Weekly Motivating Employees to be More Productive

If you manage a team, you know hard it can be to keep everyone engaged, happy, and productive.

Some days, simply getting your employees to show up and get the job done feels challenging enough. But as a manager, you have a unique opportunity to help your team members learn and practice life skills that will help them become happier, healthier, and more productive, both at work and at home. They'll love you for pushing them in new directions, and you'll love seeing the increased collaboration and energy in the workplace.

One way to engage your team is to issue a new challenge each week that's fun and simple to do — and if adopted as a habit, can become a powerful new life skill.

Here are 3 months' worth of weekly challenge ideas. Announce a new challenge every Monday and check in with everyone during the week. A weekly team meeting is a great time to ask each team member to report on their progress, experience, and learnings.

Week 1: Tiny Steps

Procrastination is a huge time waster, but overcoming the inertia can be as easy as taking one tiny step. After that the Zeigarnik effect kicks in — the voice in your head that prompts you to finish what you start. For this challenge, organize your team into pairs. Ask each person to choose one task they've been avoiding at home or work and break that task into 5 tiny steps. Starting Monday, each person's goal is to complete one of the 5 steps each day and report back to their accountability partner by an agreed-upon time. For some people, finishing one step may generate the momentum to complete all 5 steps on the first day, and that's great!

Week 2: Mindful Meetings

When everyone is present and tuned into the discussion, meetings are more fun, productive, and efficient. For this week, challenge your team to commit to being mindful during meetings. This means taking a couple of deep breaths before the meeting, setting an intention for what they will each contribute and take away from the meeting, and staying engaged for the duration of the meeting by taking notes, listening actively, and speaking up thoughtfully.

Week 3: Authentic Smiling

A genuine smile conveys warmth, trustworthiness, and interest. It's the number-one way to boost likeability. To smile authentically, you have to engage the muscles around your eyes, not just those around your mouth. Practicing this in the mirror first may seem silly, but it does help! Challenge your team this week to smile at everyone they pass in the building or, for extra credit, everyone they come in contact with inside and outside of work.

Week 4: Hunger Awareness

Overeating during the workday can leave you feeling sluggish and unproductive. Tuning into your hunger will help you slow down, enjoy your food, and feel satisfied with less, so you finish your meal feeling light and energetic. This week, challenge your team to stop and note their physical hunger level on a scale of 1 (famished) to 10 (stuffed) before, during, and after eating each meal. By the end of the week, their goal should be to start eating when their hunger level is at a 3 and stop when it's at a 7.

Week 5: Walking Breaks

Walking breaks ease mental tension, free your mind for creative thinking, and help to counteract the physical stress caused by long bouts of sitting. The challenge this week is to integrate 10-minute walking breaks into the work day. Have your team schedule their walking breaks into the calendar the day before to ensure they don't forget them. You can set a good example by converting any 1:1 meetings you have this week to walking meetings, whether you walk outside or just around the building.

Week 6: Tech-Free Hour

Disconnecting from technology, even just for an hour a day, can help you reconnect with the people in your life and experience the world more fully. Challenge your team this week to pick one hour every day when they would normally be connected and completely unplug — no phone, tablet, or Internet access of any kind! It could be during the work day, first thing in the morning, or right before bed. Encourage them to use the tech-free time to do something no-tech like writing with pen and paper, reading a book, sketching, or having a face-to-face conversation.

Week 7: Must-Do List

Taking a few minutes at the end of each day to set your top priorities for the next day is a powerful time management and productivity technique. This week, challenge your team to set aside time at the end of every day to write down the 3 most important tasks they will tackle the next day. For extra credit, ask each person to post their 3 tasks in a shared document. This will add both transparency and accountability, and you might be surprised by the discussion and collaboration it creates.

Week 8: Small Talk

Small talk at the office may seem like a waste of time, but it's actually one of the most effective ways to build rapport with other people, and that leads to open communication, collaboration, and creative problem solving. This week, challenge your team to practice making authentic small talk with someone they barely know, whether it's a customer, client, coworker, or even their barista. To establish genuine rapport, you need to go beyond "Crazy weather we're having!" and generate conversation by offering up an opinion or story: "What did you do over the weekend? Even though it was crazy cold, my kids wanted to go out for ice cream, so we did!"

