Cydcor Blog

1. Mine Field

Equipment needed: blindfold, any collection of random objects (i.e. chairs, small tables shoes, notebooks, etc.)

Skill focus: communication

How to: Break the group into pairs. Place random objects throughout the room to create an obstacle course. One team member wears the blindfold while their partner guides them, verbally, through the course. The goal of this team building activity is for all team members to use their communication skills to successfully coach their partners around the obstacles to the other side of the room.

2. Back-to-Back Drawing

Equipment needed: piece of paper and pencils or pens, and a collection of random items to draw or pictures of objects such as animals, vehicles, etc.

Skill focus: communication and listening

How to: Ask everyone to partner up (this can also be played in small groups of three or more). Team members sit back to back, or one team member turns his or her back away from the rest of the group. One partner becomes the artist while the other partner acts as the director. The director describes an object or shape to the artist. The director can only give instructions; he or she cannot reveal what object is. The artist can’t ask any questions. This activity works best with a short time limit. At the end of the activity, the team whose drawing most closely resembles the object wins.

3. Birthday Line-up

Equipment needed: none

Skill focus: problem solving, leadership, cooperation and communication

How to: Give the entire group a limited amount of time (5-7 minutes, depending on group size) to line up in a straight line, in order by birthday (day and month only), without talking. The challenge involves problem solving because team members cannot speak or write, but they can communicate in other ways, including sign language, finger counting, nudges, etc. Often one or more team members will adopt a leadership role, guiding their teammates through the team building activity and helping to stoke collaboration.

4. Human Knot

Equipment needed: none

Skill focus: leadership, collaboration, time management

How to: Have the entire group stand in a circle. Ask everyone to take the right hand of someone across the circle from them. Then ask them to take the left hand of someone else. Give the group 10 minutes or less to untangle themselves without letting go at any time. The can twist, step over each other, and contort themselves in any way, but they may not break the chain of hands at any time. If the chain breaks, they must start over, putting an emphasis on collaboration and problem solving.

5. Story Builder

Equipment needed: none

Skill focus: listening

How to: The team leader acts as a conductor and asks the group for a topic. The goal is to write a story as a group. All team members stand in a line. The conductor then “conducts” the story by pointing at one member of the group at a time at random moments. The team member chosen must continue the story exactly where the last person left off. When enough details have been added, the conductor says, “end it,” and the next person must give the story an ending. The story will only make sense if team members listen closely to each other and resist the urge to change the subject, rewrite, or contradict what has already been added. It can be fun to see how having an open mind about collaboration can help the group consider alternate points of view.

6. Flip It

Equipment needed: A large sheet or tarp

Skill focus: teamwork, problem solving

How to: Place the sheet or tarp on the floor and ask the entire team (or large groups) to stand on it. The team must flip the entire sheet over without any team members stepping off. They may lift their feet, but they cannot lift each other, and nobody can step on the floor until the challenge is complete. If someone steps off, they must start the challenge over.

7. Many Uses

Equipment needed: A basket of random objects

Skill focus: creativity, quick thinking, problem solving

How to: The team leader selects one of the random objects from the basket and hands it to a team member. That team member must go up in front of the group and invent a use for that object. They must then present the object’s use as though they were in a television infomercial for the item. Once they have completed their presentation, they pass the object to another team member, who must think up their own new use for the object. The first team member to get stumped by not being able to think of a new use for the object, gets eliminated. The remaining players then start a new round with the next object in the basket. The goal is to be creative and to think quickly to solve problems. The suggested use doesn’t have to have anything to do with the object's real purpose, and the person must start speaking immediately. If a player pauses too long before they begin speaking, they can be eliminated as well.

8. Team Juggle

Equipment needed: Several balls of any size

Skill focus: memory, quick thinking, focus under pressure

How to: Ask the group to form a circle. Hand any team member a ball and ask him or her to pass the ball to any other team member while saying their name. Continue to pass the ball from player to player until every team member has had the ball once. Ask your team members to remember who passed them the ball and who they passed it to next. Have them pass the ball again in that exact order. Once you’ve established that they know the order, start adding more balls and see how many balls they can keep moving from person to person without making a mistake

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Team building activities are a great reminder that there are many ways to help your team grow and improve. By shaking up the routine with easy team building games like these, you can help to energize your team and prevent them from getting stuck in a rut. Games like these challenge team members to use different skills than they normally do and get out of their comfort zones by partnering with different team members than usual. These activities are also a perfect way to ensure your team members do not become siloed into their departments. Taking just 30 minutes to put a little creativity and fun in every work week lightens the team members’ spirits and helps to maintain healthy team bonds while promoting collaboration and problem solving.

The crowd falls silent as you walk out to the podium, and with hundreds of eyes fixed on you, you try to speak, only to realize you can’t remember a single word of your speech! This is the nightmare scenario so many of us play in our heads in the hours before we know we’ll need to speak in front of a crowd. The fear of public speaking, glossophobia, is one of the most common phobias, and many people avoid public speaking in order to escape their anxiety. But dodging the microphone or avoiding speaking in front of others can have career consequences that are worse than that temporary feeling of dread.

