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5 Exercises to Increase Team Performance

6/17/2016

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Author Almu Corazon 
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I believe we are all leaders. We lead ourselves to achieve goals and fulfill expectations. Regardless of our public power, every one of us is an influencer. Thus why the way we communicate with our coworkers, clients and industry colleagues shape our results and overall public image.
 
As leaders, it is essential that we understand the impact of blame. Every once in a while, our teams will run into a mistake or two. For the most part, these mistakes are easy to manage and take care of, but when it comes to stating who is to blame, it’s easy to get into trouble.
It's important for leaders and organization managers who are trying to shape their cultures in a way to improve performance and creativity, to keep blaming others to a minimum. If you're an organizational leader, don't blame other people, at least not publicly. Blaming others sabotages relationships. Reprimanding your team is a poor way of dealing with the problem and does nothing to actually remedy the situation. As a result, it can end up making your team feel like they can’t go to you when a problem arises, potentially leading to bigger problems. You might want to offer praise in public, but if you have to blame someone, do it in private.
 
GOOD LEADER DOESN’T:
  • Blame
  • Make people feel guilty
  • Humiliate colleagues, especially in front of others         
 
GOOD LEADERS:
  • Take responsibility
  • Nurture the people they work with
  • Help rectify mistakes
  • Admit when they’ve got it wrong
  • Accept that the buck stops with them
 
Besides, removing fear and establishing a take-responsibility culture begins with the leaders:
  • It Creates Trust, fostering stronger bonds among team members that will result on higher performance.
  • Your Team Is Your Responsibility, whatever your team does should ultimately fall on you. You advise your team on most of the decisions they make, so it should probably go without saying that when they make a mistake, you may be just as guilty as they are.
  • You Are The Brand Representative, the way you handle your employees has a direct impact on your business ROI. When employees understand their leaders are on their side and want them to win, they become confident and better at their job.

I always said, “If there is a blame to be had, great leaders take it on. If there is a credit to be given, they give it away to others.”
 
Recently, a client running a retail store was having difficulties increasing his team’s performance rate. So, we decided to create an internal calendar of events to generate team-building activities, keep his personnel motivated and drive inspiration for action. Here are examples of the different exercises done to increase results:
  1. Laser-Tag Games, where employees have the opportunity to become team leathers to preserve their group from being laser-tagged, and win.
  2. Pot-Luck Picnics, to introduce employees’ cultural backgrounds, learn from their origins and discuss healthy food habits everyone can add to their routines to create a healthier work environment. As a result, we learnt that most employees want to eat healthy and loose weight. So every employee keeps the pantry clean from junk food; and, every week one of them is in charge of buying healthy snacks such as fruits, nuts, dark chocolate, in an effort to support each other.
  3. Failure Parties, in which employees talk about their mistakes with the purpose to create the opportunity to take responsibility for their own mistakes in public in order to be a model of this behavior. Failure is a second chance to success -- it’s a matter of learning and growing from it.
  4. Panels & Round Tables, industry experts are invited to share their skills in an informal discussion for employees to expand their knowledge on important matters.
  5. Team-Up Meet-Ups, each month two employees team up to assist each other on their duties and learn from each other’s responsibilities. So if someone is off for any reason, others can pick up responsibilities covering for their teammates. This also keeps them motivated as every month they break their working routines.
 
His team is small, so it is crucial for my client to maintain healthy organizational dynamics to foment a positive work environment. These activities which foster leadership, partnership, integrity and personal growth are bringing his staff together, making them feel important and recognized, while cultivating leaders on different working forces. Also, workers have shared with us that they love this approach because these activities have allowed them to learn how important this business is for my client and his family.
 
How do you increase performance rates in your business/department? Do you or did you ever conduct/ed any team-building efforts? Have you ever created an excuse-free culture among your team/company members? How did you achieve it? Share with us in the comment section. 

