entrepreneur

Top 5 female Entrepreneur Blogs To Follow

Following blogs of successful female entrepreneurs can be a transformative experience for aspiring women in business. The following blogs serve as inspiration, highlighting the journeys of women who have triumphed over adversity to achieve their goals. They offer more than just motivation; they provide a unique perspective on the entrepreneurial landscape, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities that female entrepreneurs may encounter. Each blog has a unique story to tell and a wealth of knowledge to share… Lets get started!

1. She Did It Her Way

Founder: Amanda Boleyn

Amanda Boleyn’s journey from corporate America to full-time business owner is an inspiring tale of determination and entrepreneurship. “She Did It Her Way,” her brainchild, initially began as a podcast and has since transformed into a thriving coaching business that empowers female entrepreneurs to navigate the challenges of starting and scaling their ventures.

What Sets It Apart: Boleyn’s blog stands out for its pragmatic approach. She provides practical tips that not only enhance business efficiency but also foster personal growth for female entrepreneurs. Recognising that every female entrepreneur’s journey is unique, her blog covers an extensive range of topics. Whether you’re contemplating leaving your 9-to-5 job or already on the path to building your business empire, “She Did It Her Way” offers valuable insights.

2. Women Who Startup

“Women Who Startup” serves as a dynamic learning platform for a global community of female entrepreneurs and innovators. In addition to their informative blogs, they also host monthly virtual networking events.

What Sets It Apart: This platform distinguishes itself by fostering a sense of community and rapid learning among female entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide. It provides not only insightful blog content but also interactive opportunities for members to connect and grow together. These virtual networking events are designed to provide valuable connections and knowledge sharing among female entrepreneurs, further enhancing their entrepreneurial journeys.

3. Female Entrepreneur Association

Founder: Carrie Green

“The Female Entrepreneur Association” serves as an online hub designed to inspire and empower female entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality. Written by Carrie Green, the founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association, this blog covers a wide spectrum of topics, including business fundamentals, marketing strategies, personal development, financial management, and productivity techniques.

What Sets It Apart: What sets this blog apart is its personal touch. Carrie Green, a successful female entrepreneur herself, adopts an engaging and inspiring tone throughout her posts. She founded this online support system with a simple mission: to learn from other female entrepreneurs and stay motivated in her business endeavors. Her blog reflects her journey, lessons learned, and the tremendous success she has achieved as a female entrepreneur. To enhance the reader experience, she also incorporates videos, allowing female entrepreneurs to hear directly from her.

4. Punched Clocks

Founder: Sarah Landrum

“Punching the Time Clock” was founded by Sarah Landrum, a millennial career expert with an unwavering passion for career development. Sarah’s mission is clear: to share advice on how to build a fulfilling and successful career and life. Over time, “Punched Clocks” has grown into a prominent career advice blog, particularly for female entrepreneurs.

What Sets It Apart: This blog offers a comprehensive approach to career development for female entrepreneurs. From insights into launching and expanding businesses to navigating career changes, “Punching the Time Clock” has it all. It covers a broad range of skills, including leadership, communication, negotiation, and productivity. But it doesn’t stop there; the blog also delves into lifestyle skills that help create a balanced life. It’s the ultimate destination for female entrepreneurs looking to become the best versions of themselves, both personally and professionally.

5. Classy Career Girl

Founder: Anna Runyan

“Classy Career Girl” is not just a blog; it’s a dynamic e-learning platform designed for female entrepreneurs transitioning in their careers. Whether you’re seeking new job opportunities or are in the early stages of launching your own business, this platform has you covered. Founded by Anna Runyan, it envisions providing female entrepreneurs with comprehensive resources to build their dream careers while maintaining health and work-life balance.

What Sets It Apart: This platform stands out for its holistic approach. It offers a global community for female entrepreneurs around the world and includes podcasts, a blog, and two membership plans. The podcast features training sessions, interviews, success stories from members, and other inspiring topics. The blog, on the other hand, covers a wide array of subjects, including job hunting, entrepreneurship, health and work-life balance, leadership, fashion, productivity, social media, and financial matters.

The platform offers two membership plans, “The Corporate Transition Blueprint” for female entrepreneurs transitioning from a side hustle to a full-time business and “The Career Fulfilment Formula” for female entrepreneurs seeking their dream jobs. Both plans have waitlists, reflecting the high demand for Anna’s expertise. In the meantime, “The Elegant Career Woman” has designed a 90-day planner available for purchase. This planner is a valuable tool to help female entrepreneurs stay focused, motivated, and goal-oriented on their career paths.

In conclusion, these five blogs authored and curated by inspiring female entrepreneurs are more than just sources of information. They are beacons of empowerment, providing a roadmap for female entrepreneurs to chase their dreams, build successful careers, and take charge of their financial futures. These blogs offer not only valuable insights but also a sense of community and support that can make all the difference in a female entrepreneur’s journey. Whether you’re just starting or well on your way, these blogs are bound to inspire, inform, and empower you on your path to success.

If you are interested in blogging but do not want to start your own blog then Expert Circle is the place for you. We are a thought leadership platform where experts can contribute to panel question’s which span all areas in business thought leadership. We are encouraging female entrepreneurs to contribute and tell their stories so to motivate other women who need it!

5 benefits of blogging for Expert Circle:
  1. We have 500,000 distinct viewers
  2. DA60+ site
  3. We will SEO optimise your article
  4. It’s free to publish your content
  5. It’s free to view your content

There is no catch! Don’t hesitate to get involved and head over to our site to get featured NOW! 

By Oliva Davies

Head Of Digital at Expert Circle

We took inspiration from these two well articulated article for this piece:

Blogs for female entrepreneurs to start following today

Blogs for female entrepreneurs 
productivity

Enhancing Workplace Productivity: Expert Insights on Building a Productive Culture and Implementing Strategic Changes

Building a productive workplace is imperative for optimising your workforce. It takes a lot of time to get a team to work together and be productive.

We invited experts and professional thought leaders to contribute to our collaborative article discussion titled ‘What is one change you recommend making to enhance culture and productivity?’.

1 . Mark McArthur-Christie

Mark brings attention to the importance of asking the word “why?”. His valuable advice could help you increase your productivity by simply challenging your everyday routine.

2 . Deirdre Sheridan

Deirdre uses her experience in a remote environment to highlight how personalised activities can increase connectivity between employees and enhance productivity through culture.

3 . Marieta Bencheva

Marieta provides an in depth exploration of the significance of company culture in driving productivity and success. She emphasises that culture has a massive part in engagement and performance in a company. Marieta offers beneficial advice on framework development, engaging subject matter, and transparent communication.

Mark McArthur-Christie

Managing Director, The Think Human Consultancy

Let people ask ‘why?’ And let them do it a LOT.

Asking “Why do we have that Monday morning meeting?” might reveal that it’s actually a monumental waste of an hour for everyone – or it might be the most useful hour of the week.

 “Why do we produce that weekly report for the Board – you know, the one they never read?” might show that directors don’t read it because it’s too long, but unless you ask why you won’t know.

