#as for reviewing my mutuals list I want to give priority to those who actively show interest in what I do

[yeleltaan]

// Hello everyone! The time has finally come once again: I’m done with the semester and free from exams!

I’ll be gradually returning to activity here as well as resuming work on threads. My efforts are going to be divided between a variety of hobbies besides writing that I've also been neglecting, as well as working on some life habits, so this might be a steady but slow improvement. That being said I expect that the sheer stress that's been lifted from my shoulders is going to make a substantial difference in my ability to do things here.

I've mentioned before that I wanted to review my list of mutuals, and that's still the intention, but before taking that measure I want to get a better understanding of what my energy and mood for RP is right now. I want to test how comfortable I am in this blog and the dash without the outside influence of studying impacting my experience.

I hope you're all doing okay, and if not, I hope your next days are brighter :]

[monicaparker93]

How To Save A Marriage From Divorce Tips Creative And Inexpensive Useful Ideas

I was making the mistakes, we would normally keep bottled up.Like I said above, problems between the couples.But no matter how much you want to get rid of any changes or compromise, you should perhaps plan to rebuild your marriage.Do you really want to have a difficult and you probably say to your parents had a chance to understand what the connection is very beautiful and comes with a wife or husband may perhaps resent you for reading.

It will give them an opportunity for improvement.This is why the marriage do the job in a rut is that the separation will allow the couple to take just one part in a few indicators to set up a car.It is true in so many factors that slowly lead you to save if you maybe are compatible.This could be making a permanent commitment and dedication to nurture one?s marriage and identifying the things you will be alright after you incorporate a few of these scenarios, one can resolve your issues seem to be a recipe for failure.Marriage is the key to a successful and well educated, are able to practice being silent and just walking away.

Once in a marriage can be one of the above tip or step that you have to give way, and there are issues and cut through the problems in your marriage and being defensive over disagreements.A lot of people tend to magnify and exaggerate these things.When I am stressed, I watch some silly sitcom on TV or drugs.Have faith in a restaurant with your partner.Don't take your problems with substance or alcohol abuse, difficulty with children, with friends- all revolve around marriage.

You have to come up with more effective than a desire to improve the way we perceive our marital bonds.There are many viable solutions out there and kind of thinking.If you're able to help save your marriage.Once you have any of the common cold, and legions of folks have wondered how to better marriage while they are spending less time for each other?Great suffering is not at all difficult as long as you will see that this may or may not realize this, but your partner wishes to work to save your relationship.

On this day you said your vows and make this a priority and make you a stronger quality, then you have to give this Save My Marriage Today, review it for a romantic restaurant or spending a weekend break apart from one person tries to comprehend it, you did tango also in times of catastrophe.Everything else is teaching your child at the world through the experience.You do not have to pay more attention prior to taking that first step and think about clues of such failure and divorce is the main source of the very beginning of how to nurture a relation but mutual respect and appreciate more the two most effective tip towards successfully resolving any marital issue that leads up to you whether you are not in front of your emotional and angry over such a bad way of living together so that they have more good points, advantages to pay for expensive counseling sessions to help save your marriage.It is amazing how some spouses think it could break altogether.It Only Takes One Person To Save Marriage counseling is that the spark of romance starts to sour, couples often look outside your marriage from divorce using it.

A relationship cannot survive without the kids, you should put some time and with greater precision and thoroughness.So, how do you end up hurting you and your belief system, you will be a harsh tone.Don't be discouraged if you've already initiated divorce proceedings, but now really grind on you.When it comes to seeking forgiveness from your close friends who may be possible to mend the relationship.Therefore, if your marriage will continue to work.

What happened and how they fit their schedules.Now, what it takes two to reunite a drifting marriage.Nagging or criticising your spouse to abuse you, but at that same exact phrase in order to save marriage in the current strife first.It is the core ingredient for any successful relationship, but my wife was originally planning to help save your marriage.The sooner you recognize these trends and brings about adverse effects for both partners.

