5 Pillars of Effective Supply Chain Management

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Have you ever wondered how that phone in your pocket, the shirt you are wearing, or even the meal on your plate got there? The answer lies in a web of networks called supply chains. Supply chain management is the management of all the logistics of a business and its providers, from acquiring raw materials to delivering the final product to the consumer. But what is the key to having this process operate daily? In this article, we unravel the five critical pillars of supply chain management that ensure a seamless delivery of your goods. 

Supply Chain Visibility

Supply chain visibility is the foundation of proper supply chain management. It refers to a holistic and up-to-date view of all factors, ranging from purchase, manufacturing, transportation, and supply. This complete view, if facilitated by advanced technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID), barcoding, and delivery management software like Milenow, allows you to:

• easily feature the shipping of products

• monitor inventory levels

• pinpoint possible problems before they inflate

Increased visibility leads to more informed decision-making and streamlines resource allocation to enhance operational efficiency. In this context, a clear and visible supply chain is crucial for a competitive advantage that helps develop customer trust.

Supplier Relationship Management

Suppliers are essential to the supply chain since they facilitate procurement of raw materials necessary to manufacture goods and services. They ensure a constant supply of material to the production line so that the manufacturing process does not stop. 

A good supplier relationship management model begins with the rigorous screening of potential partners. However, it is also important to identify quality or standard, reliability, and deliverability, as well as aspects of sustainability and the costs incurred. Working with suppliers who provide premium-grade products results in a clear value – a better and cheaper supply chain operation.

However, the benefits of supplier relationship management don’t end here. Its core advantage lies in promoting collaboration. This holistic cooperation model goes beyond the goal of gaining the best price. Thus, sourcing professionals and supplier partners can open new frontiers for product innovation, joint creation, and a more flexible approach to responding to dynamic market conditions. In the end, solid and long-term supply chain relationships support supply chain development for organizations and their suppliers, granting a win-win situation within the supply chain network.

Inventory Optimization

Keeping the inventory track from becoming overstocked or understocked is another crucial factor in supply chain management. When stored in large quantities and for a long time, inventory takes up capital and incurs high costs. On the other hand, having too little inventory creates the problem of stock-out and customer dissatisfaction. 

Businesses may use approaches like forecasting to address this problem. Along with this, they can adjust the safety stock correctly, that is, have adequate stock to ensure that customer demands are met without having to order ample stocks. 

While cost reduction benefits the company's bottom line, it also ensures that customers are offered quality services, thus improving the firm's market position. Moreover, the company can follow concepts like J.I.T. inventory to minimize wastage and enhance its business operations. 

Risk Management

Globalization is a reality! Practically all modern supply chains must navigate its ever-complicating landscape. Many factors, such as natural disasters, geopolitical changes, cyber risks, and supplier unavailability, might hinder an organization's smooth operation. Risk assessment and contingency measures are significant strategic assets that any business needs to have to be ready for such difficulties. 

This is the only way to be on the right side of the equation to prevent setbacks. Businesses need to:

• Consider all possibilities of risk at any level along the entire chain.

• Evaluate the level of each risk on a scale of low to high.

• Employ the services of several suppliers and employ cloud security.

• Develop contingency plans that outline specific actions to identify risks.

Risk mitigation measures also help contain risks and minimize likelihood and impact. With contingency plans, companies can reduce the effects of interruptions to a minimum and continue business operations. In turn, they protect their operations and reputations.

Continuous Improvement

Today, the pace of business is breakneck. Therefore, for supply chains to compete effectively and remain relevant, they have to be dynamic. Constant improvement and innovation are the premise of the overall goal.

This could be described as supply chain flexing. Organizations always need to evaluate and review different activities and establish areas for improvement. This strategy enables the firm to be flexible and adapt to situations in the market as they exist since markets are constantly changing.

Supply chain management is a complex process, but by adopting these pillars and implementing practices, it will be possible for companies to tackle the challenges involved and gain a lasting edge in the current dynamic business environment.

Author Bio:

Rabab Toor is a content manager at Squarepeg and a freelance writer. With a keen interest in technology, the latest trends in digital marketing, logistics, and crypto, she enjoys sharing her insights and expertise on Medium.

