MORNING MOTIVATION - Motivational Video for Success in Life - Tony Robbi...

Love this piece by Tony. Most businesses are focused heavily on hard skills sets which are important however mindsets and your ability to deal with people far outweigh in importance when it come to success.

Why coaching, not gadgets, is key to getting the most out of employees

Forget the gadgets and “lifehacks” to increase productivity, my research with Julia Milner shows that managers need to become coaches to get the best out of their employees.

Coaching means many things, from simply listening to staff, to helping them set personal goals or understand the company’s objectives. When employees understand the business goals, they can make their own decisions and not wait for someone to tell them what to do.

When employees are listened to, they feel valued and empowered. They have greater ownership and commitment to actions that they themselves have identified as necessary. As one manager in our study noted:

When you coach people rather than command people, you almost always win their hearts and minds, so loyalty, trust and confidence are built.

Our research shows manager coaching led to improvements in productivity, engagement and customer service. One manager reported that coaching led to an increase in output from 35% of the target to greater than 100% within 12 months. One organisation improved customer service by 450% within five months of introducing manager coaching.

Coaching also transformed some underachievers into star performers. For example, one employee who was described as “very lacking in self-confidence” developed enough confidence to apply for a promotion and became a highly effective manager. Coaching had helped the employee to identify solutions, by providing advice and expertise when needed.

Coaching in practice

Coaching is a conversation between two or more people to find a way forward together. The participants reflect on the current situation, agree on a goal, and identify options and actions for moving toward the goal.

In practice there are four things mangers should do during coaching:

Genuinely listen to their employees, allowing time to think out loud and come up with their own ideas.

Ask questions that help employees develop their thinking. If an employee identifies a problem the manager can ask what solutions they can think of.

Work with employees to set goals. Create an energising dialogue to make this task more than ticking boxes.

Give constructive feedback to help employees align with organisational goals and develop professionally.

The majority of the 580 general managers and human resource managers who participated in our research coached their employees at least once a week.

Organisations in our study used quarterly coaching sessions to set employee expectations, monthly sessions to review progress, and weekly sessions with new employees or employees in new roles. Informal coaching happens whenever opportunities arise – for example, discussing an incident the manager has observed and identifying alternative approaches. The employee can take ownership of the situation by choosing what alternative to implement.

Of course, implementing manager coaching is easier said than done. Most training in coaching does not address the complexities of the manager as coach.

For example, what should a manager do if an employee tells them something in confidence that they would not normally tell a manager? The best way to deal with this is by being honest and upfront about what can and cannot be kept confidential.

Managers also find it difficult to make time for coaching, although they may save time in the long run as employees don’t need their advice as often. This frees up managers to spend more time thinking strategically.

Managers in our study spent more time with new employees or employees in new roles than with employees who were already comfortable in their roles. They also recommended choosing the right time to coach – for example, not starting a session in the middle of a crisis.

You’ve probably heard of “executive coaches”. These people are like consultants who work one on one with managers on how to improve their leadership style, act as a sounding board for their ideas, or manage work-life balance.

But, as our research shows, there’s no reason for coaching to be restricted to outside consultants – managers should coach their own employees.

Coaching achieves fantastic outcomes for employees, for the organisation and for the managers themselves. As one manager in our study said:

Staff who believe their managers and organisations care about them by investing their time in coaching them are naturally more positive, happier whilst working. They are great team players. Their skills improve, they get promoted.

Most importantly this flows on to how your customers are treated. Treat staff well and they treat your customers well. Your business then flourishes.

If managers don’t know where to start, they should begin by listening to employees. They may be surprised by how much staff know and how much they appreciate being asked.

The greatest reward for a leader is seeing their staff develop and grow. Coaching is a practical way to achieve this.

theconversation.com   

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Programming your mind for success | Carrie Green | TEDxManchester

Inspiring words. Great focus on goal setting.

Personal Branding For Modern Women: It's All About Self-Acceptance

It's time to recognize women for who we are, instead of oversexualizing, demoralizing and devaluing women.

Is she beautiful? Is she demure? Inviting of advances, but not too sexual. An object with a mind, but not a mind. As a culture, we’ve been submerged in a place where to be “feminine” we walk on eggshells, much like that of an abusive relationship. Careful, calculated moves mask self-doubt. There's an unbalanced focus on the superficial instead of issues of substance. It’s anxiety- and despair-producing to be disallowed the opportunity to just be.

