THE B

Doing Business In Poland with Kevin Foglar

ben@benesmael.com (Kevin Foglar, Ben Esmael) — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 15:35:27 +0000

Welcome to a bonus episode talking about doing business in Poland. My guest is Kevin Foglar, a lawyer at DKLAW Law Firm &

Sworn Translator In Poland.

In this episode, you will learn more about:

Why should anyone short-list Poland as a place to do business?
How hard/easy to run a business in Poland?
Let’s talk about the legalities of starting a business; what are the key things to be aware of?
Let’s talk about digital assets, whether that is crypto or NFT,
If I am a foreigner coming to invest in Poland and looking at a legal office to help me out, where should I look, and what should I look for to determine if I have found the right partner?

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If you are an entrepreneur that thinks about doing business in Poland, I highly recommend reaching out to Kevin and DKLAW crew.

Kevin email, DKLAW Website

For suggestions, comments, and feedback. you can email Ben

PR In Business with Matt Phillips

ben@benesmael.com (Matt Phillips, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 09:00:00 +0000

In this episode, you will learn more about:

Presentations, a quick debate on the question: Are the look and feel of a presentation (or) the business's quality and reputation play an essential role in accomplishing satisfaction?
PR, how could it go wrong? Matt shares his thoughts on Boris Johnson's story and how he and his team managed the birthday scandal. Spoiler, there is a checklist to avoid doing a lousy PR!
For a startup, what is the right time for a startup? What to start investing in PR? And how much media attention should a company get relative to its peers? Matt shared great insights that I think should be considered as a blueprint for any business - it is given for free!
Tech-enabled PR, how would that look like? Matt told the story of how technology doesn't matter but thinking about how the materials have been consumed is critical.
There are many channels to be used for PR; are there underrated (or) overrated? Matt was controversial in his answer!
What is the best way to build personal branding? Matt again brilliantly shared an excellent blueprint to follow!
What does Matt do, and how can he help your business?

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You can follow and check Matt's work on LinkedIn Matt's website, make sure you check his newsletter or email him

You also can reach out to Ben

Trust To Thrive with Marie-Claire Ross

ben@benesmael.com (Marie-Claire Ross, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 4 Aug 2022 12:18:09 +0000

Welcome to a new episode of THE B. Podcast, and this time our host Ben Esmael will be talking to Marie-Claire Ross. A Trust Leadership Speaker, Facilitator, and Mastermind Mentor is also the author of Trust To Thrive, How leaders create connected and accountable teams.

In this episode, you will hear us talking about how crucial it is to build trust through the organization for the organization to be ready and face various challenges head-on. This episode's choice came from the belief that trust & faith in each other have been neglected or taken for granted when working in the same space. Still, mistrust started to surface when all went online, disrupting business and forcing leaders to scramble to find a solution.

Listening to this interview, you will learn more about:

👉 Great resignation, or what you called it, a time for imagination. Are we asking the right questions?
👉 Trust, what does that means in a workplace, and how important is it for businesses to thrive?
👉 How do we build a culture of trust throughout the organization? What are the key enablers?
👉 How can leaders create accountable teams mainly in a remote working environment?
👉 What are the critical enablers to enhancing leadership visibility?
👉 Tell me about the stages of executive team building.

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Check out Marie-Claire's work at Link.

If you'd like to be a guest or suggest a guest, please reach out to Ben at Link - also, visit Ben's website at Link.

Coordinated Discovery Markets "CDM" with Noah Healy

ben@benesmael.com (Noah Healy, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Welcome to a new episode of THE B. Podcast; in this episode, Ben Esmael is talking technology with his guest Noah Healy. By watching the interview,

you'll learn more about:

The role of mathematics, data scientist, and technology
What is the problem of our world? Is it a broken system or a bad technology?
Digital currencies are not solving the right problem
What is happening to UST? The crash isn't the first lie
Privacy and social scorecard, reciprocity is the problem!
CDM, a new invention, the impact is massive!
Have we learned the lesson?
Technology can be nasty!
NFT is mostly a Ponzi scheme; the technology has potential but is not without limitations.

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You can reach out to Noah on his LinkedIn profile.

Check out Ben's website:

If you'd like to be a guest or have Ben as a guest, reach out

Purposeful Life With Michael S. Seaver

ben@benesmael.com (ben esmael, Michael S. Seaver) — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Watching this session, you'll learn more about:

👉 What is happiness?

👉 How could anyone develop self-awareness?

👉 How could anyone navigate ambiguity, see through all that noise, and focus on what matters?

👉 As humans, we would face psychological pressure and wrong or even traumatic experiences. What is the best thing to do for healing?

👉 Is doing what you love (or) doing what fulfills your purpose the definition of success?

Feel free to reach Michael S. Seaver on:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Website

Also, check out his book, which is one of my favorite reads this summer: Apple books:

Audiobooks (it is just fantastic to listen to this while training)

If you want to be a guest or talk to Ben, check the link

Energy Market Talking To Emmanuel Clair, Investor, Energy Expert and Non Executive Director at Saietta, Rac

ben@benesmael.com (Emmanuel Clair, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 9 Jun 2022 09:00:00 +0000

At the date of releasing this episode, Goldman Sachs forecasted that Brent crude oil price might reach $135 per barrel in the second half of the year, Goldman Sachs bank predicts. This is $10 more than analysts expected in their previous forecast. The biggest problem, which can influence the growth of oil prices, is the growing deficit of this raw material on world markets.

According to the same report, Goldman Sachs analysts enumerate several reasons for changing the oil price forecast. Firstly, a record sale of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, i.e., emergency oil stocks belonging to the United States, was recorded. This means that U.S. oil inventories have declined.

The second major factor is the changing economic situation in China. Covid restrictions in that country have led the oil market to its first surplus since June 2020. However, Beijing's low number of new Covid-19 cases allowed the capital on Monday to back away from the tight restrictions. As a result, Chinese demand will grow, and oil surpluses will run out.

According to the report, the future oil price will also be influenced by the situation in Russia. There were relatively small declines in oil exports from Russia in April and May, but the country will reduce production. Russian oil production will fall by 0.5 million barrels per day after the European Union embargo.

BUT: is it that true? Are we doing the right thing or the easy thing?

Emmanuel and I spent some time talking about the different factors that influenced the energy market and took a bit of a different approach to tackling the problem. We both believe that starving oil companies is the easy solution that isn't working and that achieving efficiency is the way to go.

Disclaimer: non of the content in this video constitutes investment advice.

To reach & find out more about Emmanuel:

LinkedIn - Twitter

To get in touch with Ben - Link

Marketing Talking To Olga Nesterova, founder of the Onest Network, New York

ben@benesmael.com (Olga Nesterova, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 26 May 2022 09:00:00 +0000

A new episode with Olga Nesterova, founder of Onest Network, a marketing consulting company and a game-changer in content creation and monetization space as we know it today,

She will be talking with BEN ESMAEL about marketing strategy and how it changed after COVID? How could leaders drive more value from their marketing strategy in 2022, technology-enabled marketing and the Recession's impact on marketing, and how to navigate that challenge? ⁣

To get in touch with Olga:

Instagram

To join the content creator network on Onest Network

To get in touch with Ben.