Public speaking is a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership, draw positive attention to yourself, and share your point of view. Avoiding public speaking invitations, simply because you’re afraid, is doing yourself a disservice that could stifle your career growth. You can overcome your fear of public speaking by approaching it with the right attitude and by calling on a few helpful tips and tricks.

Here are eight of the best tricks for keeping your fear of public speaking under control:

1)   Focus on Them, Not You: Public speaking anxiety often centers around feelings of insecurity about how you look and sound. By focusing on what the audience is getting out of your speech, you can take your mind off those worries about being judged. Remember that you’re speaking in front of a crowd to communicate something important. Are they absorbing your message? Are they connected? The more energy you put into conveying your main point, the less you’ll have available for self-criticism.

2)   Speak from the Heart: Public speaking can feel awkward because we may think we have to pretend to be someone else – someone smarter – more knowledgeable. Instead of playing a role, just be sincere. Use examples you know well, relate to, and about which you feel strongly. The audience will pick up on your passion for the subject. When you speak in front of a crowd about your own perspective, you’re more likely to remember your speech, remain calm, and be convincing and compelling.

3)   Breathe: It may seem obvious, but breathing properly is a proven technique for overcoming anxiety. Being deliberate about your breathing during a public speaking engagement can have multiple benefits. It reminds you to stay in the moment and get out of your head, and it slows you down, which prevents rushing through your speech and allows you to build confidence as you go. Breathing deeply also helps you control the sound of your voice, and it has a calming effect that prevents nerves from creeping up on you.

4)   Practice, Practice, Practice: The better rehearsed you are, the more confident you’ll feel on stage, helping mitigate any fear of public speaking. Focus on your delivery more than specific words, and practice reading your presentation aloud. If possible, perform your speech in front of an audience, even if it’s just a friend or loved one. If you plan to use cue cards or a PowerPoint, practice with those as well, and make sure you’ve designed your cheat sheets in ways that are simple and easy to read. Cue cards with huge blocks of text can be confusing. Instead, use clean bullet points, and make sure the cards are numbered so you don’t mix up the order of your presentation.  Record yourself via audio or video recorder and review your presentation as though you were an audience member. You’d be surprised how much changing your perspective can help you improve your public speaking performance.

5)   Take Pauses: When you’re nervous, it’s tempting to rush through your presentation, but taking occasional pauses can help to calm your nerves and improve your delivery. Pauses create a break in your speech, which gives the audience a chance to react and absorb your message. Pauses help to add emphasis and can force you to get back into the moment rather than obsessing about the next line you have to recite.

6)  Embrace Your Nerves: Don’t judge yourself for being nervous. Your anxiousness about public speaking is a sign that you care about doing well and you’re invested. Studies have shown that trying to stop yourself from being nervous is a losing battle. Instead, transform your nerves into another feeling: excitement. Use your nerves as a way of bringing energy to your presentation as you speak in front of a crowd.

7)   Start with a Story: When it comes to public speaking, what people will remember most is how you start and how you finish. Begin with a story, joke, or memory to draw the audience into your presentation right away. This also helps you put their focus on your message rather than your performance as a speaker.

8)   Don’t Memorize Every Word: It’s tempting to rehearse to the point that you know every single word, pause, and inflection by heart. This could backfire big-time if you happen to miss a word, completely throwing you off for the rest of your presentation. Instead, memorize the beats, the main points you need to make, and instead of focusing on the exact delivery, put energy into staying in the moment and connecting with your audience.

Public speaking doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Taking center stage to speak to a crowd is an exciting opportunity to share your voice and demonstrate your ability to motivate and inspire. While your instincts might tell you to get through it as fast as you can and to try not to think about what you’re doing, that approach will almost guarantee a poor performance. As daunting as it may seem, try to enjoy the moment. Remind yourself of the potential benefits of doing a good job, and remember that the people in the audience aren’t there because they want to see you fail. They are there to learn something and to hear what you have to say. Prepare yourself well and your ability to capture the crowd may surprise you.

Servant leadership is a concept which holds that adopting a service-focused mindset simultaneously benefits corporations, their employees, and the community at large. At Cydcor, the Agoura Hills based leader in outsourced sales, we know first-hand that our “People helping people” motto is more than just good PR; it’s good business. The benefits of participating in community service stretch well beyond creating a “feel good” vibe around the office (though they include that, too). Servant leadership empowers employees, builds critical skills to succeed in business, and fosters a sense of teamwork, community, and renewed commitment to the organization’s shared goals.

The following are just some characteristics of servant leadership that drive positive change within organizations and beyond:

1)  Empathizing with Others: Acting as servant leaders helps team members better relate to customers and to each other. Finding common ground is a necessary first step for building trust  and is a key ingredient for forming strong and lasting partnerships.

2)  Learning to Listen: Serving others forces employees to master the skill of listening. Indispensable and hard to teach in these times of selfies and tweets, the ability to hear and process information from others offers inarguable advantages in sales or any kind of business interaction.

3)  Getting the Message Out: Servant leadership is all about gaining and raising awareness for critical issues affecting the global community. This push to spread a message for good can help employees hone the marketing and sales skills they’ll also use to advocate on behalf of their clients.

4)  Dreaming Big: In order to envision a better world, servant leaders must set ambitious goals and create plans to achieve them. In business, the ability to think big and devise viable action plans to attain goals is critical to realizing personal and organizational growth and success.