Look beautiful, but don't be superficial.

Be smart, but don't be smarter than anyone else.

Look sexy, but don't draw attention.

Be gentle, but be aggressive.

Be assertive, but don't be a jerk.

Women's articles and branding topics are quickly turned into articles about what to wear to "ward of unwanted advances" and how to wear your makeup as to draw enough, but not "too much" attention. I'm tired of seeing these articles. There needs to be a place where, as women, we can find self-assurance and self-acceptance. From the water cooler to the boardroom to even our LinkedIn inboxes, unwanted advances and comments on our looks are unacceptable.

Instead of messages such as, "Congratulations on the new business venture!" or "Can you tell me more about this project? What interesting results you've achieved," I frequently receive LinkedIn messages about my smile or my hair. Mixed messages for women about how to dress, behave and build businesses are both underwhelming and overwhelming!

Ladies, I'm here to tell you that personal branding is about so much more than the way you look, it's about the way you make others feel. It is about who you are and how you resonate with yourself. When we look at strong corporate branding, it is all about signage, colors, website, print materials and tone of voice. It even echoes through sales processes and procedures. Strong brands have a strong identity and know their customer well.

I like to think of branding and marketing as best friends, and best friends need to be able to have a conversation. In my business, we work to develop strong, ethical brands that put their clients first — after they've established who they are. This is not theatre. Once you know your true desires, your personal brand will develop into something a lot stronger.

What do you want out of life? Who do you aspire to be? Have you taken the time to search out your own longings? Families, officemates and clients aside, who are you, and do you accept that woman? As cliché as it may sound, you have everything within you that you need to succeed. When it comes to your personal brand, give yourself the support you need to stand behind your experience and present yourself the way you want to be seen. Be your own self-affirmer, your own hero.

It's not about acting like a man. It's not just about acting like a woman. It is about acting like yourself and knowing your audience. When you know and accept yourself, your brand messaging will become more clear. People are marginalized to confidence, and confidence is not something that can be foraged.

In personal branding for women, it is time to shift the conversation away from the image and work on core issues. Do you accept yourself? Major strides have been made toward gender equality, but there are still steps to take. When is the last time that a man had to put on more makeup or spend $60 on a blowout to be taken more seriously? Looks shouldn't play a factor in the words and ideas we have to share.

Ladies, let's rise up and create a better future. If you are trying to satisfy your boss, devouring articles about office makeup, humoring unwanted advances or wishing you were "enough" but not "too much" for society, stop.

Back up the bus and get on the you train. Be yourself.

It is OK to be a bit of a jack-in-the-box. You don’t have to choose one column. Write all over the lines when you are defining yourself. Be the best version of you that you can be. If you’ve been looking for a way out of an identity crisis, I’m here to tell you to stand up, look in the mirror and say yes to the woman looking back at you. You’re worth it, and you’re more than capable.

Heather Pinay Heather Pinay , Forbes Councils

CLICK HERE ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The skill of self confidence | Dr. Ivan Joseph | TEDxRyersonU

Self confidence is the most sort after skill set yet taboo to talk about as most are not ready to face themselves. Mindset, manifest and create reality a good listen.

Eleven skills every 24-year-old should learn before it's too late

The age 24 is a fun time of your life.

You're likely out of college, maybe for a couple of years, meeting new people, and getting your feet wet in the real world. 

But it's also an important time because around age 24, you have unquestionably entered adulthood and your choices could influence the rest of your life.

A bunch of people chimed in on a Quora thread discussing the skills every 24 year old needs to learn before it's too late. We narrowed it down to the following 11 skills:

Become a master salesperson of yourself

Good communication skills have been linked to greater career prospects 

"Sales is the basis of all business success. You are always selling, even if your role does not include sales in the job description. You sell during marketing activities, team meetings, customer service, product management, conferences, business development, engineering, user experience and more. A solid foundation in how to sell can give you a wide advantage over your colleagues and competitors." — Anonymous

Get out of your comfort zone

"Get real world experience. Start businesses, talk to people, ask a pretty girl out, go skydiving, become good at small talk and for the love of god don't take yourself too seriously." — Christian Pretorius

Get very good at one thing

"Your job, photoshop, singing, dancing, whistling, so that if the worst happens, and you get kicked out of your job and house and friends are done using you, you can still earn your livelihood by freelancing... (even whistling will do — you can roam on roads asking couples to dedicate songs to each other and they will pay you – tried and tested)." — Rohit Mishra

