Effective Routine Building: Staying Consistent

The quality of our day is determined as soon as it begins, everything we do is a chain of habits all leading to one outcome. That outcome is either you used the day to move forward or stay in place. The thing about staying in place is that time is moving forward, so you might end up getting left behind if you stay in the same place too long. 

Think of that feeling of being productive, checking everything off your to-do list, and ending each day with a sense of fulfillment. Now imagine if every day was just like that, full of accomplishments and taking care of yourself. You could get things done in a year which might take others 5-10 years. The thing about days like this is that they’re hard! But that is why they are the most rewarding.

Every successful person has become successful through consistency, setting themselves up for success by taking action every day. Think about this, how productive would you be if you simply went through the motions of each day? Not having any goals for the day will only cause opportunities for you to procrastinate, which is just a fancy word for wasting time. 

In the business world, everything operates on a schedule, you have meeting times, your high-priority tasks, and planning, all of which are daily responsibilities. These responsibilities require a disciplined mind and a grounded thought process to navigate the day. Like anything, preparing yourself for the day requires practices that will serve you.

To live each day in a way that moves you forward, it is best to create a daily routine. Remember, a routine is not just a set of tasks that you have to do each day, it is habitual checkpoints meant to keep you productive and healthy (mentally and physically). The past couple of years have shaken up life for all of us, through uncertainty, establishing structure can mitigate stress and anxiety.

Here are some tips to get started:

Control What You Can Control

If you make a list of everything you’re stressed or worried about, how many of those things can you control? Some things will be out of your control, that’s okay, you want to focus on things that require your care and attention. Establishing this will give you a sense of power as you now know what your responsibilities are. This may seem simple and if it is, why don’t you do it? If everybody focused solely on things in their control, we might be far less stressed out. 

Don’t Put Things Off

The worst thing you can do when you have responsibilities is wait to do them, however, we are all guilty of this. Being aggressive in task completion by addressing it as soon as it arises will keep you focused. It will take the edge off worrying about things you have on the back burner and now the task can receive your full attention. 

Make Time For Yourself

Want to know what the most important things in your life are? Your mind and body, without them, everything else goes away. Make time in the day for you to exercise, feed yourself with nutrients, and read, listen, or write. Of course, you may be “too busy”, but we all have 24 hours each day, you can't carve out 1-2 of them for yourself? 

Down the line, the biggest payoff you will receive is the one you get from maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It’s important to realize that a “healthy lifestyle” is not just exercise and diet. What you feed your mind is the root of your reality. The things you listen to, the books you read, the shows you watch, the things you tell yourself, these are all shaping your mindset and overall outlook on the world. 

Be Patient

Constructing a lifestyle designed to make you a better person is not a one-day, two-week, or one-month process and there are no shortcuts. It requires a constant drive to seek out opportunity and trust that even through doubt, it will be worth it. Give yourself a chance to embrace the benefits that come with a routine, you have no idea where it can land you 5 years from now.

Conclusion 

Have a set plan for your days, a few things that by the end of the day, you want to be finished to a standard that makes you proud. This can be as simple as making your bed in the morning so you come back to a tidy room at night. The emphasis on every tip I have given here is meant to serve YOU, because how can you help anyone else without having taken care of yourself. Daily rituals are the foundation to productive days and a fulfilled life.

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!

Building Business Relationships: Autonomy and Professionalism

Selling a product, a business, or an idea starts with selling yourself. As the face of what you’re representing it is your duty to leave a good impression. This is done through building and maintaining relationships. A business relationship is not too different from any other relationship, it requires effort to grow, and most importantly space. Space in terms of physical space yet also space to operate independently.

This topic is interesting because it works in two different ways for client relationships and cohesion within an organization. The first being language and even physical space and the second being space from authority.

Scenario: you are meeting with a client (think of it as in person or on a call) you have the material which you want to deliver to the client to show what you offer. The client has opinions as well, most likely they have reviewed points they want to bring up to you (which you should be ready to answer). Now, during this interaction, you’re listening to the client's concerns and you have an answer to every one of them. 

Do you butt in with your solutions? No, you listen and give them the breathing room to express everything. Giving them space to speak gives you time to absorb everything and think of a proper response. Stay composed, maintain a respectful distance, and trust that you will have your opportunity to speak. Not only will this be beneficial from a sales standpoint, but it will also demonstrate that you are an effective listener. This will ultimately build a level of trust with your client.

The same principle applies within an organization, leaders must recognize the times when their teams need to sort something out or have the time to complete a task on their own. These are little details that will go a long way in relationship building and demonstrating autonomy to subordinates. Finding the balance involves self-regulation and trust, whether you are in a sales position or a leader. You need to regulate yourself to understand what the situation calls for.

Here’s how you can get started: 

For Clients

• Communicate Expectations: Start the relationship off with honesty and transparency by discussing the frequency of communication, meeting protocols, or what your work together is intended to accomplish. Vice versa, allow your client to voice their needs and requests for your cooperation. 

