If you’ve even been

thinking about it,

STOP!   It’ll

kill your business! 

     “Fishing off company docks,” as Grandpa used to call it, is a choice. Don’t choose it!

     If you’re not in a home business and married to your partner, there is no excuse big enough to allow room for a sex relationship in your business no matter how discreet you think you can be, no matter how tempting a person or situation is, no matter what any one’s marital status is.

     It will come back to bite you in the butt and wreck your business. Guaranteed!

     No, I don’t pretend to be a preacher or a moralist. Nor am I a prude or an embittered, failed religious fanatic. I have been a personal and professional growth and development counselor to many top business executives and many physicians.

     I have seen and “heard confession” of at least a hundred instances of boss and associate or boss and employee sex relationships at work, and every single one of them ultimately destroyed the business or medical practice. No exceptions.

     No matter how worked up the thinking about it gets, sex on the desk is simply not worth it. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal transformed societal acceptance levels, with of course the help of mainstream media which found it preferable to capitulate and sanction the offenses (rather than bite the Presidential hand that fed them . . . Hmmm, sound familiar?).

     Bill Clinton’s indiscretions don’t make the practice of sex in the office (ANY office) an “okay” thing.

     It’s unfortunate that Clinton’s gross violation of public trust and personal morals will be his only truly memorable contribution to go down in the Presidential legacy history books. The Brothers Kennedy and others, as past events come to light, were apparently no better behaved — just had the wherewithal to stall off public awareness for a few decades.

     The sexual pursuits of employee underlings follow the perceived power of leaders . . . and it’s easy for business leader (the more powerful, the easier) to take sexual advantage of an employee . . . even the owner of a small retail store is not exempt.

     The only thing that keeps business owners above the fray is the active recognition that all behavior is a choice, and that sex at work is a bad choice in every instance. Why? Because it stands to cost the business and the owner (as well as the magnetized employee!) deeply and irrevocably. 

     The risk of lifelong-haunting business failure far outweighs the moments of indiscretion. Entrepreneurs, we need to remember, take only reasonable risks. Leave the mixing of sexlife with worklife to Hollywood where morals don’t exist anyway, and where risk-taking is a fictional pursuit.

     Odds are you have spent enormous energy and untold amounts of time and money to anchor your business in reality. You deserve to keep it there.   

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

REALITY IN YOUR FACE:

When it’s time to let go . . .

     As I’ve been reminded again twice this week, facing death is never easy, and I think I can make that statement with some conviction because I’ve probably experienced all kinds and proximities of death in one way or another. Some (like family members, heroes and pets) can be devastating; some take a lesser toll, but none escape the memory banks.

     Now this may seem like an inappropriate transition into business, but — if you really think about it — it’s  not. Our businesses are living, breathing entities that are devoid of emotion but that maintain all the outward expressions of existence. Our businesses actually experience all the highs and lows that we’ve come to associate as the exclusive domain of human life.

     If you’ve ever had to close down or bankrupt a business, or experience major business losses due to fire, flood, earthquake, burglary, or embezzlement, you surely can relate to this . . .

     Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, the world’s foremost expert on “death and dying,” identified the five emotional stages we all experience:

1)Denial and Isolation  2)Anger  3)Bargaining  4)Depression  5)Acceptance 

     She said all of us must experience each of these five stages to one degree or another in the order they are shown with EVERY loss experience. Some of course get stuck and never make it to #5. As business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, we experience bits and pieces of these five stages with daily losses.

     Kübler-Ross noted losses are not limited to human death, and can  include the loss of a limb or faculty, or ability … loss of a valuable possession (home, car, a business), loss of companionship (including divorce and separation), loss of freedom (including jail), loss of a job, loss of a client, loss of a prospect or opportunity, loss of self-esteem, loss of authority, etc.

     To a lesser degree, we even experience these stages when we lose a dollar, a photograph, a letter, an address, a contest, and so on. So what’s the point? 

Healthy successful people do everything humanly possible to channel all their energies and mental focus on reaching the Stage of ACCEPTANCE as quickly as possible, and on maintaining themselves at that level as permanently as possible.”

     Everything else is non-productive. Everything else leaves us feeling deflated, defeated, and negative. Some stay in these places their entire lives. Some are institutionalized. Some don’t survive.

