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Recognizing and appreciating the efforts of employees is crucial for maintaining high morale and fostering a positive work environment. In every organization, acknowledging individual and team contributions through employee shout-outs plays a significant role. Such gestures not only lift spirits but also contribute to a culture of appreciation and kindness within the workplace. Shout-outs can take various forms, including public announcements, in-person commendations, private meetings, or even through gifts. Whether it's praising fast workers, celebrating big winners, acknowledging those who work steadily, or simply recognizing effort for no specific reason, each shout-out adds value to the team. Employers can choose from diverse methods, such as social media posts, nominations, birthday celebrations, or breakroom shout-out boards, to express gratitude. By implementing these employee shout-out ideas, organizations can enhance morale, create a positive atmosphere, and motivate their teams to achieve ongoing success.

Every company competes to get the best industrial talents and retain them for the company's progress. But what companies don't pay attention to is that they think more about selecting the best talent than about getting existing employees to show their best performance with recognition in the workplace. We know that employee recognition is crucial, but how we recognize employee performance is a challenge. This article will discuss employee recognition examples and how you can implement them in your company. What is employee recognition? Employee recognition is an act of acknowledgment and appreciation for employees for any accomplishments and contributions to the business that links to the company's mission, purpose, and values. The form of acknowledgment can be formal or informal, individual or team. What are the 4 types of recognition? Recognition is a vast and complex world of responsibilities. Before we get into employee recognition examples, let's learn about the 4 key types of recognition. Public recognition When an employee gets an achievement, the manager or supervisor announces it in front of others and celebrates it. You can announce it immediately during a meeting, a few minutes before work hours start, or be featured in a company newsletter. Private recognition Tis is one-on-one recognition. Coworkers don't know when you convey recognition to the honoree. This includes direct messaging, email, and thank you notes. Private recognition can be more meaningful for certain employees, because sometimes there are people who don't want their achievements to be shared with coworkers. Talking one-on-one will make a special impression in the hearts of employees, because you can convey gratitude and recognition personally. Promotion A promotion is next level recognition by giving new responsibilities to individuals, giving new positions, or new projects. Giving a promotional reward will give individuals the opportunity to continue to develop and trust their team to take on more. Monetary reward Anything related to giving money to employees who excel. Bonuses, pay raises, company trips, or anything with fiscal offerings or compensation. 10 Employee Recognition Examples to Implement at Your Business Recognition and appreciation are two crucial things that must exist in every organization. If you want to get employees with maximum potential, let's dive into several employee recognition examples below. Create customized award You can make employee awards as unique as possible, because there are no limits. Customized rewards are your opportunity to provide creativity in your employee recognition and provide rewards in accordance with the company's core values.   14 Proven Morale Boosters Ideas for Employees and Staff   Maybe you can provide special nameplates on employees' work desks, a unique parking space in the office for employees who excel, or special clothes that say employee of the year. Customized awards can be encouraging for employees and raise loyalty levels. Give employee a day off Giving employees days off on weekends is commonplace. But it can be great if you give a day off on weekdays to decompress and celebrate employee's accomplishments. Sometimes heavy projects and difficult milestones will exhaust employees. Give one or two days off to employees as a form of gratitude because employees have tried their best and made improvements. Employees will thank you because they can regain their focus and enthusiasm after several days of hard work to achieve an accomplishment. Dinner on the company Invite your team to dinner with the company that pays for everything. This is one kind of employee recognition, because it brings the team to eat the best food in town while discussing how well they have performed recently. Dinner on the company will show employees that their hard work is always noticed, and can be a fun discussion at dinner with office officials. Employee care package A care package is a sign that someone is thinking about you. Care packages can be the right choice for employee recognition gifts, because employees will give positive feedback and feel lucky to get self-care products. You can fill in bath soap, shampoo, scented candles, handbody, lotion, or anything that can care for everything from the face to the feet. Meetup with remote teams With many offices starting to use remote work after Covid, it might be difficult to build strong work relationships due to distance limitations. You can create an event to meet with remote workers at a cafe, restaurant or coworking space to spend some good quality meetings together. The power of face-to-face interaction can be impactful for teamwork in the future. Send employees on an adventure Difficult projects have been passed, every employee has demonstrated their skills for the progress of the office. It's time for the office to give recognition gifts in the form of gifts of experience. Invite employees to go on an adventure to explore the beauty of nature such as hiking, kayaking, picnicking on a wide hill, or exploring the lake. This gift will be more meaningful and memorable because it can be a means to get closer to coworkers and have fun outside the office. Seeing the beauty of nature will be a powerful stress relief for employees. Spread words of affirmation Some projects or weeks can feel harder than before. Words of affirmation can make your employees feel recharged and appreciated. Give a few words of praise and recognition to increase employee morale. A simple 'good job' and 'thank you' can bring many positive things in the future. Employees will feel pumped to maintain their best performance, understanding that each of their work will be meaningful for the office. Career based rewards Offering career-based rewards can be perfect for employees and benefit your company. Send employees to take courses, seminars, leadership training, or let employees choose the online classes they want to take. Sometimes employees don't have to take several classes that are related to the current job, but it can be an investment for their career. The benefit of this reward is that it shows employees that their manager cares about the team's self-development. Invest in employees’ health and well-being Showing appreciation can be shown through how you genuinely care about employees' health and well-being. Hire a yoga instructor to lead a yoga class in the office, or give a gym membership to each employee and do the gym together. If employees have a particular hobby in sports, you can provide facilities such as playing futsal together, playing badminton, tennis or swimming. Encourage continuing education Self-development can be done by helping employees to pay for their next education. Show you appreciate them that you want employees to continue to grow in their career. Every employee will want to improve themselves in terms of career and knowledge. By providing opportunities to continue their education, employees will be more enthusiastic about achieving and showing their best skills according to their work. Every employee has tried their best for the progress of the company and also improvement for themselves. A good company will recognize employee's hard work and understand how to show gratitude to them. SMEBrother has prepared many articles on how you can advance your business by showing appreciation and recognition to employees. Check out the SMEBrother website for tips and education on how to advance your business, from thinking about employee wellness, to licensing, finance, leadership, and much more.

