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Career Development: Climb That Ladder in 8 Steps

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It used to be that there were certain industries you could rely upon to be easy to break into. But, with the need for jobs right now, that just isn’t true any longer. You need to be the best at what you do to get the job you want. Not only that, you need to stay ahead of innovative ways of working. As technology advances, so do the ways that many industries operate. So, how do you stay ahead of the curve and climb the career ladder?

What Are You Bad At?

It may seem like you should figure out the opposite and plug your best skills to your employers or potential employers. However, the skills you lack will soon be noticed in any job you take on. Once you’ve identified the skills you need to work on, you can begin to practice perfecting them. It takes commitment if you want to reach the top of the ladder, so working on your flaws is the best place to start. If you try to hide what you don’t know, it won’t be long before you’re discovered as a fraud.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article
 
Keep Learning

Business changes every day, so it’s important to keep up with what’s going on. If you aren’t getting the information you need from your colleagues or boss, go and find it yourself. Sometimes, you have to look outside the workplace to advance yourself. For example, someone wanting to progress in the social work industry could do an LCSW online program in their spare time to advance their knowledge and get better career prospects. When it comes to improving the work you do on a day to day basis, it’s important to get the inside scoop from the client. So, if there’s any kind of barrier between you and your client, try and remove it so you can clarify your client’s needs.

Be Valuable

As your business industry advances, so should you. There may come a time when your boss is looking for something specific. For example, if you work in technology, your boss may want to build a team in order to implement a new facial recognition service. The more you know and the more experience you have, the more useful you’ll be. If your boss recognizes your contribution to the advancement of the company, you could become indispensable to the business. The more time you take to research possible changes in your industry in the future, the more valuable you become.

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Make Connections

Making good connections is so important to career advancement. It’s not just about knowing the boss’s son in case a new position opens up a year from now; it’s about personal advancement too. Getting to know the people around you could mean you learn new and better ways of working, making your days at work much easier and more convenient. Talking to people who do the same job is a way of getting new ideas and thinking outside the box. When you start to think differently, suddenly new doors open and you become more creative with your work.

Read A Lot

I know, who has time for reading with a career, right? But, reading can open your eyes in the same way relationships can. Whether you’re reading the autobiography of an industry leader, or a few pages of an article you found online, it all contributes to what you know. However, it doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to reading only about business. Picking up your favorite author’s new novel at the bookstore will do you just as good. Reading opens the mind and allows new ideas in. It also helps to relax the mind. So, if you’ve been struggling with a problem at work recently, you could have your voila moment in the middle of a crime thriller chapter.

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Take a Break

Building up a successful career is hard, and although it’s tempting to go full steam ahead, that’s not going to be good for your health. You can’t take the business world by storm if you’re constantly feeling tired and run down. There has to be a balance between your work life and your personal life. Too many people make the mistake of believing that getting work done way ahead of deadlines will get them noticed. Take the time and spend it with family and friends instead. The better rested you are, the more likely you are to take the world by storm.

Travel

You know what they say – travel broadens the mind. But, it isn’t just a broader mind you can gain from travel. Many students who go on gap years end up staying abroad because the develop careers in different countries. Travelling can do two things when it comes to your career: increase your passion for your chosen career path or change it completely. You’ll sometimes meet the connections you need to branch into something you’ve never thought of before. Similarly, businesses are now trading on the global market, thanks to the use of the internet and it’s many platforms. So, taking that next step on the career ladder could be just about learning more about your customers and the different cultures and backgrounds they come from.

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Be Confident

It’s easier said than done sometimes. But, being confident is one of the major keys to career success. A client isn’t going to want to bank on someone who fumbles through a presentation and isn’t sure on how to answer questions. It’s also important to be confident in who you will be. For example, it’s okay to say you’re unsure of how something works, as long as you can say you’re willing to learn and will become confident in it in the future.

When you’re trying to climb the career ladder, don’t be afraid to be yourself. Being yourself is the only way you’ll find out if you’re truly cut out for the career you’ve chosen and whether you have the passion to continue with it. After all, this ladder isn’t for the faint of heart.

How to Help Employees Communicate by Email More Effectively

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Email is still considered the primary communication tool in the business world. Today’s business landscape may have shifted further towards video conferences and short messaging platforms, but the majority of formal business communications are still conducted via email. There is no sign of emails being replaced by other means of communication either.

Despite the common use of emails, not all professionals know how to use them properly. This is exactly why we still see mistakes such as incorrectly using CC instead of BCC happening in the real world. As an employer, you can play a more active role in helping employees communicate by email more effectively.

Email-Related Training

Despite the importance of emails, most email etiquette and skills are learned through experience and real-world practice. Sure, there are a lot of resources and websites that specifically share email-related knowledge and tips. That said, very little formal training is provided in school or corporate training programs.You can reduce the number of mistakes your employees make when communicating via email by providing them with such training programs. They are easy to find and will even help employees fine-tune their email content for effective business communication.

