Great Athletes vs. Average Animals: Who’s Faster?

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com

How Leaders Can Use Empathy To Increase Employee Satisfaction?

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As many workplaces struggle to retain and hire employees during the Great Resignation, it may be time for leaders to feel empathy toward their workers.  

It’s critical for companies to hire and develop more effective managers and leaders capable of moving their organization forward, which requires looking beyond traditional strategies for management development and cultivating the skills most important for success. 

One of those skills is empathy — a vital leadership competency.  

Ernst & Young’s 2021 Empathy in Business Survey showed around 50% of employees quit a previous job because their boss wasn’t empathetic to their struggles at work or in their personal lives. The survey showed that nearly 90% of workers believe empathetic leadership creates loyalty, and 85% say that it increases productivity.   

Until more business owners, executives and managers put a priority on listening to their employees and showing them that they care, workers will look for companies that are more tuned in to their concerns, according to Kathleen Quinn Votaw, the author of DARE to CARE IN THE WORKPLACE: A Guide to the New Way We Work. 

Quinn Votaw offers these tips on how leaders can lead with empathy and enhance the employee experience: 

  1. Be authentic. “Like actors in a Shakespearian play, we play roles versus showing up authentically. We have been taught to hide our true selves and display a false sense of bravado. To lead with empathy, get beyond the facade we all walk around with. Go the extra step – with your willingness to dig deep in terms of caring and asking questions that convey your interest in them as people,” according to Quinn Votaw.  
  2. Communicate with a personal touch. A leader who consistently communicates with a personal touch for a variety of reasons – praise for the employee, concern and support for them – builds morale and increases retention. The more personal they are, the more appreciated they are by the employees. 
  3. Make space for connection. Leaders need to respect how their employees need personal connections with each other, and leaders should personally connect with employees once or twice a week outside of regular meetings. “Make time for more social and genuine connections in virtual meetings,” she says. “Have fun with virtual coffee chats, happy hours, trivia contests, or scavenger hunts.” 
  4. Provide remote workers with the tech support they need. “There’s a growing economic inequality crisis with remote workers not having money for or access to technology,” Quinn Votaw says. “No one wants to lose out on high-quality talent because they lack funds for high-speed internet or a computer. Create a program to provide office equipment for your employees so they can have a functional setup in their personal space.” 
  5. Respect the boundaries of work and home life. Working in a remote environment has thrown off a lot of employees. “It was easy to have barriers and work/life balance when we commuted. Leaders can help employees create a home space where they can turn work on and off, which boosts productivity, enhances connection, and creates a healthier work/life balance,” according to Quinn Votaw. 

In recent years, empathy has been regularly listed as a “soft skill” being sought by employers, and for good reason.  

When staff members treat each other with understanding and respect, it not only comes with boosts to morale but also to efficiency and productivity, as the team is more likely to provide each other with proactive support. Employees who are able to tap into empathy can provide more responsive customer service, according to Forbes

Empathy in the workplace has to start at the top. If employees don’t believe their leaders have empathy for them, they’re unlikely to show empathy themselves. Leaders need to find ways to show their team members that they care about their concerns, as well as their well-being.  

Portions of this article originally appeared on the All Work Space website.

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

How Much Data is Generated Every Minute? 

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com

Want Your Content to Convert?Start by Keeping it Simple

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Writing content never gets any easier. 

Planning topics, figuring out what to write, crafting a catchy subject line, coming up with a call-to-action, and of course, writing content that actually converts. Getting it right takes time, practice, and inspiration. 

It’s all about planning

Plan email content in advance and include it in your content calendar. That way, it’s less likely to slip off your radar. This also makes it easier to link email campaigns with other marketing strategies, such as press releases or product launches, and will give you “double bang for your buck”. 

Another tip is to ensure that your call-to-action (CTA) is clear and relevant. Don’t be tempted to go for clickbait – if you promise something, make sure you deliver on it in as few clicks as possible. 

Finally, on that note, focus on making the customer journey is seamless.  

Use your own voice

Your customers are there partially because they want to be with a small business. They want to know your journey, how you’re getting through this. This is a letter to them.

While your content can (and should) be human, your subject line can be punchier. You can use this space to include other elements of the email – such as a promotion – to entice readers to open it. Once you have their attention, speak to them personally. Even if it’s just a small introduction, this is your chance to use your own voice and level with your members as a fellow business owner. 

Keep it simple, fun, and consistent. 

The ‘simple’ rule is that it’s a weekly newsletter to everyone in community, in a simple format that’s open to everybody. It’s fun and personable; a letter from you about what’s going on in the world and in the community. As for consistency, it’s sent the same day without fail. 

