Tag Archives: success

Business Advice, News

How to overcome self-doubt and show your true potential in the workplace

By Aine O’Neill, Toastmasters International

In business as in other areas of life we can have moments of self-doubt. At such moments your soundtrack should include, “Give me one moment in time, When I’m more than I thought I could be, sung fabulously by Whitney Houston.

Perhaps you’ve experienced moments like this. Moments where you were able to use your talents at work, and your true inner potential became visible.

I’ve certainly have a few examples: coming from behind to win a karaoke competition at an office event, managing to land on solid ground at the end a paraglide up in the Austrian Alps, and years earlier taking over a key role in a school play the day before the first big performance.

After each of these events various people said the exact same thing to me;

“I had no idea you had it in you!”

What struck me here is that I did know I had it in me. The challenge I’d been given had reached inside and pulled my ability out for the world to see. The genuine expression of surprise got me thinking that many of us could tragically live without showing our inner talents simply because we lacked chances to shine or weren’t brave enough to reveal them to the world.

So, why hadn’t others seen this side of me before these occasions? When judging others, we ask ourselves if they fit our version of normality, do they act, speak, dress and behave as we think they should? We make a split-second decision and categorise them accordingly. This judgement is mirrored onto our peers and consequently our version of ourselves is made up of a mix of who we think we are and who others think we are. This can result in us limiting what we put out to the world.

What do we need to change this perception?

As adults in the business world, it is important for us to recognise that to have any chance at changing this perception, and tapping into our inner potential we need two things: opportunity and bravery.

External

Opportunity comes from an external source, unexpectantly. We may be caught on the hop or feel unprepared to take them on. The moment to seize the opportunity could pass us by leaving us with feelings of frustration and regret.

Internal

The big obstacle most people face when deciding to accept an opportunity is self-doubt. So how can you overcome this and allow your true potential to come to the fore? The solution lies in garnering inner strength so that you do bite the bullet and go for it. This is the second ingredient in the equation.

To this end it is worth remembering that our feelings can trace a pattern during the precious moments that Whitney Houston sang about so memorably and powerfully. When you are attracted to an opportunity hope and enthusiasm will be the frontrunners. Self-doubt, however, is never far behind, stifling any courage that was beginning to surface. What is needed is to hold your nerve until you are through this somewhat unpleasant pattern of feelings.

The following steps may help to accept challenges that come our way

  • Ask yourself whether it’s fear of failure or success that is really playing on your mind.
  • Take time to visualise a successful outcome, and the benefits that this event, project, new job or new business could lead to. How will your self-image improve as a result?
  • Be brave enough to give the opportunity a go. It might not turn out as you anticipate but you’ll learn something in the process, and you’ve feel better for having tried.
  • Keep a notebook of how you are feeling during the initial period of a new role. You will notice the pattern; the emergence of unease and self-doubt, gradually giving way to a more familiar experience. You can make use of this when taking on future opportunities.
  • Build on any positive experiences you have had in the past, no matter how small. List any struggles you had and how you overcame them. Note down how you mastered those tasks.
  • When building confidence start small. You don’t have to set up a new company or take on the world to begin with. Volunteering at a local event such as parkrun can help garner inner strength in a low-risk environment where you will get support and encouragement.
  • Learn from famous people do you admire in the world or business or sport or other areas of life. Read their autobiographies and learn from how they overcame challenges.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aine O’Neill is a member of Toastmasters International, a not-for-profit organisation that has provided communication and leadership skills since 1924 through a worldwide network of clubs. There are more than 400 clubs and 10,000 members in the UK and Ireland. Members follow a structured educational programme to gain skills and confidence in public and impromptu speaking, chairing meetings and time management. To find your nearest club, visit www.toastmasters.org

News

Business failures can be predicted from online ratings

Whether or not a business is doomed to fail can now be predicted by a new model from academics at the University of Cologne, LMU Munich, and ETH Zurich.

The model, presented by Professor Markus Weinmann and his co-authors Christof Naumzik and Professor Stefan Feuerriegel, uses restaurants’ online ratings to detect business failures with an accuracy of over 78 percent.

Using over 64,000 ratings of restaurants, the model estimates their hidden states—‘well-running’, ‘bad ratings but running’, and ‘at risk’—and links it to their likelihood of failure.

