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How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader

Real-time feedback is key.

Photo: Create & Cultivate

Photo: Create & Cultivate

Being an emotionally intelligent leader means cultivating self-awareness, being able to identify your flaws, and understanding how others perceive you. As an emotionally intelligent leader, you’re transparent and speak the truth to those around you—in fact, you're the first to acknowledge your own mistakes. It also means you are perceptive and allow others to be heard first before responding—all necessary characteristics to leading a strong and productive team.

Does this sound like the kind of leader you want to be? If so, read on to find out how. Ahead, we’re sharing four tips to be an emotionally intelligent leader so you can cultivate a healthy company culture—even if you don’t have an HR department. Psst… looking for more tips for leading a team? Download The HR Bundle and discover an onboarding checklist for new employees, a template for providing performance reviews, a guide for preventing workplace bullying, and more.

Be Open to Exposing Vulnerabilities to Help Better Connect

During 1:1 meetings, focus on feedback and be very open about what you’re struggling with. Oftentimes, people try to hide that, but being open helps everyone feel a little more comfortable sharing.

Include Feelings in the Conversation, Which Can Help People Feel Heard

For example, ask “How are you feeling?” rather than, “How are you doing?” As a leader, be open to sharing when you feel frustrated or overwhelmed.

Give Employees Constant and Real-Time Feedback

After a meeting, share feedback either in person or over Slack. Make it a point to seek feedback by asking, “Do you have any feedback for me?”

Do Not Make Assumptions or Jump to Conclusions

It’s important to be curious and take an inquisitive approach. For example, ask, "Can you clarify what you meant when you said X so I can better understand your intentions?

Ready to take your company’s leadership to the next level?

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Career, Advice, Business Chelsea Evers Career, Advice, Business Chelsea Evers

The Ultimate Guide to Being a Better Manager

You’re impacting the lives of your direct reports... this is bigger than just “work.”

Photo: Becki of Smith House Photo for Create & Cultivate

Photo: Smith House Photo for Create & Cultivate

Have you ever dreamed of being in charge and then realized, “Holy crap... I’m in charge?” Maybe you finally got that promotion and now people report to you. Maybe you’ve started your side-hustle and have a gaggle of interns helping you move the dream forward. Or maybe you’ve been rocking your own business, and it’s time to hire your first few employees. Being the boss comes in all different formats, especially in our modern-day workforce.

While the structure of your team might look different than someone else’s, what makes a great manager can be understood, systematized, and executed. If you want to have a killer work culture, you’ve got to operationalize it. Every great boss understands the importance of how to manage people effectively, build teamship, and move everyone closer to a common goal. Taking the time to understand how to be a better manager will not only ensure the success of your business but will help elevate the careers and experiences of the humans working for you. You’re impacting the lives of your direct reports... this is bigger than just “work.”

If this is your first time in charge (or you want a refresher in how to be a better manager), read on—we’ve teamed up with Microsoft Teams to make sure you’re covered. Because, you’re not just a teammate now, you’re a leader and a manager. So, we’ve put together everything you need to know to make the most of management, whether it’s a team of one or a team of many! Let’s make some big things happen! Together.

Set Communication Best Practices

This might be a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed at how important it is to create best practices for how you communicate with your team, how they communicate with you, and with each other. And how you communicate is just as important. In a 2010 study by the Corporate Executive Board, they found that a culture that encourages open communication performed 270% better on long-term total shareholder return. Pretty significant. Here’s something to think about when it comes to your communication:

What mediums will you use to communicate?

Do you use email for most things or a chat platform to keep all your communication in one place? Do you manage most of your work back-and-forth on collaboration software? Do you group chat or conference call or use something specific for online meetings? Decide what types of software you will use for what types of communication, so that you can train your team in this and so that there’s some method to the madness. These collaboration tools are important for the effectiveness and efficiency of communication. And you should decide it upfront.

Pro Tip: There are so many collaboration tools out there, but what’s great about Microsoft Teams is its ability to integrate chat, project management, video conferencing, and calendaring. It’s one hub for teamwork.

What are communication on/off times?

As in, do you expect your employees to always respond, or are there general working hours that you expect timely responses within? Deciding and communicating this ahead of time will help keep everyone on the same page, and it will help determine what type of culture you have.

How should someone get in touch when things go wrong?

Make sure the people you’re managing know when and how to get in touch if they get sick or there’s a fire with a client or there’s something that needs to be communicated immediately. That way, there’ll be fewer issues where there’s an issue already.

Is your communication style effective?

Make sure you’re always giving specific due dates, clear with your expectations, and direct with your feedback. This will ensure your employees (and you!) don’t have to read between any lines. Also, rather than always telling your reports what to do, try asking specific questions to see if they can get to their own wisdom and strategy themselves (without you having to tell them).

