As our professional lives become increasingly digitized, it's more important than ever to keep our virtual workspaces organized and clutter-free. When our virtual workspaces are messy and disorganized, it can lead to inefficiencies and increased stress.
But, how can organizing our virtual workspace improve productivity?
When you have an organized virtual workspace, you spend less time searching for files and more time getting things done. With a clear folder structure, it’s easy to find what you need quickly.
A cluttered virtual workspace can be overwhelming, leading to stress and reduced focus. When you’re searching for a file in a sea of old versions and unrelated documents, it’s hard to concentrate on the task at hand. By organizing your virtual workspace, you can create a calmer environment that helps you focus on your work.
If you’re working with a team, having an organized virtual workspace is essential for collaboration. With clear file structures and task management systems, team members can easily find the information they need and stay on top of their responsibilities. This leads to better communication, fewer misunderstandings, and a more productive team.
Now that we’ve explored the benefits of an organized virtual workspace, here are some tips for getting started:
Do you have applications running on your computer that you don’t use? The first step in organizing your virtual workspace is to delete anything that you no longer need. Not only will this save space on your hard drive, it will also make the organization process a lot easier.
Organize your files into folders that make sense to you. This could be by project, client, or document type. When naming folders, use a clear and concise naming convention to ensure they’re easy to search for. For example, if you are organizing files related to a specific project, name the folder with the project name and include the date.
With the constant influx of messages from coworkers, clients, prospects, and outside organizations, it can be overwhelming to keep up with them all. This often leads to important emails getting lost in the shuffle, which can result in missed deadlines, miscommunications, and even lost business opportunities.
That's why it's crucial to take the time to organize your inbox. Whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or any other email service, there are a variety of organizational features available to you. By familiarizing yourself with these features, you can ensure that you never miss an important message again. And the time and effort you invest in organizing your inbox will pay off in improved productivity and work satisfaction.
By implementing these tips and making small changes to your digital habits, you can create a workspace that is streamlined, efficient, and stress-free.
Interested in reading more on how to stay organized and improve your productivity? Check out our blog, where we explore new topics regularly.
As the business world continues to evolve and the divide between employers and employees continues to grow, the traditional top-down approach to leadership is no longer sufficient. Employees want to feel heard, valued, and supported in their roles, and to achieve this, companies must actively work to understand and address their needs.
The current job market is highly competitive, and talented employees have more options than ever before. Retention is key, and companies that prioritize the employee experience will have a significant advantage. This means offering flexibility, investing in professional development, and creating a positive workplace culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and growth.
At the same time, leaders need to balance these employee needs with the goals of the business. It's a delicate dance, but one that can be achieved through effective communication and collaboration. By listening to your employees and involving them in decision-making processes, you can create a sense of ownership and commitment that leads to increased engagement and productivity.
So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve, start bridging the gap between leadership and employees. The benefits are clear: higher retention rates, better morale, and a more successful business overall.
Bridging the gap between leadership and employees requires a two-way communication approach. Leaders must actively listen to and ask questions of their employees to create a more inclusive and collaborative work environment that benefits everyone.
When leaders actively listen to their employees, they can better understand their concerns, challenges, and suggestions. This helps the company make informed decisions that address the needs and priorities of the entire team and can help leadership build credibility with their employees. By asking questions, leaders can also encourage employees to share their thoughts and feel more engaged and invested in their work.
Wondering why your employees are burnt out or dis-engaged? The simple way to find out is to ask.
Create an open line of communication where people at the company feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feedback about company processes, policies, and objectives.
One idea is to use feedback surveys where employers can ask for anonymous feedback from employees. However, it's important for employers to not only collect the feedback but also take it seriously and follow through on addressing any concerns or suggestions raised by employees. Failure to act on feedback can lead to a lack of trust and respect from employees, which can have negative effects on morale and productivity.
Employers can also consider providing regular updates to employees on the progress made based on the feedback provided. This can help demonstrate that their opinions are valued and that their input is making a difference.
Keeping employees in the dark can have serious negative consequences. It can erode trust, decrease motivation, increase turnover, and prevent employees from contributing to the company's success.
Being transparent with employees about decisions, initiatives, and company performance is key to building a culture of trust and collaboration. When employees feel valued and respected, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated in their work, ultimately leading to better overall performance.
Transparency also provides employees with a sense of purpose and a deeper understanding of their role within the organization. By communicating the company's goals and strategy, employees can see how their work contributes to the company's success. This understanding can be a powerful motivator and can lead to employees making better decisions that align with the company's goals.
