A Guest Post by Anita Brady

Growing and sustaining a small business is not a one-and-done deal when drawing clientele. Ensuring that your doors (whether digital or brick and mortar) continue swinging open with new and returning customers requires persistence. Going the extra mile by advertising through social media outlets, email or phone calls will bring your name to the front of customers’ minds.

I’m not suggesting that you stalk your clients incessantly with advertisements; I’m merely proposing that you keep them in the loop. As a small business analyst and entrepreneur, I’ve learned that luring customers is only the first step. Prompting their return is a different ballgame altogether. After all, no small business is an island; customers are the underpinnings of your success.

Root Your Business in Social Media Outlets

While word-of-mouth remains the dividing line between great and mediocre small businesses, it’s vital to plant the seeds for your business in high-profile venues. As the business world continues migrating to online advertising — particularly through social media venues like Facebook, Twitter,  and Pinterest — you want to make sure you remain on par with other competitors.

Among the laundry list of intuitive, cost-effective advertising schemes for small businesses, the digital realm reigns supreme. Facebook accounted for 845 million active users as of December 2011, with more than 425 million mobile users exposed to on-the-go advertisements touting brands and other merchandise. Among a growing number of social media outlets, Facebook is ripe with opportunities to promote your small business, and likely will give your business a leg up on non-participating companies.

Facebook is Only Base Camp

Your climb to the top doesn’t end with the creation of a Facebook page. Social media venues nowadays are flooded with advertisements. Users are subjected to a vast selection of ways to spend money and sift through endless streams of advertisements. The sooner you plunge into the fray with a sprawling advertising scheme, the sooner you will draw attention to your business — you will not develop a reputation without jousting competitors for online prominence.

For a daily overview of the social media marketing landscape, check out Mashable.com, which weighs in on how to captain an armada of social media venues by learning the ins-and-outs of each marketing outlet. The intuitive website advises business owners on how to navigate the cut-throat world of online advertising.

Business Cards are Still Relevant

For businesses primarily existing in the brick-and-mortar world, doling out eye-catching business cards to customers, as well as other entrepreneurs, will likely prevent your company name from receding into the woodwork.

Networking through trade shows or small business consortiums with an arsenal of business cards is still one of the most effective marketing tools. Face to face contact can be mimicked but not replicated online.

Think about your card design as well — some may benefit from a simple, elegant model, while for others, the flashier (yet tasteful) ones are better.

Make Your Customers Feel Appreciated

Whether you’re simply looking to net more customers or your business is on the precipice of closure, warm gestures of appreciation will keep the doors open.

I’ve seen promising, shrewd business models driven into the ground as a result of cold, impersonal relationships with clientele. Even if you’re pacing roadway medians on weekends as a flower peddler, for instance, a smile goes a long way.

Think about what you have to offer, and how you can best showcase that. Remember that free food and drinks go a long way — host an open house or cocktail hour, where you’ll have the floor to toast your customers and thank them for their role in your business.

One-on-one contact should be prioritized on a daily basis. Be mindful of your vocal inflexion, maintain eye contact, and give off a positive vibe.

Stay in Touch

When was the last time you received a hand-written thank you note? I get one every year (and a birthday card) from my car insurance agent. It’s a small gesture that makes me feel good about shopping locally and supporting the community through an otherwise boring expenditure.

Set up an email list at your register or on your website, and make it worth your customers’ while. Give them generous discounts so that they’ll look forward to your outreach. Even better, collect their birthdays and send them a coupon for a free or discounted product.

If there’s one key component to building customer loyalty, it’s making your clients feel special. Just like mothers stoke the egos of their four-year-olds, summon whatever motivation you can find to constantly tell your customers thank you. When they feel appreciated, they’ll come back, and most importantly, tell their friends.

Anita Brady is the President of 123Print.com. The website offers promotional and office organization supplies like business cards, note cards, memo pads, personalized mugs and other items that combine high quality and customization with an affordable price.

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Build Customer Loyalty By Making a Consistent and Lasting Impression originally appeared on The Daily MBA on April 30, 2012.

A Guest Post by Laura Backes

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest are just a few of the popular online social media outlets that your employees crave. A lot of different companies are toying with the idea to play or not to play online. The obvious reasons not to allow your employees access to social networks are obvious. Employers want to avoid time wasting distractions and anything that could lead to a bad situation at work such as reading or viewing inappropriate material. The list continues of all the negative points but what about allowing your employees online.

