Everything you do professionally and personally should be done with confidence and belief in your skills, knowledge and experience (unless you are wrong of course). You are in your current position because you are good at what you do and you want to be even better. One of the prerequisites to success is believing in yourself by displaying confidence (which …
Simplify and automate everything
Whenever possible (and at a minimum annually) think of ways to make you operations more efficient and by doing so you will free up people to focus on what they care about and are good at. Employees should waste minimal time on bureaucracy, paperwork and old (somewhat archaic) way of doing things. Simplify and automate everything that can be done …
Open door policy is not optional
Managers and leaders must be available to their teams in any way their staff needs them to be (assuming professionalism and appropriateness of course). Your office door must be open to them, and you need to be accessible and approachable whenever they might need to speak with you. Staff needs to know that you are there to hear them out …
Overworked employees
Overworked employees are unhappy, they make mistakes and they are not contributing at their optimal levels of performance. They are constantly under pressure which has negative impact on their health and lives outside work as well (you do remember that work is only a PART of people’s lives, right?). While I understand that in certain professions and industries one can …
Hire better than you
Whenever possible, hire people who are better than you. Hire those who are the best you have ever seen within the domain of services or products that your team is responsible for. You want quality over quantity and you’ll want it every single time. Additionally, you don’t want the rest of your team to be doing someone else’s job in …
Book review: Jab, jab, jab, right hook
Jab, jab, jab, right hook is the latest book by Gary Vaynerchuk. In short, in reminds all (and teaches some) brands to care about their customers and communities by providing value, engaging and building trust prior to asking for that sale (aka. the right hook). If you are familiar with Gary and his work you have probably read his first …
Who inspires you and why?
Who inspires you professionally? In this instance, I am not taking family, friends and historical figures into account even though all of them could be significant sources of inspiration. What I mean is who is currently an inspiration to you from the professional stand point? For me, two very different (age, background, experience, approach…) entrepreneurs come to mind instantaneously and …
Be proud of your accomplishments, but don’t gloat
While marketing your ideas and accomplishments is essential, being obnoxious about it actually has a reverse effect from what may be desired. It is important to be proud of your accomplishments and be confident of what you know and can do, but remember to stay humble. Let others comment of your quality work and accomplishments, don’t pat your own back. …
Organizational policies must be communicated
Whether it is a new policy or an update to an existing one, all changes must be clearly communicated across the organization and an official start date needs to be set. Furthermore, enterprise policies needs to be written with your organization, people, culture in mind – don’t simply copy them from other organizations as they won’t make sense in your …
Trust, but verify (quietly)
As you introduce new staff to your team it is essential to verify their skills, quality and performance and ensure that they are a valuable addition to your team. However, when you do this, make sure you do it quietly as you don’t want any “bruised” egos or notions of distrust among employees. This can be done in a variety …