Build up your 'advocate network'

"We all need people we can rely on to potentially expose us to new opportunities, people, and ideas that can further our career. Focus on creating value for other people, rather than just meeting them. The golden rule of networking: Measure your networking success not by how many important people you’ve met, but by how many important people you’ve helped." — Christian Bonilla, software designer, author

Learn how to code

"Learning to code is one of the most important skills any 24-year-old should acquire. It goes for people who have nothing to do with technology. In fact, the younger generation is already mastering technology better than us adults and learning coding in days. Kids nowadays have tablets, smartphones and other tech gadgets. Learning to code is an important tool that can be used for future development of a person. Everybody knows how to read and write and so they should know to code as well." — Maria Antsuk

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Fall in love

"Yes, fall in love as love is the purest of all emotion and what is more beautiful than love? If you have not fallen in love, you have undoubtedly missed a vital emotion/feeling in the world." — Karan Jaiswani

Learn how to meditate

Research suggests meditation can improve brain cognition 

"In today's world of distraction, this is the only tool to keep oneself focused. It has been proven by research that twenty minutes of meditation is equivalent to two hours of sleep. It's like homeopathy; takes time to act but is worthy in the long run. But it's a complex process and you really need a very strong determination to practice it." — Sanjay Kadel, Realist

Travel more

"Create a passion to travel around the world. Travelling teaches you different walks of life. Explore Africa if you are in the west. Explore Canada during winters if you are in a temperate climate. You will get a feel of life on earth and develop a loving sense and meet new people." — Anonymous

Invest in personal growth

"Don't watch TV and stop fooling around, read as many books as you can, go to seminars. Always increase your value, because we get paid about our value, what we bring to the marketplace. So if you become more valuable then ... exactly, you get more paid." — Janis Butevics, 23-year-old Entrepreneur & Author, creator of Awake or Be Slaved

Stop worrying all the time

"Worrying is a useless energy sucker. Your life and circumstances will not change by worrying. Only planning and actions will lead you to where you want to be in your life. Experiencing life and the world with a carefree yet organised attitude while at the same time taking care of your health and feeding your mind with knowledge, that could benefit you in the future. Enjoy the present and always keep your eye on progress." — Deme Alexis

Start saving money

"Whether you're working for someone else or for yourself, you need to save your money now. Compound interest can make you a millionaire in 20 years’ time, simply by putting away a really small amount of money consistently every month. With a degree you can earn more, put away more money and become a millionaire sooner." — Stefan Stoman

Read the original article on Business Insider UK. © 2017. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.

• Eugene Kim, Business Insider 
• 2 days ago

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8 Essential Startup Tools for Every Entrepreneur

If you’re in the midst of launching or running a startup, you already know there’s no shortage of tools, services and apps available to help you with everything from designing, marketing, operating and even selling your product or company. But those choices and options can be overwhelming and expensive, especially for someone wearing several hats already. With time and resources strapped, it can be extremely valuable to look to an outside source for advice on the best of the best.

That’s one of the many things we’ve heard from the thousands of small-business owners and entrepreneurs who make up the core users of 99designs, the world’s largest online marketplace for graphic design. With that in mind, we polled these users—along with several small-business influencers and advisors—to curate a list of inexpensive or free online services, tools or apps that every entrepreneur should know about.

We uncovered a whopping 68 tools for startups in our 99designs blog. Below are some of our favorites.

For Collaboration and Communication:

1. Slack

Slack is the best way to communicate quickly in groups or one on one, organize discussions by topic, and have everything in one place so it’s easy to find. You won’t believe how much time you save when you don’t have to craft an email for each quick sentence exchanged with your team. And of course, Slack comes with a mobile app and integrates with a bunch of other apps that you’re probably already using. It also just rolled out voice and video calls for its premium users. Slack offers many additional features such as this for paid users, but its free tier will likely meet most of your needs as an early-stage entrepreneur.

2. Google Hangouts

When it comes to video conferencing, this is a no-brainer, particularly if you’re using the Google Suite. It’s free and easy to set up on Gmail. You still have to check with external parties before you schedule a Hangouts session though, as it might not work on computers that don’t have Google Suite enabled.

