More than a gleam of optimism in Dubai

Heading back to London, last week from Dubai, I reflected that the economic indicators for recovery in the Emirates, and of commercial confidence, are looking good.   That is confirmed by a new forecast by global HR consultants, Mercer, that salaries are predicted to rise by up to 7.5% in the next year, following a separate finding from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, showing that UAE is now firmly in recovery mode from the global downturn.

So what conclusions can be drawn from my own varied schedule of meetings with all manner of people across the corporate, retail and government sectors?

We might take note of the audience research from Naseba’s high profile Women in Leadership Forum, held last week in Dubai’s luxury Atlantis hotel, where I had the pleasure of presenting a well-attended stress management workshop. Not only did these women represent a most impressive cross-section of both national and international, executive, female talent, but  I felt a strong respect for all these highly motivated women who were succeeding in so many different areas of commerce, business and the professions. However, concerns were expressed regarding long working hours, poor communications and, sometimes, management systems that were less than efficient.  Nevertheless, I detected an abundance of confidence, along with a strong awareness of the challenges ahead and the need to adapt to the inevitable corporate change.

In denial

This corporate change has had a good deal to do with the UAE’s recent experience of its first-ever recession  -  a traumatic experience, as I can personally testify. Throughout the past twenty years, there have been a number of economic downturns in Europe, but none to match the severity of this recession. This week has reminded me of one of my old clients in Abu Dhabi, from some years back.

As he was a well-known name in the oil and gas industry of the 80’s and 90’s, I had better re-name him Ihab. He was a towering figure who had put his company firmly on the world map. In the good years, Ihab couldn’t put a foot wrong, and it seemed that he had been born to rule the industry. But this recession affected him badly  -  and revealed unsuspected weaknesses. For he had been totally unprepared for such severe setbacks, and went straight into denial. When he was advised that he must make some of his own appointees redundant, he became literally incapable of making decisions, in a way that nobody had seen him before. In other words, he was good at building-up a business during the good times, but hopeless at managing it through the difficult times. This required a whole different breed of manager. And before long, these new managers had to do the unthinkable, and make Ihab himself, redundant.

As I watched the Dubai lights twinkling below me, as I relaxed in my comfortable  Emirates Airlines jet, I remind myself that I am both an insider and an outsider, and it is this that gives me such a good perspective from which to evaluate the future of Dubai and the Emirates.

I believe that the UAE will experience continued growth as an international, commercial hub and tourist destination. There is nowhere in the world that has built such an amazing infrastructure, incorporating the very latest advances in technical design and utilising the best talent from around the globe.

Dubai already has one of the best international airlines and soon the world’s largest new airport for intercontinental travellers, and not to mention the world’s tallest building at over 800m – and the shrewd, global investments by the UAE will ensure that it is now an economic force that demands worldwide respect.

 Key Points about UAE’s first recession

• Reliable economic surveys present a favourable outlook for the UAE
• A businesswomen’s Forum confirmed commitment and thirst for learning
• Management needs to be proficient in skills that can handle recession

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

 Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8954 1593  or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. 

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Dubai emerging leaner, stronger

Five months is a long time to be away from my home in Dubai  -  my second home, that is  -  and as we touched down at Dubai International, courtesy of Emirates Airlines, (probably the best airline anywhere), I wondered if things had really got as bad as the scare-stories would have us believe.

For the world’s media have certainly seized upon Dubai as the fallen idol of the Middle East  -  once, they wrote, ‘the byword for 21^st century, futuristic architecture and unrivalled prosperity, the epitome of luxury and excellence’ – and now depicted as a ghost town of empty shops and restaurants, and huge deserted building-sites topped by motionless  cranes.

Generally, I have tried to keep these stories in proportion, assuming that the media would take the opportunity of exaggerating them into a new mythology of hubris and nemesis.

Knowing the Dubai business world as I do  -  from the major internationals to the local corner-shops, and from CEOs to taxi-drivers  -  I did not believe that these resilient people would lose heart to that kind of degree.

Even the reported mass-flight of the expats sounded highly exaggerated. When our plane landed, I’d already made a note to look at the airport car-park. Was it really littered with abandoned Mercedes and Lamborghinis left over from the boom, as their owners fled home? Well, not that I could see!

Next stop was my usual check-in at the Royal Home Hotel Apartments in Bur Dubai, where my welcome was as effusive as ever. No sign of low morale there. However, the view from my window did show the building site opposite, as unchanged since last time, confirming the real-estate slump.