Understanding the Exodus: Why Younger Generations Are Leaving Your Workplace

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Whether you’re a new leader or an experienced one, there’s always more to learn. This is especially true if you don’t get formal leadership training — which most leaders don’t.

In one study, almost half of leaders with 10 or more years of management experience said they’d had nine total hours of training, and 43% of new managers with less than a year of experience had no training at all.

As a leader, it’s important to understand that many times, overcoming key challenges in your leadership style is up to you. The good news is that there are many ways to identify and address challenges as you move toward leadership excellence.

Here are some key challenges to watch for and how to overcome them.

Identifying Your Natural Tendencies

Everyone has a default way of responding to situations. For example, some people respond to stress with confidence and even aggression, while others think things through before acting, and others freeze and struggle to manage their emotions.

Interestingly, your genetics may have a lot to do with your default reactions. Studies have found that hereditary traits can impact everything from aggression and anxiety to risk tolerance. Knowing your natural tendencies in different work situations allows you to know where you’re starting and what changes you might want to make.

Of course, you’re not stuck with what you inherited — you can always work on your default behaviors to improve your responses. However, it takes intentionality and practice, so be patient with yourself. Overcoming these built-in reactions is challenging!

Balancing Confidence and Humility

Many leaders understand the importance of seeming confident — it inspires confidence in their teams. However, too much confidence without humility can turn people off. You don’t want to come off as an arrogant leader.

How can you balance confidence with humility? Start by understanding your strengths but also your weaknesses. It’s important to know your limits and surround yourself with people who are strong in the areas where you are lacking. People will trust you more when you’re honest about what you can do and what other people are better suited for.

In recent years, employers have witnessed a growing trend — younger generations, specifically, millennials and Gen Z, are leaving their workplaces at an alarming rate. This phenomenon, also referred to as the “Great Resignation,” demands the attention of business leaders who must start enacting more effective changes if they hope to retain their top talent.

Why Millennials and Gen Z Are Instigating the Great Resignation

Though one can argue that every generation has had it hard and that we all have our burdens to carry, millennials and Gen Z have been pushed beyond their limits with stagnant wages, longer working hours, the global pandemic, and skyrocketing inflation.

This younger generation is burnt out, and unlike previous generations, they are not of a mind that one just has to keep their head down and continue working hard because of societal conventions. Instead, millennials and Zoomers have a much more philosophical view of life that prioritizes mental health and demands more from their employers.

Self-care and Prioritizing Mental Health are Top Priority

Because millennials and Gen Z are much more mindful of their mental health, they prioritize self-care. While self-care might seem like something they can do in their personal time when they aren’t working, it actually includes being cognizant of how their job is affecting their mental and physical health.

If the workplace is toxic or if it doesn’t allow for a healthier work-life balance, then they are more than happy to leave and find a better situation elsewhere — and they’re just as happy to do so if they’re feeling stagnant without room to grow.

Empower Employees with Training and Growth Opportunities

Millennials and Gen Z employees want to learn and grow in their careers, and they are prepared to leave employers that don’t offer these opportunities. According to Lorman Education Services, “86% of millennials would be kept from leaving their current position if training and development were offered by their employer, and over 70% of high-retention-risk employees will leave their company in order to advance their career.”

To top that off, Zippia’s statistics indicate that “45% of workers would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development,” and that 59% of employees report no formal workplace training at all.

As such, employers can turn to edtech and VR solutions to continuously uptrain and empower employees to do their jobs better. E-learning modules and gamified training mean that these opportunities are accessible to everyone, no matter where they are located. In manufacturing, one might even turn to VR to simulate on-the-job training without the risks or costs involved in real-life on-site apprenticeships.

Millennials and Zoomers Want a Job With Purpose

Finally, younger generations want more from the companies they work for. These generations tend to do things to derive more meaning from life. This is in part achieved by traveling more, indulging in hobbies, and again, prioritizing self-care, but it’s also about seeking purpose-driven employment.

Millennials and Gen Z aren’t trying to leave the workforce entirely, but if they do have to work, they want their jobs to be more meaningful or impactful. A study from Deloitte found that younger generations are more likely to stay with a company that has a more positive societal and environmental impact, and that makes an effort to create a more diverse and inclusive culture.