You Crave What You Can’t Have

As some companies see it, they allow their employees to get online for personal time for several reasons and the largest being a tactic we use on our children. If you deny someone access to something, there is that theory that they will crave doing even more so now that they are not allowed too. The same theory is considered in companies and Facebook. If you allow employee to log on, they will spend less time trying to find ways to check their Facebook.

Some studies have been done on this topic of allowing employees online. One writer digs in a little further and finds that employees are more optimistic and give their company they work for a more glowing and positive review. A study was taken with 5,519 North American and European employees and this statement was said: “In case you’re wondering if you should allow employees onto social networks (and trust me, you can’t stop them), try this fact on: workers who use social media are among the most positive. 48% would strongly recommend a company’s products and services and only 22% were detractors, for a net score of 26% (source here).

If you do allow your employees on line, set some ground rules, monitor and limit their access. Some companies allow their employees to log on during lunch hours. There are plenty of computer programs that you can monitor their online usage. This can help with the amount of time they spend online and not working. You can also pick and choose what sights you feel are not a good idea for your company. Most of the time setting ground rules and stating the consequences that come with abusing online time, employees will follow.

So you find yourself asking the not-so-age old question: do allow your employees online or not to allow them online? The decision is up to you. As far as most companies see it, it can’t hurt you and when it does you can stop it. A happy employee is better than an unhappy employee, and if allowing access online will make them happy, then why not? Happy Facebooking!

Author Bio:

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service providers in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

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Why Social Media At Work May Make Sense originally appeared on The Daily MBA on April 27, 2012.

Management is a fickle beast. What works at one company certainly won’t work at another.

Does this problem apply to great managers? Can a great manager, manage anywhere?

The Art of Great Management

In order to answer this question, we need to look at what makes a manger great. For starters, there are two different perspectives on great management: company management and direct reports.

Company Management

Every manager is judged by how effective they are at meeting the companies objectives. These objectives are usually set by senior management and can be a mixed bag of operational objectives and stretch goals.

No matter the goal, it’s up to the manager to achieve it — even if it’s unrealistic or down right crazy. The more you achieve, the more your management thinks you are a good manager.

Direct Reports

Your direct reports have a different view of a great manager. For them, a great manager is one that develops and cultivates a culture where they are appreciated, developed and looked after.

To direct reports, great mangers know how to deal with organizational politics and keep them out of it.

In this view, a great manager protects their people from the insanity of upper management by sheltering them from the constant corporate struggle for power and influence.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

In order for a great manager to hold these two very different ideas in their heads — one of achieving the objectives of the company and the other protecting their people — they have to constantly adapt and adjust their style given the context in which they find themselves.

Great managers can context switch on the fly but that’s not the only skill they need.

Support Networks

All great managers (and even leaders) had a deep and wide support network in which they call upon to help in times of need. This network spans not only their group or division but is company and industry wide.

These support networks allow a great manager to stay great. If these networks are removed or marginalized, then the managers effectiveness will dwindle and they will no longer be considered great.

Support networks are vital to managing any type of group or company because the issues are too complex, the problems too layered and the information sometimes too muddle to grasp it all on your own.

Great managers also understand that support networks usually gravitate around the organizations center of influence which means that they have to constantly look out for shifts in the center of influence in order to remain great.

It’s the Culture Stupid

One aspect of a company that sets up whether or not a great manager can be great anywhere is it’s culture.

Culture will be the driving force behind how a manger is perceived and how successful they will ultimately be. If the mangers style is counter to the companies culture, then all bets are off for greatness.

In fact, Mark Papermaster, formerly of Apple, is a prime example of a successful IBMer that could not adapt to a new culture nor did the new culture appreciate his unique and special skills.

The quote that best sums up Mr. Papermaster’s culture class is from the book Inside Apple

“He [Papermaster] is warm, patient, and willing to listen — just not the right qualities for Apple. It was painfully obvious to everyone.”

This example highlights that great mangers need to be able to adapt their style to the culture in which they find themselves. This chameleon ability can certainly make them more productive but may not make them great because doing so may not cater to their strengths.

Charm and Charisma Meet Competent and Consistent

One other factor in being able to manage anywhere is how the company doles out rewards (e.g. Bonuses, promotions, resources, etc.). This is an aspect of the companies culture but it’s controlled by a select few (read senior management) so is not necessarily how the day to day activities are achieved.

