Tag: organization

Emotional Wellness at Work

On February 24, 2022

In Career, Leadership, Nicholas Fainlight

During the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 disease, around half of US workers admitted to experiencing mental health issues. Leaders are certainly not immune to this experience amidst the challenges of running a business. However, the reality is that without a healthy and psychologically sound leader, an enterprise cannot thrive. Take some time to focus on the emotional wellness of your team.

Many people have experienced both ups and downs with emotional health and have learned to manage it better. Two critical practices used are transparency and ownership. It’s natural to focus on the good in life. However, ignoring the bad can allow stress and anxiety to build beneath the surface. Encourage your employees to express frustrations and stressful situations. Excessive negativity isn’t helpful either, but if you promote an environment where people are afraid to be anything less than positive, you might end up with employees harboring resentment.

Being Transparent

Keep your employees in the loop about developments in the company that might affect them. Pandemic effects have led many companies to downsize and change processes, and employees don’t want to learn about these things at the last minute. Your team is often more intuitive than you think–if the management is stressed, they’ll pick up on it. Rather than letting speculation and anxiety build, communicate with them. Even if you don’t have answers or details, just acknowledging that things are stressful and uncertain will help them feel heard.

Taking Ownership

The second key to keeping good mental health is taking responsibility for what goes wrong. When things go wrong, leaders are those who take ownership. As a leader, you have to own up to your mistakes and learn from them. It motivates leaders to hire people with integrity and create companies that excel by attracting and keeping talented individuals.

As a leader, inevitably, you will make decisions that don’t play out as expected. Whether you snap at an employee or make a catastrophic business decision, you must own up to your mistakes and apologize to the people affected. You set the tone of your team, so if you aren’t being honest and taking responsibility for your actions, your team probably won’t either.

These two steps will help you foster a healthy emotional environment in your workplace.

Are These Obstacles Holding you Back from Success?

By Nicholas Fainlight

On February 24, 2022

In Career, Leadership, Nicholas Fainlight

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.

Overrated Business Tips to Forget

By Nicholas Fainlight

On January 28, 2021

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

Wherever you go, people provide unsolicited guidance on how to grow, run, or start a business. Out of the pointers they offer, some are valuable, and you must observe them. However, others are misinterpreted, outdated, or just plain wrong for the business you’re running. Here are some overrated business tips to forget.

1. Your Service or Product Must Be Unique

Businesspersons are often advised to outline what makes them stand out. However, it is not necessary to find an exclusive approach to achieve corporate success. A subtle change may improve the entire experience.

2. Customers Are Always Right

Do you need to make the customers happy? Yes. However, if your main goal is to please people, you may end up in a world of unnecessary suffering. It’s best to pay attention to the things that bring you a long-term profit, not the things that take your energy and time.

3. Do Not Start a Business With Your Friend

Many people think it’s a bad idea to start an enterprise with a friend, but that’s not true—friends whose expertise supplements each other may build a thriving business. Establishing a company may be straining to the relationship; however, the benefits of operating with a person you trust may be worth it.

4. Promote Your Business on Facebook

Companies have acknowledged that paid advertising is the only path to increase your Facebook image, which is still one of the world’s best social platforms. However, it is not always the top place to use up your advertising budget. There are other more effective means to reach your audience for a much lower price per lead, for instance, on platforms like Pinterest.

5. Concentrate on Your Site Instead of Building the Brand

It is important to have a brand that reverberates with ideal customers. However, investing all energy and time in the “perfect” site is not how to make it.

6. Never Reject an Opportunity

It is tempting to “do it all” and take all opportunities that cross your path at the beginning of your business. Saying “yes” to all opportunities in your corporate encounters will stifle your time and dilute your brand.

7. Gather as Much Cash as Possible

Each business needs cash to start and grow; however, not all businesses must seek that through financiers. While funding may help some companies grow significantly, other lifestyle corporations are at an advantage without it.
Finally, despite all the advice that entrepreneurs receive, they should filter what is right for their business.

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.

Ways Working From Home Can Cause A Team To Be More Proactive

By Nicholas Fainlight

On November 4, 2020

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight, Uncategorized

As technology advanced, companies began to question whether they should set up their employees to work from home. But, once the health of their employees became a national issue, many companies had no choice but to allow this arrangement. Although it may seem that employees will become less aggressive about their duties, that won’t be the case. Here are the ways working from home will make their team more proactive.

Increased Performance

Managers and supervisors often feel they have to make their presence and opinion known to their staff throughout the day. They do this in hopes it will keep employees from slacking off on the work that needs to get done. But, when employees are constantly observed and critiqued, it causes them to work in response to your actions rather than by their initiative.

Working from home gives them more opportunities to make choices for themselves. And, it empowers them to tackle issues without interference. With the weight of reaching their goals lying more on their shoulders than before, they will rise to the occasion and perform better. Also, because they will feel appreciation for your trust, your team becomes dedicated to efficiently handling their time and goals.

Increased Productivity

Whenever your staff can predict how every day, week, and month will go, they will become bored with their work. It can be hard for them to continue with proactiveness when there are no longer any challenges with getting their work done. Your team won’t maintain productivity when there is no variety with their responsibilities.

A home-based office takes away monotonous tasks like a daily commute and getting dressed, so more time and energy is given to genuine work tasks. Without being in a traditional office, employees may be able to use unconventional tactics to make their day more interesting. They will have to find their ways to keep themselves comfortable and motivated. Just the challenge of being productive while at home stirs up their creativity and problem-solving techniques to be more productive.