Project Management:

3. Trello

Trello provides the easiest and most collaborative way to organize, visualize, assign and monitor tasks as a team. It lets you organize projects and tasks into boards (topics), which are made of lists (task-lists), which in turn are made of cards (tasks). Although it’s great for project management, Trello also works for brainstorming, agenda planning and any other list-based activities. Like Slack, Trello operates on a freemium model where the free tier provides all the functionalities a small team would need.

4. Asana

I can personally vouch for the tool as I used it when building my ecommerce website. The interface is highly intuitive and easy for a new user to get acquainted. I found it particularly helpful for working with remote developers in a different time zone.

Presentations:

5. Prezi

Prezi allows you to create truly dynamic, movie-like presentations to help you secure that round of funding and more. The downside is that the Prezi presentation format doesn’t work with every content structure you might have in mind for your presentation. One type of structure where it thrives is one that starts with giving the full picture first, and then going more deeply into each piece of that puzzle.

Make the content of your presentations pop with GIPHY, and replace tired and clichéd stock images with free photos from one of these great public domain image websites.

Scheduling and Calendars:

6. Calendly

This app enables you to skip the annoying email chains to schedule calls and meetings. Calendly allows you to share your calendar link with whomever you choose and allows those people to book time directly in your calendar. It syncs with all your emails and, on top of avoiding conflicts, you can set up rules for what times people can book. When a meeting is booked, it sends out an automatic invite to both people’s calendars. People really like the feature that enables them to create a widget of their calendar and include it on their website, to make scheduling product demos easier. The basic features of Calendly are free.

7. x.ai

With x.ai, your personal assistant, “Amy Ingram,” will take care of all your meeting scheduling. Because Amy is great at sounding human and understanding context in emails, she can pick up the discussion and ask the right questions to the other person in order to set up the meeting details. All you do is CC her on the exchange, and she’ll jump into the email conversation as needed. Free for up to five meetings per month.

Other Administrative Assistance:

8. HelloSign

With HelloSign, you can skip the tedious business of printing and scanning. With this tool, you can fill out, sign and share forms and documents, even legally binding ones. As an entrepreneur, this can be your go-to for signing NDAs, adviser agreements, freelancer work contracts and everything else your lawyer might throw your way. HelloSign is free for up to three documents a month.

Obviously, this list is just the tip of the iceberg. There are great new services and tools debuting every day. What are other apps or tools that, as an entrepreneur, you can’t do without?

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By Pamela Webber

Richard Branson: Advice for Entrepreneurs

Advice from one of the greats! Might be just you needed to hear before you start making those new year resolutions!

What Is Emotional Intelligence and Why Does It Matter?

Most people agree that having a strong work ethic, dedication and skill makes a successful employee. However, a new study finds that high emotional intelligence also plays a key role in career success.

In an article published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Joseph C. Rode, professor of management at Miami University of Ohio, and his co-authors found emotional intelligence is linked to bigger salaries and higher job satisfaction.

While high emotional intelligence alone won't make you successful, it will probably make you happier and more successful in your career. Business News Daily talked to Rode and other experts about what emotional intelligence is and how you can use it to advance your career.

What is emotional intelligence?

According to Liz Bentley, founder of Liz Bentley Associates, "emotional intelligence in its simplest form is our ability to get along with people." Bentley said people with high emotional intelligence have self-awareness and social awareness, and can manage themselves and others.

Similarly, Rode describes emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and manage emotional information.

"It represents the intersection of emotions and general mental ability – sometimes referred to as IQ," he said. "It can also be thought of as the extent to which one actively thinks about emotion, or uses emotions as important information in a manner similar to other information such as facts and opinions."

Bentley added that people with high emotional intelligence typically drive good outcomes and results, align people with the mission, hold people accountable, coach their subordinates and colleagues when they're stuck, and create a collaborative and cohesive work environment.

Emotional intelligence and its associated people skills are important because people are an important part of any business.

 "People are our most valuable and critical commodity," Bentley told Business News Daily. "We are all in the people business – people are our bosses, subordinates, team members, colleagues, clients, vendors and consumers."

Emotions, said Rode, are important pieces of information that must be considered in decision-making – even if that means learning to tune them out.

"While emotional intelligence includes the ability to use emotions to increase motivation and focus, it also includes the ability to detach from very powerful short-term emotions when needed to better focus on the tasks at hand," he said.

