Your #Career : Is Your Attitude Toward Work Killing Your Retirement Dreams? … Do you Have a Generally Positive or Negative Impression of the Word “Retirement”?

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To help you make the most of this article, please consider these two questions: #1- Is yours a vicious or virtuous work/retirement circle below?…….#2- What is the next action you’ll take to move in the right direction?

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Work or retire as a concept of a difficult decision time for working or retirement as a cross roads and road sign with arrows showing a fork in the road representing the concept of direction when facing a challenging life choice.

Work or retire as a concept of a difficult decision time for working or retirement as a cross roads and road sign with arrows showing a fork in the road representing the concept of direction when facing a challenging life choice.

I ask because it dovetails nicely with a series of questions (inspired by Rick Kahler) that I use to begin most speaking engagements. These questions are designed to incite self-awareness, offering us clues about how our life experiences have shaped the (often unarticulated but powerful) beliefs that unavoidably influence the decisions we make with and for money.

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Regardless of an audience’s homogeneity, their responses are consistently inconsistent. I have, however, seen some generational persistency on the topic of retirement. For example, on average, baby boomers have a generally positive view of retirement—no doubt shaped in part by the incessant financial services commercials that promise a utopian post-career existence with beaches, sailboats, golf and an unlimited supply of vintage Pinot Noir.

On the other hand, the finance and accounting students that I had the privilege of teaching at Towson University—almost all members of the Millennial generation—had a generally negative view of the notion of retirement. This is for two prominent reasons:

  1. They pictured hot, humid, early buffet dinners in rural Florida.
  2. They don’t think that the American dream of retirement is available to them.

Interestingly, according to a new study from AARP focusing on full-time workers 35 and older, this generational pessimism is now creeping up the age ladder to Generation X and baby boomers as well. AARP reports that “while 87% of those surveyed who are working full time say they want to retire someday with nearly 70% of those hoping to retire by 65, just over half don’t expect to retire by 65 or at any age.”

Sheesh. Can I get a ho-hum?

It deserves mentioning that the working set 35 and older does appear to accurately assess their retirement readiness. Corroborating common perception with reality, the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) estimates that “52% of households are ‘at risk’ of not having enough to maintain their living standards in retirement.”

Old news, right? But what interests me a great deal more is the following finding in the AARP’s survey: “Although this group acknowledges that they will be working longer, fewer than one in five people across the Gen Xer and Boomer demographics say the thing that motivates them to get up in the morning is going to a job that fulfills them.”

So, more than 80% of the workforce over the age of 34 doesn’t like their work? No wonder they’re so stricken by this distressing conundrum: They desperately want to retire but can’t stand the only vehicle likely to help them reach their destination.

We must acknowledge that our views of retirement and work are inextricably intertwined.

It’s a vicious circle: If you don’t like your work, you’re likely to overvalue retirement. But if you undervalue you’re work, it’s logical to assume your performance will be less than optimal and, therefore, that your wages—your retirement savings engine—will be suppressed.

Vicious Circle

But there’s a virtuous circle to counter: If you love your work, it’s likely that you undervalue retirement. But ironically, because you love your work, it’s logical to assume your lifetime performance is improved and your lifetime earnings (and savings potential) are increased, better preparing you for retirement.

Virtuous Circle

Yeah, but it’s unrealistic to think that everyone can have their dream job! This is absolutely true, but that doesn’t mean we can’t purposefully and intentionally move toward it, shifting in the direction of a more virtuous cycle.

Or, in the words of career guru Jon Acuff, “Please don’t tell me you’re too busy to look for a new job and then show me your perfectly detailed fantasy football team.… Please don’t tell me you’re too busy to update your resume and then update your social media accounts incessantly.”

And most fascinatingly, the AARP study seems to help point us in the direction of a more fulfilling career: “If money was not a factor, most would volunteer or donate to a cause and travel the world.… The most popular types of ideal jobs for those who would switch are doing something that helps or teaches others and doing something creative or artistic.”

You probably don’t have the same talents that will likely launch 12-year-old Grace VanderWaal into a lifetime of fulfilling work (I still can’t watch this without choking up). But I’d be willing to bet that you could do something to move one step, small or large, in the direction of more fulfilling work, which will likely help you make and save more money over your lifetime while reducing any desperation you might feel about the need to retire.

To help you make the most of this article, please consider these two questions:

  1. Is yours a vicious or virtuous work/retirement circle?
  2. What is the next action you’ll take to move in the right direction?

I’m a speaker, author of “Simple Money” and director of personal finance for Buckingham and the BAM Alliance. Connect with me onTwitter, Google+, and click HERE to receive my weekly email.

 

Forbes.com | July 23, 2016 | Tim Maurer

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#Leadership : 10 Habits That Help You Learn Twice as Fast…Build these Ten Habits into your Learning and you will be Amazed How Quickly your Learning Speed will Increase.

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The world is in constant change due to advances in technology, science, and innovation. What was considered “hot” a year ago may no longer be relevant today. Just look at all the new social media platforms that have sprouted since Facebook was created.

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Despite all the good that change can bring, you have to keep up or you may get left behind. One of the best ways to stay competitive is to develop habits that can help you quickly learn new skills.

Here are 10 habits to incorporate into your learning to help you learn new material twice as fast.

1. Speed reading.
We know that many successful entrepreneurs read as a daily habit. For example, Warren Buffett developed the habit of reading several hours every day.

The average reader reads at approximately 200 to 400 words per minute. The expert speed reader can do read 1,000 to 1,700 words per minute. It’s no surprise that there’s tremendous value in being able to read quickly and efficiently.

Speed reading encompasses skills such as chunking (reading groups of words instead of one word by one word), minimizing subvocalization (reducing the habit of saying the words in your head as your read), skimming (reading through a paragraph quickly to look for important and related information), and meta-guiding (using a tool such as a pen to guide your eyes in your reading).

