Why Is Article Marketing So Important for Businesses?

Article marketing is a proven way for business owners to grow their business by achieving some key objectives online. Article marketing:

• Attracts Website visitors: Distributing articles to directories, blogs, and other websites can produce a constant flow of qualified visitors. If your website is compelling and has a strong call to action, you can boost traffic and increase conversions.
• Increases links and search engine rankings: Search engines place importance on the number of links that point to your site from other sites—such as directories, blogs, and social media sites. Posting content on other sites that link back to your site improves search engine rankings.
• Helps build your reputation: If people find your articles contain valuable information, they will trust your opinion as an expert in your industry.
• Grows your customer base: You create more opportunities for potential clients to find a path to your products and services. Once they get to your site you can incentivize them to sign-up for your newsletter so you can stay on their radar and continue to provide information they want and are searching for online.

These are just a few of the many reasons article marketing works to improve your business. From attracting more qualified leads to increasing your website's authority in the search engines and beyond, an effective article marketing strategy should be a key part of every business plan.

How Improving Employee Behavior Impacts Performance

Being a successful manager requires more than leadership. Managers are also responsible for the performance of the employees who report to them. Poor employee behavior and performance must be addressed quickly and skillfully to ensure that departmental and organizational goals are achieved. Although confronting employee behavior and performance problems is one of the most difficult aspects of a manager’s job, avoiding this critical aspect of management has a direct impact on the productivity, profitability, and overall success of the organization.

An effective manager must be able to tell the difference between employee job performance and work habits. Although they are obviously closely related, an employee’s performance refers to his output or results while his work habits refer to the way he does his job to achieve those results. Since poor work habits impact performance just as much as good work habits, managers need to set aside time to ensure employees realize the correlation between behavior and performance. For example, a customer service representative who is rude to customers can lead to complaints which can then lead to lost revenues when customers take their business elsewhere.

Addressing unacceptable employee behavior and work habits early, before they become a serious problem and require disciplinary action, is also important. Managers should clearly describe to employees the exact nature of their poor work habits and how they impact both personal and organizational performance. But rather than focus on their attitude or personality, discussions with employees about unsatisfactory work habits should specifically concentrate on their behavior. This approach values them as individuals but stresses the ways in which changing work habits and behaviors will result in better outcomes. This is also a good time to discuss performance incentives, such as a pay raise or a bonus for improving the work habits that result in higher sales (or other performance objectives defined by the company).

Involving employees in an interactive process of enhancing unsatisfactory behavior is important for maintaining self-esteem and promoting a positive attitude. Developing and implementing an action plan with employee input increases accountability, and ongoing reviews with written progress reports ensures the steady improvement of employee behavior.

Managers can get the support they need to properly and effectively address employee behavior issues by hiring an executive leadership coach. A coach can help managers develop the communication skills to confront employee behavioral problems without negatively impacting morale, which ultimately boosts the performance and success of the employee, the manager, the department, and the entire organization.

Learn more about improving employee behavior and work habits by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

How Can a Small Business Consultant Get Ready for 2012?

Believe it or not, 2012 is just around the corner. The new year sneaks up on most of us, leaving us to reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the next one. As a small business consultant, the month of December is a perfect opportunity to reconnect with your clients to clarify mutual expectations for the new year, identify short- and long-term goals, and negotiate a new yearly fee.

As a small business consultant you are often the person a company turns to when it wants help growing its business. But to be equipped to help a small business achieve its goals it is important for you to take the time to revisit and reconnect with your own aspirations and intentions.

Be careful to distinguish between your expectations and your intentions. Expectations create stress, fear, conflict, and disappointment. They imply attachment to a specific outcome. If the outcome is not what was expected there are bound to be feelings of negativity and defeat. But when you focus on your intentions rather than your expectations, you gain clarity of purpose and feel empowered by the attitude that the outcome will be just as it should be. The root of the intention will be realized even if it doesn’t happen exactly as you imagined. Intention removes the struggle and disappointment inherent with expectations and produces a more positive and fulfilling life experience.

Ask yourself what it is you want, what makes you feel most alive and connected, what you want to experience in your life, and what being a successful small business consultant means to you. What makes you spring out of bed each morning? What are your desires? What do you want to achieve? What energizes you? The answers to these questions will reveal your true intentions and energize everything you do. Positive energy is infectious and it naturally resonates with your small business clients. Your intentions for your clients can inspire them to do great things.

As you get ready for 2012, make a list of ten goals and the actions you need to take to accomplish those goals. Write down the benefits you will derive from achieving each goal, and give yourself a deadline for reaching each one. Take time to reflect on your intentions. Why is each goal important to you? How do you expect to achieve it? How will your life improve? How will your personal development help you be a better small business consultant for your clients?

Finally, as you prepare for the new year, let go of any limited beliefs. Believe in yourself, your intentions, and all of the work you will do to improve both your personal and professional life. Your small business clients will undoubtedly benefit from the time you take to refocus your intentions and define the actions that will help you grow. Whether they say it or not, your clients will thank you for it next year.

Visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or call 619.550.8052 to get more advice to become a better small business consultant next year.

Business Coaching Helps Reduce Employee Burnout

NEW CLIENT ARTICLE

Employee burnout is a huge problem in our society and it has many roots, especially considering the current economic environment where many employees are working longer hours for the same pay due to a reduction in the workforce. A lack of appreciation often further compounds the problem.

