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#Leadership : This Is The Hidden Challenge In The Future Of Work…New Research Suggests we Need to Stop Worrying about Robots Taking our Jobs and Concentrate on Workforce Development.

December 8, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

On the heels of a mostly positive jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (4.6% unemployment is the lowest it’s been in nine years), the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released a more sobering snapshot of the world of work.

A briefing by MGI director James Manyika, compiled from the company’s extensive research, took a deeper dive into employment numbers. He writes:

In the United States and the 15 core European Union countries (E.U.-15), there are 285 million adults who are not in the labor force—and at least 100 million of them would like to work more. Some 30% to 45% of the working-age population around the world is underutilized—that is, unemployed, inactive, or underemployed. This translates into some 850 million people in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Japan, Brazil, China, and India alone.

Manyika says that unemployment figures typically get the most attention at the expense of those who are underemployed. Indeed, the latest figures from the BLS indicate that the labor force participation rate (a combined total of those who are either working or actively seeking work) is just over 62%, which represents a steady decline since 2000. Parsing the meaning of this decrease is complicated, yet it is often referred to in the broadest sense as proof that the labor market is shrinking due to a variety of factors. The result, regardless of the cause, is a lot of “untapped human potential,” according to Manyika.

THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

This has serious economic consequences that affect every country. Wage stagnation has affected advanced economies despite increases in productivity. The brief also states that globally, 655 million fewer women are economically active than men. In a previous report, MGI revealed that advancing women’s equality could add $12 trillion to the global GDP by 2025.

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WHY MORE PEOPLE AREN’T WORKING

Why is this happening? The MGI brief offers several reasons, including the fact that education hasn’t keep pace with the skills needed for a changing workforce.

McKinsey research found as many as 40% of employers in nine countries said lack of skills was the main reason for entry-level job vacancies. Sixty percent of them said that new graduates were not adequately prepared to work. They cited the lack of both technical and soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and punctuality as reasons they couldn’t fill open positions. A survey conducted by PayScale reached a similar conclusion. Chief among the complaints by hiring managers were that communication, leadership, ownership, and teamwork were missing in this new crop of workers.

The brief also found that cross-border migration has a somewhat negative impact on the labor force. Manyika writes, “Migration boosts global productivity, but its consequences are often feared by native workers, who face labor market disconnects and a lack of well-paid jobs.” He also notes that in the midst of such challenging labor market conditions, “popular sentiment has moved against immigration.”

DEBUNKING THE MYTH OF ROBOTS STEALING JOBS

Perhaps surprisingly, the MGI brief reveals that automation won’t vacuum up jobs and further hurt the labor force.

MGI research on the potential for automation across 54 countries and more than 2,000 work activities indicated that the number of jobs that can be fully automated by adapting currently demonstrated technology is less than 5%. That number could go as high as 20% in some middle skill categories.

That said, even if a job isn’t completely taken over by a robot, MGI found that about 60% of all jobs have a least a third of activities that could be automated based on current technology (think: virtual assistants).

For those workers who might still be worrying they’ll become obsolete, Manyika points out, “One-third of new jobs created in the U.S. in the past 25 years were types that did not exist, or barely existed, in areas including IT development, hardware manufacturing, app creation, and IT systems management.” So while part of your job is likely to become automated in the next few years, chances are there will be something else to take its place.

SOME SOLUTIONS

Manyika notes that the net impact of new technologies on employment can be positive. However, there is still a vast number of people across the globe who aren’t tapped into the potential labor market because they don’t have internet access. He writes:

More than 4 billion people, or over half of the world’s population, is still offline. About 75% of this offline population is concentrated in 20 countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania, and is disproportionately rural, low income, elderly, illiterate, and female. The value of connecting these people is significant, and as they enter the global digital economy, the world of work will transform in fundamental ways and at an unprecedented pace.

Training for both those who haven’t had online access before and those who are currently employed can go a long way to driving change in the labor force. Manyika also suggests that policy makers offer companies tax and other incentives to invest in their workforce. Public-private partnerships could also advance online infrastructure to facilitate participation.

Additionally, Manyika recommends rethinking incomes. “If automation (full or partial) does result in a significant reduction in employment and/or greater pressure on wages,” he explains, “some ideas such as universal basic income, conditional transfers, and adapted social safety nets could be considered and tested.”

FastCompany.com | LYDIA DISHMAN 12.07.16 5:00 AM

Your #Career : 7 Things That Will Destroy Your Career… Most People Kill their Careers in Subtle, Decidedly Undramatic Ways. And It’s a Shame Because it Happens All the Time.

December 7, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

There are so many things that can kill the careers of good, hard-working people. Honest mistakes often carry hard-hitting consequences.

Most people kill their careers in subtle, decidedly undramatic ways. And it’s a shame because it happens all the time.

A recent survey by VitalSmarts found that 83% of people had seen someone make a blunder that had catastrophic results for their career, reputation, or business, and 69% admitted that they themselves had done something that had damaged their careers:

• 31% said it cost them a promotion, a raise, or even a job

• 27% said it damaged a working relationship

• 11% said it destroyed their reputation

These numbers show how damaging you can be to your own career if you’re not careful. There doesn’t have to be a single, sickening moment when you realize that you just shoved your foot firmly in your mouth, either. Little things can add up over time and undermine your career just as much as (or more than) one huge lapse in judgment. The good news is that if you stay aware of them, these are all things that you can control before they creep up on you and kill your career.

1. Playing politics. Working hard to build strong work relationships is very different from instigating conflict, choosing sides, undermining colleagues, spreading rumors, and all of the other things that fall under the umbrella of “playing politics.” Again, it comes down to authenticity. If you find yourself sneaking around or if you’re embarrassed if some of your behind-the-scenes manipulations come to light, that’s politics. Stick to strategies you’d be proud to discuss in front of your colleagues.

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2. Over-promising and under-delivering. It’s tempting to promise the moon to your colleagues and your clients, especially when you’re honest and hardworking and believe that you can do it. The problem is that there’s no point in creating additional pressure that can make you look bad. If you promise to do something ridiculously fast and you miss the deadline by a little bit, you’ll likely think that you did a good job because you still delivered quickly.

But the moment you promise something to someone, they expect nothing less. You end up looking terrible when you fall short, which is a shame, because you could have done the same quality work in the same amount of time with great results if you’d just set up realistic expectations from the beginning. This is one of those situations where perception matters more than reality. Don’t deliberately undershoot your goals; just be realistic about the results you can deliver so that you’re certain to create expectations that you will blow out of the water.

3. Complacency. How long has it been since you proactively learned a new skill, reached out to your networking contacts, or even polished up your resume? If you can’t remember, you might have become a bit complacent, and complacency is a real career killer. It’s what happens when you’re just along for the ride and assume that nothing will ever change. But we’ve seen enough disruption—technological and otherwise—over the last few years to realize that change is inevitable. If you’re always too busy to learn something new or to expand your network, you’ve got your priorities mixed up. However, if you make continuous growth and development a priority, you’ll be ready for whatever comes your way.