Then for lunch at the Kamat Indian restaurant nearby which, I reckoned, would probably be as good a barometer of trading conditions as any. The classic aroma of fresh lime pickle and saffron was as wholesome as ever, signalling business as usual  -  or nearly so, said the manager, as business was maybe down a little but was now steadily increasing again.

Hope of the future

And then to work  -  my first assignment was a presentation to Dubai Internet City Toastmaster’s Group, on ‘Using the Internet to gain Business’. No sign of pessimism here, but a group of local business people full of enthusiasm for the growth of the local economy. This worldwide leader of communication and leadership development celebrated 85 years in business this week, having taken quite a few recessions in its stride, and it was an honour and a pleasure for me to address them.  Next stop would be the Women in Leadership conference at the Atlantis …

Travelling back to the hotel along the Sheikh Zayed Road (noting in passing that the new Metro does not seem to have had much effect on the traffic congestion), my vision is inevitably dominated by the awesome Burj Dubai, due for completion in December, apparently supremely unaffected by the recent recession.

But of course the Burj is something more than just real-estate. It’s a symbol of everything Dubai stands for, and it truly represents the hope of the future. When I consider the sheer extent of the teamwork and technical expertise that must have gone into this great engineering miracle, I am reassured that Dubai has what it takes to survive the recession and emerge triumphantly at the other end.

For it is not just Emiratis whose vision is dominated by the Burj, but the whole astonished world. Don’t believe what you may read abroad about Dubai failing to cope with its first recession. Dubai is emerging leaner and stronger – a miracle of faith, planning and the genius of the vision of HM Sheikh Mohammed.

Are you working in Dubai?  How is the recession affecting you?  In our readers comments box now…

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

 Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from Bank of England to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

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Your property may be valuable. But that doesn’t make you a property expert. Don’t give up the day job > http://ping.fm/5SAWF

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says … Don’t let your emails stress you out

I had known and liked Omar for years; we attended many of the same conferences, and when I told him I was a stress consultant, he joked that unfortunately he wasn’t likely to need my services. Early in life, he had accurately sized himself up as a modest performer, and he had found his natural level in a small company supplying washroom towels and soap dispensers to lower-end clients throughout UAE. The Janitor, people called him.

Watching his more ambitious friends, and their struggles at coping with stress, he believed he had found the stress-free life he sought. Clients came back year after year, partly because of the pleasant and unhurried atmosphere in his office, and the natural good manners he displayed. This also contributed to the team-building agenda  -  retaining staff who knew they could earn more elsewhere.

But then came email. He said he could feel in the air that it was the enemy of the quiet life. And this was confirmed by events. Suddenly a crisis atmosphere took over, as standard  -  whether or not there was any genuine emergency. There was no such thing as a solid hour, only sixty lots of one-minute panics. This killed all attempts at concentrating on a problem. In fact, the time-saving aspects of email seemed to be outweighed by the inefficient time-management that they encouraged.

But it was when he found himself turning into completely different personality, rude and impatient with colleagues and clients, that he decided to dig out my card from the bottom of his file, and ask for a stress consultation.

Fortunately, I was able to reassure him that there were well-tested solutions to his problem. He ought to realize that inbox management  -  compressing files, keeping the ‘new email’ alert switched off etc.  -  was a necessary drill, to be practised like driving a car. Efficient archiving, integrating emails with calendars, reporting spam …  All put together, these significantly relieved the stress of daily business.

I still detected an unspoken lament. How could the simple world of roller-towels and hand-cream generate such high tension? Just what had happened to that nice stress-free career he had settled for? I told him he must improve his attitude to managing change  -  learn to embrace the email way-of-life with enthusiasm, not reluctance.

Later he told me he had forced himself to do just that, and was now confidently in control of his emails  -  and his stress. I said it was like coming home from the dentist.

“That wasn’t so painful, was it?”

Does email stress you out?  Leave a comment and let us know.

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of the Carole Spiers speeches that have decisively changed opinions.

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC Broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference for a high impact, charismatic, rich content presentation on +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 or email:  info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Or check-out latest professional stress reduction products and services at:  www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

A good makeover can reduce the stress of business in a recession…

A good makeover can reduce the stress of business in a recession

A makeover may not seem the most obvious remedy for the stress symptoms of a recession. But recent research indicates that women are spending more on their clothes, hair and general makeover than they were a couple of years ago.

One reason may be the lower prices on offer. Another may be that woman’s jobs are less affected in a recession than men’s.

