Who Needs Email?

New post from Bevans Branham

A recent article with Entrepreneur.com explored the idea of going an entire year without using email. According to the story, Claire Burge, the owner of Get Organized, wanted to free herself from the burden and anxiety of responding to, and writing daily emails.

As most of us know, email has worked wonders in making our daily work lives easier and more manageable. Email is a brilliant tool that has helped organize our lives for years now, however, data is beginning to support the idea that email can get in the way of our productivity. It makes sense, too. If you consider how often we are checking emails on an hourly basis, you begin to realize how this time adds up. More importantly you begin to realize how you can better spend that time.

There are reports which show that email can even be bad for our health. According to these reports, it causes increased levels of stress and anxiety. Loughborough University conducted a study in 2013 to analyze the effect of email activity on blood pressure, heart rate and stress. They found that 83% of government employees did in fact experience higher levels of stress, blood pressure, and heart rate.

We now find ourselves dancing a fine line between maximizing organization and acting in the best interest of our health. As mentioned above, Get Organized owner Claire Burge was motivated to eliminate this unwanted stress and ultimately decided to rid herself of email for an entire year. According to Burge, email is a waste of time. As a result of being email free, Burge found herself to be more productive and could dedicate more time to propelling her business to the next level.

The Entrepreneur article provides a more in depth of analysis of Claire Burge’s year without email. The idea does beg the question, do we really need email? Can I really do more without email? There is no doubt that it helps organize our lives, both personally and professionally, but the thought of action and doing far outweighs the process of mindlessly checking emails. Perhaps this is an exercise we should all put into practice to some extent.

via Bevans Branham http://ift.tt/1wIgO2j

via Bevans Branham Click Here

Employee Motivation

Bevans Branham’s Newest Blog Post:

There are many factors in business today which can harm your company or your brand. It is important to ensure one of these variables is not a lack of employee motivation. If your team is suffering and unmotivated, then odds are you have a big issue. In order to keep employees happy and motivated, make sure the workplace avoids some of the following common morale killers.

It should be understood that employees need to placed in an opportunity to learn, grow, and advance. While not every employee longs for this, most are aiming high and expect to grow in their roles. Without development, employees can become discouraged and the workplace will suffer as it grows monotonous and static. Putting your employees career first and providing them an opportunity to develop themselves professionally will yield major results. This lets everyone know that the company is investing in them.

Recognizing an employee’s efforts also goes a long way. An employee who feels their ideas are not appreciated can often find themselves not trying as hard, because why should they? If hard work goes unappreciated, people grow apathetic. Even saying “thank you” can go a long way. This particular scenario should be an easy fix. Sometimes it is a result of poor management or just flat out bad leadership overall. A poor manager can harm an entire team, which hurts the company. The brightest and best performers need effective leaders to truly excel. Identify and position your best leaders at the top, and do it as soon as possible.

Identifying leaders is only one side of this equation. Be sure to identify the underperforming or destructive employees. A bad hire can wear on employee morale just as much as other factors. If you can identify a negative employee who you feel brings everyone else down, then you need to make the proper moves to protect your team. Let them go or find them a better fitting position.

By identifying these factors, you are portraying to your team that leadership has a clear vision of who they want, what they want, and where they are going. It communicates to your staff they are in the right hands. A clear vision allows employees to focus as one and move in the same direction. This results in confidence, higher morale, motivation, and overall team happiness.

And finally, hire people who are better and smarter than you.

via Bevans Branham http://ift.tt/1EgGk0E

via Bevans Branham Click Here