If the company rewards style over substance than managers who get stuff done will be at a disadvantage to their witty and charming counterparts. This can also reverse itself for companies that are driven by metrics and accomplishment.

What is consistent about great managers is that they have to mix charm and charisma with competent and consistent performance to meet the needs of both senior management and their direct reports. Without such a balance, their support network would be too narrow and  their achievements too focused — thus not allowing them to be great.

So The Answer Is …

What makes a manager great is situational. What works on one corporate battlefield may not work on another. Styles, personalities, company culture and priorities have a tremendous impact on a mangers overall performance and that of the company. It’s this realization that makes or breaks a great manager.

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Can A Great Manager, Manage Anywhere? originally appeared on The Daily MBA on April 23, 2012.

A Guest Post By Angelita Williams

If you are an experienced manager, but have found your resume to be too extensive for the types of positions available in the current market, then you may be overqualified.

Instead of going for management jobs further down the ladder, why not do what you love in a different capacity as a management consultant? Management consultants are experts at helping managers become better at what they do and helping entire teams set and reach goals. If you are an excellent manager with years of experience and think you may have what it takes to consult, here are four reasons to consider changing course and trying your hand at management consulting.

Get Value Out of Your Expertise

If you have been a manager for so long that you can read an unsatisfied employee like the back of your hand, automatically sense why team meetings aren’t working, and naturally see how things could be run more efficiently, then your skill set is valuable. Working as a manager will only get you the income and flexibility offered to a manager at a particular firm. Working as a consultant will allow you to share your experience with others at the top of the ladder, for a much better salary than that of an average manager. If you’re working as an over-experienced, low-level manager, your special skills may well be overlooked by your superiors and misunderstood by colleagues.

Work for Yourself

Working for yourself is a scary step, but it’s definitely one that may be worth the risk. The self-employed are able to determine their own schedules and don’t have to report to anyone about how they choose to spend their time. Also, when you work for yourself, you have the opportunity to increase your salary as much as you like. If you work toward getting more jobs or raising your fees, then you will automatically get a raise without having to haggle for one. Freelance consultants are also able to telecommute and work with professionals around the world, which also expands career opportunities.

Contribute Without Commitment

As a management consultant, you may even find yourself breathing a huge sigh of relief when you compare your day-to-day with that of a regular manager. Consultants are able to offer a fresh pair of eyes to managerial issues, worker efficiency, and the inter-office climate without having to deal with the daily grind. As a consultant, it’s your job to observe, analyze and come up with solutions to managerial problems. However, in the end, it is the managers of the firms you are consulting for that must make the final decisions and put your suggestions to use.

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

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Is Management Consulting Right For You? originally appeared on The Daily MBA on April 2, 2012.

A Guest Post by Greg Marcus

There are reams of books written about management, filled with advice, tactics, and strategy for managing people. Some of that stuff is even helpful in certain situations. But the how of managing is not nearly as important as the why. Why is this a goal for you? Stop and think about your values for a moment. Do you want to help your career, or to help people? There is no right or wrong answer, but it is important to understand what you are trying to accomplish.

There can be only one top priority

If you want to be a better manager, all you need to do is put people first. If you put people first, I guarantee you will become a better manager. But it may not help your career, at least in the short run. It should, but sadly it may not. It depends on the values of your company.

Kiss Up, Kick Down Mentality

I have worked at companies where it seemed like the worst managers got promoted the most quickly. They neglected their reports, and would not spend an ounce of political capital to help their people. Even worse, some of these fast-track managers have the people skills of a fire ant – they can bite and cause pain, but other than that they aren’t good for much. Pain can drive results for a while, but if someone is bitten too often, they will sicken and whither.

Fire ants never bite the queen, and a Fire Ant Manager will never bite someone more senior in the company hierarchy. The Fire Ant Manager spends his or her energy managing upwards. This is an issue of company culture. Some companies have a culture that favors spin over substance, how you say something over how well you do something. If you want to get promoted, maybe the last thing you should be doing is spending more time making your people successful, because it takes away from time you could be managing upward, chairing executive initiatives and working to be visible.

Fire Ant Management is a short-term strategy. Eventually, a fire ant will get stepped on by someone bigger.