Week 9: Posture Check

Chronic sitting triggers back pain and neck tension, contributes to stress, and saps energy and productivity. While a daily stretching regimen can help counteract all that, what affects your posture most is how you hold your body throughout the day. This week, challenge your team to set a reminder on their phones or computers for an hourly posture check. At each reminder, they should adjust their seated position, stand up straight and stretch for 5 minutes, or scooch forward to sit upright on the edge of their chair.

Week 10: Mindfulness Meditation

The idea of stopping to meditate for even 2 minutes during a hectic workday may be hard to contemplate, but the benefits make the sacrifice worthwhile. You'll notice reduced stress, improved creativity, and enhanced focus. This week challenge every person on your team to stop and take 2 minutes during the workday to meditate (this guided track will help). For extra credit and to help reinforce the benefits, encourage them to take note of how they're feeling before and after each session.

Week 11: Eye Contact

Eye contact is one of the best ways to establish trust and rapport with other people, but many of us struggle to make and sustain eye contact, especially with people we don't know well. The challenge this week is for your team to practice making eye contact with everyone they pass in the building or with friendly strangers. They should try to hold the contact for a few seconds before looking away, and for extra credit, add an authentic smile.

Week 12: Pomodoro Technique

Do you often look back after a day at work and struggle to identify what you actually accomplished? We have so many temptations and distractions vying for our attention that it's hard to get anything done. The Pomodoro Technique helps solve that problem: You carve up the work day into 25 minute chunks separated by 5 minutes of indulgence in social media, online shopping, or socializing. Challenge your team this week to work in "pomodoros," using a phone, an app like Freedom, or a kitchen timer to signal the start and end of each break.

Required 4 Store Team Members for Dubai - UAE

A wholesale consumer store of premium quality products requires a Team member at Dubai-UAE.

 

Skills Required:

ü  Min 2-3 Years' experience in Retail sales.

ü  Analytical skills.

ü  English proficiency & computer acknowledgement

ü  Effective communicative skills.

 

 Salary:   AED 2200 (inc. Food Exp.)*

 

 Duties:

Ø  To maintain the stock of all merchandise available for customers.

Ø  POS proficiency to ensure speed of service and accurate transactions that meet company standards.

Ø  To maintain high standards of cleanliness throughout Store.

Ø  To interact positively with customers throughout the store tour and understand their requirements also do the suggestive selling.

Ø  To ensure the department properly merchandised as per company guidelines.

Ø  To assist other team members where necessary.

Ø  All other duties related to Team maintenance.

 

Kindly Send Your CV if you're eligible for post: vacancy@aerizogroup.com

 

http://www.aerizogroup.com/

Required Store Team Leader for Dubai - UAE

A wholesale consumer store of premium quality products requires a Team Leader at Dubai-UAE.

Skills Required:

ü  Min 2-5 Years' experience in Retail & Team Management.

ü  Strong Analytical & Decision making skills.

ü  Leading and problem solving skills.

ü  English proficiency & computer acknowledgement

ü  Effective communicative skills.

 Salary:   AED 3000 (inc. Food Exp.)*

 Duties:

Ø  To Assist the Store Manager in day to day store Operations.

Ø  To supervise the Team on a day to day basis, monitoring performance, conduct and appearance.

Ø  To ensure retail staff's duties in line with guideline given by the Store manager.

Ø  To motivate the team to achieve high standards.

Ø  To Handle Customer enquiries and deliver the world class service.

Ø  Maintain high standards of cleanliness throughout Store.

Ø  To ensure Store merchandise properly as per company guidelines.

Ø  To implement new initiatives.

Ø  To ensure all administrative and IT records entered and updated correctly.

Ø  To assist other team members where necessary.

Ø  All other duties related to Team handling.

Kindly Send Your CV if you're eligible for post: vacancy@aerizogroup.com

 

http://www.aerizogroup.com/

9 Daily Habits That Lead to Success

The most successful people share a striking number of similar habits. Regardless of whether they're the CEO of a technology start-up, or manage a popular local neighbourhood retail outlet, their reoccurring patterns of behaviour often pave the way to ongoing levels of achievement.  Below are the habits that hugely successful people use to maximize productivity, effectiveness and success – by following them, you can also catapult yourself further and faster towards achieving your own personal or professional goals. Read a Lot

Book nerds rule the world. Mark Cuban insists on reading 3 hours a day, while Bill Gates reads for 1 hour as part of his bedtime routine. J.K Rowling, the first ever billionaire author, read 'absolutely anything' as a child. President Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, and Albert Einstein are book lovers, too.

