How Women Can Stand Out Professionally

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Professional Women|How Women Can Stand Out ProfessionallyTo stand out in the workplace, women must be proactive and differentiate themselves from their male counterparts. This can be done through networking, developing critical skills, and being mindful of personal branding. Additionally, it is vital to showcase your unique value proposition during job interviews and on the job.

Steps Women Can Take to Stand Out Professionally

There are several things that women can do to stand out professionally, like Cynthia Telles. Below are five steps to get started:

Step One: Commit to Continuous Learning

To stay ahead of the curve, women need to commit themselves to continuous learning. This means taking advantage of every opportunity to learn new skills and grow their knowledge base. Whether it’s reading articles online, attending webinars or workshops, or listening to podcasts, there are many ways for women to keep learning.

Step Two: Build a Strong Network

A strong network is critical for any professional woman looking to impact. Women should aim to build relationships with people who can help them advance their careers. This may include colleagues, mentors, and even former bosses. The more people someone knows, the more opportunities they will have.


Step Three: Stand Out from the Crowd

Women need to be creative and think outside the box to stand out from the competition. One way to do this is by developing their unique brand. This could involve creating a personal website or blog, participating in social media, or dressing in a unique way that sets them apart from other professionals.

Step Four: Be Confident and Assertive

Women often struggle with confidence and assertiveness in the workplace. However, these are two essential qualities for any woman looking to succeed. Women should aim to project confidence through their body language and voice. They should also learn how to be assertive without being aggressive or rude.

In addition to these steps, consider participating in an assertiveness training course to develop and enhance your communication skills in the workplace. This will not only help you assert your opinions and ideas confidently but also help you navigate difficult conversations and situations with ease.

Step Five: Take on New Challenges and Roles

Many women are afraid to take risks, but they shouldn’t be! Taking on new challenges and roles is one of the best ways to stand out professionally. This could involve applying for a promotion, taking on more responsibility at work, or even starting their own business. Women don’t have anything to lose by trying something new – so go ahead and give it a shot!

Know Your Worth and Ask for What You Want

The first step to standing out professionally is knowing your value and asking for what you want. This is important because if you don’t know how much money or other benefits are worth, you could end up getting less than what’s fair. It’s also essential that women ask for promotions when they deserve them instead of waiting until their boss recognizes this themselves. Women need to speak up in meetings so people will notice their expertise – even if it means interrupting someone else who may already be talking about an issue at hand! By putting yourself forward more often, others will recognize the value of your contributions and give credit where due.

In conclusion, there are many things that women can do to stand out professionally. These include committing to continuous learning, building a solid network, standing out from the crowd, being confident and assertive, and taking on new challenges and roles. By following these tips, women can increase their career chances.

How To Make The Most Of Working From Home

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Working from home|How To Make The Most Of Working From HomeDuring the peak of the covid-19 pandemic, working from home began the normality as opposed to the exception. While this was not without its challenges, it also proved to be very beneficial in making workplaces more accessible and even impacted employee satisfaction and productivity. Positive feedback and results mean that many workplaces are set to continue to offer remote work – or hybrid working – into the future.

As a result, whether you are a company owner or an entry-level employee, it’s important that you can make the most out of working from home. This extends beyond productivity levels, as you should also ensure that you are taking proper care of your mental health and maintaining a good work/life balance.

With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to make the most out of working from home.

  • Upgrade your home office. When working from was temporary, it was perfectly fine to set up your station on your dining room table or even within your living room. However, these places do not work in the long term due to the fact that your mind will view these spaces as social places, which can impact your productivity and impact your ability to successfully work from home. While you do not need a separate room, you do need to set up a workstation of some kind and use office design trends to your advantage.
  • Invest in the right tools. When upgrading your office, you should also be prepared to invest in some new furniture – or ask your employer to cover the costs of this equipment. For example, you could invest in a sit stand desk. Not only can this help you get your job done – but it’s also beneficial for your health due to the fact that it reduces the amount of time you spend sitting each day and can even burn calories.
  • Find ways to regain your focus. Over time, it becomes more and more tempting to give in to the many distractions within your home when you should be working. For example, you may try to carry out some chores in between work calls and meetings. Thankfully, there are various ways in which you can achieve this goal. For starters, you could invest in noise-cancelling headphones so that you are not distracted by what is going on around you.
  • Know when to clock out. Before the pandemic, one of the biggest concerns that employers voiced regarding remote working was the idea that employees would not work as hard from home. However, this is often not the case – with many reporting that they worked much longer hours as soon as they transitioned to working from home. This is due to the fact that they wanted to prove that they were productive to their employer. However, if you want to avoid burnout, it’s vital that you stick to your scheduled working hours. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you when your day is closer to being over, so you can finish up what you are doing and return to the task in the morning.