Happiness Comes From People, Not Promotions

Getting promoted is really satisfying because it’s an acknowledgement of accomplishment. But if you aren’t happy before the promotion, you won’t be happy after the promotion. And I guarantee you that if you are in a toxic company, there is no way to both put people first and do what it takes to get promoted.

But I also guarantee you another thing: if you put people first, it will make you a better manager, and make you happier. I’ve interviewed over two dozen executives and managers, and I’ve discovered that many people shelter their employees as a coping mechanism to deal with the craziness of the company culture. Here is an excerpt from my interview with “Bill.”

“I encourage [my team] and give them positive feedback, something I don’t get from my superiors. Managing down is good, but managing up is difficult when I don’t get what I want.”

Here is what one of Bill’s direct reports said about him:

“I had the privilege of working with & reporting to Bill. He is a focused, inclusive director whose strength is his ability to ‘see the bigger picture’ as he pulls his team through various change management scenarios. He is a ‘people person’ capable of building, stretching & developing effective teams.”

Bill was never promoted to VP in the five years he worked at that company, but the skills and connections he built helped him get his next job at a different company – as Senior VP and President of a new business division. Bill put people first.

Put people first. What does that really mean?

Here are five ways to put people first and avoid being a Fire Ant Manager:

• Way #1 Be present: by making time to talk to your reports, and listen attentively to what they really need. Google recently found that its most successful managers where those who made time to talk to their reports, and listened to their problems. This was a big surprise to Google management, who traditionally promote people based on technical accomplishments.
• Way #2 Model a healthy life: by getting plenty of sleep, eating well, and staying physically fit. You will be more relaxed, more clear-headed, and be more in the moment for your employees. All of this leads to better decision making.
• Way #3 Model a balanced life: by avoiding after-hours email, and staying home on the weekends. If your employee is working all the time, eating poorly, and not getting enough sleep, you can be sure that she is not operating at anything near her peak efficiency. It is critical that you model a healthy and balanced life first. Your employees will follow your lead.
• Way #4 Set achievable goals: that don’t require 80 hour work weeks. This will make your employees life better by allowing them a fulfilling career that doesn’t crowd out everything else. And as their stress level goes down, they too will begin to make better decisions at work.
• Way #5 Shield your team from the politics: your company culture may not support this approach to put people first, but you can run interference with management and enable your team do their jobs effectively. Your people will appreciate it, and your interactions with them will become the best part of your day.

So, do you still want to be a better manager?

If your values put people first, when you apply those values in the workplace, you will become a better manager. Even if it you think it may slow your career, it is ok if you decide to put people first anyway. It will make you feel better, and will lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.

Greg Marcus, Ph.D. is a modern-day Abraham who smashes corporate idols to help the chronically overworked find a more fulfilling life. At Idolbuster.com, Greg explores the relationship between values and priorities. You can follow Greg on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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5 Ways to Avoid Being A Fire Ant Manager originally appeared on The Daily MBA on March 19, 2012.

Innovation is part art, part alchemy, part luck and a lot of hard work.

What’s striking about innovators is that even though they are some of the smartest people in the world, they are still human and sometimes do irrational things.

Superstition and Innovation

It should really be no surprise that innovators are superstitious. It’s inherit in the very nature of invention since you are blazing a completely new trail. This uncertainty creates tensions that lead smart, innovative people to revert to basic brain functions and desires to recognize patterns even when patterns may not exist.

Pattern recognition assumes that correlation is causality and that might not be the case when you are innovating something new. The manifestation of these superstations tend to follow some basic patterns like:

• It won’t work without a certain type of material: This one is classic especially if the material is just the same thing as they got before — it might just be a different color or shape..

• I need to wear my lucky lab coat, socks, shirt, etc: I know this sounds odd but it does happen and it has a lot to do with feeling confident and comfortable

• We need to perform the experiment in exactly this way: It’s always good to be consistent but not at the expense of expanding your knowledge base

• Surely the reason it does not work is (add odd or irrational reason): The odder the reason or the more irrational, the more the person has no clue what is really going on. It’s almost a coping mechanism to distance themselves from the problem.

I know that this seems pretty weird but you would be surprised how superstitious (well maybe the phrase is pattern obsessed) most researchers and innovators are.

You can clearly see this because of the need for double blind studies to avoid bias and the placebo effect that gives positive results even though nothing has happened.

We humans also do something called Cognitive Dissonance which means that we find it hard to hold two contradictory beliefs at once, so we unconsciously adjust one to make it fit the other. This has a profound impact on innovators because most of their work life revolves around sorting out several contradictory ideas at once.

