Whether you’re a small or large business, holding regularly scheduled meetings is crucial to your success. Meetings will help improve overall communication in a way that emails and phone calls can’t.

Meetings also provide a good opportunity to address issues. They’ll also ensure that the problems are resolved, so that they do not continue to come up in the meetings. Employees can also provide status updates, so you can hold them accountable to their projects.

It doesn’t matter how long the meeting is. Even just 10 minutes can help a company encourage growth and solve any problems you’re experiencing.

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Giving your employees work that falls outside their comfort zones is one of the best ways to encourage growth. But delegating tasks is not always easy. Employees may complain, especially if the task does not fall in their normal set of duties. They may claim “that’s not my job.”

It’s important for managers to frame the task in a way that is beneficial and appeals to the employee’s interests. The employee needs to be motivated to do the task. They’ll think “what’s in it for me?”

You’ll need to sell the project to your employee, pushing the benefits hard. Also, show your support and offer assistance if needed.

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When you sound more confident, you can do better in job interviews, presentations, and develop better business relationships. In fact, confidence can do a lot for you in life. But sometimes it can be difficult to sound confident when you don’t feel it.

One trick to speaking more authoritatively is to speak slowly. When you speak fast, you’re more likely to make errors and sound shaky. Slow your speech to give weight to what you’re saying and allow your audience to take in your message.

Another strategy is to use pauses. Pauses will help you to speak slower and give more impact to your words. You’ll also have a chance to collect your thoughts as you pause and prepare for what you’re going to say next.

photo credit: Career Fair at College of DuPage 2014 53 via photopin (license)

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