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“100,000 police-reported crashes are the result of driver sleepiness every year.”National Highway Safety Administration
This and more societal issues has been linked to insufficient sleep among adults both male and female. Over the years, experts have conducted various researches to prove the direct relationship between the amount of rest one gets at night with that of their overall work performance during the day.

In a research conducted on 7, 428 employees across the United States, a stark 23% have been reportedly experiencing insomnia for at least three times a week. This was way back 2011, and considering the increased number of factors that distract adults at present, we could just imagine how the results would have doubled, even tripled in various business hotspots as of today.

People who have trouble sleeping eventually find themselves having some issues as well at work. Compared to employees who get sufficient amount of sleep, insomniacs are more likely to miss deadlines and even absent from work.

Below are 6 of the most common ways by which the lack of sleep can be detrimental to your job productivity:

It can potentially lead to headaches and migraine.

AHS (American Headache Society) President, David Dodick, MD once pointed out that sleep disruption is among the ‘most important migraine triggers.’ While no precise explanation directly links sleep to headache pain, research has proven that the two have a tendency to go together.

For employees who regularly work at fluorescent-lit cubicles, this can mean a terrible thing as headaches and migraines impede one’s ability to think straight and focus on the tasks at hand.

It impedes creative thinking.

Whether you work in a technical industry like an SEO company or something creative like web design and content writing, creative thinking is a vital thing. It’s the primary factor that spurs original ideas and is a huge requirement for any industry competing with tons of other ventures.

A person’s brain is wired to produce all of those brilliant thoughts, but only if it’s at its best. Lack of sleep, especially for consecutive days, tires the brain, eventually affecting its ability to create and innovate.

It affects your relationship with your colleagues.

“People who have problems with sleep are at increased risk for developing emotional disorders, depression, and anxiety,” says Dr. Lawrence J. Epstein, MD, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This statement is backed up by the research of the University of Pennsylvania who had some subjects limit their sleep to 4.5 hours a night for whole week duration. The results showed these topics exhibiting increased feeling of stress, anger, sadness and mental exhaustion.

In any office setup, this finding could mean a significant blow to the healthy relationship exercised by the employees. Anyone who starts to feel distressed could potentially go off one someone, which can, of course, put a rift in the involved party’s professional relationship.

It impairs your attention and decision-making skills.

If you ever found yourself having serious troubles focusing on one thing, then putting off those distracting items such as social media and email could help. However, doing so isn’t much of a guarantee that you can automatically switch on your focus back to normal.

In a lot of cases, the reason behind the inability to keep one’s attention intact is the lack of sleep. Once focus is affected, decision-making skill is also compromised. If it continues, the result can be a rapid decline in a worker’s productivity – something which is a reasonable ground for termination on worst case scenario. Admittedly, we all don’t want that happening.

It impacts learning and memory in a negative way.

A human brain has this so-called ‘brain wave ripples,’ an event that is responsible for collating memories from the information received in your hippocampus. According to a 2009 joint American and French research, these ripples happen during the deepest part of your sleep.

In other words, suffering from frequent sleep disruptions is ultimately detrimental to your brain’s ability to store valuable information. At work, this is a tremendous setback considering the natural need to organize and remember tasks.

It reduces your immunity.

“The more all-nighters you pull, the more likely you are to decrease your body’s ability to respond to colds and bacterial infection.” – Diwakar Balachandran, MD, Director of the Sleep Center at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

A human’s immune system is rather complicated, and it functions to protect us from a lot of external invaders like viruses, which could harm our body. Research has linked sleep deprivation to the weakening of a person’s immune system, therefore opening you up to more harm. Unless you want to be flagged for constantly being absent at work because of sickness, getting sufficient sleep for about 7 hours in average is highly appropriate.

Companies across different industries require their employees to be as productive as they can while at work. It’s understandable considering the high market competition in business. For employees, this means being more responsible for their health and making sure they have ample of energy to deliver what the company expects from them.

Sleep doctors and researchers recognize that there are people who have troubles getting themselves to sleep, and it’s good to know that there are proven-effective techniques to help you become more comfortable during bedtime. For starters, we have the following:
• Dim the lights in your room.
• Turn off all electronics or devices that may distract you.
• Try aromatherapy.
• Take a warm bath before hitting the bed.
• Relax your body.
• Read a light resource like short stories. Even children’s book will do.
• Change to comfortable clothing.
• Invest on quality bedding.
• Be mindful of your sleeping posture. Be sure you have your whole body in a relaxing position.
Staying productive requires discipline, and it’s our responsibility to determine something that’s affecting it while we are at work. Keep your productivity level up by getting enough sleep.

Don’t undersleep, never oversleep, and settle for a healthy 7-8 hours night rest!

Hundreds of successful companies at present wouldn’t be at the height of their achievements if not for the people who stood up and lead the team to their goals.

Leaders and company executives matter not just because they firmly uphold the company’s visions but because they have the ability to influence employees to work their best and lead the business to success.

While good leaders can bring a venture to success, the opposite could contribute to the drastic decline of the corporate economy and business performance as a whole. This sentiment is echoed at a 2012 poll by the Center of Public Leadership at Harvard University. It showed that around “70% of Americans blame leadership crisis as a factor in the national economic decline.”

Truly, there is a direct relationship between the qualities of leadership a company has with that of its performance productivity.  Over the years, executives and management experts have been debating on the best methods to enhance the leadership skills of key personnel in any venture.

Below are considered to be among the top attributes every successful leader possess, and which aspiring executives should work on to develop.

Sincere support to colleagues

Aside from being the prime movers of any project, effective leaders are also very keen on empowering their people. They have an eye for excellence and seek to motivate the individuals in the team to help them progress and perform better.

They know that keeping people motivated is one way to maintain the high productivity within the company. As such, they continually devise strategies on how to show support and appreciation to everyone who deserve the credit.

