Building Strong Business Relationships

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Building authentic business relationships with people is the key to company success. The more business persons can build relationships on a personal level, the easier their business endeavors are to thrive. People build relationships with people they like and trust.  Here are ways how to build authentic business relationships.

 

1. Have a Customer Service Policy

 

Having a customer service policy written down and explained to employees is the foundation of your success. When business owners have a clear policy in place, it is harder for employees to compromise the policy for financial or personal benefits. Employees that don’t understand these policies can become quite annoyed with how the policies are being handled and often will act out against these policies. Employees need to understand what is expected of them and what others require when this company grows and changes.

 

2. Foster Positive Company Atmosphere

 

Everyone likes to feel wanted and needed. If one has a company where the atmosphere is positive and people have growth opportunities, your employees will feel appreciated and encouraged. There should be intercommunication between all levels of the chain of command, so everyone knows what is expected. Employees will also become more committed, dedicated, loyal, and productive.

 

3. Focus On Mutual Success

 

Focusing on how business can help others succeed is great for the business; it will also make employees feel valued. This will enhance productivity and encourage the company to expand its horizons. When people have a mutual respect for one another and can work together for a common goal, it will make the business environment more productive, profitable, and enjoyable.

 

4. Create A Valuable Service or Product

 

The best way to build authentic business relationships is to find a product or service that is valuable to others. This can be done by listening to what people need and then offering a solution to this problem. When a company has a product or service that provides value, people will gladly buy it and refer others as well.

 

Building authentic business relationships are what all businesses need for success. By teaching employees about customer service, company goals, working together, and finding products or services that are valuable to others, companies will see a boost in productivity, profit, and employee loyalty.

The Power of Mentorship

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Switching careers or venturing into business can be daunting for people with little or no prior experience. Mentorship and career guidance can help junior employees and start-up entrepreneurs avoid costly mistakes that often cause career stalling and failure in business. This piece breaks down the importance of finding mentors in a particular field and how mentors benefit from their collaboration with mentees.

Mentors can be industry experts or career advisors who help nurture and guide upcoming professionals to navigate the complex working environment. Mentors pass on their skills and knowledge through apprenticeship and counseling. Besides formal apprenticeship programs, social media and direct networking are other popular ways mentees can seek mentorship guidance.

• Gain industry knowledge

Mentees seek professional mentorship counsel to gain insights into their respective career or business field. Mentees can settle and adjust to their roles much quicker by learning the ropes from industry veterans through mentorship programs.

• Goal setting

Start-up entrepreneurs and new hires often have trouble setting personal and career development objectives. Mentors can help mentees concentrate their efforts where it matters most by following the SMART criteria in goal establishment. A common mistake is pursuing overly ambitious goals before mastering the skillsets needed to track and actualize such projects.

• Supporting growth and accountability

Mentors help mentees stay focused and track progress after establishing career goals or business objectives. Mentors play an oversight role and offer valuable feedback, crucial in achieving accountability. Working with mentors is crucial in identifying potential weak points and solving them to achieve a steady learning curve.

What are the benefits of being a mentor?

• Mentors also benefit from mentorship programs because they get the chance to expand their professional network and improve their interpersonal capabilities.

• Mentorship collaborations help mentors build on their industry knowledge by learning new apprenticeship techniques and gaining fresh perspectives about their respective fields.

• Mentors earn recognition from other industry players by sharing expertise and industry knowledge with junior employees. This recognition can present opportunities to join established professional networks.

Mentors, too, have a lot to gain when they pass on their knowledge to upcoming talent. It’s no wonder many organizations prefer enrolling their junior workforce in apprenticeship programs due to the benefits enjoyed by both sides.

How to Create an Authentic Mission Statement

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The most important aspect of a business is authenticity. Authenticity should be a part of every thing, from the mission statement to the day to day tasks. When you create your mission statement, it should reflect what you believe in and what speaks to your unique identity. Remember, it not simply a reflection of you, but of your business as a whole. If your mission statement isn’t authentic, it won’t work in the digital age.

Define your mission.
Defining your mission is a critical step in creating an accurate mission statement. This will ensure that your business has a clear focus and aligns with who you are as a person and as a business. You need to make sure that your mission is something that you believe in and help you achieve your goals.

Create a strong vision for your business.
In the old days, a business had a clear vision for what it wanted to achieve. This meant that if you were going to achieve success, you had to have a firm idea of what you were trying to achieve. In the digital age, many businesses don’t have a clear vision or may not even have an idea of what they want their business to be. An excellent way to create an image for your business is to use an online tool like The mission statement generator.

