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 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. This tragedy 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 the movies”—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 Aurora shooting, you may notice your customers slowing down their buying decisions. Of course, your cash flow needs feeding and it will get it 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.

Limit your media exposure especially in times of tragedy. Be informed, yet know that your business succeeds as you “Perceive,” i.e., 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 trivialized points of view. 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 Aurora shooting 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 help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.

We were in the coffee shop discussing a self-development book we had both read sometime over the last few years.

“It’s all about cause and effect,” she said. “Yes, not exactly rocket science, right?” I replied.

“It’s common sense really isn’t it,” she said. “Exactly, just common sense, so why does everyone make such a big fuss of the book?,” I asked. “Well, people don’t really get it do they?” She added. “So why is it called common sense,” I asked, “it doesn’t seem to be very common.” “Your right,” she said, “not common at all actually. So, how did you learn cause and effect, your common sense” she asked.

“At home”, I said, “at home during my childhood, from my mother and father”

We began talking about values and practices, raising kids and ethical work issues; all mixed up of course!

You were very lucky, she said, very fortunate that your parents taught you all that stuff.

And she’s right. My parents were always very sensible and they taught us common sense. Then they let us go and make major mistakes, again and again…just standing by to pick up the pieces.

Today is my mother’s 75th birthday, I’m so grateful that she taught me common sense.

It is such a crucial business skill. Don’t rely just on statistics and trends. Don’t trust anyone who tells you they understand your business (at least until you check them out). Use your common sense and if you don’t have any, find someone who does and ask them to teach you!

So, thanks Mum for teaching me common sense. It has helped me understand cause and effect – when I lose balance, my health and happiness suffer, when I eat unhealthy foods, I feel terribly, when I am grateful, I have all the more to be grateful for.

Thanks Mum for helping me believe that anything is possible.

Thanks for teaching me to value family and relationships above all.

Thanks Mum for telling me your stories.

Do you have common sense?

Who taught it to you?

The truck in the next lane weaved toward me. I looked over. He was texting.

The car ahead of me at the now-green traffic light didn’t move. “She’s on Facebook on her phone,” my wife said.

The SUV zoomed ahead of me, and then slowed down. And again further down the interstate. Each time, the driver was on a call when I went around, and off the phone when he sped up.

And the thought popped in my head, “If these people are ‘always on’ when driving, how are they at work?”

Numerous studies indicate that our work productivity diminishes by at least 25% when we bounce from one task to another, allowing ourselves to be chronically interrupted. Technology breeds an expectation of instant responsiveness that we human beings just aren’t wired for.

Want to increase your work productivity and decrease your paralyzing overwhelm?

Slow down in these three ways to positively speed up your productivity:

Turn off email

Automatic email updates are an intrusion on your thought process.

Be honest now: you read email while on a phone call, right?

Think your caller doesn’t know

Think again. You’re failing to be 100% present. Too many “Umm’s” give you away.

Turn off the automatic email updates on your office computer, tablet, and phone. Whatever it is will wait until your prescribed time to download and answer email.

“Do not disturb”

Your desk and mobile phones have a “do not disturb” button, or “airplane mode” that blocks calls. Use them as you do problem-solving or creating. It takes your brain a little time to focus on a situation, consider a wide range of options, and discover the best one. Every time the phone rings, your mind chases the call whether you answer or not.

Give yourself a designated time to answer voice mail. Prioritize the calls and respond appropriately.

Limit social media

I’m convinced half of the bazillion Facebookers wake up posting a status while in the bathroom while the other half post with one eye closed, going to sleep. Talk about overwhelm…major corporations lose tons of bandwidth to social media daily.

Yes, have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and whatever else you want. Focus on content creation and hire someone else to manage it using incredible tools like TweetDeck or Hootsuite. Choose a specific time to be available online. Announce it and go live.

Otherwise, leave it alone.

Now what?

Slow down to speed up.

You’ve done it. You’ve increased your work productivity 25%.

Now what?

Positively become even more productive:

Walk outdoors in a green space. Sit on a park bench and listen to the birds. They’re not angry, and happy to sing for free.

Eat lunch with your spouse, your child in preschool, or a friend from Rotary Club or church. Just because…

Hand-write a thank you note to a teacher or college professor who changed your life. He probably works for next-to-nothing or she’s wondering if anybody noticed her sacrifices…especially at this time of year.

And remember—what goes around, comes around.

Slow down to speed up.

Productively 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 help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.

Human beings have a difficult time with the idea of limitations. We don’t want to be told there are things we cannot do, which is why we hold stubbornly to the idea that “if we really put our minds to it,” there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.

Over my years as a psychologist and coach, I have witnessed, firsthand, the frustration, disappointment, depression, and stress of those who cling to this belief. And honestly, there’s nothing more difficult than watching someone trying and failing, over and over again, to fulfill a dream or desire they have no real aptitude for.