What’s interesting about these behaviors is that it’s a self-fulling proficiency. If people don’t have confidence in the materials, approach or methods they are using, consciously or subconsciously, they will not put their best effort into the experiment, prototype or piece of software. This reinforces the superstitions because the results always come out sub-par.

Taming Superstitions To Get Meaningful Results

Even though we see patterns where they don’t exist and align different concepts so they match, we can setup simple tests and procedures to help us break through these limitations. A list of some of my favorites include:

• Double blind experiments: This is a great way to eliminate any superstitions because there will be no human (or little) influence on the results

• A/B testing: Nothing ends a debate about the path to choose like an A/B test. This is especially effective if what you are trying to decide can be easily surveyed

• Baselining: This involves doing what used to work regularly. That way, you can tell if fundamental things have shifted or it’s the new stuff that’s not working

• Consistent look and feel: Always try and keep everything looking and feeling consistent. This is especially important for disposable components that are part of other experiments. Anything that might “look funny” will be self selected away from being used or not used effectively

• Cliff testing: Most of the time, people focus on making stuff better. Cliff testing pushes your invention over a cliff and sees what happens. This is great for setting limits or screen experiments (or designs) for minimum functionality.

• Check excuses off the list: Sometimes, it’s best to do an experiment or change a setting to get a negative result. That way, it never comes up again. It’s called checking the excuses off the list because there are always people who will say “What about this or that?”

• Make people feel special or in the know: A lot of innovation is attitude — both toward the work and other people. If you make your innovators feel special and in the know, they will put their best experiments forward instead of holding back for more recognition or “better” material.

• Focus on the incremental: Most innovators want the big win, silver bullet or home run solution. Most of the time (read like all of the time), that never works. By doing incremental experiments, you eventually get the same result with a lot less problems and wasted effort.

Google has made A/B testing an art form by providing tools that allow anyone to test out what various parameters will do to increase behavior (like click through, etc) and even the color of their Adwords backgrounds was A/B tested. This is a great example of using data and experimentation to best determine a course of action instead of “what feels or looks right.”

Getting Ahead of the Curve

An important part of innovation is getting ahead of the curve. Getting ahead of the curve means that you should push yourself and your team to do experiments, build prototypes and check those excuses off the list. Doing this prepares you for the problems, challenges and deadlines, so you can focus on really getting the innovation done instead of all the reasons it can’t get done (or shouldn’t get done or it will never work or etc.).

Getting ahead of the curve also has the positive effect of not feeling like you are behind — that can create a lot of tension and reduction in overall performance.

It’s a Constant Struggle

Innovation is really on the edge of what is known, understood and comfortable. Out there on the innovation frontier is scary and can make people seek out a comfortable place that is built on half-truths, superstations and old wives tales. This place is comfortable but horrible for innovation. It’s up to those that manage innovation to push people to do their best by managing these superstitions so that the team is data driven instead of feeling driven.

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Managing The Innovator’s Superstitions originally appeared on The Daily MBA on March 7, 2012.

A Guest Post by Wilson Cambell

Popular businesses these days focus around certain “teams” to keep projects going, or to make sure everything that needs getting done can be accomplished. How many of these teams know how to function like a real team? A functioning team isn’t a group of people who are randomly put together expected to work perfectly within the first couple of tasks. A team consists of a group of people who share the same basic goals on projects, have similar work habits, and can work as a cohesive unit.

Businesses can only survive when the weakest team is able to come together and produce something great. The best way to create the “golden team” is to have the right environment for the team to be productive in. The more comfortable a group of people are together in a room, the easier they will be able to communicate and create great products.

Humans Are Not Gears

Many companies feel that if one part of a team is not functioning properly, they can just pluck them out from the group, and insert a replacement. Sadly, the humans do not work like. A company cannot just assume that because one person out shined another in a task, that person is absolutely going to be a more productive team member.

If a team starts lacking in productivity, it can be more effective to have a group discussion about the team’s collective weaknesses, than to simply replace what first appears to be the weak link. Good communication skills are critical to a well functioning team and will help keep the business afloat.

Create Better Work Areas

Many teams find that if they work in a plain office with a simple desk and chairs, they can get more done. Other teams may work will in a coffee shop chatting casually in street clothes and loafers. Finding the key work environment for each team will increase the productivity of any company. If some people need more breaks, allow them more breaks. Find the little things that will boost morale.