Productivity has an important role in the progress of any business. Productive employees can complete their tasks efficiently, increase profits and competitiveness. Employee productivity is all about being efficient and effective. But to reach the point where every employee can have sufficient productivity, they must have their own strategy. We can start by motivating each employee to keep their good work, or facilitating them to achieve their best productivity. This article will discuss how to be more productive at work. Why do people struggle to be productive at work? Productivity is something that is difficult to maintain. Many people struggle to maintain their productivity for many reasons such as mild anxiety, depression, discomfort at work, or lack of motivation. Every employee needs to examine their problem as to why it is difficult to maintain their productivity so that it does not have a negative impact on their long-term performance. How to stay productive all day at work? You have to find the problem first. It's natural for every employee to experience reduced productivity at different points in their life, but it would be a problem if they were consistently unable to be productive. There are four common reasons people struggle to be productive. Technology distractions, lack of direction, boredom with tasks, or starting too late in the day. 12 Best List of Fun Morale Boosters for Employees Tackle the problems one by one before you can stay productive all day. Until you can solve your problems, you cannot keep your good performances. After you can overcome the existing problems, you can do one of the 10 ways how to be more productive. 10 ways how to be more productive High productivity will bring many benefits to individuals, teams and companies. Let's look at some ways to be more productive at work. Put away your phone Most of the distractions arise from the gadgets we have. The biggest distraction when we work is our phone. We are used to social media, games, or whatever is on our cellphones. Even though we don't have any special needs, we seem to have to hold our cell phones for a false sense of calm. When you start working, put your cellphone out of reach, for example in a locker, in a drawer, or leave it in your manager's office. This may apply only to workers who do not need telephone access while they work. Some companies can stipulate that their employees are not allowed to hold smartphones while working, but there are still many employees who steal a little time to play with their phones. You can make your own rules, for example you will only use your phone after you have worked for at least three hours, or only during break time. Discipline yourself until you get used to not playing with your smartphone while working. List your crucial results for the day Crucial results are several objectives that you must complete during the day to get closer to your goals and move your projects further. Make notes to list your top 3 crucials for each day. This will help you to plan your priorities and maintain focus on the most essential tasks each day. Use a calendar or tool to schedule your day and ensure you're maintaining focus until you get crucial results. Eat healthy foods throughout the day The food we eat can be a major factor in our productivity throughout the day. Healthy food can ensure you get a booster for your brainpower and additional energy through the afternoon. Junk food will only affect your weight, reduce energy and productivity. Keep healthy snacks or fruit at your office to stay focused and fueled for a productive day. Morning huddles with team Take time every morning for 15 minutes to huddle together with your team, and discuss what they will do to achieve crucial results for the day. This helps employees to get on the same page and let coworkers know whether they need help in their work. If you don't have time to huddle with your team, you can find a special time to sit down with individual members and discuss any lessons about the previous week. Discuss how to set your expectations and goals for the next week. You can share with coworkers to manage your time and measure your productivity. Get out of the office A workplace that never changes can foster boredom and reduce productivity. You can request the manager to change the layout of your work area, or if you work remotely, you can work in a cafe or place other than home. Get out of the office or home for a few minutes to refresh your mind and calm down for a moment before returning to your work. Everyone will face burnout in their workplace. You can handle this by looking for fresh air or moving the layout of your work desk. Wake up early Every successful person has one thing in common, namely they wake up early. You can have time to start your day right. Start by rehydrating, then have more quiet time to do things without distractions. Fill your time by reading books, eating a healthy breakfast, exercising, before you start working. Waking up early will make a huge impact on your daily life. Listen to calming sounds while working A bit of calming background music can enhance your focus. Studies show that music instruments work best for repetitive tasks. Choose music that describes your mood and something to make you feel good. Some examples of music that can calm your mind are the sound of rain, the sound of crickets in the wood, the sound of flowing water in a river, or the sound of a gentle breeze in spring. Time break Sometimes difficulties at work will cause burnout and stress. Taking a break by going to a special room to sit or having a cold drink are some things that can reduce tension. 10-15 minutes is a suitable time to recharge your mood in the break room. You can take a snack or fruit to regain your focus, then you can ask your manager or coworkers for help about the difficulties you are facing. A calm mind will be able to solve problems and maintain your productivity. Stand more Sitting at a work bench for more than 5 hours makes you tired and loses focus. Stand up more when you feel a little sleepy, your posture starts to wane, your focus starts to become scattered, or you can't find a solution when there is a problem at work. Standing does not burn calories, but it can reduce other health risks such as cardiovascular disease, shoulder and back pain, obesity, diabetes and cancer. You can give work intervals every 90 minutes and you have to stand for a few minutes. Organize your work environment Employees can work more focused and productive when their work desks are clean. Sometimes employees can lose their concentration because they forget to put away some work supplies such as staples, paperclips, scissors, pens, etc. A messy workplace will reduce space for working and can increase anxiety. Declutter your work desk to waste less time searching for items or misplaced documents. Throw away unnecessary paper, some stationery that is no longer needed to see if it can help you be less distracted and increase productivity.   There are many factors that cause employee lack of productivity. But if you can overcome the problem, then you can restore focus and maintain your productivity. Some of the methods above are how to be more productive from SMEBrother. If you want to learn about how to thrive your business to the next level, or all the things needed for a small to medium business, visit the SMEBrother site and get the information you need starting from finances, leadership, to licensing.

