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Nicholas Fainlight Are These Obstacles Holding you Back from Success?

Some obstacles prevent people from becoming influential leaders.

Exceptional leadership can build an outstanding business, but doing it effectively requires a lot of planning and discipline. A leader is expected to keep his team motivated, but helping them stay positive can be challenging. You also have to be able to connect with others.

Not Having a Set Purpose or Goal

One of the most effective ways to motivate people is to have a clear purpose and set goals. This can be communicated clearly to the team and the people around you, and it can ignite passion and drive them to reach their potential. Each team member has their individual talents and personal interests. This makes it hard to maintain a cohesive and well-defined team vision if you can’t unite everyone around a common goal. Disharmony can then develop quickly, which can derail projects and cause long-term damage.

No Connections Outside of Work

Team building and training are also powerful tools to help unify and bond your employees. Having an event or two can help break down barriers and provide employees with opportunities to connect and learn new skills, enabling them to collaborate more effectively. It’s possible to get carried away with too much control over everyone and over-focusing on work-related topics. This can be counterproductive, preventing people from learning and growing and increasing stress levels.

Not Delegating Tasks

Instead of focusing on your personal to-do lists, take a moment to consider what tasks you can delegate to employees. Doing so can help you get more done and motivate them by entrusting them with tasks outside their regular routine. It’s also important to remember that as a leader, you’re expected to provide the people with the training and resources they need to complete the tasks, so make sure you equip your team with what they need for any new projects.

Poor Communication

Communication is key to team success, but it also has to be reciprocal. The people must feel that their concerns will be addressed and that they can express themselves freely. A good culture is also influential in attracting and keeping top talent. It should encourage a positive attitude and foster people committed to continuous growth. Leaders can also help promote this environment by providing opportunities for team members to celebrate and motivate each other.

How To Balance Profit And Purpose In Business

By Nicholas Fainlight

On January 28, 2021

In Career, Education, Finance, fitness, health, Investing, Leadership, Nicholas Fainlight, postgraduate, Technology, Uncategorized

Entrepreneurs need to build business empires while still staying committed to their purpose. A significant number of business people struggle to commit to their purpose while still keeping their enterprises profitable. Businesses need to demonstrate their contribution to humanity while still growing their profit margins. Here are ways businesses can balance profit and purpose.

Go Green

In the past few years, many businesses have shown their commitment to adopting more sustainable production methods. No matter the size, every organization can play a role in reducing its environmental footprint. Surprisingly, the current generation prefers to buy green products. Therefore, companies that will demonstrate high sustainability credentials will gain numerous customers who want to buy green.

For instance, manufacturers can reduce carbon emissions by sourcing closer to home. When raw materials are transported for short distances, it helps cut both transport costs and carbon emissions. Besides, leaders who have a passion for conserving the environment can shift to renewable energy sources.

Find an Inspiration

Walk away from your comfort zone and start doing something new that challenges you. Learn from these things and find inspiration in them

Leverage Technology

Technology is changing every aspect of life, including how consumers interact with brands and how they buy products and services. For example, online sales have doubled in the past five years. Additionally, organizations are using machines to understand customer needs better. This means that businesses must stay on top of the latest innovations to remain competitive in their respective industries.

Share Your Success

Entrepreneurship is a murky journey characterized by ups and downs. Therefore, successive entrepreneurs should consider sharing their experiences with novice business people. When you balance profit and purpose, your impact is significant and tangible, and more consumers will want to be associated with your business.

Understand Your Purpose

Purpose goes beyond providing high-quality goods and services to consumers. It also means that your business prioritizes the common good of the community. For example, some companies such as Unilever have already developed a unique living plan to track their progress of minimizing their environmental footprint. Business leaders should devote time to learn about societal impact and how to improve it.

To change business operations to meet new expectations requires exceptional and visionary leadership. In today’s versatile business world, leaders who will adopt agility will be in a better position to achieve long-term success.

6 Communication Skills of Influential Leaders

By Nicholas Fainlight

On January 7, 2021

In Career, Investing, Leadership, Nicholas Fainlight

Excellent communication skills and impeccable leadership go hand in hand. Influential leaders connect with their audience at an emotional level. Their words are full of encouragement and inspire people to unleash their full potential.

