I live in a part of the U.S. that received a once-a-decade snowfall last week. At least 12,000 flights were cancelled. Millions of people were home from work, rearranging untold numbers of meetings and assignments.
Such rapid change is commonplace in our world today. Snow is forecast. Other changes are not. How you deal with it determines your positive success at work.
Here are five secret steps the positively successful take in response to such rapid change:
Relax
When sudden change interrupts your work flow, your fight-or-flight response to stress emerges just as quickly. You will go thermonuclear or turbodrive away due to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
Successful business people first relax. They take a breath and see the moment as it is. They resist the urge to go Incredible Hulk or Chicken Little and focus on the positive.
Relate
Successful professionals secondly relate. They quickly turn to others and invest in their social circles. They offer support and gain strength from relationships.
Facebook was filled with pictures of parents at home, playing in the snow with their children. Residents of neighborhoods near highways left their warm homes to push cars stranded in roadside ditches.
Once you relax in the midst of rapid change, your focus shifts from “me” to “thee.” You relate to and invest in others.
Remember
Next, successful business people look behind the moment to previously similar times. They reflect on what they implemented that was most effective. They gather courage and strength from the knowledge that they survived and are in business today. Such emotional fortitude energizes them to deal strategically with the moment.
Everyone has a survival story. Such tales willingly suspend your disbelief in the moment and propel you forward.
Respond
Having relaxed, related, and remembered, successful professionals now choose to respond. Interestingly, the temptation is to first respond. However, success builds from well-chosen inner steps before it emerges in outer steps.
The focusing question behind your response is, “What can I do?” The powerlessness of rapid change paralyzes with a myopic view of “What I Can’t Do.” There is always some sliver of an opportunity open to successful people. They see what they look for. Seizing the moment, they respond with creative imagination and transform the paralysis into a powerful rewriting of the script.
They find an appointment for the patient who stayed overnight in hopes of seeing the doctor. They let the client text the picture of the damaged vehicle direct to claims. They respond positively and creatively.
Reward
Finally, successful business people reward themselves. They take off earlier than usual to play in the snow.
Also, they reward others. They gift the team member who came in on Saturday to complete what couldn’t be done on Friday.
Rewards recognize the importance of others to the success of the business. This secret step may be the greatest of all as it hooks the team member’s emotional engagement in a most personal way. Successful professionals lead from heartfelt recognition that it takes more than themselves to navigate rapid change.
Whatever your source of change, implement these five secret steps of the positively successful and Work Positive!
About the Author:
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Positive Success coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.
