Four Top Priorities for the New Decade
January is normally a time of new decisions, new commitments, and new goals. This January is not only the new year of 2020, but it is also a new decade. Time flies, and since 2030 will be here before you know it, it’s important to look ahead and outline your leadership priorities to be sure you end the next decade well.
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The Importance of Customer Engagement in Marketing
To succeed in digital marketing, you must use multiple channels of marketing such as your website, social media platforms, paid advertisements, etc. There have been significant changes in the way marketers approach consumers. No longer can you treat all consumers in the same way with the same kind of marketing message. Creating multiple messages for a single campaign across various channels might increase the chances of grabbing the attention of targeted consumer groups. But it still left marketers yearning for more because mass messages only addressed specific consumer groups and not individual consumers.
That led to the development of a new approach in marketing that focuses on consumer or customer engagement with the brand by communicating with them on a personal level.
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Top Strategies for Small Businesses to Streamline their Cash Flow
Sure, there are a myriad of different financial tools and metrics you can use to monitor and evaluate your business and keep it on track. One of the most important is your operating cash flow. A lot of businesses use their cash flow data as a primary means of analyzing how well or poorly the company is performing. Moreover, managing your cash flow can also help you discover different trends and patterns in the overall results, which allows entrepreneurs to address crucial business shortcomings or capitalize on its strengths.
Let’s look at some sure-fire strategies small businesses can use to improve their cash flow.
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Giving Employees a Reason to Feel Proud
Do You Give Employees a Reason to Feel Proud of What They Do?
Imagine packing up an evening snack, grabbing a blanket, getting in your car and heading to the lawn of your local university. When the music starts all the visitors on campus go silent as a series of custodians, landscapers, electricians, and construction crews show off their skills to an original dance piece called “From the Ground Up.”
Yes, folks, this really happened in October 2019 on the campus of Wake Forest University in NC. Bill Taylor wrote an article about the event to highlight an important leadership skill: The importance of showing how much you value your employees and helping them feel proud of what they do.
In his Harvard Business Review article titled, “Do You Give Employees a Reason to Feel Proud of What They Do?” Taylor describes the Wake Forest event as “Think Cirque du Soleil, but with lawn mowers, trucks, ladders, brooms, hammers, and drills.” The Campus Facilities Staff, who often work invisibly behind the scenes doing the least glamorous work, “showcased their skills, creativity and humor to the delight of the community” at three evening performances over three days.
Throughout the article, Taylor makes the point that pride in one’s work is an essential ingredient to ensure every person in an organization is working at peak performance. This is especially important in an organization that provides services to others.
As a business owner or senior leader, what have you done lately to make sure your employees feel valued and have pride in what they do for you and your company? If you can’t remember, schedule time this week to sit down with your leadership staff and brainstorm creative ways to spotlight your employees as a step towards creating a deeper spirit of belonging and pride throughout your organization.
To read the entire article Taylor wrote, click here. You can also watch the promotional clip about the Wake Forest event here: From The Ground Up.
Credit: hbr.org
If this article was helpful and prompted you with an increased desire to improve your effectiveness as a leader so you can take your team to the next level, contact us to learn more about our Aepiphanni Ascend Leadership Development program. Fill out the form below and we’ll be happy to schedule a Coffee & Consult to chat in more detail about how we can help.
Kris Cavanaugh Castro is the People Development Coach at Aepiphanni, a Business Consultancy that provides Management Consulting, Implementation and Managed Services to business leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to improve or expand operations. We are the trusted advisor for business leaders who are seeking forward-thinking solutions to help them plan for and navigate through the challenges of business growth. Kris has over 25 years of coaching, training and mentoring leaders to greater success; and she periodically writes about leadership development and facilitates change management conversations.
We would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and comments below.
Need help with spotlighting employees in your organization? Start here.
Five Ways to Upgrade Your Business Development Strategy
When it comes to growing your business at a steady yet consistent pace, improving your business development strategy is crucial. Adaptability and perseverance are key traits for business development due to changing corporate dynamics and constant innovation in the digital stratosphere. Infusing these qualities can bolster your business development process. You can also seek small business consulting professional for this purpose.
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How to Run a Family Business
Running a business is hard enough without adding family dynamics into the mix. However, according to a 2018 Family Business survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, it seems that family businesses are in robust health, with levels of growth at their highest since 2007.
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Why New Leaders Should Make Decisions Slowly
Climbing the corporate ladder is a “must do” for any head of household who chooses a non-entrepreneurial career. Each step up the ladder typically means more income and benefits which supports the lifestyle they desire for their families. In addition, advancement often requires more leadership responsibilities.
A person’s first leadership role is generally both exciting and unnerving. Most people do not diligently watch their supervisors throughout their early career making notes of how to lead, and how not to lead, in order to prepare themselves for a future leadership role. Instead, leadership is something most people “fall into” later and figure out as they go along.
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