Sometimes we’re unhappy with the way our leaders are handling a situation. Or maybe we don’t think people are participating the way they should.

So, we blame others for what we see as lacking in them. We reprimand and deride them for not doing what we think they should be doing.

But this is a slippery slope, as it often leads to scapegoating. Here’s why scapegoating ruins your life, and what you can do about it.

Scapegoating Destroys Relationships

We can’t always trust our knee-jerk reactions, at least not in matters of business and negotiation.

When something goes wrong, there will always be the temptation to blame someone else for what happened, rather than taking ownership for the blunder.

In the short term, you might be able to come up with a convincing case as to why it was Joan’s or James’ fault, but in the long run, no one who knows your tendency to assign blame will want to work with you anymore. Plus, your lies will probably be found out at some point.

It’s much easier to gain a negative reputation than to build a positive one. Blaming others will destroy relationships and leave you with a reputation you won’t easily be able to downplay or repair.

Scapegoating Weakens Your Leadership

Avoiding responsibility is human nature. But for entrepreneurs and leaders, it’s simply not the way. Blaming others may make you feel better about a situation temporarily, but it will cause more chaos and confusion among your team than it’s worth.

Good leaders know to take responsibility for everything. They know that everything that happens, happens under their watch. If a team member or employee makes a mistake, the leader recognizes that something was missing in how the project was originally communicated.

A good leader isn’t someone who is constantly looking for something or someone outside of themselves to assign blame to. A good leader is someone who is willing to step up and take responsibility, no matter the mistake or its consequences.

Scapegoating Stifles Your Progress

If you value your personal growth, understand that scapegoating is lazy. Instead of looking at your own faults, or thinking about what you could have done differently to have things work, it has you focusing on the perceived deficiencies of others. How can you grow when you’re not focused on bettering yourself?

You may feel that exploiting the weaknesses of others will help you get ahead, and it might for a while. But if you keep it up, the only thing you will get better at is scapegoating. You won’t improve in other ways that might matter to you.

Stop Ruining Your Life – What to Do

If you’re ready to change, observe these steps:

• Accept responsibility. Start taking ownership of more things. It doesn’t need to be anything huge. For instance, take responsibility for the fact that the garbage wasn’t taken out yesterday, whether it was your fault or not.
• Take on some solo assignments. In a situation where you’re the only one working on the project, you can’t blame anyone else for failure (well, you can, but you’ll just look foolish).
• Give up positional leadership. Just because you’re a manager, C-suite executive or even an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a great leader. Let go of the title and instead commit to your growth in this area. Consume materials by the likes of John Maxwell and Robin Sharma.

The post Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life & What to do About it appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

That’s why it’s imperative that you continuously evaluate and look to improve your sales processes. And if you suspect your sales team is unproductive or could stand to improve, keep reading. Today, we’re diving into all the proven techniques, latest insights, and strategies to boost sales productivity and your company’s bottom line.

Evaluate Your Sales Productivity First

Be smart and calculated about tackling your sales productivity. That means first conducting a pulse check on your current sales processes and results. Sit down with your analytics to identify challenges, areas of improvement, and those efforts that prove to be doing well. Then, sit down with your sales teams and ask them individually about their sentiments of the overall sales process. Together, your metrics and direct sales team feedback can guide you to prioritize what changes need to be made. And you might be surprised by what your sales pros tell you.

Why and How to Measure Sales Productivity

The average salesperson only actually spends one-third of their time selling. The rest of their workdays are spent with emails, researching clients, managing data and funnels, and in meetings. And their productivity is going to directly impact your company’s bottom line – making it a top priority metric to prioritize. If sales productivity is low, they’re not covering their own expenses, and your business is losing money.

You can tackle sales productivity challenges in two ways:

1. Introducing methods and resources that increase how much time your reps are actually selling.
2. Introducing methods and resources that ensure teams are maximizing their sales efficiencies.

Sales efficiency is measured by identifying how many opportunities a salesperson has to convert a sale. You can also measure the length of time it takes to close a sale. Additionally, collect data that highlights the number of sales converted per initial cold-call contact. These metrics will help you get a big-picture understanding of where your sales teams need help and improved productivity methods.

Other Sales Productivity Stats That Will Blow Your Mind

Sales productivity matters, and these latest sales stats might just blow your mind. But they only reinforce why productivity is so important for so many business owners and sales managers.

• In 2021, 53% of salespeople reported working from home for more than half of their workdays.
• Only 24.3% of sales pros exceeded their 2021 sales quotas.
• More than 41% of salespeople say phone calls are their most productive sales tools.
• More than 80% of sales staff don’t take the time to review and/or correct their sales processes.
• One in every five salespeople say they don’t have the resources they need to be successful.
• Only 15% of all salespeople contacted more than 1,000 prospects last year.
• More than 66% of salespeople only contacted 250 or less prospects last year.
• As many as 77% of salespeople say their employers plan to invest in sales intelligence resources.
• Another 54% of salespeople say using digital sales tools helps them to close more deals.
• Of all the digital sales tools, 70% of sales pros say CRMs are “very important.”
• In B2B sales, 65% of most company sales are generated from referrals.

Eliminate Productivity Obstacles and Challenges

When improving your sales initiatives, processes, methods, and productivity, start by eliminating those aspects that serve as obstacles. Below are just a few of the most common sales challenges and obstacles to consider removing.

Is there too much performance pressure?

While sales quotas and funnel benchmarks are important for your sales teams to know what is expected of them, there can be too much performance pressure. And when your teams are under too much pressure, they can, over time, falter and cave to the weight. Consider giving your sales teams some breathing room with their quotas and activity reporting. And be just as judicious about rewarding them for doing the right things and not just landing sales.

Are your sales processes disjointed?

You might have multiple layers of sales processes in place and several sales levels of teams responsible for executing those processes. In fact, 63% of purchases involve more than four different people at your company, usually an inside marketing rep, a customer service rep, and others. But if you have a communication or process breakdown between all those different components, you’re going to have sales struggles. Look to streamline your online tools and prospecting with your physical teams. Bridge gaps between salespeople and sales support staff and both inside sales and outside sales. And make sure every tool and person within your entire sales process is seamlessly connected.

When was the last time you offered sales training?

Don’t presume that one round of sales training for your teams is enough. Instead, consider building out ongoing sales training to keep your teams sharp and productive. Keep these sessions short and value-packed, focusing on one sales topic at a time. For example, you could host sales training on cold calling, presentation techniques, building a proposal, overcoming objections, closing methods, or funnel management.

Are there breakdowns in sales communication?

Sometimes, breakdowns in sales productivity are a result of breakdowns in communication. Consider evaluating how your teams are communicating with each other, with you, with clients, and with sales support. Spot inconsistencies and create improvements and more efficient communication methods.

Is there resistance to new software or technology?

There are brilliant digital tools perfect for automating sales emails, prospecting schedules, and managing follow-up. But even with the best software in-house, they won’t work if your sales teams aren’t using them. If you suspect there is a resistance to using and leveraging the technology you have, consider hosting training sessions and imposing requirements for your salespeople to use these valuable resources.

Are you experiencing high rates of sales team turnover?

You won’t track sales momentum if you’re constantly having to hire new sales professionals. Check your turnover rates. Typically, sales roles turnover more frequently than administrative or management roles. But if there’s a higher-than-average turnover rate among your sales teams, it’s a sign there’s a problem. Troubleshoot to identify if you need to improve the company culture, change management, or improve resources.

Is your sales team creating a toxic environment?

Your entire sales team could struggle to meet goals and be productive if there is a toxic sales culture. And it only takes one bad sales apple to ruin the entire environment. Friendly competition is healthy. However, over-aggressive competitiveness can be toxic. Talk with your sales pros individually and ask them how they feel about your sales culture to learn if such toxic behaviors exist among the ranks.

Do your sales teams struggle with prioritizing?

Even some of the best sales executives struggle with organizational and administrative tasks sometimes. Your team’s lack of productivity could be remedied by simply introducing training and support for proper prioritizing and task management best practices.

Introduce Sales Productivity Improvements

Once you feel you’ve removed all the sales productivity barriers and obstacles, you can then begin to introduce sales productivity additions. Consider these new or innovative extras to add to your sales methods and support efforts to boost sales productivity.

Get your teams the best-fit productivity tools

Ask your sales teams what they think they need to be more productive. And then – give it to them. For example, maybe they believe their sales tracking software is outdated, hindering productivity. Some might need more flexibility in working hours. And others might benefit from additional layers of sales support.

Automate repetitive and mundane tasks

Look for more efficient ways to reduce or eliminate repetitive tasks or mundane sales processes that could be outsourced elsewhere. Your sales teams can be high-efficiency machines when they aren’t bogged down with spreadsheet management or administrative tasks outside of the sales prospecting, proposing, and closing cycles.

Invest in better sales training

Don’t just host sales training. Host high-value, effective training sessions. Ideally, Crunchbase says that once your sales pro connects with a decision-maker, it should take roughly six calls or engagements to convert the sale. And this might mean you have to invest in bringing in sales consultants for additional sales coaching. Or you might have to invest in making training materials available online for your teams to access whenever they need it.

Practice overcommunication

Introduce additional layers of communication to keep your door open, your sales teams connected, and every support person engaged. You won’t spot sales problems if you don’t know about them. And practicing overcommunication will ensure you’re always in touch with your teams.