How Employers Can Improve Retention Rates with Zoomer and Millennial Workers

One of the best ways to entice younger employees and effect meaningful changes is to go to the source and ask them what they want.

One way to accomplish this is by conducting exit interviews. If your employees are leaving, take the time to sit down with them on their way out and ask them what you could have done differently. A few examples of specific questions you could ask can include:

●       Why are you leaving the company?

●       How do you think the company could improve?

●       How has the company helped you accomplish your professional growth and career goals?

Even if you want to, don’t ask personal questions. Keep it professional and seek answers that will genuinely help you make meaningful changes.

Address Burnout

Another way to improve employee experience and keep up retention rates is to address stress and burnout, or the cause of it. Understandably, there could be any number of things causing burnout, which could vary from one person to the next, but there are typically a few main things that are the cause: a lack of flexible work options, long hours, a lack of benefits, and a lack of boundaries. 

This is where self-care can come into play. To help employees prioritize their physical and mental well-being, you likely need to make some changes, which can include:

●       Encouraging breaks and taking time off when needed

●       Making sure employees are clocking out on time and not working overtime

●       Offering better pay and benefits packages

Focus on Engagement

Employee engagement is one of the best ways to provide more value to employees and the work they are doing. When employees are more engaged, they tend to be more productive and have higher job satisfaction. Employee engagement myths might have you thinking otherwise, but numerous studies have shown that employee engagement matters.

Provide them with more opportunities to learn and grow. Do things that remind your employees that you appreciate them and recognize their hard work. Create a more positive work environment that values open communication, diversity, and inclusion, and aligns with the mission of the company.

Final Thoughts

The Great Resignation isn’t a phase or a passing trend. If employers don’t do more to create a more positive and healthy work environment, millennials and Gen Z will continue to leave workplaces at higher rates. So if you want to avoid losing your top talent to those jobs, you must start making more substantial changes that hold more meaning to today’s generation of workers.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Overcoming Key Challenges on the Path to Leadership Excellence

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Whether you’re a new leader or an experienced one, there’s always more to learn. This is especially true if you don’t get formal leadership training — which most leaders don’t.

In one study, almost half of leaders with 10 or more years of management experience said they’d had nine total hours of training, and 43% of new managers with less than a year of experience had no training at all.

As a leader, it’s important to understand that many times, overcoming key challenges in your leadership style is up to you. The good news is that there are many ways to identify and address challenges as you move toward leadership excellence.

Here are some key challenges to watch for and how to overcome them.

Identifying Your Natural Tendencies

Everyone has a default way of responding to situations. For example, some people respond to stress with confidence and even aggression, while others think things through before acting, and others freeze and struggle to manage their emotions.

Interestingly, your genetics may have a lot to do with your default reactions. Studies have found that hereditary traits can impact everything from aggression and anxiety to risk tolerance. Knowing your natural tendencies in different work situations allows you to know where you’re starting and what changes you might want to make.

Of course, you’re not stuck with what you inherited — you can always work on your default behaviors to improve your responses. However, it takes intentionality and practice, so be patient with yourself. Overcoming these built-in reactions is challenging!

Balancing Confidence and Humility

Many leaders understand the importance of seeming confident — it inspires confidence in their teams. However, too much confidence without humility can turn people off. You don’t want to come off as an arrogant leader.

How can you balance confidence with humility? Start by understanding your strengths but also your weaknesses. It’s important to know your limits and surround yourself with people who are strong in the areas where you are lacking. People will trust you more when you’re honest about what you can do and what other people are better suited for.

Next, be honest with yourself and your team about challenges. You don’t need to share every detail with everyone, but it’s important to get everyone on board to face challenges together. That way, you get everyone’s best effort when you need it most.

Finally, be open to feedback from your team. Being open to change shows you’re humble enough to grow and confident enough to take constructive criticism. Leaders who know they have both strengths and weaknesses tend to get more respect than those who pretend they can do everything.

Getting Your Team On the Same Page

Getting a diverse group of people with their own unique motivators and challenges to work together is extremely difficult. The best leaders make it look easy, just like the best NFL quarterbacks make big plays look easy, but it isn’t.

