A recent survey conducted by Mopria Alliance shows employees experience 77 distractions per week. Phil shares how employees are affected by work environments.
Today’s post is by Phil Mazzilli, Marketing Working Group Chair for Mopria Alliance.
After COVID-19 pushed employees out of their offices and into their homes, we’ve gained a new wealth of knowledge on the benefits and pitfalls of working from home versus in an office. As a leader in the printing industry, the pandemic got me thinking about how this new work-from-home environment was affecting how employees interact with their workspaces. What equipment would companies need to supply their employees with? Would we see any shifts in employee behavior? And perhaps most importantly, how would a work-from-home model affect productivity? Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210726-Cell-Phone.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-26 08:00:012021-07-26 01:40:33Employees Experience Distractions Every 31 Minutes: What Leaders Can Consider Before Making Decisions on Returning To the Workplace
Where do personal and company brands intersect? Should an entrepreneur seek to establish their own name first, or focus on the company brand to launch? Unlike the chicken/egg predicament, when the entrepreneur builds their personal brand first, establishing their presence and representing their vision, passion, talents and mission, the company brand becomes proof of that vision and an element of fulfilling their mission. Read more
https://i1.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210718-Chicken-or-the-Egg.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-19 08:00:452021-07-18 22:49:48Which Comes First: The Entrepreneur or the Company’s Brand?
Learn nine principles that can help you become a better leader.
Today’s post is by Angela Civitella, a business leadership coach and founder of Intinde.
Most employees have big dreams of one day having the big title, the corner office, and being able to lead an organization. Industry knowledge is certainly part of the job, but it won’t make you a great leader all by itself. This is where leadership skills come into play, and without having an exceptional grasp of them, your days at the top will be short-lived.
How do you learn these skills? They aren’t taught in school. There’s no formal on-the-job training about them. In fact, most great leaders will tell you that everything they know about leadership they learned as they went along. Even things they thought they knew proved to be off or not exactly as they expected. It was only after rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty that they learned these lessons by doing.
Regardless of when and how you learn about leadership, if you want to lead an organization and do it successfully, there are nine things you have to know.
1. React to opportunities. Don’t sit back.
There are two types of people: those who sit back and watch, and those who act. Great leaders watch for less than a second and are quick to take massive action. Always be thinking more about forward motion and less about right or wrong. Remember, in most cases, you can fix a mistake later. When an opportunity is gone, it’s usually gone forever. If being indecisive is something you struggle with, set a time limit. When time is up, force yourself to act. Don’t just act causally. Act with purpose and full intensity.
2. Stop micro-worrying.
Micro-worrying is frantically trying to take care of or control every little detail to the point you actually begin to feel sick. Your mind is racing. Your heart is pounding. Your stress and anxiety are through the roof. Unless you’re trying to save someone’s life, there’s no need to box in your movements by “analysis-paralysis.” Obsessing over the finer details, or the things that are irrelevant and won’t impact the outcome is pointless and will only distract you from what you really need to be accomplishing. Your goal is to do the best job you can do and move on.
3. Find satisfaction.
Human beings have short attention spans. This gets worse when given a task someone doesn’t find appealing. Maybe it’s a long and boring meeting, conference call, training session or whatever else. Great leaders know the secret to success is to add a quotient of contentment and satisfaction to absolutely everything. The productivity of your teams will skyrocket. Your employees will be more engaged, have more fun, and actually enjoy their work. Some people might measure success with money. These days, satisfaction is a pretty high up on the list.
4. Be genuine with your connections.
We are so busy connecting on social media, that we have forgotten the true art of taking the time to meet someone in-person to really connect. This was a problem even prior to Covid. As soon as it’s safe to do so, get with people again for a real handshake, a real conversation, and a face-to-face meeting where you can actually have a three-dimensional experience with someone. This is what builds long lasting business relationships. Let’s go back to being real people.
5. There is no “overnight success” story
Tangible success in the beginning is very scarce. What comes in droves is frustration and all the other attitudes that make feeling successful an unattainable journey. Just remember, career success almost always equals hard work and time. People forget to give amply of it and then wonder why they aren’t getting anywhere. Remember, you get out what you put in, and sometimes it feels like it takes more than that.
6. Neglected connections are not connections.
How many times have you heard someone brag that they have 5,000 LinkedIn connections, 50,000 Facebook followers and a database of more than 200,000 people? Guess what? It’s all irrelevant if you don’t work those contacts and regularly stay in touch with them.
Be mindful and strategic about keeping a dynamic connection with contacts that can better your work life and life in general. There are different people for different aspects of your life. Be organized about your relationships, and nurturing. Stay on people’s radar. If you’re just a faceless connection on a website, how useful is that to you or anyone else? It really is quality over quantity when it comes to your connections.
