Stress is a normal response to difficult situations. We often confuse it as some form of mental pressure caused due to our own inability to deal with things. But that’s not what it is. Stress is not an action, it’s a reaction. Stress is our reaction to various external factors.

Before we get to the whole coping part, first we need to understand a few things about stress that are essential.

1. Stress is not always bad

Stress is the body’s way of reacting to a challenge. When faced with a tough situation, there are a whole lot of reactions that the body goes through. Increased pulse rate, adrenaline boost, faster response to stimuli and among those, stress is one.

But the same stress that ‘stresses us out’, also makes us quicker and more prone to handle situations better. Stress makes us do our best. So it isn’t always a bad thing.

2. Stress varies from person to person

Some people are inherently calmer and more composed, compared to others. So, their reactions also are different. Stress levels change vastly across different people and are not to be compared at any stage.

If I can deal with a tough situation well that does not make another person’s stress or panic a bad thing. It is after all only a reaction.

3. Stress is not always an illness

There are a variety of stress related disorders. But just because a person is prone to stress, does not make them a patient. Stress disorders, like all other disorders are something that cannot be confirmed unless clinically diagnosed.

Thus, stress in daily life is as normal as it can be.

4. Stress always has a trigger

May not be something happening at the moment. Sometimes the trigger of stress goes back in time, that we don’t even recall the incident. That is because our mind is an expert at suppressing information that can be distressing. But no stress, ever comes without a trigger.

Stress that is positive or good for us in some way, is called Eustress and the one which makes us all panicky and unable to see straight is Distress.

Modern day MNCs encourage some amount of work stress to ensure that employees push ahead and don’t get too comfortable. Although as the position becomes more and more powerful, eustress becomes distress. Let us now look at some stress related disorders.

1. General Stress

This is your old school, before an exam, important day type of stress. It is so normal and so vastly experienced that if you don’t experience it, people think you’re a bit weird (in a good way of course!).

General stress requires nothing more than a few deep breaths and a cool glass of water. It goes away as fast as it came.

2. Acute Stress

This is in a way, the big brother of general stress. It is not in any way damaging, but it makes you completely frazzled and leaves you exhausted.

This would be the stress people experience when work load is doubled, during year end or when you study for a history test and get the math paper in hand. The situation is overloaded and so the brain becomes irritated and you start sweating and panicking.

Acute stress can also be dealt with the old ways, but the best thing to do is to simply let it pass.

3. Episodic Acute Stress

This is one of the serious types. It’s one thing to be stressed out, but something is off when a person gets worked out about almost everything. Even things that is not stressful. So be it their wedding day or their nothing day, there is something they will stress about.

For people with episodic stress, things get out of hand very quickly. Calm becomes chaos in the blink of an eye. They take on more than they can chew and at the moment of truth, they are about to explode.

Episodic stress patients are often studied for crisis management purposes just to get a grasp of how masses will respond to a situation.

4. Chronic Stress

While acute stress can be thrilling and exciting, chronic stress is not. This is the grinding stress that wears people away day after day, year after year. Chronic stress destroys bodies, minds and lives. It wreaks havoc through lives.

If you can imagine what the stress must be in a situation of war, then I assure, you can imagine what chronic stress is like. It requires medical help and proper treatment.

While Chronic Stress needs proper medical attention, the other forms of stress can be dealt with. One can even cultivate a habit to deal with it.

For people whose daily lives involve stress (stock brokers I see you!), these few tricks always come in handy.

Coping with stress

• Always, DEEP BREATHES. Don’t argue, simply follow. Breathe deeply and breathe often.

• Water. Drink it slowly and prolong the drink. Don’t gulp it all down and expect to be calm. The more time you take, the more time you get to process things.

• Use a stress ball. Those smiley faces aren’t a joke. They release tension from your muscles and that helps you relax physically.

• Be patient. Nothing is going to happen sooner than it is meant to, simply because you’re about to burst a nerve! Close your eyes and be patient.

• Be prepared, if you can. This is what you need to do before events that are inevitably going to happen (EXAMS). Be prepared well in advance. No stress.

• Count down from 100. With every number down, think like it’s one point of stress leaving your body. By the time you hit 0, you’ll be back to #1.

• Know you are human. Like seriously! There are limits to what you can and cannot achieve. So stop biting off more than you can chew. Accept only enough work and do it perfectly.

• Have some quiet time alone. Have some beverage (whatever you please) and let the negativity get out on its own.

To end, get this one right up there on your list of best quotes –

“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9339018

Seven Steps to Planning a Useful Team Building Event

Planning a useful team building event can be a challenge, but these seven steps will help you to ensure that your people enjoy not only a great time, but also benefit from insights and lessons that they can apply to workplace interactions.