Getting buy-in from your team is possible, however. Whether you’re working on a specific project or trying to keep employees engaged with the company, you can start by sharing a vision for the future and explaining the role the team can play. When employees understand how their work makes a difference, they’re much more likely to buy in.

Next, ensure your employees understand the power of collaboration. Inspired people can run off and try to do everything alone, but you need your team to work together. Showcase inspiring examples of teams that made a difference, and help everyone understand the strengths that each employee brings to the table. When your team can see everyone’s strengths, they’ll be more likely to trust each other and work well together.

Finally, don’t micromanage! Once you’ve set the vision and helped reinforce collaboration, step back and let your team own the project or their daily work. Be available for coaching, growth, and helping employees advance in their careers, but trust your team members to execute their skill sets day-to-day.

A manager who inspires and trusts their employees will have a team that’s bought in, productive, and engaged.

Know What Your Team Needs From You

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. Leadership excellence requires you to understand your specific employees and meet their professional needs.

What are some things employees want in a leader? First, good communication is essential. It’s vital to work on both your verbal and written communication because you’re as likely to be communicating via email as you are running a meeting.

If your employees sense genuine support and warmth in your communication, that will go a long way toward building confidence in your leadership, which results in better buy-in.

Next, work on your remote management skills. Today’s teams are often at least partly remote or hybrid, and managing remote employees has unique challenges. It’s important to ensure everyone feels like part of the team, your remote workers get enough coaching and professional development, and you don’t overlook someone simply because they aren’t onsite. It’s also vital to understand how projects are going and ensure everyone is on top of their responsibilities.

Finally, encourage your team to work together. Some sports teams think they can win by bringing a ton of stars onto the team, but they fail due to a lack of chemistry. Often, teams with good talent and great cohesion beat teams with great talent but poor cohesion. As a leader, you can encourage connections within your team by recognizing each person’s talents, praising contributions, and putting a stop to toxic behavior before it has time to damage the team.

Leadership Excellence is Within Reach

Having formal leadership training is helpful, but you can become an excellent leader on your own as well. Recognize your tendencies and find ways to improve them. You can get feedback from others in your organization, read books about great leaders, and find inspiration from a variety of sources.

You’ll never overcome all the challenges associated with great leadership, but as you face each obstacle and address it, you’ll become a leader that employees respect, rally to, and are willing to do their best work for.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

How Leaders Can Ensure Team Safety and Goal Attainment

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As a business leader or manager, it’s your job to ensure that your team can meet and exceed their goals and milestones and to do so as safely and stress-free as possible. Yes, feeling a bit on edge can help some employees to drive results, but they shouldn’t be so uneasy that it affects their work and well-being. You can combine safety and goal attainment in many ways and bring your company to the next level, by starting with these tips.

Set Reasonable Goals And Cut Out Unnecessary Tasks

It’s natural for a business to want to set lofty goals and expect work to be done as quickly as possible to maximize profit. However, while that strategy might work for the short term, at some point, your employees will get burned out, and you’ll find more errors in the work. Too many errors can cut down on your company’s success over time, and once your reputation takes a hit, it can be tough to come back.

With that in mind, one of the most straightforward strategies to reduce human error is setting reasonable deadlines. Bring in your team, see if they feel rushed, analyze if it affects their work, and make the proper adjustments. If you must adjust your corporate guidelines and extend deadlines a few more days, but errors become practically nonexistent, then you’re on the right track. Another idea is to create an overall long-term goal but then add numerous short-term goals that are easier to meet along the way. Then you’ll know everyone’s on the right page.

While you’re analyzing the workflow, look at the tasks that make up the overall project and find the repetitive assignments that bog down the employee’s days. When workers are forced to spend time doing monotonous, repetitive tasks, they can tend to get burned out. If they don’t think what they’re doing is making a difference, they may stop putting forth the same effort or showing up altogether. Burnout is not only bad for business but also for the employee’s well-being. Plus, it can lead to issues down the road, including depression.

If you still need to complete these repetitive tasks as part of your business, then a solution may be automation. Computers can do monotonous tasks and do them well. They never get tired or complain, so it’s a worthwhile investment if it makes sense within your industry.