Linkedin

Instagram

Website

Investment with Greg Dupont The Founder of Dupont Trading

Thu, 12 May 2022 14:01:27 +0000

To get in touch with Greg,

Twitter:

Website:

4X4 course:

To get in touch with Ben.

Linkedin:

Website:

email:

Leadership with Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Army Oakland McCulloch

ben@benesmael.com (Oakland McCulloch, Ben Esmael) — Thu, 12 May 2022 08:18:16 +0000

In this episode, we will be talking about leadership, and we will cover topics like:

• Leadership style, the hierarchy, top-down, bottom-up leadership. What lesson should we learn from the military?

• Promotion: How could we reward people fairly and transparent on why.

• The generation gap is a challenge businesses face by either having elders managing youngsters or the other way around it.

• Hiring the right people. What is the secret sauce?

• Nothing could work without trusting the team—any tips on strengthening that front from a leader's perspective.

• Top three must-have skills in tomorrow’s leaders?

• Managing remote teams - how should we play it?

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Get in touch with Oak:

Get in touch with Ben:

Lenses On The Labor Market, Poland with Katarzyna Izabela Syrowka

ben@benesmael.com (Katarzyna Izabela Syrowka, Ben Esmael) — Tue, 5 Apr 2022 10:12:59 +0000

"JEDEN TELEFON" or "One Phone Call" - this is how you become a mentor. As an intro to who you are. Could you tell us about that story?
We hear a lot about "The Great Resignation," what are you reading for the Polish Labor Market?
In Poland, what do you think is the main driver for people to start looking for a new job (or) drop the job altogether for a break?
What does that mean for business? The key areas companies have to invest in in 2022, maybe the next three years?
In your "Future " report, you talked about the Hybrid working environment and that employees love it, especially youngsters. No doubt, the model brought a lot of benefits in terms of flexibility, but sometimes I wonder what the trade-off is. What is the downside?
If we draw a picture of 20022 optimal leaders, what are the key traits and characters they should have?
What is your plan for 2022?
Quicks:
1. Leadership Academy
2. Automation in businiess
3. Executive MBA

To reach out to Kasia, LinkedIn - Website

To reach out to Ben: LinkedIn - Email: ben@benesmael.com

Talking Business with Alicia Butler Pierre

ben@benesmael.com (ben esmael, Alicia Butler pierre) — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we have talked about:

The secrete sauce for individual success
Supply chain challenge and how to fix it
Business continuity plan why is that important?
Cybersecurity
Consulting businesses
What kills transformation projects?
Communication / Change Management
Performance Management
Automation

You can reach out to Alicia at:

Alicia's website

Equilibria website

Alicia's podcast

You also can buy her book at

Self-Fullness With Niki Vinogradoff

ben@benesmael.com (ben esmael, niki vinogradoff) — Tue, 8 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

👉 Talking points:

1️⃣ Sleep and how important it is. How could anyone practice good sleep?

2️⃣ Mindfulness, breathing exercise. How to overcome the anxiety of war, Monday morning or a tough day?

3️⃣ You lived a period in a Buddhist meditation center. Why did you do that, and what was the thing you learned there that changed your life forever?

4️⃣ Seven points of focus

5️⃣ What keeps you going, Niki, the person, not the coach.

6️⃣ Let's talk about planning and goals; what is the most common mistake people make while planning?

7️⃣ From time to time, we feel the urge to do some physical activities to bring ourselves to a balance point. Why and how?

Find Niki on LinkedIn:

Customer Centricity With Ally Newbigging

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Ally Newbigging) — Tue, 1 Mar 2022 15:30:44 +0000

Introduction:

You are a customer services expert, and you made a promising career where you held multiple roles in client support. You are currently a sales representative at Rossum. I also can't forget, you have made a career in music (more on that later).

If we talk customer-centricity, what is that, and what is the best way to measure it?
During COVID, it was a mess for business and a whole new ball game supporting their clients.
Since you made a career in customer services and sales, I was thinking about this; before Covid and remote or hybrid working environment, non-sales employees usually had some sightline to customers. However, as time marched on, non-customer-facing teams lost their connection to customers. How to fix that?
Since you work in Rossum, a tech business. How could your customers master digital transformation while not losing touch with their customers?
How much could be automated in our back-office processes? Is technology more advantageous than outsourcing?

Tell me a bit about - Elevator Pitch:

Tell me a bit about your music career - I'm curious what is the story?

Quicks: I'll mention them below statement, and you can rate them either underrated, properly rated, or overrated:

Agile room in small & mid-size business
Process standardization
Investment in technology in shared service centers
Customer centricity KPI

Link to Ally's linked in profile

Work 2.0 Nowhere To Hide With Sergiusz Prokurat

ben@benesmael.com (BEN ESMAEL, SERGIUSZ PROKURAT) — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 15:49:28 +0000

You wrote this book nearly a decade ago. How do you see your findings playing out during the last two years?
If globalization caused "complexity" and an explosion in demand for "hyperspecialization." Do you see the trend continuing or instead reversing course due to the deglobalization movement around us?
You have predicted that the focus will shift toward flexibility, mobility, and the quick adaptation of workers. Do you agree that COVID was just a catalyst to accelerate that shift?

Comment: People shouldn't commute to work, but instead, work should reach people. Teleworking is a concept that has existed since the 70S as a result of higher oil prices and was put forward by then to reduce traffics.

You said, "Globalization Can't Be Stopped." Could it be slowed, though, or sometimes I think that whatever will happen will largely depend on the survivability of the global political system that created it? What are your thoughts on that?

Fact: Job for life is dead!

Fact: Capitalism evolved from Capital, Land & Labour as the main driver for value creation and from manufacturing societies to service societies based on entrepreneurship, Knowledge, and innovation.

Fact: People shouldn't commute to work, but instead, work should reach people. Bellido

In the first chapter, "the transformation," you discussed unifying the real and virtual world. I guess Zukerberg's metaverse idea isn't his idea after all. What impact would that have on communities?
You put a table with five technological waves which have changed our world. The first started in the 1750S, and the last in 2000, and each subsequent wave is shorter than its predecessor. Could we say we live the sixth wave, which started in 2020?
Following quoting Freidman, "holy mackerel, the world is flat," you talked about how technology could hurt people, forcing them to seek refuge from ringing phones, emails, etc. Is that a prediction for the great resignation?
The internet destroys to rebuild a stronger and more effective community - said the economist Joseph Schumpeter. If we mention major events like what happened in 2011, the Arab spring, Joseph's statement stands against that?
Web 2.0 gave birth to World 2.0. Is that accurate? That, in essence, blurs the notion of senders & receivers of information where all participants influence creating a culture in one or more communities simultaneously. I'm curious how that would evolve with Web 3.0?

Fact: I came to Poland in mid-2015 and worked in one of the biggest businesses in the BPO sector in Krakow, maybe Poland. I vividly remember working from home was a privilege to senior managers, and we have gone through a long debate to start with distributing laptops. It is astonishing how far we have gone but also surprising that we have pioneers who understood that it is possible to have remote workers. I'm talking about JetBlue's decision as early as 2004, allowing 700 staff from customer services to work from home.