So, here are your seven steps to planning a useful team building event:

1. Decide what you want to accomplish.

This is the most important part of the event – the preparation and deciding what your day of team building activities should provide as take-aways for your people. Sometimes, you can make a little progress with building rapport with a weekly bonding session or fun de-stressing opportunity to laugh or learn together. But if you do not have experience facilitating team-building activities, or if you want a more thorough and productive set of outcomes, consider hiring a team-building trainer.

A good team-building coach can create cohesiveness and improve communications within your staff using a set of customized games and challenges. The person should be high-energy and focus mainly on experiential exercises (not lecturing) that will provide the take-aways your group needs!

2.Choose a budget and a location. Once you know what you want your team building day to accomplish, you need to decide on a location and a budget to ensure those goals are achieved. If you are looking to reward your employees for successfully completing a big project, you may want an off-site location. Do you want them to get to know each other and work through personality differences or communication issues? Once you have the goal for the day and a general budget in mind, you can schedule an activity for the location that best fits those needs.

3. Schedule it for an appropriate time. Employees will always be more receptive to a team building day of activities if it is held during work hours and does not interfere with their valuable personal time. When you schedule the event, keep your employees’ schedules and other obligations in mind. You may also want to consider the current calendar or any ongoing projects. The best time to “build” your team or identify and work through issues is before that project gets underway – or before a big change is undertaken. Many schools look for dates at the beginning of their semesters to allow their staff to work better together.

4. Make it special. Fun and unique experiences are the best ways to bring your team closer together. Many people are only interested in giving their people a chance to interact outside the normal confines of their office relationships. There is certainly a value in providing “bonding” experiences.

True “Team Building,” though, involves experiential learning activities that are both enjoyable and unique AND can be used as a catalyst for discussions and insights that can be applied to everyday interactions to improve organizational culture. Think about the interests and fitness levels of your employees when deciding on a “fun” activity… and if you want a more impactful event, consider a business team building day of more focused and meaningful challenges.

5. Leave job titles at the door. One of the most important keys to creating a successful team building day is for all employees to feel like they are on equal footing, regardless of their positions back at the office. Emphasize to your people that office titles do not exist during the team building activities. Everyone should be encouraged to leave their ego in their back pocket! Coming in on equal footing and with no perceived subordinates or supervisors allows others who normally may not take the initiative to illustrate their leadership style and fosters better communication and more creativity.

6. Identify who needs to “grow together.” Every team and organization has at least one or two people that struggle to communicate well or rub others the wrong way. If you have a “sandpaper person” in your group, it may pay dividends to plan ahead and arrange your people into the specific groups that most need to interact together and build better relationships.

If there are any team personality types in the group that is clashing with another person or department, give them the opportunity to grow together by placing them in the same group. Being forced to overcome an obstacle or come up with creative solutions or learn more about each other’s background often work wonders and strengthen rapport between team members who have struggled to interact productively in the past!

7. Get feedback. Two or three weeks after the event, ask your people to provide anonymous feedback about the team building day. This can provide valuable information for you to plan similar or more successful events in the future. Team building is like bridge maintenance – it is ongoing and never fully complete, as there are always relationships that can be strengthened and leadership skills that can be learned or improved.

By finding out what your group liked and disliked about the event, or what they have been able to apply to improve your organizational culture, you can address their concerns and re-evaluate your goals to meet other needs with future events.

The true value of a team building day is not the enjoyment and engagement your people experience in the midst of the activities. It is not even the laughter or light hearted lowering of stress levels that you should most want to hear about.

A quality team building event should also provide your people with the tools and insights to make modifications to their daily interactions, priorities, and attitudes.

The return on your investment will be determined by your thorough attention to each of these seven steps – and if you are intent on creating a useful team building event, you will enjoy the success that good preparation promises…

Team building offers a fun, safe, non-threatening way to improve communication, teamwork, and leadership skills with the laughter and lessons that interactive group activities provide.

As an experienced coach, author, speaker, and team-building facilitator, Sean Glaze entertains, informs, and influences audiences with a unique blend of dynamic content, interactive activities, and practical action steps.

Holiday Party Event Disasters – Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff! Face It!

No event is perfect!

Planning an event can be difficult. There are a mountain of things to be done and not enough time to do them. You will be rushed and anxious much of the time. Remember, though, that nothing will ever be perfect. When planning a big event, assume there will be problems, and plan to accept and solve them with grace.

