Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 10

Free 5/14-15: Why Don't They Respect Me?

Free 5/14-15: Why Don't They Respect Me?

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9 Tips to Be a Better Article Writer

Since my first book in 2004, I have written more than 50 books and 400 articles on topics such as project management, leadership development, work/life balance, and raising a child on the autism spectrum.

My earlier attempts at writing articles were a jumbled mess and required hours of refining thoughts after my editor had given me constructive feedback. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to write both more effectively and efficiently.

If you’re interested in writing articles, my singular goal is to help you produce topical content that’s relevant, helpful and entertaining for your readers.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

Speaking Up As an Autistic Mentor

This is an article my son Trevor wrote for the Seattle Childrens Autism Center blog:

Being autistic, I have always been a very blunt person. Back when I was a kid, I often blurted out straightforward, even disrespectful comments when meeting others, such as, "Hello, shorty!" or, "Whoa, she’s so fat!" This problem was at its worst in high school when I got the idea that making dumb jokes at others’ expense would get me noticed more. I needed to be taught over time how to think before I speak, and now I have better control over my inappropriate outbursts.

Read more at SeattleChildrens.org.

Speak Up or Shut Up? The 'So What?' Principle to the Rescue!

A long-time friend (who I’ll call “Stu”) loves talking about finances. Stu is very active in the stock market and spends hours researching exchange traded funds. He is also very big on maximizing rewards points and signing bonuses with credit cards. Stu is not at all in debt (that I know of); he is just really big on accumulating wealth.

Admittedly, I share some of Stu’s zeal. I too am active in the stock market and use credit cards for specific purposes to maximize cash-back rewards. Aside from saving money, it’s a fun game to see the great deals I can get.

Where Stu and I differ, though, is in what we are willing to sacrifice for our wealth accumulation journey. I enjoy comfort and convenience, and value my personal time and generally will not sacrifice much in those areas to save a dollar. I believe in sound fiscal management, but not at the expense of comfort, convenience, or impacts to my time.

Stu, on the other hand, is much more willing to sacrifice comfort, convenience, or personal time if it means more money in his pocket. It’s needled at me for years, particularly when Stu tries to project his values about finances on others and criticize those who are less willing to make the sacrifices he makes.

In a recent discussion, I confronted him on his views on finances. Needless to say, the discussion didn’t go particularly well.

I can also say I was wrong in confronting him.

Read more at ProjectManagment.com.

6 Leadership Lessons When You Move to 'Team Them'

I remember my first position as a manager, selling clothes in a department store to work my way through college. One of my colleagues, who I’ll call Jay, was also a good friend. We ran together, went to movies, and overall had a great time.

After I got promoted and became his boss, we still did some things together—but there was persistent tension in our relationship. He didn’t like the fact that I was his boss and would tell me that he worked for my boss, not me. He then became chummy with another guy who was his peer in another department. This tension existed until I graduated from college and left the department store. Once I wasn’t his boss, the tension lifted.

That was my first experience with the “them” team.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

Some $#&%! Stole My Identity to Collect Unemployment Benefits

My name is Lonnie, and I'm a victim of identity theft.

So check this out. A buddy of mine wrote a Facebook post about how someone stole his daughter's Social Security number and filed for unemployment benefits with Washington State's Employment Security Division (ESD). Having never occurred to me, I decided to go to ESD and attempt to file an unemployment claim. After I entered the information I received the following message:

The Social Security number (SSN) you entered already exists and is linked to this partly hidden email address: *****@fasternet.co
WHAT??!!??!? I've never filed an unemployment claim in my entire life, and I certainly have never used an email address at fasternet.co. Who the #$%^%! is this?

I read further and saw the following message:

If you think you might be a victim of unemployment imposter fraud - when criminals illegally apply for unemployment benefits using another person’s personal and employment information - report it! Use the form on the Employment Security Department (ESD) website. Then wait to hear from ESD.

