Attitude | TheMiddleShelf.com

Posts Tagged ‘Attitude’

Go Ahead, Take a Vacation!

June 16th, 2011

Maria Helm

Yes, everyone needs a vacation, even small-business owners and solo entrepreneurs. Don’t think you can’t take one, just because you run a small company or a home-based business, and don’t feel you can’t extricate yourself from it. You can — and should — take time off if you want to stay in business very long.

Here are 10 tips to help you plan that get-away.

1. Call or e-mail your key contacts at least one week before you leave. “Key contacts” are your partners, employees, and key service providers. Let them the dates you are going to be gone, and someone they can contact in your absence. A week’s notice allows them to reach you with any urgent business that needs your attention before you leave.

2. Designate people in charge while you are gone. Obviously, if you have employees, you want to designate someone to run the company while you are gone. Your employees need to know who’s in charge during your absence. You also need someone to handle communicating with key clients, partners, vendors and/or employees. This may or may not be the same person as the one in charge. You may have your No. 2 run the business, and your No. 3 handle external communications, for example. In any case, these must be people you can trust, to lead and represent your company well.

3. Designate a contact person for you. Along the same lines, you need to designate someone to reach you in cases of — and only in cases of — an emergency. If you have employees, that may be your No. 2. If you don’t have employees, it may be your accountant, attorney, a close relative or someone else you can trust. This person has been entrusted with how to reach you. You want someone who knows when and when not to call you.

4. Make a list of your employees’ work priorities while you are gone. Besides designating the people in charge, you need to establish a list of what tasks and projects you expect your employees to have completed when you return. This sets your agenda, and helps your employees know what is expected of them. It need not be excessively detailed, but it must be clear and understandable.

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Entrepreneurs, Small Business, Tips

1 Comment »

Plan for Pleasure As Well As Pain

April 15th, 2011

Maria Helm

Listen, working for a living is always going to be a mixed bag. The higher up you go the more true this is. As a lowly file clerk, way back when, I got used to being bored, ticked off, frustrated, idle, and quite frankly, sick of the job. By the time I had risen to be an HR division manager, I was strangely surprised to find myself also bored, ticked off, frustrated, idle and sick of the job. But whereas when I was starting out I didn’t expect any different, by the time I had risen to the heights I was totally unprepared for the same feelings. I guess I expected every day to be exciting, utterly challenging, demanding, dramatic (well, I admit – I had experienced many days of drama, being in HR), cutting-edge stuff. And when it wasn’t, I was – I suppose – disappointed.

Later, of course, I realized that not every day can be fantastic. Some days will be blah. Some days will be adrenaline-filled and exciting – but not as many will be boring. You have to be prepared for the pain and the pleasure. You have to adjust your expectation so that you don’t get ticked off when it is boring, and don’t explode with pleasure when it is too exciting for words.

Trouble is, if it is boring, you might be tempted, as indeed I have been many times, to liven it up a bit by being disruptive. It’s best to sit on your hands and let the feeling pass. As a manager or a business owner, you aren’t allowed to be disruptive – except in an innovative way of course.

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” Tony Robbins

Photo Credit: Pseudo-Melancholy

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Leadership, managing health, Pain, Pleasure, Self-help

1 Comment »

Make Honesty Your Best Policy

January 28th, 2011

Maria Helm

Thought I’d share with you a valuable lesson learned from a previous job I had many years ago. Here it goes . . .

Immediately upon showing up for work as a mid-level marketing manager at a new company, I was told that everyone in the company flew coach on domestic flights unless the only seats available were in first class. I understood the rationale behind such a policy and had no problem conforming to the rule. One of my fellow department managers, however, wasn’t so accepting.

After we became better acquainted, he confided over a post-dinner libation that he flew first class on most longer flights and just put on his expense report that the coach section was full so he was “forced” to upgrade his flight status to first class. “No one ever checks,” he boasted. Being relatively new to the company, as well as being relatively honest, I told him I didn’t think his company air travel modus operandi was particularly admirable and that I’d continue to travel in the “cheap” seats. He just scoffed and accused me of being a “real sucker.”

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Honesty, Leadership, Self-help, Values

No Comments »

Coping with Stress

November 3rd, 2010

Maria Helm

Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000

Is there someone alive who doesn’t suffer from stress? If there is, seek her out, ask her to share her wisdom. When you find her, I’d be willing to bet she’ll offer the following suggestions:

Keep it simple
Don’t over-schedule
Create quiet surroundings at home and at work
Carve out an hour a day for solitude
Eat only when hungry
If it’s not delicious, don’t eat it
Always opt for comfort
Set achievable goals
Express love everyday
Stay away from negative people
Stop trying to please everybody
Start pleasing yourself
Be instead of do
For every “yes,” let there be a “no.”
Nurture friendships
Allow an extra half hour for everything you do
Move – walk, dance, run, find a sport you enjoy
Laugh more often
If you don’t love it, live without it
Remember, happiness is a living emotion

“In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes . . . from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.” ~ Salman Rushdie

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Self-help, Stay motivated

No Comments »

Pace Yourself

October 7th, 2010

Maria Helm

Sometimes, when you look back over your day, you’ll find yourself focusing on what you didn’t get done. That’s not helpful. There is rarely enough time in a day to get everything done. The best thing to do is to prioritize and pace yourself. Even a marathon runner has to rest and refresh to keep going.

The early days in business are the toughest. Every health professional says we need to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. But in the early days, while you are working your job and your business, a full night’s sleep will be a luxury. Owning a business is great, but in the beginning it might own you. You have to fight the tendency of the business to take over your life.

In a way, owning a business is like being in a marriage. In business and in marriage, you can get lax about the fundamentals, whether it’s remembering to send flowers to your spouse or using monthly financial statements in your business.

Your business and your family will compete for your time and attention. Whenever you are, be present there. Do not be the parent on the ball field looking at your BlackBerry. The ups and down of balancing your life and your work will sometimes have you turning yourself into a pretzel. But when you get that first sale, when you make enough profit to pay yourself, sharing that moment with your family will be priceless.

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Entrepreneurs, Planning, Small Business, Time

No Comments »