Using emotional intelligence to get ahead

Rode's study found that people with high emotional intelligence typically have higher salaries than people who don't. To measure emotional intelligence, Rode and his co-authors required participants to solve multiple emotional problems that had right and wrong answers like an IQ test. For example, participants had to identify emotions in faces or artwork, and identify the best response to different scenarios. Higher emotional intelligence has shown to be related to several measures of leadership effectiveness.

"Following this research, we argued that emotional intelligence should be more relevant to success – and salary – at higher organizational levels, where leadership becomes a relatively more important part of one's job," said Rode.

But what is the connection between high emotional intelligence and high salary? Brad Flowers, partner of boutique branding agency Bullhorn Creative, says this important quality helps you to read the situation and time your request just right.

"The most difficult part of getting a bigger salary is asking for it," Flowers said. "Emotional intelligence – combined with a smart case – equips you with the tools to recognize the perfect moment to ask, how to ask appropriate for your audience, and how to deal with any answer you receive."

Jennifer Hancock, founder of Humanist Learning Systems, said people with emotional intelligence also typically have high salaries because they tend to be more productive.

"People who are good at working with other people and getting other people to work with them tend to get more work done," she told Business News Daily. "They have good reputations since people like working with them."

 Click Here For Original Article

Saige Driver

Saige Driver graduated from Ball State University in 2015 with a degree in journalism. She started her career at a radio station in Indiana, and is currently a B2B staff writer at Business News Daily. She loves reading and her beagle mix, Millie. Reach her by email, or follow her on Twitter.

The Power of belief -- mindset and success | Eduardo Briceno | TEDxManha...

So simple yet so powerful I will be adopting going forward!

4 personality traits that successful entrepreneurs share

When you think of the greatest entrepreneurs in history, a few names likely come to mind: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Henry Ford, just to name a few.

The legacies of these business geniuses can be both inspiring and intimidating. And while they probably had more than a few unique traits that helped drive them to success, there are also several personality traits that they share, along with virtually every other successful entrepreneur. And, lucky for you, these are traits that can usually be cultivated over time, with some careful practice.

Persistence

At the top of the list is persistence. Entrepreneurs face failure again and again, but the thing that separates the successes from the failures is whether or not you allow failures to stop you. Virtually every successful entrepreneur throughout history has faced failures, and they’ve come back again and again until they achieved what they’d set out to do. The ability to dust yourself off and try again is an invaluable trait if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

Self-Belief

Most entrepreneurs are natural confident. But don’t confuse self-confidence with true self-belief, or what researchers call “task-specific confidence.” This isn’t just a belief that you can get things done. “It’s a belief that turns the risk proposition around—you’ve conducted enough research and have enough confidence that you can get the job done that you ameliorate the risk.”

So for those who are not naturally self-assured, this can be a good thing. Because this type of self-belief is not necessarily ingrained in us from birth. It comes from persistent research and hard work that allows you to feel confident in your business. Once you’ve built up that self-belief, hold onto it, and let it drive you forward through the tough times.

Tolerance for Risk

Successful entrepreneurs are the ones that take risk. It’s for this reason that, contrary to popular belief, most entrepreneurs aren’t Type-A personalities. Type-As don’t tolerate risk well. In fact, most entrepreneurs are C students who aren’t afraid to take the long shot or do something slightly crazy for the chance at a big win.

Entrepreneurs often show their risk-taking habits from an early age. Multi-millionaire and entrepreneur Tai Lopez shared a story that demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit and willing to take risks at just six years old. He said, “My mom had these cherry tomatoes she would sell. The problem was, nobody really bought the tomatoes. So, I took it upon myself to sell lemonade with sugar instead. In the time I had sold one bag of tomatoes for 25 cents, I was able to sell ten times more with my lemonade stand.”

A Type-A kid would probably have just done what his mom told him to do and continued to try to sell the tomatoes. But Tai saw a chance to make more money, and took a risk when others might have held back. This attitude is a vital trait in a successful entrepreneur.

Curiosity

Entrepreneurs are out-of-the-box thinkers and innovators, as most people know. But what truly drives that kind of innovation is a certain curiosity about the world. One analysis of 23 different studies, entitled The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Entrepreneurial Status, looked at the different traits of entrepreneurs and managers. It found that entrepreneurs tended to rank much higher in the category of “openness to experience,” which was identified as “someone who is intellectually curious and tends to seek new experiences and explore novel ideas.”

This willingness to explore and ask questions is essential to entrepreneurship, because it is questioning the status quo that leads to world-changing innovations. So start asking yourself “what if,” and start wondering how things around you could be changed for the better. You never know what ideas can come from a simple question.