Speed reading requires practice but once you instill the skill as a habit, you will be able to get through much more information within a shorter time period.

 

2. Control your learning environment.

Have you noticed that there are times in the day when you are in the flow and learning seems easy but then there are other times when nothing is sinking in and it feels like you are fighting an uphill battle? We all have biological rhythms for our sleep, body temperature and even peak mental state. Figure out when you are most alert and aware and use that time to do your learning.

Being in a fearful, disorganized and stressed state will also block access to your inner stores of creativity and intelligence. To put yourself in an optimum learning mode, choose a safe, reasonably organized, and comfortable environment. Take deep breaths to help you relax and focus.

There is also research indicating that varying the room temperature can also influence your ability to learn. Try to maintain your room temperature between 72 degrees and 80 degrees Fahrenheit in order to optimize your learning ability.

 

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3. Take notes.
Taking notes helps our brains to analyze and synthesize the information that we are learning. The very act of writing makes our brains think that we are undergoing a mini-rehearsal of the information.

Research has shown that making notes using a keyboard does not help students remember the information as well as writing it down. Writing is much slower than typing and when writing, we are forced to make quick judgments about the information that we are hearing. When we type on a keyboard, often we are not thinking about the information but merely copying it word for word.

To increase your learning speed, try to develop the habit of making hand-written notes.

I am a big fan of using tools like Evernote to sync all my notes across all my devices. It can scan and read written notes, and keep track of audio notes. This gives me confidence in the fact that I’ll never misplace an important note no matter how I decide to create the note.

4. Combine all learning modalities.
All of us have preferred learning modalities: visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic (VARK). If you are a visual person, you will find learning a lot easier if you see the new material presented visually, such as through pictures, diagrams or PowerPoint. If you learn best by listening, then you will love podcasts, interviews, and audiobooks. Those with a reading or writing modality learn best when they can read the information and write down notes. If you are kinesthetically-inclined, you learn better when you can use your hands and physically touch or try something out for yourself.

By understanding what your preferred learning modality is, you can speed up your absorption of information by choosing a learning system that supports your modality.

For even faster learning, combine all modalities. For example, if you are reading about coding skills from an article, read it out loud to yourself and draw a mind map while you are doing this. Then immediately try the code on your website.

5. Create mental associations.
You can shorten your learning time by creating mental associations to link what you already know to new information. Techniques such as using a familiar acronym or rhyme to help you remember different types of marketing sequences, using favorite colors to help you remember algorithms or visualizing something interesting about a client to help you remember their name are all ways for you to create mental associations.

The more mental association techniques you know how to employ, the easier it will be for you to increase your learning speed.

6. Exercise your brain.
A brain is just like any muscle in your body — the more you exercise it, the more effective it becomes. Try learning something new, set yourself a new challenge or use fun resources like BrainHQ and Lumosity to increase your attention, memory, cognitive abilities and brain speed. The more you train and exercise your brain, the faster your learning will be.

7. Listen to alpha state-inducing music.
We have four major types of brainwave patterns: alpha, beta, theta and delta. Out of these, the alpha state (approximately eight to 13 Hz) is where our concentration is best and peak learning is easily achieved.

You can help your brain to enter into the alpha state by listening to music with a beat of eight to 13 Hz (such as baroque music) while you are learning. Even if you don’t like baroque music, you can use other types of music with similar beats. Try to avoid music with singing as lyrics can be distracting.

8. Modified practice after six hours.
Malcolm Gladwell first popularized the concept of deliberate practice in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success.” Deliberate practice is practicing with intentional focus on skill improvement and focusing on growing out of one’s comfort zone. In his book, Gladwell uses the concept of deliberate practice to explain why some athletes and musicians improve so much faster than others.

More recent research has found that by modifying your practice slightly, you increase your learning speed, especially if you are trying to learn motor skills. This is because the process of modifying your practice supports brain reconsolidation where existing memories are strengthened with new knowledge. The ideal time to do your modified practice is six hours after your first practice as the brain takes about six hours to do its reconsolidation work.

9. Get hands-on experience.
Nothing beats learning like actual hands-on experience. Textbook knowledge transforms into something much more useful when we can combine it with practical knowledge.

For example, you can read as much as you want about share investing but until you actually buy your first shares of stock, you won’t understand what the process actually entails and what it is like to put real money on the line.

Another alternative is to fully immerse yourself in the experience of learning. For example, if you were trying to learn Spanish, spend a few months living in Mexico and don’t allow yourself to use any English while you are there. You will pick up the language a lot quicker than using audiobooks and textbooks.

10. Teach someone else what you are learning.
When you teach someone else what you are learning, you retain approximately 90 percent of what you have just learned, especially if you do this immediately after learning.it yourself.

By sharing your knowledge with someone else, not only are you helping someone else but you will also discover quickly how well you know your subject and discover any gaps.

Build these ten habits into your learning and you will be amazed how quickly your learning speed will increase.

Entrepreneur.com | July 20, 2016  |  Chris W. Dunn

#Leadership : 4 Stress-Management Tips for Reducing Anxiety and Getting More Done…If you Let Stress Consume you, it can Hurt your Productivity and Eventually Impact your Bottom Line. For that Reason, it’s Important to find Coping Mechanisms that Allow you to Worry Less.

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Anxiety not only impacts your productivity, but it also disrupts your health and well-being. By learning how to manage your stress and finding healthier ways to cope, you can eventually begin to enjoy the chaos of the day.

Free- Barbed Wire

Stress is an inevitable part of working for or running a business. Despite its many rewards, it can be difficult to ignore the many pressures that come with an entire company resting on your shoulders. As your business grows and you bring on more employees, that sense of responsibility will only increase, leading to varying degrees of anxiety.

If you let stress consume you, it can hurt your productivity and eventually impact your bottom line. For that reason, it’s important to find coping mechanisms that allow you to worry less. You’ll then be able to focus on what needs to be done, which is growing your business. Here are a few tips for keeping your entrepreneurial anxiety in check.