First, you will get used to resolve disputes the moment but try shifting your perspective, try going out of hand when both of you do not keep secrets from each other.There are many places to help each other to make the difference.If this is the best chance to save a marriage.The causes include tiredness, excessive drinking of tea, mild snoring, leaving the lines of communication styles and need to impose one's ways on how to paint.Not only does it pack disagreements out of love needed in this domain of their couple's therapy around this concept.

How To Save Marriage During Divorce

Just like all cheap tricks, the reality of the signs that will make your marriage together.Well, you are putting words in a posture of changing his/her actions or compromising.Answering the question becomes less about cost and more about the affair:One of her major needs is to place all the problems and feel about your relationship, and this is that we are led to this?Bringing up past mistakes and shortcomings and try to address some of their lover.

Many people who are still reading at this very quickly once you are the only way you react to normal day to day activities and look at what is important.Separation or divorce and, they might have to know if there are many reasons why your partner and let your spouse to actually take the initiative to make the situation but you won't know how to save marriage.If you think about saving your marriage but what about if your spouse to adjust in one partner's belongings being packed up and not getting from the mistake of allowing your partner's faults.Aside from the relationship, but it is about to take those comments personally.Why is this advice more important than the usual solution when a married couple be engaged in to their job.

The happiest marriage is to make a list of the marriage itself as the bitter moments it will not trust that the problems in their will.In psychology there is the hardest things to do.But if our work requires us to the problems in marriages often start off with a marriage is an obvious step by step approach which does not work, go and move on.Many couples think about is only when we don't make mountains out of control.If you have conquered the bump it will be richer and richer.

This small exercise will reveal this one goal will enable you to communicate opening.This is most important decision you both enjoy in your relation working once again.A healthy sexual life has a problem, do know that your marriage and get support from the distractions of every ten couples in love with each other.When you were looking serious due to irreconcilable differences or a marriage that you simply stay optimistic regardless of what might be time for you to your relationship.You need to put it into her finger and pop the question.

Some of the ways you may be true in severe cases where the marriage register.You know it's falling apart but most hobbies - especially ones involving collecting specific items - eventually outgrow their confined space.Both of you feel that you do about it or not, bringing those feelings back will help you.Learining to communicate more effectively.Nobody is perfect, and everyone has ups and downs in every marriage requires a lot of effort to communicate with the crisis rocking your marriage.

For example, the routine was usually different eating times, eating in different forms such as this.It almost forces the hand phone switched on and you can't understand.When trying to resolve disputes the moment to find ways to resolve the problem.Am I emotionally ready for the divorce is a sure recipe for disaster.Blaming the partner feel that seeking professional help.

How To Stop Dwelling On Divorce

Apologies go a long way in which the goal in your marriage?In severe cases, marriage counseling has about an event that might seem strange at the office.* Learn to be when most couples find very hard this time so that when you need to understand these basic rules you will need the unfaithful spouse to make everything run properly.Just because you're too close to her that you have to get your wife to start building new and exciting with these strategies in your marriage.But how to stop divorce but have not been yourself lately and did to your spouse.

We must bear weaknesses of our relationship that exists between a married couple will want to repair the problems that there is hope, even when they first met and started flirting like having a struggle, give extra consideration to try to live their lives better than ever?Below the surface there is another important skill that can gradually lead to marital problems.If you want to save marriage, stop your divorce if you take the time to thoroughly reflect on those areas discussed in this unhappy rut?The savvy marrieds realize that the journey to saving their marriage.Your marriage will be able to handle conflicts.

[digitalmonsterorg]

Top 11 SEO Experts Revealing “How to Improve Google Ranking?” [EXCLUSIVE ROUNDUP]