Ready to start bridging the gap between employees and leadership within your company? Book a consultation with our experts at MY BIG IDEA to start using the Program that has helped countless companies attract, retain and engage their employees.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to demonstrate gratitude each and every day, and this responsibility is certainly not a small one. Human assets are the most integral part of any business and leaders need to stay connected to put their people at the forefront. With all the pressures you experience, how you ask, will you find the energy you need to sustain a disposition toward gratitude?
When you put building and sustaining gratitude at the core of your business proposition, you have already taken a very important first step.
There will be days when expressing gratitude will be more difficult than others of course. On those days, it’s important to look within yourself and ask why this is so. Perhaps you need to breathe new life into your personal outlook?
To keep your personal compass for gratitude pointing in the right direction, you need to continually refresh your capacity to experience it and share it with others. Allow yourself the luxury of time to stop, reflect, refuel and redirect your energy to meet life’s challenges. This doesn’t mean planning a week of vacation away from work once a year. It means that you need to find creative ways to rebuild your energy on a regular basis in whatever manner works best for you.
It takes a strong sense of self-worth to value ourselves enough to take the time we need personally to refuel our energy. In order to give generously of ourselves and show our appreciation to others, we absolutely need downtime to keep ourselves focused and motivated. When you find yourself in need of a break to refuel, take it seriously. Find a way to delegate, postpone, or cancel those tasks and appointments that are keeping you from your refueling time. Whether you attend a yoga class or leave the country on a cruise, disconnect and respect your need for refueling
A truly genuine support network helps by keeping you grounded, and at the same time, they wholeheartedly encourage and help you become the very best version of yourself. Your support network is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. And when you share with those in your network how important they are to you and express your genuine gratitude, those relationships grow even stronger.
Research shows that the health benefits of sharing gratitude are valid because of its effects on our consciousness: “if we can change our inner world through gratitude, empathy, compassion, and meditation, we can make our outer world more peaceful.”
No question about it, gratitude and respect are valuable currencies of exchange both in business and in life. It’s about being real and recognizing and respecting the full humanity of all the people with whom we interact.
Clearly, showing gratitude to others helps make the world a better place for all of us.
Originally posted on Forbes.com
Let’s face it. Behind every business deal there are human beings charged with making the best decisions they can for the business. And, it’s our common humanity that is the foundation of all business relationships.
Conveying our humanity helps to further our connection—the sort of regular human connection that we all crave. Investing the time and effort in building relationships often helps others step outside their expected roles and may present new opportunities for learning about one another.
So how does all this help win business? Surveys show that companies that provide an emotional connection with their customers or clients outperform the sales growth of their competitors. The human factor is a critical component in any leader’s toolkit for achieving superior and sustained results through teamwork.
Lead with gratitude and let it help establish your relationships.
The key to successfully landing a new client begins with being thankful for the opportunity to do business with them. By approaching each situation as a potential new friendship rather than a business transaction, you’re looking for opportunities to be helpful and find a common ground on which you can build a genuine relationship.
LISTENING to what people have to say is the very first step in showing someone you care. When you walk into a meeting, make it your first step to observe the room to get a feel for the place and the people—their expression, their posture, and what they say and don’t say. It is very important to set the tone of the meeting by putting others at ease.
SILENCE is a very important, and active, element of the exchange of observations and ideas in a meeting. This isn’t the kind of silence where you’re waiting for someone to finish talking so that you can finally express your point of view. This is silence as a mode of engagement—as active listening. Sometimes, all you have to do is wait and look people straight in the eyes. Through a lens of gratitude, they soon come to realize that you actually care about what they are saying. They know that they are being heard, and that in itself opens up all kinds of conversational possibilities.
By genuinely listening to a client’s needs and conveying your own humanity, it will not only change the dynamic in pitch meetings, it will help in your post-meeting follow up.
Making gratitude a core element of your business strategy is a winning recipe for boosting your connections and ultimately your sales. When approaching each potential client with gratitude, you may or may not win their business on that first encounter, but you will win their respect. They will remember the way you listened and responded to their needs.
Even when the fit is not quite right for that particular client, a connection has been built that will sooner or later lead to new business. Often this comes in the form of a referral to another potential client. Gratitude is a currency, and it comes full circle when a business referral comes in. There is no greater compliment for your business.
Why not make gratitude-based outward marketing a constant practice in your business and watch how it pays off in terms of client and customer loyalty? Contact us at MY BIG IDEA to learn more.
Originally posted on Forbes.com
One of the most important communications between you and your business clients is a sincere expression of gratitude. It seems so obvious, yet in our transactional business world, a simple “thank you” is often overlooked.
A failure to show your clients or customers that you appreciate them is a missed opportunity to further cement your business relationship with them and build customer loyalty.