Office work can sometimes increase tension and stress among employees. If you are in a small group, of course you can see and feel the effects of high tension from employees and this can affect their performance results. Icebreaker games are needed to reduce employee stress and restore their work focus. Gathering employees to do something fun can be a relief even though their work is full of difficulties or problems. But what are some fun icebreaker activities, games, and ideas for small groups? Read this article until the end. Why do we need icebreaker games? Icebreaker games can build relationships between employees, create a team or organizational culture, relieve stress, reduce tension in the work atmosphere, and make employees re-focus on what they do. Icebreaker activities can be a tool to help participants spend time interacting with coworkers and learning about each other.  12 Best Team Building Events for Work Whatever the current work environment, icebreaker activities are the key to making conditions more comfortable. You can do it during a meeting, before starting work, or before work is over. What is a fun icebreaker activity? Fun icebreaker activity for small groups is any activity that can involve all participants, so that they can interact with each other. Let employees help you in preparing icebreaker activities. Prepare icebreaker ideas using equipment you have purchased previously, or using items you have in the office. Or you can receive suggestions from employees about what icebreaker games they know. If you are still confused about what activities are suitable, you can see some of the best icebreaker activity ideas from us. 15 fun and unique icebreaker games for team Icebreakers for small groups can be made as exciting as possible and provide valuable lessons for all participants. There are many types of games that you can use, such as indoor team building, connection games, small group games, problem solving, etc. Here is the list. Classic riddle Have you ever heard of the classic chicken, wolf, and grain riddle? This riddle is very suitable for icebreakers in small groups. Tell the group about the story: "A farmer was traveling with a chicken, a wolf, and a bag of grain. They had to go through a river to cross. The boat could only accommodate one chair for the farmer and one other piece of luggage. The farmer could not leave the chicken with a bag of grain, or leaving the wolf alone with the chickens. How can farmers get them all across the river?" Team members have to think together about how farmers can move the loads one by one without anything getting lost. Here is the answer for the riddle: The farmer brings the chicken first. The farmer returns to take the wolf, and after crossing the river, the wolf is put down and the chicken is taken back. After returning to the starting point, the farmer put the chicken away and took out a bag of grain. When you cross the river, a wolf will be with a bag of grain. Last step is the farmer retrieve the chicken. Speed networking Speed networking is an activity that makes it easier for teams to know each other. Pair your team into groups of two. Give each pair an icebreaker question, and five minutes to answer as many questions as they like. After five minutes is over, switch up the pairs. After switching up the pair, you can give them time to chat for a while to discuss what questions they had with the previous pair. Because you are doing it with a smaller group, you can cycle through the pairs more than once. This activity will give employees time to chat about some information and how they can answer as many questions as possible. Achievements under 18 This icebreaker activity is very suitable for small groups because each participant must convey what achievements they have had until the age of 18. These accomplishments can range from personal, academic, and hobby. Every employee will remember any moment they have from their childhood, and can lead to questions about personal triumphs. This activity is a fun way to grow each employee's self-confidence again, and a great way to get to know each other. Jenga questions You and your team can play Jenga and also answer questions. Give a number to each piece of Jenga, and write questions according to the sequential number. As each participant successfully draws a brick, they must answer a question. This activity creates an easygoing and spontaneous way for employees to share information about themselves. While they have to stay focused on balancing Jenga blocks, they will also have fun answering the questions that have been prepared. Creativity of a brand manager Ask your team members to imagine themselves opening a business. Each group must decide how they market their new brand. Let the group determine the logos, slogans, and products they choose. Share and vote for which group has the best marketing strategy. This icebreaker game will foster creativity for the team, and you can see several individuals who have good talents in certain fields, and we can know what they are passionate about. Six word memoirs Six word memoirs are a suitable activity for team building and spark discussions. Each team member needs to brainstorm about six words that summarize their life, and they need to share their six word memoir with the group. Each team member needs to choose the right words to explain it to the group. Each six words can be a question and explanation, while we can find out interesting insights about each other. Time heist Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could go back in time? This game is inspired by the events of Avengers Endgame, with time heist as a game for teams in what would pull it off if they could time travel. Ask your team to write down their time travel plans on paper, and place it on an opaque container. Then pass the container around and each team member draws a paper and discusses what is written on the paper. Time heists can provide an amazing way to learn about each other, and how creative they are as a team. The marshmallow challenge The marshmallow challenge is a fun team building game for work. Split your team into pairs and give each group 10 sticks of dry spaghetti, three feet of string, three feet of tape, and one marshmallow. Each pair has 10 minutes to build the tallest structure with the marshmallow on top. This activity requires communication, teamwork, and innovation. After the challenge is complete, you can gather the team and discuss which part of the game is the most difficult, which structure is the best, who failed the first, how they overcame it, and what they think about other designs. 10 things in common Divide your team into pairs and instructions to discover 10 things that they have in common. After the pairs find similarities with their partners, they can switch pairs to find other 10 things in common. This game can speed up the time in finding out about each other, as well as what things they like together to add excitement to the conversation. Who am I? Who am I is a fun game that requires some preparation. Choose some well-known real people, and some fictional characters. Write the individual names on paper and tape a paper to each person's back. Each participant goal is a figure out who they are. They have to ask coworkers to find the answers. Answerers may not mention their names directly, and can only answer yes or no. The game ends when all participants can guess who the name on the paper is. To make the game easier, you can create a theme. For example, you can give a clue to all participants that the theme this time is Hollywood actors. Word association Word association is a quick and easy game to learn how teams think. Make a list of ten words, and you can change the number based on your needs. Next, each participant writes one word through ten on a piece of paper and reads each worn. Let employees think about what sentences come to their minds after listening to all the words from coworkers. After the lists are complete, teammates will share the response to each word. This game is interesting because we can understand how employees make connections and their logic. Superhero wars Divide the room into two to four people per team. Every person must choose one superhero, such as Iron Man, Katniss, Gandalf, and take on their powers. Teams now go to battle verbally. You can see how excited they are to defend their superheroes to keep winning, while the creativity of each employee creates good stories. The group leader decides which superhero team wins the war. Talent show Every employee has the opportunity to show their talents in front of coworkers. The talents might be anything, starting from singing, card tricks, stand up comedy, or teaching new skills. The more random, the better icebreaker will be. Song scramble This is a unique game that can be played for small groups. Each participant will choose a song they like and sing it, then they stop suddenly at one word, and appoint a coworker to continue the word with a song of their own choice. Continue the game until there are only two players left who can continue one word to the new song. Would you rather The group leader points to one of the participants and asks a question such as "would you rather eat at the restaurant or fine dining at the hotel?" After answering the question, that person points to other participants and asks the next question. Let each participant prepare fun questions, so that the office atmosphere becomes cheerful and lots of conversations go on. Icebreaker games, activities and ideas are needed to help employees reduce stress, tension, restore focus, or prepare before they start work or meetings. Icebreaker activities for small groups can be a means to strengthen relationships with coworkers and create a positive culture in the organization.   If you need other information about advancing your business through team building, leadership skills, or problem solving, you can check our site. SMEBrother has all the important tips for advancing businesses from small to medium scale. Check the website out to get lots of important information about finances, licensing, or ways to take your business to the next level.

