Conflicts at work are something we often deal with, as positive and agreeable as we might be, but that’s not necessarily bad. A constructive work conflict is even a desirable condition to every productive team because it leads to more valuable solutions. As a leader, you should encourage them. However, sometimes these disagreements go beyond the constructive line and become a damaging factor in your team.
Photo by JD Mason on Unsplash
In a culture where speaking up and sharing ideas are highly praised, an introvert may find it difficult to thrive. That’s why we need to find effective ways to make introverts on our team feel valued and heard.
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash
People work harder if they know compensation is waiting for them at the end of the line. Yet, studies show that shortly after getting a financial incentive, actually in less than a week, people lose their motivation and their energy levels go down. Financial compensation is a two-edged sword, and should not stand as the only motivator. Truth be told, meaningfulness and recognition matter more. People want to be recognized for their efforts. They need to know if and how they’ve contributed to the team’s success. And they can only find out, if they receive feedback. Regularly, honestly, and with care.
In any process, team or business, feedback is many things. A necessary ritual, a moment of truth, a condition to progress, and sometimes a dreadful experience. This article explains the why, when, and how of giving and receiving feedback. Because, whether we like it or not, people need to know that their work matters, that it has meaning.
Photo by José Alejandro Cuffia on Unsplash
Imagine yourself going in all those every-day meetings. It’s supposed to start at 1 PM and somewhere around 1:10 everyone is finally in. Someone is trying to make the projector work. The presenter is searching through her files for the presentation. Everyone else is checking their email, social media or just chatting on their phone. The meeting is finally starting with a quick intro from the presenter. Half of the audience is still typing frenetically on their phone or laptop. Sounds familiar? Probably that’s because inefficient meetings are far more popular than we’d like to think. But there’s a cure for this epidemic of bad meetings and I’m here to share some solutions with you.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Ask any team leader, manager or business owner if they think employee engagement matters anymore. I’m quite sure they’ll all say that it does. We’ve reached a point where we don’t need a hard solid proof to believe that higher levels of engagement increase well-being, performance, and employee retention. We witness everyday how an engaged team delivers better results in terms of revenues and profits.
But what exactly is employee engagement? In this article, we’ll try to answer questions like this one and find out some tested methods that can help your team become more engaged and, of course, deliver better results.
Photo by Nathan Shively on Unsplash
We live in fast-paced digital world where change happens at the blink of an eye. The people who will lead us tomorrow are the ones learning how to cope with change today. They do that not only by embracing change, but by continuously learning new things and keeping up to date with their industry’s latest technology and best practices.
Today’s leaders from organizations like yours and ours have to answer a critical question: how to create a work environment that provides the space, dialogue and discipline to grow? We all need to find the way to make our teams get away from the daily grind of what needs to get done, and find the time for learning.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Judging by the enormous amount of books and blog posts on the topic of productivity, you can easily realize just how hard it is for anyone to actually reach this goal of ultimate productivity. Managers, C-level executives, and entrepreneurs are facing an even bigger challenge because they are usually involved in many projects, have a lot of responsibilities, and the pressure to succeed is incredibly high. Being productive is even more compelling.
That’s why I decided to put up a list of what I found to be the productivity hacks that are both highly effective and easy to implement in no time.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Every work day finds us focusing on our projects, striving to meet deadlines and finish tasks before we leave the office. But that’s not all we do, is it? We also spend a lot of time helping teammates who need our advice and input. Most often, we’re eager to help. But at the end of the day, when we realize we didn’t meet that deadline or we’re not even half way through that critical task, we have mixed feelings. Helping teammates felt good, but it took too much of our time and energy, and we neglected our work.
So, what motivates us to jump in and help, and how can we do it while staying productive?
Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash
Every entrepreneur acknowledges that hiring great people is their most important task, especially during the early stage of their startup. Nonetheless, very few go on the hiring journey with a strategic plan. That’s usually because, on paper, the hiring process seems to be fairly easy: post a job opening, read applications, select a few candidates for face-to-face interviews, hire the one that performs better, and repeat the process. From this perspective, flair seems to be the only thing employers need to get the hiring process right. Right?
Well, not exactly.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
After decades of being taught that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all, more and more companies and organizations are giving up the sugarcoated speech, placing candid communication at the root of their culture. By practicing open criticism, companies are hoping to help team members grow and thus improve productivity.
Let’s see what candid communication is all about and why your team should embrace it.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash