How To Stand Out As A Business Leader In 2022

If you want to find success managing a team, and communicating with customers, you need to show them that you are leadership material.

There are a lot of different leadership styles, and personalities and many of them work. However, not everyone can adapt to every style of leadership. It’s crucial in business to figure out what kind of leader you are and where your strengths lie so that you can inspire confidence in your team and your clients.

In this article, we’re going to explain what we look for in leaders here at F.H. Cann & Associates and share some advice from our own team leads. 

Be a Part of the Team

Good leaders work with their team(s), they do not just bark orders. Working with your team will inspire your team because they will see that you are not afraid to get your hands dirty as well.

Not only will it gain respect from your team members, but it will also help you understand your projects much more. Knowing the ins and outs of your projects will help you make decisions and communicate details with clients.

Be a part of the team, but make sure not to step on toes or get in the way of the actual team members. 

Listen & Communicate

You need to talk to your team members and actually listen to their suggestions. It is likely that they will understand potential problems more than you do since they are the ones that have to work around the problems.

Telling a team to implement a certain feature, and not listening to them when they say it won’t work is a great way to lose their confidence, and immediately kill their passion for the project. When communicating your ideas, be clear, concise, and always listen to your team’s opinions.

You will stand out in their eyes as a real leader who cares about the project and isn’t just barking down at them. 

How To Set And Achieve Your Work Goals This Year

The new year is here and with it comes many resolutions and promises. An extremely common resolution is to improve productivity and accomplish work goals no matter what they are. Whether your goal is to complete a certain number of milestones, or if it is to raise your salary a particular percentage, there are certain steps you can take to achieve these goals.

We here at F.H. Cann and Associates Inc. have always focused on quality over everything else. We have always set goals for ourselves and our employees and have worked out how to perfectly accomplish those goals.

In this article, we are going to be sharing with you some of our favorite techniques and advice for accomplishing work goals so that you can start off the new year on the right foot. 

Set Good Goals that you Actually Want to Achieve

Your goals shouldn’t be generic or for anyone else. Don’t set goals because other people expect you to achieve them.

Your goals have to be something that you want, otherwise, your motivation will be much lower and you will feel less accomplished when you accomplish them. Think hard about what you want in life and in your career and figure out what goals you can set for yourself in order to achieve these things.

Only you can make your goals happen, so only you should be the one choosing what your goals are. 

Long Term and Short Term 

Having a good balance of long and short-term goals is the key to success. Long-term goals are great, but if you do not have a list of short-term goals that will help you achieve them, then you will be left directionless.

Setting up a specific plan of action and goals that will help you achieve your overall life and career goals is a great way to stay organized and also a great way to keep yourself motivated. Every time you achieve a smaller goal, you will be reinvigorated and ready to accomplish the next one.

Read:

How To Tell It’s Time For A Career Change

Keep Good Company

To be successful it is important to be around others that want to be successful. If you only keep the company of those that are happy to be where they’re at that never strive for more, then it is easy to fall victim to the same mindset.

If you’re around motivated people trying to accomplish their own goals, then their motivation will keep you motivated to grow. 

Remember and Reevaluate

Always remember why you set your goals. Writing the reasons down will help you remember so that you can look at them when you start feeling burnt out.

It is also important to reevaluate your goals. Do they still align with what you want in life?

What You Need To Know About Student Loans In 2022

Student loans seem to be in the headlines all the time these days. As we are gradually moving into a new year, we would like to share some tips to look out for whether you are applying for loans or trying to repay them in the new year.

First off, there are different ways to get student loans. You could choose between Federal Student Loans or Private Student Loans. Federal student loans are offered through the government while Private student loans are offered through private lenders.

Types of Student Loans

Stafford loans

Stafford loans are very simple to obtain and offer more money than Perkins loans. Furthermore, interest expenses may be subsidized, and they are available to both graduate and undergraduate students.