Be a Master of Great Meetings

While meetings are the bane of many people’s existence, they don’t have to be. You simply need to be intentional and cognizant of what your meeting strategy is before you go into leading a team. Think about what the word meeting even means—the coming together of two or more people by arrangement—so you can make the most of them. In order to determine how you’ll best manage, ask yourself these questions and plan your meetings accordingly:

When will you meet (together as a team and 1:1 with your reports)?

It’s best to determine a meeting cadence for individual meetings and for team meetings. It’s likely that these are each weekly, but sometimes even twice-weekly, or every other week, depending on the nature of your work, your team structure, and the projects at hand. Great managers decide this cadence upfront, have a meeting planner, book the time on calendars so there’s a hold, and stick to the schedule (barring extenuating circumstances).

How do you meet?

Decide and communicate if meetings are held by default in person (post-COVID, of course), over the phone, or via online meetings. Making sure everyone knows what type of remote or IRL culture you have is necessary. If you’re doing a phone or online meeting, ensure your team knows the technology you expect to use when and if people are remote.

What is your meeting format?

Having a format for both your 1:1s and your team meetings will create consistency and an understanding of what everyone should expect to come with, to be prepared for, and what to share. If you want some cool ideas for group and 1:1 formats, do a little research and you’ll find great ideas like these!

Pro Tip: Videoconferencing and online meetings are easy with Microsoft Teams. Up to 250 people can join per meeting from your computer, phone, or tablet.

Figure Out What Makes Each Teammate Tick

If you want to experience the flow and productivity of true teamwork, you’ve got to understand the different personalities on your team. You can’t manage each person the exact same way (well, you can but it may not work out so great). In a survey of 80,000 managers conducted by the Gallup Organization, the single quality that made managers better than others was their ability to know what made the people on their team unique and how to capitalize on that. You can ask yourself these questions to help figure that out and have better team collaboration:

What motivates them?

Do they like external recognition, words of affirmation, meaningful work, quiet appreciation, continuous feedback, or maybe nothing at all? Pay attention and you’ll find clues, otherwise have a discussion about it. Ask!

What type of personality are they?

There are so many tests out there to help you better understand the individuals on your team. Whether that’s Clifton StrengthsFinder, or the MyersBriggs, or DISC assessment, it may be worth having everyone on your team take the same test so you know what makes each of you unique (and you can determine how to better manage them with that information).

Photo: mentatdgt from Pexels

Photo: mentatdgt from Pexels

Operationalize Your Goals

The point of a team isn’t for each person to play the exact same position. The point is to differentiate what the strengths, weaknesses, priorities, and goals are of your team. Each individual needs to understand not only what the biggest goal of your team is as a whole, but what their individual goal is and how that ladders into your big vision. You as a boss have to determine what your team’s north star is, and what each individual person is expected to prioritize on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis in order to get there. (And in some cases, your team’s north star maybe be one decided by higherup powers that be.) Figure out if you’ve done the following…

Have you decided and communicated the goals and priorities of your team?

These priorities should ladder into the overall goals of your business. Your team needs to know where they are at, both at an operational level and a vision level. And don’t forget, if you’re not delegating the work to your team, you’re probably not able to get the really big things done. You’re just one person!

Does each person know what their overall priorities are for their role, and thus how to prioritize?

The Create & Cultivate team uses an amazing system for understanding and communicating their priorities to each other called “Hot Lists” where each manager requires their reports to send what their top priorities are each day with what they’re working on and general updates. As a manager, this gives you direct transparency into what your team is working on without having to micromanage and constantly ask or wonder. You could even communicate these hot lists in chat groups if you wanted.

Are you measuring?

As they say...they don’t respect what you don’t inspect... so make sure you have a system for measuring the progress you’re making with these priorities and goals, both at an individual and team level. A great book for the process and execution of this is “Traction” by Gino Wickman.

And...Lighten Up!

When you become the boss, you not only have the chance to be an incredible leader who impacts the people around you and influences the direction of a vision, but you get to make people feel valuable. If you can create a positive environment for your team, you’re literally contributing to their health (according to a huge study that showed the link between leadership behavior and heart disease. AKA, if you cause people stress, you’re causing them health problems). So have fun with your newly found bossdom. There are a few ways you can contribute to the good vibes of your team, that not only improve morale but make those working for you feel seen. Here are a few things to reflect on to lighten up the mood:

What small things will improve employee morale?

Maybe it’s having everyone’s birthday on the calendar so you can embarrass them with your terrible (or amazing) vocal abilities, or a team chat where you get to instant message funny things throughout the week that don’t have to be work-related.

Do you have an employee recognition system?