7. Failure doesn’t last
Mistakes happen. In fact, they have a big purpose. I would even go as far as saying mistakes can be better than winning at times. Mistakes bring you to refine your thinking, your plans, and how you execute and deliver your business model. They are meant to give you the necessary pause in your journey to “reset.” So, it’s not about failing; it’s about learning. When you realize this, it takes away the fear and allows you to engage with less anxiety, less toxicity in your system, and have a better mindset about all the moving pieces in your life.
8. Spread out your interests
Has anyone ever called you a generalist, as if it were a bad thing? It’s actually a great quality when it comes to leadership. Generalists have a keen mind about a lot of things and are motivated to engage as long as something piques their interest. They are happy to learn something new, always thinking about a more robust arsenal of skills that they can claim as their own. These wonders of perpetual knowledge are always curious about everything and everyone. They never find anything boring. They are always able to get a nugget or two out of something. It might not happen right away, but eventually they will call on that knowledge in a big way and everyone will look at them and think: how in the world do they know that?
9. Teamwork makes the dreamwork
I love this saying. Being a good team member is one of the top things hiring managers and recruiters look for in a job candidate. You can be a superstar with awesome capabilities. If you cannot get along with your teammates and do not identify with the work culture in your organization, you might as well bow out and go home because you are of no use. Companies are looking for people who fit in harmoniously because conflict is usually a drain on employee productivity, morale, and all the other factors that companies rely on to keep their business moving.
Angela Civitella is an executive, a business leadership coach, and the founder of Intinde. www.intinde.com
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i2.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210712-Number-9.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=17201280Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-12 08:00:462021-07-12 03:03:029 Lessons for Leadership Success No One Teaches You About
Managing your work-from-home team successfully takes more than technology. Here are five steps to ensure clarity, collaboration, connectedness and productivity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about numerous seismic shifts in our lifestyles. One of the biggest for many of us is learning to effectively work from home. For team managers, the remote life poses particular challenges. Simply having the technology and tools is not enough. Managers also need to adjust priorities and protocols and develop guideposts to overcome the pitfalls of isolation and keep everyone productive and successful. Here are five things they can do:
Adjust your definition of success. Working remotely looks, sounds, and feels different from working in person because it is. That means you can’t use the same metrics to measure success. For instance, engagement looks different without in-person contact. Back-to-back video conferences can generate a new kind of fatigue for everyone involved, so make space to recognize this. Consider what you do require from your team be it an agenda, a defined and clear objective, punctuality, or video cameras on. Try to notice what works for your team. When do they stay engaged and when do they zone out?
Establish new priorities for the new space. Now that your team is working from home, recognize a new set of mental health needs that stem from persisting confusion and tension. Team members may be feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and “paralyzed” – things they used to be able to mitigate by merely walking down the hall and chatting with a coworker. Remind team members to take care of themselves and to take the occasional mental health day. Foster work/life balance by insisting on dedicated lunch times, carving out no-meeting blocks on calendars, and having a consistent end-of-day finish time. Have short one-on-one check-ins to assist in removing blocks. Set up occasional social, no “work talk” virtual meetups or create a buddy system within the team so team members are encouraged to get to know one another outside of their roles.
Be consistent and do not cancel. When we’re not physically together in an office, we have a natural tendency to forgo regular one-on-one check ins with our direct reports, but now it is even more important. Your team members probably feel more isolated than ever and their lives are full of new and complex pressures. Consistent, efficient one-on-ones are critical for staying motivated, collaborative, and reaching goals. Additionally, set a reminder on your calendar to consistently check in with team members, as their needs and concerns will constantly evolve.
Be honest and vulnerable about your own experience. If you are feeling exhausted by endless zoom meetings, share it with your team. If you feel “over” the pandemic, let them know. Offering what is true for you from a place of observational truth, without judging yourself or the situation, gives your team space and permission to do the same. When your team feels safe to express how they are coping (or not) you have the opportunity to creatively problem solve while you still can. Use your listening skills like never before. Tune in. Turn off notifications. Close other tabs. Be present with your team and truly hear what they have to say. An excellent tool to use here is to repeat back to them what they shared before jumping into a response. “What I hear you saying is…., is that accurate?” Then move into the conversation where you know you are on the same page and they know you heard them.
Last but not least, trust your team to do their jobs. Create an environment where people know they can ask questions or simply say, “I don’t know.” This builds their trust in themselves, each other, and you. When your direct reports know you have trust in them, they feel a powerful agency and motivation. Clearly state expectations. Take care to describe the scope of each project accurately. Then release your team members to do their work. Check-in for short meetings and continue to delegate. Sharing the work, giving support where needed, and allowing and encouraging questions builds a team that is resilient, curious, and connected.