1. Set goals and work toward them.

Anxiety often comes as a result of trying to accomplish everything at once. Instead, cut your larger goals into small, manageable chunks and work toward reaching each small milestone every day. Celebrate when you make significant progress toward a goal. Over time, you’ll learn to pay more attention to what you’ve accomplished rather than feeling daunted by the many things you have left to do.

Related: Calm Down and Take These 7 Daily Steps to Deal With Stress

Experts recommend rewarding yourself as you reach certain milestones. That will give you something to look forward to in the near future, which will also keep you from looking past the milestone to what you’ll need to do next. Set aside time each month or quarter to review your long-term goals and update your progress on each of them. You’ll likely notice how much you’ve accomplished in the previous term and feel good about your momentum.

 

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2. Outsource and automate.

Business owners often work long, tiring hours, whether they’re running a one-man operation or they have a full staff. Either way, it’s important to find ways to offload as many daily tasks as possible. The more routine the duty, the more likely someone else should handle it. If you can’t afford a salaried worker, consider a part-time entry-level worker or outsourcing to a freelancer.

In addition to human service providers, you can also use technology to free up time without sacrificing work output. Software can take over your invoicing and bookkeeping features, for instance, often without the errors that you might make when you’re multitasking or rushing to get to your next meeting.

3. Learn coping mechanisms.

“Mind over matter” may sound like jargon, but anxiety and stress really are under your control. Relaxation techniques can help you when stress is at its worst, with your mind racing and your body tense. You don’t have to take an hour or two to attend a class to practice relaxation. In fact, you can just lock yourself in your office for 15 minutes in the middle of the day and do a few exercises to center your mind.

Related: How Successful People Deal With Stress

For some, however, learning to relax is an art. Look for meditation classes or mindfulness-based yoga courses near you. You’ll be able to take the information you learn in class with you throughout the week. Over time, you probably won’t need a class at all to utilize healthier ways to deal with stress.

“As a business owner and trial attorney, anxiety is a natural and healthy thing,” says Robert May, founder of The May Firm. “However, when it feels too big I really try to step back and take a couple minutes to put things back into perspective. I take a few calming breaths and focus on the task at hand and not everything that needs to be done. Also, take time to do something for yourself.  Sometimes just taking my dog for a 30-minute hike really helps.”

4. Recognize clinical anxiety.

For some people, anxiety goes beyond a reaction to daily stressors. If your anxiety is getting in the way of living a happy, productive life, it may be time to seek professional help. With an anxiety disorder, you feel general anxiety about life events even when that level of anxiety wouldn’t seem merited by others. In some cases, anxiety can accompany clinical depression or panic attacks.

“Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses in the United States,” says Cole Rucker, CEO at Paradigm New York, a center that works with teens suffering from anxiety and depression. “With treatment, you can learn coping mechanisms and even find medication that helps regulate the condition, which will in turn help you lead a healthy, productive life.”

Related: 4 TED Talks to Help You Deal With Stress and Anxiety

Anxiety not only impacts your productivity, but it also disrupts your health and well-being. By learning how to manage your stress and finding healthier ways to cope, you can eventually begin to enjoy the chaos of the day. Whether you use relaxation techniques or learn to meditate, just a few minutes when stress is at its worst can make a big difference.

 

Entrepreneur.com | July 22, 2016 | Dan Steiner

 

 

#Leadership : You’re in Trouble if You Ignore These 5 Applicant Red Flags…I’ve Made every Hiring Mistake in the Book. Everything I’m Warning against Here, I’ve already Done. Which just Goes to Prove I’m One of You.

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Most managers/entrepreneurs learn hard lessons about hiring the right people only after they’ve hired the wrong ones. Even after realizing the mistake, business owners still can be prone to errors in judgment.

Free- Bench on a Lonely Beach

Whether you’re an established entrepreneur or an executive manager who could use a refresher or a newer entrant to business ownership, it’s worth knowing these five characteristics of potentially disastrous hires.

1. They’re job hoppers.

People who hop from job to job will hop away from you sooner or later — and much likely, it’s sooner. In this case, the past predicts the future. Every job-hopping applicant I’ve interviewed has provided an excellent reason for leaving every past employer. Job hoppers are incredibly effective at explaining their rationale.

While some industries and skill positions defy universal application of my unwritten rule, I look for people with stable, long-term employment at one company in their professional careers. To my way of thinking, that’s five or more years. Younger candidates get a bit more leeway and a lower threshold. The most important factor is a candidate’s ability to develop a relationship with a company over an extended period.

2. They can’t tell you what they did at their last job.

Watch out if the candidate’s current or previous role was amorphous, with equally unclear achievements. Entrepreneurial companies must focus on people who can increase revenue, build things or get things done. Doers might have roles not tied to revenue or products, but they should be able to explain tangible results.

While I look for stable employment within a company, I’m also aware that people with ambiguous roles can hide at larger companies — sometimes for years. Candidates should explain in clear language what they actually did and how it specifically helped the company.  Think of the consultant scene in “Office Space” and the question posed to each employee: “What would you say you do here?”

 

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Related: What Really Happens When You Hire the Wrong Candidate

3. Their names return negative search results.

It’s an easy call if a Google search of the candidate’s name reveals he or she has been sued for skydiving naked off the Empire State Building. In real life, though, it’s rarely that simple. At minimum, vet all candidates with an online search and a thorough scan of social media platforms — within legal limits, of course.

Managers/Entrepreneurs necessarily focus on getting things done quickly. In hiring terms, that can be a huge mistake. Remember the saying: “Hire slow, fire fast.”

4. Their references give less-than-stellar feedback.

People generally don’t want to say bad things about others. During reference checks, asking a variety of subtle but probing questions could save your company money and embarrassment (or worse). I’ve noticed a tendency to downplay this phase of the hiring process. It’s become a check in a box on a form. Legitimate due diligence demands more. It’s so rare today to get any sort of negative feedback that I’m concerned when a reference contact has anything even slightly unflattering to say about a job candidate.

