轉載：Crunch Point－Michelle Yu@Shanghai

Crunch Point
--The 21 Secrets to Succeeding When It Matters Most

(文章來源：大師輕鬆讀 No.213)

"Crunch points are inevitable, unavoidable, and unpredictable. They way you behave in a crunch can build you up or tear you down. Your ability to handle a crisis effectively is the most identifiable characteristic of leadership. From now on, wherever you have a problem or a difficultly, look upon it us u special opportunity that is sent to help you become stronger and wiser, and to be more successful and influential in the future. Resolve in advance that no matter what happens to you today or in the future, you will remain calm. You will take a deep breath, get the facts, and assert control." --Brian Tracy

Secrets 1 Stay Calm
When you face a crisis, pause before you respond. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and visualize yourself being successful. Resolve to make this challenge a atepping stone to success rather than the end of the story.
Secrets 2 Remind Confident About Your Abilities
Remind yourself that human beings can achieve anything they set their minds to. Just because you’ve had a temporary setback, that isn’t the end of your abilities. View this as a challenge that will help you grow and progress.
Secrets 3 Dare to Move Forward
Don't get paralyzed by a temporary setback. Lead out. Show people the right direction to head. Keep your vision clear and take steps that will get your moving in the right direction again. Make the hard choices and move on
Secrets 4.Get All the Facts
In a crunch, you need to find out what the reality of the situation is. It’s all very well to dwell on how you wish things were, but your first question should always be:” What is the reality of the situation we are facing right now?”
Secrets 5 Control of the Situation
In a crisis, the natural tendency is fight or flight. As a leader, you should take firm control and get everyone focused on the opportunities of the future rather than the problems of the past. Get people to consider their next decisions and actions.
Secrets 6 Cut Your Losses Quickly and Decisively
You have to be flexible. Probably around 70 percent of your decisions will turn out to be wrong. When that happens, cut your losses quickly and reverse direction. Don’t keep stubbornly doing what’s wrong, as that can drain all your resources.
Secrets 7 Manage the Crisis
Don’t worry about why these things are happening to you. They happen to everyone sooner or latter. Instead of dwelling on what cannot be changed, take charge, make plans and get busy actually resolving the problem.
Secrets 8 Communicate Consistently Well
When a crisis arises, tell everyone all the factual information you have. Make sure there are no surprises. As well as keeping everyone inside up to date, update your key outside suppliers and ask for their input and assistant.
Secrets9 Identify All Your Constraints
When you're in a crunch, pause and look at all your constraints. Identify the most important or key constraint that limits what you can accomplish. Focus on alleviating that single constraint first so you can start moving forward.
Secrets10 Think Creatively
To enhance your abilities, get used to thinking on paper. Define your problem clearly, develop as many potential solutions as possible and then take action. As you do this consistently, you’ll find your capacities to achieve will increase markedly.
Secrets 11 Focus on Key Results
Most companies have about five to seven key results areas that determine success or failure. Know your key activities and then work systematically to improve in whichever are your weakest areas.
Secrets 12 Concentrate on Your Top Priorities
In a crunch, apply the 80/20 rule intensively. Focus on the 20 percent of your activities that produce 80 percent of your results. Concentrate on making a real difference with each you spend at work.
Secrets 13 Launch a Counterattack
Paradoxically, the best time to go on ther offensive is when your organization is facing a crunch. Stay alert to opportunities not only to solve the persent crisis but also to use this as a slingshot to grow in the future.
Secrets 14 Work on Generating Cash Flow
Most crises involve in one way or another. Cast flow is like the lifeblood of any enterprise. Job#1 will be to preserve your cash and generate more. Let nothing else distract you from this imperative.
Secrets 15 Care for your Customers
In a crunch, make every effort to keep your customers buying and paying. The only way you will survive long term is if you can create new customers and keep the ones you already have. Do everything possible to achieve that.
Secrets 16 Aggressively Seed More Sales
The most direct way to get out of a business crunch is to close more sales. This moves money from your customer’s pockets into your bank account. Deliver great value, but also be determined insistent about closing more sales.
Secrets 17 Keep Things Simple
In a crunch, you may feel overwhelmed. That’s not at all helpful. Decide to focus only on what really counts. Discipline yourself to ignore or delegate completely the things you don’t need to be doing and focus intensively on key acivities.
Secrets 18 Stay Healthy and Strong
Take excellent care of your physical health, especially while you’re under the stress of a crunch point. Imagine you’re a champion athlete preparing for competition. Protect your health so you can perform to maximum ability.
Secrets 19.Connect to Greater Powers
In a crunch, take time to listen to the “Still, smaill voice within.” This will give you an opportunity to connect to the powerful universal mind that guides human destiny. Connecting to a higher power may just bring the answers you need.
Secrets 20 Rise to the Challenge
Everyone always demonstrates their true character during time of stress and in the face of setbacks. Resolve in advance that you will rise to the challenge. Never compromise your integrity for any reason. Act as if ther world is watching---because it is.
Secrets 21 Persist Until You Succeed
Resolve to never give up. This alone will guarantee that you succeed. You will face a never-ending succession of problems in life, but if you face up to and surmount each one, you will become all that you are capable of becoming.