Networking Today Archives: January 2002

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

Avoid Foot and Mouth Disease

By Barbara Bartlein

As an outgoing and gregarious person, I have had the unfortunate experience of putting my foot deeply down my gullet on many occasions. You know what I am referring to, the actual choking on the base of your fibula and tibia after hastily saying something that now hangs in the air in an otherwise silent room.

While personally knowing the embarrassment, humiliation, and regret of hasty comments, I also know that loose lips sink corporate ships. That is, office gossip promotes an institutional pathology that keeps energy focused internally in the organization rather than externally on the customer. The gossip becomes a disease, robbing the company of valuable energy, creativity, and time and is very hurtful to the participants.

To avoid food and mouth disease, I have found these guidelines helpful:

Is it kind? If the comment isn’t kind, do you really have to share it? Evaluate each remark as to whether it reflects positively on the subject and you. Does it focus on the important characteristics of the person or his/her faults? It’s like a golf swing. I can easily find the problems with other people’s golf swings, but darned if I can diagnose my own problems. Is it the stance, the address or the follow through (probably all three)? When we focus on the negative with people, we become the negative person. Limit your comments to kind remarks.
Is it true? Nothing travels faster than bad news and information that is totally false. Many a person has been deeply hurt when untrue comments are passed person to person until the truth is lost in the muck. And truth in all areas is important, even if the false information is more interesting and provocative. The misinformation becomes difficult to undo because it takes on a life of its own and passes quickly among the employees who don’t have enough to do. Even when the information is clarified later, people aren’t interested because the original false news broadcast was so much more enticing.
Is it important? While the trivia of life makes for good copy for the tabloids at the super market, it does not have a role in the workplace. It takes a lot of energy to follow to stay on top of all the muck and make sure that everyone “has heard” the news. Time is much better spent on understanding the customer, developing new products, or giving better service. If there is any extra energy, it can be directed toward enhancing your personal creativity or finding a better balance. Ignore the trivia and focus on making a difference.

Two more quick rules: Never ask anyone about their pregnancy unless you are actually observing the birth, and don’t comment on someone’s age unless you are at his or her funeral.

Barbara Bartlein is the PeoplePro™. She helps businesses sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by email at: barb@barbbartlein.com or visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com.

Published in Networking Today, September 2002.

Sunday, January 6, 2002

For Best Results, Look At Structure

By Barbara Bartlein

“His work displays excellent quality, but he never gets it finished on time.”

“I keep telling my staff the same directions over and over again. They don’t seem to follow through with details.”

“This is the third person we have had in that position. Why can’t we find good help?”

Statements such as these can be overheard in any office and are often delivered in a blaming, whining voice. With a focus on employee failure, little attention is given to the structure of positions, performance expectations, or the operational design necessary for positive results. This is surprising because most of the time, other than an attitude problem, the reason employees are not successful is because of structure.

It may be the actual structure of the position including workload, reporting relationships, and working environment. It may be that accountabilities are too hazy or too rigid or there is a lack of feedback. The pay structure may be out of sync with the market, making it impossible to recruit quality candidates. Whatever the issues, it is helpful to remember the following principles about structure when performance is a problem:

Structure determines performance. Whether a car, space shuttle, the Titanic, or a work team, structure drives outcome. Structure is not stagnant; it changes frequently and needs to be evaluated on a regular basis to see if major or minor modifications are needed. This is one of the advantages of regular, even monthly, reviews with staff members. It allows an opportunity to examine what is working and what isn’t. Structure can be “tweaked” and reevaluated for performance improvement.
A well-designed structure naturally gives you the results you want. It eliminates the need for “micro-managing” or the “detail dictator.” Positive results are inevitable, because the structure drives the everyday decisions and work flow. Expectations are clear and concise. Positive performance is reinforced with verbal feedback and appropriate salaries.
When you know what you want but aren’t getting it, the structure you’re in is likely to be the problem. People don’t come to work to fail…they want to do a good job. So if the work is not getting done the way you want, look at structure before blaming the employee. Especially in situations where there is a lot of turnover in the position. Maybe the problem is the position. Is the workload realistic? Do they have a level of authority to match the responsibilities? Is the reporting relationship clear? A NO answer to any of these questions will deliver a poor performance.
The best structures allow for information to flow laterally. Change is not top-down. While many CEO’s delude themselves with the belief that they are the catalyst for change, the best changes in an organization occur when work teams cross-pollinate and share ideas. This is created structurally by eliminating competition and encouraging cooperation. A work environment that includes a healthy dose of fun and good humor drives this kind of change, as people are more creative when they enjoy what they are doing. Some of the most powerful elements of the structure are invisible. Consciousness is itself a powerful structure; it determines the way in which we design our systems and thus the results we are getting. Employees that are encouraged to use their creativity for problem solving and given time for creative thinking will produce new ideas. This type of creativity cannot take place when employees are buried in busy work and choked in waves of paper.

“Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he’ll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint and he’ll have to touch it to be sure.”

Wednesday, January 2, 2002

Seven Principles for Keeping Your Clients

By Andrew Sobel

Some business professionals throw up their hands and retreat from the marketplace when the going gets rough, while others seem to sail effortlessly through the same turbulence. Let’s look at some of the myths about managing clients in an economic downturn, and the principles that can help you to thrive uncertain times:

MYTH: “My clients just don’t want to see me – they have no money to spend.” Is this the only reason you spend time with clients? In uncertain times, they need you more than ever!

**Principle 1: Get out into the marketplace–actively seek out your clients and try to help them with whatever issues they’re facing. Be patient and be prepared to invest extra time.
MYTH: “I need to cut my prices to attract business.” Clients would like a discount, but will they pay more when times are good? Of course not!

**Principle 2: Don’t cut prices, but if necessary be willing to propose flexible, creative, and even unorthodox ways of structuring your work and invoicing for it (e.g., break a large project or order into small pieces, postpone invoicing, etc.).
MYTH: “Large companies are a safe port during storms.” In fact, large corporations can be the most disloyal clients of all, enacting blanket, across-the-board cuts that throw the baby–you–out with the bathwater.

**Principle 3: Small and medium-size companies often have greater flexibility to retain and pay a professional who can really add value.
MYTH: “Now is the time to cut back across the board.” Not really. By investing more in sales and marketing, the strong can get stronger in a down market.

**Principle 4: A recession is a good time to increase your market share through enhanced marketing efforts and more “feet on the street.”
MYTH: “It’s more important than ever to demonstrate my specific expertise–it’s the only thing clients will pay for when money is tight”

**Principle 5: In a crisis, insight, judgment, wisdom, and plain level-headedness are often more important than expertise. Experts are commodities in good times and bad.
MYTH: “I need to take any business I can get in times like this.” Not a good idea. In good times and bad, the most successful professionals exercise client selectivity.

**Principle 6: Accepting any and all business looks good now, but it will eventually drag you down and put you in a potentially worse position when things rebound later on.
MYTH: “I need to spend my time with paying clients.” If you help a client who is in-between jobs, unemployed, or otherwise down-and-out, he will never forget it.

**Principle 7: A client in need is a client indeed.

Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published in Networking Today, February 2002.

Are You Developing Your Clients for Life?

By Andrew Sobel

Ideas for Adding Value & Building Loyalty – Ten Questions to Ask Yourself A client for life always goes back to you when there is a need for your particular services. If there is a hiatus in the relationship, he or she will heartily recommend you to others and recall positively how much value you were able to add.

Let's review the basic principles that underpin these extraordinarily valuable long-term relationships. Here they are, framed as a series of questions:

