Archive for the 'People Management' Category

Aug 02 2008

DEALING WITH ANGER . . .

COMIN’ OUT!

 

                                                

No, it’s not a reference to a specific type of celebration party, or to an at-long-last exit from one’s closet.  COMIN’  OUT! is a cry you can hear in almost every town across America every summer on every baseball and softball field! 

It’s the BP (batting practice) pitcher yelling to all those in the field to be alert and pay attention and don’t turn your back on the ball because the batting practice pitches are about to commence and the batting practice hitters will be trying to hit the batting practice pitches down the batting practice fielders’ throats!   

When an irate customer, business client or partner, patient or associate decides to throw a tantrum (or toss out a bombardment of accusations, half-truths or outright lies . . . in person or via email), don’t turn your back on the ball; it could hit you in the back of your head! 

Regardless of the indignant individual’s motivation to exercise pent up frustrations, flex political muscle, show off, play one upmanship or activate a superiority (or inferiority) complex, don’t waste time being analytical . . . and PLEASE:  don’t react!  Think respond, not reactIf you don’t react, you can never over-react!  The old saying still rings true that it takes two to tango! 

If you’ve mentally and emotionally prepared yourself in advance for such an eventuality, you won’t have to get your glove and get in the game; you’ll already be there! 

It’s easier than it might seem.  (Remember, since every behavior is a choice —yes, it is!— you can CHOOSE for it to be easy or, if you have masochistic tendencies, then go ahead and CHOOSE for it to be hard!) 

Simply imagine you’re in the field, glove in hand, and the pitcher yells over her or his shoulder, COMIN’ OUT!  Then turn to face the ball and get ready to catch it, even if it appears to be heading somewhere else.  Why?  It never hurts to be ready.  Be, as any good Boy Scout will tell you, prepared!  (I didn’t say “neurotic,” mind you, just “prepared.”)

For openers, most human beings caught off-guard by COMIN’ OUT! circumstances can benefit by taking a couple of deep breaths(to circulate oxygen and make the brain more alert, and to circulate blood flow and make the muscles more relaxed), which serves to pull the fuse out of the tendency to react! 

For closers, be persistently objective and unemotional in responding [The Adult ego-state in Transactional Analysis].  Attempt to get the whiner/complainer/bitcher/screamer/fist-pounder person to   s  l  o  w     d  o  w  n  and deal with each issue on a one-at-a-time basis.  Upset people tend to bunch together an avalanche of problems and issues, none of which can of course be addressed or resolved, buried under so many others. 

No guarantees with any of this except that —for sure— you will handle COMIN’ OUT! situations better having thought about best practice responses than you ever would with your back to home plate!

                                                                    

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

      

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May 23 2008

Dear Environmentalists . . .

Well, you must finally be happy to have less gas available, and be paying astronomical amounts at the pump to fill up your tank.  

Oh, yes, and it thrills you to be paying equally mind-boggling amounts to your local grocery store to fill up your refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, right?

                                                           

Why, you might ask, would I say that? 

Because, of course, you still have spotted owls and views of nature that are unspoiled by wind farms, and polar bears (which you would surely love to cuddle with and invite into your home) running free across the Artic Circle.

And, no doubt, these are all creature survival things that matter intensly to struggling young families, and single parents, and senior citizens on fixed income, and handicapped people living on disability checks, and hurricane victims, right? 

I mean, just ask any of them how important the plight of spotted owls is when they’re scratching and clawing for their next meal.  See how utterly devoted they are to protecting the polar bears when they can’t afford needed medical care.  Yeah.  Go ahead and ask them. 

Get your environmentalist priorities straight!  If you think human beings come first on this planet while you’re busy protesting nuclear energy and hugging trees, you might want to consider rearranging your protest priorities.

Maybe Al Gore did invent the Internet. 

Who knows? 

Stranger things have happened. 

But he surely is as wrong as the sorely misguided (a generous adjective) Nobel Prize Committee when it comes to the subject of global warming. 

Ask any credible scientist. 

                                                         

And contrary to Mr. Gore’s representations, YOU as an individual CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  Get started.  This is grassroots stuff.  Set an example.  Teach others.  It’s all about stepping up to the plate!  It’s all about choosing the path of self-sufficiency for our own human species before worrying about other lower forms of existence. 

Regardless of endangered species contributions to our aesthetic senses, or the amount of tear-jerking endorsements and crusading that’s thrust in our faces by Hollywood’s finest, we need to remember that putting human preservation first is the only way we’ll ever be able to have positive impact on the preservation of other species.    

The bottom line is that more drilling is needed to relieve the oil/gas price crisis and related food price crisis because America has enough oil to allow us to completely eliminate dependency on greedy Arab nations. 

                                                              

But, oh, hey, it might mean losing some endangered species!  Well, I love and subscribe to National Geographic too, but I like to believe that we as human beings are a slightly more important species to risk losing than some owls and bears, and some upturning of the balance of nature.  We’re smart enough to RE-balance whatever we might upset. 

Because we as humans have the ability to think, we have the ability to make changes in our environment that preserve and protect the human species in addition to balancing nature. 

But it has to start with our elected representatives in Congress having the foresight and integrity to initiate expanded oil drilling efforts and to stop bending over to the special interest groups that seek to preserve owls over humans (and human pocketbooks!).  Call your Representative.  Express yourself!        

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www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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