Murphy’s Law says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Event planning is no exception to this rule. Successful event planners accept the fact that there will be last-minute problems. Their plans include enough time and resources to deal with the problems that arise.

As when you go to the grocery store, you’ll always forget something. Even when you check and double-check your schedule and plans, something you didn’t think of will rear its ugly head at the most inconvenient time. The best way to meet this challenge is to allow extra time for quick fixes and identify people who can help you at a moment’s notice.

The first question you will have to ask yourself is: “Is it really that important?” Problems arising from an unfortunate choice of colors or a centerpiece that is just a bit too big may not be serious enough to bother with. When an issue comes up, ask yourself if it’s critical to the success of the event. If it’s not critical, perhaps you can afford to let it go.

One way to avoid these annoying issues is to make a comprehensive checklist. The list will include every action, every product, and every person you need to assure a successful event, in the order you need them done. As they are finished, you can get the self-satisfaction of checking them off your list. And the checklist will help others who are involved in the event preparations as well. If you’re not available for questions, they can consult the checklist.

Especially in those last days and moments before the event, you’ll have to be flexible and creative to solve problems. Again, ask yourself how important it really is. If you can let it go, let it go. Better to skip a small detail than to sacrifice something critical because you were involved with the little hitch. Keep your mind open to innovative and unusual solutions, too. And take advantage of the people around you. You don’t have to come up with all the answers to find the appropriate solutions.

If the event’s already underway, try to find a solution that doesn’t disrupt the flow of the event. Certainly, you won’t want to draw a lot of attention to a problem that might not have been noticed. Make a judgment call – will anyone be injured in any way if the problem isn’t solved? Does the problem have the potential to ruin the occasion? Is there someone available who could fix things quickly and quietly? Rely on your co-workers and friends to help you catch potential problems before they develop. And trust them to solve them. Don’t feel that you are the only person in the room who can do it. That’s simply not true, and maybe a very costly assumption.

The most important thing you can do when a problem pops up during your event is to keep cool. If you panic, you will be much less likely to find a solution. And if you panic, your guests will know something’s up. They may even become anxious or overly concerned. If you stay cool, calm, and collected, you’ll be in a better position to judge the severity of the problem. Is it something that will likely go away by itself? Is there, in fact, an urgent need for you to take action?

The biggest thing that you need to do when you see that something is going off course at your event is to not get upset. You want to be able to stay calm and use your resources that you have to fix the problem. Keep your perspective. One mis-step will not ruin an event. Don’t over-react. Relax and let your intuitive side take over. The answer will come, if you let it come. It’s really very simple. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Fix the big stuff. And have fun! The number one ingredient to a successful event is that the person hosting it has a good time!

Sales development training to increase your sales skills is a great investment. But if you just learn sales skills, and don’t know how to put them into action, you won’t get the lifestyle changes you want. To make it work, and get results, sales training needs a plan that’s achievable, practical, and that has worked for others like you.

Do you see other sales people achieving more than you? While you’re struggling to make your monthly payments they’re buying new homes, expensive holidays, and great looking cars. Do these successful colleagues get attention and recognition from other people, people you would like to notice you? You have thought about learning sales skills to try and increase your sales results and your income. You may have downloaded some sales skill training, or been on sales training courses, but you’re still stuck in a rut and struggling to earn the rich rewards that a sales career should offer.

Everyone in sales now has access to sales training and can learn sales skills that could change their lifestyle. The Internet is full of a wide range of professional sales training and free sales training courses. The effective sales skill training that does cost money gives you free examples and information on the training, so you can make an educated decision before buying, and the investment cost is very reasonable. For a few dollars you can download a sales training course and start taking actions today that could completely change your life.

Anyone with average intelligence, and the right attitude, can learn sales skills that can change their lifestyle. So how come there are so many sales people just plodding along, stuck in a rut, and running out of time to achieve their goals and live the lifestyle they want. What makes a difference to so many career sales people’s lives is knowing how to put the sales training into actions. So when you decide that today’s the day that your life changes, and you are going to get serious about sales development training and putting it into action, here’s a sales development training plan to get you started on achieving your desires and dreams.

Find the sales training that’s right for you

Click around the Internet and find the right sales skill training for you and your sales career. Consider if your customers buy because of their feelings and emotions, or do they make a buying decision based on logic. What’s the value of your average sale? The sales process for a low value high volume product will be different to the sales techniques used for a low volume high value sale. Making money from repeat business sales will require different sales skills to a one off market. You want selling skills that are customer focused and avoid feelings of buyer’s remorse to succeed in the repeat sales marketplace.