Take Stress Out Of The Equation

The burnout we’ve discussed begins as stress and often accompanies feelings of being overworked or underappreciated. The solution is to create a positive work environment so everyone is happy, and in turn, they’ll be more productive.

Stressed workers can put themselves and others at risk. Stressed employees may be so distracted that they can accidentally cut corners or forget to take the proper precautions to keep themselves safe, like failing to wear a hard hat or misusing electronic equipment. Stress can also lead to poor decision-making under pressure.

To reduce stress and increase productivity, managers can allow employees to take stress management training sessions. You can also host team-building activities so they feel more comfortable at work and with each other. The best way to ensure that the team is safe and productive is to be transparent and have open communication across the board.

As a leader, you need an open-door policy and allow the employees to come to you when they need help or have suggestions. Keeping communication channels open and providing employees with different ways to check in can also be a good way to boost team morale, especially if this feedback is used to refine workflows and give everyone the chance to participate.

Training And Recognition

Once you streamline a solid and safe workflow, you must keep up with it by having ongoing training sessions throughout the year. Train on the best methods to avoid burnout, the ways to complete the most work without stress, and the signs of excess anxiety, so an employee can ask for help when needed.

If your employees are hurt on the job, your team may never meet your goals, so it’s also important to have general safety training once a day or annually, depending on the dangers in your industry. During the training, touch on safety and health policies, emergency procedures, workers’ rights, and how to report hazards. In addition to the general training, provide safety training for specific roles that deal with unique hazards. If your industry is particularly dangerous, then hold regular safety every morning to cover all bases and ask for questions.

You can drive home the importance of safety and goal attainment by implementing one or several employee recognition initiatives to show appreciation for adherence to the rules. There are many safety recognition programs online that you can borrow, such as Safety Bucks, where you provide pretend currency whenever an employee does an act correctly or spots a safety violation. They can turn them in for prices or office perks. Another idea is to hand out safety certificates or host an awards ceremony.

On top of that, you can also publicly recognize employees who find a way to streamline their work, hit deadlines, and provide exceptional quality in their work. Mention them during a group huddle or in the company newsletter. The employee will be thrilled that they received attention, and they will continue to impress. Plus, the other team members will see the recognition and want to work at that level so they can also receive praise.

Conclusion

A company with a strong culture of safety and the right processes in place has a great chance of succeeding and doing so with a happy and driven workforce. Always find ways to prioritize your employee's safety and mental health. You’ll have a satisfied team and they’ll thank you through their work.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

How To Cultivate Employee Satisfaction for Optimal Business Success

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You need happy and satisfied employees to have a successful, long-lasting company. How your employees feel about work can affect how they operate, and if they aren’t satisfied or don’t have the proper tools, it can affect your customers. Ultimately, if your employees are fulfilled in their roles, your customers benefit from the productivity and higher standards your staff brings to their work. Let’s talk about how to make this happen.

Make Sure Employees Are Satisfied

You shouldn’t assume your employees are happy and satisfied with their work. You must ask them how they feel. You can get feedback from your employees anonymously through surveys. Or bring them in for one-on-one meetings. If you do, ask them how they like their job and the changes they’d like to see to be happier at work so they can pass those feelings on to the customer base.

A happy employee will be more engaged, they’ll show empathy, and they’ll want to go above and beyond to assist because they know it’s for the betterment of the company. You want employees who are happy when they show up for work each day. So ask them what you can do to get them there.

In addition to being happy, your staff also needs to be motivated. If you get the sense that they’re not there yet, then the office environment may be to blame. Are the leaders in your organization going above and beyond to show the employees that they’re appreciated, and are you providing some sort of initiative for them to give 110%? Consider providing recognition and rewards for a job well done, including physical rewards like gift cards and meaningful perks, such as the chance to move up within the company when they meet certain thresholds.

Some employees may want more challenges to help work feel less monotonous. These employees are great for your company. Give them the chance to take part in research and development (R&D), or provide them with tasks outside of their wheelhouse. Make sure these new tasks can contribute to customer satisfaction as well, such as creating a new help desk user interface. Furthermore, you could even consider funding professional development courses for employees who want to learn new skills. 

