I’m back with another installment of street smarts, those skills that go beyond what is taught in school -- the lessons we learn by experience and practice. Never underestimate the value and importance of “extracurricular” education.

First idea: Don’t be afraid to make a decision. Be afraid NOT to make a decision. Good judgment is a critically important skill for any person to have, but especially for those in leadership positions. Good judgment is such an important attribute that it is often listed first by employers as a required quality of job applicants.

In business, the success or failure of the organization hinges on judgments made at all levels. Good judgment is the ability to make the best decision possible based on the information you have, without being swayed by others or predetermined ideas.

What kind of a decision-maker are you? Take a few minutes to contemplate the question, because once you become aware of how you make (or don’t make) decisions, you will be more apt to make wiser choices in the future.

Next idea: Never make a decision until you have to. Always bargain for more time to postpone doom. Things can change over time.

For example, there once was a king who was trying to find someone who could teach his horse to fly. As the king was conducting court one day, two guards dragged in a beggar who had just stolen a loaf of bread.

The king said, “Take him away and chop his head off!” As he was being dragged away, the beggar said, “But my king, I can teach your horse to fly. Just give me two years.”

“Granted,” the king said.

As the beggar is being carted out, a guard quizzically asks him, “Why did you promise that?”

“Look ... In two years, I may be dead. The king may be dead. Or who knows, maybe I can teach the horse to fly!”

Next idea: Practice the Rule of 10,000. This rule helps determine whether something can’t be done or whether someone doesn’t care enough to get it done.

The Rule of 10,000 says, “If I give you an extra $10,000 to get to work by 8 a.m. for six months straight, can you do it?” Watch how fast the obstacles disappear, contingencies are set up, departure time from home is earlier and so on.

You don’t necessarily give people $10,000, but it’s a good way to see if something is possible.

Next idea: Always put the pressure on yourself and tell everyone what your goals are. I do this with all kinds of projects. It’s great motivation.

Next idea: You can take any amount of pain, as long as you know it will end. For example, I was running the Twin Cities Marathon several years back when a woman stopped me with two miles to go and said she wasn’t sure she could finish. She said, “Mr. Mackay, motivate me!” I gave her the above thought on pain as we ran side-by-side, and we both made it.

Next idea: It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable ... it’s the people you don’t fire who make your life miserable. And whenever I say that, I get more amens than a Billy Graham sermon.

Next idea: Maximize your education dollars. When your company sends its people to conferences, make sure you get maximum value. At our company, we insist that our people come back from conferences and teach the rest of the staff what they learned. This way we get a terrific return on our investment.

Next idea: Never give an ultimatum unless you mean it. A close friend shared this story of a high stakes negotiation. He was living in Minnesota and wanted desperately to buy one of his competitors in Los Angeles. He had information that whatever his bid was, the owners had a local businessman who would bid for the business as a wedge to get the price up.

There was a summit conference call with the six owners plus my friend to negotiate and finalize a price. Then came the knockout blow. My friend bid 15 percent to 20 percent percent more for the company than his previous proposal, but his new offer was on the table during the call only. The buyers could either accept it or not. The offer was so good, the owners decided to take it. They weren’t going to chance it on their friend matching it.

Mackay’s Moral: Use your street smarts to outsmart your competition.

It was a cold winter. A group of hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to bunch together to keep warm. However, the quills from each hedgehog pierced their next-door neighbors, so they decided to move apart. But then they started to freeze and die alone, so they made the decision to cuddle back together and live with the little piercings caused by the close connection with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the group. This allowed them to survive.

And that, my friends, is the perfect definition of teamwork.

No team is composed entirely of perfect people. Whether you’re a superstar or a benchwarmer, you are an important member of the team.

Individuals working together as a group make a team successful. The success of any team -- be it in sports or in business -- is dependent on every person working toward a common goal. The role of every team member, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is valuable to the team’s overall success. Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally; it comes from what you do consistently.

Andrew Carnegie, the business magnate and philanthropist who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century, said: “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision, the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Do you think he knew about hedgehogs?

Helen Keller said, “Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

That’s hedgehog talk if I’ve ever heard it!

I always get a kick out of when a person refers to someone else as a self-made man or woman. Let me tell you, there is no such thing. No one reaches their goals without the help of many others.

As Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.”

Whether you’re forming a fully self-directed work team or leading a group that just needs to collaborate effectively, you must recruit the right people. Keep your eyes open for these abilities and traits:

-- Willingness to contribute. Is the person ready to put the team’s goals first? This doesn’t mean ignoring personal needs, but it does mean that team members must put their primary energy into contributing to the team so they can share in its success.