     Stages 1-4 are pure torment. We must go through them, but the goal needs to be to move through them as rapidly as our minds and bodies allow us to. Getting through the maze may take friends and rescuers. We have all performed that function for someone else, but perhaps have forgotten?  

     Keep always in the front of your mind that no matter how hopeless it may feel to be stuck somewhere in denial and isolation, or in anger, or in a bargaining position, or a state of depression, it IS a matter of choice!

     The minute we choose to accept loss, and continue to choose that, the quicker we can get on with a happy and productive existence and make the most of the short time we each have here on Earth … make the most of the relationships and purposes we’ve been blessed with.

     We need not choose to lock ourselves into suffering and misery. Life and business life are way too short to have wasted time and energy with anything besides being happy and healthy and in active pursuit of our dreams.

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Life lessons from

an 8 year-old!

     Yeah, I know, I know. Everyone has brilliant kids and grandkids. Just ask; you’ll get an earful, and that’ll probably be accompanied by an accordion photo show from the wallet or purse. The thing is we all talk about how bright kids are, but do we really listen hard to what they say and think hard about what’s behind the words they put out?

     Do you think they’re trying to tell us something?

     Check out the following messages which were bundled together and hand-lettered onto a little wall plaque gift from my 8 year-old granddaughter (who I was astonished to learn, has her own blog!):

Life is a question. No person on earth is your enemy but you. You can’t deside what you were born with but you can deside how you end up.

Being happy is beyond a feeling. Its a way of life. Questions are endless but only one awnser is you.

You can dream without imaganation but you can’t dream without a beleif.

You are who you are and know one can stop you.”

— Gwyn, Age 8 

     Where’s the business message? When times are tough and everyone seems to be struggling to make sales and dig out from under, temptation is great to work harder longer hours and let some family time slip away.

     I cast my vote against that idea. I’ve never known a business growth or sales situation to suffer from working harder, but I’ve seen many lives destroyed by breadwinners working longer hours.

     Of course there are bills to be paid, but there are also children to be raised and family roots to be planted, and nurtured. There’s an age-old excuse that surfaces frequently for the convenience of those who’ve chosen to set themselves up to get sucked into working longer hours.

     They say: “It’s the quality of the time we spend together as a family that counts.” Hard to argue with that, right? It makes sense, right? The trouble is that emotions don’t make sense, and families are all about emotions. Don’t let the sudden lack of financial independence thrust you into a family-distancing role of martyr. The stress alone isn’t worth the commensurate loss of life it cultivates.

     There are always other options.

     One major option is to stop thinking you have to carry the full load on your shoulders. Hold a family meeting. Keep it lighthearted, but discuss financial circumstances openly and honestly. Ask for ideas and input and don’t rush to judgement on thoughts shared that may at first seem empty or naive … like Granddaughter Gwyn’s philosophizing above.

     All well-intended thoughts have a meaningful core or point of origin. Search these out. Give the benefit of doubt. Ask yourself what you can learn from them, what they may cause you to think of. A small business is much more of a living entity than a giant corporation. It’s like a member of the family (and especially if it’s a family business!) so give it the benefit of others’ thoughts as well as your own.

     The more you ask for and listen attentively to input, the more you stand to gain in both respect and sales. The better your odds of achieving by working harder AND smarter without having to work longer.

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Leave “Back To

The Future”

in the dust and

the old movies!

Leadership’s a funny thing, especially when running a small business. The more we try to figure out what went wrong, the less we move forward. Big unionized companies and government agencies can afford the luxury of assigning task teams to look back and determine who did what to whom and why and wherefore.

Small businesses can go broke while their heads are turned.

More than any other organizational entity on Earth, small businesses must remain the most flexible and the least concerned with exploring, assessing, and resolving old problems. In other words, if it’s broke (and not impacting the lifeblood of our business), we need to step over or around it and move on. Fixing stuff takes too much time that is better spent with forward motion … innovative leadership by example!

We need to remind ourselves that anything longer than a minute-old is:

1. Fantasy (because it’s not in the here-and-now present reality of time and space) and
2. Over with and impossible to change.

