Linda Henley-Smith

You want your staff to be the best they can be for their sakes and for the good of the organization. So many people get stuck and never reach their full potential, due to lack of confidence, fear, low motivation…there are many excuses. I call them big “buts”. You know the pattern: “I would do this BUT…(fill in the blank)! A healthy person is one who learns to kick him or herself in the “but” and break through to the next level of personal development and success.

Most of us are cracked pots. We’ve had experiences that have left us broken and we might even have considered ourselves as failures or useless. What we need to understand is that no matter what has happened to us; physically or emotionally,
we can always find restoration, and often we will be stronger and more beautiful than before! Kintsugi is a Japanese word meaning “golden joinery.” It refers to the art of fixing broken ceramics with a lacquer resin made to look like solid gold. A vessel repaired by kintsugi will be stronger and more precious than before it was fractured. If our destiny is altered and we take a different path…it can be more rewarding than the one we originally thought we should walk. Recovery is possible!

No matter what business you’re in, you serve people and anyone who is served is a client of sorts. Face it, there are no many options these days that if you’re not serving your customers, someone else will! Not only do you want to have
satisfied clients, you want loyal clients. This session will help your staff to look at your company the way your customers see you.

We live in a fast paced world with hundreds of decisions to be made every day. Stress is rampant and sometimes it feels as if we are living in a pressure cooker. Because we’re caught in the daily rush that seems to carry us along, often we get exhausted, lose our voice when it comes to saying “no” and get swept up in things we don’t really want to do. We begin to feel like we’re losing our sense of self and becoming someone else’s sock puppet. It takes more than knowledge and intelligence to be a success; it also takes emotional
intelligence…the ability to recognize the importance of and utilize our emotions in dealing with life’s challenges.

Say the word “stress.” Now say it with a whispery voice and really hiss out the ssssss on the end. It sounds kind of villainous, doesn’t it? Stress can really make you sick and mess up a work environment, as well. The term “stress” was
initially coined to denote how much pressure could be borne by beams in a structure before they snapped! Stress can damage our bodies and our workplaces, as well; resulting in high absenteeism, cranky staff and an unpleasant environment. A stressed worker won’t give the customer or coworkers the
attention and courtesy they deserve, and besides, no one wants to work with a troll! It is said that everyone brings joy into the workplace…some when they enter and some when they leave!

This session has become a favorite for women's conferences. We live in hectic times and it seems as if a woman's work is never done! There are so many stresses that plague our gender and we all seem to feel that we have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. It is mentally healthy for us to realize that we can't always do it all! We need to take time to play and indulge ourselves every once in a while. The fact is, there is a time to eat tofu and a time to go for the chocolate! This session addresses how to deal with stress and
put things into proper perspective.