Be smarter about prospecting

Some salespeople will waste time driving around or organizing who they plan to cold call without actually prospecting. Improve their productivity by introducing smarter and more efficient prospecting techniques. It can take, on average, as many as eight phone calls to finally engage a prospect. Show them how to make the most of every prospecting opportunity and how to avoid paralysis by analysis.

Try sales manager shadowing

The best leaders are those who can show, not tell. And sales manager job shadowing can be a great way to set the pace and lead by example. While 85% of today’s sales reps admit to having great sales coaching, only 24% say they’re being coached on long-term sales skills sharpening. Consider implementing a regular job shadowing or team sales schedule so your teams can get first-hand knowledge from the best – YOU!

Boost lead-scoring efforts

Look for ways to improve the quality of your sales team’s leads with boosted lead scoring. If they’re targeting the wrong leads, they’ll never be successful. So get better at providing them with high-quality leads and prospects that actually reflect your target market.

Celebrate every sales victory

Don’t just celebrate your top sales performers. Celebrate every sales victory, large or small. By establishing a culture where everyone wins with a conversion, you reduce the risk of over-competitive toxicity as team members compete for recognition at the top.

Sales Productivity Depends on These Key Elements

Whether you’re removing sales productivity obstacles or adding layers of productivity resources, every effort relies on these key elements. Look for those improvements you can make through these lenses to be the most effective.

Consistency Matters

Whatever sales productivity changes you make, stick to them. Consistency with your processes, oversights, and resources is key to building sales momentum. Commit to changes that work and build towards improved efficiency, and you’ll soon build a well-oiled sales team of top sales assassins!

Innovation Matters

If you’re not innovating, your competitors are. And this includes sales productivity and results. Always be looking for innovative techniques and solutions from top sales mentors, other business owners, and in the form of digital software. Your business is always evolving, and so should your sales process.

Concentration Matters

Avoid broad-stroked sales improvements that “might” work for everyone. Get focused on improving one aspect of your sales process at a time, concentrating on solving precise problems. Customize your sales support and training programs so everyone can improve individually, too.

Sales Culture Matters

Your company culture is important, but so is your sales culture. Always look for ways to create an evolving and healthy environment where every salesperson feels inspired to grow and succeed, individually and with your company. And this includes across the board, from entry-level sales to top-tier sales veterans and even sales managers or supervisory roles.

To really improve your company’s sales and conversion results, it’s time to take a closer look at your sales productivity. Talk with your teams and analyze the metrics. From there, you can begin to remove obstacles and introduce better tools. If you need more sales and entrepreneurial insights, come back here often! And for any thought-leadership content needs, business blogging, email marketing, or content requests, let the Ghost Blog Writers team do all the heavy lifting. Contact us and get a free trial post to get started!

The post Ways to Improve the Productivity of Your Sales Teams Today appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

Today’s inspirational leaders are operating with a new rulebook. And if you hope to achieve similar successes, you might need to make some adjustments to your way of managing. Check out these insights and start realizing your own valuable leadership potential. Chart a new course for yourself as well as those around you. Realize how to become an effective and revolutionary leader in today’s ever-changing business climate.

What Does Business Leadership Mean?

Back in the day, like a generation or two ago, leaders were essentially just bosses. Anyone with authority or power to make decisions and control the efforts of others was called a “leader.” Of course, there were some true gems in there, with a deeper understanding of impactful and thoughtful leadership, changing the lives of others for the better. But a lot of folks with a title held positions of business leadership that had no rightly business being there.

Today’s leaders are not those old-school bosses of yesteryear.

Today’s business leaders are defined as those who provide leadership to organizational employees and vendors with the purpose of collectively chaperoning the group to success that aligns with the company objectives. In short, great leaders are those who support and guide individuals and teams in a way that benefits the individuals and the company together.

The duties might look the same as the leaders of the past. Today’s empower-ers are still responsible for making critical company or departmental decisions. They’re in charge of developing and implementing goal-driven initiatives. And they’re still charged with managing employees. But it’s how today’s leaders execute on these tasks that differs and sets them apart as revolutionary leaders.

What Distinguishes a Good Leader from a Bad Leader Today?

Trying to build, grow, or maintain a company in today’s economic environment is tedious. It’s far more complex now to manage employees, sell products and services, and expand into new markets. It’s fast-paced, too, with mission-critical decisions demanding your attention every minute of every day. And the stakes are higher since one delayed decision could cost thousands. Under these kinds of pressures, the greatest leaders emerge, and they all have the same roster of key characteristics…

• Integrity
• Courage
• Empathy
• Gratitude
• Self-Awareness
• Respect

Asking around, you’ll find that employees hold leaders in the highest regard when they…

• Demonstrate a variety of skill sets needed for the job
• Have strong and transparent communication skills
• Are emotionally intelligent to the needs and preferences of their subordinates
• Inspire people to be the best version of themselves
• Motivate individuals and the collective group effectively

Why Leadership Skills Are Important for Owners and Managers

Cultivating and improving your leadership skills, whether you’re a business owner or a departmental manager, is important for several reasons. In addition to making decisions and managing staff, you’re responsible for other pivotal responsibilities. Explore these distinctions to see how you’re doing right now with your current leadership methods.

• A marginal leader will give orders. A great leader will inspire action.
• A marginal leader will delegate tasks. A great leader will share the vision behind the tasks.
• A marginal leader will control staff. A great leader will motivate teams.
• A marginal leader will compete internally. A great leader will build relationships.
• A marginal leader will avoid risks. A great leader will assess and embrace risks.
• A marginal leader will be content with the status quo. A great leader will challenge thinking and learn new solutions.

Today’s businesses need great leaders to facilitate growth, adaptability, and scaling. It’s just that simple. And it’s why as a leader yourself, these new leadership skills, methods, styles, and strategies should matter to you.

Do You Possess Great Leadership Qualities?

Understanding what today’s revolutionary leaders do differently and why these types of leaders are important in business, you can now turn inward. Reflect on your own skills and leadership characteristics. Get honest about assessing your leadership qualities. And if any of these qualities are missing from your leadership style, you know precisely what needs improvement.

Authentic Leadership

The most respected leaders always lead from a position of authenticity. This management style trusts employees. These leaders are transparent and honest about their own motivations as they guide and support others with theirs.

Empathetic Leadership

The famed Tony Robbins often talks about empathetic leadership as the most impactful leadership style. These individuals are open and sensitive to the experiences, views, and opinions of others. They’re naturally curious and make decisions with a complete understanding of how those results impact others around them.

Adaptable Leadership

Innovative leaders are always reevaluating their positions and discovering better solutions. They’re not only comfortable with change, they crave it, always seeking a more efficient strategy. These leaders can often handle any challenge or workplace dynamic before them without missing a step.

Competent Leadership

Great leaders aren’t just all personality. They’re highly skilled for the role of leadership. Competent leaders tap into their knowledge, skills, and experiences and are typically self-disciplined to a tee. They’re also regularly embracing new ideas, education, and training to grow their competencies.

Commitment-Driven Leadership

Do as I do. Commitment-driven leaders are doers and often inspire others to make similar workplace commitments. The best leaders won’t ask anyone to do something they don’t believe in or wouldn’t do themselves.

Character-Inspired Leadership

Be honest and get comfortable with your own unique experiences and beliefs. Great leaders embrace these characteristics, good and bad, in a way that informs how they manage and support others.

Different Leadership Styles for Different Leaders

While the most effective and transformative leaders of today’s business environment have many of the aforementioned characteristics and skills, your leadership style can be unique. Every leader has a style. And it’s best to stick with the methods and strategies that best complement your style, personality, and uniqueness.

HubSpot lays out several of the various leadership styles of today’s most profound leaders. Explore these and decide which (or combination thereof) you identify with the most.

Democratic Leadership: Decisions are based on input from others.

Autocratic Leadership: Decisions are derived from a single source.

Laissez-Faire Leadership: Decisions come from employees individually

Strategic Leadership: Decisions are based on goals and strategies.

Transformational Leadership: Driven to work and think in new ways.

Transactional Leadership: Employees are rewarded for jobs well done.

Coaching Leadership: Encourages and nurtures individuals.

Bureaucratic Leadership: Decisions are rooted in company policies.

Visionary Leadership: Energetic enthusiasm and focus on the future.

Pacesetting Leadership: Setting aggressive and ambitious goals.

Situational Leadership: Leadership styles and decisions are addressed uniquely by the specific situation at hand.

Taking Action to Transform Into a Great Leader

When you’re ready to take action and transform your leadership initiatives, there are great first steps to explore. Recognizing how you can improve is only half the “revolutionary” leadership battle. Now it’s time to put some verbs on your to-do list and execute your leadership transformation.

Find an Inspirational Role Model or Mentor to Follow

It’s always best to find and follow another great leader you admire. Do your homework to discover a great leadership example with many of the same experiences, personality traits, or industry scenarios. Reach out and ask questions. And always be a sponge in learning new perspectives and strategies for successful leadership.

