David Jay

If you're a gamer, chances are you've got an account on Board Game Arena. If you've got a BGA account, you likely have a favorite game. Mine is Memoir '44.

I started using BGA during the pandemic when gaming groups moved online. My 5e group moved to Roll20 and the board gamers to BGA. I enjoyed the games they had on BGA and played occasionally...until Days of Wonder announced they moved Memoir '44 from their platform to BGA. That's when things got real.

I'd been playing on their old site, but the site had limitations. It was no longer under development, bugs weren't addressed, and there was limited exposure. The move to BGA fixed all of that.

As a game, Memoir '44 presses ALL my buttons.

Game Overview

Memoir 44 (M44) is a historical hex-based board game where each of the two players battle representing opposing sides in World War Two battles over varied terrain with infantry, armor, and artillery at hand. A game consists of two rounds, where each player battles with both armies in turn. This ensures an even match as often on army has an advantage over the other on a specific map.

Tactical Complexity

With dozens of terrain types like fields, forests, village, and hedgerow as well as variants on the three basic fighting units, tactics are extremely important. There are scores of basic maps that, in the oft used "Tournament" setting, are chosen randomly, so it make take hundreds of game plays to experience all of the maps. This means that repeated game play helps you understand the specific interactions of the maps elements but you also need to be able to read a novel board and understand what moves might work. After thousands of plays, I'm still learning and becoming better.

Luck

The moves you make are dictated by a hand of cards drawn from a shuffled deck and each attack is a roll of the dice. This creates an ideal level of managed randomness. On the scale of 1 to 10 from "random" to "total information" Memoir 44 comes in at a solid 6.5. As a another indication of randomness, very rarely will a player's Elo rating exceed 500, but there's a lot in the 300s and 400s. This is ideal for for me as 'managing probabilities' and not tilting at bad dice add another layer I enjoy.

Historicity

I also like learning stuff and every default map is an actual battle of World War Two. The terrain and arrayed forces are an attempt to represent the setting of the battle. With each map is the dates of the battle and a description. I get to read a bit of history and get a sense of how the battle actually began. Ideal.

If you've got some free time, get onto BGA and try Memoir 44. It's a blast!

Yesterday, I returned with my eleven year old daughter from my third Gen Con, a convention billed by its organizers as "The Best Four Days in Gaming." One of the features of the gathering of 70,000 tabletop gaming aficionados is the "Dealers Hall" where hundreds of creators, designers, and publishers hawk their wares. This includes art, fiction, dice, and of, course, the games themselves. The checked baggage of the attendees flying home from Indianapolis is always heavier than it was going to Indy, as we haul our loot back to our castles.

My treasure included four games, all of which I bought off the floor...

Die Laughing

The first day of dealer's hall, I walk around and don't buy anything but do grab photos of games that catch my eye. The cover of Die Laughing, an abstract version of a dead smiley-face warranted a photo. It was a GM-less one-shot role playing game.

On the third day, our final for shopping, I realized I had forgotten to capture the booth number so, we went back and hunted down the NerdBurger exhibit. The friendly staff explained it's not a dungeon crawl but rather takes place on the set of a B movie where all the characters are actors in the film. And when (not if) they die, they return to the game as producers.

Perfect to introduce my improv friends to RPGs, I snapped it up.

Keepers

As I was walking by a table in the far right corner, my eye was drawn to the photograph featured on the box of Keepers: water sliding over a gentle slope of moss-covered stones. I stopped to look closer and a gentleman introduced himself as Byron Jorjorian, the photographer. I decided to buy the game immediately.

I decided before he offered to sign the box. Before I saw the equally beautiful expansion Moments (which I also purchased). I decided before I even knew the mechanics of the game, which follow the general contours of Dixit (infer an abstract connection between a single word and an image).

A beautiful box and a personal connection to the game's creation? I value that immensely.Thank you, Van Ryder Games.

What the Cup?

I was drawn to the fun tiki-themed display which was promoting a surfing-themed board game from The Op (formerly Usaopoly). At the bar they had gregarious staff using dwarf red solo cups to demonstrate What the Cup?, a variant of Liar's dice with added cards to keep things interesting.