The older, the more established, the more unquestioned the activity, process or policy is the more you should be asking ‘why?’

Deirdre Sheridan

Community & Content Manager, Blue Globe Innovation

As a 100% remote team that is continuing to grow well into the pandemic, Blue Globe Innovation is dedicated to fostering connections between team members that go beyond our Zoom boxes. 

This year, each member of our team was led through an activity to create a personal “Manual of Me” with important information about working with each other–from how to pronounce a colleague’s name to what they enjoy doing outside of work to when it’s okay to send a Slack message.

It’s been a great way to understand each other’s boundaries and working styles, even when we can’t connect in person. While this practice isn’t unique to Blue Globe – it’s used at large tech startups like Slack and Github–we still find it provides value to a small team and an overall rise in wellbeing and productivity amongst our colleagues.

Marieta Bencheva

Cofounder

In contemporary times we are no strangers to the fact that change drives innovation and that now more than ever it happens to be the lifeblood of many companies’ success. Culture many times equals growth and what better way to thrive than by functioning as an ecosystem? We are not static individuals, we are dynamic and with that trait, we can create motion as a collective of business professionals.

 Entrepreneurs and leaders are aware that company culture is not just another fancy phrase and that it remains one of the key factors when analysing which elements affect a company’s productivity indicators. However, acknowledging that an organisation’s productivity is linked with its culture isn’t enough to improve either one. As a leader, you must understand and master their relationship.

 Promoting change within your company is about psychology and how to best tap into the needs and desires of your team, so that the change you are aiming to welcome into your organisation stays consistent and survives as new challenges arise. 

Productivity is about igniting certain mental pathways that allow us to feel we belong to a bigger picture when developing tasks. Most of us don’t change unless we are the ones leading that transformation. This is why as subjects of this process your company won’t thrive unless your team does.

When creating a culture, effective communication is key. I believe that the first thing to do is to highlight the need to change. If I were you, that is where I would start. I also wouldn’t be too precious about “owning” it. The best way people will change is if they believe it was their idea. So while you may introduce it, let others take it forward.

Many companies remain unproductive due to the fact that scaling up or even starting a company can be frustrating and frustration more often than not leads to procrastination and again breaks any chances of being productive or introducing systems to boost productive outcomes. 

This is why you need to always keep in mind that your organisational culture impacts the way each member of your team views performance. High-performance cultures foster high-performing team members, by adopting positive peer pressure strategies. This is key when working in high-pressure environments.

Another thing to keep in mind is that culture impacts engagement, which drives productivity. When a company shows high levels of engagement, this means that employees are treating the company as if they were actual owners of the company, and this in-depth care about the results, makes them remarkable.

Collaborative culture enhances productivity and while competition drives performance when it comes to culture it hinders productivity. This is why cooperation and collaboration need to get encouraged over competition between individuals.

Now that we have gone through the broader picture of culture building, let’s dive into the specifics, suggested by one of our consultants

  • Your first steps when creating or changing company culture should be reducing waste, reducing inflexibility, and reducing variability.
  • Check the reason for the variability: individual, skill, process (people, process, material, and information).
  • Create an SOP (standard operating procedure) for each process you do.
  • Once you have done that, you start tracking are there any improvements in the work?
  • When aiming to create change and identify weaknesses in your operations, without entering detailed considerations in terms of the different tasks of change management.

Another advisor suggests you would start the process with basic questions in order to sketch an appropriate overview:

  • What do I want to change?
  • Why do I want to change it?
  • When do I want it to change?
  • Who should be changing it with me?

A third consultant shares:

In my experience there are two main challenges in change management: the first one is related to the psychology of organisations, that is, the general behaviour of people when confronted with change and the second one is communication and the management of expectations due to the change itself.”

Besides the bookish remarks he also highlights something out of the personal experience:

It may be important to choose the right change agents, that is, individuals who possess certain skills such as emotional intelligence or proactivity BUT the factor X in the recipe, up to me, is to ensure that the chosen individuals, whoever they are, form a REAL network to drive change. As Andrew mentioned, it is indeed essential to make sure that keepers are part of the drive. One needs to avoid at any cost that change ends up being understood as “A taffy peddler does what he pleases”.

Regarding the second problem which is communication, it can be mitigated if you enforce an understanding of change management not as something that is happening in the organisation, in the sense of “it is being done somehow like a continuous process, i.e. the BAU of some team lost somewhere in the building” BUT  as a project, i.e., an exceptional effort in the organisation towards a given goal with a full-fledged project management strategy in place.

Next, I would like to give some advice on how to address different questions that may arise when considering all of the previously stated information.

 Do you have a framework that you currently use?

 You can create any framework as long as it contains the following boxes:

  • Understand deeply the technical aspects of the change (Subject Matter Experts will help you with that if you engage them);
  •  Plan for work and engagement with the 3 types of employees: early adopters, followers, and tradition keepers;
  •  Define the scope and budge
  • Plan
  • Establish governance and reporting

How should you approach the change in a company in order to make it happen?

You need to be prepared that there will be initial optimism, drop to disillusionment, and then up again – back to normal. It is different with each organisation but it is important to work with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) in your Change Program. SMEs need to be seconded during the Change Program and perceive it more like a developmental benefit to the individual and the organisation, because of the different roles they are in.

Would you consider transparent communication around the change to be a good step or on the contrary?

Yes! I would definitely advise- if you have 5 or more people in the Change team- you need one person who will be doing only professional communication.

You always need (that can be somebody from marketing) to sense check the change program communication. And do not be shy- communicate every benefit and achievement.

While change can be costly, at Consulthon all the advisors booked in an on-demand advisory call can give you more in use value than the cash value of the 1-hour advisory call you pay for. Basically, we give to every client more than you take from you.

Let’s put it in a practical example: If the actions/ideas suggested during the call bring you thousands of £, you have not been wronged by us and the consultants who worked with you. Because we have given you a great use-value for a small cash value.

Consulthon is a UK Management Consulting expert network. Businesses can raise a Business Challenge and the network’s experts will brainstorm solutions. After selecting the answer they like the most, the business can book a paid one-hour advisory call and deep-dive session with that consultant. All the consultants are vetted by Consulthon and the platform offers businesses access to a wide range of skills, in a variety of sectors and countries.

In conclusion, these articles highlight the importance of building a productive workplace and enhancing company culture to optimise productivity. Mark McArthur-Christie emphasises the importance of questioning the status quo, while Deirdre Sheridan suggests personalised activities to enhance connectivity in remote teams Marieta Bencheva delves into the significance of culture, engagement, and collaboration in driving productivity. The article also provides practical advice on creating standard operating procedures and addressing variability. It emphasises the psychology of change management and the need for effective communication. Overall, the article shows the importance of understanding the relationship between culture and productivity and how implementing strategic changes can foster a high-performance environment.

If you are interested in reading more of our experts’ answers to “What is one change you recommend making to enhance culture and productivity?” Follow the link here to access them!