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The Myth Behind Finding Your Purpose

1/16/2016

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Author Almu Corazon
Myth behind Purpose
Lately I am coming acro­­­ss clients, professionals and students who are struggling with the idea of finding their life and business purpose. I see their struggles and doubts, questioning what to do next to answer the big myth of life. Their anxiety, immobility and incapability to perform due to the magnitude of their concern are clear and real, causing a serious negative impact on their professional development. Due to this, I decided to dedicate my first blog of the year to this topic. Don’t you think there is a HUGE myth behind finding our purpose?

I personally think that it is important to attune ourselves with our purpose, but if that causes an identity crisis, please don’t sweat it my dear reader. Remember that life goes on and if you stop everything just to think about your purpose, your world of possibilities will go on without you. That said, I propose to find your purpose as you go along with life, enjoying every single moment of it. Learn from all the experiences you dive into and collect every piece of information you unlock. What you like, what you don't like. What makes your soul tickle, what doesn't. What makes you feel secure, strong, grounded vs what makes you weak, insecure, lost...and so on. Keep a journal to track your progress. You’ll see that without even realizing it, you will discover your life purpose. Just remember that when our purpose is external, we may never find it.
 
Yes, I said it. The BIG myth of our life purpose is focusing our purpose on external actions, facts and reasons. When in reality your purpose, my purpose, everyone’s purpose has nothing to do with anything external. Your self-worth has nothing to do with your craft or calling, but on how you treat yourself and others. I don’t blame you. Countless folks have been publishing misleading information online. In addition, there are too many “experts” out there encouraging others to focus their attention on external matters. Think about it, if we don’t learn how to deal with ourselves first, how can we be ready to assist someone else? In fact, if we tie our purpose or meaning to our vocation, goal or an activity, we’re likely setting ourselves up for discomfort, personal crisis and even failure down the line. Your purpose is to awaken. To discover and nurture who you truly are, to know and love yourself at the deepest level. To learn how to become self-aware, to grow your leadership skills, to strengthen your self-conviction and inner strength; and most important, to master the art of guiding yourself back home when you lose your way. It is like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the more aware and present you become; and, the more peace of mind and harmony will fill your life. 
 
Everything else is your burning passion, your inspired mission, your daily motivation, your love-fueled hobby, your so-called vocation. Those things are powerful and highly worthy, but they’re not your purpose. Your purpose is much bigger than that. I know it is very easy to get lost looking for it, and difficult to figure it out. In most cultures we are not told or encouraged to learn about ourselves when we are young, so we grow up following family, friends and social patterns. Thus why, when we are confronted with the reality of having to make life choices such as what to study, where to live, what to do for living, where and in what should we invest our money and time, we tend to feel lost. Most people get lost when making choices in alignment with society, or with what friends and family members tell them to do. Yet when we follow our purpose, everything falls into place, we feel attuned and our work resonates with our personal vision. 
 
To give you an idea, my deeper understanding of purpose feels right in the darkest moments of my life. It eases my pains and doubts. It diffuses the ache of separateness I experience when I doubt myself or when my work isn’t appreciated or overlooked. It keeps me grounded and focused. Sometimes people will treasure your work treating you as a superstar, sometimes they won’t. Sometimes you will get that precious well paid client or project/account, sometimes you won’t. Sometimes you will feel wonderful and beautiful inside out, sometimes you won’t. You’ll be on the marquee and you’ll be passé. Sometimes you will increase your likes and community of followers; other times you’ll be unfriended, unfollowed and unliked. You’ll be thanked and you’ll be taken for granted. That’s the ecology of life. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But, so then what? You have no purpose or meaning?
 