4. Fear of change. Fear of change is complacency’s evil twin. It actively works to keep things the same. I’m sure you’ve seen this one first hand at work when someone uttered the dreaded words, “But we’ve always done it this way.” Things are changing too fast these days to latch on so tightly to the status quo, and the costs of doing so can be huge.

In one survey, 91% of respondents said that the most successful employees are the ones who can adapt to the changing workplace. Change is a constant part of our lives, both personally and professionally. It doesn’t matter whether you think things should change or whether you prefer the old ways—change just is. You don’t have to learn to love it, but you do have to learn to stop resisting it and to start adapting to it.

5. Having an inflatable ego. Did you ever work with someone who had a string of successes and started thinking that they were the be-all and end-all of superstardom? Success is great. It definitely boosts your career, and it feels really, really good. The problems start once you let it go to your head. You start thinking that success is going to last forever and that you’re entitled to it. Never, ever be content with resting on your laurels. Once you start thinking that you’re the cat’s meow, you’re setting yourself up for very painful failure.

6. Low emotional intelligence (EQ). Everyone knows that you can get fired for being unable or unwilling to play nicely with others, but what trips up a lot of people is having a poorly developed poker face. If everyone can tell when you’re bored or irritated or that you think something a colleague says is stupid, this will catch up with you. Emotional outbursts, belittling others, shutting co-workers down when they speak, low self-awareness, and just generally being difficult are other ways that a lack of emotional intelligence will do great harm to your career.

7. Sucking up to your boss. Some people suck up to their boss and call it managing up, but that isn’t the case at all. Sucking up has nothing to do with a real relationship built on respect; it is sneaky and underhanded. Suck-ups try to get ahead by stroking the boss’s ego instead of earning his or her favor. That doesn’t go over well with colleagues who are trying to make it on merit. Yes, you want to bolster your relationship with your boss, but not by undermining your colleagues. That’s the key distinction here. For a boss-employee relationship to work, it has to be based on authenticity. There’s no substitute for merit.

Bringing It All Together

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they can only damage their careers by making one huge misstep, but the reality is that it’s usually not that dramatic.

Have you seen people killing their careers? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Forbes.com | December 6, 2016 | Travis Bradberry

#Leadership : The 9-to-5 Workweek Is Dead. Here’s What’s Next…Could Reimagining the 40-Hour Week Grind Make your Company More Productive?

December 7, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Your mind could have drifted thousands of miles away, but as long as your body showed up to work at Dallas-based tax firm Ryan, that was all that mattered. “We literally ranked people by hours,” says Delta Emerson, president of Ryan’s global shared services.

“Even if someone worked 24 hours the day before, they still had to book at least eight hours Monday through Friday.” The clock was seen as an easy proxy for work ethic, and employees who logged marathon sessions at their desks “wore their hours like a badge, practically tattooed on their foreheads,” Emerson says. “But it was at a cost.”

Emerson didn’t want to just tweak the workweek. She wanted to bust it open. But when she pitched the idea of flexible hours, she was almost thrown out of the CEO’s office. A resignation letter from a rising star finally got her the green light. Now the firm measures results–not time. Some staffers work as little as 20 hours a week; some start at 7 a.m., others at 10 a.m.; some commute to the office only twice a week. Since the 2008 shift, revenue has grown 15 percent year over year, customer satisfaction is higher than ever before, and turnover has plummeted.

The Case for the Enlightened Schedule : In the war for talent, flexibility is no longer just a perk.

29%

of college students think being able to work remotely with a flexible schedule is a right, not a privilege.

66 percent

of Millennials say having a boss who doesn’t support flexible schedules has factored into their decision to leave a job.

72%

of working parents say that people who work flex hours have fewer pay/promotional opportunities.

Is the headache of uprooting an orderly 40-hour, anchored-to-the-desk schedule worth it? All the indicators point to yes. “Millennials may have sent flexibility to the top of HR agendas, but now it’s increasingly the norm across all generations,” says Lisa Horn, a director at the Society for Human Resource Management. Technology has made working from anywhere possible, and the uptick in dual-earner families makes rigid hours less attractive to talent.

“The idea that employees are like machines–if they put eight hours in you’ll get x dollars out–is absurd,” says Ryan Carson, founder and CEO of Portland, Oregon-based startup Treehouse, an education technology company, which lets its employees set their own schedules. “Why not give people flexibility so they don’t have to choose?” You can reinvent your company’s workweek using this advice as a guide.

1. Debunk the 40-Hour Myth

The eight-hour workday was introduced by Henry Ford in the early 1900s as a way to attract autoworkers, many of whom were accustomed to 12-hour shifts. More recently, Basecamp’s Jason Fried thought it was time to modernize the workday to fit the needs of employees at his Chicago-based software company. “There’s nothing magical about 40 hours,” says Fried, whose staffers work just 32 hours a week from May through August. The co-founder (and Inc. columnist) says having fewer hours to complete a task sharpens employee focus.

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2. Adapt to Peak-Performance Styles

When Nate Reusser revamped the schedule at Roanoke, Indiana-based web developer Reusser Design to four 10-hour days, he realized he’d traded in one type of rigidity for another. “Some people loved it, but others were so wiped by Thursday that they couldn’t keep up,” he says. Now he lets employees pick whichever schedule best suits their working style. “The real goal is to remove interruptions so that people can be productive,” says Reusser.

3. Synchronize Schedules

When Ryan first began unshackling teams from the clock, “our biggest mistake was not training our managers,” says Emerson. Now managers have a blueprint to help with their team’s unorthodox schedule: Are there any days when the whole team comes into the office? Are there certain hours that are off limits for meetings? Emerson says, “You have to do the work to set those ground rules so people can really work together”–even when they’re in different places or putting in different hours.

FROM THE DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 ISSUE OF INC. MAGAZINE

By Kate Rockwood

Freelance writer

Your #Career : 22 Things that Make you Sound Rude in a Job Interview…Here are Some Particularly Inconsiderate, Alienating Things to Avoid Saying in an Interview.

December 5, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Most people don’t try to come across as rude — for whatever reason, they just don’t realize how their actions look to others. That can lead to a rather rude awakening for them down the line, once they’re confronted with the consequences of their conduct.

One of the worst places that you can come off as disrespectful is during a job interview. You want to charm and impress your interviewer, not turn them off with bad behavior.

Here are some particularly inconsiderate, alienating things to avoid saying in an interview:

1. ‘I’ve been waiting a while’

You are totally justified in being annoyed that your interviewer kept you waiting. That being said, you get no brownie points for grumbling.

2. ‘Hi! I know I’m late…’

Yes, it’s a bit of a double standard that the interviewee typically can’t be late while the interviewer can get away with it. But the interviewer is typically the one with the power, so just get over it.