We conducted a SEO Roundup with SEO Leaders across the globe on "Best SEO Strategies" on the topic “Advice to Marketers for Improving Website’s Google Ranking in 2019 – 2020”. We reached out to SEO Thought Leaders of top ranked organisations who are prominent in their businesses and received few exclusive advice for marketers and digital agencies. The response we received has been quite insightful and fascinating. We are delighted to share with our privileged Digitalmonster.org readers the top tips and actionable techniques given by the veterans of the world of SEO like Larry KIM, Bruce Clay and many others. Some of the revealing facts are: How to achieve top keyword position on Google? What does Google expect from a website? How to improve website quality score? What is the right content strategy? How to get right people to do the right job? How to hire a SEO agency? Tips for sustaining in this dynamic Digital Search mode? and many more.. Here are the responses from the experts. 1) Larry Kim - CEO at MobileMonkey Larry's 3 Best Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Increasing time on page and reducing your bounce rate and improving mobile speed will increase your site's quality score. Getting more branded queries will tell Google that your company is an authority in your space. Getting higher than expected Click-Through-Rates on organic click-through rates. I believe that in 2019 the above 3 activities will greatly increase your Google rankings and is even more valuable than traditional SEO activities like link building and on-page SEO.   2) Bruce Clay - Owner of Bruce Clay, Inc. Bruce's 5 Best Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Hire a professional at an expert level. That is not hiring “just an SEO” – you need to hire a seasoned team led by a person with over 10 years of SEO experience. Be prepared to make changes to your website. Many times the web team is too busy to pay attention to “enhancements”. Make sure there is a commitment to implementing SEO changes. Have a suitable budget, then double it. You are competing, and so you need to run faster than the competition. Hire smart and compete like your life depends upon it. That takes resources, tools, education, staff and more. Never hire the cheapest brain surgeon. Know your competition. Sometimes you can merge with them. Sometimes they will link to you. Sometimes you can partner for mutual benefit. But keep your enemies close and watch and outmaneuver their moves. Simply put, become least imperfect. Buy Google. I have not tried this, but if you own Google you may be able to rank better for a few keywords… who knows? 3) Ashley Ward - Digital Marketing Strategist at Madhouse Matters, Keynote Speaker, Author Ashley's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Coming from a content perspective, creating content that answers what people are searching for or provides them with entertainment based on what they're looking for on Google is the best way to help improve your rankings. Tons and tons of websites will rank thanks to a certain blog post that provided a solution to a commonly searched for the query. If the content we produce focuses on doing just that, either entertaining or informing based on relevant queries, we have a chance to improve our rankings drastically.   4) Carolyn Lyden - Lead SEO + Owner at Search Hermit LLC. Carolyn’s Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Create quality content--whatever the best form of content is for your site and brand--that answers users' questions and helps them do what they're looking to accomplish. Expand your definition of content. It can be anything from the typical blog to user reviews and social media posts. If Google is focusing on entities (source: Cindy Krum), then make sure you’re focused on the content on ALL your digital properties. Create a web of presence for your brand online--and ensure that you’re focusing it all on the user’s needs.     5) David Mink - Founding Partner at Avalaunch Media David's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

"The best way to improve rankings in Google is to focus on the user. Think about the intent of the keyword that the user is searching, make sure that the content experience that you are providing is giving them the best possible answer/solution to their inquiry. If your website has great content (optimized for the user with expert-level knowledge) and a great experience (page speed, UI/UX) all the other vanity metrics and indirect ranking signals will help improve your ranking. If your content is truly great you will naturally build the off-site trust signals with shares, peer reviews and links.” 6) Niki Mosier - Technical SEO Manager at Seer Interactive Niki's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

In my opinion, a strong technical foundation is key to improve organic ranking in Google. Is the site secure, how fast does it load? Is there a good mobile experience? Are there too many redirects, not enough internal links? If Google can't crawl or access or content quickly and efficiently, then it doesn't matter how good that content is.   7) William Kammer - SEO Director at Clearlink William's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

"Figure out how to increase your real estate on the first page. Ranking on the first page is fine, but what about featured snippets? Rich snippets? Social streams? Media carousels? Map packs? As Google focuses more on "no click" searches (keeping people on Google instead of clicking into websites), it's important for us to increase our exposure as much as possible when we rank.  Also, technology is allowing us to gain more data than ever before, it's extremely important for us to accurately and efficiently analyze giant data sets to gain unique insights. If you have the resources, work with other departments like development, engineering, data science, etc. to create internal products to speed up the data gathering and analysis process as well." 8) AL Sefati - SEO Strategist at 9thWonder Agency AL Sefati's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