You may have heard the phrase that someone is a born-leader. They are people with high charisma, are innately extroverted, and know how to be leaders. But being a good leader is so much more than that. There are 20 qualities of a good leader in this article. Whether you are a first time manager, or a seasoned leader who wants to hone your leadership skills, you are in the right place. The best leaders can strive people around them to achieve success, as well as themselves. Even though each leader has his own characteristics, there are several core competencies that you need to know about some effective leaders. What it means to be a leader? A leader is someone who is able to guide, coach and inspire others. Leaders will motivate their team through challenging times and guide everyone as their career progresses. Being a leader means not only thinking about themselves, but also about the common interests and success of the team. They must keep their teams aligned and work according to the same goal. Leaders must be able to create a collaborative culture and inspire others to become the best version of themselves. Why good leaders are so important? Leadership is important in every organization that helps to direct employees to improve efficiency and achieve any company goals. Effective leaders can guide, motivate, and provide clarity of purpose, so that employees can understand what mission they must carry out. Perfect Guide About Management vs Leadership For You Becoming a good leader doesn't have to start when you become a manager, but you can start learning it from now. Regardless of your position, understanding the role of leaders can help you achieve accomplishment and contribute more to the company. Top 20 qualities of a good leader in a workplace Leadership skills are crucial in every organization, because they can make significant changes for each individual to reach their full potential. Team success can be seen from how leaders motivate and inspire others to achieve common goals. Keep reading to discover the top 20 qualities of a good leader and how you start to develop that skill starting from now. Integrity The highest quality of leadership is integrity. Without integrity, a leader will definitely fail. leader with integrity stands by their principles, is respected for his honesty, and encourages team members to do the same. A lack of integrity makes team members have trust issues, which will lead the team to result in failure. Effective communication Any communication is considered effective if everyone can clearly convey their ideas and create mutual understanding between them. Leaders must be great communicators to be able to convey their thoughts, but must also be able to become active listeners for team members. Leaders with poor communication skills cannot direct team members to get clear goals, and make them confused about what to do and lack of alignment. A good leader can understand how to communicate with the different characteristics of team members and can modify how they deliver the message according to the person they are talking to. Vision Every leader needs to have vision. They need to have various strategies and be able to function efficiently in business. If leaders have good vision, they can set the company in the right direction. Good leaders always have new steps to keep the business growing, but there still needs to be additional ideas and opinions from team members for perfect implementation. Collaborative Every leader must be able to unite their team to achieve success together. The main leader's task is to direct team members to keep on track on objectives and business goals. The leader's task is to foster trust between team members and make it easier for them to communicate and collaborate. Leadership is a collective process from leaders who direct their teams to work together and make accomplishments. Accountable Leaders must be reliable when there are errors in the project. A good leader will not just blame his team when a project fails, but they can look for the main problem and solve the issue. The leader will be responsible for completing the project according to the specified time, while resolving issues between team members wisely. Flexibility Each leader will work with a team with distinctive individuals, set of skills, and different walks of life. Leaders must be able to be flexible in dealing with each team member by changing their personality traits as needed. Leaders will embrace team members with different perspectives and motivate them by providing them with a place to grow. Emotional intelligence This is one of the abilities to manage one's emotions. It's simple, but it can have a lot of influence on your life as a leader. Leaders must be able to understand, perceive, control their own feelings, even under the stressful conditions. Emotional intelligence allows you to provide a friendly environment, promote team cohesion, and direct team members with a collaborative trait. Positive attitude A leader who is optimistic about all situations, remains hopeful no matter how difficult the situation is, and stays calm when facing problems will be an inspiration for team members. A positive mental attitude will teach team members that good things will happen eventually. Leaders who have a positive mindset will make team members optimistic about the world around them. Focused Being focused is one of the good qualities of being a leader because they can easily achieve long-term benefits for the team and business. Good leaders can focus on the good performance of the team, and encourage their team members to stay on the right path in achieving goals and achieving their best capabilities. Adaptability Leaders must be able to guide their teams even though the team faces crises, constantly changing environments, and new strategies. Good leaders must be able to think quickly about new strategies and make action plans to adapt to existing conditions that involve uncertainty and risk. Leaders need to invite team members to always adapt to new circumstances, so they can continue to advance in market competition. Risk taking Although leaders don't have to be big risk-takers, they need to be open to new ideas and be able to take the risk while estimating potential benefits. Good leaders can identify potential risks that could affect the project, and try to control them if they do occur. Sometimes risks don't have to be avoided, but estimated which ones can be profitable for the team and which ones don't. Eager to learn Effective leaders need to learn new skills about leadership or knowledge according to their field of work. Leaders need to be updated with ongoing business trends and apply the knowledge they learn. Good leaders will never be satisfied with what they learn, because they need to continue learning to be able to guide their teammates. Resilient A good leader must survive and be unaffected by failure. They must remain perceptive and resilient in difficult situations. Sometimes failure cannot be avoided, but as a leader you