Why Inspiring Creativity is Great For the Workplace

Creativity is the workhorse for progress in the workplace. Without it, a company cannot generate new ideas, and as such, cannot move forward. This being said, it is absolutely essential to help encourage creativity in the workplace. But what helps spark creativity? What helps employees think out of the box? While each employee is different, and gain motivation from different things, there are some things in common that can help create a more innovative work space.

Embrace Diversity:
Diversity, for instance, is a tremendous influence of creativity. If group think is the death of ingenuity, managers should be encouraged to construct a diverse team with various skills and strengths. This may facilitate debate, and this is perfectly natural, and in fact, a good sign. Debate is another factor that influences the creation of new ideas. If people with differing points of view can get together and discuss their ideas rationally and without embarrassment, ideas can be spread about and facilitate creativity.

Let It Flow, Let It Flow:
In order to allow new ideas to flow throughout the workplace, management needs to be willing to accept risks. They need to be willing to trust their employees and be open-minded enough to accept new ideas. Trusting employees boosts morale, and promotes the generation of new ideas.

However, while allowing these new ideas to generate, management needs to be conscious of avoiding micromanagement. Micromanagement can lead to restrictions and barriers that can prevent workers from thinking outside of the box. Instead of constantly looking over their shoulders, managers should once again trust in their employees, and allow them to think individually, without barriers. 

Fail More Often in Order to Succeed:
Finally, it should be expected that you will encounter failures along the way to success. They are inevitable, and although they are off-putting, they help pave the way to success. Failures should be seen as lessons as what not to do next time an experiment is made. As such, employees should not be reprimanded after failure. Instead, they should be encouraged to keep trying, and to learn from their mistakes.

Though there is no exact rule book for establishing a creative environment, these are merely some of the ways you can encourage creativity in your workplace. Promoting diversity, encouraging debate, accepting risks and allowing new ideas without micromanaging are all ways that can help foster a creative and productive environment in your workplace.

source https://inmarkmg.com/culture/why-inspiring-creativity-is-great-for-the-workplace/

How to Improve Employee Morale Before its Too Late

One of the most important, yet most difficult issues to pinpoint in the workplace is employee morale. While not as tangible as mechanical or structural issues, office morale is just as, if not more, critical to productivity in the workplace. It’s not uncommon for managers to prioritize a deadline or the completion of a project, but prioritizing this over an employees sediment can harm a company in the long run. 

What’s Wrong Everyone??
Office morale can be dampened by a multitude of things, but none are as obvious and as destructive as the mistreatment of employees. Poor treatment of workers can come in many forms, such as treating an employee as though they are lucky to even have a job rather than recognizing them for their work. Another example includes creating an unreasonable workload, whereas an employee will struggle to meet your high expectations, and will either burnout or treat you with resentment. Other examples include misunderstood expectations, lack of communication, and even wasted potential. These kinds of mistreatment can seriously cripple an employees ability to work, and can even lead to issues between workers and management.

Another issue that often cripples office morale are layoffs. While inevitable, layoffs often lead to lower productivity in workers and lower morale due to the thought that they may be laid off next. It should be expected that a typically friendly employee may see management as untrustworthy. Because of this, it is important to remain compassionate during times like these. 

 

Time For Some Changes:
Reaching out to your employees and giving them assurances can help boost productivity. It is also important to be transparent; managers should do all they can to divulge necessary information in a compassionate and understanding manner. When the dust settles and your team is settling back in, it may help boost morale to host an employee appreciation event, or simply a fun party.

Aside from these difficult situations where it can be troublesome to boost morale, there are simple ways to improve morale around the workplace during the normal workday. One good way to improve morale is to embrace the workplace culture; offer engaging and entertaining ways to address office meetings and the like. Show employees you care about them, and congratulate them on good work. Giving workers incentives come a long way, and promoting good workers or rewarding good work can seriously improve a worker’s performance. 

source https://inmarkmg.com/culture/how-to-improve-employee-morale-before-its-too-late/

Steps on How to Become a Great Leader

Leadership is a necessary attribute in good management, and one that can be difficult to acquire. Being a good manager means being able to effectively organize and utilize your team, but without leadership, accomplishing this feat can be difficult. So what constitutes a good leader? How does a manager utilize their leadership effectively?

There are several mistakes that first-time managers make that can compromise a productive workplace.  This can show a lack of leadership in management, and cause a deterioration of respect between employees and employers. Common mistakes include:

• Avoiding difficult yet necessary conversations
• Being close-minded and not allowing new ideas
• Refusing to ask questions or accept criticism
• Micromanaging instead of trusting your team
• Not clarifying goals and setting expectations too high or too low
• Only providing feedback when necessary, instead of continuously

As seen in the mistakes above, management can be intimidating, especially for first-time managers. Thankfully, there are some ways that can make that job easier, and can prove to others what a good leader you are. Often enough, first-time managers feel isolated when beginning their position. A good way to start opening up, and showing true leadership, is by opening up to your fellow employees, or even previous managers. 

A good leader accepts criticism and utilizes it to their advantage. Thankfully, you are not the first manager to ever exist, regardless if you are the first for your company. As such, seeking help from previous managers or even your fellow employees can help you get an idea of how you are managing, and even help yourself grow as a manager altogether. 

Establishing communication and collaboration between employees is critically important in the workplace. Creating a team that works together, talk among one another, and shares ideas facilitates creativity, openness, and productivity. It also helps shed light on issues in the workplace, which can thus be worked out. Keeping your employees up to date with information and showing positive feedback for good work are the foundation for a good working environment, and help build a solid relationship between management and employees. 

Overall, the thing to remember is to be able to communicate with your employees. Setting goals for your team helps them know what their working towards, and why they’re working, which helps improve morale. Asking for help from previous employers is also a good way to know how you’re doing as a manager. Finally, leading by example is one of the best ways to show true leadership in the workplace. By exhibiting good behavior in the workplace, your employees will follow by your example, and will learn to trust and follow you. 

source https://inmarkmg.com/culture/steps-on-how-to-become-a-great-leader/

The Most Overlooked Form of Advertising: Supermarkets

As a part of the business industry, your goal is to advertise as much as possible so more people can learn about your wonderful product/service, thus helping your company to expand. Now, imagine a place where people from around town meet, twice a week for approximately forty minutes. That would be the perfect place to put an advertisement, so everyone can get a chance to see the product/service your business offers. But what kind of place attracts so much attention, and from so many differing clientele?

Where is it?:
Your local supermarket, that’s what! Supermarkets are the only place in your area that all markets need to go. That makes it a prime location to start your advertising campaign. By putting ads for your business in the supermarket, you are spreading awareness to your clientele constantly. Thanks to this constant exposure, awareness for your business will increase exponentially.

How effective is it?:
But how do you accomplish this kind of recognition? Exposure, Targeting, and Repetition. First and foremost, Supermarket advertising exposes your company to all markets, as mentioned above. Secondly, choosing the right store to advertise in can help you target your customers. Finally, repetition is essential to keep people thinking about your business. Repetition hammers the thought of your business into customers heads, and keeps them from forgetting by the time they get home.

source https://inmarkmg.com/supermarkets/the-most-overlooked-form-of-advertising-supermarkets/