5)  Looking Ahead: Having foresight helps servant leaders anticipate and sidestep roadblocks in advance and create contingency plans to overcome the challenges that might lie ahead. Employees who master this skill through service can support their organizations with the strategic planning necessary to sustain business growth in a competitive business landscape.

6)  Changing Minds: A critical task of servant leaders is to effectively persuade others to care, to give, or to volunteer to help achieve a common goal. They learn how to use consensus, not manipulation or coercion, to bring others on board and reframe thinking. This power to unite teams, recruit participants, and boost enthusiasm for causes and goals can give employees an edge when selling and promoting products, training direct reports, and building their crew.

7)  Being Model Mentors: A defining characteristic of servant leadership is stewardship. Servant leaders see their role as one of developing others and helping them hone their skills to take on greater responsibility. Growing the leaders of tomorrow benefits the individuals, promotes growth within an organization, and trains future advocates for the community at large.  

8)  Committing to Growth: Good servant leaders make it their mission to help others achieve their goals and reach their full potential. They push others to venture outside of their comfort zones and create bold visions for the future. This passion for growth can help organizations stay competitive, inspires innovation, and builds a culture where employees believe success is achievable.

9)  Building Community: A concept that spans employee teams, organizations, and society at large; employees who feel a strong sense of community view themselves as vital parts of something larger. They are motivated to perform because they know that what benefits the community, benefits them as well.  

10)  Taking Joy in the Journey: The greatest servant leaders are those who help spread excitement throughout organizations and into the community. They help maintain a positive outlook and thrive on the thrill of overcoming challenges. Acknowledging employees’ hard work and rewarding them for their achievements helps foster a community of servant leaders who express pride in themselves through excellence at their jobs.

Encouraging employees to act as servant leaders has benefits across every aspect of a business. It improves moral and unity, it fosters a positive relationship between companies and their communities, and it helps develop a workforce that is well prepared for the complex challenges of tomorrow.

Technology is changing rapidly, but no matter how advanced digital media and market research becomes, direct sales is still one of the best ways to acquire new customers and grow your business. There are just some things a computer can’t do, and until they can, people talking to other people through face-to-face sales is still the best way to build trust, overcome objections, and turn prospects into buyers.

Here’s why face-to-face sales is one of the most effective ways to acquire new customers:

• Building Rapport and Trust: Most customers spend mere seconds reading and watching ads on TV, the internet, and in magazines, but it can be much harder to give a real person the brush off quite as quickly. That means that direct salespeople have more time, and a greater opportunity, to build rapport with and identify the needs of potential customers. They have the chance to make a case for why the person should trust them in a way that other sales and marketing channels simply cannot.

• Answering Questions in Real Time: When a customer researches a product or service online, they may give up if they can’t find the information they’re looking for or if the service doesn’t seem to fit their needs. In-person salespeople, however, can answer customer questions on-the-spot to keep the conversation flowing and to help customers through the purchasing process.

• Addressing Unique Objections: Traditional media and online marketing can address and overcome some customer objections, but they can’t respond to individual concerns that only apply to that one person. Face-to-face salespeople can address someone’s unique situation to get at exactly what is holding them back from making a purchase.

• Educating the Customer: Most people don’t pay much attention to the details when they watch commercials or view ads online, but a direct salesperson can make sure the customer understands why the product or services will benefit them. They can educate them about the product in a way that highlights its value to that individual.

• Recognizing Non-Verbal Cues: People communicate a lot with their faces and bodies, and no online marketing algorithm can replace a real person’s ability to pick up on these non-verbal cues. Face-to-face salespeople can slow down when the customer looks confused, pick up the pace when they look bored, or go for the close when the customer looks excited.

• Putting a Face to a Brand: Marketers spend a lot of money building their brands’ personalities, but no matter how well they’ve accomplished that goal, nobody is worried about hurting Arrowhead Water’s feelings. But when there’s a real human being standing in front of you, suddenly it’s not just a product or a service, it’s a person. A direct sales rep becomes the face of the product, and when customers like the person connected with the brand, they are more likely to buy. People like buying things their friends recommend- buying a product from a salesperson you like and respect is the next best thing.

• Banking on Reciprocity: Studies have shown that people feel a strong drive to return the favor when somebody does something nice for them. This puts face-to-face salespeople at an advantage. When they give their time and energy to potential customers, people feel that they should make a purchase in appreciation of the person’s effort and great customer service. When they don’t buy, some people feel guilty for having wasted the salesperson’s time or they may feel that they are letting the salesperson down.

• Getting Referrals: Referrals are one of the best ways to get new customers, but few people are willing to hand over contact information for their friends and family to a computer or phone solicitor. In-person salespeople, however, have proven themselves trustworthy and likable. Customers feel like they’re doing their friends and family a favor by referring them to an honest sales rep who will offer them great customer service.

Some people may call it old-fashioned, but direct and face-to-face sales work. The reason in-person sales is most effective comes down to one factor: people. People relate better to other people than they do to TV commercials, online marketing, billboards, print ads, or any other form of advertising. It’s natural. Direct sales are built on relationships with a specific sales rep, and it allows customers to feel a personal connection to a product or service. Face-to-face sales build trust, which gives the customer the confidence to buy. That’s why in-person sales are a smart investment for any company looking to grow.

