An Oom-buds-what? An Ombudsman is a person who listens to a group’s complaints, processes them, then helps to figure out a way that an organization can solve problems.

Quite often there is no solution and this must be conveyed to the group. This is not an easy job, but at least the group is getting their answer. Usually the group just wants to understand the reasoning behind the answer and make sure that they approve of the decision making process. Other times the group may not like the answer and may want a different response. It’s up to the Ombudsman to try to solve the issue to the best of his/her ability.

Wikipedia’s description serves as a good reason why every company could use an Ombudsman:

“One particularly important function is to pick up “new things” — that is, issues new to the organization. This is particularly important if the “new thing” is “disruptive” in the sense of requiring the organization to review and possibly improve its policies, procedures and/or structures.”

I’ve talked about the benefits of hiring a Work Happy Manager, and an Ombudsman would be just as beneficial. The Work Happy Manager could be proactive in creating an enjoyable environment and the Ombudsman could be reactive in making sure that the employees are happy with the decisions that are taking place within the organization.

An Ombudsman could help a company see mistakes from the employees’ point of view. Let’s say a company tries to restructure the organization, and perhaps an employee sees a potential problem, but they are afraid to tell management. Employees are more likely to see a different type of problem because they are closer to the day to day operations. For instance they might recognize that a group of customers could become neglected by the restructuring. This employee could voice his opinion to the Ombudsman without fear of being fired or discovered for his dissenting views.

One of the most important roles of an Ombudsman is to be completely private about all matters. This is crucial to gaining trust between both management and their employees.

I know that I would love to have an Ombudsman at my company. How about you?

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I’ve been Netflixing the TV show Scrubs on DVD. What a great show! My wife and I finished season one and we were watching the bonus material. Donald Faison (Chris Turk) was being interviewed about the show and he said that the set only had one rule…

Don’t be an A**hole.

“When someone says that if you are an a**hole you are not going to be here for very much longer, you’d be surprised how much nicer people will be.”

I think we need to implement this rule at every company.

Anyone who has worked in human resources knows that the people who stay with a company are usually happy, communicate well and are liked by most of their co-workers. They don’t cause trouble, they encourage teamwork.

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The greatest business people, actors, politicians, athletes, and scientists all persevere through failure in their careers before they reach a high level of success. When they do reach that point, there comes a great calm. They realize that their disappointments were some of the best moments of their careers because they used them to improve on their next move.

Life is a beautiful struggle, and the great people of our history used each failure as a slingshot to create a better life. One of the greatest of them was Abraham Lincoln. His failures were numerous and would have crushed a weaker willed person.

• Failed in business in 1831

• Defeated for the legislature in 1832

• Failed in business again in 1834

• Ann Rutledge, the love of his life died in 1835

• Nervous breakdown in 1836

• Defeated in an election in 1838

• Defeated for Congress in 1843, 1846, and a third time in 1848

• Defeated for Senate in 1855

• Defeated for Vice President in 1856

• Defeated for Senate in 1858

• 1860 he was finally elected President!

Every living thing struggles to live. Famous actors struggle with the paparazzi, I struggle with my career, everyone struggles with their relationships, rich people struggle with illness, and everyone struggles with the possibility of death. Every struggle creates new places for joy. The truly great people understand that failure isn’t the measure of a person, but it is what they do with that failure that decides how successful they become.

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.
- Samuel Smiles

It’s using that struggle to help improve your life that makes the difference between success and accepting defeat. Use your difficulties to make yourself stronger. Use you failure as a slingshot toward happiness and you’ll succeed.

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