Finding Inspiration: Secrets of the Successful

Everyone interested in creating eventually runs into the trap of telling themselves “I just have to find inspiration” or “yeah but that already exists”. The problem with this is that it is a very closed-minded outlook to have. Oftentimes people find one idea and fixate on it, they spend so long trying to make it work in a certain way that they close off other opportunities. The thing about inspiration is that you can’t force it. You can’t go out looking for it or complaining that you haven’t found it. Instead, you have to try things, leave your comfort zone and let the inspiration find you. 

Let's say you are an aspiring writer, you’re giving yourself 6 months to write a book that will inspire someone to change bad habits. You realize you’ll want to have about 20,000 words across 100 pages. The issue now is how do you start? You’ll start brainstorming some ideas here and there but nothing’s sticking. The issue is that you won’t find your answer by kicking ideas around in one place. Inspiration is born out of the real-world experience, realizations, and characteristics you notice in the world. You’ll need to get out of your comfort zone, observe, learn, adapt to new environments.

So now the question is where to start with this, let’s look at some places inspiration likes to hide:

Travel

Exploring places of the world you’ve never been to can open your mind to so many new things. Observing other cultures and analyzing their behaviors is important to developing an understanding of the world beyond what you know it as. People often take months, sometimes years to travel. During their time, they build knowledge of who they are and challenge their comfort zone. Leaving your comfort zone is a crucial aspect of becoming inspired. If you spend your whole life in a room with no windows, you wouldn’t know there’s a world out there.

Work On Yourself

So often we change things about ourselves, our clothes, our hair, our friends, but rarely do we ever change the way we think. Now changing how we think is one of the most challenging tasks we can go through as human beings. However, it can be the most rewarding and allow you to transform your whole life. To get started, you’ll want to develop a routine, and the morning is the most crucial time to have a routine in place. Researchers found that 92% of people who have morning routines are highly productive.

Setting the pace for the day and completing tasks will develop self-fulfilling habits within you. Working on yourself whether it’s reading, writing, or exercising, will all make you stronger mentally. This will lead to inspiration as you are keeping promises to yourself which also develops the highest level of confidence.

Listen To Mindset Mentors

As cliche as it may be, motivational speakers are great for gaining perspective. The advice given by these individuals is typically derived from a great struggle they’ve had in their life. Listening to how they overcome their obstacles can allow you to find yourself in terms of similar emotions, then you can take advice from the lessons they’ve learned. Speakers such as Jordan Peterson or Jocko Willink are some good options to understand different perspectives.

Not only this, speakers with high levels of knowledge in self-development can teach you how to take action and make changes to better your future.

Explore New Opportunities

There is no limit to great ideas, it just takes the right mindset to bring new ones to life. Someone may have done something but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it better. There are always new areas to explore with any given topic. Innovation to make products or services more easily accessible is extremely useful in 2022. Think about it this way, in America 60% of consumers order delivery or take out at least once per week, nearly 70% of millennials prefer to shop online, and 65% use online banking.

This goes to show that original ideas can be innovated to best serve the needs of today's market. 

Conclusion

Inspiration takes time, numerous test runs, opportunities, failures, and revisions are all things an entrepreneur will go through. The concepts that succeed are ones built on knowledge, research, and passion. Inspiration will allow you to put these efforts into your plan, and if you build it with this level of attention and care, you will achieve anything.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

 

 

 

Tips for Crafting Well Equipped Employees

As employee satisfaction is at the forefront for recruiters, companies are scrambling to keep employees engaged at work. It was found that 85% of employees are disengaged from their workplace. There is no desire for them to give any effort and instead resort to doing just enough to get by. Employee turnover rates are largely due to factors as simple as not wanting to go into the office anymore. This is a shocking reality that many companies are struggling with throughout the past couple of years but why is that?

The talent shortage facing industries is adding to the problem as well, making the operation of companies inefficient and expensive. This situation certainly doesn’t seem ideal to say the least, but it is not unsolvable. The root of the problem is that there is no drive for employees to want to produce their best work. If a company cannot motivate its employees, how will they attract top talent?

Researchers found that employee retention improves by 82% and productivity by 70% when onboarding practices are positive. This is a significant factor to consider, the welcoming process and training for employees set the pace for morale. This should be a strong incentive for companies to implement the best possible onboarding practices. However, it can be confusing where to start, so let's look at what where to begin:

Get To Know Employees

Most companies have a standard training process that each new hire is put through (varying from departments) until they are steady enough. The issue here is that you cannot expect everyone to respond effectively to the same method. Having discussions with employees and getting to know their interests, goals, and skills is a good way to see how you can teach them. This will also be a good indicator to see what opportunities you can provide them. But how should you approach this?