Conduct a Current Positioning Survey and Leadership Assessment

Leadership assessments are great tools for honing your managerial strengths. These efforts can boost your self-awareness, too. Get feedback from your teams anonymously about what they love or dislike about the current leadership styles. Uncover immediate needs they might have so you can prioritize resolutions. Don’t be too proud to take criticism, either, or you’ll never transform into a revolutionary leader.

Start with One Person, Today

Don’t just make a leadership improvements to-do list and let it collect dust on a corner of your desk. Take action right now by seeking out one team member who needs your help today. Find one person who could use additional support or reassurance and then BE what they need. Build action-driven leadership momentum that starts with intentional assistance, one employee at a time.

Be Proactive About Seeking Out Leadership Opportunities

If you want to be a truly transformative leader, you’re going to need to be proactive about seeking new opportunities to demonstrate great leadership. Be liberal about doling out credit where credit is due. Be encouraging to your teams during long work days or difficult projects. And always be available to roll up your sleeves and help when your teams need it.

Practice Leadership Outside of Work

Great leaders aren’t just pivotal at the office or on the job. They’re usually inspiring and motivating others in all aspects of their lives. Look for ways to practice great leadership elsewhere, with friends, at church, or within your community. Live a life where strong leadership values and skills transcend the workplace and positively impact every corner of your world.

Take Steps to Get Organized

You might look at your messy desk and think it’s organized chaos. But it’s not organized, and you’re not inspiring anyone else to get organized when your office space appears cluttered. Take steps now to bring organization to your life, including that messy desk. Great leaders are organized and inspire others to maintain schedules and order in their work. The more organized you are, the easier it’s going to be to multi-task projects and work. And data suggests that when a company is led by an organized leader, the entire team is more likely to perform efficiently and function like a well-oiled machine.

Trust and Delegate

Here’s another action step you can take right now, but it might be challenging at first. The greatest leaders today recognize that they can’t achieve success by themselves. You’re going to need to tag in other employees and managers who can grow with you and exceed collective goals. It can be tough to hand over the reins, especially if you’ve been in control of them for any length of time. But you’re going to have to trust and delegate others to join your efforts. Doing so will only bolster your results. And you’ll allow others to step forward and build their leadership skills.

Share Your Leadership Knowledge and Journey

The most innovative of today’s leaders don’t hoard their knowledge and skills. They instead share their expertise and experience for the benefit of others. As a business owner or manager, you have an opportunity to impact a broader audience. Thought leadership isn’t just about teaching new concepts or sharing new ideas. It’s also about sharing lessons learned, mistakes, and decisions that led to some of your biggest breakthroughs. Don’t hog your success and expertise. Share your leadership journey and inspire others. Here are just a few ways you can do just that:

• Volunteer to be a guest speaker at a local event.
• Share your stories within your networking groups.
• Create thought leadership content, including blogs and videos online.
• Write a book about your leadership journey.

Start Your Leadership Transformation

Today’s leaders are different from those of past generations. Being a leader in today’s business landscape, with its complex and ever-changing elements, requires a new playbook for success. Keep these insights in mind as you explore ways to improve your leadership skills and styles. And for all your thought leadership content efforts, let Ghost Blog Writers be your guide! Our team of talented wordsmiths can help you capture your leadership experiences and storytelling in a creative and resonating way. Connect with us and sample your free trial post to get started!

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From the time we were young the ideals of persistence and perseverance were reinforced as worthy ideals.

Yet, there isn’t as much virtue in staying in unfavorable, miserable, or downright toxic situations as people seem to think there is.

Fundamentally, we are all after a feeling we think we will get when we obtain something. And if we were to accept that as true, following one’s bliss truly is the only thing to prioritize in life.

So, is it time to step away to pursue a new path?

Are You Exhausted?

Push the body to its limits. Drink caffeine. Work 16-hour days. Give up social events. Sacrifice sleep. Anyone who plays the “sacrifice game” long enough will burn themselves out, and it will probably happen sooner than they think.

But the only type of work that truly exhausts you is the work you resist. If you are resisting something, you have one of two options:

• You can change your context for the work and approach it from a fresh perspective (you’ll probably need to step away from it for a couple of weeks to be able to gain a new perspective).
• You can choose something new that gives you energy and step away from what is stealing your energy.

Not everything is guaranteed to go right just because you’re doing something you love, but on balance, you will be resisting less, and as a result, you won’t be exhausted all the time either.

Are You Excited About Something Else?

Just because you’re flirting with the new and exciting doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right path for you. Simultaneously, excitement will always accompany the path best suited for you.

If you’ve been despising your current path for years while taking an interest in other passions or potential business ventures, then you have all the evidence you need already. The time to take a new path is now.

Your new idea will probably take everything you’ve got to execute, so you don’t have the luxury of being double-minded. You’ve got to take a leap of faith to fulfill your new vision.

Do You Have a Hunch?

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of stepping away to pursue a new path is that no one else can tell you when or when not to do it.

Your family and friends want the best for you. Or, it might be more accurate to say they want the safest path for you. So, if you were to ask them for advice, there’s a good chance they will tell you to stay the course and “hang in there” no matter how miserable you might be.

This has proven bad advice for countless budding entrepreneurs who’ve chosen the safer path instead of going with their gut.

The entrepreneurial journey is rarely easy, but it is almost always the more fulfilling.

If you have a hunch you’re supposed to be doing something else, you probably should be entertaining those thoughts. Circumstances may not appear to favor you now, but there is no such thing as perfect timing, and if not now, then when?

Closing Thoughts

Andrew Hitz of The Entrepreneurial Musician says he has yet to find a single example of people who followed their heart and stepped away from seemingly amazing careers to do something else and have ultimately regretted it. They’ve always come out on top.

It’s easier said than done, but there may come a time when you need to step away to pursue a new path. Be open to what shows up.

The post Is it Time to Step Away to Pursue a New Path? appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

For now, you know your success in business relies on your]]>

Understanding the Differences Between Growing and Scaling

Generally speaking, when you think of business growth, you think of linear growth. Business growth usually requires additional capital, technology, people, or resources. And with those investments, you expect the bottom-line revenue to grow. Scaling is a different form of growth, however.

Scaling is a rapid increase in profits at a faster rate than rising costs. Growth implies an increase in profits as they directly relate to an increase in resources or costs.

Scaling involves increasing your company revenue without linearly investing in additional resources. In fact, business scaling can allow you to increase revenue while minimizing costs. Where growth is more about the size of the business resources, scaling is about the value proposition and boosting results with little to no changes in core resources.

Here’s an apples-to-apples look at scaling versus growth:

• Growth – Focuses on the company
• Scaling – Focuses on the revenue and earning potential

• Growth – Revenue and resource increase together
• Scaling – Revenue grows faster than incurred costs or used resources

• Growth – Is a linear transformation
• Scaling – Is an exponential transformation

• Growth – Aspires to attain a goal or singular end result
• Scaling – Capability to exercise all goals and results together

Different Types of Business Scaling

To help you better understand the methods and strategies for business scaling, consider the different types of scaling efforts.

1. Bootstrapping – this type prioritizes organic growth through internal means.
2. Slow Scaling – this type uses external financing to supplement growth.
3. Fast Scaling – this type of scaling usually involves venture capital and viral growth.
4. Blitzscaling – this is Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” approach to leverage new techniques for lightning-fast growth.

In addition to the four types of business scaling, there are four directions to direct that company growth.

1. Scaling Up – upscale existing strategies
2. Scaling Deep – strategically upscale with internal mindset shifts.
3. Scaling Out – making your impact and offering transferable.
4. Scaling Down – grow your impact by cutting back on nonessentials.

The 5 R’s of Scaling

When you’re ready to put your business scaling ideas to task, create a checklist. And for many of today’s leaders, scaling success is achievable when you vet your ideas through the lens of the five Rs.

Readiness – Evaluate how ready your teams, customers, and arsenal of resources are to facilitate your ideas.

Resources – Determine if your scaling ideas require additional resources, like customer service channels, internal staff, or technology enhancements.

Receptivity – Make sure you have the market research data to support your scaling strategy and business-boosting ideas.

Risks – Assess every risk associated with your ideas for business scaling.

Returns – Outline the intended and projected returns, worst and best-case scenarios to set ROI goals.

Don’t attempt to initiate business scaling strategies until you’re comfortable with each of these points. Doing so prematurely will only result in additional challenges, increased risks, and more costs.

How to Scale in 2023

Once you and your leadership teams have a deeper understanding of the concepts needed to scale your business, you’re ready for the fun part. Now, you can start exploring the to-do lists and execution strategies to bring those business scaling ideas to life.

Center Everything On Your Company Offerings

The first priority with any scaling effort is centralizing and building on your company’s core offerings. Now’s the time to really analyze your data and sales metrics to identify which product or service is the most lucrative. A scaling strategy requires leading with this “best foot” forward. And organizations that focus their efforts on a specific offering (instead of casting a wider net to try and scoop up every possible purchase) will scale substantially faster. Consider these steps to apply pinpoint precision to your core offerings:

• Recognize and fully understand your lead offering’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Find and own your niche – then scale.
• Know your competition inside and out.
• Target your core audience’s primary pain point.
• Learn your existing customers’ preferences and purchasing behaviors.
• Create messaging and solutions to those specific customer needs.