must quickly recover from mistakes and remain strong in facing problems while looking for quick solutions. A resilient leader can focus on goals and lead their team to follow their footsteps and set an example. Constructive criticism Sometimes saying yes to everything can ruin something further. Constructive criticism is valuable to understand that your opinion can also have errors or there are some points that you might ignore or ignore. By being a leader who can provide constructive criticism to team members, and is willing to accept criticism, the whole team can respect each other because they will not be afraid of conveying ideas or making mistakes. Decision making The core of leadership is making decisions. If you see a mistake in a company, don't let it fester and become a leader who can take the right steps to overcome it. Sometimes leaders are faced with difficult decisions and are not approved by team members, but sometimes decisions do not have to be well-received by everyone. Good judgment ensures the company makes more profits and reduces the risk of deeper mistakes. Improvisation Sometimes instinct is needed by leaders as a strong foundation for great leadership, because there are times when intuition is needed to make decisions, and some improvisation can provide more benefits for the team. If the leader already has experience and knowledge, you can react faster and improve some ideas to become better. Imagine this way, do what you think is right, because you will be criticized whether you improvise or not. Patient Leaders know that failures and mistakes are inevitable. But they must remain patient with the existing conditions and offer guidance to team members when they encounter difficulties with tackle failures. Apart from solving the issues, leaders must remain patient to face any conflict, without having to show under pressure or stress in front of team members. Transparency One of the characteristics of a good leader is transparency. They are more open in terms of goals, challenges and giving rewards. Team members are not only faced with a tense atmosphere when there is a problem, but also the leader needs to let them know when the office is in a good position and they have achieved accomplishments. However, there are rules for transparency, the leader cannot tell everything to team members. Draw the boundaries between what information can be provided to all, and what needs to remain secret. Problem solver Leaders have the responsibility to solve team or individual problems. Sometimes team members will talk about their difficulties or when there is conflict with coworkers. Good leaders will stay neutral and provide a middle way to solve problems. The leader will gather the team to find a solution together, but of course the leader must have his own ideas before asking for ideas from team members. Being creative A good leader is someone who can think creatively. Sometimes they think outside the box to beat market competition, or solve team problems in a unique way. The creativity of a manager will be an example for team members to be able to come up with diamond ideas and not be afraid to convey them to the team. Any creative ideas need to be embraced so that other good ideas can emerge among the team. That's all about 20 qualities of a good leader that you can learn and practice. If you need other information about leadership, team building, finance, licensing, or anything that can improve your small or medium scale business, visit the SMEBrother site and get all the information you need. SMEBrother is the solution for developing your business to the next level.

Monitoring the team's performance and keeping them motivated and in high morale is quite a difficult task. But, it would be more difficult if we had a virtual team that worked remotely most of the time. We have to think about how to build virtual teams to focus on the same goals, and bond with coworkers even though they work in different places. We have collected several virtual team building activities that you can use to strengthen virtual team collaboration. How do you keep a virtual team motivated? There are several factors to ensure your team stays motivated. For employees who work in the office, it will be easier, because you can meet them directly, ask what they need, ask if there are any particular difficulties, and keep them focused on tackling challenges in no time. But it's different from a virtual team, because we have to ask questions via video call or chat, and can only discuss more during meetings. Several important factors to keep virtual teams motivated are providing them with the right tools, using surveys to gauge motivation, talking about adaptive performance, virtual team building and employee recognition. How do you plan a virtual team building? It might seem overwhelming to gather a virtual team to do team building. But don't worry, we will give you some simple steps to plan virtual team building activities. It might seem overwhelming to gather a virtual team to do team building. But don't worry, we will give you some simple steps to plan virtual team building activities. First, prepare time for a virtual team building event. Notify all virtual employees to be present with a note in the group chat, or email them personally. Second, decide what kind of activities you want to do for team building. Don't forget to have fun while strengthening communication with each other, especially looking for activities that can boost employees' morale. Top Ways To Improve Employee Productivity Third, if you still can't determine what activities are interesting for your employees, make a survey about what events are suitable for groups to see their excitement about team building activities. 14 virtual team building activities for remote employees Let's take a look at some online team games & activities to boost their morale, communication, and potential for collaboration. If we missed any favorite activities that you usually do with coworkers, please let us know by commenting below. Virtual team challenges The virtual team challenge is to create a team from several random employees, completing several games in fun and unique ways. These challenges may include physical activities, puzzles, riddle-solving, trivia knowledge, etc. This is a fun activity because we can understand our team's strengths and weaknesses, and give them the opportunity to do something together virtually while learning about problem solving in the games they play. Holiday themed zoom call One of the interesting team building events is the schedule for Zoom meetings with a holiday theme. Notify all employees to prepare decorations or clothes that match the theme you choose, starting from Halloween, mid-autumn festival, New Years Eve, etc. Don't forget to reward employees with the most unique costumes or decorations. This is a fun activity because you can change the theme according to your wishes. You can hold themed Zoom meetings every time there is a special occasion, and teach the virtual team to be together to