Richard Hawk’s Blog

Stress can kill. It’s as simple as that. It can kill your joy of life and your ability to function on even the most basic level. Stress also distorts your decisions and is often a root cause of dangerous behavior that results in accidents. And as you’ll see from this article that was on CNN.com yesterday http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/06/work.death/index.html it can cause you to kill yourself —literally. 

In the article, Patricia Pegg Jones, health and well-being program leader at the Work Foundation, explains that “employers can help workers in times of uncertainty by being open and communicating effectively with them, explaining what changes are in store.” It may not seem that important to consistently keep employees informed of what’s going on at their workplace but it is.

During the seminars I host to help leaders reduce stress in the workplace I make sure the leaders understand how vital it is to communicate as openly as they can and as often as is reasonable. In all of our relationships, how well we share our thoughts, feelings and “what’s going on” will determine their quality and the amount of stress they do or don’t cause us to experience.

‘till next time.

Richard

www.attackstress.com

www.makesafetyfun.com

I own a tee-shirt with this saying on it: “Doesn’t expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?” A silly thought for sure but it does hold a lesson. Over the years, I’ve had dozens of crazy surprises before, during and after a talk. Like what happened Saturday.

I was speaking for a piping company, Enbridge, in Morris, Il. It was an employee appreciation dinner/safety stand up. Chris, the fellow who was my contact and a pleasure to work with mentioned to me during one of our planning phone meetings that there would be some family members there too. I’m figuring a few wives/husbands.

Well, while hanging out and clowning around with folks as they arrived it soon became evident that there would be several children of all different ages in the audience. A bunch of kids in the audience? Yikes! Thankfully, I had my guitar with me and know several funny children songs. So instead of starting the talk with the adults, the children and I had a blast making noises and singing a song about a box I found on the beach.

You may not play and sing but you will do well to prepare yourself for the unexpected and be ready to improvise when you are going to give a presentation/talk. Actually, isn’t that helpful in all aspects of living—to expect the unexpected?

‘till next time,

Richard

PS: The picture above shows my niece Megan biting into what she thought was something sweet and got an unexpected lemon surprise.

www.makesafetyfun.com