Employee burnout is essentially a result of prolonged workplace stress and anxiety. Herbert Freudenberger coined the term “burnout” in 1974, and established twelve phases of the burnout process that are not necessarily experienced sequentially:

• Having a compulsion to prove oneself
• Working harder and harder with no end in sight
• Neglecting personal needs
• Displacing conflicts
• Revising values (dismissing friends or hobbies)
• Denying emerging problems (aggression and cynicism begin to become apparent)
• Withdrawing socially
• Changing behaviors that become obvious to others
• Experiencing an inner emptiness
• Having depression
• Experiencing burnout syndrome

These phases force us to think about the many specific causes of employee burnout. Employees may not have any control over decisions that affect their job, feel like job expectations are unclear, have a lack of recognition or rewards for good work, experience the workplace as dysfunctional due to having a boss who micromanages their work, have personal values that are not aligned with the organization, feel like their job doesn’t fit their skills, or see their job as either too monotonous or too chaotic. The list goes on and on.

To avoid occupational burnout it’s crucial that employees reduce and manage stress. Of course, this is easier said than done—especially when employees feel alone. A business coach is an excellent resource to help employees address the twelve phases of burnout and decrease levels of stress and depression. Business coaching provides strategies and tips for employees to cope with feelings of having no control, managing rigorous work schedules, and clearly understanding their specific roles and responsibilities.

Another way business coaches assess employee burnout is to apply the “Three R Approach,” which is comprised of:

• Recognizing: Watching for the warning signs of burnout
• Reversing: Undoing the damage by managing stress and seeking support
• Resilience: Building resilience to stress by managing physical and emotional health

Business coaches can help employees address these phases and levels of burnout in emotionally healthy ways. They can work with employees to provide the techniques, tools, and resources they need to regulate stress and align their personal goals with their professional aspirations. An effective business coach will assist employees who are near burnout by helping them realize the stressful situations in which they find themselves and create action plans that reduce anxiety and avoid burnout.

Ultimately, emotional management is the key to preventing employee burnout. When management recognizes a high level of stress permeating the workplace it may be time to involve a business coach who has the expertise to assist employees on the verge of burnout. Employee burnout coaching is a specialized area of business coaching. It takes a coach who is used to working with disillusioned employees that are overwhelmed by the mental, emotional, and physical stress that leads to burnout and turnover.

Of course, every organization wants to reduce turnover and have a more content workforce. Although stress is a natural part of life, when it becomes too much there is always help available. Learn more about reducing employee burnout by calling the business coaching experts at 619.550.8052 or by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.

How to Manage Latino Employees More Effectively

NEW CLIENT ARTICLE

Just as we all learn in different ways, such as visually versus auditory, cultures experience and respond to management styles in different ways as well. What motivates a person from one culture may discourage someone from another culture.

This article focuses on the most effective (and ineffective) ways for managers to interact with their Latino employees. Foreign-born Latino employees are typically not accustomed to the ways in which U.S. managers communicate and, on the flip-side, U.S. managers often are not familiar with the nuances of managing an ethnically diverse workforce. Managers can create a more inclusive, productive, and satisfying workplace by understanding common Latino cultural traits. It’s important to note, of course, that we’re speaking in accepted generalities and that individuals behave differently within cultures.

Family plays a very important role in the Latino culture, so showing Latino employees they care not just for them but for their families goes a long way to establishing a strong and trusting relationship. Respect is also a crucial part of Latino culture, especially for elders, women, and people in leadership positions. It is common in Latino culture to expect those in authority to be the decision-makers and to follow their lead without much hesitation. Whereas it is common for employees in the Anglo-American workplace culture to express their opinions in large group settings without emotion, Latinos tend to use a more indirect approach, preferring a one-on-one interaction. In fact, Latinos tend to be particularly offended by perceived disrespect, which will naturally affect performance and morale.

The degree of intimacy in the workplace tends to be more important in the Latino culture as well. Latino employees innately want to establish a personal connection, which extends to management and coworkers. They want to get to know people on a personal level rather than just a professional level that only focuses on the job. They are also interested in the life others have after work, believing that knowing the complete person creates a bond and camaraderie.

Managers should also realize that personal contact is important for Latino employees. Unlike the often cold mannerisms of the Anglo-American workplace culture, Latinos find physical contact with others very normal (and necessary). Handshakes, pats on the back, hugs, and kisses on the cheek are all a part of common daily interaction.

To sum up, creating an optimal work environment for Latino employees includes understanding that Latinos are:

• Used to interacting with others with more of a human touch—both inside and outside the workplace
• Interested in more than just the personality of their managers and coworkers at work
• Expecting leaders to lead through vision and inspiration rather than fear and intimidation
• Most receptive to a management approach that shows their families are cared for as well as themselves, and also appreciate time-off for important Latino holidays

Managing an ethnically diverse workforce can be a challenge for any employer. The most important thing to keep in mind is that different cultures respond to different management styles. Recognizing the traits of different cultures will not only create a happier and more retainable workforce. It will also improve productivity, performance, and profitability, which are goals of any organization.

Learn more about the ways Latino employees impact your business by calling 619.550.8052 or visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.