HOW do we keep our minds focused on the reality of what we’re dealing with day to day —  instead of what happened last week, or yesterday, or an hour ago? The fastest and most effective way that tens of thousands of successful business owners and managers use to accomplish this (and, by the way, that’s free, and takes all of 60 seconds!) is to simply take a couple of deep breaths.

     For specific reinforcement on this, take a quick side trip with your mouse and click here to take some deep breaths.

     The bottom line is that no matter what method we use . . . checking our watches, turning up the music volume, pinching ourselves, playing with a puppy or a baby, taking a slug of ice water, rubbing our foreheads briskly or rubbing our hands together briskly, phoning our desk lines with our cell phones and talking to ourselves (well, okay, maybe just let it ring once!) . . . if it works and it joggles our brains into the present moment, it’s a good method. We need to keep using it.

Recalling past incidents, problems and solutions, accomplishments can have a positive effect on our here-and-now decision making as long as we are consciously managing those “Back to the Future” visits from our present existences.

We get ourselves in trouble when we choose to allow ourselves to get lost with past thoughts, reveries, daydreams, nostalgia … whatever we want to call these experiences. Why? Because getting stuck in those mental journeys  is rarely if ever productive and — in a work setting — will almost certainly not help us establish or maintain the forward motion we need to grow our businesses.

   Is it very unlike running down the field carrying the football, and suddenly stopping to think about the circumstances surrounding your last touchdown?

Small business leaders must prompt, promote, and maintain continuous forward movement, be prepared to “turn on a dime” as the expression goes, and stay focused as much of the time each day as possible on the customer, supplier, employee, market opportunity that’s smack dab in front of our faces, not dwelling on history. Save that journey for your accountant.

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hal@businessworks.US

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Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

Are You

Juggling Seagulls?

     Draw a bullseye with two rings around it and label the center space: FAMILY & PERSONAL, then label the innermost ring space: WORK & BUSINESS, and then label the outer ring space: FRIENDS & OTHER ACTIVITIES.

     Copy each heading onto a separate column or separate piece of paper. Then list the most appropriate items/ people/places/ things in each category. Allow yourself one minute per list. 

     Put the list down and walk away. Get some water or a cookie or just stare out the window. (This is like a little ginger between sushi pieces.) Then return to your target and lists. The amount of “blur” between your bullseye and your next two rings will indicate how “fastlane” your life is right now.

I say “right now” because this is a here and now exercise: what goes in each part of the target can change by next week, tomorrow, tonight, or within the next 6 seconds!

In fact, when life gets too hectic, it’s a useful device for daily assessment, for helping you sort out and stay focused on priorities.

     Whatever blur does occur, whatever lack of definition exists between the three areas should give you a good heads up on how efficiently or inefficiently you are using your time, as well as the extent of your allegiances to each entity that is taking time and attention from your life.

     Once you’ve done this little diagnostic study on yourself, and have a good overview of your current activities and involvements, you need to decide if these pieces are where you want them to be.

     Are you spending too much time with your business and not enough with your family, for example? Or, are you so caught up in someone else’s problem that you haven’t made time to solve your own?

     I once found myself so sucked into a Chamber of Commerce project to boost town retail traffic, that I ended up working nights and weekends just to catch up with my own business (which was not retail and stood to gain nothing from the initiative).

     The crunch infiltrated my time commitments to my family. The small disruptions that surfaced were clearly the tip of cataclysmic explosion. I extracted myself from the C of C mission and discovered — lo and behold! — the retailers I was knocking myself out to promote didn’t care enough to pick up the ball for themselves.

This is NOT to suggest that voluntary community work is not worthwhile. It most certainly is. But it’s a good idea to look before you leap. For your own good, as well as the cause involved, such engagements are most successful when they are clearly defined, clearly justified, and clearly scheduled.

Plus –realistically — where choice is involved (vs. for example, an emergency), no one should ever commit to helping others who is not coming from a position of strength to begin with . . .

• A sick teacher is an ineffective teacher.

• A cashpoor business cannot donate to charities.

• A business owner who’s preoccupied with family survival issues or debt collection issues cannot be an effective sales leader.

     Draw your target again tomorrow. See if anything changes. Can you make something change? Maybe if you stop juggling one fewer seagull, it will fly away! 

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

You have all the

ingredients, but 

it depends on how 

you bake the cake!

[…and you KNOW what happens if you put the egg in at the wrong time!]       