Start with Revamping Your Strategies

Start by reviewing your current methods and strategies for sales, customer service, product development, distribution, and marketing. All of these current strategies might need revamping to adjust to your scaling goals. For example, you might need to revise a sales strategy to include additional markets or promotion of additional products and services. Your customer service channels might need improvement to accommodate a growing customer base and need for support. And any current marketing strategies might need adjusting to reach new target markets.

Invest in All the Latest Technology

Companies that don’t continuously evolve and adopt emerging technologies will soon find themselves behind the competitors who do. Today’s technology, from data management to CRMs, can streamline time, money, and resources. And all of those assets are essential to facilitating your business scaling plan. Explore some of these more common automation solutions:

• Project Management Software
• Appointment Scheduling Software
• Employee Onboarding Software
• Accounting or Payroll Processing Software
• Sales Management or Funnel Management Software
• Chatbots or AI Customer Service Solutions

Anywhere that you have an opportunity to automate to save time and money is a must-take opportunity before initiating any business scaling.

Internal Teams

Be prepared to augment your staff and teams with any business scaling plan. This kind of amplified growth usually translates to a need for more sales professionals, customer service teams, and production workers. And with those staff increases comes a boosted need for human resources and internal training. Today’s companies are onboarding new staff with remote or hybrid capabilities, too, to eliminate expenses associated with office space.

Elevate Your Processes

Talk with each of your departments about their current processes and procedures. When scaling your business model, you’re likely going to need to make adjustments to various policies and procedures to accommodate the influx of new business. And your frontline managers and teams can help you itemize the most efficient and effective methods for moving forward.

Outsource and Get Help

Scaling often requires additional insights and services. Don’t be afraid to outsource certain aspects of your business or bring in experts who can help. Small businesses, for example, might outsource payroll and HR functions during a scaling phase, with plans to bring those services back in-house once revenue levels can support doing so. Many companies also lean on outsourced marketing partners for proven results in advertising, content marketing, and product launch efforts.

Diversification Is Key

One of the pivotal strategies for business scaling involves diversification. Look for ways you can boost revenues with one of three basic diversification strategies:

1. Concentric Diversification – This is growth by adding similar products or elements of services to an existing line.
2. Horizontal Diversification – This is growth by introducing new products or unrelated services to the existing line.
3. Conglomerate Diversification – This is growth by acquisition.

Be specific about your growth direction and strategy, identifying the necessary business support and components needed to facilitate growth. And always be open to more passive revenue streams, including subscriptions or monthly service contracts, that can significantly boost revenue without exhausting resources.

Invest in Leadership and Management Development

With all the strategy, process, and marketing changes you’ll be making to prepare your company for scaling, you’re going to need to develop your internal managers and leaders for new dynamics. Mid-level management is responsible for motivating your teams and engaging your customers. So, it’s imperative that they be on the same page about company and team goals. Make sure they have all the training, tools, and resources available so they can be effective in their new management capacity. Skills your managers and leaders should prepare to sharpen include:

• Change Management
• Time Management
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Strategic Planning

Scalable Business Examples

You might be able to scale various segments of your business in stages. Typically, the following examples of business offerings or resources have great scaling potential. Consider testing your scaling strategy with these easy-to-boost elements of your business first. If you can’t scale within these segments, you’re not ready to scale your enterprise just yet. And starting small can allow you to spot challenges to address before taking your scaling efforts companywide.

• eCommerce platforms
• Company blogs
• Affiliate marketing efforts
• App development
• Podcasts or video content strategies
• Email marketing campaigns
• Online courses or downloadable assets

Business Scaling Mistakes to Avoid

When you’re executing plans for business scaling, be sure to avoid these common pitfalls and mistakes. These tend to be the most prevalent mistakes business owners make that end up backfiring and often costing valuable revenue and leading to missed opportunities for growth.

• Avoid scaling too fast.
• Don’t prioritize short-term goals over long-term goals.
• Avoid losing focus on the scaling plan to chase other opportunities.
• Don’t hire teams based on quantity over quality.
• Avoid trying to scale without the systems and processes needed to facilitate your ideas.
• Don’t forget that agility in scaling is key to success, so be ready to adapt.

Don’t Think About Scaling Without a Strong Brand

All of these insights and business scaling best practices won’t move the needle unless and until your company has a strong and well-defined brand. If you’re the slightest bit inconsistent with your brand style, purpose, or voice, your marketing isn’t going to be as effective. And a weak marketing impact will shutter any potential scaling. So, be honest about your current brand positioning and reputation. You can tap into these steps for building a falter-proof brand and foundation for scaling your business.

Brand Positioning – This statement describes what your company does, your unique value proposition, and your perfect-fit audience. It’s a definition that should grow with you as you scale.

Brand Promise – This sentiment describes what people should expect every time they encounter your brand or do business with you. If you can’t deliver on your brand promise in scaling, you’ll need to redefine your brand.

Brand Personality – This sentiment is the personality you want others to associate with your brand, company, and offerings. Imagine your company with human characteristics and use those voices and styles consistently throughout your messaging and marketing.

Brand Story – This story describes your brand history and establishes credibility. It’s a brief statement that captures the essence of your “why” and inspires others to support your growth efforts.

Brand Association – This is a collection of physical attributes for your brand, like the logo, tagline, or imagery. Here’s where you’ll define guidelines for font, colors, and visuals you’ll continue to use as you scale.

Not sure how strong your brand is? Consider putting it through a few tests and measurements. Use your existing brand metrics to evaluate your brand’s strength and see how well it…

• Is specialized to a niche
• Leads in the industry
• Has personality
• Is distinctive
• Is visible
• Is positive
• Exudes persistence
• Extends goodwill

In Conclusion

Scaling your business means making all the necessary changes and setting the stage for all elements to support the growth of your company. Get planning, secure any needed funding, implement the best-fit systems, hire the right people, adopt the right processes, and work with the best partners.

If content is a challenge for you, either in strengthening your brand position or in a new business scaling plan, rely on Ghost Blog Writers! Our team of brand-boosting wordsmiths can help you with marketing collateral, email campaigns, social media content, blogs, newsletters, and so much more! Make GBW your first partnership in your quest to scale your business today! Our strategists and content contributors can bring incredible value to your messaging. And we’re uniquely qualified to assist companies large and small, meaning we can grow with you as you succeed in scaling your business.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Scaling Your Business in 2023 appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

To assume that there is only one solution to any given problem is to question the very nature of reality. Yet, because many people are not trained in problem-solving, they can’t see a way where there are potentially dozens or even hundreds of solutions.

Problem-solving is a lost art. But if you can master it, it will improve your relationships, career, business, and life.

Why Do Problem-Solving Skills Even Matter?

No matter how good your strategy, execution, or team, you will encounter various challenges Google can’t solve for you. From cash flow problems to personal challenges that threaten to take you out of the game completely, the surprising and unexpected crop up at inopportune moments.

If you have good problem-solving skills, you will waste no time brainstorming with your team, coming up with dozens if not hundreds of solutions that could work. It sounds simple, and it is when you know what to do and how to do it. The problem is that many entrepreneurs are not taught how to do it, so they are cast into desperate situations where they feel there are no workable solutions.

But how do you build your problem-solving muscle? If you want to know, read on…

Train Yourself to Look for the Alternatives

Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam before? Of course, you have, right? Despite the slowdown, most people will stay on the same road and hope for things to get better instead of considering alternate routes.

Of course, there are situations where there are no workable alternatives. But there are also times when taking a bit of a detour, cutting through a parking lot (crude example), or even going back the way you came can end up saving you a lot of time.

If you train yourself to look for alternatives in every situation, you will begin to see that there are almost always unexpected or unconventional solutions to the problem you’re encountering.

Practical Examples of Problem-Solving

Having experienced many ups and downs in my business and financial life, I’ve had to problem-solve on countless occasions. Here are some practical examples:

• I was frequently at business events where people left empty cans and bottles by their seats. I started collecting them so I could bring them to the bottle depot and put some funds back in my pocket for business expenses or tickets for major events.
• I owned a car whose passenger side window went off track. I asked a mechanic how much it would cost to repair, and it was far too much for a 10-year-old car. I duct-taped the window shut and kept going. I did the same when two other windows did the same (of course, you’d want to watch out for authorities).
• I once had an eBook to complete on a tight deadline. I wanted to cover several more sections before calling it “done,” but I compromised for minimum viable so I could move on to the next steps in my project.

Conclusion

While you don’t want to violate any laws or values you hold dear, problem-solving will mean looking at problems from different perspectives. So, stay open to possibilities and don’t discard any ideas at the brainstorming stage. Write everything down, and then prioritize your list (e.g., “We’ll try these three ideas before we try anything else.”). In time, you will get so good at finding alternatives that you will do it on autopilot.

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Before you shy away, thinking this is another one of those listicles with tips and suggestions you already know you NEED to be doing, keep reading.

These suggestions are easy-to-implement changes that even the busiest professionals can make. If you’re looking for smart, effective ways to take care of yourself, this is the list of ideas worth considering. And it’s all about taking one subtle step at a time to start seeing real improvements in your life.

1. Remove the Toxic Ingredients from Your Diet

Instead of adding things to your daily routine and hectic professional life, give yourself a boost of energy by removing things. Make a list of not-so-great ingredients you can purge from your life, including overly sugary lattes in the morning, fast food lunches, or take-out dinners. Treat yourself, sure, once in a while. But try to remove those afternoon sugar crashes. Order the smoothie. Try packing a healthy lunch. And take it one snack or meal improvement at a time to start. You’ll soon be cutting back on unhealthy ingredients and feeling more energized as a result.

