Joan Burge's Administrative Blog

The past few weeks have been exciting, energizing and eye opening for me. I have been traveling and working onsite with various clients. My recent trip this past week had many unexpected events -- not so much with the client and my program, but little things related to my travel, car rental, hotel shuttle driver getting lost and stopped by the police (with only me in the van -- and it was night), to almost getting on the wrong plane for the first time in 19 years to ...

If you aren’t already implementing daily huddles with your executive I suggest you start now. Are you curious about what to talk about with your executive? Here are some ideas:

I hope you enjoyed a little break around the 4th of July. In case you don't remember, I started a 3 MM series on June 28 around Lessons Learned During Crises. Today's Lesson: Dealing with Disappointment Before my husband, Dave, had a health set back in June, we had many plans for a wonderful June. We were going on a fabulous cruise for a week for our 2010 vacation. Dave had booked the cruise 4 months ago and was eagerly counting down every day until our well-earned vacation. I had planned to finish a writing project, focusing on some VIP client work, swimming with my grandchildren, and finally working less hours after a busy 5 months of the year.

It feels good to be back at work and writing again. I have so much to share based on the past 3 weeks, that I don't know where to begin. Therefore, I'd like to spread out Lessons Learned During Crises over 3 weeks. I encourage you to read each Monday Motivator as each of us never knows when a crisis or crises will hit us personally or professionally. Even if you experience a business professional crisis such as a job loss, it still affects you personally. And vice versa . . . when your personal life is tossed about like a small boat in the huge ocean, your professional life is affected.

Thanks to 100s of you who have sent Dave and me your well wishes, prayers, and cards. We certainly needed every bit of encouragement. Dave and I have been through quite a test of faith and hope the past 3 weeks. I have learned more nursing skills than I ever would wish to have learned (I am very squeamish, on top of it) and Dave has been fighting daily battles in his own way. With the rally of so many friends, family, the Office Dynamics staff, and even those of you from countries I have never traveled to, we have been able to get through this very difficult time.

It’s been a hectic time at our office and with the recent holiday and conferences taking us offsite – it has been a challenge staying focused. I’m sure you have experienced the same with long weekends and the beginning of summer before us. We have also faced many challenges recently as many of us do from time to time in life. My question, though, is have you lost your groove?

The skill you need to develop if you want to live a happier, more satisfying professional and personal life is the ability to ask the "what ifs" that can see you through a blip in your day or a catastrophe.

I'm sure many of you are engrained in March Madness. Even if you are not a big basketball fan like me, it is still all around you. But I think there is another kind of March Madness. I'm seeing it and hearing it every day as business picks up. It is great to see organizations, managers, executives and their staff getting busier and busier. With that comes the need for all parties to pick up their pace, work smarter and faster, respond quicker, and keep things moving at a record pace.

While many presenters speak on stress management, I speak on Self-Management. The reason being is that many of the things that stress us involve outside sources or events and then it is our thinking about those people or events that lead to stress.

Monday Motivator for this week: Did you know star performers think differently? They know that there is a direct relation between their thinking and their action. For example, if they only think about why an idea won't work, then the idea won't work.