always participate in the excitement. Virtual recognition wall Like the wall of fame concept, simply create a wall from social media to send out a message to your team during meetings, as a form of employee recognition for employees who excel. Coworkers can post messages, videos, photos, GIFs, memes, and all the fun ways to convey their support and recognize their peers virtually. Doing interactive activities together Choose several interactive activities like baking parties, art nights, cooking classes, and many more. Let the employee receive a team building kit at their home. All they need to do is bring the box and show up to a virtual meeting while doing a series of activities. This activity can provide a fun experience of doing things together even in different places, while experiencing new things like baking or cooking. Open mic virtual icebreaker Prepare 10 minutes before each meeting starts for one employee to take the virtual stage. Ask them to do something they want, such as reading a poem, singing a song, doing stand up comedy, or playing an instrument. Allow their teammates to snap and applaud after these glorious performances. Dance party Ask each employee to write down their favorite dance songs, then collect the data and prepare some of the songs to play later. During icebreaker time, tell all employees to enjoy the music and allow them to dance, sing along, or laugh together. Take special time to ask the person who entered the song choice, why they chose that song as their most favorite to know the backstory of it. Name that emoji song title This is a fun game that you can do virtually. Determine who goes first, and put a timer for each person to answer the questions. Other team members can only give clues by using only emojis to the title of the song. Everyone else takes turns to guess the song, until time runs out. Reveal the song, and if no one can guess correctly, you can do it for another song title. Department quiz battle Choose two departments that will conduct a trivia battle. Create a list of 10 trivia questions using Google Form. Send out the questions to both departments with time limits. Make 3-4 rooms of trivia, and each team records the answers on digital sheet provided by the host. You can make trivia battles more interesting by displaying answer players, such as whose answer is the funniest? Who answered the fastest? Which department has the highest points? etc. Snapshot virtual icebreaker Ask everyone to take a picture of something, such as pets, kids, desk spaces, outfit, etc. Have everyone upload their pictures and create a digital collage of everyone's snapshots. Spend time to compliments the pics or asking questions about it. Solving problems Divide employees into groups of 3-4 people. Give a case regarding work or real-life problems. Let each group discuss about the case, and give time for each group to express their opinion and how they solved the problem. The interesting thing about this activity is that each group can share their point of view and do problem solving as a group. Virtual comedy show Provide memorable virtual team building by inviting famous stand up comedians in your area to inject a fun and laughter into your team. This is easy to set up, ideal for small teams, and provides relaxation time for employees. A comedy doesn't have to be work related, and tell the talent to craft the comedy as interesting as possible for the time you set. Learning course together For personal development, you can take online courses and watch them together with the team. Giving virtual teams time to learn together with their team is an impressive and useful experience for improving their skills as well as team bonding. GIF wars virtual icebreaker Set the rule for 1-2 minutes per person to reply to a gif from their coworker. Choose a theme for the GIF war each week, like dogs, cats, movies, sports, etc. To make it more interesting, every GIF sent must be relevant or create a story in it. Go around and vote for who can provide the best GIF and can create a story from the GIF wars to keep going. Getting know each other The host will say one of the employees' names. The coworkers are given 1-3 minutes to convey what they know about their coworkers. Do this until everyone has said what they know about, and give time for the chosen one to reveal which one matches what their friend described, and correct it if something isn't right. Do it in a professional way, without blaspheming or demeaning coworkers, as a form of respect for friends.   Virtual teams must still pay attention to their cohesiveness, because it is more difficult for you to form a team when they are in their respective workplaces. By doing team building activities, you can teach the virtual team to stay collaborative and align their goals. If you need other information about how to do team building activities, you can visit the SMEbrother site. We provide a lot of information for your business progress, leadership skills, problem solving for teams, finance, licensing, and much more.

Did you know that there are many benefits you can get when your employees have high morale and motivation? Most business owners focus more on other things, because they think high morale is not something critical for business. Even though many companies are still skeptical about the value of high morale, we need to know what the benefits are of employees with high morale and the value of morale boosters. We have summarized the best list of moral boosting activities and employee engagement ideas for the progress of your business. How do you keep staff morale high and motivate? It all goes to employee engagement. Employees have low morale and high turnover when they do not feel valued, feel pressured, and are uncomfortable with the work environment. You must know how to engage with employees, never tire of motivating them, and give employees time to share their difficulties. The more open you are with your employees, the more you will understand what employees need, and vice versa. Why is Employee Engagement Important? Here's The Reasons Why What improves employee morale and productivity? There are many factors that can improve employee morale and productivity. Employee morale is something that people feel individually and collectively. Some of these factors are leadership, communication, recognition, and work life integration. First, it's about leadership. Employees can work comfortably and more productively if their leaders give clear directions, don't judge them if they make mistakes, can place each employee according to their skills, and guide the employees if they still don't match what they want. Second, it's about communication. Employees who can communicate with their coworkers and leaders will enjoy their workplace more because they feel open to each other, respect each other, and understand what other people are saying. Third, recognition is needed to make employees feel valued and more enthusiastic about improving their performance. Employees whose hard work is never seen do not have a good reason to work productively or achieve goals. Lastly, is work life integration. Employees must be able to feel balance between their lives at work and at home. Don't put too much pressure on employees at work until they spend less time living at home. Because work and life at home must be balanced, so that employees can find peace in both different places. 