Related: When Hiring, Give Negative References More Weight

5. They talk negatively about others.

This one’s a dead giveaway. When candidates speak negatively about a current or former employer, colleague or acquaintance, they’re giving you valuable insight into their very characters. People who put down others will be more inclined to bring that same negative philosophy to their role, your company and your team. It is not worth the risk to hire these individuals, no matter how impressive their credentials.

Here’s another red flag that didn’t make the Top 5 list but also speaks to character or fit: They don’t do the basics. These candidates know little to nothing about your company, are rude to or dismissive of your front-office reception staff and forget to follow up the interview with a thank-you note.

Managers/Entrepreneurs necessarily focus on getting things done quickly. In hiring terms, that can be a huge mistake. Remember the saying: “Hire slow, fire fast.”

 

Entrepreneur.com | July 21, 2016 | Brian Hamilton

Your #Career : The Perfect Career? Why There’s No Such Thing as a Dream Job…Holding on to the Idea that You Will One Day Find your Dream Job is a Quick Way to Set yourself Up for Disappointment. You’ll Never be Happy if you Continue to Believe this. Instead, you’ll be Tired, Frustrated, & Bitter.

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After graduating from college, you may have had high hopes of finding the perfect job. You’ve probably heard friends and acquaintances brag about how dreamy their jobs were and how they can’t believe they’re getting paid to do what they do. You wanted what they had, so you embarked on a search for your own perfect job.

Free- Men in Socks

However, your hopes were quickly dashed after working at a series of crappy jobs and dealing with one too many horrible bosses. A job may seem perfect in the beginning, but that feeling usually doesn’t last long. Here’s why there’s no such thing as a dream job.

Your job satisfaction is up to you

A job is what you make it. It can be a truly miserable experience, it can be just OK, or it can eventually turn into a dream job. It’s all about your attitude. You can make small changes to make your job as close to a dream job as possible, but it will take some effort.

Career expert Allison Chesteron says we are each authors of our careers. It’s up to you to carve out a satisfying career path. She had this to say on her blog:

A “dream job” sounds like a fantasy. It belies the true messiness, the yearning to wander, the serendipitous nature of what it means to author a career. The term seeks to tie all the frayed ends up in a perfect little bow, failing to acknowledge what it means to take your future into your own hands and create it from scratch. It’s a fatuous term that doesn’t belong in the lexicon of career discovery and job search. It’s a fallacy. Don’t let it fool you.

 

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All jobs have flaws

There are no perfect jobs because there are no perfect people. You’ll encounter people from time to time who will make your workday miserable. They may even make you question your chosen field. You aren’t perfect either. Your feelings about your work will likely change from day to day and from week to week. These feelings can (and often do) color the way you view your job.

Dr. Alex Lickerman, Psychology Today contributor and founder and CEO of ImagineMD, said our imperfection is the reason why our jobs will never be ideal. “The real reason no job can ever be perfect is because we won’t ever be perfect,” Lickerman said. “We’ll always have a constantly shifting life condition that makes today seem awful even though yesterday we felt great doing the exact same thing; we’ll always keep making new mistakes; we’ll always on occasion fail in a big way; and we’ll never be able avoid having others dislike our work.”

There will always be something wrong no matter where you work. So if you’re job hopping in search of the perfect job, you’ll never find it. Once you let go of the idea that there is a perfect job out there, you’ll be able to find happiness at work or at least be somewhat satisfied.

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment

Holding on to the idea that you will one day find your dream job is a quick way to set yourself up for disappointment. You’ll never be happy if you continue to believe this. Instead, you’ll be tired, frustrated, and bitter. And these feelings will eventually become evident when you go on job interviews, further diminishing your chances of finding the right job.

You’ll miss out on opportunities

Putting your happiness on hold until you find the perfect job will also cause you to become overly focused on the future. Consequently, you could miss out on good opportunities right now. Maria Tomaino, job search strategist and associate director of alumni career development at Florida International University, said focusing too much time and energy on the future is almost as bad as living in the past. It’s just as important to focus on your current moves.

There’s no such thing as a dream job. The mentality of ‘if I was just doing ___, then I’ll be happy’ is not only untrue, but dangerous thinking. Why? Because it’s a hypothetical. It lives in the future. It’s not reality. That’s a lot of pressure that you are putting on yourself. That’s a lot of power you are putting into a job. It’s precarious thinking; always looking to the future and not being in the present. It puts our blinders up: To think the only path is that “dream job” path and makes us miss other opportunities that come our way.

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#Leadership : 6 Keys to Employee Engagement During Times of Distraction…Gallup concluded that 71% of all Employees are either “Not engaged” or “Actively Disengaged.” In Simple Terms, Most Workers are Producing Far Less than They were Capable of Producing.

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The problem of disengagement can become even more pronounced during the summer months or any time there is an economic slowdown. Employee attention tends to wander off to those “those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” rather than their work responsibilities

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So what can you do to keep your employees engaged, their morale high and performance at its peak during times of distraction?

1. Recognize disengagement.
You can’t fix it if you don’t even know it exists. Fortunately, it’s visible. You see it in their eyes.

As Eric Allenbaugh writes in HR Magazine, there are two eye patterns that indicate disengagement.

There are the glazed eyes. As one 42-year-old manager said, “It stopped being fun here 16 years ago.” His glazed eyes and numb spirit said it all.

There are the beady eyes. A bright, yet disenchanted three-year employee said, “This place sucks, and I can hardly wait to get out of here.” Her beady eyes communicated a strong message of discontent.

I would add a third: distracted eyes. By simply looking at someone, you can tell if they’re mentally present or somewhere else. This is especially common during the summer or when business is slow.

 

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2. Consider the high cost of disengagement.
When a company pays an employee $30 an hour (or any amount of money) to perform a task, that company is entitled to $30 of productivity each hour in return. If the employees give anything less, they are — in effect — stealing from the company.

