A stress expert says a good antidote to this prickly problem is to sharpen one's communication skills so you can express your needs and desires. This is excellent advice. But for managers in today's busy and changing workplaces, that advice stops short of the exact words or actions required to work successfully with diverse people whom often do not think or act in similar ways.

Profiles Performance Indicator™ provides unique insight to help leaders in increasingly complex workplaces. Separate reports, one for the manager, one for the worker, describe the worker's significant job-related behavioral tendencies in five key areas:

This edition of Employers Advantage examines workplace stress and conflict. That sounds like two areas, but they are intertwined as stress often produces conflict, and vice versa. Stress can be magnified by non-work-related problems and occurs on the job when the requirements of the work do not match an employee's capabilities, resources and/or needs. The need to control stress in the work environment, before conflict reaches a boiling point, is increasingly important. Profiles International provides organizations with key information so that leaders can coach employees over inevitable workplace bumps.  

How? The PPI assessment, a 15-minute test, measures behavioral factors that affect an employee's success. It gives managers suggestions on how to motivate the employee; whether he or she is internally motivated or externally driven; notes behavioral tendencies in critical, job-related competencies; and tells a manager the employee's response to job stress, frustration and conflict. The manager's coaching report contains essential information about productivity, quality of work, initiative, teamwork, problem solving, adapting to change, and energy. It provides specific, individualized ideas for working more productively with each person. 

The report that goes to the worker provides helpful feedback – information about performance and ideas for professional growth. It aids the employee in understanding his on-the-job attitudes and behaviors. The report also offers a guide to better communication and cooperation with coworkers.

PPI works best before managers and workers fail to communicate. Call Profiles International at (254) 751-1644 to discover more effective ways to stay in touch with employees.

No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick, author

Jim and I were honored when we were inducted into the Sales Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. After the ceremony, we looked at the exhibits, including a striking representation of the motivational guru Zig Ziglar (www.zigziglar.com) delivering a speech. For decades, Zig has motivated and inspired millions of people to be better at whatever they do for a living. Zig's ideas about creating a sense of urgency are exemplified in his "Day Before Vacation" story. The exhibit inspired us to include the following strategy. This technique can have a tremendous effect on your productivity, so use it!

Think about your last day at work before you went on your most recent vacation. Didn't you get as much done in that day as you would normally get done in two, three, or even four days? (Be honest!) Look at what Zig says you did on the day before vacation.

On the night preceding the day before your vacation, you likely sat down with a piece of paper and listed all of the things that had to get finished the following day – your gottas (I gotta do this, and I gotta…") Then you committed that they'd all be done by the time you left the office the next day. Right?

On the morning of the day before your vacation, you arrived at the office on time – maybe even early. But you didn't head for the coffee machine. No, you went straight into the first gotta on your list. You likely also did things in a slightly different order from usual. You took the least favored, most distasteful task on your list and got it out of the way quickly, instead of having it hanging overhead all day long (the way you normally would!) With that tough one out of the way, you were feeling pretty good, and so you tore into the next task on your list, and the next one after that. If anyone came to chat about last night's game, you politely but firmly informed that person that you were just too busy – and got back to business.

As you completed each of your gottas, you felt your energy rising, so that by halfway through the day you were buzzing with a sense of accomplishment that drove your enthusiasm level ever higher, raising your mood and painting a smile on your face. Your obviously energized and enthusiastic demeanor infected your colleagues. They started to ramp up effort, to smile a little more, and they became similarly enthusiastic. The atmosphere in the office got a little extra spark, and this lifted you even further.

At the end of the day, you had all of your gottas completed. You were as high as if you'd been on high-octane caffeine, even if you hadn't had a drop all day! You felt good. Now, that's focus!

So what did you do that day to get so focused? Let's have a look.

First, You Created a Vision
"By the time I leave tomorrow, I'll have cleared my desk and put my affairs in order so that I am free to be away for two weeks."

When your vision gets knocked offline by events around you, you are like a $10 billion guided missile without a target. You can fly around in circles looking pretty impressive, but eventually you're going to run out of fuel and crash and burn. If your vision has been hammered by recent economic changes, get working on a new one – now! Take time to figure out what you really want for yourself, your family and your business. Get it clear in your head and paint this target in front of you every day.

Second, you Formulated a Set of Goals
…that would deliver your vision – your gottas. Having a great vision is useless unless you formulate clear, achievable goals to ensure that your vision becomes reality. You must plot a course to take you from where you are now to your target, with checkpoints that let you know when you go off course.

Third, You Made a Commitment
"I absolutely must get these tasks completed by the time I leave the office tomorrow."

This is the most common stumbling block that people tend to hit, even if they are accustomed to planning by creating compelling visions and formulating achievable goals. They fail to commit. If you've ever made a New Year's resolution you failed to complete, you know what happens to plans without commitment. If there's no commitment, the fault is most likely with your vision – it simply isn't compelling enough. Otherwise, the commitment naturally would follow. If you were fatally ill and had just one month to live, but could get a cure if you had $1 million more than your current total net worth, would you get the money? Of course you would. Or you'd kill yourself trying even before the month was out! You know that your vision is right when it has the same sense of urgency. A real commitment immediately gets you off the ground and in search of your target.

Before you spend one more day out of focus, stop and look carefully at your life. Be sure that your guidance mechanism has a clear target encoded into it, and that you've mapped a route to target that makes you want to take off right now. Get the Day-Before-Vacation feeling every day!

* From the book 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS by Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku. © S&H Publishing Co., 5205 Lake Shore Drive, Waco, Texas 76710-1732. All rights reserved. Contact S&H Publishing Co., (254) 751-1644, for reprint permission. 

How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to?
-- Anthony Robbins, self-help writer, professional speaker