Struggling to eat healthy at work? Here are three key tips that work!

Here are three key tips to kickstart your new healthy eating lifestyle.

  1. You, you, you: Prioritizing yourself on your healthy eating journey is paramount to success. You need to remember that your hunger matters and you need to remind yourself why you started this journey. Realize that your only competition is yourself and stay calm throughout this journey.
  2. Be prepared: Cook as often as you can and always have “backpocket” recipes ready. Make sure to pay attention to food quality and not only calories! Meal prepping, reading nutrition labels, and keeping a full pantry are crucial.
  3. Keep your eye out: Healthy eating is a science, so treat it like one. Vegetables and fruits that “grow together, go together.” In other words, foods that are natural complements of each other are good to put together. On this note, artificial ingredients and highly processed foods should be avoided as well.

Bonus tip: When planning meals, what food is on the plate and how much of a food is served should be considered equally. Balancing what is on the plate and how much of that is on the plate, using the right food options is the key.

The mantra for a healthy eating lifestyle

The crux of these tips is to monitor not just how much is going onto your plate but rather what is going onto your plate. The quality and ease of preparation of foods are critical in jumpstarting a healthy and sustainable diet. These four simple tips, if followed correctly, will be the first step on your journey towards a healthy eating lifestyle.

Questions about healthy eating for discussion:

  • What are the blockers to eating healthily in your life?
  • How have you managed to stick to a better diet?
  • Do you find that sharing a healthy eating plan with friends and family makes it easier to stick to it?
  • What are your best tips for eating healthy?

By Larysa Hale

Managing Director at Expert Circle

anxiety

Motivation and Anxiety: Cuppa chicken soup; #notjustyou

Scrolling through your Instagram feed we come across a number of motivational quotes, but sometimes it is really hard to believe that all the answers to various complications we face, in this journey called life can be contained in a seven word phrase. Also sometimes makes you wonder who is this person? How has he or she got it all together when you have not? On writing a motivational article I was put in a dilemma. Well as we all know, motivation and anxiety do not go hand-in-hand. As random thoughts of self-doubt spiralled through my head I sat with my laptop, fumbling through my keys, if nothing it helps soothe my anxiety.

Anxiety my buddy

I could have easily made an in-depth analysis of a life guru’s principles, shared with you some life hacks or anecdotes borrowed from the internet. Only if it were that simple though. I have been anxious even before I knew anxiety was a thing. My constant fidgety behaviour as a child grew into a compulsive pattern as a young adult. Overthinking every situation and being scared out of my mind without ever having a specific reason came as a second nature.

But then again according to the internet stats, every second millennial is either suffering from depression, anxiety or both, I do not stand as an exception. Various causes have been identified. Many say it is the extremely stressful lifestyle that the people of this generation have adopted. I hold no degree in the study of human psychology, hence I do not have an answer to why or how to get rid of it. Believe me if I did I would not be motivated to write this article today.

Diagnosis inconclusive; i.e. suffering from a case of social blues 

You may wonder then what the point of this article is. I am here to tell you what a quote from Dickens or Zuckerberg fails to comprehend. Life is hard! Especially when you are dealing with anxiety, which let’s face it most of us are, sometimes you cannot buckle up. You cannot keep trying after you fail, failure hurts, even if some renowned person once said, “Keep trying till you succeed”. But does it mean that we shall let go of our dreams?

“Moving out of your parents’ house” is an understatement when you are literally moving across oceans to a whole different continent. Having to set up a life for yourself in a new country sounds exciting, but comes with its challenges. What seemed to be the most challenging part, was having to come back into the empty room, with nothing but your anxious thoughts for company. In this digital age, your friends and family are at a video calls distance, yet again it is never the same is it?

Owing to the pandemic, we have gotten accustomed to this new virtual life, working from home, attending online seminars, concerts and what not! But the artificiality of it all leaves behind this empty space in your heart that craves for real human connections. It is worse if you are already suffering from anxiety, cause then being left with your thoughts is not highly recommendable. Or motivating.

Motivation and anxiety: you do you; cause no one does that better than you 

Yet again, I am not here to whine about what is wrong, neither can I provide you with a solution, cause trust me I am desperately looking for one myself. What I really wanted you to know is that, I am so proud of you! I am proud cause despite it being hard, you still go on. You still continue chasing your dreams! In the process sometimes you might just sleep too much to avoid the clouding of hopelessness in your mind or just to avoid the worthlessness of it all. Let me tell you, the fact that you continue chasing despite it all, is what makes it worth.

Sometimes you would just want to lie in your bed and stare into blank spaces, trying to comprehend the course of your actions. Pulling myself out of my own anxious reverie, I sit here writing an article on motivation and anxiety, hoping to pull you out of your self loathing cycle. All I would say is, lie there for as long as you want. What really matters is when you get up, push yourself to strive again towards those hopeful better days. Keep going, because sometimes it is the best you can do!

What do you think?

Aishwarya Mitra

10 successful businesswomen share the secrets to their success!

A question to our female business leaders: how do you silence your critics?

Jessica Herrin, CEO and Founder of Stella and Dot: It’s the idea, not that you don’t love other people or don’t care about other people, but you have to care less about what they think of you in that moment of failure. There’s always going to be a naysayer, there’s always going to be someone to point out a mistake and that happens to me every single day.

Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Acumen: It hurt to be told I was silly, stupid, naive, pick your adjective. But I also knew that there was great truth in what we were trying to do.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO and Founder of Bumble: People didn’t want to get on board. People didn’t want to support. People wanted to say “oh that’s silly, that’s niche, that’s never going to work, she’s just this, she’s an opportunist”–every word in the book!

Wendy Clark, Global President and CEO, DDB Worldwide: At the time it feels crushing and it feels defeating and you’re mad at the world and you’re mad at people who didn’t support you. And then, now, as I sit in front of you, I reflect and they’re sort of blips to me now. It feels like a big deal at the time, but then not.

Melanie Whelan, CEO of Soulcycle: Don’t sweat the haters, ‘cause haters gonna hate. Between social media and Glassdoor and all these things that you can read now, I think just staying focused on the long term and the vision and the mission and knowing that in my heart and in my head I am making decision that I think are right for this company and the people around me that are running it and just staying true to that.

Question two to the panel of successful businesswomen: if you could write a letter to your younger self, what advice would you give?

Dana Perino, Fox News TV Co-Host of the Five: One hundred percent do not worry your young life away. You’re going to work for the rest of your life, you cannot plan it all out. Everything is going to be ok.

Marne Levine, Chief Operating Officer at Instagram: Don’t mourn the breakups for too long. When I think about how much time I spent sitting on a friend’s couch, at a friend’s table, talking about the breakup and how sad I was… I could have read more books. I could have written a book!

Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and Co-Founder, Ellevest: Try to hold on. That if you want to step out of the workforce, that’s clearly a personal decision, but try not to step out because you’re temporarily tired. If you can make it through that stretch, then it gets better sooner than you think it does.

