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Not many people love it, and almost no one just likes it. Waking up early to catch the worm on a regular basis is not the easiest thing in the world. However, there are countless benefits to waking up earlier than scheduled, having a healthy morning routine can all be the first step to reaching success. Get started today with these morning routine tips:
The Obvious: Breakfast
Touted as the most important meal of the day, breakfast can have a big impact on how the rest of your day goes. Starting off the day with a healthy and balanced meal can guarantee you have enough energy for anything you are up for. Fruits, whole grains, and eggs are all nutrient rich foods that will keep you full and focused. Try and stay away from anything with too many carbohydrates; foods like bagels or donuts have a tendency to slow people down after the initial sugar high ends.
Meditate
When was the last time you had a few minutes to yourself? Our lives have never been busier, so it’s important to take a step back and let yourself focus on where you are in your life. Even fifteen minutes of guided meditation (Cydcor recommends the app Headspace) can make a world of difference. Being able to find moments of tranquility and relaxation during a hectic schedule will help you find success.
Staying Informed
No matter what your source of news is, take a few minutes each morning to catch up with the world. What is everyone talking and caring about? This not only helps to keep you informed, but also allows you to learn things that can be helpful for the rest of the day. Maybe it’s bringing up a new social app at lunch for coworkers, or learning some new tips on making the most of the workday. Being able to be caught up in the world as its benefits, and they show well at work.
Exercise
To stay cool and relaxed under pressure is something that all successful people need to be able to do. One way to improve this is to exercise in the morning. Try going for an early morning jog or doing a few push-ups before breakfast—anything to get your heart beating a little faster. The physicality of the activity will get your energy up for the day, clearing your mind and allowing you to focus on the most important things. Did you know that Apple CEO Tim Cook hits the gym every morning at 5 a.m.?
Have any other tips to starting success in the morning? Share them in the comments!
About The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy
The 24-Hour Customer argues that corporations need to pay more attention and strategize around the customer’s time and attention in the world today. Customers live in a world where time is tough to come by. Author Adrian Ott explores why customers can devour hours to social networks, but still feel they have no time to get things done. The book is filled with many case studies, including lessons from Amazon, and gives great tips on making the most of the time a company can hold a customer’s attention.
Why Cydcor recommends this to Future Leaders:
As the world continues to evolve, so does our time to do things that we love. Consumers are thrown brand new information on an hourly basis, and don’t have the patience to wait on anything that’s slowing them down. Ott offers a great amount of insights and recommendations to make an impact on consumers in our world today.
Our favorite part:
Adrian Ott has written an amazing guide that is efficient and cuts right to the chase of why time matters. She is one of the most sough-after strategists in Silicon Valley, and this book validates that prestigious standing. The book includes in-depth research and detailed findings that demonstrate how time has increasingly become valuable to consumers and has had a large effect on why consumers make the decisions they do. Our favorite part has got to be the great case studies, the standouts being Netflix and FreshDirect.
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Here is Cydcor's Review of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard:
About Switch:
Switch is a story-driven narrative of why making changes to our everyday lives is difficult, but worth the trouble. This can be applied to companies, communities, and our own personal lives. Switch demonstrates that a successful change can be completed, and the steps you take to make that change can be applied to any other change you’d like to make as well. All it takes is creating a game plan that aligns well with changes that can result in the success we’ve always wanted to achieve.
Why Cydcor recommends this to future leaders:
The business world is tough, especially these days. Although it may be difficult, a few small changes can make a world of difference. The authors do a great job of explaining why change is important, and that it’s achievable. The motivation to want to change comes from one half of our mind; the other half wants to stay the same. By having a balance, any positive change can be achieved. It’s up to leaders today to realize this, and make these kinds of changes a reality.
Our favorite part:
Switch uses great examples of every day people that mastered balancing the two minds – and achieved excellent results. One of these stories regards a manager who took his customer-support team to the next level. Without spoiling anything, the manager removed a tool that most customer service teams use regularly. This resulted in a positive change for the company, creating the customer support team that customers have always wanted. By providing these examples, the authors showcase that anything is possible, if we’re willing to make the changes necessary for success.
