“If you don’t manage yourself, someone else is going to manage you.” At a recent conference I was speaking to a man who had worked for a large company and had been downsized after about twenty years.  The loss of his job had been devastating to him.  He felt there was nothing else he was qualified to do for a living and had absolutely no idea what to do next.  He had gone home, tried to regroup and went back to looking for a job the way he had twenty years before – by looking through job listings.  Nothing appealed to him.

Fortunately, a good friend of his sat him down to talk through all possible options.  Doing this helped the man...

It is you – and no one else that creates your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.  – Peter Shepard Yesterday my colleague called me up for a vent session.  She had prepared a really complicated tax filing for a client and the client responded by sending a list of about fifteen things she thought was wrong with it.  Well, the clients concerns were all unfounded and my colleague patiently and politely addressed each and every complaint.  The client apologized for her snippy e-mail and stated that taxes made her anxious.

It was really nice to get an acknowledgement from the client that her behavior was unacceptable.  Everyone gets snippy once in a while and its entirely forgivable.  Unfortunately, this particular client...