Donna Karan, Fashion Designer; Creator of Donna Karan New York and DKNY: Slow down. It’s so hard because you’re not going to do it. I can’t imagine anybody would, but breathe. Enjoy it.

Drew Barrymore, Actor, Author, Director, Model, and Producer: I would say do everything exactly the same that you’re doing, because one day you’re going to be really happy you did it all this way. I just wish you didn’t have to freak out about it so much along the way, but that’s probably what’ll make you who you are, so go ahead and freak out. I’ll meet you at forty.

What do these businesswomen have in common?

These women all shared inspiring advice on how to navigate a career and feel confident as business leaders. Their advice is shaped by their backgrounds and experiences – where they come from, where they work, and the success they’ve achieved. We hope they inspire you and you can benefit from their advice!

Questions about successful businesswomen to discuss:

  • Do you think the advice offered by these women is helpful for young women looking to succeed in business?
  • Do you think these women have blind spots in their outlooks, and how do those blind spots affect the advice they give?
  • What advice would you give young women looking to succeed in business?
  • What are the most challenging and most rewarding industries for young businesswomen to work in?
  • Do you think talent or connections are more important for young women looking to succeed in business?

How motivational speaker Tony Robbins captivates audiences

Tony Robbins’ body language

Tony provides an excellent persona to study, in particular regarding his body language, body control and gesticulation.  Even while seated, Tony is able to use engaging body language to get his message across. While speaking, he moves his palms around and takes up as much space as possible, which signals that he is a very confident person.

How he engages with audiences

To engage an audience, one tactic is to strategically pull back and forth towards the audience. Tony draws in the viewers as he moves towards them and keeps them wanting more on the way back. In addition, using a variety of movements and other physical actions keeps the speaker feeling fresh to the audience, and sound-generating motions such as snapping and clapping can add a new dimension including sound.

How Tony became a motivational speaker who captivates audiences

The visibility of Tony’s palms is particularly captivating to the crowd. Tony is a master at using his wrists, forearms, and fingers to make a serious point; he flexes these parts of his body. This can be used the other way around for portraying a more gentle and loose message.

Tony’s method of drawing an audience’s attention radiates a sense of welcomeness. However, it is important to note that gesticulation-heavy delivery styles can detract from the oral message or possibly instil physical fear in the audience. Nevertheless, Tony has a strong track record as a motivational speaker who captivates audiences.

 

Questions to discuss in comments:

  • What is the best way to use gestures in conveying a message to an audience?
  • Does Tony Robbins do a good job at motivating people – is he a welcoming or intimidating figure?
  • What do you find engaging in public speakers?
  • Who do you think are the best motivational speakers?
mental health

How can you keep up your mental health in a good shape

Covid-19 has impacted all of us in many different ways. With long days inside, no face-to-face communication with friends and family, and very few available recreational activities, the stress on the mind can become greater and greater. How can you combat this stress and keep your mental well-being in good spirits?

Start Your Day Off Right

The first item at hand for good mental health is to start your day off right. It’s more likely than not that you sleep with your phone right next to you, so it may seem tempting to look at your notifications and scroll through Twitter as soon as wake up. However, this will only add more stress to your mind. Instead, start the day with a simple mindfulness exercise. This can be as simple as a quick breathing exercise, or just a moment of non-distraction before you get out of bed. This will help you stay calm and stress-free as you start the day.

Plan Your Morning

Second, plan your morning. There’s no more morning commute for you to take, so instead start off with a morning walk or listen to a podcast. By laying in bed and constantly checking your phone, you lose valuable minutes where you could be productive. Being productive is a great way to feel good about yourself and cope with stress.

Speak to Friends and Family

In addition, you should also build in time to speak with friends and family through video chats. Connecting with others is proven to release feel-good hormones, critical to dealing with stress.

Mental health after this pandemic

It is also important not to overwhelm yourself with loads of information on Covid-19. Seeing negative and heartbreaking news on your feed can seriously dampen your mood and release stress hormones. Taking the initiative to manage your social media intake each day will help you feel at ease, and you will be able to take in information with a more positive mindset.

Incorporate Breathing Exercises

If you do feel your anxiety levels spike up during the day, it is important to take the time and perform a few simple breathing exercises to help lower those levels. For example, box breathing is a technique where you breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out through your mouth for four seconds, and hold your empty breath for a final count of four. This simple technique will do wonders for your mental health in the short run.

Maintain a Good Sleep Schedule

Lastly, bedtime. Maintaining a good sleep schedule is key to great mental health in this time of crisis. Avoiding caffeine, sleeping early, and keeping screens out of your bedroom are some remedies to keep up your mental health.

Mental health after this pandemic

With all these steps, nothing, not even Covid-19 will stop you from living your best life with the best mental health possible.

Three tips to maintain your motivation and drive

Feel lost, lazy, or unsure of yourself? We get that, but we’re here to turn your frown upside down with three stellar tips on how to get and stay motivated.

Rebound, always

It is completely natural to feel turned off by tasks that are too intangible or plain difficult. It is okay. However, it is imperative to get back up (cliche, we know) and face reality. Your task does not change, only your mindset can. Remember that “taking the easy way out only makes life harder.”

Make decisions

We make decisions and choices every day of our lives. Some are quick and others deserve layers of thought. While making decisions is undoubtedly tough, don’t forget that decisions can also be incredibly motivating. Free yourself from unnecessary entanglements, learn to say no, and keep refining your craft.

Think forward

Visualization is key in tasting victory. You are simultaneously your own worst enemy and best friend. If you can get yourself to think positively and imagine yourself in situations of success, kickstarting your day at work at reducing stress becomes much, much easier. Jot down a list of your favorite things to do and what makes you enjoy them, and visualize yourself doing it each day.

The three keys to positive daily motivation

Rebound, make good decisions, and think forward. These are three keys to a good work ethic and motivation that will keep you in charge of your progress for years to come. Keep these in mind and your daily motivation will become a positive, self-reinforcing routine that will keep you fighting fit! Also to navigate today’s challenging times, check out this guide to maintaining your mental health.

motivation

3 Aces of motivation: Neil Patel, Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuk

It’s important in today’s world to understand that staying on top of your work and ensuring that you work hard in life to reach the top. This is a necessity in today’s world to be absolutely successful and make your company big. However, sometimes there are moments where you seek failure and it feels like things aren’t going your way. These are the low points when a person needs to motivation to keep moving ahead and keep trying until they achieve success.

That’s why there are people to motivate others, that’s why the journeys of someone’s success helps in motivating others. People tend to have an idol, someone who they absolutely respect and want to be like.

3 Aces of motivation

In marketing, motivation is required. People tend to forget about their long-term goals after a short-term failure and won’t feel like trying again. Furthermore, people sometimes drop the idea of pursuing their passion and take up something which is normal and not unique. Here are some examples of people to motivate you to get moving to your destiny and reach the success that you’ve always dreamt of.

Neil Patel

“Create Content that teaches. You can’t give up. You need to be consistently awesome.”

