By Linda Feinholz

If I were to make a guess, it would be that you’re hearing an average of 6,294 messages a day about how bad a disaster the economy is, how everyone is going to loose their jobs, the roof over their heads, and even the ability to put clothes on their backs.

Even if I’m overestimating your exposure by a factor of 100… that’s 62 times a day when the despairing ghosts are moaning at you from behind the curtains and the goblins are haunting you from your radio and TV.

Well, all I know is I don’t need to hear whispers sixty-two times to put me off my dinner. Once, twice, three times is enough to give me the creeps. So my survival technique for surviving the ghouls is to remember the walk in the woods when I was growing up.

I remember creeping through the woods by our house after dusk. Every snap of a twig or brush of a leaf made me jump. I had that reaction even when I’d walked the same path easily in daylight a mere few hours before.

And of course it was even creepier when I was walking with other kids, as we all stirred each other with mutterings of fright – building a sense of helplessness and impending doom.

In the same way as that path was just fine during daylight, things are just fine when you shut off the radio and TV, put down the magazines and newspapers and focus on what you DO have control over.

I’ve had techniques I’ve used for years, that work for me, and work for my clients when they learn them. In the spirit of dispelling the gloom and wisps of despair swirling around you, I’m bringing them to light for you.

Choose Your Companions Well

Just as they were in childhood, some of the people around you thrive on anxiety, worry and fear. And they want companions on their path. Don’t let yourself be roped into walking that path with them.

Turn off the news media, cancel lunches and dinners with bogeymen, and those who want to feed on your fright. Wish them well, and get your attention back to what you DO have control over: your time, your attention, your energy.

Surround yourself with people who look at life for it’s possibilities, in good times and risky times alike. One of my coaching clients has started holding weekly conference calls with her entire team, with a light, up beat tone of voice. She uses the time to acknowledge the successes the team has created and cheer them on to each upcoming project.

Light a Lantern

The woods were spooky on a moon-less night. Not so during the day, or at night when the moon was lighting the way.

In your personal life and your business life, someone needs to put a light in the lantern and hold it up for others to see. I vote for you! Be the lantern bearer consistently and publicly and others will rally behind you.

I have a client who has contracts for the next five years. Can you imagine! You can bet that after our work together he is mentioning that fact weekly, reassuring his staff that their jobs are not in jeopardy.

He’s already designing the quarterly bonuses he’ll be giving out, instead of annually, to reinforce the message that every thing is OK, better than OK, for everyone.

Face The Path In Front Of You

Ghost stories work because they take us into our imagination. Brain studies have shown that anything you visualize, and I mean absolutely anything, is interpreted by your brain as completely real. So when you watch and listen to the drama being acted out on the political stage and the media pages, your brain is telling you “This is truth!” even when it’s metaphor, ghost stories, fear mongering.

Replace all the ‘what might happen’ imagery that your eyes are seeing and your ears are hearing with information that will keep you focused in present time, on the opportunities for you, your business, your life. Right here. Right now.

• Post your business Vision and Goals where you and everyone else can see them.
• Chunk your daily time to 45-minute blocks and focus on what you have control over right here and now. Plan your week for how you’ll use each day to keep your attention on the high payoff actions that will get you to your goals. One topic at a time.
• Focus your language with your team on what you WILL create with your business.

There are times when business leaders I’m working with settle in face to face with their peers, arms crossed and accusations flying. I’ve found it helps to view myself as a referee on the grammar school playground during lunch break. Holding the image in my mind certainly helps me calm the disputes and get everyone refocused on the elements that have broken down and led to the finger pointing.

I put on my ref’s cap this week with one of a CEO client and her heads of HR and Finance.

For over six months the Finance department has had two critical positions open. In that time, fewer than ten candidates have walked through the door to interview for the positions.

The source of the deadlock and finger pointing?

Well, the Finance Department head is aggravated at HR taking months to find appropriate candidates. They’re frustrated that each of the candidates they interviewed, liked and had staff interview didn’t pass the background checks. And they know their staff is wondering why the candidates they speak with keep disappearing rather than being hired.

HR is offended that the department heads don’t appreciate that the positions are hard to fill. The organization has a unique mission and wants people who share the same values in the management ranks. That mission pre-screens out many candidates who have the skill and experience to do the work.

Everyone knows all of this. So why the pent up frustration? The breakdowns are actually a result of very different factors.

1 – There’s no shared sense of urgency
2 – The scope of the issue isn’t understood
3 - There’s no formal process
4 – There’s no systematic communication

With the seats still unfilled after 7 months, I expect you could understand that the Finance folks feel insulted. They sure don’t feel like they’re valued clients of the HR staff.

HR has hired hundreds (well probably thousands) of staff members. Every year the organization’s technical staff has turn over that need to be replaced. And they post the positions and sort the resumes and in short order the position is filled.

The person in charge of searches knows exactly what to do for those typical seats. However, this time the Finance department positions are more complex. The HR staff tried the traditional sites for posting the positions. And found no takers.

Weeks stretched into months. Two, then three, then five. The Finance managers kept looking at their calendars, and their empty IN baskets. No resumes arrived. No interviews were set. No word at all from the HR department.

So the Finance managers started calling HR once every couple of weeks to ask what was going on. The HR staff then reported that the Finance staff were harassing them.

Were the Finance managers actually being rude? Probably not. The underlying element in all of this is that the HR staff were unfamiliar and inexperienced with filling these high level roles. The Finance managers had never had to recruit and fill such high level positions before. Everyone’s embarrassment over ‘not knowing quite what to do’ lead to lots of doing nothing.

You can see how it all deteriorated. And for all of those months, the Finance managers have been working double over time because key positions are sitting empty.

So clearly a solution needed to be found. One that got everyone working at the same pace, with clear communication, and shared expectations being met.

The first step - Put a shared system in place

Regular discussions on the open positions between the HR staff and Finance managers now take place weekly; recruitment strategy and actions, interview appointment deadlines. Now HR’s client knows that actual recruiting activity is being observed and tracked.

Within two weeks there were resumes available to be sorted. Clearly the urgency was at last being matched by both sides.

The second step - Formalize the process so that it can be used again

With the second open position, face to face weekly meetings are now being held to report on the recruitment activity. The Finance staff no longer has to debate whether to call and ask – every Tuesday they are told specifically exactly what activity is taking place.

The third step - Institute customer satisfaction surveys of the internal customers

The information being obtained from the survey is reinforcing the processes, and reminding the HR staff that the entire organization is their customer, even if positions come up infrequently in many departments. Knowing they are being tracked has accelerated the HR staff’s follow through in the recruiting process.

It’s a new start and a new relationship between the departments that will get the job done to everyone’s satisfaction.

© 2008 Linda Feinholz  Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost your professional and personal results and have more fun, get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com