Photo courtesy of www.FreeStockPhotos.biz via Benjamin Miller

“Jackie will have a full report and recommendation for a financial and accounting system on your desk in 2 weeks”.

That was the confident voice of my boss’ boss.  I had no such confidence.  I had no clue how to start, what to do.  I was just a programmer, not a senior business analyst, not a manager.  I had no background in finance or accounting, unless a couple of classes in college counted.  I was just a few years into my professional life.  Back then, there wasn’t much on the Internet, nor was Internet access easy.

Shaky, sweaty and hunched down.  I felt overwhelmed.  While there was no Staples® Easy Button™ to push to meet this or any challenge, I did discover that there are things I could do to get over the overwhelm.

Make Your Environment Work For You > Not Against You.

When my boss came to my cubicle to find out about the meeting, I was so stressed that I burst into tears.  With a comforting hand on my shoulder, he sent me home.

His actions were precisely what was needed.  In her book, The Power of Place, Winifred Gallagher tells us that “our environments are not just backdrops to our lives — they affect how we think, feel and act”.  She cites Roger Barker, founder of environmental psychology, who further clarifies: “once the environmental particulars of a modus operandi work their way into our nervous system, they help close our minds to better options and incline us toward knee-jerk reactions.”

In other words, when you’re overwhelmed, just getting out of your current surroundings, where the negative triggers are located, can change your perspective.

Going home isn’t always an option.  Instead, go to a nearby coffee shop or book store, take a stroll in the park, or even go down to the cafeteria and grab a snack.  If you can’t go somewhere, use the Internet to your advantage and let great photography take you away from those negative triggers for a few minutes.  I love the sunrise pictures Leia Cator (@mscator) tweets.

Your Body Speaks. Help Your Body Say the Right Thing.

Christine Caldwell writes: “I feel the presence of fight/flee/freeze somewhere in my musculature and physiology.  When I isolate, I also feel my defenses. In fact, that is all I feel.” ~ from her book, Getting Our Bodies Back.

When you’re overwhelmed your body feels it and it screams that to yourself and all who see you.  How can we move our body from feeling overwhelmed to one that says it is open and ready for the challenge; not contracted, small or ill?  Use your body’s 5 senses.  Engage in yoga to re-gain flexibility, taste the warmth in a cup of tea to give you resilience, breathe in the fragrance of lavender or rosemary to give you calm or fortitude, or listen and watch Rocky Balboa in his “Gonna Fly Now” scene for the “I Can Do It” stance and feeling. Why not even get up and do that scene with Rocky?

This tweet from Tony Richards (@tonyrichards4) is a clever way of remembering the impact our body’s actions have on our psyche:

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║            *Behavior wags the tail of feelings.*

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Stop Your Mind From Reaching The Red Zone.

The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, tells owners to make early corrections for their recalcitrant dogs. Past a certain point, the dog won’t heed anything you say or do, his mind is in the Red Zone.  Humans can be like that, too.

Before your mind reaches “The Red Zone of Overwhelm” try settling into meditation (something that leaders should have in their toolkit as evidenced in the HBR Post, The Power of Pause, shared by Rick Ross, @RickRoss10), read poetry and find balance (Terry Del Percio, @WorkIntegrity, tweeted an NPR piece describing how poetry gives peace to the author’s life), or playfully use prompts such as @AnitaBondi’s Interplay Inspiration Deck to gain a different perspective on the situation (and no, I’m not an affiliate, but I am an Anita Bondi fan!).  If overwhelm has not completely hijacked your amygdala, try to engage logic.  Break down the challenge into smaller pieces to see where this takes you.

Reach Out – Your Relationships Can Help.

If you’re in overwhelm, your focus is narrowly centered on yourself; not surprising, given what your body and mind are doing.  Instead of looking inward, look outward.  Look to connect with your network of support.  Your network of support are the positive people who have your best interest at heart, who will uplift you and help move you forward.  Your network can be comprised of friends, relatives, mentors, coaches, colleagues or even kind strangers!  My boss and my husband each gave me learnings that I’ve kept with me throughout my career with good impact:

• • Even though time is of the essence for almost every project, there is time to stop to recalibrate. Make sure you take that time.
• • Figure out what you can do, then humbly without apology make your offer, their decision is not a reflection of you ~ and remember, you don’t have anything to prove.

