How? Why? What? Open-ended questions are questions that start this way. They are designed to be thought-provoking and allow for longer and more detailed responses. Differing from closed-ended questions that typically are answered with yes or no or have some short response, they have no predetermined answers and will require some explanation. A good open-ended question always seeks genuine interest in the person’s answers. Since these types of questions require deeper thinking they can often end with breakthrough answers. The point is not about having a right or wrong answer with these so that they can elicit collaboration within a team. You can already see why this type of thought provocation within your business can be beneficial, especially when you’re trying to solve some problem. They can build rapport between employees and foster positive relationships within the company. If you’re not sure where to start with asking open-ended questions here are some tips and examples.
Using Grateful Practices to Expand Your Business
Every morning I sit and journal for 20 minutes to unload my mind and declutter my thoughts. If you’ve ever read The 5 am Club by Robin Sharma, then you know what this 20/20/20 rule is all about. I digress though. If you want to know what it’s about you’ll have to read the book. Wink Wink. Once I’m done with this journaling practice, I write down 5 things I am grateful for that day. It can be as complicated as, “I am grateful for the ability to shift my focus to things I can control when I am burdened with situations that are out of my control.” Or they can be as simple as. “I am grateful that I woke up today or for the roof over my head.”
Developing a Growth Mindset
What is it that sets extremely successful people apart from others? Take a second. We’ll wait…. OK, so what do you think? Is it that they can work harder than others? Well, in short, that’s part of the equation but no. That’s not it. Successful people have only become successful after more failures than most could even imagine or endure. It’s their grit to keep working toward that goal no matter what until it’s achieved. This comes not only from their “grit” but also their growth mindset. So, what exactly is a growth mindset? It’s the belief that talents, skills, and intelligence are malleable and can be improved with practice, hard work, and time. Why do you ask if is it important in business? Well, without this type of mindset success will not come. One has to implement this to keep the brand afloat. Trust us, we know from experience since we started Locomotive Content from the ground up. Here are our top 3 ways to help your growth mindset flourish or develop one if you haven’t already.
7 Steps: A Guide for Logical Decision Making
Critical decisions can be tough to make in the business world. Rational decisions are important when we as humans tend to be highly emotional. However, there is a model to help those who have to make these difficult choices daily in the workplace. This guide can make the process less stressful and help you come up with clear solutions that are the best. Here’s how it goes:
Marketing Communications 101
Otherwise known as MarCom, marketing communications refers to the combination of promotional tools, channels, messages, and media that brands use to communicate with their audience. The role of marketing communications is to:
1. Shorten sales funnel
2. Increase customer loyalty
3. Increase brand awareness
5 Years on the Rails
Happy birthday to us! We absolutely cannot believe that it has been half a decade already on the tracks together. We’ve officially turned five years old and couldn’t be more excited about the years to come. We would like to thank all of our partners for trusting us with their UGC advertising campaigns. You helped us turn a dream into a reality. Thank you to all of our employees, especially those who have been with us since day one! You all are the cogs in the machine that makes this company run efficiently with all of your hard work. Lastly, big thanks to all the content creators out there!
Tips to Help You Calm Nerves Before Giving a Big Presentation
We recently wrote an article with some tips to become a better public speaker, which is very important in business. But, no matter how many times you have given a big presentation, your nerves most likely won’t go anywhere. This is a good thing. It means that you care. You want it to go well. That said, sometimes the anxiety can cause you to bomb or affect your confidence. So, how do you calm your nerves down before presenting? Here are some ways to help curb the nervousness that comes along with public speaking.
1. Focus on deep breathing: Take deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. A good 4-second count in and out as you breathe. This helps regulate your heart rate, blood pressure, and stress. You can do this before, during, and after speaking.
VUCA: Finding Order in Chaos
Que “Barbie Girl” song voice, “I’m a VUCA girl… in a VUCA world.” VUCA is chaos but what does it mean and how do we bring order to the mess? This concept came about to help us understand the complexities of the world around us concerning uncertainty, rapid changes, disruption, flux in the markets, etc. It seems uncontrollable right? Well, wrong. VUCA helps bring order to the chaos. The acronym stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Let’s break each one down and see how one can use this as a guideline in a chaotic world.
Presentation in Business: Become a Champ at Public Speaking
Did you know that, “About 77% of people have a fear of public speaking,” according to Cross River Therapy Group. Why is having good presentation skills important in business? Well, it can mean the difference between getting a new client, sharing knowledge efficiently with the team, and/or it will improve the impact of your message through a self-assured and grounded persona. Here are some reasons why it is vital in business.
Business Strategy vs. Business Tactic
Strategy: an action plan that you will take to achieve a final goal. These are set to help businesses figure out what their long-term goals are. Tactic: individual steps taken to help the business achieve the end goal. These two work synonymously together to help a brand reach its goals. Both are necessary for brand success. How do you know if you have a good strategy and a good tactics plan?
Importance of Curiosity
Desire. The desire to know something. This incredible motivator for learning facilitates the pursuit of knowledge and creativity. Children have this inherent trait of curiosity to learn about the new world they are in, childlike wonder if you will. We believe that when you stop being curious about things and become complacent it inhibits learning and thusly, growth will decay, whether it be personal or professional. When we think of the traits of successful people, the first one to come to mind is probably not curiosity. However, research shows that allowing curiosity to be piqued in a way that you don’t know the answer to something can increase the curiosity of a task and primes your brain for learning. All great, successful leaders were deeply curious in their respective fields. As humans, we have this attribute of wanting to seek out new information and experience.