Find something that might work for you and your culture and your budgets. Recognition doesn’t have to be grand, it just has to be sincere. Here are some cool ideas if you’re looking!

Can you provide professional development?

Even if you don’t have budgets for killer conferences like C&C or expensive trainings with executive coaches, providing a great book or audible credits could go a long way.

Can you create fun offsites?

Sometimes we all just need a change of scenery. Maybe you tell everyone to meet you at the local Farmer’s Market, or you do a working team lunch by the water, whatever you choose... find meaningful ways to change it up. Sometimes, it’s just what’s needed to solve a hard problem together.

This is NOT everything you need to know about managing a team (not even close!), but hopefully, it’ll be a great place for you to start. Because everything gets better when we don’t try and go at it alone. That’s how you can make some seriously big magic come to life in your career...with a team!

About the Author: Maxie McCoy is a writer and speaker obsessed with giving women the tools they need to believe in themselves. Her book, “You're Not Lost: An Inspired Action Plan for Finding Your Own Way,” is one of the top motivational guides for professional women and is carried at Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, and everywhere books are sold. Maxie specializes in creating meaningful offline experiences that provide practical action in workshop and group formats. She's worked with top brands, conferences, and companies to create original events that engage their target audiences both online and off. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America, TheSkimm, Forbes, Fortune, INC, Bustle, Business Insider, MyDomaine, Women’s Health, Marie Claire, Billboard, CNN, and many more as an expert in women’s leadership.

We’d love to know: What are your best tips for being a great manager? Let us know in the comments below.

This story was originally published on March 28, 2019, and has since been updated.

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Business, Profiles, Q+A Chelsea Evers Business, Profiles, Q+A Chelsea Evers

This Skincare Line Founder Shares How She Stays Innovative After 35 Years In The Business

“We do not rest on yesterday’s successes.”

Skincare is having a moment. The industry that’s poised to reach $177 billion by 2024 is growing exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. But in a world where we’re inundated with product after product on social media, we wondered: How is it possible to stand out among millions of other products that promise to tone, tighten, and brighten better than the next? We sat down with Sandie Tillotson, who cofounded skincare company Nu Skin more than three decades ago, to find out.

How did you originally envision your career? Did you always want to work in beauty?

As a young girl, I wanted to be a teacher. I went on to receive a degree in physical science and a teaching certificate from Brigham Young University. I was married with two small children and had been substitute teaching elementary school classes when I was approached by my mother-in-law. She had used a product she loved that helped her lose a lot of weight and asked me to help her sell it through a direct sales channel. It was at this time that I discovered my entrepreneurial spirit, and I experienced tremendous success as a distributor for that company. Unfortunately, the company later filed for bankruptcy, and I was suddenly unemployed.

But I knew the power of direct selling and believed that skin care was a perfect fit for direct sales. At the time, skin care products on the market were loaded with mineral oils and other harmful ingredients and fillers, and our little group of founders set out to create a new line of products with all of the good ingredients and none of the bad. We created a list of innovative ingredients and hired a formulation expert to create products using only beneficial ingredients. Many told us that it would be too expensive and that we would not be successful, but people loved our products, and we’re still going strong nearly 35 years later.

What was the moment you learned the beauty industry was the right fit for you?

I knew we had something special the day we ran out of product bottles. In the early days, our product came from the manufacturer in bulk, and we packaged it ourselves. It was so effective, it became difficult to keep up with the demand. While we waited for our next bottle order to arrive, our customers started bringing their own containers so they could get our fabulous products without delay. They brought whatever they had—baby food jars, plastic packages, whatever worked—and we carefully measured out product into those containers so we could meet their needs. We knew we were onto something exciting.

Your biography mentions that you’ve done a lot of philanthropic work. What have these efforts taught you as a business owner and leader?

I believe that not only are we the happiest in life, but we are also at our best, when we are “motivated by love.” Great things happen when we are focused on helping others rather than making money. Together, my business partners and I embraced this philosophy, and we infused it throughout the company we created. We wanted to help others be successful professionally so that they could use that success to help improve the lives of others around them. Helping others makes the work we do and the success we find that much more fun and rewarding.

One of the things we did early on was establish the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation – with Nu Skin covering all the operating costs of the Foundation. This was important to us because when someone donates, they know that 100 percent of their donation is going to help improve the lives of children around the world.   

What are some key characteristics in your opinion that make female business owners successful?

I believe we each have our own talents and gifts that we bring to everything we do. It is up to us to discover what our strengths are, and then to use them to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. When I became a mother, I learned how important it was to nurture and care for others. I found that for me, loving others and giving of myself without expecting return – in my home and in my professional interactions – was the best way I could care for others. At the same time, we need to know when to separate emotions from business decisions. Do not take things that happen in business personally, but learn how to separate and handle them without letting it affect you emotionally.

