I am a fan of Rick Johnson, founder of CEO Strategist and a veteran of the wholesale distribution industry. He recently sent me an e-mail, discussing the topic of behavior and its importance. It’s worth repeating here.

This week there is legislation being voted on by the U.S. Congress which, if passed, could create a patchwork of regional or state standards for air conditioning and heat pump equipment efficiencies. The NEWS has written about this before, but the blog today is because the timetable has been moved up.

No news is good news. Now please don’t misinterpret that tired cliché. Before some smart-aleck replies with an “Are you saying that no NEWS is good news?” - let me nip that in the bud. If there were no NEWS, I wouldn’t be writing this blog for your amusement. There must be NEWS in our lives because I need to make a living and you need to be informed by the best publication in the HVAC biz.

Read an interesting article recently concerning the purpose of having performance reviews. First of all, as a boss or manager, do you even do performance reviews for employees? If not, you really should. This author was rather skeptical of how performance reviews are accomplished overall.

I’m sure there are many employers reading this blog (wishful thinking) that would like to put a tighter grip on their employees, denying them some of the freedoms that employees seem to expect today. In light of that comment, I present this humorous look at a different kind of employment contract.

I was struck by something while attending another annual Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) meeting (I attended my first in 1983). There are a lot of great people in this industry! Not because of what they do but because of who they are.

The first step toward even having a chance to win the lotto (if you have one) in your home state is to actually purchase a ticket. Without entering, there’s no chance in you-know-where to take home the prize pot.

One adage you’ll hear from some salespeople is that “he who speaks first loses.” A friend and sales consultant, Drew Cameron, tells me there shouldn’t be any losers. I agree, but talking too much is definitely a detriment to success - and to getting any rest on a plane.

Examine thoroughly the profiles of students that earned scholarships awarded by the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors-National Association (PHCC) Education Foundation and its industry partners. Believe it or not, more than $100,000 in scholarships was handed out this year.

Our parents are to blame for the lack of interest in the HVAC trade. That thought was reinforced by a very good book that I just finished reading, titled boys adrift by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. I thank my friend, Mike Beaver, an HVAC contractor from South Carolina for the recommendation.

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