14 morale boosters ideas for employees and staff After knowing how important the value of morale boosters is, we will give examples of the best morale boosting activities that are suitable for your employees and staff. Express gratitude Gratitude can improve many things such as psychological health, sleep, and lifts mood. But the challenge for companies is how to integrate gratitude to their employees? As a leader, don't be shy about conveying the good performance of your employees. Convey employees' hard work or achievements during meetings, or at the beginning of each week. You can express gratitude personally or in front of the team. Plan events to celebrate a good work with the team after completing a big project, or in the middle of the year. Sometimes an entire team deserves good things from their great contribution to the company. Learn from mistakes Invite the team to have a special time to discuss what failures occurred each week, and what they learned from it. The point is not to call out mistakes, but to understand what is the reference for employees when they make mistakes, and that is a learning process and share how to overcome them. With this activity, employees can feel calm even if they make mistakes, have a healthy relationship with failure, because it's ok to fail and provide employees with opportunities for growth and learning. Provide healthy office snacks Healthy foods can improve employees' morale, because apart from maintaining employee health, mood, spirits and productivity can increase drastically. Preparing healthy office snacks shows that you care about your employees, and you believe that healthy food options from the office can be fuel for employees to work at peak performance. Playing instrumental music Music is one thing that can set the mood, and is a fun way to improve morale in the office. Choose instrumental music, because lyrics can tend to distract. With the right choice of music, it makes repetitive tasks more enjoyable, increases creativity, and improves focus. You don't need to use loud speakers, just a volume that everyone can enjoy quietly. Green space at the office Studies have shown that green space can reduce stress and improve mental health. Place several green plants in small pots on several office tables, or in the office yard and assign employees to care for these plants as a joint task. Giving employees the task of watering the plants every day will reduce absenteeism, and help them manage their time so they don't forget to do it before they work. Provide incentives or awards for employees who have the biggest bloom, greenest thumb, or most beautiful specimen. Personal development Every employee wants to have the opportunity to increase their skills and knowledge in the workplace. It's very common to find employees whose morale declines because they feel there's no room for growth. Give employees opportunities to get personal development, such as taking them to seminars, courses, leadership training, and other development topics. Ask each employee about their individual development plans, and track their records at each meeting to keep them on track towards professional goals. Finishing a book Prepare books about increasing skills, leadership, work ethics, or anything that can improve employees' productivity and skills. Give employees special time to read the book collection in the office, and ask them to summarize several important points after the reading time is up. Creating a habit of reading books is a positive thing, because it gives every employee the opportunity to have special time to learn new things, especially for everyone who feels they don't have time for that. Group fitness Group fitness is a bonding experience while improving employees' overall health and fitness. Exercise can improve mood and cognition. Gathering of employees in group fitness will strengthen personal relationships, doing something fun together outside of work. You don't need to hire a coach, just watch videos on YouTube and do exercises together. Be consistent, do it once a week and see the many benefits you will get. Compliment coworkers Create a special session and gather all employees. Let them sit around, and set the rules. Each employee should appoint one coworker, and compliment them about their strengths, or things they can learn from them. Do this alternately until all employees get the compliment. This activity builds up morale and respect for each employee, and increases each employee's self-confidence. Monday morning coffee Most of workers will say Mondays are a tough day. No matter how much you love your job, the weekends will never be enough. That's why set the first day of the week with Monday morning coffee. Get the team out of the office in a relaxed atmosphere and have a coffee together. Have a directed conversation with employees, and ensure team members can follow up on any conversation. Idea of the week Employees will feel happy if their ideas are heard. Choose one time each week for employees to share their ideas. Choose the best idea for the company's progress, new ideas about projects, saving office costs, or anything that can bring benefits to the office. Celebrate work anniversaries Celebrate the day by throwing a party at the office, while holding an awards event for employees. Choose several categories such as best employee, funniest employee, most dedicated employee, etc. Create several events for team bonding on that day, and focus on employees to express your gratitude for having them in your office. Celebrate significant milestones Employees need a significant amount of time to achieve company milestones, and you as manager or CEO have the right to celebrate their success. Invite your employees to lunch or dinner, while complimenting them on their good work. Motivate them to maintain good performances. Create a wow wall Prepare a special wall to remember things that employees can remember and have a positive impact on the office. Pin positive client feedback, pictures together with employees outside the office, completed projects, and positive affirmations. Every employee who sees the wow wall will be more enthusiastic about achieving another milestone, because they believe their office recognizes their hard work.   Morale boosters are something that many business people don't consider important, but can bring many benefits to the office. Start boosting employee's morale with the methods above, and see what benefits you can feel when you have high morale employees. If you want to get tips for progressing your business, visit the SMEbrother site and get information about licensing, finance, and tips for growing your business to the next level.