Do you provide broad-based advice and consultation along with specialized products and services? Do your clients view you as an expert-for-hire or a broad-based, trusted advisor?
Are you able to listen empathetically to clients on multiple levels – feelings, thoughts, and context? Do you convey information and provide answers, or ask great questions and deliver insight?
Have you developed a balanced blend of selfless independence – a singular focus on your clients and their needs, tempered with complete emotional, intellectual, and financial (as a mindset, at least!) independence from them?
Are you a deep generalist – do you have great expertise combined with a breadth of knowledge about your clients and the industries they operate in (or in the case of individuals, their family and work situation)? Are you able to converse with your clients about more than just business, and genuinely relate to their interests?
Do you bring big-picture thinking to your clients – synthesis as opposed to analysis? Do you ask thought-provoking questions that help clients reframe their needs? Can you identify critical issues and discern trends and patterns? Are you able to make knowledge connections that shed light on your clients' problems?
Do you consistently have good judgment? Do you help clients avoid typical judgment traps (such as overconfidence, stereotyping, and faulty premises) and then combine experience, intuition, and personal values to make good decisions? Do you admit mistakes and learn from them, or do you need to show that you are always right?
Are your relationships based on professional credibility or do you go further and develop deep, personal trust with clients? Do you consistently demonstrate integrity with your clients – adherence to a clear set of values, consistency, reliability, and discretion? Do you spend enough face time with clients to have the opportunity to establish trust?
Do you have great powers of conviction based on a clear set of values and a sense of your mission as a professional? Do you communicate with clarity, energy, and palpable belief?
Do you treat every long-standing client like a brand-new client? Do you bring the same energy, enthusiasm, freshness, and new ideas to each conversation with an old client that you bring to the first meeting with a new client you have just won over? (If you don't, why would clients stick with you?)
Do you have a scarcity outlook with clients – "That's too risky," "That probably won't work," or "I wouldn't risk it" – or rather do you have an abundance mentality that sees possibilities, opportunities, and growth around every corner? (Which type of person would you rather spend time with?) Reflect on these questions as you think about advancing your own professional development and improving your approach to clients.

Tuesday, January 1, 2002

A Little Gesture…A Big Difference in Someone's Life

A few months ago, during the course of some training research, I had a very uplifting experience. I visited one of our retail stores and caught a glimpse of a customer trying to get my attention. As I approached her, she said:

"I noticed by your security card that you work for this company. I want to give you a message to take back to the Corporate Office. I have a young daughter who, for a long time had been very withdrawn due to personal problems. She was hired by your company a couple of months ago. Prior to this, she would go straight to her room when she came home and not interact with anyone. After she started working for your company, I noticed positive changes in my daughter. Bit by bit she started to come out of her shell. As the days progressed, she even sat with us for meals and joined in conversations. We were very impressed with her and though we were curious to find out who or what inspired such a remarkable change, we thought it best to wait for her to tell us when she was ready – and she did.

"One evening, bubbling over with excitement, my daughter finally decided to fill us in. She was so happy working for this corporation and could not believe how much of a difference they made in her life. Her excitement escalated as she spoke of a training consultant who was genuinely interested in listening to her views. For her, this was amazing. No one was ever interested in her opinion before and even though she was a little reluctant at first, she felt comfortable speaking to this lady. Most importantly, she had a renewed sense of self-pride thinking someone actually cared about what she had to say. She then continued to explain that for a long time, she was confused and unsure of her career goals. One day she approached the training consultant for some advice. The trainer suggested they work together in establishing a career development plan and an outline of the training classes she would need to help her achieve this goal. Then she made special arrangements for her to use the company's computer training room after her work shift since my daughter could not afford a computer of her own.

"My daughter was so thrilled by all this; she just could not stop talking about the company. She finally has something she can look forward to and this new-found passion has made an incredible difference in her life. With the help of the training consultant and the H.R. Manager, she was able to channel this energy in a positive way. She now has something to aim for and a better chance of realizing her career goals. Added to that is the renewed confidence and belief in what she can achieve. I wanted to thank your Corporate Office and to let them know, whatever they did to create such a positive change in my daughter… please do not stop. Who knows, they may be able to touch someone else as they did my daughter."

I thanked the lady for her kind words, assured her I would pass the message on, then left the store with an enlightened belief in how precious “human capital” can be and the significant difference a little effort on a manager's part can make in an individual's life.

This happy outcome was not the result of some pre-planned corporate development program. A great leader will always be vigilant and listen intently because it is so easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is close at hand. A great leader will be vigilant so that they don't throw away the chance they were given to make a difference in someone’s life.

Debora Ferraz is a well-known seminar speaker, corporate trainer, and management consultant with AIM Corporate Training Solutions. Debora can be reached at imcorporate@sympatico.ca.

Published in Networking Today, January 2002.

Software Tips & Tricks Inserting Accents in Word

By Laura Noble

Previous Software Tips & Tricks articles, Inserting Special Characters & Symbols and Inserting Accents included codes for inserting special characters such as ¢, £, and ÷ and inserting accents such as ù, ç, è into most Windows based products (Excel, Word, WordPerfect, email packages, Publisher, etc.).

