Injecting creativity into the company's DNA

Fostering a culture of creativity is not just a requirement for advertising agencies or art-related ventures. Any company can benefit from having a creative and innovative team, no matter what industry it's in, because these characteristics extend beyond having artistic skill into having the ability to come up with unique and inventive solutions to problems.

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To motivate more creative thought, leaders should be open to their team about the company's goals and how each member contributes to achieving these objectives. When employees see the bigger picture and are made aware of how they fit into the puzzle, they can be emboldened to actively think of ways to help the company reach its objectives instead of just waiting for orders. Meeting up with the team regularly and being open to suggestions and really executing good ones encourages members to become innovative.

That said, giving the opportunity to be creative may mean that team members need time to explore the solutions they want to propose. If an employee wants to work on a project or look into a means of streamlining processes that may benefit the company, leaders should consider allowing them some time to fine-tune these, especially if these can prove advantageous to the business in the long run. These may not always succeed, and in those cases it can serve as a learning experience for everyone but if it does succeed, everyone can reap rewards.

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Finally, essential to making creativity a part of the company's DNA is to create a workspace that inspires employees. Instead of keeping employees in claustrophobia-inducing cubicles, consider a beautiful, well-lit open space that encourages creativity and collaboration. Some companies have well-stocked pantries, freedom walls, and even lounges to reinvigorate team members when they feel like they're burning out. After all, when employees are happy to go to work, their creative juices get running, and they can do great things.

Emile Haddad of Seattle is business coach who believes that creativity, leadership, and accountability are essential to a company's success. Visit this blog for more insights on entrepreneurial success.

REPOST: 25 Entrepreneurs on Work Ethic and Passion

Successful entrepreneurs have gone through very difficult situations before they bagged all the marbles. The following are uplifting quotations from some of the most established businessmen in history to help careerists achieve similar success.

If there is one statement entrepreneurs hear heard time and time again it is that they are going to fail. That may sound extremely pessimistic, but there is quite a bit of truth in that statement.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, approximately half of all small businesses fail within the first five years. In addition, the National Federation of Independent Business’ Education Foundation estimated “that over the lifetime of a business, 39% are profitable, 30% break even, and 30% lose money.”


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Of course, that doesn’t mean you should give-up on your dreams. As any entrepreneur will inform you, failure is a part of the journey. It’s just a speed bump on the road to success. That’s why most entrepreneurs willingly put in an insane amount of hours each week without receiving a hefty paycheck (at least to begin with). They do it because they are driven by passion, not money.

Since being an entrepreneur has it’s fair share of highs and lows, sometimes you need a little inspiration during those moments when all hope seems lost. Those are the times that you should turn to some of the greatest entrepreneurial minds to offer a much-deserved pep talk to remind you that all of your hard work and dedication is worth the fight.

Without further ado here are uplifting quotes, in no particular order, from 25 entrepreneurs on work ethic and passion:

1. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple

2. “Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.” – Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group

3. “Anything can be done, as long as you truly believe it.” – Ashley Qualls, Founder of WhateverLife.com

4. “We led with our conviction rather than rational, because rational said it was impossible.” – Daniel Ek, Founder of Spotify

5. “Nothing worth having comes easy. Relationships (of all kinds) take work. Customers take work. Building a team takes work. If it’s easy, it’s often not worth having and almost never a competitive advantage.” – Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz

6. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.” – Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

7. “One can steal ideas, but no one can steal execution or passion.” – Timothy Ferriss, Author of “The 4-Hour Workweek”

8. “Live your passion. What does that mean, anyway? It means that when you get up for work every morning, every single morning, you are pumped because you get to talk about or work with or do the thing that interests you the most in the world. You don’t live for vacations because you don’t need a break from what you’re doing—working, playing, and relaxing are one and the same. You don’t even pay attention to how many hours you’re working because to you, it’s not really work. You’re making money, but you’d do whatever it is you’re doing for free.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, Co-founder/CEO of VaynerMedia

9. “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.” – Pierre Omidyar, Founder/Chairman of eBay

10. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney, Co-founder of Walt Disney

11. “Every single person I know who is successful at what they do is successful because they love doing it.” – Joe Penna, Creator of MysteryGuitarMan

12. “The first thing is to have a vision that’s meaningful to both employees and customers. For Zappos it’s about customer service. You need to be truly passionate about your business. The goal shouldn’t be just to make money; I think you need to figure out something you would do even if you didn’t make any money from it. You’re going to have hard times growing your business, and if you’re passionate about it, that’s what’s going to get you through those hard times.” - Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

13. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder/CEO of Facebook

14. “You must fall in love with what you do, because being an entrepreneur is a lot of hard work, and overcoming a lot of adversity. From that love will come the dedication that will get you out of bed at 4 a.m. because of a great idea you just had and get you to work till 11 p.m. and not feel tired.” – Ken Field, real estate magnate

15. “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” – Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder of Alltop

16. “Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that… you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.” – Elon Musk, CEO/CTO of SpaceX & CEO of Tesla Motors

17. “Find your one thing and do that one thing better than anyone else.” – Jason Goldberg, Founder of Fab

18. “A mediocre idea that guarantees enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.” – Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.