Every organization needs leadership training to prepare its employees to be ready if one day they are chosen to become supervisors or managers. Even though they don't get a certain position, at least they can retain a lot of leadership skills that they can use in their lives. To build a leadership spirit in employees, you need to carry out leadership activities and do them regularly in the office. The activities include games, training, and challenges for employee development and building team spirit. We have summarized the best exercises to help employees have leadership training, hone their leadership skills, and become good leaders. What are leadership games? Leadership games are activities and challenges that are fun but effective to help players hone leadership essential skills and improve their leadership knowledge. Becoming a good leader requires a lot of practice, theoretical knowledge and also in real-world scenarios. Sometimes learning about leadership will feel easy when we read books or listen to it from mentors, but it will be difficult if we do it in a work environment. With leadership games, employees can learn a lot about leadership in fun ways. How do you make leadership training fun? Creating leadership activities in fun ways is good to make it easier for employees to carry out and absorb important information. But you must be able to ensure that the activity is effective, your team is enthusiastic when doing something fun. The most essential thing before doing leadership games or activities is to know your objectives. You must understand what you want to achieve, what learning outcomes you want your team to gain from the activities. You need to measure the progress and feedback, align the game with your leadership development strategy. Having clear objectives can help employees to focus on the game and ensure they understand what they are learning. 15 Best Management Games to Play at Work To keep the activities fun while learning, you need to choose the right format. For example, some leadership games will be more exciting if played outside rather than in the office. You can set a special time for some activities such as weekends or work anniversaries. Ensuring employees carry out activities with enjoyment is the key to making leadership training fun. 12 fun leadership activities for workplaces Having leadership activities can increase productivity both in participants' personal lives and at work. Below are training and challenges ideas for improving employees' leadership skills. Flipping a rug over This game is a challenge for teams to flip a rug over without having to leave the rug's boundaries. Perform the challenge by dividing the group into smaller groups. Prepare a rug, mat, or sheet according to the number of participants in a team. After all participants stand on their rug, ask the groups to flip over the rug to the opposite side, but if one member leaves the rug, then one team dies. The first team to successfully flip the rug over wins. This team challenge aims to teach patience, problem-solving skills, and teamwork. Crossing the crocodile river This fun activity requires focus, high level of balance, teamwork, and strategic planning. Each participant will learn to express their opinion to the team as a form of leadership. Play this game outside the office, find objects that can imitate a stepping stone like paper, small pieces of plywood, or discs. Provide the stepping stones depending on the number of players. Mark out two lines to indicate the start and the end of the river. The goal is using stepping stones to cross the river without leaving any player behind. Time will be counted once a player steps stone, touches the river, od goes out of the boundaries. If one of the participants touches the river, then one team will start again. Icebreaker trivia Icebreaker is a great idea for fun leadership games for almost any event. Ask your team a lot of icebreaker questions like "which leader is your role model?" "What quote do you always remember?" "If you were asked to choose one superpower, what would you choose and why?" The team members will take turns answering the questions. It will be good if all participants provide their answers, and after everyone has finished submitting their answers, whoever can name more than 5 answers from their friends will get a prize. This will teach employees to actively listen, observe, while respecting others for differences in answers and opinions. 30 seconds experience This is a short fun activity before you start meetings or events. Each team member will convey their happy experience or best experience in life in just 30 seconds. Other team members must be able to understand what their friends are saying, and find out why the experience means a lot to the narrator. The 30 seconds experience teaches employees to summarize a story and convey it directly and clearly, while learning about time management and being productive in a short time. Debate Debate is a leadership training activity that helps employees communicate with one another. Divide the team into two or more groups. Each debate topic will be carried out by two groups against each other. The leader of the group chooses to be pro or con on the debate topic. You can choose the topic about work-related or non-work related. Give the groups several minutes to have a private discussion to prepare possible arguments. Set the time limit for each group to present their argument. After the time runs out, other groups will defend their arguments or come up with new arguments. The debaters will keep rotating to speak until the final time runs out. Silver lining This activity promotes the motivation and the leadership skills of positivity. Break the participants into two groups and explain that they are doing a project together. The first group will talk about the negative experience they had on a particular project, while the other group will talk about the positive aspects of the same project. If they take turns conveying their aspects, the two groups swap roles to convey the positive and negative aspects of the other project. This activity will teach about motivating their team members, and team bonding. It’s our ideas Make several groups with each group containing employees from different departments. Each employee in the group needs to write down what activities they want to do for self or team development. Collect papers from the group, and choose the 2 best activities from the ideas written down. Give each group time to convey their ideas and why their group chose that. This activity teaches how to choose the best ideas from the team and if one team can do it without problems. It is hoped that each group will carry out according to what they wrote for their development. Marathon eating challenge Prepare some food and drinks and arrange them on the table. Each group contains 4 or five people. Make sure the food and drinks you prepare are different in type and taste. For example, you can put the first table with sweet foods, the second table with savory foods, the third table with can foods, etc. Each group member must finish the food in front of him before other team members can start eating their food or drinking their drinks in sequence. Each team has 5 minutes to determine who eats what. The team with the fastest time is entitled to a prize. Complimenting team members This is a fun activity because it gives each employee the opportunity to convey the good work of their coworkers and their strengths. Each employee is required to convey one or more strengths to the person in front of them. Do this alternately until each employee has complimented all of the coworkers. Defend the ducklings Break employees into several groups, gather all groups in one place. Each group will line up, holding their friends' hips in front of them. The leading person is the mother duck, and is tasked with protecting their ducklings. The game is simple, each mother duck can take ducklings from other groups, but can only take those at the very back. Continue the game until a large line is formed. Give a time limit of 10 minutes, and the group with the most ducklings is the winner. Complete the sentences This activity teaches teams active listening, concentration, and the ability to remember information. All employees sit in a circle. Starting with one employee who starts a sentence with one word, followed by another word from the person next to him. If one of the members forgets the order of the words in the sentence, then go back to the first person. To be fair between one another, the first person must change position randomly after successfully saying the sentence. Leadership retreat Every leader also needs time to relax and take a break from leadership pressures. Give free time to leaders and employees to boost their morale. Invite employees to have dinner, karaoke night, or any activity funded by the office outside of work matters. After giving free time to leaders and employees, assign them to make the next full schedule and re-address their next challenges.   Leadership skills can be obtained by every employee by training and carrying out activities to boost individual or team skills. Every leadership game and activity can be done in a fun way but still has to be effective. By improving leadership skills, it is hoped that employees can increase their productivity, prepare to be good leaders, and boost their morale. That's all about fun leadership activities. If you want other information on leadership skills or progressing your business, visit the SMEbrother site. We prepare various information about finance, licensing, and tips to advance your business.

Elevate team communication with these 12 engaging and unique communication games. From "Taboo" word guessing to "Freeze Walk" non-verbal challenges, these activities build trust, camaraderie, and emotional intelligence. Strengthen teamwork, enhance problem-solving, and foster a positive workplace culture. Discover more creative ways to improve your business at SMEBrother, your comprehensive resource for business growth, financial insights, and practical tips for success.