Personal branding focuses on how you present yourself or a company to a target audience, to ensure they are aware of who are you, what you stand for, and what sets you apart from the rest.
To stand out from the crowd, young professionals and businesses need to present their achievements and skills in a positive way through online or face-to-face communication. This can be crucial in attracting new business connections and opportunities.
A budget allows businesses to plan out expenses on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, to track the progress of goals and anticipate any operational changes.
An effective budget should give a business the tools to track how the company is doing financially so it can plan for both short- and long-term expenses – including everything from new hires to the cost of expanding operations.
It can also give a company the ability to share its financial performance with a governing body, such as a board of directors, and provide important status updates to current and potential investors.
Creating and monitoring budgets is a useful and transferable skill for young professionals – particularly those with ambitions to progress to higher management, who are typically involved in organising departmental budgets.
Workplace wellbeing relates to all aspects of working life, from the quality and safety of the physical environment, to how you feel about your workplace, colleagues and organisation.
Your wellbeing is a key factor in determining your organisation’s long-term effectiveness. Studies show a direct link between productivity and the general health and wellbeing of the workforce.
Even on your best days, stress can prevent you from being fully-focused and unable to complete tasks to the best of your ability. Too much stress can often lead to burnout, disengagement, sick days and strained relationships within the workplace.
Leadership is a vital component of management that helps to direct an organisation’s resources to improve efficiency and achieve business goals.
Effective leaders have a responsibility to set a clear vision for their team, enhance productivity, boost morale but also support the people within the team to grow.
A leadership model can provide you with best practices on how to lead your team. Depending on your situation and surrounding environment, you can refer to different models for guidance in determining the best behaviours you can use to ensure effective management, delegation and encouragement of your team.
There are several different leadership styles suitable for distinct personalities and workplaces, it’s therefore important to establish what leadership model suits you and your team the best.
Being able to manage your time effectively can help you improve your productivity. Excellent time management skills assist you to plan your daily workload, prepare for meetings and complete your targets on time.
In an increasingly busy period, time management can also help you to prioritise your workload, ensuring you work smarter, achieve your goals and perform well.
Performance management is the process of ensuring that a set of activities and outputs meets an organisation’s goal in an effective and efficient manner.
At a senior level, performance management can involve monitoring the productivity of an entire organisation, department or employee – but at any level, everyone should be aware of their own goals and expectations to manage their performance accordingly.
For many people, the thought of networking is daunting. Standing in a room full of strangers can often make people feel awkward, putting them off attending events or making conversation.
No one is born with a natural talent for networking, even individuals who appear extroverted, but it is a skill which can be developed with practise.
Networking allows you to become more visible within your business or industry community, and can lead to new opportunities through the connections you make.
Sustainability involves fulfilling the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of the future generations, while ensuring the balance between economic growth, environmental care, and social wellbeing.
It is increasingly important for the younger generation to consider ways we can waste less food, save our forests, and protect the earth’s natural resources – all of which can be practised in small steps.
Businesses also have an important responsibility in shaping its own sustainable agenda – particularly now the Government has set targets to become net zero in 2050 – and now is the time to plan.
Organisations can reap opportunities by thinking more sustainably relating to innovation, continuous improvement, sustained competitive advantage and thought leadership. It can therefore be useful to be aware of the sustainable practices that businesses can adopt to stay ahead of the curve.
An inclusive work environment does not just happen, it requires sustained effort.
Creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed and accepted is vital to organisational success. Being an inclusive team member means recognising your biases and actively seeking different perspectives to make informed and effective decisions.
Unconscious bias is a term that describes the associations we hold outside our conscious awareness and control. It is influenced by our background, personal experiences, societal stereotypes, and cultural context. It is not just about gender, ethnicity or other visible diversity characteristics – height, body weight, names, and many other things can also trigger unconscious bias.
Being aware of it is a crucial skill required to be an inclusive worker within an organisation.
The ability to express your opinions positively and with confidence is a key skill that can help young professionals to better manage themselves, people and situations.
Assertiveness can help with the development of strong work relationships and help you influence others to gain acceptance, agreement, or behavioural change.
Learning how to become assertive at work is crucial to anyone’s career. By having a confident, respectful demeanour that allows you to communicate well with others, it can lead to productive and positive interactions at work which may lead to effective team building, leadership development and collaboration.
We often get so caught up in our busy work lives that we forget to take time to step back and think about where we are and how we got here.
Reflection allows us not only to look at where we are, but to think about where we have come from, and more importantly, helps us set goals for where we want to be in the future.
Generation Next will support you in reflecting on your high and lows of the year, to set yourself up for success in time for the new year.
To sign up to become a Generation Next member, visit www.generationnextemc.co.uk/become-a-member, or to talk to our team about our membership packages, email gennext@emc-dnl.co.uk.