If all of the team members are happy, they will feel more comfortable and focused on their work. When team members can work without issues, more work can be accomplished. Much like a gear in a watch, if the team can run smoothly, without conflict, more work can pass in and out of their work boxes making them akin to a smoothly running machine.

Team Exercises

When that one golden group is finally acquired, and a work schedule has been developed and tested: keep them busy. This doesn’t mean slamming them with work daily, or never giving them different options. Make it so two or three days of the work week can be devoted to either brainstorming or getting to know the team better.

Simple team building exercises work for newly created teams, and veteran teams who have accomplished a great deal of work together. The exercises never need to be complex; something as simple has playing with Legos or having a 15 minute Nerf gun fight can allow the team to have small bits of bonding time.

When companies can start treating their team members like an actual team, they will see their productivity soar. The mind isn’t always in a working state. If there come crunch times, letting the team go run up and down the halls, or do something away from the desk will open their minds.

Giving your teams the freedom to work and play together will build good communication skills within the team that will expand into the company. Trust will start to grow when the members of the team feel the company respects their choices, gives them the space to excel and respects their need to bond as a team.

Author Byline:

The article is written by Wilson Campbell. Wilson is an HR counsellor, who specializes in team building and team building activities, employee engagement and time management. He is also an expert in resolving the concerns and considerations of employees.

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How to Build An Effective Team originally appeared on The Daily MBA on February 13, 2012.

A Guest Post by Nancy Parker

Jobs these days are hard to come by, there’s no denying that. Competition is fierce, and people are doing whatever it takes to keep a steady paycheck coming to support themselves and their families. Because of this, it’s becoming increasingly easy to blur the lines between work and life, and people are sacrificing their daily life to work harder and longer hours.

This is especially true when you’re a nanny – you spend all day being in charge of someone else’s family and household, and then at the end of the day have to come home and still make sure your own household is in order. It’s easy to shirk personal responsibilities in favor of work ones when you’re balancing two different families. However giving up your life outside of work is more detrimental than it is beneficial, and if something isn’t done to combat it you’ll likely end up burning out and performing at a lesser level then if you had prioritized your own life in addition to your work life.

If you find yourself not getting the work-life balance right, consider trying some of these techniques:

#1 Make Time for Hobbies

It’s all too easy to forget that work isn’t your entire life, and to combat this you have to make time for the things you enjoy. When you’re a nanny for a family AND a mom aside from that you often find yourself so exhausted from a day of playing mom that actually fulfilling your role as mom and still identifying as your own person is more than slightly overwhelming. You’ll find yourself less stressed if you’re still engaging in activities that you find relaxing and enjoyable. It’s easy to get stressed thinking that the house is going to fall apart if you don’t put the dishes away right away, but the truth is life will – and does – go on just fine. In fact it goes even more smoothly when you’re still prioritizing your own interests.

#2 Draw a Solid Line Between Work and Life

Because we are constantly connected these days with smart-phones and the ability to tap into the majority of work systems, thanks to the Internet, it makes it easy to get caught up doing work while you’re at home. What starts as “I’ll just respond to this one email…” can quickly evolve into a full-fledged work session. Make sure that when you’re at work you’re focused on getting the job done and when you’re at home you’re focused on your loved ones and yourself. Each one deserves your undivided attention at specific times, and you’re doing no favors to anyone by only giving half the effort to either.

#3 Prioritize Your Tasks

When you start work each morning take some time to take stock of what it is you need to get done and then prioritize accordingly. Break things up into categories of things that have to get done today, things you’d like to get done today, and things that can wait until tomorrow. Having smaller task lists makes projects easier to tackle and helps alleviate the stress of a mile long to-do list. Plus when you recognize that some things can wait until the next day it’s easier to shed the guilt from not finishing them and pay attention to what matters the most – like your own family. When you balance being a nanny and a mom it can sometimes be easy to neglect your own kids needs and wants because you’ve spent all day focusing on your job: someone else’s kids. Let go of the job when you get home and prioritize the best job: actually being a parent.