Make sure you give yourself enough time to get to the job interview — even if that means showing up super early and waiting around at a nearby Starbucks.

And if you are late, don’t draw attention to it or make excuses. Quickly apologize and move on.

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3. ‘What happens if I don’t get along with my boss or coworkers?’

This doesn’t necessarily make you sound rude, per se. It’s a weird question, though. Your interviewer may just assume that you’re impolite and unable to work with others.

4. ‘Are you married?/Do you have kids?/How old are you?/etc.’

Never ask the interviewer any personal questions.

5. ‘I heard this rumor about the CEO. Is it true?’

You should never bring gossip into a job interview. It’s highly unprofessional.

6. ‘Who should I avoid in the office?’

Don’t embroil yourself in coworker drama before you’ve even stepped foot into the office. This just makes you sound like a petty person.

7. ‘What does your company do?’

You didn’t care enough about the job to run a quick Google search? Questions like this will make you look unprepared and inconsiderate.

8. ‘I don’t have weaknesses’

Yes, you do. Claiming not to have shortcomings just makes you come across as arrogant.

9. ‘S—,’ ‘b—-,’ ‘f—,’ etc.

Hold off on the profanities. Curse words will make you sound vulgar and unprofessional.

10. ‘How did I do?’ or ‘Did I get the job?’

This one puts the interviewer on the spot. If you really want feedback, wait until you get the offer or rejection, and then ask in an email what you did well or could have done better.

11. ‘I feel like this is your organization’s big weakness’

It’s great if you’re coming to the table with a lot of ideas on how to improve the organization. Try to keep your language positive, though, or your interviewer may wonder why you’re even interviewing in the first place.

12. ‘Excuse me, I need to take this call really quickly’

Are you kidding me?

13. ‘I just need a job’

Seriously, contain your enthusiasm. This may be true, but definitely don’t admit it to your interviewer.

14. ‘Hi — let’s get started’

Don’t just barge in and start talking. You may be nervous and eager to get it over with, but remember to introduce yourself first.

15. ‘Sorry — I’ve got to run!’

What have you got, a date or something? Try to keep your schedule relatively uncluttered on the day of the interview.

16. ‘I’d like a coffee/water/tea’

If the interviewer offers, then it’s fine to ask for a beverage. Just don’t forget to say “please” and “thank you.” In fact, you should show off that you have good manners when you can during the interview.

17. ‘I … I … I …’

Yes, job interviews are all about discussing yourself and your abilities. That being said, you want to keep the focus on how you can help the organization. The conversation should always go back to that main thesis.

18. ‘The office isn’t what I thought it would be’

You’re here as a job candidate, not as a super-critical interior decorator. Don’t imply that you’re disappointed or underwhelmed.

19. ‘How did you get this role?’

You really don’t want to say anything that could be considered condescending to the person standing between you and a potential job.

20. ‘Can you believe this election?’ or ‘Who did you vote for?’

Keep politics out of conversations with your interviewer. If they bring it up first, then do what you can to change the conversation.

21. ‘Dude/honey/girls/ladies/man’

This one’s a toss-up. Some people are totally cool with being called things like “guys” or “ladies.” Others get really irked. It’s probably better to err on the side of caution here, lest you come off as belittling or disrespectful.

22. ‘That’s not how I’m used to doing it’

If you start talking about the nitty gritty details of your new job, make sure to avoid coming across like you think you know better than anyone else. Criticizing the company’s way of doing this is a surefire way to alienate your interviewer.

Businessinsider.com | December 5, 2016 | Jacquelyn Smith, Rachel Gillett and Áine Cain

Your #Career : Job Hunting Through The Holidays…Now is Not the Time to Stop All that Momentum you Have Been Developing.

December 4, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Can I tell you a little secret? Smart people keep job hunting through the holidays.

Smart people realize a few things about job hunting through the holidays:

There is less competition
Hiring managers are still looking
HR professionals get to pick from a very smart and select group

Family will understand

Your friends and family will understand and appreciate that you are actively on the job hunt. If you need to jump out of a family gathering to make a phone call or perhaps even make a quick trip to a job site or a city you’re interested in. Trust me, they’ll understand.

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Just keep swimming

Of course this is a famous line from Dory in Finding Nemo. Her philosophy works well for job hunting too. Sometimes even though the waters might be getting deep and dark and a little scary you need to… just keep swimming.

Keep your energy up

While it may seem like everyone else is out having fun and enjoying the holidays your current job is to find a job. While you continue that hunt you need to make sure you keep your energy up. Eat right, exercise and get some sleep. You’ll be ready to dive right in when that hiring manager calls.

Keep your effort up

Without a doubt people will be taking vacations and breaks at this time of the year. However, by being diligent and smart about your job hunt you can stay top of mind and ready to hit the ground running when someone realizes you are still looking and available.

Related: Job Search Tactics That Work

Keeping these points in mind will help you stand out in your career. Even though you might be kickstarting or expanding your career you will be in a select group of people that realize the benefits of continuing the job search through the holidays. These efforts will help you now and in the future to stand out in your career.

Entrepreneur.com | December 3, 2016 | Jeff Shuey

#Leadership : The Productive Manager’s Guide To The Holiday Season Slump…Easing Up on Certain Rules this Time of Year Rather than Enforcing them May Actually Lead to Better Outcomes.

December 3, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The approach of the holiday season is something many managers greet with quiet dread. From Thanksgiving onward, a steadily rising wave of excitement and distraction can threaten to get in the way of focused work. But the wisest—and, ultimately, most productive—approach is not to fight it.

Making room for a little festive fun, within limits, can be a great way to bring your team together when they’re having trouble staying focused on their own.

Rules can’t be regularly flouted, as every good manager knows. But there are certain times when enforcing them as strongly as you would at other times is actually counterproductive. As the author Terry Pratchett once wrote, rules exist “so that you think before you break ’em.”

Maybe you have a rule that every team needs to have someone present during business hours in case of an inquiry—makes sense. But is your B2B sales team really going to generate any major leads between Christmas and New Year’s? Is anyone going to be contacting the internal auditors when other teams are down to skeleton crews? Maybe at this time of year, some teams can be let off the hook while vital services like IT keep someone on site.

Think through the typical rules you enforce during the rest of the calendar year, and ask yourself whether they’ll really lead to the desired outcome during the run-up to the holidays.

If there are any you can ease up on, make sure you clearly explain why it will or won’t be enforced. You don’t want it to look arbitrary. Flexibility and understanding are easy ways to show employees that you see them as human beings, and this is an ideal time of year to remind them of that.

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MAKE SPACE FOR SILLINESS

People will want to have some fun this time of year. Maybe it’s wearing a Santa hat, or racing tinsel-covered wheelie chairs down the office hall 10 minutes before closing. Don’t license mayhem, but realize that stamping out all the fun will make people grumpy and disengaged. Letting them get away with too much, on the other hand, will stop any work being done. So strike a balance.

