4 Ways to Lead a Team that Goes the Distance

A marathon isn’t enough anymore.

Around one million people took part in marathon races in 2018, but ultramarathons (ranging from 50 km to multi-day races) are one of running’s fastest-growing fashions. Ultramarathon participation is up more than 1,000 percent over the last two decades! 

While physical endurance is paramount to success, one of ultramarathoners’ outstanding qualities is mental endurance. To travel 100 miles by foot or run around a track for a continuous 24-hours, mental resilience is essential. These races are repetitive, involve hundreds of thousands of steps being taken, and are as much of a test of a person’s ability to push through monotony as they are a test of physical strength.

Record-setting US runner Camille Herron says a key to her success is to mentally “break up the race” and to find coping strategies to do so.

Maintaining Professional Momentum Over the Long Haul

Mentally motivating your team can involve a similar approach.

The work done by your team has a significant impact. But your team members cannot serve effectively if they’re under major stress; they will break down before they go the distance. This is especially true in the holiday season – and even more so during a global pandemic.

How can leaders help people succeed over the long haul? By cultivating the concept of relaxed concern. Though it may sound like a contradiction, teams cannot thrive if they don’t take mental breaks along the way. Although people must realize their work is important, they won’t last if they can’t take their foot off the accelerator.

When you want to encourage an attitude of relaxed concern in your team, here are a few habits that can help: 

1. Have realistic expectations

Don’t expect every person on your team to work at the same energy level all the time.

Everyone is different – some people are a racehorse, others are a snail, and many people fall somewhere in the middle. Set your focus on output, not on the process, and allow people to work at a realistic pace to their professional DNA.

2. Be aware of external drains on energy and compensate for them

When someone on your team experiences illness or personal crisis, realize it will drain their energy, and then compensate for it.

Reportedly, 80% of workers drag themselves into work during illness, and an alarming 37% of people say they do not get sufficient sleep. Physical struggles and personal stress increase errors and fuel conflicts at work. Do everything you can to encourage personal well-being in your team, and allow margin when people are struggling. By prioritizing people above results, your team will be better off in the long run.

3. Work smarter, not harder

If the ax is dull, a difficult chore becomes impossible.

To make the best use of energy, work smarter, not harder. You may have people on your team who are working harder than anyone else, but their productivity is low because they aren’t working smart. Encourage and support your staff as they look for ways to make their work easier. This not only increases productivity, but it frees people from frustration and weariness.

4. Make work fun 

The most successful people in life are those who get paid for doing what they like to do.

And that’s true for businesses as well. Close work friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%, and companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20%. Whether you host quarterly “feast days” or post a wacky wall of fame, investing in relationships is always worth the effort.

For your team to maximize potential, they need to stick around. Cultivate relaxed concern to build teams that go the distance!

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Magnetic Marketing: Using Faces to Command Attention

Our faces reveal multitudes about who we are, what we are thinking, and our intentions toward others.

Lying right under your nose is an awesome landscape of skin, muscles, and features. The face is one of the most profound parts of our body, and it packs so much power! Check out these remarkable facial facts:

• Humans are capable of making 10,000 unique facial expressions.
• The face has the biggest range of muscle structure in the human body, and 43 of these muscles are directly linked to facial emotions.
• Humans regularly flash micro-expressions that last less than 1/25 of a second before they consciously or subconsciously neutralize them. These split-second displays can reveal more than a thousand words (or lies!) ever could.
• Genuine facial expressions are almost always symmetrical. From frowns to smiles, people typically reveal authentic feelings evenly on both sides of the face.

Faces Add Impact in Marketing

How does this play into marketing and print?

First, it’s important to recognize the impact of faces so we can prioritize them in design. Research by Catherine Mondloch showed that newborn babies less than an hour old prefer looking at something with facial features. Humans prefer humans, and people buy from people!

It would be careless to overlook these statistics while continually deferring to inanimate objects. When you’re looking to add that personal touch to your marketing mix, remember faces can help you to:

Connect with People

Large, faceless corporations feel cold and manipulative.