Here’s a shortlist of potentially unhealthy or toxic ingredients that might be wrecking your energy levels:

• Too much sugar intake
• Poorly or over-processed foods
• Excessive alcohol
• Donuts in the conference room
• Overdoing the cups of coffee

2. Replace One Bad Decision at a Time

It can be overwhelming to try and introduce new routines when you’re already a routine-driven professional with limited free time. So, instead of trying to do too much at once, be mindful to just make one smart routine replacement at a time. This will force you to recognize when you’re making poor health decisions. And picking one small change to implement at a time will help you build momentum and comfort in keeping those changes. Spot something about your current routine that you know is likely contributing to your reduced energy levels. Pick one and try to focus on making improvements there first.

Here’s a short list of some poor decisions you might consider addressing, one at a time, of course:

• Stress smoking
• Stress eating
• Not drinking enough water (we’ll get to this one next)
• Staying up late
• Working too late

3. Drink the Water (Seriously)

You’re not going to find ANY list out there, health and wellness related, that doesn’t insist you boost your intake of water. Drinking water is a natural energy booster. But let’s be honest; your body needs it. You don’t have to jump to eight glasses every day at first to make a difference in your energy level, either. Try bringing a bottle of water to work with you and making a conscious effort to consume it throughout the morning. Gradually work in more as you adjust your routine. You can also explore trying to drink a glass of H20 when you first wake up or right before you go to bed. Dehydration is an absolute tanker of energy. So, the more you can introduce into your day, the better you’ll start to feel.

Here are some refreshing ways to incorporate water into your everyday routine:

• Bring a refillable water bottle you can refill and reuse on the go.
• Try healthy water flavorings to perk up the taste.
• Add lemon or other fruit to your water for added antioxidant boosts.
• Keep bottled water at the office, at work, and at home.
• Have a water buddy who’s also trying to drink more with you.

4. Try Healthy Snacking Every Three Hours

If you’re a super-busy professional, running from appointment to appointment, running a business, putting out fires, meeting clients, and doing the work, you’re probably also a hard-core meal-skipper. When there just isn’t time to sit down for lunch, you’re also no stranger to the mid-afternoon burnout feeling. Instead of skipping meals and depriving your body of the nutrients you need to stay energized, try taking small snacks. Pack granola bars, bananas, or trail mix for your time in the car. Keep easy-to-eat snacks at your desk that you can grab and consume while responding to emails. Science suggests that healthy and protein-packed snacks every three hours can do amazing things for your energy level.

Here are some easy and healthy snacks to keep handy when you’re looking to keep a three-hour snacking habit:

• Dried, assorted fruits
• Almonds, cashews, or peanuts
• Protein bars
• Traditional granola bars
• Lean jerky

5. Commit to Sleep

If you’re always burning both ends of the candle, you’re eventually going to run out of wick. Busy professionals and business owners are notorious for late nights and long days. And the stresses of work can keep you from finding your much-needed REM sleep, too. However, not giving your mind and body the ample amount of rest it needs means you’re running short on energy. Try committing to better sleep one week at a time and force yourself to step away from the hustle and bustle of business. Allow yourself to rest by remembering that a refreshed you is better than a dead-tired you for your professional life.

Here are some suggestions to help you start effecting change to your sleep habits:

• Take midday weekend naps.
• Commit to an earlier bedtime by one hour.
• Introduce nighttime relaxation apps with soothing sounds.
• Make your bedroom a quiet, sleep-conducive oasis
• Avoid sleeping with your television on in the background.

6. Try Virtual Therapy to Relieve Stress

It’s not uncommon for successful professionals to feel the stresses and anxieties that come with work-related projects and deadlines. And some stresses can be healthy as they drive us to pursue goals, meet deadlines, and overcome obstacles. But too much of the wrong kind of stress can be overwhelming and have a negative impact on your mental health and energy. Distress, or those situations that manifest out of your control, can send your mind racing down the “what if” rabbit hole, too. If you feel work and life stress is taking a toll on your ability to perform, function, or be happy, consider therapy. There are a host of virtual therapy services you can access from anywhere, putting you in touch with professionals who can help you navigate and find stress relief.

Here are just a few of the virtual therapy services to start exploring:

• BetterHelp
• Talkspace
• Grow Therapy
• Brightside
• Online-Therapy.com

7. Take the Stairs Every Time

Some of the best methods for boosting your energy level involve exercise. And while you can’t always find the time to commit to a gym or workout schedule, you can implement a few changes to your routine to introduce a little more physical activity. For example, start taking the stairs. Commit one or two days each week to climbing instead of riding the elevator. Work your way toward more days of taking the stairs until you’re comfortable with climbing every day. Getting your heart pumping, even just a little, can be rejuvenating. And taking in more oxygen can help you feel more refreshed.

Here are some other ways to get your heart rate up throughout your busy workday:

• Park far away and speed walk.
• Keep small weights at the office and work in some calisthenics.
• Break away from your car or your desk and take a walk.
• Close your office door and do a set of planks or push-ups.
• Take periodic breaks to do arm and leg stretches.

8. Get a Physical

If you’re struggling with keeping your energy levels high, it’s always good to check with your physician. Schedule yourself a physical so you can rule out any potential health problems that might be contributing to your stress and energy depletion. Even with exercise, proper sleep, and a healthy diet, you could be feeling rundown and overwhelmed. Your doctor can also help you pinpoint and identify any underlying risk factors and concerns and prescribe medications when necessary. Make sure you’re aware of your health conditions so any changes you do make can contribute appropriately.

Here are just a few of the health conditions that might be contributing to your reduced energy levels:

• Diabetes or sugar-related anomalies
• Heart disease or high blood pressure
• Thyroid malfunction
• Arthritis or joint pain
• Sleep apnea

9. Know Your Circadian Rhythms

Everyone’s body keeps its own body clock or circadian rhythm. Some professionals find they’re most productive in the early morning hours, for example, while others are more efficient at night. Your daily energy pattern is mostly determined by your unique genetics and brain chemistry, making it tough to change. Don’t fight against your patterns. Instead, recognize your productivity rhythms and work with them as you implement more energizing habits. Schedule your more demanding activities for those times of day that you feel most productive.

Here are some examples for breaking up your schedule in a way that matches your unique circadian rhythm:

• Use your most alert and energized times for important meetings.
• Schedule brief blocks of time for answering calls and emails.
• Allocate demanding project work for those high-energy times of the day.
• Sleep when your body clock dictates.
• Off-peak energy levels are great times for networking and less-intensive work.

10. Mindset Energy Matters, Too

A lot of what happens to your body during peak and valley energy levels is physical. But don’t discount the power of mental energy. Addressing your mindset matters, especially if you’re looking to find a renewed sense of energy and productivity. Try making a conscious effort to start thinking positively about people, work situations, and real-life scenarios. With a little practice, you can start finding the silver linings in almost anything. And you will be more energized when your mind’s not weighed down with negative thoughts, worst-case scenarios, and confidence-draining self-talk.

Here are a few mindset improvements you can consider to keep your mood energized and positive throughout the day:

• Force yourself to find two to three positives about every situation.
• Practice gratitude – both giving and receiving.
• Appreciate nature at least once per day.
• Allow yourself mental breaks from tough challenges.
• Surround yourself with positive people.

11. Recognize What’s Draining Your Energy

In addition to incorporating these more subtle yet impactful changes throughout your day, practice mindfulness about your habits and routines. The first step to relieving stress and regaining energy is recognizing what it is that’s impacting your life. When you spot negative habits, toxic contributors, or energy-draining situations, you can then take the necessary steps to eliminate or minimize them.

Here are some energy-draining examples and scenarios that might be affecting your daily routine:

• Toxic or overly-negative individuals you can avoid.
• Relentless traffic you can seek to avoid with an alternative route.
• Skipping breakfast in the morning.
• Lack of sleep that you can seek to remedy.
• An overpacked schedule that you can look to lighten up with more free time.

If you’re feeling drained of energy these days, try some of these easy-to-implement strategies. Start committing to self-care so you can continue to deliver your best every day – to your work and personal life. You don’t have to make drastic changes that are practically impossible to stick with long-term, either. Instead, tackle a few of these improvements one day, one effort at a time. And work your way toward a better routine with a healthier lifestyle and renewed energy gradually, with better results.

And, as always, if any of your work-related stress and energy-draining tasks involve content, you can always let Ghost Blog Writers take the reins for you! Don’t get bogged down in writing newsletters, drafting blog posts, creating social media content, or developing email campaigns when you can delegate those efforts to our team of top-notch writers and contributors. Let us help and take advantage of your first free trial post to see just how easy your content creation can be!

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In either case, it’s time to prepare for a new role. And if it’s the first time you’ve been charged with leading a team, there are things you should do to prepare. Don’t just step into the realm of management without a plan. Instead, follow these steps and lean into your new role as an inspirational, impactful, and innovative leader.