Result orientation

People who are gifted with leadership skills value the step-by-step way of how a task is completed while at the same time keeping his or her eyes on the real goal. They know how to assess effective strategies from those that are only taking much of the people’s time.

Anyone who wants to nurture their skills in leading people has to have a result oriented mentality. This way, they wouldn’t have any problems making decisions when it comes to doing what and when. Effective leaders respect the process but are not entirely averse to the idea of improvising when the situation demands it.

They’re flexible at work and apply this attribute in or out of pressure.

Open-mindedness to welcome ideas

Employees respect leaders for their expert abilities in one field, but one thing that keeps them efficient on their roles is their humility or open-mindedness to accept ideas from colleagues.

If you’re a practicing leader yourself, you should know better that there are matters beyond your current expertise. A responsible manager knows when to step back and let other experts on their team take on the floor.

More importantly, they know who to tap for help. Aside from their rich network in the business, they use their personal experience to assess whether or not someone is capable of delivering the company’s expected result.

Efficient problem-solving skills

Among the major tasks managers and department heads are tasked to do is address business problems in the most effective way possible. This means arriving at a solution in the fastest method and preferably with the least damages to corporate assets and reputation.

Experts believe that to keep a venture’s operation well-grounded and efficient, their heads have to possess the ability to remain calm under pressure and be able to think straight in the face of any complication.

Rather than focus their attention and dread about the problem, real leaders set all their energy in finding the solution.

Acknowledging weaknesses but not spending time on them

At a more personal level, real leaders know how to recognize their weakness. They know the limits of their capacities and are willing to work with people who can fill in that gap. However, they are also wise enough to know that dealing with what they cannot do is a total waste of time.

Instead, they focus on using their strengths to its full extent.

Calm and confident demeanor

Once you become a leader, people start looking up to you. You automatically become a role model that members ought to emulate. One of the most important attributes leaders need to possess is the ability to exude confidence and calmness in tight situations.

Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean that people in the managerial positions have to be totally insensitive to the problems experienced by the employees on the field. On the contrary, this talks about how they should be able to spot those issues firsthand and be able to address them with absolute control. In short, they should not panic.

Honest and critical perspective

Honesty is a major factor in any business and leaders always have to be at the forefront of exercising the quality. Otherwise, he or she won’t be able to set up a good example for the rest of the employees.

To complement honesty is a more practical skill which is critical thinking. It’s something not everyone has, but is highly necessary for keeping all things in order.  Having an analytical mind is also a key to an effective setting of priorities.

They say that there are people born with a natural skill and charisma to lead. However, it is also true that this skill can be learned over time through constant practice.

In this digital age, companies are in dire need of people who can lead the team of creative individuals such as those working for link building services. As employees dealing with a broad market niche and potentially overseas clients, they need all the support they can get from leaders who are there to guide and help them prosper in their careers.

Whether you are a practicing manager or someone who is eyeing for a chance to lead a team soon, it’s best to know the rules of the game beforehand. Get to know the specifics of what you’re expected to deliver. Ask experts for their inputs and be ready to learn the brass tacks of what leadership demands.

Several types of research already revealed the most important things that matter on this field. There’s no reason why you should count any of them out on your must-learn skills.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed no hope at all.”
-Dale Carnegie-

As we all know, there is no such thing as overnight success. Perhaps, it can be an illusion that gives us the motivation to strive harder to reach that goal. But the real success would take you to a long journey of mistakes and failures before you can get there. Although challenges may be tough, this gives the opportunity to push ourselves to the limits. And mind you, only those people who have a “growth mindset” can overcome such process.

The crucial point in having a “growth mindset” is the positivity of a person. They have the tendency to learn and grow from their experiences, instead of making it as a barrier. For instance, whenever there’s a complaint from the client, growth-minded marketers strive for the better to have a guaranteed SEO. Yes, it is all in the mindset which brings a great impact to different aspects of an individual. And if one hits a setback, then a smart judgment will be made. But what really is a “growth mindset”?

There are actually two types of mindset – the “fixed mindset” and the “growth mindset”. According to Carol Dweck, a world-renowned research and psychologist from Standford University, the single quality that separates successful people from unsuccessful people is whether they think their intelligence and abilities are fixed. Moreover, she categorized people who think they have fixed abilities as having a “fixed mindset”, while people who think they can grow their mindset as having a “growth mindset”. Let’s try to break it down.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset simply believes that the intelligence of a person is something that can be developed through hard work. They know that every challenge they encounter in life is inevitable. Moreover, they also expect that addressing that particular challenge may sometimes be a challenge on their part. Although they don’t intend to commit mistakes and fail, but they still strive to be better by learning how to approach such challenge later on. This mindset allows an individual to have their own development.

What is a fixed mindset?

Basically, a fixed mindset is the opposite of the growth mindset. These people believe that their talent and intelligence are static, and it cannot be changed. Instead of learning and growing from their experiences, they rather see challenges as an obstacle. They tend to devaluate their capabilities and are afraid to put an effort on things thinking that the way they were determines their success and not their hard work. You will know if a person has a fixed mindset since they are threatened by the success of others.

You definitely don’t want to go down to that path, right? So, scrap the idea of having a fixed mindset. Good news is, having a growth mindset can be developed. Here’s how:

How to develop “growth mindset”

Effort – first things first, you cannot achieve an outcome when you don’t make an effort to it. Take an action or the first step that you need to do. Perhaps, you can try focusing on the process most successful people do. Moreover, isn’t it amazing when someone praised your effort? There are studies shows that a praising effort has a long lasting impact and can enhance someone’s intrinsic motivation.

Different strategies – never implement the same strategy when you know it is going to fail again. Perhaps, there are flaws you need to address before you move forward. Or even you need to change the whole strategy for you to come up a better outcome. When one fails, then don’t be discourage to look for a better and effective strategy than the previous one.