The fact is, certain people are better at certain things than others. By embracing these “limitations” and focusing on our gifts, we actually free ourselves up to be happier and more successful.

I didn’t always feel this way. In fact, when I was still an idealistic senior in college I wrote a paper that embraced the viewpoint of Dr. Fritz Perls, the father of Gestalt Therapy, who
described diagnoses as labels that put people into pigeonholes and prevent us from having a genuine experience with others. Dr. Perls embraced the idea that our freedom lay in having no preconceived notions about different “types” of people (or, in the context of my training, their psychological differences).

In this paper, I argued for an approach to human interaction without preconceived labels or categories of any kind. This, I maintained, was the only way to have true, honest, and genuine encounters with our fellow human beings.

My professor for the class helped me to understand that what I advocated in my thesis was impossible. He patiently and kindly pointed out that labels and categories were the basis of
human learning and that, without them, every moment of every day would be unique and overwhelming. We would be like newborns, encountering everything for the first time, with no
history and no context within which to understand anything beyond the immediate sensation it created. Not a desirable way to live!

I point this out because I am often challenged by people who take umbrage with the categories that form the core of Perceptual Style Theory, which I helped to develop. These are people who resent the “limitations” of the six innate Perceptual Styles, who believe these labels can only be treated mechanically, rather than as a means to experience the unique human being beneath them.

Labels, whether they are Perceptual Styles or diagnoses, have always been, for me, a tool that provides important insights about the inner experience of another person, providing a place to start in helping clients discover themselves. Rather than limiting our freedom, they can provide the focus that helps us to discover who we are – a roadmap that can guide us in developing our gifts and talents and prevent us from wandering aimlessly in life.

Research shows that those who become specialists are happier, more successful, and have more meaningful lives than those who remain generalists. And yet, so many people spend the majority of their time and energy trying to get better at the things they have no real aptitude for, rather than polishing their own natural skills and abilities.

When used properly, as keys rather than as locks, labels give us a starting point to discover and explore the behaviors that can set free our most amazing gifts and talents – those lying dormant within us, just waiting to be discovered and developed.

So don’t try to do it all, and don’t be a Jack-(or Jill)-of-all-trades – embrace your limitations and fully explore your natural gifts and talents. Find those things you do really well and do more of them, more often. You will be pleasantly surprised to find that it will allow you to focus on what is truly meaningful and important in your life.

About the Author:

Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley.  He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents.  For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com

Around this time of year, we take some time away from work. At least those who have jobs…

For those of us who own the business, such time away seems elusive.

Here are some reactions I receive when I coach entrepreneur owners to positively take time away from work and my responses:

“I can’t afford to take any time away.”

You can afford it, and will benefit.

Recall the last time you tried to remember something—a customer’s name, your password, or a vendor—and failed. The harder you tried, the further it crept into your memory.

When did you remember it?

As you went on to something else and relaxed your mind.

It’s so easy for us entrepreneur owners to keep digging when we find ourselves in a hole. To assert our strong wills and work harder in the same rut…forgetting that the only difference between a rut and a grave is a few feet.

Just as we relax and remember, when you positively take time away from work and return, you come back with a renewed mental ability to see more clearly the strengths to accentuate and how to solve system problems. You Work Positive again with a recreated energy and reconnection with your emotional engagement.

“When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

If we see ourselves as the cat and our employees as mice, we’ve set up for ourselves a predator-prey relationship. As Mark Crowley says in Lead from the Heart, this adversarial work environment is why over half of all workers hate their jobs, productivity suffers, and top talent walks out the back door.

Employees require training and development which pays significant dividends over the long term. Unless you only want employees to micromanage and control as an extension of your fragile ego, hire folks with core values like honesty, integrity, strong work ethic, etc. Constantly evaluate and be evaluated, but just as character is defined by what you do when no one is looking, so is the employees’ ability to achieve peak performance. As you take time away, you discover the strengths of your team and your training, any weaknesses, and adapt accordingly.

Also, you find some more unique relationships in which only you can invest. For instance, I recently took off a few days to celebrate my wife’s birthday. We went antiquing, spruced up some things around our home, and I had a dinner party in her honor. She’s telling all of her friends first about the days off I took to invest in her and only when they ask about the presents I bought.

How’s that for developing a relationship?

“Time is money.”

If this is true, we really bought ourselves a job, not a business and will make more money per hour and enjoy more time away working for someone else.

Is your business scalable? Train others.

How’s your production capacity? Hire others.

Time is more than money.

At our younger daughter’s track meet one year, I overheard her conversation with a fellow runner.

“Your Dad comes to all of our meets. I wish my Dad did,” her friend said.

“Yea, he does,” our daughter replied. “He says he gets one shot at being my Daddy and I’m important enough to take off work for.”

One of our strengths as entrepreneur owners is we can figure out a way to make money.

Time is more than money. Invest wisely.

Positively take some time away from work.

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 help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.