Restaurants from the ‘well-running’ state display mostly positive experiences, whereas those from the ‘bad ratings but running’ state highlights consisted issues regarding customer satisfaction, yet remain in business due to certain factors such as long opening hours, location, and drive-through service. Examples of this include McDonalds and Burger King.

Those restaurants ending up in the ‘at risk’ state have highly dispersed ratings—ranging from very positive to negative—thus reveal that customer satisfaction is subject to considerable variance. These restaurants have a failure probability that is twice as high compared to other states.

“Using mere online ratings, we were able to detect 7 out of 10 failures, even several months ahead. This gives restaurant managers enough time to provide countermeasures in time,” says Professor Weinmann.

By categorising businesses, the model is able to predict which businesses are likely to fail months in advance, and could prevent such event happening.

Those businesses that transition into the ‘at risk’ category, are largely as a result of service performance issues that, if they persist in the long run, are likely to lead to business failure.

The researchers say that this model would assist marketers in monitoring customer satisfaction and offer a data-driven tool that provides early warnings of impending business failures.

The research was published in the journal Marketing Science.

News

The joy of flex: Bolton energy firm celebrates success of letting staff work anywhere, anytime

Energy retailer Love Energy Savings is booming after giving its staff the ultimate freedom to set their own work location and working hours.

The new policy – dubbed flexible flexible – was introduced in the summer in response to the changing nature of work post pandemic.

And in the three months since, Love Energy Savings has seen its intake of new job applicants rise by 250 per cent.

More than two thirds of these new workers live more than a 12 mile radius away from Love Energy Savings’ HQ in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Before ‘flexible flexible’ that number was 79 per cent of staff living inside a 12 mile radius of the office.

The numbers of new starters leaving the business has also dropped by more than 60 per cent since the policy was introduced.

Being able to ‘flex’ when it comes to working hours and where you work from is appealing to people as they settle to new lifestyles following the disruptions of Covid.

Rosie Macdonald, from Leeds, started with Love Energy Savings last year as a Digital PR Specialist. She says: “Like so many people, I got a puppy in lockdown – a cute Red Setter called Chester – but I wouldn’t be able to look after him properly if I had a commute and regular office hours to factor in.

“It’s fantastic that I’m able to walk Chester every day during the day and get out in the fresh air. In terms of my wellbeing, I’ve massively felt the benefits.

“Work-wise too, I’m more productive, alert for longer and doing my best work. I’ve never worked anywhere like this, where you are trusted to this level to work independently. It makes me feel so loyal to the company.”

Linda Heslop has had a similar experience since joining the company in September. The Conversion Rate Optimisation Specialist says: “I live in Folkestone, Kent, so commuting to Bolton would have been a non-starter.

“Remote working never appealed to me before the pandemic and even in the early days of lockdown at my previous job, I struggled to switch off. However, it’s very different here.

“I feel as included as if I was in the office thanks to the way we work. It’s a great mix of group meetings and one to ones that allow our personalities to come across while being really clear about what we need to get done.

“I couldn’t be happier with it. I’m planning to visit the head office in Bolton before Christmas, which will be great to see people in real life and strengthen those relationships even more.”

This is the latest innovation to have had a positive impact on Love Energy Savings staff. The firm was hailed earlier in 2021 for reducing emails in favour of Instagram and WhatsApp – in a bid to engage better with its predominantly under 30 workforce.

CEO of Love Energy Savings, Phil Foster, says: “We knew that the 9-5 office routine was broken – and now we have the proof.

“Our new colleagues are working smarter, achieving the work/life balance they want and flexible flexible is here to stay.

“It suits our colleagues, it suits our customers to have access to more of our staff outside of conventional business hours, and that’s a win/win for the business.”

News

Globalization Partners on track to meet customer and revenue goals

Company ramps up hiring to 150 internal employees per month to meet market demand 

 

Globalization Partners, which simplifies global remote team building by making it fast and easy for companies to hire anyone, anywhere within minutes via its SaaS global Employer of Record (EOR) solution, today announced that at just nearly halfway into 2021, it is already on track to meet its forecasted 2021 new customer acquisition goal by 130 percent and similarly exceed its original revenue projections.    