This amazing quote was told by Neil Patel. Neil Patel is known for his work in the field of marketing. Co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar & KISSmetrics, Neil Patel helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP & Viacom to grow revenues.

A critically acclaimed author as well, Neil Patel has been recognized by Wall street journal as a top influencer and Forbes states that he is one of the top 10 marketers.

Today, Neil Patel is a very big and famous person in the field or marketing, as he teaches many others marketing tactics and fundamentals. Achieving different feats like this was hard for Neil Patel.

Neil Patel also ensured that he keeps working hard and stays to achieve his dream of becoming a top member in the field of marketing. By sheer dedication and knowledge of the market, Neil Patel was able to help major companies grow their revenues and ensured that the companies reach a successful outcome.

He also did many extra jobs such as writing books on how to target customers using marketing skills and opened his own businesses as well. All his hard work helped and in the end, President Obama recognised him as a top 100 entrepreneur in the world under the age of 30.

Here are three points that Neil Patel advises every entrepreneur to follow to be successful:

  1. For entrepreneurs, entering a partnership could be difficult. If you get an uncomfortable partner, the business will fail. Work with people, see who works ideally with you and who are you comfortable with and have maximum chemistry with, then choose your partner wisely.
  2. Mistakes are inevitable and will lead to failure, then learn from them. Learning from mistakes separated the best from the average.
  3. Fixing your weaknesses can be a waste of time. As an entrepreneur, if you focus on making sure your strengths foreshadow your talent, then you will stay in the business as a successful entrepreneur.

Simon Sinek

A British author and inspirational speaker, Simon Sinek is known for his books and TedTalks for motivating people and teaching different leaders about leadership skills. Simon Sinek has helped many people and provides one-on-one sessions on his own site, where people can book time with him and he’ll be able to teach them about leadership skills or motivate them to reach success in life. Furthermore, he also provides information on markets as well, which helped people to be successful in marketing campaigns. However, Simon Sinek’s life shows a lot of situations where he himself was tested as a leader and he struggled as well.

Here’s a quote from Simon Sinek, that would motivate you:

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

According to Simon Sinek’s TedTalks, the 3 most valuable leadership skills are:

Selflessness, Empathy & Guide under the Fire.

Simon Sinek had to lead his team and had to focus excessively to reach where he is today. The books written by Sinek were absolutely sensational and achieved huge success. His books were the first steps to success and then he became a motivational speaker as well. Sinek’s books and articles have helped people in marketing as well.

Simon Sinek states that there are 5 rules to follow in life to be successful and achieve anything in life:

  1. Go after the things we want- Go after what you want in life and break all those things that come in your life
  2. Sometimes we are the problem- It’s good to accept your mistake and understand that sometimes you are the one creating issues. You have to own it up and back out or work on it.
  3. Take care of each other- It’s not about how fast, smart or intelligent you are. Take help when you need it and provide it when someone else needs it. This will ensure you grow your connections.
  4. Learn to be the last one to speak- Hold on to your opinions. Listen to others; what they think about you and why they do what they do. Then, speak your points as that’ll help you to be clearer.
  5. It’s not meant for you but for your position- Learn humility. Success will be achieved as you move ahead, by your position. Don’t let success get to your head, don’t be arrogant at all.

Gary Vaynerchuk

 

“I put zero weight into anyone’s opinion about me because I know exactly who I am. Can you say the same? When?”

The question is being asked to you by Gary Vaynerchuk himself.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a Belarusian-American entrepreneur, author, speaker and internet personality, who has given many motivational talks as well.

Co-Founder of Resy & Empathy Wines, chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerX subsidiary VaynerMedia. Vaynerchuk is now more famous for his work in digital marketing and social media.

He has grown his business excessively. Vaynerchuk is a true example of a person who wants more and isn’t going to stop after achieving one achievement in his life. The hunger for achieving everything and being on top is what makes Vaynerchuk work harder, even when he’s at the top and could just slack like others.

Vaynerchuk’s talks and motivational speeches have shown how much he has struggled in his own life to reach the top. To achieve success in life, Vaynerchuk worked a lot and kept on trying even after failing.

Opening and working in all different businesses led him to achieve success, not just in one zone but in different sectors. Vaynerchuk has motivated many other people in his life and by his speeches so that they can achieve success by working hard and work even when they have a small or big achievement in life to stay on top at all times.

Gary Vaynerchuk believes success can be achieved by following some pointers. Some of them are:

  1. Value patience- Patience is a very virtuous trait. Nobody becomes successful overnight. You will have to work hard and remain patient for a long time in your life, so to reach success.
  2. Age has nothing to do with ability- Till the time you work hard and are determined to stay on top, there’s no power in this world that can stop you from being on top. Whatever be your age, your talent will take you to places and ensure you stay on top, not your age.
  3. Prioritize your happiness- Give without expectations. Being selfish is the gateway to selflessness. This will help you to take care of your personal needs first and then help others. So, that you can truly help others.
  4. Value the perspective you bring to the table- Opinion of others about you does matter, but equally, your opinion about yourself matters as well. Keeping others above you is the single biggest mistake that you can make and it’ll make it hard for you to find happiness & confidence in who you are. Have respect for yourself.
  5. Have an open-door policy- Ideas can come from anywhere and from anyone in your team. Respect and make judgments from everyone in your team, as you never know which idea can help you to succeed. Respect others and their idea, to build a positive work environment and good chemistry amongst your peers and teammates.

Conclusion

Overall, staying on top is always tough and difficult. Examples of Neil Patel, Simon Sinek & Gary Vaynerchuk show that to reach the top with full success and popularity, it’s very important to constantly work hard and stay on top of your work. Furthermore, it shows that to strive to be on top and be successful, it’s very important to fail and keep trying as it’ll teach you to stay humble and work harder than before as well. Be motivated and work harder, that’ll ensure you’ll reach success for sure. Go for it.

Pratyush Mishra

Expert Panel: What makes a good leader great?

Welcome to this brilliant Expert Panel on what makes a good leader great. Here you will find a fantastic lineup of recognised Leaders, CEOs and Managing Directors who shared their thoughts and experience on how to excel in the art of leadership.

Michael Meyrick

Chief Executive Officer at Meyrick Consulting

A great leader is one that is effective. You can have great ideas, but success comes with total focus. Leadership is a long game and requires the ability to persevere however tough the circumstances. However, how you manage a team around you is key. Making a team accountable and designed in such a way that results are almost guaranteed is part of a leader’s responsibility I believe.

Sometimes it’s not doing and acting that makes the key difference to being a success or a failure. Great communication skills with others and also constant reappraisal of your own qualities are significant differentiators. Being able to receive transparent feedback from team members as a learning opportunity takes both guts and humility.

A great leader will never be satisfied and that’s where the energy, vision and effectiveness stems from in my opinion. The following quotation from Chris Hagerty really summarises this quite nicely “The goal of most leaders is to get the people to think highly of them as a leader. But the goal of the exceptional leader is to get the people to think highly of themselves.”