PLUS  loans 

PLUS loans, or Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students, are federal loans that are similar to private loans. They require a credit check, and repayment begins shortly after the loan is disbursed. Parents receive PLUS loans for undergrads, allowing them to shoulder considerable expenses for their children.

Consolidation loans

Multiple student loans are consolidated into a single loan using consolidation loans. As a result, repayment is easier (one payment instead of many), and there may be other advantages.

Income Share Agreement (ISA)

This form of arrangement gives financial assistance to students while they are enrolled in school. When they leave school, however, they must pay the lender a set percentage of their income for a set period of years.

Important things to note about student loans

You can use loan money only for certain things

Student loans are generally divided between tuition fees and living costs. You can apply for loans and grants to help with these. Only education-related expenses are considered for loan funds. Your loan cannot be used for entertainment, takeout, or vacations, but it can be used for transportation, groceries, study abroad expenses, personal supplies, or off-campus housing.

Reevaluate your student loan terms

The first step in figuring out what to do next is to figure out what your interest rate is. Sure, you could have a vague recollection of what you agreed to, but some of us have had loans for decades and have forgotten the specifics. Given current financial realities, it is critical to examine these figures.

Borrow only what you require and can afford to repay

Although there are usually price range limits for students who wish to borrow money, one thing you should remember is to aim to borrow only what you need so that you can keep your monthly payments at roughly 10% of your estimated after-tax income.

To lower the amount you owe, apply for grants and scholarships. Even small grants are beneficial.

You’ll pay fees and interest on the loan

Due to loan fees and interest, you’ll owe more than the amount you borrowed. For private lenders, You or your co-credit signer’s history will be used to calculate your rate.

How To Stand Out As A Leader On Your Team

Leadership is a skill that can help you advance in your work. Excellent team leaders have certain personal attributes, therefore taking the effort to understand and cultivate these qualities will help you advance in your profession. We’ll look at leadership qualities, tips for standing out as a team leader at work, and how to be a great leader in this article. 

How to stand out as a lead by F.H. Cann & Associates Inc.

1. Be aware of yourself. Be confident, and humble.

If you are aware of yourself, you can do serve as a leader among more experienced peers and coworkers in a way that others will positively approve of. You’ll be able to get your coworkers to do their best and facilitate the growth of your business or company.

Be self-assured in your abilities and open to new possibilities. Humility is a virtue that should never be overlooked but don’t overuse it.

Those under you need to respect your decisions and too much humility can affect the opinions they have of you.

2. Always have a backup plan and a contingency plan.

People become fatigued and desensitized to the truly critical issues that develop within a company because they are not prepared for what might happen. It’s critical for everyone on your team to understand that your plans aren’t turn-by-turn directions for attaining goals, which means that a checklist mentality isn’t always the greatest strategy because you might need to go in a different direction than you expected.

If there’s a need to make changes to your plans, the must be able to follow accordingly.

Five Ways to Improve Corporate Culture With Your Remote Team

As a company that wants to thrive, its culture consists of the values and norms that its employees hold dear, both in and out of the workplace. Most of these underlying assumptions are formed as a consequence of interactions between workers and their superiors.

To be productive, your company’s culture has a significant impact on the perceptions of your workers and consumers. With the nature of the workforce, we understand that it may be difficult to develop a culture in a remote team.

However, employees will become ambassadors for the firm if its culture is consistent with its basic principles. This will guarantee that the company keeps its best personnel.

We at F.H. Cann & Associates are a leading provider of contact center and recovery solutions. To remain compliant and provide best-in-class service at all times, our company and contact center staff make use of the most recent technology.

We will be giving you five tips on how to improve corporate culture with your remote team

• Make Your Employees Feel Confident and Trusted.

There must be trust between remote workers and their supervisors. It is also important to build trust between the management team as a whole. This trust must be fostered by managers, leadership, and the whole business.