To humanize your brand, feature people, not products! Pictures of real people build empathy and trust among viewers. And eye-tracking studies show that the faces of babies and pretty women are two of the most effective subjects you can use.

Putting faces on your brand allows you to connect with your audience in a relatable way. As you position faces in your ads, remember eyes looking right at people will have the greatest emotional impact because the eyes are the most significant part of the face.

Create Curiosity

Humans have a natural tendency to follow the gaze of others, and we have been coached since birth to follow these visual cues about where we should be looking or going.

Want to build curiosity and engage your viewers? If a face on your poster is gazing toward a text box or a product in the margin, readers will track toward that area as well.

Emotions can also be carried from a subject to the viewer as you set a tone within your design. The emotion in the faces you display can draw people to linger longer before your designs or to be drawn deeper into the message itself.

Cultivate Trust

People react to a photo on a page faster than any other design element, and seeing the people behind a business can establish credibility very quickly.

You can use faces to cultivate trust by using staff profiles on a website, facial photos in welcome displays or high traffic areas, or brochures with testimonials and photos from real customers. If viewers can relate to the people enjoying your product, this will seamlessly build positive associations in their own minds.

When used properly, photos of faces can help you connect with people, create curiosity, and cultivate trust.  Bypass resistance and build connections through the magnetic power of people!

4 Must-Know Strategies for Hosting Virtual Events

How you choose to promote an event can have a direct impact on how successful that event is.

For brands that have established a rhythm for online events, promotion efforts don’t need to be particularly intense. But if you’re new to hosting online events, it can be difficult to build engagement.

The Milken Institute, a financial think tank that thrives on bringing people and ideas together through large events, had to postpone their live flagship annual event, the Global Conference, which convenes more than 4,000 executives and thought leaders from around the world. In its place, the Institute has started hosting regular virtual summits, including smaller local webinar gatherings called “The COVID-19 Conference Call Series.”

Here’s what Milken’s new business development director Ira Rosen said about this change:

“People have gotten creative with what they can now do online, but people are discovering that hosting events online isn’t necessarily easier than in-person events. If you’ve never held a digital event before, there are a few things you have to consider.”

Here are a few starter steps:

 
1. Create an Attention-Grabbing Event Page

This is the place where everyone goes to learn about your event.

Use a simple tool like Cvent Flex to make it stand out, and entice people to sign up by including eye-catching graphics, professional pictures, and engaging clips of keynote speakers, workshop leaders, and performers. Keep people from wandering away from your page by embedding all relevant videos, pictures, and other media, so they don’t have to find it elsewhere.

Finally, include all of the essential details so your event page is a one-stop-shop for information and attendee actions. This includes: 

• Time and date(s) of the event
• An agenda 
• Speaker bios 
• Sponsor information
• Registration links
• Secure payment options  

2. Ask Partners or Sponsors to Spread the Word

When your sponsors and partners promote your virtual event, it markets your program exponentially—this benefits all stakeholders.

Put yourself out there by directly asking others to promote your virtual event. Provide the affiliate link, printed publicity, and any hashtags or online videos that might make it easier to build momentum.

3. Keep Participants Engaged

Being confined behind a screen can make it harder for speakers to engage with the audience during the event, but there are ways to encourage interaction.

Research shows that 47% of people are more likely to ask a question at a virtual event, and 37% are more likely to speak to a person in a virtual booth than a real one. View virtual events as an opportunity to engage with your audience rather than an obstacle. Take time to conduct a poll, ask questions, or play a video in the middle of your presentation.”

Other ways to engage viewers include trivia segments, participant voting options for upcoming segments, or even “virtual booths” (like breakout rooms) participants can visit after the event’s conclusion.

4. Build Content that Promotes Your Event

No matter what kind of event you promote, planning it in a vacuum is never a good idea.

If regular content production is part of your marketing mix, these efforts should overlap with the event you’re promoting. From a weekly podcast or newsletter to printed inserts or your website, any platform you control can be used to build interest. 

Need an extra publicity boost? Contact us today to spread the word through print!