Category: Work Life

As I left our home and drove around the mountain, fog enveloped me quickly. Unexpectedly. There was no sign of fog when I pulled out of our garage.

The business environment changes that quickly, also, particularly with what influences our customers’ and clients’ lives.

For example, the shooting down of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine suddenly dominates our conversations, news media, buying habits, and prayers. It fogs our perception.

So how do you do business when tragedy fogs over your business?

Here are 3 Strategies to Work Positive in a Tragedy.

Headlights On

I turned on my headlights that foggy morning to see and be seen, but not on bright as that blinds me from the reflection back.

Since the tragedy is on your customers’ minds, be seen as acknowledging it. Speak into their conversations. Organize an after-hours prayer vigil. Invite them to join you in giving to a foundation to provide relief. As you do business out of this “Receive” core practice, you evidence more of your Work Positive lifestyle.

Avoid the “bright lights”—“I’m not going to fly”—as they reflect back and heighten anxiety. Your conversation is a step-down transformer, giving clients an activity that helps.

Slow Down

I slowed down my car that foggy morning to lengthen my reaction time to other vehicles…and give them more time, too.

For the weeks following a tragedy like the downing of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine, you may notice your customers slowing down their buying decisions. Of course, your cash flow needs feeding and it will as you continue to Work Positive. For now, understanding your business’ long-term relationships with clients is paramount. Urgency building, money back guarantees, and other buying enhancing benefits are still in place so work them.

Just know that when tragedy dominates our conversations, our buying decision process slows down. Fear trickles in. Life-and-death issues move upfront. Be patient and understanding with your customers. Slow down for now.

Stay Off the Road

Perhaps I should have checked the local news that foggy morning to stay off of the road for a bit until it cleared. But I avoid media news in the mornings.

I hope as a Work Positive business person you stay off the road of morning media news. It is by design a negative influence. If it bleeds, it leads.

Limit your media exposure especially in times of tragedy. Be informed, yet know that your business succeeds as you focus on the positive and filter out the negative. Your negative filter clogs quickly in a 24/7 news cycle of repetitive sound bites and video clips of the same scene. Access “pull media” like websites and exclude “push media” like TV/radio. Exercise your editorial license as a consumer of information. Stay off the road until it clears.

Tragedies like the downing of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine affect us all. Use these 3 strategies to build your customer relationships while the fog clears so you Work Positive in this negative world.

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the day to day rush of your life and your business?

Are you sick and tired of wishing there were more hours to the day?

I can so relate.

I have to admit, I don’t have a fix-it-quick solution, or a magic pill.

But don’t despair – I do have something that could shift it all and make a huge difference to your life and business right now.

And you’ve guessed it; it’s all about your story!

Okay, so stay with me on this…I want to explain.

You see, there is this intense human desire to ‘tell’ our experiences.  We live something and then we go ahead and tell the story. (In fact, if we experience something and don’t tell anyone about it, sometimes we even wonder if we actually experienced it!!).

What we tell is mostly our version, I mean, it’s not pure fact, right?  It’s our story of the experience, based on our perspective, our background, previous experience and world view.

But here’s the thing, we tend to call it ‘fact’ and ‘reality’ and act as if we have no say in the matter, no control or power over this reality.  The ‘truth’ is that we have made most of it up.  Or at least, decided to tell the story in this way.

So, let’s take time as an example.  When we are waiting for our turn in the dentist chair to be over, we seem to have plenty of time.  I mean, time just can’t go fast enough.

When we are ‘in our element’, as explained so beautifully by Sir Ken Robinson is his TED talks and amazing book ‘The Element’, time just disappears.  It’s when we are doing that thing we love and are really good at.  We become unaware of time and it flies by.

So you can see that time and how much of it we have, tends to be dependent upon our story of what we are doing, what we need to do and our experience throughout.

If you take a deep breath and create a more empowering story about where you are in this unending list of tasks and activities, you might find that rather than being resentful of what you have not had ‘time’ for; you can be grateful for your achievements.

If you begin to celebrate the moment, the perfection of what is, then measuring time becomes obsolete and you can simply ‘be’.

So, it’s all about your story. It’s about how you consider time and how much your story depends upon a sense of controlling it.

Let go. Breathe deep. Smile at the story you are in this moment.This time is perfect. And there’s plenty of time for everything. That’s my story, it soothes and releases me!  What’s your story?

You know what it’s like.  You walk into the office and the receptionist says, ‘good morning, how are you?’  And then you walk on and the first person you see says the same thing.

In fact many people throughout your day will say some version of ‘hi, how are you?’

And of course, they don’t really want to know.

It’s almost like a reflex, the ‘how are you’ reflex, which does not require an answer. In fact it’s best if you don’t answer in any meaningful way.  A crucial part of the game is to simply ask the question and make sure you ignore the answer!

I always used to say ‘I’m okay’ or ‘I’m fine’ and barely manage a smile.

Because what’s the point in making an effort when they don’t really want to know anyway.

Well, that is until it all changed.

I was reading a book about energy and impact and I realized that my non-committal ‘I’m fine’ could have huge effect. Especially, if you believe in the power or the energy your word and attitudes bring to the world.

I made a monumental decision.

I decided that if anyone asked me ‘how are you?’ I would respond simply with ‘fantastic’ or ‘marvellous’ or ‘wonderful’.  And see what happens.

The impact was instantaneous.