Surveys show that 96 percent of customers say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand. Loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again and four times more likely to refer a friend to the company. On top of this, a five-percent increase in customer retention can increase your company’s profitability by 75 percent.
Take a moment and reflect on these statistics. Then, ask yourself “what does gratitude have to do with customer service?”
The answer is everything. When your clients consistently receive top-level service from your business, you are building a loyal client base and their reasons for leaving are fewer. The best way to show your clients you appreciate their business is to give them what they expect, and then some, on-time, every time. In other words, gratitude is the key to retaining your existing clients, and your existing clients are generally a much easier sell than mining for new ones.
You can start expressing your gratitude by making commitments to your client that extend well past the current transaction. Keep the communication regular and solidify that long-term relationship. Consider engaging in team-building activities to create cohesiveness with all relevant members of your team and theirs. Or you might simply arrange meetings with your key client decision-makers on a face-to-face basis at regular (or spontaneous) intervals. When face-to-face is not an option, why not try the “virtual lunch” and share a relaxing meal over Zoom. You might be surprised how often random chat can lead to business opportunities.
Remember too, that your entire team are ambassadors for your brand. Every one of them must be encouraged to keep in touch, listen, and acknowledge the needs and issues of your current clients. How many times have you encountered a situation where you or a team member are too busy to make the time to respond, or don’t want to address a matter that’s clearly pressing for the person on the other side of the email? Making the effort to acknowledge the contact, respectfully following up, or being politely responsive even if you don’t have the answer are all behaviors influenced by gratitude.
We all expect our efforts to be at least acknowledged, if not appreciated, in some form or another. It’s just good business, let alone a basic human social practice, to express appreciation for other people’s time and input. Being thankful is a sign of respect. Such a simple gesture, yet so many of us fail to follow up or acknowledge the good that others do for us. Be present and accountable in responding to contacts, following up with teammates, or acknowledging your partners in business. Returning calls, being prompt, or acknowledging an email, even if it’s just to say “I’m swamped but will get back to you in a couple of days” are all signs of respect. Unfortunately, respect is something in such short supply today.
Remember this: when you lead with gratitude, you put yourself in a position of being accountable to others. When you are accountable to others, the possibility that you will rationalize potentially bad behavior or blame someone else is reduced, because you personally need to step up and take responsibility. That accountability, and the respect and consistency that follow from it is what keeps your customers loyal.
Delivery of excellent customer service combined with expressions of gratitude for customer loyalty are powerful motivators for continuing your business relationships. From my experience, when you demonstrate gratitude to your clients, the likelihood of capturing their loyalty to your brand grows exponentially leading to repeat business and customers helping your business succeed.
Interested in learning more about the benefits of gratitude? Check out our blog, where we explore new topics regularly.
Originally posted on Forbes.com
Showing gratitude can increase your happiness and help you feel more secure in the relationship.
A quick glance into your own life may reveal some refreshing insight: you have relationships that are thriving.
Why should you be grateful for the healthy relationships you have?
Not only do relationships enrich your life through connections with other people, they can affect your health in a positive way. When you are involved in a healthy relationship, you are more likely to see an improvement in your physical health. In fact, studies show that people who have at least one positive relationship will live longer, have lower blood pressure, experience less pain and heal faster than those who don’t.
How can you show gratitude for the healthy relationships you have in your life?
A healthy relationship takes work and commitment. When you have strong ties to another person, it takes work to maintain your relationship.
It can begin with something simple, a sincere ‘Thank you’ for an act of kindness or service they’ve done. But showing gratitude has a cascading effect that is far from simple. It starts a cycle of gratitude that helps to strengthen the relationship over time. When you feel appreciated, you are more likely to look for additional ways to show your partner you care. They in turn, feel loved and valued so will look for ways to show their appreciation.
A quick look at social media will remind you how important quality, healthy relationships are. Don’t overlook the importance of acknowledging how much you value your relationship with your partner. Put your appreciation into words - both verbal and written - to communicate how grateful you are for the relationship.
Maintaining a healthy relationship takes work. If you value the relationship, make it clear in the way you carve out time. Check on the health of the relationship frequently by spending time with the other person. Maintain regular contact and place a high value on the time you give the relationship.
Complacency is the enemy of gratefulness. When things become stale in a relationship, it may be because things have become boring. Even when things are going well, falling into a pattern can reduce feelings of gratitude because the good things have become expected. Show your appreciation for others by going outside the norm.
Be grateful for the healthy relationships in your life. How are you going to show your gratitude today?
Interested in learning more about gratitude? Check out our blog, where we explore new topics regularly.