Not my typical game and it's not something I would have purchased myself. My daughter however, was entranced, so into the bag it went.

Shortly afterwards, we were playing Tappet, a quick word listing game with a large plastic timer. The demo was being conducted by Dane Chapin, the CEO of the publisher. This is a guy running a good-sized game publisher doing a demo for an 11 year old and her dad. That's so down to earth, I was deeply impressed. Then after the demo, he simply gave the game to my daughter. Well played!

Rabble

Finally, as we were on our way out of the hall, we passed a table full of pastel colored boxes. There are 500 or so vendors at Gen Con. Most of them follow a certain theme based on the colors of black and red. Their logos involve dragons, zombies, and robot warriors. The demographics are strong here. This tendency makes a few games stand out even stronger. I found memorable the table selling a tea-themed game along with a selection of loose teas. And the publishers of Rabble made me stop and look and buy just on the uniqueness of their palette.

Sure, it helps that my sister and her family were visiting the week before and we plowed through several of the party games we own. And having a conversation with both the owner and the artist was a big draw. But the colors are what stopped me and made me look at Rabble.

It's clear from writing these synopses that the qualities that lead to me buying a game off the floor of dealer's hall:

• Attractive, eye-catching art.

• Open play opportunities

• Staffed by actual owners, designers, and artists

• Also, friendly, but not overbearing non-owner staff

I'm looking forward to unboxing all these games and admiring their art and gameplay over the next week. Happy gaming!

It's an unspoken truth that being a father doesn't come naturally to a lot of men. It didn't to me, as the dad of three. You can be a better dad by taking an improv class and applying the lessons you learn to your relationship with your children.

Here's why:

1) Listening

As a new dad, I thought I knew more than my kids. Often I simply assumed since I was the subject matter expert on everything, what they had to offer was worthwhile. Sometimes I was too busy to pay attention. Other times, I was preoccupied.

The fundamental practice of improv is listening. Improv is primarily about paying attention to what your scene partners say. The relationship that forms spontaneously during an improv scene requires active, close listening.

Once I started listening to my children, I learned that they knew more than me about a lot of things including : themselves for sure, but also about the world and other people. So often, as a parent, you tune out what your child is actually saying. Improv helps break that habit.

Listening to what your children say is the most important thing you can do and it's hard.

2) Saying Yes

As a dad, saying No was my default answer to any of my children's questions.I believed it was for good reasons, that my responsibility as a dad was to hold boundaries and that meant saying no.

Then I took improv. Improv has entire games built around the single word: Yes. In improv, Yes is the default answer. Sometimes that Yes needs to be justified or built upon to make sense. Sometimes it's qualified. Sometimes, the actual answer is No. But Yes is always the default.

And that, I realized, is how it should be with my children. Yes is such a better default answer than No with children. It's a generous spirit to have with my children, a wonderful gift. Even when holding boundaries, even when they won't get what they want, even when I will say No, when I start fromYes, our connection around the request benefits.

3) Having fun

As a dad, I would sometimes get caught up in the daily grind of work and home life. I didn't make much space for enjoying the comradeship of my family.

Improv at is best involves trust, fellowship, and a deep sense of fun. Through improv I learned how to laugh publicly, genuinely, and without shame or hesitation. Improv is fun.

And that sense of play, of fun, translated perfectly into parenting. Enjoying being the moment, connecting, and just having a good time is the best part of being a dad.

I've learned a lot about parenting from taking improv. I recommend all dads sign up for a class at their local theater. You'll be glad you did.

There is a movement afoot in the interpreting profession to change the classification of interpreters from the traditional independent contractor to employee. This change is going to have a huge effect on interpreters and companies alike.

Firstly, some terms...

Employee classification is the umbrella term for the decision of whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor.

1099 is the name of the IRS form an agency sends to an independent contractor and the IRS for tax purposes every year. "1099" is a shorthand way of saying you are your own business and not an employee. Freelancer is another synonym. All three terms are used interchangeably.

W-2 is the name of the form an agency sends to its employees and the IRS every spring for tax purposes. W-2 has become shorthand for employee.