When you have a clear picture of your sale, the sale process, and how you close the sale, start clicking around the Internet. Look for sales development training that offers ways to increase sales by learning sales skills that match your style of selling. It’s no good buying sales training on killer sales closes if your sales are based on repeat business from customers that feel valued. Retail sales skills are different to B2B sales techniques. Successful direct sales people use selling techniques that suit their market and their product. Look at free sales training courses and get all the information you can to decide which is right for you. Then invest in sales skill training.

Now start to use the sales skills to change your life

Once you’ve found the right sales development training, you have to use it to gain from it. It’s no good just looking at it. You have to turn the sales training on the screen into actions. Take the sales skill training and transfer it into actions you are going to take. Write them in your diary and make them time bound. Have one sales action for each day, because you know you can complete that. Each action will build upon the one from the previous day.

For example, you start sales skill training to build a new sales introduction. The sales training says your first line should be an introduction of you, and your business. It must be short and to the point with no long winded speech about you or the product. This is your first action for day one. Write the new first line of for your sales introduction. Then day two could be to add a reason for seeing the buyer to your sales introduction. At the end of the first week you have a brand new sales introduction and you’re ready to start work on the other sales stages. And you are not becoming bored with the sales training, or finding you haven’t got the time to compete it.

The difference between successful sales people and the rest is not the sales skill training they receive, and it’s not even their level of sales ability. It’s whether they take actions or just sit back and let sales commission slip away. In most markets if you don’t sell to a prospective customer some other sales person will. If you don’t take actions today to increase your sales with sales development training, you are giving money to some other sales person. Perhaps it’s one of those you have seen succeeding, and buying new cars and a bigger house. Join them now by taking action today. Look for sales development training now by clicking around the Internet, and go get that diary. Or, stay as you are and tomorrow will be the same as today.

I know from some of my clients this year that booking their holiday party was hard. Venues catering and entertainment was all hard to find. So that is why I suggest starting to plan now! Read the article and go find a caterer! Then book me early as some 2023 holiday dates are already flying off calendar!

Tips for planning your next Company Holiday Party!

Planning successful social events takes time and patience. But the effort also gives you a chance to shine. One of the best ways to demonstrate your good judgment and your planning ability is to help plan a party that people will be talking about all year long.

Start Planning Now In most cases the planning should be at least 6 months in advance if not more. Most restaurants and caterers have their menus ready months in advance. Many venues are booked a full year in advance and good quality entertainment can be booked up to 1 year in advance!

1. What type of party is appropriate for the occasion? (casual get-together, banquet, buffet, dance, etc.)

2. Are you hosting this event during the work week?

3. Where will it take place? (office, hotel or restaurant)

4. Who is footing the bill? (company or the employees)

5. Set the date.

If the event will be formal or if a lot of people will be attending, you may want to hire a caterer. This will save you an enormous amount of time because once the essential decisions about the party are made, you can let the caterer handle the details.

Here are some suggestions if you decide to go the catering route:

1. Shop around. If you have never hired a caterer and have no recommendations to fall back on, check with the home office. They may recommend two or three reputable caterers in the area that are suited to your needs.

2. Make sure the caterer you choose is licensed has liability insurance and a permit. Feel free to ask for references, a reliable business shouldn’t mind.

3. When you’re considering price quotes from caterers make sure you’re getting what you pay for, i.e. one caterer may serve frozen pizza that you could easily buy in a grocery store, while another may prepare it fresh.

4. See if the caterer can prepare an assortment of interesting foods and Hor D’Oeuvres. People like to be able to pick and choose. You may also want to take dieters and those with known health issues into consideration and have vegetables, fruits and salads or even special dishes, such as low-cholesterol recipes

5. Go over the details once you decide on a caterer, you need to take the time to discuss your plans in detail so the caterer knows exactly what you want. For a company party, the presentation can be extremely important. The best company parties are often somewhat simple, but elegant.

6. Make sure you get a signed Catering Agreement outlining job responsibilities, total cost of your event, deposit and additional fees for setup and decorations. If there’s room in your party budget, you might consider having the caterer supply a staff to serve and clean up so you can enjoy the party.

7. When deciding on the menus consider using seasonal dishes. Quality and price are the main cost saving advantages.

Alcohol or Wine Because of the potential legal liabilities, more and more companies are serving wine or champagne instead of having a full bar. Make sure employees are reminded of the State Laws and Company policy on Alcohol and Drugs. Besides cutting down on legal problems, it helps to keep party expenses down. A champagne punch is a good choice for a holiday party.