Working remotely is a tick in the box. What are the chances of seeing workshifting becoming the mainstream, and are businesses, particularly in Poland, ready for the change?
What kind of skills will the world of work 2.0 be in high demand? Does the global market have enough supply? What does that mean for governments?
Is the rise of the share of temporary employment the byproduct of Hyperspecialization? what does that means for new generations?

Fact: The relationship between employers and employees is shifting from "command-and-control" to "coordinate-and-cultivate." That isn't necessarily the opposite but the supersets. That means incorporating a range of possibilities of going about management from completely top-down and centralized to bottom-up and decentralized.

Work 2.0: What does that mean for businesses, and how would the relation employer-employee look like?
Introduce, engage, cooperate and develop. How far HR function, particularly in Poland, has to go to reach that level?

FACT: work 2.0 offers workers a greater chance of branding themselves as an accomplished specialist, dedicated workers, or experts

I studied engineering for about two years; then, I decided to study economics. The shift was that I didn't see benefits from maths and physics learning theory. Arguably it might be a wrong move, but I always thought universities were enough not capable of preparing us to face professional challenges heads on. Do we need to send our kids to college, universities, and post-graduate studies?
We still live in the 20th century, but we have 21st-century technology. Take me through that train of thoughts.
Wrapping-up: let us start by saying what individuals should do to fit in the Work 2.0 world, are our leaders and businesses ready to benefit from that?

Design Thinking with Kevin Hayes

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Kevin Hayes) — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:33:47 +0000

Let the first start with a leading question. What do you see as a critical priority for business - or maybe - Shared Service Centers in 2022?
Today's topic is Design Thinking. So let's start with a brief introduction, what it is about, how it is different from any other tools or methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma. More importantly, how could Design thinking help businesses work their priorities in 2022 and beyond?
Design Thinking is "team immersing themselves in the experiences of clients, establishing rapport and empathizing with them in a bid to see the world through their eyes. Design-thinking methods can seem uncomfortably emotive, and being asked not to converge on an answer quickly can be difficult. So as a practitioner of Design Thinking, how to best leed a Design Thining session?
People's intuitions are often incorrect, and it is often difficult for people to revise their Thinking. How could we avoid that while applying Design Thinking?
Design Thinking success requires a risk-taking appetite that involves building prototypes and creating mock-ups of any kind as early as possible in the process. That is an imminent conflict in many ways with established company's processes, structures, and corporate cultures. Hence, many initiatives born out of DT die pretty quickly. What are your thoughts on that, and how could we avoid it?
Last but not least, it is time for our special segment called "quick," where I'll mention a few things, and you can rate them by "underrated, properly rated, or overrated" you can, of course, explain why!
1. Design Thinking in SSC
2. Customer Centricity
3. Business Case in Projects within SSC
Before we end, let me ask you what the next big thing for 2022 is?

Digital Transformation with Marcin Piątkowski

ben@benesmael.com (BEN ESMAEL, Marcin Piątkowski) — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 08:44:24 +0000

💡 In this session, you will learn more about:

1️⃣ The corporate watchword word is "digital transformation." What does that mean for businesses nowadays?

2️⃣ According to BCG, 75% of those transformations fail to improve business performance, either short-term or long-term. What kills transformation?

3️⃣ Looking forward to the next 3-5 years, what are the critical priorities for businesses?

4️⃣ Based on that, what do you think of as critical enablers for businesses to grasp the full power of digital transformation?

5️⃣ How could the leadership in the SSC influence "today" digital transformation for the business?

Check out Marcin's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/piatkowski-marcin/

Are You Ready For 2022 with Jamie McBrearty

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Jamie McBrearty) — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:47:05 +0000

💡 In this session, you will learn more about:

1️⃣ Should we take time to reflect on the past year or years, for that matter?

2️⃣ What is the best way to be what we choose to be in 2022 and beyond? Could you walk us through the process?

3️⃣ Should we have a checkpoint down the road to ensure we are on track?

4️⃣ How could we avoid disappointment if we have missed our target? (PS: kind of linked to the above).

5️⃣ What is your plan, Jamie, for 2022, and how could he help you prepare for the future.

Check out Jamie's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-mcbrearty-648ab690/

Email: jamie@ymindset.co.uk

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For more content,

you can follow-us at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/break-podcast

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You can also follow Break Team:

Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benesmail/

Ben's Email: ben.esmael@corporate-break.com

Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertgolnik/

Email: office@corporate-break.com

Transformation, The Journey with Barbara Kecskés

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Barbara Kecskés) — Tue, 7 Dec 2021 16:00:00 +0000

As a leader. Do you recognize the gap between executives saying transformation and what that means for a staff? When team engagement already decreases at alarming levels, do you see the risk of failing?

What about you, staff, team members, SME, and individuals. Do your business consider your voice and feedback while driving transformation projects?

According to BCG, 75% of transformation projects fail to improve business performance.

Join Barbara and me in episode 32 of the Break Interview to discuss all these challenges and more. We talked, among other things, about:

What kills transformation?
What could we do in our workplace, communities, and private life to fix the lack of active listening?
A map for everyone to use for Problem-Solving Storytelling
Can Make or Break Your Leadership.

Check out Barbara's LinkedIn profile.

Barbara's blog & website

Break Podcast LinkedIn Page

Check out the video version - subscribe to our youtube channel.

Check and follow Ben's LinkedIn page

How to Lead with Sylwia Krolikowska

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Sylwia Krolikowska) — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Figure: 20 million people resigned from their jobs between spring and summer. In April, the number of workers who quit their job in a single month broke an all-time U.S. record. Highest. Ever. But then it did that again in July. And again in August. People who just up and leave their job, often without having another one lined up. Question: do you know if we see the same phenomena in Poland and what would be the driver in your opinion?
Fact: In the era of the new working environment where managing teams remotely becomes the norm. Question: What is the biggest challenge you see, especially regarding people management? what skills should leaders and businesses develop and invest in as core competencies going forward? PS: good placement for reflection on Sylwia's book "7 challenges for a leader."
Research: Young people who grew up during the Great Depression 1930 and defended and supported the nation in World War II were coined "The Greatest Generation." Once past the traumas of these challenging years, this generation shared characteristics that included patriotism, a belief in the wisdom of government, and a frugality born of severe want. For Millennials, 9/11 and the global economic crisis and the aftermath of these events "which we arguably still living its consequence" A generation with an undeserved reputation for disloyalty. These experiences contributed to a profile of a generation more likely to seek order and meaning in their work. Question: how it looks for generation Z. Do we know what profile we are getting for generation Alpha?
Question: building on the potential profile for generation Z, how could businesses support them and leverage that energy in growing their businesses. After all, it has to be a win-win!
Opinion: A leader to me is either a catalyst to a business's success or a ticking bomb, and all boils down to how they interact with their teams. Reflecting on your work with leaders in the shared service centers - Question: what are the three ticket items that they should urgently work on? PS: Narrow it down to Poland.
Question: You are a busy camper. Could you tell me what the next big thing you are working on is?

