Tag: management

How to Stay Focused While Working From Home

Working from home can seem great at first, but it may get a bit more difficult as time goes on. Staying focused and making sure you have a productive workday from the comfort of your own home is a lot harder than it sounds. Luckily, there are a few things you can do throughout the day to help boost your productivity and keep you focused.

Take a Walk

One of the simplest ways to improve your focus at work is to just take a break and go for a walk. Take a pause from work and leave your desk for a while. After hours of staring at a laptop and sitting in one place, the body can start to wear down and your mind will easily lose focus. To make sure this doesn’t happen, stand up for a bit or take a walk around the block. It’ll improve your work and your day drastically.

Get Moving in Your Seat

When you’re not on a break or walking around, you can easily do some exercises while you are working. Engage in some seated exercises to get your blood flowing and keep your mind focused. Easy ones to try are neck flexion, upper trapezius stretch, strengthening shoulder shrug, chest bicep stretch, and more. If you’re going to spend all day at your desk, doing these exercises can make it easier and more comfortable for you.

Designate a Working Space

Be sure to pick a spot in your home and make it your designated working area. Even if you don’t have a desk, use the kitchen table, a chair in the living room, or even sitting on your bed. Just make sure to set it up in a way to assign it as your work area. And use it for only that If it feels too much like home, it can make staying focused a lot harder. By having a designated area, you are more likely to stay in the workflow and keep up your focus. 

Set Up a Schedule

As you work from home, keep a detailed schedule for your day and make sure to follow it. Don’t just wake up, roll out of bed, and get to work two n=minutes after your alarm goes off. Set up your morning routine just as you would if you were heading out to work instead of working from home. Schedule in your breaks and write down goals for the day so you know what needs to be done and how much time you have to do it. This will allow you to have a more productive day. 

Master Your EQ to Enhance Your Leadership Capabilities

EQ, or emotional intelligence, has become a popular topic among leaders and managers in recent years for good reason. While this skill was largely overlooked throughout the past several decades, it’s getting a much-needed resurgence while propelling effective leaders to new heights and creating unstoppable teams. 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage yourself and your relationships effectively and is closely linked with performance and success. Use the following tips to enhance your skills to more effectively lead your team to success. 

Be Self-Aware

Self-awareness is a crucial skill to have as a leader. You must be aware of your actions, how you come across to your team, and how you express yourself in certain situations. In addition to knowing how you will react to situations, you must be aware of what triggers your emotional responses. These aspects together can give you a clear picture of how to best control these actions to lead your team towards a healthier future instead of regressing. Be open to criticisms and use them as a basis to improve and develop your skills. 

Be Socially Aware

Social awareness involves a sensitivity to another person’s feelings and emotions as well as your own willingness to be respectful. With more knowledge about how other people may react, you can compose a professional response without batting an eye. If your company implements a new policy that may trigger a negative reaction within your team, you can prepare them in a way that is respectful, ensures their concerns are heard, and you can make the proper adjustments to maintain efficiency. 

Facilitate Collaboration

With a higher emotional intelligence, it’s possible to improve day-to-day interactions amongst those on your team. A higher EQ means you can manage larger teams more effectively by helping others work together and to motivate them to work harder in a way that inspires instead of threatens. The happier your team is the more it will show in their work. Once you prove the worth of your EQ to the team as a whole you can teach others to do the same to create a positive and productive workforce that truly values its employees. 

How to Spot & Deal With a Manipulative Leader

 

In business, leaders are often those who display charisma and enthusiasm. These qualities are crucial in management positions. However, eagerness often hides the more manipulative qualities in a person. Of course, team members are willing to go above and beyond for a manager who boosts their ego. It’s likely hard to spot the difference between true passion and manipulation. Here are some ways to identify and handle a manipulative leader.

 

Messaging

One of the most concrete ways to notice manipulation from an authority figure is by closely paying attention to their messaging. If it is clear that the deliverance of the message is more important to the leader than the actual message, that is cause for concern. Their energy and delivery should never outshine the importance of what they are trying to get across. Some people walk away from meetings or presentation in awe, likely due to the “awestruck effect” of the display. If you can’t remember the key points of what your leader just shared, their manipulation did its job. Try doing your own research on their presented topics so that you have a well-rounded understanding of the area.

 

Personal Interactions

Being wary of every encounter with a manipulative leader is key to spotting them. While everyone loves a good compliment, it is one way that devious leaders get you to agree to anything. Professionals often become addicted to approval and seek it out regularly. Manipulative managers are always willing to dish out the kind words but only if you deliver. Supportive leaders coach you through your good and bad times and will compliment your achievements throughout the process. When getting to know your manager, notice if they take the time to appreciate you, even if you don’t deliver.

 

Problem Solving

A surefire way to pick out a manipulative manager is by observing the problem-solving abilities. Sure, they can put out a fire, professionally, but are they willing to own up to mistakes? Many leaders who have alternative agendas, will avoid facing problems in front of their team. Rather than making it a learning experience for all, they confront problems behind closed doors. A strong leader is not ashamed of mistakes, nor are they afraid to face them head-on. If your manager refuses to address a concern or avoids a challenging topic, follow up with them. Should the situation spiral, it is important to loop in a third party, such as Human Resources.

 

Leading Your Team in Times of Crisis

During times of downsizing and uncertainty in the workplace, a manager has no more important job that keeping his team in the loop about what is going on while ensuring that morale stays high and the job gets done.

But this can be hard to do, especially when the world seems to be falling apart and everyone is worried about their future. Here are steps a manager can take to lead their team through times of on-the-job crisis.

1. Keep an open line of communication and honestly let your team know what’s happening. Whether the news is good or bad, the truth should never be sugarcoated or avoided.

2. Be aware of lessons learned. Good managers know that the errors that led to the job crisis can be repeated. The cause of those problems should be studied and learned from. It is important to learn from your mistakes so you can overcome similar situations in the future.

3. The way ahead. Be crystal clear and transparent about exactly how the company plans to move ahead in the future. For this message to be effective, your team will probably have to hear it several times in order for it to sink in.

4. Keep it steady. In times of crisis, it can be difficult for everyone to remain calm and not give into their emotions. As a manager, your team is looking for you to lead and if they see you as being nervous and unsure, that will have a negative impact on them as well. After all, as a manager, your team is looking to you to keep a clear head and to make good decisions.

5. Job and people first. If a manager is asking his team to make sacrifices, he must visibly demonstrate that he is sacrificing as well. Never ask your team to do something that you yourself are not willing to do. If you are asking them to work harder and to do with less, as a manager you should be doing the same thing.

6. Use what you have wisely and well. Managers should use whatever resources they have — the talents of team members, equipment, and money — in a way that gets the most out of them. Mimic those who have inspired you.

The Difference Between Leadership and Management

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