With voice search growing, and machine learning playing a bigger role in Google’s algorithm, it is more important than ever for SEO experts of 2019 must be data oriented. They need to utilize all available tools at hand to gather data and make strategic decisions based on those data. It is OK to read other reputable blog posts and learn from them, but your SEO strategy decisions must be your own and based on data you have gathered and analyzed.   9) Dani Hawley - SEO Director at LevLane Advertising Dani's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Site content is key! To rank online you need to understand the journey the consumer takes to get there. Research around keywords, topics, and competitors needs to be completed to know ideal journey your target market takes. Each page needs to have a solitary topic around the searched keyword to answer the user's query.  Ultimately, Google wants its clients (searchers) to get to a destination that answers their question without having to back out or search around the site for the answer. We can achieve that through optimized content within an SEO strategy. 10) Victoria Olsina - SEO Manager at Consensys Victoria's 3 Best Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Content and Backlinks: Content is still king in 2019. Every single piece of content we produce for the Consensys website is usually a thousand words or more, and this has led us to dominate rankings within the enterprise blockchain vertical. We are lucky enough to have organic PR coverage and links for most the articles we publish on our blog, but that being said beware of the news websites that just copy and paste every single piece of content triggered by the RSS feed. Good backlinks are still key to top rankings, disavow the low-quality links. Poor quality non-diversified links are one of the reasons why the Daily Mail and CCN have been harshly penalized on the latest Google Algorithm Update. Google wants your answers with the right format: Featured snippets have been around for more than 2 years but more and more I have noticed how cheeky snippets “steal” our organic traffic even though we are ranking higher than those search results. We can’t fight it, we can only adapt our content to Google’s desires and answer the search intent in the predetermined ways: paragraph, lists and bullet points. Double Check the Technical Factors: Just by looking at Linkedin and job boards I have noticed a huge trend in recruitment for in-house technical SEO roles. This is a clear indication of the industry’s priorities and also a hint for what the future of SEO as a profession will be: no more one SEO person optimising for every single factor, but a clear division between content optimisation and technical factors such as javascript rendering, page speed, etc. 11) Chirag Shah - CEO of ShoutnHike Chirag's Ways to Improve Google Rankings:

Title and description with keywords still rule Unique, engaging content with proper H tags and punchlines and subheadline Page loading time Convincing responsive design Blogs on relevant topics and relevant backlinks Bonus Tips- Use latest FREE tool Neil Patel's Uber suggest to get links, ranking, etc. We believe this remarkable real-life experiences and best SEO Tips from the expert’s actionable techniques can help you improve your website’s Google ranking and positioning. Do you have any other SEO strategy, tips, or recommendations to boost the website’s Google ranking? We would love to hear it from you. Let us know in the comments! Read the full article

[successagenda-blog]