Write down your mission in writing.
To be truly successful in the digital age, you need to have a mission that you believe in that speaks to your unique identity. It would help if you also wrote it down in writing. This will help you focus and stay focused on what you’re trying to achieve. If your mission statement isn’t authentic, it won’t work in the digital age.

Share your mission with your employees.
Make sure you have a clear and concise mission statement for your business. This will help employees understand why you are doing what you’re doing and how it relates to their job. It also allows them to be flexible and adjust their work to fit the mission while still meeting its goals. Everyone should be on the same page.

Take action to achieve your vision.
A mission statement isn’t complete without a plan to achieve it. Make sure you have a goal list that is specific and measurable. Track your progress and measure your success against your vision. This will help you stay focused on what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Benefits of having an authentic mission:
1) It helps differentiate from the competition
Your mission statement will help you stand out from the other businesses in your industry. It will make your business more visible, and it will help you attract the correct type of customers.
2) It will help you focus on what you do best
Your mission statement is based on your values, and it will help you focus on what you do best. This means that you’ll be able to serve your customers better and focus on the things that matter most to you.
3) It will help you stay top of mind
Having a specific, accurate mission statement will keep your business top of mind. This will allow you to stay relevant and ahead of the curve, which is always a valuable trait in any business.

Having a solid mission is key to a successful business. To create an accurate mission statement, it’s essential to define what your company does and why it’s different from the others. Next, you need to write down your vision for your business. Finally, share this vision with your employees. Doing this will help them to understand your mission and feel a sense of ownership over your business.

Crucial Aspects of Your Business Strategy

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You have to plan for your business, or you won’t be successful. The key to your business strategy is in your business plan, and it will explain what your business is and how it will succeed. Continue reading to learn the key ingredients for your business strategy. 

Your Company Overview

Your company overview describes your company. It explains how it is organized, what type of company it is, and it gives the name, age, location, and organizational structure. It also contains your mission statement, which is a short statement about your goals and the vision you have for your company. This is an important statement because it tells people what you want to accomplish, and it is an opportunity to get them excited. 

Your Products and Services

You need to be able to say exactly what products and services your company sells or plans to sell. If you have ideas that have not been developed, be clear about what they are. Make sure that you back up your ideas with data from competitors, customers, and other information. Describe the features of your products and services and what is unique about what you offer. You can also discuss the logistics of how you plan to deliver it as well as a market analysis that shows demand for it. Make sure that you run a market analysis to show the benefit of offering your products and services.

Market and Industry Analysis

You should have a market and industry analysis that shows that you have a complete understanding of the opportunities and problems that come with your product. You should research your competitors, conduct interviews, run a supply chain analysis, and do all of the research necessary to understand your products and services and how they do in the market. 

Target Market

This ingredient identifies your ideal customer, how you will get into the market, and what niches you can exploit. You want to include the size, the personality of the buyers, and more. 

Marketing, Operations, and Financial Planning

Finally, you should have an in-depth plan for marketing, daily operations, and financial projections. This is critical to moving forward successfully. This type of planning ensures that you are prepared no matter what comes up on your journey.

Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Sense of Purpose

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Many entrepreneurs often find themselves so caught up in their day-to-day activities and building their businesses that they forget to take the time to look at what direction they want their businesses to go. While a strong work ethic is great, ongoing hustle without purpose can be devastating for a leader and entrepreneur.

When you begin to lose sight of your purpose, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

  • Do you have a clear vision of where you want your company to be in the next six months, 12 months, five years? If not, it’s time to write one down.
  • Are you communicating your company vision and strategy to employees as well as partners and vendors? Try asking those around you what they believe is going on in your business. You might be surprised at some of their answers.
  • Do you understand your strengths and weaknesses? Make a list of everything that comes to mind when you think about your strengths and weaknesses.

The answers to these questions can help you see if you’ve lost sight of your true passion with your business pursuits. Passion is key for entrepreneurs for these key reasons:

  1. Planning for the Future

Every business owner needs to understand what drives them and their company’s future success. With a clear vision and strategy in place, you can begin to align your resources accordingly.

  1. Staying on Track

Having an established purpose provides entrepreneurs with the road map they need to help them navigate difficult business decisions that come up along the way. When you’re uncertain about where your business is headed or what direction it should take, it’s important to look at your purpose and decide from there.

  1. Being Authentic

Knowing why you do what you do makes it easier to communicate your goals and objectives to those around you and customers. It also gives people something more tangible to connect with outside of superficial business goals that frequently shift.

Find your purpose to regain your passion for your work, and discover why this is an essential element of your journey.

The Importance of Self-Compassion

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Whether a lack of compassion comes from a small failure or a major disappointment, people tend to be harder on themselves than other people. Over time, lack of compassion leads to further mental and emotional issues like anxiety, depression, and stress.