Like it or not, being on time matters. In fact, it matters a lot. It communicates to others whether they can trust and rely on you. It gives others insight into how you view them and how you view yourself. Being chronically late can have countless unintended consequences, and it’s a seemingly small thing that can have a huge and lasting negative effect on your career. By contrast, learning the importance of punctuality – or being consistently on-time, or even early – is an incredibly simple way to set yourself apart from the crowd. It allows you to make an instant good impression, and it can help you reach your goals faster by helping others see you as someone worth listening to.

There is no excuse for being late. Barring true emergencies, being on time is completely within your control. Taking ownership of your time, knowing the importance of punctuality, and choosing never to be late again, is one easy thing you can do to change your life and career for the better.

In case you still need reasons to be on time, here are 7 big ones:

1. Being Late Weakens Your Position: When you’re late, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. Nobody wants to start an important business meeting with an apology. You may also be stressed and scattered, which may make the other person question their choice to work with you. If you can’t even be trusted to be on time, why would a customer trust you with their money?

• How to flip it: When you know the importance of punctuality, it puts you in the driver’s seat. Being on time helps you be cool, calm, and collected, and you make a great impression by showing the other person you respect their valuable time. By arriving early, you allow yourself a few extra minutes to think through your argument, and you appear more confident, poised, and in control.

2. When You’re Not on Time, You’re Stealing: If time is money, then by arriving five minutes late you’ve just stolen something of value from the other person, which is NOT a great way to start any important business negotiation. The other person feels like they’ve already given you something, so they’re not going to be as likely to give you more.

• How to flip it: Being on time instantly makes the person feel valued and appreciative, which could make them more open to your sales pitch.

3. Being Late Communicates a Lot…and None of it is Good: Being late tells others a lot about you, your integrity, and your respect for other people. It tells them you think your time is more important than theirs, and whatever you are doing is more important than what they could be doing. It shows disrespect and disregard, and it tells the other person you’re totally unreliable, careless, and disorganized.

• How to flip it: Being on time tells others that you’re trustworthy, considerate, and prepared. You’re showing them they are important to you and you are bringing your A-game.  

4. There’s No Good Excuse: Other than a real emergency – and no, sleeping late and traffic don’t count – being on time is 100% within your control, and it’s easy! Sure, staying on schedule does take some planning and organization, but compared to almost every other challenge you could face at work, being on time is a cakewalk. Being late is like shooting yourself in the foot.

• How to flip it: Being on time is an incredibly simple way to impress others, make people like you, and make yourself look good. Why wouldn’t you do it?

5. Being Late Wastes Time: When you’re late, you’re not buying yourself a few “extra minutes” you’re throwing away those minutes on things that could have been accounted for with a little planning. Being late often forces you to do extra work by scheduling follow-up meetings when you can’t finish your whole agenda, or by slowing you down on a project because you haven’t organized your thoughts ahead of time.

• How to flip it: Knowing the importance of punctuality, on the other hand, saves you time. Good time management makes you more efficient, which means you can leave work right at 5 pm to make it to your child’s baseball game or get in that evening workout you’ve been skipping.

6. Being Late Wastes Money: Ever miss a flight or a show because you were running late? Ever have to pay extra for parking because your meeting ran over? Does your child’s daycare charge you by the minute when you don’t pick up your kid on time? Being late can lead to some costly mistakes.

• How to flip it: Always being on time can save you from a wide variety of late fees and penalties, and it can help you catch those precious first-come, first-served deals.

7. Being Late Makes You Scatterbrained: The stress you feel when you’re constantly running late interferes with your ability to make decisions, think and speak clearly, perform with precision, and get things done with a winning attitude.

• How to flip it: By being on time, you’re able to start meetings, projects, and your work day clear-headed and free from the nagging emotional distractions.

Being on time doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but it doesn’t have to. Even those of us who struggle with punctuality will admit that being on time just takes a little planning, and most importantly, admitting to ourselves that being on time matters. Just think about it. When you really care about being somewhere on time, you’re able to make it happen. Right? That’s because the biggest trick for improving your time management isn’t a trick at all. It’s just knowing the importance of punctuality.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just create new habits at the snap of our fingers? Wouldn’t you love to just wake up one morning to discover that your new morning workout, improved time management, or daily reading habit has already become automatic? Unfortunately, as we all know, adopting new habits just isn’t that easy. It takes commitment, hard work, planning, and consistency. That is why it’s so easy to go back to your old ways. But there are proven methods you can use to form good habits that stick.

Try these 10 tricks to build new habits that will last:  

1. Start Small: Instead of telling yourself you will never eat another carb, create a small, achievable goal like skipping the rolls at dinnertime. By creating a goal that’s almost ridiculously easy to achieve, you can set a precedent of success. Think of will power and discipline as muscles you’re trying to strengthen. By practicing with easy changes, you’re building the strength you will need to make even bigger changes in the future.

2. Take it in Bites: Let’s say you want to create a habit of reading for one hour every day. Instead of reading for a whole hour on day one, start with just fifteen minutes. Do that every day until you begin to feel that you’ve made room in your routine for the new behavior, then add a few more minutes each time. You’re much more likely to succeed if you build up to your ultimate goal rather than trying to tackle it all at once.