This month's tip includes an alternative for inserting accents into WORD: keyboard shortcuts.

Place cursor where you want the accent inserted.
Type the keyboard shortcut as listed in chart below.
Type the character, upper or lower case, depending on requirement.
Word will automatically insert the letter with an accent.

Accent Sample Keyboard Shortcut

Aigue é Ctrl + ' (apostrophe)
Grave À Ctrl + ` (apostrophe under the tilde "~")
Tilde ñ Ctrl + Shift + ~ (tilde)
Circumflex î Ctrl + Shift + ^
Dieresis ÿ Ctrl + Shift + : (colon)

Caution: If a letter "normally" is not accented, Word will not place the accent on the letter. For example: Pressing Ctrl + ' followed by b will not add an accent to the letter b.

Stay tuned to Networking Today in the coming months for more Software Tips & Tricks from Noble Software Solutions.

Laura Noble is the owner of Noble Software Solutions. Laura can be contacted at 519-680-2689 or by e-mail at lnoble@noblesoftwaresolutions.com. www.NobleSoftwareSolutions.com

Published in Networking Today, January 2002.

From Super Achiever to Mentor

By Jim Perrone

Most people who are successful in their roles as leaders, professionals, or technical experts have achieved success based on their own individual accomplishments. The self-concept of successful people almost always includes the descriptors: decisive, assertive, proactive, directive, confident, expressive, and even outspoken. However, this very self-concept can erect some challenging barriers for those achievers who aspire to be mentors.

In a very real sense, anyone in the position of being a mentor to someone else qualifies as one of these “super achievers.” If you are a mentor, you are probably accomplished in certain areas in which you can be of help to another. So in your sector of expertise, you have likely been a good problem solver and decision maker, and have probably been very focused on your individual contribution.

These traditional attributes of success – if not self-managed – can often be liabilities in a mentoring relationship. The mentoring partnership should be, by definition, person-centred and possibility focused. It is designed to help people select experiences to deepen their insight, shape strategic thinking, and find organizational success.

In a helping relationship, you as mentor should not always be a problem-solver, but be a catalyst who facilitates someone else's problem solving capacity. Mentors are often the listeners who empower mentees to arrive at effective conclusions or courses of action. Mentoring is about lighting a fire; mentors enhance the discovery process for mentees. Mentors don’t do the thinking, discovering, and learning for their mentees. This is why you must be conscious of the need to modify your self-concept and your role with mentees. In this unique learning partnership, you must come to see yourself as a developer of others rather than as a super achiever.

THE MENTOR'S CHOICE
Mentor Teaches And Advises	Mentor Offers Options	Mentee Solves, Mentor Assists	Mentee Solves
MENTEE'S EMPOWERMENT GROWS

Great mentors learn to listen as helpers, not as fixers or saviors. Fixers attack problems as obstacles to be overcome, saviors as wars to be won. As a successful mentor, you need to shift from focusing merely on the issue a mentee presents, and move instead toward exploring the mentee's problem with the issue. In doing this you become concerned with the mentee as a person more than you are obsessed with the puzzle of problem solving.

The cue to shift toward listening and empowering is not always clear. There are times when mentees require advice or recommendations for how to deal with an issue. There are other occasions when they can benefit from being provided a range of options to choose from. Sometimes mentees just need the guidance of an experienced hand. But the more you play the role of advisor, the more dependency you foster.

A Continuum of Choices

Mentors have a continuum of choices in working with mentees. Your choices about how to deal with mentees will impact the pace of their development.

These choices range from giving direct advice, through activities that increasingly shift responsibility toward mentees for thinking, discovery, and problem solving. The more that you use coaching skills to encourage and enable mentees to confront and solve their own issues and problems, the greater the growth and empowerment that will result.

As mentees respond to your advice and coaching, the pace of empowerment can be accelerated. One way that you can “wean” yourself from needing to be the authority and to solve every issue is to simply offer them an appropriate range of options to consider. This allows mentees to discern between choices and to begin to take on greater influence on possible solutions and actions.

Offering options prepares both you and the mentees to move further on their empowerment continuum. The empowerment objective is that they grow into confronting issues and problems more and more independently.