Pavo Navigation Coaching is a resource for those seeking to reimagine their working environment. Focused on identifying and addressing toxicity in all its forms, Pavo serves a wide variety of companies both large and small with the goal of positively impacting employee happiness, loyalty, productivity and ultimately, profits. For more information, visit www.pavonavigation.com
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210705-Zoom-Call.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=114401920Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-05 08:00:372021-07-05 04:44:56Managing Your Remote Team Successfully – Five “Must Do’s”
One of our clients had 5000 SKUs and we showed him analysis-wise that only 600 products made 80% of sales. We recommended the CEO to discontinue at least 500 very costly and unprofitable products. We showed him the data over and over again. But at the end of day, the CEO didn’t want to drop one single product because the products were like his “babies” and he did not want to “kill” them. Lesson learned: Products and services aren’t your children and you shouldn’t have an emotional over-attachment to them.
Common CEO Pitfalls
All failures in the business world have to do with not taking disruptions into account or failing to realize that your value proposition has become obsolete. When the big data shows you that certain products don’t make sense financially, you should consider removing those products from your portfolio. This is one example of a lack of CEO focus. Doing a results-oriented job is not as easy as it seems, especially in times of crisis. But there is one common mistake I have seen in numerous companies. Employees are very often “just not” doing what they are supposed to do. And even worse, their boss, the CEO, is very often not doing what he/she is supposed to be doing either.
CEOs can get trapped in the daily business and the incoming operative problems, mail, social media, and non-strategic tasks. They are busier with efficiency than with effectiveness. Doing the right things versus doing things right. The key challenge for a CEO is to make sure that he/she and his/her team are focusing and executing on the right things every day. And that doing the right things leads to profitable growth.
CEOs have to define where the company will be in the next two years and not take part in every single decision that his or her managers are responsible for. CEOs have to define the long-term vision and the fundamental business model elements facing the current crisis. They also have to have a clear plan that generates financial value and gives the company a competitive advantage.
5 Signs You’re the Bottleneck
Signs that you, as the CEO, are becoming the bottleneck of your company’s growth:
1. Almost every single decision, oftentimes operational issues, has to be double-checked with your office. 2. There is no accountability of the Sales, HR, and operational leaders. Weekly meetings lack solutions and best practice recommendations. 3. Lack of agility to resolve problems. 4. Distraction and procrastination due to too many tasks, unclear goals, fear of change, or fear of failure. 5. The company fails to achieve sales and profit goals.
Distraction Kills Your Business
“Distraction kills your business. You and your key employees have to be focused.”
CEOs are responsible for strategy. And strategy is a synonym for renunciation. To focus, CEOs have to make trade-offs. How much time do you spend on operational issues? How often are you in the 80/20 zone?
Through the years, I’ve seen that many CEOs, especially of SMEs, fail to see the BIG PICTURE; whereas the most successful CEOs have become 80/20 masters. The most successful CEOs lead their companies to achieve ambitious goals by energetically focusing on the most important actions. For example:
– They develop relationships with their key clients and prospects to understand market needs and requirements.
– They frequently talk to their key employees, especially their sales people, and retain them.
– They are aware of disruptive trends and key challenges. As a result, they are better prepared for unpredictable crises.
– They set clear goals and communicate the importance of strategy execution.
– They empower employees and show them the importance of the 80/20 rule.
You need to focus on the 20% that will deliver you 80% of the desired results. Every decision and action has to be made consciously if our time is to be used effectively. CEOs are responsible for hiring focused people who are better than him/her. CEOs should not be there to execute 80% of the whole work that only results in 20% of the important results.
Thomas Michael Hogg, author of Profitable Growth Strategy, is a consultant and mentor with more than 20 years of market and work experience in Germany, Switzerland, the US, and Mexico. Thomas has been an advisor to global companies such as PepsiCo, adidas, Campbell’s Soup, Johnson Controls, Bulkmatic, among other multinational companies, SMEs, and nonprofit organizations. He is the author of “Profitable Growth Strategy – 7 proven best practices from German companies” and a columnist at El Financiero. Thomas has been featured in Bloomberg TV, CNN, El Economista, SalesTech Stars, Milenio, Reforma, Mexico Industry, Cluster Industrial among others. He has also been a speaker at the Mercedes-Benz innovation week.
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i1.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210628-Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-06-28 08:00:002021-06-28 03:11:31CEOs: Key Signs You’re the Bottleneck of Your Business
During the past year, many changes have been made in the workplace. Since most companies are now working from home with new schedules and meeting formats, employees have been through a lot. With stress at an all-time high, companies are seeing drastic amounts of work-from-home burnout. So, how should companies deal with employees running on fumes? It all starts with the team leaders. Read more
https://i2.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210621-Bored-Businesswoman.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttp://thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-06-21 08:00:502021-06-21 01:46:47How to Avoid Work-From-Home Burnout