      Okay, so you came here expecting maybe a magic sales solution to make up for not getting a government bailout? Well, maybe you guessed right. Maybe this is the blog post that will change your life…the one that will make a difference in your future by holding your head still for three minutes and getting you to focus on the present.

     First, recognize that if you’re a salesperson, you are an entrepreneur. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a salesperson. The two functions and categories are not mutually exclusive. Consequently, Voila!

Salespreneurship is You!

     What does all this mean?

A) You cannot abandon the management and administrative tasks of running your sales rep business. Why? Because customer lead generation, product and service knowledge, customer communication and presentation skills (especially active listening) , closing skills, and building a strong enough relationship to generate repeat sales will all mean nothing.

Without accurate, attentive data entry and paperwork follow-through with every encounter, you are investing in disaster!

B) Likewise, you cannot dismiss the critical responsibilities of salesmanship and selling just because you’re a free-spirit entrepreneur flying from project to project. Why? Because without sales and a properly-performed sales function, there is no business ship to captain.

     So your job #1 mission is to accept that sales and entrepreneurship are joined at the hip. Your job #2 mission calls for acknowledgement of goals (like knowing where the finish line is in a race) and then abandonment of that acknowledgement! 

“If you dwell on the finish line while you’re running the race,

you’ll trip yourself up and fall on your face!”

–HAL ALPIAR

     True success in selling and in entrepreneuring comes with being able to focus on the here-and-now present moment every passing moment of every passing day as much as possible. You’ll never do it 100%. But the farther you can push the envelope and be consistently conscious of what’s right in front of your face, the happier, healthier and more productive you’ll be…the more rewarding will be your success.

     How to do this? The #1 Solution : Go to http://bit.ly/cMoqHf and practice the 60-second exercise offered there as often as you can. The #2 Solution: When you feel yourself drifting off into events and situations and conversations older than one minute ago OR imagining something that’s more than one minute into the future (the approach to the finish line), recognize you are headed into nonproductive fantasyland, and return to Solution #1.

     Salespreneurship. Bah humbug? Sure it’s harder work than being a halfwit entrepreneur or a slipshod salesman, but remember this mindset adjustment is all a matter of choice. It’s your behavior and it’s your choice. History proves that choosing a here-and-now orientation is always a healthier, happier, more prosperous place to be.

Comment below or reply direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Blog FREE via list-protected RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Great VALENTINE for GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

Is Your Business

A Headcase?

The word therapy may sound ominous to the business mind. It evokes the specter of illness, or worse, of craziness. That should not be. Therapy is part of education. Therapy teaches us through personal experience about who we are and how we became that way. Therapy teaches us how personal responsibility plays a role in who we are. Therapy teaches us how we relate to others and how important other people are in the conduct of our lives. And therapy helps us claim our freedom and take charge of our lives. These are all elements of growing up and getting a complete education.”

     If this seems like a strange and out-of-place subject for you, let me assure you that it is extremely relevant. Why? Because every business –like every human– has problems to solve that have been created and nurtured internally. And, more often than not, a great many of these are denied and consciously or inadvertently glossed over by the boss.

     If you were to distill down all my years of diverse career experiences into one defining function, it would be that I have been a reality therapist to businesses. Powerful corporate executives, entrepreneurs, sales and healthcare professionals alike have called me in the middle of the night, reduced to tears. They have called on the verge of lighting fuses to blow up their businesses.

     I’ve seen business temper tantrums where filled file folders, office equipment, and even scalpels were flung in rage across offices and into doors. Because businesses that needed therapy, that were being run by owners and managers who refuted the need for it, had no place else to bury upsets but inside the troubled stressed-out minds of their leaders.

     Every person and every business, I believe, can benefit by some degree of professional therapy engagement at some point, perhaps continuously, in their lives. Therapy need not be as threatening or embarrassing as Hollywood would have us believe, nor as intimidating as the naysayers around us claim.

     The truth is therapy can be extremely enlightening, masterfully empowering, and a magnet for improved mental, physical, and emotional good health — the secret keys to increased sales!                  

     It may be useful to pause here and be reminded that the feelings of being threatened, embarrassed, and intimidated –like those feelings of enlightenment, empowerment, and improved health — are all behaviors and all behaviors are choices. Why choose negative over positive? Because of some fear? If the fear is not genuine, realistic, and physical, it is imagined; it is fantasy; it is also a choice!

