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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Epidemic Enthusiasm and Pandemic Pride

Every businessman knows that the key to turning customers into raving fans is to give exceptional customer service, to provide not only for the customer's needs but for their every want and desire even before they know that they have a want or desire. What eludes many business owners is how to provide that level of customer service. Literally hundreds of books have been written and seminars sold on how to improve customer service. Experts have employees imagining everything from mailboxes to caribbean beaches all in the hope of improving customer service.

walt Disney World Resorts creates raving fans because they provide a vacation beyond your imagination. They accomplish this not through the miracles of animatronics or the amusement park atmosphere, these things can be found at hundreds of vacation destinations worldwide. walt Disney World Resorts creates raving fans by infecting their employees (known as cast members) with epidemic enthusiasm and pandemic pride.

So how do you start an epidemic in your business?

The key to creating an epidemic of enthusiasm is to turn your customer service inward. To create for your employees a career experience beyond their wildest imagination. Epidemic enthusiasm comes from an experience of the relationship between your employees and you. When employees feel that they are truly appreciated as your everyday hero and that by coming to work they leave invigorated and their life is enhanced rather than leaving tired and their life diminished then your employees become infected with enthusiasm for their work. When they see their careers, their employer in comparison to those of their peers elsewhere they cannot help but catching pandemic pride because their employer treats them so well.

There are two simple steps to enriching your employees' lives to the point where they know that they are valued and the infection of epidemic enthusiasm takes hold. Appreciation is the first of these two steps.

Robert is the CEO of a mediumsized company in South Central Florida. Every morning when Robert arrives at 9:40 a.m. he walks through the entire building greeting every employee from janitor through the managers with a genuine eyeglinting smile and a hardy good morning. If an employee appeared down, upset, or distracted he would take a moment to ask them if they were all right, if there was anything that he could personally do to make their day just a little bit brighter and if there was he would do it. It was not unusual to see Bob, as he encouraged his employees to call him, carrying coffee or water or hot tea to somebody's desk just to make them feel a little better. Bob regularly said thank you for being here even though nothing special had been done yet. The day had just begun. His genuine enthusiasm and appreciation was warm, enveloping, and infectious. And it cost him nothing but a brief 20 minutes before his day began.

Robert is a living example of the first step to infecting your organization with epidemic enthusiasm and pandemic pride. The second step is to encourage resilience. There are six basic areas of human function:

* Physical

* Emotional

* Intellectual

* Social

* Behavioral

* Spiritual

Resilience has been described as mastery against adversity and by fostering the ability of your employees to show this mastery in the face of adversity either in the workplace or in their family or personal lives. You create an experience in their career that enriches their entire life. You make them masters not just of adversity but of their own destiny.

Resilience is built by filling six "canteens of resilience":

* Physical resilience

* Emotional resilience

* Intellectual resilience

* Relationship resilience

* Functional resilience

* Spiritual resilience

Physical resilience is exactly as the name would imply. It is the physical capacity to continue working in light of physical and even emotional stress. Physical resilience is enhanced through the maintenance of good health and a healthy lifestyle. Eating a balanced diet both at home and at work; regular exercise; and adequate rest, even during the disaster, are essential to "filling" your canteen of physical resilience and maintaining that resilience.

Emotional resilience deals directly with what we feel and how we respond to it. The old saying "attitude counts" was never more true than when filling your canteen of emotional resilience. Loving and being loved, including loving yourself; enjoying the everyday joys of life and ensuring that you have the opportunity for boundless joy and genuine happiness fill your canteen with the sweet emotions that counterbalance the bitterness of adversity. On the other hand, if you have filled your emotional canteen with despair; selfloathing; angst and animus then you will have nothing but bitter drags from which to drink when in the midst of a challenge.

Intellectual resilience is bolstered by the very act of learning and practicing the skills which you have learned. It is as we gain experience and knowledge we slowly imprint new patterns which we may later use to compare and ultimately recognize as familiar situations and events that unfold during an event. The more of these patterns that we have in our intellectual canteen the more quickly we can recognize and adapt to the ever changing business environment. When we can recognize these patterns quickly we can respond quickly thus bolstering our intellectual resilience.