1. Self-Assessment First

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. No one really expects you to be a perfect leader right from the start. But you do need to be self-aware and recognize your leadership weaknesses and strengths. It should be your first step in a new leadership role – self-assessment. Critically consider your motivations and fears in this new position. And assign yourself a score based on your assessment of core competencies. These skills represent the most important for valued and impactful leaders in any organization today:

• Active Listening Skills: Being observant and hyper-sensitive to your teams’ needs and preferences.
• Empathy Skills: Ability to understand others and perspectives unique from your own.
• Communication Skills: Ability to convey clear messages, instructions, and expectations.
• Strategic Planning Skills: Taking a proactive approach to future opportunities and challenges, not a reactive one.
• Foresight: Applying your past expertise for improved perspectives to anticipate future outcomes.
• Creativity: Ability to step out of your comfort zone, color outside the lines, and collectively think outside of the traditional box.
• Inspirational Skills: Sharing your knowledge and expertise with others in a way that motivates them to improve.
• Flexibility: Being comfortable with changing directions, devising new paths, or flying without a safety net.
• Honesty: An ability to share bad news just as freely as good news with an honest approach to all communications.
• Integrity: Committing to yourself, your team, your process, your betterment, and your company, even when no one is watching.
• Collaborative Skills: Being effective in working alongside others, not just in directing others.
• Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Skills: Be able to spot conflict and fiercely negotiate best-results solutions.

2. Establish Leadership Goals

With your weaknesses in mind, start plotting objectives that help you improve those areas. Use verbs, too, not just lofty, hopeful statements you end up ignoring. Put action to those weaknesses that facilitate growth, improvement, and leaning into those not-so-strong areas.

Also, create a timeline of short, mid, and long-game goals, starting with your first day as a new leader through to five years from now leadership objectives. Here are some internal questions to consider that will inspire you to create attainable goals in your new leadership role.

• Why are you great for this position?
• What do you hope to accomplish within the first 30-60-90 days?
• What can you do to improve productivity and company culture simultaneously?
• What departmental problems need to be solved now?
• What did the last person in this position do well? Not so well?
• Does everyone on your team have what they need to perform?
• How can you improve yourself in a way that inspires others to improve?
• Can you train someone on everyone’s job within your department?
• What’s the next leadership step from here?

3. Interview Peers, Colleagues, and New Team Members

Before you start your new role as a leader, reach out to others for insights, advice, and ideas. Depending on your industry, it might mean calling on current customers to ask about their experiences. It might involve connecting with recent retirees from your role or department. Anyone who might have a unique perspective related to your new job requirements as a leader can offer insights you won’t find elsewhere.

Interview your team members to learn more about them and their on-the-job experiences. Find colleagues or peers who’ve been in similar leadership roles for advice. And leaders always surround themselves with more successful people. So, be open to leadership mentors who can help make you great at steering the ship.

4. Managing Expectations – Yours and Theirs

As a new leader, your job is not only to inspire teams and improve production. Your job is also about managing expectations. Start by assessing your own expectations of the role, as well as your senior leadership. Why were you put in this position? What daily, weekly, or annual expectations does your company have of you?

And again, root these expectations in reality. Don’t promise to deliver $1M in revenue if it’s not possible. Devise a support system to help you convey and manage expectations ongoing. Learn more about your company, including its mission and vision. And keep your plans for progress at the top of your goal list.

5. Delegating and Building Alliances

Great leaders recognize that it’s not a solo effort. Leaders are masters at building alliances and delegating responsibilities. This, of course, requires trust. Prepare yourself for your new leadership role by creating lists of tasks and responsibilities that can be delegated. Devise practical solutions that bring value to your colleagues, building alliances with others in and outside of your organization, too.

6. Strategizing Your Methods of Improvement

Of all the leadership planning initiatives, self-improvement might be the most important. Just because you’ve arrived in a management role doesn’t mean you’re done learning. So, create a to-do list and strategy with precise methods to improve ongoing. These might include:

• Taking Leadership Courses Online
• Reading Leadership Guru Books and Blogs
• Partnering with a Leadership Mentor
• Attending Leadership Conferences
• Engaging in Regular Networking

7. Your To-Do List for the First 60 Days As a Leader

With all that critical thinking out of the way, you can start compiling your official list of things to do within the first 60 days of your new leadership role. We’re talking about actual steps you’ll take starting day one. Of course, keep all those strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and critical thinking strategies in mind as you execute. And you may want to add/move/change this list based on your specific duties. But get inspired to lay out a roadmap for what your first two months will look like as a brand-new leader.

Week 1: Check in with everyone

Within your first week, look to make time to meet with everyone. This includes a brief meeting with your direct supervisor. This also includes connecting with your subordinates in one-on-one conversations.

Week 2: Set and share your priorities 

By the second week, you’re ready to establish your leadership priorities. What tasks are you tackling together? What actions are you taking first-thing? And when you set your priorities, be transparent in sharing them with your teams.

Week 3: Start perfecting a system

Depending on the nature of your leadership role, you’ll likely have certain processes and procedures to follow or establish. By week three, be looking to perfect these systems. You should be a champ at getting things done, and your teams should be equally versed in following your process-following example.

Week 4: Relationship and trust building

Your teams will need time to adjust to the change in leadership. By the end of the first month, you can start focusing on building trust and working relationships with everyone. By now, the “new” has worn off, and your subordinates will be more comfortable sharing concerns and ideas with you. They’ll also be more open about small talk, which leads to more authentic working relationships.

Week 5: Introducing new ideas

By the start of your second month as a new leader, now’s the time to share big ideas. You don’t want to disrupt the flow too early. But by week five, everyone’s comfortable with you at the helm and will be ready to talk about your changes.

Week 6: Fostering a collaborative environment

When you introduce something new, gain greater opt-in and support from your teams by creating a collaborative environment. Gather them together and be open about sharing concerns and answering questions. Let them be a part of the big idea process without just dictating what you need them to do.

Week 7: Tackling a looming challenge

Show your teams you’re willing to bring solutions by tackling a looming challenge. Choose one common issue or complaint your teams share often, even before you took over the role. And then, find a solution that works for everyone, demonstrating you prioritize their needs.

Week 8: Rewarding 60-day progress

Celebrate the wins and reward your team’s progress, no matter how small. Show your subordinates you value their efforts and recognize their productivity. And use this opportunity to set a precedent for celebrating team wins often.

Key Takeaways for Your First 60 Days

Every new leadership role and company is going to be different. So, be flexible with your 60-day roadmap. The goal for these first two months is to connect, prepare, learn, and establish a precedent for growth. And these are the key takeaways from your first few weeks in charge.

Embrace Failures and Learn

Be forgiving with yourself and your teams. Failures are part of the growth and learning process. Expect certain failures along the way, and don’t let them derail your progress.

Raise Your Hand Often

Don’t hesitate to say you don’t know. Raise your hand often when you need clarification or have questions. This includes learning from those you’re charged with managing.

Follow Great Leader Footsteps

Recognize other great leaders in your organization and look to follow in their footsteps. Don’t reinvent the leadership wheel when others have experienced tremendous success before you.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Leadership is never a one-and-done thing. Be a sponge for learning and improvement. And realize that leadership, just like anything else in life, requires lots of practice.

Be Present and Accountable

Leadership means working with others, not over them. Be available to your teams and present with them in the trenches. Hold yourself accountable as their leader, too – meaning should they fail, you fail.

8. Understanding Your Leadership Style

When you’re researching leadership tips, you’ll often come across insights that outline the different leadership styles. Don’t feel obligated to commit to one particular style right off the bat, especially if you’re a first-time leader. A lot of what plays into the best-fit leadership style for you depends on experiences, personalities, and goals. Once you’ve found your footing, you can explore these styles and see which is your Cinderella leadership style. These are the six most common. You might be one of these or a healthy combination of several.

Participative Leadership

• Focused on collaboration
• Focused on involving others for decisions
• Focused on open communication

Authoritative Leadership

• Focused on inspiring others to follow
• Focused on setting the best example
• Focused on being hands-on

Transformational Leadership

• Focused on future
• Focused on change
• Focus on people and participation

Delegative Leadership

• Focused on sharing responsibility
• Focused on training
• Focused on trust-building

Servant Leadership

• Focused on ethics
• Focused on others’ needs
• Focused on creative problem solving

Transactional Leadership

• Focused on clear rewards
• Focused on solidifying everyone’s roles
• Focused on structure and process

9. Leadership Books and Audiobooks to Consider

Build a stack of the latest leadership books and audiobooks, so you can get inspired in your new position. According to Forbes, here are a few of the best reads to explore in 2023. Keep them handy as reading inspiration for your upcoming leadership journey.

• “Unbreakable,” written by Bradley Kirkman and Adam Stoverink
• “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” written by Patrick Lencioni
• “The Fearless Organization,” written by Amy Edmondson
• “The Manager’s Path,” written by Camille Fournier
• “The Power of Positive Leadership,” written by Jon Gordon

10. Become a Thought Leader Yourself

Congratulations on your promotion, and welcome to the leadership table! Keep these insights in mind to help you prepare to do and be your best. And who knows, you might want to become a thought leader in your own rite, sharing your leadership experiences along the way.

When you need help sharing your story and your own insights, let the brilliant writing team at Ghost Blog Writers help bring your vision to life in sharable content!