Mark Kennedy

Managing Director at Contract Plant Rental

A great leader needs to have a clear vision, has integrity and humility with a very clear focus. They understand that it is the people they lead that are the formula to the success or failure of any project or business. They understand their limitations and surround themselves with great people who have the skills and the same attitude who can work as a functional team.

Great leaders help people reach their goals, and are not afraid to hire people that might be better than them to achieve the overall objective.

Iwona Lebiedowicz

Chief Executive Officer at PAB Group

Leaders, especially during times of uncertainty, must be prepared to make tough decisions, and often sacrifices, to fulfil their vision and grow into stronger and better leaders.

During tougher times, I feel being a leader means lots of noise, being buffeted from one side to another; it means working crazy long hours, getting knocked back and getting back up again, getting noticed, celebrating wins, and learning some life lessons quickly.

Here are a few of mine…

Lesson 1: Clarity of purpose

Great leaders must not only have a clear picture of where they want to be and who they must become to get there but also be able to articulate this vision to their teams so everyone is motivated to be the best they can be.

Lesson 2: Kindness and integrity

I once heard this quote, which defines leadership for me; “Love your people, love your organization and love those you serve, and you’ll have discovered the secret of great leadership.”

Lesson3: Empowering my team

I strongly believe that great leadership is committing to becoming someone people can look up to. For me, that means asking myself every day “Did I make an impact on our team today? Was I able to help and motivate those around me?”

Lesson 4 Passion and dedication

In my opinion, great leaders establish the standards for customer focus. Making sure these high standards are embedded throughout our business and that everyone is fully equipped to provide a great experience for all our stakeholders is a big part of what has made us successful.

Read a full article here: What makes a great leader?

https://www.expertcircle.uk/what-makes-a-great-leader/

Stephen Haigh

Lead, Consulting Partner Search at Investigo Executive

 A 360-degree viewpoint.

Some leaders only look forwards, striving for growth and change, but fail to consider whether their people are following them, or what is happening in the market.

Others look left and right, worrying about competing with their peers and market competitors, their energy is consumed by KPIs and revenue targets.

Meanwhile some focus just on the people following them, making sure they’re happy and productive.

A great leader has the whole 360 view, they strategize about the future, measure themselves against the market, and work with their team to excel against their strategic objectives.

Andrew Pullman

CEO at People Risk Solutions Ltd

A great leader is one who listens and adapts. The biggest mistake leaders make is to think that now they have reached a leadership position they can call all the shots, and don’t need other input; these people usually fail. It is critical to bring your team with you, and that means listening and using their expertise to make better decisions.

Gina Le Prevost

CEO at AP Executive

A great leader is someone who can relate to each one of their staff in a unique way, what I mean by this is by the leader taking time to find out how the staff member relates to business and their job. I also believe that being direct, frank and honest is the best approach to being a great leader. Although at times it is hard to tell a staff member your brutal opinion, when you know they are not going to like it, you hope that one day the employee will reflect on the difficult conversation and see the relevance even if they did not want to at the time.

 

A great leader inspires by providing clarity on the purpose and the goal but they let the team innovate on how they meet it, allowing each individual to thrive. Kate Shoesmith, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Recruitment & Employment Confederation

Phil Ryan

Director at LVR Capital

A great leader in my opinion is to know when you don’t know the answer and know when to utilise internal or external resources to reach a decision.

I believe teams respect this more than someone pretending they do and blaming them when it doesn’t work.

We all have to constantly and consistently embrace change and innovate. The world is changing, and changing fast.

Cheney Hamilton

CEO & Founder at Find|Your|Flex Group

To me, a great leader is someone who allows their team the space to be great. To do what they do best, to give them the freedom to express themselves and BE HEARD. In my experience, this achieves employee loyalty, trust and positive productivity behaviours, beyond anything I’ve ever seen in any other management style.

Jenny Kitchen

CEO at Yoyo

What makes a great leader?

Knowing when to gather opinions and input, and when to stop the debate and take decisive action is incredibly important as a leader. The successful leader is collaborative and empathetic, she seeks out people’s ideas and looks to understand it from their perspective. But there always needs to be a crunch point, when decisions need to be made. If people feel like they have been heard, even if their ideas weren’t ultimately carried through, they are likely to be respectful and committed to backing that decision.

Hire great people, and then know when to lead from the front and when to lead from behind. You want people to have confidence and get energised and inspired through your leadership, but you’ve hired them for a reason, so let them shine, be accountable and come to their own conclusions. And sometimes, these may differ from your own and sometimes you just have to accept this and move on. As long as the ultimate objectives are reached, it shouldn’t matter if the methods aren’t identical to what you would have done. Delegate and have faith in the people you have hired.

Daniel Boyle

 CEO – RLS Search Ltd

The ability to cultivate or develop one’s EQ. The ability to transmit their personality combined with a high level of empathy is what gives a strong leader the toolset required to face the majority of situations that arise when influencing and guiding members of their organization or team. Obviously, this is done via the process of social influence to maximize the results and efforts of others to achieve a goal. But a high level of EQ has always been apparent in all the truly great leaders I have worked with, and it has been that level of EQ, which comes hand in hand with strong self-awareness, that in my experience makes good leaders ‘Great Leaders’.

Lucy Morgan

Managing Director

A great leader cares about people – genuine care for the people they employ, their well-being, security, progression and career development. A great leader also cares about the people they work with externally and makes ethical business decisions knowing they are dealing with people’s lives.

Neil Skehel

CEO at Awards International

Two things – the ability to lead teams through tough times and knowing their limitations.

Leaders set a vision for their organisations, a compelling one hopefully, but organisations don’t always run smoothly and it is impossible to predict the future. Often morale and motivation can be challenged.

Great leaders recognise that one of the most important aspects of their role is to focus on what needs to be done to get past the situation, taking it in their stride and showing how to approach adversity.

Great leaders seek solutions in these situations and show how the challenges will be met, with confidence and enthusiasm. It is vital that leaders also know their limitations and are not afraid to admit to them. They won’t be too many, because they are exceptional people, but they will have limitations. To admit them and show you need the team around you to help you and to lead in those areas is a great attribute of a leader.

A lot is said about authenticity or showing vulnerability, these days and great leaders are not afraid to act with authenticity and share their vulnerability at times.

Marco Zamponi

CEO at Labnormal

A great leader is someone capable of generating momentum from the factors around them. However, the entanglements of today’s environment can act as friction or as a constraint, and the future looks even more complex.

I firmly believe that there are several kinds of leadership styles, but while some of the aspects can be held in a cluster, or someone could be inspired by another leader, a great leader has his own formula.

Leading, being committed, inspiring changes in other team members, bringing their experience and contribution, and sharing their values.

Agree on behaviour, terms and procedure policy, don’t get stuck in issues but help move over. Passion, methodology, and the ability to communicate problems and listen to other people’s problems do not underestimate what people have understood and what they do not. A simple approach, be present but not fully committed.

Can a leader be selfish?

I would say yes but must remember to listen appropriately and do not be superficial. Accept and embrace diversity, do not overwhelm other team members. Can be rigid on some consolidated tasks, get feedback from others, accept failures and accept the team’s values, culture and diversity.