With that baseline, here are the things you, an interpreter, should keep in mind as an agency makes a switch.

1) You may choose to continue as a 1099.

There are advantages to staying 1099 and most agencies will permit you to stay 1099 if you do the following:

A) Form an LLC in your state

B) Get an EIN from the IRS

C) Acquire liability insurance

2) Your hourly rate may decrease.

Agencies take on additional costs with a W-2 employee than a 1099. Some agencies will do a 'flat conversion' where the rate stays the same, some will require up to a 20% decrease as they calculate an 8% increase in tax liability plus additional benefits and costs, while others will split the difference and propose a 5% or 10% decrease.

3) Your take home pay will be less. Maybe a lot less.

Even if you get a flat conversion, your take home pay will be considerably less. Employers are required to withhold Federal and state taxes from each paycheck. These are taxes you would pay as a 1099 but the employer withholds them and pays the IRS directly. This amount is at least 8% but more likely 30%.

If you normally expect $3,500 every two weeks, you may now be getting $2,500.

4) There will be a lot of paperwork.

One of the reasons government agencies require W-2 classification is to ensure the company is conducting the relationship in the authorized rules. Those rules are verified using paperwork.

You'll have to sign new forms, employer agreements, and check a lot of boxes as you are on-boarded.

5) You may be eligible for some benefits...But you may not.

Companies set their own policies on what categories of employees are eligible for benefits for health insurance, retirement, and paid time off.

This change in the industry is upon us and, as individuals, it's our responsibility to learn as much as we can to navigate it to our advantage. Good luck.

Letting an employee go is hard. There's an emotional component and procedural one. If you have a checklist, you can make the process flow smoothly and comprehensively and reduce business disruption.

Keep in mind, you may intend to give your employee two weeks notice, but the moment you say, "I'm letting you go," you may no longer have an employee. They may end the conversation and never communicate with you again. Be prepared for that.

0) Create an offboarding checklist

This essay is the start of your offboarding checklist. Take the points below, create your own document, and paste them in. Then edit it to clarify the things you need to do that are specific to your company.

Please make sure this checklist and all the following documents are accessible only to the people in the company that know you are letting the employee go.

You do not want to have it leak that you're letting someone go.

1) Ensure access to passwords

No employee should have sole access to any company password. Whether you are letting someone go or not, this is true. Get your company a password manager like 1Pass immediately and have all employees move their passwords to it.

2) Plan the disbursement of responsibilities

Write down a list of the employee's current responsibilities and how those will be handled once they are no longer with the company. Make a list of the conversations you need to have with other employees.

3) Write the separation agreement

When ending a relationship that is at least loosely regulated, you want the details written down, especially the official end date and severance pay.

A separation agreement should have at least those details, an indemnification clause, and a place for both you and the soon-to-be-ex employee to sign. You can find plenty of templates online if you search for: employment separate agreement template. Modify that template and ensure you have a clause about them giving up their right to take legal action against the company in exchange for a severance payment. You don't want the former employee to sue you and you must give them something in order for them to give up that right, that is one purpose of severance pay.

Have the agreement ready to go. You may need to slightly modify it as a result of the actual face-to-face meeting you'll have to terminate the employee, such as tweaking the date or severance amounts, but it should be 95% ready.

4) Draft an announcement

You'll want to let the others in the company know about the change and depending on the employee's role, clients, vendors and others outside the company.

Draft two announcements, one internal use and one for external use. Be positive in the announcement and clarify how the responsibilities the former employee had will be disbursed.

5) Cue up tech offboarding

Employees have access to company systems such as email, databases, and group chat. Make sure you have those listed out and be ready to remove the employee as a user.

Decide how you want communication apps handled. I recommend external communications such as emails and texts be forwarded to someone else in the company rather than with an out-of-office response.

6) Prepare for the interaction

Write down the points you want to cover in the meeting when you actually tell the employee you're terminating them. A script may make you sound too wooden, but you do want reminders of everything you've got to cover and reminders of how you're approaching this interaction, with compassion and professionalism.

It's a hard thing to fire someone. If you're a good business owner, it should feel bad. It means you care about your employees as individuals. But you care about all of your employees and it's unfair to them and to you to keep on someone who shouldn't be part of the company anymore.