Let people get a little more playful in controlled ways—festive decorations are probably fine, for instance, as long as they don’t intrude on others’ concentration. Let people mess around a little in the last week before the holidays, but keep an eye out for too much time being lost.

REWARD GOOD DISCIPLINE

With people so easily distracted, this is the perfect time to give rewards and praise for those who stay focused.

Public praise or recognition from your usual reward system can help deserving team members feel validated, rather than left out for working hard while their coworkers may be slacking off. It’ll also encourage others to knuckle down at a time of year when that tends to get harder.

JOIN IN THE FUN

Trying too hard to be the “fun boss” can backfire. But as a manager, keeping your distance and staying too remote can turn out just as badly.

The holidays are a perfect time to show your fun side. Join in with festivities, but do it as an equal. For the length of a team dinner or happy hour, let yourself be part of the crowd, and talk about sports, TV, and holiday or vacation plans. Just don’t try to dominate the socializing—that will only remind people that you’re still fixated on being their boss.

LET EMPLOYEES CRAFT THEIR OWN CELEBRATIONS

The business—or just you as a boss—can actually facilitate some work festivities this time of year. A lunch together to celebrate the past year’s accomplishments is an easy way to help a team bond. An after-work holiday party can bring folks together and help everyone relax.

A little funding helps, too. Even small investments can create a nice show of goodwill. If you’re paying for a celebration, even in part, then employees are more likely to turn up, rather than ditching work festivities for personal plans.

If you’re paying for a celebration, even in part, then employees are more likely to turn up.

But there’s a big difference between paying and running the show. If possible, let employees shape the celebrations for themselves. This might mean letting your team pick where to eat or improvising a social committee to plan an office party. Whatever you do, make sure any year-end celebration is inclusive, and that your employees are in control. The more it’s to their tastes, the more they’ll engage with it, decompress, and have fun. All of which adds up to better engagement with the business and their work once the party’s over.

BE FLEXIBLE ABOUT TIME

The holidays can put a lot of pressure on people, especially on their time. They’re shopping for gifts, attending their kids’ school functions, making travel arrangements, and trying to attend a host of social functions—all while working. So try to avoid adding to that pressure.

Wherever possible, try to be a little more flexible than usual about time. Shuffle schedules around so people can let off some steam when they need to and take care of the responsibilities in their personal lives that tend to pile up during the season.

If you offer flex-time, now’s the chance to let employees use it, and simply make up any additional time off in the New Year, once things settle down. They’ll feel less stressed, better engaged, and more positive about work—not to mention their lives outside it.

FastCompany.com | MARK LUKENS | 12.02.16 5:00 AM

#Life : 25 Best Habits to Have in Life…If you are Committed to Happiness and Success, Work These into your Daily Routine.

December 3, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

We are creatures of habit. Everything we think, say and do is a result of deep-seated habits etched into our minds through years and years of repitious behavior. Those very same habits either help to propel us forward or to hinder our progress in life. In fact, the state and quality of our lives right now is a direct reflection of our daily habits.

Habits are an undeniably powerful part of life. They’re an integral part of the underlying behavioral psychology that shapes the direction of our lives. They’re so integral that a study determined that approximately 45 percent of everything we do on a daily basis is driven by our habits.

Parting ways with our bad habits and replacing them with good habits is by no means a simple task. It takes commitment, willpower and an unwavering desire to overcome our seemingly natural tendencies to think, feel, speak and act in a certain way.

Clearly, for those absolutely committed to things like happiness and success, habits offer the pathway to enrichment in life. They’re also the tools we use to help automate our progress towards one end or another, assisting us with the achievement of our goals and the fulfilment of our dreams.

Still, for the most part, we’re often left in the dark. We’re unsure of ourselves or where to start on the road to developing good habits. What are the best habits to have in your life when you want to succeed or be happy? Are there some that usurp others, providing some secret magical recipe for achieving life’s loftiest goals?

What are the best habits to have in life?

While any list of habits concoted might seem subjective, there are, in fact, 25 particular habits that will not only help you to succeed, financially speaking, but will also keep you healthy, happy and fulfilled in life. Focus on these 25 habits, consistently making efforts to instill them into your daily routine, and in time, your progress and momentum towards your goals will skyrocket.

1. Wake up early.

The early morning hours are a time for peaceful reflection and ample productivity, where the world is still and asleep, allowing you to focus wholeheartedly on your long-term goals. Anyone who is serious about success in any measure knows that it’s important to wake up early.

Even if you’re not a morning person, use incremental changes in your daily routine to start waking up earlier and earlier. Begin by setting your alarm clock back by 15 minutes the first week, 15 minutes the next week and so on. Do this until you can wake up at least two hours earlier than you’re waking up now.

2. Gratitude.

We spend a great deal of time immersed in our problems. But problems are also a sign of life. The only time we’ll lack problems is when we’re six feet under. And if you want to shift your focus away from your problems, you have to be grateful for what you have. Yes, even for your problems.

Gratitude is the surest pathway to health, happiness and success. It shifts our attention towards what we have rather than what we don’t have. It’s the natural abundance of simple pleasures and opportunities that we’ve been afforded with and blessed with that we often take for granted.

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3. Smile.

Studies have confirmed that people who smile a genuine smile (also referred to as a Duchenne smile) are happier in life. This is one of the best habits for allowing you to find emotional, mental and spiritual peace-of-mind over time — simply by placing a smile on your face.

The physiology of our bodies dictates the psychology of our minds. When we frown or slouch or do any number of other things that convey a sense of depression and unhappiness, our mind takes those cues and runs with them. However, once we shift our outward appearance by consciously adjusting ourselves, our inward feelings follow.

4. Eat a healthy breakfast.

Breakfast is an important part of life. Yet, 31 million Americans skip breakfast every single day. And that saying you’ve heard your entire life about breakfast being the most important meal of the day? It’s 100 percent true. If you’re serious about success, eat a healthy breakfast every single morning.

This single habit doesn’t take much effort. Some planning is certainly required, and if you’re rushing out the door every morning with barely any time to spare, you might want to consider waking up earlier to ensure that you wield this habit in your own life.

5. Exercise.

One of the absolute best habits to have in life is to exercise every single day without fail. This isn’t about heavy weightlifting or running a marathon. This is about doing lightly strenuous activity to oxygenate your blood and boost the endorphins in your body.

Not only will you feel physically better when you start this habit, but you’ll also feel more motivated, have more mental clairty and be more emotionally sound. Exercise releases dopaminine, oxytocin and serotonin into the system, giving an almost euphoric effect without the usage of any drugs whatsoever.

6. Drink water with lemon.

One habit that has monumental health benefits is to drink a large glass of water with lemon every single day. Lemons are a natural source of Vitamin C, but also possess other health benefits — such as helping with your digestion, boosting your immune system, along with cleansing and rehydrating your body.

The water itself is also an important way to flush any toxins from your system early on in the morning when you first arise. Ultimately, over time, this will also aid with things like weight loss, a reduction in any inflammations and an overall boost in energy.