It is also a good idea to provide employees with training on the tools available to them. In Outlook, for example, you can sort emails automatically, forward emails with certain marks to other recipients, and even automate everyday email tasks (i.e. adding a calendar entry for meetings and invitations).

The Right Tools for the Job

There are also additional tools designed to really boost email productivity and effectiveness. Customer Relationship Management or CRM platforms, for example, are capable of handling, logging, and documenting email communication. These comprehensive databases enable sales officers to keep track of their conversations with clients without ever missing a beat.

The same can be said for research tools. Let’s say you want your sales team to connect with new potential clients. Provide them with a tools such as The Email Finder to be able to research and verify email addresses. Click here to learn more about email verification can really boost your employees’ email productivity.

Monitoring

Monitoring is always a tricky subject to discuss. Is it ethical to monitor business emails sent from @yourcompany.com email addresses? Ethics debates aside, email monitoring is a proven way of boosting the effectiveness of business emails nonetheless.

As previously mentioned, CMS platforms can now keep track of email communications between sales officers and clients. That simple tracking feature is very valuable when it comes to developing strong relationships with clients since it allows your employees to personalize the tone of the conversation based on past emails.

Tracking also gives you, the employer, a clear picture of how emails are helping the business thrive. This, along with the previous tips we covered in this article, will help you assist employees in using their email addresses more effectively.

What Should You Do If Injured At Work

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If you have been involved in an accident at work, then there are a number of steps that you should take to ensure that you are completely covered, particularly if the cause of the accident wasn’t your fault. Workplace accidents can occur for a number of reasons – negligence from the company that you are working at, or a contracted company such as a cleaning company in your building, faulty equipment, or simple bad luck. Here, we’re taking a closer look at the steps you should take, if you’ve been involved in an accident at work.

Record It

No matter how minor the results of the accident, it is always imperative that you report it and a record of the accident has been made. This can help to ensure that the company are aware of a potentially impending claim that is coming their way, and to ensure that you are seeking appropriate medical advice from the on-site trained first aider. Depending on the industry that you are working in, there are a number of procedures that you may need to go through when you are reporting an accident, but this is imperative. For example, if you are in the construction industry, and you’re not wearing the protective gear that you have been given, then the outcome of the accident could be much worse than if you were. Having some form of record of the accident is also important if you are looking to make a claim against your company.

Go To The Doctors

Going to the doctors is important if you have a minor to severe injury that requires attention. Having this on your medical record will not only support your claim, but seeking appropriate medical advice will ensure that your best interests are kept to. While you may see a sprain as an insignificant injury at the time, it can lead to much bigger problems in the future, so it is important that you get any form of injury seen to immediately, before they become much worse. Even a minor cut could end up infected particularly if it occurred from metal, wood or glass, so seeking medical advice is critical.

Make A Claim

If you are looking to make a claim, then you’re going to need a record of your injury and the accident is going to need to be a result of the company’s negligence. Through this, relevant insurance or claim companies can fill out an accident at work claim calculator to help work out how much you should receive in compensation. There are a number of legal requirements that need to be met when making a claim, so it is important to seek advice prior to attempting to make one, so you are not left without a job and no compensation.

Having an accident at work can be extremely serious in a large number of cases, and these have caused life-changing injuries and in more severe cases, even death. Make sure that you know what to do and who to turn to in the event of an injury at work, so you can take appropriate action.

5 Tips on How to Better Your Time Management

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professional Article

In a world where it is getting difficult to spare even one moment for personal salvation, time is of the utmost essence. The world is progressing at a pace that is becoming more and more rapid daily. The days seem to be getting shorter and there are somehow not enough hours to deal with the huge bulk of tasks that await us. We all know how it feels like to wake up regretting the procrastination we thought wouldn’t have that big of an impact.

This is the reason time management is fast becoming a necessity instead of a choice.

If you want to be able to breathe without feeling suffocated, then you need to start working towards managing your time. It is the only way to make your day more productive without cracking under the pressure. Due to the rising need, time management has now become a process that must be treated like any other value-generating function. It has become a proper discipline and more people are working towards refining it.

Here are a few tips that will revolutionise your entire schedule and assist you in dealing with the daily stress without losing your sanity.

  1. Make use of resource planning software

This first tip is especially important for busy businesses. Resource planning software is a blessing when it comes to efficient time management. These tools assist you in planning out your day and completing your tasks on time. Any business is founded on the belief that time is money for everyone and that making the most out of it is everyone’s aspiration.

These systems are designed to save your valuable time and improve project delivery. This will help you delegate projects to the right people, improve the quality and speed of work, and take productivity to a new level.

If you’re looking to make use of resource planning software, an example I found that’s worth looking into is timewax (https://www.timewax.co.uk/) which is a highly proficient and reliable resource planning application for businesses of all sizes and nature. It is a multi-platform solution that travels with you wherever you go, on your desktop or your mobile devices, offering the freedom to work without wasting time.  If you are looking to give your profits a significant turnover, then Timewax is your go to time management assistant.

