Business – Page 3 – Brave Publicity Ink!

Article: Productive Meetings

Posted on April 3, 2020October 9, 2021 by @bravepublicity

Is a cringe your reaction to a scheduled meeting?
If ‘Yes’, then you’ve certainly grown accustomed to attending boring, stressful and unproductive meetings and you undoubtedly don’t look forward to attending another.

If ‘No’, then some of the points we will highlight below will resonate with you as a result of your experience and attendance of great and productive meetings.

With the current world changes and the adoption of digital work places, it is now more important than ever to have effective and productive meetings.

Meetings don’t have to be unproductive and a big waste of time, resources, conversations and Energy. Meetings can indeed be an enjoyable experience. One that yield results over promises.

This goes beyond just physical meetings or board room meeting, but includes virtual and remote assemblies.

WHAT MAKES MEETINGS PRODUCTIVE?

Here are a few pointers towards productive meetings.

Have an Agenda and End Goal: The most effective meetings are those with a definite plan from the initiator. This is important because a meeting without an agenda would certainly be a waste of time. This helps shape conversations and gives room for suggestions from team members to share ideas on how to reach the end goal, project or task ahead.

Ensure The Resources Required for the Meeting Are Available: Think ahead of the meeting and what would be required to make it a success. Do you need presentation slides, projectors, microphones or an electric source to power your gadgets? Do you need a meeting place? A physical meeting room or a virtual workplace or a call app installed or an Internet source?

Do you need the services of a Food vendor or Pastry Chef for your meeting? Think of all these things ahead of time and make intentional effort to identify those required to execute successfully, especially your first meeting.

Send Out Notifications On Time and Be On Time: Early notifications help people decide if they can make a meeting or not and if they will be prompt. Emergency meetings are never the best. For crucial and longer meeting, a 48hrs notice is the least time to send out invites to all parties involved.

Never go to a meeting late.Be prompt and on time, at least 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. It shows you both value the time of the other person. Also, if you’ve initiated a meeting, be ready to receive or meet the invitees. Never let them meet you in a state of disorder. It comes off as unprofessional.

Create Room For Everyone or Key Individuals To Speak: As much as meetings can sometimes get heating with strong opinions. It is important to give room for everyone to speak, share their opinion or give valuable feedback. It shows that you respect the opinion of others, even if you may not agree with their line of thought for that specific topic of focus at the meeting.

It is also important to know when to pick up cues to speak. This involves some discretion and emotional intelligence, and it should be done with thoughtfulness, precision, assertiveness and possibly proffered resolutions. It is rude to hijack a conversation in any meeting.
Be polite by being considerate about the time and opinion of others in attendance.

Have a Defined Time Span for The Meeting: Don’t schedule a meeting for one (1) hour and then extend it by half an hour. It shows disregard for the people you’ve called for a meeting. Stick to the plan and if you must extend the time, be sure to seek the consent of those at the meeting.
Consent for extra time should however not become a habit.

It only portrays that one is unprincipled and undisciplined. People respect those who respect their time. A definite time span also helps all parties involved to walk through their diverse schedules for the day without unnecessary disruptions of their personal plans.

Outline Action Steps to be Taken from The Meeting: A short recap of the meeting with assigned tasks and action items is so important.
One needs to identify who is responsible for what (the drivers and enablers), the timeline for delivery, and possibly the resources required to make the execution of all assigned tasks easy and effective. An email note or the minutes of the meeting should be circled back at least in 48 hours, to keep everyone informed and on track.

Follow Up with Tasks: It is important to send reminders or follow up with key leads on tasks assigned. A leadership flow approach can work effectively, by following up with team leads or key drivers to get the work done.

Reconvene a Follow-up Meeting to Finalize or Discuss The End Results: Sometimes, one meeting is sufficient to get some tasks done. But in most cases, you may need a few more to tidy up details regarding an end goal or a project. In such meetings, try to identify key things achieved, improvement opportunities and what needs to be finalized.

At this stage, it is important to try not to make additional meetings a period to pull down existing plans already in motion.
This can be mentally and emotionally draining for project managers and key drivers. Some resources may also be wasted in the process. Instead, think of ways to curtail changes already in motion. Only adapt new plans that will enhance the execution process and the success of a task or end goal.