Here are the secrets of effective leaders.

1. Know Their Audience

You can only communicate effectively after identifying who you are speaking to. Influential leaders know their audience, which helps them to choose the most suitable communication style. Identifying their audience doesn’t mean telling them what they want to hear. It means they relay essential information that the audience ought to know.

2. They Have Mastered Body Language

Effective leaders can tell people’s reactions to their message through body language. They are experts in picking on cues such as body language and facial expression because they understand that this is the only feedback they will receive from their audience. Great leaders use feedback to tweak their communication style.

3. They Are Listeners

Great leaders devote time to listen to the grievances and concerns of their audience. They listen and come up with the best response to their queries or grievances.

4. They Are Clear

Being precise in your communication increases the chances of the audience understanding faster. Great leaders explain things in detail to eliminate room for assumptions.

Whenever great leaders are delegating duties or asking for help from someone else, they strive to provide actionable, simple, and clear instructions. It is imperative to prepare thoughts in advance to provide essential details. Additionally, deliver these instructions in a friendly, calm way.

5. They Are Optimistic and Respectful

Everyone expects leaders to be respectful, but that is not always the case. Focusing on respectful, transparent, and fair communication within a team is an effective strategy for cultivating loyalty and enhancing team performance.

Don’t be tempted to use your status over your team or use fear or coercion as motivators. Instead, be honest and humble even when dealing with your juniors. Desist from being an autocrat and instead be a cheerleader who inspires people to be creative and quick problem solvers.

6. They Don’t Blame Others

When things go south in an organization, effective leaders don’t blame their team. They admit their mistake right away and focus on rectifying it in the future. They are accountable for their words and actions and are always striving to be better versions of themselves.

Boosting Sales Through Blogging

By Nicholas Fainlight

On November 4, 2020

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight, Uncategorized

The world of social media is a big and broad one. However, there are some constants out there. One of them is blogging, which remains a highly useful and relevant way of boosting your sales.

So, what are the benefits of blogging, and how is it worth the time and investment? Here are some thoughts.

Expert Positioning

Blogging gives you a chance to discuss a highly relevant topic in your industry, share your expertise, and give advice on a particular topic. This is about much more than just showing off or looking smart, as it gives you a chance to subtly demonstrate your expertise. This means that you can position yourself as a leader in your field and ensure that people will return to you or your business if they require your industry’s services.

Search Engine Optimization & Social Network Placement

Here’s a simple truth when it comes to Google: Search Engine Optimization is critical. This means that you must do everything in your power to create content that is useful, engaging, and relevant to your line of work.

Blogging is fantastic for that. Google loves frequently updated content, so the more content you can create, the higher your SEO will rank. This means that people who are looking for your line of work are more likely to find your blog, and this makes it more likely that they will find your website.

Furthermore, creating good content makes it more likely that your content will be shared on social networks by others. This is a great way of getting more exposure, and potentially increasing your sales.

Effective (and subtle) Calls To Action

When creating good content, you shouldn’t be overly sales-oriented. Indeed, broadly speaking, you shouldn’t sell too frequently on your blog, as this turns people off and makes them less likely to read your content.

However, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t have a Call to Action. This means that every blog entry should conclude with some sort of action the user should take, and an easy way to commit that action. It may be “read more” or “subscribe to our email list,” but every blog entry should conclude with a specific action that a user should take.

7 Tips for Successfully Working from Home

By Nicholas Fainlight

On May 18, 2019

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight

Working from home, regardless of your job, can be challenging. If not managed correctly, working remotely can become a hindrance to your productivity instead of a way to enhance it. You’ll become stressed and find it more challenging to focus on important tasks. If you want to be able to successfully work from home, here are a few tips to apply to your work day.

Have your own space

One of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting to work from home is that they do not create a separate space for their work. Many people believe that they can effectively work anywhere in their home and attempt to do so from their sofa or in a bedroom. While some people may be able to work this way, it’s much more productive to have a separate area just for working. If you have a spare bedroom, set it up as an office, or have a small corner of your home with a desk and everything you need.