The post Ready to Take on Your First Leadership Role? 10 Tips to Prepare appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

But you don’t have to isolate yourself in a silo, all by yourself. As an entrepreneur, you are a rare breed of professional. However, you’re not alone in your day-to-day struggles. There are other business builders out there who, like you, faced incredible challenges. And in today’s marketplace, the rules have changed even more for those who strike out on their own ventures.

If you need peace of mind, keep reading. Today, we’ll share a few of those challenges that only today’s entrepreneurs are facing. Hopefully, you’ll resonate with these obstacles and recognize that you’re not on an island. And better yet, we’ll share methods and tips for overcoming those business obstacles so that you can enjoy the rewarding view from the very top of the entrepreneurial mountain.

Entrepreneur Challenges Broken Down into 4 Groups

Of course, everyone’s challenges will be unique, based on various personal and professional experiences. For example, your line of work and entrepreneurial niche might present specific obstacles from other business owners. But your personal experiences play a role in how you address issues and problem-solve, too.

When you’re trying to climb a mountain, standing at base camp looking up can be downright scary. But when you break your climb into manageable steps, with smaller goals that work your way up, it’s easier to tackle. Look to separate your entrepreneurial challenges into four categories. From there, you can divide and conquer based on manageable steps. Focus on one challenge at a time, allocating it into the appropriate category.

Mindset Challenges

Entrepreneurs can easily suffer from imposter syndrome. Second-guessing and constant unhealthy self-comparison can negatively impact your ability to lead your young business. Self-doubt can tank your motivation, too. Look to identify if your current challenges are rooted in mindset perspectives, and then seek to find mentorship to coach your mindset.

Business Challenges

Entrepreneurs feel those routine business challenges differently than employees. When your business is facing industry, operational, or sales-related obstacles, you will carry those stresses personally. Identify if your obstacles are business related and then find new partnerships, explore new software solutions, and augment your teams to help you overcome them from a business perspective.

Finance Challenges

If you’re struggling with finances and money, which is a common challenge entrepreneurs face, look to focus on finance-related solutions. Whether it’s company earnings or your personal household finances, explore the two ways to improve your money – cut unnecessary expenses or drive improved earnings.

Life Challenges

When you run your own business, your business is your life. So, when life throws you other lemons, like health concerns, family drama, or situational stress, it can be overwhelming to the entrepreneur. Recognize if your obstacles are life or business-related. And if you’re juggling life dynamics, focus on solutions to relieve those non-business-related stresses and keep them from seeping into your business world.

Obstacles An Entrepreneur Faces More Often

Remember those aforementioned categories as we dive into some of these obstacles. These challenges can represent all four but tend to be the most common for entrepreneurs.

1. Hiring Talent

You were inspired to start your business with a vision that it would grow and be wildly successful. But you can’t do it without bringing in more staff. And hiring, especially in today’s marketplace, can be downright maddening! When your success weighs heavily on your ability to find and attract phenomenal workers without breaking the bank, you can carry unbelievable stress.

Solution: Instead of trying to hire five salespeople, two admins, and an IT department, focus on hiring one phenomenal HR professional or powerhouse recruiter for your business. You find one and let that person use their expertise to build a hiring process and onboarding system that works.

2. Delegating Tasks

When you’re used to running the business by yourself, wearing all the hats required to make it happen, it can be challenging to learn how to loosen the reins and delegate. However, not delegating will only stifle your business growth, so it’s definitely an obstacle to overcome.

Solution: Start small by delegating time-consuming tasks and administrative duties to others on your team. Evaluate your strongest team members and prepare them for more responsibilities and build training materials so they know how to approach more managerial tasks the same way you would. Learn to trust key employees so that when you do relegate duties, you don’t micromanage. Once you give authority, step back and let them have it, evaluating only the results.

3. Entrepreneur Analysis Paralysis

When you’re an employee working for someone else, your decision-making boils down to doing what you’re told or trained to do. But when you’re running your own business, every decision can present entrepreneurial risks with heavy consequences. And you often take way longer to weigh options before officially pulling the trigger. This can be a smart approach, carefully thinking everything through before acting. But – if you stall too long, you can fall victim to analysis paralysis.

Solution: Save your big thinking for big decisions. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and make smaller decisions quickly. Don’t dwell too long on the “what ifs” and embrace risks and rewards as a natural characteristic of being in business for yourself. Embrace mistakes as learning curves. Spend time on contingency plans and be willing to take the leap.

4. Entrepreneur Work-Life Imbalance

Entrepreneurs who love their businesses will do whatever it takes, like anything, to bring their vision to life. And that usually calls for 60 or 80-hour workweeks, late nights, weekend calls, and pavement-pounding sales efforts. And in comes the work-life imbalance. If you’re losing sleep, not eating right, or stressing for extended weeks at a time, it’s not healthy. And how well you treat the “leader” of your company will determine the success of the company.

Solution: Give yourself permission to take breaks and step away from the business. Take the vacation. Make rules about making it home for dinner. Pack healthy snacks and bottles of water. And when your body says it’s tired, give yourself permission to sleep in once in a while. Keep the leader of your company healthy, and your company will, in turn, be healthy.

5. Entrepreneur Time Management

Along the same line of work-life balance is the challenge of improving time management. Every minute of your available time needs to be productive and business-advancing. And it’s challenging, especially when you get rabbit-holed into chasing problems, putting out fires, or exploring new ideas. Stop and critically think about how much of your workday is wasted on non-productive activities. (Reminder, those wellness efforts aren’t wasted – take the nap. It’s needed.)

Solution: Explore the menial tasks that suck the hours out of your day and look to delegate them to others. Outsource social media management, for example, so that you can focus on core competencies. Also, look for software solutions and automation to make light work of tedious tasks, including accounting, marketing, and project management.

6. Raising Capital and Finding Investors

Entrepreneurs will often seek startup capital and recurring investors to keep the big idea in motion. And even if you’ve managed to secure initial financing, raising capital, cash flow management, and finding investors continues to be a challenge. Finding resources and selling your genius business plan can be stressful, especially if your business model folds without them.

Solution: Develop and keep working on a strategic marketing plan that is dedicated to building support and awareness of your business. This is an investor-facing strategy, promoting ROI potential, niche market differentiators, and your credentials as a worthy leader. Build momentum with your efforts to stay top-of-mind with key investors, stakeholders, and financing options.

7. Sales Struggles

Depending on what business you started, you’re likely an expert in anything OTHER than sales. And it can be an overwhelming and constant struggle to force yourself into selling and driving sales. Equally challenging is knowing what sales skills and techniques work versus those that don’t work within your business model. You could be leaving business-boosting money on the table, failing to recognize a conversion opportunity, or selling yourself out of a sale and not even knowing it.

Solution: You don’t have to be a sales pro to be effective in sales. No one anywhere in the universe has the same passion and vision for your business like you do. So, start with your own elevator pitch and build that passion into sales training materials and collateral. Then hire or outsource your sales initiatives, from cold calling to online orders and beyond to those who are experts in selling similar products or services. You can’t be a racehorse if you’re a donkey. Don’t try to be a sales master when you can hire one and train them.

8. Impatience and Self-Doubt

As an entrepreneur, you’re your own worst critic. You’ll place overwhelming demands on yourself, unlike anyone else, and hold yourself to impossible standards. This impatient nature and recurring self-doubt can be detrimental to your business’s success. And not resolving these mindset obstacles will have you headed for certain burnout and failure.

Solution: Consider finding a business mentor or building a support system around you. Learn and understand that building any business is just going to take time. Be mindful that patience needs to be a natural aspect of leadership. Stop wasting energy on negative insights or demanding self-imposed standards. That energy will be better served elsewhere.

9. Marketing and Networking

Sales is one thing. But then, developing a robust marketing strategy that finds, attracts, and builds customers requires a completely different set of skills. Branding, marketing, and networking need step-by-step roadmaps, analytics, and ongoing changes. And as an entrepreneur, all those responsibilities fall squarely on your shoulders.

Solution: Just like you would with any other aspect of running a business that requires skills you don’t have – outsource it! Hire marketing or branding professionals, who are different from sales, to help create your roadmap and strategy. Seek the assistance of third-party pros to augment every execution step that you can’t facilitate yourself. Convey your business mission and vision to these key professionals and let them use their expertise to execute marketing, branding, and networking efforts brilliantly.

10. Limited Learning

Over the course of your traditional career, you’ve been able to educate yourself, learning the ins and outs of running a business from others. You’ve absorbed knowledge and expertise from other leaders. You’ve watched co-workers and managers make mistakes, recognizing what not to do within your own business model. And before you launched your business, you conducted all your own industry research into the market, preparing for success. But another challenge that entrepreneurs face is a limited ability to learn AFTER they’ve started their businesses. There just aren’t enough learning hours in the day when you’re wearing all the hats, handling all the things. And when you’re the leader, who’s left to teach you new insights?

Solution: As part of your business success plan, incorporate time and effort into improving your skills. Sign up for the course online about eCommerce. Go to the industry conferences and meet new people. Be mindful to always be in a capacity to learn from someone, and commit to continued learning as another strength in your leadership cap.