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“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” – Douglas Adams, author
When you look to offer a service or product for consumption or use, you want to offer your clientele something that you believe in, and that has been created with authenticity. A well-treated customer who has been approached with care and earnestness is a customer who feels appreciated—and it is these customers that are much more likely to purchase a product from someone they feel has their best interests in mind.
Know your product and service inside and out. Understand what goes into it, how it’s crafted or how it will be executed so that you can explain easily and without stress how your product is worthier than the competition’s product. It’s imperative you believe in what you are looking to sell. Showing a competent knowledge will not only make it easier to describe and illustrate how it can benefit your potential customer, but it will also allow the customer to feel that you are confidence in what you are offering.
A huge portion of job satisfaction comes from how we feel about ourselves at the end of the day. This can be attributed to how we treat our customers, and whether we are authentic in ourselves and our services. Being authentic to one’s self drives the beliefs necessary to make a huge difference in our lives, and the lives of customers.
As Bruce Barton, an American author once said, “The essential element in personal magnetism is a consuming sincerity - an overwhelming faith in the importance of the work one has to do.”
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Cydcor is excited to announce our continued relationship with Operation Smile. Operation Smile and Cydcor plan to fund two additional medical missions, providing free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children in need around the globe.
Cydcor’s relationship with Operation Smile began in 2010, and together we have helped heal nearly 2,100 smiles through fundraisers, donations, and our Week of Smiles fundraiser, to help fund charity medical missions to Guatemala, Mexico and Brazil. Through the dedication and compassion of teams across the nation, Cydcor has raised more than $500,000 to heal the smiles of children in need and help fund missions globally. We simply can’t do it without the support and dedication of our Cydcor employees and the many independently owned sales offices across the U.S.
"We are so proud to have funded three medical missions for Operation Smile, and we are on our way to funding a fourth and fifth," said Cydcor Chief Operating Officer Vera Quinn. "We are honored to be able to support Operation Smile in such a way that we can help make such a difference for so many families around the globe."
At Cydcor’s annual Keys to Success 2015 in Dallas, Texas Operation Smile founders Dr. William P. Magee, Jr., and his wife Kathleen S. Magee were guest speakers where we celebrated the hard working teams across the country. Speaking to an audience of 800, the Magees spoke on the importance of charity and dedication.
To help support Cydcor's fundraising efforts, visit www.operationsmile.org/cydcor. For more information on Operation Smile's global efforts, visit www.operationsmile.org, and follow on Twitter and Facebook.
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About Operation Smile
Operation Smile, headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is an international medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose global network of thousands of credentialed medical volunteers from more than 80 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 220,000 free surgical procedures for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. To build long-term sufficiency in resource poor environments, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their local communities. Operation Smile also donates medical equipment, supplies and provides year-round medical treatment through its worldwide centers.
The following is a review by a Cydcor employee of For Better or For Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg.
About For Better or For Work:
This book is a remarkable guide to navigating the perfect balance of entrepreneurial business building, while still being able to enjoy a happy life at home. Hirshberg continually reminds readers that this is no easy feat, and will require great amounts of effort. Very few people have mastered running a business successfully with a balanced personal life, but the tips found in this book can get any person on the right track. For Better or For Work is a reminder that a balancing both lives is possible, using small successes that can be simple to find.
Why Cydcor recommends this to future leaders:
Entrepreneurship can be a stressful career choice. Late nights, extravagant scheming, and taking chances are all aspects of being a great entrepreneur. This book gives practical advice on building your support system together to maximize motivation and determination. Family and friends can sometimes take a back seat to an entrepreneur when they’re focused. For Better or For Work is a wake up call for any entrepreneur to spend their time more wisely, and be able to have the personal relationships they’re looking for. Any aspiring leader can find beneficial advice in this book.