Learning – everyday single day is a learning day. Whether you realize it or not, what you see, hear, smell and touch can give you a new learning experience. Although there are times it can be as simple as counting 123 or as hard as algebra, try to learn as much as you can without wasting such opportunities that pass once.

Asking for feedback – this is one of the things most people are hesitant to do. Yes, there are feedbacks that may hurt our ego. But do you know that through asking feedbacks from the people around you can make you even more productive? It is in their feedbacks where you can learn what and what’s not good when approaching situations. Moreover, it is also in their feedback where you will mostly strive not to commit mistakes just to have their good and satisfying feedbacks. Success also starts from getting negative and bad feedback from the people.

Persistence – being persistent is one factor that brings you to success. Without persistence, you might not stand the challenges you encounter each day. No matter what setbacks you are into, you can overcome such since you are persistent in achieving your goal. There are also studies that show that having a growth mindset can persist longer than those with fixed mindsets.
Choosing difficult tasks – just because one chose to do a difficult task, that doesn’t mean they want to show off that they have the skill and talent. By choosing to do such will help them develop more on their growth mindset. They will have a sense of courage and curiosity on how to achieve a better outcome on a messy mistake. Moreover, people who used to do difficult tasks will not be afraid of committing mistakes since they know they can handle such circumstances.

Setting high standards – being ambitious enough is not a bad thing at all. In fact, this will motivate you to exert more effort for you to reach a specific goal. Whether you realize it or not, there are risks when you tend to set your standards low. Perhaps, you will most likely not be motivated enough to pursue the things you need to do. Of course, you’re not going to get the desirable outcome like you want it to be.

Generally, developing a growth mindset is not that hard as you think it is. Yes, it is undeniable that it takes a lot of your time and effort for you to be able to achieve the right mindset. But you will eventually realize how important and helpful it is in our everyday lives. Moreover, having a growth mindset will lead you to a path where you want to be – success!

Rank your site higher and it’ll receive more traffic; obtain more visitors and it’ll rank higher on results pages.

Landing on the top positions in the results pages is becoming harder by the day. Or should be we say with each algorithm update? Some search engine optimization (SEO) consulting services try, trick and test Google. They do so using black hat techniques. But, these tactics only bring in immediate, short-term results. Also, that’s not the goal of optimization. Instead, the ultimate goal is to come up with strategies, techniques, and tactics that will produce long-term results. These results are higher ranking, bigger traffic volume, higher conversion rate and higher profits.

Interestingly, the traffic and ranking connection seems like a never-ending cycle. Rank your site higher and it’ll receive more traffic; obtain more visitors and it’ll rank higher on results pages. However, it often starts with appearing on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Now, how will you make your site appear on SERP? Here’s how.

tips to rank higher in google

The importance of backlink

Off-page optimization is as important as on-page optimization. In fact, some experts even think that the latter contributes about 80% to making the SEO campaign a success. Off-page optimization basically refers to the processes that allow getting the most number of backlinks possible.

A backlink is an incoming link from a website, web page to another website or web page. Just so you know, Google loves backlinks. For it, a website that receives lots of backlinks can be considered as an authority site. It’s because a backlink is deemed as a vote to that site. It means that the site contains unique and valuable information that can’t be found elsewhere.

The question now is – how will you earn more backlinks?

Ways to obtain backlinks

1) Competitor analysis

One of the simplest ways to earn backlinks is to copy what your best competitors are doing. Where do they get their backlinks? What sites are linking to them? Which of their contents are receiving the most backlinks? Why? When you do this, link building opportunities available to you will reveal themselves in the process. Perhaps, your competitors are not yet tapping the power of .edu and .gov sites. You can explore these opportunities to surpass their ranking results.

2) Guest blog

Guest blogging is not dead if you want to ask the question. But, the guest blogging that we are doing now is different from the guest blogging we do five years ago. Of course, we still write the content that will be published on a particular website or blog. The idea is to gain links from these established websites. Google gives more weight to this since these links are rather difficult to acquire. But, Google warns the content writers that if obtaining link is the sole purpose of doing guest blogging then, you are doing it wrong. This is the common pitfall. Instead, think of how you can add value to the readers of that blog. In this way, you’d deserve the backlink endowed to your website.

3) Web 2.0 sites

Web 2.0 sites publish user-generated contents. These sites often have social features. Examples of these sites are StumbleUpon, Reddit, and HubPages. Although Google constantly looks into backlinks created through these sites due to possible spamming, the links are highly Google-friendly. The best way to navigate through these sites is publishing 100% unique contents that target one keyword. Integrate multimedia like an image or video. Some sites only allow a backlink to your website once you reached the required number of published articles. Hence, write as often as you can.

4) Testimonials

Business partners and suppliers and other stakeholders that you do business with can also help you in ranking higher in SERPs. You may offer a testimonial to any of them. The beauty of this is that testimonials are published directly on the website. Often, a website allows the person to provide details of his or her company to show the visitors or readers that you are a real person. This means free backlinks for you. Double plus is the website where the testimonial will be published is already an authority site.

5) Link reclamation

From the name itself, it means reclaiming previously linked mentions that are no longer active now. The necessary first step is finding websites that mention your company and its products. Focus on those sites that don’t link back to your website. You may use tools like BrandMentions or Mention.net. Then, contact the website reminding its administrator to add the link to your company name, for instance. A friendly reminder will do. Remember, when contacting the website, give the full details. Include screenshots, so that the person may easily track the unlinked mention.

6) Blog aggregator

A blog aggregator is a website that lists blogs in various industries and niches. The majority of these aggregators offer a dofollow link for free. You need to submit your website for review, however, before the aggregator will include your website in the list. You will be given a unique HTML code to determine that you own the site you are submitting. Upon approval, you will see your website in its appropriate category. Also, there are blog aggregators that focus on specific niches. Make sure that you are submitting your website on the right aggregating site.