#4 Exercise and Eat Healthy

Find time to fit in at least 30 minutes of exercise each day – you’ll be glad you did. The endorphins you’ll get from breaking a sweat will help boost your mood and reduce your stress level. And when you’re eating healthy foods you’ll find you focus better and are more efficient, whereas when you’re living on take-out you’ll find yourself more rundown and sluggish. One way to spend time with your own family is to take the kids for a bike ride or a jog when you get home from work. Then spend time fixing dinner together – when everyone helps and it becomes a family affair it’s less likely to seem like a chore and more likely to just be about spending time together.

#5 Learn When Enough is Enough

As tempting as it may be to take on every task your boss asks you to do, you have to learn when to say no. It’s better for everyone if you take on only what you can handle – your quality of work will be better, your stress levels will be lower, and your boss will respect you more for being able to admit you can’t take on another task then for accepting the task and then drowning in a workload that’s too heavy.

About the Author

Nancy Parker was a professional nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like Health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting and Work-Life balance. This is a regular contributor at eNannySource. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com.

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A Nanny’s Perspective on Achieving A Work-Life Balance originally appeared on The Daily MBA on January 23, 2012.

A Guest Post By Lauren Bailey

The inimitable Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek fame once said, “A meeting is an event in which minutes are taken and hours are wasted.” Still, if you work in business, you know that regardless of the value of meetings, they still happen and will continue happening for the foreseeable future. If you are in position in which you must lead meetings, here’s your chance to prove that while most meetings suck, it doesn’t have to be that way. Setting up useful meetings, however, is a tricky business. Here are a few tips for leading meetings that people actually want to attend.

Aim For Short Meetings Not Exceeding Thirty Minutes

If there’s one thing that you as a leader should know about people working in an office is that they generally have very short attention spans. Even if every single minute of your two-hour meeting is crammed with useful information, it’s likely that those attending will stop listening after a relatively short period of time, thus negating the value of your meeting. Keep it short and sweet.

Involve Everyone Attending

The best way to get workers excited about a meeting is to make them feel as though each of them plays a significant part. As such, make sure to structure your meeting so that you can incorporate feedback from everyone. Don’t just leave the floor open to comments at the end of the meeting, during which most people are already tired and not as willing to contribute. Insert opportunities for participation throughout the meeting by asking specific questions.

Avoid PowerPoint!

The fastest way to disengage your typical office worker and put her to sleep is to create a PowerPoint presentation for your meeting. Of course, sometimes visuals can help lend focus to your meeting, but let’s face it—most PowerPoint presentations suck. If you do want to add visuals to your meeting, use alternative presentation programs like Prezi, which is much more engaging. Also, don’t use your presentation as a crutch; use it to enhance the points you’re making.

Speak in Plain English

Corporate jargon is another meeting no-no. If you truly want your meeting to be effective, just speak as you normally would when having a polite, professional conversation. That means cutting out the clichés you may be used to using by now, phrases and words like “value-added,” “going forward,” “core competencies,” etc. Always remember that you are speaking to room of human beings.

Have a Definite Goal or Goals in Mind

If you’re calling a meeting because you want to hear yourself talk, then it’s best to reconsider having the meeting in the first place. An effective meeting always establishes a set of goals that needs to be accomplished, and it also develops a roadmap for achieving these goals.

Not all meetings will turn out as successfully as you may have planned. At the same time, however, if you make an effort to keep things simple, casual, and upbeat, you’d be surprised by what meetings can actually accomplish. The best feeling in the world is leaving that conference room knowing that you and your team have a clear direction for meeting goals.

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com. 

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How to Lead a Meeting that Doesn’t Waste Everyone’s Time originally appeared on The Daily MBA on January 16, 2012.

One can get anything if he is willing to help enough others get what they want. — Zig Ziglar

There is a trend in business that is starting to emerge that focuses more on doing good than maximizing profit. This trend is a long time coming and appears to be a direct result of the success of capitalism and the huge amount of wealth, burden, depletion and opportunity that it’s reaped on the earth.

The Goodness Business Model (GBM) is nothing new. Companies like Tom’s of Maine, The Virgin Group, Bob’s Red Mill, Dr. Bronner’s Soaps and The Body Shop have all tried and mostly lived GBM in one form or another for decades.

The sea change that is occurring is that these companies have been in the minority and now consumers, citizens and entrepreneurs are now starting to realize that goodness needs to be an integral part of all businesses — not just on the fringe.

The reason for this is simple — our present business models and methods are not sustainable.

• They cannot sustain our natural resources

• They are not solving our social problems

• They are not being good stewards of the earth

What is The Goodness Business Model

Recently, I have read two books about GBM. They did not call it GBM but the ideas are certainly in line with what GBM is.