Be Logically Emotional with Dariusz Klupi

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Dariusz Klupi) — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Main themes: Fear and how we could turn that feeling into something powerful that helps us become successful leaders and, above all, better people.

Figure: 20 million people resigned from their jobs between spring and summer. In April, the number of workers who quit their job in a single month broke an all-time U.S. record. Highest. Ever. But then it did that again in July. And again in August. People who just up and leave their job, often without having another one lined up. That put a lot of things in perspective. Though the big part of this phenomenon is economically driven, it has to do with emotions, empathy, and the employer-employee relationship.

Questions:

In the era of what we call the new working environment where managing teams remotely become the norm. What is the biggest challenge you see, especially regarding people management? what skills should leaders and businesses develop?
We often call others "you are emotional" when we invoke certain situations. It always sounds negative having that state of mind. You have a different take on that. Could you explain in a bit? - connect with Dynamic Emotional Integration Approach.
I have learned about the need to understand the stories deep-in behind what causes fears and mechanically reverse engineer that through a process that shifts my mind from the auto-pilot of what could go wrong to what could go right and understanding the cost of inaction. You are taking a slightly different approach - could you share that story?
Fear is a friend to managers, not a foe. What does that mean in the day to day life? Does it look any different between managing a f2f versus a remote team?
Is it ok to be vulnerable?
If someone comes to you and tells you the following, my team is passive and disengaged, and I have no bloody idea what to do anymore. What concrete steps should they consider implementing?
You are doing DEI courses. Could you tell me about it and what benefits anyone should consider signing for it?

Create The Life You Long For With Sebastian Koellner Ep02

ben@benesmael.com (Sebastian Koellner, Ben Esmael) — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:16:29 +0000

It is good to know what's holding you back and why we're stuck. We all have those voices that keep us stuck. We all have those stories. And the best part about it is that it means we all have the power to change them. However, when you want to change something, you go out, and you set goals. I want to get there. I want to go there. Beyond business and money, we could talk about being the best father you can be. It means coming from that place when I'm tired of the long day of work, and I get to ask myself, do I want to get into that? Or do I want to change my story and have the kind of interactions with my kids that the best father I can be would have right now?

Anytime you find yourself knowing you want to do something and then looking back at it at the end of the day, you haven't done it. Look for what's the story. And underneath that story, what's the fear? Because essentially, we all have this survival brain and are constantly looking for what's wrong. And whenever you try something new, or you approach a new target or set a goal right, that's potentially threatening because it's new and unfamiliar. And that will bring in fear.

That is pretty much the story of Sebastian and Ben and a lot of others. It is the story behind I need to, or I chose to. It is the experience of knowing what is going on and getting deep into what causes our resistance when determining the life we want. It is also the dilemma of what can we control, the outcome, or what we do?

When Ben shared his objective of owning a business, the process unveiled the fear that getting there would require a lot of effort with that a lot of time, the impact of that is it will take time away from his family, a core value of his. Fear and guilt are caused by stepping away from his responsibility as a husband and a father. A story that if he does what he sets out to do, it runs directly right into conflict with one of the other core values that he holds, and the fear is that. Well, if he is successful, he'll do that at the expense of his family.

Working through the process, he finds himself coming from this strong motivation to do what he does for his family and his son's legacy for the future. Ironically, it's that same drive that turns into fear that blocks him from achieving that objective.

But, what if instead of thinking about what could go wrong—starting to think what could go right. That is the next step that Seb took Ben through, which means looking at another side of the coin we neglect. Ben's story was all about the sense of fulfillment by really just starting towards that, not even really getting there at all.

Ben also learned how to deal with Status-Quo's bias, a blind spot that our survival brain has. It looks at the new thing and what could go wrong; that's the only thing the mind cares about. It means our brain is programmed to ignore what the status quo costs us. What it costs you if you don't take any action because we neglect those costs when we look at the risks of the thing we're trying to implement.

When you're looking for the silver bullet to taking control of your life, it's that, getting to your fears, get your stories out into the open, because then you can do something about it, you can choose to upgrade them, you can choose to really look down and what's really behind it. And you can choose to also focus on the other side of the coin. What could go right? It is not a question that's a survival brain asks, but you can.

Create The Life You Long For With Sebastian Koellner

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Sebastian Koeller) — Wed, 6 Oct 2021 19:09:15 +0000

Goals,

Around this time of the year, we all think about what we want to do for the following year. But is it a goal that we should invest our energy in identifying?

Let's take a quick inventory of what we have achieved from what we recorded in our notebooks. If yes, do you feel satisfied and happy about your life?

If you are an achiever, hitting a goal will grant you a tick in the box. However, does that make you truly happy? Or are you doing what you like to do and creating that sense of positivity about your life where you feel self-satisfaction?

Let's take a step back and think about goals. Is it a place to get to or rather a place to start with?

Take a moment and reflect on all of that. Then ask a simple question: What is the single thing holding you back from being happy. It is feer, and it is a natural product of our brain designed to protect us from danger until it takes control and holds us back from being what we want to be.

I bet it sounds familiar. The good news is, you are not alone, and there is a way out.

As a starter, in episode one. Ben will have an introductory session where Sebastian gives valuable insights on how essential it is to understand our mind, our body chemistry and get to know the process of "Resetting Fear." More importantly, he shares his own story of the life's consequence of letting things slide to a life of "having a tick in the box." "We all have a lot in common with that story and get the sense of urgency to not succumb to what could be devastating to our life and the life of loved ones," Ben quoted.

Checkout Sebastian Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiankoellner/

Book appointment with Sebastian: https://bit.ly/one-conversation-can-change-your-life

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For more content, you can follow-us at:

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You can also follow Break Team:

Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benesmail/

Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertgolnik/

E-mail: info@corporate-break.com

The Future Of Work with Katarzyna Szczurowicz

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael) — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 10:00:00 +0000

The pandemic forced many companies to think about their working model. They had to quickly figure the balance between employees' safety and operation continuity. Many of the same businesses started to think beyond that temporary measure that saved the day during the pandemic's peak. They began to develop a new way of working, a blend of the old and the new. For employees, that means a lot to handle creating a challenging environment where they feel out of sync or in touch with their work culture and lose connection with their teams. They look at their employee to maintain the gained work-life balance, I.e., time saved on commuting.

In this interview, you'll be listening to a brilliant mind, Katarzyna Szczurowicz talking about the future of work, challenges that both individuals and businesses are facing, and a new paradigm of how leaders could successfully manage remote teams. Kasia (as called in Polish) will share insights into her experience working in Lano with businesses to help them leverage the benefits of having access to the global talent market.

You can follow Kasia on her LinkedIn page

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarzyna-szczurowicz

For more content, you can follow us at:

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You can also follow Break Team:

Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benesmail/

Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertgol...

E-mail: info@corporate-break.com

Onboarding Remote Teams

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Robert Golnik) — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 19:35:09 +0000

I have been studying what businesses could do to overcome the challenges of onboarding and working with remote teams. I came across the “virtual water coolers” onboarding method, which would create an experience similar to what one’s has by being physically in the office.