Another fun element is in the name. Rather than calling your newsletter a newsletter, give it a name. It’s obvious that it’s a newsletter, so this is your chance to inject a little personality. 

Leverage your events

Events might be a big part of their community, so your marketing strategy might focus almost entirely on your events program. It keeps the content fresh. There is always new content, new events, reminders, updates, and recaps, which gives you plenty of new content. It also gives you a great opportunity to change the imagery in your newsletter.  By leveraging events you get lots of new marketing imagery such as headshots of speakers and photos of people in your space. 

It gives people a reason to share your newsletter. A lot of people who want to go to an event don’t want to go alone, so they share it with other people and either invite them, or send it along for their interest, which attracts new subscribers. Finally, it shows off the vibrancy of your space. Events bring people together and show that you have a vibrant community, that you’re “a convener.

Portions of this article originally appeared on the All Work Space website.

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Most Popular Fast Food Store in Every State

Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Dog Breeds: Who is the Naughtiest? 

Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Top Tips to Putting Your Phone Down

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Putting your phone away is a chance to change your life for the better. After trying these simple tips, you will see that you get a lot of free time, improve the learning process, and have a better mood.

Customize the Notifications

The first step to solve the problem of phone addiction is to customize the notifications. Thus, the surveys show that people cannot ignore notifications that result in the excessive use of smartphones.

You need to limit the notifications, especially when you are at college or busy. This way, you won’t have an additional reason to turn on your smartphone and look through the messages. After some time, you will feel less stressed because nothing will disturb you from important things.

Delete All Unnecessary Apps

The next important thing is to delete all unnecessary apps. For example, if you need to study a lot, social media apps will be the main reason to be distracted. Thus, try to delete them for some time, and you will see how much free time you get.

Also, look through all the apps installed on your smartphone. Maybe, you will find a lot of unnecessary apps you will never use. Delete them, as they can send notifications that are too disturbing.

Create a Plan to Use a Smartphone

One more good idea is to create a plan for your smartphone usage. If you feel that you are too addicted to smartphones, you need to write down how many apps you use during the day and for what purpose. It will help understand why smartphone addiction is a great problem.

With the new plan, you will start to control the usage of smartphones. Also, you will have a detailed schedule for the day. Undoubtedly, it will make your college life easier and well-organized.

Take a Holiday

Specialists recommend taking holidays without any gadgets. It is a nice way to detox your mind from social media and tons of information. For example, you can go on a trip or camping for the weekend. Spending time close to nature has a lot of benefits, such as a good mood. Furthermore, such a holiday will also be useful for both mental and physical health.

If you think your relatives and friends will worry about your long absence online, notify them about your short holiday.

Do Not Use Smartphone Before Going to Bed

The next working suggestion is not to use smartphones before going to bed. Thus, the specialists have already found out that the blue light of the display negatively affects the quality of sleep.

Furthermore, people often do not control how much time they spend with smartphones in bed. It starts with several minutes and ends with almost half of the night scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. So, if you want to sleep well and feel good in the morning, get rid of your phone for 3-4 hours before bed.

Use Apps to Limit Phone Usage

We talked about the negative effects of unnecessary apps at the beginning of the article. But there are also useful apps that help limit phone usage during the day. If you want to stay healthy and have a lot of free time, try this effective way to get rid of smartphone addiction.

Such apps as Rescue Time or AppDetox will become your best friends during the day. The main advantage of these programs is in controlling the time period you spend on a phone.

Try to Use a Feature Phone for Some Time

In case of serious phone addiction, it is recommended to use a feature phone for some time. The main benefit of this phone is the absence of social media apps. Thus, you will use it only for its direct purpose—to call someone if necessary.

After several weeks of this experiment, you can get back to your smartphone. If you see that you can control the time spent on social media, you will overcome your addiction.

Replace the Bad Habit

Experts recommend trying to replace the bad habit with the good one. In case of phone addiction, you can search for a new hobby to overcome this problem. Try to read books before going to sleep instead of surfing the Internet. This way, you will spend time with pleasure and get new knowledge.

Change Thinking

Finally, you need to change your thinking to overcome the addiction. Try to analyze your life to find out the main reason for excessive use of the smartphone. Maybe, the main cause for it is feelings of loneliness, depression, or some life problems. After you realize it, you will solve this issue faster.

Portions of this article originally appeared on the Daily Infographic website.

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Which Country Reads the Most?

