OK, yesterday in our top subjects for road warrior success, we mentioned taking care of Clients/Customers so we want to finish up today.  The best way we know to take care of Clients/Customers is that you need to take care of your self first.

If you are stressed, chances are your client(s) will be stressed.  So here are 3 simple but key things that help make our projects a success, will contribute to keeping you healthy (minimize stress) and will certainly keep clients very happy because these items help us out in the crucial times:

Contacts Sheet(s)

Even if you have joined a project at the last minute and had to make travel arrangements while racing to the airport, spend a few moments in your company’s marketing applications and get the key individuals’ phone #, positions and email addresses associated with this project and by all means, understand who the project’s sponsor is.  You might have to call an administrative resource if marketing applications are not available but get it done!  And continue to collect this information throughout the project because players will change.

At the beginning of every project, we always set up a contact spreadsheet with appropriate contact info (also make sure you also have cell #s or after hours #s) that somehow I end up keeping up-to-date.  Send this list out to project team members on a regular basis – it has saved us many a time so we keep doing it.

And the most crucial thing is not to just have this Contacts Sheet in a notebook or folder somewhere, but to make sure you input these names, phone #’s and email addresses, etc. into your cell or PDA tool.   It takes some time but in an emergency, you will be glad you have this information available in multiple places.  Save yourself some stress and grief and keep track of everyone.

Project Documents

There is almost always a trail of documents that leads up to the actual “Go” for a project and if you are lucky to receive a copy of those documents at the beginning of a project, you can begin to understand some of the history of why this project is taking place and possibly the deliverables required for success.

If your company doesn’t have a central repository for such documents, obtain them from the key sales and marketing resources and read them all before meeting the client face-to-face.  Even if you cannot locate these crucial documents, hopefully your project upline will fill you in on how the project came about and what the real objectives are.  You don’t want to meet the client for the first time and not understand their needs.  This is a major stressor!

Gatekeepers

Having been a gatekeeper early in my career, I can absolutely say, these are the folks who really run the company on many levels.  They know the politics, they know where all the resources (and bodies) are, they know the schedules, the underground leaders and instigators, they know the roadblocks and so on.  Keep yourself as stress-free as possible and figure out who these key resources are on day One or as early on as possible because they will save you when you least expect it.

Summary

In summary, these items will help you organize and minimize the mundane details that can really cause stress during a project.  You are going to be much healthier if you are not stressed.  This list (contacts, project documents and gatekeepers) is not everything we need to keep ourselves as stress-free as possible and our Clients/Customers happy, just the initial ones.

So, our next subject, air travel of which I am going to do more of today, will be focused on what we need to do to help you through air travel disasters and keep our Clients/Customers happy in that arena as well.

Let us know what you think.

Thanks,

Mel

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed, the rest of the holidays are upon us.  Staying healthy while that may not be the top priority for most of us, it can be a concern over the next few weeks.  So let’s explore staying healthy through the holidays (and we hope you don’t mind – we just had to add some color for the season).

Here is the list of what we think are the Top 10 Detractors from Healthy Living during the Holidays (not necessarily in this order):

1. Shopping (a stressor)
2. Family Get Togethers (a major stressor)
3. Eating too much (All those sugary, fattening Goodies)
4. Drinking too much (A problem for some of us)
5. Lack of Sleep (staying up late wrapping presents)
6. Parties, Parties, Parties (what to wear, why not invited)
7. Covering for Co-Workers on Vacation (and still having to do your own work)
8. Holiday travel (some of the worst travel days of the year)
9. Exposure to additional sicknesses/illness (from the above activities)
10. Spending too much (perhaps the worst stressor?)

So what can we do instead or at least think about doing to head off these calamities?  Here are our Top 10 Solutions for Staying Healthy during the Holidays:

1. Shopping (avoid Black Friday and Dec 26^th next year, shop early in the week during mid-day if you can, give gift cards – we love them and they are easy to do and very easy to wrap!!!)
2. Handle Family Get Togethers (hmmm . . . tolerance maybe?)
3. Eating too much (can’t help you here – we like all those goodies.  Perhaps eat moderately but we haven’t had much luck in that department.  Increase your repertoire of making healthy desserts?)
4. Drinking too much (Avoid the spiked punches and overly sweet drinks at least and find a designated driver)
5. Lack of Sleep (stay with your normal sleep schedule and rise earlier rather than stay up later)
6. Parties, Parties, Parties (the little black dress is always appropriate and clothes that can go from day to evening and if not invited, you might be the winner there so have your own party unless that’s a stressor too)
7. Covering for Co-Workers on Vacation (negotiate with your boss about what really has to be done)
8. Holiday Travel (leave a day earlier and stay a day longer to avoid peak travel days + this is also cheaper)
9. Exposure to additional sicknesses/illness (load up on your most effective anti-oxidants)
10. Spending too much (book travel well in advance, consider a holiday savings club for next year and layaway is back and a great way to budget your purchases)

That’s our list of issues and possible solutions.  We hope you have had a bit of fun reading our healthy holiday tips, healthy travel tips and general stress releivers.  Most of these activities cause distress which isn’t fun, so effective ways to handle stress like meditation, getting more rest and even increasing your exercise have been known to help.  So comment below and tell us your Top 10 Detractors from Healthy Living during the Holidays and how you handle them.

We’d love to hear,

Mel