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E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology
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Success!Ezine
Volume 4 Issue 7 -- July 2006
DrCarolWebster.com
Copyright 2006   All Rights Reserved

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E. Carol Webster, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in consulting practice in Fort Lauderdale, FL providing professional development, private practice development and promotion, media psychology and publishing, as well as cultural competency for clinicians in need of case consultation. Feel free to call or e-mail for more information.

Dr. Webster is author of Success Management: How to Get to the Top and Keep Your Sanity Once You Get There and The Fear of Success: Stop It From Stopping You!

Feature Article
 

Stay Motivated During Summer Doldrums

E. Carol Webster, Ph.D. 
Copyright ©  2006

It’s summertime and the workplace is chillin’. Many of your colleagues and senior management are on vacation, making it tough for you to feel like doing very much. Enjoy some downtime, but take advantage of a good opportunity to enhance yourself professionally as well as personally.

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 Show Your Stuff

Use this time to act on all those creative ideas that pop into your head but that you never have the time to work on. All those suggestions about how things would run better if only this or that were done on the job. Catch up on required tasks and projects, but don’t rest on your laurels once they’re done – tackle some new areas of interest so that you keep yourself motivated, stimulated, and show your star power.

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 Expand Your Network

Since you have some time on your hands now, it is likely that others do too. Identify those in your organization you’ve been meaning to contact and get in touch with them. What about those who are usually unapproachable? They may be wandering the halls just like you looking to pass the time. This is a prime opportunity to gain face time with these individuals, so put some energy into doing so. Include contacts outside your organization because these folks are probably freer now too. Those in business for themselves can use these slow periods to cultivate new relationships and may find that their breakfast, lunch, or dinner invitations are more likely accepted because people are feeling a little less stressed and pressed for time.

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 Have Some Fun

What better time to take some half days or long weekends than right now? Just because you can’t get away for a full vacation doesn’t mean you can’t use this slow time to enjoy yourself. Get home early to enjoy your significant other and/or your kids. Take your friend up on that golf game. Dust off the hobby you haven’t been able to get to all year. Escape to the spa. These activities are restorative and rejuvenating and help to clear your head and lift your spirits so that you feel like working when you’re at the office.

 The doldrums of summer are a great time to take action and make connections that highlight your competencies and distinguish you from your peers.   This is also a time to re-energize so that you are fortified and ready for the wave of stress and activity that will resume once the workplace gears up again. Make this time count. You’ll be glad you did.

 

 About the Author: 
Dr. E. Carol Webster is a clinical psychologist in consulting practice in Fort Lauderdale, FL and is author of 
Success Management: How to Get to the Top and Keep Your Sanity Once You Get There
and The Fear of Success: Stop It From Stopping You!

 

Ask Dr. Webster...

Dear Dr. Webster: My front office staff always looks mad, bored or depressed. But when I ask them “What’s the matter?” they say “Nothing.” They say things are fine so I don’t understand why they act like this. What should I do about it?

 - - Baffled Boss

 

Dear Baffled Boss: I hope these are new hires that you can show the door if they can’t do better. It shouldn’t be your responsibility to teach basic social skills to employees who take jobs working with the public in the front office. But, unfortunately, many people haven’t learned that they have a facial expression and body language at all times when they are in the public eye. They need to understand how this affects the people who enter your business and how customer satisfaction affects your ability to stay afloat and to pay employee salaries.

 

Customer service training that provides these employees with visual feedback about how sour they look while working will be helpful. Some still won’t get it and they really need to be reassigned or replaced. Others will be chagrined about how unfriendly they look and this should help them learn to fix a smile and more welcoming body language while taking care of the needs of their customers. The public should expect to be greeted warmly and to feel valued in your establishment, and you must make it your business to find employees who can make this happen.

 

 

--Dr. Webster

Got a Question?

Ask Dr. Webster

 

Success Motivator

No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.

 -- Zora Neale Hurston

  Success Tip

Do you get image fixes from the perks associated with your job?

1.     Have you lost the ability to make a distinction between a true social life with friends and family and a social life based on business entertaining?

2.     Do you enjoy a higher standard of living when you are doing business for the company than you do in your regular life and have you come to count on it?

3.     Do the perks of your business make you feel as though you “own the place” even though in reality you have seen other equally “indispensable” people let go with less than a week’s notice?

4.     Do the perks of your occupation have more appeal than the occupation itself?

5.     Does the thought of giving up company perks -– car, expense account, etc. -- fill you with dread?

6.      Do you feel like more of a personal because of your expense account?

7.     Do the special privileges your company offers -- gym privileges, meal privileges, club memberships -- make you feel as though you are also “special”?

8.     Do you ever feel yourself becoming condescending toward friends whose jobs don’t let them eat where you eat, go where you go, drive the car you drive?

9.     Does your expense account, in some way, interfere with your relationship with your spouse?

10.  Has your need for perks ever caused you to do something you regretted or kept you stuck in a situation for too long?

    From the book:

Lives Without Balance

 by Steven Carter & Julia Sokol

Villard Books, New York, 1992
 

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June 2006 Success Entourage
May 2006 Introvert? Interested In Sales?
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April 2006 To Gain Work-Life Balance,
Get A Life
March 2006 Bounce Back From Being Bounced
February 2006 Emotional Intelligence
January 2006 Crank Up Your Career -
Get A Coach This Year
December 2005 Holiday Gift Giving

November 2005

Coping With Disaster

October 2005

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Success!Ezine
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology
DrCarolWebster.com
954.797.9766
SuccessEzine@DrCarolWebster.com

Disclaimer: The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for obtaining direct professional help.

 

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