Entrepreneurship is a journey with loads of challenges and obstacles along the way. And much of what you’ll face is very different from what traditional employees face. Know you’re not alone, and keep this guide as a reference and motivation to keep going! And when your business needs help with content, you can always rely on the brilliantly dedicated team of wordsmiths at Ghost Blog Writers to take the reins. We can take your entrepreneurial vision and transform it into engaging and effective content. Let us handle your blogs, white papers, web content, newsletters, and social media content. You can focus on climbing that entrepreneurial mountain and on what you do best – being a successful entrepreneur of a successful business!

The post 10 Challenges Today’s Entrepreneurs Face (And What You Can Do to Overcome Them) appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

It’]]>your life and relationships.

The good news is that positive mindsets work the same way. And all you really need to do is recognize the negative when you experience it and take steps to shift your mindset back to a more positive framing. And after practicing the more positive approach, you’ll begin to see shifts to a more successful perspective in business and life. 

The point is – mindset matters. Additionally, your mindset will impact every corner and aspect of your life, no matter who you are, where you live, what you like and dislike, or what you do for a living. And these are the tips and suggestions to help you effect change in how you think, thus manifesting a more positive and successful outcome.

1. Get Honest About What You Need to Improve

Like Dr. Phil says, you can’t change what you first don’t acknowledge. So, if you really hope to make changes in your mindset, you’re going to need to get honest with yourself about just how much work needs to be done. Be intentional and mindful of how you interact with others at work and at home. But also, be mindful of your internal dialogue and the mental statements you make to yourself.

Don’t be afraid to talk about your intentions to change with those around you, either. Having a support system for accountability can be a great foundation to help you shift your thinking. Let your spouse or work colleague call you out when they notice you’re engaging in over-negative perspectives. You can also keep a log or a journal to document when you feel you have a negative mindset. Seeing the frequency with which you carry a negative attitude or response on paper might surprise you. The better you get at identifying where your mind goes astray, the better you’ll get at correcting it.

2. Harnessing the Power of Suggestion

There is an environmental component to mindset, too. You are what you eat, right? You’re also impacted by those around you, your settings, your home life, and your work life. Take stock in each of those environments and evaluate whether they’re contributing to a more negative outlook or a more positive one. 

Need an example? Consider the workplace water cooler or wherever it is you gather with coworkers for brief stints throughout the day. What is your water cooler talk like? Is it fun, lighthearted, and full of “guess what I did this weekend” kind of talk? Or is it negative and toxic gossip, full of “I can’t believe the boss said that” and “did you see what so-and-so wore to work today?” The former is a healthier environment. The latter is only going to perpetuate a negative mindset. 

You can leverage the power of suggestion in your favor by being selective about what types of environments you allow yourself to be in and operate. Sure, there are some scenarios that aren’t favorable that you just can’t avoid. But when you control those situations that you DO have a say in controlling, you can CHOOSE more positive surroundings and reinforcements. Let the power of suggestion, through the positivity, and healthy dialogue of others, inspire change in your own mindset.

3. The Baader-Meinhof Phenom

Have you heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? When you bought your first new car, do you remember how all of a sudden you started noticing all of the other people driving that same car? That phenomenon, noticing something you didn’t know before until it was important to you, is the Baader-Meinhof example. Your mindset is subject to this concept, too.

It’s sometimes called Frequency Illusion or Frequency Bias. But your brain is wired in such a way that it recognizes what you tell it is important. So, if you’re driving your first Jeep, you’re going to pay closer attention to all the other Jeeps on the road. And if you’re focused on a positive mindset and experiences, you’ll start spotting all the others around you with the same focus. 

This phenomenon works both ways, though. And you probably know a few people in your circles of friends or acquaintances who are routinely negative and tend to flock to others who are equally negative. If you’re not mindful, you might not even realize that you’re participating in those negative talk circles, too. But when you focus on mindset improvement, much like buying your first car, you’ll start recognizing the mindsets around you, allowing you to make conscious decisions about improving your surroundings.

Keep this Frequency Illusion concept in mind as you look to make more positive shifts in your mindset. Prioritize your positivity in a way that allows you to spot others who share positive influence. You can then align yourself with those with whom you can find support in maintaining positive experiences. And you’ll be able to avoid spending too much time with those who linger in the negative mindset circles.

4. Demystifying Procrastination, According to Mel Robbins

One of the primary contributors to a negative mindset, and the one thing that can derail a positive mindset in a hurry, is procrastination. But procrastination can be remedied easily if you recognize what it actually is – it’s a response to stress and risk-taking.

World-renowned motivational speaker and New York Times Best-Selling Author Mel Robbins talks a lot about what procrastination really is. And she suggests that people put things off because they want or need “proof” that the act or task will be successful before doing it. It’s that need for reassurance that causes an internal stress, forcing people to sometimes “freeze” instead of taking action. 

If you’re constantly putting things off, it’s going to negatively impact your mindset since you’ll constantly feel like you’re not getting things done. Recognize what it is that’s causing your inability to follow through. Address the risk-taking and need for reassurance in the moment. Start deliberately executing each task, and you’ll soon build momentum as you feel more accomplished. And the more accomplished you feel, the more positive you’ll be.

5. Discovering and Focusing on Priorities

If you want to make immediate changes to your mindset, like right now, start by sitting down with a list of priorities. A lot of what makes us unhappy in life and business involves expectations and focusing on things that don’t provide value. We get mad at long trains in the morning, and for some, it can be day-ruining. But focusing on the train isn’t going to provide any value to your life. You can choose to recognize the delay as a hiccup. 

Get intentional by writing down the most important things in your life. These could be family members and friends. They could be goals you hope to achieve relating to career success. Or they could be experiences like traveling to destination dream spots or parenting success with seeing your kid get into college. The point of the exercise, however, is to visualize those things in your life that matter most. Whenever you do encounter setbacks in life, like those train delays on your way to work, you can recognize that a late train isn’t going to help or hurt any of the priorities on your list. And it’s out of your control. So, why let it ruin your mindset in the moment or for the day? 

When people say, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” they mean don’t derail your mindset over things that don’t really have value in your life. And those who dwell on the negative for too long have lost sight of their life, career, and experience priorities.

6. Understanding the Categories of Mindset Shifts in Leadership and Life

There are categories of mindset to help you identify and separate various traits. In leadership initiatives, you can decide which of the four traits applies to you. These concepts are great for identifying not only your own mindset pulse but also helping you to demonstrate positive mindsets to those who report to you or rely on you as a leader.

• People-Centrism: Encourages appreciation, inclusiveness, empathy, and positive interactions with people.
• Purpose-Centrism: Encourages focus on purpose and intention, driven by big-picture missions and visions.
• Learning-Centrism: Encourages growth in continued learning and trying new things to experiment for improved results.
• Versatility: Encourages the adoption of new approaches to challenges, leadership, demands, and innovation.

Each leadership type requires a unique approach to mindset preservation. Once you know which category best fits your personality and character, you can begin to apply specific shifts in mindset that produce a result in how you think and feel about situations, business, and life.

Psychology Today says there are other ways to compartmentalize your mindset, to help you address “smaller parts” of your mindset in manageable bites. Everyone experiences and learns differently. These types of mindsets can make it easier for you to recognize how to make improvements.

• Growth Mindset: The belief that abilities and experiences can be improved with hard work, trying harder, learning more, and applying yourself.
• Positive Mindset: The belief that intentional gratitude, reappraisal, and savoring of moments improves optimism.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: The belief that innovation, changing, and adapting eases coping and improves mindset.
• Challenge Mindset: The belief that positivity thrives when there’s an opportunity to overcome and tackle demands. 

7. Other Intentional Mindset Shifts You Can Make

There are other best practices you can be following to effect positive changes in your mindset and attitude. Again, the key is recognizing where you need improvement. And being aware of where you fall short will help you focus with pinpoint precision. These three mindset shifts tend to be the most popular first steps to making a change.

Trusting Yourself

Stop second-guessing. A positive mindset is only achieved when you’re able to trust your own ideas, your own experiences, and your own strengths. Even in the face of adversity or the unknown, you have to trust in your own abilities to allow yourself to succeed. And yes, failures come. But not trusting yourself will only hold you back and prevent you from taking action. (Remember, procrastination will tank your mindset.)

Know Your Worth

Assign value where value is due. Be realistic about giving yourself credit and assigning worth. If you’re constantly selling yourself short or throwing yourself under the bus, you’ll never achieve a positive mindset. Recognize your strengths just as much, if not more, than you do your weaknesses. Place value on what matters, like with the aforementioned priorities list.

Stop Being a Loner

Another mindset tanking action is trying to do it all on your own. You can begin to see immediate changes in your mindset when you realize you can’t do everything alone. You need the assistance of others. You need collaboration and shared responsibility. The alternative is burnout, increased procrastination, and constant struggle. So, liberate yourself and your mindset by getting comfortable asking for help when you need it.

Conclusion

Preserving your mindset matters, especially if you want to live a positive and healthy life. In your career and personal life, negativity will always creep in, and it’s ok to feel and respond. But don’t linger in those negative mindset instances for too long. Tap into these insights and tips to help you break free and start shifting how you think, feel, and react to work, life, and situations. Preserving your mindset will allow you to live your best life, no matter what the universe throws at you!

For more life, work, and leadership insights, keep up with the Ghost Blog Writers blog! And if you need help with content for business, blogs, or thought leadership on LinkedIn, let our team of wordsmiths bring your ideas to life.

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