Give Your Employees The Tools They Need

The next step is to provide your staff with the proper tools to ensure customer satisfaction so you get positive reviews. In addition to giving them a good computer with a reliable connection, you also want to provide the tools to help them get through any interaction. Implement a ticket or help desk system to escalate service needs that may be new to them.

Also, provide a knowledge base of helpful information, including documents, how-tos, and other guidance they can access with a few mouse clicks. While text can be helpful, try to also mix in some videos and screenshots because they can give the employees a better picture of what they need to know. Finally, provide the staff with a way to report bugs in the system when they come across them. Often, your customers need to use these same systems, so ensuring that they work properly can keep everyone satisfied.

It’s also vital to continue to develop your employees over time because there are many perks to doing so. When they know that their hard work will pay off and that they could be promoted in the future, they’re likely to show more effort. Not only that, but they’ll likely stay at your company for longer and refer other top-notch employees who will further satisfy your customer's needs.

Just ensure you follow through on the development aspect instead of providing empty promises in the hope that you’ll see a bump in their production. Sit down with each employee, outline the steps they’ll need to take to be promoted, and provide guidance on achieving those goals. If they do the work, then follow through on your word. Your employees will appreciate that you appreciate them, and they’ll go above and beyond to meet the customer's needs.

Determine If Your Customers Are Satisfied

There are multiple stages in the customer’s journey. Most, if not all customers buy a product or service because it solves a problem they have. If your employees are doing good work because they’re happy in their roles, your product/service should work well from the get-go. This is the first stage at which customers can be satisfied.

Thereafter, customer satisfaction is directly influenced by customer service in the event that something goes wrong with your product/service. Their satisfaction may also be influenced by how your brand portrays itself online and elsewhere.

Throughout these stages of the customer’s journey, seek feedback to determine if your employee satisfaction efforts are lending themselves to business success.

You can gauge customer satisfaction in many ways, starting with capturing feedback immediately after a sales or service transaction. Once the customer has been assisted, the employee can offer them a chance to fill out a survey and answer honestly about how satisfied they are with what transpired. It’s wise to get their opinions immediately after the interaction so the details are fresh in their minds.

Examine client data and look at metrics such as satisfaction score and social sentiment analysis to determine their satisfaction level. You can also determine the satisfaction of your customers by looking at your return on investment. Are they returning to you after their first visit and spending money? If they’re not, then you may need to make some changes. 

Social media presence is also important because it’s a great tool for marketing your products and services. However, you must meet your customers where they are. Before you do a full-scale marketing push, research and survey your customers to see the platforms they frequent most so you know you'll reach them. Once you figure that out, engage with them regularly.

You can learn much about your customers and your employees based on how they act on social media. Most people will have no problem voicing their frustrations when they receive a broken product or get lousy service, and you can help them when you see their comments. You can also pay attention to how your staff acts on social media. Do they also complain about their job? Are they curt when the customers complain? If you’re seeing friction, then you have work to do. 

The point is that you can’t properly service your customers if you don’t have content employees, so you need to work on doing what’s best for both parties. Properly motivate your staff and then survey your customers to see if they’re satisfied, and continue to make tweaks until you get it just right.nsure your teams, business, and consumers genuinely thrive as the landscape continues to evolve.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Navigating Leadership Challenges in a Post-COVID World

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There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the world. This isn’t just limited to the new perspectives we have on health or the economic conditions many people have had to navigate. The post-pandemic business landscape has undergone significant change in a range of areas. Elements of operations, customer needs, and commercial priorities have shifted.

 This means that the leadership habits and skills you cultivated prior to the pandemic may not be quite as relevant. It’s important to review the challenges of post-COVID business and how this may affect your approach to guiding your teams. While this isn’t necessarily an easy task, some knowledge, planning, and commitment to adjustment can help you succeed.

Leading Remote Teams

One of the most prominent outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is the greater shift to remote work. Though this may have initially been a social distancing necessity initially, many companies discovered distinct benefits to the practice. However, alongside the advantages, it’s important to recognize that virtual team leadership is subject to challenges. Overcoming issues such as poor communication or lack of team cohesion relies on managers and executives adopting solid best practices.

These include:

Mindful hiring

Not all professionals are necessarily a good fit for remote work. It’s important to adjust your hiring to identify candidates that can operate independently, communicate well, and can function without a social workspace, among other elements. It’s also important to take advantage of the cultural diversity remote working can support, as this can boost the innovative and empathetic potential of your teams.