Use The 4 Quadrants To Give You The Answers

James Flaherty, founder of New Ventures West (my professional coaching alma mater) introduced the concept of the 4 Quadrants as a way to evaluate a snapshot of a coachee’s integral state.  It’s a very revealing model when you look at someone from the perspective of their 4 quadrants: environment, body and behavior, individual consciousness (what I’ve been calling the mind), and relationships.  As we’ve seen, it is also a framework to help you get unstuck, such as when you are in overwhelm.

If you’re stuck, take the time to analyze each of these quadrants, see if you are out of balance, and then do work within those quadrants. Soon, you will be liberated and be open to the possibilities!

To Will and all you followers of Will’s blog, much gratitude to you for including me in your day’s reading.  I’d love to hear from you about how you’ve gotten over overwhelm or become unstuck.  Do you use a special framework like the 4 Quadrants?  Do you think the 4 Quadrants would be helpful to you?  Please share your feedback in the comments below. We can learn much from each other.

Jackie Yun is an Integral Coach ® and Former IT Executive.  For more information about Jackie, follow her at @JackieYunTweets

I used to be a workaholic and felt that my career was what defined me.  I often talked about work and everything seemed to revolve around work.  I got married in 1996. A few years later my daughter was born and everything changed.

A few years before that, I was working with someone who told me that he wished he had spent more time with his children when they were young, because by the time they become teenagers they do not want to have anything to do with you.    Back then I was not sure what it meant to me, but I figured that it must be really important and it took it to heart.  I’m really thankful that I did just that.

Just like any new parent, I was so excited, but then soon realized that it takes a lot to be a parent. Nonetheless, I really felt blessed to have a daughter.    Here is my top ten list of connecting with my daughters:

1)      Spend time with them. By this I mean really spend time playing with them whether  that is with their kitchen set or MacDonald store.  Do I really want to do this, at first I said to myself. No, but I thought about it and decided that I have a small window to do this and this soon shall pass.

2)      Treat them like adults and talk. This meant talking to them about choices, options, tradeoffs and letting them make some decisions.   This all depends on their age.  Small decisions early on and it will grow slowly thereafter.  They need to learn that they have the choice and making the right choice is important and essential to their growth and development.

3)      Love them like there is no tomorrow. Always tell them that you love them.  Let them know it, and don’t take it for granted, and mean it.     I always start my day by kissing them on the forehead and telling them that I love them very much.

4)      Say No to them. Be honest and say no to them on things that do not make sense.  Do not spoil them and shower them unnecessarily.   Let them handle rejection and help them cope with it.  By giving in to them, we are not teaching the valuable lesson of living in the real world.   Guide them to learn to cope with what the future might throw at them.

5)      Listen to them. Learn to listen to them and lend them your ear.  Truly spend the time and understand what they have to say.  As an adult, it is a challenge to do this because we often feel the urgency to get things done just to move on to the next thing.   Listen to their stories and ask questions about them.     I cherish every story they tell and immerse myself in it.

6)      The most memorable gift does not have to be expensive. I remember few years back that a friend of mine gave my daughter a snail rocking chair.  Once we opened the gift she was ecstatic and played with the rocking chair.   About half an hour later, she was playing with the box.  For the next 10 days the box was all she wanted.    I had to throw away the box because the box was ripped to pieces, but she still insisted on keeping it.   To this date, when she sees a box, she still remembers that instance – amazing.

7)      Keep the notes and drawings that they made for you. It might not look like much, but when they see you keep their drawing and notes, it gives them a sense of accomplishment.  It also shows them that you recognize their work and appreciate them.

8)      Help them accomplish things incrementally. Help them with their projects and show them the ropes.  Make sure to participate and engage them in the activity.   This also provides you the golden opportunity to make an impression on them and develop lasting memories.  This helps them develop their confidence, which is essential for their future.

