Remember being bright eyed and optimistic after graduation? Remember feeling that you couldn’t wait to start working and see if you can make a difference in the world? Remember thinking that you’re going to make a truckload of money? I know. That’s what all of us were thinking after we tossed our caps into the air.

After months of job hunting though, we got to weed out the “frivolous” reasons why we wanted to work and got down to what we really wanted to know. We all get jobs to see what we are capable of. We go to work in order to test our wings and see if what we’ve learned in theory, we could execute flawlessly in practice. And once we get that job, we test out the waters to see what our strengths are and where we can improve. With bright eyed optimism, we keep on adjusting and learning until hopefully, one day, we get it right.

No one wants to stay stagnant in their careers, This is why we need to be constantly challenged in our careers because the key to being great at what you do is to zoom in on your strengths and develop them. You alone can correctly identify your areas of competence. That’s not to say that employers should leave all the work to their employees with regard to developing competencies.

Outstanding teams are driven by the desire to learn and improve. Employees do not want to sit back and watch life pass them by. They want to be able to say they are good at what they do. They relish the opportunity to develop and maintain their competence. Employees must take advantage of this innate drive. All employers have to do is show the path and their team will follow their lead.

Here are some ways to develop and maintain staff’s competence:

Align company core values:

I cannot stress this enough. You have to get people who share the same core values as you do. Your staff has to have principles in line with yours and what your vision of the company is. This, essentially, is the foundation of a strong team – a common core that promotes an inclusive work atmosphere. It makes everyone feel that they are important and that they are working towards a common goal. It makes it easier to communicate your purpose and your targets.

Provide tailored training and be clear about roles:

There’s this Einstein quote that goes “Everybody’s a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” Be fair. Do not expect your computer wiz to be able to take care of creative design or vice versa. Identify your employees strengths and be sure to provide tailored training for each one. Nothing says care as much as personalizing their individual career training paths. It makes them feel that you care enough to layout a long term career plan for them and that you are willing to invest in them and their personal growth. You get to help them develop and maintain their competence, plus you get happy employees as well. It’s a win-win!

Be open to ideas:

While we’re on the subject of tailored training, keep an open mind about how you can improve your training and instructional resources as well. Communicate with your employees. After all, they are the end users and will most likely be able to provide the most useful feedback on how you can simplify and/or improve staff competence. Allow them to guide the process. Adjust enough to include their relevant suggestions while staying true to your vision and ultimate targets.

Set expectations:

You cannot measure your progress unless you set a bar to measure your expectations against. Set measurable goals and sit back and watch as your superstars exceed them and blow your targets out of the water. Don’t let it be too absurd and unreachable, like a dangling carrot, that your employees have them just within their grasp but can never reach them. They will get tired and lose motivation quickly. Don’t let it be too easy that your employees don’t rise up to the challenge and never get to learn just how far they can go.

Praise and Motivate:

Give them enough praise and motivation for being good at what they do. Never be stingy with recognition. In the end, the recognition for a job well done is enough for most people to have a sense of fulfillment.

If you are willing to put in the work to develop and maintain your staff’s competence, the rewards for you and your company will be tenfold.

 Written by Jaie T.-  The Help

There’s this Helen Keller quote that goes “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Teamwork is usually borne out of the necessity of needing other people to help you achieve a shared objective. No one goes through life without needing help from someone else. Hey, even Batman had to team up with the Justice League!

Maybe you need specialized skills, more ideas, motivation, or even manpower. Jobs get done more quickly with a top notch team to back you up. Now if we were all to believe that, a team of high potential superstars at your disposal will almost always get the job done. The challenge is how to pick them and make sure they will perform. Here are some pointers on how to build a top performing team:

Leadership and Direction:

It is integral that a team has leadership and direction. Without it, a team crumbles. Maybe because of power struggles, lack of direction, communication problems, or a host of other complications. There has to be a visionary who will show the way. Assign someone who will provide guidance, boost morale, encourage creativity, and provide recognition – someone to let the others know that they are part of a whole and that their work impacts others.

Skills:

Anyone who has ever played NBA2k, Fantasy Football, or World of Warcraft would know the complicated dynamics of having to create the best team you can based on skills while having limited resources. We don’t match people to jobs based on availability, we match them because of proficiency and how well we think they can execute a task.

If we had unlimited funds, we’d all get the experts in the field. However, resources mean time and money, and since those have constraints, we learn to work with what we have. And what we have to do is to make sure we pick people who have the proficiency to get the job done while remaining flexible enough to welcome suggestions and ideas.

Shared Goals and Aligned Values:

A team is defined as a group of people who work towards a common goal. These goals need to be clear and defined before embarking on any task. The team that is most successful in achieving its goals is one wherein its members are clear on what they want to achieve and have  a set of values that complement each others. That builds a feeling of camaraderie. It makes individuals feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and will happily work with each other towards creating something they can be proud of.

The most valued team members are those who have the ability to see things from a different perspective, who are able to adjust their approach, and who will help re-align theirs and their teammates goals towards their ultimate target.