Reading helps you learn from the mistakes and successes of others.  Instead of just diving in; relying on your guts and motivation to lead you, reading gives you a mental map to bypass rookie mistakes people make in life.

Wake Up Early

Notable early risers include Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, Disney CEO Robert Iger and Yahoo's Marissa Mayer.

Waking up early isn't an easy habit to cultivate, though. Experiment with different techniques, but in general, the most effective ones are:

Find a no-mercy alarm clock: Clocky Alarm Clock on Wheels,

Don't hit snooze: Hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep for 5-10 minutes will make you feel worse.

No screen or light at least one hour before bedtime. Light affects your circadian rhythm and melatonin production, the hormone responsible for inducing sleep.

Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning, suggests writing your plans for the next day. The first task listed should get you excited enough to part with your comfy bed.

Get Your Butt off the Couch

Successful people have all the resources they'll ever need to keep themselves fit and healthy. They can afford lipo, Botox and spa retreats. And yet exercise is still a part of their daily habits. Why?

Yes, exercise keeps you fit and all that, but it also keeps your brain healthy, minimizes stress, and improves memory. In fact, using 'too much work' as an excuse not to exercise is counterproductive. Studies show that exercise can boost creativity and productivity by as much as two hours.  It makes you smarter, too.

Train the Muse

 

What separates professionals from wannabes? Pros work, even when they don't feel like it.

E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, famously said, "A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper." That applies to us all, whatever your occupation is.

Next time you don't feel like working, keep calm and use the Force.  And by that, force yourself to work for just 15 minutes then see what happens. Usually, those 15 minutes will be enough to give you some momentum.

If that doesn't work, spend 30 minutes breaking down the task into its basic components, and then do the items one at a time until you finish the whole task.

Quiet Your Monkey Brain

Studies suggest meditation alleviates anxiety, pain and prevent depression.  It can also improve your ability to focus instead of getting overwhelmed with everything that's happening around you.

Unfortunately, quieting the mind doesn't come as naturally to many of us. So for beginners, you can create the habit of meditating by concentrating on your breath for 3-5 minutes, which is the average starting point of new meditators using Lift.

If random thoughts keep popping in your head, give your monkey brain something to chew on by chanting "Om Namah Shivaya"

Minimize Distractions by Batch Checking Emails Twice a Day

Tim Ferris is famous for suggesting this in his book, the 4-Hour Work Week. Reading and answering emails doesn't make you productive. If anything, you're just being responsive.

To minimize distractions, Ferris recommends checking email twice a day: 11 AM and 4PM, or after you've completed at least one critical item in your to-do list, and once more before the end of your workday.

Donate

Successful people allot time to give back to their community by working with charities, volunteering and donating. Tom Corley, author of Wealthy Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, states that 73% of the 233 wealthy people he studied for 5 years volunteer 5+ hours a month. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, all donate to different causes.

Not rich? No problem. Volunteer at your local soup kitchen, help at the nursing home, or teach kids to read. Many times, your time and the pleasure of your company is enough.

Deliberate Practice and Hard Work

Serena Williams wakes up at 6 AM to practice tennis, and she's been doing that since she was a kid.  Even her after-school routine revolved around practicing the sport. Dallas Mavericks owner and famous Shark investor, didn't take a vacation for seven years when his company was just starting up. That's dedication.

You can find shortcuts for everything in life, but you can never sidestep the hard work required to build the foundation of your goals.1

Don't Break the Chain!

Have you ever heard of the calendar method supposedly created by Jerry Seinfeld?

Get a big calendar and a red marker, then mark "X" on each day you work on your goal or habit.

In two weeks, you'll have a long chain showing your progress. It will motivate you to keep going, too.

Why Scatterbrained Are Actually More Intelligent

The clutter continues to accumulate—it has all of your life. You can't find your car keys or your cell phone; you get in the car to go somewhere and you find yourself going in the wrong direction; if you have a workspace, it's a mess; nothing is ever "where it's supposed to be."

