What’s Hiding in Your Mind?
Would you consider yourself to be a fearful person? Most people would probably answer no to that question, yet fear is one of the most common hindrances that people struggle with today. The reason for this discrepancy may surprise you: fear can easily disguise itself as seemingly logical beliefs, thoughts and feelings so you may not even realize it’s there.
Rather than using the word fear to describe their feelings, many people might choose words like doubt, concern, worry, anxiety, uncertainty, hesitation, apprehension, procrastination, distrust or unease.
Ultimately they mean the same thing as fear. There is a thought, feeling, belief, or possible outcome that makes you feel uncomfortable or threatened and you will instinctively avoid things that make you feel that way.
Here are some common fears that could be hiding in your mind:
Fear of Failure
If you have ever held back on a goal or avoided taking action that would lead to a positive outcome, you may have been fearful that you might fail. Fear of failure can be subtle because our minds can come up with endless excuses why it’s not a good time to take a risk right now, or how the odds don’t seem to be in our favor, and so on.
Fear of Success
It’s hard to believe that anyone could be afraid of success (isn’t success usually a good thing?) but it’s far more common than you might believe. Most often it’s not the success itself that people fear, but rather all of the responsibilities and uncertainties that come along with success. If you worry that you won’t be able to handle these things, you will resist putting yourself in a position where you would have to face them.
Fear of Rejection
Fear of rejection is usually related to low self-esteem, but may show up in subtle ways. You may lash out at others when a possible rejection is imminent; sabotage relationships so you can be the one who rejects the other person instead of them rejecting you; or you may simply withdraw from social interaction to avoid the possibility of being rejected at all.
Fear of Not Being Good Enough
This is another fear that is connected to self-esteem, and it often affects everything you do in life. You may avoid making changes to improve your life; settle for a dissatisfying job that pays less money than you are capable of earning; or continuously sabotage your goals. If you don’t believe you deserve to have better life circumstances you won’t allow yourself to create them.
Once you have identified one or more of these fears, you can begin diffusing them with mind and body techniques that will calm your emotions, relax your body and get your thoughts flowing in a positive direction again. For most people this will be an ongoing process because our minds become conditioned to respond to fear stimulus and it will seem to happen automatically for some time. However, getting into the habit of addressing the fear in new healthy ways should set a new pattern to minimize the conditioned responses and even eliminate them over time.
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Alternatively download the new Free ebook – 22 Powerful Tools To Transform Your Fear Into Happiness, Peace and Inspiration. http://b32f23b7s2sfv17e-coig8i-1s.hop.clickbank.net/
– Crammed full of valuable tips, exercises and ideas – it could be the most important ebook you read this year.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
"A Great lessons that Will Make You Envy A Dogs Life"
Things We Can Learn from a Dog
By: Author Unknown
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your
face to be pure ecstasy.
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps and stretch before rising.
Run, romp and play daily.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by
and nuzzle them gently.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the
guilt thing and pout... Run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joys of a long walk.
By: Author Unknown
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your
face to be pure ecstasy.
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps and stretch before rising.
Run, romp and play daily.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by
and nuzzle them gently.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the
guilt thing and pout... Run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joys of a long walk.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
"What Do You Wish For?"
Think, Believe, Dream and Dare
By: Author Unknown
An eight-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a
wishing well, looked up into his eyes and asked: "I
understand you're a very wise man. I'd like to know the
secret of life."
The old man looked down at the youngster and replied:
"I've thought about that a lot in my lifetime, and the
secret can be summed up in four words.
The first is to Think. Think about the values you wish to
live your life by.
The second is to Believe. Believe in yourself based on the
thinking you've done about the values you're going to live
your life by.
The third is to Dream. Dream about the things that can be,
based on your belief in yourself and the values you're
going to live by.
The last is to Dare. Dare to make your dreams become
reality, based on your belief in yourself and your values."
And with that, Walter E. Disney said to the little boy,
"Think, Believe, Dream, and Dare."
By: Author Unknown
An eight-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a
wishing well, looked up into his eyes and asked: "I
understand you're a very wise man. I'd like to know the
secret of life."
The old man looked down at the youngster and replied:
"I've thought about that a lot in my lifetime, and the
secret can be summed up in four words.
The first is to Think. Think about the values you wish to
live your life by.
The second is to Believe. Believe in yourself based on the
thinking you've done about the values you're going to live
your life by.
The third is to Dream. Dream about the things that can be,
based on your belief in yourself and the values you're
going to live by.
The last is to Dare. Dare to make your dreams become
reality, based on your belief in yourself and your values."