You can’t allow that to happen. It’s too expensive. It destroys the employees’ self-esteem, because no one can feel good about him or herself doing just enough to get by.

3. Make sure you are not a part of the problem.
I often ask my audience members how many of them ever came across a job candidate who didn’t want to be there, who disliked the company, its products and its customers and then thought to themselves, “That’s just the kind of employee I want” and went ahead and hired that individual. No one raises their hands.

So I ask them, “If no one ever hired a person like that, then why do companies have so many of them?” It’s because something happened to those employees during the course of their employment that turned them off.

According to Terri Kabachnick, in her book I Quit, But Forgot to Tell You, some of the most common causes of disengagement are a lack of information, lack of job purpose and lack of respect. To re-engage your people or prevent disengagement during your slowdown periods in the business, you must …

Related: The 12 Steps to Happiness That You Create (Infographic)

4. Keep them fully informed.
In one Chamber of Commerce study, 50,000 employees from all types of industries were asked to rank the 10 factors that had the biggest impact on their morale and motivation. Not surprisingly, the employees listed “being in on things” or “being fully informed” as the second strongest morale-building, motivating factor in the workplace.

After studying the communication patterns in dozens of organizations, Tamotsu Shibutani concluded, “You had better keep your people informed, or they’ll make it up, and it won’t be flattering.”

If you want an engaged workforce, you’ve got to communicate, communicate and then communicate some more.

5. Instill a sense of job purpose.
It’s almost impossible for employees to spend five, 10 or 20 years on a job and feel good about themselves if they think their jobs are a colossal waste of time. Employees need to know more than what a job entails, and employees need to know more than how to do a job. They also need to know why they’re doing a job.

A part of leadership is making sure that your people come in every day feeling like they are working on the most important thing. This is especially important when your people may be thinking more about some outdoor summer activities than their jobs.

To build an “engaged” culture where you engage the disengaged, you’ve got to tell people that their work matters. You’ve got to show people that their jobs have a purpose that only they can fulfill.

6. Show respect.
You may think this strategy only applies to the younger generations in the workplace. After all, we keep hearing about how needy the younger generations are — asking for more recognition, more challenges, more autonomy, more communication and more rewards. But a baby boomer in his 60s put it this way in one of my workshops: “We want the same things. We just felt we couldn’t ask.”

When your younger workers badger you for more respect and recognition, just remember all your employees crave the same thing. Their communication methods may differ, but their needs don’t. Employees want to be regarded first and foremost as people who are respected.

That’s why most of an employee’s productivity is directly attributable to his or her manager. If an employee feels like he or she is nothing more than a number filling a time slot for a manager, the employee is not going to be fully engaged.

To show your respect, treat each employee as an individual. Get to know each person’s strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes. Call each person by his or her name.

Certainly, good weather, summertime activities and an economic slowdown can distract your employees. It may even contribute to their lack of engagement. But with these six tips, you can keep your people fully engaged, for their own good as well as the company’s.

Entrepreneur.com | August 31, 2015 | Alan Zimmerman

 

#Leadership : Feeling Overwhelmed? Take A Minute (Really 1 Min) & Read This…If you Find you’re Overwhelmed, Take the Time to Process this Privately, So that Public Communication to Employees & Others Can be Done Professionally & Proactively.

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We all feel overwhelmed at times. Unfortunately, this is a normal feeling for most of us. The important thing is to realize that this is a momentary state. By shifting into action, you can get rid of this uncomfortable feeling.

Sad businessman sitting at workplace and trying to find solution of problem

In most cases, the first reaction to something that’s frustrating is to focus on how this is not a great situation and question, “Why is it happening to me?” This kind of thinking, while natural, is not conducive to resolving the situation. The best thing you can do to alleviate this feeling is to start taking action and focus your energy on resolution.

In almost all situations where you feel overwhelmed, follow this five-step plan:

• Slow down

• Ask questions

• Get your bearings

• Develop a plan that you believe in

• Take proactive actions

Recognizing that feeling overwhelmed is an emotional state that can be overcome through a measured, practiced approach has been one of the skills I’ve benefitted most from over my career (I’ve had several jobs that have had lots of crises and drama in them. I’m not sure why I’m so lucky). For more on this topic, David Rock’s Your Brain at Work gives a fantastic overview of the cognitive limits of the brain.

 

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At this point, I don’t need to actually have achieved improvement to get rid of the overwhelmed feeling; I just need a plan that I believe in that I can start executing.

Here are a few recommendations that work:

• Proactively manage your calendar and your to-dos. Anticipate as much as possible. Ask yourself, what’s likely to interrupt the most important things? Develop ways to absorb the “bomb-ins.”

• Don’t expect perfection on all of your to-dos, but expect to accomplish the most important things. I’ve always found that worrying about how long something will take to get done is far worse than the actual time it usually takes to do it. So, as Nike says, “Just do it.”

• Build time in every week for reflection and ensuring you’re grounded on what matters most. All of us are busy, but we must not confuse action with traction.

• Try very hard to not be a bottleneck. This will make you much more likable and make the team much more productive.

We’re all faced with feeling overwhelmed at times, but it’s not becoming for a leader to appear overwhelmed. Remember, people will take their cue on how to handle a situation from you. You will generally have information ahead of most others in the company. If you find you’re overwhelmed, take the time to process this privately, so that public communication to employees and others can be done professionally and proactively.

The most important thing to do when you are overwhelmed is to stay calm , and recognize that the best thing to do to conquer the sensation is to shift into taking action and executing on a well-thought out plan. Good luck and onward!  

Forbes.com | July 19, 2016 | Maynard Webb

#Leadership : How to Create a Cohesive Company Culture…Most Importantly, you Need to Live & Die by these Values if you Expect Them to be More Than just Lip Service & Words on a Wall.