 

You "suffer" from what psychologists now call "chronic disorganization." But, what these psychologists also now tell us it that chronically disorganized people have higher intelligence and greater creativity. So, take heart, and the next time someone criticizes you for your disorganization, give them some facts to chew on. And here are 12 of those facts that demonstrate the high level of intellectual functioning of the chronically disorganized.

 

They score high on verbal IQ tests, often in the gifted range.

IQ tests have two parts—verbal and performance. Verbal relates to areas of the brain that promote ideas, "global" thinking, curiosity, and "what if" questioning. The performance part of an IQ test assesses the ability to take factual information and manipulate it correctly—to apply it to situations, to see cause/effect correlations, and to comprehend step-by-step processes. Disorganized people tend to test well in the verbal range, because they can come up with unique solutions—they are not tied to the norms of current knowledge and traditional methods of doing things.

 

They have high creativity levels.

There are actually several normed tests for creativity, the most well-known being the Torrance series. These tests, when given to individuals with chronic disorganization find that there are high scores in areas such as storytelling, unusual visualizations, humor, breaking normal boundaries, thinking "outside the box," and a richness in the images that they create in their minds.

 

They have a broad range of interests.

Disorganized people evidently need to be involved in a variety of activities simultaneously. They have regular jobs, perhaps, but they are always doing other things on the side—they may have a band; they may be taking art classes; they may be designing websites or landscaping; they may be writing a novel.

 

The disorganized person loves the variety of new experiences and challenges. These are people who achieve great joy when they create something different and unique—an original recipe, a unique use for an ordinary object, or a software app that solves a problem.

 

They develop strong attachments to often un-related things and people.

The disorganized person, for reasons psychologists are as yet unable to fully determine, develops these strong attachments, especially to a wide range of objects and people with a large variety of personalities. They see value in diversity, because diversity stimulates their mind activity. So, the disorganized person may have an eclectic group of friends and may even hoard some objects because they see so many possibilities for learning and doing.

 

They want to be around high-energy people.

People with high level of energy allow the disorganized person to meet the need for new experiences, to learn, and to satisfy curiosity. Because high-energy people always have something going on, the disorganized individual wants to be a part of those "somethings," because there is the opportunity to have a new experience, to learn something new, to take what is learned and use it to generate new ideas. If you have not yet guessed it, the disorganized person is himself usually of very high energy.

 

They tend to lose track of time.

Time is linear and of less importance to this person. In the work environment, this individual may be late with a project deadline for what he believes is a very legitimate reason. He has become so fascinated with an aspect of the project that he has spent hours researching it, because there may be a better way. While this can be frustrating for a team of co-workers or a boss, the "better way" may in fact be a huge savings in time and money.

 

They have difficulty focusing when they are not interested or fascinated.

Disorganized people often have difficulty in school, not because they lack intelligence, for clearly they do not. But if they are not interested in the Civil War or in a geometric proof, they will not spend the time required to master that content or skill. Our schools are filled with disorganized kids who have a need to be "sold" that something to be learned is of value.

 

If teachers do not find creative ways to engage them, they "tune out" and their grades can show it. But give them a project that fascinates them, and watch them go. Instead of writing a research paper, they may want to write a play, and we should let them. Instead, we tend to medicate rather than accommodate them.

 

They must be learning all the time.

Chris Fields, a researcher and scientist from Stanford University has developed an in-depth profile of the disorganized personality. According to him, these individuals are "addicted to insight"—they have a compelling need to research and learn, as long as the subject matter is interesting to them. When they do reach an "aha" moment and there is a new insight or solution, they exhibit extreme euphoria. This "addiction" may cause them to challenge school or work authority and to appear to be argumentative. In fact, some new insight has caused them to see a "rule" or a traditional way of doing things as dumb.

 

They think globally.

Global thinking was actually an educational psychology term before it became a term used to relate to the ever-shrinking "world" in which we live. The best way to describe this type of thinking on the part of disorganized people is through example. It is the night before Christmas and a number of toys need to be assembled before morning.

