I have had the good fortune of personally meeting and spending time with Dr. Edward Hallowell, one of the top ADD psychiatrists in the world.  This best-selling author has first-hand experience in the crazy busy lifestyle that so many of us are now in. His incredibly insightful book, Crazy Busy, was recently expanded into a hugely popular audio program by Nightingale-Conant, and he has appeared on Oprah five times, which, of course, is pretty cool.

I’ve learned so much from Ned about my own Crazy Busy propensities and challenges, and these lessons also apply perfectly to my Crazy Busy clients!  

Here is one of my favorite concepts from the book - I’ve summarized it briefly in case your attention span is as short as mine!

F-State vs C-State

F-state is when we’re frantic, frenzied, forgetful, fearful.  And perhaps using some other choice words beginning with the letter F.

Here’s an example – you’re running late, racing to a meeting and realize you: a) forgot to bring the paperwork you need for the meeting and  b) your car is running extremely low on gas.  How do you feel? And how do you react?  When we’re in F-state, we’re dangerous! This “mode” can apply to anytime in our workday, when we’re feeling overwhelmed and all over the place. In F-state, we don’t do our best work.

C-state is when we’re calm, cool, collected, careful, and courteous.

This might occur when you start off your day with a clear desktop, knowing exactly what you’re going to accomplish for the day, feeling fresh and motivated. C-state is when you are likely to get high-quality work done,  and though we all drift to F-state at times, having an awareness of the difference helps to bring us back to C-state, where we are most productive.

Want to learn more?  Grab a copy of Crazy Busy today!  I’d love to hear what you think of it.

You might consider me a tad silly for recommending a children’s book, but sometimes such books remind us of what it’s like to think like a child: with no limits and believing anything is possible.   Remember those days?

An Awesome Book by Dallas Clayton reminds us of that wonderful time.  Plus, it’s a quick & inspirational read, so you get a lot of ‘bang’ for your short time investment. 

Elizabeth Wilson from Entrepreneur.com shares the story of her entrepreneurial parents and the impact they had on her life and how it ties in with the lessons from Clayton’s book.

If you check it out, please let me know what you think of it!

You’re likely already aware that your employees impact client satisfaction.

Have you heard of the “Spillover Effect” which explains the connection between employee engagement and customer engagement?

Today I read a fantastic post on positive employee engagement.  Here is an excerpt: 

For the mantra of “happy employees equals happy customers” to be real, companies should seek to foster emotionally engaged employees, because it will be these employees whose experience will “spill over” to help create emotionally engaged customers.

The post gives some great detail.  My all-time favorite resource about the concept of engagement is “The Power of Full Engagement” by Tony Schwartz & Jim Loehr.  But….if you already have a pile of books awaiting your attention and would prefer listening to an audio about engagement for entrepreneurs, I recommend this powerful interview with Tony Schwartz.

Do you have certain practices to help engage your employees?  If so, I’d love to hear about them!