And with that, Walter E. Disney said to the little boy,
"Think, Believe, Dream, and Dare."
Friday, October 9, 2009
"Why Call Centres Cant Recruit The Right Candidates And How To Correct The Problem NOW!"
Best Practices in Call Center Recruitment: Stop Trying to Understand Why Call Center Representatives Are Quitting
The improvement in economic conditions has companies revamping their call center recruitment and hiring strategy. Call center recruitment has become a focus again and, as a result, call center turnover is inevitably increasing. The luxury of having a stable call center workforce during the last few months has begun to evaporate. Once again, call center managers are forced to deal with this perennial and nettlesome headache that just will not go away. And, I predict, most call centers will try to solve this problem (as they always have) by trying to understand why people are quitting.
This is the wrong approach; it will not result in a positive solution! If you try to comprehend why your call center representatives are quitting, you are assuming there is something wrong with your call center and you must correct the problem in order to make yourself more suitable as an employer. In an effort to improve call center recruitment it is far better to focus on why people are staying at your call center rather than why people are leaving your call center. This methodology is founded on the possibility there is nothing significantly wrong with your call center. Think about it! Regardless of how bad you think your call center environment might be, I’ll wager you have several productive call center representatives who have remained on the job for a long time.
If that is the case, I challenge you to try to understand what differentiates those call center representatives from their fellow call center representatives who were prematurely terminated. Armed with this awareness, you can improve your call center recruitment strategy.
Rookie Mistake: Accepting High Churn and Constant Call Center Recruitment
You can begin to emphasize employment processes and procedures that match the characteristics of those performers who are staying with you. Wouldn’t you agree to improve your call center recruitment it is far easier to change who you hire than it is to change your organization?
I think the biggest problem with high turnover in the call center is acceptance. This includes call center managers who say, “It’s just the nature of the working in the call center and we have to learn to live with it.” This simply is not true! A monumental study conducted in the 1930s by Patricia Cane Smith indicated, “There is no such thing as a boring job, rather there are repetitious jobs that some people don’t adapt well to."
And more recent studies have revealed that call center representatives remain on call center jobs because of the call center work relationships they do not wish to break. Now there’s a clue! Anything you can do in your call center to emphasize social bonding, car pools, peer-to-peer recognition group lunches, etc. will increase that social bond which will become difficult to break.
A Case Study in Call Center Recruitment
Now, a true story that illustrates my point: Several years ago, I was a Human Resource manager for the PepsiCo Transportation Division. I learned about employee selection and turnover from a very unusual source, and, like much of my real learning, it came the hard way. The message stuck and was the unintended inspiration for my subsequent doctoral dissertation.
Here’s what happened.
Our division was run by Mr. Butch Jones, a battled-scarred veteran of King-of-the-Mountain battles in one of the toughest businesses in America. Mr. Jones did not like staff managers in general and Human Resource whippersnappers specifically. But I didn’t let that dampen my enthusiasm. I wanted to show him that I was a professional, someone he could rely on.
My opportunity came to prove myself when Mr. Jones’s secretary called me three weeks ahead for an appointment at 2:28 PM. I knew the odd meeting time and long advance notice were among his intimidation techniques, so I was determined not to let them bother me. Grapevine rumors made it apparent that Mr. Jones was unhappy with the call center recruitment and staffing efforts of my department since we took over this responsibility for NTC. Call center recruitment at NTC proved to be a challenge.
One particular call center job paid $1.60 per hour and required continual calculation without the benefit of adding machines in a room without air conditioning. Call center promotion opportunities were non-existent and oppressive supervisors prevailed. More often than not, our employees crossed the street to Minihoma Insurance, which offered similar jobs in an air-conditioned office with adding machines and paid $2.25 an hour. I conducted a professional wage and benefit survey confirming the dismal working conditions and rock bottom pay scale at NTC. I was well prepared to deliver my presentation and escort Mr. Thompson and NTC into the 20th century.
Recruiting the Best and the Brightest at the Call Center
My heart quickened as Mr. Jones looked with interest at my slick graphs and quartile charts. As the presentation progressed, I thought I had gained his confidence. He even asked for my recommendation. I offered my opinion that we needed to raise the call center wage from $1.60 per hour to $2.30 per hour. Furthermore, we needed to assign a private call center work station to each call center representative, install air conditioning and purchase electronic calculators to attract qualified call center representatives. Most importantly, I recommended that we train our call center supervisors in modern management techniques. “That, sir, would enable me to recruit, hire and retain qualified call center representatives for NTC,” I concluded.
I proudly envisioned Mr. Jones rising to applaud my presentation.