Motivation and Recognition:

If you ask volunteers why they’re volunteering, you’ll find that they are volunteering because they want something in return. Not in a selfish kind of way but in a reciprocal kind of way. It may be satisfaction, a free meal, recognition, a promotion, experience, or a simple thank you. Scrap Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we all want appreciation for a job well done – and chocolate, don’t forget chocolate.

We all have expectations on what we think a top performing team should be. Expect too much and your superstars will leave, expect too little and never see them rise to the challenge. The trick is to strike a balance and find the sweet spot between those expectations and reality.

 Written by Jaie T.-  The Help

Tragedy comes when least expected. Sorrow is a daily presence suddenly. There was no threat to speak of. Germanwings Flight 9525, the recent disaster of immense proportions, was not in danger of mechanical malfunction. What do we do in the face of disaster? Are we ever ready or prepared?

Thirty-eight years ago I lost a sister. What did I do then? I can’t remember my reaction to another sibling’s succumbing to heart failure; one that was quickly followed by another’s passing, three weeks later. I do know the following:

I cried copious tears for months. I gave in to grief, to feeling helpless. Months later I thought I was over the pain. Then I would see a bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath, I’d be in tears again. I’ve lived with grief a long time so there’s never getting over it, really. It’s different for everyone, there are highs and lows in grieving, much like the tide that ebbs and flows.

Many will offer words of support, generous prayers. It will be a time to receive graciously, of appreciation for the many friends and strangers who stand ready to help.

It is crucial to remember the happy moments spent with those who are suddenly gone from us. Recalling the memories created with them; perhaps while at a summer picnic at the beach, at dinner after a long day at work, or the quiet moments of conversation where words of wisdom were exchanged, can sustain and recharge friends and relatives.

Communing with family and friends is important. There is truth in the saying pain is eased when shared. The living is left to deal with the loss and the accompanying emptiness that invariably settles in the soul. In remembering our departed with prayers, we remember Germanwings 9525 and its 150 passengers.

Written by Yoli P. – The Help

Once upon a time, people grouped themselves into clubs depending on the subject – books, baseball, and movie stars’ are some examples. The common interest also became a jumping point for the club members’ to utilize and recommend their preferred service providers for home maintenance, restaurants, and vacation destinations.

With the industrial revolution, collaboration became a tool in reaching people, particularly those outside of recognized clubs and organizations. Political ties developed and information became accessible, which helped the growth of business networks. Networking expanded by leaps and bounds with the Internet’s bursting on center stage in recent times.

Networking has always been in the professional world, in the face-to-face manner, through colleagues’ office visits and going out for coffee or lunch together. Theme fairs and conferences were, and still are, bridges to meeting new people and learning about developing industry trends.

And the virtual assistance industry is no exception; it is invested in networking because of its very nature. A company whose main product is implementing tasks in an ethereal world needs a strong presence in the Internet.

Because both workforce and clients are in various locations around the world, communication is key in making the business cohesive. This network is connected by technology but more than that they are linked by the same goals in expanding and growing a business. Each one has their individual circle of professional and personal relations in end users, buyers, and suppliers connected to one another and at the same time to the world. Like a pebble thrown in a pond, the ripple effect goes outward in concentric circles but it begins in the center.

Here are some suggestions for networking to be useful to the virtual assistance business:

• Create a presence in Facebook and Twitter, two of the most popular social media platforms. Make a certain to post interesting articles regularly.
• From there, update the company e-mailing list of current and possible clients.
• Participate and join online professional groups such as LinkedIn or a virtual assistants organization. 

Much like planning a garden, networking requires tending and organization. The roses will bloom because of constant care and networking will only bear fruit in proportion to the attention it gets.

Written by Yoli P. – The Help

Over the years, with the increased personal and business use of email, social media gained ground and have since entrenched itself in everyone’s life via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Businesses reap huge benefits from social media as their products become more visible to clients. They can quickly respond to trends as well as cut costs on traditional advertising. Clients’ access to customer services for various concerns via websites improves the bottom line. Social media makes information sharing more efficient, generates discussion and directs people to interesting sites.

On the personal side, social media facilitates staying in touch with family and friends on a global scale. If family members are abroad, a message sent just a few minutes ago could receive instantaneous reply. Social media is also helpful in client referrals and job searches. It helps professionals conduct research via LinkedIn, for example.

While there are positives to social media, there are a number of negatives as well. Friends on the social media plane can be into the hundreds. How are meaningful connections differentiated from casual acquaintances? With the amount of networking involved in social media, there is a marked decrease in attention span in some end users. Anything that has more than three paragraphs becomes too long to read. Along with a shorter attention span, productivity at work or even at home may suffer. There is less human interaction because everyone is continually on one or two social networking site following and contributing to interesting topics. The gradual loss of privacy is the biggest effect of social media on society. To some extent information normally kept confidential is given up easily which may have contributed to the increase of identity theft crimes.

Much like the telephone, social media has had a huge impact on society. Communication is vastly improved, jobs are generated, and everyone is in touch with family, friends, and the workplace. Craig Hodges said, “A fixation with connecting with ‘friends’ online comes with the risk of disconnection with friends waiting for you to be present in the offline world,” a reminder to remain connected in the physical world.

Written by Yoli P. – The Help