Dr. Gary Carlson

That is a good practice which allows you to make rationale decisions.

It sounds like you have this type of crisis well in hand both for communication and work flow when a crisis like this may happen. The real issue is jus if!! you were to lose all of the things that just made comfortable with your current mode of communication and work flow. What if you had now internet no phones etc. These are what we call real crisis. To plan well for a crisis you need to look at the things that keep you in business ahd how you would work around them if you lost them for a time.

This is probably like counting to ten for you. This ia a great practice when you can do it. The best way for stress to not take control is how you prepare yourself both on and off the platform of challenges. You can be ready when you are healthy and mentally prepared for your planned and unplanned day.

Exercise is always good way to create better health which in turn helps to face the complexity of the day to day challenges. As you are probably aware that balance in one's life is essential to stress management. Keep in mind the activity for physical well being is important but also each person needs mental and spiritual balance to complete the triangle of life. Your understanding through your mental acitivitiy and your understanding of life keeps us able to cope with stress.

What makes our profession so exciting is the diversity of people we work with in employees and students. To master great communication we need to be talented to communicate with these diversities. The best first step is understand that no two people are alike and how they relate to you may be different. Our most important tool is to show that we care.

I worked for 23 years with behavorial disordered youth. The rule of thumb when emotions would get high was to maintain a calm and reasonable demeanor. When you allow your emotions to equal the communicators the only result is for emotions to grow even higher. Keeping a steady and level head will bring the person back down to a reasonable communication level. The key is for you to do what is right no matter what the emotion is from the other party.

It is always better for relationships and productivity to solve all the problems or misunderstandings at the lowest level possible. As it escalates to higher authorities there is always a win lose outcome.

Listening is the key to all good communication. The largest part of communication is listening carefully. There is three parts to all communication and sometimes two of the characterstics may not tell the truth for your judgement. The three are verbal, body language and listening. Both verbal inflections and body language may be deceiving for you. Listening to your communicator carefully useually will give each person a sense of caring and open communication.

Stepping away us like counting to ten.

It is great you have such a proactive approach to any conflict. Those that may at a higher risk you seem to deal with immediately.