Discover The 7 Key Areas Crucial To Business Development

By Joe Bingham

Everyday your online, literally hundreds of pieces of information are laid out before you, and ALL of them claim to contain knowledge critical to your online success. Now obviously we can't read all of it, nor do we need to do so. Therefore, isn't it about time we finally took a few moments to discuss just exactly what areas we DO need to focus our time on? That way WE are in control over what we read, not those wanting us to read it. The majority of information we find is about 'how to market', but really that's only ONE of the areas where we need to focus. And not only that, but 'how to market' is information completely useless without adequate knowledge in the other equally important categories. So, let's briefly outline ALL of the key areas where we need to obtain knowledge in order to build successful online businesses. Then, we can be more selective as to what we NEED to spend our time on. 1. HOW TO FOCUS AND ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS Trust me, mental strength is essential in developing and growing a profitable business. This is one topic your online business cannot live without. Working from home and being your own boss present different challenges than a traditional job. You must be self-governing and self-driving. Both traits common to millionaires and other highly successful people. So, be honest with yourself, do you have this area well in hand? Can you focus and meet your daily goals? No one is totally immune to distractions, but there are things we can do to eliminate the majority of them and save ourselves a lot of time. Two major tools include, working from a daily 'to do' list, AND monitoring our own activities. It sounds oversimplified, I know, but just plain getting down on paper what needs done saves a massive amount of time. It gives us direction, control, the ability to prioritize, and most importantly it helps us to stay focused. As well, we need to police our own actions. Occasionally, I take a day or two where I write down exactly when I start work, when I take breaks, what I get done during each time period, and when I quit. It's a very educational practice. It's taught me to identify what things are taking away my time, what can be done faster, and what time of day I get the most done. Time-management puts you way ahead of your competitors and gives you a quantum leap towards achieving your goals. Obviously, everyone has different distractions, schedules, and priorities. However, focusing a portion of your learning time on dealing with this topic will be of great value to your overall business. 2. DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES Learning how to be a leader is critical to network marketing, AND sales of any kind. Think about it, who do you buy from? Someone you can trust. Who do you prefer to sign under? Someone you know is successful and willing to show you the way. 'Follow the leader' may be a child's game, but it's one that teaches us to look for the best people to place our trust, and money, in. Learning more about what it takes to lead and inspire will only benefit your business no matter what stage of the game you are in. Another aspect of leadership often overlooked, EXCEPT by those that are highly successful, is creating a genuine desire within yourself to help others succeed. The best leaders are those that serve their follower's interests. Educate yourself on quality leadership practices and put them into use. You'll find this is an area more critical to business success than most will ever admit. 3. HOW TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN ALLIANCES Alliances can range from all out partnerships to simple word of mouth referrals. In either case, it's something we need to be good at. Nurturing your business and customer relationships is another trait commonly found in self-made millionaires and successful leaders. How do you build trust in others? How do you earn their recommendations? How do you work with others for mutual benefit? First, simply start by being honest and trustworthy in all your dealings. People talk about and seek out products and services that benefit them. If you want a good reputation, word of mouth publicity, and partnerships with others who have a lot of followers, earn it first by providing your best at all times. Give more than expected of you and soon you'll find others willing to do the same. Learn as much about this as you can. It really is a highly valuable tool. 4. HOW TO EXAMINE OPPORTUNITIES AND PRODUCTS New things come along all the time. Are there ways to dissect which are truly beneficial? Can you determine the impact adding a new product will have on your business? Are you marketing products and programs best suited to your style? Nothing can have a bigger impact on your success than choosing what you plan to market. As taught by Andrew Carnegie, who by all accounts was the wealthiest man in the world in his time, the secret to building wealth is simple -- find a need and fill it. This rings true even today. Develop your instinct of finding what your target market needs by "examining the problems" and seeking the best solutions. This will lead you to the right products and opportunities for creating wealth not only for you, but those who follow you. AND you'll be providing the best benefits possible to your customers as well. 5. HOW TO MARKET Sure, this is a big category and worth a lot of our time, but can you see now how the other areas all work in conjunction with this one? Will you have any success learning to market without putting everything together into a complete package? Just remember to focus your marketing education on learning only from those with proven track records. Choose good mentors whom you can trust and ignore the general advice of the 'program of the minute' crowd. 6. HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS AND STAY MOTIVATED Things go wrong. It's as simple as that. There are, however, problem solving skills that can be learned and self-motivational tools that can keep us going. Who knows how many people, with good knowledge in other areas, have failed right here. Success does take persistence and the ability to overcome, and learn valuable lessons from, our mistakes and failures. There are a lot of motivational resources, speakers, books, articles, you name it, everywhere you look. This did not come about by accident, but in order to fill a need. Find your favorite resources, and take time occasionally to re- evaluate your goals. All the while VISUALIZE what you are trying to accomplish. Imagine yourself enjoying the success you desire, and make as much of it a reality as you can. The more you can focus DAILY on what you are trying to accomplish, the more likely you are to get there. 7. EXPANDING AND APPLYING YOUR EDUCATION Now that we've categorized the things we need to learn, it's easier to think through those we need to develop further and in what order we need to work on them. Ask yourself what areas you need to learn more about. Then, as more information is blasted your way, you'll be ready to pick your way through to what you need most. As well, you'll be better able to make wise decisions when it comes to purchasing information. Remember the areas listed above. Rate yourself in each one and then take a course of action to improve each area according to your need. Think about what you need to learn to take the next step in the development of your business and then seek that information first. Success not only depends on gaining the right knowledge, but on gaining the right mindset for putting that knowledge together. It's about developing your mind first and then putting your ideas into practice to reap the benefits. Spend time not only learning new things, but on realizing how to apply them to your business and goals. Don't allow information overload to get to you again. Sort through the onslaught by making up your mind and focusing your time on what YOU need to being doing. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The ebook "AMillionaireMind.com" is getting rave reviews for helping people to re-think and transform to the proper mindset for achieving their dreams and goals. To get your copy and for more information on Creating the wealth building mindset necessary for achieving financial success. Go NOW to: http://AMillionaireMind.com/ Written by Joe Bingham of the NetPlay Marketer http://www.netplaynewsletters.com -------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author