3. Take Your New Habit for a Spin: Many times, we don’t even try to change our habits because we don’t trust ourselves to stick with them for the long run. Take the pressure off by telling yourself that you only have to commit for 30 days. A 30-day test run is a much easier commitment than forever. Promise to adopt the new behavior every day for just one month, and withhold judgement about whether you’ll continue until those 30 days are up. What may surprise you is that after doing the same thing for an entire month, it suddenly doesn’t seem so hard to stick with anymore.

4. Recover Quickly from Slip Ups: People like to think of habits like links in a chain. If they break a link, they feel the entire chain is ruined. But, research has proven that small slip ups have little impact on people’s abilities to stick with a habit. What really makes a difference is how quickly you recover. So don’t panic when you make a mistake, and don’t punish yourself. Just get back on track as soon as you can and move on.

5. Link Your Behaviors: Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to form good habits that last is by attaching it to another behavior you do automatically. For instance, if you’d like to become more proactive about daily planning, tell yourself that every day, while you’re having your morning cup of coffee, you’ll write a to-do list for the day ahead. Because you never miss that first cup of the day, you’ve now given your brain a cue: a reminder that connects morning coffee to planning your day.

6. Use the Buddy System: Being accountable to another person is one of the best and proven methods for keeping yourself on track. If you’re always forgetting to follow up on emails and phone calls, enlist a friend who has the same bad habit, and agree to check in with each other about any pending communications. Knowing your friend will be asking you about what needs to be done will put automatic pressure on you to keep better track of outstanding issues.

7. Remind Yourself: It’s easy for new behaviors to slip our minds, especially when things get stressful. To keep your new habit top of mind, leave yourself sticky notes around your home and office, and send yourself reminders through your mobile phone.

8. Eliminate Unnecessary Decisions: Forming a good habit requires as much brain-power as it does willpower. To lighten the load, reduce the amount of mental energy you expend on things that are less important, at least temporarily. For instance, if your goal is to start getting up a half hour earlier each morning, focus just on that. Eliminate decisions like which route to take to work in order to beat traffic. Instead, just pick one route that makes sense, and stick with it. Instead of spending time deciding how you’ll do your makeup each day, decide on a weekday makeup routine and save the flair for the weekends.

9. Be Patient: Creating new habits is a marathon, not a sprint. New habits take a long time to form, and it takes even longer before you can trust that habit to stick. Patience may be the most important new habit you’ll have to adopt.

10. Identify Your Why: It may seem obvious but if you want to be sure your new habit sticks, you’re going to have to be clear on why you want to adopt that habit to begin with. Without a strong “why” it’s quite possible you could adopt a new habit, only to abandon it a few weeks or months later. If you want to keep up the behavior, you’ll have to continue reminding yourself why it’s important. Why haven’t you ever stopped brushing your teeth? Because you know that if you don’t, your breath will smell terrible, your teeth will start to decay, and you’ll get stuck going to the dentist, which you hate.

Starting a new habit is pretty easy, but sticking to one is something almost everyone struggles with. Still, with a little organization, a strong sense of purpose, and by using the tricks above, you can give yourself the best possible chances of success. The most important thing to remember is to be patient, because after all, changing ourselves for the better is the most challenging new habit of all!

You’ve never dreamt of owning your own business, but that doesn’t mean you don’t fantasize about getting ahead and earning that big corner office. There’s a reason those impassioned entrepreneurs seem to be so good at turning their big dreams into realities: they have an entrepreneurial mindset. They’re confident and driven, and they thrive on the challenges that sometimes keep others from even trying. Embracing and maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset can help you do your job better, allowing you to reach your goals faster, whatever they may be. So, no matter where your career is today, think like someone who rules the world, and someday, you just might.

Here are 10 ways you can think like an entrepreneur to succeed at work:

1. Take Action: Entrepreneurs don’t just talk about the things they want; they go after them. Instead of waiting for fortune to turn your way, find ways to influence what you can in order to encourage the results you want. Being a go getter can help you rise through the ranks faster, and it proves that you’re someone who can be trusted to get a job done.

2. Be Resourceful: Don’t let a limited budget stand in your way. Entrepreneurs find ways to make due and produce incredible results with what they have, and they’re clever about negotiating favors and freebees. Developing skills like these are crucial no matter the job, and finding ways to save the boss money is a great way to earn positive attention from those with the power to help you get ahead.

3. Recognize Opportunities: When entrepreneurs see an opening, they pounce on it. This way of thinking will help you choose the projects that can catapult your career by teaming you up with the right influencers or by demonstrating your ability to take the lead. Paying attention to the opportunities around you could also help you identify the perfect moment to ask for a promotion or a raise.

4. Be Fearless: Don’t let potential obstacles or rejection stop you, and don’t let a “no” scare you off. Entrepreneurs take risks and put themselves out there, which gives them an edge when it comes to sales, pitching ideas, and asking for better tools or more resources. Learning to stand your ground at the negotiating table is a skill that is critical to almost any business transaction.

5. Get Comfortable with Change: Fear of change is something that plagues many professionals, and it can prevent them from taking on new responsibilities, trying for a promotion, or applying for a new job. But don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. Instead, think like an entrepreneur, and decide to thrive on change. Accept being out of your comfort zone as a natural part of growth. Being at ease with uncertainty will empower you to say yes when others say no, helping you find the shortest possible route to success.