-- Acceptance of roles. People on a team have specific jobs, tasks and roles. Although they should be willing to stretch themselves, they won’t be effective or helpful if they insist on going outside the boundaries of what the team needs from them.

-- Eagerness to assist. On a team, no one can back off and say, “That’s not my job.” Look for people with a track record of pitching in to help wherever they’re needed as situations call for it.

-- Identification with the group. Effective team members take pride from their association with the group. Find out what other teams, task forces and committees a potential team member has worked on. How does he or she describe the experience?

-- Responsible attitude. Everyone’s eager to share credit. Is your team made up of people willing to accept responsibility for failure? Look for people who can be honest about their mistakes and willing to learn from experience.

Perhaps the best example of teamwork I’ve ever heard of is one I share with my audiences whenever I give a speech. It’s about mules, not hedgehogs, but the message is every bit as effective.

A salesman is driving on a two-lane country road in a rainstorm and gets stuck in a ditch. He asks a farmer for help. The farmer hitches up Elmo, his blind mule, to the salesman's car and hollers out, “Pull, Sam, pull!” Nothing happens. He then yells, “Pull, Bessie, pull.” Still nothing. “Pull, Jackson, pull.” Still nothing. Finally, he hollers, “Pull, Elmo, pull.” And Elmo rips the car right out of the ditch.

The driver is confused and says, “I don’t understand. Why did you have to call out all those different names?”

“Look, if he didn't think he had any help, he wouldn't even try!”

Mackay’s Moral: For a winning team, recruit hedgehogs, not attention hogs.

Germs can run rampant in a workplace, but so can another problem. Researchers at the University of Florida, presenting their findings in the Journal of Applied Psychology, say that rudeness can be contagious.

The researchers followed 90 graduate business students as they practiced negotiation techniques over seven weeks, switching partners several times. Students who described a partner as rude were more likely to be considered rude themselves by subsequent partners than those who negotiated with people they felt were polite. The researchers theorize that this suggests that experiencing rudeness may make people more inclined to engage in it themselves.

Do your best to stay polite and courteous all the times, and you may be able to stop an epidemic in your organization.

Workplace rudeness can be a serious problem. It can bring down morale and lead to lost productivity. Rudeness doesn’t just affect work; it can lead to lost customers.

A study by the University of North Carolina shows that 94 percent of the 775 people surveyed told someone else about their encounters with rude co-workers. Those “someone elses” included peers, supervisors and even people they managed.

What kind of encounters caused such loss in productivity? A few examples of rude behavior included nasty and demeaning notes, accusations about lacking knowledge, name-calling and challenging credibility in front of others.

The study concluded that employees spent more time disgruntled or worrying about the rude person and less time concentrating on their work. The stats from the survey are telling:

-- 28 percent lost work time avoiding the rude person.

-- 58 percent lost work time worrying about the encounter or possible future interactions.

-- 37 percent reduced their commitment to the organization.

-- 22 percent decreased their effort at work.

-- 10 percent decreased the amount of time they spent at work.

-- 46 percent contemplated changing jobs to avoid the rude person.

-- 12 percent changed jobs to avoid the rude person.

This is why it is essential to squash rude behavior the minute it rears its ugly head. Granted, the workplace is not always the easiest place in the world to get along with others. However, it is important to feel respected by others in the workplace. This kind of healthy atmosphere will almost always increase productivity.

Here are some tips from the Mayo Clinic on how to deal with a co-worker who is rude to you:

-- Hold your tongue. Take some time to cool off if someone is rude to you. Don’t spout off something you will be sorry to have said later. Don’t be sarcastic. When someone says something rude to you, repeat it back to them in your own words and ask the person if that is what he or she is trying to say.

-- Be direct. Very calmly tell the other person how his or her comments or behavior made you feel. Make your co-worker aware that it’s a problem for you.

-- Tell the person whose behavior is bothering you about it, instead of telling other people in the office. Directing your comments to the person is the mature, respectful way of handling the matter.

-- Find a solution. Ask the person who was rude to you to help you solve the problem. Ask for his or her ideas about the problem and what to do about it.

-- If you’ve truly run out of ideas or if your co-worker is uncooperative, let your supervisor know. He or she may know how to handle the situation or have experience dealing with similar problems in the past.

And speaking of supervisors, a study by the University of Florida found that even the best employees can become negative at work if they think their bosses have treated them with rudeness or are mean-spirited. That means gossiping, pilfering, backstabbing and long lunch breaks can become the norm.

Managers have to set the tone, starting with the way they treat employees. Management training needs to include an emphasis on treating employees with respect and refusing to accept rude behavior in the workplace.

Want to boil it down to a simple phrase? Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Mackay’s Moral: Common courtesy should never be an uncommon practice.