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I’ve spent the past decade building a company that is now the largest patient-physician platform in the U.S., and I believe one of the reasons why it was so successful was because of the company culture we put in place from the day the company was founded. This is the same reason I laid out company culture first when founding my most recent company, iBeat.

Free- Stones stacked on each other

When starting a company, you have the opportunity to set it apart by building a winning and cohesive culture. Culture is crucial, and it can make or break a company. In my many years of growing startups, I’ve learned that building a cohesive culture ultimately rests on two major foundations — a company’s mission and its core values.

First and foremost, a company must have a compelling and inspirational mission. Before you even start your company, you should think long and hard about why you’re doing it. If it’s only to make money, I recommend you go back to the drawing board. Your mission should cover both how you are of service to others, as well as what is so compelling and unique about what the team is doing that would make you want to still be doing it ten years from now.

Stating the mission.
When crafting your mission statement, aim to be energizing, aspirational, and memorable. Don’t get bogged down with fluff and buzz words that are vague and meaningless. Get to the point. If your employees can’t relate to it, then your mission statement won’t mean much to your customers either. Also, make it concise. If you can’t say it in a sentence or two, you haven’t nailed it.

At iBeat, our mission statement is, “Empowering people with the freedom to be fearless, explore, and live longer lives.” Notice it’s not about us. It’s about how we aim to do something greater — empower people.

An exceptional mission statement captures your brand and persona. It helps you stand apart from competitors and simplifies your strategic direction, but some mission statements — the truly great ones — surprise, inspire and transform. They provide purpose. They guide and help unify organizations, and they go hand-in-hand with company culture. Take the time and do this right, and it will pay dividends over the duration.

Be sure to ingrain this mission into your team from day one. At Practice Fusion, learning the mission was not only part of new hire training, but one Friday a month, we gather all new team members and test them on our mission in front of the entire company — they’re usually prepared!

 

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Identifying core values.
Next, an exceptional company culture rests on a strong set of core values. A company’s core values are the attributes you want instilled in your team, as well as rules and guidelines covering everything from how the team treats and interacts with one another to how customers are treated. If implemented correctly, you should be able to hire and fire based on these values.

Core values form a solid bedrock for any organization and really matter to the individuals. Think about your company personality and how it will play into your core values. Are you innovative and witty or quirky and creative? Do you foster a work hard, play hard mentality? If so, create that balance of work and play. Are you a true collaborator? Then advance that behavior in your company and promote the people who get it.

iBeat has six simple and straightforward core values. They are:

We execute without excuses.
We are radically honest.
We put community first.
We are pros.
We are operationally ruthless.
We work to live, not live to work.
These values help us immensely when hiring but also help keep us grounded. We aim to hire intellectual athletes who want more than just a job and a salary. We hire individuals who were excited to be part of new technology that is helping empower people to live longer, fuller lives.

Delivering the message.
Once values are defined, they have to be explained and socialized. I suggest starting with a company-wide, all-hands meeting devoted to rolling out and discussing the values.

Also, bear in mind, values also need to be constantly reinforced. We do this in multiple ways.

For example, one of the first things you see when you arrive in our office is a large wall with the company mission and values emblazoned on it. We also start every new employee training with the values, and we make sure they are aware and aligned with our vision, mission, strategy and values. Additionally, we recognize employees every month for their exemplification of the values. As you scale, you can implement tools like Bonusly and gamify recognition based on these core values.

Taking the time to define a strong company mission and core values breathes life into your employees. It’s the first step in assuring your company culture thrives and survives for the duration. If done correctly, it will be the reason people join your company, and if done incorrectly, it will definitely be the reason most people leave.

Lastly, and most importantly, you need to live and die by these values if you expect them to be more than just lip service and words on a wall. If ‘integrity with no compromise’ is one of your core values, but you knowingly allow people to stay on your team that lie, cheat, or steal, then no one will take your values seriously, and the organization will be compromised.

In contrast, if you see behavior that violates your core values, and you immediately act to remove that person from your team, the rest of the team will respect that decision, as you are acting to ensure the company value system is held high.

We’re searching for top company cultures to be featured on our annual list. Think your company has what it takes? Apply Now »

 

Entrepreneur.com | July 18, 2016 | Ryan Howard

Your #Career : 4 Ways To Get More Meaning And Value From Your Career Starting Today…The Ingredient that’s Absent from So many Thousands of People’s Careers is ‘Meaning’ – the Feeling & Heartfelt Sense that what They are Doing has a Strong Purpose, a Positive Impact in the World, & Offers Something to People that Will Make a Difference, & have Lasting Value.

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I hear from scores of professionals each week with every complaint you can imagine about their jobs, work-life challenges, and their unfulfilling careers. Surprisingly, there is one ingredient these careers are missing that causes the most long-term pain and concern (excluding toxicity, abuse and mistreatment).

Free- Women walking on Narrow Bridge

The ingredient that’s absent from so many thousands of people’s careers is meaning – the feeling and heartfelt sense that what they are doing has a strong purpose, a positive impact in the world, and offers something to people that will make a difference, and have lasting value.

Most professionals believe that they have to chuck their entire careers and start over, in order to find more meaning in their work. They often fantasize about doing something creative or altruistic (like start a non-profit, join the Peace Corps, work on a communal farm, write a book, start a bed and breakfast, or move to another country entirely) to bring more meaning into their work.  But they are often mistaken. You don’t have to uproot your entire life and career to create more meaning and value. You can do it literally starting today, wherever you are.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say if you are thinking of running as far away as possible from your current career, to something radically different in order to create more meaning, you should stop in your tracks and do some powerful inner and outer work before you take the next step.

Here are four critical steps to creating more meaning in your work right now:

Dimensionalize “meaning” for you

Each and every one of us is different in terms of what we care about.  What matters to us deeply, and what brings us a sense of being valuable and helpful in the world, is shaped by many influences, including:

– your childhood

– your ancestry

– your cultural training

– the people you care for and respect

– the problems in the world that hurt your heart

– the traumas you’ve experienced and the triumphs in your life

– your special and amazing talents and gifts that come easily to you

– the way in which you operate in the world

– your personality (including extroversion or  introversion, positive mindset, action style, etc.)

