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?…

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…

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…

Apr222019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

Credibility Is Easily Lost

Attitude and Mindset, Featured, Improvement

There is very little that is as important to your success as your reputation. Your reputation determines how you are viewed. If people do not think you are credible, they will not believe what you say. While it is easy to destroy your reputation, it is difficult to restore. Here are some things to keep in mind to keep your reputation at its best. Follow through: When you say you are going to do something, do it. You must be true to your word. If for some reason it becomes impossible to do what you said, be honest. Try your best to accomplish the task, but if you can't go to the person and explain why you were unable to do what you said. If you don't know, say so:…

Apr152019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

What Successful People Did Is What You Can Emulate

Featured, Improvement

There are hundreds of books and articles where successful people talk about their habits. The idea is that if you follow those habits then you too can be successful. The problem is most of these focus on what these people are doing today. Many of these of habits are only feasible because they already have money. You need to look at what successful people did before they had money. Two perfect examples are Warren Buffett and Arianna Huffington. When Warren Buffett talks about his success, he talks about what he did as a child and how he made his early money, not just what he does now. Arianna Huffington wrote a book on how people can become successful. She completely passed over how she made her initial money. This is…

Mar292019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

When Your Growth Stalls, Ask Yourself Why

Featured, Improvement

We’ve all hit a wall at some point. You may run up against a competitor you can’t beat, lose your job despite your best efforts, or encounter some other kind of roadblock. When you can’t go forward, the only way to keep moving is to take a step back. Some people think stepping back is the same as admitting failure. Others think they can simply smash through the wall in front of them. But this type of rigidity can be disastrous — how many of us have told a recruiter “I can’t take a lower salary” or “Any move has to be a step up”? By contrast, being flexible and willing to pivot can greatly increase your chances of success. So pause, step back, and reassess your career and your…

Mar272019 by Modern Observer GroupNo Comments

To Start Your Week Refreshed, Treat the Weekend Like a Vacation

Featured, Improvement

When Monday morning arrives, do you feel relaxed? Or are you still stressed out from the previous week? Research shows that one way to make your weekends more refreshing is to think of them as a short vacation. Part of this is simply enjoying yourself: sleep in, do less housework, eat a bit more than you normally would. And find ways to make common tasks more fun, whether that’s turning on upbeat music in the car while running errands or making yourself a margarita for folding laundry. Another part is slowing down: Pay attention to your surroundings, the activity at hand, and the people who are involved. Keeping your mind on whatever’s happening will help you savor it, which in turn will help you feel like you’re breaking out of…