With the above checklist, you'll make the process go smoother for yourself, your soon-to-be ex-employee, and your company. You all a good process.

I run a fully remote company of a dozen people and in the past six months I've had to let two underperforming employees people go. It's a delicate situation that is emotionally fraught for all parties. Here are the standards I've followed for the actual interaction and I think you should follow them too:

1) Do it yourself

You're a small business owner. Doing the emotionally hard stuff is your job. It is your responsibility to say the words. "We're letting you go."

You can have a manager there on the call to follow up with specific separation details, to support the employee, and to be a witness to the exchange, but integrity demands you do it yourself.

2) Get straight to the point

After the opening pleasantries, just come out and say it: "This relationship is not working out." Don't pretend this is about anything else. Don't hem and haw or give a long winded introduction to the issues. Be forthright.

3) Keep Focus

An employee may try to negotiate, to argue against the termination. Remember, "No." is a complete sentence. The relationship is over. Be understanding, but be firm. They may ask for reasons. If they do, you can give two or three broad categories, but if they start refuting each one, then they don't actually want to know, they're simply in the bargaining stage of grief. End that line of discussion.

4) Be truthful

Lying, whether in a misguided attempt to make the employee feel better or to minimize potential harms to the company, is a terrible idea. They're getting fired, any attempt to whitewash that will be, correctly, perceived as shallow. "It's not you, it's me" should be tabooed from discourse. If you're worried about future litigation, then absolutely it's better to say nothing than to lie.

5) Be kind

Being truthful doesn't mean you need to be cruel. You have all the power here and you lose nothing by being kind.

Be empathetic, listen to what they have to say and know as hard as it might be for you, it's much worse for them.

6) Be generous

Kindness is how you approach someone. Generosity is what you actually provide outside the interaction. I can be kind to a panhandler and offer them no money, or I can give them $100 but be a jerk. Be kind and generous here.

One way to be generous is to give them options.

For example, if you are offering three weeks severance, you can suggest they work for a week to transition then two weeks severance pay or they can simply be done at the end of the call with three weeks. It's up to them.

Also, tell them you're happy to present this to the rest of the company as a resignation on their part rather than initiated by the company, if they'd prefer.

Tell them they don't need to make any decisions in the moment, but can think about them for a day or two.

Giving them low stakes options that gives them some agency back is a form of generosity.

7) Keep it short

They've likely just had a huge depressing surprise. Their emotions are activated and they will want to simply have time alone, or at least away from work. Give them that. Thank them for their time and end the meeting.

There are ethical reasons to do all of the above, but also ones of company culture. Your other employees will see how you treat even an underperformer with respect and will appreciate it. It's not easy, but that is part of the job of a business owner, to do the hard stuff.

I want my children to to develop financial skills. I want them to be comfortable and responsible with money. One of the primary ways I do that is when each of my children turns 13, I sign them up for a checking account with an accompanying debit card.

Here are the effects:

My children learn the modern mechanics of money

The mechanics of money are modern ones: primarily how to install and use your bank's app and use a credit card.

While it's called a checking account, we don't actually get checks. That's a good thing. Maybe there's minor value for a child learning about check writing, but it's 2023, not 1993. Don't teach your kids to balance a check book, teach them to check their bank balance on their phone. Have them teach you to set up Apple Pay. This is the world they will live in as adults, they should learn it now.

My children have an easy time getting allowances and reimbursement

The accounts I set up permit me to see their account but they can't see mine. I can transfer money in and out of their account, but they can't touch mine. It's perfect.

I set up an automated weekly transfer of their allowance, and can move money in or out of their account if they spend on something I would normally pay for or vice versa.

These ease of moving money means we can have discussions about spending and resolve discrepancies immediately. It's a wonderful way to model mature money decisions.

Also, I don't need to keep cash on hand to irregularly pay out allowances (which used to be a source of friction and frustration for everybody).

My children learn to conceptually to manage their money

By giving my child a bank account, I am teaching them how to conceptualize money. They actually see their balance building as weekly automated transfers of allowances and their occasional deposits from birthdays and babysitting grow their totals. And in the app, they see as their spending decreases that total in a more memorable way than spending cash.

