour.  I would suggest though this is not best described as irritable.  Rather, we don’t have the energy to filter our actions so in effect are just more direct.

The directness might translate to “bad sorts” resulting from poor health.  More accurately we are probably acting the way we would like to but usually don’t.  After all we are social animals and don’t want others to think badly about the way we behave.

Quick to Anger

Whether sick or not, our ability to practice anger management is a critical part of how others percieve us.

Certainly, some do it better than others but most definitely make some attempts to control their potentialy violent actions driven from anger as much as they can (i.e. things like; shouting, pouting or some physical outburst).

When you are sick, this self control becomes much more difficult and episodes of poor anger management are far more likely.

Make Sure Others Know How You Feel

It makes sense to me to ensure others are aware of it when you are feeling ill.  The gains some level of sympathy and is helpful in offsetting the bad impressions people get when you act out for no other reason than you feel crumby and don’t have the energy for your normal level of self control.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Self talk – ask a expert

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Most people have conversations in their head.  This is not talking out loud, nor am I refering a symptom of some mental illnesses. I refer to the thinking you do on the daily commute, during a quiet time at home and so on.

This could be telling yourself about things to do or comtemplate, it might be a mild self debate.  Sometimes we beat ourselves up, for example after a really important meeting you might tell yourselve “I really screwed up that presentation.”

It can be positive

Telling yourself a story, thinking about it and working through to a conclusion can be very theraputic, similar to discussing something with a friend,teammate, confidante, etc.

While discussing self talk with a colleague today, he noted, somewhat tongue and cheek, that self talk was the equivalent of talking to an expert.

That of course is a bit of a danger, in that you are really just a self proclaimed expert and the advice you give yourself might not always be golden.  On the other hand you are talking to someone you trust and respect and that can be very comforting.

Keep a balance, accent the positive

Talking through a situation might need more than just your perspective and where you can balance your own conclusions with external consultation can be invaluable.

For example, the aforementioned drubbing you gave yourself about a presentation (helping yourself believe you sucked) could be offset by checking with others at the meeting – maybe they thought it was the best presentation ever.

The reality might be somewhere inbetween, balancing self talk with external feedback is critical to avoid driving yourself into a rut.  Not only are we self proclaimed experts, but generally there are none we treat more harshley than ourselves.

Closing Recommendation

Pay attention to your self talk.  That is rise into consciousness when you recognize a self talk moment and moderate the conversation.   Often we talk to ourselves almost semi or fully unconciously.

When actively (conciously) participating,  moderate the negative; positive thoughts usually are more aligned with positive results. (Not of course at the expense of honesty.)

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Sell for a Profit

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This is the ninth and final post  in my investment basics series.  The intent of this series was to layout a framework that can apply to all types of investing.

Whether  you seek to minimize your risk or have a high risk tolerance,  I am assuming you seek the highest possible, return either income or capital gain.

Step 3 Realize the Gain

If your focus is on income you are realizing your gain (profit)ongoing.  If during the monitor and manage phase there are no indications you should leave the investment, (i.e., the income stream is constant or increasing with no signs of change) then sit back and enjoy.

If you are focusing on capital gain or a combination of capital and income gain this is the step when you sell and take your profit.

During the monitor and manage phase you might have chosen to sell for little gain or even a loss.  That would be a risk mitigation or stop loss strategy.  This final step in the cycle is about selling to take profit.

Timing of the Asset Disposal

A very common question is “When is the best time to sell” .  It’s human nature to want to time the profit taking with the peak value of the investment.

That way there is no recrimination that you sold too soon (left profit on the table) or sold too late and did not make as much as you could have .

In the real world, selling at peak value is typically just luck.  A more constructive approach is time the sale with your investment goal.  For example if an annual return goal was 12%, when you hit it, sell.

Sell regardless of what the stock does next, ignore that and celebrate sucessful achievement of the objective.