Finally, as much as we know that meetings are often for serious business, try to make them more fun and less tense. Introducing ice-breakers and sometimes small bites or food or tea breaks for longer assemblies or conferences can make meeting more relaxing and productive.
This in the long run, minimizes valid distractions like feeling hungry or the need to use the restroom or make a call.

I hope you found this article to be insightful and helpful.
Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Business, Career, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Review, Vision

Brave Review: The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership

Posted on February 25, 2020 by @bravepublicity

Leadership can be a very dicey path and can sometimes be very complex.
With a lot of believe in the many myths and assumptions of leadership.It is certainly clear that this remains an important discuss and area of focus for all people.

John C. Maxwell, a leadership expert, speaker, Coach, Author and Influencer, with over 4 decades of experience in leadership development and growth; he shares some great insight in his book, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership”.

This revised and updated version shows a depth of knowledge from one who has walked the talk, conversed with a wide array and network of diverse leaders across industries globally. Training, coaching, mentoring and grooming many leaders via his books and leadership conferences.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership is a great read, if you’re looking to improve on your leadership competency, impact and success.

The great news is, this book is for all people, not just positional or industry leaders.
Certainly a great recommendation for all who desire to have a great leadership journey and a sustainable and impact full legacy.

Article, Business, Finance, Money, Self development

Article: The Financial Pig

Posted on December 4, 2019October 9, 2021 by @bravepublicity

You are most likely to get offended when someone says to you: “You are such a pig!”. This is possibly because of the unattractive nature and habits generally associated with pigs.

The Nature of Pigs.

Pigs care less about their environment, and will happily wallow in mud and dirt. They are excited about eating all the time, anything and almost everything that comes their way, including food from dumps!
The irony about this creature is, it also happens to also be a symbol for money savings and wealth, and is easily recognized world-wide.
It is worthy to note that, the value placed on pigs is not determined by their behavioral nature, but by what can be harnessed from them.

The Value of Pigs.

From a pig, one is able to obtain hide and skin, for manufacturing costly and valuable leather products (shoes, bags, purses etc.), their hair can also be used for making brushes, their meat for making beacon, their fat for the production of cosmetic products, and even gelatin for food and non-food products like toothpaste, pizza etc.

As attractive as some of these highlighted values may seem, many people rarely indulge willingly in commercial pig farming, because of the herculean tasks it entails in rearing them. What most likely repels people the most is the smelly nature of pigs and difficulty in coping with such bad odor all day long.

So the job of rearing pigs can be a difficult one. The same applies to financial discipline or the mastery of savings.

It is worthy to note that, the bigger a pig is, the bigger the chances of harnessing much value from it. The same principle also applies to our personal finances and money management skills. The bigger our financial capacity, the bigger the investment opportunities before us.

The Piggy Bank.

Ever wondered why the pig has for a long time been an identity for petty savings items, made into boxes shaped mostly as an attractive pink or white pig item for saving some money?
The piggy bank has for a long time been a symbol for financial savings, especially one used in the home, by young children and young adults.

It represents strongly finance, especially the savings habit that one hopes to inculcate from a tender age to adulthood. So when the image or the thought of a pig comes to mind, please think again and think about how your finances are doing.

Two Kinds of Financial Managers.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to financial management, those who operate their finances based on their immediate wants and those that operate their finances in view of the future.

Those who operate their finances based on their immediate wants, splurging on whatever comes their way, without a care in the world about tomorrow. They love to live in the moment, enjoying all of their earnings and what it has to offer in that moment. They only like to think about the future, when they reach cross roads and never think to plan ahead.

Then, there are those who operate their finances in view of the future, reserving and compounding their financial spendings, for the value that will be obtained from it in the long run. They ensure that their finances are robust and ready for the harvest of great investments.

So you should ask yourself these often: Are you spending all of the resources that come your way? Or are you ensuring that your financial pig or piggy bank is well fed and robust to produce much in the days ahead, to secure a bright future, full of prospects and limitless opportunities?

Your Relationship with Money.

Maybe you don’t exactly have a great relationship with money or your finances and feel justified to splurge on things you think you need, since your earnings are really small.

Well, let’s let you in on a secret.
No matter how much you earn, if you are unable to master the art of “Savings and Investments” from very little earnings, even when you have so much more, you’ll find yourself operating your finances based on only your immediate wants.