Our favorite part:
Meeting challenges are difficult for all relationships, personal or professional. Hirshberg outlines useful tips on how to handle things when they get tough, like when a startup fails or a company owner resigns due to a serious illness. There are plenty of books and articles to help an entrepreneur and their company exceed; this book instead focuses on succeeding with interpersonal relationships, while still balancing the hectic life of an entrepreneur.
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Having clear and excellent communication skills is crucial for any business professional. A person must be able to articulate exactly what they mean if they want work to get done correctly. You may think you have a genius idea, but if you can’t articulate it well, it will be difficult for your team to jump aboard. Communicating clearly can make all facets of business a little easier. Here are a few tips to regularly communicate more concisely:
Brainstorm the Idea
Try to avoid expressing an idea to others too soon after inception. Flesh out the idea fully to ensure it makes sense and is understandable for others. By putting in extra effort to think of all the different possibilities, you can avoid presenting an idea that just doesn’t work. Think about it for a bit, and if it still makes sense, move forward!
Write It Out
Write down the idea and read aloud it yourself. This will create a visual and auditory representation of what you’re trying to communicate. If it sounds right and makes sense, you’re on the right path. If it doesn’t, you may have to go back to the drawing board.
Feedback
Need a little assurance before communicating to your team? Present the idea to someone you trust, such as a co-worker or friend. They can give you another layer of feedback, and bring whatever you’re trying to say to the next level.
Simplify the Message
It’s not a good idea to start rambling when it comes to communicating. If it’s too confusing, many people may tune out and miss out on what you’re trying to get across. Simplifying the message can ensure that people get the most important pieces of information first. After you’ve formed a simplified message and can finally introduce it to others, be sure to….
…Ask if People Need Clarification
There have been countless times when I’ve assumed I understood a request, only to find out later that I didn’t fully comprehend what I needed to do. Be sure to ask if what you’ve just described is clear to everybody. It can add another layer of understand for some, as well as fill in someone who may not have been listening as attentively as they should have been. It also guarantees that what you’ve said is made crystal clear.
Communicating more clearly is something that all business-oriented individuals struggle with. It doesn’t have to be impossible. Just keep in mind that clear communicators make sure their ideas are fleshed out and will make sense to as many people as possible—the first time they explain it.
Cydcor recently wrote on Life Hacks for Left-Brain Thinkers, but what about those of us who identify as “right-brain” thinkers? People who excel in creative arts, love to experiment and tinker and learn better when things are explained visually are considered “right-brain” dominant. However, along with these positive attributes, right brain dominant individual are often thought to be easily distracted and unorganized.
Being a visual-spatial learner means your brain learns best through visual clues and observation. Long, complicated mathematical problems or block-text can often cause right-brained individuals to tune out.
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Right-brain dominant people often like to work in groups, but it’s also good to give your left brain some exercise as well. To do so, encourage yourself to work alone whenever possible. While team tasks can be great creative opportunities, it’s also important to learn how to be able to tap into your left-brain by giving yourself some quiet space to focus on the task at hand.
Visual-spatial learners don’t do well under pressure. Give yourself as much time as possible to finish a project, and avoid procrastination by scheduling this time and ensuring ample opportunity to get things done without time pressure setting in.
Encourage yourself to draw webs and links while taking down notes, rather than writing things in a more linear fashion. Draw pictures if it helps illustrate a point—even something as a simple doodle can reinforce the information.
Managers can assist right-brain thinker by showing the whole picture for facts that need to be memorized, versus just handing out a document for them to read and memorize. Visual supports such as pictures and maps help with ideas and facts. In addition to providing information verbally, use colors, charts and other visual aids to help them commit information you need to know by memory.
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The following is a review by a Cydcor employee of Taking People With You by David Novak:
About Taking People With You:
How to build an inspired and productive team of people is what this book is all about. David Novak, CEO of Yum! Brands learned long ago that you couldn’t lead a great organization of any size without getting people enthusiastic and focused on the mission and success of the company they work for. Novak has proved himself a capable CEO and leader, and he’s also willing to share that information and knowledge with others. He knows that doing this does not create more competition, but rather spreads prosperity and abundance to more people.