Can you see how depending on outside forces can confuse you making you feel depleted, depressed and even resentful? Anchor your purpose within, my dear friend. You spend the majority of your lifetime with yourself alone. So when you learn how to become your own best friend, your own rock, your own lucky charm, you become unstoppable, self-sufficient, free, and independent from outside forces. That’s powerful self-leadership and self-development. Then, you will expand inside out. You will be ready to be seen and appreciated. Your community of supporters will grow and stay. Your sense of belonging will exponentially enlarge itself. You will free up your mind and generate bigger, more positive results. Believe me, your reach and impact will reflect your positioning, attitude and efforts.

Just take it step by step. Don’t rush it, or you will be slapped on the face by the same hidden dynamics keeping your life path and business practice as a crazy yo-yo. Dust off some happiness in your life, check a post I wrote about how to achieve happiness to support your journey. Cherish every accomplishment. Enjoy your victories and losses. Learn the lessons life is putting in front of you. Engage with life and tell us more about it! I definitely want to hear from you! 

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Position Your Brand To Increase Sales

8/14/2015

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Author AlmuCorazon
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Companies with strong global brands such as Coca Cola, IBM, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, and many others have greater potential brand extensions thus strengthening their global market position and boosting existing brand value (Keller, 2008). Branding is an important component in firms geared towards international markets. Until recently, most firms across the globe except United States had no established strategies for building strong brands. 

Previous studies on branding either in local or global markets focused on value or equity linked to the brand name and the factors that underlying their value creation (Kapferer, 1997; Keller, 1998). 
A common question most fellow consultants, startups, and solopreneurs have is whether to invest in their branding now or to wait, especially with the online boom, networking and cross-promotional expansion. You might not have a logo yet or a consistent branding and you may be thinking, maybe this is why my business is not growing as quickly as I was hoping it would. 

Well, yes, it may be. If you have a low budget, don’t sweat it; a good solution is to start putting a brand style guide together yourself. Few weeks ago I blogged about the psychology of colors and advised you to have a brand style guide. Since creating a brand style guide is a fundamental step to grow your positioning; and, lots of you have asked me how to create one, next week I will show you step-by-step how to do it in five steps. Stay tuned! For now, here's some important things to consider.

When you create a basic branding and style guide for yourself, you start getting clarity on your positioning, even if the word itself may seem bigger than what you can picture right now. You know it is time to get serious and grow your business! So get yourself together, gather every visual, typography, provisional logo, color selection and anything else you might have been using to this point. Do you like what you have? Can you tell right away what’s missing or what’s extra and unnecessary for your brand positioning? Ask yourself:

  • What describes me best from what I have in front of me? 
  • Is there anything I should let go of? 
  • Do I want to see something else?
  • Is the image I am presenting in alignment with my brand’s goals and objectives?

Then think about your ideal positioning, and picture how you want to be perceived by your audience. It is important to find balance between how you see yourself and how others perceive you. Think about the message, you are trying to convey to your audience and prospective customers. A simple Brand Overview can be an introduction to who you are, what you do, and how you do it differently than every other X out there. This piece is often similar to your business cards, LinkedIn profile, portfolio and website’s About page. If you are not clear, a good way to find clarity is through a questionnaire. I always encourage my clients to ask themselves and their communities some pivotal questions. Here are just a few to get you started:

  1. Who am I? What’s my brand all about?
  2. What are my strengths?
  3. What are my weaknesses?
  4. What do I do best and what do I like to do the most?
  5. How am I different from my competitors? What are my unique attributes?
  6. What does everybody know about me?
  7. What can people count on me for?
  8. And ask others, to avoid missing anything, “Is there anything you want to say about me? Feel free to be bold, it will help me.”

Devote time to address the questions – I assure you that you will have a lot of aha-moments along the way, especially when you compare your answers with the ones you get from others. First ask yourself and once you have your answers on a paper, share the questions with different communities, such as family members, fellow consultants, coaches, clients, friends, random people you meet at networking events, etc. Once you have the answers to your questions above you will have a better idea of your brand’s essence. This will guide you to the right brand positioning. Next step will be to get creative building a Brand Style Guide.

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