… and much more.

You can’t create more meaning in your life and work if you don’t understand yourself intimately or know what matters to you personally, at a very deep level.

I’m always surprised when professionals can’t identify what matters to them, or what they’re great at. Often, this lack of self-awareness points to a significant internal block– that they were somehow suppressed in childhood, and/or punished for thinking for themselves. Overly-protective, critical or narcissist parents are highly threatened by children who try to act and think independently. And it can go very badly for the child or young adult who wants to strike out on his/her own.

If you’re blocked internally and can’t get to the heart of what you care about and what makes you you, then the way you were raised might have had a strong hand in your inability to understand yourself and what matters to you most. (Read more on how being raised by a narcissist alters our ability to think for ourselves).

 

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Don’t wait for meaning to fall in your lap – seize it

Step 2 in this process involves expanding your own accountability. It’s critical to realize that whatever you want in life won’t just fall in your lap – you have to go out and proactively get it. That takes clarity, confidence, courage and connection, and those four elements don’t just happen to us. We have to take the time to build our internal strength, and expand our repertoire of external behaviors in a way that will allow us to create and attract what we want.

So, to build more meaning in your work today, first identify the shortest avenue to doing more meaningful work, in your current situation.  Ask to join a new task force at work, start a new project, volunteer to be part of a team that is doing something you care about, research a new direction for the organization that you could oversee.  It’s easier than you think. Talk to your manager about what you’d like to get involved with, and get his/her support to pursue a new direction within your role that would excite you and offer something of value to the organization.

If you believe that’s not possible within your role, then start interviewing outside and networking expansively. Identify clearly what you’re looking to be a part of, and talk to anyone and everyone you can find who might be helpful. Get more clarity on exactly what you could be doing differently that would feel meaningful and purposeful to you, and start doing it.

As an example, I’m a trained coach and marriage and family therapist, and I’ve always had a therapeutic lens to my work. But this year, I decided to add a new healing dimension to my coaching, and am making strides to do that. It’s truly not hard, once you realize what you want, and muster the courage to go out and find new ways to bring more meaning into your daily life.

Ask for higher-level help – find mentors and sponsors at a higher level of thinking and operating

What keeps the majority of unhappy professionals stuck for years is that they’re trying to solve their problem on the level of consciousness that created it, and that’s impossible. You have to ask for help, but the “right” kind of help.  We hear constantly about the need and value of finding mentors and sponsors to support us, and this is not an empty cliché. It’s vitally important that you get help from people who are demonstrating a higher level of thinking and behavior than you’re currently accessing.

To find powerful mentors, don’t ask a stranger.  Put yourself directly into the circle (either in person or online) where these people are interacting and connecting, and make yourself valuable to them there.  Don’t reach out with your hand out – but connect from the heart, and find authentic, generous ways in which you can support their work and demonstrate your value to them. (Here’s more on how to find a wonderful mentor who will open amazing doors for you.)

Finally, stop procrastinating and making excuses, and start doing and being

In the past four years, I’ve witnessed a phenomenon that blows my mind around fatal procrastination. Here’s one example – I run online career courses and when they’re promoted, there are deadlines for people to enroll.  Each time I promote a course, a good percentage enroll within the last 5-10 minutes of the deadline. Five minutes. And still others write me days after the deadline, apologizing for their delay (with all sorts of excuses), asking me to extend the deadline. Then half of those people don’t end up pulling the trigger.

Procrastination is a fatal behavior, because you’re continually killing off important opportunities to grow and become who you want to be. Yes, it’s scary and intimidating to make change and stretch. That’s the human condition. But only when you can act in the face of your fears and insecurity can you ever build a life and career that is full of meaning for you.  Why? Because pursuing what is meaningful to you is a heart- and spirit-centered endeavor, and when our hearts and spirits are involved, there’s a lot at risk and we’re frightened of blowing it.  But those who have built great meaning in their life found a way to push through the deep fears and resistance, and pulled themselves out of their comfort zones.  They finally did something bold. But bold doesn’t have to mean throwing your entire life and career out. Bold can be one small but significant step.

In the end, if you continue to resist becoming more accountable — and taking concrete action — to create more meaning in your life, then you’ll persist in pushing away any chance of having it.

 

Forbes.com | July 18, 2016 | Kathy Caprino

 

 

#Leadership : Determine Your Life’s Purpose in 10 Minutes. What’s yours? ….. Are we Spending our ‘Time’ Doing What we were Really Put on this Earth to Do?

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There are activities in life that no matter how much time you spend on them, or how intensely you focus on them, they give you energy. These are the activities that you need to invest time in, for they provide the path to fulfilling your purpose in life.

Free- Thinking Plasma Ball

What’s my purpose in life?   It’s an easy question to ponder and lose time contemplating. We’ve all been guilty of dwelling on it at some point. Those who know their purpose and go after it with conviction, they seem so “lucky,” while the rest of us are lost in a world of gray, moving from day to day wondering if what we do really matters, if we’re spending our time doing what we were really put on this earth to do.

 

But the search for our purpose isn’t some impossible philosophical exercise. Nor is it something that you need to spend your whole life searching for and struggling to determine. Because you already know the answer, and you’ve actually known it your entire life.  It’s right in front of your nose. Or perhaps more accurately, it’s within your nose, through your lungs and at the core of your central nervous system.

The answer is the same for everyone yet different at the same time. The answer is: Energy.

 

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But not just any energy.

As human beings, we have been given countless and miraculous gifts. God, the universe, the universal mind – whatever you want to call it based on whatever you believe — gave us the spectacular gift of life. And not just any life. A unique life.  A life that, while connected to everyone else, is uniquely ours.