7) Broken link building

A broken link refers to a link that is not working, rendering a 404 error message (i.e. Page Not Found). When you find a 404 page that is relevant to your website, you may contact the owner of the site regarding the broken link page. Offer to write content for that page in exchange of a backlink. If you want to do this method in full swing, you might as well install the Check My Links Chrome extension.

A backlink is a strong ranking factor. Your website will not rank in Google without inbound links. If you are wondering if these will work, the answer is YES. Even the experts are doing these simple tactics. While backlinks are not the panacea, no one can underestimate the boost they can do for your ranking. It’s either you do it or your competitors will do it at your expense. It’s your call.

Why Your Business Isn’t Growing

Starting a business is not a piece of cake, or as easy as counting 1, 2, 3. Any entrepreneur will tell you how hard it is to make a name for a starter. Even an SEO company knows so well how hard it is to compete with big names in the marketing or business industry. Obviously, there will be a lot of thinking what strategies or techniques that are effective enough to achieve a successful business. Without productive brainstorming, running a business might not be your forte.

Going with the trend can also be a challenge to every entrepreneur, which is why not all businesses are able to keep up the pace in the business industry. Perhaps, they are still in the phase of catching up what’s new. However, running a business without any strategic plans on catching up quickly with your competitors, then you might not get desirable end results. Some entrepreneurs quit while others are still struggling with the hopes of reaching their goals for their business.

As an entrepreneur, running a business should not be taken lightly. If you lose, then you might lose big time. And I’m sure a lot of you here might wonder what factors that contributes to the failure of your business growth. Well, below are some reasons as to why your business isn’t growing at all.

Experiment over perfection

Aiming for perfection can also be a good idea for your business. But be careful, perfection can also cost you big time. Entrepreneurs who think that they should perfect one strategy cost them millions to billions of money. Perhaps, they have chosen the wrong strategy for a particular business. As a result, they were not able to achieve the said perfection they desire. The point is, entrepreneurs should not be paralyzed with perfection. Businesses should be driven by experimenting strategies that are effective enough to use.

In business, you are not bound to use only one strategy. Test all your ideas. You can be wise by incorporating strategies to strategies, forming a good and effective plan to have a successful business growth.

Few thoroughly think things through

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin-

We may have heard this a thousand times, but this makes so much sense especially for entrepreneurs. Obviously, you cannot run a good business when you don’t even know what really the core goal of the said business is. What kind of business do you want to put up? What does it do? Who your target audience? What strategies to use? What kind of resources should you use or take? Who are these people who are potential enough to help you with the business’ goal? Who are the participants? The location of your business? How much should you spend for a start-up business?

All of these questions above may be simple. However, if you fail to know and understand these things, then expect a loophole on your business. And sometimes a loophole can damage the entire business growth. That is why you need to be careful to think thoroughly each detail of your business.

Intelligent delegation

Trusting a person is like running a business – not a piece of cake to begin with. Especially when your business is still on the baby stage, then you might tempt to do all the things on your own to make sure everything is going to be smooth. However, that’s not always the case. Although your business is still starting, you should also practice intelligent delegation. Know the standard procedures when handling not just your business, but also the people behind the growth. Of course, there will be no successful business when there will be no consistency on how you organize things.

Intelligent delegation is not just about giving an assignment to your employees. It is also about how you make them understand the products, services and the overall goal of your business. When they have a deep knowledge about the business, it will be easier for you to disseminate tasks with their respective specialties or skills. Moreover, before you hire someone, make sure that you make things clear on what their roles in the business industry would be. And if you think they don’t fit in, then don’t force them to take them inside. Hire another one that helps contribute to the success of your business.

Making the wrong trade decision

When we talk about business, expect risks and compromises. Generally, you cannot expect a smooth flow of business all throughout the entire time – nope! Whether you like it or not, you will definitely experience ups and downs when running a business. There are even times you need to make a hard decision that would help sustain the business.

In business, mistakes are inevitable. But just because you commit mistakes, that doesn’t mean you won’t correct it. You need to think wisely on how you turn those mistakes into a positive one. Don’t make a move or any decisions impulsively especially when you are not sure of the plans or strategies to implement. Without any careful planning and thinking can lead to jeopardizing your business. That is why you need to think and evaluate what is best for the business growth.

Many are ego-focused instead of being customer centric

Business is for customers. Yes, entrepreneurs know that so well. But the real question is that, do your really understand your customer’s needs? Do you know what they really after and not just what they want on your products or services? These questions might be easy, but sadly, not all business are able to grasp the idea on how to deeply understand their potential clients.

Generally, it is not a bad thing at all to sell your company’s experience and expertise to your clients. But you also have to remember that not all people care about what you achieve, they want to be able to experience the best services you can offer for them. As an entrepreneur, you will know if your clients are happy and satisfied with the products or services you gave to them because they will be a repeat customer to your business. Who knows? That particular customer might be one of your loyal buyers in the long run. Right?

In this millennial age, more and more businesses are formed. That means you will also have a lot of competitors in the business industry. But what you should remember is that people will find you, your products and services, if you just gave them the best offer than any of your competitors can give. Again, don’t make any decisions impulsively. You have to think, evaluate, plan and implement – that’s the key to a successful business.

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People have bad habits. We all do. But when you develop these bad habits in business, then it means trouble. The success of your business will always depend on how good you are as a leader – on how you manage every strategy effectively and successfully. But let’s face it, not all of us are born naturally to lead. It takes a lot of your time and effort to learn the basic steps of leaderships, and on how you can effectively lead your fellow marketers to do business with you.