Relationship resilience bolsters our social functioning. It is through our relationships with those that we hold dear, spouses and significant others; children and grandchildren; parents; relatives; friends; coworkers that we fill our canteen of relationship resilience with memories and comforting mental images that carry us through our times of separation. It is also these relationships that safeguard our lives and our emotions. It is through these relationships that we not only fill our canteens but keep them full and keep watch on each other.

Functional resilience bolsters our behavioral function. The skills that we have practiced in our day-to-day lives as we have moved through our careers are that with which we fill our canteen of functional resilience. Like the patterns in our canteen of intellectual resilience the skills of our functional resilience are no different at times of adversity than they are at times between challenges. We need only be able to access those skills more quickly and perform them more calmly.

Spiritual resilience is somewhat different because the canteen of spiritual resilience is not filled by what we believe, but rather by the fact that we believe. Research in the area of resilience has shown that the very act of believing enforces an even intelligence beyond ourselves, a higher purpose for higher power, bolsters our resilience, and improves our function and our likelihood to master adversity.

By assisting your team in developing resilience and maintaining that resilience they are not only better able to perform at work but in every other aspect of their lives.

Pam was the president of a small public relations firm and had an intimate understanding of the need to maintain full canteens of resilience. She had begun her professional career selling sports club memberships to highend clients and quickly learned that it was through demonstrating the benefits of health that she made the most sales. When she started her own company she maintained a treadmill in her office setting a visual example to employees and clients alike of the importance of personal health. She took a tremendous interest in her diet and her health care maintaining both at their peak potential.

She filled her life with positive affirmations and chose to allow negative emotional events and negative feelings to flow past her like water past a riverbank.

Her life was rich with friendships both personal and professional and if Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like, then Pam never met a person that she did not have a smile for. Always learning Pam invested time in both personal and professional readings as well as audiostudy programs and an everexpanding range of intellectual interests and selfstudy. Her full intellectual canteen paled in comparison to her canteen of relationships which was always full to overflowing as she would make new friends even during the mundane activities of going to the store or traveling on an airplane. She encouraged her employees to do the same reserving a part of one day a week to play games, brainstorm, and just enjoy each other's company in the office.

Pam also maintained her skills in all aspects of her business. Professional speaking and oneonone sales were part of the "personal touch" that allowed Pam to maintain some of the most soughtafter clients in the public relations world. Pam paid for her managers to travel with her to several key events each year so that they could maintain their skills in all aspects of the business as well as maintaining relationships with outoftown clients.

Pam's spiritual canteen was filled by her belief that there was a higher power in the universe, a greater consciousness which was both benevolent and allpowerful. Never one to impose her beliefs on others, she maintained space within the company for the free personal expression of belief within the confines of each employee's personal space.

By both leading by example and providing the template for success Pam imbued in her employees pride which became pandemic not just among those who worked for her but her people infected her clients, each of them as proud to say that her company represented them as she was to say that she represented each client.

Thus we see that epidemic enthusiasm and pandemic pride are infections created by those who own, operate, and lead the most successful businesses. It is this leadership and this attitude of employee service equal to customer service that creates employees that go on to turn loyal customers into raving fans that then spread the reputation and the name of your company.

Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez is co-founder of Disaster Life Support of North America, Inc., a national provider of Disaster Preparation, Planning, Response and Recovery education. Through his consulting firm High Alert, LLC., he serves on expert panels for pandemic preparedness and healthcare surge planning with Congressional and Cabinet members. Board certified in multiple medical specialties, Dr. Ramirez is Founding Chairperson of the American Board of Disaster Medicine and a Senior Physician-Federal Medical Officer for the Department of Homeland security. Cited in 24 textbooks with numerous published articles, he is co-creator of C5RITICAL and author of Mastery Against Adversity.