While not everybody who has these traits will be a hugely successful entrepreneur, these are still essential characteristics if you hope to be one of the world’s great innovators in the future.

About Business Matters

Business Matters staff

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Tony Robbins: ONE OF THE BEST SPEECHES EVER (Tony Robbins 2017)

You cant listen to Tony and not be motivated to take action!

Nine Ways To Balance Being A Parent And An Entrepreneur

Working parents know how difficult it is to balance a career with caring for children. However, parents who run their own business experience an added layer to this challenge.

In many ways, these "parentpreneurs" stretch themselves between two types of babies: the children they're raising and the business they're growing. Both require near-constant nurturing and attention to be successful, especially in their early stages, and entrepreneurial parents must learn to carefully plan and prioritize their time to ensure that each gets the care they need and deserve.

Nine members of Forbes Coaches Council offered their best advice for parent entrepreneurs who are looking to maintain a healthy balance between their family and their business.

1. Learn To Delegate And Know Your Boundaries 

As a parentpreneur, it can be difficult to balance your business and time with family, as both solicit a great amount of time and effort. However, the sooner you realize you can't be in two places at once, the better. Prioritize special moments and engagements with your kids that require 100% of you, and make sure you have someone to step in during those times. Respect that you need help to avoid burnout.   - Ariel Lopez, 2020Shift 

2. Prioritize Well-Being

Adopt mindfulness or relaxation practices. Prioritize your well-being. Often, as soon as life becomes an incessant demand on your time, the first thing to go is the priority of your self. "There's too much to do, I don't have the time," is a thought that will happen. Calendaring even 10 minutes a day for personal relaxation benefits your work, your children, and your ability to get more done.   - David Butlein, Ph.D., BLUECASE Strategic Partners 

3. Create Clear Boundaries And Honor Your Word

Create clear time boundaries. Define when you are available and when you are not, and hold those boundaries. This is a healthy lesson for your children to learn. When you are not available, you aren't (unless the house is on fire). But when it is your child's time with you, be fully present for them, not your cell phone. Create your boundaries and honor your word.   - Debra Russell, Debra Russell Coaching, LLC 

4. Sensibly Involve Your Children

What's the motivation for work and work changes for parentpreneurs? Children. Therefore, children can be thoughtfully included in your business as motivation, as helpers and as important parts of your team. Consider their schedule and limit their time so that the participation at any age carries the joy and not the burden of your new enterprise. This may remind you of your most important asset.   - John M. O'Connor, Career Pro Inc. 

5. Remember Balance Doesn't Happen Every Day

I think balance is an overused word. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking we're working too hard or neglecting our business if we think balance is achievable every single day. It's not, and that's OK. Remind yourself that your kids benefit from seeing you work hard at times and your leadership benefits from spending valuable time with your children.   - Jeannie Walters, 360Connext 

6. Stop Before You Step In The Door

Parentprenuers need to get ready to be a parent before they open their front doors and walk inside. Sure, you can turn off your phone and put away your laptop, yet changing your mindset is key. Once you cross the threshold, your role changes from entrepreneur to parent. To be fully present from dinner to bedtime, process or put away the work baggage you can easily drag inside with you.   - Leila Bulling Towne, The Bulling Towne Group, LLC 

7. Control Your Calendar, Don't Let It Control You

As a parentpreneur, I found out quickly that the traditional 8-5 workday wasn't going to work. I scheduled client meetings while my kids were at school, paused working when they came home, and took care of "desk work" after bedtime or side-by-side with my kids while they did their homework. I got to enjoy being a mom and attend all of their events because I was in control of my calendar.   - Lucie Yeomans, YourCareerAlly.com/Sick Resumes 

8. Be 100% At All Times

Both of my girls were born while I was running my business from home. I learned quickly that there is no such thing as "working from home with my kids." Rather, I had to choose when I would be 100% focused on my business, or 100% focused on my kids. Hire support if need be, or negotiate with a loved one so you can have dedicated time to your business and your family.   - Tina Forsyth, Tina Forsyth 

9. Schedule Tasks Accordingly

As a parentpreneur, there are times when you must be more hands-on as a parent than others. Schedule tasks that require intense thought or client interaction for those times when your kids are out-of-pocket. Save tasks that can be accomplished through multitasking, or by simply having an internet connection, for those times when it is likely you will be asked to pivot your attention to them.   - Virginia Franco, Virginia Franco Resumes 

POST WRITTEN BY

Forbes Coaches Council

Top business and career coaches from Forbes Coaches Council offer firsthand insights on leadership development & careers.