 

The linear thinker will get out the instructions, and, step-by-step proceed through the assembly process. The global thinker will look at the picture of the finished product, and then assemble it based upon the picture. Both will probably be successful in the assembly (as long as there are no missing parts). It's the approach that is totally different. The same thing goes for a planned trip. The linear thinker will make the lists and the reservations for along the way. The global thinker will just throw some items in a suitcase and head out, figuring out where to eat and sleep along the way. There is far more adventure in that.

 

They may seem "nerdy" or "know-it-all" to others.

Disorganized people need to discover the truth and, in most instances, their own brand of truth. They may spend a lot of time with books and on the Internet. They do not have a lot of patience for those who want to "follow the book" on everything. They research and think about how not to "follow the book" and are usually pretty committed to voicing their ideas and opinions—thus they can get a reputation for being a "know-it-all."

Principle of Effective Goal Setting

Setting goals is an essential practice for living a happy and fulfilling life. Goals provide you with purpose, direction, and motivation. They give you something to strive for and they force you to change and improve yourself to achieve them. Goals are good things.

The act of setting goals isn't always as simple as defining what you want and then going after it. There's actually a science behind it that, if followed, enables the true power of setting and achieving goals.

Set Clear and Concise Goals

This means your goal should be very well defined and not be unclear or vague. You should be able to picture exactly what your life would look like after you achieve your goal and when you want it to happen.

Unclear goals are a recipe for fumbling around, hitting road blocks, and never really achieving what you want. After all, how do you know if you've accomplished a goal if you never really knew what you were after?

Having something concrete and measurable not only makes achieving your goals more likely, but also makes it much easier to track progress along the way.

Make Your Goals Challenging

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes." — Andrew Carnegie

Having a clear and concise goal isn't enough to make it an effective one. It's nearly as important to make sure that the goal you set for yourself is also challenging. It should be enough to test your character and make you feel like you've really accomplished something.

Your goals have to be something worth fighting for. The research shows that challenging goals inspire increased performance. Meaning the level of effort you put in is directly related to the difficulty of the goal. The more difficult the goal, the more effort you exert to achieve it and the better the sense of accomplishment you get from it.

Truly and Deeply Commit To Your Goals

People perform better when they care about what they're doing and why they're doing it, plain and simple.

It's the emotional commitment to your goals that gives you the motivation you need to accomplish them. If your goal is to lose weight, but you don't actually care or need to, then why would you feel motivated to drop those unnecessary pounds? The short answer is that you wouldn't.

To be successful, you need to make sure the goals you set are something you truly want and can fully be on board with.

Review and Acquire Feedback on Your Progress

You are crazy if you think you can just set a worthwhile yearlong goal and in the end discover if you were able to reach your goal once your deadline comes and goes.

You need to have feedback along the way to ensure you're making progress towards your goal, and to take stock of what's working and what's not.

Set some time aside every so often to step back, review your goals, and track your progress. Doing so will help you hit your mark and keep you motivated along the way.

Break Down Complex Tasks into Simpler Tasks

If you've followed the second principle and set a challenging goal for yourself, by nature, it will probably have many complex tasks associated with its achievement. These tasks can be daunting and extremely overwhelming, especially when starting with a stack a mile high.

You have to break down these daunting tasks systematically into simpler, less-complicated tasks that are easier to approach and overcome.

Don't get the wrong idea though. Nothing that is worth doing will ever be completely easy. There will undoubtedly be simple tasks that frustrate you and test your will to continue. That's just the fact of the matter, especially when learning to accomplish something new.

Take things one at a time. Knock down the barriers and keep progressing forward.

Required Sales Representative for Tanzania-Africa

Dear Candidates,

A wholesale trading company of FMCG and Cosmetics products requires a Sales person at Tanzania-Africa.

Skills Required:

ü  Min 2-5 Years' experience in ITC or FMCG Company is must.

ü  English proficiency & computer acknowledgement

ü  Effective communicative skills 

 Salary:   USD 1200$(inc. Food Exp.)*

Bachelor accommodation will be provided by the company with light furniture***

 Duties:

Ø  To conduct sales and attend to clients.

Ø  To increase sales line.

Ø  To maintain and extend the sales territory.

Ø  To merchandise products to the customers.

Ø  To assist other team members where necessary.

Ø  All other duties related to sales.

Kindly Send Your CV if you're eligible for post: vacancy@aerizogroup.com

 Consultancy charges apply once candidate has been selected*

http://www.aerizogroup.com/