9)      Don’t compare your children. Growing up in a Chinese family, my parents often compared me to my siblings.  Unfortunately for me, I was not smart compared to my sister and brother.  The more they talked about it to their friends, the more I felt it was really true and I started to doubt that I could really accomplish anything.  Fortunately for me, by the time I reached my third year in high school, I had a teacher that believed in me that help turn things around.

10)   Support them and guide them. While as parent I want my girls to be good at everything, I try to resist the urge to push them too hard.  I always emphasis the fact that they need to try their best.   When they didn’t make the next level in swimming, I would embrace them and say that there is always next time and try your best and don’t think about failing.     Be sincere about it and let them know that when mistake happens, you’ll not be the first one to judge them but rather you’ll be the shoulder to cry on.   Teach them to dust things off then get back on the horse and keep on trying.   Teach them to never give up and the value of hard work.

So far I’m enjoying every moment that I spend with them.  Don’t get me wrong, there are days I wish they would listen to me and do their homework.  But at the end of the day, I think about the opportunity I have and how I took advantage to connect and make an impression on them.

Someday we all shall pass. I want them to remember the time we spent together, the laugh, the horsing around, reading books and not the expensive gifts they receive.   At the end, the goal is to live life with no regrets.   It all starts with realization that there is still time and acting on it.  It is never too late.

Keni  served as a Ranger in the 75^th Ranger Regiment.  He was a member of Task Force Ranger as part of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.  He was involved in the Battle of Mogadishu and is now the author of Get It On.   Through Get It On, he shares his experiences in Somalia as a Ranger.

While I was reading Keni’s book, it felt like I was in virtual reality, seeing things unfold as it happens. That is how vivid the description is of each scene.    The play-by-play account kept me engaged.   Because of my busy schedule, I was able to read the book at night.    As I ended each night of reading, I was looking forward to the next opportunity to continue reading the book.    Each chapter contains nuggets of information on leadership, teamwork and the Ranger creed.

Why the title Get it On?  It means being able to do what you went to mission for.  It is a chance to use what they were trained on and apply the skills that enable them be  Rangers.    As a civilian, I have enormous respect for people who sign up to be soldiers.   Without them, no one will fight for our country and what is right and the world will be ruled by wicked people.

“Don’t forget nothing” by Captain Robert Rogers is a saying that reminds us that even when something becomes a routine, we shouldn’t take things for granted.   We need to always do our best and put 100% percent effort in everything we do.   If the mechanic of the plane ignored one of the standard operating procedures in the airplane maintenance, such action could cause a catastrophic result.  That is why it is imperative that we don’t lose track of what’s going on and focus on giving our 100% effort.

This book is great in that it is packed with lessons on leadership and teamwork.   Here are a few that I would like to share:

1)      When you heed a lesson it is a good thing. When you find yourself relearning a lesson that’s not a good thing.  You need to learn from your past mistakes and make sure not to repeat them.

2)      A team is only as good as its weakest link. In order for a team to succeed everyone must pull their weight.  It is like a jigsaw puzzle, when one member of the team fails to pull in their share of work, the team will fail.

3)      Lead by example. To gain people’s respect you need to be there with them in getting things done.  Leading by example has been a very important lesson in developing leaders.

4)      Do the hard work in advance. If you want to be the best, you’ll do the hard work needed to be successful.  As a Ranger, your teammates expect you to be your best at all times.  Therefore you need to be prepared at all times – be prepared.

5)      Customer service – the Black Hawk pilot guarantees to put their customer on target, on time, plus or minus 30 seconds.      That is amazing that they could guarantee delivery.     That’s customer service at its best.

6)      Doing the right thing – as a leader you do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.  As leader, you have a burden to make difficult decisions, but you do it because people depend on you.

7)      Encouraging and building each other up – the Rangers are there to carry each other’s burden and lift each other’s spirit and support one another.

Keni’s started the book by telling the story that he was writing to his mom.    That initial attempt was interrupted by a call to mission, which resulted in some of his comrades being killed.    Get It On highlights the story and experience of young soldiers who fought for our freedom and what’s right.  