It is best to meet informally, it can be one on one or in a group. The goal is to allow members to open up freely, dropping the employer to employee discomfort. In short, align training with the needs of each employee. 

Incorporate On The Job Learning

You’ve heard the common phrase “the best teacher is experience” and this is completely relevant in the workplace. Explanations can only get you so far, they are best for delivering basic amounts of information. However, you’ll want to expose new hires to the reality of your workplace as soon as possible. In addition, this style of training is much more time and cost-effective. 

Apply Feedback 

Always be open with employees about their performance in a constructive way. Bear in mind that they’re still new and adapting to this new work environment. Companies can do this in many different ways whether it be weekly reviews or assigning a task and giving feedback. As well, ask employees how they feel about the training they’re doing. Find out directly from them what you can incorporate to assist their learning. This type of communication is essential to employee development. In addition, it will demonstrate that a company values its employees. 

Use Gradual Implementation

You don’t want to overwhelm your employees with all this information, questions, and training procedures. This is where it’s important to pay attention to yourself as a leader and recognize areas that need more attention and where you should ease up. This is the first step to creating an environment where employees will feel comfortable being around for the long haul.

Conclusion

To build an organization of talented individuals in 2022, companies must create an environment that is supportive of their employees' needs. Keeping these tips in mind can lead to the construction of empowering company culture. Now to do this effectively will take leaving the comfort zone that employers are used to. Give it a proper chance and see what it can do for your team.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

 

 

 

Transparent Communication: Workplace Essentials

When you are in a company setting, you are a part of a team. Being a part of a team means that everyone on that team is inclined to achieve the same goal. But that is not enough to understand how a team operates. What are the characteristics of a team? Shouldn't teams be supportive of one another? Look out for each other? Of Course, they should, but oftentimes teams can get out of sync. When this happens, people begin to divide and messages don’t properly flow through the chain of command.

Commonly, this is caused by conflict within the teams. This brings out assumptions of members' competence, lack of explanation, the lists go on. Whatever the reason may be, it needs to be addressed and solved in the most appropriate way possible. When communication is not transparent within an organization, it becomes extremely counterproductive to achieving. This can be seen when a leader becomes too attached to things being done a certain way.

While yes, they are in command, they need to realize that the teams which they lead are the ones who will execute procedures. For this reason, teams and leaders need to operate as one. A lot of times we say teams should run like a “well-oiled machine” but this is not what we’re talking about here. A machine cannot learn, grow, adapt, or bond like a team needs to. 

So what should a team do when faced with friction in the organization? There are numerous ways to tackle this, but oftentimes all it requires is going back to the basics.

Communicate

Solving communication issues simply requires communication. While it does sound simple, that does not make it easy. There are numerous things to account for when stepping up to solve a problem. In this case, the best interest of the team is stand-alone. For this reason, leaders and team members must analyze the situation to determine the best course of action. 

For example, let's say a leader on a construction site implements a new policy requiring workers to log time and changes allocated to different tasks. The leader sees it as an effective way for everyone to know how long something will take and what the previous worker has changed. The workers see it as the time taken away from other tasks they could be doing. As a result, they stop logging the data, and the leader just assumes it is because they’re lazy and become frustrated.

In a situation like this, most leaders would re-explain the process and its importance as they assume the workers simply didn’t understand it or didn’t want to do it. However, this will provide no benefit, and will only cause further complications. Instead, the leader should’ve talked to the workers directly to determine a system that works best for them, considering they are the ones the system is made for.

This is a simple way to see the dynamic which can arise in teams. This type of dynamic is not something any business wants. Making assumptions and criticism will never solve. Problems need to be dealt with as they come.

Detach From The Situation

When an organization is faced with confusion, the best thing to do is detach from the situation before reacting. This means not acting on impulse, removing emotion from the equation, and looking at the situation logically. It is important to understand how stepping back can benefit decision-making.

Ask yourself, what information are we missing? Who’s most likely to have this information? How can we collaborate best to solve this?

This response will eliminate the risk of blaming and will allow team members to take accountability. Detachment from the situation will reflect your emotional intelligence when faced with conflict. The great thing about this method is that it can be used at any level of the team. 

Be Consistent

Problems and confusion will arise, the baseline for handling these barriers is consistent communication. Always allow communication to be free-flowing, this can involve weekly meetings where everyone must share a thought from their week. Whatever it may be, make it a routine. 

Conclusion

Communication is a pillar to success, there are numerous methods and philosophies around it but all that matters is finding what works. Know that this will take time and that it’s okay so long as the organization continues to practice. 

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!