7 Ways To Consolidate Debt And Improve Credit Score

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Consolidate Debt|7 Ways To Consolidate Debt And Improve Credit ScorePaying off loans is a tedious process and can be challenging to keep track of. It can help to move all the payments you need to make to one convenient place. That is where debt consolidation comes in. It is about merging credit and loan balances into one large loan. Not only does it help you lower the interest you owe but helps you save money on making regular payments. Once you make enough payments on time, you can even improve your credit score.

A credit score is an essential indicator that informs all loaning and crediting bodies how you handle money. A high credit score means you’re good at making repayments and don’t overspend. So, ensuring you keep a high credit score is pivotal.

Here are some ways you can consolidate debt, improve your credit score and supercharge your finances:

1. Get a Debt Consolidation Loan

A debt consolidation loan is a personal loan that you take to pay off your consolidating debt. You get these loans as secured or unsecured personal loans. While secure loans are easier to get, you often need to put in your car, savings, or even your house as collateral. This may not be a good idea if you’re already in financial straits.

On the other hand, unsecured loans rest on your credit score. While qualifying for one is more challenging, you save yourself from setting up collateral. Fortunately for you, there are services for securing the best unsecured debt consolidation loans online that allow you to choose your loan options flexibly. Once you create an account, you can pick the amount and payment option suitable for you and get funds right away. These services give you the margin to pay back with no early repayment penalties and options to pay according to your income bracket.

2. Use a Debt Management Program

Debt management programs help you create a monthly payment program that reduces interest rates on credit cards and allows you to pay off debt quickly. After analyzing your financial status, most credit counseling agencies can help you make a proper debt management plan.

Since interest plays a role in debt, one of the advantages of opting for a debt management program is a massive reduction in your interest rate, keeping it below 8%. Since these programs are not loans, you can withdraw from them at any time. You get counseling, educational resources, and a proper plan for a minimal fee. Once the payment rolls in, your credit score starts to improve.

3. Go For Credit Card Balance Transfers

If you have a good credit score but you’re struggling to pay the debt, you can use your score to your advantage. A form of consolidation is transferring multiple credit card balances to one card with no interest rate. Your credit card company will provide you with the option to transfer the balance with a payment period of no interest. You get substantial time to pay off the principal amount without worrying about accumulating more. The only catch is you need to make all the payments on time.

4. Consider Peer To Peer Loans

Peer-to-peer loans are personal loans that allow you to get loans with no middlemen such as banks involved. You directly get funds from the borrower, whom you can easily find online and send in an application. The borrower will assign a risk level to your application and allow investors to see your financial profile.

Generally, it’s easier to get investors when you have a medium to low-risk profile. Once the borrower arranges funds for you, they get sent your way online. The added competition between borrowers allows you to choose with whom you want to work at a lower interest rate.

5. Be Strategic About Paying Credit Card Bills

It’s a good idea to utilize your credit cards properly to improve your credit score. Credit cards come with a limit, and no matter how high you’ve set yours, use only 25% of it. Going even lower will only boost your credit score faster if you can go even lower.

When you use your card, you accumulate a small bill with minimal interest that you can pay off right away. This means that when credit bureaus evaluate your financial habits based on your credit balance, you get a high score. The goal is to always keep your balance low and reap the benefits of a high credit score.

5. Review All Credit Report Errors

Credit report errors can decrease your score, which is why you need to review the report once you get it. Most credit bureaus provide you with a free transcript that you can study, picking on where you are marked wrong. If you’ve made a payment on time but don’t see it reflected in your records, dispute the error.

Other errors include using outdated information on your history that is not usable or mixing someone’s credit activity with yours. Don’t let these errors slide since they can negatively impact your credit score. Instead, take the time to file a report and add it to your credit score. The earlier you file, the better your chances of getting reviewed and approved, leading to a fixed overall balance.

6. Look Into Authorized Usership

You have the option of becoming an authorized user for credit cards that your friends and family have. This can give you access to positive payment history and a high credit score. You don’t even have to use their card or their bank account number – you simply share their payment history.

If you’re looking for a way to fix your credit score and have a thin credit file that needs minimal fixing, you may have found your saving grace. But if you’re under staggering loans, you shouldn’t entertain this idea and seek more concrete solutions.

Final Thoughts

Paying back your loans can be a debilitating process. Debts can get messy with time. The high-interest rates and lack of time put you in a difficult position. Still, investigate consolidating debt and finding ways to improve your credit score to put yourself in the best possible situation.

Therefore, options like consolidation loans, management programs, balance transfer, and personal loans can help you bridge the gap between payments. Improving your credit score can get tricky, but all it takes is an effort on your part to keep a low balance and a consistent payment history. Make sure you take small but concrete steps towards financial freedom, and you’ll be there before you know it.

Supporting The Working Parents Amongst Your Employees

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Working Parents|Supporting The Working Parents Amongst Your EmployeesIn the modern era, many of your employees are going to be parents. Nearly half of the current workforce have children under the age of 18, and juggling both work and family responsibilities can be incredibly difficult.

And this problem has only gotten harder to control during the pandemic; people have had to work at home, and while that means they get more time with their kids, it also has the knock on effect of making their work harder to keep up with.

However, instead of rallying against this, it’s a good idea to work with it. Your employees are never going to stop being parents, and supporting this is a great way to boost your employee morale as well as your business growth as a whole. Here are some good ways to do so.

Be Flexible with Working Structure

A flexible working structure is one of the main things you need here. Flexibility is something business owners already promote, and stretching it a little further to accommodate the parents in your workforce is a great way to show your support for the working market at large.

For example, if someone needs to attend to childcare between the hours of 8 and 10 am, let them join onto work calls or get started on projects after these hours. Alternatively, if someone needs to be available to pick up their children in the afternoon, schedule their shifts earlier.

Create a Culture of Honesty

Working parents have a lot to deal with. As such, working from home can get complicated and messy, and knowing they’re expected to be on the clock the entire time their children are also awake can mount a lot more stress on their shoulders.

Knowing this, it’s a good idea to allow your employees to be honest about their days, and what they need to do during it, to help alleviate this sense of anxiety. Let them be upfront about childcare needs and how this might interrupt their work responsibilities without fear of being reprimanded.

Allow Employees to Bring Their Kids to Work

If you’re able to return to the office for a few days per week, why not allow your employees to bring their kids with them if need be? If they cannot afford outside childcare, or have no relatives available, turning a corner of your business into a small daycare could work wonders for the flexible element of your company.

What can you do to accommodate these on-site needs? Invest in some preschool furniture and set it up in a spare room somewhere in your company. Allow parents to bring in a few toys or books of their own, and then if need be, parents will be able to keep their kids nearby if no other arrangements are available.

Supporting the working parents on your staff body doesn’t have to be hard to do. Be flexible, allow for outside needs inside of this, and even allow employees to bring children with them.

Hobbies That You Can Engage in Using Technology

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Hobbies and Technology|Hobbies That You Can Engage in Using TechnologyTechnology, as you know can be used for so many different things, and one is to engage in hobbies that you enjoy. There are multiple hobbies out there for you to choose from such as learning a language or knitting, for instance. What technology can do is either make hobbies easier to do or connect you with people who share in the same passion. With that being said, if you want to engage in hobbies using the tech you have available to you, it may be easier to do than you think. Here are a couple of hobbies that you can engage in using technology.

Reading e-books

In 2017 alone, apparently, there were at least 266 million e-books sold. If you’re an avid reader or trying to cultivate the habit of reading, then e-books are a great place to start. You can read them on the go and they can be downloaded on a Kindle, tablet, or your smartphone. Some of the most popular e-books at the moment include What You Did by Claire McGowan and A Fire Sparkling by Julianne Maclean. You can find books across a range of different genres and it’s an easier way to read for many.

Barbequing

Having a BBQ is something that many Australians enjoy, especially within the summer months. Thankfully, technology, especially the internet, can help make this a lot easier to engage with. With various subscription and delivery services that you can get online, you’ll be able to get all your BBQ meat delivered straight to you. Plus, through pennjerseypropane.net, you’ll also be able to use technology to get all the propane gas you need to cook your food delivered right to your door.

Consuming Art

If you’re the creative type and like any kind of art whatsoever, then technology is your friend. You can find online art galleries if you want to see contemporary pieces from upcoming as well as more established artists. You also have hubs for photographers if you’re interested in viewing some of their latest works. Not only can you consume art, but you can also create and share some of your own which is exciting too.

DIY

All of the DIY gurus out there should know that technology can help make your lie far easier. Instead of having to figure it out on your own, you can use self-help articles and DIY videos to do the job. In addition to this, there are also multiple forums where you can find a community of people to help with your projects and the likes. Some great websites to help with DIY are Lifehacker, DIY Network, and Instructables.

Creative

For those that are into arts and crafts, music, and other creative pursuits, technology can help boost your creativity. You have platforms such as Soundcloud or Pinterest, which can be used to showcase your work and meet other creatives. You can also make virtual connections which could eventually turn into partnerships or lifelong friendships, which is quite exciting.

As mentioned above, technology can be a great tool to encourage just about any hobby that you have. It’s about getting creative and using the resources technology makes available to your advantage.