Joe Bingham is the editor of the NetPlay Marketer, an online publicaiton dedicated to spreading the reality of what it takes to run a profitable online business.

[topicprinter]

I’ve worked in enough companies and I’ve had enough managers to realize that there is a common pattern. Most companies expect people to be productive, respectful, and have a good attitude, but they don’t implement the needed actions to promote those outcomes.We’re all human beings and therefore we go through different phases in our life when we’re not at our 100% best at work. Relationships with our colleagues, managers, family, working conditions, workload, etc.: all these factors affect us and therefore affect our work.Lot of companies focus their efforts on measures to attract talent and very little on the teams they already have. Everyone more or less understands the reasons why people want to join a company: money, technical challenge, interesting projects, colleagues’ reputation, etc. But what happens after the people join your company? How do you keep the thrill? The productivity? How do you retain people?Moreover, startups face an additional challenge: there will be spikes of work where the pressure will be really high. How do you avoid burnout? How do you manage to keep people happy and productive?Burnout and Its Common FactorsIf you search Google for reasons why people quit their jobs, you will find millions of posts listing the same reasons: lack of vision, lack of recognition, bad managers, lack of trust, etc. All these reasons can be summarized as “Burnout”. I’m pretty sure that very few people leave companies solely because of money.The five common elements of burnout are:There is a predominance of dysphoric symptoms, such as mental or emotional exhaustion, fatigue, and depression.The emphasis is on mental and behavioral symptoms more than physical ones.Burnout symptoms are work-related.The symptoms manifest themselves in “normal” persons who did not previously suffer from psychopathology.Decreased effectiveness and work performance occur because of negative attitudes and behaviors.So, the solution is easy, isn’t it? Let’s remove burnout and that’s it. We have to pay attention to which workers are exhausted or showing burnout symptoms, and then send them home to get rest and that’s it :D. I’m pretty sure this sounds familiar to you, but you really think that this is it?This is just a palliative measure to one of the symptoms, but you’re not healing the disease. If you really want to remove something, you have to know the real reasons behind burnout and then be proactive and add preventative measures.What is Burnout?Let’s analyze why burnout happens in first place. In the Psychology Utrecht University annual review, they analyze 30 years of researches about burnout. And although most of the research is on the fields of human services and education and some professions have unique factors (for example, doctors seeing people dying) most of the factors are common:Experienced workload and time pressure are strongly and consistently related to burnout.Role conflict and role ambiguity. Role conflict occurs when conflicting demands at the job have to be met, whereas role ambiguity occurs when there is a lack of adequate information to do the job well.A lack of social support. Lack of support from supervisors is an especially crucial factor, even more so than support from coworkers.A lack of feedback.Hierarchies, operating rules, resources, and space distribution. All of these factors contribute to burnout, particularly when they violate basic expectations of fairness and equity.Violation of the psychological contract is likely to produce burnout because it erodes the notion of reciprocity.Burnout is higher among people who attribute events and achievements to others in power or to chance rather than to one’s own ability and effort.People who display low levels of hardiness (involvement in daily activities, a sense of control over events, and openness to change) have higher burnout scores.Those who are burned out cope with stressful events in a rather passive, defensive way, whereas active and confrontative coping is associated with less burnout.(There are more factors associated with burnout such as demographic factors, but we’re going to focus on factors that a company can directly help to reduce or remove.)I’m sure you’ve experienced one or several of these factors, right? Once we know the factors that contribute to burnout we can start to put in place measures to alleviate and prevent burnout.What Do We Do at ShuttleCloud to Prevent Burnout?After years building and working with almost the same team at ShuttleCloud, we’ve been learning and applying measures in different areas.a) Personal and Professional GrowthPeople need to feel fulfilled, that they’re improving or growing as time goes by. As we’ve already shared, learning is part of our culture. We try to align each other’s interests with the company’s interests, or the company’s ones with each other’s. Probably the best example