Your brand's identity is the heart of your entire business. Your business's voice, copy, and look are how potential clients judge you. It's the stuff that makes you and your business unique. Unfortunately, these days, it feels like most marketing strategies and brand guidelines give generic advice. When everyone follows the same guidelines, we end up in a sea of sameness. So … [Read more...]
The Crisis of Managing Generation Z
A good friend asked me recently, “What’s the single most debilitating thing facing the generation entering the workforce?” My fast answer: critical thinking. With managing emotions a close second. I’m not a generations researcher by career focus. I wound up studying this in response to a growing number of befuddled clients – and apparently most CEOs in Davos last month, asking … [Read more...]
How to Keep Your Team from Melting Down During the Holiday Season
It's that time of year again! The holidays are upon us and, for many businesses, that means an increase in workload and stress levels. How can you keep your team from melting down during this busy season? Here are a few tips: 1. Identify Goals and Prioritize Identify goals that must be met and determine priorities that must be handled now vs. what can wait until the holiday … [Read more...]
How to Build a Strong Team to Scale Your Business
If you want your business to reach its full potential, you need to build a strong team that can help your business scale successfully. Whether you're just starting out or your business has been in operation for years, the tips provided below will help you. But first, you need to understand what elements are needed for a team to be high-performing. What Makes a Team … [Read more...]
Should You Bring Your “Whole Self” to Work?
It's no shock that the past two plus years has shaken both employee and employer paradigms of work. Since 2020, an emphasis on DEI (or DEIJ, or DEIB) - whatever your acronym - has put more awareness on the part of the powers that be that they need to make some pretty drastic changes to the workplace. The shift towards distributed work, focus on mental health and wellness, … [Read more...]
Why Your Feedback May Not Be Getting Results: 5 Antidotes to Bad Feedback
When you hear the word “feedback” what comes up for you? Do you welcome it or cringe and run for the hills? My guess is most of us are at the latter edge of the spectrum. Why? Because most of us have been the receiver of unhelpful feedback at best or feedback that damaged relationships at worst. If you’re in a position where you give feedback (and really this should happen … [Read more...]
Do What You Do Best, Outsource the Rest
The rapid pace of technological development is exerting profound changes in the way companies conduct some of their business activities. In recent years, many companies have sought to realize the economic benefits of technology by outsourcing some or all aspects of their IT-related services functions to third-party service providers, shedding non-core services and reducing … [Read more...]
5 Ways Empathy Encourages Engagement in the Workplace
Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Empathy is about understanding others' viewpoints. Today, more organizations recognize the importance of empathy. It's a give and take. All stakeholders are encouraged to make an effort to show understanding & compassion. All stakeholders are interested in promoting a positive working environment. Empathy organically increases … [Read more...]
Virtual Team Building – What It Is, Why it Matters and How to Do It Properly
If you type “virtual team building” into Google trends, there is an explosion in the search term usage between the 7th-20th of March 2020. That’s when many countries around the world went into lockdown with once desk-bound employees now working from home. This trend demonstrates the need to connect with our colleagues. No matter the circumstance, it is absolutely essential … [Read more...]
How to Manage Courageous Conversations at Work – Top 10 Tips
Feedback from my first article, How to Become a Better Leader for your Team, directed me to one topic briefly mentioned in the piece – how do we effectively deliver difficult feedback and manage ‘courageous conversations’. Whether you're running your own business or you're responsible for a team in a bigger corporation, at some point, you inevitably have to manage these … [Read more...]