Increased Talent

In traditional settings, management can evaluate the skill level of their staff during performance reviews. The normal rhythm of the year will stay in place until that season comes about. But while working from home, supervisors can see their teams in a new way.

The unexpected curve-balls of a home setup will highlight what each team member is better at than others. Plus, the management team will have less distraction so they can better see how each team member behaves.

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.

White tabletop, calendar, cup of coffee, nicholas fainlight managing your schedule as young professional

4 Tips for Handling Your Schedule as a Young Professional

By Nicholas Fainlight

On May 28, 2018

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight

When you’re in college, you might think that you have a busy schedule and you’re prepared to juggle obligations and run on limited sleep. However, once you graduate and become a young professional with a full-time job, you’ll realize that you’re incredibly busy, but it’s different from what you experienced during college. When you’re in college, you have a clear path and schedule; you take classes at specific times, you have regular meetings, you do stuff with your friends who live nearby.

As a young professional, you’re spending at least eight hours at your workplace and then have a limited amount of time for your other plans. It’s up to you to plan your own schedule. You have to coordinate with friends’ schedules, find volunteer opportunities, discover networking groups and events, and make up your mind on what should be a priority and how you want to spend your time. For college students who thrived on being involved, having so many options on top of working full-time can feel a little overwhelming. Here are some tips on how to handle your young professional schedule and make sure you’re doing what you really want to do.

Prioritize events

The first step to take for managing your new, busy schedule is to prioritize your commitments and what you want to get involved in. If there’s a cause particularly important to you, make a charity that works with it your main philanthropic focus instead of trying to get involved with a variety of organizations. If you want to spend time visiting your family above everything else, plan around those visits. Decide what your focus is and how you want to spend your time and then work around those events.

Get plenty of rest

When you’re spending hours at work, going to the gym, attending a networking event, volunteering, and hanging out with friends, you probably feel like you cannot waste a second of your day sleeping more than necessary. However, being well rested is key to being able to manage a busy schedule; you’ll feel more inclined to stick to commitments and excel at work if you’re not short on sleep.

Talk to your friends

If you’re struggling to find time to fit in all the activities in your schedule and hang out with your friends or significant other, talk to them. Find out what each others’ schedules are and consider participating in events together. Attending a networking event together can be fun and help you branch out from your comfort zone. Volunteering together is a great idea and can be something you make a regular occurrence. It’s harder to stay in touch with friends once you graduate, so make the extra effort.

Plan ahead

You’ll feel much more on top of your schedule when you make the effort to actually plan ahead. Take time at the beginning of each week to look over your schedule so you’re aware of everything that’s happening in the week ahead. You don’t want to be caught off guard by an obligation or event you forgot. Add meetings and events to your phone’s calendar so you get reminders and write them down in a physical planner. You’ll be (and feel) more organized and do not have to stress about remembering everything.

Blank white piece of paper with a small leaf on it, cup of coffee next to it, both on a table, Nicholas Fainlight blog about how to develop a great morning routine

6 Ways to Create a Better Morning Routine

By Nicholas Fainlight

On February 8, 2018

In Career, Nicholas Fainlight

No matter what you’re doing, whether you’re working full-time or still in school, it’s important that you craft a great morning routine. In order to have a successful day, you need to start off well. Unfortunately, many people do not have much of a morning routine at all and try their hardest to get a few more minutes of sleep in, even if it means they’re rushing to get ready and feeling stressed out. Here are tips on how you can create a great morning routine that improves the rest of your day and pushes you down the path to success.

Get up with your alarm

The biggest mistake most people make in their morning routines is continuously hitting snooze. Though you might feel great in the moment getting ten minutes of extra sleep, it doesn’t actually help you throughout the rest of your day. That small amount of sleep does not make a difference in your energy and can actually make you feel sluggish since you’re disturbing your sleep. You’ll find you have more time in the mornings if you get up with your first alarm.

Make your bed

Right now, you might not have time to complete this step, but if you stop hitting snooze, you will. It only takes a few minutes and making your bed ensures that you don’t get back into it to take a nap later in the day or waste time while you’re getting ready. It also makes your mind feel at peace because everything in your room looks more organized with your bed made and makes moving forward with your day easier.

Eat healthy

Most people have the best intentions when it comes to healthy eating, but find it’s much harder to put into practice once you’re competing with your busy schedule. While you should be eating healthy your entire day, the meal you eat in the morning is vitally important. Make yourself a protein rich breakfast and take time to slowly eat it; do not eat something full of sugar that leaves you feeling hungry and tired a few hours later.

Do some activity

Some people find it’s incredibly effective to work out in the morning, though this routine isn’t for everyone. You might not want to hit the gym, but do a few exercises in your room right after you get up. Take time to stretch, do some pushups, or something else and you’ll find you’re more alert and ready to face the day.

Go over your day

Staying organized is important to your daily routine so start the day by going over what you need to accomplish in the next 24 hours. Just quickly reading through a planner or making a short to-do list helps you focus and get ready for the day ahead. You’ll stay focused and avoid forgetting important meetings or tasks.

Avoid your phone

A lot of people reach for their phones as soon as they wake up, but this habit can lead to you wasting time in the morning scrolling through social media. Instead, go straight to your routine and wait until after you’re fully awake before you check your emails and the weather. The less time you spend looking at your phone, the better.