Eliminate the need for top-down control of decision-making by giving workers the freedom to act individually and collaboratively. Developinging an atmosphere of trust and confidence in others is an important part of being a good leader.

How To Tell It’s Time For A Career Change

You won’t have a lightbulb moment of clarity one day and know exactly what job route you should be on. But you’ll only find out by doing a lot of things wrong a lot of the time.

Many times our “mistakes” in terms of professional choices teach us the most. They assist us in moving ahead in our careers and help us choose what professionally fulfills us—and what doesn’t.

As an industry leader, we at F.H. Cann and Associates deliver contact center and financial recovery solutions to serve the higher education, government, financial service, healthcare, telecommunications, and utility sectors. Our business and contact center employees utilize the newest technologies to be compliant and give best-in-class service constantly.

We will be giving you tips on knowing when you must change that career. If you are experiencing any of the following in your career path, then it is time to make a U turn.

• Your job is negatively affecting your self-esteem

If you’re starting to question your abilities and the value of your job, it’s time for a change. If your work or profession makes you feel horrible about yourself, it’s not worth it, no matter how much money you earn or what benefits you get.

There isn’t a single benefit worth feeling sorry for yourself about. Long-term mental well-being may be adversely impacted, and even the slightest job may feel insurmountable. Fulfilling work should improve your confidence and self-esteem, not the other way round.

• You loathe going to work.

Some days you want to press the snooze button a few times, and other days you need a little more motivation to get yourself ready and go to work. The project you’re working on may bore you, or you may be nervous before a meeting with the boss.  

You look forward to the weekend, but no matter how hard you try, the dread of Monday begins to set in by the time Saturday night rolls around. Your dissatisfaction may be a sign that it’s time to look for other employment opportunities that are more in line with your interests.

The Perks Of Outsourcing Your Customer Service Solutions

Outsourcing has become a critical component of many contemporary company strategies. Outsourcing important parts of your organisation, such as customer service, may seem to be tough and troublesome, but there are many advantages to doing so.

Outsourcing to a respectable firm, it turns out, results in a stronger business and happy consumers. 

It’s our goal at F.H. Cann & Associates to assist you to grasp how customer service may function in your company and how you can get successful outcomes.

Read on to know the greatest reasons to outsource your customer support to the appropriate company.

• Enhanced Effectiveness

When deciding whether or not to outsource customer service, your focus is mostly on the customer service aspect of things. However, there is a possible cascading effect where outsourcing improves efficiency across the board?

We’re all aware that a company’s success is directly tied to the quality of its customer service. Because of this, it’s simple for your internal staff to get sidetracked when anything goes wrong. So, instead of fixing one issue, they’re creating other ones.

Outsourcing customer service reduces this risk and ensures that different divisions inside the company are concentrating on their own unique requirements.

Six Ways to Offer Excellent Customer Service During COVID-19

During difficult times imposed by Covid-19, businesses and workers have the opportunity to stand up and provide exceptional customer service when it is most needed.

A customer’s contact with a business, particularly in times of crisis, may have an instant and lasting impact on his or her feeling of trust and loyalty.

Our team at F.H. Cann and Associates Inc. has decided to help you understand how customer service can work in your business and how you can produce effective results. The following are ways to offer excellent customer service:

• Excessive Communication: To achieve effective communication nothing surpasses face-to-face encounters  It may be difficult to remain aligned with customers on business goals, deliverables, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  
  Businesses should strive to bridge the gaps that create communication failures during these periods when we are compelled to cooperate online. To accomplish so, they must overcommunicate by sending more emails and making more phone calls.
  
  This will go a long way toward ensuring that the insights gained during on-site visits are preserved, as well as ensuring that a business fulfils customer expectations.

• Keep the process quality high. While it is understood that procedures that are typically conducted on-site degrade in quality when performed remotely, this should not be used as an excuse. Businesses must devise a method for adapting their analyses to operate in a remote setting.
  
  Companies should aim to make their virtual operations match or surpass the outcomes usually obtained by on-site work, in addition to utilising consumer data and overcommunicating.

