KaDee Holt, Author at IntelliSource

Five New Year’s Resolutions for Leaders

The year is almost over and the new year is coming fast. New Year’s resolutions can help you to focus on both personal and business goals by setting them and sticking to them. Leaders can also use New Year’s resolutions to set goals for growth. Here are five resolutions we think leaders should set for themselves this new year!

1. Feedback is a gift, make sure you give it!

People often think of feedback negatively, but if you use it as a data point to improve yourself, you can change that association with positivity. Resolve to ask for feedback regularly and provide input when requested. Make sure whoever you’re interacting with is open to feedback as well as yourself when seeking more. You can learn more about yourself and may find things you never thought of to improve yourself for the future.

2. Listening can add insight

Are you truly listening to people when they speak to you? Take the resolution of actively hearing what people are saying and see how your perspective changes over time with new insights from your conversations. Not only will it reveal new ideas, but you can also get buy-in and trust from the people you listen to wholeheartedly.

3. Bring a Spirit of Curiosity to Everything

Coming into situations with curiosity allows you to ask questions and learn through a different lens. By following a resolution of bringing curiosity to everything you do, you can find new ideas and learn more about everything you do. As Albert Einstein once said, ‘The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”.

4. Hone in your Emotional Intelligence Skills

Setting up a resolution for improving your Emotional Intelligence can help take your relationships to the next level. Learning your triggers and the triggers of others you interact with can positively affect your ability to connect with others. Understanding emotional states and other EQ skills can be acquired through practice and discipline and can help you take relationships to the next level.

5. Read More Books!

Reading holds a wealth of knowledge with idea’s you may have never thought possible! Make an effort to read more and learn about subjects like EQ, Leadership or anything that interests you. Taking the time to read also helps you to relax and become enthralled with a topic or story. As Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”.

There are many more resolutions you can make for the new year so make sure to think about what matters most within your world and create decisions for your future. Remember that you have to put in the effort to accomplish these resolutions to fulfill your goals!

People

Holiday Employee Engagement Ideas

Employee engagement is something that can drive a company culture to greatness and help motivate your people to continue to push forward. It’s no different during the holidays, and within your leadership team, you should work to spice up your typical engagement plans for the holidays!

Decorating your offices

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work, so it makes sense to try to make the space as festive and exciting as possible. With the upcoming holidays, it’s the perfect excuse to get the decorations out. Use the time to pour on the creativity with your teams by decorating the office and desks with holiday cheer.

End of Year Recognition Awards

Recognition plays a massive part in how your people feel appreciated within your office, and making sure they know they are valued is simple and effective. Not everyone likes to recognized in the same manner, so get to know your people and what they appreciate. Whether public or private, aligning with the person’s goals will show that you care about them. It could be something as simple as telling them “great job”. Other times it may take something bigger such as a promotion or monetary awards. The point is to be personal with whatever recognition you plan to give.

Personalized Holiday Greetings

Handwritten notes are a rarity in the digital age. It may seem like a small thing to write a custom holiday card, but it can help show your care and interest beyond just work-related recognitions. The larger your team may be, the harder it can be for everyone to know what one another does. Writing a more personalized note will help connect you to your team. Don’t just write the same thing for everyone. Instead, use your knowledge and skills in EQ to find the currency of your employees and deliver it accordingly.

End of Year Summary and New Year Preparation

Your company has had a great year, and it is essential to let your employees know where you finished, what went well and how to improve for the next year. Employees will feel more inspired and integrated into your company if they understand the difference they are making in the company. Talk about how they affected the year positively.

These are just a few things you can do as a leadership team this holiday season to show your employees you care. Whatever you do, remember that authenticity and effort can take your engagement ideas from standard to amazing and personal!

Processes

Five Reasons Outsourcing During Peak Season Works

Peak Season for hiring has arrived, and companies across the nation are scrambling to find enough people to meet their business demands. Outsourcing those hiring needs can help you grow your business by using the expertise of professionals to grow your business and fill your needs within the company. Here are five reasons you should consider outsourcing during Peak Season.

Cost Efficiency

It’s no secret that hiring and retaining employees can be an expensive part of the business. Using outsourcing can save you money while adding an experienced resource. When totaling the costs for employees base salary, you have to include the accessory costs for benefits, 401k, and other expenses like employment taxes. With outsourcing, you can help mitigate these costs per employee, which can save your business a great deal of money.

Grants Ability to Focus on Core Activities

Every business has different focuses that make up the core of their company. Many times the needed functions that help a business run take away resources from developing those core functions to be better. Outsourcing allows your company to focus on building your core functions. Through cost-cutting and time savings brought by outsourcing, you can spend more time looking at the core of your business to improve and expand where needed.

Improved Customer Service Quality and Efficiency

One of the best parts of outsourcing comes from the new quality brought in by specialized outsourcing teams. Having a team that is customer service focused and can add their ideas to your core business model is an invaluable tool to create efficiency within your company. Since time is always a limiting factor, outsourcing customer service based work can improve the quality and growth of your teams through their training and planning.

Expert Knowledge from Market Leaders

According to a study by Deloitte, nearly half of companies experienced challenges with change management (46%), while over 25% reported challenges with job reassignments, retaining process designs and job changes, and process/service management. These challenges can be navigated through partnerships when outsourcing. Using the expert knowledge that companies like IntelliSource bring with their experience and ideas, you can discover the areas of opportunity within your business and create a plan to improve your company. An outside perspective can give you a new look at how your company runs and what needs to change to be efficient.

Business Scalability/Flexibility

Depending on the needs of the business, you may require services to help your company’s expansions in capabilities or functions. Scaling your hiring to your needs can be difficult without experience. Using outsourcing, you can effectively work with a partner to source, vet, and hire large or small amounts of people based on your needs. Beyond just hiring solutions, the ability to outsource functions or departments also allows for flexibility within your business to make sure you continue to grow.

These five reasons for outsourcing can help bring your company to new heights, but there are several other solutions that outsourcing can offer.

For more information about how outsourcing can help your company, contact IntelliSource today and lets work together to grow your business.

Author: <span>KaDee Holt</span>