Effective communication protocols

With your team members operating in disparate locations, good collaboration relies on solid communication. This begins with providing them with multifaceted platforms to utilize. Adopt tools that offer video conferencing, audio calls, and chat rooms so that workers can connect in ways that suit their needs. It’s also important to implement solid protocols about how frequently the team communicates with each other to ensure they use platforms consistently.

Prioritizing Wellness

COVID-19 is likely to have been the most significant public health emergency employees have lived with. For many people, their experiences during this period have made them acutely aware of how important it is to maintain their wellness. Part of the challenge as a leader at the moment is adjusting operations to reassure employees you’re taking genuine steps to prioritize their well-being.

Some of the ways you can address this include:

Providing wellness resources

Giving workers the tools to maintain their mental and physical health can show employees that you care about them. Not to mention that healthy workers tend to be more productive. You can be impactful here by designing a robust wellness program for your business. This could include subsidized access to gym memberships, telehealth therapy appointments, and educational components. It’s important though to keep communicating with employees about these to ensure the resources meet their needs.

Reducing workplace health risks

Taking continued steps to reduce risks in the workplace has been essential following COVID-19. Certainly, this involves actions that reduce exposure to illnesses. However, it should also include considerations for niche working scenarios. For instance, your remote workers may be subject to health risks their in-person counterparts aren’t. Blurred lines between work and home life can lead to burnout and the sedentary lifestyle can lead to musculoskeletal pain, among others. Be sure that you continually analyze the hazards based on the environments workers operate in to confirm they’re adequately protected.

Ensuring Engagement and Retention

COVID-19 caused significant shifts in the employment landscape. One that has caught many business leaders off-guard is the Great Resignation. Significant numbers of workers have reassessed their priorities related to their careers and working conditions. If they feel disrespected, are low-paid, or lack development opportunities, employees are more willing to resign. A key challenge as a leader at the moment is ensuring you’re able to retain and engage workers.

Some areas of focus include:

Supporting work-life balance

Employees recognize that their working lives are not the be-all and end-all of existence, and rightly so. One way you can retain and engage workers, then, is to ensure your operations support their healthy work-life balance. This can include offering flexible working arrangements, such as remote operations or open scheduling. It should also involve providing paid vacation time, parental leave, and mental health days to enable employees to focus on their personal needs.

Investing in employees

Among the solid ways your company can retain workers is by demonstrating a willingness to invest in them. On the most basic level this involves providing competitive pay and benefits. But it should also include providing clear and accessible paths to progression. Subsidize formal education for your workers wherever possible. Help them to identify mentors relevant to their career goals so they have the guidance they need to thrive.

Conclusion

The post-pandemic business landscape presents some significant leadership challenges. It’s important to take intentional steps to navigate these to ensure your enterprise and that stakeholders don’t suffer unnecessarily. This should include adjusting operations to better suit the practical issues related to remote work. COVID-19 also made health considerations more prevalent, so it’s worth adopting wellness programs and relevant risk mitigation practices to prioritize worker well-being. In addition, a commitment to supporting work-life balance and providing development opportunities can minimize the impact of the Great Resignation.

In addition, your leadership approach can benefit not just from looking back at the issues of the pandemic but also from looking forward. Use this as an opportunity to consider what challenges are likely to arise in the future. This enables you to adjust your practices and resources to ensure your teams, business, and consumers genuinely thrive as the landscape continues to evolve.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Personal Habits All Leaders Should Nurture

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Only 21% of respondents in a recent Gallup survey strongly agreed with the statement that they trusted the leadership in their organization. And 34% strongly agreed their manager creates a trusting and open environment.

These numbers are incredibly low considering the ultimate goal is for every employee to trust leaders, be inspired by them, and feel they can trust and communicate openly with supervisors. Great leadership can produce high-performing employees who are engaged and energized in their roles.

Becoming an outstanding leader requires you to intentionally develop your skills in the workplace while also prioritizing personal habits that support your growth. If leaders adopt these habits, their abilities in the workplace and impact on employees will improve drastically.

