8 Things I Wish I Learned In College.

I loved going to college. I learned a lot and grew a lot while I was there. In addition to all the facts and figures, I also learned many intangibles - how to communicate with very intelligent people, how to do real research, and how to solve difficult problems (to name just a few). But there were a few things I either missed or was never exposed to in my four years. During my 20 years in corporate management and 10+ years coaching, I found many different themes bubbling up to the surface time and time again. When it finally cut through my thick irish/polish/russian head, I made it a point of learning the best way to do them and then built each one in as a daily behavior. Here are my Top 8 (not 10, 16 or 20 - the best 8):

1. Change your game often.

Most people get stuck in rut — doing the same things day in and day out. Successful people in business are constantly assessing and changing what they do.

Read this: How To Successfully Change Your Game

2. Staying focused: the Pareto Rule.

If you are not reviewing your daily/weekly/monthly activities, you'll never get a good handle on streamlining your tasks and focusing on the important stuff.

Read this: How To Be Successful Every Day Extra credit: How To Be More Effective On The Job

3. Effective time management.

If you don't have control of your time, the days will fly by and you'll be wondering where all the time went. Just a few minutes a day will change the way you work.

Read this: Control Your Time By Designing Your Schedule

4. Communicating with difficult people.

It's a fact of life at work — you are going to run into people who are difficult to work with. They can be disagreeable, they can cause problems, or they can be your arch-enemy.

Read this: How To Deal With Very Difficult People

5. Recharging my enthusiasm daily.

No one likes to spend time with a negative person. Let's be honest, we don't like to spend time with neutral personalities either. Who do we love to spend time with? People who energize us — people with enthusiasm.

Read this: If You Aren’t Fired With Enthusiasm, You’ll Be Fired With Enthusiasm

6. Being proactive (not the face-cleanser).

Don't procrastinate and take charge of your career — what needs to be done and what can you do right now to ensure everything flows smoothly?

Read this: No Time? Focus on the Important

7. Keep people happy — under-promise & over-deliver.

This is a really hard one to overcome because we are trained at an early age to please other people for acceptance.

Read this: How To Make Your Boss & Clients Happy All The Time

8: Don't be so hard on yourself.

We drive ourselves hard and frequently pick on our actions - "That was stupid!" or "I can believe I did that!". As I tell my clients, there's a level where internal 'pushing' is good and then there's a level where it becomes a negative force in your life. If you make a mistake the first time, treat it as a learning experience. Hold off the self-recrimination for the 2nd or 3rd time you do it.

Read this: How To Never Make A Mistake At Work

10 Tips To Recover After A Crisis.

Last year, my home and business were hit by a terrible snowstorm (Irene) which knocked out power for over eight days. Even though I had access to cell phones and internet, it played a mental and physical toll on me. As the main provider to my household, it affected me mentally — WHY? — our situation was totally out of my control. Even though we had a generator with power, heat and food, life was way from normal. The mental toll played out personally and professionally. I constantly worried about any further impacts to our situation, sustained boredom, and how it was playing on my clients.

Guess what? Everything was fine — I just had to refocus my energy on positive actions which would move me forward. So here are 10 tips to help you cope with a natural disaster which might affect your career or business:

1. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

When life knocks us for a loop, we tend to roll with the punch and stay down. If you know boxing, you only have 10 seconds to get back up before the fight is over. That means you need to get back up ASAP and realize there will be light at the end of the tunnel and wallowing in our own misfortune will not get us there.

2. Keep busy.

Fill up every day with things to do. Why? It doesn't allow you to worry about what didn't happen or occur during the emergency and it gets you back on the horse ASAP. Think about tactical, strategic and communication activities — what actions will bring the most impact. In addition, if your boss or clients see you humming along like a rocket, they will be impressed!

3. Stay in contact with your clients, boss, and team.

Communication is key. Reconnect with everyone, ask questions, and see how you can help. Give them tips on how to recover. Or just LISTEN. Most people just want to talk, vent, and look for answers — it is great that you are there for them.

4. If you can't do tactical duties, work on strategic stuff.

If you're held back by others or processes beyond your control, do something else. Remember that project or initiative you never have time to work on? Now you have time - do it!

5. Reach out and engage people you usually don't connect with.

Broaden your contact sphere and reach out to people you normally don't talk to. I promise they are looking for a shoulder to cry on and you are there to listen. Also — they are a week behind too — see how your abilities and business might help them solve their problems.

6. Try to help, inform, and impact everyone you meet.

Everyone. People on the street might need a jump for their car, your neighbors, other people in your office building, etc. Right after the emergency, most people need help getting themselves, their career and their business back up and running. This is the time to reach out.

7. Did I say keep busy?

Don't stop for anything, keep busy and your mind thinking of new ideas how to move forward!

8. Get your name out there to see if you can help.

This is the best time to market yourself. If you're a business — increase your marketing by 100%. Get onto social media — blog, tweet, facebook, etc. Get your name out there. If you work for an organization  — market yourself — who can you reach out to and help them with their project? Reach out to your boss and show them what you've done so far.

9. Get your head straight.

It's over. Move on and stop venting how bad it was. Whine for one minute and then move on with your life. It's behind you. Don't let it continually affect you over the coming months.

10. Rocket out of your current position and fly forward.

Set up the launch pad, fuel your rocket, and hit the ignition switch. Use this calamity as a reason to rocket your business or career into the stratosphere. Start thinking BIG!

Stop Being Scared On The Job.

I coached the head of sales of a Fortune 500 company yesterday and we had an interesting conversation. 

She had a recurring issue with some of the executive board members she reports to — they are frequently challenging her management of the sales force because sales have dipped slightly over the past six months.

Sales performance is a highly subjective area in business because if it is dropping off, many factors can come into play such as pricing, marketing, product management, distribution, the marketplace . . . I can go on forever. During these meetings though, it all seemed to fall right on her shoulders. Why?

Initially, she was a bit complacent. She saw the numbers falling slightly, but didn't really see any reason to change strategy. Then when they really started to turn downward, she became gun-shy. And then right before the next board meeting, she was scared.

I call it falling down the rabbit hole. Complacent to gun-shy to scared — it's a disturbing vortex many managers go through (especially in today's marketplace). We feel the market will have it's ups and downs and then something bad happens — and we are afraid to do anything because we are gun-shy — we don't want to make things worse.

Ultimately, we move to being scared because we don't know where to turn. Here's how we solved her problem:

1. THINK - Develop a series of strategies to solve the issue. Predict outcomes and impacts for each of the strategies.
2. TAKE ACTION - Choose the best one.
3. COMMUNICATE - Massively communicate your decision to your peers and superiors with your logic before they begin to complain.

The board wasn't concerned about her strategy or performance — they were concerned about her lack of communication, perceived interest, and action. Once you show people you are ON IT, they usually back off. In addition, if you show them your thinking around the problem, they see you've taken the time to work the issue. Only certain 'evil' people will take this as a chance to sabotage you. In addition, she also engaged all the other areas impacted for their input — which pretty well ameliorated any sabotage from the 'evil' people.

So don't fall down the rabbit hole — Think, Take Action, and Communicate.

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P.S. Are you getting complacent at work? Let’s talk. I’ve worked with thousands of executives and have helped them manage difficult situations — call or email me to schedule a complimentary session.