Novak has developed a trademarked program, which centers on setting big goals, getting those around you to work together, exceeding your goals, and celebrating the big and small victories. Novak teaches this program around the world, and now he offers it in this book, Taking People With You.
Why Cydcor recommends this to future leaders:
This book is specifically written to speak directly to CEOs, managers, supervisors, and all those in a position of influence over others. Novak speaks to a leader's prime qualities, their personal nature, and their means of connecting with others—for the human connection is a crucial element of finding success. Management books normally call for business analysis; Novak asks you to conduct a critical self-analysis.
Our favorite part:
The instructional structure of this book outlines setting goals, getting to know yourself, planning and following through. Novak is a great writer in his no-nonsense approach to telling you how to be a thoughtful leader. From Mr. Novak's teachings, great and useful information can be extracted, whether you are a one-person show, a medium-sized firm, or a major international conglomerate.
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Those who identify as “left-brain” thinkers tend to be more on the analytic and logical side of the spectrum of thought. Law, finance, engineering and the sciences are some of the many industries that those analytical types tend to fall into. But in an age of innovation, those more systematic thinkers might need a kick-start for creativity to keep up. While there are distinct verbal and analytic styles of thinking associated with different hemispheres of the brain, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t able to delve into more creative areas.
Unfortunately, a large portion of the population believes left-brain thinkers struggle with creativity or aren’t able to generate new ideas. While one might become set in a pattern, it is still possible to break out of this limited method of thinking.
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Author Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code describes in detail what physically happens to the brain when someone develops a new skill. In order to properly build up your brain to receive and keep new thought processes, knowledge and skills, Coyle calls for a need of what he names deep practice, which is exactly what it sounds like: practice. Learning and performing a new action involves firing an electrical signal through a neural pathway. Every time this happens, it thickens the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibers. The thicker the myelin sheath around the neural pathway, the more easily and effectively we use it.
What are ways we can “hack” our right-side brain and begin to let it out of the box? Some tips to start thinking creatively are simple:
Sign your name in the way you’ve developed, then re-sign it—backwards. Just the mere motion of attempting to break out of what you would normally do fires the right brain hemisphere. Try signing your name in different writing styles. Upside down. In a spiral. In loops. Repeat this until you are able to sign in all different designs and directions.
The right hemisphere aids in your ability to move in an unfamiliar way—such as dance. Just as we must take steps to learn new moves—a yoga position, a straighter posture, or running style—our brains must use a similar process to learn how to think differently.
Begin the art of deep practice by conquering any unaccustomed task, attempting challenges and feeding stray information into your right brain's database. Before you know it, you will see new ideas begin to emerge.
Here is Cydcor's review of 'Power Listening' by Bernard Ferrari!
About Power Listening:
Nothing causes bad decisions in organizations as often as poor listening skills. But Bernard Ferrari, adviser to some of the nation's most influential executives, believes that such missteps can be avoided and that the skills and habits of good listening can be developed and mastered. He offers a step-by-step process that will help readers become active listeners that are able to shape and focus any conversation.
Why Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders:
Ferrari claims that in a business setting, good listening is a critically important (albeit strenuous) activity and that one that must be purposeful, under control, and in possession of total focus and engagement.
The author focuses on how to avoid the common pitfalls in conversation, and explains how to correct them if they occur. To actively and empathetically listen is critical in any important interpersonal situation, social or professional.
Learn more about Cydcor by heading to our profile on Bloomberg Businessweek.
Our favorite part:
One of the best parts of this book, and its greatest value, lies in how skillfully Ferrari poses clusters of questions to accomplish two separate but interdependent and immensely important purposes: To sharpen the inquiry skills of his reader (i.e. how to learn what needs to be known) and to provide a context within which his reader can apply those skills.
For example, Ferrari explains that, whenever possible, he avoids interrupting another person unless it is absolutely necessary. And when he does interrupt, "any interruptions or responses I make as questions. If I disagree with a statement, I'll package my disagreement in a probing question." In advance of discussion of key issues, he formulates a few questions that he may need "to guide the conversation into areas that will be more useful for me and [conversation partner]."