Reading this book affected me in two ways. First, it reminded me that no matter how hard things are around me, it is little sacrifice compared to the people who fight for our country everyday around the world.  Secondly, there are many ways to learn leadership and teamwork, but the military is still one of the best sources of knowledge in this area.    I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn about history and pickup nuggets on leadership and teamwork along the way.  

As always, I’ll be tweeting about this book review.  Three (3) lucky winners will be selected from the retweets.  If you wish to purchase the book, use this link  http://bit.ly/kenithomas

I often wonder how does a group of people, most of whom have not had a chance of meeting one another, find a common goal and set out to educate others of the value of character based leadership?

I’ve always thought of sharing my knowledge in leadership development, coaching and mentoring.  In 2009 I was looking for the best way of sharing and collaborating with others outside the confines of face-to-face meetings.   My exploration brought me to try blogging and Twitter.

Back then I expected to use Twitter to share my knowledge.   But as soon as I used Twitter and followed people that shared the common interest in leadership, I met a lot of people who shared character-based leadership.   Through Mike Henry’s leadership, he formed the lead change group.   In March of this year, I joined the group and officially contributed as contributing author.   The objective of the group is to teach people the principle of character-based leadership.

From Tweeting to collaborating on a book project, the lead change group embarked on a book project, which I jumped on the opportunity to be a part of.  We have since completed the copy editing and the graphic and marketing team is working on the book.

The last 13 months has been great as my blog has been generating a lot of traffic.   This, coupled with my contribution to the lead change group has provided me with a great opportunity to reach a larger audience.    Some of my plans next year are to try video blogging and co-hosting a web show with a friend.

Going back to the subject of bond shown by leaders, recently one of our peers at lead change had an unfortunate situation of losing her fiancée.   The person had a financial challenge and one of the members of the group sent out an email to ask the group for help.  In minutes, multiple email exchanges and members were figuring out ways to help and send the person financial help.    I was surprise by the compassion that the group showed toward our fellow.   I recently reach out to her to find out how she is doing, but I’ll forever remember the bond that our group has and the demonstration of support for one another.

In closing, I’m thankful that I took the chance of using Twitter and blogging.   My hope is that if one person in this world learns a thing from me, then I’ve done my job in spreading my knowledge and experience.

The advancement of the social media gives us many ways to express ourselves.    Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, to name a few, are sites that we can use to share our news, connect with others, like your friend’s stuff, friend others, or share a photo or two.

The freedom to post a comment and let it all hang out there can easily happen with a click of a mouse.  With just one click, I can poke someone and they can poke me back.  I can like this or like that or choose to unlike.   It is so easy to fall into the trap of just doing it without thinking about the outcome or consequences.

I’m amazed by some of the pictures posted on some people’s profiles.     I sometimes wonder if they realize that those photos will be out there forever and other people might stumble upon them.    While we believe in freedom of speech, we need to be aware that sometimes certain things can be misinterpreted by others.   Just like an e-mail that can be interpreted in many ways by different people,  our post, comments, photos can be interpreted by people who see them.

Nowadays companies use the Internet to gather more intelligence about a potential candidate.    A simple search via Google can bring us loads of information about a potential candidate.  This information can then be used to determine the suitability of the person as a member of the company.

One could argue that what’s posted on those sites should stay on the site, but the reality is people have been fired for things they post on Facebook.    People were fired for posting the following:

• Caught surfing Facebook while “home sick” from work
• Posting inappropriate pictures
• Juror dismissed after posting a message before the jury arrive at a decision
• Insulting their company and safety standard
• Posting derogatory video
• Making racist remarks
• Blasting their boss

What is the point of my post?  My point is that when we post something, we need to think about whether we will be okay if people proliferate it—that we will not be embarrassed about it.   We need to be self-aware and think about the consequences of a basic post.   Once it is out on the Internet, it can be replicated all over the place.    Even if you delete it there will always be copies out there.   So be conscious that a basic comment could come back and haunt you.  Worse yet, it could prevent you from securing a promotion or opportunity that you really wanted.

A piece of advice next time you’re sitting in front of your iPad or laptop, think before you click.  Don’t be trigger happy.