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How to Build Self-Confidence

Confidence building is the most sort after self development skills and for good

reason it affects everything you do.

DEALING WITH ‘DIFFICULT’ PEOPLE AT WORK

We’ve all encountered ‘difficult’ people in the workplace. Whether it’s a boss, a colleague or a subordinate, it’s challenging working in close quarters with someone whose personality or approach to work doesn’t always gel with our own and who pushes our buttons.

You know who I’m talking about – the sort of person who rarely listens to others’ opinions but is always pushing their agenda, who doesn’t pitch in but still expects to get their own way, and who is loud, aggressive,discourteous or constantly negative

The key to managing difficult personalities is to become familiar with common behaviours and personality types. Once you understand why people act in a certain way, you can better understand how to work with them. High performing organisations readily embrace a culture of giving and receiving feedback – after all, it can take a village to onboard and develop teams, and a gentle reminder of expected behaviour never goes astray. But ultimately, you can’t change others, only how you deal with them, which is vital to ensure a challenging colleague doesn’t impact how you feel about your job.

There are four common behaviours we see in the workplace:

1. Dominant-controlling

D-C personalities can be fast-acting, outgoing, bold and assertive. They like challenges but can get impatient, aggressive, demanding, challenging and power hungry. They can be bullies and insensitive to others’ feelings. While D-Cs can be helpful when you need to make a tough decision, they can be motivated by getting people to do what they want, their way, which can make them difficult to work with and, when challenged – even mildly – they find it hard to manage their anger and aggression.

Working with them:

It’s hard to work with Dominant-Controlling personalities. They continually make demands and dictate orders. It often feels demeaning and you can fear them, have an urge to fight them or dislike yourself for giving in to them. But if you approach them in the right way, things can work out.

To work best with a dominant-controlling person, you need to think like one. Get to the point and stick to the topic – avoid small-talk or vague expressions. Be brief, direct and respectful, back up your position with evidence and refuse to bend.

2. Analytical-obsessive

These personalities are methodical, logical and detail-oriented. They like perfection but their focus on doing things the right way can come across as nit-picky. A-Os take pride in high standards and are systematic in their approach to problems and projects. These are not bad qualities but they can be inflexible, and stand in the way of innovation. When they feel criticised, they avoid the issue, demonstrating their distaste of confrontation and argument.

Working with them:

There is a great need for people like these in business, but when you’re trying something new you need to approach them with caution. Firstly, acknowledge their work and their concerns without being critical or argumentative. Address their apprehensions then use logical language to map the path forward.

3. Expressive-impulsive

Expressive-impulsive people are enthusiastic, people-oriented, optimistic and social but can also be self-centred, reactive and charged up, seen as highly strung and pushy. They rarely think of consequences and refuse to take responsibility when things go wrong.

Wanting to be recognised for their work is a hallmark of E-I personality types but they concentrate solely on their own opinions and the big picture, and ignore inconvenient details.

Working with them:

E-Is bring creativity and energy but are not always the best listeners and don’t like being confined or controlled. They can be hard to work with sometimes but there are strategies you can use. Rather than trying to control them, make an effort to build a rapport. Let them know you appreciate their energy and ideas then give them tasks that require them to organise their ideas – challenging them to plan properly will be necessary to get them to focus.

4. Skeptical-negative

The S-N’s glass is always half empty, which can wear colleagues down because their pessimistic, suspicious nature promotes poor morale in the workplace. Not only is it annoying when someone is always complaining, but worst of all their negative attitude impacts other people. They think nothing of bad mouthing decisions and blame factors other than themselves for the ills of the world.

Working with them:

When you have to work with consistently negative people it’s good to have some strategies so you can deal with it head on. Firstly, support them by hearing them but don’t buy into their negative behaviour. Focus on how they might do things differently to prevent them drifting into negativity.

The goal of adapting your behaviour to different situations is not to change who you are, but to help you recognise your own role in difficult interactions.  You can’t make other people less difficult so your challenge every day is to deal more effectively with the difficult people you meet. Next time you’re involved in a touchy interaction with a difficult colleague, take a moment before you say anything. Consider their approximate personality type and formulate an appropriate response without letting emotions get the better of you.