It didn’t happen that way. Mr. Jones pulled a yellow pencil stub from behind his ear and made a few calculations on the tattered desk pad in front of him. (Mr. Jones didn’t use one of those newfangled calculators either.) He turned to Arnold McGruder, his trusted right hand in all matters of accounting, finance, public relations and personnel. Arnold wore the green eyeshade and plastic pocket protector of his bookkeeping trade proudly. He was Boss Hogg in the flesh.
“Arnold,” Mr. Jones drawled in a deliberate and cynical country accent, “Mr. Mitchell, who I believe is a college-educated boy, says he can hire and keep the help if we spend what I calculate to be 750,000 bucks a year.”
The words “college-educated boy” slammed into me like a Mack truck. I knew I was in deep kaw kaw. My college education taught me that much. Beads of sweat formed instantly on my upper lip. Mr. Jones paused for a minute to savor my obvious pain. Then he asked Arnold, “Do we have anybody working for National Trailer Convoy (NTC) who has been here for more than five years, who is doing a good job in spite of our supervisors and who is working for minimum wage?” “You betcha, Mr. Jones, There’s Iola Fay Welch, Prissy Stroop, Ella Joe Miller, Mable Grace Apple, Lydia Lou Landry and many more.”
Workplace Wellness Comes at Cost
“Now, Mr. College Boy, don’t you tell me we have to spend $750,000 to hire and keep good help," Jones said. "Your job is to find and hire more folks like Iola Fay and Mable Grace.”
I saw myself as the young warrior who had challenged the chief and lost. My destiny lay in riding alone in the badlands of ignorant managers for the rest of my career. Then, at the bottom of my despair, I came to a stunning conclusion. Mr. Jones was absolutely right! He had hit the nail on the head. Much of his logic was askew, but in terms of hiring practices, he was right. I didn’t endorse his sweatshop management practices, but no matter how bad the working conditions, pay or supervision, there were still, for whatever strange reasons, long-term employees who remained on the job and performed.
The key was to determine what was unique about these people and differentiate them from their short-tenured, unproductive counterparts. As soon as I correctly profiled the successful employee, in terms of NTC’s viewpoint, our turnover began to decline.
I don’t think I ever did gain Mr. Jones’s’ total respect, but once he did say, “Hi, Brooks” when our paths crossed in the executive commode. What more could a college boy ask for?
I continue to treasure the great lesson I learned from Mr. Jones. It is far easier to change the kind of people you hire than it is to change the organization in which they work.
http://axel.myprofileworldwide.com
The improvement in economic conditions has companies revamping their call center recruitment and hiring strategy. Call center recruitment has become a focus again and, as a result, call center turnover is inevitably increasing. The luxury of having a stable call center workforce during the last few months has begun to evaporate. Once again, call center managers are forced to deal with this perennial and nettlesome headache that just will not go away. And, I predict, most call centers will try to solve this problem (as they always have) by trying to understand why people are quitting.
This is the wrong approach; it will not result in a positive solution! If you try to comprehend why your call center representatives are quitting, you are assuming there is something wrong with your call center and you must correct the problem in order to make yourself more suitable as an employer. In an effort to improve call center recruitment it is far better to focus on why people are staying at your call center rather than why people are leaving your call center. This methodology is founded on the possibility there is nothing significantly wrong with your call center. Think about it! Regardless of how bad you think your call center environment might be, I’ll wager you have several productive call center representatives who have remained on the job for a long time.
If that is the case, I challenge you to try to understand what differentiates those call center representatives from their fellow call center representatives who were prematurely terminated. Armed with this awareness, you can improve your call center recruitment strategy.
Rookie Mistake: Accepting High Churn and Constant Call Center Recruitment
You can begin to emphasize employment processes and procedures that match the characteristics of those performers who are staying with you. Wouldn’t you agree to improve your call center recruitment it is far easier to change who you hire than it is to change your organization?
I think the biggest problem with high turnover in the call center is acceptance. This includes call center managers who say, “It’s just the nature of the working in the call center and we have to learn to live with it.” This simply is not true! A monumental study conducted in the 1930s by Patricia Cane Smith indicated, “There is no such thing as a boring job, rather there are repetitious jobs that some people don’t adapt well to."
And more recent studies have revealed that call center representatives remain on call center jobs because of the call center work relationships they do not wish to break. Now there’s a clue! Anything you can do in your call center to emphasize social bonding, car pools, peer-to-peer recognition group lunches, etc. will increase that social bond which will become difficult to break.
A Case Study in Call Center Recruitment
Now, a true story that illustrates my point: Several years ago, I was a Human Resource manager for the PepsiCo Transportation Division. I learned about employee selection and turnover from a very unusual source, and, like much of my real learning, it came the hard way. The message stuck and was the unintended inspiration for my subsequent doctoral dissertation.