Therefore, people need to practice more self-compassion. Here is the list of self-compassion benefits and improvement techniques worth trying.

It’s a motivator.
People that criticize themselves usually talk themselves out of reaching their goals. Some people are harder on themselves due to years of being criticized as a child. By practicing self-compassion, it’s easier to accept flaws as motivation to improve rather than a reason to give up.

It improves overall health.
People often underestimate the impact of negativity on their health. Constant self-doubt triggers a person’s fight-or-flight response, which increases cortisol levels. Higher levels of cortisol, or the stress hormone, leads to serious illnesses. In severe cases, high levels of stress can be deadly.

With self-compassion, even difficult times don’t have such a negative impact on health. Actually, having compassion leads to adopting healthier coping mechanisms that would otherwise cause mental and emotional problems.

Ways to Practice Self-Compassion
Practicing self-compassion can be difficult at first. To become better at self-compassion, it’s best to do activities like:

Pretend to be a child.
People naturally treat children with compassion and love. Therefore, people should treat themselves with the compassion they’d show a child to change their perspective and better their chances of achieving their goals.

Write a letter.
Receiving encouraging letters from loved ones usually makes the recipient feel better. To get out of a funk, it’s a good idea to write a letter from a loved one’s perspective. Over time, people that write letters to themselves make self-compassion a habit.

Meditate
In difficult times, it’s a good idea to meditate. With closed eyes, taking deep breaths while thinking of positive mantras helps improve self-compassion.

While self-compassion doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a great way to live a healthier life. Eventually, these techniques help people learn their value, which allows them to form better relationships and overcome everyday setbacks.

Understanding Your Personality for Optimal Productivity

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Flow or “the zone” is a state where a person’s physical and mental performance goes through the roof. A zone is also a place where people are absorbed in what they do, and time seems to fly. Flow is universal. People can train themselves to move into this space when certain conditions are met to make the state repeatable and reliable.Peoples’ personality contributes to their productivity. One cannot use another person’s system for productivity as personality varies from person to person. What works for one person for personal growth may not work for another. Organizations reach out to different personalities to increase productivity to find out the systems could not give them results.

Some personality traits that play an essential role in optimal productivity include a person’s risk tolerance, the openness to try new things, and whether one is introverted or extroverted. Personality traits are difficult to change as they are genetically coded.

Onboard processes for optimal performance

Curiosity, purpose, passion, mastery, and autonomy are intrinsic motivators that give room for peak performance. Curiosity, passion, and purpose are the basics of optimal performance, followed by autonomy, which is the desire to pursue purpose and passion. Mastery pushes people to become experts in what they do.

Proper alignment of intrinsic motivators takes time as it varies from person to person. While in the alignment process, people should focus on cultivating and amplifying their strengths and values to enhance their personality.

How to find one flow triggers

There are 22 flow triggers, and one needs to understand what works for them for optimal performance. Examples of flow triggers include deep embodiment and high consequences. Triggers change from time to time as people develop and strengthen their personalities.

Body and Brain Preparation for Peak Performance

Apart from focusing on triggers, people should check their physical and mental health for performance. They should ensure their energy levels are up and anxiety is in check. Eating healthy, having enough sleep, and exercising are some of the activities that enhance healthy living. Mindful meditation and performing breathwork exercises regulate emotions and lower anxiety. Take 20 to 40 minutes a day and engage in these exercises to improve overall health and flush out stress.

When people understand their personalities, work on their physical and mental health, they are assured optimal productivity in what they set to do.

The Impacts of Distance Learning on Mental Health

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Spring Semester 2020 was the last time many students were physically inside of a classroom. With on-going spikes of the Covid-19 pandemic, many institutions have had to resort to unorthodox and sometimes drastic measures to ensure the safety of the students, staff, and community. Whether in-person or distance learning, both have had substantial effects on the mental health of those involved, and neither offers an ideal substitution of what was once normal.

In many locations, distance learning has been the only option offered as communities struggle to control climbing infection rates. With much focus on the virus, the importance of students’ mental well-being seems to hardly be a pressing topic. Increased academic workloads to compensate for in-person instruction have become a typical complaint among students coupled with fewer resources and quality hands-on instruction; specifically with math and science. In addition to the coursework, isolation has been another major issue with distance learning, specifically with secondary and college-aged students. Students at this age are developing much of their identity through social interaction. During this time, they learn to work in a societal unit and form peer bonds, all of which are hindered by the current lack of peer contact. As mentioned in an article by The Higher Education, Wellness and Mental Health in 2020 Online Learning, this can cause anxiety and depression. In some rare instances, even suicides have been attributed to the isolation of distance learning.

