I see the challenges businesses face everyday to get and hold on to good employees. Sometimes it is not about the money or benefits. Being recognized, challenged, valued, trusted, acknowledged and heard can oftentimes tip the scale between leaving and staying. We are in a different era than the one I traveled through. Compliments in the work force were few and far between. Today’s workers are coming through the age of entitlement. Schools honored everyone for everything from straight A’s to “the best desk scrubber”, recognition was the chip of the day. Members of athletic teams all got some kind of award; no longer was it just the “star” player that hoisted a trophy. These expectations are now carried into the work force. Employee recognition programs are important to the culture and climate of the business world. Surveys show that pats on the back, public praise and genunine pampering do make a difference. So we old school folks might not agree with the need for such things in the business world; but, if we are to catch and keep people with the talents needed to succeed in this competitive arena we have to order the ribbons and pins, placques and tie tacks. Donuts and coffee on Friday mornings won’t do it anymore!

Living in the western mountains of North Carolina, rain storms come through somewhere almost every summer day so when the noon sky grew black as midnight and the trees were on their knees we knew something was coming. The midnight black turned to greenish white and taking cover was all that was important! The freight train sounds as the wind and rains blasted by were followed rapidly by the crashing timbers and the shaking of our home. In seconds it passed with only its destructive path left behind. Asheville weather center called it a microburst, others called it a tornado. Needless to say, “it” did not care what it was called! Roof trusses crushed as an old oak lay upon our home with its canopy blocking any exit. Windows were blown out, power lines snaked around the property and suddenly we knew what so many others have learned from being caught in Mother Nature at work. We are thankful for safety, for the kindness of family and friends, and the realization that things can be replaced but lives cannot.
Being a humorous motivational speaker, I get material for my keynotes and trainings from everyday happenings, even tragic events like these provide lessons and opportunities to learn and share and believe it or not, laugh. In time, I will find the thread of humor that is woven into my latest adventure and “It” will be but a memory.

We have all had times at work when we thought we were on the edge of insanity. As a public school principal I found myself looking over that edge. Contrary to belief, a school principal has little or no control over most things but is held accountable for everything like: hundreds of children at various ages and places of development; staff members with different degrees of preparedness; busses running late; cold “hot” lunches; firedrills; a school building project; lockdown procedures; poor test results; a losing basketball team; an empty soda machine; lack of $$$$; unsuccessful parent teacher conferences and even an increase in property taxes! You name it and somehow I was responsible for it. Needless to say I saw “the edge”. It is times like these when we need to be our own therapists. Therapists can’t be with us 24/7 so I would slip down the old wooden stairway of my 1924 archaic brick school building to the supply closet. It is here, amidst the reams of paper, glue and musty smells of old sneakers that I would conduct my 30 minute therapy session. Organizing and rearranging school supplies was just what the doctor ordered! I would emerge calm, focused, dusty but ready! Finding a way to acknowledge and tackle moments at the edge is exactly what we need in order to achieve and succeed. Clark Kent used a telephone booth, I used a supply closet. Where do you keep your 24 hour therapist?