19. “We were working at Odeo, but we weren’t as passionate about the podcasting service as we should have been. We weren’t using it, and that was a problem. Twitter got started because Ev gave us some freedom to think along different lines.” – Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter & Jelly

20. “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” – Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft

21. “In my experience, there’s only one thing that will always steer you toward success: That’s to have a vision and to stick with it… Once I have a vision for a new venture, I’m going to ride that vision until the wheels come off. There are always going to bumps in the road, but I try not to let them faze me.” – Russell Simmons, Co-founder of Def Jam & Phat Farm

22. “I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” – Jake Nickell, Co-founder/CEO of Threadless

23. “Don’t get caught up in how many hours you work. Judge success based on having goals and measuring your results. Hard work, and lots of it, is certainly needed, but focus on what you get done. What do you need to do to deliver for your client? To land the next customer? To expand within your customers? . . . .” – Mark Cuban, Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, Chairman of AXS TV, & Owner of Landmark Theaters

24. “With every obstacle that has happened to me in my life, my brain immediately says, ‘Where is the hidden blessing?’ In starting a business and growing a business, every day is learning how to manage obstacles.” - Sara Blakely, Founder of SPANX

25. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford, Founder of the Ford Motor Company

If you’re an entrepreneur, what are some of your favorite quotes involving work ethic and passion?

Emile Haddad is a Seattle, Washington-based business coach who has taught many professionals the skills they need to achieve success. For more on his accomplishments, click here.

Age of innocence and innovation: Not every work day is marked by brilliance

Multiple sectors are on a high with innovation, naturally because it is the best way to secure long-term business viability. Moreover, innovation nowadays is coming around to an overarching intention of promoting public good. Green technology is on the rise to allay anxieties about climate change and environmental degradation. Medicine, in particular, has an inherent breakneck R&D mandate to defeat the ravages of dreaded diseases and epidemics. The sector, however, is a case for building innovation on the details----the management of medical facilities, which is not so much concerned with breakthrough cures as with improving hospital experience, can be more profitable and efficient.

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Corporate cultures, then, are embedding the innovative mindset within the walls of the workplace for some good old intrapreneurship. Joint ventures and public-private partnerships are well and good for funding the ideas of others, but a company that can file its own patents for a novel idea will definitely rule the market. The largest example is Google, with its sprawling campus of inspirational air. Employees are encouraged to go off at certain periods in search for the next big thing, at paid company hours.

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Even then, the jewels of thought are washed ashore only as often. Google does not roll out a stellar new product every month, which would have meant that brilliant employee pitches are coming in every day and being piloted with supreme speed. But it's the small things in the Google environment of products that give clues about the company's inherent dynamism. A new Gmail format is just as telling as Google Glass of the hum of in-house activity.

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Every work day has to be productive, but it can't always be easy going. Cultures of innovation take long to build, with pre-requisites such as competent professionals motivated by the right compensation packages, open leadership, and flexible business processes that allow the injection of new, viable ideas when they come up.

Emile Haddad is a Seattle-based business consultant with modern insights on leadership and innovation. Visit this blog for new ideas about professional life and entrepreneurship.

Conflict resolution in the workplace

Conflict is an inevitable part of any team-related activity. It can be likened to cracks that ultimately form one giant fissure which leads to disorder. How a conflict is handled could be the difference between success and flurry of bad blood. Here are some tips on handling common conflicts in the workplace or at any team-related environment:

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How do you deal with members who are not up to the task? The most successful method is discussion and open communication. Avoidance prevents and delays resolution. The problem is best addressed quickly and directly. Keep in mind that once the discussion has culminated, the parties involved should leave feeling like they were treated fairly.

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How do you end a partnership or tell someone you want to part ways? First, know exactly what must be said. Keep in mind the end goal of the conversation. Begin by talking about where the team is headed and the plan to get there to reduce the chances of being sidetracked by promises such as “let’s try to work it out.”

How do you avoid a heated debate? Disagreements commonly arise and it is only a matter of time until both parties engage in heated exchange. This cannot be avoided but it can be mitigated. At all times open communication should be established. Make sure that the problem is thoroughly addressed to minimize misunderstandings. The focus should be the resolution of the problem and each of the party’s position so that proposals toward a compromise can be formed. Practicing the conversation beforehand helps.

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Be clear and concise, use neutral language, stay calm and keep emotions out of the discussion.

Emile Haddad of Seattle, Washington is a business mentor who teaches the importance of respect in the workplace. Learn more about innovative practices in the workplace setting here.