The Forget-Me-Nots Don’t forget the little things. Once the major details are worked out, make arrangements for often overlooked essentials, such as ice. It’s the first thing that people run out of so buy extra. You can always through out what’s left over, but you’ll have a problem if you run out of it at the party.

Try and give the caterer an accurate count of people attending. Caterers usually take into account a few extra people. But if there’s gross misjudgment you’ll run out of food. And nobody wants to run out of food.

You should be ready to have a great time and shine for all your efforts in making this a successful event to remember.

Five Interview Questions You Should Always Ask

These five questions go beyond the obvious ones, such as the title of the job, the job description, to whom it would be reporting, and other such basic questions. In fact, it’s unlikely you’ll even need to ask those questions, as they’re usually outlined for you.

With some preparation and thought, you should be able to easily come up with 15 – 20 first-interview questions to ask. But these five – in some form – should always be asked.

Not only will they help you to ascertain if the job for which you are interviewing meets the criterion of your perfect job, but the answers, when put together, will give you a fairly accurate picture of what’s really going on behind the interview.

1. WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES THAT WILL NEED TO BE ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY IN THIS POSITION?: A title alone tells you nothing. The job description won’t reveal much either, except whether or not you’re capable of doing what’s required functionally on a daily basis.

For the same reason that you put your accomplishments on your resume – and not just the job description – here, too, you want to get a sense of the individuality of this job in this company.

Was everything left running smoothly? Is it pretty much picking up and continuing daily functions as normal? Or is there damage control that needs to be done? If so, is there a time line for the repair, and is it an achievable one considering your capabilities? Is it realistic regardless of who holds the position?

If you don’t have any information already, this will begin to clue you in about both the supervisor and the previous employee. If you have been provided with some detail already, then the answer should track with what you’ve already learned.

2. HOW LONG WAS THE PREVIOUS PERSON HERE? WHY DID THEY LEAVE? Generally, in answering the first part, the interviewer will answer the second part as well. But if they don’t, then ask it. And if that person was there an oddly short time, you also want to know how long the previous person before that was there.

See where I’m going with this? If the job is in disarray, and the last two people were there a short period of time and were fired, you don’t need to ask any of the other questions here.

Exit gracefully and then run! Because before long, you, too, will be terminated for not achieving whatever it is they want done – regardless of if the stated time frame sounded realistic or not.

3. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE. HOW DO YOU BRING OUT THE BEST IN YOUR EMPLOYEES?: Is he a micro manager? Is he an information hound that needs to be kept informed of everything? Does he leave people alone to do what he hired them for and simply keep on top of what’s going on? Does he help you if you have trouble? Do any mentoring? Or is he a berating, derogatory, jerk?

Obviously he’s not going to come right out and tell you he’s a micro manager! Instead he might say, “I like to keep a very close watch on what’s going on in my department,” or “I visit with each member of my department on a daily basis to make sure they’re staying on track,” or something similar.

You’ll find that the person will be fairly straight forward in sharing their management style with you. What you want to pay attention to is how they word it.

4. WHAT TYPES OF PEOPLE TEND TO EXCEL HERE?: Workaholics? Ones who are self-motivated and manage themselves well? People who work well in teams or committees? Employees who keep their supervisor informed of “where they are with things” on a daily basis?

This tells you something about the pervasive culture in the company or department. Generally speaking, companies – or departments – tend to be made up of similar types of people that are in harmony with the company culture and philosophy.

An entrepreneurial person won’t function well in a committee environment. While sales personalities can vary greatly, the top achievers are goal driven and motivated to achieve, rather than complacent.

People who are accustomed to thinking for themselves will find themselves chafing in a company that has a more dictatorial style, while those who perform better when they’re told what to do will find themselves adrift in a company that requires its employees to think for themselves.

5. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE? WHY DO YOU STAY?: The answer to this question will give you an indication as to the feeling or health of the department or company. The way in which he answers the question will also give you additional insight into your potential boss, his management style, and what type of people excel in the department or company.

These are informational questions, not challenges. Be genuinely interested in the answer, because you’re gaining valuable information that has to do with your future. When you leave the interview and process it within yourself, you’ll be matching what you learned with what you are looking for.

Pay attention to the interviewer’s body language and facial expressions. Is he relaxed? Does he fill in some of the spaces? Does he speak to you – or AT you? Does he answer the question briefly and then quickly fire off another one?

These, too, are valuable cues, and after the interview, you’ll need to piece them together with the verbal information you received.

Your perfect job might land in your lap by grace and good fortune. But more likely, you’ll need to look for it. It’s there – but to recognize it, you’ll need to know what it doesn’t look like, as well as what it does.