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Julie’s Top Ten Management Tips for new Managers

Another day, another stressful experience at the airport. Rude people, delayed flights, long lines, and then an especially mean flight attendant: almost enough to make me want to pull a “Stephen Slater” and grab a couple of beers and escape down the emergency evacuation slide. Almost. Now, I have to confess, as I sat there in my cramped airplane seat, the thought crossed my mind; I daydreamed about doing it, just jumping up and going. And it made me smile…a little too big of a smile, I’m sure. But just for that moment, I enjoyed it. I contemplated the look on the flight attendant’s face as I waltzed passed her as I gave her a little wink and a smile and the cheers from the rest of the passengers as I waved to the supportive crowd. But alas, it was all a fantasy. I must be better than that at handling my emotions; after all, I should practice what I preach.

So, in the heat of the moment, I asked myself if this was really something worth getting mad about. Is this how I want to feel right now? Of course, it was not. And as I have told thousands of people in my audiences over the years: you CHOOSE. We choose what we are going to let get to us or make us mad, we choose how we are going to respond, and we choose how long we are going to hold on to the negative emotions in our life.

It is not always easy to let go of the negative emotions that tend to weigh us down, but it is necessary for long term emotional well being. You can think that th

e Jet Blue flight attendant, Stephen Slater, is a hero or a complete idiot; it’s up to you. That is not what this is about. What struck me is what a great example he can be for the rest of us! I suspect this was not the first time he encountered a rude customer on one of his flights. I imagine he has had many days on the job with horrible passengers he has been forced to deal with, the terrible and inefficient gate agents that make his job so much harder, and even the difficult pilots he flies with. I can imagine him spending A LOT of time complaining about all of it. The problem is that I think he spent a lot of time complaining, but I suspect he didn’t ever let it go! That day, those beers, and that evacuation slide were the results of MANY bad days, not one bad day. When we hold on to negativity for too long, eventually it catches up with us. And clearly it will come out at some point, and it usually is not pretty when it does!
The lesson here is that we must take back control! We all must realize that we choose what we are going to be angry about. We choose to give our time and energy and thoughts to things that are of little consequence to the bigger picture. You may feel very irritated at a certain moment, but will it really matter 5 hours later? 5 days later? 5 months or 5 years later? If we allow ourselves to make better choices and take back control, things don’t have to pile up until they become overwhelming and we feel the need to pull our own “Stephen Slater.”

The second lesson is so simple: to give our energy only to the things that are positive and supportive of our goals. Stop telling yourself about all the things you can’t do and figure out what you can do. As Susan Carlson said, “You can have the results you say you want, or you can have all the reasons in the world why you can’t have them. But you can’t have both. Reasons or results: you get to choose.”

I choose results. What about you? What are you going to do today to get RESULTS?

Change is in the air and we are embracing it here at JLH Presentations!

As JLH Presentations grows and changes, we wanted to take a moment to share a couple of those changes with you, our loyal friends and clients. First, we want to invite you to visit our new and improved website. Our site, www.jlhpresentations.com is looking great these days thanks to Brenda Simpler at The Simpler Group. She did an amazing job and the site is looking fantastic. Take a second and check it out. While you are there, please join our Facebook fan page and share your favorite quote or saying with us. If you get it posted by August 31, you will be entered into a drawing for a cool gift! You can only win if you post something, so give it a shot!

The second big change is so exciting: our team is growing! I would like to introduce to you Lauren Nowell. Lauren is an amazing asset to the team and we are so glad to have her expertise. She will be working on all of our mailings, newsletters, the Facebook fan page and basically running the show! She can help you with information on Julie’s schedule, seminar synopsis’ and keynote information. She created the newsletter layout as well and I think she did a great job! I hope you like it as much as I do! Lauren’s email address is lauren@jlhpresentations.com, so please drop her a note if you have any questions,need anything, or just want to say welcome aboard! I know she would love to hear from you!

So, with all these changes here at JLH Presentations, we wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you on making change work successfully in your life. Change is a scary proposition for most of us. We all logically understand that change is necessary and can be a wonderful thing; yet, the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure still sometimes gets the best of us. So, here are three things you can do to help yourself manage change successfully:

1. Have a plan. Whether you initiated the change in your life, someone else decided for you, or even if chance intervened, you must take back control! If the fear of the unknown is an issue, this is the best possible way to alleviate that fear. You decide where you are going and where you want to be! Create your own final destination because, as the saying goes, if you don’t know where you are going, then any road will do! Having your own goals and a plan for achieving them puts you back in the driver’s seat.

2. Focus on what really counts. Don’t allow yourself to be derailed from your plan. Create your action steps and focus on them every day. There are plenty of distractions out there and they can take over your life if you let them. When you find yourself overwhelmed, frustrated, or distracted, ask yourself the question, “What is the best use of your time right now?” or “Is this task or activity moving me in the direction of my goal?”, and then act accordingly!