7. Walk 10,000 steps.

Most people have heard about the benefits of walking at least 10,000 steps in a day. Yet, as a society, we tend to fall far short of that goal. One study, which provided shocking results of just how many steps we do take, compared that number to countries from around the world by studying participants from the U.S., Switzerland, Australia and Japan.

Americans, on average, take 5,117 steps a day. Compared to Australians, who take 9,695 steps per day, and residents of Switzerland, who take 9,650 steps per day, and those of Japan, who take 7,168 steps per day — we fall way short. Event still, this single habit is a great way to resolve our sedentary ways. Park further from the office or take the stairs when you can to help boost your daily steps.

8. Vitamins and minerals.

As a culture, we lack the necessary vitamins and minerals through our food intake. Processed and refined sugars, carbohydrates and other foods that are a staple of the American diet help to exacerbate this problem. We simply don’t get the proper nutrients our bodies need on a daily basis.

Find a good set of vitamins and minerals that you can take every day. It’s easy to ignore this healthy habit, but the feeling after weeks and months of doing this on a regular basis, is tremendous. That impact can help us to improve other areas of our lives by providing mental, emotional and physical clarity.

9. Effective time management.

An essential habit for succeeding at anything in life is effective time management. How well you manage the precious little time you have says a lot about what you can achieve. And considering that we all have the same amount of time in this world, how you leverage this resource will dictate your potential for success.

Find a good system for managing your time and implement it. This isn’t complex to do, but does require conscious and consistent effort. However, once this habit has been solidified into your daily routine, virtually anything is possible, and no goal will be too big to attain.

10. Daily goal setting.

Most people have goals. Whether it’s something to achieve in business or in life, we’re all moving in one intended direction or another. However, while long-term goals do give us direction, it’s the daily goals that we set that allow us to create short-term milestones that are integral to our success.

Long-term goals can seem overwhelming even in the best of times. But by implementing a daily goal-setting strategy, you can overcome some of the enormity associated with achieving big things in life by focusing on the one-day-at-time, short-term scenarios.

11. Inspire yourself.

It’s often difficult to stay motivated for any considerable amount of time. We get discouraged and dissuaded from our goals when things arise in life that send us on tangents and veer us off track. But one of the absolute best ways you can stay motivated in life is to inspire yourself on a daily basis.

Read, watch inspirational videos and get inspired by stories of otherswho have achieved their dreams. Anthony Robbins calls this your “hour of power,” but you can spend as much or as little time on this as you need. Inspiration is the pathway to achievement because what the mind can conceive, it can achieve.

12. Save and invest.

No good habit list is complete without one that calls for saving and investing. We often overlook the necessity to save for the future because we’re so busy living in the present moment. The truth is that most Americans have less than $1,000 saved up at any given moment.

But it’s not just about saving. You have to invest the money that you save, and do so wisely. The more attention you pay to this now, the more your life will be replete with financial success in the future. You should also be sure to have at least six months worth of savings in your account to stave off any potential financial calamity in the future.

13. Budget and track expenses.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.” It’s easy to lose sight of little expenses, but they add up, especially when we fail to budget. Be sure to manage all of your expenses, and sweat the small stuff, so to speak.

When it comes to sound financial habits, this is an important one to have, and one that will lend itself to your future financial success. The money saved on frivilous or extraneous expenses can be saved and invested for your future. Don’t ignore the future for sake of revelling in the present moment.

14. Learn something new.

Educate yourself, and learn something new every single day. Committ to learning and improving your life, whether it’s by acquiring new skills or enhancing the existing skills you already have. From foreign languages to software programs and apps, you should carve out a small amount of time every single day to dedicate to this habit.

Whether you decide to learn something new through an online course, an audiobook, a blog post, a video tutorial on YouTube, or even through TED Talks or other means, the importance of implementing this habit is paramount. Find something that’s worthwhile learning and do just a little bit of it every single day.

15. Organize.

Physical clutter results in a loss of focus. When our lives are disorganized and in a state of disarray, it’s hard to stay focused on our goals. Take the time to organize your home and office, and do just a little each day to enforce this habit. Take a single drawer and organize it, or organize a solitary corner of your home or even a cabinet in your office.

The importance of this habit is highlighted by a study in the Journal of Neuroscience titled, “Interactions of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in human visual cortex,” which says “Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex.” In plain English — clutter lends itself to a major loss of focus.

16. Contribute to others.

In our quest to achieve and succeed, we often forget about others. We fail to contribute something of value to our fellow man, woman or child. This isn’t about donating money; this is about contributing your time, which is far more valuable than money. It also helps to shift your focus from a state of lack to a state of abundance.

We tend to spend too much of our time steeped in worry and anxiety. But, when you enlist the habit of contributing to others, you can easily alleviate your personal concerns, and even your problems, by realizing the necessity of helping others. In fact, it’s the people in this world that contribute the most value to others that end up achieving the greatest success.

17. Network.

Clearly, it’s not just about what you know in this world. In order to succeed, we need to reach out to others — who you know is extremely important. But networking isn’t just about dropping names; it’s about finding ways that you can help and add value to the lives of others.

The best networkers in the world are also some of the most successful individuals. But they didn’t focus entirely on themselves at the outset. They always looked for ways that they could help others without thinking about receiving something in return. That’s how the world’s best networkers are born.

18. Break through fears.

We spend a lot of time immersed in fear. Those doomsday what-if scenarios play out in our minds throughout the course of any given day. We’re so worried and nervous about the future that we forget to enjoy the present moment. It’s so ingrained in our minds to fear things that it stifles our progress.

Breaking through your fears is quite possibly one of the most important habits that you could develop. Get used to doing one thing that makes you feel uncomfortable each and every single day. Talk to a stranger, give someone a compliment, or tell someone the truth about something that makes you feel uncomfortable.

19. Take action.

Take action. It’s a cliche that we’ve all heard repeatedly, yet it’s something that many of us fail to do. In fact, we do just the opposite — we procrastinate. We fail to take action for whatever number of reasons, hindering our progress and ability to achieve any of the monumental goals we set for ourselves.

The best way to overcome procrastination is to use the 15-minute rule. Take whatever it is that you’ve been putting off for the longest, set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes, and only commit to doing it for that long. Why only 15 minutes? First, it breaks the cycle of inaction. Second, after 15 minutes, you’ve built some momentum, so you might just keep on going.

20. Follow a plan.

Having a plan is integral to every successful entrepreneur — and person — throughout history. Whatever it is that you want out of life, not only do you need long-term goals and daily goals to help conceive, but you need to follow an intricate and detailed plan that you create along the way.

Without a plan, we often fail to realize our goals. Without understanding how we’ll get from point A to point B, it’s hard to see the cliched forest through the trees. But when you stick to a plan and track your progress, making changes along the way, you can eventually reach your goals as long as you don’t give up.

21. Enjoy “me” time.

One of the habits that most of us fail to implement in our lives is to enjoy some down time — or “me” time. Do one small thing that you love doing every single day. It’s not always about achievement and success. By doing one small thing that you love, you’re actually instilling peace of mind and re-focusing your center.

Whether you listen to your favorite music pumping through headphones, take a walk through the park, go for a drive along your favorite road, watch a movie, or anything else for that matter, be sure that you always carve out some time for yourself in the day.

22. Implement positive thinking.

Like attracts like. When we think negatively, harboring negative thoughts, we attract negative things into our lives. When we think positive, we attract positive things. It’s hard to stay positive all the time, and it’s often our natural tendency to think negatively about things.

However, positive thinking is one of the surest pathways to the achievement of your goals. Ignore the naysayers and the people who doubt your abilities, and pursue the things that you love, staying positive all the while. It’s purely a matter of momentum. Think positively for long enough, and good things begin happening.

23. Read.

Whether you read the newspaper, financial news, a novel, a non-fiction book, or anything else, find time to read something. Reading is an important habit to develop in life, and you shouldn’t rely on audiobooks or movies all the time. Good old-fashioned reading, the traditional non-screen way, does the trick.

Reading can help you uncover new worlds, ideas or ways of doing things that you might not have known about before. It’s also a great way to educate yourself or entertain yourself at any given moment.

24. Get ample rest.

Although it’s important to wake up early every day, it’s also imperative to get ample rest. Finding that delicate balance might be difficult, especially if you have kids, two jobs and other obligations. However, if you care enough about your physical well-being, along with your future success, you’ll focus on a minimum of six to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep every night.

If you have trouble falling asleep, be wary not to drink coffee or alcohol too close to your bedtime. Also, if you smoke, eat too much sugar, or ingest any other type of toxins throughout the day, you’ll find it difficult getting to bed at a decent hour. Cut those out of your routine so you can get some ample rest at night.

25. Journal your thoughts.

Journaling your thoughts is a great way to reflect on who you are and what you’ve been doing in life. Time can go by so quickly that we often forget the details of what we did even a few short months ago. Those details are often novel to recall as it adds clarity and purpose to our lives, reminding us of life’s lessons and joys.

Get in the habit of writing out your thoughts and journaling your experiences on a daily basis. Intertwine it with your goals, hopes and dreams for the future, writing out what you envision your life will look like down the road, then come back to read it later on to get a window into your mind at any point in your life. This is a powerful method for self-reflection, and also a great way to motivate and inspire yourself going forward into the future.

Getting started.

How many of the habits above have you already worked into your life? Are there bad habits that seem to continue holding you back from achieving any semblance of success and happiness? Bad habits can get in the way of our progress and quitting them is not easy by any means. However, it’s all a matter of momentum. It all boils down to small incremental steps that you can take day in and day out to help you build up the right repertoire of habits to help you achieve whatever your heart desires. The habits above are some of the best habits to have in life. How many of them will you agree and commit to taking on today?

Entrepreneur.com | December 2, 2016 | R. L. Adams

Your #Career : 12 Secrets to Supercharging Your Personal Brand…How a Powerful Personal Brand can Help your Business Achieve Massive Success.

December 2, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Look at anyone who’s crushing it in business and life and you’ll usually see it’s not just their business that’s doing well; they also have a powerful personal brand.

These veteran entrepreneurs share their top strategies to supercharge your personal brand. In the process, you’ll create diehard customers who buy from you for years to come.

1. Turn yourself into a superstar.

The best way to build your brand is to become a freakin’ superstar where you are. Quarterback Tom Brady became so unbelievable the New England Patriots built the entire franchise around him. Don’t try to go out and build a name. Your name is only as good as your accomplishments. —Grant Cardone, top sales expert who has built a $500 million real-estate empire, NYT bestselling author of Be Obsessed or Be Average, and host of The Cardone Zone; follow Grant on Facebook orYouTube

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2. Publish, publish, publish.

Publish books, articles in top publications, video, etc. These tools build your credibility, make you stand out from your competition and enhance your reputation. Before publishing my first book, I helped build the brands of major celebrities like Tony Little and Billy Mays. Although I was able to raise their profiles tremendously, no one knew who I was. That’s when I knew I had to start publishing my own content so that I could build my brand and propel myself into new markets. Make it a goal to publish your own book, but start small with articles, features and digital magazines. —Kevin Harrington, inventor of the infomercial, pioneer of the “As Seen On TV” industry, and original Shark on Shark Tank with a $450 million net worth

3. Pretend you’re making a blockbuster show.

Most people try to build their personal brand through random social-media posts about whatever is going on in their life. But your most important strategy is to tell great stories, same as blockbuster shows like Game of Thrones do. Start with something catchy—I posted a Lamborghini YouTube video that went viral, for instance.

Like all great stories in a movie or book, there’s rarely just one character. There’s a central plot with drama, suspense, surprise, character development and some form of resolution—that’s how the Kardashians became a colossal brand. It’s more than just Kim Kardashian; it’s the family, their history, the people they date, and even the bodyguard. My Snapchat feed is never just about me, and your personal branding should never just be about you. Create great stories by consistently posting about the main people in your life (e.g. spouse, kids, dog and gardener). —Tai Lopez, investor and partner or advisor to many multimillion-dollar businesses; connect with Tai on Facebook orSnapchat

4. Publish your own report.

Publish an industry statistical report and name it after yourself. Reporters and producers always need statistics to back up the stories they want to write or produce, so give them the statistics and they’ll give you the quote. When I first published The Corcoran Report on the NYC real-estate market, it was based on only 11 sales but it put me on the front page of the New York Times as the industry expert. —Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and Shark on Shark Tank

5. Speak everywhere your audience attends.

Nothing builds a personal brand more than adding massive value to your audience via education. Speak at events, webinars, conferences and hangouts. Create a master list of people hosting these get-togethers in your network. Create a simple communication approach: reach out to them and include your testimonials, credentials and track record. Then, get out there and speak, educate and add value. Your personal brand will begin to grow, along with your audience and revenue. —Com Mirza, CEO of Fitness Expo Dubai and “The $500 Million Man”; failed in eight companies back-to-back and today runs a nine-figure empire with over 600 employees

6. Make it personal.

Everyone is unique in their own way and people like to connect with other genuine people. Share your story. I share my story often about how I started at 14 years old and went nearly bankrupt twice before reaching my current success. —Manny Khoshbin, president of The Khoshbin Company and author of Contrarian PlayBook; arrived in America at 14 nearly homeless and now has a nine-figure net worth; follow Manny’s incredible adventures on Instagram

7. Get in the best shape of your life.

Maximize your physical health. When you feel great, you’re in a great mood and that shines through allowing people to fully resonate with you. Looking great with a healthy glow and a brain that performs at 10X gets everyone’s attention. —Ian Clark, founder and CEO of Activation Products