Emile Haddad and Unraveling the Leader

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Leaders can become so in a variety of ways, but pinpointing exactly how to train an effective leader is not as simple as one might think. Naturally good leaders in the business sector can take on a variety of shapes and forms, but how they got there is hardly ever exactly the same. Some could have climbed the ranks over the years, while others may have hit their stride early and simply outshined the competition by perfectly landing their own unique niche. Whatever the case may be, finding the tools and resources to take those traits and instill them in others is not easy.

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Professional Business Coach and Consultant Emile Haddad is an authoritative expert on business planning and development, and writes that“I find the most challenging aspect of training up the leadership ranks in an organization lies in the work around emotional intelligence.” According to Mr. Haddad, “emotional intelligence tends to be much harder to teach on an individual level and embed within teams.” Why is this so difficult? Mr. Haddad ties it to three words: “honest self-observation.”

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Mr. Haddad points out that all of us have a difficult time looking outside of ourselves and how we wish to view our actions and the results of those actions. When we perform a task at work we want it to be conveyed in our own eyes as the correct and proper way. Having the ability to be subjective and critical, however, is not something we will likely embrace with enthusiasm. And yet this is one of those practices that can help us to better learn of our flaws and address them proactively, instead of looking the other way or pretending they are non-existent.

Coming to terms with our imperfections and figuring out ways to better improve upon them instead of sweeping them under the carpet is a step forward in becoming our own leader. By implementing such measures, we can become stronger and more confident and thus better torch-bearers in the future. To learn more about Emile Haddad and some of his other observations on effectively training the leaders of tomorrow, visit his website.

The Benefits of Business Bravery

“Curiosity and an attitude of openness to possibilities, ideas, experimentation and a sense of excitement tend to be underlying drivers for innovative organizations,” writes Emile Haddad, the respected Business Coach and Consultant whose perspective on the entrepreneurial spirit of today focuses on how younger companies are bolder, and arguably driven more by openness and a willing to branch out into the unknown than their more seasoned contemporaries.  New ideas and riskier moves have tended to shape much of the business landscape over the past decade.  Take, for instance, Napster.

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Napster was founded and designed by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, and co-founded by John Fanning.  The company began in June of 1999 as a simple peer-to-peer file sharing program, mainly MP3 music files.  Although there were many other similar programs at the time, theirs was overwhelmingly faster than anything else online.  Despite copyright infringement allegations from musicians and record labels, the service exploded beyond possibilities anyone could ever imagine, with roughly 80 million registered Napster users at its peak.  Shawn Fanning was 19 and Sean Parker was 20 years old.  Mark Zuckerberg has a somewhat similar story, and Sean Parker would go on to help Zuckerberg launch Facebook just years later.

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Albeit Napster eventually closed down its service by court order due to copyright infringement, these entrepreneurs still represented that youthful determination to push something, enhance it, and drive to inspire the overall abilities of the individual and the group with clear and conscious diligence.

Emile Haddad touches upon these sentiments quite often in his writing, stating, “Asking difficult questions of yourself and your peers requires skills that include mutual respect, encouragement of all ideas and the recognition that in every idea, even the least significant, lays a kernel of wisdom worth inquiring about and worth teasing out of the collective wisdom of the group.”

 

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Contemporary times call for contemporary approaches to business development and operations, and having the courage to dive in headfirst and lean more on bravery than caution can instill a core of ideals that hold true and reap the rewards your willingness helped forge and acquire.

Leadership in the Age of Social Media – Advice from Emile Haddad

Leaders who have spent their formative years using low-tech tools to implement their directives might find it difficult to transition to a more digitally savvy format.  After all, social media platforms are constantly evolving, and although Facebook and Twitter have been the gold standards for several years now, the public is fickle – new formats are always emerging and occasionally fading away forever.  Nevertheless, it is critical to get a handle on the digital social landscape in order to keep abreast of public sentiment. 

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“The information technology sector is one of those industries whose innovation potential, though still in its infancy, has the potential to change every aspect of life as we know it,” says leadership consultant Emile Haddad.  “To keep this edge in the face of global market competition, entrepreneurs will do well to listen more and talk less at their teams; they need to take a much more proactive role in being curious and inquiring in effective ways so they can mine the imagination of everyone around the table.”

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Social platforms play an essential role in the effective communication between not only business leaders and their teams, but also leaders and the public.  Many organizations have social media branches of their organizations as a type of marketing solution, but some of these same organizations fail to use social media for its most useful purpose – namely, to keep their brand in touch with societal whims and desires which may prove to be highly lucrative.  Social media platforms provide fruitful trend and information mining opportunities that should never be ignored, and 21^st century leaders disregard them at their peril.

 

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“We must be comfortable in pushing the edge; asking tough ‘why’ questions and exploring territories unfamiliar,” says Emile Haddad.  “Successful new discoveries bring to the market new opportunities, new industries and new investments.”