What’s the key to maintaining relevance and encouraging growth after so many years in business?

At Nu Skin, creation and innovation are central to everything we do. We do not rest on yesterday’s successes, but instead look to the future and what we can offer next. In fact, in our last earnings release, we reported our fourth consecutive quarter with revenue growth of 20 percent or more. How many 35-year-old, multi-billion dollar companies can say that? This is a tribute to the great team of people we have – both our employees and teams – who are connected by a common cause of being a force for good in the world and together have created a great environment for both company and individual growth and development.

What makes Nu Skin stand out from its competitors in a crowded space?

While we have developed products that are proven to work and that people love, our real differentiator is our culture of empowering people to improve lives. Over the past 35 years we have built a worldwide sales force who are successfully sharing our products and opportunity through social media. This “force for good” philosophy, coupled with our dedication to helping people to discover their best selves, are what make us unique.

Just yesterday, I received a video message from a woman who through tears shared how grateful she was that she wouldn’t have to work this Christmas and could enjoy the time with her family. Nu Skin not only allows her to set her own schedule, but through her Nu Skin business she has been able to purchase food and gifts to share with others this Christmas. She was thanking me, but I reminded her that she was the one who did this for herself and her family through her sharing and caring for others.  

With an emphasis on all things digital, how has the company structure changed in recent years?

The digital age has made it possible for people to get the word out about our products faster, easier and to more people than ever before. Technology helps our sales leaders be more efficient and successful but doesn’t take the place of a personal connection. People use our products and join our global family because of personal relationships and recommendations based on trust. And at the end of the day, every person wants to know that you care for and are there for them.

Where do you see the beauty industry heading in the future?

As is the case with almost any industry right now, the beauty industry is changing rapidly. Right now, we are seeing a huge demand for in-home beauty devices that deliver spa-like results. Technology is enabling people to understand their unique skin care needs and discover more personalized regimens. Innovation is always on our minds, and we are constantly improving our products and looking for additional products our customers want and need.  As science discovers new ingredients and technology offers us new products to share, we will embrace those innovations and develop new strategies to share with our Nu Skin family.

You’re known for creating a unique global marketing plan. Any tips or insights you can share with our readers who are looking for ways to market their businesses internationally?

Even as we were just starting our business, we had the hope of expanding globally—we even named our new business Nu Skin International to reflect that thinking. The first market we expanded to was Canada, and even with the proximity and similarities to the United States, we needed to work with a different currency and label our products in two languages. Fast forward to today and we have expanded to nearly 50 markets.

Our goal in each new market has been to establish a reputation as a solid corporate citizen and industry leader. We do this by working closely with local government officials and building trust with our sales leaders and customers by keeping our promises. It is this trust that allows us to grow and continue to be successful.

Along the way, we have made mistakes and learned valuable lessons. One of the most important questions we would always ask ourselves, and still do, before expanding into any market is whether we have the cash and other resources necessary to properly support the market. If we don’t, we don’t open the market until we are ready.

How do you stay current and up-to-date on the latest trends in the business world?

I’m both a businesswoman and a person who loves to learn.  As I’m traveling the world, I constantly look at countries, cultures and customers through the lens of a business owner.  Everywhere I go, I search for trends and product ideas that will delight and improve the lives of our customers. I also get invaluable advice from my children, grandchildren and our global family of leaders who keep me in touch with current health, beauty and social media trends. What would we do without our amazing millennials?

It’s Monday morning and your schedule for the day is packed. What are the first things you do to prepare for the day?

My day always begins with a Facial Spa treatment to wake up my skin. It feels incredible! I follow that with a shower where I use my LumiSpa, Liquid Body Bar and, depending on time, some of our other great Nu Skin shower products. After breakfast I take my LifePak and other daily Pharmanex supplements I love. The other day, I counted the number of Nu Skin products I use before I walk out the door every day and got to 40. I guess you could say that I’m a “product of the product!”

What is one skincare product you can’t live without?

When the airlines lost my luggage for three days, I missed everything! But I learned that my health and beauty “must haves,” were Pharmanex LifePak vitamin supplements, Nu Skin 180 Face Wash and our ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra moisturizer. Lucky for me, I was attending a Nu Skin event and plenty of people were there who were motivated by love to share their supply with me!

What’s your go-to song to sing in the shower?

I’m not much of a shower singer, but anyone who knows me will tell you I absolutely love music. I listen to and enjoy all genres of great music and have an extensive collection of playlists. One of my favorites is a playlist I’ve been compiling of songs that empower women. When I listen to these songs, I’m inspired to believe in myself and do my very best in everything I do. Here’s the link.

Enjoy, and feel the power you have to change your life and change the world!



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