It is a virtual meeting conducted asynchronously, Q&A session where remote teams or new joiners join virtual sessions, giving them the chance to interact with peers working in the same team or similar role in the business. The session is moderated by senior managers (who is not their direct manager or supervisor).

Running such a session will help facilitate information sharing and advice that enables teams to improve the sense of belonging, enhance performance and career outcomes.

Scaling Vs. Growth in Shared Service Centers

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Robert Golnik) — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 18:59:22 +0000

How to do that,

It is all starts with your business strategy. It is about making their vision, mission, and aspiration statements alive in their work culture. Leadership, executives, and management have to figure out who they are to their market or customer relative to competitors. Now, some might ask who that would be for a shared service center in a captive. Insourcing model - competitor, in my mind, will be a service benchmark of KPI.; it got to make sense as to why the business should or shouldn't outsource. You got to be competitive and relevant to your customers create a shortlist of prioritized work to advance that position. These things are functions of discipline, not size.
Build capacity to scale — don't just replicate: Being able to quickly multiply successes is not the same as building for sustainable growth. Taking the time to design an organization that can sustain growth distinguishes great executives from those that eventually get swept away by the wave. Scaling up to manage growth involves constantly questioning how your organization should look — in advance of the intensified growth. It is about exploring what could go wrong and how to overcome those challenges if they ever happen.

Welcome standardization — you won't lose the "entrepreneurial vibe." Fear of killing the entrepreneurial spirit, especially in dynamic or technology businesses where work culture is agile

And standardization is faced with strong resistance to killing creativity. But this is rarely the case.

Standardized processes liberate creativity because they free up distracted energy consumed by reinventing approaches every time something is done.

Over time, organizations without standardized processes become a

Global Monetary System with BEN ESMAEL

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmael) — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 19:31:20 +0000

The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 is considered the birthplace of the current international monetary system of the global economy. It is a system that established the rules governing the commercial and financial relations between the industrial countries, namely the US, Canada, Western European countries, Australia and Japan. The agreement also established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), today part of the World Bank. More importantly, the same agreement coined the US dollar hegemony as a global currency thanks to owning two-thirds of the world’s gold reserve when the agreement was signed. However, that means the US has to inject enough currency units through a trade deficit to ensure elasticity for the global economy’s growth. According to Bretton Woods, every dollar was gold-backed until 1971 when the US decided unilaterally to terminate convertibility to gold.

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Check out the full article at:

https://wbj.pl/global-monetary-system/post/130922

Get Shit Done With Carolyne Huber

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmail) — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 18:44:29 +0000

Watch out. A desire to get things done can undermine your effectiveness.

Eisenhower once said, "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent is never important, and the important are never urgent."

Because of how our brain is wired to what science calls "completion bias." The pleasure of completing easy tasks, answering an email is a good example that requires little effort and time, however, at the expense of more important things. The question then, how to manage that balance between more accessible short-term actions and challenging long-term goals?

The answer is structuring your day and bringing prioritization to all that we do. It is about identifying and actioning 3-5 priorities. Anything beyond that should go to the parking lot. it starts with what Roy Baumeister called "Act of Choice." It is about developing specific rituals and habits at a precise time so that these activities become automatic and no longer require conscious will or discipline. A ritual consciously created is an experiment of fierce intentionality. Nothing less will do. It means automating most of our tasks, so they do need less energy to execute them. Hence, taking back control of our life.

Croatia, Dalmatia Guide with Mario Harambašić

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Mario Harambašić) — Sun, 30 May 2021 20:21:44 +0000

Croatia is a beautiful country located in the south of Europe. Because of the very long shoreline, it is one of the most popular holiday destinations for people all over the old continent.

The service sector represents 59% of the country's GDP, employing 67% of the workforce. The tourism sector, in particular, is among the critical segments of the Croatian economy, accounting for almost a quarter of GDP, by far the largest share in European Union. However, the tertiary sector was hit hard by the economic crisis following the covid-19 pandemic. The Croatian government implemented an aid scheme of approximately two hundred and two million euros to support companies of all sizes active in the sports and tourism sectors affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Looking at GDP in 2020, it went down by 8,4% YoY, but fortunately, forecasts are promising for 2021 and 2022, showing 5% & 6% growth for according to tog years.

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During the podcast, we have promised to give you more details about Zaostrog and the Villa Mariana itself, so here it is. Enjoy, and don't forget to plan your vacation. 

Zaostrog (Makarska Riviera, Croatia) has a long history of archaeological findings, the relief of the God Mitra, and Byzantine emperor Konstantin Porfirogenet about the fortification Ostrog, situated highly below the mount after which Zaostrog later got its name. Zaostrog became a desirable vacation spot due to its geographic location, clean sea, and beautiful pebble beaches. It is a preserved, littoral, almost untouched area which offers a quiet holiday far away from the burdening modern life- in other words, and it's an ideal location to explore Dalmatia as it once was.

Holiday home Marijana is a renovated house with a heated pool for up to three people. It contains two floors, each 28 sqm large and a gallery. On the first floor (ground floor), there is a living room with a kitchen and a bathroom connected to the swimming pool and the terrace. There is a bedroom, a bathroom, a pantry with a washing machine, and a gallery convenient for resting and reading on the second floor. So there is everything you need to spend some time very close to nature with an astonishing view of the seaside.

If you are interested in this or other similar villas, please feel free to contact Mario and ask about a special price for Corporate Break followers.

Booking details: https://www.booking.com/hotel/hr/holiday-home-marijana-zaostrog.pl.html

Mario contact number (whats up available): +385 97 666 3559

Develop Your Mindset For Success with Jamie McBrearty

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Jamie McBrearty) — Sun, 23 May 2021 23:00:00 +0000

Don't settle for anything less than what you want. I have discussed with Jamie how we could feel good and become the person we wanted to be. We talked about the work of Bob Proctor and the definition of prosperity teaching versus training, mentoring, or other personal development mediums. We also went through genuineness, effectiveness, and success combined with faith and how that combination could lead us to succeed and self-satisfaction. Jamie explained self-awareness and how results are never caused by anything outside of ourselves and that results are always an inside job. If you are interested to hear more, please reach out to Jamie @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-mcb...

Digital Transformation

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmael, Kevin Hayes) — Mon, 17 May 2021 04:00:00 +0000

The magnitude of efforts required to drive digital transformation goes beyond the monetary investment to impact employees, customers, and business goals. So when digital transformation fails, the impact is detrimental. Resistance to change and the cost of retraining often overshadow the benefits of digital change. In an ideal world, everyone would embrace technological change with open arms. However, in reality, the change is much more complex. Therefore, it is no surprise that most digital transformation fails, and that isn't because of technology or wrong strategy. Instead, it is inadequate or incomplete execution.

The solution lies in understanding key enablers to lead a successful digital transformation:

Define where changes are needed most: It is about developing clear direction, the impact of technological change, suggesting capabilities and areas requiring attention and investment.
Choreograph the change (define steps and sequence): creating a framework that makes sure the change stick. Whether that organizational or process change, who will lead the change, and how it will be sequenced.
Empowered people: it is the core of a change process. It is about enabling people to embrace the change.