Plan out your schedule

At the beginning of each week, plan out your schedule for what you need to get done. Then, review this schedule each day. You’ll have an idea of all you need to accomplish that day and can plan how to tackle it. Knowing what’s next on your to-do list makes you more productive.

Communicate with others

If you work remotely for a company or have employees or clients of your own, make a point to stay in regular communication with them. Create consistent check-ins so you never lose track of what you need to be doing. If you’re working for a larger company, it’s even more important to remain part of the conversation if you’re remote.

Stay organized

If you have great organizational skills, you’ll find working from home even easier. Take advantage of planners, calendars on your technology, and any other resources at your disposal. Create to-do lists, put everything in neat places, and keep yourself on track. The more organized you are, the easier working from home will be.

Utilize technology

When you’re working from home, take advantage of the technology available to you. Whether it’s apps and extensions to keep you more organized, ways to share files and information, or simply an up-to-date computer, technology is your ally when you’re working from home.

Limit distractions

Whether you have children at home, tasks you need to get done, or friends who know you’re working from home and think that means you’re always available, you need to do your best to limit distractions. Make it clear to your family and friends that you have clear working hours. If you have tasks you need to get done around the house, schedule those into your day or make a plan to do them before or after you’re working. It can be incredibly easy to get distracted while working in your home.

Take breaks

As you’re navigating working from home, remember that it’s healthy to take breaks. Schedule your breaks into your daily calendar; it’ll help you avoid taking too many breaks, but also pushing yourself too hard. These small breaks can be the time you get some other tasks done or simply go for a quick walk to clear your mind; you’ll find you’re much more productive after doing so.

6 Benefits of Frequently Changing Companies Early In Your Career

By Nicholas Fainlight

On April 24, 2019

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight, postgraduate

The average worker in the United States holds approximately 11 jobs during their lifetime, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This number is likely to increase by several jobs for younger workers, who seem less committed to longevity with their employers. This change in how long someone stays with a company is a direct result of there being plenty of opportunities to choose from in addition to healthy competition amongst companies to offer employees the best salaries and benefits. That said, here are some of the key reasons it pays to switch jobs early in your career.

Acquire more skills

One of the greatest benefits of switching jobs is learning new skills, according to Pay Scale. These are crucial and transferrable skills, such as writing, negotiating, making decisions, and solving problems, that can help you get better jobs in the future.

Avoid career burnout

When you stay at a job too long early in your career, you’ll tend to become more mechanical in how you perform tasks. In fact, Forbes further explains that your ideas will tend to diminish the longer you stick with one job.

Helps self esteem

Face it, as a talented professional, you have various goals you want to achieve during your career. You have a better chance of reaching them by switching jobs more frequently when you’re first starting out. For one thing, you’ll become exposed to more challenging tasks as you advance into higher-level positions. You’ll also experience a greater sense of accomplishment.

Enhances industry scope

It’s a good feeling when you can perform your job efficiently and get recognized for your efforts. Unfortunately, if you stay in a job too long, you risk falling behind on new trends or happenings in your industry, according to Forbes.

Expands your network

The more jobs you have when you’re young, the greater number of contacts you’ll make. These are people who can mentor you or help you advance into executive roles in the future. These business contacts can also be a launching pad for future business endeavors if you have a predilection toward entrepreneurship.

Increases pay and benefits

Often times, people get stuck in careers because there’s no room to move up. This issue tends to stymie both career growth and income. Although you’ll have to gauge various salaries and benefits in your industry, you can often get significant bumps in salary when you make both lateral or upward progressions in new jobs.

Manage Solo Work Time Nicholas Fainlight

How to Manage Your Time When You’re Working Alone

By Nicholas Fainlight

On January 3, 2019

In Career, Finance, Nicholas Fainlight

For people who create their own schedules, it can be challenging to figure out how to use your time in the most effective way possible. You may have occasional scheduled meetings or calls, but the majority of your work comes from a running list of projects with distant deadlines and it’s up to you to figure out what gets the highest priority and how much time you must allot to each task. This type of work schedule can be particularly challenging if you’re working from home or alone at a coworking space or somewhere else that can be distracting. Follow these pieces of advice to better manage your time and get more done.

