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Creativity Boosts

Finding yourself stuck in a rut? Fresh out of new ideas? Having trouble thinking outside of the box? What about brainstorming?

Everyone gets stuck every so often and if you are in a creative type of business, you are well aware that creativity. Do you know that you can actually train yourself to be more creative? Yes, it is possible!

Some people are lucky and have no problem coming up with ideas (like a veritable fast food restaurant in their brain!) Some need to be eased into creative mode a little more slowly. The problem is that you need that fresh idea by tomorrow and well, all you hear is the clock ticking and all you have in front of you is a blank piece of paper. What to do?

If at all possible, brainstorming works. If you have a few colleagues that you can shoot ideas around with, do it! If you are on your own, remove yourself from the situation for a couple of minutes. A writer I know, if she is stuck on an idea, either works on other writing or goes and chats with a pal (online) for a bit, the usually the idea comes to her! Learn to laugh at yourselves and have fun. If you are stressed, then answers don’t seem to come quite as easy as they do when you are relaxed. Also, thinking outside the box can help. Yes, I know that this is a common catch phrase of these days, but don’t think it, do it! Many inventions were produced by accident! Many ideas come to us if we change our surroundings, new sights and sounds, sometimes these can be a trigger to spark that idea or at least start the creative juices flowing. After you have done some of these or all of these steps for creativity, you will want to narrow down your ideas – set the parameters of what ideas you are looking for and go from there. But remember, usually the best ideas come from breaking away from tradition, so gather up your courage and shoot for the stars!

Crisis

“When written in Chinese, the word crisis has two characters, one means danger, the other, opportunity” John F. Kennedy

Crisis can happen to the best of us and can be either at work or at home, but the trick is on how we deal with them when they happen to us.

A crisis is something that you are confronted with that is beyond the usual realm of your life or work that usually happens to you in a bad way. Such a situation could be complex and hard to resolve and can leave your emotionally drained. 

For business, it is good to have some sort of disaster planning in place. I read about a Limousine service that is in New York City. This company had all sorts of back up systems in cases like a blizzard or other disturbances. But then 9/11 happened, and since he got most of his business from the airports this posed a very big problem. But thinking quickly and on his feet, he cut loose some of his contractor drivers, let go a few staff members and struggled through the lean times post 9/11 only to become more successful than before.

So, we learn from that little story, how you deal with crisis is important! 

-react to the bad news with a calm manner. (of course, this is not always easy, but do your best)

-the Boy Scouts hit right on the head with their motto ‘Be Prepared’ look at every possible scenario and go from there – some business even have staff whose project is to do ‘disaster recovery’.

-develop steps for short term recovery (early action is best, but of course everything takes time)

-develop measures for long term recovery.

While crisis is generally not easy, it affects almost all of us at some time or another, the key is to not worry about it before hand and deal with it when it does happen. Perhaps, the serenity prayer is best for this type of situation:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

The Fine Art Of Firing

You have warned the person, written up the person all to no avail, now the powers that be have decided that this person has to go. How can you fire someone and be humane about it?

One article I read said to do it by being honest and with compassion. Of course, you are not going to be their best friend, but you have to know how to do it properly so its both ethically and legally. 

-it should be done face to face. An email, snail mail letter or a phone just isn’t the proper way to do it. It is a cop out for you and just not fair.

-you should have proof that the person is not living up to the job requirements. Document each occurrence.

-decide what severance is possible and needed for the person

-try and arrange an end of the day (week even) so they can have time to clean out their desk.

-give them details about why you are unhappy with their performance, but keep it short.

-and for you, the person that is doing the firing, never fire in anger or in haste, take time and cool off, before you do anything.

Face it, firing anyone is never going to be an easy task no matter what, but it has to be done and the trick is to do it properly.

Self Esteem

What is self esteem and what does it mean to us? Self esteem is the way we view ourselves, how we feel about ourselves and how we think others see us. Low self esteem happens when we tend to view ourselves in a negative light, we tend to criticize ourselves, try to be superwomen (and fail), try to embody someone else or try to please others. High self esteem is just the opposite. This happens when we look favourably upon our self, we are happy with our accomplishments and we are satisfied with our life.

Low self esteem can cause depression, unhappiness, insecurity and result in very little self confidence. But this can be eradicated by a few simple steps (or at least beaten down to something more manageable)

-face your fears – everyone of us has monsters in our closets

-learn from past mistakes

-go after your dreams – once you realize them go and get them. You deserve for them to happen!

-reward yourself when you succeed

-don’t be defeated. Look at famous inventors, chances are they didn’t get what they were after on the first try either. Don’t give up, keep trying!

-remember self confidence can be a learned behaviour and it’s not too late!

-action vs worrying about something (what will worrying about it solve?)

-develop an optimistic attitude

-focus on your needs, desires and what is best for you. After all, who is really going to look after you, if you don’t?

-use visualization to help you accomplish your goals.

-read inspiring books and stories – they can help realize and see how other people defeated problems and issues in their lives.

Women tend to be more sensitive to others needs and more aware of how changes might make things better for someone else. We tend to over analyze (how often have you gone over a conversation in your head, wondering what the person really meant?) But the more self esteem you have, the more confident you are and people are drawn to confident people!