Successful Business Partnerships
A business partnership is like a relationship. Success depends on communication, negotiation/compromise, collaboration and mutual investment. Turns out, “65% of businesses fail due to conflict and relationship breakdown between partners,” according to Harvard Business School. Both relationships and business partnerships are complicated so it’s important to follow some guidelines in order to be successful.
Decision Making in Business
We’ve all had to make tough decisions in life at one time or another. Whether it be in our professional or personal lives, the process is always the same. It always involves identifying the goal, collecting all the relevant information and finally, weighing out the options to make the best choice. The benefit to making sound decisions is that they will stand the test of time, they weigh out all possible outcomes, they can eliminate conflicts of interest, it creates less second-guessing and provides somewhat of a roadmap. There are so many types of decision-making models out there. Ethical, formal, 5/6/7/8 step processes, analytical hierarchy process, rational, managerial, etc. The list goes on and on. Your goal can help determine your process. Let’s just look at the 8-step decision making process as an example.
Economic Trends
Yesterday we wrote an article on the economic cycles, so what is the difference between that and an economic trend? A trend is the direction that the market is moving over time. The cycle, as we learned yesterday, is the different periods that the economy goes through. Economic trends show you what part of the economic cycle we are moving towards. Trends can go up, down or sideways. Upward is how it sounds, and wages are rising. Downward means that the economy is shrinking and unemployment is rising. Sideways just means it’s a steady economy. There are some indicators to look at in the market to see what trend may be occurring, such as gross domestic product, unemployment and consumer confidence. Others include:
Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Did you know that 15-20% of people are estimated to be neurodivergent? We know, it sounds like something from the movies, but it is a real term. It describes, “the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits,” according to Harvard Health. This includes conditions, such as ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger syndrome, dyspraxia and autism.
Adaptive Leadership
Think about the two words here. Adaptive: the ability to make suitable requirements or conditions; adjust or modify fittingly. Leadership: person who guides or directs a group. Put these two together. Someone who guides others through their ability to adjust or modify fittingly to the situations. Why is this important? Businesses are constantly changing with their respective fields so it’s vital to have leaders that can do the same. They should also be able to somewhat predict challenges that may arise, what risks are worth taking and they are open to constructive feedback. Adaptive leaders embody the 4 A’s:
Interpersonal Skills in Business
Things to Tell Younger Self for Locomotive
We’ve all heard the saying, “If I knew then what I know now.” That’s the trick to life, right? You learn as you go, so the older you get, the wiser you become. It’s easy to wish that you were wiser when you were younger, but that does take some of the fun out of the journey does it not? However, we thought this was a fun idea to use for a blog topic. What are four things that we wish we would have known when we started this business? So, we asked our founder, Dustin Pagliughi his thoughts and this is what he said.
Importance of Creative Thinking in Business
Brands that embrace creativity are more innovative and resilient. Creative thinking is important in all fields, not just those of art. As we’ve learned from our past articles, we know that creativity is key for all types of business to strive and grow. It allows employees to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. This can create something new from different perspectives. Aside from this there are some key benefits to creative thinking in the workplace. Here are our top picks.
1. Fosters innovation. Outside the box thinking will bring your brand forward with new ideas. You can end up with unexpected opportunities and solutions.
2. Improves collaboration. Bouncing ideas off of one another lends to open-mindedness. They will have to work together with flexibility in mind and hone in on their listening skills. This improved collaboration will inherently happen through creative thinking at the workplace.
3. Increase productivity. Using your creative mind and critical thinking mind allows you to work smarter, not harder.
4. Allows for adaptability. When you have a creative environment at work, it allows your brand and those within it to be more flexible in terms of shifting when unexpected changes happen or need to be made.
5. Growth necessity. We talked about the learn-it-all mindset for growth and have a creative mind at work is no different. Listening to new ideas and learning from others will help your brand grow.
Creativity isn’t limited to the art world. It’s required in all businesses for problem solving. One method of creative problem solving is called the SCAMPER method.
Substitute: What can I substitute to improve product/service?
Combine: How can I combine this product/service with something else to improve?
Adapt: How can I adapt this product/service?
Modify: Can I modify to make better?
Put to Another Use: How else could this be used?
Eliminate: What can I remove or how can I remove costs?
Reverse or Rearrange: Can I rearrange to improve?
There are immense amounts of topics and subjects within business that are perfect for the creative mind. New ideas in any department will make a difference. Thinking differently will open your mind to explore new realms of opportunity. Time to get creative!
Setting Business Goals in the New Year
Chances are that in your personal life you’ll be setting some new goals for the new year! We know we are. But why stop there? You’ve obviously had a vision for your business since the beginning so how can you make it what you’ve always dreamed? Well, the answer is goal setting and a plan of action. You will never achieve your dreams by keeping them inside your mind. All dreams were once a thought that were then made into a reality through planning! We’ve all heard the saying, “your dreams won’t work if you don’t,” and as clique as that sounds, it’s very true.