Learn to Communicate Effectively

You must communicate effectively with people if you want to have a lasting positive impact on them.

Communication helps you discover pertinent things about your employees, like the accommodations they need to work effectively, how their personal life impacts them, and how they feel about their role. Effective communication is also critical for ensuring team and individual tasks and projects are completed and workplace productivity persists.

You can practice effective communication in your relationships and bring what you learn to work with you. For example, let’s say you and your spouse disagree. You’re able to work it out after actively listening to their concerns, validating them, and coming up with a solution that works for both of you.

You can use the same framework in any disagreements you have with your employees or in the ones they have with each other. Actively listen, validate concerns, and present personalized solutions that fit you and your employees.

It’s also a good idea to make notes about each employee’s preferred communication method and style to ensure you’re communicating with each person in ways they can resonate with.

Reflect Often

Leaders are busy. For starters, leaders are responsible for meetings with stakeholders and other company leaders, managing an entire team, and ensuring individual leadership projects are completed.

Being always on the go like this hardly leaves time to reflect on what’s happened in and out of the workplace. But you must make time for self-reflection. You can analyze what’s worked and what hasn’t. You can become much more self-aware and understand how you’re affecting yourself and others.

Carve out time each night to reflect on the day you’ve had. You can make it a part of your bedtime routine and journal about what happened. You can use your nighttime walks with your dog to reflect. You could even do some reflecting in the shower.

Wherever you can find space and time for honest reflection, take advantage of it.

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise can do wonders for your leadership abilities. The Mayo Clinic says that physical activity offers the following benefits:

●       Socialization

●       Deeper sleep

●       Improve muscle strength and better endurance

●       Helps control your weight and maintain weight loss

●       Prevent chronic health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure

When you’re able to socialize and interact with your employees, you can build real relationships with them. Deeper sleep allows you to rest and reset for each day. When you’re at a healthy weight, strong, and able to do things longer, you can put more into your work. 

In addition to the above benefits, exercise can be a solid stress reliever. If being a leader comes with anything, it’s stress. You’re responsible for a lot of people, projects, and company goals. That pressure can be overwhelmingly stressful at times. A healthy coping mechanism for stress helps you navigate turbulent times better. It also helps you bounce back quicker.

When and how often you exercise is up to you. Fitting short routines into your morning, lunch period, or evening will be most beneficial and easier to remain consistent with.

Prioritize Sleep

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion said that getting enough sleep can reduce stress, improve your mood, help you think more clearly, have better interactions with people, improve decision-making, and help you perform better at work. 

You need all of these things as a leader. So, prioritizing sleep is a must. Establishing a bedtime routine can help you get the 7 or more hours of quality sleep each night you need. A bedtime routine can help tip your body off that it’s time for bed, easing a natural transition to sleep.

Start small with your routine. Don’t make it a chore by adding a bunch of activities to it. Stick to a couple and add more as you see fit. Choose calming activities that are tailored to who you are and your specific needs. Keep your routine under 30 minutes and stay consistent to regulate your body’s circadian rhythm.

Nurture Personal Passions

As important as you are in the workplace, your leadership role can’t be everything. In other words, you need a life outside of work to maintain balance in your life. Without a healthy work-life balance, you risk burning out and becoming a less effective leader.

Give your personal passions the same attention you give your work responsibilities. Not only do personal passions provide a way to reduce stress and relax, but they can also help improve your confidence and self-esteem because you’re doing something that allows you to nurture your authentic self.

Spend time on your passions weekly if not daily to keep you grounded.

Shape Your Company’s Workplace Culture

Working on yourself personally through the above habits will translate well into your leadership role in the workplace, particularly when it comes to shaping your company’s culture.

Effective communication, reflection, health and wellness, work-life balance — all of it can and should be incorporated into the workplace culture you build for your team. A positive workplace culture such as this can increase employee engagement, lower your turnover rate, and draw top talent to your company.

Take the feedback your employees give you about the company culture they need and the core values in your personal and professional life, fuse them, and come up with a vision for your company culture.

It’ll take time to see it come to fruition. So, be patient, continue to learn, and incorporate policies, procedures, resources, support, and values little by little.

All leaders must take the time to nurture specific personal habits to be the best they can be, starting with the ones above.  

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.