  1. Prioritise Intelligently

One of the secrets behind the lives of those who seem to have it all together is that they have learned the art of prioritising. Instead of allowing the daily workload and endless chores bring you down, make a list of all your tasks and then break them down into several categories for your own ease. Prioritising will help you plan your time in a better and more productive manner than if you haphazardly attempt to check items off your to-do list.

Here are four priority categories you can jot down and fill in according to the urgency of the tasks at hand:

  • Important and critical– Tasks that are high priority and must be done no matter what. These are the tasks you should start with.
  • Important, but not critical– These jobs are ones that seem to be important at first glance, but after a closer look do not make it to the list of tasks to be completed urgently. Note down a slot for each of these responsibilities and complete them according to your decided schedule.
  • Critical, but not important: These chores are a nuisance as they are not of any real value, but gain importance because of the ‘noise’ they make. Make efforts to delegate such tasks to someone else and if not possible, attempt to give them average precedence.
  • Not important and not critical: These are the responsibilities you can do without as they only clutter your day and make you busier than you actually are. It is best to delegate these tasks so that the time saved can be utilised for priority tasks.
  1. Learn to Plan Ahead

One of the worst blunders you can make to ruin your entire day is to jump in without having a clear picture of what you are expected to accomplish. The time you spend planning the events of your day is trivial compared to the time you will waste jumping from one task to another, desolately trying to accomplish everything. There are two time-frames for you to plan out your schedule, depending on whether you are a night person or a day enthusiast:

  • The night before: Take fifteen minutes out before you start your bedtime routine to note down the tasks that are waiting for you when you wake up. Getting up the next day with everything already planned out will give you a sense of calm and kick-start your day on a good note.
  • First thing in the morning: After getting ready to face the day, sit down and plan your day before leaving for your first assignment.
  1. Set deadlines

Even when our days are filled with an endless list of tasks, we still somehow manage to waste time procrastinating or doing things that we can definitely do without. Setting specific deadlines for every task you need to finish will help you keep your schedule and avoid losing precious time.

Try to set a deadline that is a few hours earlier so that you can take care of any tasks that emerge suddenly. It is helpful to challenge yourself and setting a reward for yourself for completion of the chore will do wonders for you.

Keep your eyes on the clock and do not let anything divert your focus and attention. Set rewards for completing your task on time.

  1. Utilise Your Downtime Efficiently

This certainly does not mean that you spend all of your downtime planning and prioritising further, as it will just elevate your stress levels and make you incompetent. If you find yourself stuck in morning traffic or sitting in the waiting room before a meeting, then finalising your dinner plans or putting together a grocery list will help manage your time efficiently. However, make sure you spend some of this extra time relaxing and catching your breath as overworking your mind will lead to premature fatigue before the day is even half over.

Time management is a skill that everyone needs to master. Be it a student attending music lessons after school or a business person running from one meeting to another. Stressing out about having too much to do in an inadequate amount of time will only result in you almost getting a brain haemorrhage!

Make use of these tips, get help where you can, invest in the right technology and watch your life take a turn for the better. You will be able to spend some quality time with your loved ones without having to feel guilty about sacrificing the time you could have spent on completing your tasks.

The Real Steps Towards Business Success

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article
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When you’re in business, things can start to go stale. This can happen in the early stages, before you’ve even fledged the nest of learning everything that you already need to know – or (as is the case in most instances) a little later on towards the end of your career. There are highs and lows in business, and success can come once, many times or not at all. Just because you’ve been successful once doesn’t mean that it’s not your turn again. It’s all about taking note of the building blocks to get yourself back towards where you need to be.

Take Note Of New Talent

Just because you’ve been your line of business for a long time doesn’t mean that things aren’t open to changing. There are always going to be new people walking in and out of offices all over the world, wanting to learn the exact same things that you did – but bringing so much more to the table. We are now in the world of ecommerce, where online trade is booming – Turn 5 and Steve Voudouris is just one example of taking something online and seeing your business take off, with Ford Mustang and other car parts being dealt independently. It’s as simple as that, but may need a bit of work to get on board with. Getting onto their (fresh talent’s)  wavelength and seeing what they have got to offer isn’t the end of the world, nor is it lowering yourself. It is instead being open-minded and thinking with a business brain.

Be Critical

You can be too critical in business, especially when it comes to the work of other people. You need to turn that criticism on yourself and see what you can work on to improve your process. It may be something as simple as waking up an hour earlier to get a clear mind ready for the day ahead, or perhaps you need to be more empathetic in your approach to employees. Don’t be afraid to listen to feedback and work on it yourself. That way you know that you are working upon the steps that other people have noticed that you need to take.

Don’t Reap Rewards

It can be easy to get too complacent with what you’re doing, or have done in the past. You need to keep yourself on your toes at all times and be prepared for change. Business is always changing, and those who have been in the game for long enough know this fact. Don’t take it for granted; instead, look for opportunities to really develop on what you know already. Don’t celebrate something until it is finally and completely a job well done; congratulating yourself along the way for a project that isn’t totally finished will only see you slog back to doing the basics that are required for you to get to the end. You need to be working at your best ability throughout all of your tasks, and so do your employees. Set a target and stick to it.