Create a schedule

The first step to take to effectively manage your time is to create a schedule for the hours you’ll be working (or even your entire day, if you’re ambitious). You may already have a schedule or to-do list, but if you feel like it isn’t working well for you, scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Plan out each hour of your workday and allot enough time for each task so you can clearly see what you need to do when. This schedule helps you stay on task and gauge where you are throughout each day.

Learn your productive times

This step takes some trial and error, but by consciously paying attention to how you work and when you get the most done, you can figure out what times of the day you’re the most productive. Once you learn these times, you can plan to get your most important and urgent tasks done then and push lesser projects to different times.

Time yourself

As you work on your different tasks, start timing how long it takes you to do every item. Knowing you’re being timed can push you to stay focused and avoid distractions. If you do get distracted, you can clearly see how much time was wasted; let it serve as a wake-up call. You might also be underestimating how long it takes you to get something done, so timing yourself allows you to create a realistic schedule.

Eliminate distractions

If you work on the computer, you can easily access an endless number of distractions. With cell phones, we have hours of distractions in our pockets. When you work at home, you might get distracted by what needs to be done around your house. In order to best manage your time, you must eliminate distractions; put your phone in a different room or turn it off, block specific sites on your computer while you’re working, or isolate yourself somewhere that people won’t talk to you and you won’t be distracted by what’s around you.

Craft a workspace

No matter where you’re working, you need to create a workspace for yourself that you find relaxing and helps you focus. At home, create a specific room or area where you work so you can keep your work and home life separate. In your office, personalize your space so you enjoy being there, but also in a way that’s conducive to your productivity. If you work in more public spaces, consider investing in good headphones to ignore outside noise and get materials that best fit your needs and make your job easier.

Create Strong Client Relationships Nicholas Fainlight

6 Tips for Creating Strong Relationships with Your Clients

By Nicholas Fainlight

On December 5, 2018

In Career, Finance, Nicholas Fainlight

No matter how much experience you have in your industry and working with clients, you should constantly be improving how you interact with your clients. There are always ways to strengthen the relationship you have with your clients, especially if you’re a financial advisor or in some similar position where you’re closely working with clients to meet personal goals and make plans that affect their daily lives. If you’re some kind of a consultant with clients, you want to have as strong relationships as possible with them in order to best meet their needs and keep them happy. Here are some great tips on how to create strong relationships with your clients, regardless of your career.

Discuss their specific goals

When you first start working with a client, you need to clearly establish what their goals are and how you’ll work together to meet those. Your entire role revolves around how well you can help clients work toward their goals, so you need to understand what those goals are before you can make a plan to achieve them.

Keep your promises

If you tell a client you’ll get back to them by a certain date or that you’ll send them useful information or a draft of something you’re working on, stick to these promises. While sometimes situations arise where you may not be able to keep this schedule, be sure to communicate as quickly and clearly as possible. Clients appreciate this treatment and will trust you to do the best for them.

Be honest and authentic

In your dealings with clients, be honest with them. If they’re asking for a service or focusing on a goal you aren’t sure is realistic or you don’t have much experience with, tell them that. Never try to sell a client something they do not actually need. Whoever you work with will appreciate this type of integrity and you’ll create a close bond with your client.

Stay consistent

When you tell a client how your business operates or what you’re going to do for them, stay consistent with what you say. Do not change your tune from conversation to conversation; clients notice that. Remain consistent in how quickly you respond to their emails or calls and make sure all your communication is on a regular basis.

Remain thoughtful

Throughout your time working with your client, find small ways to be thoughtful in your interactions. These gestures could include checking in with them even if you do not have a specific reason to see if they have any questions or sending a card around the holidays. Letting clients know you’re available and think of them personally can help build a stronger relationship.

Regularly touch base

Finally, make sure you regularly touch base with your clients to discuss their goals and whatever you’re working on for them. Keeping them in the loop gives them agency over the project and creates a great relationship with lots of easy communication.

