Use the following tips as training tools.

Present this situation to your group and brainstorm solutions together, or submit your own situation question to be answered in an upcoming newsletter.

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SITUATION QUESTION:
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Have you participated in a reunion or accepted an invitation that seemed to change your life in a positive direction?

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SOLUTIONS:
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My husband and I just returned from two family reunions that were held this month. The first was in Grand Junction, Colorado for my mother's Smith family, and the other in Kent near Seattle, Washington for my Father's Franklin family. I have not missed any of these reunions over the years because I always walk away with a sense of wonder about how our ancestors managed to survive the covered wagon days and homesteading where they settled.

We share stories and pictures with the funny-looking clothes passed down through the years, and look back to our own childhoods to remember what impressions we had of each other back then. Who we were in awe of and who we thought were the bad girls or boys in our families always seems to come up
in conversations followed by a lot of smiles and laughter.

You catch up on what has happened to everyone since the last reunion, and hear about the successes, failures and lessons learned. Of course we notice how everyone is getting older, including us, so we resolve to take care of ourselves and enjoy every day working to accomplish something, not merely existing.

Then there are the newcomers marrying into the family and the children adding more branches to our tree of life. Some of them learning for the first time that we think we may be descendents of Benjamin Franklin. Wow, talk about roots, if Ben could do what he did in his day and become famous, we sure could do big things too with all the technology and knowledge we have today.

We ask, why aren't we being more proactive to do bigger and better things in our lives?

As I looked around, I realized that one of our retired ones in our midst was documenting our genealogy and getting closer to verifying the connection to Ben Franklin along with making huge strides forward in turning the environment green. Another owns an orchard and held our reunion in their Colorado peach tree orchard. Cousin Carol said It is the latest way to give parties for charity events, so why not our reunion? It warms us to hear our relatives are keeping up with the times and making a difference too.

The reunions reminded me of the roots that our companies and departments have, and how fortunate we are to have our well-established places to work. We make our living from those company roots, so appreciate the old timers and pick their brains to learn as much as you can. But at the same time help
them embrace the new generations joining their workforce. Help them reach out for more knowledge, perspective and pride in working along side you.

In the next two to four years, retiring manager baby boomers will trigger a wave of new openings for high-responsibility jobs. A lot of those jobs will be filled by less-experienced workers, many of them millennials.

The so-called millennials, born between1980 to 1995, will be joining the workforce and are at high risk of early job burnout. The experts expect this to happen, so you managers need to get prepared to help them deal with stress and learn good leadership as they move up in your company.

INVITATION:

You will have the opportunity to add to your knowledge on de-stressing your workplace and growing good leaders as I will be speaking on both subjects at the 10th Signature Customer Service and Support Professionals Conference. It is September 29 - October 1, 2008 in San Diego at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort.

Some highlights of this year¹s program include:

* Opening Keynote: Dan Stockdale, The Tiger Guy
* In/Outsourcing - What is the Direction Today: Bill Price, Driva Solutions
* Pre-conference certification training by SDI - Service Desk Analyst and
Service Desk Manager Courses
* Pre-conference -Stress Management Workshop: JJ Lauderbaugh
* Practitioner case studies from companies such as Puget Sound Energy,
   Earthlink, U. S. Navy, Angel.com, W. E . Energies, Pinal County Government,
   the USPTO, UCSF Medical Center, Belkin International, The Environmental
   Protection Agency and many moreŠ.

* The hottest topics in our industry will be covered including, motivation, mentoring, leadership, social media, project management, benchmarking, stress relief, going green and unbiased technology reviews of numerous industry products.

* Brand New Workshop Track! A 4th workshop track with longer in depth sessions. Walk away with not only the knowledge you need to succeed, but how to apply that knowledge.

You don¹t want to miss this event! Register now so you don¹t miss our Early Bird Special by registering before August 23 and saving $100! You can register at www.helpdeskconference.com file://www.helpdeskconference.com or by calling 425-398-9292. Call nowŠ.the seats are going fast!

By the way, I wonder what I will learn from you at the conference in our interactions, and from my former class mates at my class reunion I'm attending a week later? Yes, this will be my third reunion this year! I'm
sure both the conference and the reunion will be exciting!


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JJ's FAVORITE QUOTES:
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"Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves."
-- Dale Carnegie


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Tele-COACHING & Tele-MENTORING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE in an area? Service? Sales?

* Motivation and growth of your people?
* Dealing with irate internal or external customers?
* Leading and Coaching your staff?

TRY our one-on-one Tele-Mentoring (phone coaching service) that is available to business owners, executives, managers, supervisors and staff members.

Call for your FREE CONSULTATION now! 800 500-9656 or 408 445-1590

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EVALUATION OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT:
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Have you had an Evaluation of Your Environment lately so you could receive suggestions on improving it? (It's like the doctor's check up, you often don't know you need it, until after you've had it.)

http://www.jjlauderbaugh.com/about.html

****************************************
ABOUT JJ:
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JJ Lauderbaugh, CMC
408 445-1590 or 800 500-9656, 1716 Husted Ave., San Jose, CA 95124.

JJ works with companies that want to give exceptional customer service to increase sales, and with Directors and Call Center/Help Desk Managers who want to improve human performance.

She's an international speaker, trainer, facilitator and certified management consultant (CMC) on customer service management, specializing in performance improvement, call centers, up/cross selling and outbound calling.

For training resources, free articles, tips and streaming video, go to our web site at http://www.JJLauderbaugh.com

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Copyright and Reprints:
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Reprint permission is granted when the following credit appears:

© JJ Lauderbaugh, CMC, JJ Lauderbaugh & Associates, 2007. Reprinted with permission from JJ's Tips, a monthly internet newsletter. For your own personal subscription, email jj@jjlauderbaugh.com.
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Thanks,

JJ