Those are some of the activities and skills a good leader must manage, but a great leader understands that we are all human and subject to good days and bad days.
That’s why a great leader should embrace this complexity and achieve the best from people, resources, cultures, and the environment surrounding them to help a company or a team sail through their objectives.

Grant Coren

Managing Director at Pharma-Search Limited

Are leaders born or developed?
It is often difficult to define what makes a great leader, we all have our own subjective opinion.

However, I am confident that a leader should never be confused with a good manager!

Strong leaders bring a willingness to listen to others but the confidence to make decisions.

Strong leaders trust and empower others, sharing information and experience openly and with transparency.

A strong leader will always seek to bring in new talent that has the potential to be better than them and never feel threatened.

A strong leader will always be comfortable being challenged and create an environment where individuals are encouraged to professionally challenge one another.

A strong leader will always encourage others to develop and support them and allow them to grow regardless of age, level, race, religion, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any other personal choice.

Mariusz Kowalski

CEO at Waterwalk Partners

In your opinion, what makes a great leader?

There are so many possible answers to this question. But in my view, great leaders can combine the following qualities:

Knowing how to drive their organization in tough times

Some leaders may treat adverse conditions as a Formula 1 pitstop, using the time to fine-tune their organization (the analogy first shared by Professor Scott of LBS and referred to by the Managing Partners’ Forum). Others may have another vision and plan. But they make things happen instead of waiting.

Accessible and connected

When working together in real life (IRL) is not possible or difficult, great leaders are accessible and available, doing their utmost to keep their people energized and motivated. And while it is particularly important during the pandemic, such an attitude should be promoted also when things come back to (new) normal.

Making people work for a purpose

It is not enough just to have company values and a mission statement. Great leaders make their team members believe that they work for a purpose worth the effort. That they work for a good cause. To achieve it, it is not enough to give a few motivational speeches. Great leaders share their bold vision with their teams and realize it together.

Agnieszka Pytlas

Adwokat / Managing Partner at Penteris

Much has been written about successful leadership: how to become a leader, how to develop the relevant skills, or how to learn from one’s failures. In many respects, all these questions come down to intellectual prowess, technical competence, and operational know-how – in short, good old-fashioned hard skills. However, while qualifications are essential and cannot be underestimated in one’s day-to-day work, they fail to account for the difference in performance between equally skilled people in leadership positions.

All things being equal, what makes some senior leaders more successful than others? This was the question Daniel Goleman set out to answer when he embarked on his research into what makes a leader (published by Harvard Business Review in June 1996). What he found was that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership, the “right stuff” that allows some leaders to rise above the rest. Today, this statement rings particularly true.

Read the full article: Successful leadership: how to be a great leader

https://www.expertcircle.uk/successful-leadership-how-to-be-a-great-leader/

Joanna Deagle

Managing Director at CAFE: Centre for Access to Football in Europe

Integrity. Someone who is able to act with integrity in everything they do. Someone who makes decisions based on consulting those who will be impacted by those decisions so they are able to find suitable and sustainable solutions.

Food for thought:

Do all stakeholders including employees benefit from the success? 

Is success in the short term laying a foundation for growth in the long term?

David Saldanha, Managing Director at Wavesight Limited

Berne Omolafe

Founder and Head of Innovation at PRYNTD.xyz

Accountability. This is very often overlooked. Accountability is not just the acceptance of fault, it is the preemptive ability to ensure matters are set in a way where the big picture and the bottom line are aligned. This is by far the most important feature of a great leader.

Jon Faulkner

CEO at 6bythree Digital Ltd

I think what makes a good leader great, is being consistently caring and humbly serving all the people they interact with, colleagues, clients and broader communities, delivering the best they can in all things. A willingness to serve and support people is key to ensure strong trusting relationships, which helps collaborative activities to be much more successful as the conversations are more open, the challenges and opportunities rise to the surface more readily and people feel genuinely engaged, informed, empowered and contributing to the work in hand. Then, what goes around comes around, all of the people in the mix begin to humbly serve each other and do the best they can in all things and it leads to a context of abundance, rather than constraints.

Demonstrating true care, support and service to others, every day and in all things, focusing on the person as a whole to ensure that they flourish is, I believe, what makes a good leader great.

Shabac Cabdilahi

Managing Director at The Local Teachers

To me, when we talk about good leader it really comes down to two qualities;

  1. a great leader must be an energiser, he or she has to be able to inject people energy, motivate them to do things. To do this effectively you need to be able to connect with people and sympathise with them to get them to do the work. The point here is providing them with the purpose and why they should be acting not next week, not tomorrow but now.
  2. The equally important element that a great leader needs to acquire is the ability to create clarity. You see when you energise people to kickstart the work, you then need to be able to provide a clear roadmap that takes them to the desired destination.

Stephen Sullivan

Managing Director

A great leader has many great qualities but, for me, the most important one is to listen and hear what your team and clients want. Without this, you end up down too many dead ends on product and solutions plus your team loses interest.

Dr Raman K Attri

Build ‘excellence hubs’ to leverage diversity of locations, cultures and ages

The leadership strategy of the excellence hub clearly gives cost benefits in certain regions where salaries are relatively lower. In the other areas, it may allow leveraging characteristically younger population profiles. While our typical first preference always has been hiring experienced senior professionals, but we could open up positions at multiple tiers to include mid-senior and younger generations. In such a structure, the younger people received highly experienced mentoring from senior staff and came up to speed. But the most significant advantage comes in the form of fresh ideas like technologies, software, apps, AI tools, and other contemporary expertise this age group brings.

Not only does it massively uplift the quality in line with the technology-driven world, but it also prepares the workforce for future challenges.

Read the full article here: Excellence hubs: the way to leverage diversity of locations, cultures and ages

https://www.expertcircle.uk/excellence-hubs/

We at Expert Circle were overwhelmed with a number of responses. We assembled the first part of the panel and we will be publishing a second part shortly.

 

motivation

What factors are prone to affecting your motivation both positively and negatively?

It can be very important for you to identify what factors are causing your motivation to fluctuate. Often, you may also discover new factors that have not already been outlined that could help or hinder your motivation when working. In this article, we want to show you some of the common factors found that significantly impact your business.