Some Solutions.

There are a few ways to effectively manage and grow a robust financial pig and they include some of the following:

Have a Budget:

A budget helps you know how much needs to be allocated for your spendings, gifts, savings and investments. With a budget, you are able to stick to a precise amount and percentage for all of your allocations.

Track your Spendings:

With a daily or weekly budget and tracking system, it’s easy to know where your money goes and adjust accordingly, when you discover that you are going beyond your daily or weekly allocations.

Without keeping track of where your money goes, it becomes easy for your finances to grow wings or just disappear without tangible proof of what you’ve done with your money.

Simple tools like your mobile phone and applications like Microsoft-Excel can prove to be very useful for tracking. There are also numerous fee applications that are ready to use and can be accessed from some online stores, to aid financial tracking.

Have an Intentional Savings Plan:

A percentage of your earnings for savings is non-negotiable, irrespective of how small you may be earning. This is like paying yourself a percentage for all of your hard work.
This percentage should be increased over times, just as your earnings also increase. To achieve this, it may mean having a bank arrangement that enables automatic deductions of a percentage of your earnings or bars you from being able to withdraw beyond a specific amount for a period of time.

You could also put aside your savings manually, into a separate account with no easy access such as services that include: ATMs, Credit Cards or Online Banking access.
The bottom line is, ensure you intentionally grow a robust financial pig. So you can have something to fall back on for the rainy days or have something tangible for great investments opportunities that may come your way.

Make Careful Investments:

It’s not enough to grow a robust financial pig, you must find ways to multiply what you have. Just as the value of a pig lies not in being just fat and big, but in being able to harness other things from it.
The same principle applies to your saved up finances, you must find ways to make profitable trade. So do your research and make careful and wise investment.

Beware of quick money making schemes, and investment models that you do not understand. Many today have lost their hard earned money from such numerous Ponzi schemes. So do your research and ask the relevant questions before taking a plunge.

It is worthy to note that, some of the best investment opportunities are in things that appreciate over time and things that are required for or are non-negotiable for everyday living. Such as ‘land’ for real estate investments, ‘food’ etc.

In conclusion.

It’s really no coincidence that the home made piggy bank for putting aside petty cash in homes often comes designed as a pig. We hope it serves as a reminder about the value that can be obtained from the mastery of the difficult habit of financial discipline.
We also hope whenever you sight a piggy bank or an actual pig, it also serves as a subtle reminder to grow a robust financial pig and operate your finances in view of the future. Simply by mastering the art of “Savings and Investments”.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Business, Career, Leadership, Self development

Brave Review: The Rules of Management

Posted on September 10, 2019June 14, 2020 by @bravepublicity

Effective Management is an integral part of any successful career.
Whether as Top Management, Middle Management, Grass-root Leaders or a member of a Bigger Team.

One cannot hope to function effectively as an individual or professional at any level of leadership without the knowledge of effective management of time, resources, projects, people or circumstances that require a level of managerial capacity and skill.

Just as always, “Richard Templar” highlights a wide variety of actionable and effective rules applicable to the work place and personal management.

In his book “The Rules of Management”, he touches base with two core areas: Managing Your Team and Managing Yourself.
These highlighted rules not only guide you with strategies and principles that work.

They also take into consideration the role and effect of being realistic, considerate, strategic and emotionally intelligent in management.

The is indeed a very carefully crafted read, as always!
Doffing our hat to the amazing author #RichardTemplar!

The “Rules of Management” is just one book out of the many Rule books written by Richard! You may want to see our previous reviews too on his other books!

Article, Business, Career, Corporate Communications, Entrepreneurship, Public Relations, Strategy

Article: Working Virtually.

Posted on August 2, 2019October 9, 2021 by @bravepublicity

Organization and a well rested mind is key to achieving success as a virtual worker or coordinator.

Today’s jobs no longer entail just physical coordination, but also a handful of virtual responsibilities, since a lot of job roles are beginning to get more automated and entail a lot of digital tools and applications for successful operations.

For a person whose sole work entails virtual coordination or for a person who has a mix of both virtually responsibilities and physical responsibilities, some ground rules and balance have to be established in order to achieve success.