     Many businesses fail because the leaders operate under a self-fulfilling prophecy that a business is beyond repair and nothing can be done to save it. The economy. The bank. The landlord. Lousy sales. Lazy employees. Products or services without real benefits or competitive advantages. No future. Poor track-record. They fail.

     The fix? Hire an informed, experienced, fresh, outside perspective to shrink out your business and coach your leaders.

     Savvy business owners and managers recognize that the business needs to be considered a living, breathing organism, and treated as if it were a separate individual entity apart from the paperwork, computer files, and physical workspace.

     In this context, business therapy can be a healthy and productive intervention capable of turning problems into opportunities. The distance from survive to thrive is measured in receptive leadership that’s willing to explore and innovate.

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Are You A Cereal Entrepreneur

Or A Serial Entrepreneur?

Special thanks to Doyle Slayton at www.XOOMBI.com for the inspiration   

In case no one’s put their hand on your shoulder and whispered in your ear for awhile: Psssssst! Life (even business life) isn’t about being a serial killer no matter what you do with, for, or to yourself!

     Think you could name a few prominent athletes, a few Hollywood types, a few businesspeople (maybe even a cousin?) who’ve overplayed their killer instincts and thinking they could do whatever they wanted — whenever and wherever they wanted — to the point of crashing their lives into a wall? Daily news reports will help joggle your brain.

     Serial Entrepreneurs are no different. They charge from one venture to another with nothing in the cross-hairs of their sites but dollar signs. And they simply don’t succeed in life. Thankfully, these profiles are not the majority.

     Unfortunately though, when economic times are tough, there’s a mad rush into the marketplace from those who’ve been cut out or cut back at work to think the grass looks greener on the work-from-home side of the fence and they will typically hurry into a venture they’ve convinced themselves looks promising and plunk their savings into a startup.

     Most of these gold-rush fever serial types will end up making their situations worse than when they started. Why? Because growing and running a business is physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally exhausting. It’s a total brain drain (not to mention the slimming of your wallet).

     I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I’ve learned as most do, the hard way.

     Fortunately, most entrepreneurs act instinctively on their burning desires to achieve something of consequence with the ideas they usher into the marketplace. Getting rich on an idea is not the reason for the pursuit. Making a difference is what counts. Making something happen. 

     If you’ve been fortunate to have inherited entrepreneurial traits, or have learned them from experience, a friend or family member, or through a legitimate hands-on training or academic environment, Bless You! Why?

     Because YOU are one of the people destined to make a difference in both the world and in this economy. YOU are one of the people most likely to build your idea to the point of creating new jobs. And YOU are one of the people who will lead your followers to achieve.

     How can you tell if you’re cereal material or serial material? Do you like to taste a little bit of everything? Experience a lot of different business flavors? Are you challenged by that? Do you thrive on taking an idea and seeing it all the way through to the end?

     Or are you just out to make one quick killing after another? If you answered yes to the last question, be honest in asking yourself if you have a track-record of being realistic.   

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Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

U B wearin 10 yrs?

(Where Will You Be In Ten Years?)

A long weekend with grandchildren beats two years of graduate school for practical small business development input education. It tops all the TV reality shows too! Assuming you can stop long enough to follow the latest WII~iPod~WiFi~Skype~Twitter~Facebook~Skiff~Kindle~YouTube APPS, you may have some sense of tech developments dragging business by the heels across the universe … but you don’t know Jack compared to most 8 year-olds!

• My 8 year-old granddaughter has her own website, illustrates and writes her own books, is into performance ice-skating, and plays on a girl’s basketball team.
• Her 14 year-old sister has her own weekly (sometimes daily) political blog, aspires to a Senate seat in 2026 as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court; she’s on a competitive synchronized ice-skating team.
• Their 12 year-old brother creates his own computer-designed amusement parks and roller coasters in between basketball and soccer team schedules and playing the trumpet in his school band. 

    Ho-hum, so do all kids today do that stuff. They’re all walking Googles with maniac time crunches. ~~~~RIGHT! AndYOU have kids in your life. And what are you learning from them besides that their lives are nothing like ours were when we were their ages. In fact, our existences have probably been closer to our parents’ existences than they’ve been to the lives of our own children … y’think?