For this post I’m reviewing the Teresa Amabile @TeresaAmabile and Steven Kramer book titled The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

Let me start about my background. I’ve been in a leadership position for over half of my career. That’s 11 years.    Coupled with my Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership degree from Seton Hall University, I thought that I knew everything there is on how to motivate employees.   The fact of the matter is that I had successes in forming and developing cohesive and high-performing teams throughout my career.   So, when I offered to review the book, I was a bit skeptical that it would offer any new information that would be of value to me.

Based on my experience, here are some of the ways to motivate employees:

• Treat them with respect
• Value their opinions
• Show them you care by providing a supportive workplace
• Provide a challenging job and guide them to succeed
• Have an open-door culture
• Being well compensated
• Provide training that helps them grow and develop
• Proactive and open communication
• Recognize and reward people

The above list covers a lot of what people value that can help motivate them in the workplace.  But as I read each of the chapters, it occurred to me that I’m missing one very important point, which is progress.   The book highlights that the secret to amazing performance is meaningful work.  Also, it refers to a concept called inner work life.  For a moment I thought, it meant work/life balance, but later on I learned that inner work life is a rich and multifaceted phenomenon.  It describes how inner work life influences people’s performance.   It goes on to say that, no matter how good your overall strategy, the execution of it depends on the inner work life of your employees.

Inner work life is noted in the book as the confluence of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that individuals experience as they react to everyday events of their work day.    When people are happy and engaged, they can be creative.    It can rise and fall and performance is also affected by it.  When people are happy, they’ll more likely do the work.   When people have a good inner work life, they can overcome hurdles and get the job done.   In the book it talks about the findings on Zappos that promoting positive inner work life doesn’t only make people feel better, it also leads people to do better work.

In my experience, having happy employees helps in delighting your customer.   As manager/leader of our organization, the way we interact with our people can affect their inner work life and that has an effect in their performance and ultimately our organization’s ability to compete and deliver.   Therefore, it is important to think about how my interactions, communications and decisions will affect the inner work life of my group.

My main learning point is that the best way to motivate employees day in and day out is by facilitating progress.  Even small wins can help move things in the right direction.   If we feel that our work is valuable and we are successful, then we feel good about our work.

This book does not just say what it is that can help improve our situation, but also provides a guide on how we can facilitate progress and the factors that we need to be aware of to make things happen.    Continuous progress is the key to improving creating a good inner work life.  Each small wins help build confidence to enable us to tackle the next challenge and build on top of the positive feeling that we had as we accomplished our goal.

Setback is the opposite of progress, when something that happens at work at causes a negative effect on our inner work life, it will start affecting our work. And if we don’t do anything about it, we’ll start regressing and ultimately affect our ability to deliver or achieve our goal.

From a personal perspective, I’m really glad that I volunteered to review this book, because I learned about the inner work life, its role in motivating people, and the importance of progress.   More importantly, the awareness of the importance of inner work life and how to turn knowledge into action.   I rate this book as 5-stars   based on the value that readers can learn and its relevance to current setting.  I highly recommend this book to everyone who leads others at any level of the organization.    Sustaining a continuous cycle of progress and positive inner work life are key to companies’ ability to leapfrog against its counterpart.

In the end, as leaders at any level, we have the responsibility to make sure that we do the right thing to help that company produce the best product or service.  The right thing means we need to make sure that we provide an atmosphere that supports a positive inner work life that can facilitate progress.    That step starts by buying this book and learning how we can turn knowledge into action.

Courtesy www.pixelperfectdigital.com via Darren Hester

“I’ve been mandated to shut down the office by next June, after we deliver on our key project this upcoming April”.

All eyes quickly turned my way.  It was as quick as a door slamming shut and I hoped that wasn’t what it would portend.  I knew conventional wisdom would not have approved of what I had just said.  Our HR Generalist’s shocked reaction re-confirmed that.  Instead, I had taken my direction from my gut.  Would my team walk out and make an already terrible project situation disastrous?

Was the Gut Wrong?