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About the author

Kath Greenhough is the Senior Manager of Customer Success Organisation at e-learning provider Skillsoft (Asia pacific).

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Science Of Persuasion

Having troubling getting the team or staff on board. Worth checking this out,
it will save you hours of extra work! As always let me know how you get on.

5 Steps To Becoming The Most Productive You In 2018

1. Clarify Your Goals

As were coming into the new year take some time over the next few weeks to sit down and set your goals. Set your own personal goals, your business goals, and your health and fitness goals. Create both long and short term goals.

Not only do you need to identify your goals but you also need to make sure that they are realistic and achievable. Losing 10 pounds and finally getting those abs you’ve always wanted is a great and attainable goal but if you want it by tomorrow it is unfortunately unrealistic and unachievable. This is why you must attach a time frame to every goal you set. Make the time frame realistic but also challenging. Allow it to create a certain level of urgency. If there isn’t a clear and concise time frame the goal is often procrastinated. To avoid this, set your goals and set a time frame in which you would like to achieve your goals. Identify and predict any setback or challenge you may face. Make your goals attainable and absolutely crush them! Let’s make 2018 YOUR year!

2. Annihilate Excuses And Distractions And Work In Laser Focus

First, identify any challenge, setback, or distraction you may encounter while reaching your goal. Identify why it has the power to set you back and defeat you. How bad do you want your goal? Is this challenge significant enough to stop you? Will you let it stop you? Are you allowing yourself to use this challenge as an excuse to not accomplish your most important goals in life? Second, create a strategy that empowers you and pushes you through the pain of the challenge into the pleasure of the achievement.

Work in laser focus. Focus on the one thing each day, week and month that will get you closer to your goal. Become a master at focusing on your most important tasks at all times. What needs to get done immediately? When you find yourself getting distracted consider asking yourself if the action you are currently doing serves you? Is it pulling you towards your goal or pushing you away from it? If you find that, like many, you struggle with this or need some extra resources in this area, check out the book The One Thing by Gary Keller.

3. Know Yourself

Know yourself and how your operate. What makes you excited about the work you're doing? What aspects are you not so excited about? What time of day do you do your best work? Early in the morning or late at night? Do you work better before or after a workout? What environments allow you to thrive? What environments compromise your work?

Figure out all the answers to these questions and then some. Once you do this give yourself a 90 minute block of extreme focus. Extreme focus means no distractions like your phone, your coworker, your business partner, your email and everything else that has the potential to distract you. Dedicate those 90 minutes to complete whatever challenging task you are determined to get done.

4. Progress Is Power

Often times success is viewed as the direct influencer of happiness and achievement. I have a much different view. I believe that progress is our biggest driving force. Progress and becoming better than you once were creates a certain level of happiness, fuffillment and achievement. To encourage this, come up with some benchmark goals that you can hit along the way to your desired goal. Frequently review and reflect on your goals and progress.  Remind yourself often of how far you have already come, of all the challenges you have already faced. Give yourself credit for the ability to overcome these difficult challenges and continue on this journey to reach your goals. Remind yourself that you are awesome and you can conquer anything! Success is great but progress is the driving force that holds the real power.

5. Become Habitual

If you take away one thing from this entire article it is to become habitual. Find what works for you and triple down on it and do that consistently. By consistently I mean every single day. Create a morning and night time routine that is designed for productivity and success. Optimize the time you have before your day starts and as your day is coming to an end. Optimize this time by creating rituals that propel you towards your goals instead of holding you back. Do something at night that will set you up for success for the next day. Watching an hour of cat videos on Facebook or binge watching an entire season of netflix before bed is not helping you. Instead, try reviewing your day. What worked well and what didn’t serve you? How can you can improve the little things you did today to have a more productive day tomorrow? Ask yourself these questions each night before going to bed and when you wake up in the morning ask yourself how do you want to attack the day? Do you want to attack it with positivity and productiveness? If so, create habits and rituals that encourage and reinforce these positive emotions, actions and overall mental state.

Start and end your days as strong as you possibly can. Do these rituals consistently every single day until this becomes effortless and natural. Become habitual in your productive patterns. Know what works for you and create a morning and night time routine that is optimized for your success. Trust me on this, watch how implementing daily rituals will influence your life in 2018...

Jennifer Cohen , CONTRIBUTOR
I help executives & entrepreneurs boost productivity through wellness.

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