6. Love a Challenge: Entrepreneurs think adversity is exciting. Instead of choosing the easy road, point at the highest peak in sight and say, “l’ll conquer that one!” Priding yourself on winning in the face of extreme obstacles can be a major advantage whether you’re an intern, a new business owner, or a department head.

7. Know How to Delegate: Stay focused on the important things, and don’t be afraid to relinquish control to allow others to help lighten your load. Entrepreneurs learn that they must share responsibility and accept help when it’s available.  Embracing collaboration can assist you in meeting deadlines and preventing burnout to keep you at the top of your game.

8. Be a Lifelong Learner: Entrepreneurs constantly strive to be better, smarter, and more efficient. Learn to maintain a student mentality, and your hunger for information will help you shine at work by keeping you up-to-date on industry knowledge, critical technical skills, and relevant news you can apply to help your employer outwit the competition.

9. Think Big: Entrepreneurs set challenging goals and are constantly striving to improve themselves. Even if you never hope to run your own company, aiming high is a great way to discover how much you can achieve. Thinking about the future can be an excellent way to stay motivated. Push yourself to think about where you might like your career to be in a year, five years, and beyond, and you just might surprise yourself.

10.   Trust Your Instincts: Don’t spend a lot of time doubting yourself. Leading entrepreneurs know that negative thinking gets them nowhere. Trust your decisions, and be confident you will figure it out along the way. A great, entrepreneurial attitude will be your secret weapon against self-doubt, and it will help to remind you that you deserve the opportunity to succeed even when others casts doubts on your potential.

Thinking like an entrepreneur keeps you focused on your goals no matter where you are in your career path. It lends purpose to all the hard work you do, allowing you to set aside fear and ego to get the job done. It can help you remember that it will all pay off in the end. Adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, and the only person who will determine how successful you can be is you.

Distractions are everywhere! Sometimes it’s hard to believe anyone can get anything accomplished when friends can reach us at any time on our mobile phones, social media notifications nag us to check in, and a 24-hour news cycle means there’s always something new and interesting just one Google search away. But focus, like exercise, eating right, and flossing, is just another habit. It’s a behavior we need to constantly practice and hone, and it IS something we can train our busy brains to do better.

Here are eight essential tips to help you be more productive:

1. Minimize Multi-Tasking: It’s a buzzword mentioned in almost every job interview, but multi-tasking isn’t necessarily a good thing. Studies have shown that people who try to juggle more than one task at a time don’t perform as well as those who focus on the task at hand. Instead, allot specific amounts of time to each project according to its importance, and give your full attention to each task during its assigned time slot.

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2. Do the Complicated Work First: It might seem easier to get the simple tasks out of the way, but people tend to be most energized and focused in the morning, so use those most productive hours to tackle the projects that will require the greatest amount of concentration.

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3. Exercise Regularly: Your brain is a muscle, and what’s good for your body is good for your brain as well. Besides getting the blood flowing, exercise helps reduce stress, which can be a huge distraction when you’re trying to get things done.

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4. Prioritize: Not everything is equally important. Make to-do lists, with the most critical tasks at the top. Making lists not only helps you build momentum as you check off key projects, it also helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

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5. Take Breaks: Think you don’t have time for a break? Think again. Believe it or not, studies have shown that taking short, planned breaks actually improves concentration and focus at work. Taking breaks also helps avoid distractions brought on by boredom and combat our brains’ natural tendencies to worry about the things and people around us. This instinct was super helpful when we were cavemen in the wilderness – not so useful when we’re trying to meet a deadline at work.

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6. Practice Good Concentration Hygiene: Until you have trained your brain to withstand all of life’s most tempting distractions, set yourself up for success by eliminating the distractions ahead of time. Hide your phone in a drawer, turn off the radio or TV, and move to a quiet place where you can commit to the task before you.

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7. Stop Being a Perfectionist: There are few things more distracting than worrying about failure before you’ve even started. Commit to getting the work done, and avoid the natural instinct to overthink what you’re producing. You can revise your project as many times as you like, but you’re not likely to produce much of anything if you’re too busy telling yourself that everything you do is mediocre.

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8. Have a Plan: Before heading into the office on Monday morning, carve out a little time over the weekend to create a roadmap for the week ahead. Taking a few extra minutes to plan out your days in advance can help you be more productive throughout the week and save you the stress of sitting down and not knowing where to begin.

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Staying focused at work is something almost everyone struggles with. It’s not an easy thing when everything in our lives seems to be designed to grab our attention. But focus is something you can learn to do better. Start with the tricks above and take it slow. Even if you can only concentrate for five or ten minutes at a time in the beginning, just continue to work at it, and in no time at all, your brain will start to build the defenses it needs to banish distractions for good.

We all want to get ahead, and figuring out what’s keeping your goals out of reach can be tricky. It takes asking a lot of important questions and making sure all the pieces are in place to ensure your success. You’ll want to be sure you’re getting the right training, connecting with the best possible mentors, and working for a company that positions you for growth. But, don’t forget to take a good hard look where it matters most: yourself. Your attitude and the way you approach life, your job, and the people around you can be the critical factor that decides your fate. Luckily, your workplace attitude is the one piece of the puzzle entirely within your control. All it takes is accepting responsibility for the role your attitude plays, along with a willingness to change.

