About
Richard
In
the 1970's I finished my training in clinical psychology
and began my career as a group therapist and administrator
of two community mental health programs in the San Francisco
Bay Area. After five years I did what many of my peers did.
I went into private practice. I opened an office in Palo
Alto close enough to where I lived that I could walk to
work. I was thrilled to be my own boss.
Because I liked eating regularly I thought I ought to do
something to announce my presence in the community so people
would come to see me. After a visit to the self-help section
of a couple of book stores around town, I decided to specialize
in "executive stress management" as that was a
popular topic back then.
Without really knowing anything about marketing I typed
up a flier announcing the opening of my office (and my specialty
in executive stress management) and at night I shoved these
"announcements" under the doors of the occupants
in my building and in a few other buildings near by to see
what would happen. It was an experiment. Amazingly my phone
began to ring. Business people who had read my flier began
calling and complaining about their stress. Wonderful, I
now had people coming to see me and could eat regularly.
My new clients were small business owners and professionals
who according to their stories were stressed to the max
by the demands of their work. Some were at the brink of
burnout.
Immediately, I had an important choice to make. I could,
as advertised, help my new clients learn executive stress
management techniques - or I could go another way. I could
try to help them uncover the causes of their stress and
deal with root problem instead of just working on the surface
with the symptoms. Well, I made the right choice. Not a
single person who came to see me wanted simple symptom management
if there was even a remote possibility of getting rid of
the situations that were causing the stress in the first
place.
These were smart people. Because of their experience in
business they knew that quick fixes never solve real problems.
They understood that making things better might be hard
work and might take a fair amount of time. And they viewed
the alternative, learning to relax so they could put up
with their stress, as unacceptable.
Of course most of the
stress I heard about was work-related. And since I was in
the same building or very near by, I could go to work with
my clients and observe first-hand what was so stressful.
So that's what I did. I went to work with my clients, watched
them work, and saw what was driving them up the wall. Then
we'd go to lunch or dinner and talk about strategies they
could implement to change the situation. The strategies
might be about better ways to communicate, better ways to
prioritize or manage time, new sales and marketing ideas,
leadership tactics, or many other strategies with which
to modify their behavior so they could be productive but
without the bone crushing stress.
In the course of finding
my life's work I made a transition from the role of psychologist
to the role of a business consultant and coach. Along the
way I learned how businesses ought to work and how to gently
but firmly nudge them in the right direction.
The
idea is simple. Help people who run businesses re-structure
their operation and re-invent how they work, so they can
accelerate their performance and overcome any behaviors
(or high stress factors) that may be undermining their personal
and professional success. The
work is achievement psychology in a business setting - helping
business owners, managers, and professionals create a Done
Business.
For me everyday is just the way I want it to be - interesting,
challenging, and rewarding.
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