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

10 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

1. Prepare
Absorb information about writing, but don’t overwhelm yourself. I’ve been known to read a writing handbook or editing manual cover to cover, but I recommend reading one chapter or section at a time and absorbing information from online resources in similarly small doses as well. Our website is a good starting point, as it features thousands of posts about specific grammar, syntax, and style topics as well as vocabulary-building posts and more comprehensive posts about writing, editing, and language.

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2. Practice
Work on your writing every day. Commit to a daily writing exercise, even if you have only five minutes to spare. If you write for a living, or writing constitutes a significant proportion of your daily tasks at work, still set aside time to practice other forms of composition. Style or subject matter can vary day to day, or you can decide to, for example, respond in writing to something you experienced with any of your five senses (including anything you watched or read by way of a form of media). Alternatively, find a list of writing prompts online, and use the next one on the list each day, or choose one randomly. (Encourage family members or friends—or even coworkers—to join you in producing their own responses.) 

3. Engage with Others
Participating in a group learning activity is a great motivator. When you have paid for a class and/or scheduled time for attend classes or workshop sessions, you’re more likely to persevere, and completing assignments and projects will help you establish and/or maintain your writing discipline. If you’re intimidated by a group setting, consider finding a writing partner with whom you can exchange drafts and/or discuss concepts and practice skills, then graduate, on your own or with your partner, to a course or workshop. Alternatively, seek out online courses or groups.

4. Read
Read for education, enjoyment, and enlightenment. For the most part, with recreational reading, just sit back and enjoy yourself. But consider devoting occasional sessions to analytical reading, in which you highlight particularly effective words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs and think about why they stand out, and apply the techniques to your own writing. 

5. Organize
Use organizational techniques such as outlines and diagrams. Brainstorm keywords and essential ideas or plot points. If other forms of creative expression stimulate you, use them: Listen to (or play) music to inspire a certain mood, collect photographs or illustrations of people, places, and things that suggest elements you want to incorporate into an essay or a short story, or draw sketches of characters or settings to help you visualize them.

6. Research and Fact-Check
Whether you’re writing nonfiction or fiction, take care to write authoritatively. If you’re writing a short story or a novel, read about the historical background of the setting to make sure that you are not introducing counterfactual or anachronistic elements. When crafting a newspaper, magazine, or website article, or a blog post, educate yourself on your topic, and double-check quantitative information: proper names; affiliations and relationships; and dates, distances, dollar amounts, and so on.

7. Be Flexible
Write with an open mind. Be flexible about changing the focus of an article or essay or the protagonist or plot of a short story or a novel. Question your assumptions, and accept that your initial goal or message may not be the most effective or useful one, or the one that you are prepared to express just now.

8. Draft
Expect to be dissatisfied by your first draft, and don’t assume that your second draft is your last. Whether you’re writing a blog post or a book manuscript, the initial iteration may only slightly resemble the final draft—which, if you also submit it for editing, will differ from the edited version. Some writers have managed to produce an admirable piece of writing on the first try, but you will very likely spend as much time revising your first draft (and subsequent efforts) as you did producing it, if not more time. Embrace the opportunity to improve your baseline output by reorganizing, inserting, and omitting text; reshaping phrases and sentences; and replacing bland verbs and tired clichés and vague descriptions.

9. Hire an Editor
You’re free to post to your own blog or self-publish your novel without any further mediation, but you will be more successful as a writer if you accept that objective assistance enhances virtually everyone’s prose. Hiring an editor is a significant investment of time and money—editorial attention to a long novel, for example, can cost a couple thousand dollars and take several weeks—but if you find a good editor, the investment will be worth it. (And note that with any other service, you often get what you pay for, so when choosing an editor, focus on quality of results you will obtain rather than quantity of expense you will incur.)

If you can’t afford such an expense, at least ask a friend or acquaintance to go over your writing for you, and perhaps offer to edit something of theirs in exchange or to provide a service of similar monetary value (dog walking or pet sitting, clerical or organizational assistance, repair or construction, and so on) in return. Just understand that assistance from someone on the basis of acquaintance is less likely to be either objective or of professional caliber. Choose an editor who knows what they are doing and will not hesitate to provide revisions and critiques at the risk of damaging your ego.

10. Practice Humility
Perhaps you were praised at home and/or at school for your writing, or you have won one or more writing awards, or you have had articles or stories (or even books) published. Any or all of those achievements constitutes a good start. But you are still developing as a writer, and you always will be. Continue to practice these habits and welcome other opportunities to grow functionally and creatively as a writer.

Portions of this article originally appeared on the Daily Writing Tips website.

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

How to Increase Your Productivity

The Sundance Company                                                                
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.6 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.