Here are seven (7) things to consider:

Structure:

Just like a physical workplace, your virtual work place also needs to be well structured to function optimally.

From the devices needed for your execution, to the resources and tools such as the internet, power supply, your work space and furniture, applications and software that are required to get the work done.

The state of all of these determines if you will experience less stress while working. If these are all in good condition, it influences and enhances the mind’s productivity and reduces the number of hitches that may be experienced.

Coordination and Prioritization:

To stay organized virtually implies good organization and coordination.

From proper naming of files to grouping of relate items or files, to effective and clear communication about tasks to your virtual team, to prioritizing on the urgent and important tasks that need to be attended to before others, etc.

When all of these are properly aligned, it enhances greatly the success and speed of execution of tasks that you may have for each day. Creating a “To-Do-List”, scheduling tasks and setting reminders for your activities will certainly help you achieve better coordination and prioritization.

Automation and Activities:

Working virtually can be a very huge task, especially when multiple minute tasks are lined up for execution daily.

Many of these monotonous tasks would be more enjoyable if they were automated.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking these things would take very little of our time, however after a while, it can become tiring, especially with others physical tasks that need our attention come our way. It is also very easy to lose interest in the monotonous ritual and we find that some crucial details in communication may become mixed up often or lost when working virtually.

All of these can be avoided when software, applications or structures that aid automation or reduces the daily stress or responsibilities are used. Some of them include cloud services such as (Google Drive, Dropbox etc.), file sharing applications (WeTransfer, Google Drive), Content automation Services (MailChimp, Hoote Suite, Buffer etc.) and any other applications that enhance your workflow virtually.

Third parties and Team work:

Having a strong and reliable team, that understands the work process, the purpose of a project, the urgency of various task and the cooperation required for execution, is very important.

It also helps greatly if the team members are equipped with the relevant hard skills for execution.

This is very important especially for rainy days, when you need the total support of the team or their assistance in getting some things done on your behalf.

To achieve this will require effective communication, sometimes training and a lot of patience as the team grows. In the long run, time with a steady team helps you understand each member, their strengths and weaknesses.
This eventually leads to the establishment of a workflow that empowers you all to work in sync without too many corrections, back and forth conversations or confusion on how to get things done virtually.

Activity follow-up:

Working virtually can many times entail multiple communication platforms and tasks with a variety of people.

As an enabler or driver of a task, it is important to do a regular follow up regarding diverse responsibilities assigned to the people you work with virtually.

This is because as humans who have other needs that require our attention daily, we sometimes forget virtual conversations that require our input or feedback.

So, it won’t hurt to do a follow up or send a subtle reminder regarding tasks and responsibilities. This way, you would be able to meet the timeline assigned to various projects or responsibilities.

Boundaries and the close of business:

It is easy to fall into the “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” trap.

Meaning, getting caught up totally in work without adequate breaks or short walks instead of long hours sitting and other self-care routines.

Many times, we find ourselves working late into the day or night and this could sometimes be a strategy for urgent projects for short periods, but the long run effect of such a work culture is “Burn-Out” and “Ineffectiveness”.

So it is important to draw the line without guilt and set some boundaries and switch off from the work mode, like you would for a physical work place. Effective virtual work requires that these rules and boundaries be adhered to achieve success.

Some of them could include: having a check-out time from work without taking work home virtually and creating a system that accommodates your lunch breaks and other rest periods as required.

Relaxation and mental health:

Sometimes working virtually or remotely can be hard and lonely, especially when your team is located in a different geographical location or if you work alone as a consultant or an entrepreneur.

This sometimes affects your motivation to keep working effectively and consistently. So a leave from work or a period of long rest is always welcomed after a long sessions of work, because it is really important to get refreshed and get the necessary rest required for the long haul.

This time off virtual work, creates room for you to bond with friends, catch up with colleagues or with other more relaxing and fun activities. This certainly is a good investment for sound health (physically and mentally) and enhances productivity at work.

In conclusion, working virtually at optimal performance can be achieved, but not without the required efforts to ensure your virtual work experience and that of your team becomes enjoyable and effective.

The above highlights are only guides that can enhance this process, however, what counts most, is being able to have clarity of purpose and establish a virtual structure that works for you, one that is sustainable and can be replicated.

Thank you for reading.