Digital transformation isn't only about implementing a new solution. It is also about getting more value from the existing one. Hence transformation efforts become irrelevant with adoption and execution strategy in place.

Sharing Economy vol.2

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Kevin Hayes, Robert Golnik) — Tue, 11 May 2021 23:07:14 +0000

The digital economy is referring to the way we perceive the work environment. On the one hand, we have people who get already used to the fact that almost all services can be pick up almost on demand. On the other hand, we have multimillion corporations who claim that the only product they offer is a platform that connects jobs with the demands on the market. But very rarely, we focus on the middle part, somebody who delivers service and is not necessarily treated as an employee.

Why is it an issue? In the USA, almost 57 million workers are included in sharing economy services. Some people work as an employee, but their legal status is self-employment. Therefore there don’t qualify for pensions, holidays, or sick days benefits.

It is a choice between almost no employee rights vs. easy access to the job landscape.

There is no employee protection in the traditional meaning of these words. There is oversupply in the sector due to the low entry barrier. Therefore the wages are decreasing, and people need to work long hours to break even. It means high turnover, and if people come and go, there is no relation and commitment to the employee and clients. Moreover, almost all gig economy organizations are related to technology and IA, where the algorithm decides what your rating is at the end. People are afraid/stressed about their jobs, application dysconnectivity, or clients rating that does not necessarily evaluate them correctly. There is a system created that overtakes people's lives.
On the other hand, there is easy access to the job market, offering flexibility to the employees. For example, part-time working mothers or disable peoples. What is more, digital platforms have a lower operating cost due to a lack of physical attachment.

In the end, it is all about the strategy the company will follow: "squishing staff as much as possible or invest in sustainability and healthy work environment.” Both strategies are tent to the profits, but one is more focused on the long term run than the other. Very often, these companies make losses YtY because collecting data is more important than profitability. But at the same time, most of the start-ups are founded by venture capital, so theoretically, people's plans should be one of the critical issues in the organization like Uber, Uber, Netflix, Spotify, Skillshare, Glovo, InPost, Scribd, Steam, BlaBlaCar or other. Without any hesitation, the gig economy significantly impacts society, but the sector itself is not sustainable.

The Super League, Is It Still About Sport

ben@benesmael.com (THE B) — Sun, 2 May 2021 21:00:13 +0000

If you don't know the voice of your customers or what motivates your employees, how can you build successful business strategies?

Positive reputations are built around leaders' decisions and vision, but at the same time, they can deteriorate if you misjudge the mood of your customers.

Sharing Economy

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmael) — Sun, 2 May 2021 12:40:46 +0000

The sharing economy (gig economy) refers to the growing marketplace of economic agreements between two parties, usually enabled by a digital platform, allowing the use of a product, service, or activities without complete ownership.

The collaborative nature of the online environment has led to the rise of the sharing economy. Technology helped with unlocking idle capacity and provide access to products through renting or borrowing. The costs and complexity of matching supply and demand have been reduced significantly since the introduction of the Internet. Through smartphones and global positioning systems (GPS), people can easily search for leasable rooms or use car-sharing models.

FDI Poland

ben@benesmael.com (Kevin Hayes, Robert Golnik, Ben Esmael) — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 19:07:46 +0000

In my article, I started with talking about 2020 as an exceptional year where a lot had happened, and I believe it is the one that will stick in people’s memories for some time to come, if not forever. Though I think that’s almost behind us, and it will be interesting to understand where Poland is headed.

If we are talking figures, the world bank expects the global economy to grow by 4%. However, most economists would be cautious regarding public debts, more lockdowns, and the need for monitory, fiscal, and labor reforms. It is also essential that we understand the risk of a misbalance in the global economy where a strong rebound in the US economy would harm weaker economies, especially when considering the FED has more room to maneuver its monetary policy than other economies.

If we move closer to home, the European economy, COVID, and lockdown hit hard business, aggravating some of its fragile economies like Italy and Spain. The OECD forecasts a weaker growth than expected at 3.8% & 3.9% in 2021 & 2022, respectively. Though high budget deficit, financialized economies, disrupted supply chain, long-term unemployment remains s a significant concern.

Looking at the Polish economy, I could say the economy fared better than its neighboring economies. We are looking at storing household consumption, positive trade balance, favorable exchange rate, and relatively accommodative fiscal and monetary policies. In its latest figures, the Polish Central Bank expects the economy to grow by 3.1% in 2021 and 5.1% in 2022.

The unemployment rate remains at a stable level slightly above 3%, where the NBP is expecting the figure to increase to 3.8% in 2021 and 3.5% in 2022. I’m cautiously optimistic about the Polish economy; however, we need to get out from the lockdown quickly, strengthening consumption “ a lot of money remain trapped in saving accounts.”

Overall, Poland remains a very attractive destination for investment thanks to a competitive workforce, diversified economy, strategic position, a vital role in the nearshoring initiative, and a growing community of start-ups. All of that will continue to attract foreign investments, high-paying jobs and further develop Poland’s economy.

It is an excellent time to invest in Poland.

Change Management

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmail) — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 12:26:17 +0000

Suppose a group of people used to do a specific activity for a while. How could businesses make them feel the need to change and do the same but better or entirely different?

It is that transformative process called change management that will help create the sense, supplying the space to make sure the change happens.

What are the guiding principles of successful change management?

Build awareness: Through tailored to audience message, communicate the why a change is needed. Communicate early and often to avoid misinformation and resistance.
Establish Dialogue: As opposed to monologue or top-down change process, change is a two-way street where feedback is the door to understand people's responses to change to help address concerns and gain commitment.
Co-creat change with people, not to people.

Mentoring

ben@benesmael.com (THE B) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 17:30:41 +0000

In this episode, we talked about Mentoring, a potential tool used by the organization to grow higher performers to a leading role. It is based on long-term feedback from a senior colleague, seen as more knowledgeable and worldly-wise, giving advice and providing a role model. Mentoring involves wide-ranging discussions that may not be limited to the one decision context.

Why mentoring matter in our organization?

Mentoring is a part of learning and development, and it has a direct link to business performance. It is about growing your potential stars in the organization responsible for delivering the final product or creating a new organization's reality. People's performance is not something that can enhance by themselves, but it depends on the environment created by the proper management and organization culture.

Without adequate preparation, there is always some part of information asymmetry that can distort the intended result. There are few stages defined for proper mentoring process utilization:

Finding the right advisor (being aware of feedback needs)
Developing a shared understanding of the discussed issue
Crafting alternative solutions based on the experience
Converting an idea into a final decision and project
Putting the advice into daily actions to make the right decision

Of course, the relationship between the mentee (a person who is advised) and mentor can be a personal agreement without involving different parties within the organization. Still, it will have a more significant impact if this will be an official company program where some people will be distinguished as a high potential performance and the organization's future. How to do it? Identifying what kind of skills business desires to have now and in the future – remember, mentoring is a long-term relation between mentee and mentor.