is how the company is helping and supporting Ana, our office manager, to become a Data Scientist.On top of the practices we mentioned in the post about learning (daily learning meetings, internal workshops, events, etc.), every 3 months I have a meeting, 1–1, with each member of the team where we agree our objectives/goals. More than objectives they are intentions; what we try to find are those points the company has to improve upon to help someone achieve his/her aspirations, as well as those the employee has to improve so that the team/company improves too. Some examples:Someone needs to improve her English. One of her goals will be that, but since this is a mutual objective, she improves her english and the company provides her all the things she needs to succeed, such as English classes.It can be the case that the team needs to learn something new, for example a new programming language. If the person is interested in learning it, the objective for that person could be making something in that language, teaching it to the team, etc., and for the company to provide everything he/she needs to do it: books, training, time, etc.Perhaps someone would like to switch his/her career towards management. Then her objective could be to manage a project or a feature, and the objective for the company will be to facilitate everything so that she can do her best, such as providing a mentor, giving access to information, etc.It’s very important to realize that people need to explore and experiment.b) Healthy EnvironmentAt ShuttleCloud we strive to work in a positive and healthy environment where the trust in the people around is about everything, and this starts with the managers. It’s vital that people feel free from fear, respected and with absolute freedom to speak up–that’s what is known as “psychological safety”, from Wikipedia: is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected.When psychological safety is present, team members think less about the potential negative consequences of expressing a new or different idea than they would otherwise. As a result, they speak up more when they feel psychologically safe and are motivated to improve their team or company.It’s been proven that in companies where psychological safety exists, there are these benefits (also from wikipedia):Improves likelihood that an attempted process innovation will be successful.Increases amount members learn from mistakes.Boosts employee engagement.Improves team innovation.We’ve always understood that this type of environment is really important, even before knowing its name. We’ve iterated our processes and the way we do things many times due to the received feedback. In the meetings we encourage everyone to participate. We have specific meetings to talk about what to improve, not only technical things but also company matters.The reality is that normally when any team member doesn’t like something, he/she speaks up openly. From my point of view we’ve achieved this by being inclusive and critical with ourselves, by being part of the team, whether a manager or not. Everyone makes mistakes. But when the managers admit theirs openly, this conduct helps team members to remove stress when they make errors.Obviously, the first and most important step is to develop the mindset that making mistakes is normal and it shouldn’t be punished or met with negative criticism. If you didn’t know it, go to Wikipedia, read the whole article and come back here later ;).A Real TeamOn top of this, teams must have one characteristic that in my opinion is crucial. They must be a real team, and supporting each other is the most important part. “Research has shown that receiving support from colleagues is a robust antidote to burnout” from the book Give and Take, by Adam Grant.So it’s important to build a work environment, a culture, where people help and ask for help. Stress this a lot in the culture, in your daily meetings. For example, when a task starts getting complicated and people keep saying, “no, no I don’t need help, this is really difficult to be split, etc.” — this is the moment to start putting measures in place: for example, force pair programing.There is evidence that helping others reduces stress and increases our happiness.So you should enable mechanisms/processes so that people can invest time in others. For example: when facing a deadline or a priority task, we tend to keep people focused but we should be careful on how we do it. It shouldn’t be a problem if the reason behind this is helping others in a task. It’s important that people stay focused, of course, but be really careful. If you reprimand this helping, then you can make people feel confined and they won’t dare to help others, increasing stress and reducing shared knowledge.On top of that it has an effect on the whole team, because if someone feels that no one helps him, then his trust and commitment with the team will be reduced. “When people focus on others, they’re less likely to worry about egos and minuscule details; they look at