I had just inherited the Austin Technology Center (ATC) and this was my first all-hands-all-staff meeting with the ATC.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost overruns and repeated schedule delays had plagued the ATC’s project.  Our customers were terribly unhappy.  High dollar penalties (possibly in the millions!) would be incurred if quality and schedule were not met.  Even our support groups grumbled about the ATC and said that we were “rogue”.

My gut had a felt-sense that the staff at the ATC wanted and would appreciate the truth.  They were extremely savvy and smart, very knowledgeable about the latest technologies, and quite entrepreneurial.  This project could be turned around and perhaps (although I had no guarantees), our CIO and our President’s minds could be changed about the shutdown ~ but only if the ATC wanted that.

Incredibly, the Gut was right. They did!!

So due to a gut feeling, we were now together on an entirely different journey.  And the first step called for some self-assessment.

Gutting It Out by Stopping, Keeping, and Starting

Until we asked, I don’t think the ATC knew to what extent their outright battle against using the Corporate Problem Tracking System had on the ATC being able to work with Corporate.  Once the ATC stopped the battle (tabling it with plans to suggest improvements at a later date),  conversations moved forward, opportunities opened up.

Stopping this one action helped the ATC to chip away at their reputation for being “rogue”.  Stopping the ATC’s opinionated technical banter and eliminating their un-corporate dress code of shorts and flip-flops would help, too.  But, this was part of their dot.com DNA and spoke to who they are.  Could we keep our DNA intact yet start getting people to see the “good” in our “rogue”?

With the ATC’s unique knowledge set, we focused on becoming a Center of Excellence.  We also touted the ATC’s satellite office culture as a place within our company to re-charge, re-energize.  We gave authenticity to our “we do whatever it takes” attitude and took on projects that no other division wanted.  We looked for opportunities to help.  When our sister division, which supports our company’s core systems, needed people resources; we volunteered to provide “in-sourcing”, even subjecting ourselves to being interviewed.  We started to reach out and not be so insular.  Many other actions were taken, including those to specifically address the project situation.

Unknowingly, what we had been doing was a variation of the Stop-Keep-Start Feedback Method (Read more here:  http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/08/three-questions-for-effective-feedback.html).  Asking ourselves, our peers, our customers and our executives: “What should we STOP doing? What should we KEEP doing? What should we START doing?”, gave us practical insights that we used.  It got us to a better place.

That April, the project was finally completed; not the prettiest of implementations but it got done.  The June shutdown was averted and we were on our way to becoming an integral part of the company and would be so for another six years.

A Few Final Gut-felt Words:

S. Chris Edmonds (@scedmonds on Twitter) tweeted a keen observation about leaders that resonates with me:

“Too often a leader’s HEAD doesn’t always act upon what is in that leader’s HEART”.  To this, I would add — “and Gut”.

I encourage you to let your gut and heart speak; even in, or maybe especially in a corporate environment.  Magic can and will happen!

To Will and all of you who read and engage on Will’s blog, a heartfelt and gut-felt thank you for giving me of your time.  I’d love to hear how you feel about the gut and heart in the corporate world.  Do tell me if there’s been a time when you let them lead instead of your head.  If you’re curious about how to encourage your gut and heart to speak and for you to hear them, spend a few moments at the end of day and ask yourself: “Would the decisions I made today be any different if the gut and heart were involved?”.  Put your response down on paper and review at the end of two weeks.  You may be surprised at what you hear.

For more information about Jackie Yun, follow her at https://twitter.com/JackieYunTweets or connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieyun  @JackieYunTweets

In this economic situation companies have a tendency to focus on cutting back and reducing expenses to make their business profitable.   But there is a saying “penny wise, pound foolish”.  While it looks like you’re making progress by seeing incremental expense reduction, you could be missing the big picture, which is what your company’s value proposition is – what  your company is all about.

This week I witnessed this first hand while a friend of mine dropped off his car for service.  The customer representative at the counter for loaner cars asked him which insurance company he has.  Upon hearing the name of the insurance company, the customer representative says, “I’m afraid that I cannot provide you with our loaner car, but we can provide you a Budget rental car and you have to pay for the insurance.” I was surprised by what just transpired because the purpose of the loaner car is to let your customer experience driving the newer cars, thereby eliciting interest to possibly make a future purchase.   The representative explained that they had an issue with the insurance company that led to their decision. The insurance is $36 per day.  From my perspective, for such an amount, they decided to sacrifice the client experience and took away the opportunity for the client to drive one of their vehicles.