It builds a mentoring program and a governance model around and engages senior management who can quid your mentees. Create a vision that can bond people together.
Identify high performance or potential high performance who want to develop together with the organization. Make them visible as role models as a source of inspiration for others.
Mentoring program is an investment (involving time and resources). You should expect to have returned out of this – underline this at the very beginning to avoid misunderstanding later on.

Shared Service Centres 101

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmail) — Mon, 5 Apr 2021 08:46:37 +0000

In the first episode, we have discussed briefly three topics:

(1) what is the shared service industry?

It is a provision of service by one part of an organization or a group of business units where services are delivered in more than one part of the organization. The key here is creating an economy of scale and leveraging shared competencies.

(2) why is Poland the preferred location?

The most common factors that distinguish Poland as the preferred location are:

🎯 Available and skilled labor force;

🎯 High return on investment;

🎯 Developed office and infrastructure;

(3) Will Poland continues to be a preferred destination for shared service centers? What are the headwinds and tailwinds for the industry going forward?

Teleperformance, Employees Under Surveillance!

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmail) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 20:58:51 +0000

Teleperformance Thousands of staff at one of the world’s biggest call center companies face being monitored by webcams to check whether they are eating, looking at their phones, or leaving their desks while working from home. Is this the future of home working, or will this bring negative results? We briefly discuss our thoughts on this subject.

Goldman Sachs, Inhuman Working Hours

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmail, Kevin Hayes, Robert Golnik) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 20:54:36 +0000

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs has recently been in the news after their employees spoke out about working hours and inhuman conditions. We briefly discuss our thoughts on what expectations are for both employees and employers.

Coaching

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmail, Kevin Hayes) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 18:40:41 +0000

Coaching is replacing an otherwise old and outdated, primarily ineffective performance review framework for people management. Coaching is an effective way to create a link between employee and manager with agility beyond formal and less frequent performance review meetings. Furthermore, coaching creates an environment of trust as opposed to anxiety caused by performance review sessions.

There are two vehicles of coaching:

Calendar-driven, which is more formal and scheduled ahead for a long time, focuses on continuous guidance.
Event-driven: is the opposite of the latter as it builds around a specified goal and timeline.

Coaching "Rookies" vs. "Veterans" differs in few dimensions:

Feedback: both rookies and veterans need feedback. However, rookies respond and seek positives as they look for clues if they are on the right track. Hence they need reaffirmation or validation of the direction they are taking. On the other hand, veterans look for the opposite as they react to negative feedback as they don't lack confidence. They need corrective coaching or what we call calibration.
Direction: a US Navy Commanding Officer once said that "they are all that thrust but no vector" when asked about coaching rookies. It means that rookies need a channel that helps direct their energy the right way. Instead, veterans need coaching that helps them find a more efficient path as they seem to get stuck in their old way of doing things.
Making connections: rookies need to be introduced to a network that helps them navigate tasks or careers. Veteran needs a helping hand to get out of their echo chamber and seek fresh minds and ideas that challenge the status quo.

What are the guiding principles of successful and efficient coaching:

It must be built on an employees' development plan on his/her natural talents and interests.
Create a relationship of trust and respect. It is about active listening and creates two-way communication.
Audit employees' world of work and remove obstacles to success.
Provide perspective to what employees can't see

It is essential to understand that coaching becomes critical to help workers overcome the new working environment's challenge and build a trust relationship between managers and teams. Google, for instance, reacted to that need and called out "be a good coach" as the difference between a good manager and a great manager.

Enjoy and please follow-up and stay tuned for our next episode.

Slow Down To Speed-up (Part Three)

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmail) — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 17:30:23 +0000

Do you take the time to reflect? Perhaps on your own work, work of your team, or even the strategy of your organization?

Even in the fastest-paced environments, it is sometimes good to press the pause button and playback what is happening around you.

By doing this, you can discover something is not working correctly.

But what do you do if you discover this? Do you decide to continue and work your way to the end goal, or do you decide to change strategy and adapt?

Often just acknowledging something is wrong or needs adjustment is a key step to success.

In this episode, we continue our discussion on “slow” or “fast” strategies.

Slow Down To Speed-Up (part Two)

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmael, Kevin Hayes, Robert Golnik) — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 22:15:04 +0000

What did business executives learn from 2020?

2020 tested the entire global economy, and it stressed veteran business leaders where they had to respond to a very demanding environment by being both decisive reactionist and rapid innovators. That meant organizations had to operate in two different modes, reacting quickly and effectively to a crisis, a change in the business environment, shift in consumer behavior in parallel to onboarding the train of an accelerated transformation. We have learned strategy isn't static also get to know the balance between reaction and innovation, and we understood that people should be at the core of what business does.

In this episode, we continue the discussion about:

The importance of communication, alignment, and debriefing process while running multi-functions and complex projects.
Is lowering cost the primary objective for a business?
How to build a sustainable business? What are we learning from apple getting to the EV business? What did we learn from Apple's history with Blackberry and Nokia?
How to create engaging and customer-focused teams?
Understand how essential learning and development to business transformation. How could a people manager hire for tomorrow?
Last but not least, is employment the only way to get the job done for the business. Is the industry ready for the new work environment?

Slow Down To Speed-Up (part 1)

ben@benesmael.com (Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmail, Robert Golnik) — Sun, 7 Mar 2021 21:01:40 +0000

Merely increasing the pace of production or service often leads to decreased value over time.

There’s a speed gap in business: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company moves. That gap is significant regardless of region, industry, company size, or strategic emphasis. Organizations fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and many resources looking for ways to pick up the pace. It is even more visible in crisis time. To face the current time challenge, leaders work harder and faster.

But is this always the case?

The is a significant difference between what the “slower” and “faster” strategies mean. Firms sometimes confuse operational speed (moving quickly) with strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)—and the two concepts are quite different. Merely increasing the pace of production, for example, maybe one way to close the speed gap. But that often leads to decreased value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services. Likewise, new initiatives that move fast may not deliver any value if time isn’t taken to identify and adjust the right value proposition.

Higher-performing companies with a strategic speed made alignment a priority. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged innovative thinking. And they allowed time to reflect and learn. By contrast, performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, focused too much on maximizing efficiency, stick to tested methods, didn’t foster employee collaboration and weren’t overly concerned about alignment.

Humour, Does It Matter?

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Kevin Hayes, Ben Esmael) — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 18:35:43 +0000

"How important is humor in the workplace?

Research shows that it may be more important than you think, with Leaders with a sense of humor being admired and perceived as more motivating than those without a sense of humor.

Employees are also more engaged, by 15%.

But of course, what one employee finds funny, another employee may not. Below is a guide to four different humor styles.

Which one are you?

Stand-Up: bold, irreverent, and unafraid to ruffle a few feathers for a laugh.

Sweetheart: earnest, understated, and use humor that lightens the mood.

Sniper: edgy, sarcastic, nuanced — masters of the unexpected dig.

Magnet: expressive, charismatic, and easy to make laugh.

