A happy ending

None of us could have missed the amazing news this week that all 33 miners who had been trapped under ground for weeks on end, had been rescued and brought safely to the surface.

They had spent ten weeks, trapped 2,041 feet under the desert in Chile. When the mine collapsed on August 5th they had no idea whether they could be saved. Living off meagre rations until they had been found alive seventeen days later, they faced and conquered something incomprehensible to most of us.

Whilst the country worked out a rescue plan, they coped and survived underground. No one can imagine what that could be like, whether arguments happened, or how they worked together to get through such a horrible event. As their stories come out in the following weeks, I am sure we will learn a lot more.

The leader of the miners, Luis Urzua carried his duty through to the end and was the last man to leave the mine, making sure all his men were safely rescued before allowing himself to be winched up. Chile’s President, Sebastian Pinera hailed Urzua for seeing off all his men before ‘leaving last like the ship’s captain’.

The rescue operation took weeks and the drilling to free the men veered off course twice, before a successful third time. I can only imagine what the leader(s) of the rescue workers must have been going through each time the drilling failed. Leading such a team on a life and death rescue attempt would have been challenging and stressful to say the least, so when the third drill was triumphant, euphoria must have followed.

This event was extraordinary and one which has captured the world. We all face stress, although hopefully nothing as awful as what the miners have been through. It can affect us in the workplace and our personal life. Stress has no boundaries and all of us at some point in our life, have it thrust upon us. But what can we do. Here are a few tips on taking charge of stress:

~ Get all the facts
~ Weigh all the facts then come to a decision
~ Once a decision is reached, act!
~ Answer these questions:
What is the problem?
What are the courses of the problem?
What are the possible solutions?
What is the best possible solution?

~ How to face trouble – ask yourself:
What is the worst that can possibly happen?
Prepare to accept the worse
Try to improve the worse

Dale Carnegie wrote the book ‘How to stop worrying and start living’ and if you are interested in finding out more, why not come along to our preview on 4th November.

In the meantime, it's nice to see a happy ending......

Helen Mills
Financial Controller
www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Engaging Employees during Times of Uncertainty

As a manager, turbulent times can be unsettling. Employees want to be upbeat, positive and encouraged about the future, but news about the economy, conversations with some customers and input from others in the organisation can often leave them feeling uncomfortable and unsure. So how do you balance these conflicting ideas, maintain a positive environment and keep employees focused on a positive future?

• Focus on Vision and Mission
  
  
• Develop Connections



• Create Ongoing Dialogue



• Encourage Empowerment
  

While there is rarely an easy answer to the unique issues that arise during times of turbulence, managers cannot retreat to the office and hope the situation will simply cure itself. Difficult times call for consistent leadership. Helping your team stay focused on the organisation's direction, their individual role in achieving that direction and encouraging them to develop new approaches for helping the organisation succeed are just a couple of ways that managers can help create an environment that continues to engage employees in uncertain times.

Join us for a complimentary session of the Engage & Inspire Your People seminar on 27th July from 8.45am - 10.45am! Click here to register

Corina Balaneanu
Sales Consultant

http://www.london.dalecarnegie.com/

Spring Cleaning!

It is that time of year when we yearn to ferret out the dirt lurking in the normally unseen and/or awkward places of our homes. Perhaps we could extend this to our lives and work; here are four ideas.

Use of time - we are all blessed with 24 hours a day. Frequently our time is high jacked by other people; they will not mean to disrupt our day but will just have to talk to us about something that is bothering them, often at great length. We need to take control. Give them a clear space for them and stick to the arrangement, giving total attention at the right time.

File management - there are mysteries lurking within our filing cabinet drawers and computer folders. The golden rule of filing: it is not where we put something that is important, but how we find it. How many times have we tidied up our folders and discovered documents and material that would have been really useful: if only we had known. There is no shame in keeping a piece of information because we think it will be useful; we just need to remap our system of files and computer folders to reflect our life.

Clearing mess – there is an ancient art called Feng Shui, which positively channels energy flows by using rules of Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation – so there you are! We often experience Feng Shui in a negative sense: looking around our work place we feel overwhelmed by the clutter. So buy some cupboards, get a skip, be ruthless – it will feel like losing 5kgs of excess weight!

Relationships - some people energise and inspire us, others exhaust us – we know where we would love to spend more time! The trouble is our great friends and relatives do not berate us for our neglect so they often lose out and so do we. It is time to make that call and fill up the diary with people who we love to be with so we are genuinely too busy for the moaners.

So a bit of Spring Cleaning to support the way we want to be, the person we are and the quality of life we desire.

Jane Kustner
Trainer

www.London.dalecarnegie.com