• Regulate Your Schedule: Don’t bite off more than you can chew by making promises to clients without checking the status of other tasks. Of course, it can be tempting to agree to simply please the client at the moment but this will create problems for you later. 

• Maintain Perspective: When brought concerns, changes, or feedback, always be in a position of high ground where you can evaluate the situation logically. Especially in times where your client may be reacting abruptly, remain composed.

For The Organization

• Designate Meeting Times: It is natural for organizations to want status updates as frequently as possible. What’s important to remember is that if a significant amount of time is spent on meetings, not enough time is spent on carrying out tasks. Plan ahead and set a briefing meeting and then status updates reasonably spaced out to give teams breathing room. 

• One on One Touch Base: With the success and advancement of an organization, leaders must value time where they can directly speak with employees. Whether this is done in the manner of a performance review or an informal check-in it should be made a priority. Taking this time allows subordinates to voice their thoughts and feel valued. The leader can then decipher what action needs to be taken to maintain an effective work environment. 

• Plan for Contingencies: Risk mitigation should be a staple in task preparation and meetings. Now it’s important to recognize that this does not mean focusing solely on what could go wrong. It simply means being able to pivot if diverted from the planned course of action or presented with challenges.

• Prioritize Quality: This may seem like a given but there is a dichotomy when it comes to producing a volume of work and the quality of that work. Recognize that the quality of work you do is what will lead to repeat business. Be resourceful with tasks, don’t settle for a task just so you can start the next one. 

Conclusion

Managing a level of professionalism in and out of an organization is what attracts business, they’re not buying the product, they’re buying you. Trust and credibility are what must be established before a client even considers what you offer. 

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!

The Art of Letting Things Go: Double Edged Sword of Ego

The ego lives in every one of us, it is the reason we get up in the morning and the driver of nearly everything we do in the day. Ego is important, too much ego is infectious, especially when working alongside others. The dichotomy of ego is created through a lack of control over it within ourselves. We may not even realize when we lose control over it, yet when collaborating with others, egos can clash.

In this situation, even leaders need to be able to follow, put pride aside and evaluate what’s best for the team. This is a critical trait of effective leaders, leading a team requires being attentive but it does not mean calling all the shots. Now, ego can be a good thing, it drives us to hold ourselves to a high standard and seek out achievements. It is the balance of the good and bad that comes with an ego that must be established, which will make you highly effective in anything you do.

Often, ego gets in the way when differing opinions arise which unfortunately is inevitable in any setting of discussion.

The dilemma is that in some cases, the higher-ranked person may want to make their power known and overrule disagreements. The situations vary, the common theme however is that incentives driven to feed ego are sometimes not even necessary tasks to carry out or are simply overkill. These situations are a means of proving your worth to yourself at the risk of hurting the team or even your reputation as a worker. 

We want to be effective team leaders/members but we don’t want emotion to inhibit our decision-making. To mitigate this, let's look at what we can do:

Have An Open Mind

Open-mindedness is a characteristic that will serve anyone not only in their career but through any decision-making situation. Being open-minded is the ability to detach from the situation and look at it logically to determine the best course of action. Now you may believe that you are open-minded, invite new ideas to the table, and hear people out, yet you still find yourself in conflict with others.

Anytime you find yourself here, you must assess if your feelings are from a standpoint of business or ego. You might be surprised to find that majority of the time, the ego tends to take the win.

Choose Long-Term Gratification

Putting your ego in check typically involves sacrificing the sweet taste of victory. Let’s say you led your team on a project for a major client. You put in countless hours with them, fine-tuned some details, and implemented your thoughts to inspire their ideas. The client comes back and is thrilled with the work, your boss congratulates you but you insist it was the team's doing, you just simply helped. This is an example of putting your ego in check to ensure the satisfaction of your team.

In turn, this will translate to consistent effort and improvement in your team and even attract talented people who want to work for you. In essence, the gratification will come, not immediately but it will be much more rewarding long-term.

Be Supportive

Ultimately when working with others, putting your ego in check requires assessing the needs of the team and adapting to them. To be an effective leader, follower, or co-worker you have to use your resourcefulness to contribute to the task. Sometimes all it takes is understanding someone else’s point of view. For instance, you may have subordinates who express concerns over operating procedures you’ve instilled for a task.

Instead of responding “this is the way we’re doing it” you take the time to hear them out. You realize that you may have overlooked areas that would create difficulties in the process. You thank your team members for the advice and they now feel valued and pleased to work with you. In these cases, you can realize flaws in your leadership style and a common flaw is being resistant to change. 

Conclusion

It’s natural to want to be the best, be right, and reap the rewards as soon as possible from the work you do. This can stem from a lack of confidence or self-esteem and now the need to assert yourself in something fills those gaps. It is in these times that we need to step back, re-evaluate the situation, and most importantly, check our ego.

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!