When it comes to marketing, even an SEO company knows so well that every second count. That means every leader should strive hard to compete in the marketing world. And having a lousy performance is unacceptable. Poor leadership would also mean ruining the team’s productivity. Of course, how will you lead your team when you yourself can’t even handle simple situations on your business? Right? A lot of you here might have been pondering if they are a good leader or not, or if they have been leading their business in the right direction or not?

Yes, leading your team may be daunting and challenging. But it doesn’t give you the reason why you can’t be a good leader to them. Well, if you want to help boost your business, then you should stop doing these bad leadership habits below that definitely, can ruin your team’s productivity.

1. Managing the details

Every detail of each strategy, no matter how simple it is, is important. Failure comes in when a leader missed out the details. And as the leader, you should not just look at the bigger picture, you should also know how to look at the smaller ones that help make or break a good strategy. For instance, setting up a goal where you want your employees to achieve, it is up to them on how they can make the task work. However, if that particular employee can’t deliver his/her task, then you probably have the wrong person for the job.

Managing the details means going micro to macro. Before going to a bigger strategy, make sure that the smaller details are efficient enough to support the said strategy as a whole. Likewise, you have to know the reasons as to why that particular employee is not effective in that particular task. Perhaps, he/she is expert and effective in other particular field and not on the task that you just gave. When you miss out even with that small detail, then that might be the reason why you can’t properly deliver your strategies.

2. Neglecting the individual

When it comes to business, you have to know that each employee is an expert in their respective field. Although they may not be good at some point, but there will always be something that they are good at. However, when you tend to give them a task that is not in line with their expertise, it may not be a good idea. Yes, multitasking may be an advantage to every business, but there will also be a downfall to it. Employees can’t focus on enhancing their skills when they have so many things to do, which may result in being stagnant on their specific field.

As a leader, you also have to know the strength of your employees– on which field are they good at. Of course, it is also not enough when you just know about their skills, you also have to understand the way they make things done. With this strategy, you will have a strong team working together while integrating their own expertise in the business as a whole. Moreover, this is also one way to lessen mistakes in delivering the given task they have.

3. Not making your expectations clear

Expecting something is definitely not a bad thing at all. In fact, it is in your expectation you can foresee things that may be possible to happen in your business. On the other hand, making an assumption is definitely a risk to take. Yes, there are just times that businesses should take some risk to avoid facing bigger damages. But as a leader, you also have to make sure that you are not taking a risk just for nothing that can jeopardize the quality of your business.

When you assume, it means you are not sure of the things that are going to happen. When it comes to business, there should always be an assurance in every transaction that you make before jumping into conclusions or decisions. You can’t take your business to the next level when you don’t expect it to grow. But when you expect, you will have a clearer view of what is going to happen, and what strategies to make for the next step.

4. Indecisiveness

When you can’t have a firm decision, then you are not fit to become a leader. Basically, a leader should have an authority over his words. In business, feeling pressured especially when it comes to the decision making is inevitable, considering that you can’t take an unnecessary risk for your business. And we all do understand that making a decision is a crucial thing to do. However, it doesn’t give you the reason to be indecisive on the things you should do for your business. If you do, then your business is going to be at risk.

Having a firm decision is a must for the betterment of your business. But if you can’t come up with a strong one, then your business might face troubles in the marketing industry. And you definitely don’t want to see that crappy outcome, right?

5. Refusing to delegate

The feeling is indeed wonderful when your employees looked up to you as a leader, and on how they respect you for achieving great things for the business. Yes, the feeling is great. But this is also one of the reasons why some leaders refuse to delegate tasks since all they want is to get the praises of their employees for accomplishing another great thing. And yes, this might be good at some point, but you are already killing the productivity of your team. What else would they do when you all have the task of yourself? And I’m sure you can’t do it all alone, you need someone to help you grow your business.

A good leader knows how to delegate tasks to his/her employees. It is also your duty to know which employee is good on a particular task. Avoid doing all the work by yourself. When you do, you might settle for mediocrity since you can’t finish your task on the given deadline. Moreover, if you want to see a growth of your business, you also have to make sure that your employees are also growing through integrating their field of expertise on your business. With that, it will be much easier for you to grow together as a team.

Being a leader is not just a simple task. You’re handling employees who are also one of the factors that contribute to the success of your business. If you are not careful enough in handling your team, this might have an undesirable result. That means you don’t just lead, you also have to set yourself a good example to your employees, which they might consider you as their inspiration to work harder for the betterment of the business. 

“Without deadlines and restrictions, we just tend to become preoccupied with other things” – Val Kilmer

Everything about this quote embodies the specific need of every human being and not only those employed in the corporate world for a proper deadline. It is a reality that in this world, nothing is buttressed on a perpetual standstill and everything has a deadline—even your dreams and aspirations have deadlines, and this is precisely how they become goals.

In the corporate world, the existence of deadlines is even more vital as it is often said and believed that if it were not for deadlines, nothing would ever get done. In fact, it has been widely accepted that when it comes to projects and reports, there is no greater inspiration than having a deadline. But of course, while this is true, deadlines can be incredibly taxing and a tad bit daunting to employees. But of course, logistics wise, deadlines are not as much of a threat when it is complemented with an effective and responsible team and an open avenue for communication as well.  Whether you may be a business owner, or an employee still struggling to climb the steps of the metaphorical corporate ladder, the fact remains that communication is the single most crucial tool in hurdling deadlines. And it is rather disappointing why people would inordinately neglect this rather simple aspect.