If you goal is to raise kids that understand how money works in the modern world, open a checking account for them today. I did and it works.

I'm an proud pod person. I listen to a lot of podcasts and there's one I'm listening to each week without fail. One that consistently delivers insights I use in my life as a husband with a strong interest in personal finance. That podcast is I Will Teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi.

Each episode is a case study of a couple who is wrestling with the meaning of money in their lives. Clearly edited from a much longer interview, there is a touch of a 'reality TV', but it's a very light touch. Notably, Ramit released a Netflix reality show that follows the same format.

I love this podcast because it hits all the right notes.

One, I'm listening to real people. Their financial circumstances usually don't match my own, but they're relatable. Often the couples on the show have a lot of money and they're trying to figure out how not to be so uptight about spending it. Sometimes, they're broke and want to change their habits to be not broke. Either way, there's a ton of enjoyment to be had either with sympathy or schadenfreude.

Solid advice, supported by good editing. Ramit is a sympathetic listener who is able to provide helpful insights both in the moment while talking to the couple and as 'fixed in post' asides edited in during the segment.

Secondly, the podcast answers the core question for a middle-aged couple with a modicum of financial savviness: How can we life a more fulfilling life? For my wife and I it opened up discussions about how our world view, based on our childhood experiences, influences our ability to use money to enjoy life. How can we recognize and improve on that? How can we choose now to life a more fulfilled, a richer, life?

Simply, this podcast has helped us be happier. 10/10 would recommend.

In my 20 years of business ownership, I've come to believe integrity is the most important quality a small business owner can develop in themselves.

One of the primary functions of a business is to make a profit. But profit cannot be the lodestar, you need a mission. And sticking to that mission even when it conflicts with profit, that is integrity. Integrity is sacrifice. This is important for a couple reasons.

1) Integrity prevents a slide down a slippery slope to doing anything to make a buck.

Integrity is a form of discipline. By operating under a umbrella of fundamental ethics, you keep yourself from going off the rails. You prevent yourself from downward spiraling choices. If the pursuit of profit is the sole purpose of your business, you can easily become someone your younger self would be ashamed of. You sacrifice profit for improved self worth.

2) Integrity prevents decision fatigue.

There are many ways to profit. The paradox of choice is the principle that after a certain point having more choices is detrimental. Having integrity limits your decision space. It's actually easier to run a company if you can simply say, "No, I won't do that, it doesn't mesh with our mission." You sacrifice potential profit for an easier mental load.

There are a few other thoughts about integrity.

Integrity does not require a degree, credential, or any other external validation.

Integrity demands you do the hard thing when it is the right thing.

Integrity means no worrying about losing the advantage to a competitor who acts unethically.

Integrity means you sleep well at night.

I'm a 'podcast guy'. Driving my kids to school? Cooking podcast. Walking the dog? Exercise podcast. Mowing the lawn? Really loud podcast.

I find so much value in podcasts that I subscribe to far more than I can possibly listen to. I've come up with a couple easy ways to manage them in Apple's default Podcast app.

Firstly, it's clear that even with podcasts I like, not all episodes are winners. There's plenty of duds. So I subscribe, meaning I see them in the "Latest Episodes" folder but I've changed the default settings to download zero of them.

That gives me a curated list of new episodes that I can scroll every few days and choose which specific episodes to download.

And then I have a handful I automatically download. These are the ones I love that I listen to 80% or more of the episodes all of the way through. That list at the moment is:

I Will Teach You to Be Rich: Ramit Sethi interview couples and digs into the foundational issues that shape their perspectives on money. The "being rich" part isn't about making gobs of cash, but about living a fulfilled life within your financial circumstances. Being a voyeur into the personal finance of other people is novel and entertaining by itself. Throw in Ramit's gentle probing and confident personal finance opinions and you've got an unmissable listen.

The Reason Roundtable: One of my interests is politics and the libertarian quartet that makes up Reason magazine's flagship podcast keeps me up to date on what's happening. Is it biased? Yes, expressly so, but in an entertaining, "wear on their sleeve" sort of way. They refreshingly don't take themselves too seriously.