Dr. Ramirez invites comments at: http://www.disaster-blog.com

Yoga Matsyoga Mat Bags

Madden 2008 Review

The most notorious sports video game of the year is available. Many critics and even devoted madden fans have been perturbed with madden recently because they have been the same old madden. Some would even go as far as to say that there has not been many innovative features after madden 2005 (which introduced the hit stick). Others believe that Electronic Arts is not striving to make the best nfl game because there is no competition. Since EA bought the exclusive nfl rights, they have been making the same old madden video games. madden 2008 is an exception to that rule because it is brilliant.

After an average three iterations of madden that have disappointed fans, madden 2008 will definitely please fans. The visuals are amazing on the xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but they are dreadful on the nintendo Wii. Players will notice is that the somewhat vexing Tony Bruno is no longer doing his absurd radio show, and the gratuitous newspaper information is nowhere to be seen. The gameplay is more fluid than previous iterations of madden. Gamers will realize that the players do not arbitrarily run around the field like Bobby Brown addicted to crack cocaine anymore. There have been some minor alterations to the hit stick; moreover, high and low tackles can be executed. The pass rush is more realistic in madden 2008 than in madden 2007.

You cannot expect to pick up the blitz with only five offensive linemen; you ned to alter your protection and blocking schemes. Quarterbacks will be more precocious because high IQ quarterbacks like Peyton Manning will be able to see what play the defense is running. To counter this, defenders with high IQ will be able to view what play the offense is running. Players with low intelligence like Michael Vick (dog killer) will not be able to read defenses. This feature is only available if the defense or offense runs the same three of four plays every time, but it is still a nice touch and prevents any team from running the same plays every time. Offensively, the highlight stick has been revamped; more maneuvers can be performed on your way to scoring a touchdown. This is incredible because it reduces contemplating what to do next on the field. Wide receivers have some brand new things to do as well.

Spectacular catches and possession catches can be utilized in madden 2008. Many expert madden fans will realize that each receiver plays differently. For instance, Hines Ward will attempt a conservative catch because he is a possession receiver. Conversely, Torry Holt will attempt an aggressive catch because he is a spectacular receiver. Another element about receivers is the chess match with defenses. For example, Terrell Owens (the guy who sabotaged the Eagles 2005-2006 year and helped the New York Giants win their division) will be much easier to play bump and run coverage than a swift receiver like Steve Smith.

This is because Terrell Owens is an easier player to press at the line of scrimmage. The same rule applies for Randy Moss. Substitutions are more of a factor in madden 2008 than last season. Teams like the New Orleans Saints will run a two back system, and Reggie Bush will share the load with Deuce Mcallister. Superstar mode has been overhauled in madden 2008.

Players will have more control on the rating of their created Superstar. He will compete in 40 yard dashes, lift weight, and various other drills to bolster his attributes. This is much more proficient than the asinine DNA mode which was random. Subtle icons are shown under each player to accentuate their field of expertise. For example, Brett Favre has a rocket under his name because he has rocket arm. Overall, madden 2008 has given even the most novice nfl fans something to be elated about. It seems that the madden franchise is finally heading in the right direction.

Kundalini Yoga Books

Yoga Plans for Anxiety Relief

many of us have heard a co-worker or friend say, I would love to try a Yoga class, but I dont have time for Yoga practice. Heres another good one: Im going to start eating better lunches, when I have time to pack one.

The problem is a perceived lack of time, which has become an excuse for bad health habits. As most of us know, you cannot put a price tag on good health, but when your health is poor, you will pay anything for a day without pain or even less pain.

The worst part about a perceived lack of time is that the real issue is lack of control over our bad habits. This is one of many reasons for anxiety. To live a healthier lifestyle will establish control of our habits and reduce anxiety altogether.

Lets look at some strategies for ridding or reducing anxiety in your life. many people do not write a to do list at the beginning of a day. This entails having the discipline to plan our day. If you do this the night before, and pack a lunch, you will take back control of your day.

When you have a to do list, you will have extra time. This is because you spend less time wondering, What should I do now? Some of the most successful people on this planet have created a habit of time management, which has drastically lowered their anxiety levels.

Lastly, when someone has extra time, the effects of a regular Yoga class, a walk, or a healthy lunch, will add up over time.

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.riyoga.com He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Childrens Yoga Equipment

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