Here are 10 easy ways to change your attitude for the better:

1. Stop Complaining: Everyone complains from time to time, but a nonstop stream of complaints gives the impression of someone who’s constantly dissatisfied. While it’s normal to be occasionally frustrated when things don’t go your way, nonstop complaining shows an unwillingness to take action on your own behalf. If you’re miserable in your job or hate where you live, ask yourself what you can do to change your circumstances.

2. Banish Excuses: If you have the bad habit of justifying your own behavior, you’re missing a lot of opportunities for growth. Only by being accountable for your own mistakes can you hope to learn from them. Taking ownership is necessary to improve your performance in the future.

3. Assume the Best: Instead of adopting a can’t do workplace attitude, be optimistic and focus on what you can do. If you assume things will not go your way, why would you try at all? Your negative assumptions could be keeping you from taking risks and trying new courses of action, which could produce exciting and unexpected results.

4. Stop Sweating Everything: When everything bothers you, and you’re almost always angry and  stressed out about something, all that tension drains energy you need to be great at your job. Getting caught up in your emotions also prevents you from being able to objectively look at situations to try to understand why problems occurred so they can be avoided in the future.

5. Own It: If you spend a lot of time explaining why things are not your problem, you’re also missing the opportunity to take credit when things improve. Passing the buck may protect you in the short term, but it cheats you out of chances to grow and take on positions of greater responsibility.

6. Learn to Compromise: It may seem like you’re standing behind your beliefs, but people who never compromise can make collaborating with others a miserable or even impossible process. What you call your independence or strong mindedness could be preventing you from making valuable contributions to team projects, or you might be derailing the team’s efforts altogether. Instead of drawing a line in the sand, strongly state your concerns, but listen to other ideas as well. The best course of action is often somewhere in the middle.

7. Embrace Questions: When people question you, it can feel like they’re doubting you. The reality may be that they are just seeking clarity or shedding light on a detail you overlooked. Questions from others can help you provide critical support for your own ideas, which could bolster your argument and give your proposals a better chance of being approved. Instead of bristling, welcome questions with open arms.

8. Stop Jumping to Conclusions: You call yourself decisive, but others would call you impulsive. While overthinking every situation could slow you down, not thinking at all before you speak or act can mean overlooking the potential consequences. Try to tame your kneejerk reactions, by taking just a few moments to cool down and think about how your response might be perceived by others.

9. It’s Okay to Be Wrong: You associate making mistakes with weakness, but nobody can be right all the time. Refusing to admit that you might have made an error or might not fully understand something, doesn’t make you look smarter; it often does the opposite. People who don’t acknowledge their errors appear not to know they have made them.

10. Celebrate the Achievements of Others: When others around you succeed, it can feel like it’s hurting your own chances for success. The praise others receive sometimes makes you feel invisible. But you might be overlooking how your colleagues’ successes contribute to your team’s overall growth. Instead of resenting their achievements, appreciate the way their stellar performance inspires you to up your game.

It’s never fun to admit that you might be the source of your own problems, but taking responsibility for your own workplace attitude is an essential step to overcoming those hurdles. Don’t beat yourself up. Instead, take an honest look at yourself and your interactions with others, and make a list of areas you’d like to improve. Write down tangible actions you can take to avoid being viewed as having a bad attitude at work in the future. You may even want to ask your coworkers how they perceive you. While their impressions may be hard to hear, their outside perspective is likely to offer insight into behaviors you weren’t even aware of. Understanding the problem is the first step toward being able to fix it.

Building great teams starts with great leadership. As a manager, your job is about more than just delivering results. Your team members depend on you to help them keep their eyes on the prize. They look to you for support, encouragement, and most of all, for the motivation to deliver more than what is expected of them. Your passion for the work will inspire theirs, and by helping your team stay energized, positive, and driven toward your shared goals, you can position yourself and your team members for unprecedented success.

Here are 10 easy ways to motivate your team:

1.  Listen Up: It’s easy to make assumptions about what employees want and who they are, but to truly motivate your employees, you’ll have to start listening. Spend one-on-one time with each team member to learn more about their goals, dreams, and challenges. Take a pause before responding with your own ideas to ensure you’ve fully absorbed what they’ve told you.

2.  Ask Questions: Ask team members questions to help figure out what motivates them and what is holding them back. Instead of telling them why they should care, help them discover for themselves what drives them.

3.  Create a Positive Work Environment: It’s simple. Happy employees are motivated employees, and unhappy employees find it challenging to stay engaged. Examine the culture at your office, and ask yourself if you were a team member, would you feel supported and excited to come to work? If the answer is no, start brainstorming ways you might be able to change things. If you get stuck, enlist the help of your employees. The simple act of including them in the process may motivate employees to work even harder.

4.   Take a Personalized Approach: One size does not fit all when it comes to motivation. Relate to your employees on an individual level and adjust your leadership approaches according to what works best for each of them.

5.   Set High Expectations: It’s hard to feel motivated when your supervisor does not seem to believe in you and expects you to fail. Instead of focusing on what the employee is doing wrong, reassure your team member that you know he or she can blow it out of the water.