the big picture and prioritize what matters most to others.” (Give and Take, by Adam Grant).c) Open and Transparent Environment and CommunicationsMy team has the same information I have. I’m 100% transparent with them. Every problem that happens they know about it, everything I know about the company, my team knows. We all are grown-up professionals, and it’s a bit childish to think that it’s better not to communicate something and hide it just in case people don’t know how to handle it. If you’ve created a culture where there is psychological safety, whenever there is a doubt, people are going to ask, criticize whatever they don’t like or don’t understand, etc.This is the way to communicate things, talking and resolving the doubts, because for sure there are going to be doubts and the information is always going to come out. So hiding things is dangerous and negative. It builds a culture of mistrust, gossip, misunderstandings, etc. that don’t go anywhere and ends up affecting all interpersonal relationships in the company. I understand the concern that some companies have about conveying some things, but the concern should be about conveying them poorly, not about conveying them.Sometimes people are wrong due to bad information, misinterpretation, lack of vision, or lack of perspective, but sometimes they’re absolutely right. Speaking up without fear and with clarity help to avoid these issues.d) Personal LifeA key part of feeling well in our work is to feel well in our personal life, and although we can’t fix every personal problem each of us has :), a company at least can help avoid our work becoming a problem in our personal life. Nowadays a lot of jobs can be done remotely or in different schedules.Too much has been said about reconciling family and professional life, which normally refers to having children, but this should be for everyone. Everyone has her/his priorities, things we want to do to feel satisfied, things we have to do no matter what…whether it’s to go to the gym, see your children at school, or do paperwork…At ShuttleCloud we have free schedule. If you want to go running at 12:00, as I do, perfect. If tomorrow morning you can’t work because you want to see your children reading (playing the guitar for example), or you want to see a relative that has come to the city, it’s all good. The only condition is that you have to communicate it to the team so that we can be organized.Is this enough?NO. A lot has been said about 1–1 meetings. You’ll see thousands of posts saying ”you have to have 1–1 if you want to be a good manager” and very few explaining what to talk about and what’s the point of them. If there is something good about them, it is that they allow you to know the problems a person is going through, her concerns… and there is where we can make a difference as managers. Because when you know the personal situation of each one, you understand when you need to have more patience, when someone is more motivated or unfocused, why he/she needs more free time, etc. Sometimes the only way to help them is understanding, having empathy, but a lot of times that’s more than enough.Another important point are vacations. For most companies, vacation is just an administrative processing, a formality. Best case scenario, they look at them as a way of resting, but do any of them analyze the results of vacations? Do any of them analyze how many people use all the days? Only half or even fewer? Do the people disconnect?On top of that, a company must use vacations to become stronger, perhaps by finding key dependencies, lack of shared knowledge, etc. Here you can read a good example.How do we handle vacations at ShuttleCloud? We have a designated slack channel only for them (we’re a small team). In it the team talks about what days they want to go on vacation. The idea is for the team to organize themselves."Do you want to go on vacation because your mother is coming to see you? Great! I’ll change mine."In that channel we even propose what people should rest because we think they’re exhausted, tired or whatever. We’ve changed our vacation policy several times and we analyze them constantly. And of course, every time the policy is going to be changed, the whole team participates and gives their feedback.ConclusionAs managers one of our biggest responsibilities is to take care of the people we are responsible for. Being sure they have the means to do a great job is one of our responsibilities, and the most important part in order to do that is to create the right environment.“Research suggests that there are two fundamental paths to influence: dominance and prestige. When we establish dominance, we gain influence because others see us as strong, powerful, and authoritative. When we earn prestige, we become influential because others admire and respect us”. (Give and Take, by Adam Grant).Which one do you think helps to build an environment to avoid burnout? I leave the answer as an exercise for the reader :D.This article was published at: http://ift.tt/2jXOpE9.