Real talk: Failure happens. When it happens, it’s easy to feel like Humpty Dumpty toppling off the wall to never be put back together again. Failure often feels like the end of the world, but the reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. If failure is so common, how can we learn from it? How can we fail with dignity and grace? How can we learn to fail better?
All of us have been there at one time or another. You find yourself sitting in a conference room, looking around at your team. You are surrounded by competent, confident, and highly accomplished individuals. Without knowing why, you find yourself comparing yourself to all of these individuals. You start to question if you belong among them, and maybe even start to feel as if a mistake has been made.
Humans are social animals. Really, it is our ability to build connections and lasting relationships that often sets us apart as a species. But unfortunately, this instinctual need to connect with each other doesn’t always come easily to us. According to a 2018 study conducted by Cigna, over half of all Americans reported feeling alone and isolated. This includes Americans working at our businesses. If we consider that the average employee works a 40 hour week, that’s a possible 2,080 hours a year that we may be contributing to a sense of loneliness in our team!
Presenteeism—or when employees show up at work physically but are unfocused and mentally elsewhere—is running rampant in the modern workplace. According to many recent studies, employee disengagement is at an all time high. We all dream of walking into work to find a motivated, keyed-in, ready-to-go team, but unfortunately that just isn’t the reality for the majority of businesses. But there is good news: this doesn’t have to remain true for you and your team.
Trust is complicated. Whether we’re dealing in our personal or professional lives, trust isn’t something that can be faked. Trust is one of the most important aspects of running a business—maybe even the most important! Clients will not engage with a business they don’t trust; partners are likely to pair with more reliable companies; and employees will go looking for new opportunities if they cannot depend on their employers. Businesses run on trust.
When we’re making big decisions in our personal lives—what color to paint the living room, which vacation spot to visit, what breed of dog makes a great pet for kids—we often go to our friends, families, and co-workers for advice. It’s helpful to hear from objective parties and get their opinions. We barely think twice about asking for advice in the private sector. So why, then, do we hesitate to ask for it in our business lives?
February is the shortest month of the year, but it often can feel like the longest. If you’re like me, then you went all-in on your goals in January. But now, a month later, you might feel like you’re starting to lose some steam, or that at least your team is. What causes this burn-out? Research shows that one of the main culprits is having too many goals and trying to achieve them all at once. Having a vision is good; having twelve visions can often lead to miscommunications, mistakes, and plain old exhaustion for both you and your team. So how can you avoid this to continue moving your business forward?
We’ve all been there: After counting down the seconds until midnight on December 31st and watching the ball drop in Times Square, after, we set our sights on our resolutions for the coming year. These resolutions usually concern our personal lives and, more often than not, our professional goals. Unfortunately, turning over a new leaf isn’t always easy.
New year, new you—isn’t that how the saying goes? It’s December, the end of 2018, and many of us are excitedly looking forward to the holidays and spending time with our families and friends. But as you’re filling out your New Year’s Resolutions for 2019, don’t forget to keep your professional goals in sight. Look around your business and evaluate the current atmosphere of your corporate culture.