Address Workplace Conflict Nicholas Fainlight

5 Tips for Successfully Addressing Conflict in the Workplace

By Nicholas Fainlight

On November 21, 2018

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight, postgraduate

Unfortunately, you can try your hardest to stay out of conflicts at work and remain a neutral party, but sometimes, no matter what you do, you could find yourself caught in the middle of work drama. This issue is particularly prevalent if you’re in some kind of management position and have to address disputes between employees or work with difficult people. Use these tips to find ways to successfully address conflict without losing your cool; with this advice, you’ll be able to resolve the conflict to the best of your ability and avoid exacerbating it.

Evaluate the situation

Whether the conflict is between you and someone else or between two other people and was reported to you, the first step you take should be to sit back and take time to reflect on and evaluate the situation. You’re going to have your view of the situation, but it’s important to think about whether you missed an important aspect of the issue or if there’s something valid in someone else’s interpretation of what’s happening. In order to successfully resolve, you need to carefully evaluate what’s happening and think about how to move forward.

Get all sides

You can wait to evaluate the situation until you get all sides of the story or you can take the time to think through it before talking to people if you feel the need to calm down about whatever is happening. You’ll eventually need to speak to the person or persons involved in the conflict and get everyone’s side of the story in order to effectively resolve it.

Remain calm

Whenever you talk to the people involved in the conflict or think through it on your own, you need to work on remaining as calm as possible. If you become too heated, it’ll exasperate the situation and make it much more difficult to reach a solution. Learn techniques to remain calm, even in the face of stressful conflict.

Find a neutral party

While you absolutely should not go around your workplace spreading news about the conflict, you should find a neutral party who can be involved in the resolution of said conflict. Human resources is often great for this issue, but if you’re in a management position, you might be the person someone else came to for the neutral party. You need to find someone who can listen to all sides of the conflict and help everyone communicate effectively.

Have a conversation

Finally, in order to actually resolve the conflict, you need to have a conversation about it. Gather everyone involved together and calmly talk out the issues. In some situations, it may be better to first talk to people individually and make sure it’s safe to have a group conversation. The key to effective conflict resolution in the workplace is to remain calm and communicate openly in order to reach a solution as a team.

How to Increase Your Network

By Nicholas Fainlight

On November 8, 2018

In Career, Education, Nicholas Fainlight, postgraduate

Throughout your career, you’ll come to realize that people heavily rely upon their professional networks. Even if you’re only at the beginning of your career, you likely already have a fairly extensive network, from high school, college, and any jobs or internships you held during that time. In the professional world, your network is how you can find out about new opportunities, ask questions about an industry, city, or company you’re interested in, or even find a place to live. It’s beneficial to continuously work on strengthening and increasing your network of connections, so here are some tips on how to do so.

Create an online presence

As you start to increase your network, it’s time to create an online presence for yourself. Think of how you’d like to portray yourself online and what you want your personal brand to say about you. Create profiles like LinkedIn and Twitter and then make sure they’re professional; you don’t want a possible future boss or coworker to see the uninformed tweets you sent in high school. An online presence also provides you with a way to keep track of the people you meet as you enhance your network.

Attend lots of events

If you live in a city, there are going to be plenty of networking and professional development events around you. Many local governments organize events for professionals in the area in order to encourage them to connect. There are also plenty of groups that meetup that share a common interest or hobby. Find some of these groups online and then attend meetups to get to know new people. You can also try tapping into your alumni network in the area; colleges are usually more than happy to help with this step.

Learn to talk to strangers

As you attend networking events, you’ll need to learn how to talk to people that you don’t know very well. Make sure you do not spend too much time talking about yourself; learn to ask other people questions. While you are looking to enhance your professional network, do not write someone off simply because you don’t see a way they can help you. It’s important to be polite to people; you could strike up a friendship or you might be able to help them out in some way.

Follow up afterwards

Finally, once you start meeting new people, follow up in some form. Whether it’s simply sending a request on LinkedIn or you decide you want to get coffee or lunch with someone, follow up within a few days. Networking events are great for the initial meeting, but you’ll need to take the initiative afterwards to further the connection.