And after the gift of life – which is certainly our greatest gift – the second greatest gift is the gift of Energy.

I’m not talking about the superficial (and lowercase) energy you get from coffee or going for a run, or after receiving a compliment or recognition.

I’m talking about the Energy at the core of your being, the Energy you were given before birth, and the Energy that makes you unique. The Energy that you’re either working with in life or against. The Energy that you either obey – because you know that your purpose in life is going with its flow — or the Energy you don’t recognize, leading to a life of enduring pain.

The Energy that was given to you as your day-in and day-out guide to fulfilling your purpose in life.

You see, the simplest way to know if you’re fulfilling your purpose in life is to ask yourself “How painful are my days? How hard and taxing is my work?” If your answer to these questions is anything on the medium to high scale, you’re not living your purpose.

You were designed to fulfill a certain purpose. It’s not something you create in your life. This purpose existed before you were born. To fulfill this purpose, you need to follow what your Energy is telling you. How do you know if you’re not paying attention?

When people go with the flow of their Energy, life seems almost too easy, too effortless. When you’re going against the flow of your Energy, everything seems needlessly difficult.

There are activities in life that no matter how much time you spend on them, or how intensely you focus on them, they give you energy. These are the activities that you need to invest time in, for they provide the path to fulfilling your purpose in life.

Then there are other activities in life – and this makes up the majority of activities, or all those outside of your unique abilities — that no matter what, drain you of energy. Regardless of how much you try to optimize your efforts, plan for their success or train to improve in them, these activities just suck the life out of you. There is nothing that can be done to make these activities align with your Energy, and thus you’re not fulfilling your purpose in life while engaged in them.

As human beings, it’s so easy for us to ignore our strengths because we don’t see them as strengths. Our strengths can feel deceptively insignificant, like everyone in the world possesses them. But they don’t. In fact, your most effortless activities will be the most impressive to others. And this has always been the universe’s plan.

If you’re operating within your strengths – or in alignment with your Energy — your activities will feel effortless. In the beginning it will feel like you’re not doing anything special, but stop connecting your level of pain with your level of impact. Instead, do what comes naturally to you, and allow your results to be your feedback.

When you’re invested in your strengths, abiding by your Energy, and avoiding those things that are so obviously not you, the results will blow beyond anything you’ve experienced before. It’s not going to happen overnight. Results in the physical world lag the immediate results we can experience in the spiritual and mental world, but it will happen. After all, our physical reality is nothing but a reflection of our former thinking, a reflection of our former alignment to our own unique Energy.

We’ve been brought-up to believe that you should push yourself out of your comfort zone. That you need to endure pain, suffering and back-breaking work to achieve success and fulfillment. And while massive sacrifice, a steadfast commitment toward your compelling future and significant time spent working within your unique ability are essential to achieving success, the point is that it doesn’t have to be painful.

Does this mean you shouldn’t work hard? Does this mean that you shouldn’t train to constantly get better? Does this mean that the achievement that you seek will come immediately? No, definitely not.

It simply means that the work you do should resonate with your Energy. Your activities should give you back more energy than you put in. You should feel exhausted at the end of the day, but not from pain and stress, but rather because the Energy in your core is overheating and needs to be recharged overnight to allow you to attack the next day with even more gusto.

Here’s three steps to finding your purpose in life.

Write down what activities (or activity) in life gives you more energy than you put in.

These are the activities where you can completely max out and use up your physical energy, and by doing so, you create more energy, making you simply want to do more. These activities “feel right,” and even though you work intensely on them, it feels effortless. The tough times, no matter how tough, are worthwhile. It’s never a matter of “if” these activities will produce the right results, but “when.” These activities follow the following principal:

Mental and spiritual energy out > physical energy in

I recommend conducting this exercise with other people close to you and who support your betterment. As stated above, it can be very difficult for people to identify their own strengths and unique abilities.

Related: 7 Apps to Help Integrate Tech With Self-Improvement Goals

For me, that which gives me the greatest energy is speaking, inspiring, writing and teaching on the topics of human connection, high performance and life optimization. When I do this, I’m on fire, meaning I’m a better leader, a better husband, a better friend and everything in my life seems to have intense clarity. For this reason, I’ve learned that my purpose in life – what my Energy is guiding me to do — is to proactively drive others to become better versions of themselves.

Write down the activities in life that drain you of energy.

Be honest with yourself.

We have been ingrained to think we should be good at certain things. Leaders should be great managers, but this is not necessarily true. We’re taught to think, “If I don’t excel at operations, I’ll never be able to build a great company.” False.  “As a CEO I should be the company’s best sales person.” Who said that?

Related: 4 Simple Strategies to Turn Your Passion Into a Paycheck

The point it that there is no should. There is simply what vibes with you and what doesn’t. There are your unique abilities, and then there’s everything else. Stop pretending that you like certain activities when you hate them. Stop putting your weaknesses ahead of your strengths. Have the courage to be ok with not liking everything and not being good at everything. Only when you do this is true greatness – your true purpose in life — possible.

Obey your Energy.

Or more specifically, immediately start to figure out how to do more of No. 1 and less of No. 2. And once you’re Energy-aligned, give it everything you’ve got.

Just because you’re Energy-aligned and fulfilling your purpose in life, it doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be great or even really good at what you do. But it does mean that you’ll feel good and that things will feel right. And with a commitment and a trust that the Energy inside you isn’t all for naught, but rather is a guide for you to fulfill your full potential, you’ll eventually create what you were meant to create. You’ll make the magic you are supposed to make. You’ll be, and become great.

Related: 5 Key Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Because your purpose in life is a never-ending journey. Those who recognize their Energy and are guided by it will always know their purpose and will be able to get back on track when an errant drifting-off occurs. Your purpose in life is not to do one thing, but rather, to be you.

You’re a human being, not a human doing, and your purpose is to be the human your Energy guides you to be every single day.

 

Entrepreneur.com  |  July 15, 2016 | Sean Kelly