People are chronic procrastinators, this much is true and when they are given the liberty of time without any target date whatsoever, they will inevitably lose focus and just do designated tasks whenever they feel like it inasmuch as they will defer doing what is supposed to be done at the last minute when they are given a prolonged and extended deadline. And when a project involves a certain group of people, chronic procrastinators and people who delay will invariably cause a disruption in the work flow ensuing in substandard results. Take a company offering SEO (search engine optimization) consulting services for example, this company is comprised of various teams who would work on certain projects. To achieve a desired end result, these teams coordinate with one another, work in cohesive harmony and communicate what each team needs in order to meet the demands of their project all the while working on a target deadline. Succinctly put, as the prior scenario has put: delay gets things done but good communication gets things done faster so much so, that communication may be considered as the primary bulwark in not only meeting deadlines, but beating them.

MAKE THINGS GO RIGHT

Businesses rarely operate on a single person alone in perpetual isolation and who does correspondence solely by sending out letters to everyone else. Businesses and corporations, no matter how big or small involve a multitude of people of various skills and abilities and more often than not, it is a matter of everyone being coordinated and communicating well. This corporate symbiotic relationship composed of several diverse people determines how a particular project or task deadline will be hit or met. To ensure that everything is running the way they should be and as efficiently, everyone needs to be apprised of precisely at which point in the project everyone is. The cumulative effect of having everyone meet smaller deadlines results into meeting or beating the bigger deadline and have them be more effective and competent in their jobs. If you are a business owner, a little encouragement from you telling your employees to keep an open avenue for communication throughout their projects and throughout the whole day can go a long day. To this effect, no one will be surprised whenever something does come through. When things are running smoother with fewer kinks and peaks, the landscape towards meeting deadlines will be wrought better and reaching end goals and deadlines will be so much faster.

WHEN THINGS GO AWRY

No matter how efficient your employees are, and no matter how effectively they have been performing at their jobs, it is inevitable that some projects would not fall through and some deadlines cannot be met as it is a reality that your employees are not working on a singular project alone. Of course, there are other work and tasks that would inescapably occupy a portion of their time and unless they abdicate their other tasks totally and dedicate their sole focus on a new project, negotiating with deadlines can be a bit of a habit and at times delays will ensue with target dates unmet.  Other times, these are from fortuitous events that are beyond your control , unfortunately sometimes delays are the byproduct of a single team member’s incompetence or procrastination and other times, it is just because the logistics of the project completion have not been thoroughly gone over and discussed.

When such occurs, it is imperative that you manage your expectations. More often than not, as an overseer of their projects and work tasks, you would know when a particular deadline is going to be hit so when this occurs, ne open about it. Inform your customers and clients about the delay and as much as possible convey the reasons in a manner that they would make them understand why such delay had happened. If you notify your customers and clients, they will be more susceptible and amenable about the delay and will less likely give you a hard time. In this way, they can make the necessary adjustments on their own logistics where the finished product which is your project is involved and keep things running smoothly as well which is just as important as they try to figure out a flexible way to go around the problem without the finished product from you. As a corollary as well as a precaution, it is vital that you let those people involved in the deadline being unmet know of the repercussions of the delay.

Make them aware of the impact, but avoid excessive blaming as this will not only decelerate the process of finishing the assigned task, it will give you unimpressive or even substandard results. However, be clear that excuses are not to be tolerated–especially excuses that are haphazardly composed and are made to the effect of it being ludicrous. Stand firm and let them duly explain why the deadline was not met and let them tell you how they intend to meet the new target deadline. In this way, you are actively preserving the image of your company as tolerating delays and excuses would give your business unwanted and unnecessary effects such as losing customers or far worse, legal repercussions.

To conclude…

 

Communication is exceptionally pivotal in all types of relationships as can be gleaned above, most particularly in personal and business relationships. With this said, it is important that you find a way to enhance your business communication and correspondence. To sum it up: Do not disregard communication as it is a vital instrument in making or breaking your business.

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How to Build Habits

How long does it take to change one’s habit? A lot of you here might ask.  A habit does not change overnight, it’s a constant struggle and it’s not easy. However, our success depends on our habits. Achievements in life are not just about hard work, perseverance, and willingness. It also involves admirable habits that contribute to our success. It reflects on who we are in and out.

It takes a lot of discipline to build good habits unless you’re not serious enough to achieve a long-term success. But I bet, all of us want to change for the betterment of our career. Who wouldn’t, right? That means you have to fully understand what your goals are to effectively do a new habit. Yes, it may take some time since we are not used to doing all sorts of things. But at the end of the day, building and changing your crappy habits into new ones is all to your advantage.

However, a lot of us here don’t know where and how to start. Well basically, you have to know what you want for a change. What particular thing you need to avoid or strategies you need to do to achieve a better outcome. Knowing these things may be simple, but it is essential to building new and effective habit.

  1. Start with an incredibly small habit.

Again, doing a new habit is definitely not easy. People who are struggling tend to find more motivation and willpower just to stick with a new habit – which is a wrong approach. That means it is difficult for you to maintain the pace when you start with hard habits. When you do, it makes it easier for you to say no that leads you to avoid doing a particular habit.

According to a research, willpower is also like a muscle. It gets tired when you force to do difficult habits. It rises and falls, which BJ Fogg, a professor of Standford call it the “motivation wave”. However, starting with a new and simple habit is so easy that there is no reason for you to say no. The easier your habit is, the more consistent you are in doing such.

  1. Increase your habit in very small ways

Every day is a learning experience. Cliché as it may seem, but it applies to every person who aims to succeed in life. Of course, through disciplining and practicing yourself to improve even one percent each day is a great impact on your success. You won’t grow in your career if you tend to stay stagnant and doing the same habit without any developments at all.

Doing some amazing things from the beginning is a great thing. But the dangerous part is that you may not be consistent in doing such, since you already feel exhausted and consumed, especially if you are not used to. Rather making it hard on your end, do something small at the beginning. You will eventually realize that you are gradually improving day by day. And your motivation and willpower will also increase along the way. It’s not that hard to stick and start with a simple and small habit. In fact, you will appreciate how you gradually changed for the better.