6.   Earn their Trust: Employees need to believe you when you say you have their interests at heart. Managers who expect employees to work hard just because it makes them look good, quickly foster resentment that can infect and demotivate the whole team. Make it clear that you want them to succeed, not for your benefit, but for theirs.

7.   Offer to Help: Setting clear expectations is great, but employees also like to know that their managers have their backs. Let employees know you’re there to support them in any way they need.

8.   Focus on Growth: Studies have shown that money alone, is not an effective incentive to drive performance. While it may seem counterintuitive, employees are far more motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. To get your employees charged up, talk about their hopes and dreams for the future, recognize their improvements, and rally around your purpose as an organization.

9.   Check in Often: Motivation is not something you can set and forget. Let employees know you’re paying attention. Acknowledge progress, praise accomplishments, and help team members look for potential solutions to their challenges.

10.   Be a Good Example: Wanting your team to perform is a no brainer, but are you leading by example? You can’t expect your employees to feel motivated if you’re not fully invested too. Give employees something to aspire to by maintaining a positive attitude and by constantly looking for ways to go above and beyond.

Remember that high-performing, motivated teams start with great leaders. Most employees want to do well. They just need good managers who can help them keep their eye on the things that matter. Following these simple steps can help fuel your team members’ drive to succeed.

Working in sales can feel like the career equivalent of boot camp. It puts your mental toughness and endurance to the test, but if you’re brave enough to give it your all, working in sales can transform you from a career weakling to a business powerhouse. Whether you're interested in a sales career or not, taking a job in the sales industry build critical skills that are necessary for success whether you’re a recent graduate, trying for a big promotion, a small business owner, or a top executive.

Here are 10 reasons why working in sales helps build success:

1. Knocking on Doors…Literally and Figuratively

The scariest part of a job in sales is approaching people you don’t know and asking something of them. What if they slam the door in your face? What if they get mad? What if everyone you talk to says no? But succeeding in business is all about hearing no. You have to learn to deal with rejection if you ever hope to succeed in the real world. Working in sales is the perfect training ground for building that thick skin you need to apply for a job, ask for a promotion, close the deal, or solicit new clients.

2. Becoming a Master of Improvisation

Working in sales teaches you to think on your feet. You never know exactly what the customer might throw at you, and you have to learn how to listen and adapt to their objections and concerns on the fly. Entry level sales experience teaches you to be nimble minded and improves your public speaking skills, so you can help pitch a new idea to a team, respond to a real-time public relations crisis, or scramble for options when project funding falls through.

3. Relating to Others

In order to make the sale, you have to learn how to build rapport and find common ground with people you’ve never met before. The ability to understand where others are coming from and relate to them on their level is handy in almost any work scenario. Customers prefer to do business with people they like and they tend to trust people they relate to. This skill can help you in your job search too as you meet prospective employers and try to impress hiring managers.

4. Asking the Right Questions

Great salesmen know how to find peoples’ hot button issues. Not everyone will tell you what their objection is; sometimes you have to probe a bit and do some investigating to find what’s really holding them back. Being a good detective and understanding how to do research are sales skills that are critical to overcoming roadblocks and achieving success in business.

5. Highlighting Benefits

Whether you’re selling something door to door or selling yourself on a blind date, the fact remains the same, people want products, companies, and people who will make their lives better in some way. Learning how to appeal to people’s needs and wants is a powerful tool that can help any time you need to make a case for something, whether it’s donating to a great cause, investing in your feature film, or offering you the salary of your dreams.

6. Sounding Like an Expert

The best sales people understand that people want to buy from someone who knows what they’re talking about. But as important as it is to thoroughly know your product; it isn’t really what you say that matters, but how you say it. Being confident and sounding like you know what you’re talking about is the secret to building trust and gaining consensus. Work experience in sales is the perfect way to practice sounding like an expert, even when you’re not.

7. Talking Numbers

Negotiating makes a lot of people uncomfortable. We feel like we’re being impolite when we ask people to pay for something, especially when the price is higher than they’d prefer to pay. Working in sales forces you to face that fear, and learning to stand your ground at the negotiating table can help you finally get that big pay bump, large investment, or executive title you’ve wanted.

8. Capturing and Keeping Attention

To be a good sales representative, you have to know how to turn it on when you enter a room. Entertaining your audience and telling a good story is one of the most effective ways to build rapport and get the customer on board with your message. Learning how to engage others can be invaluable for public speaking, networking, or pitching ideas.

9. Earning Trust

People are naturally suspicious of strangers, and they’re especially suspicious of salespeople. That’s what makes earning a customer’s trust such an impressive feat. It’s also a powerful tool. People buy from people they trust. Learning how to convince others to put their faith in you has limitless benefits in business and in life.

10. Setting and Achieving Goals

The life of a sales person is all about setting targets and hitting them. You learn how to dig deep, stay self-motivated, and set challenging, yet achievable goals because achieving them can often mean the difference between having a great week and struggling to pay your rent. And strategizing how to meet them is key to succeeding at almost anything.

Sure, working in sales can be tough, but as anyone who has tried their hand as a sales rep will tell you, it’s also worth it. Sales experience hones indispensable career skills that can help you get ahead and overcome challenges for years to come.