The first thing I noticed was that people were surprised, but then pleased.  They smiled in return.  And then, so did I.

And the biggest thing I noticed was that it completely transformed my mood and set me up for a much happier day.

The power of one word is that it changes your story entirely.  And that’s quite astonishing.

With one commitment and one simple word, the entire environment could be affected.

So, where ever you are and whatever your circumstances, you do have the opportunity to transform your story which in turn will transform your realist.

Your story, has huge impact.  Don’t forget that!

We arrived in plenty of time, exactly three hours before we were due to take off.  There was no security check, surprisingly enough, and then they told us that the flight was cancelled.

We could have just gone home and waited for them to call when they figured out if and when the flight would take off.  Or we could go and wait in the line to reschedule our flight, see if we could catch a flight through Europe instead.

We went to stand in line.

Along with about 250 other people.

And then the fun started.

After almost four hours waiting in line, we were finally given tickets for the next flight out that would bring us to our destination.

Of course, it wasn’t the ideal way to spend 4 hours, but I was amazed by the reaction of some of the people around us.

‘You can’t be serious’

‘This is horrific’

‘It’s a disaster’

‘We’re suffering here.’

I have to admit, the thought crossed my mind.  Tell me about a hurricane or typhoon, sudden death, human trafficking – that’s disaster and suffering, but cancelling a flight, oh please.

Of course, it got me thinking about how we tend to react to all our ‘special’ situations. How we, so often, let the incidents that occur to us, define us.

When everything is going well, we say that life is good, we are good

And when we are challenged, suddenly we begin to question everything.

It’s insane.

And of course, it got me thinking about business.

I reminded me of the 5 Tips for Avoiding ‘Disaster’ in Your Business.

1.       When something goes wrong, breathe deep and smile

That’s right, keep calm and if nothing else the extra oxygen will give you more thinking power to come up with an alternative solution and keep you in action.

2.       Know that it could be much worse

It’s true, it can always be worse and if you concentrate on the doom and gloom of stuff not being exactly as you expected, it probably will get worse!

3.       Keep it in perspective

If you look at the big picture, you’ll see it probably isn’t as bad as you’re making it out to be.

4.       Find where this is a blessing

Yes, I know this one sounds impossible, but believe me, there is a blessing in every moment – this one too.  You can find it, go on!

5.       Be thankful

Gratitude is the key to happiness.  And you can be thankful for this ‘disaster’ even just because it’s a reminder of how resilient and amazing you really are.

So, as I wait for that flight that we have been diverted to, I am truly thankful.  I got to write this!!

It’s your turn, what ‘disaster’ are you thankful for today?

Straight up, today’s story is some truth telling and what you absolutely need to hear especially if you work from home OR have kids OR run your own business OR work on line.  If none of these apply to you, you might find it interesting anyway!

About being productive….

The ironic thing is that when I have enough time to actually take extra time for me and for my various projects – I’m the most unproductive.  Is that weird?

If I have a quieter week, you’d imagine I’d be getting all kinds of cool stuff completed right?  Wrong.

Just when I breathe out a sigh of ‘thank goodness I have a little extra time this week’, those damn temptations slip in and kill my productivity.

So here’s what the top four killers are and how you can’t do anything to avoid them (aka. What you have to do to survive!!)

1.  The FACEBOOK – fessing up to my on-going love/hate relationship

It’s the big black hole of soul sucking, life nurturing necessity.  From individual obsessions (go on admit that you’ve spied on him/her obsessively at times) to beautiful, moving moments of real life inspiration…and all that’s in between.  Just when I think I can’t take any more mindless drivel someone posts something so awe inspiringly beautiful, moving and seriously important – and you’re truly lost again.  Another wasted hour.

What to do?  Set an alarm, ration yourself, switch the hell off until it’s a reward.  LOG OUT.

2.  The FRIDGE – not because you’re hungry, just because it’s somewhere to look.

You know what it’s like, you’ve had a healthy breakfast, it’s mid-morning and you’re avoiding finishing that article or making that call.  You just roam into the kitchen and open the fridge door.  You wonder what you’re doing but chances are, you’ll be doing it again in about an hour’s time.

What to do? Prepare some healthy snacks – stick to them.

3.  The INBOX (email) – whether it’s  a ping or a little icon that flashes, we ALWAYS know when email arrives

Every time I get tempted to read just that one email, I’m off my schedule and onto someone else’s.  Could you imagine what it would be like if every time you sat down at your desk, the doorbell rang and you jumped up to open it, deal with whomever was standing there and only then got back to your office.  Oh and of course, the minute you sit down again, the doorbell rings again.  Yes, that’s exactly what we do when we look at our inbox a thousand times a day.

What to do? Be strong; give it up, check your mail twice a day, okay, so three times.  But that’s it, I’m serious.

4.  The KIDS – not just their physical presence.

There’s the bedrooms, the mess, the washing, the preparing meals, the schedule for later in the day – a million distractions.  It’s a full time job.  For both parents.  And you can bet that it mostly falls on you.  Or at least you let it.

What to do?  Shut the door.  Actually all the doors.  The bedroom door closed, mess inside.  And the door of your mind worrying about the schedule later today and what they are or are not getting up to; just shut it out.  Your business needs you.  It deserves your full attention.

Of course, I could keep going because in truth there are probably 400 Productivity killers but let’s start here.  What’s your temptation?