In-person learning comes with its own set of problems. Mask mandates, solitary seating, and plexiglass desk shields are hardly part of the typical school landscape. Back to back quarantines have contributed to the feelings of isolation coupled with instructional inconsistencies as students navigate in-person and distance learning. In addition to the academic toll, extracurricular activities have also been crippled due to frequent cancellations. Missed proms, graduations, and other milestones are leaving many students resentful and angry. All of these things can be detrimental to a developing adolescent mind and have also been linked to cases of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

The long-term effects of distance learning on mental health haven’t yet fully been observed, but like past adaptations that have shaped a generation, this will also be studied and discussed in future classrooms; perhaps even virtually.

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How Nature Impacts Mental Health

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Scientific research shows that the environment can help relieve stress, which later impacts our lifestyle positively. What you are hearing, seeing, or experiencing at any moment has a significant impact on how your nervous systems, immune system, and endocrine works. An unappealing environment can cause one to feel sad, helpless, and anxious. Feeling anxious increases blood pressure, muscle tension, heartbeat and suppresses the immune system.

Regardless of one’s age, social status, or culture, we all find nature pleasing. According to a recent survey, numerous people retreat to a natural setting whenever they feel stressed.

Here are the benefits of nature on mental health.

Nature Restores

Research shows that many people’s mood improves after spending time in nature. The outside environment can change one’s mood from stressed, depressed, and anxious to more balanced and calmer. Spending time in nature is associated with psychological wellbeing, positive mood, vitality, and meaningfulness.

Frequently viewing nature scenes elevates our ability to be attentive. The reason behind this argument is because humans find nature interesting. Time in nature allows our minds to rejuvenate, refreshing us for new explorations.

Nature Soothes

Scientists have proven that nature assists humans in dealing with pain. It is argued that our minds are naturally programmed to find plants, water bodies, trees, and other natural elements attractive. Therefore, these natural elements distract us from discomfort, pain, and anxiety.

Nature Heals

It is proven that viewing nature scenes reduces stress, fear, and anger and elevates pleasant feelings. Spending time in nature enhances physical wellbeing as well as emotional wellbeing. In turn, it reduces heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and secretion of stress hormones. Research shows that even house plants can go a long way in reducing anxiety and stress.

Nature Connects

Nature can help us connect with other people. There is a large number of people who met each other when viewing nature scenes. In research conducted by the University of Illinois, people who lived in apartments with green spaces were found to care more about their neighbors, had a feeling of unity, and were more concerned about helping others than people who didn’t have trees and plants in their building. Additionally, natures equip people with the energy to deal with life demands.

Visit NHCC.us for more on New Horizon Counseling Center and Herrick Lipton!

Virtual Reality and Mental Health

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Virtual RealityWith the recent rise of augmented reality, it is only a matter of time before virtual reality becomes a regular part of daily life. It is already, for example, becoming common in behavioral health. Virtual reality is currently being utilized for treatment of several different phobias. This type of treatment is called VReality Therapy, and it is already making strides in helping people get over once-crippling fears.

The premise of VReality Therapy is exposure. Clients put on virtual reality goggles that are manipulated by a trained therapist. They are slowly exposed to their phobias in the midst of performing relaxation techniques. Meanwhile, the therapist is also recording physiological responses of the patients so patients can keep a log of their progress. This is an ongoing therapy process, meaning that several sessions are necessary, however it has been proven to reduce fear of phobias, and even to remove it entirely.

Virtual reality is effective, as writes one patient who was treated for his phobia of blood with VReality Therapy. His phobia was a real issue due to the fact that he has diabetes, and therefore must take regular blood tests. His experience was with using a Samsung Gear VR Headset in the office of a trusted therapist. The program put him a virtual doctor’s office waiting room, then, after a while, into a virtual doctor’s office, where he was prepped by a nurse. His therapist talked him through relaxation techniques as his anxiety levels rose closer to the drawing of blood. When the blood was drawn in the virtual world, the author reports being able to feel it. The experience was jarring, but the author was able to get through ten minutes of having his blood virtually drawn, thanks to the guidance from his therapist.

A fear of blood is not the only thing being treated by these virtual reality goggles and therapists, however. There are also simulations to combat fears such as that of flying, heights, needles, animals, small spaces, driving, and public speaking. VReality Therapy can also be used as a resource to help treat generalized anxiety disorder. Patients can be eased into triggering situations in an environment they know is controlled by a trusted professional. This makes them more willing to work on facing their fears, and does not put them in harm’s way in the process.

Virtual reality has broad implications for for the world of behavioral health. Not only can it be used to treat things like phobias and anxiety, it may also be a great resource for those with depression and other mental illnesses. I cannot wait to see where VReality Therapy will lead!

For more information and behavioral health news, visit the New Horizon Counseling Center website.