One was first published in 1993 while the other was just published in 2011 (December to be exact). Both The Soul of a Business by Tom Chappell (of Tom’s of Maine) and Screw Business As Usual by Richard Branson (of the Virgin Group) basically says the same thing — doing good is the only business model that can simultaneously sustain the earth, attempt to fix the worlds problems and provide long term profit for a company.

The interesting thing about these two books is that both authors come to their conclusions from totally different places.

Tom Chappell found his at divinity school and that forever shaped his view of our roll on earth and how God plays a role in everything we do. His idea of goodness started with reading I and Thou by Martin Buber a Jewish philosopher (a wonderful summary is here).

I-Thou is what made Tom realize that our relationships need to be more of an encounter instead of an experience (which is the I-It model). This is a profound concept because it gives meaning and depth to others and things instead of just an experience where we collect data, analyze it, classify it and theorize about it. This modality is the foundation of how goodness works — by opening ourselves to more encounters we see the likeness of ourselves in the world and that makes us want to do more good.

Richard Branson’s journey to goodness does not seem to be a single event or epiphany but rather a process that was engrained in him at an early age. It seems to stem from his family life and the struggles they went through. These struggles instilled in him to always be focused on giving everyone a “fair go”.

One thing is clear is that Richard’s concept of goodness matches nicely to Tom’s in that they both believe that both profit and good are not orthogonal concepts but rather essential for a company to have.

Richard calls his GBM concept Capitalism 24902. It’s chief tenant is simple:

Each and every single business person has the responsibility to take care of the people and planet that makes up our global village, all 24,902 circumferential miles of it. — Capitalism 24902

It’s a powerful idea that meshes nicely with Tom’s of Maine’s Last Statement of Belief’s which reads:

WE BELIEVE that our company can be financially successful while behaving in a socially responsible and environmentally sensitive manner. — Tom’s of Maine Statement of Beliefs

Both of these statements incapsulate The Goodness Business Model.

Doing Good Is Harder Than You Think

The ideals in both these books may seem hard to achieve if not impossible to some business people. In fact, it’s not the fact that it’s hard to be good — it’s the fact that business people are not taught those business ideals.

Recall from business school (those that went) that the main objective of any business is to Maximize Shareholder Wealth.

That’s it. That’s all.

Generations and generations of MBA’s got sucked into that and it’s now making our world worst — from the global financial crisis, the harm we do everyday to our plant and the countless billions of people in poverty. We need to change that mindset to one where goodness plays a key role in business. This is not a new concept.

In the early 1970’s, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) coined the term stakeholder and that movement talked about Maximizing Stakeholder Value which essentially meant to consider all the stakeholders of your business (e.g. Those with direct interactions both positive and negative).

Critics of CSR say that it’s just “window-dressing or an attempt to pre-empt the role of government as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations.” It can certainly seem that way but I think that’s where goodness trumps CSR.

Doing Good Leads to Goodness

Corporate Social Responsibility is important but insufficient since it only addresses the company and not every worker, manager, investor, supplier or customer. That’s where the Goodness Business Model is much more powerful — by adhering to the I-Thou model and knowing that all 24,092 circumferential miles of earth are what you need to encounter, help and protect everyday.

By doing good by all those people, you can achieve goodness.

This is a high ideal but arguably the only way that we can hope to maintain our standards of living (in the developed countries) and to raise up the rest of the world.

Goodness Analytics

Many of you might be wondering how to judge goodness. Clearly, there must be some sort of metric or analytic that shows how much good a company did or can do.

Metrics for goodness can be hard to come by but some to consider include:

• Carbon footprint of your organization

• Waste recycled or diverted from landfills

• Involvement with local charities which includes time, talent and treasure

• Customer feedback on why they buy your product and it’s impact on them

• Amount of sustainable materials used

• Treatment of labor at home and at your sub-contractors anywhere in the world

• Employee engagement, sense of accomplishment and morale

These are only a few of the many metrics that a company can and should track.

One thing about goodness is that the results of being good take time to peculate. For example, at Tom’s of Maine, it took about three years for their mission (which defines their goals for goodness) to be internalized by their employees, management and suppliers. So be patient with goodness — it will pay off.

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The Case For The Goodness Business Model originally appeared on The Daily MBA on January 2, 2012.