     So where on Earth (or beyond) does that leave us with our world of small business when we take a step or two or three down the road apiece? Are we all tangled up in our past issues to the point of missing what’s happening now? Or — equally unhealthy — are we lost in future reveries to the point of missing what’s happening now?

     What keeps us centered and focused on the present? Young children, babies and puppy dogs all seem to possess that certain present, “here and now” sense of awareness, lack of inhibition, lack of preconceived notions or judgments, and — as a result — are able to think and create and innovate with reckless abandon!

     Take a lesson from them. Play on the floor, in the grass. Watch and listen. Let them lead; you follow. Ask and understand. What are they doing that can help you do a better job right now with what you’re doing? If you think that answer is something to sneer at, you may be having a problem with choosing your behavior. Maybe no one has let that be okay for you. Maybe you haven’t let it be okay for yourself! Why should you? Keep reading…

     So, here’s the kicker: Go to this link  http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw  now for 60 seconds; give up that adult resistance thing and put this “here and now” focus tool to work for yourself. Use it to pry open your business eyes and ears a little.

     I’m told by many that it’s changed their lives. Hey, and it’s free. Let me know how reckless you can let your thinking be with that one big problem that’s been making your business crazy. Go on. Tax your imagination. Start with this 60 seconds …   

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 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s 12/30 Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s 1/6 Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

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Kiss Staff Infections Bye-Bye!

     By now, all of us know, or have heard (or we believe instinctively) that the majority of hospital deaths are the result of complications compounded or initiated by staph infections. These can be traced back to caregiver professionals and support staff not properly and frequently enough washing their hands. 

     Who woulda thunk it?  Such a simple thing.

     Well, not only is it true, but I believe it’s even truer (though never researched) in business.  It’s no secret that the majority of business failures, corrupted products and ineffective misguided staffs and services come from poor management. 

     Management (even when it’s more task than people-oriented) is all about interfacing, interacting, and encountering.  It’s about keeping a clear and receptive mindset.  Open doors open minds! SO WASH YOUR HANDS!  

     Now I’m not talking about hot water, soap, scrubbing and towel drying.  I’m talking about:

1. Closing your eyes for just 10 seconds (perhaps 5 if you’re telemarketing, and not at all if you’re driving!) before and after every customer/employee/vendor/investor encounter,
2. Taking a deep breath http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw (to focus and maintain blood pressure) and
3. Mentally (imagining yourself) washing your hands, like a doctor between examinations. 

     For many who try or maintain this practice, it helps to go through a 2-3 second physical action of briskly rubbing your hands together.  The action sends a reinforcing mental message to your brain.

     Do it before and after EVERY meeting, conference, phone call, email, letter, overnight delivery, and text message exchange, you are after all being a doctor, aren’t you? 

     You ARE examining, aren’t you? 

     You ARE listening, exploring, considering, assessing, recommending, deciding, weighing, evaluating, checking and re-checking, sizing up, assuring and reassuring, projecting, planning, strategizing, and predicting, aren’t you?

     And what happens to your brain when you’re on the fly and go straight from one encounter to another without –it sometimes seems– even breathing?  Go on, answer this last question.  I’ll wait.  Okay, and how does that stress translate to your body? 

     Headaches, backaches, toothaches, stiff neck, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, short temper, edginess, leg cramps, burning eyes, skin rash, urinary infection, or worse — cancer, heart problems?  Bottom line: is it worth it? 

     TRY THIS 10-SECOND APPROACH for just one week –January, 2010, is a perfect test period.  Try it and see what happens. 

     Here’s what you’ll get:  IF you’re honest with yourself and IF you actually follow the prescription, you will be more tuned in to each person you communicate with; you will be noticeably more productive; you will GUARANTEED feel better – mentally, physically, and emotionally; you will more positively affect others around you. 

     Put “WASH YOUR HANDS” reminder notes on a sign over your desk, stuck to your phone and computer screen.  Ask a co-worker, friend or associate to ask you: “Did you wash your hands?” before and after you turn a doorknob, before and after you lift and replace your phone, start or end your meeting . . . improvise here; just keep making the effort. 

     You will, I promise, astound yourself! 

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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