I couldn't believe it. I was for the first time in my life a victim of identity theft. And it wasn't through the more traditional path of credit card or banking fraud; it was through unemployment benefits fraud. As I navigated the what do you do about it path, I learned a lot about the prevalence of identity fraud and just how exposed I was. Experian, one of the three credit reporting companies, published some eye-popping statistics (all as of 2017).158 million Social Security numbers exposed in data breaches14.2 million credit card numbers exposed$905 million in total fraud losses13,852 identity theft complaints affecting children and teens60,000 complaints of mail theft883,000 confirmed identity theft tax returns27% of data breaches were medical or healthcare relatedIdentity theft is real. The bad guys are clever and only care about getting your money. The pain, frustration, and fear they leave in their wake means nothing to them. If you think it can't happen to you then you're living under a rock. As a result of my experience, I decided to compile everything I did to check for fraud activity and the steps I took once I discovered unemployment benefits fraud occurred. Hopefully these are helpful to you as well.Review your credit report at annualcreditreport.com for rogue accounts. You can do this for free once a year. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security if everything looks good. Things like unemployment benefits don't show up on the report. You need to do more digging.Check to see if someone has used your SSN to file an unemployment claim. In the state of Washington go to ESD Secure Access Washington and follow the directions to create a Secure Access Washington account. This is how I found out someone filed unemployment benefits using my name and SSN.Request a Social Security Account Statement for any benefit claims against your SSN.Request an IRS Transcript for your tax filing history.Check if your personal information was included in the Equifax breach which occurred between May and July of 2017 that exposed the personal information of 140 million Americans. My SSN was one of the 140 million.If there has been fraudulent activity, take the next steps:Go to Federal Trade Commission website Identitytheft.gov. The website walks you through steps to take depending on your situation.File a fraud report with your state. In Washington you file with ESD.File a police report with your local police department.File an IRS Identity Theft Affidavit.File an Equifax Fraud Alert. This lets credit card companies know you were a victim of identity theft. According to Equifax this puts additional checks in place to watch for fraudulent activity. They also notify Experian and Transunion of the theft. I cannot speak to whether it's effective at this point but feel it couldn't hurt to do it.If the theft was medical-related, file a health-privacy complaint with the US Department of Health & Human Services.Regardless of whether you have fraudulent activity, I strongly recommend you do the following:Place a credit freeze on your report with Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report. However, if you plan to apply for a credit card, bank account, or mortgage you need to unfreeze your credit with each of the bureaus then freeze it again after the inquiry has been made. A small inconvenience compared to someone opening a credit card in your name using your personal information.Set up mail or text alerts with your bank and credit card companies for any transactions with an amount greater than zero. The big financial services companies offer alert options that you can customize. You'll get an alert any time the card is used, which some may find annoying, but again I'd rather delete a notification email or text than have someone run rampant with my credit card or bank account.Set up two-factor authentication on your accounts. Also referred to as two-step authentication, this enforces a second type of authentication in addition to a password (i.e. a text message, fingerprint, or email verification) if someone tries to log into one of your accounts.
Use a crosscut shredder for any documents containing personal information. This also includes any credit card or financial services offers you may receive in the mail.If your state offers, establish an account that lets you register your SSN and access online services of multiple state agencies. In the state of Washington this is called Secure Access Washington. You may need to do some digging for your state but it's worth it.  Be cautious about using public WIFI; consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) if you access sensitive personal information on public networks.Make sure you also review accounts for a loved one, spouse, partner, and children.Identity theft is real, and it can happen to you. The bad guys will never go away, but you can make it more difficult for them by putting some preventative measures in place to protect you and your loved ones from identity theft.

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4 Ways Your PM Career Sustainability Can Go Wrong

About a year ago, I wrote an article called Becoming a Sustainable Project Manager with an accompanying Sustainable PM Assessment. My hope at the time was that readers would understand the four sustainability drivers:

1. Skills
2. Lifestyle
3. Relationships
4. Stewardship

…and develop action plans on how to be more sustainable. To help underscore the importance of being sustainable, here are four stories where, for each person, sustainability wasn’t a priority.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

7 Tips for Better 360-Feedback Evaluations

I am a huge fan of 360-feedback evaluations, a tool in which a participant and their leader, peers and followers evaluate them using a series of structured questions. With the 360 evaluations I’ve gone through, the results were presented to me in terms of how I view myself versus how my leader, peers and followers viewed me.

My first 360 was part of a five-day leadership offsite where survey participants completed the survey prior to the offsite and the results were given to us at the end of the third day. Prior to handing out the evaluation results, I can remember the offsite facilitator saying, “You’re probably going to see some things that will hurt. Take some time to go through the feedback tonight in your hotel room, then let’s talk tomorrow about what you’ll do with it.”

We got the packets with our individual evaluation results. I remember being excited to see the results, expecting to be reaffirmed by how others viewed me as a leader.

Then I opened the packet.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

5 Steps to Help You Retreat From Stress

One Monday morning, Kyle showed up for a status meeting with his project team. Eva, a team member and close friend, noticed a pattern: Kyle looked perpetually exhausted. Concerned, she approached him, “Kyle, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a hectic weekend with kids’ activities and prepping for the exec meeting this week.”

“I certainly understand,” Eva said. “Are you taking time to rest up? I know how demanding your life is right now.”

“I’ve got great work/life balance. It’s just very busy with everything going on,” Kyle said.

“Kyle, you remind me of my father. Always running at 100 miles an hour, thinking that ‘work/life balance’ by default meant rest. That was until he had a heart attack, caused by all the stress of trying to keep up. Rather than deciding to get some rest, the decision was made for him. Work/life balance doesn’t guarantee rest.”

Kyle paused for a moment, reflecting on Eva’s advice. “I hear you.”

“Be careful, I’m concerned about you.” Eva smiled at Kyle and walked back to her desk.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com