But the impact of new clothes and a good hairdo on a businesswoman’s confidence is also a big factor in the survival of businesses that are in danger of folding, and therefore in the reduction of work stress. The confidence and poise of a well-dressed and well-coiffed woman may be just what puts out the signals that reassures clients and suppliers, and could make the difference between surviving and going under. In situations that are at risk of turning desperate, to act as though everything is in order may be the best way to restore order.

Have you… seen any cases of a woman overcoming recession blues by optimising her makeover? Tell us about it now.

Find out more about these and many other aspects of stress management at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

A makeover may not seem the most obvious remedy for the stress symptoms of a recession. But recent research indicates that women are spending more on their clothes, hair and general makeover than they were a couple of years ago.

One reason may be the lower prices on offer. Another may be that woman’s jobs are less affected in a recession than men’s.

But the impact of new clothes and a good hairdo on a businesswoman’s confidence is also a big factor in the survival of businesses that are in danger of folding, and therefore in the reduction of work stress.

The confidence and poise of a well-dressed and well-coiffed woman may be just what puts out the signals that reassures clients and suppliers, and could make the difference between surviving and going under. In situations that are at risk of turning desperate, to act as though everything is in order may be the best way to restore order.

Have you… seen any cases of a woman overcoming recession blues by optimising her makeover?  Tell us about it now.

Find out more about these and many other aspects of stress management at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Discover how to reduce the stress of back-to-school

To me, the handling of back-to-school pressures is easily recognisable as a branch of Change Management, today’s most topical intervention in the handling of stress symptoms.

There is the change from holiday culture into term-time culture. Then there are changes in the child itself, often marked decisively by the educational milestones: new term, new year, new school. And these are also milestones for parents too.

Logically, you would expect parental stress to rise with each stage of education, according to its perceived importance  -  together with its rocketing cost, whether or not there are school-fees involved.

But personally I see it the other way round. To me, the first day at kindergarden  -  which looks unimportant  -  is the seminal moment, when the child’s eyes and ears are most open to its unfamiliar surroundings, and it is most responsive to atmosphere. A good stress-free first day at school seems to me worth everything else put together.

Have you… experienced stress at Back-to-school time? Add your comment here.

Find out more about these and many other aspects of stress management at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Back-to-school Blues? You’re simply having to handle a change-of-life in your child – and in yourself. Read more > http://ping.fm/Q1fpB

Avoid work stress through smiling, says Carole Spiers

At moments of acute work stress, you may feel that a smile will cost you some dignity. But what about the simple wisdom that says “A smile costs you nothing”?

As an international stress-counsellor and motivational speaker, I found that sulking was prevalent among those who tended to complain that they were at the bottom in life, as with long-serving prisoners.

But in war-zones, where law-abiding (indeed, law-enforcing) people have come through much worse conditions, the smile is adopted as a symbol of survival and the triumph of the spirit.

In this recession, the smile may become the mark of the survivor. If you can cope optimistically with new and unexpected conditions, forge yourselves into a team and win through, then you have triumphed. And the ones who are still thinking negatively, because they were unprepared for change, will lose out, and probably continue to blame everyone but themselves.

Find out more about these and many other aspects of work stress at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers comments on air-traffic controller ‘talking on his mobile’…

The terrifying plane crash over the Hudson in downtown New York has been attributed to an air traffic controller talking on his mobile while on duty. This represents an extreme case of a common condition  -  inattention due to the intrusion of mobile calls, nearly always trivial.

Certain shops and offices have already banned the use of mobiles as unprofessional bad manners that raise stress-levels in the other person. The recent tragedy shows how unprofessionalism can cost lives.

Can you truly say that you never speak on your phone when it is not hands free in the car?

Find out more about these and many other aspects of stress management at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

 

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers explains how to reduce the stress of job interviews

Job interviews combine so many different kinds of work stress that Interview Coaching has become a recognised branch of stress management, in much demand by beginners and top players alike.

You can help by remembering what an interview actually is. It’s a sales pitch in the form of a conversation. Your brief is to promote your potential benefits to the organisation, in a form that the employer will recognise and remember, and suggest likely advantages over other applicants. And although it is not a scripted recital, the key points should be itemised and memorised, and you should try to put all of them across during the course of the interview.

This needs preparation, including listing those key strengths in the first place. For it is remarkable how many people simply don’t know what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Do you know yours?    Let us know.

Find out more about these and many other aspects of stress management at info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk