#ShapingtheBlogs

There's a lot the world of work can learn from the sporting world, whether it's about effective leadership and teamwork or dealing with pressure and delivering peak performance. Research shows increasingly high levels of stress and fatigue at work, with 50 percent of workers saying they're exhausted due to work. Although some stress is necessary for growth, says performance coach, author, and lecturer Steve Magness, adequate recovery is also essential for you to avoid burnout...

Personal branding is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are leveraging social media to market themselves, and it can be difficult to be heard above all the noise. While it's undoubtedly a powerful tool for connecting with new customers or potential employers, social media isn't the only effective way to promote yourself or your business. In this article, Martin Zwilling, the founder and CEO of Startup Professionals, explores other ways to increase your visibility and build m...

Working long and hard every day puts you at risk of burnout, while being able to relax and spend more time outdoors helps to reduce stress and boost your creativity. And yet many entrepreneurs find it difficult to take vacations, even when they have a talented team they can trust to run the business in their absence. To stop you spending your vacation time worrying about what's happening back in the office, here are some top tips from members of the Young Entrepreneur Council for making sure eve...

While you may have to occasionally hire externally, investing in leadership development benefits the company as well as your employees. A leadership team that's risen through the ranks is often better equipped to reinforce the company's culture and vision. And having an effective leadership development program helps you recruit talented employees who are seeking opportunities for advancement. With this in mind, Marty Fukuda shares here "four keys to building a winning leadership development init...

As a new employee who wants to create a good impression, be seen as a team player, and get a good performance review, it can be difficult to say no to your boss even if it means having to work on what should be your day off. And yet, however daunting it may seem, it’s important that you set boundaries. In this article, HR expert Liz Ryan shares a great example of polite and professional boundary setting, along with problem solving, in an interaction that demonstrates the employee’s leadership po...

Success doesn’t happen overnight and can involve making sacrifices, as any entrepreneur who’s given up the security of a regular job and paycheck will know. Giving things up isn’t just about sacrifice, however. It’s also about what you stand to gain in exchange. “When you give things up you create an opening in your life for other things,” says author and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast, Srinivas Rao. From the many things he’s had to give up while building his career, here are three...

When it comes to productivity and goal setting, entrepreneur, business magnate, investor, and philanthropist Richard Branson often mentions how he always carries a notebook, takes handwritten notes during meetings and writes to-do lists as his preferred method for ensuring he achieves everything that needs to happen to move him closer to his goals. “By ticking off each task, my ideas take shape and plans move forward,” writes Branson in this blog post where he shares his top 10 tips for making e...

To boost sales you need to understand how your prospects and customers are thinking, and that includes discovering the sources of information on which they base their buying decisions. Skillful questioning will help you sell more effectively and sales expert Maura Schreier-Fleming shares here how to handle three crucial questions with tact and sensitivity to understand your customers better, save time and effort, and reduce ambiguity. [Read the full article on allbusiness.com]

Employee engagement impacts the success of any business and it’s a leader’s job to create a company culture that motivates employees to be effective, creative, and productive. And the key to creating that culture is for leaders to have a basic understanding of human behavior, says Marcel Schwantes. With this in mind, he shares here the seven things your employees need the most to become a high performing, highly engaged team. [Read the full article on inc.com]

While it’s easy to think of entrepreneurs as adventurous individuals who shun the drudgery of a regular nine-to-five job in favor of carving out their own niche and creating a prosperous lifestyle, the reality for the majority of entrepreneurs is quite different. While it can be a hugely rewarding career, it can also be fraught with risk, stress and uncertainty, writes entrepreneur, mentor and university professor Buzz Tatom. He shares here “the six questions you must ask yourself to ensure your...