  1. As you build up, break habits into chunks

Yes, we’ve been adding up one percent of improvement each day. Then you realize your habits are increasing quickly within two or three months. If you are not careful and attentive enough, you might have a lot of habits on your checklist, which makes it even harder for you to accumulate and perform each habit effectively. Moreover, you’re bombarded with all the habits; that you tend to be confused on which habit you’re going to do first.

Having and doing a lot of habits are not that bad at all. However, you have to be keen when it comes to dividing each habit to fit on your own pace. You don’t have to force yourself to change your habit quickly that you tend to accumulate all the good habits at once. It will only break the momentum of change. And as a result, you won’t change for the better. For instance, if you are planning to do a particular thing within 20 minutes, split it into two parts of 10 minutes at first. In that way, it will be easier for you to accomplish a particular habit each day.

  1. When you slip, get back on track quickly

It is definitely normal for us to feel anxious and discouraged, especially whenever we commit mistakes on life decisions. And sometimes, it affects our daily routine or habits. However, although you may feel all of those unfavorable emotions, you have to encourage yourself and get back to your track as soon as possible. According to a research, even if you miss to do your habit once, it doesn’t have a great impact on your long-term progress. You have to abandon your all-or-nothing mentality since we are not perfect.

Yes, we may sometimes fail in some other aspects of life, but you should not expect to fail. Taking some time to consider what went wrong that prevents you from doing your habit is a must for you to understand the things around you. Moreover, you have to know what are the plans and strategies to prevent a particular mistake from happening again. With that, you will be ready to face each challenge head on while keeping your habits.

  1. Be patient. Stick to a pace you can sustain

Patience! Being patient is the most crucial and difficult thing for us to do. Why? Because people normally want to make things done in an instant. We tend to stop practicing how to be patient, considering the fact that all of our technologies are in our convenience. However, building a new good habit is different. It’s not a race. Again, you don’t have to force yourself to be a better person in no time. There will be a gradual transformation if you want to have a long-term success. All of your effort and time will pay off if you just learn how to be patient in everything you do.

Moreover, if you are not impulsive in everything you do, especially when doing a new habit, you will feel easy that your habits became a part of your life.

Final thoughts:

It is impossible to achieve success when you don’t know how to build your habits. Learn first how to take control of your habits and unexpected situations that may prevent you from improving, and you will understand what lies ahead of you.

In content marketing, even if your content may have no virality, it should be shareable at the very least. Shareability is critical particularly for startups and those companies that have a relatively small community, especially in the social realms. The goal is to make your contents as easily shareable as possible. But, how can you possibly do that when you are making it so easy for them to ignore your contents? How come, you might ask. Below are the reasons.

1) No one knows your content exists

What do you do after hitting the publish button? Leave it as it is? How can you expect your readers to share your contents when even you are not sharing them? Now, ask yourself. Will you share your own content? Can you honestly tell if your content is highly shareable? If you can’t even judge the shareability of your own content, no one will also do so.

It is one measure of the shareability of a content – when you actually want to share it with others and so others they can share it with their own networks. While there are various ways of discovering contents, the basic premise is that distribution starts with the content creators themselves. Make me aware of it. That’s the very first thing you must do.

IMPORTANT: DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT

2) No one knows who you are

Let’s say that you’ve written a share-worthy content. The question now is – why will I share it when I don’t even have a clue who the writer behind such? Trust is a big word, and even more so today when even the media are tricked of believing a hoax as an actual news. No one wants to be a part of those-who-don’t-verify-the-veracity-of-a-content-before-sharing-it statistics.

With that said, before anyone shares your content, you must prove your trustworthiness and credibility first. Trust in you means trust in your content, too. Content sharing is also a form of recommendation. Thus, you must give your target audience some good reasons before they can recommend you. Publish information about yourself and make it easy for others to find.

IMPORTANT: CREATE AN AUTHOR BIO

3) There are no share buttons

A classic! How can your audience share the contents they’ve just read when there are no social widgets to support the task? Some sites or blogs put them buttons, but these are hidden somewhere that is not so visible. That’s another mistake on your part that kills the chance of your contents being shared online.

Did you know that if a person thinks that your content is so great it is a sin not to share it, he or she will copy and paste your link and share it with his or her friends? Make it easy for this person and other people to share your content by putting your share buttons where it must be placed, in the first place. Social widgets are no longer an add-on, these are now a must. And, make sure these are working otherwise, the person might lose interest in sharing the content.

IMPORTANT: MAKE THE SOCIAL ICONS NOTICEABLE

4) Your content is boring

When I say boring, it means not the actual content, but how it is structured. READ: Text without any picture. Admit it or not, but images give articles more substance. Of course, when putting an image, make sure that it is relevant to the contents because people will judge not just the text, but the image as well based on its relevance and shareability. Likewise, make sure that the image is in the right format because each social network has its respective image dimension requirements.

Have you heard of visual content marketing? Indeed, contents that are accompanied by relevant images get 94% more views than those contents that have no images whatsoever. Take it from Facebook. The social network giant updates feeds with giving links with pictures more reach than those links that don’t include any image. Images increase content visibility. Don’t forget that.

IMPORTANT: PUT THE RIGHT IMAGE

5) Your content lacks value

Long-form content is emphasized more than ever. This means reading a content entails at least 3 minutes of your readers’ time. What can you bring to the table that your readers can takeaway from your content in exchange for spending their time reading it? Put simply, is reading your article worth a readers’ time? If not, then that’s a major problem.

Sometimes, it is not about how short or long the content is. If your blog post is divided into ten parts and yet a reader can learn lots of things from each part, then there is no reason he or she won’t read the succeeding nine parts. It is better to publish a 500-word article that is packed with practical and actionable tidbits than read a 2,000-word post that is full of fluff.