 

The company’s dramatic growth reflects the demand for high-quality, scalable, global remote work solutions in a business environment that has quickly shifted towards a “remote-first” work culture. Globalization Partners is reporting record-breaking results with an upwards revised financial forecast of more than USD$1 billion dollars in annualised recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of 2021. To accelerate even beyond this unprecedented growth, the company is currently working to dramatically increase capacity, and capitalise further on its market leading position in what industry experts call a trillion-dollar remote work industry. 

 

At the onset of 2021, Globalization Partners planned to hire 300 new employees over the course of the year. Now, the company is upgrading that initial projection to 150 internal employees per month in the second half of 2021 and beyond, while maintaining its commitment to customers by ensuring a continued 97 percent customer satisfaction rating. 

 

“The pandemic proved global remote teams are the way of the future and companies increasingly want to hire great talent anywhere they can find it,” said Nicole Sahin, CEO and Founder, Globalization Partners. “We have built a legally compliant SaaS global Employer of Record platform that gives anyone the ability to hire great talent anywhere within minutes without establishing subsidiaries. Companies are turning to us because they know they can trust the quality of our world-class platform and exceptional customer support team to support their global remote workforce.” 

 

“Remote working has become a trillion-dollar industry, and in less than a decade, 50 percent of the western workforce will be permanently remote,” said Liam Martin, Co-Founder, Running Remote. “The Employer of Record industry will provide the framework for the global workforce of the future as it gives companies the freedom to hire talent anywhere and the ability to manage payroll internationally for their teams.” 

 

Strong Q1 Results

 

The following metrics highlight record-breaking results: 

 

  • Exceptional ARR growth: Globalization Partners achieved 50 percent increase YoY (Q1/Q1) in ARR between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021.
  • Rapid customer growth: Globalization Partners saw a 150 percent increase YoY (Q1/Q1) in the number of new customers acquired, with rapid adoption in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific regions. 
  • Success with partners:  Key companies in the HCM space have chosen Globalization Partners as their key partner with fully integrated APIs, solidifying Globalization Partners’ position as the leader in the global remote work technology industry. 

 

“Globalization Partners’ impressive growth is a direct result of the agility and value its technology-enabled Employer of Record platform continues to provide for multinational firms,” said Pete Tiliakos, Principal Analyst, NelsonHall.  “Its vision, commitment, and steady investments to further innovate and de-risk global expansion have positioned it well for sustained growth by meeting the needs of emerging firms seeking to support a growing global workforce.”

 

As an EOR, Globalization Partners allows companies to hire anywhere in the world by serving as the legal employer, ensuring compliance with local employment laws and regulations, freeing up companies to manage and direct the daily work of their team members. To see a demonstration, please watch this video. 

Business Research, News

Claiming to be patriotic can improve a company’s performance

Companies that operate on a national level can boost their success by stressing their contribution to national interests, according to new research by Vienna University of Economics and Business.

The research, conducted by Professors Alexander Mohr and Christian Schumacker, found that companies which emphasized their commitment to act in line with the national interest perform better under certain conditions.

This is because nationalist sentiment can affect the employee’s identification and motivation to work for the firm, as well as consumers’ willingness to buy a firm’s products and services.
The researchers analysed corporate communications using statements made by the CEOs of US firms during 20,458 conference calls with investors and analysts, and looked at 12,260 press releases issued by these companies in the period from 2002 to 2015.

“From what we can see, strong populist sentiment in a firm’s home country can lead governments, consumers, and employees to expect a stronger commitment to national interests on the part of the company. Companies are rewarded by these groups if they claim to live up to this commitment. In contrast, a lack of patriotism might be sanctioned, governments might cancel tax discounts, employees might quit their jobs, and consumers might boycott companies’ products and services,” says Professor Mohr.

However, the results also show that the use of patriotic rhetoric has negative effects on performance for companies that depend strongly on foreign markets.
These firms are rewarded in their home markets but, at the same time, might be sanctioned by governments, consumers, and employees in other countries.

“Under certain circumstances, catering to nationalism and populism may be beneficial for firm’s operation mainly in the domestic market, but we see that this strategy backfires for companies with significant operations abroad, for instance export activities or international branch locations,” Professor Mohr adds.

The research was published in the journal Strategy Science.