As I returned to work, I pondered on what just transpired that led to that outcome. My friend was not happy with what happened; he felt that loaner service is one of the conveniences that people expect.   For $36, how many customers had a bad customer experience?  Once a customer has a bad experience, there is chance that they will not make any future purchases.    Therefore, is the $36 cost worth losing your customer?   In my opinion the company was being penny wise but pound foolish.   In fact, they’re missing the big picture as to why they are in business. They describe themselves as a luxury line of product, but they don’t provide the level of service commensurate to the image they’re presenting.

From a customer-service standpoint, it is important that we make the most of every opportunity we have when dealing with our customers.  We need to ensure that the customer comes away feeling good about how they are treated.   If they are treated well, it increases the chance of repeat business.  

That experience taught me one thing.   We need to deliver what we promised.  Each touch-point with our customer is an opportunity to impress upon them that we are here for them.   It is essential to do our best to make sure their needs are addressed and they come away satisfied.  

Stay connected. The people in your world can make a difference as you seek an intentional career transition. While you should hold people in high regard as individuals, never forget that your network represents a form of interpersonal capital. The connected links between friends, colleagues and decision-makers can help you launch a business or find a better job.

Now choose an attitude. Are you going to collaborate or compete with the people that you know? The collaborator strengthens the people in his or her network, leaving a positive impression that resonates among extended connections. Collaborators can simply go farther by leveraging the talents of their network.

One attitude embraces the power of the team; the other promotes the rugged individualist.  The competitive career transitioner seeks to be a hero in the game of life. The collaborator earns less specific acclaim, yet ends up at the finish line regularly with other achievers.

Collaboration creates synergy. Synergy is a condition of enhanced productivity. The participants on a project encourage higher performance, typically be focusing on personal areas of strength. When collaborating, members notice each other’s work, pay attention to it, and appreciate the contributions.  Synergy creates a condition where all players raise their performance energy.

The competitive career strategy is one of admirable self-reliance. Many organizations, especially sales-oriented organizations, encourage competitive work. The top sales professional is a hard-working superstar, and often very competitive.

Collaborative sales work is also a success strategy. Decisions that depend on long-term sales relationships, or complex decisions, are enhanced with collaborative work practices. Teams of colleagues, all supporting the same goal, can serve a business sales’ efforts, especially if long term, sustained, performance is important.

The collaborative choice helps one keep going, even when one is not feeling up. A network of colleagues can provide the inspiration or resources to get over a hump. Collaboration creates a community, and serving the community gives a person an extra reason to meet goals. Try collaboration with people you can trust, or can learn to trust.

For more information about Steve, please visit his websites http://blog.mycareerimpact.com and www.stevebroe.com.

Please join us for a night to help Tina fight her battle with Cancer

Tina Coppola is fighting the fight of her life. Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 2

years ago, Tina needs our help to combat this terrible disease that has taken

over her life. Tina, mother of two beautiful children Taylor age 14 and Jordyn age

8 continues to be an inspiration to all of us who are lucky enough to be with her.

She fights the fight everyday. She has been through every conceivable treatment.

Conventional Chemo treatments have not helped. She is now with Dr.

Raymond Chang in NYC of Meridian Medical for additional non conventional

treatments which cost $11,000. Per month. She fights the fight and with our help

will beat this disease. Help us Help Tina win the battle.

A Night for Tina

Mayfair Farms

West Orange New Jersey

September 9, 2011

@7:00 pm

Cocktail Reception

Featuring live Music by Nils Lofgren, from the E-Street Band

$150.00 per ticket

Please make checks payable to The Tina Coppola Cancer Foundation

If you can not join us for this evening please feel free to send us a donation for Tina.

We can also use gifts of merchandise for use in our Auction.

Please contact Lori Fiori at 201-230-8972 or libertydog@verizon.net for more information.