Animal Spirits: Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson represent the Everyman of finance. They're just a couple of regular joes who work at an investment firm talking about shit. They're not particularly smart or well-read. Michael talks over Ben constantly. They commit frequent chart crimes. Yet there's something very entertaining in the honest schtick, and it's a lens into how the hoi polloi.

Odd Lots: Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway do deep dive interviews with guests on economics topics each week that actually explain what's happening in the world. It helps me understand the world better.

Jocko Podcast: I have a tendency towards sloth. I struggle with the daily discipline that supports good health and there's nothing more motivational than a Navy SEAL who's tag line is "Discipline Equals Freedom". Jocko inspires me to go to the gym at least one more time each week than I would if I didn't listen to his podcast.

Akimbo: Seth Godin is a marketing genius. I get a jolt of inspiration every time I listen. Like Jocko, who has the opposite aura, Seth inspires me to be my authentic self in an arena, in this case, professionally. His insights the value of telling your own story are invaluable.

I guarantee if you try all of these at least once, you'll love at least one.

You're a professional. You have the skills and the confidence to work in many settings. You work your tail off. You're also a 1099 contractor who is considering turning down the option to be a W-2 employee.

So you ask yourself, if you have the option, why wouldn't you take it? What are the benefits to being a 1099 contractor rather than a W-2 employee?

Health Insurance

Wait, what? Health insurance is why I would take a W-2 job!

Well, that's a very 2009 perspective. The advantages of employer-sponsored health care declined sharply after the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and continue as Congress passes more legislation.

Most companies now have just two or three options of plans. It's hard to find only the coverage you need while the marketplace has more options.

It turns out going through an employer if often more expensive than getting insurance off the government marketplace. Employers usually require the employee to pay a percentage, often 50%, of the premium for the individual plus additional, (up to 100%) for dependents. The cost is often at least the cost of a similar ACA plan.

Additionally, if you are offered health insurance from your employer, you can't get that sweet government subsidy. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is you can get a benchmark plan at a cost capped at 8.5% of you modified gross income. If you make $65,000 a year, you will not pay more than $460 a month for the benchmark plan.

Contrary to popular belief, if you are a 1099 you will have more options for a lower cost than if you were a W-2.

Retirement planning

Again, I know what you're thinking. A retirement plan is why I would take a W-2 job! An employer-sponsored plan with matching contributions is nice, but having your own plan is often nicer.

A 1099 contractor is a business entity and as such, you can set up your own plan. There are several options, primarily a SIMPLE IRA, a SEP IRA, and a Solo 401(k), each of which have nuances too detailed to go into here. Like a W-2 employer plan, all of the options include the ability to deduct your contributions from your personal income and with some options, you can deduct your contributions to avoid paying employer taxes like FICA.

The difference is, that depending on the choice, you can contribute more and provide matching funds in a higher percentage than what employers traditionally offer.

The benefit of a such a plan for a 1099 contractor is that you get to determine which options work best for you. You're not restricted to the limited choices an employer offers.

Higher hourly wage

Generally speaking, a W-2 employee's hourly wage is significantly lower than a 1099 contractor's wage. The term "total compensation" encompasses not just the hourly wage but other "benefits" that employers pay for. For 1099 contractors, the total compensation is simply the hourly rate. For W-2s its the hourly rate plus the portion of health insurance premiums, sick days, and retirement matching. Employers understand this and pay a lower hourly rate to W-2s.

Limited overtime

As a 1099 contractor you can set your own hours. There are no limits. For W-2s, your employer is required to pay time-and-a-half if you work more than 40 hours a week. This is a strong incentive for employers to carefully track and limit the hours worked to 40 or less.

Tax Deductions

As a self-employed worker, you get to deduct specific expenses from your income before calculating your tax. Things you don't get taxed on as 1099 that you do as a W-2:

• Qualified Business Income: 20% of your actual post-expense revenue is tax free.

• Health insurance premiums: Any health insurance premiums not subsidized by the government are deducted from your income.

• Employee FICA contributions: W-2 employees pay income tax on their FICA contributions. 1099 do not.

