The negative effects of fear

The Negative effects of fear
I just attended the National Speakers Association winter meeting in Orlando, Florida. It was held in the beautiful Coronado Springs Hotel and watching the whole Disney environment, how they treat people and how they have perfected the art and science of customer service to a new level, it is really a refreshing experience.
Just checking in, an elderly couple, checking in at the same time, wanted a king size bed because of health reasons. They were given two double beds and that wouldn’t work with them. The front desk people were trying to accommodate them and they even called the night manager to do so. They simply didn’t have any available, the hotel was full and what I did was to offer my king size bed to them because they needed it more than I did. I was alone in my room and a double bed works just as well as a king size.
It turned out that just as we were doing the room change, a room with a king bed showed up and I didn’t have to give up my own room. That evening I got a bouquet of fruits in my room as a thank you gesture.
There were three of us from Puerto Rico in the meeting, one of us, being a very distinguished lady I can’t reveal the name because I have not cleared it with her. It would be wonderful if this lady embraces the speaking profession because I am sure she can do lots of good in the world, especially in women’s issues. The point is, we need to find a way to get more people from Puerto Rico involved in TED and in NSA. To be involved in TED, you can be in any profession but in NSA, it is only open to people that speak and want to be professional speakers. So, let’s open an NSA chapter in Puerto Rico. Those interested, please email me so that we can get the ball rolling.
My term as a director of NSA is up in July and for next year’s board we don’t have a single Hispanic in the board. There is one African American and the rest are Caucasians. We need more balance in every single board of directors in the United States.
To spend three days with professional speakers is a refreshing experience. People are optimistic and they look at the bright side of things.
We were all talking and discussing possibilities, either using technology, new marketing techniques, customer service approaches and even how to manage your finances.
One speaker said that if people had read my marshmallow book and applied it, we would not be in the financial mess that we are in now. Very nice of that speaker to say that.
I have written before that we are in a recession and in PR we have been in one for the last three years. While recessions tend to generate bad news and a feeling that we may never get out of the recession and a deeper bottom is still in the near future, the same thing happens when things are good. When things were rosy and the stock market and real estate prices were going up, the press believed that the market was going to keep going up and real estate prices would go north too. Reporters and newscasters thought that we would never have a recession.
The same thing happens with humans. When we are high we believe it will never go away and the poor folks who suffer from depression will express that the dominant feeling of depression is that it will never go away. It must be accepted, though, that paying attention to the negative news may make us more likely to take actions that will help secure us.
Ironically, that behavior of saving, cutting back on expenses, watching carefully what you do with your money, makes the recession to prolong and go deeper. Yes, it is a complex situation and some say it is a catch 22.
From the employee’s point of view, this uncertainty engenders insecurity. What will happen to my bank? What will happen to my organization or to my business? Will I have a job if things get tougher? The reaction is that they continue plodding along, not taking risks and throwing creative thinking out of the window. Some will try to stay in the safety and sanctuary of their corporate jobs despite the fact that they hate their jobs or that security no longer exists even in the largest corporations in the world. Look at Citibank, GM, Chrysler, even Starbucks and almost all pharmaceuticals. Every one of them firing employees left and right.
A number of studies have confirmed that at least 35% of our workforce is unhappy. A social network analyst, Scott DeGraffenreid has labeled this phenomenon as “warm chair attrition”. The sad part is these employees collect paychecks, take up space and infect their fellow employees. Employers might think things are going well if they don’t lose employees but the bottom line is that disaffected employees are not productive and in the particular situation we find ourselves in now, we need, more than ever, creative, productive employees.
CEO’s and Presidents of companies are now more careful in their expansion plans, if any, and they go into a short thinking mentality. They want to protect next quarter’s bottom line but this is not conducive to long term profitability. The victims of their short term thinking, often, are the previously engaged employees, who are most of the time overworked and they will respond by not giving their one hundred per cent effort and leaving when a better opportunity shows up.
So, what is behind this volatility and how does the future look?
It is immaterial what I think. The cards are already on the table. President Obama already signed the 787 billion give away and now we have to wait to see if it works.
There are arguments in favor of what he did and arguments against. I am not too comfortable with this action; I am more of a free market mentality, harsher punishment for corruption and less intervention by the government.
But, just like if we were playing basketball, the coach decided on a play and we as the players must try to execute the play the best we can or the opponent will kick our butts.
Let’s go out and play our best in this economy, or we might lose the game and that will be very sad.