There is no single right choice for all situations; the appropriate choice of mentoring behavior depends on mentees’ growth requirements. What is appropriate in each mentor-mentee interaction is that you make a conscious choice about what is best for a mentee’s development in each specific situation. In order to be able to do this, you must remember: "This is not my problem.” You need to ask yourself if your approach will actually increase the mentee’s capacity to deal effectively with current issues and with like issues in the future.

By thrusting your mentees’ development needs to the forefront of your consciousness, you will find yourself gradually getting free of your need to address and solve their every problem and to teach them their every lesson. You will have made the shift from mere “super achiever” to “super mentor.”

Jim Perrone is a managing partner of Perrone-Ambrose Associates, Inc., an organization development firm that helps organizations create mentoring cultures. www.perrone-ambrose.com

Published in Networking Today, January 2002.

The Small Business Owner's Guide for "Practicing Safe Stress" …Building Natural SPEED

By Mark Gorkin

Why might the small business owner need a "how to" for "Practicing Safe Stress"? Consider these two maxims. A surefire formula for stress smoke signals is chronically grappling with roles and tasks involving:

High demand and/or high responsibility
Low autonomy and an ongoing or pervasive feeling of being out of control

Do I have your attention? The second maxim, the classic definition of the small business owner, reveals the desire to manipulate the above "demand-control" stress formula: a person who'd rather work sixteen hours for him- or herself than work eight hours for someone else.

But for many owners there still aren't enough hours in the day, especially with the startling emergence and expansion of such technological innovations as cell phones and the Internet. Customers and clients are potentially anywhere and everywhere...at any time. The cutting edge small business owner not only competes in a rapidly changing real world, but must also harness a lightning-paced virtual business environment. There's a heightened demand for efficient and effective products and service delivery. Simultaneously, there's an ever-shrinking downtime window as your small business becomes far flung, crossing ever-greater numbers of time zones. And despite "the shock of the new," the existential-temporal dilemma remains familiar: Can there be life after deadlines?

In such a volatile economic environment how do you manage the inevitable stress without succumbing to small business burnout? If running a successful small business is more like running a marathon than a 100-yard race (though sometimes it feels like a barely interrupted series of dashes) then the key for surviving and thriving is the Stress Doc's formula for "Natural SPEED." Try this daily regimen.

Sleep

Don't be cheap with your need for sleep. It's nature's way to ebb and flow and help you grow. Don't you just hate those glib aphorisms? Actually, if you're like me, you often stay up too late and wake up too early to get eight hours of sleep. So learning to take power naps is critical.

Priorities

Perhaps the most challenging realization for the small business owner is, "I can't do it all." And according to a classic efficiency and motivation principle, you apparently don't have to. The Pareto Principle, derived by an early 20th c. Italian sociologist, I believe, posits: "80% of our results are produced by 20% of our activities." What a proposition: you can downgrade the critical status of four-fifths of your preoccupations without feeling guilty! So focus on your passion and power and, at least, learn to delegate or collaborate if you don't want to downgrade.

Of course, for delegation to work, effective hiring must be a high priority. The bottom line, of course, is creating a business environment conducive to success. Not effective hiring, not delegation, nor even the Pareto Principle negates the reality that at times successful self-employed individuals or small business owners must hands on juggle a number of revenue-generating activities. Having multiple income sources is critical for survival in a competitive climate with uncertain client bases, shifting consumer preferences, and quixotic markets or financial resources.

In the face of slow demand in one product or service line, constantly keeping a number of income-producing balls in motion provides security. It can also be exhausting. And with a time pressure tempest lurking or swirling, balls may be short-changed or mishandled; they can be deflated, dropped, or even blown off course. Non-stop juggling can turn seeming fiscal stability into psychophysical stress. Yet many business owners can't afford not to get into the act. Welcome to "The Entrepreneurial Catch 22."

Urgency, Familiarity and Simultaneity

Clearly, running a multifaceted enterprise requires both setting priorities and goals along with flexibly shifting time, energy, focus, and resources to vital projects and urgent requests. Of course, customers and employees will frequently try to convince you their important needs are really urgent. Remember, urgent gets done now; important gets prioritized. For a priority system to work, key business players and partners often must negotiate to overcome turf and territorial instincts – "My task is most important," "No, mine is even more critical." It's easy for the small business office to take on the manner and intensity, the loyalties and conflicts of a family. And sometimes you need an outside consultant to help you and your staff:

Handle "family" dysfunction
Envision goals, establish consensus and become a dynamic, "whole is greater than sum of parts" team.