IMPORTANT: BRING VALUE EVERY TIME

BONUS

Your contents are indifferent

Contents must show compassion, too. If it focuses too much on the brand, no one will share it. They should not be too salesy because I, for instance, would only think that you are after my business, and you don’t necessarily care for your audience. There is no goodwill enough to make me believe that you care for the greater good.

As such, your readers are human unless otherwise you are writing and publishing contents for optimization’s sake – traffic and ranking, that is. Even so, experts would always say to write for human, not bots. Us, humans, value relationships more than brands and if a brand can show genuine concern for its public, it is easier to build a community of content advocates. Connect with them at the individual level.

IMPORTANT: BE HUMANELY RELATABLE

Perhaps, the last one is the one of the most important content marketing tips that this article can share with you. Put your readers front and center, knowing what ticks them, what piques their interest and what causes they support are surefire ways of making the contents you publish as highly shareable as possible.

To praise or not to praise. That is the question.

praising employees

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Some experts claim that praising a child only manipulates and steals his or her pleasure. Can we say the same for the employees? Isn’t giving feedback albeit compliments an essential aspect of creating a culture of a highly-engaged workforce? If you cannot praise your employees, what should you do then? What’s the reasonable compromise?

Praising boosts productivity

Indeed, new and more solid evidence regarding upholding positive feedbacks are emerging by the day. A study from Harvard Business School reveals that activating a person’s best self-concept can lead to immediate and long-term outcomes. Put simply, praising an employee often leads to improvements in:

  • Performance under pressure,
  • Creative problem-solving,
  • Resilience to stress and burnout,
  • Relationships with employers,
  • Emotions, and
  • Resistance to diseases.

Dr. Jooa Julia Lee, the co-author of the study, claims that employees who are reminded of their best work tend to be more creative and less stressed than those who receive no feedback whatsoever. That’s because there’s the constant yearning to learn about how he or she positively impacts or contributes to others, a part of the process of developing an employee’s best self-concept. Otherwise, there’d only be poor performance, emotional exhaustion, and high turnover.

When praising feels unnatural

Now we know that praising employees is a good practice. One problem that may arise from this situation, however, is that singing praises in public may feel unnatural. In other words, not all of us are comfortable in giving praises in private, what more in public?

Not all managers and supervisors are comfortable doing it especially in front of all other employees who are not the subject of the praise. There could be the fear of instilling a sense of indignity for some. Hence, they hold back. Some supervisors feel that praising their employees will only spoil them, so they keep the praises to themselves.

For some, the extent to which they can offer praises stops at annual performance reviews. It forms part of the performance appraisal, pointing out the person’s achievements and what needs to be improved. These “praises” are often formal and serious, and thus, cannot necessarily motivate the person.

Taking praising easy

What these managers and supervisors do not realize is that the failure to recognize the small wins of their subordinates is a deviation from their core responsibilities. A supervisor needs to encourage a worker so he or she would grow along with his or her job.

Furthermore, the study concludes with the fact that

Most societies and organizations have not created vehicles for reminding people who they are when they are at their best, even though theory suggests that this information can inspire them to achieve more of their potential.

There. There lies the importance of giving praises. Hence, any diligent supervisor would encourage his or her subordinates to push their limits while also building the right environment where they can do so. Such an environment could mean providing them with well-intentioned criticisms and sincere praises to guide their personal and professional growth.

Convey positive messages thoughtfully

Giving positive feedback should be intuitive. Nonetheless, there are instances when you need to choose your words to say to the person carefully more so when someone else is going to hear it. When you say “good job,” make sure it is clear what job you are referring to. Be specific.

Make the praise genuine

Never offer a praise just because you are compelled to do so. Praise whenever something good arises. And when you praise a person’s work, make sure that it is thoughtful and heartfelt to maximize the impact of your message. Make it meaningful because your employees would know that you’re just faking it.

Avoid the sandwich method

Perhaps, you have heard the cliché of providing negative-positive-negative feedback. Stay away from this technique otherwise it’ll become a nasty habit that only confuses your employees. Often, the staff will only focus on the negatives and forget about the positives completely.

Don’t over-praise

Over-praising has its own perils regardless of how well-intentioned it is. It can work against even with the best interest of your workers. A praise should not lose its meaning; the recognition must match the person’s effort and thereby, results. When you go overboard about praising, the perceived value of not just that one particular feedback but all the succeeding ones will be lessened.

Know the person

Again, it is not just the supervisors who may be uncomfortable in giving praises. Some of your workers may feel uncomfortable when receiving praises as it makes them the center of attention. Know how an employee responds to a recognition so the praise may achieve its intended impact.

Balance the praise

Top performers are producing great results because, well, they constantly receive recognitions. Just make sure that they are not performing just for the sake of leeching on praises. Thus, make sure that you praise or offer words of encouragement to your lackluster staffers. They need it.

Dale Carnegie Training provides a list of phrases to use when praising an employee.

  • I am learning a lot from you.
  • I am really glad that you are part of our team.
  • I really trust you and that means a lot to me.
  • Thank you for helping us out; you were a major factor in the success of this _____.
  • That’s a great idea; let’s roll with it. In fact, why don’t you take the lead role in getting it done.
  • You are one of the best _____ that we’ve had in this position.
  • You have a rather significant contribution to this project; thank you.
  • You have truly set a new standard for all of us.

Forbes also offers suggestions on how to go about praising your employees.

1) Focus performance appraisals on strengths instead of weaknesses.

2) Provide opportunities to succeed and excel and let them know if they are doing well or not.

3) Promote a culture of commendation.

Providing feedback is a fundamental part of people management. It can be good or bad. It can be positive or negative. It can be a praise or criticism. However, it must never be ugly. Strike a balance between providing the most accurate feedback based on performance and outcome. Eventually, you’ll be seeing deeply engaged and highly-performing staffs.

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