Archive for the ‘Managing Stress’ Category

Escape Overwhelm: Focus on Completions

Monday, April 20th, 2020

One of the best ways to create more success is to celebrate successes: those of your team and your own successes as well.

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those crazy people who, when I’m working on something, I use a list to make sure I’m getting the things done that need to happen on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Sometimes, I step in and I do something extra that wasn’t on the list. In that case, I make a little box and I check it off.

Sounds crazy, I know. But when I talk about it with other people, they all say they do the same thing! Why do we do that? Because the brain needs to have the chemical “hit”  of completion. It creates confidence to get more data points of success

Whenever someone is in “overwhelm,” what they’re really telling you is: “I am not completing.”

When you have completions, that’s when you get energy! So, celebrate your completions! And, make sure that the completions you’re working toward are the ones that most matter.

The more you celebrate, the faster you get to your completions and the more successful you feel. Change your brain waves forever, build some new neural pathways in your brain, and decide to celebrate every success.

How to Thrive in the Recession: Lean-in to Your Customers

Sunday, April 19th, 2020

Difficult times require us to get massive about making an impact on our customers. What used to work will not be enough in the future. Now is the time to be calling them and finding out what’s going on with them. Find out what they’re fearful about, find out what their dreams are, find out where they think they might be compromising their dreams, asking them how they might take advantage of this situation to find other revenue streams and different opportunities.

Recessions historically have been the opportunity to pull ahead. And one of the best things that you can do is help your people dream the next possibility. Those who sit and wait to be told what to do and stay in the old actions will be very limited, both for you, within your organization, and also for them. So now is the time to get massive about helping your customers see a new possibility, and get busy helping them accomplish that possibility. By helping other people, that’s how we help ourselves and our own organizations.

Now is a wakeup call for us to get even better at that than we ever were before. So seize the opportunity.

In Crisis, There’s No Time For Nonsense

Sunday, April 12th, 2020

In difficult times, there’s no time for nonsense. Forgive yourselves everything from the past, but right now there is no time for excuses. There is no time for whining and complaining about what doesn’t work. There’s no time for gossip, whether you spread it or are receiving it. In fact, that should be a non-negotiable at all times, because that makes for an unsafe work environment.

Instead, this is the time to bring your highest and best self to work every single day, to also find ways to do things that you never thought that you could. Listen, everything that someone’s a master at, they didn’t use to be a master at it. So why would you be different? If you’re not good at grammar and spelling, use these challenging times to go home at night, read a couple of books, get online, take some testing, learn grammar and spelling, become a master. If you’re not good at marketing copy, go figure that piece out. If you’re not good at sales processes, go decide to be a master of it. Whatever it is that is your profession, step in, get good at it, and allow no-nonsense from yourself or from anyone else in your organization.

These are the times where everyone wants to be a leader, and if you’re waiting for someone else to say, no, we don’t do things like that around here, let me assure you that that nonsense will be the reason that layoffs will happen and that your salaries will be frozen. So step in and be a shepherd of your culture right now.

Now Is The Time To Massively Increase Your Results

Friday, April 3rd, 2020

Challenging times require substantially changed behaviors.  Everyone knows the story of the 110-pound mother who can lift the car off of her child because there was a need, and there was no one else around to do it.  Well, think of yourself as being that 110-pound woman who there’s no way in regular times you could lift the car, and that’s how you should approach your job every single day. So if you were producing five widgets, the question you should ask yourself is, seriously, how do you produce 500 a day? If you were able to have other projects that you are doing or different impact on customers, how do you raise that impact by a hundredfold?

These times require massive action that’s the right action. If you don’t know how to be in the mastery of the work that you do, Google it. Go home, read a couple of books. Come to a different person, because these kinds of times require those who step in all-in every day. Be that person.

Challenging Times Reveal Character

Friday, March 27th, 2020

We’re living in different times right now, and they are very challenging. But challenging times are when character is revealed. So how do you decide the right kind of actions to take during a time like this to really make an impact for your clientele, your career and also your organization?

Number one, start with the spirit of help. Make sure that everyone knows that you are game on, all in, stepping in to make a difference in everyone’s lives every day. And that doesn’t just mean reactionary things, it means proactive things. It also means that you’ve never had more of a need within your organization to have compassionate listening skills to find out what’s needed and wanted by your clientele and also from your team members.

These are not the times to sit and wait for someone to tell you what to do. These are the times instead, to take the right actions in the right order and to find out how resourceful you can be.

Lastly, make sure that you’re choosing joy. Yes, there’s a lot to contemplate that’s not good. There’s a lot of problems that are about to hit and a lot of it can be rather ugly. But here’s the reality. We’ve been through world wars, we’ve been through other recessions, we’ve been through the Great Depression. Life goes on and it’ll get good again. The one thing that we can choose is our attitude, so choose joy, and spread it around your organization and to your clients as well.

Now is a time when you’re really needed to bring your highest and best self to work every day.