Here’s what happened.
Our division was run by Mr. Butch Jones, a battled-scarred veteran of King-of-the-Mountain battles in one of the toughest businesses in America. Mr. Jones did not like staff managers in general and Human Resource whippersnappers specifically. But I didn’t let that dampen my enthusiasm. I wanted to show him that I was a professional, someone he could rely on.
My opportunity came to prove myself when Mr. Jones’s secretary called me three weeks ahead for an appointment at 2:28 PM. I knew the odd meeting time and long advance notice were among his intimidation techniques, so I was determined not to let them bother me. Grapevine rumors made it apparent that Mr. Jones was unhappy with the call center recruitment and staffing efforts of my department since we took over this responsibility for NTC. Call center recruitment at NTC proved to be a challenge.
One particular call center job paid $1.60 per hour and required continual calculation without the benefit of adding machines in a room without air conditioning. Call center promotion opportunities were non-existent and oppressive supervisors prevailed. More often than not, our employees crossed the street to Minihoma Insurance, which offered similar jobs in an air-conditioned office with adding machines and paid $2.25 an hour. I conducted a professional wage and benefit survey confirming the dismal working conditions and rock bottom pay scale at NTC. I was well prepared to deliver my presentation and escort Mr. Thompson and NTC into the 20th century.
Recruiting the Best and the Brightest at the Call Center
My heart quickened as Mr. Jones looked with interest at my slick graphs and quartile charts. As the presentation progressed, I thought I had gained his confidence. He even asked for my recommendation. I offered my opinion that we needed to raise the call center wage from $1.60 per hour to $2.30 per hour. Furthermore, we needed to assign a private call center work station to each call center representative, install air conditioning and purchase electronic calculators to attract qualified call center representatives. Most importantly, I recommended that we train our call center supervisors in modern management techniques. “That, sir, would enable me to recruit, hire and retain qualified call center representatives for NTC,” I concluded.
I proudly envisioned Mr. Jones rising to applaud my presentation.
It didn’t happen that way. Mr. Jones pulled a yellow pencil stub from behind his ear and made a few calculations on the tattered desk pad in front of him. (Mr. Jones didn’t use one of those newfangled calculators either.) He turned to Arnold McGruder, his trusted right hand in all matters of accounting, finance, public relations and personnel. Arnold wore the green eyeshade and plastic pocket protector of his bookkeeping trade proudly. He was Boss Hogg in the flesh.
“Arnold,” Mr. Jones drawled in a deliberate and cynical country accent, “Mr. Mitchell, who I believe is a college-educated boy, says he can hire and keep the help if we spend what I calculate to be 750,000 bucks a year.”
The words “college-educated boy” slammed into me like a Mack truck. I knew I was in deep kaw kaw. My college education taught me that much. Beads of sweat formed instantly on my upper lip. Mr. Jones paused for a minute to savor my obvious pain. Then he asked Arnold, “Do we have anybody working for National Trailer Convoy (NTC) who has been here for more than five years, who is doing a good job in spite of our supervisors and who is working for minimum wage?” “You betcha, Mr. Jones, There’s Iola Fay Welch, Prissy Stroop, Ella Joe Miller, Mable Grace Apple, Lydia Lou Landry and many more.”
Workplace Wellness Comes at Cost
“Now, Mr. College Boy, don’t you tell me we have to spend $750,000 to hire and keep good help," Jones said. "Your job is to find and hire more folks like Iola Fay and Mable Grace.”
I saw myself as the young warrior who had challenged the chief and lost. My destiny lay in riding alone in the badlands of ignorant managers for the rest of my career. Then, at the bottom of my despair, I came to a stunning conclusion. Mr. Jones was absolutely right! He had hit the nail on the head. Much of his logic was askew, but in terms of hiring practices, he was right. I didn’t endorse his sweatshop management practices, but no matter how bad the working conditions, pay or supervision, there were still, for whatever strange reasons, long-term employees who remained on the job and performed.
The key was to determine what was unique about these people and differentiate them from their short-tenured, unproductive counterparts. As soon as I correctly profiled the successful employee, in terms of NTC’s viewpoint, our turnover began to decline.
I don’t think I ever did gain Mr. Jones’s’ total respect, but once he did say, “Hi, Brooks” when our paths crossed in the executive commode. What more could a college boy ask for?
I continue to treasure the great lesson I learned from Mr. Jones. It is far easier to change the kind of people you hire than it is to change the organization in which they work.
http://axel.myprofileworldwide.com
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