Key factors that can influence your motivation

  1. Great managers suggested that a company’s culture definitely has a big impact on motivation. This is because, in a company where people in a team have different approaches to work, it can lead to a bit of friction in the workforce. This then can cause favouritism from workers who have similar approaches to each other and therefore, workers with different approaches may lose motivation by feeling no inclusion in tasks or the communication breaks down.
  2. Penguins article discusses the importance of reward and recognition. They talk about how praise begins to lose its impact if not accompanied by reward. Exceptional work deserves a reward and while recognition is sufficient in certain cases, employees begin to lose motivation if they are not rewarded for extra effort.
  3. The next factor is discussed by amanet and is all about the structure factor of motivation. Some work is inherently motivational, requiring creativity, imagination, and elevated levels of energy. Work that involves communicating, negotiating, and interacting with other people to gain their cooperation to get the job done quickly and well brings out the best energies of the individual. It is exciting and challenging. It is usually highly rewarding as well.
  4. M3ssolutions discusses how learning and development opportunities can impact your motivation. Self-actualisation is a natural by-product of high performance. Most employees naturally want to do a good job to feel they are achieving their full potential. Learning & Development (L&D) is a way of educating and guiding your employees on the areas and aspects that will help them develop and progress.
  5. Finally, mnestudies is similar to the reward and recognition factor as they both involve the leadership role at the workplace. Leaders play a key role in maintaining a conducive work environment. The leader should understand how to deal with different employees. It is imperative on the leaders that he should respect the employees, and this would make others take a leaf out of his book and this would help in the prevailing culture of mutual respect and honour.

Leave a comment if you think we missed out any other key factors.

Blake Wolsey-Cooper

business

Top 10 motivational business quotes to help increase your motivation

It is often difficult to maintain motivation for many people. Wouldn’t you agree? Motivation can dip in general for most activities and there is always a certain level of dedication that is needed to overcome it.

In this article, we are going to mention motivational business quotes that are designed to help motivate you when you are working within your business.

With working from home becoming so popular because of covid-19 many people have found that their home also being their working environment creates a situation where they can’t switch off from work because it’s the same environment.

Below is a top 10 motivational business quote list to help you with your motivation:

  1. “The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” — Socrates, father of Western philosophy

  2. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft

  3. “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

  4. “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen” – Wayne Huizenga

  5. “Timing, perseverance and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success” – Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter

  6. “You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” — Peter Shankman, founder of HARO

  7. “Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical” – Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

  8. “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.” — Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

  9. “See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” — Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle

  10. “An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” — David Karp, founder, and CEO of Tumblr

After reading this article, you can further extend your method of motivation by checking out our other article called The best way you can motivate yourself and your team.

Blake Wolsey-Cooper

motivate

The best ways YOU can motivate yourself and your team

Is maintaining motivation as hard as it seems? Maybe you are thinking of new ways to motivate yourself. Maybe you want to find ways of maintaining motivation within your team. Whatever the case may be motivation is an essential part of you being able to get tasks done effectively. In an ever changing world it is important to keep motivation high. With the outbreak of Covid, this has made teams struggle with motivation when working at home. This is where this article can help as it offers ideas and methods you can adopt for yourself and others.

Self-motivation
Gene Swank published an article explaining how accomplishing anything great takes short-term sacrifices, pain and stress. All of these things can be demotivating if you’re operating with a short-term mindset. However, when you look at where you’ll be five years from now because of this sacrifice, it tends to keep things in perspective. This is an effective way of building your motivation. This next point ties in closely with a point made in our purposeful motivation post about a healthy lifestyle. When you focus on a healthy lifestyle, you are more motivated and can weather the challenges that life throws at you more effectively. Planting yourself in an environment that is surrounded by productive individuals can also help motivate you massively.
An article written by Ayelet Fishbach stated that effective self-motivation is one of the main things that distinguishes high-achieving professionals from everyone else. Learning and developing this ability to provide motivation intrinsically is the gateway to success. The article then goes on to express the important use of setting  goals. This is because they  should be triggering intrinsic motivation as you work towards what you set out to achieve. The important thing to remember, however, is that they should be challenging but realistic at the same time. one final point stated was being consistent. Motivation needs to be sustained over a period of time and a lack of consistency will drive your motivation into the ground.
An article on reed by Aaron Obeng talks about how stepping outside of your comfort zone can lead to a change in ideas, and overall outlook on your working situations. Also, going back and evaluating what you have achieved is a great way to remind yourself of how far you have come with your successes.
Here are some additional best ways/methods you can use to improve your self-motivation:

  • visualize your goals
  • be realistic
  • have a setback plan
  • develop a routine
  • reward yourself
  • think long-term

Motivating your team
Keeping your team motivated is essential for consistent achievement. With the Covid breakout, a lot of teams have moved to online calls for meetings and so this may cause a disconnection between you and your team. As a result of this, the motivation of your team may be at risk of falling as they work from home. Teams are eager to be motivated, especially to find meaning at work during this crisis. Remote work means that both the acquisition and bonding drives are harder to meet via traditional means such as raises and team outings.
An article from Deloitte explains  that as a team leader you have to remember to stay empathetic to others in their adjustment to their new working environment. other things to consider is to be patient, watch your tone, be respectful, trust your team, avoid presentism and set objectives for the day and be clear timelines. Another key point to remember is that the members of your team will be more valuable to your organization, and to themselves, when they have opportunities to learn new skills. Making them aware of what they can gain is important as this will both help motivate them and provide them with self-motivation where they can create their own goals. Recognition on good work from your team will also go a long way in motivating them.
Here are some additional best ways/methods you can use to improve your team’s motivation:

  • providing a pleasant working environment
  • offer opportunities for self-development
  • avoid useless meetings
  • encouragement
  • be available to any concerns

After having read the best ways to motivate yourself and your team why not check out our purposeful motivation post discussing more broad points about overall motivation.

motivation

Purposeful Motivation

First, motivation is affected by energy, emotion, passion and, of course, your surroundings. As I began to study families and how they related to one another, I realized that we are programmed as a child by our family and surroundings. A person can only demonstrate the actions they have witnessed day after day. And, you don’t know WHAT you don’t know until you KNOW you don’t know it.

So, back to motivation. Here are 3 of my most favourite motivations!

#1 – MUSIC

Music feels the SOUL. Listen to UPLIFTING Music with a beat, spiritual music with a message (mine’s Christian), or soothing classical or jazz music. I’m a vocalist, so music speaks to me. On the other side of the coin, if you listen to music full of demeaning words or hostility, it’s surely going to drain you of your love of life.

#2 – MOVEMENT

I began dance classes at 6 years old and went on to teach for 20 years. Movement not only keeps you agile, strong and happy as I see it but energizes your body. A body in motion stays in motion. Think of online game players and how they can sit for 12 hours playing, accomplishing nothing and may not even stop to eat. Even when you are working all day online if you don’t get up and move a certain amount, your brain slows, and your creativity is gone! Movement keeps your energy going, and energy is a SURE Part of Motivation.

#3 – Personal Growth

Reading other people’s success, ideas, and proven formulas gives me hope and feed my passion for people. Reminding me that daily motivation is needed to form habits, self-discipline & Action. If you had a rough start in life, you don’t have to stay there. You can tap into all the recourses right here online, change your mind, change your heart, change your direction, and change your LIFE. You have choices.

That’s my aim. Many challenges that have come into my life have changed my perspective, given me wisdom and understanding in different areas. Where they could have to take me down a Rabbit Hole (some did), I have learned to fight the frustrations, build new habits and always have the goal of turning Lemons……….. into Lemonade. This is done by continually doing the things that Motivate.

Contributor:
Connie Durham 

conniescleverconcepts.com