7 Strategies To Strengthen Your Team's Resilience

ben@benesmael.com (Kevin Hayes, Robert Golnik, Ben Esmail) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 20:44:07 +0000

Crisis puts great emphasis on the role of a leader to safeguard team resilience. The task becomes harder to accomplish when a situation like COVID drives us apart and reduces physical interaction to a bare minimum.

However, many businesses succeeded in understanding a resilient team's critical characteristics and anchored them in day-to-day interactions with their teams. One of these businesses was Apple, where the CFO identified "resilient and high-functioning teams" as the key that helped his business navigate the challenges brought by 2020.

There are four critical characteristics of a resilient team:

Resourcefulness
Humility
Empathy
Candor

And, seven enablers that help leaders building a resilient team:

Build on Each Other’s Resilience: anchor team collaboration in team’s guiding principles.
Owning Challenge: encourage ownership of challenges instead of blaming things on others.
Story Sharing: create an environment to share stories, including the highs and lows, to foster humility and compassion.
Show That You Care: leaders must demonstrate care through an interest in the team’s progress and understanding issues or challenges.
Independent Observer: bring an outsider to bring objective perspective on team dynamics and issues.
Candor Breaks: create a mechanism the like of open-door policy where individuals can speak out without fear of consequences.
Temperature Check: in every engagement, ask participants about energy level.

In this episode, we will talk about each one of them with real-life examples to help you be or build a resilient team.

Enjoy,

Corporate Break Team,

The Real Cost Of Attrition

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmail, Kevin Hayes) — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 20:40:20 +0000

The attrition rate is important for several reasons, though it may tell you different things at specific points in time. Understanding the company’s employees' attrition rate is an important part of comprehending employment dynamics in the market and employees' satisfaction levels as a first glimpse into the work environment's quality.

There are costs associated with every leaving employee. We divided them into 3 categories:

Departure Costs
Replacement Costs
New Employee Implementation Costs

Collaboration

ben@benesmael.com (THE B) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 19:44:46 +0000

How to best collaborate with someone you don't know?

Good collaboration is essential to innovation and improved outcomes, things today's business desperately needs. According to a Stanford study, "working together boosted intrinsic motivation, with participants persisting up to 64% longer on challenging tasks and having more interest and energy for them."

It isn't unusual to collaborate with people we don't know; maybe it is more common for consultant and freelance professions than others. However, we all have one thing in common. We don't invest enough time in getting to know each other, and rather we are inclined to dive and "get to work," usually following a brief and shallow introduction. Therefore, the decision-making slows down and result in endless meetings, calls, and emails, estimated to take-up 80% of an employee's time.

How could collaboration with someone we haven't met before yield successful results and build new relationships?

It is by taking a step back and get to know each other through these five questions. They'll help with making sure both rowing in the same direction, clear role and responsibilities, understand each other work style, strengthen relationships, and how you can support each other to do your best work.

Chess Vs. Checkers Players In Management

ben@benesmael.com (Ben Esmail, Robert Golnik) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 19:42:45 +0000

Good management and managers are centric to business success. Successful people management is the core of managers' responsibility, and at the heart of that success lies the manager's appreciation. That doesn't mean it is the only skill a manager needs. They still need to hire well, set expectations, drive performance, and interact productively with their superiors, to name a few. However, they need to play chess instinctively.

Marcus Buckingham pictured the average manager as the checker player, a management style where all pieces look the same and move the same way, while a great manager is the chess player where each piece is different, and to win, you need to know how each piece moves. The ability to distinguish what is unique about each individual and capitalize on it to drive performance. It is what sets great managers from others.

The mediocre managers would paint all employees with the same brush considering them to be motivated by the same thing and driven by the same goals, that they'll desire the same kind of relationship and learn in the same way. It is a management style where a manager's role is to transform each employee into the perfect version of the function.

In contrast, great managers don't push the knight to move the same way as the bishop. They understand that individual traits are enduring and resistant to change. They invest their time knowing how to capitalize on employee's strengths and how best to incorporate them into the overall plan.

THEN, WHAT GREAT MANAGERS DO?

Marcus answered this question in his book The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success. Great managers get to know individual strengths, triggers that activate those strengths, and the skill of understanding employee learning style.

Oil market, The Big Picture

ben@benesmael.com (THE B) — Thu, 7 Jan 2021 22:48:27 +0000

Disclaimer: It is important to understand investment is risky and might entitle losses, and the content on this episode doesn't constitute investment advice.

By the time we recorded this episode, data presented by Buy Shares indicates energy sector stocks are the worst-performing with average returns of minus 35.04%. Also, Oil (WTI) where below 50$. Why I believe oil commodities and sectors equities are cheap. Hence, they are a good trade.

Artificially low demand due to lockdown and economic slowdowns.
Capital outflow from the sector negatively impacting supplies.
Energy transformation supported by policies and cheap capital (credit), otherwise less attractive due to low return on investment (from a fundamental standpoint).
Renewable energy usage of oil products.
The risk of environmental/fiscal policies limiting shale or sand oil production in North America.
Geopolitical risk in the Gulf and East Mediterranean regions.

XRP and Crypto, The Big Picture

ben@benesmael.com (Hurshidn, Ben Esmail) — Thu, 7 Jan 2021 22:41:56 +0000

Disclaimer: It is important to understand cryptocurrency investment is risky and might entitle losses, and the content on this episode doesn't constitute investment advice.

In this episode, I'm talking to @hurshidn (you can find him on Twitter) and talk about price actions for BTC & XRP. We also spoke briefly about the history of the US's monetary system and put forward the thesis of why XRP could be a perfect asymmetric trade in the long run.

PS: It seems as our thesis is playing nicely. The price of XRP was 0.22$

You can learn more about the US banking system and economic history by checking (@GeorgeGammon) on Twitter and Youtube.

The Importance Of Organisation Strategy

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmael) — Sun, 3 Jan 2021 15:18:19 +0000

Business strategy isn’t about winning or losing. The essence of strategy is about playing the right game. It is about shaping the game you play, not just playing the game you find.

We are yet to understand the full effect of COVID on businesses. However, the shift in customers' behavior is imminent. A lot of companies will endure the experience of shifting their strategy where business leaders' stories and how they justify strategy reorientation to stakeholders and the broader market are as important as their ability to continue to have a profitable business.

Strategy success depends on how clear it is the purpose of the business.

To know more, please join our LinkedIn page @

https://www.linkedin.com/company/corporate-break/

Crisis Impact On Work Environment

ben@benesmael.com (Robert Golnik, Ben Esmael) — Sun, 3 Jan 2021 14:19:51 +0000

During the crisis, managers had to stumble and figure out how to adapt and live up to their new responsibility in leading and managing remote teams. The change in our way of working isn’t temporary. The business will continue to leverage and explore the potential of technology to support a dynamic working environment. However, timely manner delivery remains imperative for the industry in the new paradigm.

The pandemic reminded organizations of how influential culture is. The organization needs to invest in strengthening work norms, expectations, promote employees who embody the organization’s value, and encourage others to follow suit. The organization needs to think beyond surviving the crisis to rethink and reshape its operating model. The new norm is here to stay.

For more content: please join us on our LinkedIn page @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/corporate-break/