• Business expenses: Home office, commuting costs, computer, cell phone, etc. There are many expenses that are at least partially deductible.

One thing being a W-2 employee does is make a lot of these decisions easy. But you're a professional. You have the skills and the confidence to work in many settings. You work your tail off. You can learn about each of these areas and use them to your benefit.

I've been managing sign language interpreting agencies for 30 years and I'm here to tell you, like all businesses, an interpreting agency should be tracking both financial metrics and performance metrics. Those measurements represent the basic health of the company.

For operations, the front-line coordinators at agencies filling requests for onsite and remote language interpreters for the Deaf have one single metric they need to be concerned about: fill rate.

Fill rate defined

Fill rate is the number of hours serviced divided by the number of hours requested, expressed as a percentage. If you fill 800 hours of interpreting, but clients had requested 1,000 hours, your fill rate is 80.0%.

Why fill rate
Fill rate is the most important numbers for several reasons.

Firstly, every request that goes unfilled is a Deaf person that lacks accommodation. That truth should be acknowledged by every single employee at the company: coordinator, manager, executive. A single missed request is not just a number. It's someone's college mid-term, job interview, cancer diagnosis. I'd consider anything less than a 95% fill rate to be a failure.

Secondly, fill rate directly drives customer satisfaction and reputation. The client actually ordering the service (who is rarely the Deaf person themselves) isn't going to use your service again if you fail at the basic agreement of providing language access.

Finally, it is strongly correlated with the key financial metric of gross revenue. You can't bill for a job that you couldn't fill.

But what about the money?

It's managers, not the front-line coordinators, who negotiate rates with clients and interpreters. Managers who set policies on travel and cancellations. Managers who get feedback on the financials.

I've had to train coordinators to stop getting hung up on the cost of an interpreter versus the price being charged. and to encourage them to independently approve travel time. A coordinator's focus should be on putting a qualified interpreter on a request. That's it. And when an interpreter asks for something against policy, our actual policy is to agree to get the interpreter there.

Using Fill Rate

Fill rate can be sliced and diced many ways. It can be compared year over year, month over month, by client, or by client coordinator. Start measuring now since a single snapshot in time is not as valuable as seeing that number change.

Fill rate the most valuable tool to measure coordinator performance. Get measuring today!

There is one phrase for entrepreneurs that will elevate your leadership. Three simple words that are often impossible for entrepreneurs to utter.

For hard charging, go-gettin', firebreathing future unicorns, it's the hardest thing to say. We flat out deny it's true! We imagine it's a fate worse than death, we feel it in our bones that saying three words will undermine our leadership, our company, our lives.

That phrase?

"I don't know."

Our ego resists it. After all, How can we lead if we don't know what we're doing. Saying "I don't know" means we've failed, right?

Wrong.

There are four reasons to say "I don't know" aloud and to ourselves on a regular basis.

It frees us from defending

Making a statement often means we feel we should defend it, regardless of how important it is. Are ducks better than geese? Once you've answered that, you then feel compelled to defend Team Geese from the onslaught of Duck Lovers. Is that how you want to spend your time? Maybe you could be working on your business instead?

It invites us to learn

Take a question like, "What's the best autumn marketing strategy for the Team Geese campaign?" You probably have an opinion. But there's a universe of information out there and that world is in flux. Maybe the Swan strategy you ran last year won't work today for Geese. Saying "I don't know" means can now look at the available evidence and see if there are better options.

It encourages initiative in others

Good leaders encourage others to do their best work. Maybe you do have an opinion about that fall fowl campaign. But in the staff meeting, saying "I don't know" and giving control to someone on the team let's them take the initiative and come up with a plan. Maybe even a plan that's better than yours! And if it's worse, you have an opportunity to work with them to improve it.

It's true

Sometimes, lots of times, we do not know. And we should say that simply because it's honest. The most important quality in a leader isn't knowledge, it's integrity. Demonstrate your integrity by declaring your ignorance. You and everyone else around you will value you for it.

Anytime anyone asks you a question, answer in your head "I don't know". You may be surprised it's the right answer for the situation and your leadership will be all the better for it.