8. Get in front of your audience, consistently.

The biggest thing you can do to enhance your personal brand is get in front of people regularly. Speak at events, run your own events, distribute marketing videos of yourself. By doing this, your own personal brand will grow as people will begin associating you with your product or service instead of just your company. —Kim Barrett, owner of Your Social Voice

9. Live stream daily on Facebook.

Seth Godin says the best way to create a brand is through creating trust in the marketplace. To create trust, you must gain attention and add value. For me, there is no substitute for Facebook Live. If you’re not doing a live stream on Facebook Live every day with content and value, you’re leaving a lot of value on the table and getting left behind. —Calvin Coyles, CEO of Young & Wildly Successful; 26-years-old and grew YWS to nine figures in 10 months

10. Improve by one percent every day.

If you can improve every single thing you do throughout the day by just one percent, then the collective gains add up to something incredible. By adopting this concept of marginal gains, you are going to start making better decisions and, over time, those continuous improvements will positively enhance your life and image more than almost anything else you could do. —Josh Black, investor, entrepreneur, and CEO of GroupM Content in Asia; GroupM is the world’s largest media investment group with more than $100 billion in billings

11. Create brand-building systems.

It’s important to develop systems that consistently build and reinforce your brand—no matter how busy you are. Depending on your business, you’ll likely need systems for publishing fresh blog content, pursuing speaking engagements, and networking regularly. But your system needn’t be complex, it could simply be adding “social media” to your daily calendar, and “write blog entry” to your weekly schedule. —Rhonda R. Swan, founder and CEO of Your Brand Is My Business and The Freedom-Preneur Movement

12. Find and nurture your tribe.

Gaining the trust and relationships necessary to build a personal image comes from years of intentional and purposeful execution. It’s built off a small, loyal tribe of people who took your advice and made money with it. My tribe was built from the ones I coached who took massive action. There were a few I invested more time in because I saw potential to make them successful. The result? Viral word of mouth about my willingness to truly see people succeed, and knowledge of a particular skillset in ecommerce that was in demand. —Neil Twa, cofounder of eCom Pro Academy

Entrepreneur.com | December 1, 2016

Community

#Leadership : 9 Business Tools for Working Smarter Instead of Harder…Working Hard is Good. Working Harder than you Need to Isn’t.

December 1, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Time is of the essence when you’re running a business. As an entrepreneur, you’re responsible for a variety of duties — content creation, trend tracking and finding leads, just to name a few. And there often isn’t enough time in the day to get everything on your checklist done. There is something to be said about hard work, but one thing is even better: working smart.

By leveraging certain small business tools, you can cut down on busywork and focus on creating results. Below are nine hand-picked tools that will help you work smart on your business.

1. Kajabi

Running an online business always takes more work than originally thought. Kajabi simplifies business launch and upkeep by allowing you to take on a number of tasks within one streamlined platform. Though it’s possible to build a landing page for a service-based business, Kajabi works best for those offering products — Kajabi’s features are ideal for selling goods, online courses and downloadable content. Users can “drip” content in planned intervals, accept built-in payments, register members, and more.

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2. ClearVoice.

In every business, there comes a time when the owner can’t continue to create all the site’s content on his or her own. You could dig through Upwork or Fiverr for freelancers, but if you’re really planning on working smart, ClearVoice is your best bet. ClearVoice essentially allows you to track popular content, then have content created to match each trend — all without the hassle of hiring your own writers.

You start by building an editorial calendar, then picking from a pool of vetted creatives who match your project. The ClearVoice writers build the content, the editors clean it up and you ultimately approve it for publishing. You get to “set and forget” content assignments until they’re done, and there’s no one to put on your payroll.

3. SpyFu.

A large part of marketing is identifying consumer trends and using them to your advantage. After all, how would sites like Buzzfeed ever have grown so successful without first realizing that people love silly videos and vibrant “listicles”? (It would have been nearly impossible.) Very few entrepreneurs have the time, though, to carefully track and graph trends on their own. Instead, SpyFu allows you to track industry trends, then determine where they came from. You simply type in a competitor’s URL and sit back while SpyFu organizes the data. In moments, you’re able to see how many organic keywords relate to that URL, the site’s estimated monthly SEO clicks, paid keywords, and more. You can even view who your competitor’s competitors are.

4. ClickFunnels.

If you thought finding customers was your biggest business battle, you thought wrong. One key to maximizing profit is building an effective sales funnel — a system that engages new customers and helps them discover more products and services than just the one they came for. Not only does this help customers feel more invested in your business, but it boosts sales, too. ClickFunnels is an excellent resource for business owners (new and seasoned) who are tired of building websites and email lists that do little to nothing for sales.

With ClickFunnels, you’re able to build a beautiful and interactive landing page, an email auto-response system, split testing software and other components that work together to create the ultimate funnel. When leads visit your shiny new website, ClickFunnels will invite them to join your email list and view a number of products or services. When your customer is checking out, ClickFunnels will display commodities that complement their initial purchase, helping you boost sales. You can finally stop working so hard on engaging leads, and instead work smart on building your business.

5. Infusionsoft.

If automation is your business’s priority, Infusionsoft is the tool for you. This award-winning software helps business owners boost conversion rates, master ecommerce, effectively manage the sales process and most importantly, save time. It does so by collecting data about leads’ online behaviors, then scoring them in a way that allows you to prioritize “hot” leads over the rest. When you combine that with the Infusionsoft sales dashboard and analytics, you’ve got an online toolbox (complete with a mobile app) perfect for streamlining your business.

6. AdEspresso.

Facebook Ads may seem simple at first, but if you’ve tackled them before, you know they can be a bit intimidating. Whether you’re new to Facebook Ads or you’ve been using them for years, AdEspresso can improve the experience; the software focuses mainly on lowering ad costs and maximizing clicks. You start by creating an ad campaign in the AdEspresso Campaign Editor, then using extensive analytics to determine the effectiveness of the campaign. Once you’ve adjusted your campaign for a perfect fit, you can request periodic PDF reports. Another bit of good news? If you already use and love Hootsuite, you can use the two platforms together for maximum ad optimization.

7. Genius Scan.

Admit it — you loathe the frustration a bulky scanner can add to your day. Why fumble with office electronics when you could use your smartphone as a quick mobile scanner? Genius Scan is an iPhone and Android application that allows you to “scan” documents anywhere, then turn them into .JPEG and PDF files. Though many use the app for scanning documents, you can also use it to save and share those whiteboard brainstorming sessions and notes scribbled on napkins. The basic version of the app is free; the paid version of Genius Scan allows printing, touch ID, cloud export and other useful features.

8. Calm.

Stress is a natural part of entrepreneurship. Some business owners exercise to relieve the tension; others spend time with family or write in a journal. No matter your existing stress-relief regimen, Calm can help you feel even more… well, calm.