• Determine the Most Effective Collaboration Platform: While face-to-face contact isn’t always feasible, there are still methods to express the same emotion to your consumers. You can use work from home digital tools such as Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and others.
  
  Companies who agree to embrace their clients’ preferred method of communication are meeting them where they are. This cooperative gesture will promote the idea of providing high-end client pleasure by establishing trust and value early on.
  
  Read Next: F.H. Cann and Associates Inc. Experts Weigh In On The Future Of Remote Work

Ways To Stay Energized And Motivated While Working From Home

Since the pandemic, working from home has come to stay. A lot of companies have implemented it into their normal working arrangement.

Employees are expected to spend some days in the office and some days out of it. It’s a nice arrangement after all, who doesn’t like sipping tea in PJ while working? It’s the dream and one of the reasons why freelancing is becoming increasingly popular.

However, as amazing as working from home is, going 8-9 hours without having anyone to talk to can become uninteresting really fast. When you’re working in an office, you get to talk to your co-workers, take lunch and coffee breaks with them and catch up on some office gist. But when you’re working alone, that’s not an option and that’s why it’s easy to lose motivation.

There are ways to prevent this and some of them are;

• Have a Schedule: If you’re working from home, it’s easier to keep postponing the things you have to do until a later time. Before you know it, you have a deadline you have to meet and you have to work extra hours, drink a lot of coffee and probably do a night shift. 

The best way to avoid something like this is to make sure that you have a working schedule that you’re going to stick to. You shouldn’t make excuses or do something that’s supposed to take 30 minutes in 2 hours. Fix a time when you begin and end your work daily. 

• Create a Workplace: As amazing as it sounds to work on your bed all day, it’s a bad idea. You’re either going to fall asleep or your brain is going to start associating bed with work and you won’t be able to sleep well on your bed anymore.
  
  That’s why you have to create a designated workplace in your house where you can do your job. You can use places like your kitchen table or the desk in your living room. Sitting up will also increase your ability to stay focused all day long.
  
• Designate Small Blocks of Time to Work: Working non-stop for a long period of time can feel overwhelming. That’s why it’s advisable to divide big tasks into little blocks that can be handled in short periods of time.
  
  This gives you the chance to cool off before you divide into the task again. You’ll feel more motivated if you tell yourself that you need to finish an invoice in 20 minutes than you need to finish 30 invoices by closing time. 
  
  Many have experienced the COVID fatigue by now which is why it’s important to find ways to motivate yourself. Furthermore, designating your time will prevent you from getting lost on social media because you know you have a short amount of time to finish a given task. 

How to Manage Your Remote (or Hybrid) Team

Operating a remote team where many of the people in the group work at home can be a daunting experience. The same can also be said for a hybrid team where some people are in the office, and others are at home. But we at F.H. Cann and Associates want to help you understand how you can keep one of these teams under control while ensuring everyone stays on top of their work.

Establish Sensible Expectations

The first tip to use involves looking at the expectations you’ll have for your workers. We encourage you to establish your values for operation and what guidelines people should follow when working for you.

It becomes easier for people to understand what they should do when they see what you are trying to support.

Allow People To Feel Local

It doesn’t take much for remote or hybrid team members to feel forgotten, what with them not being in the same room. You can create a local feeling to your business by assigning each team member to different tasks in a more massive project.

Everyone can have a say in what they will do when working, plus they can provide a more flexible approach to work.

Reasonable Scheduling Is a Must

The odds are your team members might be in different time zones. You can establish schedules with everyone that ensure all the people will stay in touch and that you can communicate in real-time.

Use the Right Software

Remote teams are more productive when they use the right software programs to stay functional and active. You can request everyone in a group to use certain programs that promote collaboration and productivity.

Slack is useful for how it manages team communication functions, while GitHub provides project management support. You can also use Google Drive for file sharing and storage needs.