3. Stay positive! YOU must believe you can! Too often we get stuck focusing on all the things that we can’t do. You must challenge yourself to focus instead on what you CAN do! You must have faith and believe in yourself and the power of your dreams!

Tony Robbins says, “Change is inevitable; progress is not.” Challenge yourself to create positive progress with every change in your life! And remember—if you will do one thing different every single day, you have the power to make every one of your tomorrows better than today.

All of the media attention on the lawsuit against McDonalds because they put toys in their happy meals got my attention. Now, I don’t know how you feel about the suit itself, and the way I feel is irrelevant, but it made me think of something else.

As the media covers the story ad nauseum and the debate rages about the health value of their food, one of the key factors about McDonalds, in my opinion, has been totally ignored: McDonalds does not just sell food. McDonalds didn’t become the leader in the quick service restaurant industry by selling the best food. They–like most successful restaurants–sell an experience. No one goes to Chuck E. Cheese’s for the pizza. From Ronald McDonald to the play areas to the speed of service and low price, not to mention consistency of the product, McDonalds is a family tradition and a cultural staple. What parent doesn’t appreciate a few minutes of having their child totally entertained? You can take the toy out of the happy meal but you can’t take the special event out of the dining experience. McDonalds does more than sell burgers–they sell a family event (just like airlines don’t fly planes, they fly people). Jim Sullivan once said, “90% of like businesses do 90% of the same things the same way. It is the 10% they do differently that means success.”

So, the question is, what business are you really in? And what are you doing to take full advantage of your 10%? In this business climate, it is so important for companies to figure out what sets them apart from their competition and then capitalize on it. Take a moment to figure out how to make your business memorable for your customers and you will create customers for life.

June, 2010

Stress management is just like a red foam clown nose! I know, it seems strange, but it is true. A simple red foam clown nose can be seen in so many ways. Some see the circus of their childhood and smile; some see the circus of their childhood and get scared. Some think it is fun, some silly, and some stupid. All of these different opinions, all derived from the same simple little red foam clown nose.

Stress is the same way: it’s not about the stress itself, but about how we perceive the stress. Most of us have read the many articles written and studies published about stress management. Most of these articles promise tricks, tips, techniques and ideas to eliminate stress from our lives. That is an impossible task! We will never live “stress-free.” Sometimes we think, “Maybe when I retire…”, but I suspect that even retired people have stress too. What this tells us is that our goal is not the elimination of our stress, but rather the control of it.

The key to stress management is to take back control! In order to take back control of our stress we must first understand that some stress is good stress. What this means is that a certain amount of stress, called “optimal stress,” can give us energy, motivation, and help us to be more productive, more efficient, and more effective. When we go over our optimal stress daily limit for too long, we see the long term ramifications of stress. Every day you are given a certain amount of stress that is enough to give you energy and support your productivity, but not enough to be debilitating or harmful. As long as we work within that amount of stress, we are productive, efficient and effective. As you go about your day, you are asked to give your stress to different events, situations, problems and people. As long as you don’t “overspend” your stress, you can manage it. When you give more stress than you have, you become like a bank account… overdrawn!

If you think of your stress like money, it makes sense. When you have a limited amount of money, you make choices about what you will buy. When you have a limited amount of stress, you must make choices about where to spend it. We must make better decisions about how we choose to invest our stress. You must be more judicious with to whom and to what you give your stress.

So, remember how we said that some stress is good stress? That means that there are aspects of your life that, although stressful, are good. A wedding, your children, and your partner or your spouse are all rewarding AND stressful. These are vital components of our lives that we would never give up in the name of stress elimination. Most of us would not be willing to eliminate such stress!

There are also parts of our lives that are bad stresses. For example, traffic, difficult coworkers, annoying strangers—the person at the grocery store in the “15 items or less” line with 30 items! If you let those bad stresses take all of your stress bank account, you will not have any left for the good stresses–the ones you WANT to manage.

So, the keys to taking back control of your stress are, 1) When the stress hits you, stop and ask yourself, “Is this really a good use of my stress? Is it a good stress or a bad stress?”; 2) Once you have decided that it is a good stress, you take a deep breath and manage it; 3) If it is a bad stress, you must use the clown nose technique! Yes, the clown nose! Remember, everyone perceives it differently. You must redefine the way you perceive stress by framing the event in a new way. Traffic is no longer a bad stress – it is your “alone time”. That coworker is not difficult – just different. And don’t you feel sorry for that person at the grocery store that can’t count? How sad!

From now on, stress management is simple: just put on your clown nose and take back control of that stress!