This browser and mobile application uses peaceful soundtracks and planned meditations to help with mindfulness and inner peace. Begin by selecting a soundtrack — you have quite a few choices, from “fireplace” to “sunset beach” — and then pick a guided meditation. (If you prefer to freestyle your meditations, you can set a timer within the app.) A gentle voice will lead you through breathing and thought exercises until you finally feel at ease.

9. IFTTT.

Sure, now you have a number of handy tools up your sleeve, but how can you use them together without clumsily jumping from one to the next? IFTTT was built to sync your favorite services (like news apps, social media, music, smart home toggles and more) within customizable “applets.” Each applet allows two or more services to work in tandem. With one, for example, you can automatically share Instagram photos to Facebook; with another you can set your Philips Hue lights to turn on automatically at sunset. IFTTT applets allow you to make the most of modern technology by letting every service, no matter how big or small, work together.

Not a tool, but a tip.

No amount of ingenious online tools can bring you success if you don’t know how to share your business with others. “Storytelling” is a crucial skill for every entrepreneur: it allows you to convey your business’s background and mission in a way that gets others emotionally invested. One great way to strengthen your storytelling skill is to attend one of The Campfire Effect’s workshops. These workshops teach you how to share five major pillars — who your business is made of, what they do, why they do it, how they do it and the resulting proof — in natural conversation and online. Because what says “working smart” more than conveying your message to people you’re already talking to?

Whether you’ve just launched your startup or you’ve been in business for years, you shouldn’t spend all of your energy working harder than you have to. The concept of “working smart, not hard” has several facets, but it all starts with using modern tools to your advantage. What websites, apps and software do you use to work smart on your business?

Entrepreneur.com | December 1, 2016 | Matthew Toren

#Leadership : Managing Conflict Is Essential to Success…A Functional Workplace of Diverse People and Ideas is Fertile Ground for Creativity — And for Conflict. Here’s How to Be a Good Referee.

December 1, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Those of you who have read my articles before can probably envision me embroiled in numerous conflicts. To keep from being killed or killing someone, I have acquired fairly effective survival skills. I’m not a pacifist; in fact, people who say “fighting never solves anything” make me think they have been on the losing end of every fight they’ve been in. Or, it makes me think they have probably spent their lives running from fights.

In my experience, fighting solves a lot, but let me be clear here, when I say “fighting,” I am not talking about slapping around Kenny in accounting because he shorted you $2.36! When I say fighting, I am talking about conflict. Conflict is neither good nor bad; it can be handled functionally or dysfunctionally.

You can’t say that!

We’re not on the playground anymore, and in a post-Columbine, post-going postal world, even joking about workplace violence can be a serious offense. I have worked at several companies that had incidents of workplace violence that ended in death; so I don’t want anyone thinking that I am making light of the very real threat of workplace violence. But there is a right way and a wrong way of addressing it, and in my opinion, the best way to avoid workplace violence, even mere workplace unpleasantness, is by de-escalating dysfunctional conflict before it becomes a problem.

De-escalation of conflict isn’t the same as conflict avoidance. De-escalation of conflict is the act of removing heightened emotion the antagonists are feeling about their disagreement. Disagreement is healthy in an organization; moreover, squelching it leads to dysfunction, from simmering frustration to malicious obedience. Malicious obedience is one of those terms I learned when I was working for a man I still affectionately refer to as “the Devil.”

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You told me to!

Tired of having him second guess my every decision and then ordering me to do something that I knew would be a disaster, I would do exactly what he told me to, knowing full well that it would create chaos. Doing so made him incredibly angry and frustrated because I had in fact done exactly what he told me to do. I fully admit to doing in those days what I expect now of a benighted employee, escalating our dysfunctional dynamic.

I would sit smugly in his office watching the veins in his temples bulge and throb, in hopes of seeing one burst, while he frothed at the mouth and sputtered his disappointment with my performance. I can see now I could have (should have?) handled things better. Mea culpa. But when dealing with a dysfunctional environment, it is hard to behave like an adult. Or, maybe I’m making excuses, but I know better now.

You talking to me?

It may seem silly, but de-escalation of conflict begins with the language we use. I used to work for an organization where so much as joking about violence was an offense for which one could be fired. For my money, the organization took extreme and ridiculous efforts to avoid any implication of aggression. There was an Alice Down the Rabbit Hole absurdity to its efforts.

We couldn’t use the term bullet point because bullet, it was believed, denotes violence. No, actually. In this case, the term bullet is derived from the word bulletin (a bulletin being a series of bullets), a usage that predates the invention of the gun. We had to call them dot lists. Predictably, this devolved into a bizarre workplace lexicon that would have made Aldous Huxley proud. We could say positive, but negatives became deltas. Ironically, we could say head shot; something I never understood because it seemed not only violent but graphically violent.

You can’t say that, either!

The thing is, mincing words and weaseling around the point is not really helpful when trying to de-escalate conflict. Quite the opposite, I find it tends to infuriate an already aggravated and aggressive dynamic between the parties. Clarity, understanding and resolution become impossible. And business people want clarity, and seek it intuitively. They coin graphic terms like “one throat to choke” (look it up) to express a common business concept, even as it may create the subtle impression that workplace violence is acceptable — or perhaps only upon outside vendors.

So these things don’t work, what does? I found a simple formula work of the de-escalation:

1. Begin by a acknowledging each other’s frustration.

Conflict tends to build-up and as it builds so does frustration. The primate inside us wants to either fight or flee; neither are options that de-escalate the conflict. Vocalizing the knowledge that both parties are frustrated and potentially angry allows them to stop focusing on communicating how they feel and to start focusing on what they can do to move forward.

2. Assume goodness of intention.

When we assume that the other party is perfidious, escalation results. When I think they have the best intentions we can discuss our positions dispassionately and assertively. I admit it can be very difficult to give someone the benefit of the doubt, especially if they have screwed us over the past, but you really have to get beyond that if you’re going to achieve any mastery of conflict de-escalation.

3. Make sure all parties have expressed how they feel.

This may sound soft-headed, but it’s really important. Unless we talk about the emotions we’re feeling, they will always get in the way of trying to solve a problem. Maybe you have experienced, as I have, an exchange where the other person keeps deflecting or trying to change the subject, to rationalize their own dysfunctional behavior. As goofy as it may sound, too many people get so wrapped up in winning that they cannot see a compromise is anything but a defeat.

4. Apologize.

An apology can go a long way in mending a relationship, even when you’re too pig-headed to admit you’re wrong. You may actually feel as if you have done nothing wrong, and maybe you haven’t, but the fact remains that your actions created the perception of an attack or insult, and I think we can all agree that we want to prevent kind of this perception.

5. Fess up when you mess up.

Sometimes our egos prevent us from doing what’s right — in this case, admitting when we screwed up. Something this simple can greatly reduce the heightened emotional state.

You gotta give a little. De-escalation relies on both parties being able to see another person’s point of view. They must be willing to give a little bit. By becoming able to compromise, they free themselves and each other to work toward the win/win.

Entrepreneur.com | October 18, 2016 | Phil La Duke