Survival of the fittest requires both individual integrity and interdependent solidarity. So be wary of that "Multiple & Simultaneous Demand Situation," when you are:

Responsible for an increasing number of people and projects
Frantically managing an ever expanding base of data, policies and procedures
Feel like a slave to deadlines or tied up by thieves of time

If you are not careful, this Multiple & Simultaneous (or M & S) Demand Situation can turn around and become an "S & M" experience: you feel like a "Servant" to too many "Masters." The bottom line, priority-affirming strategy is "The Stress Doc's Basic Law of Safe Stress": Do know your limits and don't limit your "No’s”!

Empathy

Whether it's receiving editorial feedback on an upcoming column or enlisting an ear for the retelling of the day's trials and tribulations, I need/we all need support at the burnout battlefront. A little TLC: tender loving criticism and tough loving care. Sometimes support doesn't only come from a smiling face or voice (or email buddy), but from a friendly place. Running a home/computer-based business (when not doing outside speaking and consulting programs) I need to get out of the cave. One ritual involves afternoon tea and scones at the local teahouse. I write. I network. It's a wonderful way to combine business and relaxation, if not pleasure. The change of scenery induces a new perspective and stirs the creative spirits.

Exercise

You're psyched; you're focused, putting in those hours, hitting deadlines, managing those difficult customers and employees, not to mention squeezing in some quality family time. Did someone say adrenaline? It's that hard driving, on the edge adrenaline rush that fires up so many. Unfortunately, frequent adrenaline bursts have nasty consequences, including elevated cholesterol levels and increased risk for cardiovascular complications. So in addition to pacing and prioritizing, physically working off excess adrenaline is critical.

When everything's up in the air – you can't seem to close any projects or sales, to meet elusive deadlines – structured exercise provides a self-defined beginning and endpoint. There's a tangible sense of accomplishment and control. So walk around the mall if need be. Just don't stop at any store for thirty or forty minutes. Your heart, lungs, waist, and pocketbook or wallet will thank you!

Diet

You can't stop during the day so you inject caffeine – coffee and sodas. Then you need those two drinks at night to unwind. Or cigarettes to both relax and stimulate you. Or potato chips to numb you. In an attempt to regulate your stress are you putting your system through a manic-depressive-like cycle? And the effects linger. Did you know that it takes eleven miles of non-stop jogging to burn off the saturated fat in a Big Mac, a shake, and order of fries?

In addition to worries about Big Mac and cardiac attacks, what we eat influences our ability to generate and sustain energy for the long run. All those simple sugars and saturated fats don't just weigh you down; this stuff also enervates you physically and mentally. Substitute dried fruit and power napping over junk food snacking.

The Doc's Power Breakfast

Avoid big meals as much as possible; graze rather than gorge. Nutritionists suggest four or five small meals over three large ones. For a lean-and-keen meal, try my low fat, high complex sugar and protein breakfast smoothie. Mix these into the blender:

3 bananas
a handful of frozen raspberries and frozen peaches
half cups of orange and grape juice
3 heaping tablespoons of soy powder. (Health food stores will have soy powder.)

Not only is the soy high in energy-boosting protein, but also it gives your breakfast booster a thick, rich texture. I get four six-ounce servings.

I shared my morning special with a client and his immediate association: "I should be drinking this on a tropical island." Oh yes, the loyal partner with my smoothie…one half of a toasted, naked bagel.

Understanding the stress-relieving and energy-enhancing power of healthy eating (and exercise) will definitely help you finish the race. Adding Natural SPEED to your daily operation is a vital, bottom line variable for landing in the small business owner's "Winner's Circle" while…Practicing Safe Stress!

Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc," is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and a national speaker and trainer on stress, communications, team building, creativity and HUMOR. He is the "Online Psychohumorist" (TM) for the major AOL mental health resource, Online Psych, and for AOL's Business Know How. Check his Web site, recently featured as a USA Today Online "Hot Site," at www.stressdoc.com or email StressDoc@aol.com.

Published in Networking Today, January 2002.

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