This method relies on you knowing what your exact investment objective is; that is a clearly measurable goal.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Managing the Investments

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This is the eight post in a series I started on August 26th.  The intent is just to explore the basic framework for investing of any kind.  The first post includes a definition.

There are three steps to investing; deciding what to buy, managing the investment (monitor) and finally sell (for profit).  The last six posts focused on step one.

Manage

This is pretty straightforward.  You monitor the investments to make sure they are performing as expected and make decisions (if needed) to hold, improve or get out.

Your approach to this step can be passive, active or all points in between.  This is a very personal choice and is somewhat related to your investment objectives and tolerance for risk.

Simplistically, low tolerance for risk can usually equate to frequent check-ups while high tolerance can lead to a very laid back approach.

Whichever you choose, the key here is understanding what the measures are that will trigger an action.  These can vary widely and again are a personal choice.

Examples of Metrics to Monitor

What things matter most will depend on your investment objectives. If your focus is income investing (dividends, interest) the measures can be the size, frequency and changes in the income stream (e.g., increases, decreases)

Monitoring investments for growth or value would lend themselves more to metrics like changes in the earnings per share, overall valuation of the company, price to earnings and so on.  There are uncountable statistical measures that can be applied.

The overall health of the company and the economy can also be considerations.

Making Change

If your monitoring results are going downhill that does not necessarily mean to get out of the investment.  Depending on the type of investment (property for example) you can actively participate in creating improvements.

For equity investments you can lobby management and or the board or use your shareholders vote at annual and special meetings to try and illicit change.

Critical Step

Be forewarned though this is a critical step.  Investing is not typically something you buy and forget, although there are some investments that are more suited to this approach than others (usually low risk/low return.

Next post I will lead from managing to the final step -selling for a profit.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Investment Basics Continued – Taking Care

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This is the sixth post in a series about investing I started on Aug 26th.  The next process to be covered is step 2 – Managing the Investment; but before I launch into it:

Welcome and constructive feedback

I received some great constructive feedback yesterday.  It was about my most important point.  The comments make me think I buried this key principle too deep.  (Thanks to the author of the feedback, you know who you are)

Major Clarification

People can lose sight of the fact a lot investing options exist.  These options are meant to accommodate the different goals and the choice can be overwhelming.

For example you may feel strongly we are on the cusp of a big recession and want to hold cash or gold or something like that.  This approach isn’t wrong if it aligns with your beliefs, and goal (i,e,  to stay liquid)

If that is your goal is more risk averse than profit my investment basics can still apply but what you invest in and the return on investment must be something you are fully comfortable with.

Your decisions and more importantly understanding your decisions and being sure that they indeed line up with your goals is really the point of step 1

I outlined a framework to help you achieve this, but I was not explicit enough as to the main factor – understand what you are doing, be comfortable with it and don’t let others make you decisions (advise you is good, decide for you is not)

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Doing the Research

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Picking up from my last post, todays focus is the last activity leading to the selection and purchase of your investment.  The framework for the decision is based on your investment objectives and the associated investment types.

Choosing the Investment

When gambling, even if using a system like counting cards, ultimately the results are largely driven by luck.  That is something you cannot control.

Investing should be based on research and analysis leading to an informed decision that has nothing to do with luck.  Investing without analysis is very much like gambling.

That is not to say unknown factors do not exist (i.e., the equivalent of luck either good or bad) that ultimately will impact the result. However,  the majority of the factors are not subject to chance.

They are within your control.

Short list the candidates

Using your investment objectives and style as a guideline, determine the asset categories that are most aligned with your point in time needs. (e.g. income equities) .  From this point you need to start to gather a potential list of investments from the category and then start to investigate.

What do you investigate

Focus on determining the following:

  • how well the investment maps to your objective (value, risk, etc)
  • a full and clear understanding of what you are buying.  (That is a personal knowledge of why this investment will meet expectations)
  • the level of risk associated with this investment (this needs to map to your objectives and style)

Complete your selection, make your purchase and move to step 2 in the ongoing cycle – ongoing management.  More tommorow.