The Modern Observer Group

Jun122019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Don’t Let Your Perfectionism Get in Your Way

Perfectionism can push you to deliver excellent work, but it can also increase your anxiety and lower your productivity. To keep perfectionism from getting in your way, learn when it’s time to let go and move on. One way to do this is creating a checklist of a task’s essentials. If you’re working on a client pitch, for example, make sure the presentation addresses the client’s major concerns and details why the client should hire your company. Your inner perfectionist might fret over the font choice and every semicolon — but once your checklist is complete, take a breath and slowly back away. Another tactic is to ask a trusted colleague to help you get perspective. Do you need someone to tell you when your first draft is good enough?…

Jun102019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Communicating According To Your Clients Needs

Communication, Featured

Communications is an integral part of your customer relationships. Customers need to feel that you are accessible when they need you. Problems occur when communications preferences get in the way. As a business person, you need to be able to handle whatever your clients prefer. While phone and email have been standard in business for decades, communications has changed as business does. Online companies have stopped providing phone numbers, much to the aggravation of their customers. As millennials entered the workforce, they used text messaging as their primary communications. Even more recently, Facebook Messenger has emerged as a channel for customers trying to reach your business. Your business needs to have communications channels open. You should be ready to add communications channels, but just as important let people know how…

Jun52019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Don’t Let Your Expertise Narrow Your Perspective

Featured, Improvement

Having expertise in your field is a positive, but sometimes it leads to overconfidence. You might start to believe your usual methods are the best, or the only, way to get things done — which means you miss out on new ideas, fail to anticipate trends, and narrow your perspective. There is an old saying, "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." To avoid falling into this expertise trap, commit to constant learning and growth. Check your ego by seeking out fresh ideas and revisiting your assumptions about how a project should be carried out. Surround yourself with people who don’t look and think like you. Encourage younger employees to share the topics they’re excited about and point out key insights you may be missing.…

Jun32019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

All Customers Are Not Alike

Featured, Improvement, Planning

Your company may sell one product or offer a variety. Either way, the odds are that you have different types of customers purchasing from you. Knowing who they are is very important because they are not all the same. Which means you can't sell the same or service the same. Different customers require different plans and processes. Where an older customer may require a phone call, a millennial may prefer a text or Facebook message. Your strategy for attracting and retaining customers has to be personalized. The more you know about your customers, the better you can meet their needs. Here are some tips for differentiaing clients. Talk to them. Get to know your customers as people. This will allow you to learn how to serve them best. Find out…

May312019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Make Time To Focus On Each Employee’s Professional Growth

Featured, Improvement, Leadership

Managers are supposed to help their teams develop professionally — and great managers tailor their development efforts to each person. Doing so helps you understand the nuances of how people are growing week by week and month by month. At the end of each week, take 15 minutes to write down recent steps you’ve taken to support team members. Note what patterns you’re seeing for each employee, opportunities for future growth, and feedback you’d like to give. As you gain insight into someone’s progress, find a few minutes to pull the person aside to discuss it. You don’t have to wait for their formal review; engaging with people on an ongoing basis shows that you know what success looks like for them and are working to help them achieve it.…

May292019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Two Things To Do Before Running A Business Experiment

Featured, Improvement, Innovation

Experiments are a great way to test your assumptions and make smart decisions, whether you’re launching a product or optimizing a marketing campaign. But without a thoughtful plan of execution, you may not learn anything truly useful. Before you invest in an experiment, make sure you are set up so the experiment can provide you with what you need. Make sure you are able to collect the data you need to answer the experiment’s underlying question. For example, if you can’t measure attribution from a digital ad to a sale, you can’t run an experiment to figure out which ads are effective. Do a test run of the experiment in a low-stakes environment. If your goal is to send an email survey to customers, send it to a large group…

May222019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

The People In The Process

Featured, Process

To get the most out of your business, you need to have processes in place. Manuals that explain how to do each part of your business so that whoever does the job can deliver high quality results to your clients. The problem with that is that all people are not meant for all processes. You may have written down step by step how to do books, but you still don't want someone who isn't good with numbers performing the task. Putting the wrong person into a process will give you bad results. It's also bad for the person in the process. People twist themselves into knots to deliver if the process does not work with the skills and behavioral traits that they have. That causes stress, burnout and miserable employees…

May202019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Why Use A Vision Board?

Featured, Focus

When discussing the law of attraction, many coaches talk about using a vision board. Aside from the idea of "putting your intentions into the universe" there are some real benefits to using vision boards. What is a vision board? A vision board is simply a collage. You can use a bulletin board or white or just a large piece of cardboard. On the board you place words and pictures related to what you want to achieve. It can be items you want, places you wish to go or goals you want to accomplish. Each day you spend a few minutes looking at the board and focusing on your goals. Why use a vision board? Stay on target: A vision board is a reminder. It keeps you focused on your goals…

May82019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Listening Is Not Waiting To Speak

Communication, Featured

There's an old saying that you should listen twice as much as you speak. This assumes you are really listening. Most people, when not talking, are thinking about what they will say next. This is not listening. To be an effective listener, try these tips: Focus on what is being said: Put your focus on the conversation. Try to visualize what is being said. Pick out key ideas as they are presented.Take a minute: When it is your turn to talk, if you need to think about what you want to say take a breath. Pause. You can say something like, "That's very interesting," or "let me think about that for a moment," before jumping in.Don't push your point of view: Obviously you will have your own opinions and point…

May62019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Three Ways To Be More Successful That Have Nothing To Do WIth Work

Featured, Improvement

When people talk about becoming successful they tend to focus on work. Success is more than just job performance or how much money you make. To get yourself on the right track, here are three things you can do to boost your success that have nothing to do with work. Stop going to Starbucks: We use Starbucks as an example but it can be anyplace that you are buying overpriced coffee drinks on a regular basis. Buy a higher-end coffee maker that can make all the drinks that you get at Starbucks and gives you the flexibility to make one cup or multiple cups (not a K-cup machine). These systems run around $250. If you're buying coffee daily, your investment will pay off in about six weeks. After that you'll…